[intro music]
Hey guys, it’s Aileen.
So I recently finished reading #GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso.
If you guys don’t know who she is, she is the founder, CEO, and creative director of
Nasty Gal
This book talks about her life growing up as an outsider to
how she started her eBay store selling vintage clothes online called Nasty Gal Vintage
to how she scaled that to the multi-dollar business it is today as Nasty Gal
So first off, the thing that stood out to me most about this book is Sophia Amoruso’s
attitude.
This girl is strong and confident and successful and she knows it
Sophia is super smart and she really focuses on the work, you know, working hard, working
smart, and the book is just generally very motivating to all the girl bosses out there,
for anyone who has an entrepreneurial mindset or who wants to do something cool with their lives
Today, I want to share 5 lessons I learned reading #GIRLBOSS and without further adieu,
here they are
Lesson #1 - Attention to Detail
From the very beginning, Sophia Amoruso had always paid a lot of attention to detail.
From her photography to her copy on her eBay listing to just how perfectly straight the
shipping label is pasted onto the package
Sophia Amoruso really cared about the details and that is just so important to building
a solid brand and any solid business
because every little part should be intentional
Even today, Sophia talked about how she chooses the photos to go on her website,
so after her photoshoot, she’ll shrink all her photos down to like a tiny tiny size on
the screen, stand back, and blur her eyes,
and whatever images pop from that session, she’ll pick those for her website because
she really understands the importance of thumbnails,
you know, composition of the photos, even if it’s like a tiny tiny thumbnail, it makes
a big difference in your business
Lesson #2 - Be Ahead of the Game
One thing I really admire about Sophia Amoruso is her mentality of being ahead of the game
and going that extra mile so she’s always working hard and working smart.
She talks about her early days of selling vintage on eBay, she would really hit every
thrift store and look at every single item that they had.
She would know their schedules and so when there were new arrivals coming to the thrift
store, she would just like wait for them to put it on the racks and once they put it up,
she would pounce.
And also she scoured Craiglist for estate sales, which are sales when old people die,
I didn’t even know what estate sales were before I read this book,
but she would wake up at 6AM and would wait in line with people who were like 20 years
older than her and
once the estate sale started, everyone would be, you know, going for the antiques, but
she would head straight for the closet to find vintage clothes
This is how she scored Chanel jackets for $8 and was able to sell them on eBay for $1500,
which is huge.
So I really admire her ability to be smart and go that extra mile.
She did more than what she was supposed to do, she did more than what her competitors
were doing and that’s how she became successful
Lesson #3 - Be Super Resourceful
So throughout the book, Sophia really makes a point that she grew up as an outsider,
she wasn’t good at school, and you would never think that she would be as successful
as she is today,
but the reason she became this successful is because she Googled everything
So obviously, in an entrepreneur’s path, in the beginning, you don’t know that much
and you know you don’t know that much so a lot of times people let that lack of knowledge
stop them from going the next step,
when they have an obstacle and they don’t know how to solve it, they just leave it at
that,
but what Sophia Amoruso did was, when she ever came to an obstacle or she just didn’t
know the answer to something,
she would just Google it and research it like crazy.
We have the internet today, which is really all the knowledge that you need at your fingertips,
but you need to know how to use it wisely
So on top of Googling everything, she would turn to YouTube to listen to experts speak
at conferences that she wasn’t able to attend and she would look at similar companies
to see how they structured their company and she would see who they were hiring and once
she found this company hired this person,
she would go on LinkedIn, look at that person, look at their resume, and see what skills
and background it takes to do that specific job
and basically all of that online stalking and researching is how she learned to build
her own business.
Lesson #4 - Dress the Part
I’ve heard this before, but hearing this from Sophia Amoruso really inspired me to
get up and dress up for my life
because how you look on the outside can affect how you feel on the inside,
so if you look confident and put together on the outside, it will make you feel more
confident on the inside.
So most of the times I’m sort of lazy in the way the I dress.
I want to dress super comfortable, if I don’t need to get out of my leggings, I don’t.
But really, I think, this just inspired me to dress up more just because it’s fun,
because you can, and because it makes you feel great. So I’m going to share my favorite
quote from the book now.
Quote >>”While I have the freedom to wear whatever
I want to work, I dress the part. In fact, everyone at Nasty Gal does. When I’m confident
in what I am wearing, it makes me feel more confident throughout the day. Granted, I could
probably negotiate a deal in my pajamas, but I’m a lot more dangerous in a pair of leather
pants and boots that could hurt a fool.”
I love that quote so much cause it shows her attitude. She’s such a cool girl, she is
just such a girl boss and that is Sophia Amoruso for you
Lesson #5 - Stay Hungry | Stay Foolish
What I also love about Sophia Amoruso is just how humble and real she is.
Even though she’s had huge success in her career, she does not let it get to her head
and she just focuses on the work and continuously growing her company.
In her book, she talks about how she is congratulated on a daily basis and how in one year, she
was named all of these business awards
She was Inc’s 30 under 30, CNN’s 40 under 40, she was on Forbes magazine, the cover
of Entrepreneur Magazine,
basically getting a lot of press and being awarded and congratulated for what she’s
done, but she ends that whole section with this line
Quote >>”Remember #GIRLBOSS, it’s not cool to
get drunk on your own success.
And at the end of the book she also touches upon it with this line
Quote >>She says “…once you’ve found success,
don’t stop. It’s not about being insatiable. It’s about not resting on your laurels.”
So I respect this mentality so much, you know. No matter how successful she gets, she just
wants to keep doing better.
She just wants to focus on her work, focus on what she can create, focus on the value
she gives out through Nasty Gal rather than letting all the lights and cameras get to
her head.
Alright, those are my 5 lessons I learned from #GIRLBOSS.
Obviously I learned more than 5 lessons, but I didn’t want this video to be too long.
If you guys want to know more of my favorite quotes from the book, then I included more
in my blog post. The link is below.
Generally, I recommend this book to anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur or is into
fashion or just wants to learn to be more of a confident girl boss in life.
So definitely read #GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso, thanks guys for watching and I’ll see you
in the next one. Bye!