Ellen Bennett | Turning Your Dreams Into a Successful Business From the CEO of Hedley & Bennett
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Ellen Bennett is here to share how she created her own culinary workwear brand called Hedley & Bennett with no business background. Check out this episode and learn how to set yourself up for success in both business and kitchen.
Key Takeaways From This Episode
How to overcome self-doubt and start a business
Strategies to build up a client base
Is it possible to reach a work-life balance?
The right mindset to start cooking at home
4 tips to set yourself up for success in the kitchen
Disclaimer: All of the information and views shared on the Live Greatly podcast are purely the opinions of the authors, and they are not medical advice or treatment recommendations. The contents of this podcast are intended for informational and educational purposes only. Always seek the guidance of your physician or qualified health professional for any recommendations specific to you or for any questions regarding your specific health, your sleep patterns, changes to diet and exercise, or any medical conditions.
Resources Mentioned In This Episode
Dream First, Details Later: How to Quit Overthinking & Make It Happen!
About Ellen Bennett
Ellen Bennett is the founder and CEO of Hedley & Bennett, the leading Los Angeles-based culinary workwear brand. Her company outfits over 6,000 restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, resorts, and hundreds of thousands of home cooks all over the world. Most recently, she pivoted the resources of her company during the global COVID-19 pandemic to make masks to meet the needs of both professionals and consumers while donating hundreds of thousands of masks to frontline workers.
Ellen and the Hedley & Bennett story has been featured in the New York Times, Fast Company, Inc., Bon Appetit, Martha Stewart, the Today Show, and more.
Ellen’s first book, Dream First, Details Later, was published by Portfolio/Penguin Random House on April 27, 2021 and is available everywhere books are sold.
Connect with Ellen
Website: www.hedleyandbennett.com
Instagram: @hedleyandbennett; @ellenmariebennett
About Rishi Tea & Sparkling Botanicals
Milwaukee-based Rishi Tea was founded nearly 25 years ago on the commitment to set the standard for quality tea and expand the awareness of its rich history. Rishi offers premium tea and botanicals imported directly from gardens across the world from Chile to Japan and Taiwan—drawing inspiration from ancient artisanal practices that use organic cultivation techniques as well as modern culinary innovation. In addition, Rishi recently launched Sparkling Botanicals—a line of light and refreshing functional beverages crafted with imported fruits, spices and herbs from partners around the globe with innovative flavors like Schisandra Berry, Turmeric Saffron and Black Lemon.
Connect with Rishi Tea & Sparkling Botanicals
Instagram: @rishitea; @sparklingbotanicals
To obtain 25% off from Rishi Tea and Sparkling Botanicals, visit their website at www.sparkling-botanicals.com and www.rishi-tea.com and use promo code LiveGreatly.
This promo code is valid until 12/31/2021.
If you are struggling with feeling overworked or overwhelmed, access the Top 10 Stress Management Tips for the Overworked free right now.
Kristel Bauer, the Founder of Live Greatly, is on a mission to help people awaken to their ultimate potential. She is a wellness expert, Integrative Medicine Fellow, Keynote Speaker, Physician Assistant, & Reiki Master with the goal of empowering others to live their best lives!
Follow her on:
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To learn more about Live Greatly's transformative online courses for personal development and self-improvement, to discuss collaborations and partnerships, or to book Kristel as a speaker or consultant, click here.
Episode Transcript
Ellen (Teaser)
Keep going. If you truly believe in what you're doing, you have enough passion. There's a product market fit and all of the above. The times that I got myself up off the ground are more than when people were celebrating me.
Kristel (Guest Introduction)
If you're looking to hear an inspiring story to get you motivated, to go after your dreams, you're going to gain a ton of value from today's episode with Ellen Bennett.
Ellen is the CEO and founder of Hedley and Bennett. And she's also the author of Dreams First details later. I am so excited to talk with her about her journey of how she went from working the line at a restaurant to being the CEO of one of the leading Los Angeles based culinary workwear brands.
Her aprons can be seen on food network chefs, on celebrity chefs. She's doing so many incredible things and she's going to help give you ideas, insights to help you overcome the challenges and the things that are holding you back to go after your dreams. Let's jump right into it and welcome Ellen Bennett to the show.
Ellen:
Yay, me too. Thanks for having me.
Kristel:
My pleasure. So to start, I would love for you to share a little bit about yourself and what you're currently up to. Some of the things that you're really excited about at the moment.
Ellen:
Yes. Well, since we can't see each other in person. Seven months pregnant. So I'll start there, uh, doing that, running a company that I founded nine years ago called Hedley and Bennett, uh, living in Los Angeles and essentially having taken my idea and my dream of having this company and making it into a reality for quite some time now.
Almost a decade, which is totally wild to say. And the company is dedicated to making a beautiful aprons and kitchen gear for professionals, but also for the home. And it all started as a very custom made to order business. And it's evolved so much. 80% direct to consumer now, which is like a wild shift, but it's been such a journey having begun that when I was 24 years old, now I'm 33 soon mama to be, still here, still running, still figuring it out.
And then this year I wrote a book called Dream First details later that kind of puts it all in there in a nutshell of the journey of literally deciding to do something. And then worrying in every single detail along the way, instead of before getting on the journey.
Kristel:
Awesome. Okay. So there's so much to dive into there.
Where do we start? Okay. So I got a copy of your book. I'm super excited to read it, but when I was looking at it, we're going to get into this a little later, but just so that I can touch on it, I love that it also says how to quit overthinking and make it happen because that is so hard to sometimes. It's hard just to get out of your head a little bit and to get the courage to go after those goals and those dreams.
So I'm super excited to hear how you did that. Um, but before we go there, I would love to learn a little bit about how this all started, because you were originally, you are a chef and you were working in a couple Michelin star restaurants in LA.
And I'm curious if you had any business background. Or just like, I love to get little tidbits on how this all kind of developed.
Ellen:
Yeah, no, I had no business background of any kind. I had gone to culinary school and studied restaurant management, but that's so vastly different from the stuff that you would expect to learn for like a proper business restaurant land is extremely different.
So I had done that and I, yeah. As you mentioned, I was working at these Michelin star restaurants. For people that aren't in the food world, that's just like the highest caliber of cooking that exists. It's like the place. And there's only a select few in the world that have a Michelin star let alone two.
So you can imagine it's like tweezer food. $700 meals, fine dining 14 course dinners that are last four hours. Like that kind of an experience. And honestly, a lot of the skills that I learned while cooking there really helped me have the courage and the attention to detail and stamina that it takes to run a company.
And it's not easy work in the kitchen. And so that was kind of like my foundation, but even before that when I was fairly young, my parents got divorced. And so I was sort of thrust into adulthood a lot faster than I would say most people, you know, by they got divorced when I was nine and my mom became a single mama.
Who's just amazing. But she had to work 12 hour shifts. And so a lot of my childhood became me figuring out, like, how do I help her? How do I organize myself to do more things around the house and like learning weird skill, not weird, but great skills. I would say, like, by the time I was 13, I was doing all of my mom's bills and finances.
Like I would write the checks and pay the rent. And the only reason I started doing that was because there were stacks of bills at the house that I just, I noticed she never had time to do them. And so I was like, well, I'm learning how to write checks in school right now. What if I just do this for you? And she was like, okay, yeah, fine do it.
Um, and so all of those little skills along the way. Really kind of just gave me the courage to try things when I was older and my mom being this like amazing Mexican mama just never said I couldn't do anything. She was just like, yeah. Okay. Of course, help me go do that. And that like lack of doubt in me really kind of like propelled my ability to just think I can do this because no one was saying, I couldn't.
Kristel:
So it sounds like she really encouraged you to stand in your own power to try. And I think that it can be hard for parents. And I'm speaking from experience here, and my oldest just went into middle school and there's this like desire, I think as a parent to be there to make sure your kids are okay to help them with everything.
And I was thinking about this the other day, like I really need to step back and let her figure it out and that it can be hard, but it sounds like you had that with your mom where I'm sure there were challenges along the way, but it also helped you become independent.
Ellen:
It really did. And I think about how different my childhood was to my friends at school.
I just, by the time I graduated high school, I was running circles around people because I had been exposed to real life versus like, I go to the mall on the weekends. Like I didn't do that. I was literally doing stuff around the house or like walking into home Depot to buy cans of paint. Cause I wanted to paint the kitchen or like just things that you don't do with 14.
And my mom wouldn't come home and say, why did you paint the kitchen? She'd be like, oh, it's nice. I'm going to bed now. Goodnight. Like with her cute little accent and she just would go off and I'd be like, okay, mommy, when I was at, just bye, and that was it. And the next day it was like, well, the kitchen's now green.
And like, nobody talked about it. We just moved forward. So she wasn't even like celebrating what I was doing, saying like great job. She was just letting me be. And it happened to be that I had an entrepreneurial spirit, so it really, it works.So cool. Okay. So let's fast forward a little bit. So you're working in these fancy restaurants, making fancy food.
And then did you have an aha moment who was there like, oh my God. I have this idea. And obviously in your book, it was dream first details later, you have that moment?
Ellen:
I definitely had many dream first details, later moments in the journey of life. And I would say that the biggest one that kicked off Hedley and Bennett was when I was working at one of these spots.
And one of the chefs came up to me and he said, Hey, there's a girl. She's going to make us some aprons. Do you want to buy one? And he was offering me somebody else. And I was like, what? And I had had this idea already for a handful of weeks. I had been thinking about our uniforms. I hated our uniforms. They were so awful.
We're talking about aprons here. So there's usually like these flat polyester, like shoelace straps. It's like a cloth where basically what's straps that you tie around your body and they're just horrible. I mean, you really feel like scum scum, scum, scummy, and those, and I'm also a runner. And so while I had been going to culinary school and doing these different things, I decided I wanted to be a runner like properly.
And I signed up for the New York marathon. Um, not knowing if I would get in, cause it's a raffle. And I got selected out of like, I don't know, a hundred and something thousand people. They choose a certain amount. And I went to Nike and I got a great outfit and I was like, I have a freaking runner now. And it was like, the only thing that changed was that I was wearing an outfit that I mentally decided I was better somehow.
And I thought, wow, that's pretty powerful. What if I could do that in the kitchen? And so that was the whole kind of premise for it. So I told the chef, as he's like telling me about this other girl, I blurted out like chef, I have an apron company. I will make you these aprons. And I didn't have Sewers. I didn't have a plan.
I literally had nothing, but I convinced him to give me this order of 48 brands. And that's literally how Hedley and Bennett began. Everybody at the time was like, what is she doing? And also that's very cute and charming. So there was like this combination of like, you're absolutely insane. And also that is very sweet and endearing that you're even trying to do something at all.
And it's a cute idea too, because they thought aprons. So it was like, all the cards were sort of stacked against me doing this as a line cook, but I did it anyway.
Kristel:
So you did it anyway, and let's dig a little deeper in that because that's where I think a lot of people, they can't, I shouldn't say they can't, a lot of people don't get there because they are probably listening to those other voices.
Like, oh, that's a cute idea or hope or the inner doubt, that inner critic. So what do you think helped you go for it? Was it that you were really passionate about the idea? Do you think it was that plus your upbringing or any little tidbits? I think that could help those out there who maybe have that idea and are just afraid to take that next step.
Ellen:
Well, for one, it felt like the universe was throwing this opportunity my way. And it felt like a little boat was sailing by in the ocean. And it was right in front of me. And I could either like leap and try and take it, or I could just let it go by. And the idea of letting this opportunity go by when it was so similar to what I was, had just been percolating on and thinking about in drunk, like you got to understand I was in the restaurant every day, like scribbling notes about how these aprons could be and like really thinking about it, but not having done anything about it.
And I was like, no, I can't, I can't just let that go. And I had done enough wild things, very different, right. But going to home Depot and buying a can of paint, painting my mom's kitchen, executing on it.
It gave me what I talk about in my book. I called him like notches on my confidence belt. So I had enough of this little moments where I decided to do something committed, showed up, figured it out and landed it that I thought, okay, well I can probably do this too. And just try, just do it. And it was a 32nd conversation.
So I didn't have enough time to psychoanalyze myself. Like I have a neighboring company, like I just like blurted it out before it even process my own thought. And when you do that, sometimes it puts you in a position where yes, you're uncomfortable, but I think you're more uncomfortable thinking back. I didn't do that.
And I had that shot and I regret it now that is more uncomfortable to me. I just felt it was necessary for me to take that leap, again is why the book is called how to quit, overthinking and make it happen. So, yeah, from there, it was not a walk in the park. Like let me just, capital letters has been the craziest hardest thing I've ever done ever.
That first order, I somehow figured out how to deliver it in 24 hours later after delivering the order. Chef called me into his office. And he's like Bennett, which is my nickname. He was like, Bennett, these aprons suck. I'm like day one. I was already having to put fires out and figure out how do I make this right.
He's my one and only customer. And there was something wrong with the straps and we'd only focused on the apron material. And so him and I, like, we essentially, we talked through it and I listened to him because he's my one and only customer. And also, cause that's what, just how you learn. And we made it right.
And to this day, the straps that we came up with for that mistake or the straps that we still use on our products that have now been worn by millions of people. So it's just like, again, sometimes when you're under pressure and complicated situations, that's really where your innovation cap comes on.
Kristel:
Yes. And I've talked with so many people who have said, like everyone experiences imposter syndrome to some degree when you're starting something new, because it's uncomfortable.
And I think instead of letting that stop, you like lean into it and recognize that that is part of the process. And that starting before you're ready is what I've heard pretty much from every successful entrepreneur out there. Like you've got to put it out there before you feel ready because in order for you to feel ready, like who knows how long that'll take, you just got to go.
Ellen:
You just got to go. And you asked me, like, was it passion that brought you forward? I mean, I was really excited about this idea of making a better uniform that gave people inspiration. But once I said, I will make those aprons for you, I was so filled with enthusiasm and like adrenaline from the fact that I had just committed to this, that running around the city, calling every person I knew and talking to every, anybody that would listen was thrilling.
Like I can't describe to you the thrill it felt to see an idea in my head and then bring it to life. And I just wanted to do that. And then once I delivered that for state and made it rigth. I just, I kept doing it and I would show up to farmer's markets. I would go to food events. I would convince my chef to take me like completely for free to other food events he was attending where I would help him. But then I was a closer access. Chef's et cetera.
And so I was just hustling to get myself around people that could potentially want one of my aprons. And there was such an enthusiasm coming out of me about it. That every person I talked to I'd be like, I just started this company.
I'd love to hear your thoughts. Tell me what can I come by and show you? It won't take very long. And they'd be like, yes. And I would swing by the restaurant and they'd be like, oh, I didn't think you were going to come. And I'm like, of course, I'm going to go talk about this. And it was just like old school.
It was looking people in the eye and agreeing that we're going to do something and then committing and then showing up and delivering. And that sounds so basic. But a lot of people just don't always do that, especially when they're just starting out or they make excuses for why something couldn't happen.
And then they lose that customer. So this was just built on like Goodwill and that Goodwill turned into referrals. And those referrals turn into these chefs that were really famous, like David Chang and Martha Stewart wearing our product proudly. And then other chefs being like, what's that thing that they're wearing.
And so it just became this cult following.
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Kristel:
So interesting. So what I wanted to ask, and this is the time for it to is, was there like one big break in the process? Cause I think sometimes when someone's starting a business, like you look at you now and be like, she's really successful, you know? Like you don't see all the steps that it takes to get people there.
So I'm curious for you and you may have already answered this. Was there a big break? Oh, this was like a big new Martha Stewart maybe wearing your apron. Like, was that a big break or was it more all the, just showing up repeatedly showing up.
Ellen:
It was a hundred percent all the showing up there. You could call them big break moments along the way, but they were really big breaks for me as a person, not for the business.
And what I mean by that is it gave me confidence and inspiration to keep going. When I say. Martha Stewart or David Chang wearing the apron. I would feel like on top of the world for a couple of months or something, but really nothing changed on the business side. Yes, a few more people would contact us, but I really had to continue to show up to different events, et cetera, and talk to people along the way.
And yes, you're absolutely right. That a lot of success looks like it's just one big, giant jumble of success. It's really, there's so many more failures attached to my journey than successes. And that's actually something that I go into pretty deeply in the book and I don't sugar coat it. Journey of going from a line cook to a founder to a CEO is incredibly difficult because you're not exactly trained to have great people management skills or learning how to navigate everything from finances to investors.
If you ever decide to go down that path. So I really had to learn things like having my head slammed into the ground a bit a lot. And that is just part of the journey. And so I like to say to myself that they're not bumps in the road, they are the road. Like you don't get around it. And so you shouldn't feel like a failure when you hit failures or roadblocks, because there's actually no entrepreneur that doesn't hit that.
It's just like, do you have the skill set in agility to say, this happened, how am I going to get around it? And like, pull yourself off the ground, wipe the bleeding off your face, then no one's going to do for you and keep going if you truly believe in what you're doing, you have enough passion. There's a product market fit and all of the above.
But the times that I got myself up off the ground are more than when people were celebrating me. I can tell you that by miles.
Kristel:
So you have to be out, you have to be a really strong person to be able to Excel. I think, as an entrepreneur and one of the things that's really important to me is helping people navigate their way from a place of empowerment and wellbeing.
Like not losing yourself and your health while you're going after that goal or that vision. So how did you do that? How did you navigate the self care and maybe the reflection time or whatever it was you needed to help you stay grounded during all those ups and downs.
Ellen:
I definitely didn't at the beginning.
Like it wasn't like, oh, I'm going to have a work-life balance from day one. And candidly, I think the words work life balance kind of set you up a little bit for failure. This is just my personal opinion.
Kristel:
Really, really quick. Cause I'm actually doing, I don't know if this will be out. I'm not sure when this is.
But I have a TEDx talk coming up, and this is one that does one of my topics. Cause I, I like that can set people up for guilt right there.
Ellen:
Exactly. And so it's really, in my mind, it's like an immersion of the two. And to me, when I would go out to a restaurant in the evening after working 12 hours or whatever, I was still there working.
But I was doing something that I truly loved and enjoyed, and I was so deeply in love with what I was building, that it wasn't work. It was really just like showing up for a piece of it. But I got to see chefs, I got to amazing food. And so it was awesome. It filled me with like a sense of really high morale, if that makes sense.
Like, I just felt so productive and amazing when I was doing all this stuff. So it never felt like work because I loved it. So that's just, and then when you get this idea that you're like, oh, well I should be at home doing yoga right now. Or if I'm not, there's something wrong with me. It's just like to each his own.
And you got to find your own way, I guess. And so for the first few years I was just going on all circles. And frankly, if I hadn't done that, I wouldn't have built what I built at the beginning. I needed to move quickly because. Nobody else was doing it. And I wanted to get ahead, but I did realize a few years in maybe like four and a half years in.
And by the way I started when I was 24. So I had all the energy in the universe, great time to be working my butt off. I didn't have kids, I wasn't married. It was just like, this was heads down, build the damn trail and don't be ashamed of it. What are men, the only people that are allowed to do that? Screw that.
A woman, man, anybody can do it. So I did that. And then I did get to a place where all I did was work. And I was like, that's a little intense. We need to maybe adjust this. And it was really the people around me that helped me see that. And it's like in one of the chapters in books, I call it the intervention.
Um, it wasn't that I was like doing drugs or anything like that, that I was working at all hours always and not doing anything but that, and it needed to recognize that not everybody was going to do that, like me. And that was the big disconnect. I thought my staff would just be running behind me as fast as I was.
And I wasn't thinking about everyone else because I wasn't even thinking about myself if that makes sense. So that was a big kind of aha moment where I reflected that I needed to take care of the people that were helping me get through this journey and also take care of myself. If I didn't do that, then just like, it was a little bit unbalanced in some ways.
So I had always eaten enough and slept enough and taken vitamins and things like that. But now became a thing where I was going to eat a couple meals at home and just start adjusting. And it wasn't some like radical shift. It was just being thoughtful about it and doing little steps. I got a coach. I started working out more in those little gradual shifts led me to just recognize it was better this way then only working all the time, every hour of the day.
Kristel:
And I think sometimes you need a little distance to see those things. So it's like, you need to like step outside a little bit, like just to get that perspective, because when you're in the thick of it, it's hard to gain that perspective.
Cause you're so like in the moment of building your business. So that's great that you were able to have that support to get you to a place where you sound like you had a little bit more inner balance, even though outside world. Isn't always going to be balanced. That's just part of life. But one thing I would love to start talking about now is cooking because that's something that I'm really excited about and you have a ton of experience with it.
So you said something earlier, that was interesting to me. And it was that something, when you worked out, you put on the Nike clothes for the marathon and you felt like I'm a runner, you know? So that got me thinking too, about your business and how, if you have an apron you're excited about that could also get you into that mode of like, I'm a chef.
I can do this. I can cook at home. And I really think that for health and well-being to teach your kids, if you have kids about how that being able to cook at home is really, really important. So I would love just to hear your perspective on that and any tips you have for individuals to start cooking more and making it fun.
Ellen:
Absolutely. And I love that. You're bringing that up when I began Hedley and Bennett, I really did have that as the baseline for, it was like, it doesn't matter if you were the line cook or the executive chef, you meant something in that kitchen and you belonged. And so slip on a Hedley and Bennett apron.
It wasn't just like some cheesy, ugly, disgusting apron that said the cook, we were using the best material. They're making them in LA, we're making them so durable and beautiful that it was like, this was your Cape of armor that you were going into the restaurant with and making it happen. And so you were like making your dreams come true.
And I know that sounds totally crazy. And, and you're like, wait, she's talking about an apron, but I can't describe to you. The way people look in restaurants when they slipped it on for the first time. And they're like, oh my God, this is awesome. Like, and their task. And they're like, it fits it's made for me.
Like it really shifted their mindset, the way that the uniform shifted my mindset. And now that we're 80% direct to consumer, meaning like we sell directly to homes and everything else, all of these people at home it’s like aprons are not as common in the same way. They are in a professional restaurant and you have to have a cutting board, a chef's knife and an apron.
If you're working in a professional kitchen, that's just like the standard at home. That's not the standard. You have some crappy knife. You have a cutting board. That's war made out of plastic. That's shoved in between your cooking sheets in a drawer it's gross and it makes you feel not great when you're cooking.
Everything is not set up for success. And on top of that, you get stuff all over your clothes. And then you're pissed because you're like, I just ruined my shirt and you blame it on the food. So what I'm talking about is like setting yourself up for success at home. You put your apron on. That means your beginning.
It's the beginning of the journey. It's like you put your yoga pants on, then you get on your yoga mat. It's a change. It's a mental shift. Now. I am yoga eating right now I am cooking. Same idea. I like to build a little station. So I put a proper cutting board with a towel under it, a good knife that's sharp will make you feel so empowered as compared to a knife that you can't even cut through a tomato and doing that just makes you feel like you can.
And then guess what you land one thing in the kitchen. And then you're like, look at that. I'm not that bad. And then you do it again. And you're like, this is kind of fun. Okay. All right. Let me try something else. And I've watched my very non chefy husband go from like complete oblivion in the kitchen to now he'll come home and be like in his apron prepping stuff and making food.
Cause he's just gained those little notches on his confidence.
Kristel:
Yes. I love how you say that the notches on your confidence belt, because it's like that invisible belt we all have. And if you get a compliment, like if you make something I know for me, if I make something, I try something new. I'm like nervously waiting to like, see everyone's faces at the dinner table.
Like, do they like it? Do they like it? You know? And then get that like, oh, this is good. It does. It makes you feel really empowered. And even if it doesn't turn out the way that you want, it's like be proud of yourself for trying, and then you tweak it a little, the next time.
Ellen:
Exactly. Exactly. And so if you ever talk to a professional chef, they'll tell you like, yeah, you put your apron on and it's like, it's game time.
It's Showtime. It means you're now getting into action. And so when you cook next time, if you're wearing a Hedley and Bennett, do that, try that ritual. It is really like a ritual. Put it on, tie it nice and snug on your waist. Think about the Martha stewards and the David Chang's that also rock the same gear.
And then get in that kitchen, get a good fricking cutting board, get a knife and like start trying, begin that journey and know that you're going to have some failures, but you're going to get back up and yes, maybe you screwed up the tomato sauce, but guess what? You can make another one tomorrow and you just keep showing up until eventually stuff starts to taste better.
Stuff starts to look better, And there's no shame in failing along the way. That's just like, it's like the journey of an entrepreneur. I really think cooking and entrepreneurial-ism are really similar. You're going to fail way more than you're going to succeed, but you can make it cool. You can make it fun and you can be excited about it along the way.
Kristel:
I love that. Now, do you guys do kids aprons?
Ellen:
We do. We actually outfit every single kid's baking show on the food network.
Kristel:
So we tell, I tell my kids they're going to be so excited because they know they love chopped and chopped junior. And so we've had like chopped challenge at our house. Oh, fun. So it gets them so excited and it got to the point where like on a whim, they'd be like, I'm gonna grab some random ingredients and see what I could make.
And I had to be like, no, we have to do this a little bit more controlled. So we're not like throwing everything away at the end, but it's so fun.
Ellen:
Yeah. No, it's super fun. So if you're ever watching those shows, you see a little, an symbol on the chest, like an ampersand in a patch, a little red patch, that's our logo.
So that's headline. We also outfit all of top chef, every show they have. So testing is wearing top of Hedley and Bennett. So you see it out there in the world now that you know about Hedley and Bennett. You'll see it too.
Kristel:
So cool. Okay. Well, we are coming towards the end here. And we're going to do a couple quick lightning round questions, but before that, anything else that you want to share about all the cool stuff you're doing?
Ellen:
I mean, I would definitely say, go check our website out Hedley and bennett.com. Definitely get a copy of my book. It's not just for entrepreneurs. It's really, for anybody that wants to get out of their comfort zone and just start trying and doing things that maybe they didn't feel comfortable doing before and watching me leap into life and fail and get back up and then succeed later.
It's just, it's a good dose of inspiration. That's really honest and real. There's no sugarcoating. It's just a good and by the way, very, very fairy colorful.
Kristel:
Yeah. I was telling, I was telling Allie Ellen, before we started recording. I was so excited when I got her book, because it just makes me happy looking at it.
Like the colors are vibrant and uplifting, and I think we all could use more of that these days. So I will put links for all of that in the episode details. So you can just pop on to those links and check all that stuff out.
So. All right. Are you ready? We're gonna go to the. First question is what have you been doing currently for self care?
What's something that's like a non-negotiable for you for your self care practice.
Ellen:
It is my nightly. Just call it bathroom routine, not much of a routine, but it's actually. The most routine thing I do every day. So it's a routine. So I wash my face with this cleansing milk. And then I put on this Vitner's daughter, like essence kind of like a toner and then a cream up and then like an oil that's just delicious.
And then I'll do eye cream, which I feel like such an adult for doing that. Yeah, I've made it. I'm using eye cream. Oh my God. You're crazy.
Kristel:
And just wait until the baby comes to.
Ellen:
I cream all day, just circles and then brush my teeth and everything is done in silence. And I don't mean that in some like weird way.
I just mean I'm not talking. I'm just quietly going through these motions and it’s like kind of just chose me out after a day of a, literally running around doing a million things, being on 900 phone calls and zooms. It's just a few minutes where I get to floss and brush my teeth in peace. And my face is all like shiny and delicious by the end of it.
And then I climb into bed and I like read a book. And then I pass out until the next day, but just those few minutes of decompression versus running around and like just brushing my teeth while yelling something and being on the phone and I don't do that anymore. And so it does help me kind of end cap the day nicely.
Kristel:
I love it. That it's something relatively simple, a practice that everybody does. It's just how you're doing it. So that was awesome. Last question, knowing what you know now, what advice would you give to yourself from 10 years ago?
Ellen:
I definitely am far and wide my biggest critic and really pretty hard on myself about the things that don't happen as quickly as I want.
And so I can be impatient and I want it now and I want to figure it out now. And why didn't I do it yesterday? And yet the journey of getting there is pretty exciting and awesome. And I do feel like there are moments in my journey that were pretty incredible that I just skimmed over. Cause I was running on to the next thing.
And so celebrating the little victories along the way as simple and silly as that. Uh, really important. Like you just gotta be like, Hey man, to yourself, Hey man, good job. Like you did that. That's fucking cool. And not just disregard it and plow forward because you're going to have a lot of moments that are really not great.
And you want to be able to celebrate the moments that are great, because that's just, it makes the juice worth to squeeze.
Kristel:
Oh, I love that. Okay. I'm clapping here. That was amazing. Ellen, thank you so much. This has been so fun and I'm going to order some your aprons. I'm going to order some for my kids. I'm going to try the ritual next time I cook and just see how it goes.
So thank you. Thanks for inspiring me today. And for taking the time to chat. It was awesome.
Ellen:
Thank you. And for everyone out there, please follow us on the gram at Hedley and Bennett, and also at Ellen Marie Bennett. Uh, you can follow along on all the adventures and yes, I hope everybody comes and joins the apron squad as we like to call it everybody that wears Hedley and Bennett. Thank you for having me.