And why one woman raising £100,000 from our WhatsApp community proved I was right.

People want to follow real people, and buy from REAL, not businesses. Not because they’re perfect, but because they’re living lives that are genuinely worth paying attention to.

For the first time in five years, I feel like culture is finally catching up with me, and I think this all goes back to that very simple thesis.

There feels like there’s a real sense of change happening in the market. We’re moving from traditional lifestyle creators, to educational creators, to what a lot of people think is the next evolution of the creator economy: women of influence.

And if you think this is just another trend piece about influencers, it isn't. Last year, one angel inside the Hot Smart Rich community raised more than £100,000 from other women in our WhatsApp group. To me, that wasn't a fundraising story. It was proof that the future of influence has already arrived. So let's get into it.