Sephora & Olive Young Predictions: The Beauty Trends That Will Define 2026

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Visit northwestregisteredagent.com slash HSR free and start using free resources to build something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent. Northwest Registered Agent at northwestregisteredagent.com slash HSR free. So many of my friends say to me, like, I'm not attracted to my partner right now. I don't want to have sex. The first thing I ask them is, so these are your top predictions for 2026. Korea has been one of the most important beauty markets to be watching in the entire world. I am a diehard Sephora user. However, I really believe that all of Yang will become the beauty status symbol. Well, it's funny you say that because the brands that will win this year, will entertain us, not sell us features and functions. Customer engagement and entertainment strategy, like, get on it. And this is where I do disagree because how can we break out and have that, like, difference of opinion and thought and celebrate that going into 2026? This question and answer could take me alone 30 minutes. The shoes are coming off. Okay. You know what else you're going to be behind if you start launching it now is a protein brand. So the last thing that I really wanted to talk about. Because I think in case you missed it, you're allowed to be hot, smart and rich. So let's get into it. Katie Sellers, are you ready to get hot, smart, rich? I'm so ready. You're back with shoes on. And so am I. Because truthfully, my pedicure is disgusting and I just can't have my feet out there. That's why I actually wear shoes for the first time. I'm so ready. I'm so ready. I'm so times today but these are more slippers so it's still signaling that like i'm not going somewhere are you going to be leaving these on the whole episode we'll see i needed a pedicure so that's why i put these on it's been uh it's been an interesting mental health week and so i think uh i need to do the thing where girls do have you seen this tiktok trend the everything shower oh yeah so i feel like i have the everything appointment where it's like eyebrows get done legs get waxed pedicure gets done like you just do the beauty appointments that you are putting off because they're such a time suck but they make you feel so much better so much better that's my weekend oh so that's what you're doing this weekend yeah and like acupuncture all of the things that are going to put me back together yeah because i feel like when you are running a business taking care of yourself becomes your last priority but it was one of the biggest takeaways of the jacqueline johnson episode where your body keeps score and for me i think especially being in this you know position of having a podcast and hosting and being on camera you do become more critical of yourself and so being proactive with both like the things that make you feel good on the outside and the things that make you feel good on the inside are so important and so that is my plan for the weekend well it's funny you say that because i knew we were filming this today we haven't filmed in about a month so i went into our angel chat and i was like angels we're filming today what do you want to hear there were so many themes but one of them i didn't even mention to you that they talked about was like how do you feel about being on camera and how do you feel about being on camera and how do you guys possibly balance everything with building a business and your personal life and feeling good that must be so hard for maggie and i think this week definitely brought a lot of that to a head you know we always talk about on the show like can you have it all and often i don't talk about this stuff where maybe it's focused so much on like relationships and career because those are two of like my biggest anchors in my life but it isn't possible to balance like the mental health aspect that i have to put in the work and every single day it's not just about not possible to balance all of like the beauty appointments that women need to have and so i actually know that there are periods of the month where like i am not going to feel the best about myself and that is when we don't schedule filming like we make my schedule work around what i actually have going on and when i'm going to feel my best and as a woman that is around when your cycle is so like we will specifically organize photo shoots when i'm ovulating because you are the most attractive version of yourself when you're ovulating yeah and that tip is even if you're not doing photo shoots or you're not putting yourself out there in that way like if you're afraid to go on a first date like that is the time to do it go when you are in your most powerful aura as a woman it just happens to be around when you're doing your cycle okay so the tldr for the angels is balance does not exist but try and optimize around the things that you know are going to make you feel good at the right time of the month well and this is when i really use ai so everyone's always asking me what is the most random use case of ai and there's a few things but one that comes up is scheduling my month around my cycle major hack here people when to have hard conversations with my partner my family when to have hard conversations at work when i'm going to feel like i can push myself the most in the gym when i feel like i'm going to be able to feel the most beautiful version of myself i often have so many of my friends say to me like i'm not attracted to my partner right now i don't think i'm attracted to my partner right now i don't think i'm attracted to my partner right now i don't i ask them is what part of your cycle are you in are you raging in your luteal phase because i have felt that same and i would say i'm like a highly sexual person i am way more sexual during that time when i'm ovulating than i am when i'm in my luteal phase and i don't even feel like speaking to anyone it's just the reality so using ai in that way has been a game changer the other game changing way that i've used ai and this actually is really interesting that so many businesses are built out of this but i will ask for advice from a specific person okay how would they answer this question so there was this huge article that just came out yesterday from the wall street journal around people that are now paying for an ai of tony robbins and it's 99 a month that's and for context it's like 1200 a year that's actually not cheap no but then when you think about therapy my therapy appointment is 360 dollars an hour so relatively and even just to do i don't even think tony robbins would do a one-on-one anymore but there's no way that people can afford that level of advice and i've been to a tony robbins seminar it wasn't for me uh but i actually really respected it and i could see the type of person who's looking for advice from that but this is what i find so fascinating about all of these businesses that are built on top of chatbots because if you actually know how to use like the underlying infrastructure you can actually ask the questions and and get the answer from that person which is part of what was in this article where one of the creators that was mentioned actually sued one of the major underlying infrastructure companies for giving advice in their tone of voice and using their experience which as a creator myself i would also now do yeah because it knows everything about me like how i think about investing what are the things that i'm looking at like how do i optimize my life how do i organize my schedule they just take the transcripts from the podcast put that into ai and they were like what would maggie sellers do so it's basically impersonating and taking your ip and giving it to other people essentially and so that's what was in this article about these ethical questions trying to understand like how can these creators make sure that they are the ones that are able to monetize their experience and what they would actually give advice to be it's the same as like disney licensing to to chat to be able to use the ip within chat and i think that will extend to creators you're so right it's like well why do you have to pay for disney's ip but you don't have to pay for mine totally so now there's been all of these companies that are launching that are expensive but relatively affordable one of greg eisenberg's predictions that people really loved was around like ai therapy will replace traditional therapists and this is where i do disagree because i don't know how i'm going to be able to do that because i don't know how i'm going to be have you seen this ai podcast girl going around yes you showed me she's beautiful beautiful she gets beautiful she gives the best advice she's stunning she's attractive and i was fascinated with her i was like who is this woman because she's everything that society has told us to be so of course i'm going to listen to her i click her profile and it says made with ai and i immediately was like why would i listen to this advice this person has never lived any life experience this robot has never lived any life experience who is behind this i have I have no idea. And it's kind of like what you would hear people say around wealth advisors. Like, would you really take financial advice from a bankrupt or broke wealth advisor? No. Would you get a surgery for your body from a doctor that has never done that surgery? No. So why do we think that we're going to all of a sudden trade the actual human lived experience for someone that we don't even know who is behind this chatbot? And immediately it went from like interest and a little bit of like, oh, I want to be around this girl to immediate disdain, which goes back to one of the other predictions that we made around human verified badges will become more important than the blue checkmark. For sure. And I think almost feels uncomfortable now when you say it like that. But I will say what I've been using AI for and like help is when you're faced with a situation where you're like, I don't even know how to respond to something. It's more like prompts of how to work through a situation as opposed to deep rooted capital T trauma therapy. Well, I saw a really interesting post the other night from one of my favorite brand marketers. She was the girl who did the shower ad in the streets of New York City. Oh, I love that. That super sexy guy. Yeah. It was like totally flipping femininity and feminism on its head by overly sexualizing a man on the street showering. Yeah. And there was a new showerhead company that is going to rival her. And they used AI to create their brand marketing. And it was almost like a direct ripoff from that ad. And it was interesting because I think she posted about it saying, like, is this the future for brand marketers? Where because AI is scrubbing the Internet and seeing what's popular, you can ask that questions as a prompt. Like, what are the most viral videos for these types of brands over the last X amount of time? It brought up the question of, like, are we going to see a brand that's going to be popular? Are we going to see a lot more copycats and plagiarism come to be because there isn't the same original thought? And I think that is, like, my biggest whenever I get a little concerned about AI, because even for myself, I'm using AI to help me be a better skier. Like, that is replacing the ski instructor, right? Whenever I start to get nervous around, like, will this replace me? I always think about, like, the humanity and the relatability and the vulnerability and the creative thought. And those are just not things that they are able to do right now. They can only build off of past experience that they are scrubbing. And so for me, I always just think about what are the rules that a lot of even our listeners are. It's like, it is creative rules. It is the thing that is still going to be necessary. It is the critical thinking. And that is what is so backwards. And you really have to be discerning about the advice that you're taking right now. Because the advice that we were giving kids in high school five years ago, you have to be in computer science. You have to be a coder. And that could not be more useless advice now. Like, that job might not exist a year from now. No. So I think this is really fun because this video of mine went very viral this week. This is your top predictions for 2026. So I was actually reached out to by a few reporters based on their predictions. Because I think a lot of times people put out their predictions and it's so similar to other people's predictions. I guess this really cut through the noise. And so I had a few reporters reach out to me. So I did a few interviews this week. And I wanted to deep dive this episode into, like, really why I came to these conclusions. And talk about the things that, like, I feel I am an expert or very curious and interested in. You are so curious. So curious about this. And that's why I think you come up with original thought. And so I will run us through them. Okay. Okay. So your first one was, Sephora will struggle this year. Olive Young will become the beauty status symbol. This question and answer could take me alone. 30 minutes. Okay. So I am a diehard Sephora user. However, over the past few years, I have really felt like they have missed the mark on what it means for beauty at Sephora. Because it's been so focused on changing your physical appearance, your physical hair, the tools, the creams, your physical face, the skin care. And it's really missed the mark on where I believe beauty really starts, which is from within. At the same time, Ulta was always thought of as like this mass market marketplace where like it wasn't as much around brand loyalty. And it was really based on like the best value and the best deals and the assortment. And if you've been watching the space, like Korea has been one of the most important beauty markets to be watching in the entire world. I actually read this report from XRC Ventures on how Korean innovation outruns the West. And this is really why when I went to Olive Young last year, I was like, this is going to take over the beauty market in the U.S. They are now coming a year later to L.A. this year. And I think there's a few points that are really important to talk about. And the first one of that is speed. So everything in the ecosystem in Korea is just fundamentally faster, both from the manufacturing, but also to the time that it actually takes brands to get to market. So products actually go from concept to shelf in four to nine months and use six months as the norm. So if you remember in the Steven episode that we were talking, these are paper wall pusher brands. Zara, he gave the example of like how they have become one of the biggest fashion retailers in the world because they ask the question, why does it take so long? And that is exactly what the Korean beauty market has done because they have the proximity to the manufacturing. And because they have these low MOQs, they are able to bring products to market on such a fast trend cycle that they are now a trend leader. And they're really interesting. Interesting part that I got from this research study, because this fundamentally brings up so much about my thesis on creators becoming the best investors possible. Women consumers becoming the best investors possible because we are the purchaser. We own that 85% of consumer spend. That's when the math stopped mathing to me. And this research report from an amazing venture capital fund says one of the reasons that they are able to go to market so fast is because they are monitoring TikTok. They are monitoring TikTok daily. Their executives are watching the influencers, the consumers. What are they adhering to? What has become a popular trend? They are watching consumer behavior in real time, identifying white spaces, and then bringing those products to market in four to nine months with six as an average. Paper wall pushers, like asking the question. When I was doing my first collab with a beauty brand, I was like, sorry, why is this going to take 12 months? Why is this going to take 12 months? Why is the MOQ 5,000 units? The paper wall pushers of the Korean beauty space never went into that mindset. And so they are now taking over the U.S. And so every single founder listening to that needs to apply that methodology from Stephen that he talked about, which if you haven't listened to that episode is an absolute must to kick off this year because that episode helped inform a lot of my assumptions and my predictions. The other really important thing about this, and this is something that I've been talking about a lot, this article actually does mention all of Young in terms of like them mastering trend leadership. They set their store based on ingredient and based on trend. They do not do it based on brand. So when you walk into Sephora, you're often greeted with like Makeup by Mario, Rare Beauty, MPH Beauty, like the brands that we've been bought into, the brand value, the brands that have spent an exorbitant amount of money on brand building would fail in Korea because they are resetting the front of their store. They are resetting the front of their stores every single month based on these trend cycles and based on the ingredients, which interestingly is also how they do M&A in Korea. So M&A in Korea is actually not done based on brand. Shockingly, it's based on ingredient capability. You know what? That is so true. And now I'm thinking about it. I went into Sephora before the holidays and I was like, I need just a light skin tint, like a CC cream that I can put on with my hands. And they were like, well, we have to go around the entire store to pull all of the different CC creams from different brands. And I was like, that is so inefficient. Why? So you know that there's like two end caps in Sephora that are like lash specific or eyeliner specific. And that's when they do the comparison. That is what Olive Young is completely. It is sectioned off by category. So when you are walking around the store, you aren't just walking to the things that are going to alter your appearance from a physical standpoint. It is also the things that are going. To alter you from the inside out. So there's food, there's beverage, there's women's health, there's like supplements. There's pretty much every single product that would help you achieve the look that you're going for. Because I can say from experience, curing my five year long hormonal acne journey was only possible through supplementation. It had nothing to do with the products that I was using on my face. And I think this also goes back to another beauty independent article you were quoted in, which was around Sephora getting rid of supplements. And the true like what all of young is doing is they are taking like the pain, killer categories and putting them front and center for consumers to be like, it's not a vitamin where it's like I could do without it, but it might help me. It's like, what is the root cause thing that you're trying to solve? So, wow, I'm so excited to see that. So Korea consumers are fiercely product first. They are not brand loyal. And this is a tough thing for brands because they're always chasing the next hit, which is why listening back to the Amy Liu episode is extremely important for anyone building a brand because She talks about how she's one of the few beauty brands that I've interviewed that doesn't just have one here. they have three they have been able to manufacture lightning in a bottle for three different categories for tower 28 and that is essentially why i believe someone like tower 28 will be successful when there is going to be i believe a huge huge shift in the beauty space this year i think we're already seeing it in terms of sephora but i think we will really see the showdown between ulta and between all of young and we're already seeing sephora exclusive brands like rare beauty once their exclusivity clause gets expired they right away migrate over to ulta so it's going to be a really interesting year for beauty especially for m&a especially for these new entrants that are coming into the market but i really believe that all of young will become the beauty status symbol if you want a place in 2026 where you don't have to worry about the algorithm or the charts but you still want a profitable place to make money off of your brain and thoughts then we need to talk about beehive it's a platform i've been using since 2023 that lets you start a newsletter grow your audience and make money through a native ad network paid subscriptions and digital products all with a zero take on earnings and that's where i went to turn my silly little tick tocks into the beginning of my media empire beehive is now a sponsor of hot smart rich what started as a simple way to share my ideas became the place where i am my most vulnerable with my community and i'm going to be a part of my community all of you which combined with beehive's built-in growth tools like boosts recommendations and referrals has helped me grow 100 year over year all while staying insanely engaged and connected to my angels it's free to start has preset templates and an ai website builder to get your newsletter and website up and running so fast if you want to give it a try head to beehive.com slash hsr for 30 off your first three months but make sure you enter the code hsr30 at checkout this episode is brought to you by indeed you're ready to level up your business but the pressure to find the right person to make that happen is intense indeed sponsored jobs can help carry the load it boosts your job post to help it reach quality talent fast cut through the chaos with indeed sponsored jobs get a 75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com slash podcast terms and conditions apply hiring now then this is a job for indeed sponsored jobs that's beehive.com slash hsr with code hsr30 and so then how do you think which is your next prediction how that translates into the founders who are actually building and like we've seen a lot of i don't want to share what's going on in my business i don't want people to know what i'm doing i think you have some thoughts around how founders whose backs are up against the wall on things like ai or the way that people are doing their work and i think it's a great thing to be able to share with people who are shopping is changing i think you've shared founders are going to disclose more numbers salaries fundraisers and revenue to appear more transparent and authentic to their communities so let's talk more about that so the reason i wrote that prediction was really around everything that's happening with ai and the more need that we have to connect on a human level like humanity is the only thing that we have when we are going to be in this world of ai and algorithms i saw this post and it was like this little robot and it said exactly that like that was not my original thought how i translate seeing something like that which was a literal static instagram post as i really thought about my conversation with steven on this idea of dependency and independency and where we have migrated as a society to feel such a loss of connection with each other and ultimately if you even look at like the longest run ever happiness study over the course of anyone's life the number one marker is relationships if we're in this world of ai and algorithms i think it's like that and i'm thinking and bringing it back to the brands how can you actually whether it's manufacturing it or whether it's honestly your actual way to relate to people is through disclosing things like relationships are built off of you disclosing something i feel safe enough to disclose something and all of a sudden you have a connection you've built trust and i think the same will be true for the community and for founders i've even seen it obviously having talked to so many different founders on the podcast like nicole wegman so brave to go out and disclose like i am doing over 100 million dollars there are benefits and there are cons of doing that so this was actually the interview that i did this week was the interviewer was asking me what are some of the pros and what are some of the cons if i'm a founder and i'm not sure if i really want to disclose what i'm making how much my company's actually doing and one principle i've lived my life by is always own the narrative there are so many tools and there are so many tools and there are so many tools and there are so many tools that i can use to so many takedown accounts now where you can disclose where people are getting their supply chain from and using tools like particle to be able to even see the numbers wouldn't you rather get ahead of a storytelling of a narrative to be able to own that narrative in the way that you want and i think there's so much about people's interest in learning about business and it's why shows like ours or other shows that have been popular over the last little while have grown so much because people are interested in okay you might hear that a bunch of people are interested brand is doing a hundred million dollars of sales but like that actually does not mean that that founder is making anywhere close to that like they might even not be operating a profitable business they're probably not paying themselves right and so i think that there is going to be again these movements of like building in public what is the next iteration of that it is really teaching people like i might disclose that i'm making a hundred million dollars but like i'm still not taking a thousand dollars a year or even four hundred thousand dollars a year so i think that there's going to be a feeling for founders to want to connect want to share and it's like what is 2.0 of being a founder-led brand and i think it's actually bringing the consumer along on the journey so being able to disclose like where is that money going not these and i think it'll be even more interesting for creator-led brands because a lot of the time one of the through lines that i've seen is like part of the reason why people want to be a creator-led founder brand is that they don't have to take a salary they can make all of their money from their brand deals and even that level of transparency like chelsea park often says that she's like i make zero dollars from park i put it all back into the business that's why she's one of the founders that has disclosed her numbers she's been honest like i make all of my money through my brand deals so i think that in the world of brand building and especially just like the sheer volume of content we are just about to see a lot more people that are doing it and i think it's really important for us to be able to see how much more people are doing it and i think it's really important for us to be able to see how much more people are doing it because it doesn't come easily there are a lot of cons to doing it the biggest one being that expectation of people that you can afford to pay something we even saw that when we disclosed our fundraise the biggest news flash was like the rates that we were once quoted for doing certain creative concepting or photo shoots or graphic design 10x 10x 10x and we were like wait where is this coming from and we were like wait where is this coming from and we were like wait where is this coming from but then when i sit back and i think about it we're even the same way when someone discloses the fundraiser like oh they just came into a bunch of capital like they're not running a leaner machine but i think that again we are about to see the breakout stars like the age of the ordinary influencer is dead the average influencer it is going to become the iconic influencers and the and the expert-led influencers and i think that those expert-led influencers are really going to start to disclose their numbers i mean it goes back to everything we're talking about there's so many threads back to authenticity here and there and i think that's going to be humanity and it won't just be enough to be like hey i'm the face of a brand and come and buy it because like i'm a founder and you know who's actually making the product you're going to have to go the level deeper and so i think that ties into your next prediction which is like when you share things it gives people the permission to have an opinion of it which sometimes might not be liked but in order to be liked by some people you have to be disliked by others so you're feeling like being disliked will really be a problem and i think that's going to be a really big part of of honor in 2026 which will bring out the humanity of your haters and when chat is known to agree with you like we're all in validation mode so how can we break out and have that like difference of opinion and thought and celebrate that going into 2026 did you see nikki glazer's golden globes to leonardo dicaprio yeah i loved it so you know when she says this line where she was like that was cheap like you know we just don't know anything else about you like your last interview was in the 90s and you're like oh my god i'm so sorry i'm so sorry i'm so sorry i'm so sorry and all we know is like do you still eat pasta that is actually all we know of leonardo dicaprio and the fact that he dates really young women and i say that because to your point like whenever you do put yourself out there whenever you are sharing your opinion you are going to get a volume of hate from the opposing side against that for us the only thing on leo is the fact that he dates young girls but imagine if he was doing interviews you can pick apart every single thing that someone says and manufacture your own narrative and i think especially in the world where chat is known to agree with you i think anyone listening to this that uses chat gpt like there are times where i'm like hey are we looking at the same document like you're just complimenting me and this is actually like not at all what i was asking you to do i was asking you to poke holes in this and i think that even in steven's episode bringing it back to there it's like you are never going to be able to find your community if you are not able to have another group of people that really disagree with what you're doing. That is a very. very hard lesson because even looking at some of the comments from Steven's episode, they were like, the interviewer really needs to like, let him finish and not jump in and not give her personal experience. Like we are here to listen to Steven and not necessarily her. Well, my style is not interviewing. It is a conversation. It is a back and forth where it's two people's opinions. It is two people's lived experiences. If you went out for dinner, which is how I've talked about my content journey from the beginning, like my number one piece of advice for any person who wants to build a personal brand this year, which is a non-negotiable, it is write down the topics that you would authentically talk about at a dinner with a friend. That is where your sweet spot will be creating content because you won't burn out from it. And if I was at dinner with someone, I wouldn't be asking them a million questions and never relating, never taking in what they were actually saying and giving something back. That is what I would do. A Q and A's type style. And that's just not our style. It's an interrogation. And so I think that that, again, looking at the comments from that, that interview, there's maybe over a thousand. There are probably over a hundred comments ripping apart my interview style. And as much as that is hard to read, and thank you for deleting some of them. It also made me feel a lot closer to the people who just thought that conversation completely changed their year. And it's something that like, I can't act like some guru. I don't feel those lows too. I definitely do. And it's so interesting to be on the other side now of that volume of criticism, but you won't get any positive reinforcement without that criticism in today's world. And I actually think the more that you get that, the more that you feel you're being pushed closer to the people who need to see your message. So when you are getting that hate and that criticism, it is going to feel like a badge of honor. Like, wow, I'm actually building something that people are not going to be able to really don't like. Again, a key lesson from the Lindsay Carter episode, the set active sales were never better than when they were in their worst controversy ever. Think about that. That is shocking. And it's a harsh reality for people, for the keyboard warriors who think like, I'm going to blow up this person's day and tear them down and make them feel awful about themselves. Guess what? If you're in the right frame of mind, you use it as fuel and it activates the base who actually care about you circle around, put their arms around you and be like, I love you said active. I love you HSR. Like I could never love you more. And that's like how you really find your people. And so I think going into another prediction, which we've kind of talked about is like human generated will replace the blue check mark or even like AI generated. And I think that goes back to this of like, be human. 2026 is the year we get hot, smart and rich, but there is such a thing as being too hot. When you run as hot as I do, when you sleep at night, I didn't realize how much of a difference your sheets make. Truly one of the biggest upgrades I made was investing in sheets that actually keep me cool. So I can get the eight hours of sleep. I need to perform at my best this year. I kept seeing cozy earth everywhere. So I finally tried them because I could return them hassle free HSR. Not only do these keep me cool, but they are the softest sheets I have ever felt. Perfect that they now sponsor my show. And now is the time. It's the new year, the perfect moment for a reset. And if you don't love them, you can return them hassle free. I'm so excited to be partnering with cozy earth because they stand by their product with a 10 year warranty. So visit cozy earth.com and use my code HSR for 20% off. So one of the ones that I want to jump to because I think that I got a lot of questions on after I posted this was around family offices becoming more well known in the consumer brand space and VCs will become a waste of time. So I think consumer VCs are way too nervous and they are not actually willing to take the bets that like the VC industry was founded upon, which was like true innovation in Silicon Valley to move society forward. And it got slowly but surely. And I think that's a big part of the reason why I'm so excited to be here today. return on something like this. It doesn't make sense to put in a ton of money because we are never going to see the same outcome that a technology brand will get. And slowly over time, I think that as exit opportunities have have gotten a lot more quiet. Consumer brands do not IPO like very rarely do they IPO. The consumer brand space is actually less about venture capital and it's more about private equity. Like it is about taking very safe, large ownership equity into companies. at a very high risk, very high reward. It is actually very low risk, very low reward for venture capital. if you're being honest. Most venture capitalists today will not even look at a company unless they're doing a million dollars of sales. That is actually not true high risk, true reward investing. It's just not. And I think having Jacqueline Johnson on the podcast is so interesting who was just on talking about angel investing. And she made millions of dollars from a $12,000 check into away luggage. So the anomaly, that is not the norm in angel investing. That is a very lucky situation with a number of shots on goal. Family offices are these safe spaces for these consumer founders to learn more about because essentially what a family office is, it is a family that has enough liquidity to be able to have a very large diversified portfolio, usually that equates from real estate, public markets, and private market investing. typically do not do anywhere close to the same level of diligence. We call them like smart investors and dumb money. I wouldn't say that family offices are dumb money by any means, but it is an easier way to get an investment than a venture capitalist because it is investing their own money. And that is really the difference between venture capital where it is investing other people's money. You are running a business. You have projections. You are mapping to a very specific return for your investors that you owe them money back. Whereas with family offices, it is your own money. You don't have to answer to people when like this goes to shit. And so even for myself being in the family office world, it's like, I look at the diligence that is done for family offices. And it's like, do you like the founder? Do you believe in the vision? Do you want to be a part of this? And do you kind of believe that there will be an exit one day? If so, an investment is made. That is not the case when you're diligencing a company on the venture capital side. They are making you run through every single hoop in the book. And so I just think as a polarizing, very hot take, venture capital is dead for consumer brands. And it is all about angel investors and more so family officers until you are at a seed stage in your business. And I think so many consumer founders that DM me and ask me about it, they're like, how do I raise money? I'm running out of money. And unless you don't need money because your business is so profitable and growing so quickly, You are shit out of luck pitching to vcs until you have at least At least a million dollars in revenue. It is a waste of your time I have a friend who runs a beauty brand who is launching into 1800 targets this year She could not raise venture capital money for two years of the first start of her business She started pitching family offices. Her first check size was 250k from a family family office. Yeah one call wow one call was that too did you see steven's post about his investment into gronk yes scooter braun called him and was like i need this i need you to go into this company like that's how it gets one phone call gave him i think it was a 20x return on his investment and it's like low effort high impact low impact quadrant having to go to a hundred people to maybe get one check for fifty thousand dollars no and i think we also saw this with even topicals they recently raised around all of mine had in the business of fashion disclosed like angel reese wnba star i went the celebrity capital route because i can't even get vcs to pay attention to my brand that is doing way more than a million dollars in revenue probably 10 20 30 million dollars plus in revenue she can't even get them to pay attention to her no which is why i think the conversation was so interesting with jacqueline johnson where she was like i regret not raising venture capital money. And I think that that would be a different statement if it was in today's world where it'd be like, I just regret not raising money. And I think that there is a level of breathing room that raising capital gives you but you are setting yourself up for failure if you are a consumer brand and you are pitching to venture capitalists below that threshold. It is literally a fucking waste of your time. The most fun prediction that I had, which was actually like this is what I love about doing predictions. And this is why I think girl boss town rose so quickly. You get to see if they come true or not and be held accountable like creators are not held accountable So when things that you predict come true, it is like the coolest thing ever thing ever, so this just happened to me because I posted this you, I think probably 10 days ago now. And I was like, so fast. This episode is brought to you by Indeed. 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And so it was kind of this like anger and frustration from like founder mode being like, I'm not doing this for brand partners because it doesn't work. And I am lucky enough to see the back end on a lot of our investments to know that it doesn't work. And I made this prediction that the brand, that will win this year will entertain us, not sell us features and functions. And then just a week later gap, I would argue one of like the best comeback stories in the last like decade, honestly, Hollister. They recently just brought on Pam Kaufman, who is the new chief entertainment officer. That is a C level executive role at gap. That is huge news. She's going to oversee content, licensing, and marketing. And she's going to oversee content, licensing, and marketing. And I think that this is one of the reasons that gap has had such a strong comeback. It is like Americans still do buy based on brand loyalty, and you do have to invest into brand building as a US based brand. And so how do you actually do that? We've seen it work so well with the brands that prioritize these short form, like movie montages, where it's actual scripting of hilarious content that keeps you entertained and engaged. And in the spirit of building in public, like we when we launched this big project that we've been working on for HSR, the massive marketing moment was an unscripted show, a reality TV show that is actually a genuine representation of how this came to be. Because this is where content is going. And honestly, nobody does that better than Serena fucking Kerrigan. So good. She is a mastermind in influencer marketing and paid advertisements that come across as the most authentic thing. And I think that brands really need to look at a few people. If I was a brand right now listening to this, I would look at two people for this type of storytelling, Serena Kerrigan and Valeria Lipovetsky. They are two of the best brand marketers as influencers I've ever seen, because I think they have earned the right to push back. And this is a directive I gave to you at the beginning of the year. I said, I am not taking any brand deal that mandates features and functions and mandates three story not authentic. And it actually dilutes the leverage that we will have in the marketplace to be able to create content that will entertain our consumers. So to put that prediction out, live by that prediction in our own business, like what we talk about is not just hypothetical do this, like we actually apply all of these things to our own business. And then to see Gap bring on a chief entertainment officer, like that is a brand that I am watching. And I think will be a role that will become even more important in any single business. For sure. And to think Gap is probably the last business I ever would have thought would bring on a chief entertainment officer. And the fact that they have just signals like they've gone in and they've done the work and they are figuring out what is going to keep them relevant. And so like even a call back to the SIF episode where she's like, I'm a master at trend forecasting. And by the time you're already seeing the trends taking place, if you're not there, you're behind. So this is the warning to brands. Like if you're not thinking about your, your customer engagement and entertainment strategy, like get on it. So the last thing that I really wanted to talk about today, because I think it's just the new celebrity beauty brand, which the angels were begging for today, by the way, they were like, can you please talk about celebrity protein in your celebrity segment? So the new celebrity skincare brand is the new celebrity protein brand. And it was interesting because I was reading an article on self, I think it's like self health. Yes. And it talked about the origins of it. So when I was actually building brands for celebrities, we would put celebrities into brands and give them a fancy title. And in return, they would get equity. The first one that I can think of for the protein market is Jennifer Aniston and vital proteins. This was like almost a decade ago, probably. So likely, I don't know exactly how that deal was structured, but I would assume she got a certain percentage of equity. They had a really healthy exit. And she was really one of the first people that was like the face of a protein. Brand. Since then, we have had protein be the core ingredient that Americans are focused on consuming. Health has never been more important. I think even to this point, like the number one 2026 New Year's resolution for people was working out and eating healthy. It surpassed previous New Year's resolutions around saving money. It was so much based on financially before. And I think in the world of GLP ones, it is so based on like, what we look like. And the one thing that I think is really great about this is that it's like, you know, there's a lot of things that we don't know about. And I think it's like, you know, there's a lot of things that we don't know about. This is all connected is like, focusing on ingredients. Protein has somehow become this breakout star where Americans are focused on consuming it. Celebrities and their teams see the opportunity to build these brands around this hero ingredient and bring it to market. So it has evolved from the Jennifer Aniston face of a brand that is actually run by like a pretty sophisticated team to now being the co founders. And so we've seen, you know, obviously, Khloe Kardashian with cloud popcorn. We've seen now most recently Mel Robbins with pure protein genius, which is a 23 gram protein shot. Obviously reminds me so much of those five hour energy shots that you see right at the checkout. Do I think Mel's will do well? Yes. Do I think I would drink it? No. I think that protein is a gender neutral option for people. So when you are a female launching a beauty brand, you are talking to 50% of the population, maybe a bit more. But with something that is a consumable, like a food and beverage, you are talking to everyone, you don't have that gatekeeper anymore. So I think for females, we're going to start to see a lot more females start to launch protein brands. I think it also is around celebrity recognition. And from my years building brands for celebrities, like shelf space at cash is the most desired space in the entire store. So if you have a recognizable face, I read in that article that Mel Robbins has over 90 million followers across platforms. Wow, 90 million. That's huge. I had no idea. She is a recognizable face at checkout when you are hungry. You've heard protein is everywhere. And you see that little shot and you're like, I'm gonna have that I'm gonna have Mel Robbins protein. Immediate purchase. Yeah, wow. I do understand the move into it. I think that we're even seeing a lot of larger, more established legacy brands make these big changes. So for the first time, in 17 years, beyond meat has moved into the beverage aisle with a new protein drink. This is their first non meat product in 17 years strictly protein. And in the same article, I read that more than half Americans are trying to increase their protein intake. More than half of Americans are walking around every single grocery store thinking, I need more protein. So of course, we are about to see a gold rush into this. And I am so excited because I believe in the episode right after this one launches, we have on the celebrity trainer that does Hailey Bieber, Kaya Gerber, like the it girls of LA, who also owns a protein company. And I got to sit down and ask her everything about what she is seeing in the space. What is it that she's seeing in the space? What ingredients to look out for? Why people are consuming so much protein? What brands you should absolutely stay away from that are totally in the pop culture, right guys, and it is going to be your guys's guru guide on protein. Because you can't believe everything that you see. And they're in protein is completely different from another in terms of better for you. So I can't wait that that is an episode that we have lined up for people because it is going to be your guide to go grocery shopping and feel confident the things that you are putting out there. And I think that's going to be your guide to go grocery shopping into your cart are actually going to help you meet your goals. Like Hailey Bieber and like Kaya Gerber. It was such a good episode. I'm really excited for that one. So with that, I think that we've wrapped it up. Yeah. So these are your HSR MSR predictions for 2026. These are my HSR MSR predictions for 2026. One of the things that I would love some feedback on because I actually did an interview last night and the beginning is so intentional when you're interviewing someone and it's like, so purposeful. And I don't feel like after doing this for a year, I have a good ending. And so I would love to hear from my angels on how you balance guest C podcasters and hosts actually wrap up and end an episode? Like, is there a specific type of question that we should ask or way that we kind of stop the show? Do you want to see the mics get pushed over and the guests leave the room and like the authentic conversation that happens after? That would be something because I always ask guests how HSR can help you. So HSR, how you can help me is figure out how to better wrap up the episodes. That would be so much fun to get your thoughts on. So send it in the angel chat because I'm always watching. I'm like a lurker in that chat. Or just DM me and I would love to hear from you. But thank you so much for coming on, Katie. And can't wait for next week's episode. Bye, angels. Y'all know I love a mood board. So everything that relates to the creative, the name, the brand, the website, the vision, everything. So if you're starting a business, there are certain things that are so fun to think about. They help you form an LLC or a corporation act as your registered agent and give you tools like a business address, operating agreement, website, phone number, professional email, and free guides. Get more with Northwest registered agent at northwestregisteredagent.com slash HSR free.