How To Start A Blog The Skinny Confidential

The Skinny on Lauryn Evarts and The Skinny Confidential

A One-On-One with Social Media's Resident Renaissance Woman

Lauryn Evarts of The Skinny Confidential

Lauryn Evarts is the influencer and creative director behind, acclaimed, The Skinny Confidential blog , book , YouTube channel , and The Skinny Confidential: Him & Her Podcast . Lauryn has partnered with a long list of coveted brands from Nordstrom and Reebok to Roberto Cavalli and Victoria's Secret . In addition, she has graced the pages of numerous publications including The Huffington Post, SHAPE, Self Magazine, and Who What Wear . ACTIVATE is thrilled to have her. Let's hear her thoughts!

ACTIVATE: How did you decide to start blogging?

Lauryn Evarts: I decided to start blogging like 8 years ago. I was going to San Diego State and bartending 'till twelve at night and teaching pilates and pure barre and sort of doing what I was supposed to be doing. Society told me that I had to graduate high school go to college, get a job, rinse and repeat. I sort of looked around and said wait this is it? I was doing what I was supposed to be doing and just bored. So I joined a sorority. Again, doing what society tells you you're supposed to do in college and after 2 days, I left because I couldn't believe that you had to pay $800 a semester to have friends and a community. I started to see that there were all these women on campus, there were like 20,000 women and I started to say how could I connect these women to share their tips and tricks like a sorority and create a community that's like-minded for free. Blogging was not popular at the time at all but I wanted to create that sort of sorority that was a positive uplifting community. I wanted to take it a step further, not just dealing with San Diego but the world. I wanted to know what the girl in Australia was using to moisturize her skin at night and what the girl in Korea was using for her under eye pads. I wanted to sort of bring it in one place. For me the brand always started bigger than me and bigger than a blog. I never wanted it to be about what I was eating, or doing, or wearing but more about what everyone else was doing, share my tips and tricks, and make it a community. So after a year of planning it out, I launched with 30 posts and a pretty strong foundation.

A: You first began as a fitness blog? Since then, The Skinny Confidential has grown to become so much more. What did the original blog represent? Why did you relaunch? How is The Skinny Confidential different now? What does it seek to do?

LE: I've always known that when you launch anything it needs to have an niche. I think when you find a niche and you ride it, you have the ability to expand out. I always say, Ashton Kutcher started as a cheesy actor but now he's a Silicon Valley investor. A lot of people tend to start in something and expand out. I think when you have a niche and you ride it and focus on that one thing year after year, it's really powerful because then you have the power to go into other areas. So I was really strategic with the niche that I was launching in. At the time, I was teaching pure barre and pilates so that health and fitness was very relevant to me. I felt that those were the tips that I wanted to start with first. I wanted to hear people's diet and nutrition tips so I launched it with knowing that it would start in health and fitness and grow out. I always say it's like an upside down triangle. You start with the tip and slowly expand out. I also really thought out how I introduced the characters on my blog. My husband (he was my boyfriend at the time) wasn't introduced for like two years. My grandma wasn't introduced for like three years. I say to bloggers now that are starting, you want to court your audience. So it was a very slow build into other things. It started with health and fitness for 2–3 years, then is sort of grew out into more wellness, then from there people wanted to hear more beauty, and now it's sort of turned into a resource for beauty and wellness with the layer of the podcast which is sort of a layer of everything.

Lauryn Evarts and Michael Bosstick of TSC: Him & Her Podcast

A: The Skinny Confidential is active across across many different platforms: Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and of course the podcast. Which is your favorite platform and why?

LE: At my core, I'm a writer. I'm a creative. I love to sit down and write and I want to write to you like I'm having happy hour with you. It's like what you see is what you get but it's funny because I will procrastinate until the absolute last second to write. It's such a creative art space for me that if I have to write something like a blog post I'll wait until midnight to write it and then all of a sudden I'll get this burst of creative energy for like an hour. So writing is super important to me. I always say the blog is my mothership but I do think that right now in the space, I really respect my audience's time. There's no other platform out there that will respect my audience's time like podcasts. So with Instagram they're scrolling through which takes their time, with blogging their reading content which takes their time, Facebook their scrolling through content that takes their time. With audio, I picture my listener getting her nails done and listening to the podcast. I picture her driving, cooking, cleaning, and doing all these things that move her life ahead while she's also maybe gaining knowledge from the podcast. That really makes me happy because I'm so connected to my community and my audience and I have so much respect for the person that's listening. With podcasting, the audio aspect is so intriguing. Right now, if you look at everything we're selling time. Uber is time, Postmates is time, GlamSquad is time. All these things are time. I'm buying time. With the podcast, it's very similar to that. I think that's where everything is headed to audio and Alexa. I think in the next year people are going to be telling their Alexa to play podcasts and remind them that their rose is in the freezer in 15 minutes. Everything is just going to voice. As a creator, you have to be able to understand each medium and what it is. You want to make sure that your brand is cohesive across all the platforms at the same time but at the same time understand that each medium is so different. So to answer your question, my favorite is probably podcasting because we get to meet so many interesting people and bring that knowledge to the audience and that was the overall goal of The Skinny Confidential to begin with.

I think there's a lot of influencers in the space that have been so used to creating pictures and editing them and curating content. I made the decision about 4 years ago that I not only going to be a creator but a documenter that's documenting real life. Instagram Stories has been one of my favorite platforms and one of my most engaged because I've been able to tell a story and document. Storytelling and documenting is what people want to see now. Creating content is awesome, it'll always be there, the brands love it but I think if you're just creating content it could be sort of a short term idea because it's not showing the other side of it. I spend an hour in the morning talking on DM and to my audience. I spend half an hour at night in my DMs commenting. I understand that the reason that I have a platform is a community, and without that I think you're toast. There are a lot of influencers right now that maybe are forgetting that the reason that they have eyes on them or a platform is because of a community. They've been so used to creating the Instagram content and the editing and all this stuff that maybe they're not exploring the audio space because it is so raw and you do have to show your personality. And there's been many times that I've [messed] up and said something wrong and you're not perfect at the audience starts to see that. I see that the audience respects it but I do think that influencers are having a tough time with the audio/ video space.

A: Which platform or platforms do you see becoming increasingly more important in the future and why?

LE: Right now, I'm in the area of respecting my audience's time.There's no other platform for me that respects their time like podcast. With audio, I picture my audience driving, cooking, cleaning, etc. and listening to my podcast. If you look at everything we're selling time. With the podcast, it's very similar to that. I think there's where everything is going with audio. I think as a creator, you have to be able to understand each medium and what it is.

A: Was there a moment or a milestone that you reached that enabled you to feel like a success in your business?

LE: You know, I get asked this question all the time, and there's been nothing. I'll explain what I mean. Everything that I've done with the brand has been very thought out. I feel like I really sat down and created a compelling future by design which means I've really been like okay these are the goals that I have, what are the systems that I need to have to get there. A lot of people set goals but they don't set systems in place to get there. So everything sort of "happened to me" is stuff that I've implemented systems to get there. So nothing has been like this sort of epiphany and I think that's because I'm slowly chipping away at it every single day. It's not like I woke up one day and suddenly have two million Instagram followers. It's been something that's been such a slow build over 8 years that nothing has felt drastic if that makes sense. It's like that cartoon of the guy is in the tunnel and he's chipping away every single day and finally as he's about to do his last chip, he walks away and the diamond is in there. I feel like I'm chipping like that. I'm not conquering the whole mountain at once. It's like tiny little specks every single day, 7 days a week to create the bigger picture. If I had to sit down and think of the coolest thing, I think that'd it was very cool to write a book but again that was such a slow thing that happened over two years that it wasn't an epiphany.

A: What is one thing you wish you knew when you were starting out working on The Skinny Confidential full-time?

LE: I started as a solopreneur. I was working for myself, doing what I wanted, when I wanted, not caring what a team thought because there was no team. As I grew, I realized that I had to scale because you have to scale if you want to take it to the next level. I had a lot of trouble working with employees because I was so used to working on my own time. So that was something that I really had to learn. I did a deep dive in it. I've listened to so many podcasts about managing people and how to delegate. So if there's one thing that I could teach myself that I didn't know in the beginning it would be how to delegate and how to communicate with employees well.

A: What's one misconception that people have about influencers?

LE: I mean I'm not going to tell you the misconception that everyone says about influencers that we don't do anything. I feel like this is the wrong platform to say that. I feel like everyone probably says that to you. There are so many. I think one misconception is that influencers have perfect lives or glamorous lives. I see a lot of influencers and know a lot personally. What they're good at is telling a story and a lot of them have really good attitudes. So what happens is the storytelling and the good attitude comes through in their social media. I think that can be a good thing and a bad thing. Sometimes the audience can be sort of duped into thinking that it's this perfect life and then sometimes the influencer can feel a lot of pressure to uphold this perfect life. So what I try to do is to rip the band-aid off. I'll try to show 12:30 at night when I'm lugging a cart that's bigger than an elephant into my house because we were working for literally 15 hours. So I try to show that behind the scenes a lot. I do think there's a lot of misconceptions about influencers. But it's just going to be one of those things where everyone will just evolve and start to accept them more. One of the greatest influencers of our time is Kim Kardashian. It is what it is, no matter if people want to accept it or not. If you look back, 5–10 years ago people were asking what does she do, why is she famous, on and on and on. Meanwhile, she's built this incredible brand career. You'd have to be blind not to see what she's built. I think that's going to happen with influencers. I think we're at this point that people don't maybe understand. I think slowly they will start to get a little more respect in the industry. Creating content is very expensive for brands so for them to be able to tap into the influencer marketing and have influencers create really beautiful content while also using their likeness. It's like a win win for everyone. I also think that people are craving celebrities. There's such a facade between influencers and celebrities. I meet some of them in person and feel like I already know them so I think influencers will have to decide if they're going to be a celebrity influencer or a community influencer. Not one is better than the other but I do think that things are going to start to change when people realize that people want that connection with the influencer. I don't think you can get that with a celebrity. When Jennifer Aniston is drinking Smart Water you don't really think she is drinking smart water. When an influencer is drinking smart water you see it in the back of a photo, then you see it in the cupholder of their car, then you see them drinking it on the podcast. You see that real life. It's like a subconscious advertisement but the influencer isn't even pushing the ad, they're actually drinking it. There's a difference between that and Jennifer Aniston. I think people are craving more of that connection.

A: You are a unique influencer in that you aren't just limited to the editorial medium, your YouTube channel and podcast literally enable you to bring your voice to life. How would you say that this affects your relationship with your audience?

LE: With my audience, what you see is what you get. I am unapologetically myself. I know going into it that not everyone is going to like me. I'm not for everyone. I'm too much. I'm maybe too much. I cuss. There's all these things that I do that might not be everyone's cup of tea. But what I do know, going back to it, is that you have to find your niche. My niche is this is who I am, you like it or you don't. And if you don't leave. I don't get so much hate on the internet because I put that energy out there. I did a post on Instagram on Botox. I went to see what other influencers were doing the post on Botox that day. I could not believe the hate that these other influencers were getting over Botox. I had like 300 comments with no hate. What I think that it was is that I put it all out there so people know that it is what it is and if you don't like me leave the page. I think they appreciate the honesty. I think if influencers started putting out more and really being a little bit more raw and real and talking about things that they're doing, showing the different facets of their life, I think the audience would actually respond better to it. That's always worked for more. The second that the audience feels that you're holding something back from there or not being honest or upfront they sort of rebel against it. Listen, a lot of people probably unfollowed me because they think it's too much but I'm okay with that. I feel like I've curated this community with like-minded women and it becomes not about me at all. It becomes about them meeting each other.

A: The Skinny Confidential makes a name for itself by being refreshingly honest. It is unafraid to tackle topics that some might shy away from. That said, what has been your favorite topic to cover on The Skinny Confidential? Why?

LE: My favorite topic is beauty wellness mixed down. It's not beauty like makeup and it's not wellness like green juice. It's more like skincare. I love talking about skin care. I don't go in the sun which is obnoxious. I think that my audience really likes that. I also really like discussing you know topics like drug addiction. We've talked about death, everything from camel toes to losing a pet. There's a lot of real issues that we've talk about. I really love hearing other people's perspectives and bringing it on the platform. I'm not the expert in everything but I want to bring other people on who are and have the audience get so much take away and value. The two subjects are probably beauty/wellness and skincare on my end but if I were picking my favorite topics that we cover on the podcast, it would definitely be the more raw, real stories about how people have persevered through adversity.

A: What's next for the Skinny Confidential?

LE: What's next for the Skinny Confidential is continuing to really build the brand, to be clear on the brand. We are really keeping the creative evolved. I don't want to get stuck in The Skinny Confidential three years ago. I want to keep it moving forward. How I've sort of tried to do that is I've brought on a 21 year old. She breathes youth into the brand. It's been really cool to pick her brain and learn from her. She's been working with us for 5 years. I really like that youth, so we're continuing to evolve the brand and not stay stagnant. Definitely eventually product but it will definitely not be something that I'd just slap my label on. It needs to be so niche to the audience and something that makes sense. It needs to be exactly what they want and I would like them to help me build it. And then also a lot of meet ups, a lot of in person. It's important to meet the people that are supporting the Skinny Confidential whether that's live podcasts, meetups, or a tour. I think getting out there is important and powerful.

Many thanks to Lauryn Evarts and The Skinny Confidential

ACTIVATE is a fully end-to-end influencer marketing platform, covering influencer discovery, program workflow, measurement, and analytics. Our ACTIVATE Studio team also helps brands build out and execute their influencer strategy. Last year, the ACTIVATE platform enabled over 75,000 influencers to collaborate with brands.

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