Lorna Luxe On Out-Earning her older husband, building an empire through grief, and why ultimate status symbols are a scam

What happens when you go from cabin crew to scaling a multi-million business empire…only to lose the man who helped make it all happen? Lorna Luxe, founder, creator, and fashion icon, joins Maggie Sellers Reum on Hot Smart Rich to break down the brutal reality of out-earning her 21-year age gap marriage, the undeniable force of “The Lorna Luxe Effect”, and scaling a multi-million dollar business while grieving her late husband, John. Lorna pulls back the curtain on the unedited reality behind her rise: from leaving millions on the table by not monetizing her first 500K followers to turning her everyday hobbies into massive paychecks, and why she doesn't even like her Birkin anymore. Get unselfish access to insights that will help you own the room. Sign up now https://linkly.link/2jPXJ ⸻ Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (01:37) Why You Should Listen to This Conversation With Lorna (05:23) An Emotional Letter from Aimee Smale (07:39) Lorna on Female Friendship (09:40) The ‘Lorna Luxe Effect’ Sales (12:59) Hobbies Becoming Paychecks (14:42) How Being Strange is More Interesting (16:29) Are Authentic Influencer Partnerships Possible? (18:32) Lorna on the Childhood Curiosity (20:15) Inside Her Age Gap Marriage (26:02) Advice on Finding “The One” (29:03) Shopify Ad(30:22) Osea Ad (31:22) Meeting John and Building Millions (36:46) Lorna’s Most Powerful Asset (39:53) How to Monetize Her Business (42:19) Her Husband was Holding Her Back (46:57) Brutal Truths of Scaling a Business (49:57) Financial Literacy and Taking Control of Her Business (58:01) Eight Sleep Ad (59:11) Pique Ad (1:00:08) Navigating Difficult Conversations (1:01:51) Building a Business Through Tragic Grief (1:09:40) The Truth About Building Beauty Brands (1:12:09) Finding Myself After Sudden Loss (1:15:05) Reassessing Wealth After Death (1:16:28) What Does Legacy Actually Mean? (1:18:19) Rapid Fire Questions ⸻ Eight Sleep - https://www.eightsleep.com/hsr and use code HSR for $350 off Osea - Use code HSR for 10% off at http://oseamalibu.com Pique - https://piquelife.com/hsr for 15% off ⸻ Hot Smart Rich: Your Business & Culture Gossip For ambitious women wanting to own the room, gain power, and build wealth. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hotsmartrich/ Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hotsmartrich Maggie Sellers Reum: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maggiesellersreum/ Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@maggiesellersreum LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sellersmaggie/ Locker: https://www.wantlocker.com/users/maggiesellers ShopMy: https://shopmy.us/maggiesellers Amazon Storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/maggiesellers/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Maggie Sellers Reum?

  If you're starting a business, there are certain things that are so fun to think about. Y'all know I love a mood board, so everything that relates to the creative, the name, the brand, the website, the vision board. But then there are the things that make you pause and ask, am I even doing this correctly? Or do I even want to be doing this? Like forming your business, getting the right documents, keeping your personal information private. This is where our sponsor, Northwest Registered Agent, is so helpful. They're a one-stop shop for founders who want to launch and legitimize their business without turning it into a giant admin spiral. They help you form an LLC or a corporation, act as your registered agent, and give you tools like a business address, operating agreement, website, phone number, professional email, and free guides.

• 0:43Maggie Sellers Reum?

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• 1:03Speaker 01

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• 2:02Maggie Sellers Reum?

  What is the purchase you regret most?

• 2:05Speaker 05

  Every birthday I ever bought.

• 2:07Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Why?

• 2:08Speaker 05

  Because you're such a target with it. I can't take it out anywhere. What's the point of it? You'll probably get robbed. But I have multiple entrepreneurial businesses on the go, which I document online. How I have got any success, I will never know because I do everything wrong. I am a lastminute.com girly. But my husband died in February, and now I am trying to figure out what works and what doesn't in my businesses.

• 2:28Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Can you describe your relationship with John?

• 2:30Speaker 05

  Well, he's 21 years older, and he definitely gave me confidence and security that enabled me to try because John's there to catch me. And what I learned very quickly was that you can monetize your hobbies. All of my hobbies have become my paychecks, and it is a really empowering position to be in for anyone.

• 2:47Maggie Sellers Reum?

  How do you do that? You were ready for that answer.

• 2:50Speaker 05

  No. If you are a creator, a founder, I think putting yourself on the internet isn't a bad move at the minute.

• 2:55Maggie Sellers Reum?

  There is this awakening of very smart, successful women feeling like, I don't know anything about our finances. For you, as someone with multiple businesses, would you wish you did things differently?

• 3:06Speaker 05

  Do you know what? Actually, like...

• 3:09Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Hi, angels. Did you know that subscribing to our channel is free? It doesn't cost you anything, and it is the simplest way for you to support Hot, Smart, Rich and help us grow so that we can bring you more of the conversations you love. Just hit the subscribe button below, and thank you. In case you missed it, you're allowed to be hot, smart, and rich. So let's get into it. Lorna, are you ready to get hot, smart, rich?

• 3:43Speaker 05

  I think I am, yeah.

• 3:45Maggie Sellers Reum?

  My favorite question I'll ask all day to people is, are you ready to get hot, smart, rich?

• 3:49Speaker 05

  And I totally am. But what that means, I have no idea.

• 3:51Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Well, for people that don't know who you are, or maybe are hesitant about listening to this conversation, what would you tell them to get them to stay about what we're going to talk about today, do you think?

• 4:00Speaker 05

  I am somebody that's completely self-made. I have multiple entrepreneurial businesses on the go, which I document online, and I'm dead normal. And I share that normality, so you'll get a lot of my day-to-day life by following along with me.

• 4:19Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I can concur. After meeting you, I actually don't usually talk to people for as long as we did because I want to save it for the pod. But there is something about you that is like you are just so drawn in, and I hope that people get to see that today.

• 4:31Speaker 05

  Well, that's kind.

• 4:32Maggie Sellers Reum?

  What do you think people will learn to be able to apply to their life if they listen to this conversation in full?

• 4:38Speaker 05

  Well, I would hope that a lot of it is about resilience and being able to kind of come through whatever you dealt with and make it into something positive. And that's not just personally, but professionally. And also, it's okay to be not particularly fabulous or particularly the most beautiful person in the room or the smartest person in the room. Sometimes it's just about being a nice, good person. And if you're a good person and you've got a lot of ambition, you'll probably do all right. And all right is good for me. I don't need to be the best. I just want to be happy and successful.

• 5:11Maggie Sellers Reum?

  How do you measure being the best in the industry that you're in?

• 5:15Speaker 05

  Well, certainly the best at the industry I'm in, where there's multiple industries, right? So I've got a fashion brand, I've got a beauty brand, and I'm also Lorna, so my brand is me. I'm never going to be, there's way cooler people than me, especially in the UK market. So how I'd measure best, I suppose, would be how rich I am or how many followers on Instagram I might have. And that's not necessarily what I'm bothered about now. So for me, I'm getting into my 40s. I measure my successes based on how many days off can I take? How many sleeps can I squeeze into a day? Because my work-life balance is starting to tip to more of balance, and that is success to me. So that's where I'm at right now.

• 5:59Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Is that your mission now?

• 6:01Speaker 05

  It isn't at all. So it will definitely seesaw. And then there will be a year probably where I'm pivoting back into the work mode of like, right, I need to do this, we need to take our brands to the U.S., we want to do this, that, and the other. Very ambitious for my businesses. But what I can see this year, where my husband died in February, and I need to take stock a bit and not be so quick to just jump in and do everything and be everything to everyone. So what I am doing right now is going, okay, well, what was working for me when John was alive? What wasn't working for me? And I'm just kind of going with the flap and letting the chips fall. So yeah, it's a weird year for me and you to meet and have this chat because a lot of the guests that you interview are right at the front.

• 6:46Speaker 05

  They're racing along, going into the next thing that they're doing, and that is not what I am doing right now. I am calmly trying to understand the landscape of my businesses and my real life and figure out what works and what doesn't. And that's kind of, yeah, my mindset for most things at the minute.

• 7:04Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Well, that's why I'm actually happy that we're meeting at this time, if I can be honest, because I think that there's so many sides to people, even if you're not experiencing extreme grief like the way that you are. But to put on this hat and to show people only one side of being an entrepreneur is not real. And I think that this is going to be probably one of the most real conversations that we are going to have on Hot, Smart, Rich to date, which gets me really excited. But I wanted to start with this, which I actually usually save until the end. And I want you to read this out loud because I asked someone to write you a letter. And it actually was not what I thought was going to be on the letter.

• 7:46Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 7:47Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And so I'm happy I read it first because I was expecting it to be just focused on the impact that you made into this person's business. And it was so much more than that, and I think it will really set the stage for what we're going to talk about today. So if you don't mind, can you read the letter out loud?

• 8:01Speaker 05

  Okay, so this is from Amy. I love Amy. She's a good girl. "Lorna, I've been waiting for you to come on a podcast like Hot, Smart, Rich for so long. Not only are you the kindest, most generous, most fun woman, you're also one of the most hard-working, coolest business owners out there. The willingness you have to turn your passion into multiple businesses, watching the community that you have so carefully built, support everything you do, and watching you take your friends along for the ride is beyond inspiring. I genuinely think the following and the community you have built so effortlessly needs to be studied. Entitled, of course, the Lorna Lux effect. It is unlike any other. Everything you touch turns to gold, and rightfully so. You've earned it.

• 8:45Speaker 05

  You also never take enough credit for how you changed the trajectory of my business so early on, and I'm eternally grateful. You're pure magic, Lorna, and we all love you. Amy." Oh, flipping heck. I love her. That's so kind of her. Also, it's rubbish. I didn't change the trajectory. I just probably gave it a nudge when it was already on the way up. But she's very kind. She always, can I keep this? She always kind of references that period when we first met. She's very talented. Very talented.

• 9:14Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Can I tell you what surprised me about that letter? So a lot of business owners are so focused on their business. And when I heard about the story of you really starting to make her brand pop off on social media, I kind of assumed that the letter would start with that. And what surprised me about it was it was about you as a person. And then the end of it was like this small mention about how you don't take enough credit for what you did to her business. We've kept mentioning Amy a few times. So for the people that either don't know the relationship with me and Amy or you and Amy, how did you and Amy first meet and become, is it five year friends now?

• 9:53Speaker 05

  Longer, I reckon, probably, I think it was around lockdown. So a bit of a weird one. I couldn't shoot street style in the UK at the time. And I was working with a brand and I had my own fashion collection and we needed to shoot about three collections. So I'd gone to Paris where I could shoot in the street. And I'd bought her blazer and we were staying at this beautiful hotel. John had bought me my first ever Hermes Kelly. And I was like, I need to wear a really good outfit. We need to get very cute pictures of me in this outfit. So I went with Amy's blazer and my Kelly bag and I stood in the street, got this lovely photo, posted it. And because it was such a monumental thing for me to have this beautiful handbag, my community just latched on, they loved it.

• 10:38Speaker 05

  So there was more reach, more, you know, more impressions on that piece of content. And then that from there spiraled into this kind of me tagging Odd Muse, which is her brand. And then her reaching out, being like, I can't believe it, like, I love you and I followed you for a while and stuff. And then we never really met up because it was lockdown, so you couldn't meet up. So when I finally did meet her, I felt like a proud sister that had watched this journey because that business really just flew. And it was her ability to seize those moments, like me wearing the blazer and many other people that supported her at the beginning, she seized them and she, she knew what to do with it. So it's part luck, but a lot of skill and a lot of knowledge about what, how can I

• 11:21Speaker 05

  get the best bang for my buck? And I really was inspired by that. And obviously I didn't have a, a business at that point, I just had Lorna. She's been somebody that I've definitely looked to when I've done my own businesses. She's great.

• 11:34Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And from what she's told me, you sold out of that blazer in 30 minutes.

• 11:38Speaker 05

  Really?

• 11:38Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 11:39Speaker 05

  Oh, she never told me that. Good, I'm glad.

• 11:41Maggie Sellers Reum?

  For a lot of my US listeners, they actually might not know what Amy's talking about with this Lorna Lux effect. How would you describe the Lorna Lux effect?

• 11:49Speaker 05

  Well, what's been brilliant about my trajectory on, in Instagram and social media generally, is that it's taken me years. So I've probably been around about 12 years. So my community has grown really, really slowly and steadily. And I always describe it like an onion with like layer after layer. And that community is so tight and so trusting of me and one another, that when I do say, do you know what, that's really shit hot, like I rate that, you should probably buy that, my community will get on board and get behind it. And I think that would be for me and what the Lorna Lux effect is, it's the community that we've built together. It's not a one and done, it's not about me really, I'm just the voice piece. And I talk to all of my community every day, I'm always on my phone. So I'm always in my DMs.

• 12:33Speaker 05

  And as well as it being great market research for stuff that I want to bring out and work on, it's also just a really good gauge of like what people care about and what they're interested in. And all I do is give that a voice and a platform. So whatever my community are interested in, whether it's skincare, beauty, hair loss, I've got hair loss, I'll talk about it in as honest a way as I can. And it's a shared kind of storytelling really, and that's what I do every day.

• 13:00Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Do you think it's a secret magic that some people have or they don't? Because I think a lot of people listening to you are going to be like, I want to do that and I'm speaking to my community so authentically and honestly and that I don't have the same effect.

• 13:12Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 13:13Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Do you think that that's something that you are just born with? Like there's that it factor? Or do you think that there are tangible things that you do that is different than what other people do?

• 13:23Speaker 05

  One thing I think I definitely do differently is that I'm not talking to a collective, right? So I'm not, hi guys, I'm not talking to an audience of people. When I come on every morning and chat to stories, I'm talking to one person. The same as I've been talking to one person from when I had one follower. So I still always envisage I'm talking to my mate and it's a conversation between me and my mate, it's like a FaceTime. So I would say that's quite different. And I can see other creators now latching on to that and they should. That is the way to do it. Because when you're watching so many people online at the minute, to get intimacy with somebody is a really special thing. And I think that's something I've been able to kind of attach myself to very quickly and roll with it. And I really like that now because then I don't have to put on this performative speech

• 14:08Speaker 05

  and preach, I can just be dead ordinary and normal. And it doesn't matter what I say, I know I'm in a safe space because the community that follow me are invested, they know all the, you know, all the bits going on in the background, they know about John, they know about things that have gone wrong, my dodgy fake tan, my hair falling out. So I'm not having to put on a show and I think people quite like that. So I feel like in some ways, the key to my success has been that, retaining that ordinary normality, I'm your mate. And hopefully I'll keep on to that.

• 14:39Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I think that you, I mean, I've followed you for years, like you were one of the OG, like back in the day.

• 14:47Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 14:47Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And following people's journey is so interesting because I feel like some creators are afraid to even evolve or to pivot or to do different things. And I love what Amy said, like the Lorna Lux effect needs to be studied because I'm a nerd. And I have to ask you, if you were to be speaking at Harvard or at a university, what do you think you would want the people to walk away from that class, understanding that you might not see on the surface level about you?

• 15:17Speaker 05

  Probably that I am a businesswoman fundamentally, so I really care about my businesses. And what I learned very quickly was that people buy from people, right? So I grew up on a little council estate in the north of England and my nana had a catalogue and she would go around the whole estate and she was dead friendly and dead nice and they would buy bits from her catalogue. And I just kind of do that at scale, right? So I share things that are available to buy and people trust my, my taste on it and that's kind of how I've built my business. And then from then I've obviously gone off and done other stuff. But I do genuinely love being a salesperson, I love being customer service. These are like things I genuinely love.

• 15:59Speaker 05

  And I've heard a lot of people online recently in this business world are saying, you shouldn't, not that you shouldn't follow your passions, your career, but I, I'm proof that that works because I flipping love all the facets of my career. It's like all my hobbies coming together and colliding. So makeup, hair, I love talking to people, I'm nosy, so I like watching what the people are doing. And I think that that is the takeaway in that you can, you can monetize your hobbies and make them into something, which is, I, I know there's a divide between some, particularly my friends that are in the industry that would say, that's not what you should do, you should have separate hobbies that you don't fund or get any money from.

• 16:42Speaker 05

  But all of my hobbies have become my paychecks.

• 16:46Maggie Sellers Reum?

  So I want to talk about the industry in general because I think influencing and creators get such an interesting reputation when really it is like to help people.

• 16:56Speaker 05

  Mm-hmm.

• 16:57Maggie Sellers Reum?

  What, being a both business owner and a creator drives you nuts about the current state of this industry?

• 17:05Speaker 05

  Probably people being scared to be themselves. Because I think the more awkward you are, the more strange you are, the more interesting you are. And I think we, specifically when Instagram launched and it was all about perfection, wasn't it, and filters and hiding behind a lens. And I did it as well. I was as bad as the rest. And I think there was probably a bit of a cha-ching moment for me where I was like, do you know what, actually I'd probably do better if I just be me. And I would love to see more of that. I would really enjoy it. And I find myself drawn to creators and people in the space that are like that. I get a buzz out of seeing them. And that's, that's exciting for me. But you know, your vibe attracts your tribe, right? So it's not, it's not strange for me that you got Amy to write that.

• 17:50Speaker 05

  You know, you've got people that are in my orbit because we're all quite similar really. We're all quite overshareers and we're all very aware of our vulnerabilities and we share them quite openly. And there's power in that, there's power in being vulnerable and I would love to see more vulnerability. And I'm not talking like crying and when, you know, moaning on the internet every day. I'm talking about those raw moments where you go, do you know what, this isn't really working out. And like shit, what are we going to do now? I love that because that's where we learn. And I think as women, we're not encouraged to maybe be as vulnerable. We, we need to be more masculine and more alpha. And I don't feel like I need to do that.

• 18:33Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I feel like brand founders that are listening to this are going to be thinking to themselves, is it still possible to have that type of organic relationship with the creator that ends up featuring their brand, right? Because even Instagram six years ago was completely different than Instagram today.

• 18:52Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 18:53Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And there's so much confusion over like, who actually converts and who's going to do a great job? Who do you gift to? Who do you know what to to send your product to? Do you believe that it is still possible to have that type of organic moment from a creator relationship? If you are a brand founder?

• 19:10Speaker 05

  It absolutely is, but are you going to rely on that? You know, are you just going to be hoping that a Lorna or such and such is going to wear your stuff? Or are you going to make it as, you know, as physically possible to get your stuff on as many people? I'm coming at it from a very different position, right? So I have the luxury of being in the creator space. So I know a lot of these girls, I know who converts and who doesn't. They know who converts and who doesn't. So for me, I know I'm not going to, not waste my time, but I'm not going to put all of my endeavors into somebody that I know probably isn't going to shift volume. But I'm a big relationship person and just because someone doesn't sell actual product doesn't mean that they're not great for positioning the brand, doesn't mean that they're not great for their network. So everyone has value, that's the reality of it.

• 19:55Speaker 05

  And I think that if you're a new founder, getting yourself out there, if you can't afford a, you know, a PR, publicist web, getting yourself out there and just meet people is the way to do it. Like be that girl that messages and I'm shameless for this, by the way. So I will afford relationships with people that I really want to know. And they're probably thinking, why does this girl keep messaging me? And it's like, as soon as you put yourself out there, some people will take the bite, they'll bite, won't they? And that is what you've got to do. But relying on specific creators to, you know, wear your brand, your product, whatever, that could be a little bit short sighted. I think there's more, you need to do more.

• 20:36Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I'm so curious for you, what were you like as a child?

• 20:41Speaker 05

  I'm an only child, so I was on my own a lot. But I think my childhood was a bit of a dreamer, yeah, and quite ambitious and quite curious. I think curiosity is really missing now in a lot of what I I come across on the internet. And I, I like that, like be curious about other people. I think we're so busy talking about ourselves that we forget to be interested in what other people are up to, unless we want to copy them or try and emulate what they're doing. And it's like, why not just be curious for curious sake without the need to be going at it for replication? Or for, some things aren't always valuable, they just inspire you or they just make you think outside of your own box. I quite like that. I like learning. So yeah, that's what I was like as a kid.

• 21:27Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Did you have a lot of entrepreneurs around you?

• 21:29Speaker 05

  None. And actually, nobody in my family had their own business. They've always worked for the people. And even John always worked for HSBC and was very fearful of working for himself. And it took a lot of persuasion on my part for him to not just get behind the idea that I would have a business that would make profit, but also fully depart from his own career to jump on and work with me. That took a bit of convincing and I wish I'd convinced him sooner because we would have had longer doing that together. Because there's something quite fun about working with a spouse, I would say. I don't know how anyone else is feeling about this, but from my perspective, I really liked working with someone

• 22:12Speaker 05

  that had my back and wanting me to be the star. I liked that. Now I'm just doing it on my own, it's not quite as fun.

• 22:20Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah, I don't think we can go any further in their conversation until people really know who John is and understand the dynamic of your relationship. But before we do, I just wanted to say I'm so sorry for your loss.

• 22:35Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I know it's like the worst thing to cry when someone's experienced it, but I think when I watch your guys' relationship, it actually reminds me so much of of mine. And like my husband made sense of my world that like didn't make sense before. And I had all of these amazing pieces and he just kind of brought it together. And I feel like that's what I've witnessed between the two of you. So for the people that don't know who John is, can you describe your relationship with John?

• 23:01Speaker 05

  So my husband, John, was a protector, an alpha male, an all round great guy, but was so confident in himself that he was happy for me to flourish. And he was a great champion of everything I did, whether it was joining the gym or cooking a meal or building a business. Everything that I did, he just got behind with gusto. And I do believe that the age gap helped that because I think he'd had his moment in his career. He'd done all those things. He, you know, I met him when he was 46. By the time my business was really cooking with gas, he was in his late 50s. He didn't need that, you know, constant attention. So he was able to just fully get behind mine and he really loved it and he's proud of it.

• 23:46Speaker 05

  And I really like that age gap dynamic. And actually, I do think, could I be in a relationship with anyone right now? Specifically someone my age, probably not. Because if they're going at things the way I'm going to be going at things, not right now, but in the next year or two, I think that would hold me back. I think we'd clash. And I do think you need one person at a time to be doing, you know, that career moment. It must be absolutely challenging if you've got two career minded folk. They must butt heads and we never butted heads. So yeah, that would be my take on John.

• 24:22Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I just posted a video saying that and it was very controversial because I said like, you know, I'm in this era where it's like, I have a mission, I have a team, I've gotten people behind me. It's like, we are on this train and we are going to try to empower women to literally live their best lives, never settle. And my husband is exactly what you just described, like is supporting that. And a lot of people were like, oh, well, I don't want to glamorize this Maggie because you actually had a sense of self before you met your husband and you had a little success before him. And so I was so interested to see such a pushback of the age gap relationship because for me, I would a thousand percent agree with you, Lorna.

• 25:02Speaker 05

  Okay, good.

• 25:03Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I am so curious, who was Lorna right before you met John? In terms of like knowing who you are, feeling like you had this idea? Or did he really help you get to where you are now?

• 25:16Speaker 05

  Bit of both. He always said, you're a different woman to the woman I met in your tw- because he met me when I was 25. And it wasn't even that I wasn't ambitious, I just didn't know it existed. The only ambitions I'd ever experienced were when I was cabin crew and I saw rich people getting on, sitting in upper class. And I always used to think, I wonder how they can afford that. But how did they get there? And of course, nobody tells you, right? So I had to kind of figure that out for myself. And when I got with him, I think a lot of people in my friendship circle thought, well, he's 21 years older. Yeah, he's a good looking guy, but like, what's the draw here? Maybe it's because he's got a bit of cash. But actually, he didn't have any cash, he just had two divorces. He was pretty as much as skint as I was, he just had good credit, he had a good credit line.

• 26:01Speaker 05

  So he could buy me a lot of things and treat me and take me on holidays and stuff. And he never really admitted it at the beginning that he was actually like broke. So what that really taught me very quickly was actually, we've been living a bit of a, not a fake life, because we didn't live a fake life, but we've been living on borrowed time and I need to now step up and contribute. And that was what my 30s were about, were about finding my own person, like my own independence and my own ambitions, finding my own hobbies and turning them into something of value. And he was able to just go with it. What's great, what was great about our relationship is that wherever I was, he just followed along.

• 26:43Speaker 05

  So the waves just, you know, up, down, whatever I was going with, he just stayed with me like a steady ship. And that's what makes a great relationship. And I think that definitely helped me, no doubt about it. Would I be sat here today if I'd not met John? Absolutely no chance. I would have had a completely different life. He definitely gave me confidence and security that enabled me to feel really secure that I can try that because if it goes wrong, I'm going to be all right because John's there to catch me. And that feeling of being able to jump and someone catch you gives you bravery to do big, big steps and make even bigger like leaps

• 27:26Speaker 05

  and do more bold and brave and exciting things. And that's what I see with my friends, right? So the friends that are maybe not having those experiences are probably because of their relationship. Basically, if you marry someone, you've got to marry smart. The person you marry is going to probably affect not just your personal life, but your professional life. So you've got to choose them wisely. It's my opinion on that.

• 27:50Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It's why I talk so much about relationships on the show because I'm like, it is about building businesses, building equity, building things that are going to be able to financially set you up for success in the future. Your relationship is the most important part of that.

• 28:05Speaker 05

  Absolutely.

• 28:06Maggie Sellers Reum?

  There are so many women that are listening to this, Lorna, that are questioning if he is the one. And I hate to give blanket advice, but mine is always, if it's not a fuck yes, it is a fuck no. For you, after what you've been through with John and finding the one and seeing your life be something that it never would have been in your words before John, what would you say to that girl that is questioning her relationship right now?

• 28:31Speaker 05

  If you're questioning it, it's probably not the one. But that doesn't mean it doesn't, it can't not be the one for now, right? So you can have the one for now, you know, that reason, season and all that jazz. You know, some people do come into your life and they make you feel good for a couple of years, or they teach you a lesson that you didn't really know you needed to learn. And then you go on to do something else. I think that where my independence is now having to really work, it's like overtime, because I'm having to do everything on my own. Would I be leaping into a relationship with someone that I didn't think was a hundred percent unreal, amazing, oh my God, this is the most amazing person ever? No chance. But I've got the luxury of, I've got a bit of cash in the bank now, I've got security. So I understand that specifically women in their twenties and thirties,

• 29:14Speaker 05

  with, we're, we're throwing so many curveballs, there's so much pressure on us to have a career and a relationship and have kids and do all these things. I get why so many women feel the pressure to marry someone that maybe isn't a hundred percent. In the same way that I get why some men don't always marry the one, they just marry the one that was the right time, right? So timing is key.

• 29:37Speaker 05

  Did I meet John at the right time? Probably. So timing was good for me. Because he met me at a point where I was a bit like floundering and it gave me a bit of, I don't know, he just gave me a foundation for all the things that I ended up doing. But that's obviously not why I married him. And yeah, are you brave enough, as anyone listening to this, are you brave enough to go, do you know what, you're not quite where I needed to be, so I'm not gonna put a ring on it. I'm not gonna commit all the way. That should be more common, right? It should be more popular. Maybe that should be the new thing.

• 30:12Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Where we just all live independently and have like friendships.

• 30:16Speaker 05

  I must admit though, it's gonna be weird for me, we were just chatting in the green room, how's anyone gonna top John? It's not gonna happen. So I am really looking at my future now through the lens of independence and being on my own. I can't really envisage someone doing what John was able to do. He's quite a hard act to follow. Which is a shame.

• 30:41Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Is that something you think about a lot?

• 30:44Speaker 05

  It's not really. I think, I'm thinking about it now because I'm thinking about people that are listening who are maybe about to dive into the biggest relationship of their life. And knowing what I know now about how I had a great husband, I wouldn't want anyone to have less than me. Because of just how brilliant he was. So I would want anyone listening to have what I had. So yeah, I think you've got to choose wisely.

• 31:07Maggie Sellers Reum?

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• 31:48Maggie Sellers Reum?

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• 32:32Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Now, this brand I remember hearing about because when I moved to LA and it was dry AF, someone told me about this Andaria Algae Body Oil. I started using it and fell in love with the ritual of taking care of my skin. It's wild to me that eight years later, multiple careers later, they are now a show sponsor. Their Andaria Algae Body Oil is one of their best products. Clinically shown to instantly and visibly improve skin elasticity and deeply moisturize because it's made with Andaria seaweed, known to help skin feel firmer and more youthful. If you wanna give this incredible oil a try, I have a special discount for my HSR angels.

• 33:15Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Ten percent off with your first order with code HSR at oseamalibu.com. That's code HSR at oseamalibu.com. And let me know what you think. Let's talk about you and John a little bit because I think that actually even what you just said is news to me after all of these interviews, like John was working at HSBC.

• 33:43Speaker 03

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• 34:08Speaker 04

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• 34:36Maggie Sellers Reum?

  See? Two divorces.

• 34:38Speaker 05

  Did, yeah.

• 34:39Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Probably paying some version of alimony?

• 34:42Speaker 05

  No, he didn't. He just kind of paid and bounced. But also, he didn't have much cash. Like, for a man in his mid-forties, you'd think he'd have, you know, like a bit of property or he had nothing because he'd given it all away in the, in the divorces. So he was definitely starting from scratch.

• 35:00Maggie Sellers Reum?

  So you guys meet. Where are you at in your career? And how does this birth the business partners and co-founders of Lorna?

• 35:08Speaker 05

  So when he met me, I was cabin crew. I was doing long haul cabin crew, which meant I was out the country three days a week, which I thought was very healthy for our relationship in the early days. Because that yearning is always a great foundation for a relationship, missing each other, not being too attached from day one. You really look forward to seeing each other and I can't wait to get back from wherever I was. But also really looking forward to being with my friends and having that, that gap. And then for those three or four years, uh, when we got married and settled down, I was still flying, I was still crew. So we had that, I can't wait to see you. That excitement never really left. And then I left Virgin. And I got, I was quite unwell.

• 35:52Speaker 05

  I'd battled anorexia and bulimia for most of my twenties and it'd really taken hold by my like early thirties and I knew I needed to get well.

• 36:00Speaker 05

  And at that point, he was working and I wasn't. And that was a new dynamic for us. Because I'd gone from being a very exciting woman that was at home half the week, to being permanently under his feet with no chat because I wasn't going anywhere. Didn't wanna go out for food, dinners or anything, so it wasn't much fun. And it was actually him that said to me, you've got really boring, like you need to sort yourself out because you're not, you're no fun anymore. You just sat at home, not doing anything, you need a job. And he was like the, the catalyst for me to get a little job and I did get a small job in customer service. And I believe that my Virgin training, which was very customer service focused, coupled with this new office job where I was actually working with steady people day to day.

• 36:44Speaker 05

  I'm quickly understanding that actually my, I'm a bit self-focused here. I've always made everything about me. And now I'm in an office full of women and they have all got their own really interesting lives and problems and like, maybe the like, the world doesn't revolve around me. Another ka-ching moment, but I suddenly realized that actually life is, is about community and about people, not about little Lorna who was like an only child playing with her dolls on her own. You've got to bring other people in to play the dolls with you. So that was a good time for me because I kind of got a bit of confidence back. And I remember around that same period of working in customer service, I'd started my Instagram. And my Instagram grew quite quickly in the early days. Because I love pretty things, I never went out and I had the time to sit at home on my

• 37:29Speaker 05

  phone and engage with people. So my community was growing quite rapidly. But also because I was so engaged with the DMs. At the time, Instagram would reward people that were being on the app. So I was becoming, my reach was better, which is crazy, right?

• 37:46Speaker 05

  And then, yeah, I feel as though that was the, that became the beginning of Lorna Lux and that Instagram moment. And John loved it because he was like, wow, you've got this interest. That isn't about food. Like, you've got something that you love doing that's got nothing to do with how you control your eating. And at the time, on Instagram, I joined an Instagram group and it was called We Love To Brunch. And it was a group of twenty like Instagram people, all from different walks of life. And we'd meet once a week and we'd go to a little coffee shop and we'd take very aesthetic photos and then we'd go for a walk around London and we'd take very aesthetic photos. And, well, I had to eat, didn't I? Because I've got to be like part of the gang.

• 38:29Speaker 05

  So it was really bringing me, my therapy was my early social media development. And I was meeting other Instagrammers and we were sharing hacks and like, so how do you grow? And like, oh, I should do that. And I really wanted to be good at something. And I was like, I'm gonna be good at this Instagram if it, if I do anything else. And so that was the birth of my business. I mean, I didn't monetize my Instagram probably for about five years. I think my first paid partnership on Instagram, I had about half a million followers. So for the first five hundred K of community I built, there was no desire to make money from it. It was pure sharing stuff because I loved it.

• 39:09Speaker 05

  Maybe spending a bit of money on John's credit card so I could show my community what I'd got. My new handbag, my new clothes. And John just funded it because in his head, she's getting better. Whatever it takes, I'm gonna make this happen. So it was probably one of the most expensive therapy I've ever had, really. But it was brilliant fun. And I've still got a lot of those handbags. And I've kept all the friends from We Love To Brunch. And some of them have got massive followings now on social. Makes me giggle because I think I remember us taking flat lays in a coffee shop, you know, 12 years ago. But those communities I built in the early days, I've kept. So it's been really lovely to see, actually.

• 39:51Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I think that's what a common theme is for people that started doing this so long ago was like, the money wasn't there initially, right?

• 39:56Speaker 05

  No money.

• 39:57Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I think that it's from a pure passion of like finding something that you genuinely loved. Where were you at financially at that time where like you didn't have to think about the monetization? Because you were like, I don't actually need to worry about monetizing.

• 40:14Speaker 05

  So I didn't think it was possible to monetize. And that's the difference. It was gatekeeping at its best in the early days. No one was telling you. I didn't even understand how ads and revenue, I just didn't understand it because no one had ever taught me. I went, I went to uni and did music. I had no idea about business. I say it to my mom now, I'm like, I've got no idea about business. And my mom's always like, of course you have. You literally do it every day. You're learning on the job and you hire people that do the bits that you don't know. And I thought very early on, I could see the value in it. I just didn't know what the value was at the time. Whether it would be cash or experience. Remember, I had to come from a cabin crew background, so travel was alluring to me.

• 40:55Speaker 05

  So where, you know, I went on a trip with Prince Harry to Palm Beach for a center ballet polo match. Like, that's valuable to me. What an experience to be flown out because I'm an Instagrammer. So those were, for me, what was the draw of, and the gifting, because back then, gifting was a big thing. I remember getting my Daniel Wellington watch and my triangle bikini. And like in our community of influencers, it's like who got sent the triangle bikini versus who didn't. And so those, it, it sounds really naive now, right? But back then, that's what it was about. It was more about the growing of the community than it ever was about the monetizing of it. But I knew the value was in the community still to this day.

• 41:39Speaker 05

  There's no, no one could make me do anything, even, I don't care how much it would cost, if it would jeopardize the relationship I've got with my community. That's the most valuable asset I have. As a founder of a business and as a lorna, just in everything I do, I think through the lens of what would my community want me to do? They are the most important. I know lots of people probably feel differently about me saying that and some would disagree. But I just, yeah, it was, it's been an interesting journey. It's been really fun to grow our business because of having these, you know, luxuries now, which is the community I've got. They're the most powerful asset.

• 42:19Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I can relate to that a lot because even with Hot Smart Rich, like people still, I think now, a big change with Instagram is that the follower count doesn't necessarily equate to the monetization or the power of the community. For so long, I felt guilty monetizing it because I was like, but this is for the community and it's so mission driven. And I'm so curious for you, like, was there a moment where you either realized you had to start monetizing it as a business? Or the opportunity and the door got opened where you were like, wait, I can start to make money from this?

• 42:51Speaker 05

  It was very much that the door got opened, the opportunity came and I took it with both hands and I ran as fast as I could. But what I always looked at was, well, hang on, if you're gonna pay me for this, what are we getting out of it? Because it was always a we, right? So I was like, it's not, it's no good just paying me. Like, how's everyone that's in following me and, and supporting me, how are they gonna benefit? So very quickly, I was that girl that was always like, I want a discount code. I want a deal. I want a free gift with purchase. I still to this day push for codes on pretty much every partnership I do. And it makes my management laugh because sometimes they're like, no, they're not gonna give you a discount code. And I'm like, well, why not? Why can't we have something? Because value is about what value, obviously, I'm an entertainer, right?

• 43:33Speaker 05

  So I'm like, content creation is entertainment. But I do think there is that element of if you, if you've got a position of authority or power in some way, you've got to give it back. You have to give it back. I remember the worst was in lockdown, where I was probably earning quite a lot more money than I probably would do now. Because everyone had a captive audience, we were all glued to our phones because we couldn't leave our house. And so I was getting these very lucrative partnerships and we're talking, we're going from a girl that was earning nine grand a year at Virgin to being offered, you know, 50 grand for one partnership. This was like big ticket stuff for me. And I just remember thinking, how can, I, I said to John, I was, I've got guilt here. I feel a bit uncomfortable about this. I don't, this isn't sitting right with me and I don't know what to do.

• 44:18Speaker 05

  And so John was like, well, why don't you do some giveaways? And I started doing these like, a thousand pounds Zara giveaway. Or I used to do a Christmas Chanel bag giveaway. The girls at Chanel, I'm sure they hated me because they knew I wasn't buying that bag for myself. And I would buy Chanel bag each Christmas and it would be a giveaway. And it was just really, I don't know, it appeased my guilt. And I think that guilt, maybe it's a British thing. I maybe don't see that so much in the States. But certainly this kind of female, brought up on a chaos estate, you shouldn't, you shouldn't be doing too well. You're allowed to be successful, you can't be too successful. And so that is how I appeased it. I don't do it so much now because I don't have the same thoughts and feelings around that.

• 45:03Speaker 05

  But I've definitely had to workshop that. I haven't had therapy on it. But I would love to unpick why I felt so guilty. Because I wasn't doing anything particularly wrong. I was doing everything right and that's why I was, I was getting paid so well. But it didn't feel fair in its own strange way, I don't know.

• 45:23Maggie Sellers Reum?

  What did you guys have to reach collectively as a couple from a financial perspective? For John to be able to be like, I'm going to leave a steady job at HSBC to leave and do this?

• 45:36Speaker 05

  We got to a point where I said to him, I earn in a month what you earn in a year. I could earn double in a month what you earn a year if you were available to take my pictures, come on the trip, do the thing. So you're, I actually used the psychology of, well, you're actually holding me back. And we know John doesn't want to do that. John is like the softest, most, you know, so he was like, really? I'm holding you back? That was his fear. And that was the moment he went, right, I'm gonna get myself, I'm gonna exit this business. Also, he didn't want to leave. He's 30, he'd been in the bank 30 years. He did not want to leave that job by just walking out and going, hi, bye, I'm going now, see you tomorrow. We'll meet for a drink next, next year. He wanted to get a redundancy or have a proper exit strategy.

• 46:20Speaker 05

  So it took him about a year and a half, which was painful to me. And my most frustrating thing is that he retired in the December, he got diagnosed with cancer in the January. So we literally had three weeks of normalcy where he'd retired and wasn't having to go to HSBC three, four days a week. And I was like, why didn't we do that sooner? Because then obviously, you know, anyone will know who's been through cancer. The treatments that we never really got that, you know, retirement that he was looking for. We never got it. And I think that his last three years before he died were a bit like him going, right, we haven't got long here.

• 47:02Speaker 05

  We need to really put some welly into this. And that is why I believe I launched two businesses. Because the reality is, I should have probably launched one, put more energy into that before I launched the second one. But we kind of were racing together because I wanted him to see them. I wanted him to see these visions that we've had on our manifestation board that we've talked about for years. He needed to see it. So yeah, it's, um, yeah, I don't know. I don't know why we didn't do it sooner. That was his decision. But yeah, he never really got to enjoy it.

• 47:38Maggie Sellers Reum?

  So he was not officially in the business for actually as long as I thought he was?

• 47:43Speaker 05

  No. But he was my business partner because he took all my photos. He helped me create my content. He drove me up to London at four in the morning so we could get the street before no one arrived. He did all the things. He was just an everything. Yeah, I used to steam my clothes. We traveled a lot together, which I'm really missing now. I really liked that. One thing about me, and I don't know, I don't see this with other founders, so maybe I'm doing it wrong. But I like to play. I like holidays and I like fun. And my mom always says, what I love about you is that you always make fun out of whatever you're doing. You will not find me doing anything if I'm not enjoying myself. I'll walk out. I don't care. I will not put myself in a room where I'm not having a good time.

• 48:29Speaker 05

  So that is that a luxury of the business that I've built, probably. But I think it's been fundamentally quite important to me as a person as well. Because what happens when I'm not happy, I had an eating disorder that took, you know, took me out for a few years. So my mental health is really dependent on how good I'm feeling. And nothing functions if I'm not feeling good. My business goes to pot. I can't create. I can't come on, online and talk to people when I'm feeling like crap. I just want to go to bed. So it was, it was very important that when we were building our business, we were also building lots of playtime. And so that was really what we did from probably 2016.

• 49:13Speaker 05

  Lots of travel, lots of giggles. If he drove me into London, we'd always go for a wine afterwards. You know, there was always a promise of a wine and a, a bit of shopping. And I think that's quite important for me. And I'm not ashamed to admit that.

• 49:27Maggie Sellers Reum?

  This is actually something I've seen online only recently. I actually love this creator. Do you know Valeria Lipavetsky?

• 49:32Speaker 05

  You do.

• 49:33Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Okay, so her husband Gary, who we love as a couple, um, he just made a video saying that when my wife is happy, who is in a similar dynamic, actually, like she is the creator and actually the business owner. Like, I know Valeria very well and she is extremely smart. She is an investor. She is a business owner. But this video was her husband being like, if my wife is not happy, the business does terribly. And you just said the exact same thing. Like, how do you balance that with needing to know certain details about business? That is not always going to be fun, like having to fire people, having to talk about bills that are needing to get paid.

• 50:15Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Um, all of the things that are actually the worst parts of building a business. Because for me, I can tell you, like, I love to know those things, but I can't really know them until 5:00 P. M. Because I need to be able to get through the day and then deal with the shitty things at the end of the day, or my whole mood is killed. For you, what have you noticed about balancing having to wear that business entrepreneurial hat? And then having to be the creator and have that play during the day?

• 50:43Speaker 05

  I think I'm probably very good at compartmentalizing my life because I wear a lot of different hats anyway. And I have, I have a mindset that is always do things at the last minute. So if I've got a job coming up in a week's time, I've got the product, I maybe need to do a piece of content. You bet your bottom dollar, I'm gonna film it this morning and it's gotta be handed in today. That's just how I approach things. I'm, I'm the worst person for the job that I do. How I have got any success, I will never know because I do everything wrong. So I am a lastminute.com girly. I'm a not always face up to things. Oh, I'm a bit of a hide under the blanket and hope it goes away. But I do always get away with it.

• 51:25Speaker 05

  I think because everyone in my orbit, in my business world at least, I am on good terms with, so they know my weaknesses, my flaws, my frailties. But they also know my strengths and they know that I'm a great leader. I'm not a great manager. My team who are watching this will attest to, but I'm a good leader. And I know what leadership is about and it's about inspiring people and building them up and giving them opportunities to grow in their own way and giving them freedom and flexibility. So when I need it back, they give it me back in spades. And I need it because I am not somebody that is getting up at 5:00 A. M. And having two cups of coffee and emails and this and that. I'm not. I like to wake up about 10:00 ish. And I want snuggles with the dog.

• 52:09Speaker 05

  But I'm also awake at 2:00 in the morning replying to my D. M.'s and check, you know, checking on my community. So, listen, you've got to make it work for you. And because I am self-employed, I use that luxury of making it work for me in the way that makes it work for me. But how I operate isn't a benchmark for how I'd expect anyone else to. It just suits me. I don't have kids like Valerie. I don't have a lot of people relying on me for day-to-day stuff. But then I do have people relying on me to pay their, you know, bills. So I have that responsibility and I respect it an awful amount. So I would never drop the ball, is what I'm trying to say. But I am a juggler of the ball and I sometimes I'm a bit naughty and I don't always have my homework in on time.

• 52:53Speaker 05

  But I do think that I'm forgiven because I'm a pretty decent person. And, yeah, that seems to be how I've got away with it so far.

• 53:02Maggie Sellers Reum?

  When John was the co-founder in the business day-to-day, was he doing a lot of that typical stuff?

• 53:10Speaker 05

  Yes, we did everything. He did all of our admin, all the emails, all the dealing with people, all the finances. And I think what's been really challenging this year is that where I've had to take all that on board, which I think I'm doing pretty okay at, bite it size chunks each day I handle another thing. I've noticed there's things that weren't done correctly. Baby decisions that shouldn't have been made in the way they were. Because I think his last year where he had a brain tumor and there was a lot going on, he was in chemo and he was very unwell. Probably wasn't making the smartest decisions. And I'm kind of having to like, figure that out for myself now. And I'm like, why are we doing that? How much is that costing? Why are we paying that for that? We don't even need it.

• 53:51Speaker 05

  And so, yeah, I should have taken more responsibility off him sooner. And I'm, you know, ashamed I didn't. And I think he was very worried about me. In fact, the, the days before he died, he was panicked about that. He was like, you're not gonna be able to cope. I'm really worried about you. Well, I am coping. So I am proof that, you know, any, if I can cope, anyone can cope. Because I am daft as a brush and I am not the sharpest tool in the box. But what I am good at is, uh, delegating. Um, I can spot a great person from a mile off, so my team are shit hot. And I think that is my, probably my saving grace as a business owner.

• 54:36Speaker 05

  That I've got good people around me in every aspect as well, not just the people that work for me, but the people that I work with, the friends that I associate with, the founders that I like hang out with. Um, I, I've been really lucky in that sense.

• 54:51Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And I'm so curious for you as someone who can really speak to this, now having to take all of that on is like, would you wish you did things differently to understand it a bit more? So that you weren't in the place where you're now having to figure it out?

• 55:05Speaker 05

  I think financially I'd be in a lot of stronger position had I done that and learned more about the business two, three, four years ago, even simple stuff, like you say, like paying bills and stuff. But what's been really good for me is that from, since February, I've been on a bit of a crash course of learning. And it's given me a lot of confidence and it's kept me distracted. So actually, I probably needed it. And I'm really empowered by the fact that I know exactly where all my money is, even if I haven't got any. At least I know where it isn't. And I feel very, uh, secure in making decisions about my financial commitments over the next year. Because I know exactly where everything is, because I'm in charge of it now. And it is a really empowering position to be in for anyone, regardless of what you're up to,

• 55:48Speaker 05

  to feel fully across your own finances and your own decision-making. That's flipping exciting. This makes me feel like I could do anything. Because what's gonna hold me back? Because John's told me I can do anything I dream and believe in, I can make happen. Now it's just a case of getting from A to B, right? And am I gonna enjoy the journey? Because I have to enjoy myself when I'm doing it. So that's got, like I say, I'm taking stock at the minute. I'm, I'm reading the room. I'm figuring out where I wanna like jump in, where I wanna hold back. I'm ditching friends that aren't valuable to me. So it's actually made me assess other elements of my life. So what started out as a bit of a financial shitshow is now it's almost kind of eclipsing everything.

• 56:32Speaker 05

  And I'm like, well, hang on, if I don't, if I can change that about my finances, maybe I can, I don't really like that person that I'm friends with. Maybe I need to ditch them. Or that person that works for me isn't actually very good at their job. So maybe I need to not work with them again. And it's just all of these elements of my life that I'm starting to reassess. That and the fact that I'm 44 in two weeks' time. And I think this, I, I think it was Oprah that had said like 44 was like her best year. And I'm like, yeah, maybe this is like the year where I actually, you know, get my, get a new lease of what I'm doing and become more in charge of my destiny. I hope so, anyway.

• 57:08Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I think it's actually the reality of like when you, and this is why this show exists, is like financial literacy is so different than financial freedom. And it's sexy when you actually understand things and like you're in the numbers. For me, I find real enjoyment out of like checking my bank account in the morning, checking my credit cards. Like I spotted fraud on my credit card the other day with like $2 Facebook charges. And there was like 12 of them. And I was like, I don't think I'm doing $2 and I investigated and it ends up being fraud. And even that small win of like, just feeling like, oh my God, I just, I did something, even though I didn't do anything at all. It made me feel so in control of things. And so I would ask you for someone that's feeling

• 57:53Maggie Sellers Reum?

  so confused and lost. What is your words of wisdom to them of like what it feels like when you are in control and you actually have awareness about what is going on with your financial situation?

• 58:05Speaker 05

  Well, certainly, like you just said, it's a control, isn't it? And I'm someone big on control, right? Because all of my twenties, my mental health was about trying to take control. So imagine the elations I get like you, when I know where everything is and what's going on. And actually, I think if I look back to my Instagram, when I first joined Instagram, I was really fascinated by the back end. So I used to study the growth and I used to study the reach and the likes and the impressions. And I was really titillated by that information. And now I look at it and I'm like, actually, that was the precursor to what I'm doing now. Just it's Shopify back end. It's, you know, my businesses, it's how many sales, what's the average, you know, spend per basket.

• 58:47Speaker 05

  And actually, it's the same, same kind of journey, just like you say, this literacy is really empowering. It's not boring. This is what I was always taught. Oh, it's boring that. You don't wanna do that. John used to say it to me. Oh, don't you worry about that. It's boring. You'll be bored by that. Okay, then like if it's boring, I won't do it. Now I don't have a choice. No one else is gonna do it for me. And it's not boring. It's quite interesting. And it galvanizes me in ways that nothing else really will. It gets me out of bed in the morning. I don't, I'm sure you're the same. But I look at, yeah, sometimes look at my bank account and I'm like, well, that's not gonna do. I'm gonna have to sort something out. And, um, yeah, it's making me quite ambitious in a different way.

• 59:28Speaker 05

  So I think financial literacy for anyone is really important and a bit of financial independence. I don't think I would share my banking or anything with anyone again. But that's a luxury, right, that I've got? And I'd quite like to not have a mortgage with someone again. And just be in charge of my own gaff. And keep it separate. But again, that is a luxury that I have been afforded because of my marriage with John.

• 59:57Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I was gonna ask, is that because you don't think that anyone would be like a John in the future? Or is it because of just a learning experience of like, you even didn't like having it all tied together with someone?

• 1:00:10Speaker 05

  I just don't think I'll meet another John. I really don't. I think that they kind of break the mould with him. I, I just think it'd be a really, I don't see how anyone's gonna match up to that. In terms of how he provided for me as such a robust, loving, you know, unashamedly so. You know, he wore his heart on his sleeve, but he was just like, I love this one with all my heart. I'm gonna do whatever it takes, whatever she needs, I'm gonna give it to her. And I just don't see many people doing that. So the chances of me meet, meeting one and then falling in love with me and me falling in love with them as well, feels like a big ask. Whereas what I can take charge of, I'm pretty much guarantee are running my businesses and building my empire.

• 1:00:52Speaker 05

  Like I can, I can concentrate on that and I can see the journey that it's gonna take and how it's gonna fulfill me. So I'm hoping I get a lot of fulfillment from my career over the next few years.

• 1:01:04Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Angels, you already know that the founder life is not for the weak. We're powering away through periods, perimenopause, motherhood, pregnancy, in addition to running the business. It is literally exhausting, so you need great sleep. So when I heard about the pod by Eight Sleep, I was immediately interested. And now they sponsor HSR. It is a fully connected sleep system that adapts to your body throughout the night. It fits onto any bed and it comes with female focused features that are actually useful. I love that you can individually control temperature on each side of the bed. Perfect if you have a partner and you sleep either hotter or colder than them. Plus it comes with special pregnancy and rapid cooling modes.

• 1:01:45Maggie Sellers Reum?

  So you can still sleep soundly when your hormones are having a little fit and they're very up and down. Having an Eight Sleep has completely changed the way that I sleep and therefore how I can function throughout the day. Try it for yourself at eightsleep.com slash HSR and use code HSR for $350 off your order. You get 30 nights to try it at home with the option to return it if you don't love it. But I promise you, if you are an HSR girly, you're gonna love it. I'm obsessed with it, so give it a shot. I need a matcha, so we're gonna take a little break and make one with our show sponsor, Peak. They have my favorite sun goddess matcha. I use this all the time, especially when I'm traveling, but also because it's just the best ingredients.

• 1:02:28Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It's ceremonial grade organic, made from the highest quality tea leaves and the added oxidants don't hurt either. Now we're gonna add a little bit of hot water first. I'm an iced matcha girl, but I'm also a latte girl. And to be able to do this the best at home, I use Peak Carrara Marine Collagen, which turns my matcha into a latte. Today, we're gonna do two scoops because it's that good. sourced from Japan with biotin and coconut cream to support radiant skin, stronger hair, nails, joint health and happy aging within. If you wanna try my recipe at home yourself, visit peaklife.com slash HSR. And for a limited time, get 15% off Peak for life with my link. I

• 1:03:19Speaker 03

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• 1:04:12Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Feel like this will help so many people by asking about this, but a lot of people are afraid to ask hard questions, right? What would you say to someone that doesn't like to have hard conversations? And would prefer to put the covers over their head and just like push the can down the road?

• 1:04:27Speaker 05

  Well, there's more than one way to get that information out of someone, isn't there? Because you can always talk about it in terms of like, oh, what do you think they're doing? Does that make, would you do it like that? But certainly with John and I, there was never uncomfortable conversations. We're just not that people. We could talk about anything and we did. And so I think facing things head on like death, we didn't wanna talk about it. So we were like, we know it's gonna happen, but let's just not chat about that. And it was only very close to the end where he said to me, I think he said something like, how long do you think I've got? And I was like, well, how long do you think you've got? And he was like, I think I've got a few months. And I knew he had maybe two weeks. He had, he actually had a week and a half in that. And I said, yeah, I think you're right.

• 1:05:10Speaker 05

  And I think that all I knew about John was that he wanted me there with him to the end. And we didn't need to talk about anything else. I wish we'd talked about more finances stuff. I didn't even have access to our bank account when he died. I had to ring up Lloyds TSB and be like, how do I get my money? Who were incredible, by the way. But the point is, we didn't have those uncomfortable conversations. And I think that's where I'm learning, I'm not perfect because I should have had those chats with him. But we didn't wanna have them.

• 1:05:45Speaker 05

  And I think he was the same. I think he just thought, you know, it won't happen. So yeah, I haven't got any good advice for that because I never took it.

• 1:05:56Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I think that is the advice. Like you sharing that and just being honest about it so that other people can learn from your experience is actually the advice. And I think that like, it's just so funny, like I can just tell if people I like fucking love when they come and sit down in the seat because they're just so themselves. And I think one of the things everyone said about you as I was prepping for this is that they were like, Lorna is so luxury and so chic and so beautiful. She's so relatable and she's so down to earth. And I think even just in the way that you're sharing, it is so evident that is just who you are. And that is a hard thing to have in this space when you do have beautiful things.

• 1:06:38Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And you, like, I watched the video of your house, the ghost house. And I'm like, to be able to be aspirational and to be relatable is actually a very hard balance that I don't think people do well. And you do exceptionally well. So even though you're sharing some of the things that maybe you wish you had done differently, there's a lot of things that I think like make you who you are and actually is like very motivating even for me. Picking yourself back up, starting over, like having to almost rebuild your life now.

• 1:07:15Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:07:16Maggie Sellers Reum?

  How do you think about that?

• 1:07:18Speaker 05

  Well, I don't take it lightly because it is a big thing that I've got to do. But I don't look at it as like a long time. Oh, I've got to get from there to there. So it's kind of a daily struggle. And I'll tell you what really caught me out. Probably the first two months after John died, I think grief hadn't hit me quite the same as I thought it would. And I thought, oh, I'm doing all right. Like, you know, I'm sad, I'm really missing John. But you know, I'm getting up, I'm putting my slap on, I'm getting out there, I'm making decisions. And you know, we're selling dresses and it's all going hunky dory and I'm gonna be fine. And then I went to a friend's wedding with a pal of mine. And this day was just not horrendous. It was the most beautiful wedding ever.

• 1:07:59Speaker 05

  But it was like horrendous because I was like watching all these people have a life that I'm, mine's collapsed, right? And I'm watching the dad's speech and they're, you know, they've just got married. They've got the whole life ahead of them. And I'm like, my life's absolutely gone to pot. And they're just starting their beautiful journey and mine's just been taken away from me. And I felt incredibly guilty because I thought I shouldn't be feeling these feelings. And I should be just, you know, excited for them and like, it's not fair that I should be having this woe is me. You know, feeling sorry for myself, but I couldn't snap out of it. And it really set a bit of a, I'd say for the two weeks after that, it really like slowed me down. To the point where I was, I had to do some filming and I was like, I can't do this. I'm sorry, I can't.

• 1:08:40Speaker 05

  And I messaged my manager, I was like, I'm really sorry, but I have got no interest in coming online and flogging a moisturizer. All I wanna do is go to bed and eat carbs. And she said to me, I think that's what you need to do. And I did. And I just took each day bite sized chunks. And my mom would be like, do you know what you should do today? I think you should order some nice food on Deliveroo and that's like your job for the day done. And so I was like childlike, you know, trying to function. And that's what grief does. It like knocks you out. It's like being punched in the gut, but you don't know when it's coming. So you can't quite prepare for it. And my life now is about building some kind of armor to manage it so that when I get punched, I can handle it. And isn't that kind of what I've been doing in my whole career?

• 1:09:27Speaker 05

  Getting, you know, knockdowns, rejections, you can't do this, you can't do that. And just getting back up and carrying on. So I've got, I know I've got it in me. I just need to get stronger at it. So I'm gonna have to build that from scratch.

• 1:09:43Speaker 05

  But it's just, yeah, it just takes you out. It's like, I love being in control. So I'm like, I don't wanna feel out of control. I don't wanna feel like this. It's so frustrating because it's really quite debilitating. And I don't see many people online talking about that element of grief. And I'm not confident enough yet to be able to go online and give advice about it. But I'm certainly like watching how it's impacting me and thinking, flipping heck, didn't see that coming. So what are we in now? Five, five and a half months since I lost John. So coming up to like six months.

• 1:10:18Speaker 05

  And yeah, I'm just, um, up and down still. In every element of my, my life.

• 1:10:26Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I think that's one of the things that I I always think about when I'm doing an interview is like, how can we really help people with this? And I think that people will experience grief as they are building these businesses. And I can't give advice. I've never experienced grief like this. And my question to you would be, you have multiple businesses. You are a business yourself. You have a fashion brand that you invested 600,000 pounds to. You have a beauty brand.

• 1:10:58Maggie Sellers Reum?

  How do you manage a business and manage people when you are experiencing extreme grief, like losing your husband?

• 1:11:05Speaker 05

  I mean, the, it really was a group of about 10 people that took the reins and really stepped up to the plate. And I think they could see that I needed it before I realized I needed it. So I am, although I have multiple businesses and I'm like the face of those businesses. No way would my businesses still be going if I didn't have the team that I have around me. And how they were able to function and operate without me being present. What was a learning curve was that with LAS, I was very much the face of the brand, still am very much the face of the brand. With 98 Beauty, you probably won't see my face on that, on that website. You hardly ever see it on social.

• 1:11:47Speaker 05

  I am not the face of 98. People who, if you know, you know that I am, you know, one of the core investors in it. But fundamentally, I am not, it's not relying on me to generate sales. The day to day does not rely on me. And I think that's been a really important learning curve because what that does is it gives me freedom in terms of time and perspective. And it frees up for me to do other things. Whereas with LAS, I'm so part of it. That it's either gonna have to change and pivot, and that's something that I'm assessing now, right, in my assessment period. Or it's gonna have to fold, which I don't really wanna do.

• 1:12:29Speaker 05

  Or we're just gonna have to really think hard about what that looks like for me and how much commitment I'm willing to give that business to make it the success it I want it to be. But one thing about me, I don't like failure. It doesn't sit well with me that. I don't like it. I don't, I don't enjoy it. I'm such a Leo as well. Like, I don't know if you're into Horus goat.

• 1:12:47Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I am.

• 1:12:48Speaker 05

  I am such a Leo, and I only like doing things I'm good at. And I need to be ego stroked and told that I'm doing great. And I, I am the first person to jump out when I can spot that something is gonna go wrong. So, yeah, I'm definitely learning a lot about my businesses and how different they operate. And the pros and cons of doing both. You know, all this kind of founder-led content we see at the minute. So many brand founders are like faces. We spoke about this at the beginning. Is that necessarily the be all and end all? Will it obviously speed up your business in the early days? Yep, because people buy from people. But fundamentally, how willing are you to be committed in that, to that degree?

• 1:13:31Speaker 05

  Because when you wanna extricate yourself from it, the more front of house you are, the harder it is. And, um, yeah, it's been quite enjoyable actually doing 98 and not having to be the face. Really enjoyed that.

• 1:13:45Maggie Sellers Reum?

  You said earlier that you launched two businesses probably at a similar time because you wanted John to see those.

• 1:13:53Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:13:54Maggie Sellers Reum?

  If you could go back, would you have launched one? And which one would it have been?

• 1:14:01Speaker 05

  It was important to launch fashion first for me because my community connected with me on that level. I'd had my own edits with other brands for multiple years. I had a really good steer on who I was gonna hire to build that business from day one. And I felt very confident with that team launching what we did and, and throwing lots of money at it. What I would say is that with 98, I had all the learnings from LAS, which I wouldn't have had. And I quickly understood that actually I needed business partners that brought different parts of the, the package together. So whereas with LAS, it was just literally me and then hiring lots of people to do various different things.

• 1:14:39Speaker 05

  With 98, I'm in business with people that offer big skillsets that I can't even get involved with in terms of like R and D and science and whatnot. And that's really saved us as a business a lot of money. It's allowed us to grow a lot quicker. We're already moving out of our fulfillment, 98, into a bigger fulfillment. The LAS is still in the original one. So that's the kind of difference in scale we're talking about. And I think there's a passion and a yearning with 98 that because of my hair loss and my alopecia journey, I really feel quite passionate about it. And I really care about developing products that I couldn't buy.

• 1:15:21Speaker 05

  We can all buy clothes, right? So then it's, the LAS brand is about my taste and about what I love. And I'm wearing LAS today and I love it and I'm girly girl. With 98, there's more, it feels more like I'm on a bit of a journey here to do something groundbreaking. Which is keeping me really interested and I get excited about it. I get excited thinking about it. And I think before we started filming, I said to you, like, I said to one of the girls, I wanna take this brand global. I wanna be in America. I want this, I want our Hydro Bomb mask to be the mask that everyone uses, like the one, one is sold a minute globally.

• 1:15:57Speaker 05

  And everyone loves it because it's so flipping good. And that's gonna take a lot of welly from my, from me and the team. We're getting there. We are, we are working hard at the minute.

• 1:16:07Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Fundamentally, I also just love beauty because it's like a habitual product that you have to use and buy all the time.

• 1:16:12Speaker 05

  Can't get away from it.

• 1:16:13Maggie Sellers Reum?

  What do you think it takes to just get through this season that you're in? Because it is so fresh.

• 1:16:21Speaker 05

  Grit and a lot of self-care, quite a few bottles of Sauvignon Blanc. I stopped reading as well, which is awful for me because I love reading. That is my hobby. And I just stopped. I'm always on my Kindle. And then about, maybe only a week or so ago, I picked my Kindle up again. And I gave an, I gave a book recommendation on stories. And I got all these messages. Oh my God, thank God. I've been waiting for you to recommend a book. I've not had a good spicy read in months. And I was like, yeah, I used to do that a lot. I used to recommend all these books that I loved reading. And again, I'm taking a hobby into a monetization because I'm writing a spicy novel.

• 1:17:05Speaker 05

  Don't know when that's gonna launch, but that's another, another element of me turning a hobby into something I can make cash out of. But I'm not doing it for that. I'm just doing it because I really wanna do it. And I think I'll be quite good at it. But yeah, those are the, the minute where I'm in this grieving process. I'm just trying to claw back all the things that make me happy. And so, yeah, reading is one of those. And seeing my mates and travel and not being really away very much since John died. So making plans to travel again. And that's really what the plan is. It's not really business-y at the minute. I mean, we are robust in our business plans, but it's not just me, right? So there's a whole team of people working on it. I'm not fully 100% back at work yet.

• 1:17:46Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I actually think that's like what people need to hear though, because business is not always gonna go the way you want it to. And I always say it's like, you have to take a step back to take 10 steps forward. And that feels so scary because especially when

• 1:18:01Maggie Sellers Reum?

  your family, your livelihood, everything relies on you. It can feel horrible to just sit and be still. How does it actually feel when you're in those moments? Are you even thinking about the livelihood aspect of it?

• 1:18:15Speaker 05

  Always, always thinking about that because there's other people that rely on me to pay the bills. I quite like sitting still. I recently went to a panel talk and a photographer said, we don't, the creativity comes when we're bored. We don't get bored enough. And I didn't ever get bored. But probably the month after John died, I didn't really leave the house, didn't really do anything, didn't do my makeup or hair, didn't film any content. And I got a bit bored, but it got my juices flowing. And I did start to think, when I go back to work, I'd really like to do that. And I might have a go at this. I need to explore that. So I think with those moments, you need to sit in them and almost like luxuriate in them and force them.

• 1:18:58Speaker 05

  We're so consumed by, there's so much stuff going on, isn't there? The noise. And actually sitting still is probably where you make your best decisions. So yeah, it's important to me that at the minute.

• 1:19:10Maggie Sellers Reum?

  How has grief changed your relationship with money in general? To things and stuff?

• 1:19:16Speaker 05

  I know. I don't really care about stuff in the same way. That's so true. So like,

• 1:19:24Speaker 05

  my house, I'm moving back to my house, right? And all I care about now is me, we've got an office and I wanna turn it into a bedroom because I want more people to come and visit. The old me would have been thinking about any spare cash I had. I'm gonna buy a new handbag and buy some new clothes. Whereas now I'm like, no, if I've just got enough cash set aside, I can probably build a nice little bedroom there. And then I reckon I can like host, you know, I can do things. So it's making me think more about emotional connections rather than stuff and not wanting to hold on to stuff. And all of my diamonds, I was, you know, massive B rocks on my, both my hands. They're all in safety deposit. Am I gonna, I don't feel safe wearing that kind of stuff anymore. I'm a bit of a sitting duck really in that, you know, I've got a big house that everyone knows about. They know where I am.

• 1:20:10Speaker 05

  Granted, it's like Fort Knox. But, you know, if someone really wanted to have a bash at stealing my diamonds and my Birkins, they know where I am. So I don't have the same yearnings to have those things anymore because I don't feel particularly safe having them. So I'm luxuriating now in my emotional attachments, my friends, the things that people can't steal from me.

• 1:20:33Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I was never ever thinking about this word before I met my husband and he seems to be obsessed with it. And I'm so curious for you. Legacy, right? Like you build these things and all you have, my husband calls them as your eulogy virtues, things that people will say about you or the legacy that you live behind. Whereas resume virtues are things where it's like, I wanted to work at Goldman Sachs, or I wanted to do this, or I wanted to earn this much money. And I'm very curious for you as you start this new path of starting over and taking a second and then thinking about ambition and thinking about how you feel. What does that word legacy now mean to you?

• 1:21:14Speaker 05

  To be honest, it's always meant the same to me, which was that I, my legacy and John's legacy was all about how do we make people feel? How, what were the things we enjoyed doing because we are, we, we were very social animals. So my legacy, as much as I like to say to you and for the internet to think that I'm this like, you know, very ambitious woman and I'm a big brand that's global success. I would like to build my big brand that's a global success, to sell it, and then probably disappear from the internet with enough cash to fund lots of brilliant parties and holidays. And that would be my legacy where my people that know me in real life would go, yeah, that was, she was,

• 1:21:58Speaker 05

  she was good fun. I enjoyed her company. Read or write giggle X, Y, and Z. What is life for if it's not for living fully and fun? I don't want to be a workaholic forever. I don't mind doing the graft, but I do not want that to be, I'm not going to be a Kris Jenner. I'm not going to be working into my seventies. I want to have fun and this bit is the bit that's going to get me there.

• 1:22:24Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I love that. Okay, Lorna, are you ready for some fun rapid fire?

• 1:22:28Speaker 05

  I am. Yeah, I'm nervous about this one. I've seen other people. I'm like, I don't know what I'd go for, but we'll see how we get on.

• 1:22:34Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Okay.

• 1:22:36Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Lorna, what is the last thing you put on your credit card?

• 1:22:39Speaker 05

  I don't have a credit card.

• 1:22:42Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Were you, you were ready for that answer?

• 1:22:43Speaker 05

  No, I don't. I genuinely, I was just, I don't have one. So the last thing I bought was a four poster bed yesterday.

• 1:22:53Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Oh, I saw this in your stories.

• 1:22:54Speaker 05

  Because I've got, I've got three bedrooms, but only two beds. And I was like, if I'm going to make that a third bedroom, I'm going to need a bed for the third room. But that can be an old one because I want a new one. So I've got a new bedstead coming. Taking six months there to build.

• 1:23:10Speaker 05

  But I'll have it by Christmas.

• 1:23:11Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And is that the most expensive last thing that you just bought?

• 1:23:13Speaker 05

  Yeah, it was a lot.

• 1:23:14Maggie Sellers Reum?

  You can only pick one for the rest of your life, running a personal brand or a beauty brand?

• 1:23:21Speaker 05

  Oh, that's really hard. I would say where I'm right now, I'm more successful at running a personal brand. But the goal is to run a beauty brand.

• 1:23:31Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Love that. What is the purchase you regret most?

• 1:23:36Speaker 05

  Every Birkin I ever bought.

• 1:23:39Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Why?

• 1:23:40Speaker 05

  Because you're such a target with it. I can't take you out anywhere. What's the point of it? Can't wear anywhere. And the other ones all got stolen. So I've got one left and I look at it with contempt because it's this thing that I've got that I can't really wear. And it cost me a fortune and it'll probably get robbed and it's just stressful.

• 1:24:01Maggie Sellers Reum?

  What is the luxury experience that is worth every penny?

• 1:24:04Speaker 05

  Holidays. I love a good holiday.

• 1:24:08Speaker 05

  Like any luxury hotel.

• 1:24:10Maggie Sellers Reum?

  What's the best luxury hotel you've ever been to?

• 1:24:12Speaker 05

  I mean, I could sit and talk about this till the cows come home. I would say some of the best luxury hotels I've been to have been in Italy, particularly on the Amalfi Coast. I love Santa Catarina. There's a Belmont in Ravello that's pretty shit hot. Italians just get it right, you know, the food, the weather, the vibes, the chat, the hot waiters. It's just all going on.

• 1:24:34Maggie Sellers Reum?

  If you had to live in a city in America, what would it be, but it cannot be Los Angeles or New York City?

• 1:24:40Speaker 05

  So I have obviously traveled a lot in America with cabin, being cabin crew, and I really liked Chicago. I liked the energy of Chicago, but it's very windy. And I really liked San Francisco, but it's very hilly.

• 1:24:54Speaker 05

  But over the wind and the hills, I'd probably go for the hills because the climate's a bit better in San Fran.

• 1:25:01Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I love that. That is not what I, you like had that answer right away.

• 1:25:04Speaker 05

  Yeah, I just love America. Like I'd love to live in America. I actually had a tarot reading say that I'm going to live in California. And this was a long time ago and I'm kind of thinking it might actually happen now. Not this year then.

• 1:25:17Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Okay. What do you believe every woman needs to have in place financially before she needs it?

• 1:25:24Speaker 05

  I'd love to be the girl that says a pension, but I don't actually have a pension, although I am about to have one.

• 1:25:30Speaker 05

  So I'd like, but I would like to say pension really. And I wish I'd started that 20 odd years ago when I first started working.

• 1:25:37Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Okay. So two other questions that we ask everyone, you probably know this if you listen. If you could tell yourself one HSR love note for the rest of your life, which is basically an affirmation, what would it be?

• 1:25:49Speaker 05

  Probably, going back to what we said at the very beginning about the fact that I can get through anything. You, I'm a survivor, right? So it would probably be something around that kind of survival, like you can do this. You are going to be okay. You're going to be okay. And I've needed other people to say that to me a lot recently. So it's quite an important thing for me.

• 1:26:14Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And if you had to title the season of your life, Lorna, what would it be called?

• 1:26:17Speaker 05

  This season? And probably the shit show.

• 1:26:22Speaker 05

  It's what I would call it. It's been tough.

• 1:26:26Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Well, thank you so much for coming on and talking about it. I know it's going to help so many people and I'm obsessed with you. I was before and everyone that came on my show was like, Lorna, Lorna, Lorna. And I was just like, oh my God, I need to meet this woman. So thank you for everything. And where could people find you and how can HSR help you right now?

• 1:26:44Speaker 05

  Yeah. So I'm, if you're looking for me, I'm now Lorna, because I was Lorna Lux. So I'm just Lorna now on Instagram and TikTok. And my brands are 98 Beauty. If you're in the market for a really good hair mask, I'm your gal. And then LAS, which is my fashion brand, wearing it today.

• 1:27:02Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It's beautiful.

• 1:27:04Speaker 05

  And I did have a wine as well, but it's sold out. And because we did it with John, I don't think we're going to do it again. But yeah, I did have a rosé because I love wine. Didn't really talk about that today.

• 1:27:13Maggie Sellers Reum?

  No.

• 1:27:14Speaker 05

  But that's like

• 1:27:14Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Tonight we'll have a glass of wine.

• 1:27:15Speaker 05

  Yeah, that's my other passion is drinking wine.

• 1:27:18Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And how can HSR help you?

• 1:27:20Speaker 05

  Oh, what in terms of?

• 1:27:22Maggie Sellers Reum?

  People say random stuff.

• 1:27:25Speaker 05

  Like what?

• 1:27:26Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Someone said, um, buy a coffee for a stranger today.

• 1:27:30Speaker 05

  Well, that's cute. I like that. I've done that before as well.

• 1:27:33Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Okay.

• 1:27:34Speaker 05

  When I'm coming out of prep. Yeah. Buy someone a hot chocolate. People love a hot chocolate.

• 1:27:39Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It's underrated.

• 1:27:40Speaker 05

  Better than coffee.

• 1:27:40Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah, it's underrated.

• 1:27:41Speaker 05

  And it's like a bit more like, mm, I didn't realize, I forgot how much these, how good these are.

• 1:27:45Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It gives you childhood vibes.

• 1:27:47Speaker 05

  Yeah, really like that.

• 1:27:48Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Lorna, thank you so much for coming on. We love you.

• 1:27:50Speaker 05

  No, thank you.

• 1:28:01Maggie Sellers Reum?

  If you're starting a business, there are certain things that are so fun to think about. Y'all know I love a mood board. So everything that relates to the creative, the name, the brand, the website, the vision board. But then there are the things that make you pause and ask, am I even doing this correctly? Or do I even want to be doing this? Like forming your business, getting the right documents, keeping your personal information private. This is where our sponsor Northwest Registered Agent is so helpful. They're a one stop shop for founders who want to launch and legitimize their business without turning it into a giant admin spiral. They help you form an LLC or a corporation, act as your registered agent and give you tools like a business address, operating agreement, website, phone number, professional email and free guides.

• 1:28:45Maggie Sellers Reum?

  They also have real corporate guides who know your local laws. Visit northwestregisteredagent.com/hsrfree and start using free resources to build something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at northwestregisteredagent.com/hsrfree.

• 1:29:05Speaker 01

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• 1:29:33Maggie Sellers Reum?

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