On this episode of How Success Happens, I sit down with Lo Bosworth, who you might remember from MTV’s “Laguna Beach” and “The Hills.” These days, Lo ditched reality TV to become the powerhouse founder and CEO of Love Wellness, a women’s health brand that’s been going strong for 10 years. She’s also the brutally honest host of the podcast Tell Me I’m a Good Mom and, despite kicking ass with digital content, says, “I would kill social media in general because I think it’s like eating away at our brains and ruining our society.” She added with a laugh, “But I’m like a cog in the wheel at this point — I use it to make people aware of my business.”
We’ve broken down Lo’s success insights to help you trust your gut and build a healthier business in three, two, one!
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Three Key Insights
1. Turn Frustration Into Your Founder Superpower
Lo didn’t start Love Wellness because everything was going great—she started it after 18 months of feeling depressed and anxious and dealing with unresolved women’s health issues as doctors missed severe vitamin deficiencies on a simple blood panel. That frustrating experience made her “acutely aware of this care gap when it comes to women’s health and the self-advocacy that has to happen to get the care that you need.” Instead of accepting the system as-is, she went deep into Reddit communities, PubMed journals, and emerging microbiome research to create products like fragrance-free intimate cleansers and vaginal probiotics that “changed an entire aisle.”
Takeaway: Identify the problem in your life that no one is solving well—and build the business that finally solves it.
2. Build Proof Before You Ask for Permission
Lo didn’t wait for investors—or Hollywood—to choose her. When a potential cooking show fell through, she used her last savings from “The Hills” (“tens of thousands of dollars”) to fund her first thousand units of a probiotic she still sells today. She built her own site, did everything herself for two-plus years, and used her social media not for vanity but as a free marketing engine by candidly sharing her health journey. By the time she went out to raise money, she says she’d been “the sole operator of this business for a number of years and we were doing great… it was kind of like, do you want in or not?”
Takeaway: Before pitching partners or investors, create real traction—paying customers, profitability, or proof of concept—so your ask becomes “Do you want in?” instead of “Please pick me.”
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3. Authentic Storytelling Beats Empty Marketing
Lo is crystal clear on one thing: in today’s social media environment, you can’t just shout claims and expect customers to care. “It’s critically important at this point that you are an excellent storyteller,” she says, and that you’re genuinely connected to the problem you’re solving. She warns that if you don’t have a personal relationship to that problem, “that’s the first issue,” because what resonates now is a founder willing to craft a narrative about their life, their tension, and the pain point they’re fixing—not just a list of features. On top of that, she points out that social platforms, content formats, and customer acquisition tactics are changing “every three to six months,” so you have to be willing to reinvent yourself and your strategy almost constantly.
Takeaway: Build your brand around a real story—your story—and stay flexible enough to reinvent how you tell it as platforms and customer behavior evolve.
Two Free Resources to Learn More
- You can keep up with Lo on all social platforms at @LoBosworth and dive into her women’s health universe at LoveWellness.com.
- For more inspiration for turning frustration into a booming business, read about how these two college founders built a $50 million company between classes.
Lo is both dependent on social media for her business and deeply skeptical of what it’s doing to us, saying she’d “just kill social media in general” if she could and go back to home phones and block parties. So here’s your question:
If you removed social media from your life for a year, how would you build community around your brand—and what kind of founder would that force you to become?
Email your answer to howsuccesshappens@entrepreneur.com and I’ll read some of my favorites on a future episode.
About How Success Happens
Each episode of How Success Happens shares the inspiring, entertaining, and unexpected journeys that influential leaders in business, the arts, and sports traveled on their way to becoming household names. It’s a reminder that behind every big-time career, there is a person who persisted in the face of self-doubt, failure, and anything else that got thrown in their way.
On this episode of How Success Happens, I sit down with Lo Bosworth, who you might remember from MTV’s “Laguna Beach” and “The Hills.” These days, Lo ditched reality TV to become the powerhouse founder and CEO of Love Wellness, a women’s health brand that’s been going strong for 10 years. She’s also the brutally honest host of the podcast Tell Me I’m a Good Mom and, despite kicking ass with digital content, says, “I would kill social media in general because I think it’s like eating away at our brains and ruining our society.” She added with a laugh, “But I’m like a cog in the wheel at this point — I use it to make people aware of my business.”
We’ve broken down Lo’s success insights to help you trust your gut and build a healthier business in three, two, one!