I am beyond excited to bring you this episode of The Amberly Lago Show with the one and only Lori Harder! Lori is an absolute powerhouse, she’s a bestselling author, a fierce entrepreneur, and the co-founder of Glossy, a brand that’s revolutionizing gut health and beauty. She’s built multiple successful businesses from the ground up, and today, she’s pulling back the curtain to share the real, raw truth about what it takes to make it happen.

This conversation is packed with wisdom, and I know you’re going to walk away feeling fired up. Here are just a few of the gems Lori dropped:

Success Takes Time, So Settle In for the Ride
Lori keeps it real, too many entrepreneurs want to skip straight to the fun parts, the branding, the launch, the big flashy moments. But let’s be honest, success isn’t an overnight thing. It’s built step by step, through consistency, grit, and a whole lot of patience. Just like in fitness, you don’t get six-pack abs after one workout. You’ve got to put in the work, trust the process, and keep showing up even when the results aren’t instant. Stay in the game, because the payoff is coming!

Your People Are Your Power, Lean On Them
Listen, if you’re trying to do this whole entrepreneurship thing alone, you’re making it so much harder than it needs to be. Lori and I talked about how important it is to surround yourself with people who get it. There will be moments when you want to quit, when doubt creeps in, when nothing seems to be working, those are the times when having a strong support system can make all the difference. And don’t let pride or fear stop you from asking for help. Vulnerability is a superpower, and the right people will lift you up, not tear you down.

Cut the Distractions and Get Laser Focused
We’ve all been there, running in a million directions, trying to do all the things at once. But here’s the truth, success doesn’t come from being busy, it comes from being intentional. Lori shares how she learned to stop chasing every little opportunity and start focusing on what actually moves the needle. That means knowing your goals, protecting your energy, and saying no to the things that don’t serve your bigger vision. When you do that, the results come so much faster, and you feel way more fulfilled in the process.

This episode is packed with so much wisdom and inspiration, and I cannot wait for you to hear it! Tune in now and get ready to be inspired, motivated, and equipped with the mindset shifts you need to take your business, and your life, to the next level.

Follow Lori

• Instagram: @loriharder
• Website: https://loriharder.com/

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Transcript:

Amberly Lago:
Welcome to the Amberly Lago Show, Stories of True Grit and Grace. Thank y’all for tuning in to the Amberly Lago Show. I seriously have a dream come true today on the show. The one and only Lori Harder is here y’all. She, when I started my podcast years ago, she was the first person that I reached out to. And it was back when I did the show at a radio station and it was live and we would have people call in and it was a lot of fun, but it was in Santa Monica. And Lori knows how that traffic in LA was. And I was like, you know what? My whole day for just a quick show is not working out. So it’s been a while and a lot of years. And we’ve shared the stage. And I have followed her journey from the beginning. Her podcast, Earn Your Happy, was the first podcast that I ever listened to. If you don’t already, I’m sure you probably already listened to her podcast. If you don’t like go over there and listen to her show and you can thank me later because she’s that amazing. She’s a serial entrepreneur. She speaks all over the world. She runs mastermind. She has started million dollar companies, successful companies. Um, She is somebody I have watched do her own events, and she is the co-founder of a new product, and it’s a gut health and beauty product that I freaking love. Actually, I’m drinking it right now. It’s called Glossy, and I want to get into her entrepreneurial journey. You may even know her from her fitness days when she was on the cover of magazines. She is a legend. She’s a superstar. But more than that, she’s like a good person with a heart of gold who I just love being around her energy. So, Lori, thank you, Lori Harder, for being here.

Lori Harder : Oh, man, we got that all on tape so I can listen. And I dated myself by saying tape. Oh, I’m so, so excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me on. And you guys, I just got to interview Amberly for my podcast. So if you want to go over and listen to her podcast on my podcast, it’s a whole lot of merging. But it was so much fun to get to talk to you. And now just part this part two, part two of our conversation.

Amberly Lago: Part two, we’re continuing the fun, the fun continues. Well, I mean, Lori, there’s so many questions I want to ask you. First of all, just about your mindset as an entrepreneur. Do you feel like being a competitor in the fitness industry and all that you did, even from your ballroom days? Like I’ve seen you dance, girl. You’ve got, I mean, I’ve seen it all. I’ve stalked you over the years because I really admire your journey and your persistence and all your accomplishments and how also you’ve been very transparent about times when you tried something and it just didn’t work out. So you’re like, okay, scratching that starting over. Do you feel like your mindset as an athlete has helped you with the entrepreneurial journey that you’ve been on?

Lori Harder : Yes, because with fitness and with anything health, you learn the lesson of delayed gratification. And you also learn that in order to see any results in the physical human body, It takes so much time to lay the foundation. And then even if you’ve made a complete change to your muscular system, you don’t get to see it unless you really start dialing in all of your nutrition. And I think that this happens to first-time business owners all the time is they don’t realize that just the foundation of the things that they need legally, website-wise, you know, everything that you have to set up, you know, with your finances and CPAs and just all of these different things that you have to do, that they don’t realize that that alone takes about a year to two years to even really get your grounding. And so, you know, when you think of building a home, it’s like the number of of permits and zoning and, you know, laying the foundation of the basement, all of the things that take so long so that in a matter of, you know, three to six months time, all of a sudden you construct this house after you see the sticks. And that’s really what I think about whenever I’m starting any new project or any new business is I’m like, okay, I’m kind of going into that two-year desert where you don’t see a whole lot, nobody gets to see anything really on the external. And I think what people do is they focus so much on wanting to get the pretty external things first that they’re not getting those very foundational, like, You know, things that are going to make them last, things that are going to be have this incredible foundation for your business to build on later, because we want to skip to the pretty parts. We want the pretty logo and the pretty Instagram and the pretty book. And we want all of these things that you can’t do without putting that time in that I had to put in in the fitness industry, in your body and then in your nutrition to actually see the results.

Amberly Lago: Oh, that’s so good. And you know, it’s so true that delayed gratification is what it takes. I think as an entrepreneur, if you want it to be. successful and sustainable. I talk a lot to my clients and Mastermind members about how you got to get in the reps. So many people that I talk to, they want to get on the big stage. They want to say they shared the stage with Mel Robbins or Jay Shetty or Lori Harder. they’re skipping the part of all the learning and growing and fine tuning yourself and getting those reps in and easily give up. What helps you to stay, you know, inspired and creative and even motivated to keep going when it’s really hard? What do you think helps you the most?

Lori Harder : that no matter how many times I quit, I’m always going to end up in the same spot wanting to do something big again. And so I might as well stick to the one thing that I’m actually moving the needle forward on, or at least that I have some reps in on already. Because this has never been more real for me than it is now with this company. And my husband and I talk about this specific topic all of the time. It’s, you know, he’s got a startup. He’s like two years into a startup. That’s like one of the hardest points, I believe. in startup world is just because you don’t even know what it is yet. It’s changing, it’s morphing, it’s pivoting. You don’t feel confident to stand on an idea because it might pivot again, like you just aren’t sure what’s going to happen with it. And for me, with Glossy, it’s really like having these moments of massive struggle and just feeling like you’re not getting over you know, the hill that you need to get over, getting over this plateau or whatever, even though you might be, the wins are very small in the beginning of anything. Like it’s very small. So you have to be kind of like how you said you have to spot the joy. You have to freaking count every little win with this. And so there’s a whole lot of failing to so much failure in the startup world because you just have never been there before, especially if it’s an idea that hasn’t really been out. So you can’t really ask a ton of people, you know, what does this look like if it’s a newer idea as well? So with all of that, there’s so many days that I’m like, maybe I should just like, you know, sell this company early, or maybe I should just like, when do I know if enough is enough? Or what does this look like? And what it always comes down to is, okay, let’s just say, Let’s just paint like a, what would the dream scenario be? Someone comes along and they’re like, okay, I’ll buy your investors, I’ll buy the company just for like fire sale, right? And I’m like, okay, I’ll be done with it. I won’t have the stress. I won’t have the pressure of the investors. I can just kind of like start from scratch. And then I guess that I would do what? I would start another company like Glossy. I would be doing the same things all over again with the same set of problems because I love to create things. I don’t know what else I would do. So to anybody listening, sometimes when you want to throw the towel in, What happens is you’re so focused in the present moment, which is important. That’s great. And when you’re so focused, let’s not even say in the moment, you’re so focused in the present problems that what you need to do is project out and look at, okay, you know, when we take on these businesses and when we say we want to be business owners, what we really say is now we just want to solve a whole bunch of our own problems rather than someone else’s. That’s it. because every day is a problem. And often if you don’t have problems, you probably don’t have a business because you got into the business to start a problem. But what I want you to do is project out to the future. Okay, let’s say you get rid of this business. Like somehow you’re able to just kind of like be through this point, say, I don’t really want to do this anymore. Maybe you decide to quit it. And all of a sudden, I want you to be on the other side of that where it’s clear, where you don’t have the pressures of it. You don’t feel stressed out. You’re just kind of like, OK, I get this whole new world of starting from the beginning. I want you to really allow yourself to think, what would I do? What would I create? What would I be? You know, what would I want to put out into the world? And then once you have that idea, even if it sounds freaking amazing, I want you to think about the problems that you have to solve every single day in order to have that business or go talk to somebody who has that business so you can understand what your day to day looks like. And I think for me, what we’ve come to the realization of, you know, my husband and I on these walks of sometimes we’ll just be like, what did we get ourselves into? I’m like, I know what I want in for myself. I know who I want to become. I know that I want to become the most strong, powerful version of myself. Be careful when you ask for that, because what happens when we say we want to be the most strong, powerful version of ourself is we’re going to get problems that we feel like we can’t handle that we get to practice on. And every single day we get to practice a little bit more and more to get that backbone, to be able to have that confidence to send those emails and do those partnerships, to be able to learn how to compartmentalize and stress manage and, you know, force ourselves to find the group of female entrepreneurs who can be our friends through all of this. Like, it’s going to require you to become a different version of yourself. And that is exactly what we’re asking for. So oftentimes what we find is we’re wishing away the very opportunity to become the next level version of ourself, because it’s next level problems, right? And I think when I realized that, it makes me reframe all of the problems at once, because I’m like, whoa, these are all here for me. This is literally what I specifically asked God for. And Amberly, you know this, you’re a fitness person. It’s like when people would show up to you as a client, and say, okay, I want that body. Oh, this is, they show you pictures, right? Of a girl who’s got these muscles or a six pack. They’re like, I want to look like this. And you’re like, okay, we’re going to go over to the weights and I’m going to show you the weights and the weight of that weight that you need to be lifting in order to do that. And it would be like having them look at those weights and go, oh, hell no. I’m not lifting that. I’m not lifting that. I’m not doing 30 pound dumbbells while I do lunges in each hand. No way. And you’re like, but didn’t you just tell me that you wanted this body? And you’re like, this is actually the way this heavyweight, this big problem, this thing that feels like it’s like pulling you down, like you can’t lift it. You can’t carry it anymore. You can’t do one more lunge with these thirties in your hands. That’s what got her there. So we can’t curse the thing away. That’s trying to get us to our goal.

Amberly Lago: That is such a good analogy. I love that. And I also would add to that, like I had clients that would say, well, I don’t know. I mean, I’m eating super healthy and it’s, it’s just not working. And I was like, Oh really? Cause I saw what you posted for dinner. You posted your dinner on Facebook and it was a big, like beer schooner thing of beer, a steak and mashed potatoes. And that’s not on the plan that we talked about. So I think as an entrepreneur, it’s also, it sometimes takes sacrifice, you know, sacrifice and doing what’s really important, knowing what is really important and staying laser focused. And a lot of times I don’t think that people are ready to sacrifice or ready to really do the hard work. And I’m like, you got to get in your reps. When, as an entrepreneur, have you worked on something and you were like, okay, man, I’m being challenged. I’m getting stronger because I’m solving these problems, but it’s not working out. When do you know, okay, Time to throw in the towel for this idea. This is not going to work. I need to do something else. Did it feel like it just wasn’t in alignment? What was it that made you decide, I’m going a different direction in your entrepreneurial journey?

Lori Harder : there’s been multiple facets of this, but I’ll talk about one where like, I really was like, is this, I feel like I’m trying everything, but it’s not working. And that was when I was pivoting from light pink, which was the non-alcoholic Rose and then the, um, wine spritzer. So it was the combo.

Amberly Lago: I remember that I was following. Yeah. Following that journey.

Lori Harder : I mean, amazing and then brutal. And for anybody listening, I had raised $2 million from 54 female investors. And a lot of those investors were really close friends or mentors. So I was like very, very connected to them. And I think that what happens is as a woman, I think we can feel a lot more pressured around raising money and holding that energy, that amount of money where a lot of men that I’ve talked to, they’re kind of, they actually, I had to talk to a lot of men to help me reframe it. and get more into a business mindset around that. And so when I had to pivot, I didn’t know when that was going to be. The reason I didn’t know when I should pivot is because Things are hard, like things are inevitably a challenge. And because I went from more like digital products, books, coaching, masterminds and things like that to an actual physical product. So a consumer package, good product, you call it a CPG product. I didn’t know maybe things were harder. And I’m one of those girls who from fitness, because I just said delayed gratification, I know sometimes you don’t see a result for a very long time. Like I was at this for a year and a half trying to get this product out to market. Well, it was a year and a half. And so I just could not get it to cross the finish line. Mind you, this was during the pandemic. Manufacturing companies were shutting down left and right. We’d think we had one, and then they would shut down, or they just couldn’t do it, or they were losing business and money, so they couldn’t take people on. So it was just a whole, like we talked to hundreds and hundreds of manufacturers and co-packers. Like 300 was on a list that we were negotiating with, talking to, all the different things. So obviously, that was definitely against me. But at the same time, you can’t just stop. I was already into it. The money was already into it. And I was like, something has to come out of this idea. And so I was just hitting wall after wall after wall, not only with Copackers manufacturers, but also legally. And then I was watching my market margin slip because during the pandemic, like all the costs of goods were going up and something called minimum order quantity was going up, which is, you know, where before, if I had a particular lid for the can that I had wanted and I could order, let’s just say minimum order quantity of that particular thing at the time was maybe 200,000. It went up to a million overnight.

Amberly Lago: Which means- Oh my gosh.

Lori Harder : So it was knocking startups out of the game. This is why you saw so many things just die during that time. It was a domino effect of all of these things where it was like, we can’t, you know, the manufacturers didn’t even want to work with a startup because what happens if they’re left with all of your product because you don’t have enough cash on your runway to help get that through the door, like to sell it. So they would be stuck with all of these people’s product and they would have to pay for the disposal of it. So they stopped taking startups like it was just it was literally the world’s largest learning lesson of my life. I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone and I wouldn’t I wouldn’t. take it away from my lesson because even though it was brutal and the worst, hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through like business wise and financially how that felt, it has now made me, you know, I asked to be a smart, strong, powerful businesswoman. I now feel that way after going through that or at least I feel like I’ve learned a lot and I have a beautiful backbone and I feel like I can withstand a lot and my risk tolerance is a lot higher, my stress tolerance is a lot higher. I’ve really had to learn how to compartmentalize business and also like you know friendships and my worthiness and who I am because it shook me to my core like on a foundational level. It made me Second guess my who I am, my character, will people trust me if I lose this money, or am I gonna lose everything, will they ever wanna work with me again, I’m a failure, I can’t believe I did this with my mentors, my friends, like it’s brutal. So during that pivot time, it wasn’t just about when do I pivot, it was the pressure of, What is this looking like? What are they going to think? I don’t have the next idea, like all of these different things. So to come back to your question of like, when do you know? This is when it’s so important. And I know you and me are like so unified on this. You have to have a group of entrepreneur friends who can look at it from an outside perspective. And there was a little bit of shame involved for me. So I probably asked one to two months later than I should have asked, probably two months later. Fine, that’s great. In the startup world, you lose money every single month, so you need to move quickly. When you don’t know what your move should be, you should go and have somebody who has been in a similar situation or has a successful business and go show them everything. Where I went wrong was that I ended up asking those mentors to be a part of it. So instead of me asking them for help, what happened is I felt shameful, like I should know what I’m doing. And I waited to ask them. So ask faster when you don’t, you know, when you’re not sure what to do, when you feel like you’re in a bad spot, when you feel like you’re making bad decisions, when you feel like you’re under pressure and you’re losing money. Oh my God, take all your vulnerability and go and display all your cards, all of them. Because if you go into asking a mentor or a friend who could help you and you try to look cool or look good or have it together, they cannot help you at all. Because they’re gonna be like, well, it looks good. You say you know what you’re, you think you know what to do. If you don’t know what to do, I had to go in and go, hey, I asked a friend who is like so far beyond in the alcohol industry. And I didn’t know her that well, um, but I knew her well enough that I was like, I’m, I was like SOS. Um, I don’t know you very well, but I like really, really am struggling right now. And I, I really need to ask for some guidance, like from someone, I need like a solid opinion. And she’s like, great, let’s jump on the phone. And I was like, here’s where I’m at. Here’s what I’ve spent. here’s the money, here’s the time, here’s the people, here’s what’s happening. And she was like, okay, so you, here’s your two options. And you either need to go raise 10 million more dollars and hire a bunch of, you know, alcohol experts in order to make this thing even work. And even then it may not work. Obviously we know this, or you can take your skillset and you know, you know how to market this, you know how to market that. You’re into beauty, you love supplements. It’s what you’ve sold before. It’s what you did so well on. You have this audience, you have these people, you have this, like, I’m like, Oh, okay. She’s like, or you could take that. You can take the rest of the money and you can just quickly pivot like everybody else does. And I was like, pivoting is an option. And she’s like, do you know how many ideas are not like the idea that you see is not what it started as? And I was like, really? And she just started just showing me everything. Like this company was this, this was this, this has changed three times. This has changed five times. She’s like, the idea that you sell is not usually even the idea you launch with. And I was like, If I would have just had somebody sit me down and say this, do you know how much stress, anxiety, depression, pressure, panic attacks, alcohol binges, like that that would have saved me? And I think that, you know, for anyone listening, it’s like suck it up. You don’t have to do it alone. Understand that everybody has been in that situation. Anyone who’s willing to take on risk knows what that shame feeling feels like, knows what it feels like to feel the pressure, to feel stuck. This is not isolated to you. You need to go find your people. I don’t care if it’s someone you don’t know, but you know is successful. hey I could really use some advice it’ll be quick I’ll take 10 minutes but I am just at a make it or break it point or a pivot point could I please get some advice and I promise you someone will get on with you because if someone approached me like that and they were very concise they said you know this will take 10 minutes or 20 minutes of your time but it’s a pivotal point I’ve put this much time in this much work in I will always meet someone halfway if they’re meeting their dream halfway like That’s the beautiful thing about serious, I think, entrepreneurs and people in the business world is like they’re willing to meet the people putting the work in. You just have to be willing to ask. So on that particular journey, I didn’t know exactly when to pivot. I just knew, like, I don’t think I can sustain this. I need to go ask someone if I should pivot. And so from there, I got more opinions, more ideas, all the things. And I was like, my God, like, It just was so clear when she said that because she knew, like she already knew the path. So it made my decision much easier.

Amberly Lago: Yeah. And I honestly, when you did pivot and you did this beauty gut health drink that by the way, tastes so good. Like I love that it’s not some like super, super sweet, overly flavored supplement that so many products out there are. that I was like, yeah, like I can tell that it goes so well with your brand already. It just, it just seemed like from the outside, it just seemed like, Yes. Like, yeah, this works. Like I’m, I love it. You know what I mean? Thank you for sharing that. And I think that it is so important to ask for help. And, um, a good friend of mine, who’s an entrepreneur said, Hey, when you’re reaching out, don’t reach out. And, and I don’t know if you get this, but it, it bugs me when people say, Oh, I just want to pick your brain. I don’t know why that like makes me cringe.

Lori Harder : It’s because there’s no boundaries around that ask. There’s no like, is this going to be two hours? Do you think this is going to be a year long free mentorship? Like what specifically do you need? It feels too open, which makes me close.

Amberly Lago: Yeah. Yeah. And so get very specific. And I actually just talked to my mastermind group about this. I was like, that is great how you approached that author and you said and you know she went over to him at a conference and said hey look I know you’re super busy I just respect you so much and your time can I have like two minutes of your time to ask you a quick question and the way she did it was so respectful of their time and she put two minutes And because of that, he ended up not only spending 10 minutes with her, but then ended up gathering everybody at a table and giving everybody advice around the table. So it’s all how you approach it and asking for help really matters. And, you know, you’ve done so many events. I mean, spoken at so many different events, but you’ve you do your own events that are like gorgeous and stunning and the way you show up and everything you do is just, it’s like so classy, so like, I love it. And I just remember years ago, gosh, I don’t even remember how long ago, but I was listening to one of your podcast episodes It had to be before COVID because I was planning on going to your event when COVID happened. And it happened, I think it was like a month before your event or something like that.

Lori Harder : It was scheduled for, I think, March, like 17th or 23rd or something. And everything officially closed, I think, like, well, God, was it like four weeks before? I don’t know. The tickets were sold.

Amberly Lago: Oh, it closed on the 16th. And I only know March 16th in LA because it was my birthday and it was the day I was launching something called Unstoppable Life Mastermind. And my husband was like, you’re launching something called Unstoppable when the world just shut down? And I was like, well, yeah, here I go. But yeah, I was going to go to your event. But you had done a podcast a long time, I don’t even remember how long ago, I’ve listened to your show for so long. And you had said something about your events that you were like, and I don’t know if this is still true or not. But because it’s been a while, you said, Well, I don’t pay my speakers, I give them my stage, I give them a platform. And that’s something I really want to talk about because I think, you know, big companies, if you’re speaking for Google or Apple or something like that, yeah, they’ve got the budget to pay speakers fees of $50,000 to $100,000. But I don’t pay my speakers either. We have an agreement like, you know, I will go speak at their event, or I will buy their books, or I’ll buy their products. I’ll take care of them in some way, so I’m not just asking them to do stuff free. But there’s been times when I’ve had somebody say, hey, if you come speak at my event, I’ll go speak at yours.

Lori Harder : Totally.

Amberly Lago: And I don’t think, like, I look at that. I look at it as it’s such a great opportunity to get to be on that person’s stage. That’s huge. And the opportunities that you can get from being on that stage. I spoke at a Friends event for free like four months ago. From that event, I booked two paid speaking events from that one speaking event. And so I don’t, I don’t want people to see events and think, Oh, I just got to make a lot of money. It’s like, look at the opportunity that is in that. Um, and when you were, what made me think of this is when you’re talking about your, the lessons that you have learned, boy, since 2021, having this’ll be my next in April, be my fifth unstoppable event. Boy, I made some. mistakes that I will never make again, like room blocks, gallons of coffee that I’d said, no, just coffee in the morning. And my assistant at the time was like, keep the coffee coming.

Lori Harder : And it was thousands and thousands of dollars later.

Amberly Lago: Yeah.

Lori Harder : Bottles of water for every attendee. And all of a sudden I was like, what are these beautiful glass bottles doing everywhere getting refreshed all day? Oh my gosh. We just had one where our, you know, the, one of the events you’re talking about the dinner series somehow, um, like super upgraded bottles of red wine went out for dinner and it was like an extra $30,000. No, Lori, I’m not kidding you. It was insane. So yeah, this stuff happens all of the time. Like you just in it. It’s still like we negotiated it down. But I was like, how does this how did that even happen? Like we don’t actually know. So Yeah, it’s like all these little things with events. So you can, you know, you can be in it for years and we have most all of it down, but there’s still going to be things. The thing about events, and I know, you know, this too, like you really have to ask people who have done it before. Um, maybe, you know, if, if it’s going to be your living as well, like get some, an event planner that you work with who frequently knows what to look for and what to audit. This is like any business. Um, but then also like, you know, turnover at hotels for event, the event. people who run the event side is like, we’ve seen new people every single year in some hotels where we’re like, whoa, the turnover is crazy. So it’s the communication with all of the people as well. So I guess like anything in business, it’s like being prepared to know anything can happen. And you got to double check everything. And you also have to know like, okay, well, that was a lesson. Like, that’s a really big lesson for us.

Amberly Lago: Oh, yeah. I wish that I had asked more in the very beginning. I remember there was, it was my very first event and the assistant I had at the time, I was like, well, you just handle the hotel stuff and I’m handling all this stuff. And she did the room block for 15, I don’t know how it happened where she did 15 extra rooms that I wasn’t counting on. And so I found out at like six o’clock on a Friday night that I had 15 rooms times three to fill, or the hotel would automatically charge me for those rooms. And between six o’clock at night, And noon the next day, I had all those rooms filled. I had people from California flying to Texas. I was like, look, you can just come to this event for free. I just need you to stay in the hotel because I would have rather given them the event for free and fed them than be. paying for an empty hotel room.

Lori Harder : Brilliant. And this is what people don’t see is all of those DMs. Like I can’t tell you the amount of DMs like that, that I have sent when you do an event to get butts in seats. Like it’s, it’s crazy. And I think that some people are like, Oh my God, this happened and it was a failure. And I’m like, or I can’t fill it. I’m like, were you up for 24 hours trying to fill it? Like these are the things you have to go through. You just hustle. Like you, you work like you’ve never worked before and it’s happening to everyone. And it’s, it’s not fun. It’s not fun at all, but you learn the lessons and hopefully it makes the next one a little easier.

Amberly Lago: Yes, for sure. And you know what? Getting butts in seats. It’s sometimes hard. They are direct messages. And a valuable lesson that I learned is you can’t depend on other speakers to get butts in seats for you. It’s up to you to get butts in seats. It doesn’t matter who you’re going to have at your event. Because they probably aren’t sharing about your event, but also that fear of, oh my gosh, what if no one shows up? Even Mel Robbins, I heard her being interviewed and she said the main reason that she hasn’t had her own event, Mel Robbins, by the way, is she was afraid that no one would show up. I’m like, Mel, I think they would show up. Now that was a long time ago.

Lori Harder : But it does take work. Here’s the thing, you also don’t know what’s going on in the world, where you host it, what month. We’ve had events that fill right away and then we’ve had events that we have had to work for every single person in that room. It doesn’t matter if we were at the beginning of our career or even last year. There were some of those events that filled right away and some I was like, what is going on? you can’t count on, you really can’t count on anything. You have to always be up for the job of filling whatever you decide. So it’s, you know, it’s just, I don’t think that that ever goes away and you hit a stride where you’re like, I’m just going to fill events forever because then I hear of people who, you know, have sold out, like I’m thinking of someone in particular who I won’t say, but like sold out events frequently, but then took a little break and then had a lot of trouble filling events again. And it’s like, you should be able to take a life break and be able to fill them again, but that’s just how life is. You kind of have to like, you know, keep that, keep that boat in motion or you’re going to have to do that work all over again.

Amberly Lago: Yeah, and you know, I just saw that a friend of ours is having a tour and filling stadiums. I’m like, okay, if they can fill a stadium, then I’m going to be able to fill this hotel room, this conference room. I’m going to do it.

Lori Harder : Okay, but this is interesting because whenever people see things, I always want to say, we never know what the budget is for ads. Exactly. Yes. So when you look at a lot of these, you know, events that are filling and you’re seeing them get full, a lot of times there is a budget involved. And it’s, you know, you’re not just going to go fill a stadium or I’ve seen a lot of people who their first time with events, they’re like, I’m going to get this 500 person theater or 1000 person theater. And I’m like, Just start small, start with 50, then do 100. Then, you know, and even year over year with Bliss Project, just because I was filling the room and maxing it out at 500, I did not go to 700. I stayed there for a while to make sure that there was demand there before you go up. Because so many people go up- 500 is huge, Lori. It, well, that was a lot of years. I did that nine years. So, okay.

Amberly Lago: Thank you for saying that because you know, I started out, I started out with 50 and that felt like a big deal to me. That was a big deal. That was my first like 50 person where I had speakers come in and that, that was like a big deal. You know, I take that back. My first one, 2020 was 13 people. Yeah. And right before I had rented out this beautiful home in Malibu, right on the beach, they introduced another strand of COVID and that they were shutting things down again. And all 13 people still showed up. And the next event was 50. And the next event was 100. And the next event was 140. You know what I mean? So thank you for sharing that. Now, how often are you doing the dinners? I’ve talked to everybody that I’ve talked to raves about the dinner series that you do. I mean, Bryce, Henson, Chelsea, they, I mean, I’ve been wanting to go to that too, and I will, but how, how often are you doing those?

Lori Harder : Well, you’re going to love this. You know, my word is organization and clarity this year. Like that’s my main thing. We’re not doing them ever again.

Amberly Lago: What? You’re not doing them again?

Lori Harder : No, we’re not going to do them again. And I’ll tell you why. So it was the wine, the $30,000 experiment, but it was, um, the margins just were not good for us. And so for the amount of time that we had to put into it, um, and the budget that it, it cost to do it. It just wasn’t worth it for us when we can be doing some other things. And we’re just getting really, really clear. So we decided to go all in on a couple of our other things. So we’re going all in on our mastermind. So we’re making that a little bit bigger. Because that’s really, It’s not that we didn’t love it. I loved the people more than anything. It was one of the most fun things we’ve ever gotten to do. But if I’m going to put my time and energy into something, I feel like I want to put it into the mastermind where those are the entrepreneurs that I really want to be working with and watching their needle move for that whole year long too. So people could just join. I’m very excited.

Amberly Lago: I’m not kidding you from our last conversation and now to this one, do you know I’m doing the same thing? I’ve changed. I’m doing the same thing. I was like, for the amount of effort and time and money that I’m investing in this thing, I am going to revamp things and I restructured everything.

Lori Harder : yeah we just we like got super clear we’re like what are we doing we’re we’re doing all of these things and i maybe to the outside it might be like oh it looks like they’re doing it really good it i don’t feel like i’m at my best at all of them because i’m so I’m coming off one into another one, into another one, into another one, into the marketing of another one, into the planning of another one. Like I just want to do a couple things really well this year and I already feel so amazing, so spacious. I feel like I’m proud of my work. My head hits the pillow and I like what I did that day. It feels like now that’s work I’m proud of that I’m putting out. I feel like my podcasts are getting better. I just feel So much better. And now, you know, I do believe I had to do a lot of those things to get to where I am now. I do think I could have gotten this lesson five years ago, but it’s just my personality. I like to do a lot of things and I think that I can, and I just… I think that something happens in your 40s where, like, as you get into your 40s, I don’t know if your tolerance goes down for, like, things that either don’t feel aligned or, like, your energy doesn’t quite sync up or, like, I think that you also start realizing, I hate even saying this, like, this is kind of that second half of your life. I’m like, how do I want to feel in it? Who do I want to be? How do I want to show up? And I was like, I want to be my best. And I feel like, honestly, I have been playing at like 60% in all of these things. And that feels so crappy to me, like very crappy. and um you know my just because my version of autopilot because i’ve been at this i will say 15 years looks like okay to other people i want to hit another level of myself with what i’m putting out and i want to connect like i want to i want it to truly connect deeper with people and i want to be able to help more people and i just i’m not going to be able to do that talking about You know, oh, I have a quickie to do for my podcast. Like, what can I talk about? OK, I’ll turn the mic on and just start talking like I want to go a little bit deeper. I want to give a little more value that’s going to take a little more time and a little more research and a little more space and creativity. and more time reading books. I need to spend a little more time with some mentors. That’s going to take some time through the year to help me go and be in the value and get the value and learn the value so that I can regurgitate that value. You know what I mean? That’s where I’m at. It already feels freaking amazing. My life feels like it’s changed. It’s funny you guys, we did the last dinner series and it was like the best one we ever had. The feedback was insane. People were writing us after. They said it was the best thing they’ve ever done. I almost got looped in again. We almost were like…

Amberly Lago: okay we committed to no we should just do one more because we love we just love the people who showed up like obsessed i didn’t know that that was that was it i mean it looks so amazing i love how you also made people feel so special like you roll you rolled out the red carpet and i mean it was like so elegant, so classy, so top-notch. And I had been talking to Bryce and he’s like, you need to come. And I was wanting to come. And we were talking about that too, how, yeah, sometimes we’re at so many different events and doing, and if, when you can finally sync your schedules and your calendars up, how important that is. But yeah, I can see where you would want to get just loop back, back in there.

Lori Harder : But, um, you’re like, we can’t do it. We can’t do it. We need to commit to like what we know our gut was telling us.

Amberly Lago: So, well, speaking of gut, I want to get back to glossy. Yeah, obsessed with it. Love it. And I loved getting the pink box in the mail. And I should have like ripped it open kind of nice. No, I tore into it. I get that way too. But it’s awesome. You’ve got great ingredients in it. And I feel like, see, am I starting to glow yet?

Lori Harder : I mean, I literally, actually, I want to tell you too, I love this hairstyle, like obsessed with your hair pulled back. And yes, your skin looks amazing. But you should do…

Amberly Lago: Thank you. It’s the glossy. I just am so impressed with how you have built this and built this brand and it has taken off. It has, I mean, I know you’ve put so much work into it and we don’t even know, like from looking at it, we have no idea what you’ve done behind the scenes. But what are some of the lessons that you have learned doing the Glossie and does it feel more aligned to you and a little bit easier than it was with the beverage product that you were doing before?

Lori Harder : It definitely feels easier than the beverage product because beverage is one of the toughest categories to be in because you’re just dealing with so many different, you know, you’re dealing with shelf life, you’re dealing with the weight of a liquid for shipping, which is so expensive. You’re dealing with a drink that already has low margins. Um, but really high costs to get to the customer. So you have to do such a mass play with beverage. Like we’re talking, you know, I don’t know, 3000, they call them doors. That’s how many store fronts you’re in or how many stores, like, you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of, of, of doors that you need to be in, in order to like make money on a lot of those things, unless you have a product that like, you know, some of these THC products that are coming out CBD products that they, charge, you know, they can charge $70 for a six pack or something like that. Truly.

Amberly Lago: Um, is that a thing that’s like on the rise now or beverages with, with actual THC in it? Correct. So you will fit that the THC is what makes you feel high, right? Yeah. Oh, wow. Is that good? Is that for, California or cause pot’s not even legal here in Texas.

Lori Harder : Yeah. I’m not sure how they’re all getting around it. There are companies who are, are figuring it out, but they don’t deliver in every state.

Amberly Lago: So I was going to say like, it’s, you know, when living in California for 31 years, I was just used to the smell of weed outside of the gym, like going down the street, like all the time in Texas, I forgot it’s not legal here. So you don’t really smell it.

Lori Harder : Yeah, it’s so interesting. I know you get, you get used to those things, but that’s, that’s one of the things that you have to, you know, that you have to think about is, um, I like totally forgot your question.

Amberly Lago: Oh, well, I was just saying, does it feel more aligned? I’ve actually heard that the, uh, alcohol industry is one of the hardest ones to break into. And you think about the weight of a liquid. That’s a lot.

Lori Harder : Yeah. You know, I think that I thought because of my, so this is where like naivety is so incredibly awesome to get yourself started because you’re just like, no, no one can tell me that I can’t do it. Okay. That’s great that you actually need that, but you actually do need to talk to multiple people. If you haven’t been in that category before, this is what I wish I would have done. I just assumed that since I saw a couple people doing it, like there was a girl that I was watching in particular that didn’t have the online background that I had. So I was like, okay, that’s a one up. I like understand how to sell things online. She didn’t have that at all. And so I was watching this one girl who from the outside appeared extremely successful. And I didn’t really bother to super dig into it because it looked very successful. And I heard she was successful and she was starting to get on all these big podcasts. And then there was one other company that came up and they started to be very successful. And I would listen to the founders on the podcast and I’m like, okay, proof, right? That’s what we look for proof. I never like, I did try to DM them, but they didn’t DM me back. One of them did, but it kind of fell off. I did try to DM her like multiple, multiple times, but she didn’t respond back. Mike, do they know who you are, Lori? Well, come to find out, they were both struggling. So it’s kind of like, you don’t know what you don’t know. And so I go down this path, and I get a bit of an insider’s look from somebody who had actually worked for one of the companies, and it was not good. And I was like, oh my gosh, so I started down this path because I thought this was possible. I didn’t bother to dig in as much as I probably should have, even though I did try, but they didn’t respond. And I don’t know to what extent you actually like are going to always get answers from certain things. But if I would have gotten an insider’s look even more, I wouldn’t have done, you know, alcohol and liquid because it is one of the hardest, most regulated. That’s one thing I’ll say. If you’re thinking of going into a business and you get like, you know, CBD, THC, alcohol, anything like that, anything highly regulated, Supplements are still pretty darn regulated, so it’s still a bit of a challenge, but it’s nothing like those other three industries. Like, you are gonna pay hundreds of thousands of dollars just for your attorney’s fees? Just to make sure your can is up to par, your formulation is up to par, your shipping, can you ship to the state, can you sell in the state? You need a crazy legal team to even launch, let alone what could happen on the other side of launching.

Amberly Lago: That just does not sound fun to me, Maureen.

Lori Harder : But I didn’t, these are the things you don’t know going into it. You go in and you’re like, great, the formulation I’ll launch online. I’ll do what they’re doing. I see what they’re doing. You don’t really understand what they’re doing. You know what I mean? So that is, if you’re going to get into something, just dig deeper and have conversations with at least three people who have done it.

Amberly Lago: Yeah. And you know what? That’s just proof too, that, don’t believe everything that you actually kind of see on social media because you don’t really know. It could look successful, but maybe it’s not. You really have to do some digging. So how did you come up with the formula for Glossie and then how does it work and how is it that it tastes so good?

Lori Harder : Okay, so for the, and thank you for that. I’m obsessed with it too. That was the main thing. I was like, I’m not even gonna come up with a supplement or a drinkable supplement or anything flavored unless it’s something I could drink every day. And you know, you and I, we have been around the block with like fitness supplements, like organic stuff, like all of the supplements, we’ve tried it all. And I wanted something that you could drink every day, a few times a day. and you wouldn’t get sick of it. And that takes a lot of trial and error for sure. And there’s so many different palettes out there as well. So how did I come up with it? So when we were doing light pink, I was starting to see that we were losing our margins. And I was like, oh my God, I need to think of like, I should start thinking of an upsell, like something on the website, you know, that we could be like, okay, do you want this as well? So that we can get that, the average order, it’s called AOV, average order, value or average order basket, sorry, AOV, up. And so with that, I was like, okay, I am so obsessed with these like hydration sticks. I was drinking like all, I was trying all different ones, you know, I like flavored water, but I was running into the same thing as you. It was either too salty, too sweet, too whatever, like I could only, I loved one for two weeks and then hated it after. It was like you just get sick of it, you know, and It was helping me drink water, though, and I’m a huge workout person, so I love to, like, get the electrolytes and, you know, if I can get any vitamins in or anything like that. And I looked down at this particular stick that I was using at the time, and I was like, okay, what is, like, the one habit that I know so many people do? I’m like, I know they’re obsessed with these hydration sticks, like, We drink them because we travel. We drink them because we just want to feel more hydrated. We drink them because we want to flavor our water. It’s already like a habit that people are doing. So I was like, okay, I could, you know, this could be something that could easily be replaced. But if I was to replace it, what would I want this stick to do? And I was like, if I’m already doing this, I sure would love to like stop having to take X, Y, and Z. Like, I wish they did more for us. Why don’t these do more? And then I looked at the price of this said stick that I was using, and it was like $45 for a box of 30. And I was like, that’s actually, I guess I’ve never really thought I’m spending $45 a month on these sticks. I was like, that’s a lot. Why don’t we have more good things in this? Because all I’m reading is electrolytes, salt, and sugar, and flavoring. That was it. So I had this epiphany that I’m just drinking really expensive salt and sugar. I was like, okay, gotcha, because the salt wasn’t even anything special. And so I was like, what would I want this to do? And I’m like, well, I’m super into my skin, like beauty and just like, you know, every year I think women are like, you want to take better care of yourself. And as a busy entrepreneur, and I look around at all my friends, I’m like, why doesn’t this like just do a little more make us feel good, maybe it’s wellness and beauty. And so I started thinking about what would the things be that I really wanted this to do. And it was well, gut health, because we know that, you know, if I’ve learned one thing in all of my years of fitness, when people are like, Oh, you look great. I’m like, It’s the food. It’s truly the food that we eat. Because you even said it yourself, you can work out a ton, but if you don’t dial in the nutrition, you don’t see it. And when I don’t eat well, I see it in my skin. Oh, I know.

Amberly Lago: Me too.

Lori Harder : the puffiness in my face, in my body, in every, I don’t feel well, I feel a little off, you know, the, just your pH balance, like everything. So I was like, okay, I’m really, really into taking care of my gut because we know everything is related to your mood, you know, your skin, literally everything is related to your gut. And I was like, okay, So a great probiotic. I have to have magnesium every day. It just makes me feel like a lot more calm. I feel like it helps you go to the bathroom. I feel like it helps when you’re traveling. So many different things. Vitamin C is a huge one for beauty that, you know, with your body doesn’t produce its own vitamin C, obviously, or maybe not obvious to some people. So you have to supplement it because in order for your body to create its own collagen. So in order for us to have collagen synthesis in our bodies for our skin, you have to have vitamin C present or you can’t create it. And a lot of people don’t realize that maybe they’re deficient in vitamin C, which means your skin’s really going to see that because you’re not going to create your own collagen. So we wanted to make sure that we put the right amount of vitamin C in to help with that process as well. And then we have hyaluronic acid, which we have so many awesome studies. I just hired a researcher again to do even more studies on hyaluronic acid. So you guys have probably heard about it for the top of your skin, but your body produces its own hyaluronic acid. And when you take it orally, studies have shown that in as little as 60 days, Participants see a reduction in fine lines, skin elasticity, firmness, plumpness. I feel like it’s one of the most effective ingredients to see visibly in your skin. Because what happens is it holds the water, it helps hold the molecules of water underneath your skin. So if you’re feeling really dehydrated and seeing more fine lines or wrinkles, you probably are literally like your skin is dehydrated. So getting some hyaluronic acid in there, extra hyaluronic acid is going to help you kind of plump all of that out and keep that water underneath your skin, which is awesome. So oral hyaluronic acid is, um, I, a good topical is like important. I love a good topical, but topical can only, um, you can only spot, like you can only spot treat, meaning if I put it on my face, you’re only going to get that on your face. Like if I want it on my hands and arms, you have to put it every day on your hands and arms. And when you wash it off, it’s pretty much done doing what it’s going to do. So what you want to do is when you take it orally, it obviously goes everywhere. It’s going to every single part of your skin. So if you want that full body glow, if you want that full body, like that kind of more plump, dewy, think like summertime humidity, like we hate it, but your skin looks, your skin looks freaking amazing. Bring it. Exactly. That’s why I’m like three sticks a day. I’m like, yes, give me all the hyaluronic acid. And then we have zinc in there, which is great for like skin tone, skin coloration. And then obviously all of these things that I’m saying also have really great wellness side effects. Like we know zinc for, you know, immunity and immune boosting. Um, and then we have prickly pear, which is something called, it’s actually called Nepal cactus, but we call it prickly pear. Um, when you put it on an ingredient panel and that’s been known, uh, like historically for like bloat treating a bunch of, it just has like treated, I can’t really say on here, but if you Google it, it’s, it’s something that’s been around forever, like thousands of years that they’ve used to treat a lot of different things. So it’s great, great, great for your skin. It has fiber in it. And that’s also great for gut, bloat, all the things that we’re going after.

Amberly Lago: Yeah, especially traveling. Like traveling, I feel like just like dehydrated from being on the plane. And I was looking at the price I was paying for an immunity powder that I was putting $4 a packet. Then I was doing the electrolyte packet. Then I was doing the gut health packet. Then I was doing the energy packet. And it’s like, why would I do all of that if I can get everything into one thing that actually tastes good? And so, yeah, two a day. But tell people how they can get it because And this is the best thing, I think, Lori, is that you have it as a subscription. Because I know for me, if I don’t have it as a subscription, I’ll forget. Then I run out. Then I don’t have it. Then, you know, if you’re going to make a commitment, it’s like if you’re going to, you know, you decide you’re going to start working out. Do you just go to the gym and pay for one time each time you go to the gym or do you get a subscription to the gym? Because you know, you’re going to be, you’re committed, you’re going to the gym. That’s why I think it’s awesome that you have like a subscription base, but you also have it where people can just buy it and try it. Tell people how they can find out more about it and how they can taste it and order it and subscribe to it.

Lori Harder : Oh, well, I’m so excited, first of all, because we were able to lower our prices recently. I don’t know if you saw that because now that we have a good customer base, we can order more, which I told you a little bit about the minimum order quantities. The more you order, the more costs can go down. We’ve worked with a couple of different suppliers to really help us. So we went from $79 a month to $59 a month, which is so exciting. And I would love to gift your people a 25% off coupon with code HAPPY. So 25% off of that 59 if you guys sign up for subscription, but you can go to getglossy, G-E-T-G-L-O-C-I dot com and use code happy for 25% off. And you know, you asked about flavor truly when we were doing it, because I learned so much about working with the flavor people when I was formulating the beverage. And I learned I literally took like we went and I feel like I took like two day classes on what makes a good flavor, what makes people come back, what kind of palates, all the different things. So I had that under my belt. And I knew that the really pungent flavors, pungent flavors are people get hooked on them quickly, but they quit them quickly. And so I wanted something that tasted really real, really natural, because I also know my customer, my ideal customer is interested in health. They are probably working on eating better. So like more of those natural flavors. And I wanted it to be as natural as freaking possible. So, you know, we use like essence from lemon, we use monk fruit to sweeten it. So it’s not that super sweet stevia. We just use things that like if there was an ingredient in there that we just couldn’t get around the flavor, because it was going to be terrible, we took it out and did some found something else that would do the same thing, but didn’t have something we had to cover up.

Amberly Lago: Yeah, well, and when you order Do you get this cool bottle when you order a subscription?

Lori Harder : You do right now, but it’s going to be for a limited time. So you probably get it for the next couple months.

Amberly Lago: So you better order it now. Use that 20. Is it, did you say 25?

Lori Harder : Yes. We’re, we’re doing a 25% off coupon for your people.

Amberly Lago: That is so generous. Thank you so much, Lori. You’re amazing. I have always admired you all that you do, all that you build, um, You’re just such an inspiration to me and I love the Glossie and I’m so glad I can get it in one packet now. Like the hydration, the zinc, the all of it.

Lori Harder : You were my ideal. You were the person I was thinking of when I was creating this product. I’m like, who is going to appreciate and love that they have this?

Amberly Lago: Yeah. I, yeah, I, I, I’m all about the puffy, like glowy skin.

Amberly Lago: Yes. Well, you look amazing.

Amberly Lago: So thank you. Um, and you guys, if you’re out for a run or you’re driving, I will have those links in the show notes so you can easily find those. Lori, thank you so much for being on the show. Like I said, this is a dream come true. You were the first person that I thought of years ago and it’s finally happened.

Lori Harder : So thank you. You’re welcome. Thank you so much. This was so fun and thank you too for coming on my show. Thank you.

Amberly Lago: Yeah. Y’all got to head over to earn your happy and listen to that one. And, um, I just appreciate y’all tuning in. It’s because of you being here and subscribing to the show and sharing it, that it’s made it a top 1% podcast. So thank you so much. And we will see you next week.