December 23, 2021 • 45 mins
In the Season 3 Finale of Let’s Be Real with Sammy Jaye, Jessica Alba joins Sammy Jaye for a very special and unfiltered conversation around her experience being a woman in Hollywood. The two talk about the process and struggles she faced when starting The Honest Company, why she took a break from acting, her journey as an actress, the challenges she has faced as a businesswomen, taking her company public, how social media allowed her to create her own narrative, the power of meditation, her new children’s book and so much more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi guys, and welcome back to what is the season
three finale of the Let's Be Real Podcast. I'm your host,
Sammy Jay, and welcome. We are ending the season on
a very, very high note with the incredibly talented entrepreneur,
(00:21):
businesswoman actress Jessica Alba. We talked about a lot in
this episode, and I usually give you a quick downlow
on well what's about to happen, but I really just
want to let this episode speak for itself. I just
want to thank Jessica for coming on my podcast and
for all of you for listening every week or this
is your first week listening. I have enjoyed this journey
(00:44):
so much, and I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. Jessica,
I'm so thrilled and honored here on my podcast. Thank
you for having me. This is We're exciting. I have
looked up to you for such a long time, specifically
(01:05):
as a businesswoman, because something that I've tried to do
or learn about is just I love creating things. I
love the process of developing something and then seeing it
come to fruition and the process of that. And that's
what you do now, like you're the products. You're producing.
They're not only doing that, but they have an incredible
mission behind it. When you first started, honest um, what
(01:29):
was the process like of developing products? Because that's a
completely separate world than acting. Um, I think the process
was more satisfying actually, because I actually got to have
an idea and watch or create essentially create the process
to make it happen. Because I didn't I've never seen
that before. I didn't know anyone who'd ever done that before.
(01:52):
And um, I think it took three years before I
even got a solid business partner to join me. So
it was me putting it down on like a vision
board and then turning my vision board into like like
a visual book. Um. And so my vision board became
(02:12):
like a visual book, and then I categorized this book
with a lot of photos, a lot of values, and
then I had to So it's like taking something from
your brain and this idea, and then how do you
create something tangible so that when you sit down with
someone for an hour they understand what you're talking about.
And I got a lot of people looking at me
pretty confused about what I was talking about because I
(02:34):
think for them, they were like, why is this idea
so big, and I think my husband in particular, it's
not that he didn't think I was capable of it.
He was like, can you walk before you run? Um?
And I was like, no, I want to have like
a global, you know, business that stands for these values,
and I want to create safe and healthy products and
(02:56):
frankly a lifestyle around honesty and being honest and authentic
not perfect. Um. I felt like anything that was natural
ish or better for you was for like a certain
type of person that lived off the grid and did
yoga all the time, which more power to you, but
(03:17):
that wasn't me, um or it was for a group
of people that, you know, just lived in a certain
tax bracket. And while I had at that point made
money in a different way, I grew up with family.
You know, my family was living paycheck to paycheck all
my life growing up, and so I was just like,
(03:37):
this shouldn't just be for wealthy people. This should be
for everyone. Everyone should be able to live a healthy life.
Everyone needs tips and tricks on how to like hack
their way through parenthood or had to change the dip
for really quickly, but then also how to do a
five minute face if you need to just get out
the door or you know, and throw an amazing dinner party.
(03:57):
And so I was like, there has to be a
and that kind of stands for these things, but could
also give you sort of tips and tricks along the way.
I think it's so crazy that you talk about is
just a clean, honest brand. Is should be what all
brands are, you know what I mean? But unfortunately they're not.
There's a lot of secret chemical ingredients. There's a lot
(04:18):
of misinformation on packaging that make the consumer to believe
something that isn't necessarily true. What was the process and
uncovering that was there? Like certain products you're trying, You're like,
this feels a lot worse on my skin than it should. Yeah,
so how did I test products? Well? I would oftentimes
the big one was seeing if it was if it
(04:38):
had perfume or fragrance. So something and an ingredient list
has perfume or fragrance, Immediately it was like nope. And
what's confusing is a lot of times there would be
pictures of nature. It would look like it was something
that you would assume was more natural leaning um, but
for whatever reason, they still used perfume or fray grunts.
(05:01):
The other big one for me was looking at sort
of the ingredient list and then comparing it to a
conventional and I would see, oh, just because it has
a it's a brown packaging, it's four times more expensive,
and the ingredient list looks pretty much the same as
(05:21):
the conventional. What's going on? Just yea, and so you're
often paying so much more money for alternative packaging, but
the juice inside was different. And UM, what I learned
is that the only way we could really differentiate and
(05:42):
create products that stand for our values and are we
call it our no list of chemicals we won't use
is by having our own labs in house, having not
just a team of chemists, but then also a regulatory
team UM and a supply chain operations team that can
source raw materials that can help create these formulas and
(06:06):
find third party manufacturers to make it, but then also
be there when the manufacturers are making it, showing their
team how to batch something and be there kind of
for the It's it's a it's a long and drawn
out process, but it's the only real way to create
(06:26):
the types of products that have the integrity that we
want behind our brand, but then also effective. It really works,
and it's not using a ton of these chemicals that
we just are choosing not to use in our products.
So it was it was a hard lesson to learn
because it's expensive to invest in that much of R
and D supply chain operations. And it's also again, I
(06:48):
never knew how to do this stuff. Like you know,
in movies, most movies or TV shows that you see,
they've been in the works for ten years before you
ever see them, you know. And that's something that a
lot of people don't talk about in Hollywood, and probably
most people don't even know. So I, you know, I
didn't have time to wait around for ten years for
(07:10):
someone to like get with the program. I love that,
and especially like you can't wait on other people to
do something. That's the biggest lesson I've learned. The best
way to do is by starting and by going and
trying and trying and it and failing. It's as long
as you learn from it, that's the best lesson you
can have a lot of the time. Yeah, And I
think that's like a great way to think about, especially
(07:30):
because you're so young in life, not necessarily looking at
quote unquote of life experiences as a failure, but you
should like it really is the lesson. Um, you embrace it.
You only learn by trying, right, Um, you only get
better by it not working, and you only know how
(07:54):
to iterate and refine it literally because it didn't work
the first time. Uh, and that is how you create
incredible things. If we all had an idea and things
just sort of fell into place as we thought it would,
what would be the point of life? That would be?
(08:14):
Everyone could do it? Yeah, if it was easy, and
if you could think of it and it just happened,
you know, by snapping your fingers, then what what is that?
It wouldn't even be. I don't think as as gratifying, um,
anything in life that you really love and appreciate, Um,
you spent time on it, You've iterated it, you've refined it,
(08:38):
You've learned what didn't work in order to know what
does work. And so I think I think through life
if you maybe don't think of the word a failure,
but think more of like, this is me trying it
so that I can be better at it the next time.
Something that I've been trying to do is look at
everything as more of a experience and a journey, not
(09:01):
what the final outcome is. But the process of getting there,
because that's where you learned so much, is what I'm realizing. Yeah,
that's a great one. I didn't learn that until I
was thirty. What made you learn that? I think just
all of the outcomes were so disappointing, and Hollywood especially,
I was like, this is so out of my control.
(09:23):
Why you know, you would have a big weather issue,
and you know, if of the country is frozen, guess
who's not going to the movie theater that opening weekend?
But you're slotted for that certain opening weekend. You just
spent you know, I think collectively, like I said, ten
(09:43):
years someone had spent on this project. You've spent at
least two years of your life and you think it's
going to turn out some way, and then the country's
frozen over and no one can leave their house. Does
that mean it's a failure? No? Does that mean can
they take away from your experience creating it and wanting
it to be good? No? But I always looked at
(10:07):
that final sort of outcome as that's what I'm trying
to retrain my brain heart. That's a hard lesson it,
but in a way, it sort of releases you from
what's out of your control, and it allows you to
sort of really be present in the moment and make
the most with what you got. Absolutely, and I think
(10:28):
something that I'm someone that likes to have control, I overthink,
I like to I'm a perfectionist and something that I've
very quickly learned is that is not the business to be.
And like I, things happen and that's a part of life,
and I'm trying to embrace that. Um And I think
something that I'm also learning currently in dealing with is
(10:51):
being burnt out. And I'm so curious how you run
this incredible company, you act you're running a family at
the same time. How do you stay inspired and motivated
but not let the nose get you down. I would
say that being a perfectionist and wanting everything to be
(11:13):
just so is for me another lesson that I had
to learn. And the more I paid attention to every
little tiny detail, the in a weird way, the less
happy I was in the end. Because you're so caught
up on those details, you're always going to be disappointed. Um,
(11:36):
nothing will ever live up to being one hundred all
the time. It's just not possible. And also you're not
focused on the right stuff, and so burnout for me
comes when I'm focused on all of the small details
and I'm not living in the moment of what really matters.
(11:57):
It is a great way to distract yourself from probably
what you're meant to deal with. I think it's it's
a great way to um feel like you're doing something
by busying yourself. But ultimately, what I have found in
my life is I'm probably running away from the thing
(12:20):
I actually should be focused on, which is like, where's
my heart? What am I really struggling with? Where am
I emotionally? Is this filling me up? We only have today,
we don't really have tomorrow. There's nothing guaranteed. So for
me preventing burnout um or when I start to feel
(12:41):
burnt out, it's usually because I'm not focused on the
right stuff. Interesting, I haven't heard that perspective. I like that, though,
What do you do to stay in the moment? Because
I find being present can be difficult. Sometimes it is
difficult and I'm and I my mind wanders man um
and so I have to make a concerted effort to
(13:03):
surround myself with reminders to be present. I think weirdly,
my children are all right. My family um naturally forced
me to be present because they don't give a flying
fuck about tomorrow, about five minutes from now, none of it.
(13:23):
They just care about what's happening right now in this moment.
And they're so visceral in the way that they operate.
You know, they all have all of their emotions and
there what's going on in their head and what they
think it should be, and they all have their own
individual experiences and they're all three very different um and
at different stages in their life experiences. So being around
(13:47):
them forces me to be present. And and it's not
fair because if you don't have kids, how could you
ever have a takeaway? Um I would say. Another thing
is I found that I nat really compartmentalized things in
order to be productive as a young person, because that's
what I do too. I got very distracted and my
(14:07):
mind wanders. And so if you can figure out how
to sort of compartmentalize your time in a way where
it's like, Okay, this is going to be the time
that I'm gonna focus on studying, and this is going
to be the time that I'm gonna focus on talking
to my family or my I'm gonna do a FaceTime.
And I find that even facetimes force you to be
more present in your communication with your loved ones versus
(14:31):
you can be on the computer and on the phone
and whatever. If you do have that face time, you know,
force yourself not to be on another device and force
yourself to be present. So I think that's a big one.
Um and compartmentalizing. So it's like, this is my study time,
this is my friend time. And when you are around
(14:53):
other people, try not to be on your phone, try
not to be on a tablet, try not to be
on your computer, and really then dedicate your work time
to work. And if it's like, gosh, these four hours
are going to be my study time, and I'm going
to break them up because I get exhausted when it's
a four hour block, it's gonna get myself an hour
(15:14):
in the morning, maybe an hour in the early afternoon,
an hour in the early evening, and one late at
night because I'm a night All great, but then you
know you have four hours that are just dedicated to
that work, so you can be effective all the other time, though,
should be filling you up spiritually, intellectually, emotionally. Time management
(15:36):
is so important and yeah, it's tough though it is,
but if you can get time management down, I feel
like that is such a tool to have in your
toolbox for the rest of your life, work or in family. Um,
you just filmed a movie and I know your work
schedule was very hectic around that. It's very ambitious. I
(15:57):
don't I don't tell people this is you. Yeah, tell
people the situation that you put yourself there. That was dumb. Um.
So we've been developed. I've been developing this movie for
about four years and it was finally going to happen,
and it just happened to happen like right after I
took the company public, and so I just felt like
there was no way I could completely neglect honest and
(16:21):
I know face time matters, especially right now, right after
you take the company public and people are feeling fragile
about is a company going to be need different and
are we going to operate differently? And you know you
need to implement new standards and practices, but people need that.
And after COVID there's there's a sensitivity and a vulnerability absolutely,
(16:42):
and so especially with my leadership team, I just felt
like it was important for me to show up for
them and be there. Um. And then I also shoot
a ton of content um from a creative standpoint, and
I'm the chief creative officer, so I have a lot
um of say in that content and how it gets
sort of yeah, you're not just a faith of it,
(17:02):
like what people don't realize. You run the business, which
I help. You know, I'm definitely a strategic arm and
how we communicate with consumers and go to market and
how we show up on packaging on our website all
of that, so yes, I am you know, part of that.
And then as well as like formulas and ideation around
(17:24):
new categories and all the things. So I just felt
like I needed to be here. But then we were
shooting in Santa Fe, which is a beautiful place, but
you know, those hours are long. I'm doing an action
movie and certaining energy and being on set. It's a
lot of hurry up and wait. It's there's no waiting,
there was no there was no way, only hurry up.
I'm in every scene and there's a ton of action,
(17:47):
so I had to learn choreography for these action sequences
and a lot of it is me um, you know,
mourning my only family member that that has passed. So
it's like days after my only family living family member
that like raised me as my grandfather in the movie
(18:08):
and he's uh, he dies and so I'm mourning him,
and then I'm uncovering how he was, how he died,
and then killing a lot of people. They need to
die in the process, and so or defending usually defending
myself itself defends sometimes they needed to die. Yeah, So
(18:30):
this to me was like an important movie. The directors
a woman, the DP as a woman, that the producers,
the key producers on set, we're women, and we were
doing like a very intense action movie with a lot
of feminine energy, and it was cool. So I was
like passionate about doing it. But then and and it's
(18:52):
a modern day Western, which I've always wanted to do,
and instead of guns, I use knives, and so just
like flipped a lot of those uh the genre, flipped
a lot of the stereotypes around. And I just so
I did that five days a week, and the hours
were brutal. I'm in every scene. It's very physical and
emotionally exhausting. And then I would get off at work
(19:14):
at six am, get on a plane at six thirty
and I'd fly home. I'd land here like seven thirty
because it's an hour time difference, and sleep and seem
usually trying to see my kids for five minutes as
they were running out the door to go to school,
kiss them, jump into bed, and then I'd get into
hair and makeup at one to do UM shooting until
(19:39):
like seven pm, sometimes eight pm, try and get home
for dinner, try and connect with the kids, talk to
them about their day, their homework. Again, they do not
care about me being gone, me filming, none of it.
They are like they want to go in you know,
and I've been gone for the week, so they want
to catch me up on all the tea of their
(19:59):
life and school. If school is back in person, then
there's actual so they're telling me all the drama. But
then also like I have this thing coming up in
this exam or you know where they're they're they're academically.
They want to show me um. And then the next
day nine am to five thirties, my all day meeting
(20:21):
with my leadership at Honest, so I had to go
there and then I would go straight to the airport
from there, jump on a six o'clock flight, fly back
to Santa Fe, have a four thirty am call in
the morning. How long was How long? Did this last?
Two months? Okay, it's finished, finished, so exciting. Have you
done anything to celebrate? Well, last week I did three
(20:46):
add jobs okay, so I basically worked every day. Okay,
And are we doing something to celebrate? I hope I
can sleep soon. Um, I need to sleep. I need
to hang out with my hids. I want to figure
out how to carve out me time and also like
(21:06):
husband time and then also kid time, because like I
kind of feel like when you work, work, work work,
which is my tendency. Again, I'm focused on all the
details and I'm not living the life in a full way.
And I only really get filled up when I have genuine,
like tender interactions with my family, so and my friends.
(21:30):
So I'm trying to figure out how to do more
of that. It's a journey, though, you know, It's one
of those things that is what has it been like
going back into acting, because I know you took a
break for a little bit, You know what. I was
such an insecure actress when I was younger, really so
wildly insecure about my abilities as an actress. UM, I
(21:51):
felt so judged. I was quite criticized. In my head,
I was my worst critic. I think I didn't feel
work the UM and so I was so in my
head and so paralyzed with fear that I never had
a real liberating, fun experience. Like I just admired people
(22:13):
who just we're swaggy on set, just like we felt
like they were just in the zone. And you can
tell when someone's in the zone and when they're just
when they just feel good. And I think taking a
break for so long from it and literally having no
consequence to whether it works or not, it allows me
(22:36):
to have the freedom as a storyteller to just be
completely present and try things and and and I really
love it and it and it's like it's brought me
like real joy. That's incredible to have that outlet. Also,
and I feel like and a nice balance to the
really logical, pragmatic day to day of running a company. Yeah,
(23:02):
for surely, Okay, we have to take a quick break,
but when we come back, I want to talk more
about your acting career, the way the media and Hollywood
has portrayed you over the years, your thoughts on social media,
and much more. We'll be right back, and we're back.
(23:24):
The way Hollywood is structured, especially the way they treat
women like you were sexualized at a very young age
and then starting your company, did that affect the way
you were perceived and just being a badass, smart business women.
Did people not realize that because of the way movies
you were in portrayed characters or the way Hollywood or
the media did you know? What's interesting is like I
(23:44):
don't even know if the characters I played were hyper
sexualized as much as the media around me as a person,
and when they would advertise said project, I wasn't that person.
And so you know, when you have a studio advertising
(24:08):
this piece whatever it is that they need to come out,
and then you have these various publications that are trying
to give their audience clickbait or now it's a clickbait,
but like those you know, headlines that will get the
readers to want to read the article. They're looking for provocative,
(24:29):
controversial kind of things. And you know, for me, I
guess in a weird way. I know social media is
really um it's a hot topic, but for me, social
media gave me a way to speak my truth through
my lens and the tray myself the way I wanted
(24:49):
to be portrayed and not always be sort of um,
the pond and someone else's chess game, which is sort
of how I felt in Hollywood. You know when I
when I really embraced social media and was actively on it.
I guess that's kind of how I've always viewed it.
And then I also view it as like it is
(25:10):
a business, right, um and I and I don't. I
don't feel like I overshare. I think that I was
being hounded by the paparazzi and and and in a
lot of these um places, we're going to write stuff
about me anyway. And in a way, it's sort of
like diffused it all um, and I didn't become a
target anymore. And I got to really sort of feel
(25:35):
like I was in control of something that felt so
out of control for so long. Um the power back. Yeah.
And then when I started my business, I had already
been active and starting to really own my own narrative
for about three and a half years before the company
was officially founded. I guess my whole journey with Honest
(25:56):
was me more and more getting more comfortable in my
own in owning my power, not apologizing for myself, and
just feeling worthy, I guess, And that's something that I've
realized from doing the podcast, a passion that I've kind
of stumbled upon, um in realizing that the media has
(26:16):
kind of taken the human out of a person they portray.
They put people on a pedestal, and it's so easy
to forget that these people are, like, there's just a
human being. And I feel like social media, for as
many great things, it does accelerate that a little bit,
and I aspire to be more like you in the
way you view social media as a business, because I'm
(26:37):
trying to do that. But at the same time, I'm like, Okay,
I'm nineteen. I'm a nineteen year old girl, and then
I have the effects of social media, but I'm trying
to think of it as a business. What advice do
you have, because I know you say you compartmentalize pretty
well to kind of not feed into that world. I
would say, it's interesting if I was a nineteen year
(26:58):
old girl, what would I do if I was going
to leverage social media as a strategic business, you know, Avenue,
I would probably unfollow most people that I know, and
I would probably only follow people that I aspired to
(27:18):
be like or people they wanted to work with. And
I would obviously follow my mom and dad because they
you know, probably and they would want me to see
their their posts. Um. But then your feed is really strategic.
(27:39):
What you're seeing reminds you while you're there, and if
I you know, for me, I follow a lot of
people that I think just do a good job on
social media and resonate with people, and I'm like, God,
they do a really good job at making people feel
like they're getting an intimate sort of snapshot of their life.
(28:00):
It they're not really saying much. It's just like them
like feeding their dogs cereal or you know, it's like
they're just like taking a selfie on set whatever. But
that's like, it's the BTS. It's the BTS, And there's
something that feels so intimate about it because their coffee
(28:21):
is spilled on their shirt and that feels so human, right,
and so I the bar is so low. But I'm
just saying, like they there are certain people that are
really good at social media, and so I would follow
those people, and then I follow just people that I
think would be cool to collaborate with, or to do
a skit with, or do something on YouTube with, or
(28:43):
to do a podcast with. And so I just follow
a lot of people like that as well that I
think would just be like a good business partner. And uh.
And then some news feeds that I think are cool. Um.
And if you do follow entertainment news feeds, I think
you should accord order of your news feeds should be
entertainment and gossip related if you are someone that you
(29:05):
know follows those feeds. But I think three quarters of
it should be about real things that you care about,
inspirational quotes, something in science or math or the media
that you really like, you know, whatever, it is a
bird species, you know, you can kind of go in
on any of it. Social mediabit hole, it is a
(29:28):
rabbit hole. But I think funnel your feed so that
it's serving you and the algorithm picks up a more
healthy mental process for yourself. I like that idea a lot,
and I'm very much going to consider that and do
more research on that, because you know, do you know
my left my life motto is for the past, Like
it's a eight months tell me fuck it? Why not
(29:51):
suck it? Why not put it? On a shirt. I
think it works because something I've realized is the amount
of time I spend on my phone in high school,
especial you joined the pandemic, it was like thirteen hours
a day, and I was like, that's terrible, and so
I started being very aware of it. I started deleting apps,
just spending less time of it, and then I got
(30:11):
creative again, and then I wanted to develop more things.
And I think we can live in a world where
it can be hard to know where to start. I
always say the hardest part is starting something. Um, what
would you say the best way to start is, whether
that's creating a business or starting a career in an aspect,
would you say it's doing research on it or would
you say it's going full steam ahead? I would say
(30:33):
how to start something. I'm a fan of a vision board.
I think I love a good vision board, you know,
cut out and do it in real life, something that's
I r l um. Go to like a flea market,
thrift store, magazine stand and just get things that make
you happy or look pretty, and gets a hot glue
(30:55):
gun and some poster board and just start together a
mishmash of things that just bring you joy, um, and
if you can focus it on a something that reminds
you of whatever for you. If you're like I want
to make films or documentaries or produce you know, something specific,
(31:21):
and it's like, okay, so what documentaries inspire you and
what stories inspire you? And you'll just almost if you
like meditate and you just like sort of quiet your
mind and take like three breaths and you just say, like,
I just want to be open to the stories that
(31:43):
I should be telling. And whoever you believe God, your
spirit guides yourself. UM, guide me to where what I
should care about and stories that I should care about,
and and the things will come in when you're open,
Life will hand you everything that you need. Yeah. I
(32:04):
the first vision board I created, I photoshopped my face
next to um people that I wanted to interview, and
I would take an interview and I photoshot my face
on top of the interviewer just to like see it visually.
And I think that really helped. And those there were
and it happens, many of them happened. I'm the manifested.
(32:27):
Do you believe a manifestation? Of course? Okay, because I'm
trying to get more in it, and I you know
that you you just explained it. See I agree with that.
But then when I talk to people, some people are like, no,
it's not a thing. It's in your head. Why isn't
that a thing. That's what manifesting is. You have to
first have the thought that it's going to happen, and
then if you need to solidify make that thought more tangible,
(32:49):
you create a vision board. Otherwise, if the thought is there,
you and you create. I mean, you're interviewing people, so
there you go. You manifest unintentionally manifested acts. Yeah. Yeah,
I mean you can either call it manifesting or not,
but it is what it is. It's just facts. That's
what you've done. I guess, so I haven't really thought
(33:11):
of it like true story. Okay, we have to take
one more quick break, but when we come back, I
want to talk to you about what it was like
on the day your company went public and how your
new children's book is giving back to those in need
in an amazing way. We'll be right back and we're back.
(33:35):
What was it like going public with your company? It
was like an out of body experience. I mean, I
can only really liken it too. I never had a wedding,
and I've never really had like a big celebration that
I like planned for for months um, And so the
(33:57):
only thing I can really think about that it could
be like is maybe wedding um, where you like plan
all the details and you like have an idea and
there's speeches and there's you know, a time when this
is gonna happen and that is going to happen. So UM.
It felt weird because we were planning for it for
(34:17):
so long um leading up to it, and then when
it actually happened, it was like very surreal. It was weird.
It was like a really cool experience because my family
was there, my friends were there, and this journey was
like so wild and and no one in a million
(34:43):
years ever thought that it could ever be possible. And
so when it comes to manifesting, I think me acknowledging
that I manifested that and I created that reality and
giving myself the space to enjoy that moment and really
(35:05):
um be present, I think that that was like the
most important thing for me. And regardless of sort of
like anyone else's experience in it, I had to take
ownership and and really lean into what my genuine take
away and experience what I wanted it to be, and
(35:26):
be okay with that because I love to distract myself
with like is every is what are my kids going
to think? And what is what are the bankers going
to think? And what is you know, a leadership team
going to think in each one of them and thinking
of where they are in their life. Because I'm very
um an EmPATH, right, and so I try to take
on everyone else's experience and and see through their eyes.
(35:49):
But um, I really disallowed myself to be completely present
in my own body and it was wild. That's a
great state to be and demeditate. I should meditate more.
I want to try. I have troubles like being still
for that long. Yeah, you don't necessarily. It's interesting because
I don't think meditating is the same for everyone, and
(36:12):
I think it can take on different forms. I like
actually like to listen to and be guided through meditations.
Um And there's actually a lot of like brain um
sort of like frequency music that you can listen to.
You can even get it free like on Spotify. Um
(36:33):
And it it's just like meditating to me is when
you can sort of like allow yourself to breathe and
even let your mind drift, but then sort of like
rest your mind from the busy the busy stuff in
and all the details right and just be able to
(36:54):
just sort of like drift um. And sometimes it's going
on a run, sometimes it's on a spin bike. Sometimes
it's doing yoga. Sometimes it's listening to, you know, a
guided meditation. Sometimes it's listening to like frequency sounds. So
I love listening to frequency sounds on you the see.
(37:15):
I guess I'm realizing many things I do now have
titles they didn't even realize at this point. That's what
I think. We are living in such a world where
everything is so go, go go. Taking the time to
kind of acknowledge everything that's happening and take a moment
to think about where you want to go forward is
so powerful and something that we don't do enough in society.
(37:37):
And I feel like we're always focusing on the next thing,
but being present is so important. Yeah, And I think
it's like sometimes when you're so focused on the future,
you forget to be grateful for what's happening right now.
And if you're always living for tomorrow, you're almost never
going to be satisfied, right, because it's hard for it
(37:57):
to live up to a fantasy. And so I do
think that there's something that I've been doing lately as
well to sort of help with that focus. Is there's
certain crystals that kind of like remind you of certain
um things. And one of them is like a rose
quartz crystal is really it symbolizes like a heart opener um.
(38:21):
And so if you're like listening to your frequency sounds
and you just have your like a rose quartz crystal
doesn't matter what size it is um and you kind
of like lay it like in the here, like next
to your heart, and you just sort of like lay
there with the crystal there, and you just think about,
like I just want my heart to be open, and
(38:42):
I want to be open to what I'm supposed to
be doing in this life, in this moment, and just
like kind of say that in your head a couple
of times while you're listening to your music, maybe you'll
get some kind of opening that, yeah, you know, you
never had before. I love that you're doing a lot.
We can also now add children's book author to them.
(39:05):
I'm very excited to talk about this because I'm also
developing a children's book right now you are, I am, um,
what was the process like of creating it and what
is it like now that it's out? Well? I I
collaborated with my friends. My my girlfriend, one of my
best girlfriends joined a charity called Baby to Baby, and
(39:26):
another with another friend of ours, and they really took
it from being kind of like a small uh nonprofit
that takes gently used items and you know, so cleans
them and distributes them to people living in poverty. And
when they came on and I joined the board, we
(39:46):
sort of we were saying, you know, the goal is
to really like think about the scale of children living
in poverty who don't have access to things like a
clean diaper, basic human miss as these, yeah, that we
don't even realize that people just don't have access to.
And because um the government UM programs like WICK and
(40:12):
and different government programs, they don't um actually allow you
to buy diapers or feminine products with uh food stamps
and things like that. It's actually looked at as a
luxury item and they tax for and they tax it
like like they tax a luxury item like tobacco and alcohol.
(40:34):
They tax diapers and feminine care outside of California. That
is an interesting cycle of poverty where something like diapers
is literally like the difference between a family being able
to like go to work, pay the rent if they
do have a roof over the head put food on
the table, Like they have to choose. Am I gonna
(40:54):
put food on the table. Am I going to pay
the rent? Am I going to keep the lights on?
Or am I going to diaper my child? So they
use dirty diapers and reuse them on their babies. Um,
a lot of these families don't have a safe place
for their babies to sleep. A lot of children get
smothered because they have multiple children in a bed um
(41:14):
and they just don't have kind of any other way.
And especially COVID really knocked people sideways. Um. So we
at Baby to Baby have distributed two hundred million items
to families living in poverty, and a hundred million of
those items have happened during the COVID pandemic. But to
(41:34):
be able to like collaborate with my my girlfriends and
create this this book that teaches a child about giving back,
and I wanted to have like an Afro Latina as
our main character. Um, there's actually more animals that are
leads in children's books than um children people of color
(41:59):
and grow rolls. Um. So what is the world we
live in? It's the truth And so for us it
was like also just showing up my kids are mixed,
their black, Mexican and white, and just to have that
representation of like our family and then it's so important
(42:19):
and heard right, it's it is important. That's awesome, And
I think having that representation and having those lessons instilled
is hopefully can to make the country much better because
I think we can all do better. I think the
more diverse our country is, the more women stand up
for themselves, the more people of color stand up for themselves,
(42:40):
and the more that we all decide that we deserve
to be treated equal, the more we're going to continue
to expose the injustices that have been afflicting us for
thousands of years. Yeah, And I think it's one of
those things where you inspire me to want to have
a business because the way, in my opinion, you said
(43:03):
you look at success is doing good instead of making money,
which I think is so important. I feel like if
we all looked at the world like that, we can
make such more of a positive impact. Yeah, and I don't.
Here's the thing, like I'm not. My business is a business.
It's not a charity. But you can align yourself. You're
doing charity. So when you buy Honest, you are supporting
(43:26):
baby to baby, you are supporting March of Times. You
are supporting. We wouldn't be able to do what we
do and with the nonprofits we work with or give
back the way that we do if people didn't bring
on us into their homes, into their lives. So the
more you support us, the more we can do good
on top of standing for sustainability, transparency, clean ingredients, and
(43:51):
high ethical values and standards in the way that we
run our business. Yeah, I love your business structure. I
think it's so more people to do it. Thanks. I
hope it becomes a trend. Well, Jessica, thank you so
much for coming on my podcast. I know you are insane. Um,
it's been a few years in the making. I know,
(44:11):
and I you know. I hope you get to sleep soon.
You know what me too. Yeah, thank you guys so
much for listening to the season three finale of the
Last Bieral Podcast. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If
you haven't subscribed to leave a comment, you, guys, if
we want to force season to happen, we need some comments,
(44:32):
We need some good recommendations. So that would mean so
much to me. And thank you so much, Jessica for
taking the time out of your incredibly busy schedule to
chat with me. I think this conversation, I think all
of us can agree that it was really refreshing to
hear the truth about what it's like to be such
(44:53):
a inspiring and hard working woman in this day and age.
If you haven't followed Jessica on all her social media,
and follow me on Instagram and it's Sammy J. That's
I T S S A M M Y j A
y E. And I will hopefully see you next season.
All right, bye, guys,
Hi guys, and welcome back to what is the season
three finale of the Let's Be Real Podcast. I'm your host,
Sammy Jay, and welcome. We are ending the season on
a very, very high note with the incredibly talented entrepreneur,
(00:21):
businesswoman actress Jessica Alba. We talked about a lot in
this episode, and I usually give you a quick downlow
on well what's about to happen, but I really just
want to let this episode speak for itself. I just
want to thank Jessica for coming on my podcast and
for all of you for listening every week or this
is your first week listening. I have enjoyed this journey
(00:44):
so much, and I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. Jessica,
I'm so thrilled and honored here on my podcast. Thank
you for having me. This is We're exciting. I have
looked up to you for such a long time, specifically
(01:05):
as a businesswoman, because something that I've tried to do
or learn about is just I love creating things. I
love the process of developing something and then seeing it
come to fruition and the process of that. And that's
what you do now, like you're the products. You're producing.
They're not only doing that, but they have an incredible
mission behind it. When you first started, honest um, what
(01:29):
was the process like of developing products? Because that's a
completely separate world than acting. Um, I think the process
was more satisfying actually, because I actually got to have
an idea and watch or create essentially create the process
to make it happen. Because I didn't I've never seen
that before. I didn't know anyone who'd ever done that before.
(01:52):
And um, I think it took three years before I
even got a solid business partner to join me. So
it was me putting it down on like a vision
board and then turning my vision board into like like
a visual book. Um. And so my vision board became
(02:12):
like a visual book, and then I categorized this book
with a lot of photos, a lot of values, and
then I had to So it's like taking something from
your brain and this idea, and then how do you
create something tangible so that when you sit down with
someone for an hour they understand what you're talking about.
And I got a lot of people looking at me
pretty confused about what I was talking about because I
(02:34):
think for them, they were like, why is this idea
so big, and I think my husband in particular, it's
not that he didn't think I was capable of it.
He was like, can you walk before you run? Um?
And I was like, no, I want to have like
a global, you know, business that stands for these values,
and I want to create safe and healthy products and
(02:56):
frankly a lifestyle around honesty and being honest and authentic
not perfect. Um. I felt like anything that was natural
ish or better for you was for like a certain
type of person that lived off the grid and did
yoga all the time, which more power to you, but
(03:17):
that wasn't me, um or it was for a group
of people that, you know, just lived in a certain
tax bracket. And while I had at that point made
money in a different way, I grew up with family.
You know, my family was living paycheck to paycheck all
my life growing up, and so I was just like,
(03:37):
this shouldn't just be for wealthy people. This should be
for everyone. Everyone should be able to live a healthy life.
Everyone needs tips and tricks on how to like hack
their way through parenthood or had to change the dip
for really quickly, but then also how to do a
five minute face if you need to just get out
the door or you know, and throw an amazing dinner party.
(03:57):
And so I was like, there has to be a
and that kind of stands for these things, but could
also give you sort of tips and tricks along the way.
I think it's so crazy that you talk about is
just a clean, honest brand. Is should be what all
brands are, you know what I mean? But unfortunately they're not.
There's a lot of secret chemical ingredients. There's a lot
(04:18):
of misinformation on packaging that make the consumer to believe
something that isn't necessarily true. What was the process and
uncovering that was there? Like certain products you're trying, You're like,
this feels a lot worse on my skin than it should. Yeah,
so how did I test products? Well? I would oftentimes
the big one was seeing if it was if it
(04:38):
had perfume or fragrance. So something and an ingredient list
has perfume or fragrance, Immediately it was like nope. And
what's confusing is a lot of times there would be
pictures of nature. It would look like it was something
that you would assume was more natural leaning um, but
for whatever reason, they still used perfume or fray grunts.
(05:01):
The other big one for me was looking at sort
of the ingredient list and then comparing it to a
conventional and I would see, oh, just because it has
a it's a brown packaging, it's four times more expensive,
and the ingredient list looks pretty much the same as
(05:21):
the conventional. What's going on? Just yea, and so you're
often paying so much more money for alternative packaging, but
the juice inside was different. And UM, what I learned
is that the only way we could really differentiate and
(05:42):
create products that stand for our values and are we
call it our no list of chemicals we won't use
is by having our own labs in house, having not
just a team of chemists, but then also a regulatory
team UM and a supply chain operations team that can
source raw materials that can help create these formulas and
(06:06):
find third party manufacturers to make it, but then also
be there when the manufacturers are making it, showing their
team how to batch something and be there kind of
for the It's it's a it's a long and drawn
out process, but it's the only real way to create
(06:26):
the types of products that have the integrity that we
want behind our brand, but then also effective. It really works,
and it's not using a ton of these chemicals that
we just are choosing not to use in our products.
So it was it was a hard lesson to learn
because it's expensive to invest in that much of R
and D supply chain operations. And it's also again, I
(06:48):
never knew how to do this stuff. Like you know,
in movies, most movies or TV shows that you see,
they've been in the works for ten years before you
ever see them, you know. And that's something that a
lot of people don't talk about in Hollywood, and probably
most people don't even know. So I, you know, I
didn't have time to wait around for ten years for
(07:10):
someone to like get with the program. I love that,
and especially like you can't wait on other people to
do something. That's the biggest lesson I've learned. The best
way to do is by starting and by going and
trying and trying and it and failing. It's as long
as you learn from it, that's the best lesson you
can have a lot of the time. Yeah, And I
think that's like a great way to think about, especially
(07:30):
because you're so young in life, not necessarily looking at
quote unquote of life experiences as a failure, but you
should like it really is the lesson. Um, you embrace it.
You only learn by trying, right, Um, you only get
better by it not working, and you only know how
(07:54):
to iterate and refine it literally because it didn't work
the first time. Uh, and that is how you create
incredible things. If we all had an idea and things
just sort of fell into place as we thought it would,
what would be the point of life? That would be?
(08:14):
Everyone could do it? Yeah, if it was easy, and
if you could think of it and it just happened,
you know, by snapping your fingers, then what what is that?
It wouldn't even be. I don't think as as gratifying, um,
anything in life that you really love and appreciate, Um,
you spent time on it, You've iterated it, you've refined it,
(08:38):
You've learned what didn't work in order to know what
does work. And so I think I think through life
if you maybe don't think of the word a failure,
but think more of like, this is me trying it
so that I can be better at it the next time.
Something that I've been trying to do is look at
everything as more of a experience and a journey, not
(09:01):
what the final outcome is. But the process of getting there,
because that's where you learned so much, is what I'm realizing. Yeah,
that's a great one. I didn't learn that until I
was thirty. What made you learn that? I think just
all of the outcomes were so disappointing, and Hollywood especially,
I was like, this is so out of my control.
(09:23):
Why you know, you would have a big weather issue,
and you know, if of the country is frozen, guess
who's not going to the movie theater that opening weekend?
But you're slotted for that certain opening weekend. You just
spent you know, I think collectively, like I said, ten
(09:43):
years someone had spent on this project. You've spent at
least two years of your life and you think it's
going to turn out some way, and then the country's
frozen over and no one can leave their house. Does
that mean it's a failure? No? Does that mean can
they take away from your experience creating it and wanting
it to be good? No? But I always looked at
(10:07):
that final sort of outcome as that's what I'm trying
to retrain my brain heart. That's a hard lesson it,
but in a way, it sort of releases you from
what's out of your control, and it allows you to
sort of really be present in the moment and make
the most with what you got. Absolutely, and I think
(10:28):
something that I'm someone that likes to have control, I overthink,
I like to I'm a perfectionist and something that I've
very quickly learned is that is not the business to be.
And like I, things happen and that's a part of life,
and I'm trying to embrace that. Um And I think
something that I'm also learning currently in dealing with is
(10:51):
being burnt out. And I'm so curious how you run
this incredible company, you act you're running a family at
the same time. How do you stay inspired and motivated
but not let the nose get you down. I would
say that being a perfectionist and wanting everything to be
(11:13):
just so is for me another lesson that I had
to learn. And the more I paid attention to every
little tiny detail, the in a weird way, the less
happy I was in the end. Because you're so caught
up on those details, you're always going to be disappointed. Um,
(11:36):
nothing will ever live up to being one hundred all
the time. It's just not possible. And also you're not
focused on the right stuff, and so burnout for me
comes when I'm focused on all of the small details
and I'm not living in the moment of what really matters.
(11:57):
It is a great way to distract yourself from probably
what you're meant to deal with. I think it's it's
a great way to um feel like you're doing something
by busying yourself. But ultimately, what I have found in
my life is I'm probably running away from the thing
(12:20):
I actually should be focused on, which is like, where's
my heart? What am I really struggling with? Where am
I emotionally? Is this filling me up? We only have today,
we don't really have tomorrow. There's nothing guaranteed. So for
me preventing burnout um or when I start to feel
(12:41):
burnt out, it's usually because I'm not focused on the
right stuff. Interesting, I haven't heard that perspective. I like that, though,
What do you do to stay in the moment? Because
I find being present can be difficult. Sometimes it is
difficult and I'm and I my mind wanders man um
and so I have to make a concerted effort to
(13:03):
surround myself with reminders to be present. I think weirdly,
my children are all right. My family um naturally forced
me to be present because they don't give a flying
fuck about tomorrow, about five minutes from now, none of it.
(13:23):
They just care about what's happening right now in this moment.
And they're so visceral in the way that they operate.
You know, they all have all of their emotions and
there what's going on in their head and what they
think it should be, and they all have their own
individual experiences and they're all three very different um and
at different stages in their life experiences. So being around
(13:47):
them forces me to be present. And and it's not
fair because if you don't have kids, how could you
ever have a takeaway? Um I would say. Another thing
is I found that I nat really compartmentalized things in
order to be productive as a young person, because that's
what I do too. I got very distracted and my
(14:07):
mind wanders. And so if you can figure out how
to sort of compartmentalize your time in a way where
it's like, Okay, this is going to be the time
that I'm gonna focus on studying, and this is going
to be the time that I'm gonna focus on talking
to my family or my I'm gonna do a FaceTime.
And I find that even facetimes force you to be
more present in your communication with your loved ones versus
(14:31):
you can be on the computer and on the phone
and whatever. If you do have that face time, you know,
force yourself not to be on another device and force
yourself to be present. So I think that's a big one.
Um and compartmentalizing. So it's like, this is my study time,
this is my friend time. And when you are around
(14:53):
other people, try not to be on your phone, try
not to be on a tablet, try not to be
on your computer, and really then dedicate your work time
to work. And if it's like, gosh, these four hours
are going to be my study time, and I'm going
to break them up because I get exhausted when it's
a four hour block, it's gonna get myself an hour
(15:14):
in the morning, maybe an hour in the early afternoon,
an hour in the early evening, and one late at
night because I'm a night All great, but then you
know you have four hours that are just dedicated to
that work, so you can be effective all the other time, though,
should be filling you up spiritually, intellectually, emotionally. Time management
(15:36):
is so important and yeah, it's tough though it is,
but if you can get time management down, I feel
like that is such a tool to have in your
toolbox for the rest of your life, work or in family. Um,
you just filmed a movie and I know your work
schedule was very hectic around that. It's very ambitious. I
(15:57):
don't I don't tell people this is you. Yeah, tell
people the situation that you put yourself there. That was dumb. Um.
So we've been developed. I've been developing this movie for
about four years and it was finally going to happen,
and it just happened to happen like right after I
took the company public, and so I just felt like
there was no way I could completely neglect honest and
(16:21):
I know face time matters, especially right now, right after
you take the company public and people are feeling fragile
about is a company going to be need different and
are we going to operate differently? And you know you
need to implement new standards and practices, but people need that.
And after COVID there's there's a sensitivity and a vulnerability absolutely,
(16:42):
and so especially with my leadership team, I just felt
like it was important for me to show up for
them and be there. Um. And then I also shoot
a ton of content um from a creative standpoint, and
I'm the chief creative officer, so I have a lot
um of say in that content and how it gets
sort of yeah, you're not just a faith of it,
(17:02):
like what people don't realize. You run the business, which
I help. You know, I'm definitely a strategic arm and
how we communicate with consumers and go to market and
how we show up on packaging on our website all
of that, so yes, I am you know, part of that.
And then as well as like formulas and ideation around
(17:24):
new categories and all the things. So I just felt
like I needed to be here. But then we were
shooting in Santa Fe, which is a beautiful place, but
you know, those hours are long. I'm doing an action
movie and certaining energy and being on set. It's a
lot of hurry up and wait. It's there's no waiting,
there was no there was no way, only hurry up.
I'm in every scene and there's a ton of action,
(17:47):
so I had to learn choreography for these action sequences
and a lot of it is me um, you know,
mourning my only family member that that has passed. So
it's like days after my only family living family member
that like raised me as my grandfather in the movie
(18:08):
and he's uh, he dies and so I'm mourning him,
and then I'm uncovering how he was, how he died,
and then killing a lot of people. They need to
die in the process, and so or defending usually defending
myself itself defends sometimes they needed to die. Yeah, So
(18:30):
this to me was like an important movie. The directors
a woman, the DP as a woman, that the producers,
the key producers on set, we're women, and we were
doing like a very intense action movie with a lot
of feminine energy, and it was cool. So I was
like passionate about doing it. But then and and it's
(18:52):
a modern day Western, which I've always wanted to do,
and instead of guns, I use knives, and so just
like flipped a lot of those uh the genre, flipped
a lot of the stereotypes around. And I just so
I did that five days a week, and the hours
were brutal. I'm in every scene. It's very physical and
emotionally exhausting. And then I would get off at work
(19:14):
at six am, get on a plane at six thirty
and I'd fly home. I'd land here like seven thirty
because it's an hour time difference, and sleep and seem
usually trying to see my kids for five minutes as
they were running out the door to go to school,
kiss them, jump into bed, and then I'd get into
hair and makeup at one to do UM shooting until
(19:39):
like seven pm, sometimes eight pm, try and get home
for dinner, try and connect with the kids, talk to
them about their day, their homework. Again, they do not
care about me being gone, me filming, none of it.
They are like they want to go in you know,
and I've been gone for the week, so they want
to catch me up on all the tea of their
(19:59):
life and school. If school is back in person, then
there's actual so they're telling me all the drama. But
then also like I have this thing coming up in
this exam or you know where they're they're they're academically.
They want to show me um. And then the next
day nine am to five thirties, my all day meeting
(20:21):
with my leadership at Honest, so I had to go
there and then I would go straight to the airport
from there, jump on a six o'clock flight, fly back
to Santa Fe, have a four thirty am call in
the morning. How long was How long? Did this last?
Two months? Okay, it's finished, finished, so exciting. Have you
done anything to celebrate? Well, last week I did three
(20:46):
add jobs okay, so I basically worked every day. Okay,
And are we doing something to celebrate? I hope I
can sleep soon. Um, I need to sleep. I need
to hang out with my hids. I want to figure
out how to carve out me time and also like
(21:06):
husband time and then also kid time, because like I
kind of feel like when you work, work, work work,
which is my tendency. Again, I'm focused on all the
details and I'm not living the life in a full way.
And I only really get filled up when I have genuine,
like tender interactions with my family, so and my friends.
(21:30):
So I'm trying to figure out how to do more
of that. It's a journey, though, you know, It's one
of those things that is what has it been like
going back into acting, because I know you took a
break for a little bit, You know what. I was
such an insecure actress when I was younger, really so
wildly insecure about my abilities as an actress. UM, I
(21:51):
felt so judged. I was quite criticized. In my head,
I was my worst critic. I think I didn't feel
work the UM and so I was so in my
head and so paralyzed with fear that I never had
a real liberating, fun experience. Like I just admired people
(22:13):
who just we're swaggy on set, just like we felt
like they were just in the zone. And you can
tell when someone's in the zone and when they're just
when they just feel good. And I think taking a
break for so long from it and literally having no
consequence to whether it works or not, it allows me
(22:36):
to have the freedom as a storyteller to just be
completely present and try things and and and I really
love it and it and it's like it's brought me
like real joy. That's incredible to have that outlet. Also,
and I feel like and a nice balance to the
really logical, pragmatic day to day of running a company. Yeah,
(23:02):
for surely, Okay, we have to take a quick break,
but when we come back, I want to talk more
about your acting career, the way the media and Hollywood
has portrayed you over the years, your thoughts on social media,
and much more. We'll be right back, and we're back.
(23:24):
The way Hollywood is structured, especially the way they treat
women like you were sexualized at a very young age
and then starting your company, did that affect the way
you were perceived and just being a badass, smart business women.
Did people not realize that because of the way movies
you were in portrayed characters or the way Hollywood or
the media did you know? What's interesting is like I
(23:44):
don't even know if the characters I played were hyper
sexualized as much as the media around me as a person,
and when they would advertise said project, I wasn't that person.
And so you know, when you have a studio advertising
(24:08):
this piece whatever it is that they need to come out,
and then you have these various publications that are trying
to give their audience clickbait or now it's a clickbait,
but like those you know, headlines that will get the
readers to want to read the article. They're looking for provocative,
(24:29):
controversial kind of things. And you know, for me, I
guess in a weird way. I know social media is
really um it's a hot topic, but for me, social
media gave me a way to speak my truth through
my lens and the tray myself the way I wanted
(24:49):
to be portrayed and not always be sort of um,
the pond and someone else's chess game, which is sort
of how I felt in Hollywood. You know when I
when I really embraced social media and was actively on it.
I guess that's kind of how I've always viewed it.
And then I also view it as like it is
(25:10):
a business, right, um and I and I don't. I
don't feel like I overshare. I think that I was
being hounded by the paparazzi and and and in a
lot of these um places, we're going to write stuff
about me anyway. And in a way, it's sort of
like diffused it all um, and I didn't become a
target anymore. And I got to really sort of feel
(25:35):
like I was in control of something that felt so
out of control for so long. Um the power back. Yeah.
And then when I started my business, I had already
been active and starting to really own my own narrative
for about three and a half years before the company
was officially founded. I guess my whole journey with Honest
(25:56):
was me more and more getting more comfortable in my
own in owning my power, not apologizing for myself, and
just feeling worthy, I guess, And that's something that I've
realized from doing the podcast, a passion that I've kind
of stumbled upon, um in realizing that the media has
(26:16):
kind of taken the human out of a person they portray.
They put people on a pedestal, and it's so easy
to forget that these people are, like, there's just a
human being. And I feel like social media, for as
many great things, it does accelerate that a little bit,
and I aspire to be more like you in the
way you view social media as a business, because I'm
(26:37):
trying to do that. But at the same time, I'm like, Okay,
I'm nineteen. I'm a nineteen year old girl, and then
I have the effects of social media, but I'm trying
to think of it as a business. What advice do
you have, because I know you say you compartmentalize pretty
well to kind of not feed into that world. I
would say, it's interesting if I was a nineteen year
(26:58):
old girl, what would I do if I was going
to leverage social media as a strategic business, you know, Avenue,
I would probably unfollow most people that I know, and
I would probably only follow people that I aspired to
(27:18):
be like or people they wanted to work with. And
I would obviously follow my mom and dad because they
you know, probably and they would want me to see
their their posts. Um. But then your feed is really strategic.
(27:39):
What you're seeing reminds you while you're there, and if
I you know, for me, I follow a lot of
people that I think just do a good job on
social media and resonate with people, and I'm like, God,
they do a really good job at making people feel
like they're getting an intimate sort of snapshot of their life.
(28:00):
It they're not really saying much. It's just like them
like feeding their dogs cereal or you know, it's like
they're just like taking a selfie on set whatever. But
that's like, it's the BTS. It's the BTS, And there's
something that feels so intimate about it because their coffee
(28:21):
is spilled on their shirt and that feels so human, right,
and so I the bar is so low. But I'm
just saying, like they there are certain people that are
really good at social media, and so I would follow
those people, and then I follow just people that I
think would be cool to collaborate with, or to do
a skit with, or do something on YouTube with, or
(28:43):
to do a podcast with. And so I just follow
a lot of people like that as well that I
think would just be like a good business partner. And uh.
And then some news feeds that I think are cool. Um.
And if you do follow entertainment news feeds, I think
you should accord order of your news feeds should be
entertainment and gossip related if you are someone that you
(29:05):
know follows those feeds. But I think three quarters of
it should be about real things that you care about,
inspirational quotes, something in science or math or the media
that you really like, you know, whatever, it is a
bird species, you know, you can kind of go in
on any of it. Social mediabit hole, it is a
(29:28):
rabbit hole. But I think funnel your feed so that
it's serving you and the algorithm picks up a more
healthy mental process for yourself. I like that idea a lot,
and I'm very much going to consider that and do
more research on that, because you know, do you know
my left my life motto is for the past, Like
it's a eight months tell me fuck it? Why not
(29:51):
suck it? Why not put it? On a shirt. I
think it works because something I've realized is the amount
of time I spend on my phone in high school,
especial you joined the pandemic, it was like thirteen hours
a day, and I was like, that's terrible, and so
I started being very aware of it. I started deleting apps,
just spending less time of it, and then I got
(30:11):
creative again, and then I wanted to develop more things.
And I think we can live in a world where
it can be hard to know where to start. I
always say the hardest part is starting something. Um, what
would you say the best way to start is, whether
that's creating a business or starting a career in an aspect,
would you say it's doing research on it or would
you say it's going full steam ahead? I would say
(30:33):
how to start something. I'm a fan of a vision board.
I think I love a good vision board, you know,
cut out and do it in real life, something that's
I r l um. Go to like a flea market,
thrift store, magazine stand and just get things that make
you happy or look pretty, and gets a hot glue
(30:55):
gun and some poster board and just start together a
mishmash of things that just bring you joy, um, and
if you can focus it on a something that reminds
you of whatever for you. If you're like I want
to make films or documentaries or produce you know, something specific,
(31:21):
and it's like, okay, so what documentaries inspire you and
what stories inspire you? And you'll just almost if you
like meditate and you just like sort of quiet your
mind and take like three breaths and you just say, like,
I just want to be open to the stories that
(31:43):
I should be telling. And whoever you believe God, your
spirit guides yourself. UM, guide me to where what I
should care about and stories that I should care about,
and and the things will come in when you're open,
Life will hand you everything that you need. Yeah. I
(32:04):
the first vision board I created, I photoshopped my face
next to um people that I wanted to interview, and
I would take an interview and I photoshot my face
on top of the interviewer just to like see it visually.
And I think that really helped. And those there were
and it happens, many of them happened. I'm the manifested.
(32:27):
Do you believe a manifestation? Of course? Okay, because I'm
trying to get more in it, and I you know
that you you just explained it. See I agree with that.
But then when I talk to people, some people are like, no,
it's not a thing. It's in your head. Why isn't
that a thing. That's what manifesting is. You have to
first have the thought that it's going to happen, and
then if you need to solidify make that thought more tangible,
(32:49):
you create a vision board. Otherwise, if the thought is there,
you and you create. I mean, you're interviewing people, so
there you go. You manifest unintentionally manifested acts. Yeah. Yeah,
I mean you can either call it manifesting or not,
but it is what it is. It's just facts. That's
what you've done. I guess, so I haven't really thought
(33:11):
of it like true story. Okay, we have to take
one more quick break, but when we come back, I
want to talk to you about what it was like
on the day your company went public and how your
new children's book is giving back to those in need
in an amazing way. We'll be right back and we're back.
(33:35):
What was it like going public with your company? It
was like an out of body experience. I mean, I
can only really liken it too. I never had a wedding,
and I've never really had like a big celebration that
I like planned for for months um, And so the
(33:57):
only thing I can really think about that it could
be like is maybe wedding um, where you like plan
all the details and you like have an idea and
there's speeches and there's you know, a time when this
is gonna happen and that is going to happen. So UM.
It felt weird because we were planning for it for
(34:17):
so long um leading up to it, and then when
it actually happened, it was like very surreal. It was weird.
It was like a really cool experience because my family
was there, my friends were there, and this journey was
like so wild and and no one in a million
(34:43):
years ever thought that it could ever be possible. And
so when it comes to manifesting, I think me acknowledging
that I manifested that and I created that reality and
giving myself the space to enjoy that moment and really
(35:05):
um be present, I think that that was like the
most important thing for me. And regardless of sort of
like anyone else's experience in it, I had to take
ownership and and really lean into what my genuine take
away and experience what I wanted it to be, and
(35:26):
be okay with that because I love to distract myself
with like is every is what are my kids going
to think? And what is what are the bankers going
to think? And what is you know, a leadership team
going to think in each one of them and thinking
of where they are in their life. Because I'm very
um an EmPATH, right, and so I try to take
on everyone else's experience and and see through their eyes.
(35:49):
But um, I really disallowed myself to be completely present
in my own body and it was wild. That's a
great state to be and demeditate. I should meditate more.
I want to try. I have troubles like being still
for that long. Yeah, you don't necessarily. It's interesting because
I don't think meditating is the same for everyone, and
(36:12):
I think it can take on different forms. I like
actually like to listen to and be guided through meditations.
Um And there's actually a lot of like brain um
sort of like frequency music that you can listen to.
You can even get it free like on Spotify. Um
(36:33):
And it it's just like meditating to me is when
you can sort of like allow yourself to breathe and
even let your mind drift, but then sort of like
rest your mind from the busy the busy stuff in
and all the details right and just be able to
(36:54):
just sort of like drift um. And sometimes it's going
on a run, sometimes it's on a spin bike. Sometimes
it's doing yoga. Sometimes it's listening to, you know, a
guided meditation. Sometimes it's listening to like frequency sounds. So
I love listening to frequency sounds on you the see.
(37:15):
I guess I'm realizing many things I do now have
titles they didn't even realize at this point. That's what
I think. We are living in such a world where
everything is so go, go go. Taking the time to
kind of acknowledge everything that's happening and take a moment
to think about where you want to go forward is
so powerful and something that we don't do enough in society.
(37:37):
And I feel like we're always focusing on the next thing,
but being present is so important. Yeah, And I think
it's like sometimes when you're so focused on the future,
you forget to be grateful for what's happening right now.
And if you're always living for tomorrow, you're almost never
going to be satisfied, right, because it's hard for it
(37:57):
to live up to a fantasy. And so I do
think that there's something that I've been doing lately as
well to sort of help with that focus. Is there's
certain crystals that kind of like remind you of certain
um things. And one of them is like a rose
quartz crystal is really it symbolizes like a heart opener um.
(38:21):
And so if you're like listening to your frequency sounds
and you just have your like a rose quartz crystal
doesn't matter what size it is um and you kind
of like lay it like in the here, like next
to your heart, and you just sort of like lay
there with the crystal there, and you just think about,
like I just want my heart to be open, and
(38:42):
I want to be open to what I'm supposed to
be doing in this life, in this moment, and just
like kind of say that in your head a couple
of times while you're listening to your music, maybe you'll
get some kind of opening that, yeah, you know, you
never had before. I love that you're doing a lot.
We can also now add children's book author to them.
(39:05):
I'm very excited to talk about this because I'm also
developing a children's book right now you are, I am, um,
what was the process like of creating it and what
is it like now that it's out? Well? I I
collaborated with my friends. My my girlfriend, one of my
best girlfriends joined a charity called Baby to Baby, and
(39:26):
another with another friend of ours, and they really took
it from being kind of like a small uh nonprofit
that takes gently used items and you know, so cleans
them and distributes them to people living in poverty. And
when they came on and I joined the board, we
(39:46):
sort of we were saying, you know, the goal is
to really like think about the scale of children living
in poverty who don't have access to things like a
clean diaper, basic human miss as these, yeah, that we
don't even realize that people just don't have access to.
And because um the government UM programs like WICK and
(40:12):
and different government programs, they don't um actually allow you
to buy diapers or feminine products with uh food stamps
and things like that. It's actually looked at as a
luxury item and they tax for and they tax it
like like they tax a luxury item like tobacco and alcohol.
(40:34):
They tax diapers and feminine care outside of California. That
is an interesting cycle of poverty where something like diapers
is literally like the difference between a family being able
to like go to work, pay the rent if they
do have a roof over the head put food on
the table, Like they have to choose. Am I gonna
(40:54):
put food on the table. Am I going to pay
the rent? Am I going to keep the lights on?
Or am I going to diaper my child? So they
use dirty diapers and reuse them on their babies. Um,
a lot of these families don't have a safe place
for their babies to sleep. A lot of children get
smothered because they have multiple children in a bed um
(41:14):
and they just don't have kind of any other way.
And especially COVID really knocked people sideways. Um. So we
at Baby to Baby have distributed two hundred million items
to families living in poverty, and a hundred million of
those items have happened during the COVID pandemic. But to
(41:34):
be able to like collaborate with my my girlfriends and
create this this book that teaches a child about giving back,
and I wanted to have like an Afro Latina as
our main character. Um, there's actually more animals that are
leads in children's books than um children people of color
(41:59):
and grow rolls. Um. So what is the world we
live in? It's the truth And so for us it
was like also just showing up my kids are mixed,
their black, Mexican and white, and just to have that
representation of like our family and then it's so important
(42:19):
and heard right, it's it is important. That's awesome, And
I think having that representation and having those lessons instilled
is hopefully can to make the country much better because
I think we can all do better. I think the
more diverse our country is, the more women stand up
for themselves, the more people of color stand up for themselves,
(42:40):
and the more that we all decide that we deserve
to be treated equal, the more we're going to continue
to expose the injustices that have been afflicting us for
thousands of years. Yeah, And I think it's one of
those things where you inspire me to want to have
a business because the way, in my opinion, you said
(43:03):
you look at success is doing good instead of making money,
which I think is so important. I feel like if
we all looked at the world like that, we can
make such more of a positive impact. Yeah, and I don't.
Here's the thing, like I'm not. My business is a business.
It's not a charity. But you can align yourself. You're
doing charity. So when you buy Honest, you are supporting
(43:26):
baby to baby, you are supporting March of Times. You
are supporting. We wouldn't be able to do what we
do and with the nonprofits we work with or give
back the way that we do if people didn't bring
on us into their homes, into their lives. So the
more you support us, the more we can do good
on top of standing for sustainability, transparency, clean ingredients, and
(43:51):
high ethical values and standards in the way that we
run our business. Yeah, I love your business structure. I
think it's so more people to do it. Thanks. I
hope it becomes a trend. Well, Jessica, thank you so
much for coming on my podcast. I know you are insane. Um,
it's been a few years in the making. I know,
(44:11):
and I you know. I hope you get to sleep soon.
You know what me too. Yeah, thank you guys so
much for listening to the season three finale of the
Last Bieral Podcast. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If
you haven't subscribed to leave a comment, you, guys, if
we want to force season to happen, we need some comments,
(44:32):
We need some good recommendations. So that would mean so
much to me. And thank you so much, Jessica for
taking the time out of your incredibly busy schedule to
chat with me. I think this conversation, I think all
of us can agree that it was really refreshing to
hear the truth about what it's like to be such
(44:53):
a inspiring and hard working woman in this day and age.
If you haven't followed Jessica on all her social media,
and follow me on Instagram and it's Sammy J. That's
I T S S A M M Y j A
y E. And I will hopefully see you next season.
All right, bye, guys,
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