Maria Menounos Interview

Maria Menounos is a TV host, actress, producer, spokesperson, journalist, makeup artist, stylist, home renovator, organizer and even more depending on the day in question. She’s also an author: with the release of “The EveryGirl’s Guide To Life” Menounos reveals how she multi-tasks efficiently by sharing everything she’s learned about organization, décor, style, health, business and relationships. Through her own experiences and advice from the leading experts in every industry, she shows how it can be done better, faster and cheaper, all so that you can live a happier life.

I had the pleasure to chat with this absolute sweetheart on the phone recently. Here’s what she had to say about “The EveryGirl’s Guide To Life”:

TheCelebrityCafe.com: I picked up your book. It’s a great, great read. As a young woman getting started in the career world and trying to create balance in life, I found it to be a good how-to resource on how to get it all done.

Maria Menounos: Thank you.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: You mention in the introduction that people always ask how you manage to do it all and how you do it so well. Is that what inspired you to write this book? Or was it a career goal you had on your New Year’s list which you talk about in the book?

Maria Menounos: It wasn’t a career goal for sure. I definitely love sharing information, especially with women. I know I’m always asking for advice and asking women how they get it all done. And then I started being the one that was getting the questions asked of, and from people that were my mentors! I’ll never forget I had this one meeting, shortly after I started kind of putting the pen to paper. She was my mentor and someone I really admire and look up to. She took me to lunch, and I thought she was going to talk to me about work. She literally reaches over the table and goes, “How do you do it?” I literally almost passed out and was like, whoa, I really do need to do this.

I’m certainly not perfect by any means. Sometimes I do get stressed, but for the most part, the system helps me achieve the most out of my day, achieve the most out of my life, live a happy and healthy life for the most part, and it’s because of the things that I’ve learned. I’m always constantly around the best people in the industry. I’m never in a situation where I wish I could talk to them. I always have access to these people, so they’ve helped me in my journey. I’ll always be getting better, I’ll always be trying harder, and I’ll always be bettering myself. As I talk about in the book, I follow the kaizen philosophy which means continuous improvement. I’m flawed just like everybody else, but I’m at least at a point where I have most of it together and can accomplish so much of what I want to accomplish.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: That’s a good point. And it’s incredible how despite all your success, you’re still so grounded. I was shocked when I read that you shot the cover of the book with Keven (Maria’s boyfriend of 13 years) and a friend of yours, you do your own hair and makeup, etc. Do you attribute this to your family and Greek upbringing?

Maria Menounos: Totally. My parents struggled so hard. We were janitors growing up cleaning night clubs. We were taught to work as a family, to work together. My dad always says, if you work hard, you’ll always have a job. Growing up like that absolutely contributed to it, but also, it’s one of those things where when you’re a worker, you’re a worker. I meet a lot of people in my business who make it on a great TV show, and then they kick back. You can’t take it for granted. You need to work harder once you get there. There’s never going to be a moment where I’m sitting down with my feet up on the table thinking everyone else is going to do it for me. As I said in the book, Santa is not coming down the chimney. Everything that I want, I have to work for.

The book cover is a great example. I knew they weren’t going to give me a budget. I wasn’t even asking. I literally had my friend Elise in my kitchen, at 11:00 at night. We both looked at each other. Keven and I asked Elise if she wanted to shoot the cover of the book. Of course she jumped on board. We came up with the idea and went to Home Depot first thing in the morning to get the pickets. I started putting together my hair, makeup and wardrobe. We shot it in an hour in my front yard.

I always say I practice what I preach. I have access to everything, but some things I like to do myself. I really enjoy doing my own makeup. It saves me so much time. Especially with this book, the whole process was so time-consuming, I needed that time back. So I did the cover myself, I did all the photos inside. All those photos, it would have taken people a massive budget just to shoot what I shot in two rolls, for the inside of this book, with my friend Elise.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: And they look incredible. I can’t believe all the photos were shot by one person. It looks like they’re studio made. That’s amazing.

Maria Menounos: Yeah, the book wasn’t supposed to be in color. This is another example of you have to push. When we sent the publishers the pictures, they loved them and said we’re going to make this book in color. With the exception of old family photos and some red carpet photos. Other than that, it was Elise and I tag teaming, from 6AM until midnight for a few days. I would just be changing hair and makeup and wardrobe so it would look different, and we ran around my property and my neighborhood getting them all done.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: Wow, that’s incredible. My next question is about a section in the book where you talk about your trips in and out of the hospital when you first started working in LA, how you were overworked and trying to get yourself started in the industry. What was the breaking point that made you decide you had to start building a stronger foundation?

Maria Menounos: I think the breaking point probably was that moment in realizing I needed to do something about all those outside forces contributing to me getting sick, the people that were being somewhat reckless with my schedule and not really managing my time well. But then there were things that I was doing that contributed to it. You can’t put the blame on everybody else, you have to look at what you’re doing, too.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: Which aspect of “getting your life in order” do you still have trouble with or dread doing?

Maria Menounos: To be honest, I dread packing and unpacking, and that’s like every single day. Every day, unpacking and unpacking. Bringing clothes that I’m picking out from my wardrobe to wear on the show. I bring them into work, I wear them, and then I bring them home. Or they’ll send me home with some options, to try on for something I’m doing. And then I try them on and bring them home.

And unpacking from trips, constantly. I don’t enjoy it, but I have gotten really good at being really vigilant when I get home - unpacking immediately, putting everything away, so that it’s not something hanging over my head. But yes, sometimes I’ll pile a few things up here and there, but I try within that week to attack it before it gets to be too crazy. Because if you can imagine, every day I’m meeting people. So I’m getting business cards, people are sending me packages of stories they want me to cover, things like that, so it definitely gets a little overwhelming. Like I said, I’m not perfect but what I’ve done is I’ve created a system where everything has a home, I put everything away, and I really try to attack in a timely fashion so that they don’t pile up.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: I completely agree. It has to get done, otherwise it’s going to make your life more complicated, and I can imagine even more so for yours because you have so much going on.

Maria Menounos: Yeah, and it’s like the sooner you attack it, the better off you are.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: Exactly. Now, in the acknowledgments section you said you decided against hiring a ghost writer to write the book and you did it yourself instead. Which section are you most proud of and why?

Maria Menounos: People have asked me this question a bunch, and it’s hard because I love all of it. It all came from my heart and from what I’ve experienced. I can’t come up with an answer for it. The only thing I’ve thought about is my mottos page because I really think if you read those and really retain those, it will take you far enough in life. Maybe that and the organization chapter, getting everyone’s physical foundation in order. But it’s hard to say...

TheCelebrityCafe.com: Of course, you put your heart and soul into this, so it’s not like you can tear it apart…

Maria Menounos: It’s kind of like saying you like one kid better than another. It’s my life, it’s everything I live by and abide by, so if any one of those things were missing, I would not be who I am, and I would not be as successful.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: Fair enough. OK, last question: what is the one thing you want people to walk away from this book knowing?

Maria Menounos: I think we should all really be realizing that it is about the kaizen philosophy and continuous improvement. Whatever age you’re at, wherever you are in your life, it’s always striving to do things better, not in an overwhelming way, not in the I’m-not-happy-with-myself-anymore way, but to always be growing and always be learning and always be open to making changes and adjustments in your life. If you don’t have it all together right now, take baby steps. Say, you know what? I’m going to organize my car, that’s the first step. Or I’m going to start with my closet. It’s really wanting to better your life and realizing you don’t have to spend a lot to do it.

For more information on Maria Menounos and “The EveryGirl’s Guide To Life” please visit her website at Bing.com.

Read more from Maria Miaoulis at Reading For Pleasure.