I Can't Complain When My Goal Was To Eat

ICYMI ⋆˚✿˖°

I’ve cried at least 3x a day this past week and I’m not in my luteal phase.

First of all, it wouldn’t be right to start this edition without acknowledment to my Australian Angels. Praying for you and sending love during this incredibly heartbreaking and senseless time. 💔🇦🇺

I’m feeling overwhelmed in a good way but in also a like “ahhhhh” kind of way. Control. I’m losing it and that’s a good thing, but this is new for me. I’m used to doing everything myself and there’s a lot to do and a lot to protect. We have built such an incredible world where women can see a future where we don’t have to choose who shows up to the situation. We get to bring our whole selves and the message couldn’t be more important when we see articles like this being written “The Gap in Podcasting that Should Concern Us”.

But it’s okay that new things are hard for me. Truthfully, I’ve never had so many people on my team before. So I went back to some of my favorite leadership books this weekend and here are some of my favorite lessons I previously highlighted to keep learning in real time:

I know the best leaders are not the ones in control. Letting go signals trust, which is the fuel for innovation and ownership.

So coming off the heels of an amazing week announcing HSR’s partnership with Steven and FlightStory, we’re getting right to work!! We are exploring concepts for our cover art which will form the key visual for Hot Smart Rich as we enter this new era - you'll see it on the show, profile pictures, emails, website, banners etc. This will be our hero visual for the next few years, so we want it to feel like it can stand the test of time and truly represent what we're achieving together here.

The concepts in the survey are high level direction and not finalized cover art! The images used in the concepts are not of me and have been built either using AI or from photos found online! The final cover art will be a photo of me based on the concept the community and our testing shows will resonate the most. If you want your voice to be heard and haven’t already filled out from WhatsApp, I’d love to hear what you think.

Oh and if you want to be able to join in on holiday conversations this year, I recommend, watching 50 Cent’s doc “The Reckoning”, Ryan Serhant’s Owning Manhattan, and listening to more Christmas music than ever as per the WSJ.

As we celebrate this momentous milestone, I’ve been reflecting on the earliest signs that HSR was more than me making my “silly little TikToks” in my bedroom. One that stands out was in 2023, when the algorithm wasn’t my friend and I turned to building a newsletter on beehiiv.

What started as a simple way to share ideas has evolved into a community that has grown over 100% YoY and stayed insanely engaged. It has given me a direct line to the HSR angels in a way I can’t replicate anywhere else, and it has become my safest space to share my real thoughts, ideas and POVs. It’s the one place I don’t worry about metrics or charts or how it compares to anything else. It’s just mine. And mine to create.

If you’re an entrepreneur, creator, publisher or a business building toward 2026, beehiiv helps you grow 2.75x faster with built-in referrals, recommendations and analytics. If you’re serious about scaling a community and monetizing it, start with beehiiv. You can use code HSR30 for 30% off for 3 months.

First things first, be prepared to see a few changes coming, HSR!! This is one of the many reasons we are so excited to be business partners with the expert team at FlightStory. But not everything happens overnight! There will be growing pains and a transition that will only have us creating better and better content for you all so we want those comments and your voice to let us know when we’re going down the right direction (or the wrong one!) and protecting the world HSR already is, but making 1% improvements over time.

If you’ve ever been underestimated and told you must not be smart based on what you look like, this episode with Mari, Founder of Gente Beauty, is healing. Last week’s episode was really honest conversation with Mari Fonseca, former international model and founder of Gente, a body care brand rooted in lymphatic drainage and daily wellness rituals, and yes, now a Hailey Bieber favorite. Mari shares what it was like to leave a long modeling career she once thought was the dream, why she dropped out of school at 16, and how she built a business without a background in finance or entrepreneurship. We talk about the realities of the modeling industry, shifting from quick money to long-term ownership, raising capital with no roadmap, why smaller loyal audiences matter more than massive reach, how aging reshaped her sense of identity and self-worth, the moment a disaster nearly wiped out her first product run, and why building something of her own finally felt aligned with who she wanted to become.💕

♡ the brands, people, places, things that have captured my attention ♡

♡ Women’s Health & Beauty ♡

♡ Media, Entertainment & Creator ♡

♡ E-Commerce, Retail & Social ♡

♡ Tech, Business & Investing ♡

Early-stage investing is about betting on things that are not finished yet. In traditional venture capital, this means deciding how much a brand, company, or product is worth before it makes steady money, before the team is fully built, and often before the market is clearly defined. You are not valuing what the business is today. You are valuing what it could realistically become if things go right.

This is similar to how people discover musicians before they blow up. No one is saying the artist is already a global superstar. They are saying, “If this person keeps going, they could be.” Early investors think the same way. They are backing momentum, not finished success.

That same challenge now exists in another fast-growing area: creators.

Creators often build large audiences, strong trust, and wide reach before they build real businesses around that attention. Because of that, investors are no longer just asking, “How much is this company worth right now?” They are asking, “What could this person build once they start turning attention into real products and companies?”

We are exploring how early-stage valuation works when you are investing in something that is still being built, whether that is a consumer brand, a holding company, or a creator-led platform that people clearly care about but is still early in its business journey. In every case, the same questions come up. How much should you trust your instincts? How much proof do you need? And how much belief can you price in before everyone else sees it too?