@Michelle Phan Shares the Value of Owning Your Vulnerabilities

Justin Kan (0:04)

What's up guys, you're listening to The Quest, a podcast that inspires founders and creators to seek eternal growth. I'm Justin Kan, co-founder of Twitch and partner at Goat Capital. Every week I sit down with icons and trailblazers from tech, Hollywood, sports, music and more to uncover their human stories and bring you lessons in finding meaning and happiness beyond success. It's often easy to talk about winning, but I'm here to share the difficult stories that are often left out of the spotlight. I ask the questions nobody else asks, and you'll get the answers you won't hear anywhere else.

You've heard me talk about it before, but if you're an entrepreneur or creative that needs to get more things done, then you're going to love Magic Mind. I love Magic Mind because it tastes great, gives you consistent energy throughout the day, helps you relax through adaptogens, nootropics that keep you focused and just generally makes me feel great.

If you want to try it out, you can check it out with the code justin20 at magicmind.co.

All right, what's up, guys? It's Justin Kan. You're listening to The Quest. You're watching it, I guess, if you're seeing me. Today, my guest is Michelle Phan. I'm super, super excited to have her on. She's the OG creator, got on YouTube back in 2007, basically invented the beauty and makeup category, and was one of the fastest rising stars there for a long time. She's also been an entrepreneur, started her own businesses, and I'm just really excited. As a creator, now a new creator, baby creator, I'm excited to hear her story. She's an amazing one. And I've been also constantly inspired by her vulnerability online. That's one of the things that made me want to reach out to you.

Michelle Phan (1:49)

Really? No way.

Justin Kan (1:50)

So, Michelle, thank you.

Michelle Phan (1:52)

Thank you for having me. And welcome to the world of content creation.

Justin Kan (1:56)

Yeah.

Michelle Phan (1:57)

I wouldn't call you a baby, though.

Justin Kan (1:58)

This is a pretty sweet setup. I've got a sweet setup I'm borrowing from my friend James, is what we talked about. But yeah, I've been doing YouTube for about a year, and it's been really fun for me.

And one of my producers of my YouTube channel actually sent me your video that you did. It was like an animated video about your story.

Michelle Phan (2:18)

Yeah. Why I Left.

Justin Kan (2:20)

Why I Left, and it has millions of views.

And I thought it was a very amazing video because it was very vulnerable about my true experience, what was good and what was not so good. And it was a theme that resonated with me a lot, because that's kind of the theme of my channel is mostly, you know, I went to this whole story, there were a lot of amazing things, ended up selling Twitch, and people think it's like, that's it, it's so great after that, right? Your life is perfect. And there were a lot of things that weren't perfect, and a lot of things that I really struggled with around identity and feeling like an imposter, not feeling good enough, wanting something bigger, like a bigger outcome, even though it was-

Michelle Phan (2:58)

Yeah, there's that weird appetite that you feel like you didn't fulfill, right? It's like success is all you can eat buffet when it's not.

Justin Kan (3:06)

Exactly. It feels like it's like an unquenchable thirst.

And so I had that, and I started being honest about it. And then, you know, seeing your channel and your story, it's like you have, there were a lot of similarities there.

Michelle Phan (3:17)

Yeah, I think it's almost like, I don't know if you know this author, his name is Joseph Campbell. He's like a prolific, like author, writer, but he talks about this philosophy. It's called the hero's journey and how like we are all on our own hero's journey. It's funny because your show is called The Quest, right? And for me, it's very similar how it's this alchemical formula that is embedded in all of our lives. And I felt like in my journey, I went through my own hero's journey.

And even when you're done with it, it's cyclical. So you go through it again and again, and it's just a different story this time, but it's still the same formula. Like you start off in your home, a place of familiarity, and then you go off into the unknown and there's a lot of trials and tribulations, of course, and then you defeat the dragon, whatever that is.

And then you go back home completely transformed. And it's like this cycle.