#379: Dita Von Teese — The Queen of Burlesque

"You can be a juicy ripe peach and there will still be someone who doesn't like peaches." — Dita Von Teese Dita Von Teese http://www.dita.net/ (@DitaVonTeese https://www.instagram.com/ditavonteese/) is the biggest name in burlesque in the world since Gypsy Rose Lee, and is credited with bringing the art form back into the spotlight. She is renowned for her iconic martini glass act and dazzling haute-couture striptease costumes adorned with hundreds of thousands of Swarovski crystals. This "Burlesque Superheroine" (Vanity Fair) is the performer of choice at high-profile events for designers such as Marc Jacobs, Christian Louboutin, Louis Vuitton, Chopard, and Cartier. She is the author of The New York Times bestseller Your Beauty Mark: The Ultimate Guide to Eccentric Glamour https://www.amazon.com/Your-Beauty-Mark-Ultimate-Eccentric/dp/0060722711?tag=offsitoftimfe-20, and has a namesake lingerie collection available internationally at prominent retailers. You can join Dita on one of her upcoming tour dates in 2019 and 2020 http://www.dita.net/shows/ or at her "Weekend of Glamour https://weekendofglamour.com/" event on August 24th and 25th. This podcast is brought to you by Athletic Greens https://www.athleticgreens.com/tim. I’m often asked, “If you could only use one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is usually Athletic Greens https://www.athleticgreens.com/tim, which I consider my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body and did not get paid to do so. I often take it in the mornings at home and travel with it to minimize the likelihood of getting sick. Though I always focus on whole foods first, AG covers my bases if I can’t get everything I need through meals. As a listener of The Tim Ferriss Show, you'll get a free 20-count travel pack https://www.athleticgreens.com/tim (valued at $79) with your first order at athleticgreens.com/tim https://www.athleticgreens.com/tim. 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• 0:01Speaker 00

  At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. Can I ask you a personal question?

• 0:08Speaker 01

  Now would have seemed appropriate timing.

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  I'm a cybernetic organism, living tissue over metal endoskeleton.

• 0:24Tim Ferriss?

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• 3:04Tim Ferriss?

  Hello, boys and girls. This is Tim Ferriss, and welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show, where it is always my job, each and every episode, to speak with a world-class performer. And today, performer, I suppose, is very literal in a lot of respects. And this wide-ranging conversation will involve my guest, Dita Von Teese. Dita Von Teese is the biggest name in burlesque in the world since Gypsy Rose Lee, who was born in 1911. Dita is credited with bringing the art form back into the spotlight. She is renowned for her iconic martini glass act and dazzling haute couture striptease costumes adorned with hundreds of thousands of Swarovski crystals. This burlesque superheroine, as she's been called by Vanity Fair, is the performer of

• 3:48Tim Ferriss?

  choice at high-profile events for designers such as Marc Jacobs, Christian Louboutin, you'll have to excuse me for my French, Louis Vuitton, Chopard, and Cartier, among others. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Your Beauty Mark, subtitle, The Ultimate Guide to Eccentric Glamour, and has a namesake lingerie collection available internationally at prominent retailers. She can be found on the socials, on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, at Dita Von Teese, D-I-T-A-V-O-N-T-E-E-S-E.

• 4:21Tim Ferriss?

  Dita, welcome to the show.

• 4:22Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 4:24Tim Ferriss?

  And I have wanted to meet for so long, Amanda Palmer, first peeked my curiosity. And there are so many directions we could go, but I thought we would start with a word, haute couture, which we started to talk about a little bit because I didn't know what it meant. What is haute couture?

• 4:42Speaker 01

  Well, I mean, that's like a term that's used very loosely these days. Everyone wants to call it something haute couture if it's like extra special, but it really means high sewing, like a high level of sewing. And so when you talk about a haute couture designer, it's, you know, there's like a ministry of haute couture in France where you kind of get the stamp and you can call your clothing haute couture. So it's kind of loosely used, you know, you'll find like haute couture donuts and things like that, you know, but it's really not accurate. So I always say that I do, you know, haute strip. So it's like a high level of strip, but you know, wearing haute couture costumes, which means they're, you know, made with extravagance and excellence that is not, you know, something you can buy in a store.

• 5:27Tim Ferriss?

  So speaking of things that you can't buy easily in a store, because you forged your own path in a lot of respects, I would like to take a 90 degree turn, I suppose, from where most people would expect me to go and talk about vintage cars. So it's my understanding that you've done very well in collecting, flipping, refurbishing vintage cars.

• 5:54Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 5:55Tim Ferriss?

  Where does that come from?

• 5:56Speaker 01

  Well, it first started in the early 90s. I was big into the swing dance scene and pinup, you know, a pinup model. And I had a boyfriend that drove a 1930s car and I sort of thought I should have a 1930s car. So I got my first car, a 1939 Chrysler New Yorker, when I was in my early twenties. And I love that car and I used to drive it all around Orange County where I lived. And I didn't, I didn't, I sold that car not that long ago, maybe like 10 years ago. And I bought it for like eight thousand dollars in the nineties and sold it to someone in Germany for like thirty thousand dollars. So I thought this is kind of, I should do this more.

• 6:41Speaker 01

  So I started buying more cars. I met a really great guy that helps me with my cars. And so he goes to all the auctions and finds things at a good price and then we fix it up. I drive it for a while because also for me with vintage cars, I like cars from the thirties, forties and fifties. But with vintage cars, there's kind of, it's like a relationship. I've had cars that I had a bad relationship with, like the brakes going out and, you know, there's a, I had this sixty-five Jaguar S-Type for a while that I loved. It was so beautiful. I actually bought it on eBay while I was drinking red wine and taking Ambien, which was probably not the best idea, but so I picked up this car and it was so beautiful. I picked it up when I was sober. It was still beautiful. I was glad I bought it, but it was not a good fit for me because the brakes kept going

• 7:25Speaker 01

  out on this car and you could imagine that's really terrifying.

• 7:28Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah, sounds like a downside.

• 7:29Speaker 01

  One moment in particular that I remember was I was pulling up to the Playboy Mansion and, you know, this is like in the nineties when it was like these amazing parties happening. And I remember going up the hill and knowing the brakes were starting to fail and just leaning out the window to all the valets, brakes don't work. And they all ran and, you know, I was going up the hill quite slowly at that point, but all these like valet guys running in their red coats to stop the car or so. And then I just got out, went to the party and, you know, had the car taken care of the next day. But it was one of those things where I couldn't get, I kept taking it to mechanics and they were like, the brakes are fine, the brakes are fine. And then I'd get in it again and then they'd go out on me. So I feel like you have to have the right fit with a vintage car.

• 8:13Speaker 01

  And so I, I buy them, I drive them and I decide if it's the car for me or not, like to, is it easy for me to drive? Do I love how it feels to drive it? Does it leave me on the side of the road or not? And so I've kind of just, right now I have three cars. I have a nineteen fifty-three Cadillac that I've had for a long time, a Fleetwood. I've had that one for a while and I love that one. And I have a nineteen forty-

• 8:39Speaker 01

  LaSalle, which is Cadillac. It's a convertible, like a big black gangster car. Really beautiful, but I don't drive it that much. Uh, and then I just bought a car. It's called a Woodill Wildfire. And it's a convertible. It looks like the Disney Cars car. So I bought that one actually to flip it because it's super, super rare. And it's not really the kind of car that I can cruise around L A in because it'll be like a really, you know, it'll go to Pebble Beach for sure, next year. So I'll drive it for like a year. I'm having it all done up and then I'll take pictures in it, drive it, enjoy it, and then, you know, flip that one.

• 9:13Tim Ferriss?

  Now, is part of the ability to flip these cars associated with the fact that you have driven them? Or is that a selling point? Or is that, is that not part of the selling process?

• 9:24Speaker 01

  I think it's a little bit of both. I feel like vintage cars are one of those things. If you can keep them for a long time, they will always retain their value. It's just you have to not be desperate to sell it. And you can always turn a profit. But yeah, like having, you know, the pictures or video or, you know, me getting photographed with it. Um, that's, you know, but I don't just buy them and take pictures of it and then sell it, you know? I really use them. I really love them, you know?

• 9:51Tim Ferriss?

  And you, you collect, or you have collected other things, or I should say, uh, vintage cars are not the only vintage that you've acquired in the past.

• 10:01Speaker 01

  No, I mean, I pretty much collect dead people's things, of all kinds. My house is like a museum. I am a maximalist. I love, um, I, I like recyclables too. I like vintage clothing because it's another thing that retains its value. Uh, I started wearing vintage, um, when I was just out of high school. Um, I graduated from high school in nineteen ninety and I bought vintage clothes because I couldn't afford anything else. And I kind of wanted to get the designer look, you know, I could emulate designers like Vivienne Westwood or Jean Paul Gaultier by buying like vintage bullet bras when you could buy them for nothing. And so I started like that because I couldn't afford like, you know,

• 10:43Speaker 01

  the designer jeans my friends in Orange County had or the cool sneakers. So I kind of like went to flea markets and went to vintage stores. And then, you know, lo and behold, all these years later, it's super collectible. And I have amassed an amazing collection of vintage clothing that has really, uh, has a lot of value.

• 11:03Tim Ferriss?

  It's amazing how that works. And it makes me think of like my habits and hobbies with comic books as a kid. I mean, I didn't acquire them to have them appreciated in value. But like you said, lo and behold.

• 11:19Speaker 01

  It's kind of a life lesson, right? Like if you do things with authenticity, like that's what I've always retained from there's. It's a common thing of all of my life lessons is like things that are authentic. If you do it in an authentic way, you know, like what I never said, I'm going to be the world's most famous burlesque star. I'm going to be a stripper in the modern times. I just did it accidentally. And it's the same thing with collecting, you know, with the cars and the vintage clothes. It was sort of like, I just loved it. And then I'm lucky that it all worked out.

• 11:53Tim Ferriss?

  So we're gonna, we're gonna look at, at, at luck and we're gonna look at decisions. I think they go hand in hand. Very often you have maybe not equal doses of each, but certainly doses of each. Let's, let's talk about burlesque. But we're gonna, we're gonna do it kind of hopping backwards and forwards. The first question that I wanted to ask is about the name. So Dita Von Teese, where does the name come from? What's the backstory on the name?

• 12:20Speaker 01

  Oh, it's funny that one time I, I remember a few years back, someone was talking, a journalist said how cliche my name was, how calculated and cliche it was, but it wasn't at all. So I was working in a strip club in the early nineties in Orange County. And I had picked the name Dita because I had just seen a movie with an actress called Dita Parlow. And then there was also like the Madonna character in the sex book. And I kind of was, you know, into this twenties look at the time. I kind of went through different eras that I loved and emulated that, so.

• 12:55Speaker 01

  I picked the name Dita and, and then a few years later, I was asked to be in these Playboy newsstand specials. I don't know if some people remember this, but they used to have always these special magazines called the Book of Lingerie or whatever. So I was in those in like the mid 90s and they told me I had to have a second name. So, and I said, no, why? Madonna, Cher, Dita, what? And they said, no, you have to have a second name. So I opened up the phone book because we used to have yellow pages back then, or white pages. And I was like, people with a Von are cool in their names. So I looked under the Vons and I found this name Von Teese, T R E E S E. And I called Playboy and I said, I'm gonna

• 13:37Speaker 01

  be Dita Von Teese. And they're like, okay. And then I remember the magazine came out and I went to the liquor store and I grabbed my issue and I opened it up and said, Dita Von Teese. They forgot the R. And now, I didn't think anything like, oh, this is cool. It's like, striptease, Dita Von Teese. I thought, I need to call them and tell them, you know, give them what for. And so I called them and said, it was supposed to be Dita Von Teese. And they said, yeah, yeah, we'll correct it next month. So, you know, the magazine came out again and it said, Dita Von Teese. So it just kind of, I just kind of left it. And I didn't think ever for one minute that I was going to be famous with that name, or I was going to be trademarking it internationally. I would have probably done it differently

• 14:19Speaker 01

  if I had known that it was going to turn into what it has. So.

• 14:24Tim Ferriss?

  It still worked out.

• 14:25Speaker 01

  Yeah. But I was just, you know, I was just like, working in a strip club, doing, posing for these Playboy magazines. And, you know, it was something I thought, I thought I would just, you know, get married, you know, have a baby and like, that would be my past of being this pinup star and stripper.

• 14:42Tim Ferriss?

  Well, it seems to me that there's, there's an argument that people can make for planning big, thinking big, and making those decisions with this really long-term outlook. But I think there's also an argument that could be made, if you look at a lot of the people who have been on this podcast, that if they knew... Then what they knew later, they would have fucked it all up by trying to sort of craft themselves for the world. And they would have lost that authenticity or that spontaneity that is actually kind of the genie in the bottle that helped them to do what they did.

• 15:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:24Tim Ferriss?

  What is burlesque and how did that enter the scene? Because my understanding in doing the research and also you very generously contributed, your answers to tribal mentors is that ballet was one of the, I guess, first focal points. So how did burlesque enter the picture? And what is burlesque?

• 15:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, okay. So I wanted to be a ballerina my whole childhood, but I was just not really that good at it. I just loved it and still to this day. It's like, I like to take a ballet class, but I'm the ballerina in the back and I have to follow everyone and I just never had that like, I was just not naturally meant to do that, you know? But I loved it. So burlesque was a type of show that was sort of a spinoff of a vaudeville show back in, you know, the 1930s and 40s. So vaudeville was kind of like where a lot of, you know, amazing comedians and singers kind of made their mark in America in the 1920s and 30s and, you know, pretty much it was dead by the 40s. But so burlesque was kind of the naughtier cousin of vaudeville.

• 16:34Speaker 01

  It was a little bit more about sex. It was like working man's entertainment, cheaper ticket. You could go and see, well, actually originally it meant it was kind of just a variety show. But the stars of the burlesque show kind of became the strippers and it was kind of by an accident. You know, they say there was like a dancing girl. There's a few different, there's different folklore for how it actually started, how burlesque in America really started. That idea of striptease to music with a band or onstage. There was one story about A girl who was trying to do a quick change and she started like pulling off her outfit before she was concealed from the audience and they went crazy. And so, you know, in

• 17:16Speaker 01

  those days, it was like, well, you know, what can you do to get, make a name for yourself? So obviously that turned into like a striptease act. But yeah, it was kind of like the strip club of that time, but you know, there was a live orchestra, band, and you had comedy and dancing girls, but you know, you had great stars that came out of burlesque like Gypsy Rosely, who a lot of people compare me to, or compare my career to. She was the subject of the musical and film Gypsy, starring Natalie Wood, which came out in the 60s. So burlesque was kind of a very niche entertainment. I think, I don't think it's ever, of course it went away, you know, it got, the burlesque theaters got shut down

• 17:59Speaker 01

  in the 50s. And then burlesque dancers like Lily St. Seire were performing in like supper clubs and whatnot. But burlesque was kind of dead by the 50s in a lot of ways.

• 18:11Tim Ferriss?

  And so it's dead in the 50s, and yet somehow it finds you.

• 18:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:16Tim Ferriss?

  Or you find it. And you were born in sort of working class rural Michigan. Is that right?

• 18:25Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 18:26Tim Ferriss?

  Okay.

• 18:26Speaker 01

  I was born in Rochester, but I grew up in a place called West Branch, Michigan, which is near Traverse City.

• 18:31Tim Ferriss?

  Mm-hmm.

• 18:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:32Tim Ferriss?

  And so how did burlesque, or striptease, or any of those forms of entertainment, or those iconic women, enter your life?

• 18:42Speaker 01

  Well, I had this idea in, around 1991, that I wanted to be the new Betty Page. I wanted to create pinup pictures with the emphasis on bondage and fetishism, because I kind of got introduced to that world in a roundabout way through my job working in a lingerie store.

• 19:03Tim Ferriss?

  Okay.

• 19:04Speaker 01

  I worked in a lingerie store. I love, I've been obsessed with lingerie since I was a little girl. Like I have really distinct memories of being curious about what these weird things that women wore under their clothes were, like bras. I used to sneak into my mom's bra drawer and I used to steal things. And to me, it was like symbolic of womanhood and femininity. And I was like, I want to be part of this world, you know? So I was always obsessed with lingerie. Anyway, I became obsessed with like...

• 19:35Speaker 01

  Things like garter belts, stockings, when I was a teenager. I worked in a lingerie store. I asked someone for, um, I had been looking for like a Victorian corset and someone gave me this, gave me this address, uh, when I was like 18 and I walked into the store where they, I supposedly could get something like that and it was a fetish store. And it kind of opened my whole, my mind to this whole other world that I had no idea existed. And I was shown this picture of Betty Page and I thought, why isn't anyone doing this now? And I decided I was gonna be that. And so in the prog- you know, the process of me, um, making all these pinup pictures

• 20:16Speaker 01

  and even bondage movies and all these things that were from that, you know, in a 50's theme, um, I would be looking at these vintage magazines and a lot of the, the models that posed for these vintage magazines or these fetish magazines that would say they were a burlesque dancer too. I was like, burlesque dancer? So, a lot of these women that posed for pinups back then in men's magazines in the 30's and 40's, they were also dancers. And I thought like, oh, what a great way to use my failed ballet career, you know? I could, I could, you know, perform on stage and, and perform in these vintage, you know, vintage outfits. So I, you know, my first stages for that were strip club, regular strip club.

• 21:01Speaker 01

  And then as it became more famous, like with Playboy and everything, I would headline the big strip clubs all over the United States. And I'd get, you know, then suddenly I, I was the most famous fetish model in the early 90's too, so I was performing at this like torture garden in London and the fetish ball here in LA and kind of doing all these like fetish parties.

• 21:21Tim Ferriss?

  Okay. I have so many questions. I have so many questions. Thank you for that. So the, your career and trajectory is so interesting to me on multiple levels.

• 21:36Tim Ferriss?

  Because, and then I can list off all the reasons. But there's a, there's a, the, the perception that I have is that the, say, strip club or stripping, striptease world is very, would be very difficult and very competitive because you have a lot of beautiful women or beautiful girls. And the, at least in some places, I would imagine the sort of barrier to entry is, is, is decently low. And yet, you were able to craft this, this unique career for yourself and really differentiate yourself. And I want to hearken back to uh, something we were chatting about

• 22:20Tim Ferriss?

  uh, before we started recording, which was Amanda Palmer in, I guess, the, the art of asking, if I'm getting the title right, talked about you because she contrasted what you did, and feel free to fact correct, but with a lot of what was happening at the time, where you'd have these sort of bleached blonde women, completely nude, you know, enormous fake breasts, doing their thing, getting kind of singles or fives, and you'd have this elaborate, long striptease with much more clothing, and then there was one guy who would give you a 50, and it was like, that guy's your customer.

• 22:56Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 22:57Tim Ferriss?

  So, which, which to me is so beautiful because, uh, and I'm gonna read a, a quote here, if, if I may. This is from your answer in Tribe of Mentors, "If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it, what would it say and why?" And the quote that you gave was, "You can be a juicy ripe peach and there will still be someone who doesn't like peaches." And I'll, I'll just finish this real quickly. This is a quote that my friend's great-grandmother told to her, and she told to me, and I've always loved it. And you go on to say how in the public eye, as burlesques are, you've been called brilliant, stupid, ugly and beautiful in equal measures. But you found your niche. You found your true believers.

• 23:41Tim Ferriss?

  How did you do that? Like, when did you realize that it could work? Was there a... that's a very long-winded lead-up to a question, but it's like you, you broke through and became so big in a world where I think the belief would be that's extremely, extremely difficult. So, like, when did you realize, wow, I think I'm on to something? Or, or you found that, uh, secret sauce?

• 24:07Speaker 01

  Yeah. Um, I feel like the first thing I think about is that all along I was just having fun and enjoying what I was doing, having the time of my life. So it was never high stakes, like, am I gonna make it or break it? I didn't really care. I always kept my normal job, you know?

• 24:24Tim Ferriss?

  What was the normal job?

• 24:26Speaker 01

  Um, first I worked in lingerie and then I worked in makeup, in beauty, behind the makeup counter at Robinson's May. So I kind of always kept my other, my, my, my job. Um, and so it was never like, if I don't make it, what am I gonna do? I just thought like, this is fun. So I think not having like that pressure. Um, but there's certainly a couple turning points in my career where I mostly felt I had to live up to accolades I was getting suddenly. Like, when I was on the cover of Playboy in 2002 for the Christmas edition, it was still a time when Playboy, everybody knew who was on the cover of Playboy and people cared. It was kind of before it was all reality stars and it was when you had like actresses wanting to be on the cover.

• 25:11Speaker 01

  So that was a pivotal moment in my career. And then, um, uh, I was in Vanity Fair and they wrote this article about what I did. And, and I felt like, I better live up to some of this. Um, and that kind of made me take myself more, a little bit more seriously. And then I came out with a book where I told my story, not in an autobiographical way, but a photo book with Judith Regan. And she kind of let me go wild with this book. And it was the first time that Harper Collins and Regan Books had done a book like this where it was sort of autobiographical, but mostly a photo book. And on one side, it's called Burlesque and the Art of the Tees and Fetish and the Art of the Tees. And it was a book where you could flip it over and read the other side,

• 25:56Speaker 01

  the, the light side and the dark side. Um, and I found, uh, I did this big book signing in London at Harrods and the night before I went on the Jonathan Ross Show. And when I showed up, um, they had blocked off the streets and there were thousands of women there. There, it was like a sea of like girls with red lipstick on and I suddenly went, "Oh, I didn't know that I'm standing for something now." And I realized that by just telling my story about feeling like I wasn't, um, you know, wasn't very beautiful, wasn't very talented, all these things, it kind of, you know, resonated with other

• 26:36Speaker 01

  people. It said, "I felt that way too." And I kind of just felt like I had a mission and something to stand up for and realized that all has to just come from speaking my truth and being authentic and not like calculating because, you know, talking about what we were saying earlier, there's so many people that want to be the new me and they're going to be more Dita Von Teese than Dita Von Teese was and they're going to make their career and they're going to be more famous than me and do better than me. You know, I hear it all the time, but it's like you can't really, you know, you can try to make it up and you can decide you're going to do all those things, but I think ultimately, you know, I'm not like super, um, spiritual, like the universe is watching, but I just

• 27:18Speaker 01

  feel like my whole career path is just a matter of doing something that I loved, that I believed in, but without the desire or want to be famous. Um, I wanted to be acknowledged, certainly, but I didn't expect it.

• 27:34Tim Ferriss?

  Mm-hmm. When did you, when did you know you could make it a full-time gig? So I'm thinking about the road leading up to the cover of Playboy. I would imagine a few things happened leading up to that. Uh, when did you end up quitting those backup jobs?

• 27:55Speaker 01

  I think I ended up quitting those jobs around 2000 and, uh, 2000 maybe, like right before Playboy and that's when I was really... Touring and shooting pictures and I also met my ex-husband Marilyn Manson. A lot of people know me because of him. He's always been a cheerleader for what I do. And still is in a lot of ways. So I think that that was a moment too where I felt like I could focus completely on showbiz instead of my paycheck because I was also like, let's be real, I was, you know, basically his cook. I'm a good cook. I was sort of like the housewife

• 28:37Speaker 01

  and took care of him while he was making records. He made a record called The Golden Age of Grotesque, which was sort of a tribute to my world. And, you know, around that time I was sort of, you know, moved in with him. We got engaged and I was, you know, packing his suitcases, unpacking his suitcase, you know, acting like personal assistant half the time, but also had the freedom to, you know, start building, you know, put big props up in our backyard and rehearse on them and make bigger, better shows. So that was kind of a moment where I could focus more on that.

• 29:08Tim Ferriss?

  You have said that the advice, well, actually, no, I'm going to come back to the advice, not the advice, to your younger self, but that your 16-year-old self might be surprised that you've managed to find your voice and that you experienced a lot of fear as a kid. And you do, I mean, just in our interactions leading up to recording, I mean, you seem very, in some ways, very introverted or on the shy side, which is not a bad thing. How did you find your voice? What changed?

• 29:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, I grew up really shy. Like, I remember being in grade school and being sent, you know, and I was sort of always confused by this. But they sent me to like a speech class or something like this because I was so soft-spoken, but mostly I was just terrified for them to ask me anything or call on me. And I felt that way through high school and everything.

• 30:12Speaker 01

  I could have never, you know, I used to duck out of speech class, like, or, you know, in high school when you'd have to give speeches, oh, I would never, you know, I'd never went to theater, I didn't want to be an actress, nothing like that. Um, but I liked, you know, I liked ballet, I liked performing, but that was different. Um, and I, I, I feel like I found my confidence actually with, first, it's one of the things I talk about with my book is learning how to find confidence in how I present myself and, and, you know, listen, it's, it's like, it's like drag, the way we dress ourselves, the way we wear hair, the makeup we wear, I feel more confidence than when I'm, you know, with the character I created, which is not, you know, I don't, it's, it's a character, but it's not.

• 30:56Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah.

• 30:57Speaker 01

  It's like an aesthetic character, but I'm not, I still find the importance in being still the Heather Sweet from Michigan and the vulnerability coming across, not just with the appearance I've created, but onstage with how I perform.

• 31:11Tim Ferriss?

  Heather Sweet, for people who don't know, your birth name.

• 31:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm Heather Sweet. Uh, it sounds like a stripper name, I know. My, my, uh, yeah. Um, what was I saying?

• 31:22Tim Ferriss?

  You were talking about confidence and the, when you put on the, and I'm just paraphrasing here, but when you put on the persona

• 31:30Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 31:31Tim Ferriss?

  that allows you to assume a level of confidence that you don't normally have access to.

• 31:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, I felt like wearing, um, wearing my makeup a certain way and wearing my clothes that change my posture and make me want to walk proud, or people wanting, wondering who I am, who's that girl? You know? It, it slowly but surely helped me gain confidence and, and of course, there are, I, I feel like it's, it's definitely about maturity too, right? Like we're, you know, when you're in high school, you're a certain maturity level, it's just when you think about the science of it too. And I just kind of thought, eventually I learned that if I make mistakes in front of people, it, there are people that are all saying, I'm like that too, and it's endearing.

• 32:17Speaker 01

  So when, uh, I was a spokesperson for the MAC AIDS Fund, for the MAC Viva Glam thing, and I had to give speeches all over the world, and I was so scared, but then I realized that once I got up there and I'd have a, have a triumph, it made me have more confidence. And so I love to challenge myself in doing things that terrify me. You know, I have never been a singer. I cannot sing, but I got asked to make an album by one of the greatest French musicians. And I thought, okay, you know, I said to him, you know, I can't sing, right? And he said, this album wouldn't work with the singer.

• 32:52Tim Ferriss?

  (laughing)

• 32:54Speaker 01

  And I wrote it for you. And I thought, okay. And just the whole process of going into a studio and being, you know, around all these like, sound technicians and this artist that I admire so much. And like, learning and going to that place of feeling like Heather Sweet from Michigan again. I enjoy it. And I come out of it. You know, and it's one of the things I think my fans and people that know me like about me is that I'm not trying to like, look to me, I'm so glamorous and I have confidence in everything I do. Like, I don't talk like that. I don't act like that. You know, I know how to bring it on stage, but I also know that the little things that are the real me are what make it an interesting thing to watch.

• 33:36Tim Ferriss?

  Mm-hmm. So you mentioned feeling terrified. I want to wind back the clock a bit. And because I deliberately didn't want to kind of fill in the gaps on some chapters in your life, because I wanted to hear it from you directly. Also, because can't believe everything you read on the internet.

• 33:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:56Tim Ferriss?

  Were you, is it true that you were, that you were thrown out of your house in high school?

• 34:02Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, my parents were getting a divorce. And I always feel so bad talking about this for my dad, because he'll, you know, it's one of those things I haven't really gotten around to like, sitting down and talking to him about, but I will. So my parents were getting a divorce. My mother was having an affair with my dad's best friend. My dad was having an affair with his mistress back in Michigan. We're all living in Orange County at that time. They're both having this like, you know, their affairs with these different people. I'm 16 years old. I'm working in the lingerie store. I have the same boyfriend since I was like, 14 years old. You know, I'm living my life. I'm working, I'm going to school, I'm working, I'm hanging out with my boyfriend. I'm not, you know, I'm pretty,

• 34:47Speaker 01

  I'm not getting amazing grades, but I'm not getting bad grades. I'm not doing anything bad. And I'm working in the lingerie store. And I'd wash my little like, Black lace lingerie things and hang them up in my bathroom and my dad just had like a fit about it and was calling me, you know, a whore and like whoring around with your boyfriend. And I was sort of like, what? You know, I was like, I, I have a credit card, I'm working in a lingerie store, selling lingerie to like, you know, grown women and it's a legitimate, it's not a sex store. Um, it's, you know, I'm selling like night gowns to ladies in their fifties half the time. Uh, so my dad like kind of threw me out of the house.

• 35:29Speaker 01

  I mean, he was drinking a lot at that time, so I went to go live with my mom, which was better for me because I've always been closer to my mom and, uh, we've always understood each other a lot better than, you know, dads and daughters don't always understand each other that well. So that's the story of me getting thrown out of the house.

• 35:48Tim Ferriss?

  Was that, was that hard for you? I'm just, I mean, I've never been thrown out of a house, man. I've, I've certainly had my own childhood stuff, but, uh, was it a, was it more of a relief than anything?

• 36:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was kind of like, I feel like I could recognize whatever my parents were going through and that, you know, divorce is never easy on anyone. And I was sort of like, it's, you know, I was always very like relaxed about things like that. And even looking back, it wasn't traumatic. I sort of just went and lived with my mom and, you know, I had more freedom that way. Uh, it wasn't, you know, it wasn't long after that that I, uh, you know, moved out, you know, it was a couple of years later that I was kind of on my own and, uh, yeah, I don't, I don't know, it was more, it, it made me think about it a few years ago. I didn't think about that too much, but it made me think about how people have their

• 36:48Speaker 01

  own associations with certain things and, and my association with lingerie and black lace and garter belts and stockings was kind of innocent one. Like I said, it goes back to that rite of passage of being a woman, not sex. You know, certainly I know how to use. The tools of seduction and things like lingerie, I know how to use that in my personal life, but you know, I don't, it's never been that for me. And I thought, oh, that's my dad putting his issues on me. It's not about me. And I still think that, and that's the conversation I need to have with my dad, is like, I do understand that something that made him associate black garter belts and black lace with something bad, with

• 37:29Speaker 01

  a wicked city woman and a prostitute. He was really disturbed by his, you know, sixteen, seventeen year old daughter wearing that stuff. But none of that was my problem, that's his problem.

• 37:41Tim Ferriss?

  How did you develop the capacity to handle all of that as calmly as you did? It was, is your mom that way? Are you, uh, did you somehow develop that over time? I mean, that seems atypical for a sixteen or seventeen year old getting thrown out of the house to be, to be able to watch the watcher in a way and have that level of kind of calm awareness. Where does that come from?

• 38:14Speaker 01

  I'm not necessarily, I'm not really sure if I felt that way at the time, but I think I've always been someone who, you know, kind of disappears into the work, whatever it is. And, um, I kind of, I don't, I'm not someone who reacts unless I'm really like provoked and pushed, and then suddenly I can explode. But I certainly wasn't that way when I was a teenager. I think things would be different now if someone like my dad talked to me, and even when he does talk to me now, if I, if he says something I don't agree with or that I'm offended by, like, I wouldn't be that person that's like, I'm just gonna go. Um, I'm a little more confrontational with, with, with my, my father

• 38:59Speaker 01

  now, you know?

• 39:01Tim Ferriss?

  You mentioned the ballet and wanting to be a ballet dancer, and I want to come back to that because, uh...

• 39:14Tim Ferriss?

  Going back to one of the questions in Travel Mentors, I asked, you know, how is a failure or a parent failure set you up for later success? Do you have a quote favorite failure, end quote of yours? And there's a lot to the answer, so I'm not going to read all of it, which is a great answer. But you mentioned at one point, you know, truthfully, I never really loved dancing per se. I loved what ballet stood for. And then you went into what that meant. And the part I want to highlight here is I believe that sometimes our shortcomings can lead to greatness because those of us who have intense desire but lack natural, God-given talent, sometimes find roundabout ways of realizing dreams. So this, I think, is really, really, really important.

• 39:59Tim Ferriss?

  Because there are certain places, certain fields of endeavor, certain careers that require mutant-like attributes that you're either born with or you are born without.

• 40:11Speaker 01

  I agree.

• 40:12Tim Ferriss?

  And if you want to sprint alongside Usain Bolt, good luck. Like, you better have some very unusual genetics. If you want to be a superstar ballet dancer at the top of the world, similarly, you need to, there's a certain phenotype, a certain build, and there are attributes that are prerequisites in a lot of respects. You managed to take your abilities in different areas and combine them into something unique.

• 40:48Tim Ferriss?

  What are other, either failures that helped you along the way, or key decisions that you think have helped you to craft this very unusual path for yourself?

• 41:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, um, for some reason I've always loved people that are, have like shortcomings or when you read, you always read about people's opinions like, "Oh, she's not that good of a singer. Why is she the most famous singer in the world? There are better..." You know, I always loved those people.

• 41:22Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah.

• 41:22Speaker 01

  And so I'm kind of, you know, because I can relate to them, you know? Um, and I, I, those are always the kind of singers I like. Like, I can't stand listening to vocal gymnastics, like, when people are like, "The great singers of today." I like people that have flawed voices or interesting voices that have like, that communicate. And I always felt the same way about dance and myself, like, I'm just trying to communicate, I'm trying to be on stage instead of look like I'm trying to dance. You know, I get insulted a lot with, "She's not that good of a dancer even." And I'm like, "Oh, actually, I probably could be, but I don't want to ever look like I'm trying too hard because to me, like, sensuality and eroticism is an epic fail. If you look

• 42:07Speaker 01

  like you're trying to do it, it's better to do less."

• 42:10Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah.

• 42:11Speaker 01

  You know, I mean, like, I, I even think when I watch someone like Beyonce, her best moments are when she stops, you know, she does all this crazy stuff and then she stops and breathes, and you're like, "Yes, do more of that," you know, it's so great. Um, so, I, I'm, that's, that's just... I think that my failures and not really finding what that thing that I might be amazing at is because I also, I'm always fascinated by what you were saying, like, how does someone... You think of all these people that are walking around and what if they could have been the greatest whatever, but they were never given the opportunity or they weren't interested in it? Like, what if they could have been the best, like, basketball player or they

• 42:54Speaker 01

  could have been the best actor, but like, they never had the opportunity or the interest in trying it? And there's probably people out there with hidden talents that could have been the best in the world and they would never even know it.

• 43:05Tim Ferriss?

  And I, I think that, you know, why I like this, this answer you gave, uh, and this topic is that...

• 43:16Tim Ferriss?

  Whether it's people listening, whether it's you and what you've done, you're not limited to 27 preset tracks called careers, right? Like, you can be the best in the world, but you have to figure out how to be the best Dita Von Teese in the world, if you're Dita Von Teese. And you mentioned, you know, people trying to out-Dita-Dita, like, that's never gonna fucking work, right?

• 43:35Speaker 01

  But they try all the time.

• 43:36Tim Ferriss?

  They try, but like, they're, they should race their own race, right?

• 43:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 43:42Tim Ferriss?

  It's like, they're, they're not going to have the endurance, or the enthusiasm, or the passion, or the lack of attachment that you had in the beginning. So they've kind of, in a way, already lost, right? Like, they're, they're trying to dominate in a category of one, which is already owned by Dita. And I think quite a bit, I've had two folks on this podcast, Marc Andreessen, who's a very famous entrepreneur and investor, and then Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, and both of them have very similar thoughts on building incredible careers, or finding your own path, which is, in a sense, and this came from Scott first, in his writing, is, you can try to be the top 1% of 1% of

• 44:27Tim Ferriss?

  1% in one thing, like basketball, but you're gonna have a hell of a time doing that, and you are gonna be relying heavily on attributes that you are either born with or without, and that is a, sort of a finite game, in a sense. And then, on the other hand, you could combine really unusual, I shouldn't say unusual things, you could take usual things that are usually not combined, like, a law degree, and a computer science degree, and, fill in the blank, a love of Japanese anime, I'm just making that up. Now, all of a sudden, you're the one horse in the race.

• 45:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:07Tim Ferriss?

  Right? What other, you've mentioned a few of the women who have inspired you. Are there any other, whether it's women inside or outside of burlesque, or really anywhere, who inspire you along those lines? Kind of people who have carved their own path. You mentioned Madonna earlier, this is something I also wanted to mention. Like, she's had people throughout her career say, "Oh, she's not, she doesn't know how to sing, she has no idea how to dance," or whatever it is.

• 45:37Speaker 01

  "Oh, she makes a movie, she can't act."

• 45:38Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah.

• 45:39Speaker 01

  "She directs a movie, she can't direct."

• 45:40Tim Ferriss?

  But- She's fucking Madonna, right? So like, why is she Madonna? Like, that's a really worthwhile question to ask. For decades, she was Madonna, right? I mean, she still is Madonna, but like, she's, she's been able to reinvent herself successfully so many times. And it's because she is the best at combining all those disparate elements.

• 45:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, but not only that, people sometimes forget, and this is the thing that bothers me. She was the first person to sort of like, I'm gonna make a music video onstage. And the shows with all the dancers and, you know, all of it around her. She was the person that was like, I'm going to make this stage show that is like a spectacle. And so every, you know, what bothers me is that people definitely have every show, that's the benchmark now. Everyone has to try to have all these dancers, they have to have designers making their outfits, they have to do all this stuff. But sometimes they, these people will forget where, that they wouldn't even, she's the one that paved the way for that and inspired everyone to do that. And, you know, I, it bothers me when somebody doesn't get credit for that, you know?

• 46:41Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah, for sure.

• 46:43Speaker 01

  I mean, because I watch people all the time that are like, they'll imitate one of my shows, but then they act like they never saw me, they've never heard of me before.

• 46:49Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah.

• 46:49Speaker 01

  You know, because there's always that, everybody wants to be recognized, they want to be, feel like they did something that was the first thing, you know? And they changed the world, but it's honestly like, why don't you do that first, you know? And then you can, instead of just trying to sweep it under the rug that you saw, you know, you saw somebody else do it and you decided you were gonna try to make it better, but you didn't.

• 47:10Tim Ferriss?

  No, I agree. I totally agree. Are there, what other notable influences have you had? Any gender, any discipline?

• 47:22Tim Ferriss?

  Has anyone come to mind? There's, there's one that I can definitely bring up, just because I think she's amazing, but, no, no, I want to hear.

• 47:27Speaker 01

  Oh, Madonna, okay.

• 47:28Tim Ferriss?

  No, no, Madonna, well, I was also, uh, no, no, I, I brought her up as, as just someone top of mind that I didn't want to forget.

• 47:39Tim Ferriss?

  Well, let's just jump to it. Mae West.

• 47:41Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 47:41Tim Ferriss?

  Mae West.

• 47:42Speaker 01

  Mae West.

• 47:44Tim Ferriss?

  Who is Mae West for people who don't know?

• 47:45Speaker 01

  She's, okay, she was an actress that has, I think there's still no one that's ever done what she has. Do you know much about Mae West?

• 47:53Tim Ferriss?

  Very little, other than what you wrote about her, just because of her incredibly well-titled book, On Sex, Health and ESP.

• 48:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:04Tim Ferriss?

  Very rare book.

• 48:05Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 48:06Tim Ferriss?

  But also her quotes. I've just found her quotes to be so brilliant.

• 48:14Tim Ferriss?

  In, alright, I've had a few too many cappuccinos prior to this interview, which is why I'm all over the place. But, just to get it out there, so when, when I get attacked by someone on the internet, usually I don't reply. Before that, I don't even go looking for it. But if I just happen to be having a tough day and I, and I come across someone and feel compelled to feed the trolls, I will very often respond. It's usually because I've offended somebody in some ridiculous way. And I will almost always just reply with a Mae West quote, which is, "Those who are shocked easily should be shocked more often."

• 48:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:52Tim Ferriss?

  And I just let her do my speaking for me. But who is, who is Mae West?

• 48:56Speaker 01

  Okay, so Mae West is this fascinating, she was the biggest sex symbol in the 1930s. And the things that make her fascinating, the short version, are, number one, she made her first film at age 40, and she was the biggest sex symbol of her time. So that's, imagine that now. Also, she wrote every line she ever said in every film. So when you look up Mae West quotes, and you will get like, the best quotes ever written, the best one-liners ever written, you know, she is that like, "And that's what she said." You know, she's like the originator of that kind of quote. So, and then, she went to the studio bosses when she made her first films and became a sensation. She said, "How much does the studio boss get?

• 49:42Speaker 01

  I want more than that." And she got more than that. And she was the only person, she was the only actor, actress, that made more than the studio bosses, just because she asked for it, and she demanded it, and she was, you know... A sensation back then. So she was kind of like a sexual gangster too, you know, she was the one that flipped the script. Everything was, you know, women had a certain role in Hollywood and she was kind of like the male version and she, even when you watch her films, she's objectifying men left and right. It's just, it's astonishing to watch and I can't think of anyone in history that's done what she's done since. I mean, to actually write every line in every film, um, is kind of, and she made so many films and of course, you know,

• 50:25Speaker 01

  she's, there are some of her things about her that are problematic because it was a different time, but, um, you know.

• 50:32Tim Ferriss?

  What kind of stuff is problematic?

• 50:33Speaker 01

  Well, you know, I mean, they, she, she appeared, I mean, there's a great documentary coming out about her, I hope people will watch, but, you know, she grew up, a lot of people say she appropriated black culture with, with her likes, her swagger and the way she sang and talked and everything and that was kind of an imprint of childhood because she was actually like a child actor in a minstrel show. So that was kind of like she just picked it up, you know, and turned it into something totally different. So that's, you know, that's one thing. But, you know, then we could also argue like she completely swirled it into something new and became Mae West and, you know, Mae West is like this character that, you know, there's never been another one like her and, you know, she's,

• 51:17Speaker 01

  drag queens do Mae West, everyone does Mae West, you know, it's like this character that we've never seen again and, and when you squint your eyes, you're like, that's Mae West. So, um, yeah, she's someone I definitely admire. She went to prison for like writing a play about sex. I mean, she was talking, she was sex positive in a time before it was popular. I mean, she wrote a play called Sex, I think she went to prison for like a week, but, you know, she loved it because she got to hang around all these other women and write more material and she felt like she came out better than ever because of it.

• 51:48Tim Ferriss?

  Workshopped.

• 51:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:50Tim Ferriss?

  Prison visit.

• 51:50Speaker 01

  Yeah. So, uh, she is a fascinating person. I'm glad they're finally, there's some great books about her. One, my favorite one is She Always Knew How. Um, but she also wrote-

• 51:59Tim Ferriss?

  That's the name of the-

• 52:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, She Always Knew How, that's a biography about her that I really like. There's several and of course she wrote an autobiography and if you can ever get your hands on Love, Sex and ESP, uh, is it Love, Sex, okay, it's-

• 52:12Tim Ferriss?

  Sex Health-

• 52:13Speaker 01

  Sex Health and ESP, sorry. Um, that book is great.

• 52:18Speaker 01

  I used to read aloud from that book in, in Paris. I'd get my friend, I lived in Paris for a short time and I'd get my friends together and we'd all drink champagne and read aloud from that book because it's so crazy.

• 52:30Tim Ferriss?

  Do you have a favorite, any, do you have a favorite film of hers?

• 52:34Speaker 01

  Um, not really.

• 52:35Tim Ferriss?

  Or one that you would suggest people start with?

• 52:37Speaker 01

  Hmm, it's hard to say. I would suggest anybody who's interested, just go and start watching Mae West clips, like watching some best ofs, like reels of her quick one-liners of the things she would say. Uh, that, that's what I would say. Cause it's one of those things where the clips are almost better than the films in their, on their own.

• 52:55Tim Ferriss?

  Mm-hmm. You, we're just talking about Mae West writing her own lines. And I read something that may or may not be true. You can tell me, do you use stylists or do you not use stylists?

• 53:10Speaker 01

  I don't in my personal life.

• 53:13Tim Ferriss?

  Mm-hmm.

• 53:14Speaker 01

  I am forced to often in my professional life, like for photo shoots, for a magazine and whatnot, but I am self-styled, you know, when I go on the red carpet, I can't, I just pull from my own wardrobe or I have direct relationships with the designers. I've, which has kind of always been, you know, a good, a good thing for me is having that direct contact with the people that I want to be dressed by. Um, that whole machine of like hair, makeup, stylists, like I can't, I can't be bothered with all of it. I don't need it. I feel like I know if it looks right, it is right. And, um, and also that's kind of what I built my whole career on is being self-made and, you know, in my books empowering

• 53:57Speaker 01

  other women, um, to be able to do whatever I can do.

• 54:02Tim Ferriss?

  I, I don't know if this is apocryphal or if it's a real story, but I, I had read of some stylist picking up some, some very, um...

• 54:14Tim Ferriss?

  I suppose classic vintage shoes and saying, oh, these would go great with jeans. And you're like, okay, I think we're done.

• 54:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, this interview is done here. Yeah, it was actually Marilyn Manson's stylist when we lived together and she was like, oh, yeah, let's go look in your wardrobe. And she's a good friend of mine now and it's all fine, you know, it's just that I always, you know, and I figured out early on that I didn't need advice, you know, I don't, I don't need advice on what to wear, I know what to wear.

• 54:41Tim Ferriss?

  Prep for your shows. Let's talk about prep. So I had read that you arrive sometimes four or five hours in advance of your performances.

• 54:55Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 54:55Tim Ferriss?

  And that you could prep, you could get ready very quickly, but you choose not to.

• 55:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's a nightmare.

• 55:01Tim Ferriss?

  Why, why, why, why do you arrive? As someone who arrives to the airport like 17 hours early for domestic flights,

• 55:09Tim Ferriss?

  I feel like we might be birds of feather in that respect, but why do you arrive so early?

• 55:14Speaker 01

  Well, there are a lot of, you know, yes, I can get ready within a certain timeframe, but when you start throwing in all of these things, like answering text messages and people asking you questions, you know, when I'm doing my tours, I arrive like five, six hours before because there's things like I want to go look at the theater, I need to go look at the stage, sometimes, you know, I need to set where the props are going to go because the stage is a different size than usual. But mostly it's like, why rush? It's part of the fun of it is getting ready. I love listening to music. I love listening to Tim Ferriss podcasts in my dressing room.

• 55:51Tim Ferriss?

  Thank you for that.

• 55:52Speaker 01

  Particularly the ones about psychedelic drugs. And, and I, I just like taking my time, you know, there's when you, I'm in such a better headspace when I spend much too much time preparing.

• 56:09Speaker 01

  I have, I have a lot of bad experiences with being rushed. I mean, most recently I was performing at this party for Anastasia Beverly Hills and it was like all the Kardashians in presence and I was sort of like in the dressing room and there were some Kardashians in there and I was like too many, being kind of bombarded and, and, and, you know, I get really stressed out when I'm being rushed, you know, to get ready and I kind of got like, can you go on stage in 15 minutes? And I was like. Ah, you know, it's not how I want to do it. That's not the way that I want to feel. I don't want to feel stressed out or rushed or like, you know, because I feel like that's when I start getting in my head and I'll be like, I'm not good and, you know, all the bad things in my head, like, I'm not good enough.

• 56:53Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah.

• 56:53Speaker 01

  I can't, I don't know what I'm doing. They're going to find out I'm pretending to do this. They're going to find out I have no idea what I'm doing.

• 57:00Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah, I, uh, the, the on-ramp to a lot of these experiences for me is as important as the so-called performance segment, right? It's like the, I have always arrived so early. I mean, this is, this, where we're sitting right now is, is a, is a case in point, right? I mean, I'm, I'm here for a forty-five or sixty-minute panel tomorrow. I could have arrived a few hours beforehand, but I want to know the venue. I want to feel comfortable in the time zone. I want to know what I'm going to be having for breakfast so that I don't have any snafus. I want to know if the minibar has like snacks. I want to know all of those details,

• 57:45Tim Ferriss?

  even though I will probably not need any of those contingency plans. It just gives me a level of calm and feeling as though I've checked the boxes so that the only thing occupying my mind is what I am going to do once I get on stage.

• 58:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:01Tim Ferriss?

  Uh, otherwise, and I, I, I have friends, I envy them, who like, they, they almost make it a game to see how close they can cut it at the airport with their flights. I, that is so much, it's just so anathema to my programming.

• 58:21Tim Ferriss?

  I think it makes a whole lot of sense to arrive really, really, really early. So for those people who are making stress sport with things like, uh, transportation, I encourage you, like, consider the alternative, which is not arriving just like an hour beforehand, but like with an excess of time.

• 58:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:41Tim Ferriss?

  Right?

• 58:42Speaker 01

  Stress sport is a good word.

• 58:44Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who needs it? Who needs it?

• 58:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:47Tim Ferriss?

  Um, there's enough unavoidable, unpredictable stress. It's like, I feel no compulsion to add, uh, optional stress of my own volition. What's, uh?

• 59:01Tim Ferriss?

  What would you say are any new behaviors or beliefs that have really positively impacted your life in the last year, two or three? Is there anything that you've really changed for yourself, added or removed, that has had a significant impact on your well-being, would you say?

• 59:26Speaker 01

  Well, I know a lot of people say this, but learning to meditate, which I'm not a great, amazing model meditator. I use it when I need it, and that's kind of helped me in a lot of ways.

• 59:42Tim Ferriss?

  What type of meditation?

• 59:45Speaker 01

  Transcendental meditation. You know, I feel like when I, you know, it was always intimidating to me. I think I dropped into like a Buddhist meditation center once, and I was like, oh my God, to sit here for an hour with no thoughts? And it scared me away. And then someone introduced me to transcendental meditation. I learned with this amazing lady, and she, you know, she had all these great stories about teaching Elizabeth Taylor to meditate, and Michael Jackson, and all these people. And she had great stories, so it made it fun for me too, to see her for all the training. Every day, I was like, oh, what story are you gonna tell me now? So, and then she also just took the pressure off. And when I would say like, I don't think I can sit there for 20 minutes twice a day,

• 1:00:30Speaker 01

  she said, why don't you try 10? And I was like, okay. So, having that pressure off, and even now, just realizing five minutes is good, that seemed to help a lot, and I'm trying to be better at it. And it's something that gives me a goal to achieve, to like, to try to make sure I block out the time.

• 1:00:49Tim Ferriss?

  What differences have you seen since starting to experiment with the meditation?

• 1:00:54Speaker 01

  Um, well, I think it's mostly like regaining focus.

• 1:01:00Tim Ferriss?

  Hmm.

• 1:01:00Speaker 01

  Um, and having, I also, besides like transcendental meditation, clearing my mind, I also love to uh, schedule like a massage or something that puts me in a relaxed state, but still a thinking state.

• 1:01:13Tim Ferriss?

  Hmm.

• 1:01:14Speaker 01

  Um, cause I don't like, I, it's not like I'm trying to just tune out. Then I start like actually thinking about what I'm gonna do. That's where I come up with my good ideas, where I'm like, what, what's my new tour gonna be called? And I love, so I love to set aside that time of not doing and racing around and not, you know, trying to accomplish things and just like, I'm gonna lay here for an hour and think about this thing that I need to figure out.

• 1:01:37Tim Ferriss?

  Hmm.

• 1:01:38Speaker 01

  I can do that at the dentist too, sometimes, actually.

• 1:01:40Tim Ferriss?

  At the dentist?

• 1:01:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, I kind of don't mind really going to the dentist. Um, and it kind of makes me close my eyes and like, think about things.

• 1:01:47Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:48Speaker 01

  Um, yeah, so, so it's, it's more like taking a time out, cause I have always these to-do lists and I feel, realize I'm, you know, trying to chip away at it and doing too many things and I think I just need to, it makes my life better when I stop and I um, focus, uh, you know, clear my mind, close my eyes, meditate, um, yeah.

• 1:02:12Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah, the transcendental meditation is, is a fantastic option for people who have developed, um, a very well-earned, I think, uh, or well-deserved on the part of meditation, allergy to meditation because uh, the way that meditation is often sold is very all or nothing and extremely intimidating. And like, alright, you're gonna sit on this hard floor for an hour with perfectly straight back and do X.

• 1:02:40Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:02:41Tim Ferriss?

  Uh, whereas TM, especially with a good teacher.

• 1:02:47Tim Ferriss?

  Can keep lowering the bar until it's easy to step over. It's not something you have to do, you know, Olympic high jump over. They, they make it less and less intimidating until you can get started. Right. And then once you're sitting there for 10 minutes, you're like, okay. And oftentimes you're like, okay, I can, I can go 15. Okay, I can go 20. But it's really just getting your ass to sit down and do it.

• 1:03:13Speaker 01

  And the first, like, for me, the first five minutes is brutal. And then suddenly I go into like the zone. I'm like, oh yeah, this is what I came here for.

• 1:03:20Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah. And it really does, as a mantra based concentration practice, train you, at least this has been my experience, you said, helping with focus, to return to something over and over again. And like you'll, you'll end up drifting off and thinking about your to do list or porn or whatever. And then you're like, oh wait, I'm supposed to be meditating. And then you go back to your mantra. And when you sit down in front of a computer, you sit down with a notebook, that's also what you're going to be doing, right? So it's like the reeling back is the repetition of lifting the weight in the gym. And it's a very, it's a very beneficial gateway drug into meditation, I think.

• 1:04:02Speaker 01

  I also love taking a time out during the day, actually by myself, and sipping a little magic mushroom tea and going, oh, okay. This is what, you know, kind of gets to the essence of things. Like a simplistic appreciation for the beauty of the world. I'll just, you know, I can look in the garden and I'm like, oh yeah, okay. Do this once in a while.

• 1:04:24Tim Ferriss?

  That'll definitely do it. Uh, what, uh, now there's, there's advice I referred to earlier to your younger self. And, uh, the, the, the advice that you gave in Tribe of Mentors was, actually, no, it wasn't in Tribe of Mentors. I take it back. This was in an interview, uh, was in effect to, to be a little bit more vigilant, right? To, to look over your books, to pay attention, uh, so that you wouldn't be taken advantage of.

• 1:05:00Tim Ferriss?

  Because the world we live in, it's full contact. You know, for better, for worse, if you're gonna be on the playing field, like, there are gonna be people who wanna separate you from your money and many other things. Is there, is there any other advice that you would give to your... Actually, yes, to your younger self, and you can pick the age. So that's the thing. So it could be yourself of five years ago, could be yourself at age six, it could be any age. How old would you be and what advice would you give that version of yourself?

• 1:05:32Speaker 01

  I think in my mid twenties, I would have told myself to try to maybe buy a house, like, even if it was something small. I would have done that. And I would have also warned myself about signing model releases, because although there are lots of people that really, like, are kind and like, you know, I didn't know I was gonna be famous, but there are some people that took advantage of that.

• 1:05:57Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:58Speaker 01

  You know, like, suddenly I was in ad campaigns with, without, you know, with a watch photoshopped on my hand, because someone took a portrait of me when I was like twenty-five, and then they used it ten years later. So there were things like that, which, you know, I just, I didn't really, you know, I didn't have any anticipation that that kind of thing would happen to me. I was just like, oh, yeah, that's fine, I'm sign whatever was in front of me.

• 1:06:21Speaker 01

  But, you know, I guess people could have taken advantage of me no matter what.

• 1:06:25Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:25Speaker 01

  If they wanted.

• 1:06:27Tim Ferriss?

  What, um... What advice do you think your self ten years from now would give your current self?

• 1:06:36Speaker 01

  Oh, no one's ever asked that.

• 1:06:41Speaker 01

  Gosh, it's hard to take advice from your younger self.

• 1:06:46Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah, well, if you were giving, if your older self were giving your current self advice, meaning you right now, were getting advice from your older self, what do you think your older self would say?

• 1:07:01Speaker 01

  Oh God, I'm worried that my, I'm worried that my older self might say that I should have had a child.

• 1:07:05Tim Ferriss?

  Hmm.

• 1:07:06Speaker 01

  I'm concerned about that, you know? I'm not concerned about it right now.

• 1:07:10Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:11Speaker 01

  But sometimes I go, oh God, I really hope that doesn't happen.

• 1:07:14Tim Ferriss?

  Hmm.

• 1:07:15Speaker 01

  And then I think, well, there's always remedies for that too, though, you know? There's, you could adopt anytime, you know? Um, cause it's really one of those things where I know, sometimes I wish, when it comes to children and people that have children, I don't really envy any of my friends with children, except for adult children. Like, oh, that's so cool. You have this great adult child that's doing amazing things, that is probably fun to hang out with. But it doesn't always work out like that, you know?

• 1:07:44Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:44Speaker 01

  Doesn't always work out like that, so, um, you know, I just, it's hard when you're in the line of work that I'm in. You know, uh, I can't think of a time where I ever could have stopped and said, oh, I think I'll just have a baby. And then I think about who I would have had a baby with back then, like, hmm, probably not the best idea.

• 1:08:04Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:05Speaker 01

  So, you know, it's a real, it's, what can you do? You know, I, I feel like I chose my path. I don't necessarily feel like it's the right time for everyone to bring children to the world in any way, but.

• 1:08:19Tim Ferriss?

  Hmm.

• 1:08:20Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:08:22Tim Ferriss?

  No, I think, I think that, you know, I, I have friends who have kids who are very happy. I have friends who have kids who are totally miserable and I have friends without kids who are both very happy and some who are very miserable.

• 1:08:35Speaker 01

  Right, yeah.

• 1:08:36Tim Ferriss?

  So I think it's kind of another variable.

• 1:08:38Speaker 01

  Are you having children? Interested?

• 1:08:41Tim Ferriss?

  You know, I appreciate you asking. Uh, I don't have kids that I'm aware of currently. I did not plan, there, there's a long period of time where I did not plan on having kids, in part because I was afraid of fucking them up.

• 1:08:55Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:08:56Tim Ferriss?

  In some way.

• 1:08:56Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:08:57Tim Ferriss?

  Uh, and the, I felt like the risk, that the decision to bring a child into the world was inherently a selfish one.

• 1:09:05Speaker 01

  Uh huh.

• 1:09:05Tim Ferriss?

  Uh, in a way, right? Like, you're not doing it for your kids, in a sense. You're doing it because you want kids.

• 1:09:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:09:10Tim Ferriss?

  Number one, and that if there were potential risk of, or almost a guarantee that you're going to.

• 1:09:19Tim Ferriss?

  Damage your kids in some way. And certainly, I don't know anyone who's made it out of childhood unscathed.

• 1:09:26Tim Ferriss?

  Like shit goes sideways. That I didn't feel like that was a a risk I wanted to take, if that makes any sense. I've started to feel differently about it.

• 1:09:42Speaker 01

  Is it because you're newly in love, though? Because that's the thing. You got to get past that like new love thing and then because it's like a science of like, I should have a baby.

• 1:09:50Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah, you get kind of slap happy.

• 1:09:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:09:52Tim Ferriss?

  I I am with a wonderful woman, my girlfriend. That's that's a piece of it, for sure. I think that also

• 1:10:02Tim Ferriss?

  I've done just a lot of work in the last handful of years and have come to a place where

• 1:10:14Tim Ferriss?

  I feel

• 1:10:17Tim Ferriss?

  confident that I could be a, at the very least, like a B plus parent. I don't know if I'd be an A plus parent, but I think I could be at least a B plus parent. And also, I think that

• 1:10:31Tim Ferriss?

  there may just be a like biological imperative and sort of existential itch that is hard to scratch without having kids. Right? So that you know, a friend of mine said to me recently, he said, you can find meaning by finding God or having kids, having kids easier.

• 1:10:51Tim Ferriss?

  And so there there may be an element of sort of inevitability in in a sense, but I think I've also just come to accept that part of the human experience is making mistakes. And if the every parent makes mistakes and is going to condition their kids in ways they don't want to consciously or or just subconsciously and that

• 1:11:22Tim Ferriss?

  If you're going to sign up for having kids, you should just accept on the front end that you're gonna do damage and hopefully you can help them undo it later and you'll have a level of self-awareness to do that. So, uh, I would lean, like the have kids-o-meter is kind of leaning more towards having kids.

• 1:11:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, it moves a lot for me.

• 1:11:45Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:46Speaker 01

  But ultimately, I just think mostly about like adoption or, you know.

• 1:11:52Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:53Speaker 01

  I love animals.

• 1:11:55Tim Ferriss?

  Me too. Yeah, me too.

• 1:11:58Speaker 01

  It's not, I know it's not the same thing, but it is like, you know.

• 1:12:03Tim Ferriss?

  I, yeah, no, it's not the same thing, but this is gonna piss off a lot of parents.

• 1:12:07Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:12:07Tim Ferriss?

  It's not the same thing, but there are a lot of parallels. This is gonna upset a lot of folks.

• 1:12:13Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:12:14Tim Ferriss?

  Because they're like, little children are not animals or whatever. I'm like, actually, they technically are exactly animals, being mammals and all. And, uh, there's a, there's a great book called Don't Shoot the Dog, which is terribly titled, but a fantastic book on, in effect, um, training of mammals. And it talks a lot about, I'm gonna get so much shit for this, but that's okay, training of dolphins, because you can only really effectively use positive reinforcement with, say, dolphins or aquatic mammals, because you're not gonna hit them with a rolled-up newspaper. Like, it doesn't work, they're just gonna swim away from you. So you have to get very good at using, uh, cues, like a whistle or something like that,

• 1:12:59Tim Ferriss?

  to indicate the behavior as a marker and then rewarding. And it turns out, you can use that for training just about anything. And one of the quotes, I believe it was in that book, that I loved so much was, you know, if you can't train a chicken, you shouldn't be allowed to have a child. And I tend to believe that. It's like, if you're not, if you can't be aware of your impact on another animal and how it shapes that animal's behavior, I don't think in, on some level, and of course, legally, this has no, holds no water whatsoever, but ethically, perhaps you shouldn't be allowed to have kids. Like, you should be able to pass that test. And...

• 1:13:40Tim Ferriss?

  I have a dog now, adopted her a few years ago, about three, three and a half years ago. And I've, I've satisfied for myself that I can at least keep a medium sized mammal alive and healthy for that period of time. And so we'll see. Anyway, I'm talking too much, but I think that's in part because it's, it's been on the brain and like you, it, it flips and flops. When I go to the airport and I see like kids having a complete meltdown and their parents like pulling their hair out and just having a hellish time of going through the process. I'm like, I'm not sure.

• 1:14:22Speaker 01

  I just think like, also I've been asked about it my whole adult life and I think, wow, what, you know, in interviews and I just always thought like, what if you were asking someone that could not have children, you know? And why do we have to put so much emphasis on if you don't have children, you're not, your life isn't full and you haven't done the most important job there is in the world? Because there are lots of people that can't have children for different reasons. Does that make them less of a person? So that's one of the problems I have with people always putting so much emphasis on the importance of being a mother. It's like, it's kind of when you think about it, you know, it's kind of not very cool to ask people about that or to make that statement that, um, that it's the most important job in the world.

• 1:15:03Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah, I don't, I don't think it should be the number one priority for everyone. I don't think any one thing should be, that I can think of, should be the number one priority for everyone, right? It just doesn't make any sense. And like you said, there are many cases in which for physical, medical, or other reasons, it's, it makes a whole lot of sense not to, uh, not to take the sort of biological birthing route or necessarily adopt. And like, I know people who, uh, I made friends of my parents and others who went their entire lives without kids and had very, very deep, rich, fulfilling lives and did a lot of good in the world. So.

• 1:15:49Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah, in my case TBD, still TBD.

• 1:15:52Speaker 01

  One thing I love in life is knowing women much older than me and asking for their advice. Like the thing that you asked me about earlier about watching my finances, that advice came from 1950s movie star and pinup model who's still around now, Naimi Van Doren. She's like a blonde bombshell. She was kind of like a Marilyn Monroe, but anyway, she was, she was a big star back then. But anyway, I know her and I love to sit down with her and have her give me advice. And that was one of her things. It's like, watch your money. I know it's not fun. It's not fun to look at numbers and challenge people, but watch it all. And she also had said to me, she has

• 1:16:32Speaker 01

  one son and she was like, I love my son, but it wasn't the most important thing I did in life. It wasn't, it's not something you have to do if you don't feel inclined. And she said, and if I'm looking at the world today, the way I'm looking at the world today as compared to how it was in the 50s and 60s and 70s. She's like, I wouldn't do it now. So I thought that was interesting. I like talking to, I have another friend named Ilona Royce Smithskin, who's 100 years old. And I love getting on the phone with her and hearing, she still has amazing advice.

• 1:17:04Tim Ferriss?

  And any advice come to mind that she's given?

• 1:17:06Speaker 01

  From her, well,

• 1:17:09Speaker 01

  she, she just has little pearls of wisdom. She has an Instagram that I love to follow and she just puts it out there all the time about mostly.

• 1:17:16Tim Ferriss?

  She's 100 and has an Instagram?

• 1:17:17Speaker 01

  She's 100, yeah, she does. And she, well, she's an amazing lady. She has, she's, I, I learned about her from a book called Advanced Style by my friend Ari Seth Cohen. I don't know if you've heard about this book. But it's about, he was obsessed with finding older ladies that dress in eccentric ways and wear eccentric makeup. And that are, you know, fashion icons in their own right, eccentric people. And I learned about her because she had, she's like four feet tall. She has this flaming orange hair and she makes her own eyelashes, like long red eyelashes, blue eyeshadow. And she's an artist and she's, you know, she has a show, I think, too. Like she's a singer, like in, in

• 1:18:02Speaker 01

  Provincetown. Anyway, she's like, she's amazing. Her name's Ilona Royce Smithskin.

• 1:18:08Tim Ferriss?

  Oh boy. How do you spell Ilona?

• 1:18:09Speaker 01

  I, I L O. And A, yeah.

• 1:18:13Tim Ferriss?

  All right, and we'll put it in the show notes as well.

• 1:18:15Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:18:16Tim Ferriss?

  For her Instagram and so on.

• 1:18:17Speaker 01

  Yeah. But she's an amazing, but his book in general is amazing because it spotlights all these like, you know, elderly people and, you know, there's a lot of talk about you shouldn't wear that because you're of a certain age, you know, and these are ladies that are colorful and amazing and fashion icons and living their lives. And I think it's important to like, you know, have people like this spotlighted, you know, I was just actually reading this horrific article yesterday that my friend Liz Goldwyn pointed out to me, um, this writer, um, she was actually an editor at Vogue and I was, so I was shocked that she wrote something like this. She was saying that Helena Christensen, who's 50, went to a party and she was wearing

• 1:18:59Speaker 01

  jeans and a strapless bustier. And she said it was completely inappropriate, um, for her to be flaunting that much skin at her age. And mind you, she looks fantastic. When I'm hearing about this article, I Googled it, you know, and I read it. It's a Daily Mail article, which is obviously clickbait, so I chose not to share it because I was like, oh yes, I'm offended and outraged, but that's exactly what they want from us.

• 1:19:21Tim Ferriss?

  Yeah.

• 1:19:22Speaker 01

  They want me to have everyone read it and be outraged. Um, but I did find it disturbing because they were basically saying, she was saying that once you're past childbearing age, you're, you know, you shouldn't be wearing clothes like that, or you should, you know, pay, open, you know, the, you know, pay the, let, let the other, the young people have their chance. And I mean, if you can see this picture of Helena Christensen, you'd be like, she looks so hot and she's perfect. And she says things in this article like, no matter how invisible your bingo wings are.

• 1:19:54Tim Ferriss?

  I don't even know what that means.

• 1:19:55Speaker 01

  Well, you know, like when, you know, this, what is that?

• 1:19:57Tim Ferriss?

  Oh, your tricep?

• 1:19:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, your, your, what is that?

• 1:20:01Speaker 01

  But I was like, what are you talking about? And they, she said that it's okay for men because they can procreate at any age essentially. But once you are, you know,

• 1:20:12Speaker 01

  Beyond childbearing years, you shouldn't dress like that. And I just found it amazing that she used to be the editor in at British Vogue.

• 1:20:19Tim Ferriss?

  Wow, that's a very Victorian perspective, aren't they?

• 1:20:22Speaker 01

  It was really shocking and, you know, anyway, I just, it's a real interesting conversation, though, about like ageism and, and how, how, you know, we're, we treat women of a certain age. And it's one of those things that I feel like is important to stand up for. I almost retired a few years ago, thinking like, oh, I should, I'm 40, I should stop doing striptease. What if I don't look as good as I used to? And then I thought like, wait, you have to, I have female followers and I have to stand for something. And I think it's important to have examples of eroticism and sensuality in all different phases of life and to set examples for that. Because I look to people that are older than

• 1:21:01Speaker 01

  me, like Jennifer Lopez and, you know, Gwen Stefani and all these people that I'm like, oh, she's sexy, you know, like, I can be like that, too. So I think it's important, as much as it's, you know, it's not always easy and you open yourself up to criticism. It's important to some people to see examples of this. So.

• 1:21:22Tim Ferriss?

  Here, here. Well, Dita, this has been so fun. I really appreciate you taking the time. And we're going to link to everything that you mentioned in the show notes, so people can find all of that very easily. And for people listening, that's just a tim.blog/podcast. And if you search Dita, D I T A, it'll pop right up. Now, I mentioned the social accounts where people can learn what you're up to, see what you're up to, also more accurately in terms of at Dita Von Teese on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Are you more active on one than the others?

• 1:21:58Speaker 01

  I'm mostly active on Instagram, I have to say. But I definitely use Facebook and a little bit of Twitter. I can't help it. It was the first one, still good.

• 1:22:08Tim Ferriss?

  And I, do you have any current projects or upcoming projects that you would like people to check out or keep an eye out for?

• 1:22:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, I have my lingerie line, which is at Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom and a lot of online retailers. I'm working on another book called Fashioning the Fum Total, which will come out. It's a follow-up to my beauty book that I wrote. And that one will come out, I think, in September 2020. And this year, I'm touring with a new show, kicking off in Australia in November, and then doing like eight weeks in Europe, March 2020 through April. And then I think I'll do the US sometime in 2020 as well.

• 1:22:52Tim Ferriss?

  Well, you have a very exciting year, two years, and many years ahead of you. Thank you so much for taking the time.

• 1:23:00Speaker 01

  Thanks for talking to me.

• 1:23:01Tim Ferriss?

  This is really fun. Do you have any closing comments, requests? Anything at all that you'd like to say before we wrap up?

• 1:23:10Speaker 01

  I can't think of anything.

• 1:23:13Tim Ferriss?

  Which is the most common response.

• 1:23:15Speaker 01

  That's what everyone says.

• 1:23:16Tim Ferriss?

  I think we covered plenty. And I really hope people stay tuned. And I will provide everything that we spoke about in the show notes, as I mentioned. So, thanks to you for being here. And thanks to everyone for tuning in. And until next time, craft your own path. Do not try to be the best of someone else. Try to discover and also piece together the unique path that only you can forge. So, on that note, until next time, bye-bye. Hey, guys, this is Tim again. Just a few more things before you take off.

• 1:24:00Tim Ferriss?

  Number one, this is Five Bullet Friday. Do you want to get a short email from me? Would you enjoy getting a short email from me every Friday that provides a little morsel of fun before the weekend? And Five Bullet Friday is a very short email where I share the coolest things I've found or that I've been pondering over the week. That could include favorite new albums that I've discovered. It could include gizmos and gadgets and all sorts of weird shit that I've somehow dug. ...up in the world of the esoteric as I do. It could include favorite articles that I've read and that I've shared with my close friends, for instance. And it's very short. It's just a little tiny bite of goodness before you head off for the weekend.

• 1:24:44Tim Ferriss?

  So if you want to receive that, check it out, just go to fourhourworkweek.com. That's fourhourworkweek.com, all spelled out, and just drop in your email and you will get the very next one. And if you sign up, I hope you enjoy it. This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. Hiring can be hard, really hard, and it can also be super, super expensive and painful if you get it wrong. I certainly have had that experience firsthand multiple times, and I am not eager to repeat it, so I try to do as much vetting as possible on the front end. And today, with more qualified candidates than ever, you need a solution, you need a platform that helps you to find the right people for your business. LinkedIn Jobs does exactly that.

• 1:25:27Tim Ferriss?

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• 1:26:12Tim Ferriss?

  Again, that's LinkedIn.com/Tim to get $50 off of your first job post. Terms and conditions apply. Check it out. LinkedIn.com/Tim.

• 1:26:24Tim Ferriss?

  This episode of The Tim Ferriss Show is brought to you by Athletic Greens. I get asked all the time, "If I could only take one supplement, what would it be?" The answer is inevitably Athletic Greens. I view it as, and a lot of you now view it as, all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it way back in 2010 in The 4-Hour Body, and I did not get paid to do so. I've been using it since before that, and I use it in a lot of different ways. I travel with it to avoid getting sick, or to help mitigate the likelihood of getting sick. I take it in the morning to ensure optimal performance, and overall, it covers my bases if I can't get what I need from whole-food meals throughout the rest of the day. And if you want to give Athletic Greens a try, they're offering a free 20-count travel pack for first-time users.

• 1:27:08Tim Ferriss?

  I nearly always travel with at least three or four of these one-dose bags. In other words, if you buy Athletic Greens as a first-time buyer, you now get, for a limited time, an extra $79 in free product. So check out the details at athleticgreens.com/tim. Again, that's athleticgreens.com/tim for your free travel pack with any purchase.