Last we spoke, I introduced you to Quinn, my personal AI chief of staff. Since then, I’ve been diving deep into making her actually work for me, as I’ve found that one of my toxic traits is getting super invested in something and obsessing over it, then dropping it entirely because it hasn’t been structured to fit my day-to-day life. I didn’t want Quinn to fall to the wayside like when I decided to take up fencing as a hobby (a story for another day lol)

Practically speaking, this meant I needed to ensure three things:

1. she had the allowances necessary to deliver against my needs

2. the proper automations were in place

3. I set up checks and balances systems to keep her up to date and consistently improving, independently of me

Let’s start with a reminder of her tactical build.

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Yesterday, I got a text from a friend about how her AI chief of staff was gatekeeping her calendar. She sent a simple screenshot of their text chain (mind you, this was between her and Elle, her AI chief of staff) accompanied by a casual “lol.”

It was so laissez-faire and natural that I almost didn’t question it; until I clocked it. Her AI assistant was added to a group chat in iMessage to schedule a meeting, and instead of just doing the task, it/she had the agency to text her on the side, confirm importance, timing, and critical logistics, prior to circling back on the main thread.

Of course, I immediately texted her and said: “pls teach me to build this too.” Said friend put me in a chat with her AI assistant and I asked it/her directly how she was built. She gave me the recipe in 7 paragraphs and 15 minutes later, I was on apple.com ordering a Mac mini for pickup the next day.

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If you look objectively at most of today’s viral brands, they share a similarly formulaic strategy - widespread gifting, without abandon. Prior to Merit’s launch, for instance, in 2021, the brand mass seeded product to up-and-coming creators and influencers alike. Doing so created a swell of awareness timed to launch, made the *brand new* brand feel omnipresent (already), and garnered hundreds of pieces of invaluable organic content - not to mention the social proof that comes alongside thousands vocalizing their love for a brand that only just emerged.

Suffice to say, this rollout strategy has been my roman empire. It’s a flawless case study for a seamless, successful launch; but it’s not without it’s challenges or complications. For the everyday up and coming brand, gifting on this scale can tank you… if your cogs (cost of goods sold) aren’t buttoned up from day one.

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I recently found myself on a panel, speaking on the topic of a portfolio career; a concept I’ve been discussing on TikTok since 2024. At the time, my concept was novel, though it seems to have garnered some traction since. That said, much of the discussion around a portfolio career today seems misguided vs my initial intention, so I wanted to take a moment and clarify a) what a portfolio career actually is, and b) what it can do for your career (hint: a lot).

Contrary to popular belief, a portfolio career is not hustling multiple jobs simultaneously - whether that’s to fulfill yourself or make ends meet. It’s not burning the candle at both ends in a frantic race to realizing every single one of your dreams simultaneously. A portfolio career (at least my rendition) is built thoughtfully, slowly, in fact. It follows your interest, your expertise, and is guided by your curiosity - ideally also by your fears. It’s not a means to uncapped income or a hack to make money in your sleep. It’s a method to acquire tools and build your toolbox over time.

I say this frequently, but have yet to put it in writing I suppose: my sole career goal is to be lethal in business. In order to accomplish that, I treat each role surgically as an opportunity to acquire additional skill sets and, (this is key) apply them to the next position I take on. It’s about accumulation over time, and knitting each skill together for an unparalleled view and perspective on the totality of the business.

Because of my experience in private equity, I understand the economics of how a successful business is run. Because of my experience as a Chief Brand Officer, I deeply understand consumer behavior and how each channel caters to it. Because I cut my teeth in PR, I inherently know how to storytell. Because I’ve raised capital and sold businesses, I know what investors are looking for when evaluating a potential portfolio company. Because I invest in brands, I intimately know what founders need from their teams and partners. Because I invest in funds, I have unprecedented visibility into what’s working and what’s not. Because I create content, I have a community. And because I write for Marie Claire and Inc., I have credibility.

Now this isn’t to toot my own horn, it’s an exercise in recognizing how and where experience intersects. I encourage you to sketch out your own map, because in that intersection lies your superpower; and within moments, your blind spots will be revealed. There’s nothing wrong with blind spots. We all have them. And if you’re self-aware and ambitious, you probably already feel them in your gut; they’ll feel like insecurity. If you can train yourself to transform that insecurity into curiosity, and lean into the fear of doing something you’re not sure you’re qualified to do… therein lies your next big break.

On the topic of dual-pathing multiple income streams and working on a million things all at once, no I’m not necessarily against it, but what I will say is lack of focus will make it very difficult for you to become the BEST. And all I’ve cared for, in every position I’ve ever sat in, is that I became the BEST. Once I felt I had things dialed, that was my indicator that it was time to move on and acquire a new skill set. I’m a bit woo woo too in thinking that once you learn to follow your intuition - and commit to the blood, sweat and tears - the universe sort of opens up to that potential.

The people I've seen build the most formidable careers are not the ones who optimized for income or optics. They're the ones who were willing to be the least experienced person in the room, repeatedly, on purpose. The goal is not breadth for its own sake. The goal is depth, plural. Each chapter should make you sharper, not just busier. And when you look back at the throughline, it should read less like a resume and more like a thesis.

‘Tis the season when we’re all feeling a bit spendy. If you’re anything like me, however, you’re specific and certainly don’t want to waste your time on things that won’t light you and your family up all 2026 long.

So if you’re looking for something tried and true, here’s everything I’m repurchasing this holiday season, whether that be for myself or as gifts. I’ve done the vetting for you, so enjoy an ultra-curated list of the staples I reach for on repeat (you probably will too).

For the house

• Not Your Standard candles are superior. Clean, elegant, and rich in scent profile - these also make an epic hostess gift.

• Any slippers by Brunch but especially these.

• I have several of these carved marble bowls from Olive Ateliers littered throughout the house as catchalls, and they’re so chic and useful. I keep my matchbox collection in one, and it’s my favorite little vessel.

• I’ve started collecting these Ichendorf glasses with tiny glass animals in them, and this horse and this fawn are next on my list.

For me

• A refill for my VB bronzing brick that I can no longer live without. I take shade 2.

• This tee from EB Denim - it’s dumb expensive I know, but it makes me look like a supermodel and goes with everything so…

• The Crown Affair hair towel is the ultimate little luxury - I’ve had mine for years, so thinking a refresh is in order.

• I’ve been dressing this jacket up and down and really putting it through its paces. It looks just as good with a pair of trousers and spiky black pumps as it does with leggings and Salomons (I have my eye on these).

• A pair of good black leggings. I live in these from Set Active but these are great too.

For the kids

• Artipoppe magic belt bag - baby carrier aside, I think this may be Artipoppe’s best product yet. I wear this bag nearly every day; it’s the perfect size for a spare diaper for each of the kids, a mini pack of Coterie wipes, my wallet, and my lip oil.

• I get countless questions about this custom kids’ chair whenever it’s featured on my stories.

• Chic blocks? Say less. These are not only addicting, they’re stunning, and two new sets are going in the kids’ stockings this year.

• This cute Wild Wawa honey bear doubles as decor - I have a little bowl he sits in on my coffee table.

I’m in the midst of building out 2026 strategies and there is *a single* corner of the internet that is fully driving the way I’m thinking about each and every initiative we invest in through the coming year: the delta between social commerce and the attention economy.

I’m essentially banking on one trend that, I believe, will separate the next wave of successful brands from those that fail: the democratization of affiliate marketing.

Hear me out. We’re at this unique inflection point between the rise of mobile/social first shopping, and ‘influencer’ being one of the most popular career aspirations. 1 in 10 gen alpha aspire to become influencers or content creators, and 23% have already been contacted by a brand with a sponsorship opportunity. The industry is meeting them where they are too - shopmy has 185k creators on its platform and 1k+ apply to join each week. They’re seeing 200% YoY growth, and obviously just raised a significant round ($70m at a $1.5b valuation). Locker doesn’t even require an application, any user can earn commission on products they recommend. The idea is that everyone has a sphere of influence (however small it may be), within their respective communities. IMO, brands that recognize that compounding influence and can speak to their community in a 1:1 manner at scale will be leagues ahead of their competitors in the next 2-3 years.

What’s crazy is that a brand’s community members are 6.2x more likely to share content, and that content is proven to then convert at 2.7x the rate of non members. So if 80% of gen z are reportedly making purchases on the basis of creator recommendations, and >30% of their holiday purchases are derived from affiliate links, these brands’ CACs will assuredly drop, and LTV should skyrocket. Creator (read: community) alignment essentially becomes a force multiplier as share of voice = wallet share.

And while, yes, this is a play for brand validation and conversion, the residual impact is equally as powerful: content at scale. Treating the everyday consumer as a creator will naturally mean an influx of content, and in a world where content = currency (which, it does), these brands will reap the rewards beyond just an affiliate purchase or two.

So here’s the key: brands that can niche down, but do so en masse, will win.

This means they need to lean into 1. social commerce, 2. creator relationships (and treating their community as their most valuable influencers), and 3. cultural alignment - if they do, they’ll be rewarded handsomly in the form of compounding equity, loyalty, and sticky, defensible business models.​

It seems like everyone and their mother is talking about e.l.f’s disclosure of Rhode’s P&L and while I hate to jump on a bandwagon, there are some *things* I find interesting, that I have yet to see discussed… so let’s dig in shall we?

Let’s start with a theory - largely unproven, but interesting to explore nonetheless... Rhode’s 9x MER (marketing efficiency rate) was a strategic accounting maneuver, and G&A was the sacrificial lamb.

It’s largely accepted that Hailey is the secret sauce behind Rhode’s marketing efficiency (11%!!), which got me thinking - most brands pay celebrities cash for endorsements, which is then accounted for as a marketing expense. Rhode, however, paid Hailey in equity, categorized as a G&A expense.

Yes, yes, I know what you’re about to say - but Kira, Rhode is Hailey’s brand; she’s the Founder! Well, she’s still being incentivized and that compensation should still be accounted for, I’d argue, as a marketing expense. If anything, to help other emerging and growth-stage brands rest easier at night. That level of marketing efficiency is just not possible for most brands lacking involved (read: incentivized!) celebrity involvement. When you reclassify Hailey’s equity comp as marketing (which I’m positing it economically is), you get:

Marketing: 15% (vs 11.5%)

MER: 6.7x (vs 9x)

G&A: 27.3% (vs 30.7%)

This ^ makes Rhode look like a more normal, well-run celebrity brand, versus a marketing miracle.

Now, what we don’t have is cap table / ownership percentages, individual equity grant schedules, a breakdown of comp by person, vesting schedules, and option vs. unit grant details, so we’re left to infer.

2024 total equity based comp was $16,392,409 and 2025 H1 total equity comp was $865,535. 2024 distributions were $4,537,445 and 2025 H1 distributions were $43,425,131. If we assume distributions are proportional to ownership, and Hailey’s stake is roughly 35% (another rough estimate based on market comps and industry standards), she would have received approximately $5.7M of the $16.4M in equity compensation (about 3.4% of revenue), bringing MER closer to 6.7x versus 9x.

I’m not saying all equity comp should be reclassified as marketing expense - other employees’ equity comp is still standard retention/compensation IMO. And dependent on Hailey’s day-to-day at the brand, reclassifying her equity comp as purely a marketing expense may be unfair - she could be actively involved in formulation, in creative direction, in ops and logistics… but based on what I’ve seen for other celebrity-led brands, and even just in response to the rhetoric surrounding the Rhode’s financial performance and e.l.f’s acquisition strategy as an alternate viewpoint, perhaps Rhode is less so the marketing unicorn it’s being made out to be, and more so a workhorse, leveraging its assets and the tools at its disposal efficiently and effectively.

so many things to buy, so little time!!

if you know me you know i love a wishlist - they keep me focused when it comes to thoughtfully expanding my collections… in my closet, my home, on my bookshelves, you get the gist. so i’m going to start trying to keep tabs on the things I’m lusting after here because i feel like i’m the queen of collecting random windows on chrome that then stay open indefinitely or disappear and I can never find said item again. sad. plus, maybe you’re into them too x

i’ll keep it quick, promise.

without further ado… from left to right, top then bottom:

• forever on the hunt for coffee table books. this one is epic

• while i have a beautiful black max mara coat, it’s a bit too tailored for day to day wear and i’m feeling like i may need a slouchier version. this house of dagmar piece fits the bill

• i’ve heard amazing things about Sarah Hoover and this book. i’m lucky enough to have never experienced postpartum depression, but from what i hear, this book touches on so many important, and oft swept under the rug, societal conversations

• every year on our anniversary, Austin upgrades my tennis necklace - this past year, we went with a graduated piece, and i’m obsessed with it. so much so that this year, i’m thinking we do the same thing… but bigger ofc. i love this one rn

• i was lucky enough to be able to purchase a piece recently from Tom O’Connor and have my eye on this one from his emoji collection next

• these vintage silver coffee cups are living rent free in my head

• i’ve been talking about Comme Si socks a maddening amount i know but they’re so so chic. love the subtle detail on these.

• my friend Lily (who has a fabulous substack btw) has been waxing poetic about Fara Homidi - to the point that i’ve completely broken down and have ordered her essential lip and face compacts, and her contouring lip pencils because at this point why not?!

• this Khaite suede hobo on The RealReal is unbelievable perfection and i can’t believe i’m linking it. if you guys don’t sell it out, i’ll consider it a sign and’ll buy it next week

• ordered these perfect sunglasses and it looks like they’re out of stock everywhere, but these are pretty close

• i just purchased this dress for a dinner party and it’s epic. looks so much more $$ than it is.

• this piece by Sarah Lesher was on auction benefitting @griefxhope and their mutual aid gofundme for artists impacted by the LA fires. i love how organic it feels, and could imagine it tucked away as a little hidden gem in my house

• did i just buy the most stunning Hermès riding boots? yes. do i need any sort of riding boots ever again? probably not. do i still want these? absolutely.

• you know the girls that layer a thin white tee under their chunky sweaters and look so CBK-inspired and chic? i’m embarrassed to admit how many tee shirts i purchased in an effort to achieve that look and they never did the trick… this one, however, is it.

over the past two years, we’ve seen clues emerge that suggest society is shifting its value system - dw i’m not going to go on about quiet luxury vs logomania, i’m talking about something much more personal here, and far more pervasive.

let’s set the scene…

1. first, the book club came back - Seen Library, Belletrist, Library Science, Read the Room, Reese’s Book Club…

2. then tiktok’s algorithm showed creators that they could be more than one thing - what started as a silly dance and trend-centric app transformed into a bonafide search engine for gen z. with a couple of taps you could learn about caviar, launching a company, or even angel investing. creators with full time jobs and real industry-specific expertise blew up alongside the lifestyle creators who’d dominated instagram…

3. the office siren aesthetic kicked off and miu miu ushered in the trend - in 2024 the brand had reportedly seen an > 89% sales spike, not to mention search volume exploded by 208% on The RealReal.

4. then substack blew up (again).

all signs are pointing to the rise of a class of nouveau intelligentsia: theoretically pragmatic commentators sitting on the frontlines of culture, directly informed by consumer behavior and trend cycles, specializing in intellectual deep dives into everything from politics and consumer behavior to trending flatware. think Tariro Makoni and her substack Trademarked; this content still feels juicy and indulgent, but also sharp and chic.

meaning, it’s officially cool to be smart.

when I first started creating videos on tiktok, a follower on instagram dm’d me the following: “i didn’t know you were smart.” i remember laughing out loud and showing my husband - this is what’s wrong with social media today, is what i said. because i suppose if you only knew me from instagram, you may think me vapid or materialistic, and frankly I’m probably a bit of both - but that doesn’t preclude me from other interests and explorations into less shallow forms of materiality. hence this substack!!

something I loved about tiktok is that it allowed (allows?) us to share multiple facets of our personality, without necessarily being dinged by the algorithm. where instagram is optimized for curation and beauty, in losing tiktok, we’re losing the platform that celebrates our quirks, our depth and individualism. it’s news to no one - not a single soul - that there are few forums to really, effectively showcase and celebrate all of one’s interests and learnings, but my hope is that substack can fill that void for me. for us.

i am under no delusion that all of my musings will be of interest to you individually, but between regular brand and business case studies, trend reports, market remarks, curated hauls, product recommendations, and personal updates, my hope is that there will be a little something for everyone here. because i believe that you can be equally obsessed with The RealReal as you are with Axios Pro Rata, simultaneously enjoy books by Sarah J Maas and Ray Dalio, and walk into Sephora like you know where you’re going while also knowing how to participate in an SPV. in fact, I argue that doing both makes us the crème de la crème of society (and consumerism iykyk).

and so material interest will cover all material interests… from material goods to material ownership and even materiality in art. my aim is to explore the broader cultural interest in these spaces and more.