How Lauryn Bosstick Went from Bartender to Entrepreneur Behind a Multimillion-Dollar Empire: Inside Her Life (Exclusive)

Going from bartending by day and blogging by night to owning a multimillion dollar company and co-hosting a wildly successful podcast might seem like a big jump.

But for Lauryn Bosstick, success was the result of years of hard work — and it's no surprise to those who know her best.

"My family has always known that I want to be on stage," Lauryn, 38, tells PEOPLE in a recent, wide-ranging interview. "I love being on stage. I love oversharing."

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Lauryn's penchant for "oversharing" is what lead her to launch her blog, The Skinny Confidential, in 2011. In those early days, she thought of the blog as a community — a place where women could share career tips and seek advice for everything from skincare to relationships.

Eventually, the success of the blog segued into The Skinny Confidential Him & Her, a podcast in which Lauryn and her husband, Michael, chat about everything from wellness to building a business. To date, the show has hosted a number of big names, from Gwyneth Paltrow to Gwen Stefani, been downloaded more than 400 million times, and regularly sits at #1 in Apple’s Education vertical.

And while "oversharing" may be part of her personal brand, she is admittedly private when it comes to some things. Her life as a mom, for instance, is one she works to keep largely out of the public eye. In 2021, Lauryn and Michael uprooted their lives from Los Angeles to Austin, carving out what she's called a "sanctuary" — and being careful about how she shares glimpses of her children, 4-year-old Zaza and 2-year-old Townes, with the world.

Now expecting her third baby, Lauryn has not shifted her content since becoming a mom. A "mommy blogger," she is not.

"Making my whole identity my kids would not work for for what what I've created. I want it to be more of a well-rounded resource," she says.

Her children, she adds, "didn't sign up for this."

"My kids are like extras in the movie. You'll see them here and there very sparingly. It's very thoughtful. I'm not going to push my kids in front of a camera to get a laundry detergent collaboration," she says.

Lauryn is similarly thoughtful about what she reveals about her family while on-air. In a recent episode of Him & Hers, she briefly touched on her own mother's death by suicide — something that she says helped shape who she is and how she views the world.

"It's taken me a long time to get here, but I'm so grateful for every piece of adversity I've had in my life because I really think it's put me on the path," she tells PEOPLE, adding that the word "trauma" "doesn't even resonate with me."

She chooses instead to view her own grief and loss as "superpowers."

"There are a lot of things that happened when I was young that gave me grit, and it made me resourceful, and it made me figure it out," she says. "I honestly feel grateful."

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Her relationship with her husband Michael is more forward-facing, with the two often exchanging playful banter on the Him & Her podcast.

"There's a line when you're in a relationship, and I know where it is," she says of her penchant for teasing her husband on the show. "It's like a cat with their ball. There's a dance and a finesse and a banter that we have ... and he is in on the joke."

The success of their joint podcast ultimately lead to the launch of Dear Media, which has become something of an empire in the world of new media (in addition to The Skinny Confidential, it hosts 80 other podcasts fronted by influencers and celebrities like Khloé Kardashian and Kristin Cavallari). Lauryn is a partner in Dear Media and Michael serves as its CEO and founder.

Though the two now oversee multimillion dollar companies, their relationship began when "entrepreneurship" wasn't even a word in their vocabularies.

"We met when we were 12. He was one of my first boyfriends, and we had this crazy chemistry," Lauryn tells PEOPLE.

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The two dated until they were 15 years old, at which point they dated other people (all while Michael continued to pursue her). At 21, they reconnected, when Michael suggested the two have another go at the relationship.

"We've been inseparable ever since," Lauryn says with a smile. "It's cheesy to say, but we are best friends. We're also romantic and we're partners. There are a lot of different tentacles to it."

Working alongside one another does come with challenges, though Lauryn says they're mitigated by the two having different focuses. "Working with your significant other, you gotta pick a lane. So I'm a little bit more in the creative visual space, and he is in logistics and operations, and he has Dear Media, which is what he works on, and I have The Skinny Confidential, which is what I work on."

In addition to the podcast, Lauryn also oversees a line of The Skinny Confidential products — like an ice roller developed after she underwent jaw surgery and went looking for something that would de-puff her jawline; a mouth tape that sold out within 48 hours and at one point had a 20,000 person waitlist. And now, luxury toilet paper.

"It's a better-for-you version of toilet paper," Lauryn explains. "I, a long time ago, discovered that there was formaldehyde, chlorine, and dyes in toilet paper, and I literally spiraled. I went on this crazy, crazy research journey to figure out what a better option was for my family."

It is that ethos, she adds, that informs all of her products. "That's kind of what the brand is about, right?" she muses. "It's about daily habits, but it's also about making them prettier. So that's what we did."It's pretty enough for a bathroom vanity but also formulated with "no formaldehyde, no dyes, no chlorine," she adds — important caveats for Lauryn, a woman who has made wellness a key focus of her personal brand, and her life.

That focus comes with the occasional controversy, of course. But Lauryn freely accepts that she "isn't for everyone."

"I honestly don't filter myself," she says. "What you see is what you get. If you hang out with me in my living room, I am the same way. I've been on a mic three times a week since the launch of the podcast [in 2017] so I am so comfortable saying what I want to say."

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That comfortability appears to be what resonates most with her audience, who have transitioned from readers to listeners and now, to customers (some 20,000 of whom purchased the aforementioned ice roller).

"I'm so excited that it's all come to fruition," she muses, adding that working for herself is, "so much more expressive and creative and fulfilling than having to sit at 9 to 5 and just build someone else's dreams."

Asked whether she can chalk her success up to any one specific factor, Lauryn responds, with a smile: "I think I see angles where others don't. And I also don't like being told no."

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