She's a power house and a style star,

named one of Forbes Top 10 Fashion Influencers of 2017

and Eggie has grossed over one million dollars.

(audience cheering)

But she's a success story.

She's also an amazing person

and thank you so much for closing out our program.

Welcome Jenn to the stage.

(audience cheering)

- Damn. Okay, what an introduction.

Today my talk is about becoming a boss

and I feel like when you hear the word boss,

you got two reactions to it.

You've got, Ooh, I want to be the boss

and then you've got the other side who's like,

I don't want to be the boss.

That's way too much responsibility.

And, you know, for a long time I was on the other side.

I didn't think I could be a boss and, well, here I am today.

So I learned five pillars that I wanted to share with y'all.

First pillar is to self-reflect.

Before you get started, you have to really focus

and see what you're all about.

You gotta ask yourself some tough questions.

I guess they're basic.

You've got, What's your business?

What's it gonna look like in five years?

Why did you start this?

You should know all this

but, you know, for a long time, I didn't know.

(audience laughing)

I just thought it was something I could put off.

Those are tough.

It's honestly like, you know,

when you're filling out your Instagram bio,

you're like, How do I describe myself?

Hmm, emoji.

I started in 2010 and at the time,

my YouTube channel was something that sparked joy,

if you will.

Marie Kondo, yeah, I was in community college.

I got rejected from all my dream schools.

UC Berkley, this is my circumstance.

I was living in my parents' house.

I was working at a smoothie shop

and YouTube was the place where I could be myself.

I had a creative outlet and I had no idea

that it would be what it is today

and all I knew is that I wanted to continue it

and I wanted to be consistent.

So, things got pretty serious in 2013.

There I am at my first fashion week,

got Stephanie there.

You know, we're walking down.

But yeah, 2013 was pretty serious for me

because that was when I graduated college.

I had to think about where I was going

with my YouTube Channel.

My YouTube suddenly became my source of income

for like three years and I was like,

Okay, I'm gonna make this hobby into a livelihood.

I had a manager/attorney.

I had an agent and I had a bunch of people asking me like,

Where are you going with this?

What is your five-year plan?

And so I was like, Ugh, I should have done this before

but that's when I had to crack down

and I had to self-reflect and answer these tough questions

and now you know I know my channel mission.

It's to make people feel more connected.

It's to make people feel less alone when they're watching.

And as an Asian-American, I want you to see me as an example

that you can thrive in this industry as well.

And then when my clothing line came into the picture, Eggie,

I knew exactly what I wanted

because I had done the hard work.

I was like, Yep, Yep, Yep.

I want it to be a reflection of my personal style.

I want it to be for the consumer

that doesn't want to be labeled in one box.

And because I had reflected,

I had a real good foundation

of what I could build on top of it.

So self-reflect, first step.

Pilar number two: Manage your mind.

Your brain is the biggest asset you have

but it could also be your weakest link.

I feel like managing your mind

can determine your success as an entrepreneur

but it also determines every aspect of your life.

So you should probably figure that out, guys.

So, as a double Virgo, so I was born in September

so I'm a Virgo but my rising is also a Virgo

so it's a lot, guys.

So I just always have this deep urgency to plan ahead

and I feel like it's really helped me in my career

because I'm on top of it and I fear the unknown

and so I always plan ahead.

I want to make things easier for my future self.

I'm always looking out for my future self

because I'm just so concerned.

But the thing is like, you know, you look at my feed,

you look at my YouTube videos and you're like,

Wow, her life is so effortless.

It's so spontaneous.

No, I plan.

I plan a lot for it to look like that because everyday,

we're overwhelmed with so many decisions.

You know, when you wake up every morning,

you have this limited amount of brain juice, science,

and so, you know, you've got your basic decisions like,

What am I gonna wear today?

What am I gonna eat today?

Who am I gonna see today?

You know, those are like basic but they are draining

this, like, limited amount of brain juice you've got.

But then you got your professional decisions like,

How am I gonna respond to this email?

How do I see this difficult co-worker?

What am I gonna film today?

You know, like all these things,

those take up more brain power and the thing is, you know,

after a long day, when it gets to dinner time,

you're on Postmates and you're like,

I don't even know what I want to eat right now.

I'm just stressed.

This is called decision fatigue.

This is when you've made too many damn decisions in one day

and you're just tired and the only way

you can defeat that is planning ahead.

When there's too many options, you become crippled.

It's a paradox of choice.

You know, sometimes when I have a free day,

I look at it and I'm like,

Whoa, I can do anything.

So then I spend my entire day thinking

about what I want to do

and then I end up doing nothing.

So this is why you create rules and you stick to them.

I love this like, ooh, I love guidelines

because when I have guidelines,

I feel like it gives me the strength to be creative.

The first of every month, I sit down on my laptop

and I brainstorm all the videos I can do

and it feels uncomfortable but I still do it.

I don't have to, like, I'm not married

to these video ideas but I give myself some guidelines.

If you're the boss, it's your job

to create these assignments

and it's your job to assign these due dates.

I account for my professional time and my personal time.

If I didn't, I would get nothing done

and I want to live like a really full and rich life.

I am a firm believer of working hard and playing hard.

You guys deserve to do that too.

So once you do that, you need to build your willpower.

I mean, okay, we all have that flaky-ass friend, you know,

and you're like, Hey, let's do dinner

and they're like, Yeah, let's do dinner.

And you're like, How 'bout this day?

And they're like, Yeah, I'll be there

And you're like, No, bitch,

(audience laughs)

like, you're gonna freaking flake.

And the thing is the more times you flake,

the easier it is to flake.

Do not be that flaky-ass friend.

If you say you're gonna do something, freaking do it.

Just freaking do it.

(crowd cheers)

Because the excuse I hear it is just like,

Oh my gosh, I don't have time to do all these things.

I'm so busy.

No, you're doing it wrong.

You need to prioritize your time.

You need to be efficient with your time.

And I know now you're asking me,

How do I be efficient with my time?

I'm glad you asked.

(audience laughs)

Here is a fun activity: set a timer for 20 minutes.

I know this sounds neurotic but I swear to God,

it's helpful in many ways and let me list them.

So, first I set the timer on for 20 minutes

and then, no matter what, I have to focus

on the task at hand.

I'm not doing anything.

I've put my phone on mute.

I'm just focusing on what I said I was gonna focus on

and, you know, 50% of the time, I get that shit done.

20 minutes is a long time.

That's a TV show, guys.

This is a long time and you'll be so surprised

on what you can do in 20 minutes.

Number two, the reason why I like it is

because even if I don't finish it on time,

it like allows me to gauge how long it takes me

to do something and now I know a video treatment,

it takes me 45 minutes to do.

Because I time myself so now when you plan ahead,

you're not just estimating like,

Oh, I don't know how long it's gonna take.

You're gonna be like,

Yes, its gonna take 45 minutes to an hour

so that way you can plan ahead.

So now that you know what you're doing every single day,

you need to work on your will power

and the only way you're gonna do that

is by showing up for yourself every single day.

And your willpower is a muscle.

The more you work on it, the stronger it's gonna get.

It's like the gym.

You know, let's say you have 15 pound weights

and you're like, Oh my god, this is so hard, you know.

But, you know, you show up, you do those reps

and pretty soon, you're like, Oh my god, this is so easy.

I'm gonna go onto the 20 pound weights.

So that's why your willpower is a muscle.

Third pillar: Invest in yourself.

I'm not gonna lie.

I've had many meltdowns and breakdowns

and it took me a long time to realize

that I am my most valuable asset

and if I'm the most important person in my life,

I've got to take care of myself.

So I'm gonna talk about three things

that I will always invest in.

Number one: Therapy.

I think that my mission in life, that's kind of heavy,

but I would say one of my missions in life

is to normalize therapy.

It's not some taboo thing.

Everybody needs therapy.

Even my therapist has a therapist.

We can all use an avenue where we can express

this deep dark side of us and, you know, like stress.

Everyone feels stress and it's gonna manifest in some ways

and if you are not finding a productive and proactive way

to manage your stress,

it's gonna come out in weird ways, y'all.

It's gonna come out through your body.

It's gonna come out through health issues.

It's gonna come out on your friends and you don't want that.

And as someone who cares what,

as someone who really cares about the people in their lives,

I just hated dumping that onto people.