ICYMI

Hello! Hi! Happy Sunday HSR!

Can we talk about something that I genuinely cannot stop thinking about because I feel like I am watching an opportunity unfold in real time and most people have absolutely no idea it is happening?

It is a really good time to be a woman who loves to dominate male industries like Laney Crowell. Women are quietly about to take over the business of male sports in a way that nobody in that world fully sees coming yet and HSR is here to deliver you a front row seat to it. There might be a little hint below based on what PBT’s spotted on the internet on what is to come with the podcast this week…

ICYMI, Saie Beauty was the only brand marketing directly to women at MSG during the historic Knicks run to win the NBA title since 1973. The entire arena. One beauty brand saw what every other brand in that building missed, that the women in those seats are consumers with 85% purchasing power and nobody was talking to them. That is the blueprint!!

We have watched this start to crack open in other places too. Charlotte Tilbury and Formula One. Ilia x PSG. But what is coming next is a full takeover of women dominating male sports and the World Cup is where I think it gets really interesting.

As someone who has been intimately involved with US Soccer over the past few years (ICYMI - context here), with the genuine goal of helping soccer in America rival American football, basketball, and baseball in cultural weight (which we need a lot of help in according to this one tiktoker), I have been watching the content and marketing side of this very closely. And what I see is a massive gap that women are perfectly positioned to fill.

Pull up the social accounts of some of the biggest players heading into the World Cup right now. With the exception of maybe Antonee Robinson, the rest of our star players like Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, or Tyler Adams, the pattern is almost identical across all of them. Sponsored post. Sponsored post. Clip of them actually playing. Back to a sponsored post that has nothing to do with the fact that they are about to compete on the biggest stage in the world. The engagement drop between the authentic content and the ad content is not subtle, it’s jarring, I sat on my couch last night talking to CJR last night about what a missed opportunity it is. We want to see the actual journey of a human being preparing for something that matters more than anything else in their life right now.

This is exactly what women know how to do and what the sports world has not yet figured out how to ask for.

Jordyn Woods getting ready for Game 5 with an orange Poppi can was not a sponsored post. It was a cultural moment. It felt like fandom because it was fandom. The product became part of a story that people actually wanted to be inside of. That is the difference between a woman who understands how to build community around something and a traditional sports marketing playbook that is still operating like it is 2015.

While we wait for the full female takeover, and trust me it is coming faster than anyone in a boardroom is ready for, here are the accounts and creators already doing this right and worth following immediately: Lily Beth’s Sportish, Allie Anthony’s series "An American Girl's Guide to the FIFA World Cup", Mariah Rose, and People Brands and Sports.

The women who understand this moment are already moving. The rest of the world is about to catch up.

Dr. Alibadi might not be here to share her story or those of her patients if she hadn’t leveraged ai or the one genetic test every woman needs to do.

In this conversation, I share my journey of being told my symptoms were "all in my head" despite years of exhaustion, hormonal imbalances, weight gain, cystic acne, chronic pain, and other health challenges. After years of advocating for myself, I was diagnosed with PCOS at 30 and Endometriosis at 33.

Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi, one of the world's leading OB-GYNs and women's health advocates, joins me to discuss women's health, hormones, fertility, metabolic health, PCOS, Endometriosis, Ozempic, and the importance of trusting yourself when something doesn't feel right.

More than a conversation about diagnoses, it's a powerful reminder to advocate for your health and seek answers when you know something is wrong. If you’re going to listen to or share one episode, I hope it’s this one.

all the brands, people, places, things we’re gossiping about this week

Women’s Health & Beauty

Media, Entertainment & Creator

Consumer, E-Commerce & Retail

Tech, Business & Investing

How Saie Placed The Smartest Bet In Sports Before Anyone Knew The Outcome

The thing that struck me most about the Knicks Finals run this week wasn't the basketball. It was who kept showing up.

Every night seemed to produce another courtside photo that took over the internet. Hailey Bieber. Kylie Jenner. Jordyn Woods. Claudia Sulewski. Timothée Chalamet somehow became the unofficial face of Knicks fandom. The games stopped feeling like sporting events and started feeling like cultural events. The Knicks weren't just winning games. They had become the center of gravity for fashion, entertainment, celebrity, and culture. The obvious explanation was that people were showing up because the Knicks were winning and the audience was 40% women.

Earlier this year, one woman, Laney Crowell, founder of Saie inked a deal to become the only sponsor in MSG advertising to women and I sat down with her to learn how it all happened. This is an exclusive for our paid subscribers before the full conversation get’s released this Wednesday.