Valeria Lipovetsky: They Called Me A 'Trophy Wife' (Here Is How I Proved Them Wrong!)

Valeria Lipovetsky signed a prenup at 21 and navigated an 18-year age-gap marriage. She reveals how she turned her real-life story into content, building a media empire reaching over 150M people each month. Maggie and Valeria explore how early conversations around marriage, money, and independence shaped the way Valeria built her career - and ultimately led to the creation of Creator Method, her framework for helping creators turn content into sustainable businesses. Valeria breaks down what successful creators do differently to last long-term: using vulnerability with intention, navigating public judgement, and growing with the support of their community. She also reflects on how failure, missteps, and knowing when to pivot played a key role in everything she’s built. Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro(00:01:58) How Valeria Reached 150M+ People a Month(00:02:30) “I Had a Fear of Attention Growing Up”(00:03:34) Growing Up Between Russia & Canada With A Powerful Mum(00:04:52) Modelling Around the World at Just 16(00:06:02) Getting Married at 20: How I Met My Husband(00:07:35) “Your Life Is Your Art” The Mindset That Changed Everything(00:09:35) The Moment $10K Turned My Content Into a Business(00:11:40) I Had No Idea How Talented I Was(00:13:57) How Creators Build a Real Bond With Their Community(00:15:40) It Took Me 7 Years to Call Myself an Entrepreneur(00:16:37) When to Pivot: What the Kardashians Get Right(00:19:09) Why I Wanted to Start My Own Businesses(00:20:17) Why I Celebrate Failure (With Champagne)(00:21:50) What Posting Online Taught Me About Myself(00:22:30) Why I Chose to Go Back to Content Creation(00:23:24) Is There Something Deeper Driving You?(00:26:04) Being Compared to Tony Robbins & Creating The Creator Method(00:30:13) What Actually Makes a Creator Stand Out Today(00:32:22) The Future of the Creator Economy(00:33:38) Beehiiv Ad(00:35:00) My Framework for Starting Over(00:35:21) How to Start When You Have a Business Idea(00:36:13) Maggie’s Biggest Regret(00:36:57) Why Your 20s Aren’t Just About Making Mistakes(00:38:58) Our Marriage Dynamic Today(00:40:07) What Really Happens in an Age-Gap Relationship(00:41:45) “I Want My Husband to Lead”(00:43:17) Power, Decisions & Equality in Our Marriage(00:45:58) Disagreeing in Public & Handling Criticism(00:48:18) The Unspoken Rules That Hold Our Marriage Together(00:49:31) Signing a Prenup at 21: My Experience(00:52:14) How I Feel About Our Prenup 14 Years Later(00:56:05) How We Think About Money as a Couple(00:57:20) Taking Big Financial Risks (Without Being a Finance Expert)(00:58:57) The Last Thing I Put on My Credit Card(00:59:31) More Followers or Higher Engagement?(00:59:42) Instagram, YouTube, or Podcast? Pick One(01:00:10) How Many Photos Are on My Phone?(01:01:45) Canada or the US?(01:01:50) If I Had to Name This Season of My Life… ⸻ Episode Sponsor: beehiiv - Use code HSR30 at http://www.beehiiv.com/hsr?utm_campaign=hsr-2026-Partnership&utm_medium=podcast&utm_source=hsr&utm_term=2026-02-04&stripe_campaign_code=HSR30 ⸻ Follow Valeria Lipovetsky: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/valerialipovetsky Website: https://valeriainc.com/ ⸻ Hot Smart Rich: Join 250,000+ angels and subscribe to the Hot Smart Rich newsletter: https://hotsmartrich.com/subscribe Hot Smart Rich Money Mindset: https://shorturl.at/pJWLc Merch: https://hotsmartrich.shop/ YouTube: https://shorturl.at/IXXFZ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hotsmartrich/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hotsmartrich Maggie Sellers Reum:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maggiesellersreum/ Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@maggiesellersreum LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sellersmaggie/ Locker: https://www.wantlocker.com/users/maggiesellers ShopMy: https://shopmy.us/maggiesellers Amazon Storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/maggiesellers 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.

• 1:04Speaker 01

  This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required. Compatibility and availability varies. 18+,.

• 1:29Maggie Sellers Reum?

  You were just compared in The New York Times to being the Tony Robbins of influencing. Does that feel like a lot of pressure?

• 1:35Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:36Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Valeria Lipavetsky, are you ready to get hot smart rich?

• 1:39Speaker 02

  I am so ready. With YouTube, I really took the time to learn, and I started picking up $200 here, here, here. One day, my husband is like, we got this deposit into our account for $10,000. I showed him my YouTube channel. He just looks at me and he's like, this is the future of media. You're gonna be the Oprah of our generation.

• 2:00Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I want to talk about your relationship a little bit.

• 2:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:03Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Can you quickly just give some context to the prenup process and how you felt as a 20-year-old negotiating with a 38-year-old that was already successful?

• 2:11Speaker 02

  The prenup was an interesting conversation because

• 2:14Maggie Sellers Reum?

  the creator economy right now is worth 250 billion. And then in 2027, it's going to double that and be worth over 400 billion.

• 2:22Speaker 02

  I wanted to guide the next wave of creators to become their own entities. This is how Creator Method really was born. I wanted to empower people to learn everything that they need to learn.

• 2:34Maggie Sellers Reum?

  This is all teachable, but there has to be those standout superstars. What is it about someone where you're just like, you have the thing?

• 2:42Speaker 02

  The people that I thought they just don't have it naturally today are superstars.

• 2:50Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I could have been so much further along than where I'm at today.

• 2:53Speaker 02

  I disagree.

• 2:54Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Really?

• 2:55Speaker 02

  I disagree, and I'll tell you why.

• 3:04Maggie Sellers Reum?

  In case you missed it, you're allowed to be hot, smart, and rich. So let's get into it.

• 3:15Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Valeria Lipovetsky, I feel like you are one of the few hallmark names in the fashion and lifestyle influencer space. My first question actually stems from what you have in your Instagram bio.

• 3:26Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 3:26Maggie Sellers Reum?

  You quietly reach 150 million people a month.

• 3:30Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 3:31Maggie Sellers Reum?

  But for someone that's hearing about you for the first time, how do you contextualize what it is that you're doing?

• 3:35Speaker 02

  Back in the day, I used to try to put it in buckets, like I'm doing fashion and self-development and family. And at some point, I kind of decided to move away from that. And if I had to give context to everything that I do, because I don't do one thing specific, just kind of documenting my own journey.

• 3:58Maggie Sellers Reum?

  How did you learn confidence?

• 4:00Speaker 02

  I think it comes with age. I'm always blown away by the fact that I found myself on this career path because, growing up, I was the most insecure. The most like gray mouse syndrome. It's like I craved attention, but I was so scared of it. Even, you know, my mother, I can imagine how it feels for her to watch me do what I do today. Because it was so far off who I was as a child. She was always so worried. That's why she always pushed me to like, go and dance, go and sing, go model, go do something. Because I had this debilitating fear for attention and such insecurity. Very different than who I am today.

• 4:40Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Where do you think that stemmed from? Like this want of attention, but then afraid to go and get it?

• 4:44Speaker 02

  Maybe just the way life unraveled, you know? Being raised by a very dominant, very colorful, loud mother. We were immigrants. I went to first grade in Israel. I didn't speak the language. There were so many different moments where I just feel like I don't belong. So I was just trying to stay unnoticed, so I don't have to deal with that.

• 5:06Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I first heard about you because you kind of made a name for yourself in Toronto, Canada, where you lived for a period of time. But going way back, you said you lived in Israel, but you actually were born in Russia. So how did you go from Russia to Israel to Toronto? And then obviously now to Miami?

• 5:22Speaker 02

  I was born in Russia and we left with my mother. She was 21 at the time. So a 21-year-old and a two-year-old leaving to Israel. It was a beautiful thing for me to watch because I grew up watching a woman that went after everything and more. When I was 16, she figured out a plan. She moved to Canada with my little brother. At that point, I decided to stay in Israel because I was already working. I started my modeling career. She signed me up to a modeling contest. I won that contest and that's kind of how it started unraveling. I found myself in this world, not because I was so eager to be part of it, but because my mother kind of didn't give me a choice.

• 6:05Speaker 02

  She said, do you want to see a different kind of world? Do you want to find out what you're capable of? It was a very like pushing me into the deep end. So for three, four years, I was kind of on my own. And then I was like, I need to be close to my mom. And that's what made me move to. Canada.

• 6:20Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Talk to me about who Valeria was at sixteen.

• 6:23Speaker 02

  I was really lost. The opportunities that modeling brought to me that I was able to leave home, travel, see a different kind of world. Because I grew up in, in, you know, a small city and you know what you know, but I didn't know what the world out there can offer. I didn't know who I could be. Given all those opportunities, I was so eager to learn where I fit in.

• 6:49Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 6:49Speaker 02

  And I picked up from every person that I've met, from every job that I did, from every note that I got. But it was a lot of like research and very, a lot of self inquiry. Because I truly just did not know where I'm going, what I'm doing. Didn't think about tomorrow. Went to Tokyo for two months with ten bucks. You know what I mean? Like, complete, beautiful, ignorant, you know, young girl. But I, I don't think I was too hard on myself about that. I was just like, okay, let me, I'm doing my research. But I think my mother just knew, like, it won't break you. Like, you'll figure it out. We got to a point where now she has the utmost respect for me. I earned it. So, uh, it's been beautiful.

• 7:30Maggie Sellers Reum?

  You were married at twenty?

• 7:32Speaker 02

  Correct.

• 7:32Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And your husband was thirty-eight at the time?

• 7:34Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 7:34Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Talk to me about what headspace you were in at that time.

• 7:37Speaker 02

  So I met Gary, I was nineteen, but I had a boyfriend. And then I broke up with a boyfriend, moved to New York, um, came back to visit my mom in Toronto. And this is where kind of we got connected. And then he just followed me to New York, was there every weekend. And, uh, he straight up, two weeks in, was like, you're gonna be my wife. I don't know, just putting it out there for you to think, I know you're very young, but sit with this. And I'm like, haha, okay, whatever. I did not plan to get married. I did not care to get married. But, um, there was something with Gary that just.

• 8:15Speaker 02

  Touched, I think, the younger Valeria. I, you know, I have my own, or carried my own kind of daddy issues and not having a stable man in my life. And all of a sudden, when Gary showed up and he was able to create this environment, not necessarily physically, but like emotionally, when you feel like you're held by someone and supported, that was just this intuitive thing for me where I was like, yeah, let's, let's go. You know, when you meet somebody and that person makes you want to be better and makes you believe that you can reach heights you didn't think you're capable of, that is such a blessing. To me, he was that person. So, you know, along with being aligned on values, along with, you know, having this

• 8:59Speaker 02

  connection and that feeling of home, it was a no brainer.

• 9:03Maggie Sellers Reum?

  When you started dating, were you still modeling? Were you working at all? Did you have the aspiration of reaching 150 million people a month?

• 9:13Speaker 02

  No. When we started dating, he told me this one thing that really stuck with me, because he asked me, like, is there anything you're interested in? Like, what do you, what do you want to do? Because I did feel like modeling a kind of, I reached the, the point where I said, this can, cannot go any further. I wasn't like a supermodel, I was making good money, I was doing catalogs, all these things, but I'm like, okay, I'm done. You know, I'm gonna start a family, I want to settle down with this man. I just remember I had all these things. I'm like, maybe I want to design clothes, or I want to do this, or I want to do that. I want to learn business. And he's like, he told me, your life is your art. It sounded so silly back then. I'm like, what does that even mean? But it's hilarious because this is, my, my life is my art.

• 9:57Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Your, your whole thing of like, what, what are you doing or what's your mission? It's like, to make art.

• 10:03Speaker 02

  Exactly. Based on, you know, sharing my life, because I treat my life like that. So he kind of, you know, gave me a vision to follow in a way. I went through kind of different phases where, you know, it was the maiden era where I was sitting at home and I was, you know, I was building this like home environment for us and he was working, so I... I got pregnant right away and I didn't really care to figure out what it is that I wanted to do. And I just kind of got to a point where I'm like, I know I have more in me and I need to actualize myself somehow. And that's when I started to ask questions and be like, okay, what am I interested in? And you know, one thing led me to another, but I did not walk into that relationship being like,

• 10:46Speaker 02

  I want to do business, I want to do this, I want to do that. I really, he was kind of doing his own thing. And I was just figuring it out and that's a privilege and I'm so thankful for him. That he also gave me again, that like comfort and space to be like, you take your time. You don't need to know what you're doing.

• 11:03Maggie Sellers Reum?

  So now you've been at this for over a decade, creating content or nine years, almost a decade.

• 11:08Speaker 02

  Almost nine years, yeah.

• 11:09Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I watched a TikTok that talked about kind of the initial start of this. And it was when $10,000 hit your bank account and it was your husband that was like, this is a business. Can you take us back to that moment?

• 11:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I started with my YouTube channel without really Gary knowing he had his own business going. So he had his exit, then he started a new business. He was so deep into like building something new, so he wasn't really paying attention. So I had two kids at a time, Jake and Ben, and they were like two and three. I decided that I'm gonna take my holistic nutrition, which is what I went to learn. I was curious about it. I picked it up and then that's kind of what I started sharing first on social media. And I decided to move to YouTube. So with YouTube, I really took the time to learn. I was editing, I was filming when the kids were either in daycare or sleeping.

• 12:00Speaker 02

  And I was just figuring it out and then I started picking up sponsors, like small little deals, $200 here, here, here. He didn't know about any of it. And then one day he comes home and he's like, hey, we got this deposit into our account for $10,000. I called all our bankers, I called everybody. No one knows what this is. Do you know what this is? I'm like, yeah, it's my, the payment for this deal that I made. He's like, where? What are you doing? So I showed him my YouTube channel and he just looks at me and he's like, do you know what this is? Like, this is the future. This is the future of media. And I looked at him and I was like, no, that's just me making recipes and like showing clothes and, you know, doing some vlogs.

• 12:44Speaker 02

  He's like, no, this can be something really big. Do you want to take it seriously? Like, are you serious about this? And if you are, can I be part of it? And it took me a second to kind of take that and ask myself the question of, am I going to bet on myself? Cause my natural response, my first response would have been, no, don't worry about it. It's just something fun that I'm doing.

• 13:08Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Why?

• 13:10Speaker 02

  Because I didn't know how

• 13:17Speaker 02

  talented I am, or like I didn't realize how much value I can bring. That is the, that's what it is. I didn't know how much value I could bring. To me, I was just kind of like, oh, this is like a silly little thing. But I had Gary beside me that looked at me straight up and he's like, you're gonna be the Oprah of our generation. You know what I mean? Like, I'm literally just, I showed him a video of zucchini muffins. I'm like, what are you talking about? So having someone like that by your side that can truly foresee what it could be and then start talking about it. And I started buying into it. I started buying into the version of me that he saw, but I couldn't see it.

• 13:57Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Was it right away that you were like, I now believe this, or it took time?

• 14:00Speaker 02

  No, it took so long. It took so long. And I actually think that a lot of our challenges with building that business was me not understanding or realizing how capable I am, you know, and how much value this has. So it was constantly him being like, here's the business case, here's the data, here's the reality. You need to look at all of that and get out of your own head, which is very emotional. And you need to break through these walls. So it was a lot of coaching, honestly.

• 14:31Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And was it a lot of therapy as well?

• 14:34Speaker 02

  Well, the people that were watching me were my therapist. Because at some point, yes, you talk to people and you're building community, but you're also working in asylum. And I was sitting with myself and catching myself getting hurt by comments or getting defensive or getting irritated and triggered. And at some point, I'm like, hey, why does this bother me? Once you start looking at social media and at your community as your therapist, you actually learn a lot about yourself. Because it's easy to be like, oh, they're just haters, or they're jealous, or they're this. No, there's a lot of really interesting points, even from people that are trying to bring you down. A lot of interesting points that I picked up and took with me and kind of started looking into and did kind of my own analysis.

• 15:19Speaker 02

  So it was actually my relationship with my community has been very healing for me.

• 15:25Maggie Sellers Reum?

  What do the best creators do that build that type of a bond with their community?

• 15:31Speaker 02

  It's vulnerability, but I think that it also is self-awareness. I think a lot of creators sometimes use vulnerability as a commodity and you kind of lose touch with how powerful it can be. Vulnerability doesn't mean that you need to show up online and cry. Vulnerability doesn't mean that you have to share every aspect of your life. You know, for me, vulnerability meant that I need to first sort through shit on my own before I bring it out to my community. This is how I process, so I had to learn that. But yeah, like that at the end of the day is to show your humanity and your kind of ups and downs. And we talk a lot about it in our, you know, with our Creator Method members, right?

• 16:16Speaker 02

  Our platform for creators where you need to show some like raw version of yourself. So somebody can look at it and be like, I've, I feel this, you know, I've experienced it or I've seen someone I love experience this and there's some kind of a connection. So building those bridges are extremely important. But yeah, I would say vulnerability, self-awareness and humility as well. I think that's super important for creators. You don't have to be the expert. You don't have to, I know sometimes when we go on stages, whether it's figuratively or you know, physically, we're just, we get, our ego gets this like boost and you feel like now you are, you know, the poster child for something.

• 16:55Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 16:56Speaker 02

  And we start acting in a misalignment sometimes because we believe that this is how we need to represent ourself to other people.

• 17:02Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 17:03Speaker 02

  And I think that this is where you start breaking those bridges and those connections, you know?

• 17:08Maggie Sellers Reum?

  When did you start identifying not just as a creator, but as an entrepreneur?

• 17:17Speaker 02

  I have to tell you the truth, recently.

• 17:20Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It took you nine years?

• 17:22Speaker 02

  It took me seven years to be like, I'm an entrepreneur.

• 17:29Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Why do you think that is?

• 17:31Speaker 02

  First of all, because I felt like everybody were chasing this entrepreneurship title. Like it's like the hot term. I didn't really care to be part of that club. I didn't feel like I earned it, you know? Even though we build this amazing infrastructure and everything, I just didn't feel comfortable with it. I didn't really know how to speak on it and I was more comfortable in being like the creative, you know, mind behind everything that we do and that's it.

• 18:06Maggie Sellers Reum?

  So you had Valeria Inc., which is like the master holding company of everything that you've done.

• 18:09Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:10Maggie Sellers Reum?

  But you've also mastered this art of the pivot, which actually reminds me a lot of the Kardashians because if you think about all of their businesses that didn't end up working out, Dash, their failed beauty brand.

• 18:20Speaker 02

  I feel like eighty percent of their businesses didn't, maybe more.

• 18:23Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Didn't work out.

• 18:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:24Maggie Sellers Reum?

  But their personal brand grew at such a rate, so much higher than these businesses. You've experienced something similar. So to kind of take it back, because even though you didn't identify with being an entrepreneur, you were in entrepreneurial pursuits of things.

• 18:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:37Maggie Sellers Reum?

  The first business that you started, it was 2019, like the first business, not the holding company.

• 18:44Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:44Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And that was sunglasses and accessories.

• 18:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:46Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Which then evolved again. When does someone know when it is the time to pivot? And when it is the time to just keep going? Because you're right on the brink of something actually happening.

• 18:57Speaker 02

  It's so funny that you're mentioning this because the company that we started was first Leia, which is my Hebrew name, which was the accessories. And then we got it into jewelry. Then we changed it into very, uh, once we started doing ready to wear. And then we changed it to Valeria. It was this constantly changes that were happening. I think for me, the moment that I realized it was time to pivot is after about two, three years where I sat down with myself and I asked the question, did I do everything that I could in order to try to make it work? The answer was yes. The answer was that like I got on a plane. I went to check our factories.

• 19:42Speaker 02

  Like I was doing so many things. We changed so many people. We tried different ways to make it work. And then the question was, do I want it? Like, what is my future? Do I want to be known as a designer? No, I don't. I don't want to be known as a designer. That was actually the first question that I asked myself. Do I want to be a fashion designer, accessory designer? The answer was no. Then the thing was, did I do everything in my power to try to make this work? Yes. And at some point I had to look at the reality of things and realize that my strength, my talent is media. That's what I want to do. That's what makes me inspired, excited. And the most amount of opportunity and success we see there. So at some point you look at the numbers, you're like, yes, this was doing well.

• 20:25Speaker 02

  We weren't failing, but I'm not going to give 10 years of my life to make this work. You know what I mean?

• 20:30Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Totally.

• 20:30Speaker 02

  Like, there are so many other things I want to touch and do. And I'm not willing to give those up in order to make this accessory company work.

• 20:38Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Did the reason you wanted to start the businesses in the first place stem from the fact that you no longer wanted to rely on brand deals? And you wanted to have ownership and equity in something? Or where did it even like the initial? I want to start a clothing brand or something in the accessories realm come from?

• 20:54Speaker 02

  Honestly, it came very organically because my community was asking for it. The sunglasses and stuff that we started was an answer to my community being like, I love this, but it's so expensive. Is there something similar? And I'm like, no, but we can make it. So it was very much of, you know, supply and demand. And then I got really interested in jewelry and I kind of tapped into that. But it wasn't from a place of like,

• 21:19Speaker 01

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• 21:45Speaker 03

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• 22:44Speaker 02

  Initially, like let's build something that will take, you know, the weight off the brand partnerships. So it started very organically. At some point, we're like, okay, this need to be a standalone business. It needs to move, that needs to have its own life. And it's just, we couldn't get there. Like it was constantly had to be fueled by my media, but then I wasn't able to be 100% with content creation because I was trying to get this off the ground. So I was like, this does not make sense.

• 23:12Maggie Sellers Reum?

  So you posted a video in 2023 popping champagne and celebrating the fact that you failed publicly. I will never forget seeing that video. Was that the first time that you had failed publicly like that?

• 23:25Speaker 02

  Yes, so I want to give credit to the whole failure champagne thing because that's something that I heard a friend and the founder of Nyx, Joanna Nyx.

• 23:39Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Love her.

• 23:39Speaker 02

  She kind of mentioned the idea of like, why are we popping champagne only when it's a celebration? Like, isn't this, isn't failing and learning something is a celebration? I was like, huh. And I actually carried it with me for a year or two. And then when this happened and I had to come to terms with it, I was like, I can do what most people do and just kind of have this like really nice, beautiful announcement of being like, you know, I love this, but it's time for me to focus on other things. Or I can make a statement. I can also break another fear that I had of failing publicly. Because whether I liked it or not, I haven't really had a public fail, right? I had a pretty good, smooth

• 24:21Speaker 02

  little, slow, but like a smooth grow, growth with the media business. So I was like, oh, this is an opportunity to really unlock something within me, but also give permission for other people to do it for themselves. So that felt so good. That champagne is the best champagne bottle pop I'll probably ever have in my life. It's so powerful.

• 24:44Maggie Sellers Reum?

  What did you learn about yourself once you actually pressed post and you saw everyone's comments?

• 24:51Speaker 02

  I was really proud of myself. I was proud of myself for the level of vulnerability that I was willing to put out there. I was really proud of myself for the self-awareness, for not being scared. Like, it was kind of like another chain of other people's opinions kind of got released, you know what I mean? Because once you do it yourself and you start taking these moments and putting them publicly, they just, they don't mean as much. You just realize that it's like, this is such a silly thing.

• 25:23Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 25:23Speaker 02

  Like, how did that scare me before?

• 25:25Maggie Sellers Reum?

  So you are in this place where you're like, I'm so happy I can be myself. You're putting everything you Have back into Valeria Inc., which now at that time you have a CEO for, correct?

• 25:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 25:35Maggie Sellers Reum?

  You and your husband are both co-creators of this holding company. What do you do next?

• 25:41Speaker 02

  Well, for me, now that my schedule freed up from all the responsibilities that that company took, I then moved back full force into content. I was like, okay, now I need to, it doesn't mean that I'm actually slowing down or taking my time. Now it's like, I need to double down on what we're doing on the media side. I started to get more creative. I started to film more. I decided that, you know, we're gonna start thinking about a podcast, like all the things. It's also was during a time where we moved to Miami. So I'm like, now I need to take time to build relationships here. So I really went deep into this one focus.

• 26:19Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I think what's so fascinating to me about you and why I think you are such a hallmark legacy creator that has like, is going to leave a legacy on this world when so many creators will be forgotten, is because there feels to me like there is a deeper purpose than just like making your life art. Like, that is why I have felt connected to you as a creator and like, it's like the failure video of your business. Or like, I remember when you had just had a baby and you posted in a bathing suit with like a roll. And I was like, wow, like, is there something deeper that I think fuels you other than just like making your life art?

• 26:56Speaker 02

  Well, it's interesting that you keep going back to art. So what does art mean to you?

• 27:01Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I think art means creativity. It means expression. It means freedom.

• 27:05Speaker 02

  Okay, so I agree. Something that I love about the concept of art is that it leaves something with everyone, whether you think it's stupid, or you don't connect, or you're like, I can do this, or you're like inspired, or it makes you see different things or life in a different way. So to me, that's art. And that art pushes me to Push myself constantly to my limits and learning more about myself and then share it with the world so they can see another angle of how they can learn about themselves. The purpose is exactly that. The purpose is to be a mirror, be somebody that people, like the fact that you remember these videos so vividly means that I've done my job.

• 27:48Speaker 02

  I want in, you know, three, four years when you're gonna have your kids, you're gonna sit and you're gonna feel shitty about yourself and you're gonna close your eyes and you're gonna remember Valeria with that video of just giving birth and it's gonna like spark something in you. To me, I made my, this is my purpose. My purpose is for just like constantly be a reminder through content of how important or not important or silly or empowering, you know, these human experiences. When I create my content, I create it for myself, honestly. I don't create it for other people because if I create it for other people, then I lose myself in the process and I'm not able to communicate the way that I want

• 28:30Speaker 02

  to. And I ask myself, what would I wanna see? What would I wanna feel? Because the thing that I've learned through social media is that although we all come from different walks of life, we all go through the same thing, the same seasons. And you just need this like one lifeline or one example to kind of just bring you back to yourself. And I do that for myself. Like I am that example. I am that person for myself. And thankfully, it resonates with other people and they see that in my content as well.

• 28:59Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah. You were just compared in the New York Times to being the Tony Robbins of influencing. Does that feel like a lot of pressure?

• 29:06Speaker 02

  No. I don't take any of these things seriously.

• 29:09Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Wait, have you been to Tony Robbins Summit?

• 29:10Speaker 02

  No.

• 29:11Maggie Sellers Reum?

  So he does have a huge influence of people and I think that is kind of what you're doing with the Creator Method. Can you speak a little bit about how that came to be after you dove back into content? You're like, but now I'm getting the itch again and I wanna build something in media.

• 29:28Speaker 02

  Yes, so first of all, thank you so much for the Tony Robbins remark. But in terms of what I kind of sought to build with Creator Method. So, once we were done with the e-commerce, my focus went back to the media. But of course, we're constantly looking for opportunities to continue developing that holding company and to create more businesses out of it. So, we already at that point started investing in different companies, becoming like strategic partners in different things. And what we ran into is this kind of world of seeing the creator economy growing really, really fast, but there was nobody that was guiding those creators.

• 30:12Speaker 02

  There was no one out there that, beside the kind of cheap, like, "let me show you how to go viral" type of kind of teachers, there was nothing else. So Gary was the one who started talking about, "Let's create some classes. You know, we have all this experience, we build a team of 20 people, we've learned, like, we were building the plane while flying it. We have so much experience that a lot of my peers that are, had been around for much longer and had much bigger audiences, they weren't making the kind of money that I was making. They would come to us, be like, "How do I monetize this? How do I do this properly? How do I build a team?" They were all belong to an agency that they're one of, you know, 10,000 people talents that they're representing.

• 30:57Speaker 02

  So, we kind of identified that there was a missing guiding kind of educational platform out there. So, it started with just, "Let's film a bunch of kind of tutorials, classes, workshops, and just put it out there. Whoever wants it, wants it." But what I wanted to do, and it actually happened in the middle of us filming those classes, I looked at Gary and Rachel, our CEO, and I was like, "We need to shift gears. I don't want to just build something where it's just this monetary exchange, where here's a class, you learn whatever. I want a community. I want to guide the next..." Version, the next kind of wave of creators to become their own entities. Because that to me is what's missing.

• 31:42Speaker 02

  People that are creative, they usually don't know how to run a business. If you are in an expert, you're a dentist or whatever, you don't know how to be a creative. There's this constantly lack of, you know, doing both and not understanding how to navigate that. And I wanted to empower people to learn everything that they need to learn. So this is how Creator Method really was born. It's been amazing to see the autonomy that people are getting over their own careers and their own lives. And, you know, I mentioned that we have experts, we have plastic surgeons, we have real estate agents. We have people that own different businesses. We have, you know, the stay at home moms that are trying to leave their nine to five because they want to be home.

• 32:25Speaker 02

  We have all these different cohorts of people that have their own needs and wants. And where are the people that they come to where we can both be the emotional support, but also the business support? Let me show you how to read a contract. Let me show you how to negotiate. Let me show you how to get brands to come to you. Uh, how much should you charge? How do you continue to be creative? How do you tell your story when you're in the business of, you know, selling cars?

• 32:51Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 32:51Speaker 02

  There's just so much out there. It really created this whole other mission for us to empower people to kind of take advantage of this growing economy and to build their own mini empires.

• 33:08Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah. No, it's crazy. I saw that the creator economy right now is worth 250 billion. And then in 2027, it's going to double that and be worth over 400 billion.

• 33:17Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 33:18Maggie Sellers Reum?

  You guys have been doing this for nine years. I'm so interested because I know you probably can't pick favorite children, but you are someone that sees a lot of creators, whether it's like in your personal life or with Creator Method. It was really interesting to see in the New York Times article, Gary had kind of said something like, this is all teachable, but there has to be those like standout superstars. For people listening, like, what is it about someone where you're just like, you have the thing?

• 33:45Speaker 02

  You see, this is crazy because I see creators that we've had in the program. I mean, the program is almost like a little bit over a year. So we're still piloting, still building it. We're building our faculty. Like, there's a lot of things that we see happening with this. But with the creators that joined the first kind of wave, the people that I thought they just like don't have it naturally today are superstars. Because what I'm, I've learned on my own that it's more of like this self-discovery journey. It's how much you're able to open up. You know what I mean? It's not about what kind of story you have. It's how you tell the story.

• 34:30Speaker 02

  It's the emotional connection. It's all these things that are just like layers that you have to peel. So it's very hard to understand if that person has it naturally or not, because it depends on where they're at in their lives and their own kind of, you know, peeling the onion journey.

• 34:48Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 34:49Speaker 02

  Some of them I meet, they come to us, they're ready, they're open and they're flowing and they know how to like engage people. But others are completely closed, insecure, like I was when I started. And through months, I see how slowly they're like becoming more and more of themselves and they're more interesting to me. And I'm just like, oh, my God, all of this was in there? You know what I mean?

• 35:13Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Totally.

• 35:13Speaker 02

  And it takes people a lifetime to come to a point where they're like, this is who I am.

• 35:18Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 35:18Speaker 02

  And say it out loud.

• 35:19Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Do you think that the people that are good online that aren't as good in person will struggle with the future of where the creator economy is going? Because we are focusing on these like in-person events.

• 35:30Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 35:31Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Carrying a room and like the Tony Robbins, right? Like, can you teach that element of it?

• 35:36Speaker 02

  I don't know.

• 35:37Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I don't know either.

• 35:38Speaker 02

  I don't know.

• 35:38Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It's gonna be interesting because I get so disappointed. I don't know if you're like this, but when I love someone online.

• 35:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:43Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And then I meet them and they just are flat. I'm like.

• 35:47Speaker 02

  Well, I find that a lot of people, it happens to them because most creators have social anxiety. I don't know if you.

• 35:53Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I do. I have crazy social anxiety.

• 35:55Speaker 02

  So it's very difficult for them to translate who they are in their room with a camera to who they are outside with people. It took me time to break through that as well. So again.

• 36:08Speaker 02

  You never know. People surprise you. I surprised myself. Like, I feel comfortable going onstage and talking, and I feel comfortable making jokes. I feel comfortable to say, "I don't know." I feel comfortable doing a lot of things that, before, I tried to cover. And that kind of made me fearful of any kind of exposure.

• 36:26Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 36:26Speaker 02

  But it was this kind of unlearning that I needed to do, and again, getting comfortable with myself. So, I don't know. We'll see.

• 36:34Maggie Sellers Reum?

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• 37:17Maggie Sellers Reum?

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• 39:21Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I feel like one of the things that you're an expert at is starting over and over and over again. Do you have a framework that you follow to like start your life over?

• 39:31Speaker 02

  I just follow my fears. So whatever scares me, I do. I want to get to a point where I feel limitless and you can only feel it when you kind of grab into the things that feel limiting to you.

• 39:43Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I got a message from an HSR angel. I called them last night and she's like, I've had the same idea for 10 years and I've never done it. Like, how do you just do it? And I feel like I've watched you for so long to know that you just start.

• 39:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:56Maggie Sellers Reum?

  What would you tell that person that's in that same position? That's just like, I am so afraid. I don't know what to do to just start.

• 40:04Speaker 02

  Sit down and envision yourself in five years. Is that fear going to feel as big as it feels right now? Are you going to look back and ask yourself the question of, should I have done it? Like, all these things, to me, regret is the worst thing in the world. Like, something that you could have done, but you didn't do. Because failure is just whatever. It's just a lesson. I always kind of trying to project forward and be like, the future version of me, she's going to be proud of the choices that I made. Yes or no? It's very simple. And I think that helps me a lot through those, you know, fears.

• 40:35Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Is there something that you regret in your life that you wish you did and you didn't?

• 40:39Speaker 02

  Absolutely nothing.

• 40:41Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Really?

• 40:42Speaker 02

  Do you?

• 40:45Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Actually, can I be honest?

• 40:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 40:46Maggie Sellers Reum?

  You actually helped me get through this. I wasted so much of my twenties caring what people thought about me.

• 40:53Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 40:53Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And I regret not putting myself online earlier and showing my true personality. And I feel like I am just coming into that, like, and I hate to say this because I was confident before my husband, but my husband gives me the confidence to go and take risks I never would have.

• 41:12Speaker 02

  Right.

• 41:12Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And I do not care what people think about me, but I do actually regret in my twenties. Like, I could have been so much further along than where I'm at today.

• 41:22Speaker 02

  I disagree.

• 41:23Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Really?

• 41:24Speaker 02

  I disagree, and I'll tell you why. In our twenties, we operate under the impression of the world is out there to tell me who to be. And it doesn't matter how, you know, wise you are or smart you are or advanced. This is like, we're constantly getting that feedback. That's what twenties is for. This is why I always talk about, like, there are no mistakes. You go, you fuck it up, you sleep with people, you have to learn. You're gathering information, you know what I mean? I started social media, I was twenty-six, twenty-seven. I already had two kids. I had a husband that was like my biggest supporter. I had a very strong foundation. So, trust me that every little comment, I would run to Gary, be like, oh my God, I can't do this anymore. Like, this is so hurtful. And he would literally had to sit me down and be like, this is the reality.

• 42:09Speaker 02

  Look what we're building, look what you're doing, look what's happening in our lives. And I'm like, oh, right, yeah.

• 42:14Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Hmm.

• 42:15Speaker 02

  If I did not have that, it would have ruined me. Because I did continuously gotten this negative feedback where people seeing somebody with courage, coming out, sharing themselves, that triggers something in them. So they're out there to get you because you're making them feel uncomfortable. Do you know what I mean?

• 42:36Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Totally.

• 42:36Speaker 02

  So, putting yourself out there online when you don't have a person like your husband today to remind you of who you are, right?

• 42:46Speaker 02

  To open yourself up to millions of people, that's a scary thing to do. A lot of people, I see a lot of people get lost in that. Because the twenties is that period. So I actually think that your twenties were a time, I love how I'm analyzing you right now. If your twenties was a time to figure out yourself without the eyeballs of all these people. You found this partner and now you're just like, you run. You're not walking, you're running right now.

• 43:14Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 43:15Speaker 02

  But you can run now because you walked in your twenties. You know what I mean?

• 43:19Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah. It sounds like your husband has been there for you, like no matter what has happened in the business, in your personal life. I want to talk about your relationship a little bit.

• 43:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:27Maggie Sellers Reum?

  A fourteen year age gap. You were twenty.

• 43:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:30Maggie Sellers Reum?

  He was thirty eight.

• 43:31Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 43:33Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Talk to me a little bit about your dynamic with your husband today.

• 43:37Speaker 02

  Well, today it's different. Today I feel like an equal. I am okay and very comfortable when I have a different opinion, when we disagree. I learn how to stand kind of on my own and also learn how to communicate with him in a way that works for me and him because we have very different communication styles. It's very different today. Today, I also don't take things personally. Like I became a better entrepreneur and I know how to navigate difficult conversations. I didn't have that when I was in my twenties. So a lot has changed. I feel like we're in a good place.

• 44:20Speaker 02

  But also this week, it's the week before my cycle. So I mean, I'm ready to burn the house down. So I don't know if this is a good time to talk about.

• 44:29Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I'm the exact same way. By the way, like my skin is breaking out. I'm like, okay, it's coming. But I feel that. I feel like what's so interesting about hearing that is not that many marriages can become stronger or survive when there is such a big power dynamic shift and like evolution.

• 44:48Speaker 02

  Well, the thing is, that's very interesting to note with the age gap, something that happens and I don't think a lot of men take that into consideration. Maybe they do, I don't know. But when you marry somebody that her that is in her early twenties, you going to experience three different people in a span of like 10 years. Because the shift from 20 to your early 30s or mid 30s is you've changed 100 times. So a lot of men, they don't know how to be patient and how to sit and kind of watch from the sidelines and run in when it's time to kind of hold you or give you a hug. A lot of men are trying to be like, I've done this, let me show you how it's done.

• 45:32Speaker 02

  So we can like wrap it up, you know what I mean? So that's a big thing, a big credit that I give Gary, that the man has the patience of a saint because he had to experience me going through a lot of lessons. And it doesn't matter what he says, it doesn't matter his advice, I need to experience it on my own. So that can, you know, mess up certain ideas that people have about a relationship. But this is where it's important, where the values are aligned and you know, the foundation is strong, you can kind of withstand all these changes.

• 46:07Maggie Sellers Reum?

  But it's interesting because even taking a moment to acknowledge like his patience with you and the way that he's probably lived the same patterns twice now, right? And not stepped in. Your relationship and Gary specifically has always been the center of criticism.

• 46:24Speaker 02

  Mm hmm.

• 46:26Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Why?

• 46:27Speaker 02

  We live in a society that loves labels, like we're very simple animals and we need to, this is good, this is bad. He's this, she's that, you know? And I've kind of got used to it because it first started when we got together and it was in our community that people were saying different things. And then it obviously went online and then you have the world saying different things. But I just, I give people the benefit of the doubt, you know? Before it was important for me to kind of prove myself and now I don't like I actually.

• 47:02Speaker 02

  Love the traditional structure that we have at home. He leads, I want him to lead, I don't need to lead. Before, I wanted to lead and we had a lot of clashes because I needed to understand my ego and where, what am I trying to prove and to who. Now, I'm like, you do your thing, like you're the, I want you to feel empowered to make those decisions. And then in business, it's like, it's a little bit different. Like the, you know, every day, I can lead or he leads, depends on what we're kind of covering, but this is where working together can be, you know, a very interesting dance.

• 47:39Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Well, it's interesting, even the language that you chose at the beginning when we were talking, when he saw the $10,000 in the bank account and asked for permission to join, right? That sounds like one of the first parts of your relationship or times in your relationship where it's like, you now suddenly hold power that like you get to choose what the involvement will be.

• 47:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 47:59Maggie Sellers Reum?

  What is the dynamic of decision making and like what's in your marriage from 14 years?

• 48:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:06Maggie Sellers Reum?

  To where it is today, now that like you are equally as important to the business, if not more than Gary?

• 48:13Speaker 02

  Well, I think from the get-go, something that was very important for Gary is to make sure that there is no resentment that is being built. Because again, he comes in with a man mind action, like how do we make this happen? Where the product is me, right? So it's very interesting dynamic in general to be part of because I started, there were times where I was like, you're pushing me too much. But it didn't come from a place of, and by the way, that was also criticism, like he constantly, he makes her work and he makes her this and he just wants money. But he also saw that I am cracking, you know, like that that pressure is creating like a diamond.

• 48:54Speaker 02

  And I'm so grateful that he didn't back down and he knew when to like push a little harder and knew how to support me when I was going through hard times. But he didn't say like, okay, you know what, this is too much for you, don't worry about it. Because to me, that would have changed the trajectory of who I became and our life today. So first of all, huge like thank you for that. And that's something that a man truly needs to feel comfortable in the relationship and really knowing their partner to be able to do that, you know? But the dynamic today of decision making is again, like I think we got to a point where he respects me. I've kind of shown my entrepreneurial kind of mind and spirit that I built up through

• 49:38Speaker 02

  the years of honestly watching him. He taught me so much. And now I feel like we're, he has more experience, but we, I do have a vision that I see he really appreciates. And we, depends on what it is that we're touching or doing. He knows his role. I know my role. And when he, when I need his opinion, I'll come to him and ask for his opinion. But he knows if I don't ask, you don't need to be involved. And the same thing goes, you know, for him. So it's very much more like structured now. And we make the big decisions we make together, strategic decisions. But there's also a lot of trust and respect. And I know that this decision, the decisions that he makes is for a goal that we're both aligned on.

• 50:20Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah. What I love about your guys' dynamic, and I think it's almost like unwarranted hate, is you guys will have disagreements almost like on your podcast.

• 50:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 50:28Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And you then open yourself up to a lot of that. Is that intentional? Or are you just like, people are gonna learn from this?

• 50:38Speaker 02

  So I want people to learn from it because you're going to meet different people in your life. You might marry somebody that is a different communicator. And Gary and I are the perfect example. We are so different in the way we see life and the way we communicate about it. But I respect his way because I learned a lot from it about him and about myself. And I think he respects my way. The thing is that people don't have capacity to look beyond the, you know, we're in a society of like red flag, red flag, diagnosis, label. So it's very difficult for people to sit in and just kind of like, oh, this is interesting.

• 51:20Speaker 02

  Like, he has a very old school mindset, but I can respect, you know, certain things there, disagree with others. People don't do that anymore. There's no like nuance, there's no.

• 51:31Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 51:31Speaker 02

  It's interesting because I've seen recently how some people are like, oh, they're doing this on purpose. They're just trying to trigger us. No, this is how we communicate.

• 51:39Maggie Sellers Reum?

  No, and I honestly love it because I think so. My favorite podcaster, Stephen Bartlett, he has been very vocal about not picking a side when it relates to politics and being able to have really interesting discussions with both people. And I don't know if you feel this from being in Canada for so long, but like it wasn't like that in Canada. And it wasn't so extreme. And I think like, to your point, we're in this society where it's like pick a side, there's no nuance anymore. It's black or it's white.

• 52:04Speaker 02

  But now it's the same in Canada. I just think it's in general like.

• 52:08Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It's just the world.

• 52:08Speaker 02

  Everywhere, yes.

• 52:09Maggie Sellers Reum?

  But I think what is so interesting about you and Gary's dynamic is it's like, it feels like it's fluid and it goes, whether it's in work or it's at the home. And I have the same thing with my sister. I get this question all the time. How do you work with your family? It is so interesting. Like we have unspoken rules of our relationship where like on the weekend when I want to see her son on FaceTime, I know to call on FaceTime and not on WhatsApp call because she's gonna know this is not a work call. This is like to see her son. So it's like there's these unspoken rules that make it work, or she would decline my call if she's like, why are you calling me on a Saturday? I'm with my son. What are some of the unspoken rules of your and Gary's relationship that like, allow you to have built such a profitable business?

• 52:48Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And a marriage that has survived criticism, evolution, the way that you have over the last 14 years?

• 52:56Speaker 02

  It's a great question. I don't think we have unspoken rules. I think the only kind of thing is we go back to each other. Like again, we have this mission. Our mission is to build something that we're proud of, that gives us purpose, and to model this to our children, right? So it all goes back to that. And that's our North Star. And that's it. And whatever needs to be done in order to be aligned with that is what needs to be done.

• 53:22Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Okay, I am so excited to have someone in this chair. I just see myself in you so much, but. So I just went through my prenup process and I think like it's interesting because. You know, I definitely, I entered into this with like a ton of IP and a ton of potential. And like, we do have an age gap where like, I see what I can do in the next 14 years, right? And it's massive. I'm so interested to hear from you because I know that you guys have talked openly about having a prenup. Can you quickly just give some context to this of like,

• 53:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 53:54Maggie Sellers Reum?

  the prenup process and how you felt as a 20-year-old negotiating with a 38-year-old that was already successful?

• 54:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, so the prenup was an interesting conversation because it was at a time where we still lived under this idea that prenup means that he doesn't love you, or prenup means that he sees this.

• 54:11Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It's more that you're a gold digger.

• 54:12Speaker 02

  Or that you're a gold digger. We also met at a time where, and were engaged, about to get married, at a time where Gary sold a piece of his company, and that was a big deal. So he also had the board, the VC, being like, hey.

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• 55:53Speaker 02

  You need a prenup because you're still like the majority shareholder of this company. So, he kind of came to me, I remember, like we sat down for dinner and he has this like sad puppy dog eyes and he's like, "I really need to talk to you about something, but I really want you to like not get emotional about it. If it was up to me, I would probably not bring this up and wouldn't deal with it at all, but this is something that I need." And then he was talking to me about prenup. And I kind of looked at him and I'm just like, "Okay, sure, whatever, like I'll sign whatever you need me to sign." Because I don't, I didn't think about, I was 21, I'm like, "I'm in love, this is great, this is a man, a provider, like all good." Didn't think, didn't know what I'm gonna be doing.

• 56:36Speaker 02

  And he said, "Listen, I understand that maybe you don't really realize the power of it, so I want you to get a lawyer. I want you to go to that lawyer, you talk to them, ask all the questions. I need you to be very clear on what it is that you're signing and what it means." And I'm like, "Okay." And I just remember I went to this lawyer and I just, I was educated, like she schooled me. And it felt so empowering and I was extremely aligned with everything. And I just remember walking out of that office being like, "I don't understand why this is such a dirty word. Like why prenup, this like big scary thing? I felt like it was actually an insurance policy for me, you know, so..."

• 57:19Speaker 02

  That was that. I mean, we signed a prenup and we went along.

• 57:22Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I saw this TikTok that was like, a prenup will make you feel more safe and secure with the right man. The wrong man will make you feel insecure and like you're being taken advantage of.

• 57:32Speaker 02

  Amen.

• 57:33Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I feel the exact same way, but I'm so interested because I'm manifesting that like, my husband and my dynamic also evolves, right? Like he, in our current dynamic, not that he ever makes me feel this way, but like, has more experience, has more resources. You know, it was even evident as we were going through our process, like the amount of people that were helping him and going to him.

• 57:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 57:55Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I had no one, right?

• 57:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 57:56Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I had my lawyer and like, so I'm more asking from like a personal interest perspective, but like, have you guys ever talked about like your prenup 14 years later? Has it evolved? Like where is that mentality for you now that you've done such a big thing since you signed that as a 21-year-old girl?

• 58:16Speaker 02

  I actually did bring it up a couple of months ago and he's like, why are you talking about this? He right away is like alarmed. I'm like, no, I'm just curious. But you know what? I mean, since then, everything, like the properties that we own, the businesses that we part of, like my name is everywhere. Right? So that's something that is, I pay attention to. We are co-owners of everything. Yeah, he came in with his own kind of assets, but at this point, like we so outgrew the prenup that we had initially that I don't even know if it's still.

• 58:50Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Valid.

• 58:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, I don't think it's valid. I actually think he should ask me about revisiting the prenup. Be like, hey, let's see what's going on there. But I, I actually, yeah, that's what it was. He just, and, and he told me, he's like, I really don't think it's relevant anymore. So if you want to check it out and we need to update anything. And I was like, nah, whatever. And I kind of moved along. But yeah, I'm, I'm curious.

• 59:15Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I think it's interesting. So even in my prenup, and I never really tell people what's in it, but I think this is actually a really interesting point that I am happy to share. There is a number, if my net worth gets passed, that like the prenup does actually become invalid. And like there is something new that gets put together. I actually wanted a clause in my prenup that it would be revisited every five years, based on what I believe I will be able to do in the next five and 10 years. My husband actually said no, because he was like, it was a challenging process for us. Ours was a little different than you, it sounds like yours was. And he said, for the sake of our marriage, I do not want to have to revisit this every five or 10 years, because it just brings up, you, it's like therapy.

• 59:58Maggie Sellers Reum?

  You have to go through it. And it's like, you just feel things that aren't what you always want to feel. I'm so grateful I went through it. I feel so empowered I went through it. But I don't know if I would necessarily want to revisit it every five or 10 years now.

• 1:00:11Speaker 02

  I mean, I love where you were going with it. I understand the logic, but I agree that five to 10 years is not something you want to do. I do think you need to revisit your marriage contract, not prenup, the unspoken contract of like, how your marriage is. And this is, you know, an older friend of mine taught me that.

• 1:00:29Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Wait, what is that?

• 1:00:30Speaker 02

  Where you have to renegotiate the marriage contract. So the marriage contract is basically, again, the way you start today, and your expectations and your needs, they change. And what happens a lot of the times is that people don't communicate those changes. So it's like something big has to happen in order for them to either break it off or sit down and be like, okay, how do we save ourselves now from this crisis that we're having? So kind of renegotiating the expectations and putting everything on the table every like five to seven years is very healthy. Of like, a stupid example, I said years ago to Gary, I'm like, don't buy me flowers. I hate flowers. Like, what a waste of time. And recently, It was Valentine's Day and I didn't get any flowers. And I was just like really upset all day.

• 1:01:15Speaker 02

  And he came to me, he's like, what's going on? And I literally was like, why didn't you buy me flowers? It's not a big request. And he's like, what are you talking about? You told me you don't appreciate flowers. Why would I do something you don't care for? And I was like, no, it changed. I want flowers now. He's like, please let me know, like, please.

• 1:01:34Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah, they can't read your mind.

• 1:01:35Speaker 02

  You, I can't read your mind. So it's kind of like the same premise, obviously on a bigger scale. But that's something that should happen every like five to seven years.

• 1:01:42Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Okay.

• 1:01:43Speaker 02

  But with the prenup, I agree. I think that um, I think that a number is a better kind of place to do it. Where it's like, we hit this, let's revisit this.

• 1:01:54Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I, I actually love the way that he thought about it from before. I obviously watch all your podcasts, everyone listen to Not Alone, where he was talking about, it was always your money.

• 1:02:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:02:04Maggie Sellers Reum?

  There was always one bank account.

• 1:02:05Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 1:02:06Maggie Sellers Reum?

  But you kind of came from like a capital T of like being actually, I never thought it was my money. Do you now have the frame of mind where it's like, this is our money, no matter where it comes from?

• 1:02:19Speaker 02

  Yes, I still carry a little pocket of like, trauma based on witnessing my mother going through her relationships, you know, being married twice or three times now, where she thought that man is someone that she can rely on. And you know, it was like a house of cards. To me, that will always be in the back of my mind. And I think it also is a reason why it took me so long to truly open up to Gary. Even though we've been married for 14 years, I feel like I let go a lot of the things I was holding on to as kind of like a, a shield in the past probably two years. So that will always be there, but I'm aware of it.

• 1:03:02Speaker 02

  And I do very much feel like it absolutely is our money. Like it doesn't keep me up at night.

• 1:03:08Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah, well, I think it's like it goes back to ostracizing, right? It's like you don't want to deal with the things that you don't want to deal with. So you just ignore it.

• 1:03:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:03:14Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And that's why like one of my biggest financial, and I am not a personal finance expert, I am like a startup girl. That has like bet everything on big risks. Um, so I try not to give like too much personal finance advice, but the one thing that I really talk about is like looking at your bank account every single day, like where did you spend money? What is going on? What is coming in? What is going out? And I think the same thing with relationships and marriages, like if you are not wanting to deal with it, but then you want to go and spend, like if you have no idea what's going on, you're putting undue stress onto the dynamic. So I totally agree with you.

• 1:03:47Speaker 02

  You know what? I have a funny story about that. So we kind of got to a point, especially when we moved to Miami. It was a big like, oh shit, life is so expensive here. We have three kids, like it's a pricey time to be alive, you know? And we kind of sat down and we were making a lot of investments back into the business. And just the math was like alarming. And we decided to like, okay, let's track what we're spending because something is not, you know, aligned. And we did this exercise for maybe a couple of months. And then we both kind of looked at each other and Gary's like, I don't want to do this anymore.

• 1:04:26Speaker 02

  Let's just make more money. Like I can't, I'm spending so much energy and time and brain capacity to tracking what's going out. I want to take all of that and focus on what's to bring in. And I'm like, you know what? Yeah, that's more aligned with how we operate.

• 1:04:41Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And did you guys go do that?

• 1:04:42Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 1:04:43Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I love that.

• 1:04:44Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 1:04:45Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Um, okay, Valeria, I could talk to you forever. There's like five different themes I didn't get to talk to you about, but we do need to finish with some rapid fire. What is the last thing you put on your credit card?

• 1:04:55Speaker 02

  I just booked a trip to Mexico City with my girlfriends.

• 1:04:59Maggie Sellers Reum?

  You do a lot of girl trips.

• 1:05:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:05:02Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I love that.

• 1:05:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, we're in an era where my husband is like leading the, you know, raising the kids now. So I'm kind of a supporting role. So I'm taking a supporting actress. So I'm taking this opportunity to just fill my own cup.

• 1:05:19Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I love that. What would you rather? More followers or a higher engagement rate?

• 1:05:25Speaker 02

  More followers because I like the challenge of learning how to tell a story that's more engaging.

• 1:05:31Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Love it. Okay, you can only pick one medium for the rest of your life. Instagram, YouTube, or podcast?

• 1:05:38Speaker 02

  I can't, I'm sorry. I can't pick because I change every like few months.

• 1:05:42Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:42Speaker 02

  That's why I think I'm on so many different platforms because I'm like, okay, I feel like I'm on my Instagram era and now I'm going back to YouTube, which is by the way the thing. I'm like, I want to go back to vlogging and then podcast.

• 1:05:52Maggie Sellers Reum?

  We miss the vlogs.

• 1:05:53Speaker 02

  I love the playing around with it.

• 1:05:56Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Okay, but so you can't pick one?

• 1:05:58Speaker 02

  I can't pick.

• 1:05:58Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Okay, how many photos do you have on your phone?

• 1:06:01Speaker 02

  10,500.

• 1:06:03Maggie Sellers Reum?

  That's it?

• 1:06:04Speaker 02

  Yeah. Well, I, I just got a new phone.

• 1:06:06Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Okay, okay. Well, how many photos did you have on your last phone?

• 1:06:10Speaker 02

  I don't know. I didn't check. But listen, I'm paying the most that Google gives me. Google Drive or whatever.

• 1:06:17Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I have 200,000.

• 1:06:19Speaker 02

  I didn't know you can reach those.

• 1:06:20Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And do you want to hear the sad thing? This is how you'll see I have, I've had problems putting myself out there. You have over 7,000 photos that you've posted on Instagram.

• 1:06:30Speaker 02

  Correct.

• 1:06:30Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I have 278.

• 1:06:32Speaker 02

  That is shameful.

• 1:06:34Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:35Speaker 02

  You've got a long way to go.

• 1:06:36Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah, so I have this TikTok I'm gonna make that's like, this is the ratio of how much you care about what people think about you, which is how many photos that you've actually posted compared to how many photos you have on your iPhone.

• 1:06:48Speaker 02

  Well, actually, one of the things that Gary covered in a recent Creative Method Summit was this idea of like, as a creator, the thing that you need to be the least concerned about is the following. What you need to be concerned about is the number to the left, which is the amount of content you posted. Because that you can control and that's also your portfolio. So when you have 200 posts and you're like, why am I not there and there and there? Think about it in, you know, that way where it's like you just, you, you didn't do the walk. Like there's a 10, look at it as 10,000 hours to ride to master anything. You need to get there.

• 1:07:25Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah, no, you honestly are giving me confidence. Like today I posted with my, I have a breakout. I posted like full bear skin. And I was like, what would Valeria Lipovetsky do?

• 1:07:34Speaker 02

  I love that.

• 1:07:35Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Okay, two more. This is gonna be easy for you. Canada or the US?

• 1:07:40Speaker 02

  The US. But I love Canada and grateful for what it gave me.

• 1:07:44Maggie Sellers Reum?

  If you had to title this season of your life, what would it be called?

• 1:07:47Speaker 02

  I would call it joy. This is a very joyful period of my life.

• 1:07:53Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I love it. Thank you for sharing your joy with us.

• 1:07:56Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 1:07:56Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I had the best time. Valeria Lipovetsky, where can people find you and how can we help you right now?

• 1:08:03Speaker 02

  Girl, where do we begin? Okay, where can you find me? First of all, thank you. This was so fun. Could do this for another two hours. You can find me at Valeria Lipovetsky anywhere. And then my podcast, Not Alone, which is available on all the podcast platforms. How can you help me? Nothing. We're friends now, so I'll hit you up.

• 1:08:22Maggie Sellers Reum?

  How can my community help you?

• 1:08:24Speaker 02

  I don't know. Let me think about it. But I like that question. I think that it's something that as women, we need to be comfortable.

• 1:08:30Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And like walk the walk. That's the one thing, like I might be embarrassed of my Instagram and like what people think about me, but why this show has grown so much is like I have had such invisible reputation with people of helping people. And so now like the return has been there without even needing to ask. And so I really do want you to come back to me before your email comes out. How can HSR help you? Let us know.

• 1:08:55Speaker 02

  I will let you know.

• 1:08:56Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Valeria Lipavetsky, thank you so much. You were one of my favorites and I can't wait to see you again soon.

• 1:09:01Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 1:09:02Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Thanks, guys.

• 1:09:13Maggie Sellers Reum?

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• 1:09:56Maggie 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.

• 1:10:17Speaker 05

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