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She's So Lucky

Stop Taking Yourself Off the Pedestal ft. Essence Iman of Slutty Founder

She's So Lucky

She's So Lucky

Balancedblackgirl, Self-improvement, #Shessolucky, Balancedles, Business, Entrepreneurship, Lesalfred, Education

4.8 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2026

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

#339: All month long on The Business of You series, we’ve been talking about building, but what happens when you feel the pull to walk away? That’s what we’re covering in our final installment with Essence Iman, ex-founder, writer, and the voice behind Slutty Founder, one of the most honest and entertaining spaces on the internet for real talk about business.

Essence built an award-winning, cult-favorite body care brand from just $200. She gained industry recognition, built a real community around it, and then did something most people couldn't wrap their heads around: she walked away, happily and on purpose.

In this conversation, we get into what it really means to trust yourself enough to close a chapter — and why that decision doesn't have to come with a catastrophe attached to it. We talk about the founder mentality and what all of us, business owners or not, can learn from it. Essence breaks down why you should never take yourself off the pedestal, what it means to tell your story like you know how you got there, and why "you know what you’re doing" might be the most underrated piece of advice.

We also get into the beauty industry — why it's become so crowded, why it continues to be such a difficult place to build, and where Essence thinks the real opportunities are for women ready to build something different.

This episode is for you if:

  • You're questioning whether it's time to walk away from something — a job, a business, a chapter.
  • You struggle with imposter syndrome or have a hard time owning your wins out loud.
  • You've been thinking about starting a business but feel locked into the idea that it has to look a certain way.
  • You want to understand what a portfolio career actually looks like in practice.
  • You need someone to remind you that your success is not an accident.
  • You're building something and want the kind of real, unfiltered founder perspective you're not going to find in a business book.


Episode Links:


Sponsors:

  • Free People Movement: Visit fpmovement.com to shop their full line of activewear.
  • Rula: Rula makes it easier to find licensed therapists and psychiatrists who are actually in-network with your insurance. Visit rula.com/lucky to get started.
  • NOBULL: Exclusively for She’s So Lucky listeners, NOBULL is offering 35% off your first order. Visit nobullproject.com and use code DMLUCKY for 35% off your entire first order.


Connect with Les:


This episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episode.

Produced by Dear Media


See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The following podcast is a Dear Media production.

0:12.6

If you've been listening to the show this month and you know we're deep into our

0:16.2

Business of You series and I'm excited to bring you the final installment.

0:20.8

Today's conversation is a really special one because it's not just about building a company.

0:24.6

It's about what happens after.

0:26.8

So for our last episode of this series, I'm joined by S&C Mon, a founder, writer, and the

0:31.6

voice behind Slutty Founder, a substack that has quickly become one of the most honest and

0:36.4

entertaining spaces on the internet

0:37.8

for talking about business, and also one of my personal favorite reads. Before that, Essence

0:44.9

founded the established, a body care brand inspired by her own skin journey that went on to win awards,

0:49.7

gain industry recognition, and build a real community around it. But instead of following the typical founder script, Essence made a decision that completely changed the trajectory of her career and in many ways reclaim the story as her own. Welcome to the show. Hi. Welcome to She's So Lucky. Are you ready to get lucky? I've been lucky. You've been lucky. Exactly. That's the real gag.

1:29.4

Can I'm ready to get some more luck up on me? Can we start off maybe with a lucky moment you've had recently? Well, this, first of all, can we get into this, babe? We were talking about this a little bit earlier, but I'm still kind of like, I'm in disbelief that I'm here. Like, there's lights, there's cameras. there are, like, so much happening because I was literally in my bed scrolling and you came across my FYP.

1:31.2

And I just had this thought and I was like, she's going to have me on that show.

1:34.6

And then I kept scrolling and I went about my business.

1:36.4

And you literally DM'd me like a day later.

1:38.7

And you were like, hey, do you want to like be on the pod?

1:42.7

This is so crazy. Like the power of the minds, I saw myself here.

1:47.1

And here I am, like a week later.

1:48.3

And here you are.

1:49.0

Literally like a week later, maybe even less.

1:51.1

Yeah.

1:51.6

As I was thinking about the business of you series

...

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