ICYMI

I write this right after time spent in my garden, a sauna, everything shower and right before I get a lymphatic drainage massage to finish off my perfect Sunday. I won’t lie and say my hormones are back to baseline, but I’m starting to feel like myself again.

& I have a lot to celebrate because tomorrow will be a month without going on my phone for the first 2 hours a day. I ran the math and I’ve gotten back 60 hours of time. 60! That’s 2.5 full days or a little more than 7 days of an 8 hour work day. I am a week ahead of where I was 30 days ago and I did nothing differently except change the first thing I reach for in the morning.

I told someone about it over matcha this week, and I watched them politely eye roll. I say that because I used to be one of those people too. I used to get up, roll over and immediately get my first hit of dopamine. Who messaged me? What emails are in my inbox? Did I grow on socials last night? It was never that important but I was addicted to checking anyway.

I had to hit rock bottom with my attention span to feel ready to try anything to make the change. Since I have, I can’t go back. It’s not even hard anymore. If they say it takes 18-66 days to form a new habit, I would say I’m there.

Which brings me to a video I saw someone make about the podcast this weekend after listening to Danielle Bernstein and Mel Robbins and essentially said: “why can’t Maggie just talk to celebrities about nothing? Bring back fun, like Amy Poehler.” I laughed.

This is not the show for you. I feel like there’s a lot of that on the internet and don’t get me wrong, it has their time and place. But to me the white space was the opposite. When I started, only 7% of business podcasts were hosted by women, clearly there was a need.

But it got me thinking about fun. I get to have an enormous amount of it. I get to be silly and spontaneous and fully alive precisely because I am also rigorous and intentional and building something mission driven. Hopefully the BTS video of Mel Robbins showed that. We had SOOO much fun. But the output was value. Value for you to get as hot smart rich as possible as I do too. Something that has taken me a lot to realize is that the discipline is not the opposite of the good life. It is what makes the good life possible.

I have also become an expert at finding products that achieve both. Are thoughtful and measured but allow me to enjoy what I’m using or consuming. One of those is our newest sponsor that I’m FREAKING out about and that is LMNT.

I had a big week of podcast recordings (and more coming up this week) and I’ve been making a few changes to the set to make it feel more like me. If you watch my solo episodes, you already know about the emotional support pillow but this week I also added in some other personal touches like my lip gloss and an iced LMNT watermelon salt bevvy (which has no sugar BTW). It’s been so important to stay hydrated with a big week on set and getting back into the swing of things after my egg retrieval. These are the exact ones I always have in the pantry.

This dream partnership was sourced by my team at FlightStory who are hiring an incredible US based Brand Partnerships director so if this sounds like you, find more details here!

It has been such an AMAZING few days seeing how much you have all loved last week's episode with MEL ROBBINS!!

Filming this conversation was honestly such a pinch-me moment. I never imagined Mel would be sitting across from me on HSR, let alone that her team would reach out because she believes in what we're building and our mission to empower women. To now have this episode out in the world and see your response has been truly incredible.

What I love about Mel is that she tells you the things you NEED to hear, even when they're uncomfortable. We talked about everything from building real wealth and the habits secretly keeping you broke to becoming irreplaceable at work, saying NO, and why being busy doesn't always mean you're successful.

But my biggest takeaway? You have so much more control over your future than you think.

These were some of my favorite lessons from the episode:

01. Habits that make you cheap

And we also know I am working on it!! Reaching for your phone first thing means you're giving everyone else first dibs on your attention. Before you've done anything for yourself, you're reacting to their priorities and what someone else thinks is urgent. Your time and focus are valuable so stop giving them away before your day has even started. I genuinely feel like my life has changed in the last month since I’ve started implementing this.

02.How to value your time

Don't decide what someone else can afford before they've told you. Mel's first paid speaking offer was $10,000 after doing speaking gigs for free for years. Ask about the budget instead of rushing to name a number. And if someone anchors low, tell them your fee is typically double, and pause. See what they say. You can undercharge yourself all day long if you don't believe your expertise deserves to be paid for.

03.Saying no as a woman

The hard part isn't saying no. It's handling how you feel about someone else's reaction which I always have to remind myself is not in my control. But saying yes to everything isn't the path to more power or joy. Get clear on what matters to you, then let that guide what earns your yes.

04.Why being too available lowers your value

Being available to everyone, all the time, teaches people that's what they can expect. Protect your time and focus. When Mel started turning down speaking gigs, or saying she wasn’t available on Monday or Friday, people offered different dates, higher fees, and trips on corporate jets to accommodate her. Saying no showed her possibilities she couldn't see while always saying yes, and made people value her time and exercise way more.

If you haven't listened yet, TRUST ME, this is one you don't want to miss!!

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

A Silicon Valley legend just gave away 1.2 million business ideas. I asked him how to find one actually worth building.

Earlier this year, I wrote about why I think this is the best time in history to start a business after we had Harley Finkelstein, president of Shopify, on the show. But what if you want to become an entrepreneur and don't actually know what business to start? This is also a question I get ALL the time.

Luckily, this week, Bill Gross, the legendary Silicon Valley entrepreneur behind more than 175 companies, launched Idealab.ai, making more than 1.2 million AI-generated business ideas available to anyone, anywhere, for FREE.

Bill actually wanted to bring the launch to the HSR community and he gave us an exclusive interview because he shares my concern that women are being left behind when it comes to AI and entrepreneurship. And I think it's pretty significant that someone who has started 175 businesses specifically chose to reach women through HSR, because we're not always the first audience people think about when announcing new technology.

I don't want us to look back in ten years and realize we missed another enormous opportunity to create wealth and our own f*** you money because we were focused on using AI to become better employees instead of using it to become business owners.

We've spent the last decade or two watching people build successful DTC and technology businesses, but I think we're entering an entirely new era of entrepreneurship with AI. And what interests me isn't just that AI can generate business ideas, it's that we're still not fully leveraging it to figure out which are actually the BEST ideas worth building.

Bill has spent 50 years identifying business opportunities, and now he's using AI to give everyone access to the methodology he's built his career on. His platform has already analyzed more than 17 million sources, and his ambition is to help create one million new companies and 100 million jobs. My husband Courtney, a serial entrepreneur and venture capital investor with $2B AUM, is also an investor in Idealab.ai, so I wanted to understand what both of them think actually makes an idea worth pursuing.

So let's get into it.