Alex Snodgrass, aka The Defined Dish, has built a social media following that would make any brand jealous, with over hundreds of thousands of followers engaging around her simple and incredibly tasty whole30 and paleo dish recipes every day. She has all the social media (and in real life) love that creates a pretty pristine Above the Line version of her business.

But a simple ingredient that made the conversation with this creator such an interesting one was her honesty on what it’s really like to be a social media “influencer”. We talk about everything from the fact that 2 years in (and with little traction), deciding if it was still worth doing, simplification being a key to success, anxiety attacks and the importance of investing in mental health — and in the midst of naturally being a people-pleaser, and having a spouse, two daughters, employees and hundreds of thousands of people that would want some of her time requires something simple and powerful: a checklist of things that helps remind her daily what she needs to do for herself.

It’s a special episode of Below The Line with Alex today — we hope you enjoy it.

About the host: James Beshara is an angel investor, advisor, founder, and general startup-helper in San Francisco, California. He has started three companies, sold one (Tilt; acq by Airbnb), and angel invested in multiple billion-dollar startups in his career. And now he's talking openly and honestly with leaders about what's going on "below the line" in their lives and careers that has made them the people that the are; the 90% of the story you don't read about or hear about anywhere else.

If you have any questions, feel free to email us at askbelowtheline@gmail.com and follow us on twitter @belowthelinepodcast or follow James @JamesBeshara.

"Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts, LLC.

Serial entrepreneur, Jonathan Sposato, was the first person in history to sell two companies to Google. Since then, he's become chairman of Geekwire and PicMonkey and has recently made waves in the Seattle community by announcing he will only invest in female-founded companies moving forward. Hear from Jonathan firsthand on how he’s always felt like an outsider but hasn’t let it stop him from achieving incredible success. His unique childhood and growing up as an Asian-American in a predominately white community shaped him to become, in his words, “more of a Nick Carraway than a Jay Gatsby.” Jonathan's wisdom on family, business and life in general is something everyone needs to hear. 

Mark Cuban is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and owner of the Dallas Mavericks. His career began with his founding of MicroSolutions, a company he went on to sell to CompuServe in 1990. Then in 1995 Mark co-founded Broadcast.com - streaming audio over the internet. In just four short years, Broadcast.com (then Audionet) was sold to Yahoo for $5.6 billion dollars. Following the acquisition in 2000, Mark acquired the Dallas Mavericks where since his taking over they have competed in the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history in 2006 - and becoming NBA World Champions in 2011. They are currently listed as one of Forbes' most valuable franchises in sports. If that was not enough, Mark is also one of ABC's "Sharks" on the hit show Shark Tank.

Today's Smash Notes is brought to you by Stewart Alsop III. He is the host of Crazy Wisdom podcast where he explores creativity, stress and spirituality. Stewart grew up in Silicon Valley but found it too much of a bubble, so he left to explore the world outside. In this episode he explores the past, the present and the future of the Silicon Valley through a conversation between Peter Thiel and Eric Weinstein, as well as a short segment from Stewart's own podcast. Take a listen, see what you think, and if you'd like please continue the conversation with Stewart. All links below:

Crazy Wisdom on Smash Notes & Crazy Wisdom on iTunes
Eric Weinstein interview with Peter Thiel on Smash Notes
Find Stewart Alsop III on Smash Notes to see what other podcasts he's contributed to, or follow him on Twitter @StewartalsopIII. 

As always, if you are not yet a subscribe to Smash Notes Weekly, this is your chance. Subscribe, it's free.

Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) describes himself as a midwestern small business owner who discovered the Internet, and his journey from running a hot dog stand to building a media empire seems to prove that. His current business, The Hustle, generates 8 figures in annual revenue from newsletter advertising alone, a feat Sam attributes to great copywriting, relentless experimentation, and the massively underrated power of email. In this episode we talk about how founders can build profitable businesses by resisting the urge to make their tech businesses more complex than they need to be, why it's important to borrow lessons from businesses in other industries, and the art of getting help from others by swallowing your pride and making specific requests.

You got a fever, and the only prescription is more...antipyretics? In this episode we break down what a fever is, why a fever is, as well as when and how to treat a fever. How hot can a fever get? Can it damage your brain? Is there such thing as a low grade fever? Do emergency departments have fancy Tylenol? All this plus hallucinations, seizures, and the most accurate way to take a temperature (hint: it isn't your mouth).

Do you want to get inspired? This episode is for you.

Jason Calacanis is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor. He was one of the early believes in Uber, Calm, Robinhood and many others. He is a host of the show This Week in Startups, and the author of Angel, a founder of Launch.co, Inside.com, and a friend to many rich and famous folks in Silicon Valley.

On this episode, Jason shares his views and wisdom, advice that he's accumulated throughout his career, and lessons learned from other successful entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, Mark Cuban, and Jeff Bezos.

Kathryn McCarron is a San Francisco-based fashion designer and founder of her namesake ethical cashmere line, featured in stores from Bergdorf Goodman to Neiman Marcus to Lord & Taylor, from New York to South Korea... From being featured in New York Fashion Week at 25 to the cover of Cosmo, she is as humble as she is amazing, and I’m really excited to have the honor to chat with her today. Go to KathrynMcCarron.com to check out her work and see the above-the-line version.
If you have any questions, feel free to email us at askbelowtheline@gmail.com and follow us on twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline or follow James @ twitter.com/JamesBeshara "Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts, LLC

Join us today as we speak with Robbie Pottharst f…