Sophia Amoruso: Intuition, Grit, & Working with What You Have

Sophia Amoruso is a creative visionary, pioneering entrepreneur, and fashion doyenne. As founder of Nasty Gal, she has forged an unprecedented path in building a brand in the teenage years of the Internet. Amoruso released the paperback edition of her New York Times 18-week best-seller #GIRLBOSS in 2015. It was recently announced that Amoruso has teamed up with Charlize Theron to Executive Produce the #GIRLBOSS comedy series on Netflix. Amoruso recently launched her first podcast, #GIRLBOSS Radio, in partnership with Slate and Panoply. On October 4th, 2016, Amoruso will release her second book, NASTY GALAXY. It will be part scrapbook and part inspo-journey, with moments of frivolity scattered throughout.

In today’s episode,

Sophia and I talk about the hustle, grit, creativity and courage it takes to start from nothing. She says: There’s no right way. There’s what you have and what you do with you have. And that’s the right way.
Learning by doing – there is a muscle memory that you develop that you cannot get from books or other means
The power of storytelling. There is a ripple effect that comes from telling our stories and it’s impact.

and much much more.

There’s no right way. There’s what you have and what you do with you have. And that’s the right way.

FOLLOW SOPHIA:
website | twitter | facebook

Watch the Episode

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Listen to the Podcast

Some Questions I Ask:

What’s your backstory? [2:25]
Was it survival that you just needed to make enough money to live? [6:36]
Would you say that you stumbled into something that worked rather than setting out to be something? [10:00]
Did you know that you were hacking the system? [13:29]
What do you think about the power of photography? [14:55]
Did you have a “break” or did you have a bunch of little breaks? [16:44]
How long did you have no employees? [19:22]
Did you have a sense of scalability or lack of scalability? [20:15]
Most entrepreneurs that I know are just trying to build something that they care about and that adds value to themselves and to others. How do you separate yourself from the bullshit? [21:08]
Did you know that you had a talent in spotting vintage or fashion? [24:54]
When you had millions in your bank account, did you realize that you had a hell of a business on your hands? [26:08]
Is your way the right way? [28:05]
At what point did you realize that people were really passionate about you and your personal story? [29:12]
How do you feel about inequality between men and women in Silicon Valley and your industry? [32:53]
Tell us about the Girlboss shows. [35:34]
Did you cultivate turning your book into a show or did it just happen? [39:00]
What role does community play for you? [39:54]
Who inspires you? [42:00]
How intentional are you? [43:26]
When does your method of piling on so much work that you have to dig yourself out bite you in the ass? [44:10]
What have I not asked you that you’d like to share? [46:14]

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

Sophia didn’t set out to be an entrepreneur. She didn’t know what to do after getting a hernia fixed so figured she might as well “sell shit on eBay”. [6:30]
Step one: eBay for Dummies. [7:07]
Every laborious step that Sophia put into selling each single item on eBay. [7:50]
The beauty of selling non designer vintage is that there is no real value. [8:40]
How Sophia found her demographic with suspect legality. [12:15]
When you’re upsetting your peers with your success, consider it a break. [18:10]
How Sophia thinks about building a business and building her pile of money. It’s simple. And brilliant. [23:29]
“Business is making money from your talent.” [24:18]
You don’t have to have all the lingo or all the friends. Just keep choosing to persue the better ideas. [26:03]
You can learn anything you need to. [26:35]
Sophia set out to write the book that was the gateway drug to the business section for the girls who think business is for squares. [31:47]
The greatest change is made from how you treat the people around you. Sharing our stories makes other people feel capable, and it’s free. [33:48]
Be likable. Things get done faster if people like you. [39:19]
Life is hard, even when you’re sipping cider in beautiful LA. [42:20]
Sophia’s new book, Nasty Galaxy, releases in October. [44:40]

This podcast is brought to you by CreativeLive. CreativeLive is the world’s largest hub for online creative education in photo/video, art/design, music/audio, craft/maker, money/life and the ability to make a living in any of those disciplines. They are high quality, highly curated classes taught by the world’s top experts — Pulitzer, Oscar, Grammy Award winners, New York Times best selling authors and the best entrepreneurs of our times.