From Harvard to Fashion Bomb!!!

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Speaker 1: Calling all my sweeties to the forefront.

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Speaker 2: I'm your host, Christo and this is the Keep It Positive Sweetie Show. Welcome to Keep It Positive, sweetye, the place where we he'll grow and learn together. Today's guest is founder, media executive and the visionary behind fashion Bomb Daily, Claire Somers. Claire Somers is the visionary behind fashion Bomb Daily, a platform shoe built long before digital media became mainstream. Today's conversation is about longevity, leadership, and the quiet discipline required to evolving and staying true to your vision. Kire certainly please give a very warm welcome to Claire Somers. Claire, we've only got you here. You're looking fabulous. It's given a bomb honey, thank you.

00:00:49
Speaker 3: You look off my glasses.

00:00:51
Speaker 2: I mean you really could have kept them on because it was given the whole look.

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Speaker 1: I love it. I have missed the shoes.

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Speaker 3: Yes I tried.

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Speaker 4: I oiled up my legs, but I try not to do it too much because I had this incident on Tairman Hall Show where.

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Speaker 3: Because it's like you don't want to be ashy TV.

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Speaker 4: Yes, I definitely overdid it and I look like a grease ham and all everybody in my family could talk about was how my legs were so shiny.

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Speaker 3: So I tried to talk.

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Speaker 1: They look good. What did you use?

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Speaker 3: I use this vasoline like oil sheen.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I need to get that because that looks good. Thank you. Yes, he has some nice legs.

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Speaker 2: All right, get them insured, girl, get the legs in short. So, Claire, you are actually a native of Atlanta, George, I had no idea.

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Speaker 3: Well, I was born in Brooklyn.

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Speaker 1: Okay, that's what you got back to.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I was raised in Atlanta. So I moved here in nineteen ninety. I was nine years old and went to high school, junior high everything here. Yes, I raised in old Atlanta.

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Speaker 1: Old it's new now it's new now.

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Speaker 2: Everybody who was here back then, it's as like, man, old Atlanta is way better than this Atlanta.

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Speaker 3: It was just different.

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Speaker 4: Man like bye Head and going to Lenox Mall and Freaknick.

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Speaker 3: I mean, have you been have you? I mean I was too young for me.

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Speaker 2: I was too young too, but yes I heard stories and seeing footage.

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Speaker 3: But like we had to.

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Speaker 4: Drive through Freaknick going home from school, and I was just like it was it was something to behold. It was just different and this was Atlanta obviously before like Reality TV, before the Housewives. It was just like I remember going to Lenox Mall seeing Usher Usher be like shopping at foot Locker.

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Speaker 1: Wow.

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Speaker 4: TLC would just be shopping Draine do Pree. They would just be you know, hanging out with us, and it was just it was just different.

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Speaker 1: It was just a cool time, a different time. I love that time to be alive. It was.

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Speaker 2: Man, I've heard the stories. I'm like, Dang, I got here at the towards the end of that era where I feel like, yeah, New Atlanta started to creep in around the time I moved here.

00:03:04
Speaker 1: Big difference.

00:03:06
Speaker 2: But you have a degree in Romance Languages in Literatures and African American Studies from.

00:03:12
Speaker 1: University.

00:03:14
Speaker 2: First of all, how did we get from? Okay, so you're from Brooklyn, Atlanta to Harvard because you don't hear that a lot, especially in our community. So I would love to know how you got there and what that journey was.

00:03:25
Speaker 1: Like for you.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: So my mom is a teacher, Okay, and she had me and my brother reading since we were three years old.

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Speaker 2: Wow.

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Speaker 4: And it was really kind of the culture of our house reading every book you could put your hands on writing, and she was always very intestent on us going to the best schools.

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Speaker 3: So I went to the Westminster Schools.

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Speaker 4: Of Atlanta, Oh here, and I just remember, like in junior high school, I was kind of joking around all the time we were doing dances and the bathroom like if TikTok were oute, we would have been the stars for sure. But I just remember we had this ceremony and people were getting certificates to be on because they made the honor roll, they got good grades, and all these kids got called up and there was like one black kid. It was a majority white school and only one black girl, you know, made honor Roll. And me and my friends we were just laughing in the crowd and one of them was like, I don't care about honor Roll.

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Speaker 3: I'll never be on honor Roll.

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Speaker 4: But for me, I was like something clicked where I was like I want to be up there. I'm not okay in general in life with not being exceptional, and so I just decided that I was going to make honor Roll and I went for it. And so every year I made honor Roll. I was in all the ap classes, all the honor classes. But I didn't ever think of going to Harvard.

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Speaker 3: I think now.

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Speaker 4: People are more aware, maybe, but I'd never thought of going to an Ivy League school. It's really my brother who is actually the true smarty pants, and our family. And it's interesting because I was just spending the weekend with my family here and he picked me up.

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Speaker 3: He's using all these sat words. We go home.

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Speaker 4: He's playing classical music on the piano, and because I've been away from it for so long, I didn't realize this man is a genius. My brother is a freakin genius. And he has haus me as a little sister. And I'm kind of like always dancing and singing and you know, not as serious. But it was my brother who first went to Harvard. Wow, and he was like, you should apply to Harvard. I was very active in school. I you know, did well in terms of my grades, always getting a's and b's. And then I was tennis team, cheerleader, track, I played the viola, I was French club.

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Speaker 3: I was just very involved.

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Speaker 4: And my brother was like, I wanted to go to Columbia. I just wanted to move to New York. But my brother was like.

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Speaker 1: Which is a great school as well? Is a great school?

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Speaker 3: I applied to all the schools.

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Speaker 4: I didn't want to be in Atlanta. Yeah, but I applied to all the schools. And my brother was like, you should apply to Harvard. You should apply early admission. He read over my essay. He recommended I do an extra credit essay, which I did. I went and I met with the regional director, like the regional admissions director for the South, and I got in early.

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Speaker 3: Wow, And I said, yes.

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Speaker 1: Oh my goodness.

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Speaker 2: So I can only imagine what it's like to go to school at Harvard. What was it experience like for you You're coming at from Atlanta going to Harvard, Like, what was that like?

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Speaker 1: It was?

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Speaker 4: It was very interesting. It was a lot of imposter syndrome. I can imagine because the kids in my class, these are kids who, like spoke at the Million Man March, They're the salutatory and valedictorian of their high schools. I was none of that. I was just a girl who did well in school. I went to a grade school, but I was not particularly I was in valedictorian of my school. I definitely wasn't the smartest and so just coming to terms with like I deserve to be here, it really took me a really long time to understand why they said yes to me. And then you know, coming from the South, I'm here smiling and happy. I'm like hey, and you're just like you know, and people you can meet the night before, they won't They'll like literally look right through you the next day. And so it's just like a northern thing. Yeah, that it took me a little. It took me a little while to get used to that. And the weather of course, the snow days, Like you can get snow up to your waist and they're still having class.

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Speaker 1: And you're like, oh, snow day, They're like no.

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Speaker 3: No, in Atlanta, you have like a little dust of snow, they'll be like everything shut down.

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Speaker 4: We literally shut the city down. Yeah, but those are just a few things. But I can say that it was a really unique experience. I have some of the best friends I've ever made from going to Harvard. I think that's one of one of the amazing things about going there, aside from an amazing education and amazing alumni network. And I know I have that work ethic, yes, because of Harvard.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it.

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Speaker 2: Speaking of work ethic, you launched fashion Bomb Daily in two thousand and six. This is a time when digital platform was still Finn in his footing. You were really ahead of your time. What sparked it and made you say? Hey, going from Harvard because you studied did not study fashion?

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Speaker 3: I did not study fashion, y'all.

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Speaker 4: They do not have a fashion major at Harvard.

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Speaker 3: It just doesn't.

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Speaker 1: So where did that come from.

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Speaker 4: I've always loved to shop. I've always loved to write. My mother sewed clothes for me growing up. My grandfather was a master taylor in Nasaw, Bahamas. He would make tuxedos, wedding dress is. He can make anything, and he taught my mother how to sew. And I remember growing up I was kind of bigger than the other girl, so she would make clothes for me. And so fashion was always one of those things that I loved, but I never thought it could be a career for me. And so initially after I graduated, I was just like, Okay, I like to write, so let me be a writer. My first internship was an upscale magazine here in Atlanta, and I really excelled. They only had an opening in the fashion department. I wanted to write politics. I wanted to be serious and opening in the fashion department, and it just worked out.

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Speaker 3: And while I was.

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Speaker 4: There, I was writing captions and then I was writing cover stories. They were like, Wow, you're really bright, You're really talented. And so by the end of it, I was, you know, modeling in the magazine. I was writing all this stuff and they wanted to hire me. But now I knew that I wanted to be a journalist and be a writer, and so I was like, let me move to New y work, which is like the home of publishing media. Yeah, and I did. I found all the paid internships I could find. I ended up at New York Magazine. I was an intern there making five dollars and fifteen cents an hour. Mind you, at upscale it was completely unpaid New York Magazine five dollars and fifteen cents an hour, working like three days a week, so super broke, super poor. And then I got a job at Real Simple magazine. I just wanted a full time job. It was like a year and a half of interning for like no money, no health insurance, et cetera.

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Speaker 3: In New York.

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Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, and like say, staying with friends and staying with family. But then I got my first full time job, but it wasn't the perfect job. So I was a researcher reporter at Real Simple magazine, Okay, And while I was there, I was doing the fashion and I was doing beauty. I was like researching for their stories, but they I could not get into the fact department they would have. They would be like, oh, yeah, we're searching for a fashion editor, but they would hire somebody else, or they would find somebody from outside. And I was like, oh, can you create a position for me, can create a fashion researcher position?

00:11:13
Speaker 3: And they were like no, And I always asked.

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Speaker 4: I'm sure I was wearing them out because I was like, can we do something? Can I get a raise? Can I get a promotion? And they were just like, sit right there and do what you're supposed to do. And so I was kind of looking around, seeing where else I could go, sending my resume to Vogue, trying to get informational interviews. At Vogue, they told me they did not want to see me because I was not a candidate that they would be interested in. I was not getting anywhere. With the Harvard degree and the internships I had done, I just could not get an even entry level job at a fashion magazine. So that's when I decided. At the recommendation of one of my Harvard friends who helped me make a website, she was like, you should start a blog.

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Speaker 2: Wow.

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Speaker 4: And at the time I was just writing about myself and me going shopping and it was extremely boring until somebody wrote in and they were like where they sent a random picture there, like where can I find these socks? And because I was a researcher, I found them and then I was like, oh, people want to People were sending me questions about what are these bandage dresses girls are wearing, what are these red bottom shoes people are wearing? And so you know, it was like Christian lubutin shoes, you know, the Erbila gair dresses, which were big, and I really just found a niche for women who look like me and you, women and men who look like me and you who were not being covered in traditional media.

00:12:42
Speaker 3: And it took off.

00:12:44
Speaker 1: It did take off, and that was two wow.

00:12:46
Speaker 4: Twenty years later, twenty years, it'll be twenty years in August.

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Speaker 2: You gotta do something, Claire, I know yours. Yeah, that is no small feet, Like I'm proud of you.

00:12:58
Speaker 1: I didn't rise.

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Speaker 2: It have been a long and what started off as knows from people that you probably look up to and wanted to really work for, is what.

00:13:08
Speaker 1: Started your own brand. I love it.

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Speaker 2: I don't want people to miss that because a lot of times we feel like we had to wait on other people to give us the opportunity when we can build it ourselves. Shout out to your friend that say we're going to build this website.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and I was afraid. I was afraid to do it. I was working a full time job. I had heard people getting fired from their jobs for creating blogs, so it was.

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Speaker 3: Really a risk.

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Speaker 1: That's so true.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and I really just had a great boss who looked the other way, because lord knows, I was definitely blogging from my desk. I did take my lunch breaks to blog, and over the weekends, I would, you know, schedule a bunch of posts over the weekends. But yeah, it took off an event. I mean, I'm really condensing this story. It probably took about two years before people started stopping me on the train like, hey, you can have my seat. Your fashion bomb okay, And I was like, I can't do this, I can't work I can't go to work every day, I can't commute every day.

00:14:07
Speaker 3: Let me get out of here.

00:14:08
Speaker 2: So two years from starting is when you realize this is like and I can give it my.

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Speaker 4: That's not when I started doing it full time, but that's when I was like, I need to shift and I can't go to this job every day anymore. Because after two years, that's when I had snuck in. Okay, so I was sneaking into all these things. I'd read Comorley Simmons' book Fabulosity, which was my only blueprint for what to do to get into fashion. I was not getting invited to anything. The best I could do is go to a museum and cover it. But I was not privy to any fashion events. But because I worked at a magazine, I did know that when New York Fashion Week was coming, and I knew like when the Baby Fat Show was going on, they there were editors at my magazine who were invited, but I didn't have an invite, And Camorley.

00:15:02
Speaker 3: Was like, gate crash the show, and you're like.

00:15:06
Speaker 1: This, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna grass the show.

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Speaker 4: But the crazy thing is I was the only blogger, Like I was one of the first bloggers at New York Fashion Week. So the bigger platforms at the time, like Young Black and Fabulous, Concrete Loop Bossip, they would link back to me because I had these exclusive pictures.

00:15:25
Speaker 3: And I didn't even know. I didn't know.

00:15:27
Speaker 4: I had no idea that me and my digital camera were like the first bloggers at Baby Fat and I was.

00:15:34
Speaker 3: So so green.

00:15:37
Speaker 4: I was so excited that I was taking pictures with everybody like you you should.

00:15:42
Speaker 3: You can go back and look at the pictures.

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Speaker 4: It's like me and Monica, me and Tiana Taylor, Serena Williams. I'm literally doing this with everybody because I'm like, if this is the last fashion show I go to, I'm gonna make sure I take pictures of it.

00:15:55
Speaker 1: I love it.

00:15:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to know what were some of the the roadblocks that you ran into as you were building Fashion Bomb Daily to what we know it to be now.

00:16:06
Speaker 3: It's access, always access.

00:16:08
Speaker 1: It's still would say, is that still a thing?

00:16:10
Speaker 3: It's still a thing? Yeah?

00:16:13
Speaker 1: What do you think that is? Claire?

00:16:17
Speaker 3: Hmm.

00:16:20
Speaker 4: You know, sometimes it's that I'm not asking the right way, like this morning, because sometimes I'm like.

00:16:26
Speaker 3: They're racist, you know what I mean.

00:16:29
Speaker 4: But then sometimes it's like you didn't ask. So this morning I was like, Okay, let me apply for press accreditation. For New York they don't do that anymore, but for Paris and Milan they do do that. Okay, So I'm like, let me apply for press accreditation. Do it the right way. Same thing with the Golden Globes, same thing with CFDA Awards or even the Met Gala. I don't think I applied for press accreditation until like this year.

00:16:56
Speaker 1: Oh wow, and it happens.

00:16:57
Speaker 3: And it happened.

00:16:58
Speaker 1: Did the Met you did the Golden Globes? Oh my goodness.

00:17:01
Speaker 4: But you know, in the past, I have reached out to brands and they're not always receptive. They don't always understand our audience. They don't I don't know if they don't know our buying power, because obviously.

00:17:13
Speaker 3: Our buying power is high, very high.

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Speaker 4: But I feel like they don't feel the need to cater to us, like they don't need to have a black woman in a Chanelle ad for black women to buy Chanelle. Like we will patronize these brands even if they don't necessarily respect our dollar or respect us as consumers. I think things are changing, Like I did see Louis Vauton. Their recent ambassadors are like all black.

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Speaker 1: I saw that. I was like, wow, it's.

00:17:50
Speaker 4: Like Skepta and some footballer. I'm like, okay, Like I think Louis Vauton definitely gets it. Obviously, with Pharrell and Virgil Eeblow and like all the black creative directors.

00:18:03
Speaker 3: They've had, they get it.

00:18:05
Speaker 1: They do.

00:18:06
Speaker 4: But I don't know if a lot of brands have always gotten it right. But now they're starting to understand. And I hope that Fashion Bomb Daily was a part of the reason why they're starting to shift and be more inclusive, because when I first started, it was not like that at all.

00:18:23
Speaker 2: Right, I can imagine I can imagine also leaving you with a sense of defeat, like just feeling like, man, I've.

00:18:29
Speaker 1: Climbed this ladder.

00:18:31
Speaker 2: I'm here, my brand is known worldwide, and I still can't get in certain doors, you know, Like even for me, like as an actor, I'm like millions people watch me on TV.

00:18:42
Speaker 1: I'm on the number one show.

00:18:43
Speaker 2: And I go to my own networks events and it's like I'm like, yeah, wow, it's not a good feeling, you know, when you've worked really hard to get to where you are and thinking that you would have access and not in a like, oh I need to have access to all these things, not in that type of sand. But I've worked really hard and you think that comes along with it, and it doesn't sometimes.

00:19:05
Speaker 4: Yeah, but you know how good God is talk about it because nothing can stop his plans for you.

00:19:12
Speaker 3: No man can stop his plans for you.

00:19:14
Speaker 4: We have paparazzi photographers right now in Paris who are sending us footage, inviting us to collaborate for all these different shows. There are people like Jeremy who send us footage from the show. So it's like I don't need to be in there as long as we're getting the footage.

00:19:32
Speaker 3: So there is a way. I've found a way around it.

00:19:36
Speaker 1: I love that. Yeah, And that's a good way to look at it too. Yeah.

00:19:39
Speaker 4: And also when I first started, I focused on black owned brands because you know, we're a black owned We are a black owned brand. So it's like, Okay, the only shows I'm going to aspire to go to our baby Fat Tracy Reese. They're only a handful, you know. And now it's kind of still the same way, but you know, always hoping to expand, hoping people can feel our presence. And I feel really good about this year. I feel like this is going to be the year where like hopefully all the doors open up.

00:20:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, and now that you're putting in those credential submissions, I'm sure because I'm glad you're Like, it's the way I was asking, and sometimes I like the way you had to you reflected, like, wait, let's take inventory and figure out what is really the issue?

00:20:22
Speaker 1: Yeah?

00:20:22
Speaker 2: Is it because they don't want me there because I'm not asking the right way?

00:20:25
Speaker 3: Right?

00:20:26
Speaker 4: Sending the emails or the dms is not necessarily how everybody operates for sure, like some in France, if they perhaps if they know that I'm a credited press, then then they'll let me come. And then some brands you have to just be a consumer. Yeah, you have to buy the brand and then they'll give you tickets.

00:20:43
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, no, that's true as well.

00:20:46
Speaker 2: When you look at look back at the version of you, Now, what do you feel most proud about, whether it's professionally or personally?

00:20:56
Speaker 4: Wow, what do I feel most proud about?

00:21:00
Speaker 2: Because this is twenty years maybe, Yeah, a lot has happened.

00:21:04
Speaker 4: Just overcoming a lot of adversity, yeah, you know, and refusing to be better, refusing to accept, no, creating my own seat at the table.

00:21:15
Speaker 3: When they wouldn't give me a seat at the table.

00:21:18
Speaker 4: Just like the fact that I didn't quit, Yeah, because a lot of the brands that I mentioned that were around when I first started, they're not here anymore, or they didn't go on to Instagram, they didn't you know, they wanted to stay in the blocks in the blog space, or they literally just quit. Like we know so many people who are like, I'm not doing this anymore and I'm going to start something else. Yeah, And so I think, just my tenacity, my perseverance, I'm not going to quit. Sometimes I want to quit, but I've learned when you want to quit, just take a nap, maybe learn to rest. But got it, but not quit because I do want to find I mean, my goal was to have an exit.

00:22:05
Speaker 3: In twenty years would be beautiful, right, But.

00:22:08
Speaker 4: If it's not happening, Like I'm always down for God's timing, Like whenever it's God's time for me to stop, then I'm ready to do that. But until that time, then I'm going to keep rocking.

00:22:20
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:22:20
Speaker 2: Fashion, no, for sure, Now Fashion Bomb Daily grew from a blog into a business spanning editorial, e commerce, brand partnerships, and love events. When did you realize this was bigger than just content?

00:22:36
Speaker 4: When did I realize it was bigger than just content? I think maybe with Fashion Bomb Show of the Day, when people started submitting for Fashion Bomb Show of the Day. But then also I think I had my first I used to call it Cocktails with Claire. Now it's called Combos with Claire, But I had my first Cocktails with Claire and people I was just like, oh, you know, let's have reader come and we'll meet and greet and we'll have cocktails. And every event would sell out. We'd put out the tickets and people just buy them, you know, and just seeing that event bright notification go off. So yeah, I think that first event that we had in twenty thirteen, I was like, there's something here, and just always continuing to diversify and seeing like what is.

00:23:22
Speaker 3: The void in the industry?

00:23:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, there aren't models of color on the runway, Let's have our own runway show. There aren't designers black designers showing during New York Fashion Week The Bomb Fashion Show. Okay, there are people who come to New York Fashion Week. They don't have anything to do, so let's have let's have an event. Yeah you know, or you know black designers don't have mentorship, or young let's say emerging designers, they don't have mentorship. Let's create an e commerce platform. So always trying to be the solution. When I see problems in the fashion industry, I try to be that solution and use my platform to try to elevate and uplift other people.

00:24:00
Speaker 1: I love it. I love that now.

00:24:03
Speaker 2: I know for me as a content creator, in the beginning, I was doing everything on my own. I was writing, I was editing, I was shooting at everything. How was that shift from going this is just Claire to now I have a team helping do all. You got people across the world we do you know, Like what was that shift?

00:24:22
Speaker 1: And like did you as a person this is your baby? What was it like?

00:24:27
Speaker 2: Okay, now I'm going to allow other people to have a hand in this thing that I built from the ground up.

00:24:32
Speaker 3: From the beginning, we had interns.

00:24:34
Speaker 4: I remember we had intern contests at First Wow. So every year we would it would do it would be a reader competition for who could be the next fashion Bomb intern and so really kind of from the beginning, I had people helping me, and then we started to find different contributors, Like there are two girls from Brazil who run our run our Instagram page. So I run the Instagram page kind of in the morning, late at night, but they run it in the evenings. And then we have a different team that does advertising. We have a different team for events. But I think as the needs come, you know, you kind of fill in where you can and then just get the best people that you can afford as you continue to scale.

00:25:19
Speaker 2: Right, how did you learn the difference between being like hands on and holding on too tight? Or you are you one of those people that are like, no, I don't want I need to be a part of every little thing.

00:25:29
Speaker 3: No, I can't because I need to have a life.

00:25:33
Speaker 1: Mama's got to live a life too.

00:25:34
Speaker 3: You know. I don't want to be on my phone all day.

00:25:37
Speaker 4: I don't want to, right, I really don't want to be a fifty year old woman. I mean not to say that there's anything wrong with that, but I'm like, I want to be sitting down somewhere on the beach.

00:25:48
Speaker 1: Listen, get me on the beach, right, you know.

00:25:51
Speaker 3: Like I don't.

00:25:52
Speaker 4: I don't like, and I do think it's important to mentor the next generation to try to bring up someone else who's interested. And thankfully, because of our platform and how many people that you know, all of our followers, we have a lot of people who are always willing to do red carpets for us, help us with social media. We always have like people who are willing to help. And even I keep going back to this photographer in Paris who's sending us all this content. It's not perfect he you know, he mixes up him and her.

00:26:26
Speaker 3: I think he called Jaden Smith her the other day.

00:26:29
Speaker 4: I'm like, no, like the pronouns are all wrong, but it's content. So I'm like, and we like to have the perfect grid as well, yes, but I'm just like, people don't care. People don't even read the captions. Like you could literally be like she is wearing the point and they'll be like, where's that from?

00:26:46
Speaker 1: And I'm just like, loved point right.

00:26:48
Speaker 4: But you know, I think I cannot be obsessed with perfection, Like it's impossible, it's unattainable. And at the end of the day, we put our readers first, so whatever they want to see that's what we're going to give them, even if it's not tied up in a pretty bow. And sometimes it's better that way.

00:27:06
Speaker 2: I feel like the social media's moving more and more further away from the perfect content they want to see the real they do.

00:27:14
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:27:15
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:27:15
Speaker 4: One of my most popular posts was be with no makeup on, and I'm like, really, yeah, yeah.

00:27:22
Speaker 1: So I love it.

00:27:24
Speaker 2: Somebody was talking I did an interview the other day and they're like, you taught me.

00:27:27
Speaker 1: How to put a wig on.

00:27:28
Speaker 2: She's like, I would never get online with like putting my hair, and I'm like, I mean, yeah, it's real.

00:27:34
Speaker 1: This is real life.

00:27:36
Speaker 3: People love that.

00:27:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, for sure. What does ownership mean to you?

00:27:41
Speaker 2: I know in our culture, I feel like in the most recent years, we've been driving home ownership, own your things, building created because that's what everyone else is doing. We need to own our own things as well. What does it mean to you, especially in this space?

00:27:56
Speaker 3: Hmm?

00:27:57
Speaker 4: What does ownership mean to me? I think it's important for us to maintain this infrastructure going on between businesses, Like I think back to Black Wall Street and how powerful that was and all the black owned businesses that were raised to the ground and I'm just like, I want us to keep it in the community if possible, but obviously always welcome collaborators. I mean, our team is multi racial, international, you know, but I think it's important for us to own our story and our narrative because we do have a unique point of view and a unique take. And how Vogue might cover Pharrell's Louis Baitton show is different from how we would cover it, you know. Like I think I saw a video it was Pharrell's final walk for Louis Baton, and it was like classical music, and I'm like, okay, on Fashion Bound Daily, we're putting front in, you know, because it's just you know, our music, our our style, like the way that we see the world is different, and that's okay, it is, yeah, but you can't just keep not taking our culture.

00:29:10
Speaker 3: But it's like we we should have a.

00:29:12
Speaker 4: Say and how we're represented. No, for sure, the sounds and the vines and everything. So that's really important to me.

00:29:20
Speaker 2: Very I love that now you're running a brand that is everybody knows when they simultaneously Fashion Mom Daily and Claire Somr's is like hand in hand.

00:29:30
Speaker 3: People don't know me though, really.

00:29:32
Speaker 1: No, I feel like they do.

00:29:34
Speaker 3: You don't know.

00:29:35
Speaker 4: People are like I didn't know you were a woman. I thought you were a man. People don't know anything about me. They think I live in Atlanta.

00:29:44
Speaker 3: They know because you are here.

00:29:45
Speaker 1: I feel like you are here, like.

00:29:46
Speaker 3: I am here quite a bit. I was just here like ten days ago.

00:29:50
Speaker 2: Literally, Yeah, are you seriously? I guess because I know. I feel like everybody knew, like this is your jam.

00:29:58
Speaker 4: People don't know me like I'm in the if you go to their profile description, I'm right there, right there, and they don't know.

00:30:05
Speaker 3: Some people do.

00:30:07
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:30:08
Speaker 2: So the people that have have you been able to separate like this is who Claire is and this is the business. I guess you really haven't had a hard time with that because you don't think anybody knows.

00:30:18
Speaker 1: I think more people know than you think know me.

00:30:21
Speaker 4: I mean, I do think that this year is the year of the pivot, where I'm going to focus more on my personal brand and the things that I want to do. I have another book in me, I want to do TV. I want to do more, you know, more books, more projects, just like do more cleare stuff. Have my own podcasts, yes, you know, combos with Claire. Yeah, there's so much more that I want to do, and so, you know, I think a slight separation of Claaren and Fashion Bomb Daily is underway. I won't abandon my baby until it has a good home, obviously, but.

00:30:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I love it now. I want to know more.

00:31:02
Speaker 2: On a personal tip, you are very busy. I feel like you've always got something going on. How do you as women one boss woman to another boss woman? How do you pour into Claire? What does that day to day look like from running this business and then also taking time for Claire.

00:31:18
Speaker 4: I don't take time for Clere. I'm like, okay, every morning I do try to work out, Okay, at least twenty minutes. If I don't have anything to do all day, I will be in the gym for like ninety minutes. I got a little Apple watch here, I'm going for it. I'm lifting weights, I'm running, I'm doing all the things. A side leg look, oh thank you. I mean, for example, for my birthday, what do I do? Okay, my birthday was a day after the Golden Globes. I slept in, had a nice dinner with my boo, a little bubble bath, you know, but I need more of that I definitely need like a spa day, I need a massage, I need all those things. And I feel like, you're really good at doing this. I'm not good at doing it.

00:32:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like I schedule massages at least every other week. That's good, Like because I carry all the stress in my shoulders and I have to, like it's just one of those things where I have to like take care of Crystal, right, you know, it's so much. And then with working now, like that's a part of the recovery. And I look at it's like this is why I'm taking care of my body. But also like having a moment to put the phone down right, not respond, not answered, it's a reason to escape.

00:32:33
Speaker 1: So I would challenge you to definitely take time for that.

00:32:36
Speaker 4: I'm trying my goal. One of my goals I wrote down three hundred goals this year inspired by Steve Harvey. But one of my goals is to take a vacation. Because it's funny. I don't take vacations.

00:32:51
Speaker 3: I just don't.

00:32:52
Speaker 4: And I would have assistants who would be like, do this, and they're like, I'm taking a vacation. I'm like, how how do my assistant have vacation time, Like what the va to go vation?

00:33:04
Speaker 3: I don't have time to go on vacation. I think that.

00:33:10
Speaker 4: Unfortunately for some black boss ladies, like we we are pioneers in our field. We have a lot on our shoulders. So things that we're doing are not just for us, they're for the culture. Therefore, the young girls looking up to us. And so even though I can be exhausted or you know, frustrated I didn't get to get into this show or that show, I'm like, I have to keep showing up because my job is not done, you know, like the calling that God has put on my life. I have not completed that assignment yet. So I'll take a day. Yeah, I'll go to Nobu and you know, luxuriate a little bit, but then it's back to work to figuring out that balance is important and so I'm still striving to do that.

00:34:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that.

00:34:05
Speaker 2: Have you experienced any burnout over the years where you're like, okay, I just this is I'm in over.

00:34:10
Speaker 1: My head here.

00:34:12
Speaker 3: No, I don't burn out, honey, I just keeping like.

00:34:16
Speaker 4: I do take naps, I do sleep in, I do watch mindless television. I don't even want to tell you what I watch on TV.

00:34:25
Speaker 3: It is terrible.

00:34:26
Speaker 4: It's like every every housewives show, every reality show, every love after lock up.

00:34:32
Speaker 1: Love after lock up, that's your guilty pleasure. I love it.

00:34:35
Speaker 3: It gets worse.

00:34:39
Speaker 4: Okay, there are these bodycam videos police bodycam. It's like people acting up in the airport and getting locked up all during Christmas holiday.

00:34:51
Speaker 3: I could not stop watching them.

00:34:52
Speaker 1: I was like, there's a TV.

00:34:53
Speaker 3: Show with no it's all on YouTube.

00:34:55
Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, every YouTuber who's reviewing the the reality shows. Like that's kind of how it's like mindless entertainment. Maybe I'll laugh a little bit, but that's kind of how.

00:35:09
Speaker 1: I relax, but.

00:35:11
Speaker 3: Burnout. I just I don't know.

00:35:13
Speaker 4: I just really feel like I have something to do, and like we don't have a Black Vogue we had, we had Suede magazine that shut down. We had Vibe Vixin that doesn't exist anymore. We don't have anything for us.

00:35:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I don't.

00:35:31
Speaker 4: I'm just like holding myself to the task that you have to keep going even if you're tired, take a break, take a nap, and just keep keep it going.

00:35:42
Speaker 2: You know, you talk about the books, you talk about it. I want to get into Teta and film. You talk about magazines. Is a magazine something that is a goal for fashion Bomb Daily? No.

00:35:54
Speaker 4: I think print is done, Prince is done. I think that fashion Bomb can keep going as it is. I mean I think having like some sort of everybody's telling me I should do a fashion Police style show, or everybody's telling me we should do There's nothing like.

00:36:11
Speaker 1: That anymore, No, not for us. It'll be good and get like, oh my goodness, you should do that.

00:36:18
Speaker 2: There's so many ideas that's funny, Like you I could see ooh it's Lawrence.

00:36:26
Speaker 1: I guess you is Laurens and like somebody else get together? Can you see that where is? Yes?

00:36:36
Speaker 4: I'm serious, there's I think fashion Bomb Daily as a vehicle because of the red carpets, because of the litany of celebrity events that we see, like there will always be a place for that day to day you know, your your fix of celebrity style and news. But I think it's really about how do we expand upon this platform, how do we continue you to bring you know, interesting in new things, unique things to our followers.

00:37:07
Speaker 1: I love that.

00:37:08
Speaker 2: That's why I can understand why you don't stop and why you keep going because there is so much in this space and so many voice to be feeled.

00:37:15
Speaker 1: So I understand and you're created. We do need it.

00:37:19
Speaker 4: Like black people in fashion, who's going to cover you know? Like Vogue, Vogue, They've done it. I hate to keep bringing it Vogue, God bless Folk. They're great, but they don't cover Data Chiefs and Dusty or no. Like there are people in our culture who are amazing. They have great style. Yeah, and you know that's so true on the platform for them hopefully.

00:37:44
Speaker 1: Oh man, I love that. As you're looking ahead to everything that you want to do. What are you most excited about my book? The book? Okay, can you tell us, like what the book is going to be about?

00:37:55
Speaker 3: Well, okay, did you do the twenty sixteen challenge the.

00:37:59
Speaker 1: Twenty sixteen Yeah? I did, Yeah, I did, Yeah, yeah, post it.

00:38:02
Speaker 2: So it's actually shocked because you know, you go back and be like, oh lord, like the it's always somebody like what was I thinking?

00:38:08
Speaker 3: Yeah?

00:38:08
Speaker 1: I was actually proud of twenty sixteen. Crystal.

00:38:11
Speaker 3: I wore a lot of superhero costumes. It was like a lot of caps. I'm like, what are you doing? What is that? What are you wearing?

00:38:19
Speaker 1: I think I had a cake too. I gotta go like a.

00:38:22
Speaker 3: Few cape had.

00:38:24
Speaker 4: It was like a jumpsuit with a cape. I'm like, Claire, my friends are standing right there. I'm like, how could you let me?

00:38:30
Speaker 1: They probably had the house.

00:38:34
Speaker 4: But I wrote my first book in twenty sixteen. I self published, So this time I want to get a publisher for it. But my first book was a memoir, self help book called The Bomb Life, My Brand, my Terms, and it was just about my origin story, you know, how I started Fashion Bomb and if you want to follow in my steps you can too, and some pictures, et cetera. So there have been a lot of things that have happened since then. I cut my locks, we were disabled, and we got our age back, you know, the Mett GALAXYFT Awards. A lot of things have happened, so it's really like a part two.

00:39:06
Speaker 1: I forgot about the lugs.

00:39:08
Speaker 3: You forgot about my locks? Yes, yeah, I had blonde lots.

00:39:12
Speaker 1: You sure did?

00:39:13
Speaker 3: People still ask me about them. They're like, I missed the locks.

00:39:16
Speaker 1: I see it right now, Wow, Yeah.

00:39:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're stuck on those lots. In twenty sixteen was our first award show. We gave an Award to Tiana Taylor and Justine Sky and Tracy Reese's first award show I did it with Ty Hunter and yeah, I love Tie. So I'm like, we need to keep doing it. We just need to keep going. Yeah, keep getting getting bigger and better.

00:39:43
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it well.

00:39:45
Speaker 2: We are excited to support you however we can and the kids community. I'm excited for you. Thank you for coming to City Down.

00:39:52
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, this episode was.

00:39:55
Speaker 2: A reminder to always have the audacity to dream. Thank you guys so much for tuning in to another episode of the Keep It Positive Sweetie Show.

00:40:04
Speaker 1: Be sure to subscribe, share this episode with someone who.

00:40:07
Speaker 2: Could use a little positivity and is always Stay blessed, stay encouraged, and keep it positive, Sweetie.

00:40:13
Speaker 1: I'll see you guys next time.