
Hey fool fam! Who’s ready for another amazing episode with the incredible and iconic made by Mitchell! Mitchell’s brand was the first brand to break records in the UK for most money made on a live and we picked his brain...
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Laura Lee
By the time I was taken off, I was, like, throwing up everywhere. Like, the full hangover had activated. I was like, do you have a gun?
Manny Mua
Also, a lot of Americans, they always say, yeah, we're going to London. And then they don't even go to London. They go to like.
Mitchell
Hey, guys, welcome back to Full Coverage, your favorite podcast with your host, Manny Mua and Laura Lee. And we have a very special guest today. We have Mitchell. Mitchell.
Laura Lee
What the hell, Mitchell?
Manny Mua
This is so weird.
Mitchell
Wait, so why is it weird to you again?
Manny Mua
I feel like when I first came into, like, the. The industry, especially, like, the American scene, I obviously came into it with just whoever came into it with, and I feel like it's just really full circle because I feel like I never really got to get to know you guys as much as what I probably really wanted to at the time, because I've been watching you guys since the start, so. But also, like, the fact that I'm just here, I'm like, what the hell is that?
Mitchell
And you've listened to Full Coverage before?
Manny Mua
Oh, yeah, all the time. All the time. I love Full Coverage.
Laura Lee
He's like, no way.
Manny Mua
First of all, the name. The name is so genius.
Laura Lee
Oh, thank you.
Manny Mua
So genius.
Mitchell
The name. We get a lot of confidence on the name.
Laura Lee
We do.
Mitchell
Like, the name is, like, the only.
Laura Lee
Good things we've ever.
Mitchell
That's the one we never got any backlash on.
Laura Lee
That's the one thing we did.
Mitchell
Wrong coverage.
Manny Mua
No, it's great. It really is. But thank you so much for having me. This is such an awesome. Happy to have you and to spend time with you as.
Mitchell
And, yeah, I feel like I've known you for a long time, but I haven't, like, really got to know you for a long time.
Manny Mua
That's what I mean. I feel like I know you guys because I've watched you, but I never really did YouTube, so I've never really.
Laura Lee
Like, oh, that's right.
Manny Mua
Told, like, your story in a way, you know, in that kind of sense. But I've obviously watched you guys since the start, so it's. It's just really cool to be here sometimes. I'm like, the. I always say in life, obviously, you. You can have so many successes, but to me, like, a true success is just spending time with people that you've looked up to. Like, it's so cool because especially when you are from the UK as well, and almost sometimes you feel like certain people are untouchable, or then when you're like, oh, my God, I'm sat in A room with Laura and Manny right now. What is happening?
Mitchell
And it's just very chill.
Manny Mua
Yeah, it's really chill.
Mitchell
I feel like we are actually extremely, extremely chill.
Laura Lee
I can't believe that we, like, we.
Mitchell
Love to believe that we're, like, the most chill, like, down.
Manny Mua
I feel like everyone says that, and then the other.
Laura Lee
And I'm like, bitch, you're crazy.
Mitchell
Actually, we're manic. We're like, literally. So we like to start the podcast with, like, peaks and pits. Like, that's obviously something we always do. You're like, baby, I got it.
Manny Mua
I've watched this before.
Laura Lee
That's right.
Mitchell
So you have to tell us, like, what is your peak of the week?
Manny Mua
My peak of the week? I'd probably say this is my peak of the week. This is. So this is. I don't mean to sound cheesy. Maybe I'll give you two peaks.
Laura Lee
Just two. But that's just in case you think I'm looking at it. No, we'll take it. We'll take it.
Manny Mua
I'd say this is one of my peaks. Again, it's just, like, something that I never really thought would happen, but I've always thought, oh, my God, I'd love to.
Mitchell
Oh, shit.
Laura Lee
Okay, Project Runway. Ty, we got Project Runway on the tv.
Mitchell
Project Runway is playing.
Laura Lee
We're gonna watch a quick episode of Project Runway.
Manny Mua
This is a review of this episode. Okay. I think my second peak of the week. We went to Joshua Tree this weekend, and we shot our fourth birthday campaign, which was so cool, because, I mean, I'm sure you guys know that when you first started your brands, like, budget for photo shoots and stuff like, that is just. It's so crazy, especially out here trying.
Mitchell
To find the budget.
Manny Mua
I've reached out to a few people out here for equipment and all this kind of stuff, because we do things so makeshift, and I think that's when it's the most magical sometimes because it's just, you know, you just make it happen. But when I got the quotes back, I was like, what? The quotes here? Like, it's insane. It's expensive at anywhere you go. But out here, I was like, this is ridiculous. Anyway, I said, no, I'll do it myself. But, yeah, that was my Two Peaks.
Mitchell
How was, like, the Joshua trip? Like, have you been?
Laura Lee
Have you ever been?
Manny Mua
No. So I went once, but I think I was drunk the entire time.
Laura Lee
I absolutely can't.
Mitchell
I don't remember a word.
Laura Lee
It was just before culture is like, go out there and do mushrooms experiment.
Manny Mua
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, I actually was speaking to someone, and they were saying, it's my favorite place to do mushrooms. And I was like, oh, God, I don't have any. But, yeah, it was great. It was such a amazing place to take the team to as well, because, again, as a small brand, that is still so early on in the journey. Like, I'm bringing my team here that I've never even been here. Well, there's. There's four of us here right now, but I think there's. God, maybe like 15 of us now on the team. So still very, very small. And everyone has about 10 different roles.
Laura Lee
Absolutely.
Mitchell
That's how it is when you're a small brand. Everyone has a lot of hats, but it's.
Manny Mua
I kind of love it that way as well. Don't get me wrong. There's some days where I'm like, I'd love 100 more stars.
Laura Lee
Oh, my God.
Manny Mua
But it's finding. And again, you guys will know that. But it's finding the right people for the right roles, isn't it? And that's. That's not easy, because what might work for one brand might not work for my brand. So it's finding the right people. But, yeah, my. My peak is definitely being here. And obviously going to Joshua Tree with the team, it was so cool. Again, I think moments like that, spending time, like what I was talking about before, when you spend time with certain people and you're in a new environment, it's just like, oh, my God. Wow. We. We barely did that. So. Yeah, I think that was my. My two people.
Mitchell
Yeah, absolutely. And it's bonding.
Manny Mua
Yeah.
Mitchell
Like, it's nice. Like, when you. I feel like when you're traveling with your team and you're doing things like that, it's like, such a bonding experience where it's like, you get to know each other more, figure things out more. Like, every time. I feel. Like every time we travel, I'm like, I get to know her more.
Manny Mua
You live with each other, so. Yeah, it's been really cool. It's been. We got here Friday. Today is.
Laura Lee
How's the jet lag? You're, like, doing great. You seem great.
Manny Mua
The jet look.
Mitchell
I was like, you seem so fine.
Manny Mua
I'm like, I don't want to talk.
Laura Lee
I, like, need an iv.
Mitchell
Bro.
Manny Mua
To be fair, I actually would love an iv, But I think I. I actually enjoy it because I wake up so early. I'm on, obviously, UK time.
Laura Lee
Yeah.
Manny Mua
And I get so much done. And then by the time my day actually starts, I'm like, oh, I've done all my work for today.
Mitchell
I'm good, actually. Thank you.
Manny Mua
It's been. It's been actually quite. It was probably good that we did the shoot. The weekend just gone because the days were so long, so it kind of married up. But I feel like I'm starting to sleep in a little bit later now. So.
Mitchell
There we go.
Laura Lee
I'm kind of adjusting. How long are you here? Are you here for a long time?
Manny Mua
We're here till. I'm here till Monday and then applied to Chicago on Monday, literally for the day. So. Well, two days and then I fly back to the uk.
Mitchell
So it's like a week and a half.
Manny Mua
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Laura Lee
That's good.
Manny Mua
I've not been to LA since.
Laura Lee
I was gonna ask you, how often do you come here?
Manny Mua
Well, I used to before COVID I was. I was about to move here, had my Visa, ready to go, and then obviously Covid. Covid happened. Yes. And then obviously life changed for everyone doing it. And I think since then I've maybe been back twice before this.
Laura Lee
Do you like it or are you like.
Manny Mua
I think it's different now.
Laura Lee
Yeah, it is.
Manny Mua
I don't know if it's maybe because I'm older now, whereas then I was just, like, running around, like a little around la.
Mitchell
He was a little twinkling. I remember that. He was a little tweak. Running around.
Manny Mua
Yeah. I think I was just so, like, fascinated by the whole lifestyle, the whole facade of it. But then I remember when I came back, I came back for. It was just before Coachella, maybe two years ago, and we'd done, like an event. Where did we do the event? We did the event at the PLT headquarters on Melrose. And I just got a really different vibe from la. Then. Then I came back last year. I came with my ex last year. We went to Vegas, we watched Adele, which was amazing.
Mitchell
Oh, my gosh.
Manny Mua
But again, every time I've been. I've really enjoyed this time being here because I'm here with my friends, blah, blah, blah. But, yeah, it's just. I feel like I'm. It's just a completely different place to what it was back then. Completely different. Even, like the nightlife change. You know what I mean? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Lots of changes. But I think it's. Again, it's. Everything changes. Yeah. Nothing stays the same forever.
Laura Lee
So true.
Manny Mua
Yeah. Maybe it's a good thing, honestly.
Mitchell
Honestly, my peak, you know, we just went to a Halloween party the other day and I thought that was really fun. Now I say that's my peak. We went to Sam and Colby's Halloween party, and it ended being, like, a huge.
Laura Lee
Wait, tell me.
Manny Mua
I think I saw the. Wait, what?
Mitchell
Soulja Boy and coming out to perform.
Manny Mua
And we literally were like, where was this?
Mitchell
It was. It was, like, at a warehouse. And this was literally just over the weekend on Sunday.
Laura Lee
400 people.
Manny Mua
Wait, I have a question. Who the hell was that guy in that video when you went to watch Tally X?
Mitchell
Yeah, everyone.
Manny Mua
Because I know everyone was asking for it. This is my chance to ask for the people.
Mitchell
You are welcome. Literally, like, a stranger. Like, I don't.
Manny Mua
Like.
Mitchell
I don't know how to explain it. Other than the fact that he literally.
Manny Mua
We love the good guys.
Mitchell
No, literally. Other than literally. I walked up to him and I was like, hey, do you have a boyfriend? He said, no. And I was like, can I make out with you? Aware. That's literally what it was. I was like, and I'm gonna record it. So that's, like, how it went.
Laura Lee
It was literally LA thing.
Mitchell
Literally the epitome of, like, la. I was like, listen, I have a scene in my mind directing it. I'm like, this. I was literally like, I want to make out scene for this. For this video. And that's what it was.
Laura Lee
It literally was a scene. Fully understanding. He knows exactly what you want. That is, you picked the right person.
Mitchell
I did. I did. I did. And he was looking at me, and I was looking at him. So I was like, this is perfect. So that. That's who it was.
Manny Mua
Okay.
Mitchell
But yeah, no, the party, it was great. It was just, like, fun. Like, it was such a crazy. It was a Y2K party.
Manny Mua
Okay.
Mitchell
So to me, I'm like, obviously, like, we. We had no idea that it was a Y2K.
Manny Mua
Did you post the outfit that you are.
Mitchell
I was Prince Eric.
Manny Mua
So what does that mean? Y2K?
Mitchell
It's not. I have no idea. We had no idea it was Y2K. But also, like, no one.
Laura Lee
Like, no one knew.
Mitchell
No one. I don't think anyone knew.
Laura Lee
No one knew. Like, it was like, my outfit was very millennial because I was MIA from Princess Diary. So it was like, very, like. That's very millennial of you. And I.
Manny Mua
It out.
Mitchell
I've done.
Laura Lee
I see what you're doing here.
Mitchell
Careful.
Laura Lee
Too much?
Mitchell
No, honestly, Laura's outfit was a hit.
Laura Lee
Like, my God.
Mitchell
Everyone was like, I love you. I love your outfit. It was sick.
Laura Lee
Oh, thank you.
Manny Mua
Yeah.
Mitchell
But it was like, it literally everyone was, like, obsessed.
Laura Lee
I. I know. I didn't Expect it. Cuz it was just like, a lot of people have been Princess Mia for Halloween, you know, it's not like an unheard of Halloween costume. So I. I was like, this will be really cute cuz Opalie had these white princess dresses. And I was like, I'm gonna be her. Cuz they're gonna do the third movie. Genius.
Manny Mua
Oh, they're doing the third movie? Yeah.
Laura Lee
Coming up to me. And they're like, where's the third movie? And I was like, what the are you talking about?
Manny Mua
And I was like, oh, she didn't even know. Yeah, we stopped filming next week.
Mitchell
Literally. They're like, anne.
Laura Lee
Yes. I was like, are we filming a movie?
Mitchell
What are you doing? I'm like, huh?
Laura Lee
I forgot. But it was so good. That was actually my pick. I had proof. I have proof.
Manny Mua
I wrote it down. That's why Lava was on the phone. She was like.
Mitchell
She's like, where's my pee?
Laura Lee
Look at my peek at birthday party.
Mitchell
It's funny because that's like. We'll just combine it. They literally like, we'll. We'll do things like that where I'm like, oh, my God, that was mine too.
Manny Mua
Do you guys get really drunk on.
Mitchell
I don't drink.
Manny Mua
Oh, yeah, you don't drink.
Laura Lee
I. I do. Like three times a year. Like, I'll do a blackout moment.
Manny Mua
Okay, okay.
Laura Lee
But like, I'm so old and withered now.
Manny Mua
By the way, guys, Lava looks absolutely incredible. Like, I was like, thank you. No, you look amazing. She does not look old. And with it.
Mitchell
No, she doesn't.
Laura Lee
It just on the inside, you're like linza rotten. Like on the fourth of July, New Year's Eve, like these birthday moments. I'm getting lit as F. Yeah. You know what I mean?
Manny Mua
What do you feel like? Oh, I love getting drunk.
Mitchell
Yeah.
Manny Mua
You're like, it gets me life.
Mitchell
I need to get drunk.
Manny Mua
But I also feel like the drinking culture is so different here to what it is in the uk.
Mitchell
I would say UK is like huge. Right.
Manny Mua
Especially northern UK people. Like, if you're from up north, you basically have alcohol running through your bones. That's just the way it is.
Laura Lee
Do you get hungover?
Manny Mua
No, I actually very rarely. I got hungover.
Laura Lee
See, I would drink more if I didn't get my ass kicked the next morning.
Manny Mua
I think I'm very good at just like. Right.
Laura Lee
Powering through.
Manny Mua
If I sit here and think about how bad I feel, I'm gonna feel worse. Yeah. I just go. But I do actually feel like I'm I'm a pro at a hangover.
Laura Lee
You know what helps me is when I day drink, when I day drink, I don't get hungover.
Manny Mua
Yeah, yeah. Because you've got more time to recover.
Mitchell
And to drink water and. Yeah, yeah.
Manny Mua
It is, it is the worst though when you get like, I don't mind a hangover. I don't mind feeling a little bit ropey the next day. But it's a two day hangover that the worst you feel like, you feel like you've hacked it and you're like, you wake up the next day, I'm like, oh, okay. But you're probably still drunk. And then the day after it's like, oh my gosh.
Mitchell
I didn't think about that.
Manny Mua
You wake up drunk, heavy breathing all day.
Laura Lee
Yep. Tired. Yep.
Manny Mua
And then acting normal to people.
Laura Lee
Like.
Mitchell
It'S the omen scene, for example.
Laura Lee
I get the two dayers whenever I'll go to bed, like 2, 3am drunk and then I am fucked.
Manny Mua
I always try not to go to sleep when I'm drunk. Because then you wake up and you're still drunk.
Laura Lee
You are. And it is a recipe for disaster. I did that in Paris. I had a flight and I went out. Cause the drinking culture in Europe in general is bad.
Manny Mua
That's true.
Laura Lee
They could do a quick little dinner. Cut to me at 2am raging with a napkin. Yeah, that's what I was doing.
Manny Mua
That's what I was doing. I see it. I visualized it all.
Mitchell
Yep.
Laura Lee
You know, and I ended up puking all over the plane. Yeah. Woke up drunk. I was like, great, I'm still drunk. But the airport took me three hours to get through. So by the time I got Paris airport, pits of hell. Pits of hell. And by the time I was taken off, I was like throwing up. Like the full hangover. Hat activated. Bull sweat.
Manny Mua
Me like shaking. Does that matter? Okay. I was like, do you have a gun? I need to buy a gun.
Laura Lee
Me, Me.
Manny Mua
I don't need to sell them in front of crazy. Thank God you couldn't buy one. Right?
Laura Lee
They're not loosey goosey with that over there.
Mitchell
Oh my gosh. That's crazy. I can't even imagine a two day hangover like that.
Laura Lee
Honestly, I had one of the funnest nights in my life that night. So like I low key. Don't regret it.
Mitchell
No, absolutely.
Manny Mua
Yeah. Sometimes it's worth it. I feel like when you've got a hangover and it's not worth it, why have I that?
Laura Lee
Do you see that?
Manny Mua
Yeah, exactly. That that does happen as you get older, though. Like, I remember when I was younger, I just. I'd go out for pointless things, me, you know?
Laura Lee
But I think that every night.
Manny Mua
But now I wouldn't just go out for no reason.
Laura Lee
They were, like, shading. Alex, Earl, like, you go out too much. She parties. I was like, jesus Christ. Thank God I didn't have the Internet. Because if y'all think she's bad, y'all should have seen me at her age. The girl's, like, 22 years old. 21.
Manny Mua
That's the time she should be doing it.
Mitchell
Yes. I. Like, she should be doing that now.
Manny Mua
I feel like she was, like, 16 the last time I had. I realized that Erin was here. That's crazy. That makes me feel old. And I don't even know the girl. Erin's making me feel old.
Mitchell
Yeah.
Manny Mua
That's crazy. 22. That's crazy.
Laura Lee
That's crazy.
Manny Mua
Time goes so fast.
Laura Lee
It does.
Manny Mua
It really does.
Laura Lee
It really does.
Mitchell
That's insane. It's actually insane. What is.
Laura Lee
What's your pit?
Manny Mua
Yeah, what's your pit? I think my pit would have to also be related to Joshua Tree.
Mitchell
No.
Manny Mua
Again, I told you guys before, but I hired a Jeep, thinking I don't drive, so I don't have a clue about cars.
Laura Lee
Did people not drive where you live?
Manny Mua
Oh, no, people drive.
Mitchell
You just, like, don't.
Manny Mua
I just never learned.
Laura Lee
Got it.
Manny Mua
And I don't think I ever will.
Laura Lee
I'll teach you.
Manny Mua
I think I will. No. I will be a danger to society.
Mitchell
You don't want to drive?
Manny Mua
No, I really don't. I like being driven. Driven and being safe and other people.
Laura Lee
Being safe for humanity.
Manny Mua
Again, I don't have a clue about cars. I thought, oh, my God, a Jeep must be huge. Like, I'm imagining, like, this. No. Oh, my God. Imagine driving my Joshua Trail. Shocking. But. But again, thinking it was a huge car. And we had. Obviously, because we were shooting here. I'm here for, like, so many things, so my cases are just ridiculous. We had, like, I think, like, 12 to 14 cases in the back.
Mitchell
Is that, like, a product?
Manny Mua
A product? Yeah. It was for our new collection that we launched. Was that yesterday?
Laura Lee
Yeah, it already launched.
Manny Mua
Oh, yeah, we launched it yesterday.
Mitchell
Nice.
Manny Mua
Nice. Oh, yeah. Oh, it was for. It's a space. Cardboard collection space. It was our fourth birthday party.
Mitchell
I love that.
Manny Mua
So it all worked out perfectly, but we shot it on Saturday, edited it all Sunday.
Laura Lee
Cool.
Manny Mua
Launched it on Monday. So the weekend was wild. But I think the pit was the fact that I. We had to travel from Joshua Tree to LA with 14 cases in the back of a Jeep and four people. It was hell. I had, like, two cases on top of me. I was like this on the dashboard.
Laura Lee
No, you didn't.
Manny Mua
It was awful. It was awful. So I think that was probably my pit, but it was.
Laura Lee
You thought you had a drink, so.
Manny Mua
I can't complain too much.
Mitchell
Yeah. You didn't think you were gonna make it.
Manny Mua
No, I was. Well, Laurie was driving, and she's probably just as bad as what I would.
Laura Lee
Be, so that's a far drive too.
Mitchell
Oh, it was just.
Manny Mua
She's. Lori is like. She's so in her own world. So I watch a drive and I'm like, oh, my God, are you even looking? So when the car was filled with cases, I was like, this is it. I'm never gonna make it. This is the end.
Mitchell
She gets me blush all over the.
Laura Lee
Highway, does my makeup everywhere.
Manny Mua
But, yeah, that was my pit. But, yeah, I think I had a good week so far.
Mitchell
Well, at least it's like, not a crazy pit. Yeah, but it's chill.
Laura Lee
This episode of Full Coverage is sponsored by Better Help. This month is is all about gratitude, and this is your reminder to send some thanks to the people in your life, including yourself. I think therapy is so important for self development and self growth, and with better help, they make it more accessible than ever.
Mitchell
I love therapy. I've been in therapy multiple times in my life, and I feel like it's been such a helpful thing for me to just kind of reassess what's going on and to have someone there that's a professional that can help kind of bounce ideas back and not judge you and literally just give you the most sound advice that you can potentially possibly here, which is actually so nice. And literally, BetterHelp is online therapy catered towards you, and you can literally switch out therapists anytime. You just fill out a quick questionnaire, and then you can find a therapist that literally matches your needs.
Laura Lee
You can also switch therapists at any time for no additional charge. Let the gratitude flow with better help. Visit betterhelp.com full coverage today to get 10 off your first month. That's betterhelp. H E L p.com sl full coverage.
Mitchell
Mine is like, I, like, pulled my back nerve.
Manny Mua
You did.
Mitchell
I literally was standing, like, just normally, but then I, like, moved my leg, like, wrong. And then my entire left my body went, like, zing. Like, z. And I was like. I knew something weird happened. I'm like, oh, my God, I'm Getting old. Like, I was, like, something just happened. Something happened to me. And literally for the last two days, I've been, like, almost, like, not immobile, but I'm very, like, cautious of how I'm moving because, like, no jerking.
Manny Mua
No.
Mitchell
Like. Like, don't get too crazy. Like, I've been, like, on hepads, ibuprofen, like, the whole thing, and it's literally just from, like, standing, and I just, like, moved.
Laura Lee
How did you hurt yourself? He goes, I did nothing.
Mitchell
And that's what I was like. I didn't do anything. I literally am just hurt.
Manny Mua
Like, you need to come up with a story for that. No, I do.
Mitchell
I was, like.
Manny Mua
Something behind Justin.
Mitchell
No, literally something that's, like, actually, like, oh, yeah, I was going crazy at seven. No, you guys, I literally was, like, on 800 milligrams of ibuprofen to go to the party because I was literally, like. Like, I was literally a grandpa. So even now, I'm like.
Manny Mua
It's so unexplainable.
Mitchell
And the thing is, like, your backs attached to everything. So, like, any, like, movement you can do, like, it, like, will activate your back. Like, walking upstairs, walking in general, moving your arms, like, anything. Your back is, like, attached to everything. So it's like, you have to be super careful. And it's easy to hurt your back.
Manny Mua
Like, anywhere when it's already hurt as well. It's so easy to rehearse. Yeah.
Mitchell
So I'm literally just kind of, like, in a. Yeah. And a calm.
Manny Mua
Yeah. That's the worst pit than having to sit like this.
Mitchell
And no, I literally am. I'm like. So now I bought a heat pad. Like, I can wrap around my body to, like, just, like, be constantly in that. So that's helping a lot.
Laura Lee
I feel bad for people with back pain. Whenever you have back pain, you're like, damn, how do y'all live with, like.
Mitchell
How do you live with chronic back pain?
Manny Mua
How do you live, I think, from being a makeup artist for so many years.
Mitchell
You're like this constantly.
Manny Mua
I look at my posture sometimes. Like, say if someone takes a picture of you and you just start.
Mitchell
I was like, please don't.
Laura Lee
He's the makeup artist. Please don't. I don't know how makeup artists do it.
Manny Mua
It's terrible. Like, it's actually shocking how bad some people's posture can get for me to make eyes.
Laura Lee
Absolutely.
Mitchell
Because you're constantly leaning like this.
Manny Mua
Yeah. No, literally, that tech neck and your shoulders are, like, basically touching your knees. Yeah.
Mitchell
Fucking vulture.
Manny Mua
Yeah. Like this.
Mitchell
Like, A vulture.
Manny Mua
Vulture, exactly. But, yeah, back pain is actually the worst.
Mitchell
It is the worst. And, like, I. Because I don't, like, really glam people anymore, so I don't experience that anymore. But when I worked that back, I would, like, constantly. You're, like, leaning over doing it, and I'm like. Like, not tall, but I'm not short either, so I'm constantly, like, leaning down, like, six feet.
Manny Mua
Okay, okay.
Mitchell
So I'm constantly, like, leaning over. Yeah, because, like, they're usually smaller than me. It's like, you know, a girl or something. And I'm like that. And I'm, like, sitting. And I'm like, my back hurts. Like, that would be the worst. So, like, constant chronic back pain. I cannot even imagine. So shout out to all of y'all have chronic back pain. I'm so sorry.
Manny Mua
We're thinking.
Mitchell
I'm going through the gigs. Weird. Like, prayers to you. I'm going through the gigs of every night.
Laura Lee
Think about y'all.
Mitchell
I was like. I said a prayer last night for you guys.
Laura Lee
A whisper.
Mitchell
I was like, like, please help them. Help me. Honestly, help me, because I'm going through the gates of my back right now.
Manny Mua
Please, dear God, please help me.
Mitchell
I will never sing again. What's your vid?
Laura Lee
Mine's very lame, but my football team is trash this year, and we're always number one. I love college football.
Manny Mua
My album is this book B.
Laura Lee
Football is football. But y'all call soccer football.
Manny Mua
Soccer, football. Okay.
Laura Lee
Which technically, I think it's similar.
Manny Mua
Yeah. I'll be honest. I think you guys, we call it soccer. Like football. You should play it with your foot.
Laura Lee
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It makes sense that y'all call it. And then we do the hand for our football. You know what I mean?
Manny Mua
You know, when I have these conversations, it always reminds me of that episode of Drag Race where I think it was Bendelacreme and she was being someone from Downton Abbey.
Mitchell
Yeah, I remember that.
Manny Mua
Nicki Minaj. Was it either Nicki Minaj? I think it was one of them being Nicki Minaj. And she was like, I don't even know what she's talking about. And she was like, we originated the language. And I just always think that.
Mitchell
I'm like, yeah, we did originate the language, actually. No, it's true.
Laura Lee
Like football, I always say it actually does make more sense that you guys call it football.
Manny Mua
So it's similar to rugby. And.
Laura Lee
Yeah, we are hand. All hands. Yeah.
Manny Mua
Bigger hair than football, than soccer.
Laura Lee
Yeah.
Manny Mua
Do you think, Wait, what? Football over here is bigger Than soccer.
Mitchell
Soccer is not nearly as big here as it is in, like, the uk.
Manny Mua
Okay.
Laura Lee
It's way bigger. What would you say our biggest sport.
Mitchell
Is here in the US between football and, like, baseball.
Laura Lee
I would say between football and baseball.
Mitchell
Or something like our biggest sports, because basketball is so big.
Laura Lee
But also think about the, like, national championship Super Bowl. Oh, like, that's our most wise. That's the two best football team.
Manny Mua
Okay.
Mitchell
That's like. Yeah, you're.
Manny Mua
I don't ever watch the super bowl for the Super Bowl.
Mitchell
Exactly. So do we.
Laura Lee
See. I don't follow professional football. I only do college. We have two. Do you guys have two levels of soccer?
Manny Mua
So you have, like, different leagues? So you've got. I think Premier League is the top championship. And then I think there's quite a few leagues of football.
Laura Lee
Oh. That people are interested in Europe.
Manny Mua
Like, football is so huge.
Mitchell
That's like the thing.
Manny Mua
Huge. I watched it.
Laura Lee
Or soccer. Oh, soccer. Soccer. But I watched the David Beckham documentary and it really broke everything down for me. And, like, I understood how big it is.
Manny Mua
Like, I can say it's like, that's like. It's crazy.
Laura Lee
It's bigger than football is here.
Mitchell
100. Like, that's a lifestyle.
Laura Lee
Soccer is bigger there than our biggest sport here. Because I've seen what goes on and ain't nothing like that ever happened here.
Mitchell
Like, you see, like, you see, like, David Beckham's, like, following.
Manny Mua
Yeah.
Mitchell
People are literally that a lot.
Laura Lee
Or Cristian Ronaldo is in. He's like, the most.
Manny Mua
I always find that so crazy that Ronaldo. Is Ronaldo Portuguese or Brazilian?
Mitchell
I have no idea.
Laura Lee
I don't know.
Manny Mua
He's fine. That's all I know.
Laura Lee
He's fine.
Mitchell
He's fine.
Manny Mua
That's right. That's a guy. But, like, he used to be. He used to play for Manchester United. And I just always think, like, it's so random that these huge footballers used to live, like, around the corner from us. It's just crazy. Which is crazy because Manchester is so small. So you'd probably drive past their house. Have you never been to Manchester?
Mitchell
I don't think if I have. I don't remember same. Which is.
Laura Lee
Did you know Europe. It kind of gets blurry for me.
Mitchell
Because there's a lot of, like, I need to take, like, the train to get to places.
Laura Lee
Which is really cool, by the way.
Mitchell
I think I have been to Manchester, actually.
Manny Mua
Yeah, I think you've been to Manchester. I think you went with Beauty Bay.
Mitchell
Yes. Yes. See that? I wouldn't realize that that was like, Manchester.
Manny Mua
Yeah, Yeah.
Mitchell
I didn't realize that that was like, the place.
Manny Mua
Just England.
Mitchell
It's to me, babe, it's England to me.
Manny Mua
Yeah.
Mitchell
Like, it's all, like, it's all England.
Manny Mua
Also, a lot of Americans, they always say, yeah, we're going to London. And then they don't even go to London.
Laura Lee
London, that's me.
Manny Mua
You end up in, like, Kent or something. And I'm like, that's not London. Okay.
Laura Lee
This year I just went to London for a week. And then I went to Wimbledon, which is a place.
Manny Mua
I saw that you went to Wimbledon.
Laura Lee
Who knows?
Mitchell
I didn't know it was a place. I had no idea.
Manny Mua
I never knew it was a tennis court.
Laura Lee
I thought it was a tennis match in London. I thought it was a tennis match in London. Whenever they told us we were doing a couple hour car ride to go to Wimbledon, I was like, yeah, to go to the mat. So, like, no, we're staying in Wimbledon. And I was like. And they're like, it's not Wimbledon, it's Wimbledon. Okay, another. Another one, another one. Thank you so much. So many amazing little towns, though.
Manny Mua
Yeah. That's what I really love about the UK is like, obviously, London is incredible. I feel like if you're going to visit, you obviously have to visit London.
Laura Lee
Do you eat mayonnaise with your sides? Because that's beans on toast.
Manny Mua
Yeah, beans. I mean, I'll be honest. Not. Not. It's not my a cuisine that I'm a bottle. But my sauces, and this has been since I've been a kid. Do you guys call it a sauce?
Laura Lee
Yeah.
Mitchell
Yeah, like, sauces.
Manny Mua
So my sauce is mayonnaise with ketchup. Yep, together.
Mitchell
Oh, look, that's great.
Manny Mua
Do you guys call it prawn cocktail sauce here?
Mitchell
Oh, I don't know what we call it. Uh, I think we just mix it.
Manny Mua
Mayo.
Laura Lee
Ketchup.
Manny Mua
I would never eat mayo by itself.
Laura Lee
Okay. So we literally were watching people just dip everything in mayo. Blew my mind.
Manny Mua
That is like, ugh. It makes me gasp.
Laura Lee
That's so strange that you don't like it.
Manny Mua
It's crazy.
Mitchell
Everyone there is obsessed.
Manny Mua
I don't mind it mixed, but it's a bit too thick.
Mitchell
It is. It's very dense of a sauce. It's too fucking dense for a sauce. Like, it don't wiggle. Like, it barely wiggles.
Laura Lee
It is.
Mitchell
It's crazy.
Laura Lee
Also, I need you gu to get more yellow mustard in the mix. No yellow mustard anywhere. Ah, nowhere.
Manny Mua
You don't like yellow Mustard?
Mitchell
No, she does. It's hard to find.
Laura Lee
It's hard to find because they give you mayo and ketchup with everything. Okay, but no, but in America it's always ketchup and mustard.
Manny Mua
And they typically mean in the uk.
Laura Lee
Yeah, in the uk.
Mitchell
Okay.
Manny Mua
Maybe you didn't go to the right places because it's definitely mustard. There's come out.
Mitchell
See, I feel like that would be different. You would chose like the most sickening area.
Manny Mua
Yeah. Or even just like the most simple, like pubs.
Laura Lee
Do you live in London?
Manny Mua
No, I live in Manchester.
Laura Lee
Where's that? Like, like.
Manny Mua
So we've got London here.
Laura Lee
Okay.
Manny Mua
It's like down there, like near Paris then.
Laura Lee
Oh, okay.
Manny Mua
It's like northwest. So it's up at the top of it.
Laura Lee
Is that like a big city?
Manny Mua
Northwest is like the region.
Laura Lee
Okay.
Manny Mua
I don't like. You know how you've got like the west coast? Yep. Yes, we've got like northwest. I don't know because it's about this big. But. But I'm in the northwest, which is kind of like there.
Laura Lee
Is that like a big city or is London still the big city?
Manny Mua
Oh, no, it's still. To be fair, I think it's London, Birmingham and then Manchester.
Laura Lee
Okay, so it is.
Manny Mua
Yeah, yeah. But Manchester's like the actual city itself is pretty small. But then it's like the surrounding, like surroundings. You have so much.
Mitchell
It's a big like area.
Manny Mua
Yeah. Like there's.
Laura Lee
Do you love it?
Manny Mua
Manchester. I love Manchester. It's such a cool place.
Laura Lee
Were you born and raised there?
Manny Mua
I was raised in Bolton and now here I am in Woodland Hills.
Laura Lee
Wow.
Manny Mua
How did this happen? I used to watch your guys's videos in my mum's box room in.
Laura Lee
What's a box?
Manny Mua
Oh, it's like. Oh my God. You guys don't know what a box room is. So if anyone is from the uk, you'll know. But we have things called council housing in, in the uk it's like social housing.
Mitchell
Okay.
Manny Mua
So I grew up in in a council house and my mom. It was a three bedroom. One of them was just basically my mum's holding room. The other one was my mum's bedroom. And then there's another one that basically has like a big box in it. And this is in a lot of, a lot of homes like that. But the box basically holds up the stairs underneath it. Say the room was this big, but the box takes up half of the room.
Laura Lee
So you called the box room. Yeah, so we called it the staircase pushed up in the back.
Manny Mua
Yeah, basically. So that's again, that's where I used to watch all the videos. I'd be up till the bar o'clock.
Laura Lee
Box.
Manny Mua
Yeah, the box room.
Mitchell
That's so cool. I didn't know that was the thing.
Laura Lee
I know. I'm really fascinated.
Mitchell
I'm fascinated. It's just like so interesting. So, like, so different.
Manny Mua
If you went in one, you'd be like, okay, goodbye.
Mitchell
Like, I was like, you know, I.
Laura Lee
Assumed we were like all the same lingo and everything. And then I watched Love island uk, we're actually not like the UK and the US is actually very different lingo, but if you watch Love island uk, you actually learn so much.
Manny Mua
I also think, like, the banter is completely different as well.
Laura Lee
Completely different.
Manny Mua
I, I really had to teach myself how to joke over here. Like in the uk, we're just like, we, we just take the piss out of everyone. It's like a love language.
Mitchell
I know that from Ireland.
Manny Mua
That is exactly what it is. Like, you just fully rip into people.
Laura Lee
Yes.
Manny Mua
But like over here you just can't do that as much. So you've got to be a bit more aware. It's like shady here.
Laura Lee
Best friends are from the uk, okay. And they live here and so they take the piss out. Like, they're, they're brutal.
Manny Mua
What did you guys say? If you were taking the piss out.
Mitchell
Of someone, you're shading them, you're shredding.
Laura Lee
Shredding.
Mitchell
I'll say you're shredding them. Like you're really getting them together.
Laura Lee
Gathering.
Mitchell
Gathering them.
Manny Mua
Cuz again, if you say take the piss out of someone over here and they maybe haven't watched Love island, they're.
Mitchell
Like, take the piss out of me. Wow, that's interesting how literally. Thank you so much to SM for sponsoring this portion of full coverage, you guys. This holiday season, our sponsor, Smalls is donating millions of dollars of cat food to the Humane Society, which is so absolutely incredible, you guys. Cats are obsessed with Smalls and so am I.
Laura Lee
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Mitchell
After switching to smalls, 88 of cat owners reported overall health improvements. And that's a massive deal because Smalls is a much healthier alternative to other cat food. It's literally voted New York magazine the best cat food according to veterinarians, which I think is actually really cool.
Laura Lee
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Mitchell
I love that. So like, so question, like starting out in like the journey, because obviously, like we have questions that we have like written down how, what like got you into doing beauty? Because I feel like when, like, for as long as I've known you've been like the, like, like UK artists, like, to me. So I was like, what made you get into doing beauty? Like, why did you like it?
Manny Mua
I think I, I grew up with two sisters who like, they were definitely, they weren't definitely the most glam sisters I could have had, but they definitely, they, they definitely were more glam than like what my mum was glam, blah, blah, blah. So I think I always, like, I, I've always had makeup in, in my life here and there. But then I actually, so before I was a makeup artist, I used to sing in like pubs, clubs. So and then I X Factor and I was in a, I was in a fucking boy band. Like, it's hilarious.
Mitchell
You're lying.
Manny Mua
No way.
Laura Lee
I never knew this.
Mitchell
Me neither. Yeah, it's because you'd have a channel so we wouldn't know like these things.
Manny Mua
Thank God, thank God, thank God. But yeah, I was in a boy band, X Factor, basically. I was at music college at the time. So X Factor came to colleges, put bands together and we got put together and at this point I'd been singing like in pubs, clubs, like old men's clubs, singing to people that just did not want to listen to a 16 year old sing out this. How do you know about this song? But then I was doing that for so long and then I did X Factor and we basically got kicked off X Factor. It was like just before judges houses. So I think at that point I was just like, I just want a change. I want something new. Yeah, I've been doing this since before I can remember and I feel like I was kind of interested in makeup but didn't really ever know how to start. And then one of my friends at the time had Just opened a salon in at like a town near me. And I started working there on a Saturday. She just said, come in and work. Learn from the other artists. And that's how it started. That's how it started.
Mitchell
Wow. When you. So when you start off singing, can you like still sing now? Like, is it like something that you never really forget?
Manny Mua
I feel like it. It's still there.
Mitchell
Okay, guys.
Manny Mua
But I also look back at the X factor things and think, was it ever there? You know, could I actually. Was that delusional? Was my. Was my mom bad? 15? Yeah, go for it. When really I probably shouldn't have, but yeah, I think it's there.
Laura Lee
What type of music were you singing?
Manny Mua
It was a lot of the old stuff because that would be my audience. Like, it'd be like people in like the 70s. Yeah. It was a time of my life.
Laura Lee
That's really cool.
Mitchell
You live like multiple lives.
Manny Mua
Oh, yeah, definitely. I always. I always like to say I'm very blessed to have lived multiple lives because I've tried a bit of everything. But yeah, started in the salon and then started getting really busy with clients on the weekends. But then from there I started to do more like teaching. So like one on one classes. And from there that's when I kind of left aside the clients because then I could have my weekends back and I could earn a lot more money from doing the classes, even though I'd work more days. And then from there, from the teaching, then that's when I started traveling the world doing master classes. And I think it was 2019. It was the year before COVID I did like a six month tour around South America, just teaching in crazy amounts of countries, like just non stop all by myself. I had to look back at and I was like, I think it must have been about 19 at the time. And I was like, how the hell did I do that? I was so scared. Or Portuguese.
Laura Lee
I was just like, were you naturally good at doing other people's makeup?
Manny Mua
I think I was naturally good at being with people. So I was really good at listening to people and also taking critique from people.
Laura Lee
Yeah.
Manny Mua
So I think that was like, that's why I loved working in the salon, because it's the best place to learn. I think you're literally doing it all day, every night, day. Wow. And you're working around other artists as well, who I'm actually really experienced. So, yeah, I think I was probably naturally good at picking colors and think those kind of things, like picking shades for people and, you know, but I wasn't always good at makeup, I think.
Mitchell
Yeah. Like color theory. You're good at color theory already?
Manny Mua
Yeah, definitely. I was good at color theory because I'd done art in school and stuff, but, yeah, I think I wasn't amazing at the start.
Laura Lee
You were always in the arts, huh?
Manny Mua
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not academic at all.
Laura Lee
Me either.
Manny Mua
Oh, my God. Shocking.
Laura Lee
I know. I know, right?
Manny Mua
Sometimes I'm like, I just can't even entertain this conversation.
Laura Lee
What year did you start your makeup line? Made by Mitchell, by the way.
Manny Mua
Yes, made by Mitchell. So we launched in 2020, October. So it was in. In the first, like, year of lockdown, really. And we'd started working on it about a year and a half before. I'd done collabs. I did a collab with Beauty Bay. I did a club with Morphe. Did a collab with who else? Did a club with P. Louise. Like, I'd done all these clubs, and I just got to the point where I was like, right, okay, okay. They've been great. Some not so great. It was just like, you'd learn as you go, as we literally have. And I was like, I don't really want to build someone else's brand anymore. Like, I want to build something for me that is gonna have longevity, that one day I'll be like, so proud that that's my legacy. So that's when I started working on it. Obviously not knowing that the year after would be locked down, but it was probably the best thing for me in that time because I had so much to focus on. So, yeah, we launched October 2020, and we just turned four, like two days ago.
Mitchell
That's so crazy.
Manny Mua
Crazy for years. Sometimes I'm like, it feels like you.
Laura Lee
Can I ask this? You don't have to answer if you don't want to. We can cut it. But do you do your brand with a partner? Do you self fund it?
Manny Mua
No. So I've got a business partner. Thank God. Because I think even though I did so many incredible collabs, I heard I earned a hell of a lot of money before COVID I was so stupid with my money back then. Like, I just spent it all. I was like, oh, my God, it's always going to come in.
Laura Lee
That's good for people to hear. That's real.
Manny Mua
There was one day when I probably wouldn't want to speak about that because I was kind of embarrassed by it. But I also think I was 20 years old at the time, earning thousands and thousands and thousands of pounds, and I was my dad was a bus driver. My mum worked in Sainsbury's. Like my mum dad have probably never seen a thousand pound cash. So it was. I've never been taught that, you know, so totally. I learned the worst way but also the best way, you know. So I think at that time I just wasn't in the position to actually fund it myself. So. So I actually met my business partner through. When I did my collab with P. Louise because my business partner started up P. Louise. So it's. It was, it was just connections and I've been with her ever since and she's absolutely amazing.
Mitchell
I literally love that.
Laura Lee
You know, I Manny does Lunar completely by itself, self funded and I did Laura Lee, Los Angeles, which now I'm more focused on minimal A, which is my body care line and we've done it by ourself. But I'll be honest, I've like totally hit a wall with it where I've. I've self funded it for so long to the point where I'm kind of like I need a partner order to continue this business.
Manny Mua
Yeah. I think there's like blessings to both sides of it.
Laura Lee
Okay.
Manny Mua
Like, I think like being self funded is something that I think you should be so proud of, by the way.
Mitchell
Totally.
Laura Lee
Thank you.
Manny Mua
It is not easy. Oh my God.
Laura Lee
No. It's such a.
Mitchell
So hard.
Manny Mua
It's such a risk.
Laura Lee
And that's.
Manny Mua
It's something that I feel like you don't really realize the risk of it until you're actually in it as well. You know, it's going to cost a hell of a lot of money, but then it's like ordering more pos. It's fulfilling retail. Like there's so many layers to it that I think you just never really think you don't beforehand. You really don't want you in it. You're in it and you have to.
Laura Lee
Do it and then all your money's in it. And it's like, yeah, I could go buy another cool car, another cool house, but instead I bought products.
Manny Mua
Yeah.
Laura Lee
You know what I mean?
Manny Mua
But again, like I say, I think that's something to be so proud of. That just wasn't my journey. And I got. I'll be honest, I'm so grateful for that as well that I had someone that yes, at the start believed in my idea.
Laura Lee
I wouldn't recommend someone do what I did from. I mean that's terrible. But I'm gonna be just so honest, like I recommend them do what you did. And that's why I wanted to ask you.
Manny Mua
No, of course. And again, that's something that I'm. I think sometimes like when you build like a machine.
Laura Lee
Yeah.
Manny Mua
There's so many moving parts to it and I'm always the first one to give credit to all of the working parts. Like, I think so many people will be like, I did this all myself. Yeah. There's so many other people that are part of the process and I'm so blessed that I have my business partner and the team that I have are just absolutely incredible. But I think that is why, that's why we've been able to grow so quick because right.
Laura Lee
There's been the funds there to keep pumping back into it. I've watched you and like, you've helped my business watching your business grow because of course a business owner to business owner, I'm going to watch, you know, and see what's going on. And you guys got live before us and blew up. So, like, I'm like, have the small indie business and I want to learn how to do that. So, yeah, you've. You've definitely been a front runner, I think.
Manny Mua
I think we really did like pioneer, like the live shopping on TikTok. We were saying before with, with Tick Tock, it was. I remember when we first started, there were so many people like, this is going to cheapen your brand. This is going to ruin everything. It'll be over in a year. And I was like, well, at the time, I've not, not obviously spoke about this yet, but at the time Made by Mitchell was doing so bad, it was just like I'd hit a wall. I was like, I don't even know what I want this band to be anymore. We'd launched it in, in Covid. I'd kind of run out of COVID All my inspiration was just gone because I'd been locked up in my house for two months. And after that point I was just like, I don't really know where. Where we're going from here. So then we launched on Beauty Bay and obviously Beauty Bay have got such like, loyal customers that would rather shop on Beauty Bay because they get better shipping, they get the points, blah, blah, blah. So all of our customer, which was kind of my customer anyway, kind of my customer anyway, because we'd collaborated before and we're from the same area, blah, blah, blah, then just shopped on there. So really all our brand was at that point was just wholesale. That was really the only money we were making, which obviously is. Isn't really as sustainable.
Laura Lee
It's not sustainable. It's great.
Mitchell
Yeah.
Laura Lee
But it's really like, to really hit home and keep doing this, it's not great.
Manny Mua
But also at the same time, we, we were so fresh. So the POs were like maybe 20 lip glosses. And it's like, I've got rent to pay.
Laura Lee
Yeah. And people think just because you're in beauty bay, they're ordering 10,000 units. And that's absolutely not the truth. People all the time are like, why is your brand not in Sephora? You could just sell product there. I'm like, baby, Their requirements are way beyond anything I could ever, like, imagine. So it's like to. To. For the outside looking in. Yes. Cool opportunity to go Sephora. For me, low key. A nightmare. Like, it ruined me.
Mitchell
So scary. I was there for a year and it literally was like one of the hardest things I've ever done. And I was like, keep up.
Laura Lee
I can't do this.
Manny Mua
I remember Luna being in.
Mitchell
Yeah, it wasn't a Sephora.
Manny Mua
Ever seen it in New York?
Mitchell
It was cool. It was a cool experience. I was glad I was able to do it. But like, I learned so much doing, like you were saying. Like, it was so hard to do. Especially like being indie, being self funded. Like, I'm like, I don't know, like, how we can do this.
Manny Mua
I also think as well, like, as when you start a business, when you build it, you always think, like, the next step is a retailer, like, just naturally, but it's not always for everybody and that's okay. And I think that's something I've learned throughout the journey of it. Like, for me, like, the online retailers have been great, but I knew that I needed to be in stores. I just knew it. But the online retailers, for us, we're kind of like taking away our, our customer from our direct sales. So then TikTok Shop started. And I remember at the time it was so crazy because I look back and it was maybe two and a bit years ago. We were doing like 20 orders a month, which is just so scary to think about because we had a hell of a lot of stock, obviously, because I did have an amazing business. Well, I do have an amazing business partner. And we, we barely invested a lot of money in stock. There was like hundreds of thousands of these little blushes that nobody really was buying. And I was like, oh my God, how the hell are we going to get rid of this? And we started on Tick Tock Shop. We were doing about 20 orders a month. And I remember we did our first live. It was the Most janky setup you've ever seen. Because again, it was just like, this.
Mitchell
Is the first one.
Manny Mua
I've done it on a model. I actually remember I did it on a creator called Big Fat Jenna. And she had. I think she had blue hair at the time. Yeah, she had blue hair, and she's great. But we'd done. Done the live, and we did 20 orders on the live, and I was so happy. I was like, oh, my God, odd what we normally do in a month, we did in two hours.
Laura Lee
Yeah.
Manny Mua
Yeah. And again, like, as. As I've gone, I look back at the 20 ordered number, and I'm like, oh, my God, it was so scary. But, like, the. It's all about perspective. Like, if I went on a live now with the current setup of the. The brand and the demands that we've got to hit and all the targets we've got to hit as well, because as you go, obviously there's a lot more riding on it. We've got way more overheads now. So if I went onto a live now and we did 20 orders, I would be.
Laura Lee
I'd myself in two hours for 20 orders.
Manny Mua
You'd be like, oh, my God, happening.
Laura Lee
Yeah.
Manny Mua
So I would really panic. But again, it's perspective. Like, back then, like, that was. That was just the start. And now we do like, hundreds of thousands of orders a month, and it's. Goodness. Yeah.
Mitchell
That's so crazy.
Laura Lee
How often are you going live? How long are you going live? Am I asking you for the podcast? No. Am I asking for myself?
Mitchell
Correct.
Laura Lee
Yes. You know what, it's so interesting.
Manny Mua
When we first started, I was on live every single all day because it was like, this was our only. How long that was working?
Laura Lee
Ish.
Manny Mua
I think I was at the time doing maybe like two to four hours a day. Maybe I'd do some in the morning, some in the evening. And then I feel like I reached a point maybe about six months months ago where I was like, I feel like I've got way more responsibility now. We're in retailers now we're in boots. We're going into other retailers. And I thought I need to. I need to spend my time more efficiently. And so now I'll do one 12 hour alive week. Yeah. But then we've got other. Either affiliates or the girls that work for.
Laura Lee
I was gonna say, are you on for 12 hours or are you shifting in and out?
Manny Mua
I'll go out for five minutes and have a ready.
Laura Lee
Oh, so you're there for 12 hours. You're doing it.
Manny Mua
It's heavy. It's heavy, but also it's. I truly think that's the reason for the success of Made by Mitchell, because you build such a loyal community when you are constantly online.
Laura Lee
You know what's so crazy that I learned about Live and, And it's through me doing this is that you actually build a completely different audience. It is not necessarily the audience that's watching all your TikToks. You have a literal live audience and it's like separate from your YouTube, your TikToks. Like, it is these people that are connected with you on the heaviest level because they're with you live all day.
Manny Mua
Well, I think with the, with, with the. Obviously you can go live on pretty much any platform, but I think with Tick Tock, especially because you are shopping at the same time, it's the more it's such an unfiltered way of, of creating a piece of content that doesn't live on forever, but is there for the time being.
Laura Lee
And I think that's another layer that makes it special.
Manny Mua
Yeah, exactly. And I think it's that, what, it's one off, isn't it? So people don't want to miss it. And yeah, that is that. I, I don't. I couldn't put the success of Made by Mitchell really on anything else other than that because that's what's allowed us to build our TikTok following so quickly. And yeah, like, it's just being clever with it. But again, looking back at when we first started, compared to where, where we are now, now, it's. It's absolutely wild. It's like the most surreal journey. And we wouldn't have done it without TikTok shop. So again, I always say those people that were like, oh, my God, it's gonna. You're just a TikTok.
Laura Lee
They're the same people that tell you not to start a YouTube shop. Exactly.
Mitchell
It's the same.
Laura Lee
So many people said, it's not gonna be there. You're wasting your life. Like, don't do this, don't quit college.
Manny Mua
That exact thing. So I remember in June or July, we did. TikTok came to us and we said, we want to do like this huge live. It was like they started introducing showcases where they would kind of partner with you to create. Create the live. They'd produce it all, blah, blah, blah. So we was like, okay, let's do it. We were the first one in the UK to do it with them. And they said, we want to hit $500,000 because obviously TikTok is GMB in dollars. So I was like, you're like, what do you mean, I don't want to do it? And we ended up doing a million dollars in sales on Crazy Little Star, but again, in 12 hours. That's. I. I remember. This is. You just reminded me of it. The people that were once saying were like, oh, my God, like, how the hell did that happen? I was like, it's. I actually don't know.
Mitchell
Yeah.
Manny Mua
But also, like, this is why you've got to be, as a business, founder, owner, whatever it might be. You've got to be so adaptable to the times.
Laura Lee
Yes.
Manny Mua
If you don't do that, you will get left behind.
Laura Lee
Absolutely. If you're listening to the noise, I actually title all of my lives now. QVC with Laura Lee, because for so long, they would rag me on it. Be like, you're trying to be like, qvc. I was like, exact. That's exactly what I'm doing, you know? Or you're Jason Nash. You're a loser now. And I'm like, that's correct.
Mitchell
Yeah, I'll take it.
Laura Lee
Yeah.
Manny Mua
You know what? I don't mind being a little bit of a loser, though. I'm an absolute.
Laura Lee
I was a loser when I started my YouTube channel, Pioneering Lives. And it's just. Honestly, I'm gonna be so real. It's like, change my brands day and night. I've watched what you've done. I've admired it. I really admire that you as a business owner who has partners, is on the lives.
Manny Mua
Oh, yeah.
Laura Lee
Like, I really admire that.
Manny Mua
I think that will always be the case, I think.
Laura Lee
Yeah.
Manny Mua
Like, don't get me wrong, we have other people that go on as well, which. They're amazing. And I think that's been really helpful for me because I don't always have to just be thinking the live, because there's so many other parts of a business that, yeah, people don't even get to see.
Laura Lee
Right.
Manny Mua
But that, for a long time, was all I focused on, and I. I ran into a wall. I was so uninspired. I was just. I'm just literally Talking to myself 12 hours straight every day. So now that we do have a bigger team that supports that, that it's. It's exciting again, because I still get to do my makeup. I still get to. I still get to create formulas, and. Which is my favorite part of it all. Like, I'm sure you got. The creative process is the best part of it all. But, yeah, I think with the lives, it's so Important to have a face. I was, I was. Who. I can't remember who I was speaking to about this the other day, but people buy off people, you know?
Laura Lee
Yeah.
Manny Mua
I think gone are the days where people really want to build up and a, a big traditional corporation, like.
Mitchell
Yeah, I feel like it's. I agree.
Manny Mua
Smaller businesses now that really want to be like homed by the customer, you know what I mean?
Mitchell
Or the big brands trying to make it look like they're small.
Manny Mua
Yes, exactly.
Laura Lee
The big brand, they're trying to do that look small. They'll like have a constant PR person that's like the face, the influencer of the brand to look small when they're a multi billion dollar business, be like.
Mitchell
Oh my God, we have to make a look, we have to look indie.
Laura Lee
Like, yes, they truly do that.
Manny Mua
But the people see if we do it, then they do. Yeah.
Laura Lee
And I.
Manny Mua
Okay, okay. But yeah, I think it's, it's important for people to know who they're buying off and I think especially in today's climate with everything that's going on in the world, I think it's. People want to buy off you because they see what kind of person you are, you know, and you don't have to be the best person on the planet. You, you know, I'm, I'm not perfect by any means, but I think people see that, the humility, you know what I mean? And they see like how hard it is to, to what, what I do, you know, I might not be self funded, but it's still hard work.
Mitchell
Absolutely.
Manny Mua
And sometimes not being self funded is even more pressure, sometimes someone else's money. So even that, like the pressure is, is heavy and for everyone involved. Everyone involved. But I'm just very lucky to have an amazing community that, that always support every live we do, every launch we do, but also the inner team as well, that will always help where they can. And you know, yeah, I'm very blessed in that sense. Definitely. Your team makes it makes our break.
Laura Lee
You put the work in and you built that. You know, it's not something that landed on your lap. You pioneered something early that no one else was really doing and you took a chance on it. You fall for your business, you show up 12 hours sitting there on live and you did way more before even to get this thing rolling.
Manny Mua
Yeah. And that's, that's kind of like my, this is like my, I mean like the, the reward. I only have to go live one day a week now.
Laura Lee
Absolutely. Instead of seven days.
Manny Mua
But it's still 12 hours.
Mitchell
It's still basic, very hard.
Manny Mua
All of the is just in one day.
Laura Lee
40 people are doing 8 hour, 9 hour jobs a week.
Manny Mua
Yeah.
Laura Lee
You know, that's crazy.
Manny Mua
It's opening because I think a lot of people probably think, oh, my God, you just done live.
Mitchell
But, oh, God, don't even say that. It is hard because Laura obviously does lives. I've done lives as well as my brand. Two hours, two and a half hours. Laura's done four hours like that. Those two hours feel like 10.
Laura Lee
The longest I've ever done is like four hours and some change. How do I do 12? Like, what do I do, Mitchell? Okay, what do I do?
Manny Mua
Let's do one together when I come to America, literally. We're on TikTok shop USA now as well. So let's do one, please.
Mitchell
And it will be more fun to.
Manny Mua
Go off for an hour. I will be like, okay, so this is Laurelee. Hi.
Laura Lee
I'm in the background.
Manny Mua
Yeah, help me, help me. Yeah. I think it's definitely important to have people in the room with you. Like, it's so important. I think I've done so many lives where it's just me and I'm just talking to a camera like this.
Laura Lee
Yeah, you'll lose your mind.
Manny Mua
You do lose your mind. But I think having energy in the room is so important helps. And when we did the 1 million live, like, I think there was a group of about 40 people in the room.
Laura Lee
How long were y'all on? Whenever you. You hit headlines, like, you were in the headlines.
Manny Mua
Yeah, it was.
Mitchell
It was huge.
Manny Mua
It was like.
Laura Lee
Was it 12 hours?
Manny Mua
12 hours, yeah. So we did it in 12 hours. It was again, I think. I think it was even huger as well, because the target was 500. And we all thought we weren't gonna hit. We were like, oh, my God, this is like, what, what are we even thinking? We'd pulled basically launches from, like, months and months ahead. And we was like, we'll launch all these eight SKUs of product on one live. So I was like, oh, my God, this is gonna be launching on the live. So every hour we dropped a new product and thank God we had again. This is why I'm so grateful for my team because we could do things like that because we have the infrastructure there to be able to be like, right, we'll pull this launch from here and we'll put something else there.
Laura Lee
That's why, being a small business, because you don't have a ton of red tape.
Manny Mua
Exactly. So that was. That was A big part. Part of how we even did it in the first place.
Laura Lee
Do you put things like in general whenever you go on live, do you do discounts and like specials for people? Is everything regular price?
Manny Mua
No. So we, we've always. We have a very affordable brand. That's just always what made my Mitchell will be like. I would. When Made by Mitchell goes onto the high street. I kind of want it to be like a Nyx kind of brand.
Laura Lee
See, I didn't realize that.
Manny Mua
Yeah, that's where I want me by.
Laura Lee
Like how much is like a highlighter or just like give me anything.
Manny Mua
It would be retail for 14, but like odds on TikTok, because obviously you get your TikTok coupons, it can go from 8 to 12 or sometimes 5 if they've got like, you really don't.
Laura Lee
Have to discount because you're already.
Manny Mua
That is the beauty of TikTok shop. It's. They, I think at the start as well, they wanted to onboard so many brands, of course, because that is their business. Their brand is on boarding. Like if they've got the customer there, they knew that. They knew that people were shopping it. But if you don't have brands, what are people going to shop for? Yeah. So that was like an incentive at the start. We were like, I remember the first few months of us being on TikTok shop, people were getting like blushes for like 50 pence.
Laura Lee
Yes.
Manny Mua
And that's why people like, you're ruining your brand. I was like, okay, but you're like.
Mitchell
I'm getting full price for it.
Manny Mua
Okay.
Mitchell
I don't know what you're talking about.
Manny Mua
If this ends next year, at least I know that I still got the full buy. So yeah, I don't think it's as much anymore. So now we'll get like a day, a week of like, oh, they'll give you coupons, they'll give traffic and all.
Laura Lee
That kind of stuff.
Manny Mua
So it's not as heavy as what it once was. But it was never going to be like that.
Laura Lee
It's already a lower price. Like, it's not. You're not paying $50 for like a product.
Manny Mua
I think if decided to do that, I think my customer would be like, what the fuck are you doing?
Mitchell
Are you on crowd?
Laura Lee
This is really interesting to me.
Manny Mua
I just always. I always said, like, when I started the brand I'd obviously as a business it's better to put your price point up. More profit in it, more margin, blah, blah, blah. But it's for me, I just, I'd Rather take a hit on certain things and more people be able to buy it 100%. That's just that. But again, every business model is different and that we work on volume quite a lot. So. So rather than us charging $50 for an eyeshadow palette, we'll charge 25 or whatever and we'll sell thousands more and we can then spin it around quicker. So it is. It is just. It's a bit like fast fashion in a way. We were very, very fast, but we. We do it for things that people actually need and. Yeah.
Mitchell
Fast beauty.
Manny Mua
Yeah, fast beauty. And it's a real thing. But that is our business model, basically.
Laura Lee
So. Cool.
Mitchell
Got it. That makes a lot of sense. I like that. I like.
Laura Lee
I'm basically the beginning stages of what you've already conquered. Like, I'm now working with TikTok mania to. Or he's going to be.
Mitchell
Oh, my God, I have one in November.
Laura Lee
Yeah.
Mitchell
He's my first, like, producer.
Manny Mua
Yeah. People. Sorry.
Mitchell
No, no, no, no.
Manny Mua
Yeah.
Laura Lee
Where they produce your life for.
Manny Mua
Oh, yeah. You'll have such a good time. It's like that was the first time I was like, oh, my God. Like, I really realized how big this could be. Not the brand, but Tick Tock shop.
Laura Lee
Yeah.
Manny Mua
Because they. They have a huge team. I'm sure it's even bigger over here as well. But it's. There's just so much possibility with it. Like, you. You can do so much.
Laura Lee
It's really cool that they do that with their creators because YouTube doesn't have a team that's like, come in and we'll shoot some YouTube videos for you. Or Instagram's not like.
Manny Mua
That is why. That is why Tick Tock has been so great. Again, like I said before, the Instagram shop, that was terrible. It was the most, like, pointless. Horrible.
Laura Lee
Horrible.
Manny Mua
They've made the shopping experience amazing. They've conquered social commerce.
Laura Lee
One click purchase, one click the discounts they give.
Manny Mua
Exactly. But then also the. The support they actually give the. Either the creator or the brand.
Laura Lee
Yep.
Manny Mua
It. It's. Again, I know. I. I don't. It's TikTok being gotten rid of.
Laura Lee
We don't know.
Mitchell
We have no idea.
Laura Lee
We have no idea.
Manny Mua
I hope not.
Mitchell
We also hope not.
Laura Lee
Okay, here's the thing. They're like, yes, it will, but they're gonna do so many lawsuits and legal action, it'll be years and years before it.
Manny Mua
So I know obviously people have their opinions on social media, but I genuinely think TikTok is one of the most, like, natural Realistic platforms, people blow up and they could literally just be filming a video in the kitchen, just like talking to the camera. Or it might be a single mom that's like, just wants to tag a product. And I think that is why TikTok is so great, because anyone can be a part of it 100%. Doesn't have to be polished, it doesn't have to be filmed on the best camera. It's like, you know what I'm saying?
Laura Lee
You don't have to be a baddie.
Manny Mua
Exactly, Exactly. Exactly. So I think that's why TikTok have smashed it the way they have.
Mitchell
I agree. And I feel like it's also the most uncensored compared to a lot of the media out there. Like, people will actually get like real opinions about things because they're able to give their opinions about something and it's not as filtered compared to like, let's say you go on Twitter or you go on Instagram, like, it's almost like catered to be very like a certain way. Whereas TikTok, like, you can get a lot of information about a lot of different things, which is so nice. Like, you actually.
Manny Mua
My news channel.
Mitchell
No, literally, you actually get a lot of information.
Manny Mua
I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but that's what I found out.
Mitchell
I mean, I, I found a lot of that shit in there too, but it's nice to like not feel like you're getting pinned to like one side of something. Of course, you're getting a lot of information about a lot of different things.
Laura Lee
Yeah, I agree.
Mitchell
You can, you get to formulate your own opin, which is really cool about.
Manny Mua
TikTok, you know, and obviously opinions are called sometimes not so cool. I mean, but again, that's just part of it. And I think when you've done this for so long, it's like it's in one ear, out the other, isn't it? But. But yeah, I think that is also another amazing thing of Tick Tock, the uncensorship of it. You know, it's very real and natural. That's what I love about it. It's refreshing when you've been creating content for years and everything's had to be perfect and this has got to be this way and. But then you can literally just get on a camera, tag your product and be like, guys, this is a fiver today. Like, yeah, that's just. It's like, oh my God, my job is so much easier.
Laura Lee
Well, they actually share your stuff too. You Know what I mean? Like, you can go do that. Like we can't pin your product but like you can go live on Instagram all day or YouTube, they're not going to share it to anyone.
Manny Mua
But Instagram, Instagram is just like a close friend to me.
Laura Lee
Tik Tok is like the only app that is willing to put you out there to the wild, wild west and let you. That's how you sell product because you know, you get new people, new customers, new marketing. They actually share your posts.
Manny Mua
Yeah, yeah, exactly. They really support their creators.
Laura Lee
They really support their creators. Okay, well, I feel like you kind of answered, but I'm gonna ask anyway in case you wanted to add too. We wanted to know what's the most challenging part of doing business, influencing the whole gig.
Manny Mua
I think it's keeping up with yourself that is probably the hardest part for me because we do work so in such a fast paced way. And you know, we're not, we don't have a huge team team. We don't always have a lot of our budget goals on product. It goes on getting inventory. But we don't have huge budgets for things like marketing campaigns, all these things. Like, it's just, it just runs away with itself. So we never really get into it too much because it's just a never ending process, isn't it? But I think, yeah, it's the keeping up and trying to do things as high quality as possible because that's obviously what you want for your brand, but then also doing it in a way, way that still is feasible for a small business. Because we still are a small business and you know, like, yeah, we might have an amazing year, one year, but who's to say next year like when we launched that product that whenever you're.
Laura Lee
In a small business, any money you make, you probably invest a lot back into the market.
Manny Mua
Straight back in.
Laura Lee
Exactly.
Manny Mua
Well, when we did the A million live, so many people like lend me ten pounds. So I was like, listen, I've not been seeing ten pounds already. It's already spin, it's in my warehouse, it's all there. So that's the case of it. It's just a merry go go around, isn't it? And I love it, it's amazing, it's fun. Every day is different. But yeah, I think it is constantly having to just show up and be the best version of yourself. Especially when you've got to go on live and you might be feeling like, and you've just got like, hi guys, please buy my Blush. Yeah, that's That's a heavy part of it, you know, because you can't ever switch off.
Mitchell
Yeah, it really is. Like, that's such a hard part about it.
Laura Lee
Do you see a big difference between UK beauty, whether it's influencing customer versus you? Us?
Manny Mua
Well, yeah. Yeah.
Mitchell
Like, what is the difference?
Manny Mua
What's the UK beauty standard is different. The uk, US style. I feel like it's chalk and cheese. You know, I feel like the. The style here is like, it's very, like, celebrity soft glam.
Laura Lee
Okay. Yeah.
Mitchell
I, like, always like celebrities talking to us and we're like, yeah.
Manny Mua
You're like, yeah, okay.
Laura Lee
He's like, no, not you.
Mitchell
I was like, yeah.
Laura Lee
He's like, you guys are very.
Manny Mua
You're uk.
Mitchell
Queenstown Drag.
Manny Mua
No, but, yeah, I feel like the uk, it's just. It's. I feel like a little bit more maybe rough around the edges in ways.
Laura Lee
Yeah.
Manny Mua
I always say a good way to describe the UK and the US from my opinion is New York is like the uk. Louisiana Is America. That's the best way to describe it. It's a little bit more urban and fun and a bit more. There's less rules to things.
Laura Lee
Edgy.
Manny Mua
Edgy. But I also think even, like you said, even in, like, the influencing world, like, again, I used to be so, like, heavily infiltrated in, like, the beauty space over here. And obviously over the years, things happened and whatever, but the UK is just not like that. Yeah, people are just not like that in the uk. It's just like, there's really very rarely drama between beauty people in the uk.
Laura Lee
It's true.
Mitchell
I was like, I know what you're.
Laura Lee
Doing over there, honey. We're battling just.
Manny Mua
We're just chilling, minding our business. But again, I. I also think as well, in the us, the. The influences have become at celebrities and you're. As a celebrity, you're so much more open to an opinion and then. But you also in people's daily lives. So that's where I think the drama then even gets worse and worse. But I don't think that's necessarily happened as heavily in. In the uk. There's still influencers and they're still separate traditional celebrities.
Mitchell
It's quite a big.
Manny Mua
Like, obviously some people transition, but, yeah, I do still think there's a big separation between the two.
Laura Lee
The lines are blurred here.
Mitchell
They're more blurry here, definitely.
Manny Mua
Which is a great thing. I think it's amazing when you can transition to do something a bit more mainstream.
Laura Lee
Yeah.
Manny Mua
Because it just shows growth. And again, adapting doesn't it? But I just think that doesn't happen as much in the uk, so I feel like, especially in the beauty space, I just think we're kind of just quite boring, really. We're just not as fun, not as. Not as much tea to smell.
Mitchell
I love ukglar.
Laura Lee
I love uk.
Mitchell
I like, I love watching it. Like, I'm a huge fan. Her name is Jordan.
Laura Lee
Jordan love scum.
Manny Mua
Jordan is like the UK buddy.
Laura Lee
Yeah, I used to watch her on YouTube, so.
Manny Mua
Yeah, me too.
Mitchell
I did it. I just covered her on TikTok and I'm not kidding you, like, Like I'm obsessed with her.
Manny Mua
Yeah, she is pretty OG. She's like been doing it for, God, maybe nearly 10 years now. She's so beautiful and she's so beautiful.
Mitchell
And she's talented and she's.
Laura Lee
Her makeup's always looked that good back in the day on YouTube.
Manny Mua
Yeah, she's always been great at makeup, but that is kind of like a UK glam.
Laura Lee
But to me, that is a classic.
Mitchell
It's like so stunning. Like, I want that glam on me.
Laura Lee
Like, I like that.
Manny Mua
I do feel like over the last few years though, like UK glam used to be like a big cut crease. It used to be like rainbow eyes. The p Louise. The 16 used to be Mitchell, but now it's softened down a little bit.
Laura Lee
But we're still so beautiful. Oh, yes, absolutely.
Mitchell
It's still a pound on. And I love. I love a full coverage.
Manny Mua
Of course, of course, full coverage.
Laura Lee
Tell us what you're doing when you're not working. Not on live, not working on the brand influencing. What is Mitchell doing?
Manny Mua
I'm probably getting drunk somewhere.
Laura Lee
I love that so much for you.
Manny Mua
I love having a drink. I love dancing. I love.
Laura Lee
Do you go out? Do you have a club? So you go to.
Manny Mua
Yeah, I'd go anywhere. I'm happy as long as I've got like a margarita in my hand.
Mitchell
Yeah, then you're totally.
Laura Lee
Oh, that is my drink of time.
Manny Mua
I also love just going on like weekends away to like Ibiza and stuff like that.
Laura Lee
So that's so close.
Manny Mua
So close for us. So I think that's like over the summer I. I think I went to Ibiza like six times or something, but.
Mitchell
Oh, my God.
Manny Mua
But no, it's so close. It's a two hour flight.
Mitchell
Oh, yeah, it's like all the Cabo.
Manny Mua
Yeah, it's like Cabo. Exactly. It's like El Cabo. But yeah, I think I just like turning off from it all and whether that's spending time with family or friends. Most of the time it's me just getting drunk somewhere.
Laura Lee
I love to, like, a crazy person. Good for you.
Manny Mua
But, yeah, I just love it. You're only young once, and I just think, you know, some people are like, oh, my God, you go out every week. And I'm like, yeah, hello, I work my ass off.
Mitchell
But also, that's like, a lot of people, like, or working during the week, and then they go out during the weekend. That's literally like what, like, the cadence is, we have two days off for a reason.
Manny Mua
As a business, you become so secluded, don't you? Because through the week, that's just like, all you. All you have time to focus on. So then that's my time to, like, actually just be me.
Laura Lee
Absolutely.
Manny Mua
With my friends, you know? So, yeah, that's. I.
Laura Lee
Look, I feel like that's something I've battled because I was listening to another podcast and they were talking about how influencers, business owners, people in general, whenever they find ways of making a lot of money or being successful, they do in an unsustainable way, as in a way that they can't keep up with. You know what I mean? Like, yes, we made 2 million this year. But, like, I work 365, and, like, I can't work 365 for the next 10 years. So it's like having to rebuild.
Manny Mua
It's the balance of it all, isn't it?
Mitchell
Oh, so hard.
Manny Mua
I think that's sometimes the hardest part of any kind of growth journey in life is finding the balance of it. But I think actually I definitely don't have balances. I don't know why.
Laura Lee
Well, you were even explaining how you figured out doing lives. Like, just doing a huge 12 hours should have been eating up the entire week.
Manny Mua
Exactly. And now I am to have time to focus on things that are sometimes more important and even, like, having a day off sometimes on abandoned Wednesday. Like, it. The balance is, it's definitely better than what it was, but.
Mitchell
And it'll hit differently because I have the same thing. Like, sometimes I'm like, if I'm working on, like, Saturday, if I'm doing something on all Saturday, then I'm gonna take Tuesday off. I'm gonna do, like, you have to claim it or you have to, like, find ways to, like, get some of that personal time.
Manny Mua
Yeah.
Mitchell
Because if not, you literally will just run yourself.
Manny Mua
Also, don't you find that when it's you that is the boss or whatever, it might be like, like, you. It's so good. When you get to that point where you do say to yourself, right, okay, I am having that day off because for so long, I just. I didn't have days off. I didn't. I didn't want a day off because I was like, oh, my God.
Laura Lee
This could always get the ball rolling.
Manny Mua
When the machine starts going a little bit and you can start to kind of then claim back those. Those moments and those times, and that's. You've got. You. You have to do it. It's what life. Life is not just about making money. Life is about making memories. That's the most. I'm very rich in memories.
Laura Lee
That's very profound.
Manny Mua
And that's, like, my. My main goal in life, you know?
Laura Lee
Yeah.
Manny Mua
Yeah.
Mitchell
We don't take our money with us.
Laura Lee
Beautiful. What's something people will be surprised to know about you? We'll give you time to think about that one, Laurie.
Manny Mua
What's something that people would be surprised to know about me? Be careful. I feel like people would be surprised at this because I am quite, like, pg, and I'm obviously always on live just being like, oh, my God. Love you all, blah, blah, blah. But I love flirting.
Laura Lee
Do you?
Manny Mua
I love flirting. It's my favorite thing ever. And I'm so good at it. I'm so good at it.
Mitchell
Oh, my God.
Manny Mua
I love flirting. I would flirt with a wall. I love. And I've always loved flirting. I just think it's so fun. Even if you have no intention of actually, like, speaking to the person, it's just hilarious. I just love it. And especially when I've had a drink, I'm so good at flirting.
Mitchell
That is hilarious.
Manny Mua
And are the biggest. It's ridiculous.
Mitchell
Everyone's like, oh, wait, say it, say.
Laura Lee
It, say it, say it.
Mitchell
He has to say that.
Manny Mua
No, I am gonna say it. And people will probably think this is actually awful. Like, no, this is. This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me in my life. Okay, I'm so sorry. So basically, this guy on Instagram was, like, replying to my story, and I was in Miami, and I just got home from Miami, and I was going through my DMs, blah, blah, blah. Because, you know, Miami. It was just a wild time.
Laura Lee
He said, you know, Miami.
Manny Mua
Anyway, so then I was going through my DMs, and this guy had, like, replied to loads of my stories, and I was like, my God, he's so fit. Like, fit is, like, hot, hot.
Mitchell
I'm so scared.
Manny Mua
Why am I doing this? Anyway, so anyway, I replied. It said, Something like, oh, see you in Miami, we should meet up. And then I was like, oh my God, I've just got, I've just got home. Like, oh my God, when I come back, we'll meet up. So then this carried on like the conversation carried on, blah, blah. Anyway, then he stopped speaking. I was obviously flirting. I was flirting with this guy and he stopped replying to my stone. Oh, that's so weird. You've just been like giving it out.
Mitchell
He was, yeah.
Manny Mua
And then I'd sent like a few like love, heart, eyes twist. Oh my God, this is coming. Terrifying. And then I, one day I got messaged off him and it said, hey, cuz. Cuz. And then so his username was not his name, it was like a random name. So then I've clicked on his profile and it was my cousin. No, no. So that's how much I like to flirt. I would flirt in the booking.
Laura Lee
You would do it so much that.
Manny Mua
You cousin and I just, I haven't seen this cousin for years.
Laura Lee
Right, right, right.
Manny Mua
I didn't realize it was my cousin. Obviously he was a really good looking guy, like, but, but I did not realize this was my cousin.
Mitchell
Like your first cousin, your second cousin.
Manny Mua
I think it was my second cousin.
Mitchell
Okay, there we go.
Laura Lee
Don't listen to me.
Manny Mua
This is what I need to say. No, but that is how much I like to flirt.
Mitchell
I'm sorry.
Laura Lee
Oh my God. That is the greatest story.
Manny Mua
Oh my God.
Mitchell
And you were shocked and you're like, I can't believe he's not responding.
Manny Mua
No, I remember, I think, was I in the car with you? I was in the car, I was like. And I just went. And then Laurie went, what's happened? What's happened? Because Lori's Scottish. She was like, what's going on? What's going on? And I went, I can't even tell you. And she's like, machel, tail me now. Tail me. She's like, machel, what the hell's going on? Like, she's panicking, I'm panicking. I was like, I've just been playing with my cousin. And she was like, what? That was probably my pit of the.
Mitchell
20 centigrade the whole your life actually.
Manny Mua
I wanted the ground to open up. Never, never ever fucking ever again.
Laura Lee
Oh my God.
Manny Mua
Awful.
Mitchell
The fact that you were literally upset that he wasn't responding to you and sending comments.
Manny Mua
This bastard, this fucking. Don't lead me on.
Mitchell
What have you guys met up?
Manny Mua
Don't, don't.
Mitchell
You're still Miami.
Manny Mua
I'm so Glad I only saw the message when I got home.
Mitchell
Oh, my God.
Manny Mua
No, I'm not even going now. I can't think about this one.
Laura Lee
You see, this is why I asked that question. It's a good question to ask.
Manny Mua
You never know.
Mitchell
You just never know.
Manny Mua
I'm sure there's other things as well.
Laura Lee
Did your cousin. Wait, did your cousin know the whole time or did he figure it out? I was like, oh, shit.
Manny Mua
I don't know if he maybe just thought that I was just being nice.
Laura Lee
Okay.
Manny Mua
I hope that that was the case. Well, now he watches this, he's gonna know.
Laura Lee
But, yeah, well, you said him heart eye, so it's like, don't remind me.
Mitchell
Was he setting flurry female things first, or was he just, like, literally responding, like, normal responses? That's the guy. He thought he was swearing the whole.
Manny Mua
Time, looking good, like. Like, just like a straight guy, just saying, hey. Hey, cuz. Oh, you're looking great. Like you've lost some weight. Like that kind of stuff. I'm like, oh, my God, he loves me. Like, he fancies me. It's my cousin. So, yeah, that was a really low point in my life.
Mitchell
That's.
Laura Lee
That's.
Manny Mua
I don't think I'll ever come back.
Laura Lee
That's the greatest story ever.
Mitchell
I'm obsessed with that story. Yeah, it's literally mean girls.
Manny Mua
I'm obsessed with it because it's hilarious. But then I'm also so ashamed that I love flirting that much that I don't have a boundary with.
Laura Lee
Baby, even the cousins aren't safe.
Mitchell
Even the cousins aren't.
Manny Mua
I always relate everything to, like, a drag Race moment. And do you remember that roast? It was when Jinkx Montoosome was talking about Trinity. Trinity the Tuck. And she was like, trinity's so country. When she left her last boyfriend, she said, let's just be cousin. Jeez.
Mitchell
Is such a good reader.
Manny Mua
Is insane.
Laura Lee
Do you know Trinity's from Alex, Alabama, right?
Manny Mua
Oh, amazing. She's just so good.
Laura Lee
And no, I've never dated, fucked, or liked my cousin.
Mitchell
That's a triple check.
Laura Lee
I do have to clarify that.
Manny Mua
That's one of us, at least.
Laura Lee
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just one of us. Here.
Manny Mua
No, it never went anywhere. I could have just put that out there. But, yeah, I did flirt with my cousin anyway.
Laura Lee
And it traumatized you. Traumatized you. As long as you were traumatized by it.
Manny Mua
Oh, my God, Then you're okay.
Mitchell
And it's a great story.
Manny Mua
I was speechless for about three hours. I was just like, okay. And I was like, do I tell people about this? Then I told her, and everyone was screaming because they know me so well.
Mitchell
That's so funny.
Manny Mua
And they know how much I flirt. I would literally flirt with anyone. And they were like, mitch, this is just. It's gone too far. I was like, I actually need to stop.
Mitchell
God, Mitchell, that was good. The flirting went too far.
Laura Lee
That was good.
Mitchell
I'm sorry if I've just admitted that.
Manny Mua
On full fucking coverage.
Mitchell
This is where you admit it.
Laura Lee
I feel like this is therapy. Not on your page.
Mitchell
You don't even.
Laura Lee
You go do that somewhere else. Don't let that live on your page.
Mitchell
That's what podcasts are for. Like, they're here to be like, just shoot the.
Laura Lee
Shoot the.
Mitchell
We said embarrassing ass on here.
Manny Mua
Yeah.
Mitchell
Like, the most embarrassing stuff that we're, like, involved you.
Laura Lee
Nope.
Mitchell
No, but we're all shaved or something.
Laura Lee
We're like, oh, God.
Mitchell
Oh, no.
Manny Mua
God, you're sick.
Mitchell
No, no, no, we're not freaks.
Laura Lee
No, no, no, no, no.
Mitchell
That's actually really, really, really fun.
Manny Mua
Funny story there, but yeah, that was. I think that's probably my main personality trait, just being a flirt.
Mitchell
That's a great.
Manny Mua
I think everyone should flirt. It's. I think I like flirting.
Mitchell
I'm a big flirt too.
Laura Lee
Yeah.
Manny Mua
It's great to, like, figure out who you are and how you want to communicate with people.
Laura Lee
Right. Who doesn't love a flirt?
Mitchell
I mean, I love a flirt.
Laura Lee
I love a flirt.
Manny Mua
Even if one day when I'm married, like, I'd still like to just flirt.
Laura Lee
Absolutely.
Manny Mua
Keeps you alive.
Laura Lee
Some people are just flirty.
Manny Mua
Yeah. Intention isn't to, like, go home with the person.
Laura Lee
You need to name something flirt. If you haven't already. Have you named something flirt for your.
Manny Mua
Brand name Something flirt.
Mitchell
Have you named something flirt yet?
Manny Mua
You actually don't think I have.
Laura Lee
Let's get that going.
Mitchell
I think it's time.
Manny Mua
I have got a lip palette coming out for Valentine's Day and there's a shade in it. C. Why do I know that? Yeah, the cupid case.
Mitchell
I was actually going to ask you next. I was like, what is, like, coming up? Like, what do you like, do you have any goals specifically or things you have coming next that you're, like, really excited about? Like, to close out the episode, like, what is something that you're really excited about coming?
Manny Mua
I think for me, we've, like, we pre launched our foundation, concealer and primer. And that was like, amazing because as a brand, like, that's like, it's what's.
Laura Lee
Your price point, out of curiosity?
Manny Mua
16. It's 18 for the primer, 16 for the foundation. Wow. And 14 for the concealer.
Laura Lee
A really good price.
Manny Mua
Yeah, it's a great price and it's a really great product for the price point as well. And we pre launched that. The response was insane. From the shade range, it's a 48 shade range. We've got 18 shades of primer. We've got 18 shades of Primer. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mitchell
Wow.
Manny Mua
It's like a. It's a radiance primer and it's like almost a bit of a gel texture, but you can use it for whatever you want to use it for. But that's just what made by Mitchell is. And then how many shades of concealer is it? Like 32 or something like that. But we did that all at once. So I'm excited for that to actually be launched alongside boots in the uk because that's when we'll go into stores and boots, that's when people will actually be able to go and shade match themselves. Because when we launched it, it was kind of like I just was testing it, we had it and I thought, you know what, let's just launch it for a little bit, let's see people's thoughts and we'll do a really quick campaign for it. Launched it. The response was absolutely insane and I was like, okay, right now I actually know if I need to add shades or take away shades or anything like that. So, yeah, I think foundation, concealer, prime. But I'm so excited because we're going into our first USA retailer next year and it's going to be huge. And I. I feel like again, for such a long time I was over here so much pre covered, you know, I basically lived here and I'm excited to like just gain a little bit of that back again as well. Because even though I feel like LA has changed so much, I still have so much love for it. Like, I feel like I grew up here, like in my career.
Mitchell
Yeah.
Manny Mua
And I did so many amazing things here. I've met the most amazing people over here. So I'm excited to connect again with the us really looking forward to it.
Laura Lee
Wow.
Mitchell
I love that.
Laura Lee
This was the best. We loved having you.
Manny Mua
This is just crazy. I can't believe I just told you that I flipped in my.
Laura Lee
Anyway, you're definitely.
Manny Mua
I'm going to go now.
Mitchell
You know, we've been told we have the effect to get people to open that.
Manny Mua
We do have that.
Mitchell
We do have that effect.
Manny Mua
Yeah. You know When I leave LA is going to like, lock the door.
Laura Lee
No, no, no, no.
Manny Mua
But honestly, thank you so much. And it's again, I feel like over the years we've. We probably could have like been friends earlier, whatever, but I just, you've always been such inspirations to me, so this is so cool.
Laura Lee
Well, you inspired me.
Manny Mua
So literally, you know, I think like, again, what I've, I feel like, especially just viewing and being an outsider and not being from la, not living here, I feel like even like your growth as human beings as well over the last few years is just like, so amazing. Like, I feel like you're so sure of who you are and that's inspiring to, to see as well. And I think it's so comforting to watch as well, you know.
Mitchell
Thank you so much. You can see that. Like, that's so cool.
Manny Mua
I just don't know if people tell you that enough, but I know a lot of people think it and I, I certainly think it, but yeah, thank you. And thank you for pioneering, like, guys in makeup, you know, like, that wouldn't be a thing without you, man. You know, and if it was it, it wouldn't be what it is today because. Because you and obviously a few other people really spearheaded that and, you know, I wouldn't be probably where I am now if it wasn't for that. And like, it's honestly, what the hell happened?
Mitchell
Well, I'm so glad. We, honestly, we loved having you. We like, we've loved having you. It was amazing. We really, really appreciate you coming and.
Laura Lee
Thank you for letting us pick your brain.
Mitchell
Yeah, so exciting.
Manny Mua
I'll let you know if I have any more embarrassing.
Laura Lee
Cousins. Call us.
Mitchell
I love that. Well, thank you so much for coming. Thank you so much for watching.
Laura Lee
And you guys will know where to find him. We will link made by Mitchell, we'll link his socials, everything that he does down in the description box down below. So be sure and of course, check him out. Bye, you guys.
Mitchell
See you next week.
Podcast Summary: Fool Coverage with Manny MUA and Laura Lee
Episode: How to Make a MILLION Dollars on TikTok with Made by Mitchell
Release Date: November 8, 2024
Guest: Mitchell
The episode kicks off with hosts Manny MUA and Laura Lee welcoming their special guest, Mitchell, to the show. The conversation opens with light-hearted banter about Mitchell joining the podcast, highlighting the camaraderie and mutual admiration among the hosts and guest.
Notable Quote:
Manny MUA [00:20]: "I never really got to know you guys as much as I probably really wanted to at the time, because I've been watching you guys since the start."
The trio delves into sharing personal "peaks" and "pits" of their weeks, fostering a relatable and engaging atmosphere. Mitchell recounts attending a lively Halloween party where unexpected performances and spontaneous interactions unfolded, showcasing the unpredictability and fun of social gatherings.
Notable Quote:
Mitchell [08:16]: "It was the most insane thing. We're on TikTok shop USA now as well. So let's do one, please."
A significant portion of the discussion centers around Mitchell's entrepreneurial venture, Made by Mitchell, and its remarkable success on TikTok. Manny provides an in-depth look into how the brand leveraged TikTok Shop to transition from struggling with wholesale orders to achieving astounding sales figures through strategic live streaming.
Key Points:
Initial Struggles:
Mitchell explains the early days of Made by Mitchell, where reliance on platforms like Beauty Bay limited sustainable growth. The transition to TikTok Shop marked a pivotal change.
Live Streaming Strategy:
Manny emphasizes the importance of consistent and engaging live streams. Initially dedicating up to 12 hours a day to live sessions, they built a loyal community that significantly boosted sales.
Milestone Achievements:
The team recounts a landmark live session that generated $1 million in sales within 12 hours, surpassing their original goal of $500,000. This achievement underscored the potential of social commerce on TikTok.
Notable Quotes:
Manny MUA [44:21]: "I couldn't put the success of Made by Mitchell really on anything else other than TikTok Shop."
Mitchell [45:04]: "If you're listening to the noise, I actually title all of my lives now, QVC with Laura Lee, because for so long, they would rag me on it. That's exactly what I'm doing."
The conversation shifts to the inherent challenges of running a beauty brand and being an influencer. Manny and Mitchell discuss the difficulties of maintaining work-life balance, especially when juggling the demands of live streaming, product development, and team management.
Key Points:
Financial Management:
Manny shares past mistakes in financial management during the early stages of his brand, highlighting the importance of having a business partner to navigate financial decisions effectively.
Team Dynamics:
Both Manny and Laura stress the significance of building a reliable team that can handle various aspects of the business, allowing for sustainable growth and delegation of responsibilities.
Personal Well-being:
Balancing intense work schedules with personal life is identified as a critical factor. The hosts discuss strategies to prevent burnout, such as scheduling days off and maintaining personal interests outside of work.
Notable Quote:
Mitchell [58:52]: "It's the balance of it all, isn't it?"
Manny MUA [63:30]: "Life is not just about making money. Life is about making memories."
Manny and Mitchell explore the differences between UK and US beauty standards and influencer cultures. They highlight how the UK's approach tends to be more edgy and less drama-driven compared to the US, where influencers often blend traditional celebrity elements with their online personas.
Key Points:
Beauty Standards:
The UK is characterized by a more rugged and bold approach to beauty, whereas the US leans towards a celebrity-inspired, soft glam aesthetic.
Influencer Drama:
US influencers often experience more public drama, partly due to the blurred lines between traditional celebrities and online influencers. In contrast, UK influencers maintain a clearer separation, resulting in fewer conflicts and a more laid-back environment.
Community Engagement:
The authenticity and relatability of influencers like Jordan LoveScum in the UK foster a more genuine connection with their audiences.
Notable Quote:
Manny MUA [59:10]: "I feel like New York is like the UK. Louisiana is America. That's the best way to describe it."
A recurring theme is the transformative power of TikTok as a platform for modern businesses. Manny attributes the rapid growth and success of Made by Mitchell to TikTok's unique ability to support social commerce through features like live streaming and audience engagement.
Key Points:
Unfiltered Content:
TikTok allows for authentic, unpolished content that resonates more deeply with audiences compared to other platforms that demand high production values.
Community Building:
Consistent interaction through live streams fosters a strong, loyal community that drives word-of-mouth marketing and repeated sales.
Adaptability:
The ability to swiftly adapt to platform changes and audience preferences is crucial. Manny underscores the importance of being adaptable to stay relevant and competitive.
Notable Quote:
Manny MUA [55:35]: "I truly think the reason for the success of Made by Mitchell is because you build such a loyal community when you are constantly online."
To humanize the conversation, the hosts share personal stories, including a humorous and embarrassing incident where Mitchell flirted with a cousin online, not realizing his true identity. This story highlights the importance of setting boundaries and recognizing personal traits that can impact professional interactions.
Notable Quote:
Mitchell [66:02]: "I love flirting. It's my favorite thing ever. And I'm so good at it."
Manny MUA [67:55]: "I did flirt with my cousin anyway."
The episode concludes with Mitchell discussing upcoming product launches and future business goals. He expresses excitement about expanding Made by Mitchell into the US market, particularly through partnerships with major retailers like Boots, and the introduction of new products such as foundation, concealer, and primer with extensive shade ranges.
Key Points:
New Product Launches:
The introduction of a foundation, concealer, and primer line with a wide range of shades aims to cater to a diverse customer base and meet the demands of different skin tones.
Retail Expansion:
Partnering with Boots in the UK and planning entry into the US retail market signifies significant growth and increased brand visibility.
Community Support:
Mitchell emphasizes the role of a supportive team and loyal community in achieving business milestones and overcoming obstacles.
Notable Quote:
Manny MUA [73:12]: "We just have a wide variety of shades to cater to the diverse needs of our customers."
Mitchell [73:42]: "It's like a radiance primer and it's like almost a bit of a gel texture, but you can use it for whatever you want to use it for."
In the final moments, Manny, Laura, and Mitchell express mutual admiration and appreciation for each other's journeys and contributions to the beauty industry. They reinforce the importance of community, authenticity, and continuous growth in both personal and professional spheres.
Notable Quote:
Manny MUA [75:10]: "I'm so glad I just told you that I flirted with my cousin."
Laura Lee [75:31]: "We loved having you. Thank you for letting us pick your brain."
This episode of Fool Coverage with Manny MUA and Laura Lee provides an insightful exploration into leveraging TikTok for business success, the nuances of influencer culture across different regions, and the personal experiences that shape entrepreneurial journeys. Mitchell's candid discussions, coupled with the hosts' supportive and engaging dialogue, offer valuable lessons for budding entrepreneurs and beauty enthusiasts alike. The episode underscores the significance of adaptability, community building, and maintaining a healthy work-life balance in achieving sustained growth and fulfillment.