Stop Taking Yourself Off the Pedestal ft. Essence Iman of Slutty Founder

Summary

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Podcast Summary: She's So Lucky

Episode: “Stop Taking Yourself Off the Pedestal ft. Essence Iman of Slutty Founder”
Date: March 31, 2026
Host: Les Alfred
Guest: Essence Iman (Slutty Founder)

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Episode Overview

This episode concludes the “Business of You” series by diving deep into the realities of entrepreneurship—especially what happens when you decide to walk away from a successful business. Host Les Alfred welcomes Essence Iman, founder, writer, and creator behind the Substack “Slutty Founder,” who shares real talk about her nonlinear career, co-founder breakups, redefining success, the perils of the beauty industry, and the power of embracing new chapters. The conversation is unfiltered, funny, and packed with wisdom for anyone questioning what it means to “stay on the pedestal” and create their own luck.

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Essence Iman’s Career Journey: Nonlinear, Unscripted, and REAL

[02:23 – 09:43]

• Essence describes her winding path through several industries, including music, real estate, and beauty.
• She talks about struggling with job rejections, career instability, and periods of shame as peers advanced (“I learned how to fake the Megabus tickets on the goddamn Megabus. Committing fraud, allegedly.” – Essence, 03:14).
• Her entry into skincare: She joined a friend’s budding beauty brand as an informal co-founder, learning the ropes and eventually breaking off to launch her own.
• “That was my first foray into skincare… after we broke up, I took that opportunity to reshape what I would want the business to look like if I were to do it on my own.” (Essence, 08:32)

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The Power and Pain of Walking Away

[13:44 – 18:51]

• Essence discusses losing passion for the beauty business and recognizing that, for her, work felt like a dreaded “job.”
• She makes the radical (and still stigmatized) choice to step away, despite financial success and a loyal community.
• “I look back in my life’s review… I did the thing. At this point, who do I have to prove to but me?” (Essence, 14:42)
• The aftermath: She's met with confusion and a barrage of “But why?!” instead of support or understanding.
• “It’s still not fair to me to put these people ahead of myself. I really have to. If it’s not making me happy, it’s not making me happy.” (Essence, 15:17)

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Challenging Drama Narratives & Black Women in Business

[19:01 – 21:07]

• Essence highlights how the world often expects drama or “trauma porn,” especially for Black founders.
• She critiques the press’ insistence on hardship narratives: “People are always looking for the catastrophe, especially when it comes to Black founders, especially when it comes to Black women.” (Essence, 19:58)
• She pushes back on framing her closure as failure or trauma—sometimes, walking away is a win.
• Both agree: “Not everything has to be forever in order to be a success.” (Holly, 20:43)

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The Portfolio Career: Treating Life Like Creative Eras

[21:07 – 24:12]

• Both women discuss the joy and freedom of evolving professionally across chapters and how “portfolio careers” are just as valid as sticking to one path.
• “It’s okay to be many different versions of yourself in many different chapters.” (Essence, 21:59)
• Analogy: Treating your career like artists treat albums and creative eras (Rihanna, Beyoncé) – fluid, bold, and unafraid of reinvention.

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Birth of Slutty Founder: Building Community, Owning the Narrative

[24:12 – 27:36]

• Essence founded “Slutty Founder” as an unfiltered outlet and a continuation of the dialogue with her former beauty brand’s community.
• She’s honest about industry myths, founder struggles, and offers brand analysis—all with relatable humor.
• “My stream of consciousness, like my founder stream of consciousness—things I’ve learned, things that I wanted to pass along, insights as a first time founder, and things that I would do differently.” (Essence, 25:31)
• Her platform became a go-to for real founder talk and black beauty industry discourse.

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Founder Titles, Pedestals & Imposter Syndrome

[27:36 – 33:38]

• Discussion on how being called “founder” places people on pedestals—often disconnected from behind-the-scenes struggles.
• “Why are you—why do you want to reduce yourself right beneath what people envision you to be, you know what I mean?” (Essence, 28:49)
• Advice: Don’t take yourself off the pedestal—let them believe in you.
• Importance of telling your story from a place of confidence, not powerlessness: “When you tell your story, you tell it like you know how you got there… You got here because you knew what you were doing, period.” (Investor’s advice to Essence, 31:05)
• Hot take: Performing “relatability” or diminishing yourself to make others comfortable won’t help you grow (“You’re just going to attract people who want to stay in that space.” – Holly, 32:28)

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Exposing the Beauty Industry: The 15% Pledge & Grant Controversy

[36:12 – 47:11]

• [36:17] The 15% Pledge: Intended to increase Black business representation on retail shelves, especially Sephora’s.
• Essence calls out how grants often favor celebrity-backed or highly visible brands, leaving indie and non-celebrity founders behind.
• “I have the privilege of not being a founder anymore and having a platform and being able to say whatever the hell I want… I took it upon myself to stand up for these guys.” (Essence, 41:08)
• The industry’s obsession with beauty’s “glamorous” side disguises its harsh realities: fierce competition, lack of funding, and the dominance of celebrity and influencer brands.
• High margins make beauty attractive, but the ecosystem is “too crowded.” (“My margins were… over 85%. It’s a low barrier to entry.” – Essence, 45:20)

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The Realities of Scaling, Exits, and New Avenues

[47:11 – 49:27]

• Discusses the economics behind why celebrities can offer lower prices and why successful brands eventually sell.
• “Nobody cares… investors want to make their money tenfold and fast.” (Essence, 48:14)
• Push for Black founders (and women in general) to launch outside beauty; there’s so much overlooked opportunity in non-flashy categories.
• “If I were a smart founder today, starting a business today, I would not be starting a beauty business.” (Essence, 50:53)

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Attention, Motivation, and Honest Self-Awareness

[50:14 – 51:54]

• Both reflect on motivations in business—attention, validation, impact—and the willingness to seek it honestly.
• “I became a beauty founder because I wanted attention, but now I’m not a beauty founder because I can still get attention without having to run a business.” (Essence, 50:30)
• Growing in media feels like the next challenge (“I feel like it’s the best time to be a creator.” – Essence, 51:03)

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Future and Final Gems: Slutty Founder’s Vision & Last Words

[52:51 – episode end]

• Essence’s five-year vision: Expand into podcasts, books, TV/film, and create robust founder resources. “Book, TV series, Emmy, podcast.” (Essence, 53:49)
• Top takeaway: “Find your voice, know your voice and stick to your voice… When the work stops feeling like you, stop and go back to yourself… The work will teach you how to do it.” (Essence, 54:23, 55:31)
• Memorable closing quote: “The work will teach you how to do it.” — a Chinese proverb Essence loves

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• “I was literally in my bed scrolling, and you came across my FYP… I saw myself here, and here I am like a week later.” – Essence Iman ([01:15])
• “If you don’t fall out with your co-founder at least once in life, you’re not on the roads. This is why you don’t start businesses with your friends.” – Essence Iman ([08:07])
• “Sometimes we don’t do what we don’t want to do. Why is that a privilege we’re not granted?” – Essence Iman ([20:00])
• “Not everything has to be forever in order to be a success.” – Holly Madison ([20:43])
• “Life in chapters… a project, a chapter, a moment.” – Essence Iman ([21:07])
• “Let them think you got it. Why do you want to reduce yourself… beneath what people envision you to be?” – Essence Iman ([28:48])
• “When you tell your story, you tell it like you know how you got here… you got here because you knew what you were doing, period.” – Essence (relaying advice) ([31:05])
• “If I were a smart founder today, I would not be starting a beauty business.” – Essence Iman ([50:53])
• “The work will teach you how to do it.” – Essence Iman ([55:31])

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Key Takeaways

• Success can include walking away when curiosity and joy are gone—permission to move onto your next creative “era.”
• Don’t let external narratives, especially drama or trauma scripts, define your story—especially for women of color.
• Embrace being multifaceted; life doesn’t have to fit one “linear” script.
• Find your voice and stick to it; build your own pedestal and stay there.
• The beauty industry, while superficially inclusive, is rife with structural challenges—especially for indie and Black founders.
• There’s immense opportunity beyond crowded “sexy” sectors; consider broader industries and unexpected avenues.
• Ultimately, doing the work authentically—letting the work teach you—will always be worthwhile.

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Where to Find Essence Iman:

• @essence.iman across all platforms
• Slutty Founder Substack & Social | @sluttyfounder (Instagram / TikTok)

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Transcript

[Podcast Host (Intro/Outro)]

The following podcast is a Dear media production.

[Holly Madison]

If you've been listening to the show this month, then you know we're deep into our business of you series and I'm excited to bring you the final installment. Today's conversation is a really special one because it's not just about building a company. It's about what happens and after. So for our last episode of this series, I'm joined by SNC Mon, a founder, writer and the voice behind Slutty Founder, a sub stack that has quickly become one of the most honest and entertaining spaces on the Internet for talking about business. And also one of my personal favorite reads. Before that, Essence founded the established A Body Care brand inspired by her own skin journey that went on to win awards, gain industry recognition, and build a real community around it. But instead of following the typical founder script, Essence made a decision that completely changed trajectory of her career and in many ways reclaimed the story as her own. Welcome to the show.

[Essence Iman]

Hi.

[Holly Madison]

Welcome to. She's so lucky. Are you ready to get lucky?

[Essence Iman]

I've been lucky.

[Holly Madison]

You've been lucky, exactly.

[Essence Iman]

That's a real gag. I'm ready to get some more luck up on me.

[Holly Madison]

Can we start off maybe with a lucky moment you've had recently?

[Essence Iman]

Well, this. First of all, can we get into this, babe? We were talking about this a little bit earlier, but I'm still kind of like, I'm in disbelief that I'm here. Like, there's lights, there's cameras, there. Like, so much happening. Because I was literally in my bed scrolling, and you came across my fyp. And I just had this thought and I was like, she's gonna have me on that show. And then I kept scrolling and I went about my business and you literally DM'd me like a day later. And you're like, hey, do you wanna, like, be on the pod? This is so crazy. Like, the power of the minds. I saw myself here, and here I am like a week later.

[Holly Madison]

And here you are literally like a

[Essence Iman]

week later, maybe even less.

[Holly Madison]

Yeah. As I was thinking about the Business of you series and the things that we've talked about in this series, I was like, actually, I want to talk about walking away from something which I know we can talk about.

[Essence Iman]

Yes.

[Holly Madison]

And also for the Clovers that have really been listening, I've been sneak dissing beauty and beauty businesses actually for a minute.

[Essence Iman]

You really have.

[Holly Madison]

And I've been getting a little bit louder about it.

[Essence Iman]

Oh, my gosh.

[Holly Madison]

And we kind of DMed about it a little bit. And I went back to that dm, and I was like, actually, let's do an episode on this.

[Essence Iman]

Actually, let's talk about it.

[Holly Madison]

Yeah.

[Essence Iman]

Yeah.

[Holly Madison]

So before we get into that, I would love for our audience to get to know you a little bit better. Your background a little bit better, because you've had a really interesting trajectory personally, but also from a career standpoint of starting in the music industry. You had your stint in real estate. And I'm thinking about.

[Essence Iman]

I'm laughing because I know you read that essay that I put, that video. I put how I took the test with one shoe on. The things I've been through, persevered to

[Holly Madison]

founding a beauty brand that did, like, have an incredible community and win these accolades and then deciding to walk away from it. Like, you, for a young person, have done so much that has spanned so much. So, for the audience that may not stock your substack as much as I do, can you give us a picture of what that's been like, how do

[Essence Iman]

I give you just a snapshot? I've journeyed throughout so. So many things. As you detailed, throughout my career, I did all the things. I feel like my journey has not been linear at all. Like many entrepreneurs. Right. How you finish is almost never how you start. But I. I thought that my start would set me up for something that felt a lot more solid. I did the things that a good millennial girl is told to do. You know, got decent grades, went to a good school, had amazing internships, worked in the music industry. And I feel like sometime after that, my career started to get a little shaky and I started doing all these random things. I kind of fell out of work for a while, and there was a stint where I had to leave New York and move back to Philly. And I was constantly applying to jobs up and back between Philly and New York, multiple times a week. On that Megabus Girl, I was so broke, I learned how to fake the Megabus tickets on the goddamn Megabus. Committing fraud, allegedly. Okay, Like, I'm, like, stacking three interviews in a day, getting rejected left and right. Sometimes I would get to final rounds, and then, like, the person who I'm supposed to be an EA for, like, gets cancer, and then the rule is gone. And, like, all these. These, like, random things would happen to me where I felt like I was constantly running up against this wall despite having done the right thing. And so I think that that was sort of like, my first inclination that maybe my road was going to look a lot different. And then at this time, I started feeling a Lot of shame because my peers that have been going through a similar journey with me and were kind of struggling were all of a sudden starting to get hired and they're starting to find footing in their career and they might even be moving up in their career. And I'm kind of there, still stuck. And so I feel like I had developed a lot of shame at that point and a lot of hunger. And real estate was probably my final straw because I knew that, okay, it's probably not going to look like a 9 to 5 for me. In all fairness, I really am a shitty employee. Like the girl who comes to work and cries in the bathroom because I just don't want to be there. Same like real tears. Like it just kills something in my spirit to have to go to work. So I feel like real estate was like kind of one foot in that entrepreneurial reality for me. And I think after a few years of that and the toxicity of that industry, and this was in New York City, so you could imagine it's a really tough job to sustain. Whatever could go wrong did go wrong. Whenever you need a sign to start something new, at least for me, that's how I take it. I was just having a really hard time back in New York. I was having issues with my roommate. My apartment got like a bedbug infestation that was like no other. I couldn't afford to move somewhere else that I would have wanted to move. It was just a hot mess. I was like, girl, this is your sign to reset and probably look for something that you'll find a lot more meaning in. And fortunately for me, I really had nothing to lose. I had no money, but I had nothing to lose. That was a time in my life where I sort of took an opportunity to reset and I knew that I wanted to start a business. Didn't necessarily know how it would take shape. I had this insane level of openness about it and I had so many different ideas. Like, I feel like I want to stress that it's never really the first idea that comes to you and it's never going to be by force. I had an idea for like a pet company, an idea for like a real estate, New York City real estate based app. I had all these different things come to me, but I just felt like at my core they weren't it. And then a friend of mine and I almost never tell this story. Like maybe a handful of people in my real life know it, but not the press answer to how the origins of me getting into skincare. But we're not going to erase my girl because my girlfriend actually hit me up and she's like, you don't have a job, like you can help me. She had actually been making skincare and she was developing a brand, so I was helping her on the strategy side and like telling her how to sort of map out her story and ideate more of the product. I had no background in this, but I just was like, we can figure this out. Like, I really want to see this work for you. And then she ended up kind of like bringing me on in sort of a co founder capacity. And that was my first foray into skincare. Learning products, understanding ingredients, really shaping a brand. And. And then it just got completely carried away.

[Holly Madison]

And what do you mean by carried away?

[Essence Iman]

It turned into a brand and it turned into a business. And then we broke up and we fell out and we didn't talk for like five years.

[Holly Madison]

Oh, wow.

[Essence Iman]

So nobody knows this.

[Holly Madison]

Yeah. So you had like a co founder breakup?

[Essence Iman]

I had a co founder breakup. But you know what? In hindsight I'm realizing, like, have you ever really lived if you haven't had a co founder breakup? Like, I feel like every good founder has at least like one.

[Podcast Host (Intro/Outro)]

It's true.

[Essence Iman]

Like, if you don't fall out with your co founder at least like once in life, you're not on the, on the roads. This is why you don't start businesses with your friends. Yes, but we've since made up good. Years later, we're actually really good friends. She just texted me before I got here and she was like, you're gonna do great. Everybody's gonna wanna know where you got your boots from. You look amazing. Love her.

[Holly Madison]

She's right. Everybody does want to know where you got the boots from.

[Essence Iman]

I wanna know. That's my girl. That was my. My first foray into skincare and dipping my toe into having a business and then breaking up with my co founder. I had such a passion for it. Like, an unexpected passion. I was never really like a beauty junkie. A product junkie. I was never really like. I didn't identify as a beauty girl, but I was always just sort of hacking products because I had like issues with my body skin, strawberry legs. And now we know it to be called keratosis Pilaris. But there wasn't really this language back then. There wasn't real body care, wasn't really a space. And after we broke up, I took that opportunity to reshape what I would want the business to look like if I were to do it on my own. I started to research a bunch of ingredients that I didn't see a lot of mainstream brands working with. And I started to wonder why they weren't working with these amazing ingredients that were accessible to even me as someone that wasn't super finance. And I started ordering them and I started tinkering with them and that eventually led me to my first products which became Alexa, our award winning body oil serum. And yeah, I just iterated from there. Yeah.

[Holly Madison]

And that's what became.

[Essence Iman]

And then they just didn't just take off, but it ended up taking off.

[Holly Madison]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Essence Iman]

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[Podcast Host (Intro/Outro)]

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[Holly Madison]

What happened in between that point of okay, you go through this co founder breakup, you then are able to kind of regroup, you formulate this new product, you create your own thing that is really well received. What happened in between that point and then deciding to walk away from the business altogether?

[Essence Iman]

I think I really just lost my excitement for beauty. I think there's so many different variables that were kind of tugging at me. That sort of signaled to me that maybe it's time to walk away from this. But that sort of hunger and that curiosity and that drive just wasn't in me. And it got to a point where it just felt very mundane. It felt like I was just going to work. Like, it literally started to feel like my biggest nightmare. A job. We know I don't like a job. Like, you know, like there were moments where I was waking up in the. Like, I vividly remember this one specific moment. Waking up in the morning in an amazing mood and then checking my email and then just being just so irritable. Like the whole day I can't recover. I'm so agitated and I'm like, why am I just so annoyed? You know, I check my email and there's always somebody trying to sell me something, get me on a call. I've got to pay this bill. I got to reach out to this person. It's like constant. It's like non stop, like just a nag. And I just didn't really see what I was doing it for. I feel like at that point, I look back in my life's review of who I was in the business and how I showed up and what I wanted to accomplish. I feel like I had ticked off every box. It evolved to something beyond what I thought I would be able to do with just 200. When I started out, I did the thing. I was like, at this point, who do I have to prove to anybody but me? Like, I'm the only. I'm the only person got to jump at the casket with me at the end of my life, you know? And there was a moment where I felt really bad for my customers because they had been on this journey with me for so long and we had such an intimate relationship. And so I felt so bad for all those people that were like subscribers and were expecting their product every month. But then I said, no, it's. It's still not fair to me to put these people ahead of myself. I really have to. If it's not making me happy, it's not making me happy. I don't want to do for one second anything that I don't find exciting. And I think that that's what sums it up for me.

[Holly Madison]

Yeah, actually, what you just said reminds me of that Kim Cattrall quote.

[Essence Iman]

Literally.

[Holly Madison]

Where was she? Like, I don't wanna do something for even a minute if I'm not doing it.

[Essence Iman]

Literally, yes, something like that. That's how I feel. Like I. It pains me. It pains me. Like I just wanna whoop it up. I don't wanna be. I can't like when things are just a drag for too long, you know, I don't know, it just got to a point where it felt like it was more work than it was worth. I just couldn't see what I was doing it for. I just didn't care.

[Holly Madison]

I get that. And I think why I was so excited to talk to you about this is I think sometimes there is this messaging that is so like, you have to keep going all of the time. You have to persevere all of the time. And yeah, in some instances where it's like, sometimes stuff isn't going to feel good or sometimes there are challenges that to overcome if you're working towards something you really want. But if you're doing something and then you realize, oh, actually this isn't what I really want and I've learned the lesson from it. You don't have to keep doing it.

[Essence Iman]

Exactly. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. I have so many thoughts on that too. Because the difference between the way that I actually felt internally versus how it was received or I was like realizing how it was received, like, I was so happy. I felt so free. I felt like Mary, Mary, Babe. Shackles off my feet. Okay, let's. You can dance. I'm free. I'm like, I don't have this monkey on my back anymore. I did the thing. I'm proud of myself. I was getting so many messages of like, oh, what happened? And I could tell that it was like drama seeking. Or I would get these messages from people that assume that I was just so, so down bad about. And I was so upset because I think that that comes from this idea that you have to be doing one thing and you have to see it through. When people would ask me what happened and I would just say, babe, I just didn't feel like doing it anymore. Point blank, like, that's not enough for people. That is not an answer. They're like, but why? But why? But why? But why? What do you mean? Was there a specific thing? Was there an incident like, why would you stop doing this? What are you going to do after? And I just, I wasn't having those thoughts internally. I've just never felt that I had to do one thing and let that be all that I was supposed to be. I just didn't get it. And I was really disappointed. And the why did you shut down question actually started to trigger me for a bit because I felt like people were looking for some catastrophe. You just weren't going to get it. Like, it just wasn't There. There wasn't just one singular incident that I had that made me say, you know, I can't. I gotta throw my hands up. I gotta walk away. This is so bad. It really wasn't like that. It's just like, I don't do things that I don't want to do.

[Holly Madison]

Yeah. And even if there was some singular thing that happened, that would be really traumatic and maybe you don't want to rehash it all day, every day just because people are nosy.

[Essence Iman]

Oh, my God. It was like the messages, the emails. Do you want to lend a quote to this? To that, to that, to this? And I could just tell it was like trauma porn farming.

[Holly Madison]

Absolutely.

[Essence Iman]

And I did actually give an interview to a publication. I won't name them today, although I named them on Study Founder. We have beef me in this pub. They know who they are. I did sit down with the publication after I closed down and they reached out and, you know, I felt like how I represented my closure wasn't the way that it was detailed or that the story was told. And it was just like typical black beauty closure. Trauma porn that I hate so much and I think really is part of it became part of my ethos over on Study Founder. We will get into that later. But, yeah, I just feel like people are always looking for the catastrophe, especially when it comes to black founders, especially when it comes to black women.

[Holly Madison]

And they want to make an example out of us.

[Essence Iman]

That pissed me off. That pissed me off. I'm like, little do you know, babe, I got a trip to Italy booked next week. Okay. I don't. I'm not thinking about any of this. Like, this is not my story. And I felt like they tried to make that my story so bad. You know, black. Black businesses can't get funded. They're closing down left and right. It's like, sometimes we don't do what we don't want to do. Like, why is that a privilege that we're not granted? Like, I just thought that that was a really harmful way to depict a woman. That was a black woman that was at peace and at rest. Like, it's not enough. People need the catastrophe. They need the drama. They need the. The story. I don't stand by that at all. Like, if you don't want to do something, walk away for sure. Maybe you don't want to talk about it, and that's also fine.

[Holly Madison]

Yeah. And I think, like, not everything has to be forever in order to be a success. Like, you exactly. Starting a business from 200 taking it to the point that you took it, that's more valuable than a business school education. Eventually somebody goes to business school, they graduate. Same thing with deciding to close a business. Like you close that chapter, you're graduating onto something else.

[Essence Iman]

That's exactly how I saw it. I look at my life in chapters and I'm always evolving and I'm always excited to evolve. And I don't understand the resistance that a lot of people have when it comes to that. But I do understand it as programming and I feel like it's society and we're just, we're just so. Just everything is what we're told, you know, it really is just programming, but I've just never really abided by that. I think of everything as like a project, a chapter, a moment.

[Holly Madison]

Yeah.

[Essence Iman]

A key, a combo.

[Holly Madison]

Exactly.

[Essence Iman]

It's like having a portfolio approach. I feel like people are starting to kind of get with it. Like we're seeing this conversation happen around portfolio careers and really not feeling like you have to put all of your eggs in one basket. It's okay to be many different versions of yourself in many different chapters.

[Podcast Host (Intro/Outro)]

Yeah, for sure.

[Essence Iman]

Yeah.

[Holly Madison]

My girl Lola, who I adore, she's the one who has done like all of my brandings. So like, when you see that she's so lucky logo. When you see that she's so lucky, like artwork, all the things she created that. She's a designer who I've worked with for many years, and she has put out some really interesting thoughts around the idea of a portfolio career. Her take on it is having more creative people or founders or self starters kind of treat their careers kind of how music artists would treat kind of

[Essence Iman]

albums back in the day. That is like the best. That's, that's the best way to look at it. That's exactly how I look at it.

[Holly Madison]

Like how Rihanna used to have her eras.

[Essence Iman]

And it was like so crazy that you say this because I was literally thinking this like not too long ago.

[Holly Madison]

Yeah.

[Essence Iman]

Okay, can we like get into that? Let that sink in for a second? Because that is so true. It's accepted when they do it though, because they're like artists and they're creatives and they're doing it on, on a massive scale. You know, you can shave your head and then have a blonde wig two years later. Like you can have a rock album one day.

[Holly Madison]

You can go from an alien to

[Essence Iman]

a cowgirl, like, like Beyonce did. And it's like, okay, like they're an artist, you know, like. But I view myself like that that is exactly how I view myself in my life. I have so many different iterations and I. I totally like Lola girl. She ate down with that. She did. Because I was just thinking about that. Like, she. She's right.

[Holly Madison]

And there's so much more creativity and not feeling so stuck of like, oh, we have to do this one thing in this one way for 30 years. Like, it's not the 80s.

[Essence Iman]

You don't have to do that. Use of energy. Yeah, it's really not good.

[Holly Madison]

So can we talk more about your evolution into Slutty Founder, which I love. Slutty Founder, one of my favorite sub stacks.

[Essence Iman]

I love that you love. I love that you say that.

[Holly Madison]

Absolutely. I love the description of the girl you meet in the bathroom and want to ask for business advice.

[Essence Iman]

Yes.

[Holly Madison]

Because it's so good. But I do think that it really does encapsulate the vibe of, like, how you speak where it is so knowledgeable. But also I feel like we're just kikiing. And then by the end of reading a piece, I'm like, oh, I actually just learned so much and this changed my perspective. So. So can we talk more about the launch of Slutty Founder and how you pivoted to that?

[Essence Iman]

I started Slutty Founder kind of right away after I shut my business down. I didn't look at it as an immediate monetizable asset. I think I just wanted a place to a park my thoughts. But I also wanted a place for me and my community to stay connected because I felt like after I shut down, that just wasn't the end. It couldn't be the end between me and them. And I still had so much more to say that I feel like I may not have had the opportunity to say as a founder. And I think there was an opportunity with Slutty Founder for me to be a little bit more unfiltered and to get even more introspective. It felt like a natural segue because my email list for the established had always been like this sort of blog style. Especially when I was first starting out, my community was so small, so I wasn't trying to be like, pushing products, products, products, products that. That just didn't feel like the best way to communicate. And so I feel like there was a touch of that that had already been going and I just needed a place to sort of transition it. And so it became Slutty Founder instead of. Because, you know, the established was no longer a girl. Like, you're not going to hear from me from this email anymore. So we go, go and find somewhere else to go. Like a third step.

[Holly Madison]

Yeah.

[Essence Iman]

That is kind of how it came to be. The origins of it were really just for me, like my stream of consciousness, like my founder stream of consciousness, things I've learned, things that I wanted to pass along, insights as a, as a first time founder, and things that I would do differently. And then I think somewhere along the lines it became a little bit more brand analysis and things that I was observing around consumer behavior. And then I, I noticed a lot of discourse kind of happening, like within the past year or so in Beauty specifically. Like so much discourse specifically around black woman founders that I had to, you know, throw my hat in the ring on. And I think that sort of became what people started to like, look to us for. Like, that kind of really established my pov. It was always a point for me to show up a lot differently and show people a different side of founderhood that they wouldn't necessarily get in a book.

[Podcast Host (Intro/Outro)]

Yeah.

[Essence Iman]

I just remember being an early stage founder and like rummaging through all of these books and going to Barnes and Noble and sitting on the floor like, which one should I choose? And like skimming them and reading all of this nonsense that like, really did not. Was not helpful in getting me from A to B. Yep. And so, yeah, I feel like I just, I did that so you guys don't have to do this. Yeah. Yeah.

[Holly Madison]

I also think that you have really interesting sentiments on the word founder. I was reading one of your, like, really old, not really old. It was like 2024, but one of your older articles where you had said something along the lines of, like, if you have the title of Founder, people tend to think you're doing better than you think you are. Like, not to be all Mel Robbins, but like, let them, let them think that. Like, let them think that you.

[Essence Iman]

I know what, I know what essay you're talking about.

[Holly Madison]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. With this, this thing that like the word founder is pedestalized in some ways where people may not even know what it is you're founding, but if you're going to give yourself that title, then run with, do something with it. Yeah, Leverage it.

[Essence Iman]

Leverage it. It's so funny. Yeah. Being a founder is a very strange, it can be a strange identity to have because you see the way that people react to you when they find out that you're a founder. But then you know what's going on in your business and you know what's behind the. What's behind the cur and how Much of a mess, it feels. And so I think sometimes there is that bit of imposter syndrome. I didn't even really believe in imposter syndrome until I was like, babe, I think you have this. You need to just, like, be open to the possibility that you may not feel like you're enough in this moment. You know, internally what you're worried about and how much money you have to raise and all these, like, manufacturing issues that are. Or supply chain or whatever issues that are going left and. And then you go to a dinner party, and people ask you what you do when they just, like, are so far up your ass and I want to ask you for a dollar.

[Podcast Host (Intro/Outro)]

So true.

[Essence Iman]

It's weird. It's a weird existence, and I feel like it. It, like, really messed with me. I feel like in the earlier days of my career. Don't give people reason to take you off the pedestal.

[Holly Madison]

And I think that that's a good takeaway for anybody, even if they're not a founder, if they don't have a business.

[Essence Iman]

Yeah. If people want to think that you got it. Yeah.

[Holly Madison]

Let them think you got it.

[Essence Iman]

Why are you. Why do you want to reduce yourself right beneath what people envision you to be? You know what I mean?

[Holly Madison]

Exactly.

[Essence Iman]

I really want us to get out of that. It's really not good. Like, no, babe, become an actress. Just act. You're not gonna go to jail. Like, no, you're not gonna get in trouble. Just roll with it. Yeah, roll with it. And then I think that's how you practice thinking higher of yourself.

[Podcast Host (Intro/Outro)]

That's true.

[Holly Madison]

I also feel like this is a lesson that I'm learning in real time because I've struggled with that, too. Where I struggle, still am. Just like, okay, but I know I'm not hitting these metrics, and I know, like, the money is funny and whatever, but if people want to think that it's giving the Oprah show, like, let them think.

[Essence Iman]

Let it give you. That's one thing that I learned. Let them think. Because you know what? It's just. It's really unbecoming, and it's unattractive when you take yourself off the pedestal.

[Podcast Host (Intro/Outro)]

Yeah.

[Essence Iman]

It's like, well, I didn't even notice this about her. Why is she telling me all this? Why is she. It's really, really unbecoming. And I think if you're in a position where you need to raise money or you're looking for stakeholders or if you. If you need evangelists for whatever you're building, it's not a good Way to carry yourself. I'm thinking about this piece of advice that I got from this one investor on this note. And I was speaking to her. I wasn't pitching her, but she just so happened to be an investor I was kind of having heart to heart with. And she wasn't familiar with my journey, so I was giving her the whole sort of, like, picture of the brand and its origins. And the language that I was using was so, like, almost passive, but, like, I was so vulnerable in the way that I was telling the story. It wasn't like I had a mastery over the story. And I sort of was like, yeah, I started it with this 200. And I don't know how we ended up in Vogue and we got all this celebrity praise it. I just don't know how we got there. It was like, I had no power over the circumstances that I put myself in, and it was just coming across like victim. Like a victim. Powerless ass, little pip squeak bitch. Like, you don't know how you got here. What do you mean? And she said something to me, and she. She stopped me, and she said, you. When you tell your story, you tell it like, you know how you got. Exactly. You got here because you knew what you were doing, period.

[Holly Madison]

Exactly.

[Essence Iman]

You got here because you knew what you were doing. And she was right. Like, I wasn't trying to own that I knew what I was doing. It's like, we want to be humble or we want to dumb it down, or we feel like. We don't feel like we have the authority to say, these are the steps that I took, and they made sense for me. Maybe it doesn't look like what everybody else is doing, and so we feel, like less comfortable owning it. And she literally stopped me in my tracks, and she was like, you got here because you knew what you were doing, period. If you're in the room, it's because you know what you're doing, period.

[Holly Madison]

Yeah. How are you an imposter if you're in the room?

[Essence Iman]

You're you. Because you know what you're doing.

[Holly Madison]

Yeah. Stop.

[Essence Iman]

Cut it out.

[Holly Madison]

It's true, though.

[Essence Iman]

Like, I'm not gonna want to invest in someone that's like, I don't know. I just kind of like I'm here, and it's just. Things just kind of happen for me, and no act like, you know, what the hell is up?

[Holly Madison]

And I think sometimes we do it because there is this. Well, I know, at least for me, sometimes when I've done it, it's like, for attention.

[Essence Iman]

Oh. As a Leo.

[Holly Madison]

Yes. Okay. Obviously doing things for attention.

[Essence Iman]

We're making sense or it.

[Holly Madison]

There is that. And everybody knows. What's my least favorite word relatability piece?

[Essence Iman]

Your relationship with this.

[Holly Madison]

Oh, yeah.

[Essence Iman]

You don't like it?

[Holly Madison]

I don't like it. Not because being relatable is bad. Because I think if people do genuinely relate to one another over like a true authentic experience, great. But what I'm saying is, like, when we do, the woe is me. Water ourselves down so that other people who feel the same way find that relatable. I hate it and I think it's dumb. And I don't want to do it. I don't want to like, praise other people for doing it. You know what I mean? Because then you're also just going to attract more of that. You're not going to attract the people who want to invest in you and grow with you and see you succeed. Succeed. You're just going to attract people who want to stay in that space.

[Essence Iman]

I think it gets to a point where it does start to feel really icky and you just have to push past the discomfort and just act like you know what you're doing.

[Podcast Host (Intro/Outro)]

Yeah.

[Essence Iman]

Act like you belong. Have some sense.

[Podcast Host (Intro/Outro)]

That's true.

[Essence Iman]

You don't need to be relatable to struggle or to people that are still trying to get there. Like that's fine for their journey. But that doesn't. You don't have to align yourself with that. It.

[Holly Madison]

Or water yourself down. That's not where you're genuinely at.

[Essence Iman]

I used to do that.

[Holly Madison]

Yeah. We live and we learn. Yeah.

[Essence Iman]

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[Podcast Host (Intro/Outro)]

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[Holly Madison]

Can we talk a little bit about beauty, about the beauty industry? Because.

[Essence Iman]

Yes.

[Holly Madison]

What also started sparking a lot of these thoughts for me was that we know a few months ago there was the 15% pledge gala.

[Essence Iman]

Oh, honey.

[Holly Madison]

And there was, you know, there was a lot circulating around that happening.

[Essence Iman]

Yes.

[Holly Madison]

And you were also like really honest with some of the questions that you raised around. What is this doing? Who is this helping? Where is it going? Actually, you had a really great video post about it. Like direct to camera.

[Essence Iman]

Yes. My first long form situation. I'm trying to get like you.

[Holly Madison]

Exactly. And here you are. For people who may not know what happened. Rehash with us your thoughts about the 15% pledge as well as the 15% pledge gala, the 2026 one. And what inspired you to throw your commentary on the topic?

[Essence Iman]

I've had questions about this work for a while within the beauty zeitgeist. This year was the tipping point. Let me get my thoughts together because there are many.

[Holly Madison]

And I'll also say for People who may not be familiar with the 15% pledge in general, it was something that started in 2020amongst all of the different things that were happening in 2020 where it was initiative to say, hey, Black people are 15% of the population in the United States. And it feels like businesses owned by us are underrepresented in retail shelf space. So let's create this pledge so that businesses can like support having 15% of their dedicated retail shelf space to black owned businesses. My impression of that when it first launched, I didn't think it was just limited to beauty. I thought that it was like across sectors though it seems like there has been this hyper focus on beauty brands.

[Essence Iman]

I don't think that it was limited to beauty. There was another portion of the grant up until this year that I think may have been industry agnostic. Although I've seen a number of beauty brands win that one.

[Holly Madison]

It seems like beauty businesses are always what's highlighted or celebrated.

[Essence Iman]

And then there is of course the Sephora beauty grant, which is another portion of their funding initiative. And I think that was the one that sort of had people really raising questions because every year it seems that someone with massive traction or visibility or retail, a retail roadmap to Sephora specifically always ends up becoming the winner.

[Holly Madison]

And so who, who are some of the winners? Like who would fit in that category?

[Essence Iman]

Issa Rae's brand.

[Holly Madison]

Okay.

[Essence Iman]

Yes, one, lots of his ability. I mean, I think it doesn't get any higher than that. Well, she's a co founder on hair care brands. And if I'm not mistaken, they won the Sephora Accelerate as well. And I think there is, there's been some pattern of overlap between the Accelerate and the Sephora Beauty grant winners. Okay. Which the Sephora Beauty grant is in tandem with the 15% pledge. That has been raising a lot of questions. I was hearing from, you know, some founders that I know that I'm just friends with that. Yeah, we're told or encouraged to apply, get their application in. I mean after so many years of not winning, you win everything else. You kind of. What's the point of applying? I think is the sentiment for a lot of established founders. I feel like at this point people kind of knew like they don't really have a shot of winning. They feel like really kind of beat up by the process and the initiative. But then when the, when this year's winner came out and you know, she's gorgeous brand.

[Holly Madison]

Did Denise win?

[Essence Iman]

Okay?

[Holly Madison]

Love Denise.

[Essence Iman]

Her, she's really super sweet, super kind. I hear positive things about Her?

[Holly Madison]

Yeah.

[Essence Iman]

Oh, she has, yeah. Gorgeous brand, very high gloss, editorial feel. I'm happy for her. She's, I think, got something really good going. But she was this year's winner. And so people were like, what the hell? Literally, what is happening? Well, I was like, what the hell was happening? I think everybody was saying it because these people are working still. They're founders and they're afraid to lift their voice. They're afraid to say anything. They're afraid to rock the boat. They're afraid voicing their opinions might harm them in the future. And I know what it's like to feel like that as a founder. And I think I have the privilege of not being a founder anymore and having a platform and being able to say whatever the hell I want. I'm not really afraid that I'm not going to get invited to the next brand thing. You know, I just, I took it upon myself to kind of stand up for these guys. I'm hearing so many conversations behind the scenes and I'm having so many conversations and I'm just like, what is going on? I'll be the one to say it. And I'm always kind of the one to say.

[Holly Madison]

Does seem like if somebody is a founder who is not a celebrity, does not have celebrity backing, is not like a major influencer, and they're up against these brands that do have that leg up.

[Essence Iman]

It sucks. Yeah, it sucks. It really sucks.

[Holly Madison]

Yeah.

[Essence Iman]

And we're just at this time in beauty, period, you know, where all indie brands are up against the Hailey Bieber's and, and the Selena Gomez and now Alex Earl. You know, like, there's, there's so much. And it's, it's grown to be so competitive, but especially when you have a grant that's supposed to be black people focus, like, that should be a space, I think that, you know, sort of delineates from all of that. And at least that that's what I took as their promise. I don't know that they've been making good on their promise. And so I think that, yeah, the initial video was for me to be like, what is going on with this grant? And it just got so much feedback and there was so much commentary happening and I was getting so many private messages about people who've had personal experiences with the grant and their founder. And it just turned into. I'm like, I feel like I'm CBS at this point.

[Holly Madison]

You were doing like boots on the ground.

[Essence Iman]

I became an investigative reporter. I mean, I have no background of this, but I felt like, you know, the number of comments that I was getting across all my platforms and the dialogue felt so heavy, and it just felt like there needed to be an expanded space for us to have this very real conversation. It couldn't just be like, what's going on? Like, no, let's call this into question. Let's ask them what's going on. We still don't really know what's going on, but at least it's out there.

[Holly Madison]

The questions are being asked.

[Essence Iman]

We see you. What's happening? We just want to know what's happening. Where are the million dollars of funds that they allegedly gave last year alone? Who are these founders? You know, all black people know each other in this industry. Like, girl, if you. You wanted the winners, girl, let us stand up. My video. I was like, girls, please stand up. Let us know. I will digress. But, yeah, I mean, I don't think there's anything wrong with asking. Asking questions.

[Holly Madison]

Yeah, for sure.

[Essence Iman]

And I think, like, the black beauty community is just so vulnerable and ripe for exploitation. And it's something that I've seen since I started being in this industry, and I just don't like it. Yeah, it's not right.

[Holly Madison]

I agree. I think a couple things. I think one, Sephora is at the scene of many crimes, actually, that get the girls going. You think about the things throughout the years that get the girls going. Sephora is often at the scene of the crime. If it's not Sephora Squad and people being mad about who is or isn't on it or who did or didn't get a grant.

[Essence Iman]

Sephora girl. And they always walk away, away unscathed.

[Holly Madison]

They sure do. But they're at the scene of every crime.

[Essence Iman]

They're always the mess. I know.

[Holly Madison]

It is why I get really excited to see us launching and scaling and succeeding in businesses that are outside of beauty.

[Essence Iman]

Yeah.

[Holly Madison]

Because I think that, like, the beauty industry, it just continues to be such a mess and continues to be so crowded and continues to be such a difficult place to get what you need. Let's do some other shit, make some money elsewhere. And if we want to come back to that and invest in one another's brands, once we have some capital to do something. I love that idea.

[Essence Iman]

But, like, kind of where I. Yeah,

[Holly Madison]

like, let's start some other businesses, please.

[Essence Iman]

I think it's necessary. But I. You know what the thing about beauty is, and people often overlook this, but let me tell you why everybody's getting into beauty. It's the margins. It's plain and simple. It's a low barrier to entry category to get into. I mean, it used to be even lower, now it's a little more high, but it's kind of easy. I mean, just think about it like if you're someone like me, right, who was kind of lost in their career journey and wanting to start a business and didn't really have a lot of startup capital, anybody with two brain cells to run together can essentially go online, research ingredients, order them, make them, eventually scale it to a point, get a manufacturer, anyone can essentially do that. And I think that's why a lot of regular people get into beauty, because of that, because of the accessibility, because of the margins. My first products, I mean, my margins were like easily all of my products, over 85%. I feel they were really high. Yeah, it's low barrier to entry.

[Holly Madison]

And I think there's a lot of familiarity.

[Essence Iman]

And there's a lot of familiarity.

[Holly Madison]

We all use it, we are all consumers of it in one way or another.

[Essence Iman]

But I also think there's a lot of, like, there's a lot of illusion that make people want to enter beauty. I think that they think it's like the most chic, glamorous, like version of a founder that you can be. And it's just, it's not, babe, it's not all. I mean, I've had fun. I've. I've had a lot of privileges. I think being a beauty founder, it's not what you think it is in your head. And I don't think people understand that. And now it's, it's just far too crowded. There's no need for like majority of the products that we see popping up,

[Holly Madison]

especially with every celebrity getting involved with it. I also think capital is another one that's really, really hard.

[Essence Iman]

Yeah, it is.

[Holly Madison]

We already know what the stats are around raising capital, us receiving venture capital. But it's also hard because then we also know that like when our founders sell their businesses, we as consumers get really upset.

[Essence Iman]

Why do we get so upset?

[Holly Madison]

I know, I get why.

[Essence Iman]

I mean, I get why.

[Holly Madison]

But I think we, we gotta breathe because also, and I was actually thinking about this related to Cardi B's hair care line because everybody's talking about that. It just had the pre sale, it sold out. Everyone is so excited about the prices, whatever. Here's the thing, here's the thing. What people need to understand about why someone like Cardi B can come out with such affordable prices because Cardi B has been able to get funny. I don't know who's funding it or who she's raised money from, but she has enough funding to be able to do that and a big enough audience to be able to order quantities of units to charge so little for a product.

[Essence Iman]

Yeah. It's accessible to her at scale in a way that it's not for everyone else. And that's why so many celebrities are starting beauty brands.

[Holly Madison]

Exactly.

[Essence Iman]

And why their.

[Holly Madison]

Their things so competitive. But also ultimately, at some point, whoever has invested in her brand, she's also going to need to sell some steak to make that money back. Like, people can only invest in businesses if there's going to be some sort of exit, if it gets acquired, if it. Otherwise.

[Essence Iman]

Yeah.

[Holly Madison]

The things about the products that we love, if it's accessible, if we can get it in the store, if the cost is right, at some point the company has to be sold in order for the products to be able to. To be accessible in the ways we want them to be.

[Essence Iman]

I have a lot of thoughts on the exit, the acquisition, especially when. When black brands exit. But yeah, when you have investors, like nobody. No investor wants to hear. You want to keep it a mom and pop situation. You want to pass down to your kids, babe, like, you got to bootstrap that sort of venture.

[Holly Madison]

Yeah.

[Essence Iman]

Nobody cares. Like they want to make their money tenfold and fast.

[Holly Madison]

Yeah.

[Essence Iman]

So.

[Holly Madison]

And when people bootstrap their venture, the shampoo is not going to be $10.

[Essence Iman]

Yeah.

[Holly Madison]

Is what I want everybody to understand.

[Essence Iman]

I don't know that people understand, but I mean, maybe they are, maybe that. But that's why like platforms like mine exist. And I feel like there's so much more education happening on actual like what's behind the unit economics and you know, like why certain brands get acquired and things like that. But I think, yeah, a couple years ago people would see that and be like, sell out, sell out.

[Holly Madison]

Yeah. I still think it happens. But I'm also hoping that conversations like this, platforms like yours, like just give more insight into how these things work so that people just feel more informed and they don't feel like the rug is being pulled out underneath them if they see that a brand that they like has been sold or sell steak or gets invested in in a certain way. I say all that to say I'm not anti beauty. I just, I want to see us start other businesses and succeed in other businesses.

[Essence Iman]

Yeah. I think that there's still some promise in consumer. But yeah, like you said, there's so many other categories that we could be dipping our toes into.

[Holly Madison]

Yeah.

[Essence Iman]

That we're probably overlooking that we like things that we touch in our day to day lives that we don't even think about because we're so fixated on, you know, the track that we've seen. It almost always does look like beauty but non alphab space is like really, really piping hot right now. And I think there's room to grow there. I think that there's room to grow in so many different categories that we

[Holly Madison]

just overlook when I think a lot of people overlook like boring businesses too because it's like you're definitely not going to have like the sexy founder. Yeah. But if you are somebody who has some capital and you're just trying to be comfortable and you go buy a couple laundry mats like yeah, we. You can do that too. I just think people don't talk enough about those types of things.

[Essence Iman]

Yeah, I don't know why that is.

[Holly Madison]

I don't know.

[Essence Iman]

I mean I know why it was for me.

[Holly Madison]

And those things aren't flashy. Like they're not everybody like you.

[Essence Iman]

I don't have, I don't have any LEO though.

[Holly Madison]

I'm a Leo. Like attention, want attention.

[Essence Iman]

That's why I became a beauty founder because I wanted attention. But now I'm not a beauty founder because I can still get attention without having a run a business. Like I didn't realize you don't have to start a business to get attention.

[Holly Madison]

You don't have to run a marathon. You don't have to.

[Essence Iman]

You can just wake up and you

[Holly Madison]

don't have to make sourdough.

[Essence Iman]

No.

[Holly Madison]

But I think, I think it comes so many things that we do comes down to like oh, I wanted attention and I think if we can be honest.

[Essence Iman]

I'm always honest like no, I want. Okay. No. But if I were a smart founder today, starting a business today I would not be starting a beauty business.

[Holly Madison]

What would you start?

[Essence Iman]

I would definitely get into like non alcoholic beverages or something like that. I would definitely start a consumer brand. I think again like. Cause I just love consumer but I don't know, I feel like home is a good space to be in. What would I start? I mean for me right now it just looks like media like growing out slutty founder. Because I feel like media is also really huge, like huge space to be in right now. I feel like it's the best time to be a creator.

[Holly Madison]

Industry is so, so traditional media is really dying in a lot of ways that we've seen with advertising and eroding trust and all of these things. And I think we have digital media and creators and emerging media, but like, still not a clear path of what the future of media truly is. And I think there's a lot of opportunity there. That's how I feel to forge that. And that's definitely what I'm interested in from a business perspective.

[Essence Iman]

Me too. Yeah, that's where I'm at. I think it would look like non tangible business items for me. Like, I wouldn't jump right back into consumer, but maybe I would, I would grow, you know, my media assets, grow my ip, then come back and collect some investors and be like, I want to, you know, sell people some things, some physical goods.

[Holly Madison]

Yeah.

[Essence Iman]

But yeah, right now I think it's what's in your head. I like that. Yeah.

[Holly Madison]

And I think especially with AI,

[Essence Iman]

people

[Holly Madison]

want what's in our heads. Like they want human words, interaction, thoughts, ideas, criticisms, praises, like things from the brain.

[Essence Iman]

Yeah, I'm seeing that. I'm seeing that. Yeah, yeah.

[Holly Madison]

So like, let's say five years from now, like, what's your ideal future state for slutty founder?

[Essence Iman]

I think five years for now. I picture more media. I would have expanded far beyond essays and written content at that point. I think a podcast feels like a natural next step. I see a book, book to TV series, an Emmy, prime time, not daytime, no shade period. And yeah, just growing out our founder resources, which we already currently have with like our brand strategy workbook and our funding resources and yeah, like, things like that. So probably growing out more of our resources, resources. That's more immediate though. But I think long term, I. I see book, TV series, Emmy, podcast.

[Holly Madison]

I absolutely see that. And I'm so excited. Yeah, I'm so excited for it.

[Essence Iman]

I'm so excited too. Yeah, I'm excited for us.

[Holly Madison]

I am too. So essence, you're our mic drop guest for the business of you series.

[Essence Iman]

Oh my gosh, this is huge.

[Holly Madison]

This is huge. If there's any one takeaway that you would want the girls, you would want the Clovers to know when it comes to either being about their business, if they have one, or maybe they're not entrepreneurs, but something that they can take from like the slutty founder ethos that they can apply to their lives. Either way, what would it be?

[Essence Iman]

This is a big question. I think that more than ever, it's very important for you to find your voice, know your voice and stick to your voice. And I know it's really hard because we look to our left and our right and we see what everybody else is doing and they may seem to even have it figured out and have a framework that already works for them. And so you might want to copy it and you might want to replicate that for yourself. And I even fall victim sometimes. Am I being too bold with this? Is this too against the grain? I think a good thing to swing back to is when it stops feeling like you. When the work stops feeling like you stop and go back to yourself and stick with your voice, please. It will pay off. Be yourself. And a quote that I really, really love, that I love to leave the audience with, is this Chinese proverb. The work will teach you how to do it.

[Holly Madison]

I like that.

[Essence Iman]

The work will teach you how to do it. Just show up for the work and it'll teach you how to do it.

[Holly Madison]

That's good. I feel like that's the perfect mic drop to the Business of you series.

[Essence Iman]

Yeah. The work will teach you how to do it.

[Holly Madison]

So good. Essence, thank you so much for being here.

[Essence Iman]

Thank you for having me.

[Holly Madison]

Okay, wait. If the girls are not already tapped in with you, tapped in with Slutty Founder, let them know where to find you.

[Essence Iman]

Yes, you can find me at Essence. Iman E S S E N C E I M A N across all platforms. And then you can find slutty [e-mail] and @slutty founder, Instagram and TikTok.

[Holly Madison]

Perfect. And we'll make sure we also have it all linked in the description. Thank you.

[Essence Iman]

Thank you for having me. This was fun.

[Holly Madison]

So fun. Thank y' all so much for tuning into the last episode of the Business of you series. I personally loved this series. I feel like I learned so much from all of our guests all month long. I hope you loved it. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and got so many gems you can apply to your life and to your business if you have one. Now. The perfect segue after the Business of you series is actually going to be our April series called Lucky Girls Invest. Because April is personal finance month and it means we're getting our finances right. Okay. It means your tax refund. If you got a refund, we're going to do something good with it. And if you had to pay like me, I'm so sorry. And we're going to recover from that, that trauma next month when we talk about investing. So make sure you subscribe to she's so Lucky on Spotify, on Apple, on YouTube so that you don't miss new epis every Tuesday. Thanks for tuning in and I'll see you next week.

[Podcast Host (Intro/Outro)]

Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of she's so Lucky. If you're ready to create your own luck, hit that subscribe button wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube so you don't miss an episode and head to the show. Notes for resources, links and discount codes. And if you are really feeling lucky, we would appreciate appreciate your rating and your review.

[Holly Madison]

It really helps us be able to

[Podcast Host (Intro/Outro)]

improve the show, to get great guests and to understand what you want to hear more of. Thank you for tuning in and I'll see you next week.

[Holly Madison]

I've spent a lot of my life around fantasy. The kind you dream about, the kind people project onto you. The kind that looks really good from the outside. And over time, I realized something I've become really curious about the moment where everything changes. I'm Holly Madison, and this is you Wish. This is a show where every week I sit down with a fascinating mix of people whose lives have taken some unexpected turns. Think Internet icons, cultural wild cards, larger than life, Las Vegas legends. Together we talk about ambition, manifestation, reputation, and the strange little ways life surprises you when the wish actually comes true. Because getting what you wanted, that's only the beginning. Welcome to youo Wish. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.