Maggie Sellers On Why Work-Life Balance Is a Lie, Building Ambition, Boundaries, and The Power of Moms (Ft. Katie Sellers)

Why Work-Life Balance Is a Lie (and What Ambition Really Costs) In this episode of Hot Smart Rich, Maggie Sellers sits down with her sister and co-founder Katie Sellers to talk about the myth of balance, the reality of modern ambition, and what women really give up to build businesses, families, and brands at the same time. From the truth behind “having it all” to what social media doesn’t show about life after kids, Maggie and Katie get into the trade-offs no one warns you about — including how ambition evolves through different seasons of life. They also break down the power of being offline, the limits of personal brand transparency, and why it’s okay to not want to monetize every part of your identity. Whether you’re single and building, deep in your mom era, or trying to find the line between ambition and burnout, this one’s for you. – Key Takeaways Work-life balance is a myth. The idea that you can give 100% to work and 100% to your personal life at the same time is a lie. Balance comes in seasons — not spreadsheets. Ambition changes shape. Your twenties might be all grind. Your thirties might demand more flexibility. Neither season is less valid than the other. The thicker the skin, the more you convert. If you’re building a brand in public, you’re going to get feedback. The women winning online know how to separate critique from identity. You don’t have to share everything to be real. You can build a successful personal brand without posting your finances, your kids, or your relationship. Boundaries are power. Moms are the most powerful marketing engine on earth. The Stanley Cup didn’t go viral because of paid ads — it went viral in a group chat. Consumer power is cultural power. From brands like Cakes offering $36K in child support benefits to founder-led companies that lead with values, today’s consumers are voting with their wallets. Creatorship isn’t a personality — it’s a job. Just because you’re online doesn’t mean your life is up for consumption. Creators get to have private lives too. – Items and Brands Mentioned In This Episode Sir the Label dress Stanley Cup – The viral 40oz Quencher cup that moms made famous. Frida Mom – The snot sucker (from Frida Baby) Cakes – Highlighted for offering $36K/year in child support benefits and building brand loyalty through values. Locker – An HSR portfolio company working to democratize affiliate tools for creators. – Other Podcasts Referenced Diary of a CEO – Emma Grede’s episode sparked the deeper discussion around ambition, motherhood, and the myth of work-life balance. – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐If you like what you hear, rate, review, and subscribe to Hot Smart Rich, the podcast supporting women who own their worth — in business, wealth, and life. Subscribe on Youtube – 💌Own your worth — and build the life you want. Subscribe to the Hot Smart Rich newsletter, the ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Maggie Sellers Reum?

  If you're starting a business, there are certain things that are so fun to think about. Y'all know I love a mood board, so everything that relates to the creative, the name, the brand, the website, the vision board. But then there are the things that make you pause and ask, am I even doing this correctly? Or do I even want to be doing this? Like forming your business, getting the right documents, keeping your personal information private. This is where our sponsor, Northwest Registered Agent, is so helpful. They're a one-stop shop for founders who want to launch and legitimize their business without turning it into a giant admin spiral. 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.

• 0:43Maggie Sellers Reum?

  They also have real corporate guides who know your local laws. Visit northwestregisteredagent.com/hsrfree and start using free resources to build something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at northwestregisteredagent.com/hsrfree.

• 1:03Speaker 01

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• 1:41Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I thought we had to snap. Katie Sellers, are you ready to get hot, smart, rich? I'm so ready to get hot, smart, rich. I'm so glad that you're back. And what, tell me about your outfit today. I went Maggie style this time. I don't know if you can tell. For the audience watching, I'm not wearing any shoes. Doesn't it feel freeing? It does feel freeing. Except we're gonna see your, like, feet on OnlyFans at some point, but I'm down for that.

• 2:04Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Honestly, I, so we just rented out Courtney's apartment or house and we rented it to an OnlyFans model. And we had to see, yeah, we had to see.

• 2:15Speaker 02

  Can you see it in her content?

• 2:16Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah. I actually was waiting for somebody to like, send it to me and be like, he's cheating on you or something. But we had to see her bank account because now we're landlords and we're actually seeing how much money this girl makes. It is crazy. It's millions.

• 2:31Speaker 02

  I sometimes like, you know, that TikTok that you sometimes get on and they're like, talking about how much money they've, some of them are making like millions a month.

• 2:39Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Well, and it's so funny because somebody that we had on the podcast, their episode hasn't come out yet, but they, I was wearing no shoes. It's like kind of a thing. So like Christian's laughing, but like basically she starts taking her shoes off and then she's like, oh wait, nevermind. I can't because I actually have like, people have taken my feet pictures and put them on sites.

• 2:57Speaker 02

  What?

• 2:57Maggie Sellers Reum?

  So she wore her shoes.

• 2:59Speaker 02

  A guest on our episode?

• 3:00Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yes. And do you remember when I was in high school, like I was in the back of an Uber and somebody saw my feet and we're like, can I take pictures of your feet?

• 3:08Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 3:08Maggie Sellers Reum?

  So this is a real thing, but it was so funny because when we started renting out the house to this girl and we saw her bank accounts as a joke to Courtney, I was like, I think I should start an OnlyFans with just my feet pictures because I have like really beautiful feet.

• 3:20Speaker 02

  Beautiful feet.

• 3:21Maggie Sellers Reum?

  But nonetheless, here we are. I love my outfit because what I've decided is I'm doing the Steve Jobs thing where like, I don't think about what I wear. I just wear the same thing with a black or white t-shirt.

• 3:30Speaker 02

  The uniform, totally.

• 3:31Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Also, do you feel like when your husband hates your outfit, it means that you have good fashion?

• 3:37Speaker 02

  My husband is so not on that algorithm. Like he basically, I could wear a paper bag and he'd be like, you look absolutely beautiful, honey.

• 3:47Maggie Sellers Reum?

  He's a golden retriever.

• 3:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, he's a golden retriever.

• 3:50Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Whereas Courtney's like, take that off. Those jeans are horrible. Christian, do you like my baggy jean look or no?

• 3:57Speaker 02

  Christian is like this.

• 4:00Maggie Sellers Reum?

  So Christian is our official video producer. He has done the last, actually like ever since the quality. So we were looking.

• 4:08Speaker 02

  The quality improved dramatically.

• 4:11Maggie Sellers Reum?

  But remember that thing that I posted that was like, you can't do your hundreds. And if you haven't done your first and the first thing of anything is going to be bad.

• 4:18Speaker 02

  And you're going to be embarrassed by the first.

• 4:19Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Oh, my God. So like when we were going through this whole Kate Max drama, I was like, Katie, can you pull the clip of when I said that like brands and people should identify who they are? And then like that way you don't mislead an audience to thinking whatever. So we pull the clips back from like the first, it was like the first episode or the third.

• 4:35Speaker 02

  Third with Courtney, but that was filmed like back in December of 2024.

• 4:39Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And it was scary.

• 4:41Speaker 02

  It was tragic.

• 4:42Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I, but then again, we go back to like that example of when that video of Sarah and Christine went on TikTok, it went super viral, got like a million views and it was the worst quality ever.

• 4:51Speaker 02

  Quality ever.

• 4:52Maggie Sellers Reum?

  But anyway, now we have like a full producer, we have an audio team, a video team and Christian is amazing.

• 4:58Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 4:58Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Um, today kind of follows that trend, what we talked about, because I think we're going to clear the air on a lot of stuff.

• 5:03Speaker 02

  We have a big docket.

• 5:05Maggie Sellers Reum?

  We have a big docket. Did you steal that from Giggly Squad?

• 5:08Speaker 02

  There's a lot that's come across our desk.

• 5:11Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I also just feel like I'm so tired of people saying, oh, Maggie, when I meet you in person, you're so much better in real life than you are online.

• 5:18Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:18Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And I find it so hard when you like put on a TikTok video, you're, you're just like not yourself in the same way where at least like right now, this is genuinely who I am. And you do the best job of bringing that out into me.

• 5:30Speaker 02

  And I'm trying to be my best self.

• 5:32Maggie Sellers Reum?

  More energy in the.

• 5:34Speaker 02

  More energy, more HSR energy.

• 5:37Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Um, okay. So let's just start with consumption habits. What's the last thing that you bought and the last most expensive thing that you bought?

• 5:45Speaker 02

  So the last most expensive things that I've bought are plants for my garden, which shocker, they can be like hundreds of dollars.

• 5:53Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Did you know that I'm gardening now?

• 5:54Speaker 02

  I mean, I saw that on your TikTok, but I was like, there's no way she's gardening.

• 5:58Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It's going to be a passion project.

• 5:59Speaker 02

  Yeah. I mean, it is so therapeutic, like the flow that you get into, but I got some beautiful hydrangeas and flowers from my backyard and it was like $500.

• 6:08Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Oh, wow. Okay. What's the last thing that you bought on the flight yesterday?

• 6:11Speaker 02

  Ooh.

• 6:12Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Gum.

• 6:13Speaker 02

  Maybe internet.

• 6:15Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Oh, and that's what twenty four dollars Canadian?

• 6:16Speaker 02

  It was only eight dollars Canadian.

• 6:18Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And it was strong, like I was.

• 6:20Speaker 02

  It was strong.

• 6:20Maggie Sellers Reum?

  We were sending stuff back.

• 6:21Speaker 02

  Strongest it's ever been and it's been a consistent problem every time I fly like I can't do anything. But this time I was like online the whole time. So that was the last thing. What about you?

• 6:30Maggie Sellers Reum?

  My last big purchase was that Sir The Label dress for F1, which I am obsessed with. Like I felt so sexy and chic in that. And I think that was like the first time I've dressed myself for a culturally relevant event. Like I haven't been like, I need a stylist, which I still do, Justine. We need to like get back into the groove of things, but I felt like really excited about that dress. And I felt like it was such a good value.

• 6:51Speaker 02

  It was beautiful.

• 6:52Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Um, and then the last thing that I bought actually yesterday, I went to the farm. So I'm in my cooking era. In my home era.

• 6:58Speaker 02

  Which is good.

• 6:58Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And I did, um, I did some gardening on Saturday. I did a light grocery shop of things that I couldn't get at the farmer's market. And then yesterday I went to the farmer's market and I think I spent like a hundred and something dollars at the farmer's market.

• 7:11Speaker 02

  Which is not bad on food.

• 7:12Maggie Sellers Reum?

  That is kind of bad for the farmer's market. But I did buy salmon and chicken thighs and eggs and like a bunch of stuff that's expensive. So, um, but yeah, I'm in my era of just like trying to not have balance, but like.

• 7:26Speaker 02

  Which is impossible.

• 7:27Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Apparently, according to Emma Greed. Did you watch that? That's one of the first things we were going to talk about, which is like work, life balance and Emma Greed.

• 7:33Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 7:34Maggie Sellers Reum?

  What did you think about that episode?

• 7:35Speaker 02

  Oh, I have so many thoughts because like I feel like I've lived both worlds. Like I've been the Emma Greed, being like the CFO of a consumer brand and building businesses. And like, I understand where she's coming from, but I feel like the delivery and obviously there's so much production and.

• 7:55Maggie Sellers Reum?

  A crow.

• 7:57Speaker 02

  Hello. Um, there's so much post.

• 7:59Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Is that bad luck by the way?

• 8:02Speaker 02

  I mean, I don't know if it's good, but.

• 8:05Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It's like, what type of podcast are you doing today?

• 8:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 8:09Maggie Sellers Reum?

  We're letting it loose, Christian, because basically.

• 8:16Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Okay, keep going.

• 8:18Speaker 02

  So, and in the diary of the CEO, I feel like there's so much post-production and cutting and editing, like as the person who does our podcast, like there's a lot that goes into it. And so someone can say one thing and they mean something totally different. But like, I really resonate with what she's saying as like an executive of a business. But then as a young mom with a family who needs flexibility and does want balance, like it can be totally at odds and that like it really kind of hurt me to listen to the episode.

• 8:51Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Why? Because you feel like it's impossible, but it's like not what you necessarily want?

• 8:55Speaker 02

  I think like, and I mean, this is something else we're going to talk about. It's the whole like, are you an alpha female? What do you want out of life? What do you want out of your family? And it just was one of those things I listened to and I was like, what I thought I wanted out of life is totally different after having a kid. And it just like really made me think about how I spend my time and what I value. Um, but I totally agree with what she says. There is no balance in life.

• 9:25Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 9:26Speaker 02

  Like, I don't know what you think, but I don't think there's balance in life.

• 9:28Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Well, I go back to like what I've always said, which is like there are seasons. There are seasons where you like put your head down and do really good work. And I do think about myself when I was like at the beginning of my career. Like I'm in a different place right now where I feel lost, like genuinely like not having to be grinding 24/7 and have my job consume every single second of my thought. Like I sometimes wake up and I'm like, I feel so guilty. Like, do you ever feel guilty between the hours of nine and five when you're not on your laptop? And you're like running an errand or doing something that it's so weird.

• 9:59Speaker 02

  But I think that's what she's saying in the episode, which was totally cut out of all of the social clips. Like, I don't know who's sitting there for the two hours to watch it. I know you and I both did. But like, what's in the news cycle is the clip that's like, there's no work-life balance. It's not my problem. The responsibility is on you. But then what she says after is actually so true. I run an organization now where no parent is missing a soccer game, a dentist appointment, a haircut. Like there's inherent flexibility built into the day-to-day. And I think that's very true and what people missed when they're talking about it. She's not saying like, how dare you ask me about-

• 10:34Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Like you have to work 24 hours a day. No.

• 10:36Speaker 02

  No, she's not saying that. How dare you ask me about work-life balance in the interview? It's like- People now should know that if you're working in a business like that, there is flexibility. So you don't need to ask me about it.

• 10:47Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And by the way, like I completely agree with what she was saying around like if you are not in the office when you're in your twenties, you're not in the position that she's in in her forties.

• 10:55Speaker 02

  I totally agree.

• 10:55Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I don't know where we went so wrong with this idea that like the office is so toxic and that you have to be working from home. Working from home is isolating, especially when you're living in a one bedroom apartment.

• 11:06Speaker 02

  Totally.

• 11:07Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I did that during COVID. I went from like being on tour with artists, like being in a really creative artist environment to like being at home in a one bedroom where I lived, I worked, I worked out there, I slept, I like socialized there and it was so exhausting. And you don't have, it's so funny too, because when I've never had a problem like meeting men because my whole, like my whole life has especially in work been around men.

• 11:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:30Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And I hear that a lot from women that work in environments where it's like they're working from home.

• 11:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:35Maggie Sellers Reum?

  They're in beauty, they're surrounded by other women.

• 11:37Speaker 02

  The office is 70% female.

• 11:39Maggie Sellers Reum?

  The office is 70% female, but they also don't go into the office like more than three times a week. And I'm like, no wonder you have a hard time meeting men because you're by yourself all day. And I'm not saying like now that I work from home, I'm not saying that like, oh, I've like achieved a certain whatever and now I have the right to do that. I actually like miss an office environment.

• 11:57Speaker 02

  Totally.

• 11:57Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And I think that now to Emma's point, it's like employers are flexible.

• 12:01Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 12:02Maggie Sellers Reum?

  They're not like, oh, you have to be at your desk at 8 a.m. Like when I was growing up, if you were not at your desk at eight or nine, you were late and that was like a problem on your performance.

• 12:12Speaker 02

  And they would talk to you and be like, you're not getting here until 9:15 every day. Like there's a problem. And when I was working at Ernst & Young, the partners are all getting in at seven, 7:30. It's the only time they have to work. And if you were there, guess what? You had the chance to talk to them when they were getting a coffee or walking to the bathroom. And that did help me build my career by being in the office five days a week, seven days a week during busy season. And like, yeah, now when I'm a bomb, do I want to be in the office five days a week and like grind, grind, grind? No, but to your point, there's seasons and there's phases and like if you are in the phase where you want to like grind and build your business and.

• 12:49Maggie Sellers Reum?

  But I think that's also what the clip didn't show is that like what she says is she's like, if you want an extraordinary advice, life, you have to have extraordinary. Input to get that output.

• 12:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:59Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And I think that's what gets so lost is like, I think because one of the things we're gonna talk about is like influencer rich culture, rich talk. And like, we have, everybody wants that life. Everybody wants to be able to buy a million Hermes bags and Van Cleef whatever that like Becca Bloom is talking about. But then it's like, okay.

• 13:15Speaker 02

  Do the work.

• 13:16Maggie Sellers Reum?

  No one wants to do the work. And I think that brings into this whole concept of like nepo babies and like whatever it is, cause like, did you do the work or did your parents do the work?

• 13:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:24Maggie Sellers Reum?

  But I think just like the what she was trying to say, which I fundamentally agree with, is there is nothing wrong with a middle life. There's nothing wrong with like, not having to live paycheck to paycheck, being able to go on one or two vacations a year, sending your kids to camp, not having to stress about putting food on the table and like, you can a thousand percent have work-life balance. But we and the HSR community is these ambitious women that like, want to be able to have an extraordinary life, don't necessarily wanna sacrifice every single thing to get there. What have I said for years until I met Courtney? Like, my worst fear is getting all of the money in the world or like what I would consider an extraordinary life.

• 14:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:01Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And not having anybody to share that with.

• 14:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:03Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And I think that it just like, it every time I've had somebody in these chairs, the theme that I've gotten is that like, there are seasons. Like, there are seasons where you are grinding it out. And like, that's also something if you're listening to this and you're single, sometimes I miss my single life, not for the reasons that you think. I miss the ability to be selfish on my career.

• 14:23Speaker 02

  And do whatever you want, when you want, and when you need to do it.

• 14:27Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And by the way, like, you have the headspace like Emma was talking about when you have so, like, I was alone all the time.

• 14:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:33Maggie Sellers Reum?

  In previous relationships and when I was single. And when you're alone and you're not getting distracted by your phone and you're being intentional with your time, the creativity flows through you.

• 14:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:43Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Whereas like, when you have these responsibilities, like a family, a house to take care of, a child, you don't have that same time. Yeah. And I think about that all the time. Like, when I was, I was never sad to be single. I was literally like, this is amazing. My career is gonna flourish. Everything's gonna end up getting better. And when you do have dependents or people that rely on you, there are sacrifices that you make.

• 15:07Speaker 02

  Huge sacrifices. And I think it's not until I truly had a child that you realize the sacrifice that you make as a woman, with a family, to service. It's not just like servicing your husband. It's like servicing your life, like, to be a family. And yeah, like now that you're saying that I'm like, sometimes I and Carter and I, that's my husband Carter and I say to each other like, I'm here in LA for a week and he's like, great, go have fun, do your thing. Guess what? It's easier for me when you're not here.

• 15:38Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 15:39Speaker 02

  And I say the same to him, like when he's had to go away for work or for family stuff for like, three, four nights.

• 15:44Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Why do you think that is? Because expectations are that it's on you?

• 15:47Speaker 02

  It's just like, there is no question whatsoever about like, who's in control? Whose agenda are we on? What's the time schedule? Who's putting the kid to bed, bath time, dinner, whatever? It's like, you know, it's on you. You have to do it, but then you get to do it exactly the way that you want to do it. Like you don't have to ask for someone else's opinion. Or be like, oh, I know this triggers my husband. So like, maybe I won't do it that way. But like, when they're not there, you don't have to care about that.

• 16:15Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It's so interesting. Did you see that whole thing around the cake company offering like paid child support for? So we got a lot of questions from the community of, um, I don't want to say this wrong, but do you actually have like the name of the company?

• 16:27Speaker 02

  Cakes.

• 16:28Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Cakes. So they made an announcement that they were going to be covering thirty six thousand dollars per year.

• 16:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:33Maggie Sellers Reum?

  For parents that work at their company to have childcare.

• 16:37Speaker 02

  Which is honestly like amazing.

• 16:39Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Amazing. And, talk to me about that as like a mom, would that make you want to go work at that company?

• 16:45Speaker 02

  A hundred percent. Yeah. A hundred percent. And I mean, I live in Canada where there is subsidized childcare, but it wasn't when I, first had my son and the average cost is like twenty two hundred dollars a month.

• 16:56Maggie Sellers Reum?

  That's insane.

• 16:56Speaker 02

  Insane. And guess what? If they have a fever and they send them home.

• 17:00Maggie Sellers Reum?

  You're still paying that.

• 17:00Speaker 02

  You're still paying that. And they have hand, foot and mouth throat for a week, still paying that. And so this actually concept came up a lot at Missouri around like, how can we actually, enable the women in our organization to like, be at work and be productive and have a child. And I give credit to the founder.

• 17:20Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Founders.

• 17:20Speaker 02

  The founders, but specifically Nora, when she would always say like,

• 17:24Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Missouri, okay, yeah.

• 17:24Speaker 02

  When she would always say, my goal is to have a daycare here.

• 17:29Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 17:29Speaker 02

  On site that can be super flexible and accommodating for the women who work here and like, This is the beginning stages, I think, of what we're seeing of brands who truly are like 70% of my workforce is women. And I need to provide benefits that are going to service them and enable them to be their best self at work. And so like 100% I would want to work here. I would want to shop here.

• 17:52Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Well, that's the other thing I was gonna say is that like I got so many messages of girls being like, can you talk about this? Because I became a new customer. Do you think that as the CFO of a former multimillion dollar company, that the CFO would project in like, yes, we're spending $36,000 for X, but like we anticipate that our sales will grow by Y?

• 18:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, I think they, I don't know, like if necessarily they would have gone to the consumer perspective of like, oh, what's the customer perception? And will that equate into sales? But they definitely would have done like the internal, okay, this is like our benefits package. We offer X, Y, and Z. If we give women or families this, like we can expect Y.

• 18:32Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Well, that's what I think like is so interesting around like you vote with your dollars. And that goes back to like, I got some pushback when I said that brands and influencers need to make their political stance known. Because or or don't, but just be prepared that you might experience backlash. But if you make your political stance known, there's no surprises to your community. And I think that consumers now vote with their dollars. They vote where they want to see their money go. And so for me, I actually shamelessly had never heard of the company cakes before. Saw this, was getting tagged in it so much. And I was like, you know what? Now I actually will shop there because that is something I can get behind as a female founder. And I think that like, it's such an interesting thing because I did get some pushback from people being like,

• 19:13Maggie Sellers Reum?

  why would your political views like, I don't want to know that. And it's like, fair, like I can't even vote in the States. But like, I've made it pretty clear, like who I am, like what I stand for. Obviously, I think this brings up something else where it's like, just because you're a creator and influencer, doesn't mean that you have to expose your entire life and what your views are on everything. And that was also something that I've been questioning around a lot of the people sitting in this chair. So that people also know like my mentality of asking questions is like, I've asked, when you were defining your personal brand, what was like fair game and what was just off limits for you? And I think that there are things that also can be fluid.

• 19:54Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And I was really upset. I understand where people were coming from with the Remy Bader surgery. But at the same time, like it is her private life. And that was something if you actually take the time to have empathy, which I feel like nobody in society has anymore.

• 20:10Speaker 02

  Especially for people online.

• 20:11Maggie Sellers Reum?

  If you watch the state of her life and her health before she went for that surgery, what I'm hearing the community say is I value my life more than hers. Because she was not an okay person. And for her to make that decision and to feel like I'm going to keep this private, I actually respect. And I think I've actually even started to get some interesting comments of people being like, you're so transparent about money, you're so this, like, can you reveal X? And I'm like, I am more than happy to, as the brand that I built on, talk about angel investing. And I've been super transparent with people, like I invest five to $10,000 into companies myself. When we do an investment, that's like 150,000 or 200 or 500.

• 20:55Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I don't have that money. I've never said that I've had that money. And I am very clear about what is the distinction of like, I'm angel investing and this is an HSR Ventures investment. I don't think that that invites people to see my personal balance sheet. Or for me to be like, this is exactly X, Y, and Z. And I don't know if that's just like my own perception. But like for me, I don't think that being a creator invites the world to get to see every single aspect of your life.

• 21:28Speaker 02

  And it's, I think, a really hard thing for people who watch you or engage with you or any creator.

• 21:35Speaker 01

  Now, more than ever, we need someone on our side. But Rob Whitman? Whitman's votes drove up costs, cut Medicaid, and risked 350,000 Virginians' healthcare to pay for tax breaks for himself and his donors. He's not on our side. Shannon Taylor will fight corruption, cut taxes, and bring down costs. This November, vote for Shannon Taylor. She's for us. Paid for by HMP, the House Majority PAC dot com. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

• 22:05Speaker 03

  Build your front end and back end together on Base44. Describe the product logic with a managed database, authentication, and hosting included. Spend less time assembling infrastructure and more time getting your product live. Go to base44.com.

• 22:20Speaker 04

  I don't know what I'm doing. Need a break. Forget it, I quit.

• 22:23Speaker 05

  Escape to Pluto TV.

• 22:25Maggie Sellers Reum?

  This is objectively fantastic.

• 22:26Speaker 05

  Relax into the movies and shows you already know and love, all for free. Shwing. Even our news is uplifting.

• 22:32Speaker 06

  You stay classy, San Diego.

• 22:34Speaker 05

  Watch Tommy Boy, Crazy Ex Girlfriend, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, The X-Files, Wayne's World, and so much more. We're not worthy. The best things on TV really are free.

• 22:44Maggie Sellers Reum?

  You just have to know where to look.

• 22:45Speaker 05

  Escape to Pluto TV. Stream now, pay never.

• 22:49Speaker 02

  They think that they know you. I think it's one of those things, people really struggle with boundaries. And when someone sets a boundary, people really don't like that when they think that they're entitled to more. And, but now that we're talking about this and money, I think like, maybe, I mean, you're on, are you on the algorithm of people who are like the digital marketing experts?

• 23:09Maggie Sellers Reum?

  No.

• 23:10Speaker 02

  It's people who are like, the MLM of our generation, which is like, I teach you

• 23:16Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Sales courses.

• 23:17Speaker 02

  How to be a coach, so you can teach someone to be a coach. It's all a scam. But those people, like, the way, part of their, like, social proof of how they actually build their personal brand is by literally pulling screenshots of like, their Stan store and putting it in their TikToks.

• 23:35Maggie Sellers Reum?

  To be like transparent about that.

• 23:36Speaker 02

  To be transparent about like, I'm so successful that I've been able to make like $2 million selling these courses.

• 23:41Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Selling what?

• 23:42Speaker 02

  Courses, to teach people how to sell courses. Like, it's literally an MLM. It's like, almost fraudulent what they're doing, but like, maybe that's part of where this is coming from, from people, where they're like, we're seeing all these other people post their like, sales and whatever. And so like, why aren't you doing that, Maggie?

• 24:00Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It's so funny, because like, I built a brand not off even being like, a personal finance expert. Like, I built my brand off of being like, here's business deep dives, and like, here's what I'm doing in my real job, in my real life. Like, I think that's what people forget, is like, I was investing for years before, doing syndicates, and like... It all happened as I was building in public. Like, it also doesn't mean that as these founders that are building in public that you're, you have to share every single detail. And I think that is what's so interesting about these parasocial relationships. And like, it's so crazy to be able to like, have this podcast and get to show the founder side of like, who these people actually are.

• 24:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 24:36Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Because I think you build up an idea in your head, and then it's like, that isn't necessarily like, their authentic whole self. You know what I mean?

• 24:43Speaker 02

  Totally.

• 24:43Maggie Sellers Reum?

  We're also seeing a rise of these female founder podcasts.

• 24:46Speaker 02

  Yes. Which, there was an article in Inc. this morning that came out.

• 24:50Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Which, I was so sad that Hot Smart Rich was not mentioned in that, first of all.

• 24:53Speaker 02

  Because when you go to aspire on Spotify, following similar podcasts, Hot Smart Rich is there.

• 24:58Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I think that, like, they, everyone's noticing the same white space that we did. Which is like, women want to be financially smart, they want to build businesses, everybody wants a product, and it's like, how do you help them get there? And it's so, I, I actually always believe that there's like, so much room for everybody, that I'm loving this surgeance of it, because like, all boats rise together. I think it's gonna be really interesting to see how it plays out, because we also read that article that was around like, the rise of female voices on podcasting.

• 25:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 25:23Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And I think that's the really hard balance of like, when you're thinking about shows, you want to keep people's attention for an hour. And like, one of the things that I really struggle with is like, this idea of having a persona and like, being myself.

• 25:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 25:37Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And sometimes I'm like, I find it hard to like, take off the myself hat and like, put on this entertainment hat, especially in the world of building businesses. And I don't know about you, but when I was watching the Emma Grede podcast, like, an hour and a half in, I was bored.

• 25:51Speaker 02

  This Diary of a CEO one?

• 25:53Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 25:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, I agree. And I think it is hard to keep people's attention, and I think we know that from even filming this podcast.

• 26:00Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah. I don't know if I should have said this before, but it just came to my mind and I wrote it down. My favorite creator that has taken backlash off of something and turned it into like, the most creative thing I've ever seen is Serena Kerrigan. Serena Kerrigan was caught having Manjaro in her fridge when she was filming a brand ad a year ago. And I felt for her because I was like, first of all, if you know Serena Kerrigan, she is like the most girl's girl amazing person you will ever meet. She is fantastic at like being her authentic self online, but also like playing up that it's like she wants to and has been since a child. Like a drama queen, like writing shows and like entertaining and doing little plays. And so I felt for her.

• 26:43Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And then, I don't know if you saw this last week, but she did an ad for a GLP-1 supplement drink.

• 26:48Speaker 02

  Oh, did she?

• 26:49Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And

• 26:49Speaker 02

  Oh, I think I actually saw this.

• 26:51Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It was the most amazing way of somebody that had been like, or could have been like taken down online to like reclaim something that maybe she did want to keep private.

• 27:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 27:03Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Like, just because you're a creator and you make a decision on your health, doesn't mean that you owe the internet every single decision on it.

• 27:11Speaker 02

  Totally.

• 27:11Maggie Sellers Reum?

  So for her to now find a company that like she wanted to partner with and do something that she loves to do, I was like, that is the exact perfect recipe of a creator meets a brand moment. And it's so funny because I think so much stuff can get misconstrued. Like I was sent something by Supergut, which is a company that's raised a bunch of money. The former social and brand marketing lead at Aura Ring has now gone in to be the brand marketing manager at Supergut. She's like, can I send you stuff? I'm like, for sure. And it's GLP-1 craving, like bars and GLP-1 like mixes. And I was like, I can't post this because then people are going to think that like I'm on GLP-1s.

• 27:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 27:49Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And it's like, it's so crazy when you think about like how many dots are connected online when you live this like personal, public life.

• 27:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 27:58Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It's something that I'm still wrapping my head around and like I wouldn't say that I've mastered.

• 28:02Speaker 02

  No, but I think like you said, Serena Kerrigan, like that's a perfect example of someone reclaiming their power. And sometimes I feel like we often forget, like when you're stuck in a tricky situation, whether it's personal, work, family, whatever. Sometimes all you have to do is name it and own it and it immediately loses all of its power.

• 28:23Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Can I tell you what I've always told every single, I remember this so well, one of my first investments, I was like, You need to start thinking about crisis PR. And the, my team was like, Maggie, like, they just raised like a million dollars. Like, they're not thinking about crisis PR. And I was like, I get that, but if you can't do that, you need to own the narrative. And I've always, that's my life mission. There's two things that I've said, if you're listening to this and you're like, a little lost in your career, you need some advice. I always said, never get set up to fail. Yes. And always own the narrative. Yeah. And if you can do that, you're able to get in front of things before they snowball. So as an example, when I started seeing these comments, like, I will read some right now.

• 29:07Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Can you break down how you've gotten rich, hoping you'll break down how to make money? How you've made your money? I said, can you please listen to my angel investing episode? I'm pretty sure I've explained everything there, including how much I'm investing, which is five or 10K per deal. I already talked about the syndicate thing. And then someone goes, she married, well, not married yet. Um, then the girl goes, really? Pretty deceptive if true. You don't think she has money of her own? Thought she was a VC. I don't know how more explicit I could be to people of like, even if you buy our 50, 20, 2010 budget, like, I literally talk about how I made my money to like, sell my house to like, afford to get an E2 visa. I've also talked about that in multiple podcast episodes. And that's where I think there's this line where it's like, I've shared enough that I'm comfortable with,

• 29:52Maggie Sellers Reum?

  and then the rest is not up to people to have information to. No. Like, when Courtney and I do our prenup, I don't think you will get access to what is in my prenup. Like, it's just not your information to know. Yeah. What I will do is talk about the process of getting a prenup. Yeah. Why people get prenups, what it is supposed to do, what are best practices? But I'm sorry, if you're looking for me to disclose my financial situation, my prenup, like, it's not ever happening. And those are boundaries that I feel like, that's why I started this episode with like, kind of just like, choosing violence. Like, here are the reasons, if you are looking for X, Y, and Z, don't follow me. Because this is also, and it's something so interesting, I was with one of the biggest YouTubers when we were in Japan,

• 30:37Maggie Sellers Reum?

  and he made a really interesting point where he was like, oh, I delete comments, and I feel not bad about that at all. Yeah. And I said, why? And he said, um, The comments are an aspect to the experience that the consumer has of the product. And if you get mad at creators for deleting comments, that is part of the experience of a new customer, a new like watcher, to be able to decide if they want to engage with your content or not.

• 31:04Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:04Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And I really internalize that because I've never deleted comments. And I was like, that is so true. People make a perception and if there's a new follower that comes to my videos and, and doesn't know that I've disclosed all of this in my angel investing videos, like, they may be like, oh, Maggie's giving out this advice, but like, isn't willing to talk about it herself. When that's actually not true.

• 31:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:24Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And so I'm very much like, I think when you're a creator, you have the right to control whatever you want on your channel. That is your storefront. That is like somebody coming up to your retail business,

• 31:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:36Maggie Sellers Reum?

  putting a sign on that says, "All of our products suck", and sticking it on the window and you as the store owner being like, "I'm not going to take that down."

• 31:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, you would take it down.

• 31:44Maggie Sellers Reum?

  You would take it down.

• 31:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, 100%. And I think it's funny because that's one of the things that Emma Greed is saying in these interviews that she's doing of like, one of her superpowers is like, she's customer obsessed. Like, that's the thing she spends 95% of her time doing, is thinking about the customer, thinking about the product, what their experience is going to be like. And that's what she's doing in these businesses, you know?

• 32:07Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Like, why can't I?

• 32:08Speaker 02

  Why can't you?

• 32:09Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah, yeah. Well, this goes even to Rich Talk. Because, do you know about Rich Talk?

• 32:14Speaker 02

  Becca Bloom, man.

• 32:15Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Is, did she invent Rich Talk?

• 32:18Speaker 02

  Maybe?

• 32:19Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Do you want to know the story of Becca Bloom? Because it relates to my life.

• 32:22Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 32:24Maggie Sellers Reum?

  So, I didn't even know this, but Becca Bloom skyrocketed to fame because she saw Pia's Heaven Mayhem laptop case. And her laptop didn't fit into the case.

• 32:35Speaker 02

  Oh, I've seen this video.

• 32:36Maggie Sellers Reum?

  So she went to Apple, she bought the laptop that would fit the laptop case, and people were in arms over the fact that this creator-

• 32:45Speaker 02

  Rage bait.

• 32:45Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Rage bait.

• 32:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 32:46Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And- I don't know how it has spiraled since and how she's been able to maintain this, but like I

• 32:53Speaker 02

  2.4 million followers.

• 32:54Maggie Sellers Reum?

  In like three months.

• 32:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's insane.

• 32:56Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And honestly, whoever hates on Becca Bloom, I just don't get it. Now I think it's harder because people are struggling to like pay rent, put food on the table. And then there are people who are going and buying laptops to fit into laptop cases that they want, which is like, yes, those are big extremes.

• 33:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 33:14Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It also reminds me of like, when I think it's a really scary world, someone's like, it's actually the least dangerous and violent time in our life.

• 33:21Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 33:21Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It's just more talked about and more aware because of social media.

• 33:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 33:27Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It's a tricky place because at the one point, it's like, you love watching Rich Talk.

• 33:31Speaker 02

  I love Rich Talk. I always have.

• 33:33Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And by the way, I don't and I don't watch it.

• 33:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 33:36Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And I also don't have a problem with it.

• 33:38Speaker 02

  And you don't care.

• 33:39Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And I don't care.

• 33:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 33:40Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And it's like, I think like, I've never been a YouTube girly that like loves watching unboxings and like,

• 33:45Speaker 02

  I love.

• 33:45Maggie Sellers Reum?

  You love it.

• 33:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 33:46Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And you've never been able to afford an Hermes bag and does it bother you if someone's unboxing 50?

• 33:51Speaker 02

  No, I love watching it because I know it's purely entertainment.

• 33:55Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Exactly.

• 33:55Speaker 02

  And that's the thing with Rich Talk is like, Becca Bloom found a niche for herself, fueled by rage bait and continued to do it. And guess what? She's been way more successful than 99% of creators are ever gonna be.

• 34:10Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Could you ever put yourself in that position though?

• 34:12Speaker 02

  No.

• 34:12Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Like the amount of hate and videos, like I, when I see a comment about myself, like I literally cry.

• 34:18Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:18Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And I need to grow some skin because I look at like poor Becca Bloom and I'm just like,

• 34:23Speaker 02

  Thick skin.

• 34:24Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Oh my God, the thick skin that these creators have. But the other thing that I will say is the thicker the skin, the more you convert, the more money you have.

• 34:33Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 34:33Maggie Sellers Reum?

  So what I mean by that is I was actually in Miami and like, I'm such a nerd. When I'm at like parties, I talk to founders about like, who's converting for you? And like, what are the channels that are working?

• 34:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:43Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And I was with this company. I'm inquisitive.

• 34:45Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:46Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Courtney would say I'm too curious. So I was with this founder and I was like, you know, because she'd worked with everybody and I was like, who converts for you, who sells whatever? And she was naming off people and I was like, that makes sense. This makes sense. Like, we'll just say one name, but like Valeria. She's like, she converts like crazy.

• 35:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:03Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And I think it's because she has this like aspirational relatability around her. And then she gave a name of somebody else and she was like, she's gorgeous, she has a million followers, but like she doesn't convert at all.

• 35:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:15Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And I just find it really fascinating. Look, what I was saying is like, the thicker the skin, the more you're willing to take risks, like the more you convert, which means that brands are willing to pay you more money.

• 35:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:26Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And I think like, I've been so afraid to make my views be known because I'm like such a people pleaser. But to Emma Greed's point, it's like, you can't please everybody. And if you are, you're never going to be a good leader.

• 35:38Speaker 02

  No.

• 35:39Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And somebody gave me some advice when they, when I was like signing to the agency to be like, you need to start taking more risks. And I was like, what do you even mean by that? And they were just like, you try to people please your audience too much.

• 35:52Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:52Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Um, there's a brand that I'm obsessed with that I really want to talk about, which is Stanley.

• 35:57Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 35:57Maggie Sellers Reum?

  So we talked about this in our newsletter, but just to give people that don't have like a full appreciation for moms and for this cup, because this is a really crazy story. This just goes to show that women are so much better than men. Sorry, Christian. Did you know that Stanley started in 1913? And it was for the bros. For the bros.

• 36:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 36:18Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It was focused on utility. It was for like the gritty guy, the construction worker, like on the go.

• 36:23Speaker 02

  The camping people.

• 36:24Maggie Sellers Reum?

  The camping people. And like, it went nowhere.

• 36:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 36:27Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And it wasn't until Ashley Lassour, is that how I say her name?

• 36:31Speaker 02

  I think so.

• 36:31Maggie Sellers Reum?

  This 44 year old Utah mom, like what is in the water of Utah?

• 36:35Speaker 02

  I don't know.

• 36:36Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Uh, that she discovered this at a Bed Bath & Beyond. And she was like, oh my God, this is amazing. We're always carrying so much stuff to the car and it has a bottom that will essentially fit in a cup holder.

• 36:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 36:48Maggie Sellers Reum?

  So as a mom, you're like holding a million things and you can ha- hold your Stanley with your little pinky.

• 36:53Speaker 02

  Your seven pound water with your pinky.

• 36:55Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And so in 2017, she ran this thing called the Buy Guide. Mm hmm. And she decided to send out the Stanley Quencher to this bachelorette competitor, Ashley or Emily Maynard. Yes, love Emily Maynard. So she did influencer marketing and she did like something that she thought moms would love. Yeah. And so then this women employee at Stanley, Lauren Solomon, saw them and was like, I'm gonna help them buy 5,000 Stanley Quenchers at cost so that they can take the profit with one colorway and they sold out in five days. Yeah. So eventually Terrence Riley joined as company president in 2020. And he was the Crocs guy, right? He was the guy that helped make Crocs back and big with Post Malone, who I used

• 37:40Maggie Sellers Reum?

  to work for. Yeah. And he heard from Lauren how this was going and how this mom group was essentially like selling out Yeah, blowing up. thousands of Stanleys. Then Ashley and her two co-founder moms were like sending in ideas for like different colorways because originally it was like a black handle. It was like mismatched. Which I was like kind of shocked 5,000 units sold.

• 38:02Speaker 01

  Now, more than ever, we need someone on our side. But Rob Whitman? Whitman's votes drove up costs, cut Medicaid and risked 350,000 Virginians healthcare to pay for tax breaks for himself and his donors. He's not on our side. Shannon Taylor will fight corruption, cut taxes and bring down costs. This November, vote for Shannon Taylor. She's for us. Paid for by HMP, the House Majority PAC dot com. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

• 38:32Speaker 06

  Get your business ready for clients faster with Base44. Describe what you need in your own words and build the website and software behind it with database, backend and hosting included. Go to base44.com. That's base44.com.

• 38:47Speaker 04

  I don't know what I'm doing. Need a break. Forget it, I quit. Escape to Pluto TV.

• 38:52Speaker 02

  This is objectively fantastic.

• 38:54Speaker 05

  Relax into the movies and shows you already know and love, all for free. Shwing. Even our news is uplifting.

• 39:00Speaker 06

  You stay classy, San Diego.

• 39:02Speaker 05

  Watch Tommy Boy, Crazy Ex Girlfriend, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, The Ex-Files, Wayne's World and so much more.

• 39:09Speaker 05

  The best things on TV really are free.

• 39:12Speaker 03

  You just have to know where to look.

• 39:13Speaker 05

  Escape to Pluto TV. Stream now, pay never.

• 39:17Speaker 02

  Because I was like, that's not really the vibe.

• 39:19Maggie Sellers Reum?

  But it goes back to like functionality over like look, right? Like there was the aesthetic, but it was like, I always thought like, why can my colorway? He was the guy that was like, oh, this can be a handbag. A woman will have different colored Stanleys for every single outfit. And he was the one that championed it and got behind them. And basically took the company from $70 million of revenue to $750 million of revenue in three years.

• 39:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, that is wild.

• 39:49Maggie Sellers Reum?

  There is no group like a mom group.

• 39:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, no.

• 39:54Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Why do you think it works so well?

• 39:55Speaker 02

  There's nothing like being a mom. There's nothing like caring for your kids and caring for your family and finding products that actually like fit into your lifestyle and make it better.

• 40:06Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 40:06Speaker 02

  And I think it's like.

• 40:07Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And moms are willing to like share that.

• 40:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, they're willing to share that. So like for every mom group, like I have multiple mom groups of friends that I'm a part of. We all have a group chat. There's all these little chats around of like 10, 15 people, which are like, you know, the DMs of a creator, but we're all doing it behind the scenes and it's constantly like, yesterday, like shout out to my NT Moms friends. Um, they're like, what kids outdoor table do you like for summer? And everyone's like, oh, I like this one from Ikea. I like this one from Fisher Price. I have this one. Oh, I had that, but I wouldn't get it again for these reasons, X, Y, and Z. So it's literally a constant like DM group of like, my kids going through this, I need that.

• 40:51Speaker 02

  What do you like? And it literally is like, it's just like constant affiliate marketing in these group chats.

• 40:57Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Do you guys like put in like an affiliate link when people are buying it?

• 41:00Speaker 02

  Like no one's putting in affiliate links.

• 41:02Maggie Sellers Reum?

  You're like selling it. You're like, I hate Moms, but my mom's group on the other hand.

• 41:06Speaker 02

  I hate Moms, but on my mom's group, like I'm going to start affiliating it. But that's like something like Locker, one of our portfolio companies is actually doing, like democratizing affiliate. But that's like the power of the mom groups is like. It is such a transformative experience becoming a mom. Your entire world turns upside down. You feel like a fish out of water. And when you find the power of the women who are your village to help you through the moments, whether it's like, you know, how do I get my baby to latch because they can't feed? Or like,

• 41:36Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I need to buy this.

• 41:37Speaker 02

  I need to buy this. What cute water bottle are you guys using? Or like, and it goes back to the whole stat of women control eighty-five percent of consumer spend. And then they're in the group.

• 41:46Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Follow the money.

• 41:47Speaker 02

  Follow the money and they're buying the stuff.

• 41:49Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It's so funny because I'm at a stage in my life where like everybody on my feet is pregnant or like having a baby or just had a baby. And it is so interesting to feel like that is where I want to be. But it's like not the time yet. And there's still like exciting things to be like happening. But I think like what I've realized about mom groups is it's like a connection that you don't find until you're done leaving college. And like, I always do a call a week with a HSR angel. So I had one with this amazing woman who's going to be at Midas event. And she was telling me she had just graduated college and she was like, you know, at college, you're at the gym and you're seeing everybody wear Allo yoga or park. And so like you want to wear Allo yoga in park and you fit in.

• 42:31Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And then you go off and you move to a city and you don't have that same sense of community. And you don't have that same sense of like expectation. And so it's like the first time you can kind of like be an individual and like you're not as swayed by what everyone's doing.

• 42:44Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:44Maggie Sellers Reum?

  But I guess that psychology of like, you don't want to be the only one not to do things exists when you're in college and it exists when you become a mom.

• 42:51Speaker 02

  It totally.

• 42:52Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Because it's so isolating.

• 42:53Speaker 02

  It is isolating. And they, they do just have this way of really building the community and being the village and helping women. And one of the things like in the Stanley case study that we did in the newsletter, it was like, one of the key things that the CEO was saying is like, don't figure out how to market to moms. Figure out how to tell moms how to market your product.

• 43:17Maggie Sellers Reum?

  What does that mean?

• 43:18Speaker 02

  It's like, don't spend, don't waste your time like, oh, mom, like you need to buy this for X, Y, and Z. Like, these are the benefits, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, the moms know what the benefits are. The more valuable and impactful thing you can do is like the Stanley. Tell the moms how to market your product.

• 43:35Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Because how would, how did Stanley do that?

• 43:37Speaker 02

  It was through all the things like the colorways and I'm gonna do then there was that whole trend that blew up like how moms get into cars versus how dads get into cars and the moms have the million bags and the kids and the Stanley on their pinky. It's like.

• 43:52Maggie Sellers Reum?

  So they're not selling features and functions to moms like, oh, you can like have this in your cup holder or whatever. They're just selling the lifestyle of moms.

• 43:59Speaker 02

  The lifestyle a lot of the time and then the moms figure out how to market it to their friends and that's all like it took off like wildfire because it was mom marketing to other moms.

• 44:09Maggie Sellers Reum?

  This is why I think it's such like the new wave of influencer marketing is going to be peer to peer and community because like that is what you trust. Like if you are going to like, there is a reason why when you go wedding dress shopping, you bring your like five closest friends. You don't bring your community to be like, pick the dress for me, you know? But I think it's so interesting because I've always been a little bit afraid of like being a promotional tool or like selling things. Like I've always just been like, you know me, like I don't wanna like push products down people's throats and like whatever. But I love what Kris Jenner said the other day, which is like, this is a business. Like that is what it is at the end of the day. So are mom groups. Like that is like one of the most profitable channels I feel like people could ever tap into, which is like,

• 44:49Maggie Sellers Reum?

  how do you market to moms and how do you market to college kids? And I think the future will be like, how do those people then profit off of that? Why is Stanley the one that has seven hundred and fifty million dollars of revenue? But like, I, I mean, I would assume Ashley and like her co-founders have a significant upside.

• 45:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 45:05Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I would hope that that, that Stanley gave them equity in the company. Were they public?

• 45:11Speaker 02

  I don't know. I don't think so. And I doubt they got equity, but I think like, from listening to some of the other podcasts that I've talked about it, they definitely formed like a deep, meaningful relationship with these women to help market the business.

• 45:23Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Kind of like a wholesaler.

• 45:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 45:24Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It's like if you have a channel that's like going and actually like profiting a ton of your business, like you find ways to make it mutually beneficial.

• 45:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 45:31Maggie Sellers Reum?

  But it's just interesting because I do think that like, to your point, you don't wanna just like, if you're listening to this and you wanna sell your product, it's like, sell it to moms.

• 45:37Speaker 02

  Sell it to moms.

• 45:38Maggie Sellers Reum?

  But don't sell them like the features and the functions, like sell them the lifestyle of what it will do.

• 45:42Speaker 02

  Of what it will do or like. The overall pain point that it'll solve, but not like the nitty gritty, you know, like, and this is why Frida, I don't know if you're familiar with the brand Frida. It's like a total mom brand. And they sell the most insane things. Like, have you seen on TikTok, like, the snot sucker?

• 45:58Maggie Sellers Reum?

  No.

• 45:59Speaker 02

  Where it's like a tube that you stick up your kid's nose and then there's a tube on the end that the mom like sucks the snot out of.

• 46:06Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And eats it?

• 46:07Speaker 02

  And no, it just like goes into the tube. But like, they have also, similar to Stanley, turned a brand of like just random, random, random products. It's like postpartum underwear and pads and like a Perry spray bottle. The snot sucker. And like, they've done the same thing. Like, they've figured out how to get other moms to market their products and the business is like wildly successful.

• 46:34Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I love it. Okay. Well, I think that that should wrap up our segment for today. Is there anything else that you wanted to talk about? Uh. What's on the docket, Katie?

• 46:42Speaker 02

  What's on my docket? I need to clear my list. Anything else?

• 46:45Maggie Sellers Reum?

  No, I think that's it. Um, okay. Well, I feel like I got hotter, smarter, richer.

• 46:51Speaker 02

  Same.

• 46:51Maggie Sellers Reum?

  More honest. And I can't wait to be a mom.

• 46:53Speaker 02

  Yeah. I mean, your, your day is coming very soon.

• 46:56Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Hopefully.

• 46:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:57Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Thank you so much for listening to this, you guys. If you can, please make sure you rate, review and share this podcast episode. We love your support so much. It only makes the show so much better. And trust me, this is my number one priority. It's like all I sleep and dream about. So thank you guys so much for listening and can't wait to see you next week.

• 47:24Maggie Sellers Reum?

  If you're starting a business, there are certain things that are so fun to think about. Y'all know I love a mood board. So everything that relates to the creative, the name, the brand, the website, the vision board. But then there are the things that make you pause and ask, am I even doing this correctly? Or do I even want to be doing this? Like forming your business, getting the right documents, keeping your personal information private. This is where our sponsor Northwest Registered Agent is so helpful. They're a one stop shop for founders who want to launch and ...legitimize their business without turning it into a giant admin spiral. 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.

• 48:08Maggie Sellers Reum?

  They also have real corporate guides who know your local laws. Visit northwestregisteredagent.com/hsrfree and start using free resources to build something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at northwestregisteredagent.com/hsrfree.

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