Latest / Outspoken the Podcast / Sarah’s Day’s Cancelled Perfume Collab

Transcript

Sarah’s Day’s Cancelled Perfume Collab · Outspoken the Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the
0:05
Speaker 1: hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm
0:09
Speaker 1: Amy Torber and coming up on today's show, we dive
0:12
Speaker 1: deep on Sarah's Day's cancelled perfume collaboration drama. But first,
0:17
Speaker 1: Tammy Hembrough and Matt Zukowski are both in their self-improvement
0:21
Speaker 1: eras post-breakup. And it was rather awkward, Kate, because they
0:24
Speaker 1: almost posted simultaneously about the things they're doing to move on.
0:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I felt really sorry for Matt because Tammy's
0:31
Speaker 2: method definitely trumped his. So she was away in New
0:34
Speaker 2: Zealand and she ended up bungee jumping from a 136
0:38
Speaker 2: metre high mountain. And she shared the incredible vision to
0:43
Speaker 2: her Instagram story with the caption... To me, this wasn't
0:46
Speaker 2: a jump. It was a release. Something about free falling
0:49
Speaker 2: forces you to let go of fear, of control, of
0:51
Speaker 2: literally everything weighing you down. Man, did it feel good.
0:55
Speaker 2: Best day ever.
0:56
Speaker 1: Look, it'd be pretty hard for Matt to top that,
0:59
Speaker 1: but he has been finding himself again by eating solo
1:02
Speaker 1: in restaurants.
1:03
Speaker 3: And he uploaded a video of him.
1:04
Speaker 1: Eating chicken, but completely confused his followers by writing the
1:08
Speaker 1: following caption.
1:10
Speaker 3: Time to date and find myself again.
1:13
Speaker 2: I saw this and was like, oh, God, he's really
1:14
Speaker 2: shot himself in the foot because the way some people
1:17
Speaker 2: could read it sounded like he was saying that he's
1:19
Speaker 2: ready to date again and that's how he's going to
1:22
Speaker 2: find himself.
1:24
Speaker 4: However.
1:24
Speaker 2: I think we all knew that he actually meant that
1:27
Speaker 2: he was going to start dating himself and taking himself
1:30
Speaker 2: out because that's what more matched up with the vision.
1:32
Speaker 2: And not long after, Matt deleted the original story and
1:35
Speaker 2: corrected himself, writing, time to date myself in capitals and
1:38
Speaker 2: find myself in capitals again. Did you see that video
1:42
Speaker 2: he shared of himself at one of those smash rooms? Yes,
1:45
Speaker 2: I did. I found it super interesting. Obviously, there's a
1:47
Speaker 2: lot going on with him and it is a great
1:50
Speaker 2: way to get your, I suppose, anger out.
1:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, he captioned it, probably needed a hug, but.
1:56
Speaker 2: I noticed he's also been sharing a few cryptic quotes,
1:58
Speaker 2: kind of jumping on Tammy Hembrough's bandwagon a little bit.
2:01
Speaker 2: He was watching Friends and avid Friends viewers will know
2:05
Speaker 2: the scene. So he posted a picture of Ross and
2:08
Speaker 2: it was when Rachel started dating Joey and they all
2:11
Speaker 2: did the double date and Ross goes, I'm fine. I'm fine.
2:15
Speaker 2: So he posted that. He said that was what he
2:17
Speaker 2: responds to when everyone asks him how he's doing.
2:19
Speaker 1: I saw a photo of him lying on a couch
2:21
Speaker 1: with his sister's golden retriever and that one made me
2:23
Speaker 1: feel quite sorry for him. Do you think these posts
2:25
Speaker 1: are actually working towards public sympathy?
2:28
Speaker 3: A little bit.
2:28
Speaker 2: I mean, the caption said, it's hard to feel sad
2:31
Speaker 2: when this guy is giving you hugs. And I suppose
2:34
Speaker 2: it really humanized him because It's easy to look at
2:38
Speaker 2: Tammy and Matt as characters because their relationship really has
2:41
Speaker 2: played out online and it seems like a soap opera.
2:45
Speaker 2: Like you can't actually believe that this was a real relationship.
2:48
Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, there are two
2:50
Speaker 2: real people in the middle of this and they obviously
2:52
Speaker 2: actually did love each other.
2:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we still don't know what actually has happened.
2:57
Speaker 1: We're yet to really hear from Matt's side of the story.
2:59
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people have jumped to the
3:01
Speaker 1: conclusion and they think that Matt was the person in
3:04
Speaker 1: the wrong. But this hasn't yet been confirmed by either
3:07
Speaker 1: Tammy or Matt. We've only seen comments or videos alluding
3:11
Speaker 1: to something that's gone down.
3:12
Speaker 2: Well, I think Matt is going to share his side
3:15
Speaker 2: of the story very soon because I tuned into his podcast,
3:19
Speaker 2: Where's Your Head At? And his co-host, Anna McEvoy, has
3:22
Speaker 2: been on maternity leave and they bulk recorded a bunch
3:24
Speaker 2: of episodes. And she was meant to be away for
3:27
Speaker 2: six weeks. However, on last Tuesday's episode, she announced at
3:32
Speaker 2: the start of the episode that this would be their
3:34
Speaker 2: last pre-recorded episode and that they were back next week,
3:37
Speaker 2: which is actually today, the podcast drops. So I think
3:40
Speaker 2: Matt is most likely going to be sharing his side
3:42
Speaker 2: of the story on that episode.
3:43
Speaker 3: It'd be very interesting to hear what he has to
3:45
Speaker 3: say about it.
3:46
Speaker 1: I wonder if he's spoken to a publicist to get
3:49
Speaker 1: some advice on how he should share his story.
3:51
Speaker 2: I think that would benefit him greatly. While he does
3:54
Speaker 2: have a podcast, I think he lacks media training. I mean,
3:57
Speaker 2: we saw that in the episode where He spoke about
4:00
Speaker 2: the Grand Prix cheating scandal and, you know, it really
4:05
Speaker 2: wasn't good for him.
4:06
Speaker 1: If you were hired by Matt, what would be your advice?
4:09
Speaker 2: Well, I think we're in an interesting time for influencers
4:11
Speaker 2: because previously everyone's like, okay, you share your life online,
4:16
Speaker 2: you earn a lot of money and that means you
4:18
Speaker 2: forfeit your private life to us and we can say
4:20
Speaker 2: anything we want about you online. However, the tide is
4:24
Speaker 2: turning and influencers are calling out their trolls. Indy Clinton's
4:28
Speaker 2: got a P.I., She is taking some of her trolls
4:31
Speaker 2: to court. We've recently seen the Tattle Life owner unmasked.
4:36
Speaker 2: You know, there is a reckoning for influencers and trolls
4:39
Speaker 2: at the moment. So I think that he will go
4:41
Speaker 2: down the route of placing himself as a victim. I'm
4:44
Speaker 2: not saying he's not because, you know, he has been
4:46
Speaker 2: trolled very badly. And I think he will probably open
4:50
Speaker 2: up about how detrimental the whole relationship has been to
4:53
Speaker 2: his mental health and humanize himself.
4:55
Speaker 1: I wonder though, if public sympathy is waning towards influencers
4:59
Speaker 1: who do discuss trolling, especially Matt, because a lot of
5:03
Speaker 1: people think that he is the reason why he and
5:06
Speaker 1: Tammy split up.
5:07
Speaker 2: At the end of the day, if I was Matt's
5:08
Speaker 2: PR manager, I would say keep it brief and keep
5:11
Speaker 2: it respectful. Don't do some one hour long episode that
5:14
Speaker 2: goes into all the dirty details of the breakup. As
5:17
Speaker 2: much as I want to hear it.
5:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, do the Molly Mae where you're like, I just
5:20
Speaker 1: respect this person so much that I'm not going to.
5:23
Speaker 3: Speak ill about them.
5:24
Speaker 2: And then get back with them. No, I'm joking.
5:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, no. But let people read into it. Sometimes
5:29
Speaker 3: saying less is actually saying more.
5:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. It's funny. I came across a TikTok
5:34
Speaker 2: of Tammy's that I wanted to quickly talk to you about, Amy.
5:37
Speaker 2: So she did a brand collaboration with a jewelry company
5:42
Speaker 2: and it was clearly pre-recorded because she was wearing her
5:45
Speaker 2: engagement ring and wedding band in it. And it got
5:48
Speaker 2: really awkward because at the start of the video, she
5:50
Speaker 2: said this.
5:52
Speaker 5: So I'm not someone who owns a whole lot of
5:53
Speaker 5: nice jewelry. So I thought it was time to add
5:56
Speaker 5: some really nice pieces to my collection. I wanted something
5:59
Speaker 5: I could pass down to Suss or Posey. So I
6:02
Speaker 5: went to Cullen Jewelry.
6:03
Speaker 2: All I could think about after watching this was, you
6:06
Speaker 2: don't have a lot of nice jewelry. You have three
6:09
Speaker 2: incredible engagement rings. And then it got me thinking, okay,
6:13
Speaker 2: if she kept her engagement ring from Reese Hawkins, Could
6:16
Speaker 2: she pass that down to Saskia? And if she kept
6:18
Speaker 2: the engagement ring from Matt Paul, could Posey have it?
6:21
Speaker 2: Like what's the etiquette around that?
6:22
Speaker 6: I don't know.
6:23
Speaker 1: I don't know if I was her child if I'd
6:25
Speaker 1: want the engagement ring from the failed relationship.
6:29
Speaker 2: But it's from their dad and they're absolutely beautiful rings.
6:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, but normally when someone passes down their mother's wedding
6:36
Speaker 1: ring or engagement ring, it's been from a very happy marriage.
6:39
Speaker 2: Maybe it'll be Tammy's grandchildren that will be fighting over
6:41
Speaker 2: all the engagement rings.
6:43
Speaker 4: So today's meeting is with Who is Elijah?
6:46
Speaker 1: Sarah's Day has announced her collaboration with fragrance brand Who
6:49
Speaker 1: Is Elijah is over. The OG influencer was set to
6:53
Speaker 1: launch a personal perfume with the Australian Fragrance House and
6:56
Speaker 1: had been documenting the process to her 1.2 million followers.
7:01
Speaker 1: Sarah shared the news on Friday and it didn't take
7:03
Speaker 1: long for things to get messy. At the time of recording,
7:06
Speaker 1: the reel has had over 1.2 million views. Now, Kate,
7:10
Speaker 1: before we weigh into the drama, can you introduce the
7:14
Speaker 1: main players?
7:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, so let's start with who is Elijah. It's not
7:18
Speaker 2: just some small perfume brand. This is a business that
7:21
Speaker 2: is valued at $ 20 million and has recently signed a
7:25
Speaker 2: landmark deal with one of the UK's biggest retailers. So
7:29
Speaker 2: the founder's name is Raquel Boris and she launched the
7:32
Speaker 2: business back in 2018 after being inspired by a unisex
7:36
Speaker 2: perfume that she came across on a trip to Coachella.
7:39
Speaker 2: As for Sarah, regular listeners will be fully acquainted, but
7:43
Speaker 2: for those unfamiliar, she is a 32-year-old Sydney-based influencer who's
7:47
Speaker 2: been sharing her life online for over 11 years. So
7:50
Speaker 2: she started out sharing health and fitness content, but now
7:53
Speaker 2: shares more lifestyle content as a mom of three young children.
7:57
Speaker 2: She also is a successful businesswoman in her own right.
8:01
Speaker 2: So in addition to her social media career, she is
8:04
Speaker 2: a best-selling cookbook author, sells workout guides, used to run
8:08
Speaker 2: a recipe app called Sunny and co-owns a creative agency
8:11
Speaker 2: with her husband, Kurt.
8:13
Speaker 1: So now we're up to speed. I want to get
8:16
Speaker 1: into the drama because on Friday, Sarah announced in an
8:19
Speaker 1: Instagram reel that her collaboration with Who Is Elijah was over.
8:23
Speaker 1: So she claimed she'd been working on the collaboration for
8:26
Speaker 1: two years after the brand reached out to her to
8:29
Speaker 1: make a fragrance. Now, Sarah said she felt like she
8:31
Speaker 1: owed her followers an update as she had documented the
8:34
Speaker 1: entire process.
8:36
Speaker 3: Let's take a listen.
8:37
Speaker 7: I just wanted to sit down and update you guys
8:39
Speaker 7: on something you've been asking me a lot about and
8:42
Speaker 7: that is my collaboration with.
8:44
Speaker 3: Who is Elijah.
8:44
Speaker 7: So two years ago they reached out to me to
8:47
Speaker 7: make a fragrance with them and as you know I
8:49
Speaker 7: have documented the entire process. You guys have come along
8:52
Speaker 7: on the journey and we were all really excited and
8:55
Speaker 7: unfortunately it's no longer happening and I'm sure you're asking
8:59
Speaker 7: why and honestly we are asking the same question. I
9:03
Speaker 7: don't the answers for you unfortunately i know that might
9:07
Speaker 7: sound really confusing or frustrating but i don't have more
9:10
Speaker 7: to give you but yeah i'm just as disheartened i
9:13
Speaker 7: guess as you guys and i was really excited about
9:15
Speaker 7: this collaboration but it's just not happening that is unfortunately
9:19
Speaker 7: the update however i am working on a bunch of
9:21
Speaker 7: other exciting things so let's just focus on those and
9:25
Speaker 7: forget that ever happened Just wipe it from my mind.
9:30
Speaker 2: Wipe it from all of our memories, okay?
9:32
Speaker 4: Forget the former things.
9:33
Speaker 1: Don't.
9:34
Speaker 6: That's love that.
9:35
Speaker 3: It's fine. We're fine.
9:36
Speaker 6: We're fine.
9:39
Speaker 4: That's fine.
9:40
Speaker 6: You guys get it, okay?
9:42
Speaker 2: As soon as Sarah dropped this news, I raced back
9:45
Speaker 2: to her old reels to watch what she had shared
9:48
Speaker 2: about this collaboration. So back in December, she filmed herself
9:52
Speaker 2: getting ready for a meeting with Who Is Elijah? And
9:55
Speaker 2: in the video, she revealed that the team had already
9:58
Speaker 2: signed off on the scent. the name of the scent,
10:01
Speaker 2: and the color of the fragrance, and that she was
10:04
Speaker 2: going to pitch a campaign idea. Now, in terms of
10:07
Speaker 2: the name of the perfume, it was actually Sarah's hairstylist,
10:11
Speaker 2: Kirby Largo, who came up with it.
10:14
Speaker 3: So Sarah has.
10:15
Speaker 2: Featured her hairstylist a lot on her Instagram because She
10:19
Speaker 2: recently got hair extensions. She also won a promotion with them.
10:22
Speaker 2: So I was like, oh, okay, that's interesting. This is
10:26
Speaker 2: what Sarah had to say.
10:27
Speaker 4: So in terms of the name, I probably came up
10:29
Speaker 4: with a list of like, I don't know, 120 names.
10:33
Speaker 4: And I was like going back and forth, but like
10:35
Speaker 4: nothing was sticking out to me. And the next day
10:37
Speaker 4: I had a hair appointment with Kirby, my hairstylist, and
10:40
Speaker 4: she's actually friends with Raquel, the founder of Who Is Elijah.
10:43
Speaker 2: I would love to know where Kirby stands on this.
10:45
Speaker 2: How awkward. for her to be in the middle of
10:48
Speaker 2: this with two of her friends. It's interesting because on
10:51
Speaker 2: Sunday night, Sarah was talking about how she's getting her
10:55
Speaker 2: hair done with Kirby. So obviously Sarah and her are
10:58
Speaker 2: still friends. It gets even more awkward because Sarah, Raquel
11:01
Speaker 2: and Kirby are all from Cronulla. But as I mentioned earlier,
11:05
Speaker 2: Raquel recently moved to London, which probably makes it a
11:07
Speaker 2: little bit less awkward.
11:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, but Sarah's quite well known for having these friendship
11:12
Speaker 1: bust-ups as well.
11:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's been a few best friends that have featured
11:15
Speaker 2: on her social media that have just disappeared, like Tanika,
11:19
Speaker 2: who used to work with her. She was a bridesmaid.
11:22
Speaker 2: Then there was also Beth, who was friends with Kurt's friend, Brenton,
11:25
Speaker 2: who was on Big Brother. They're no longer friends, so...
11:29
Speaker 2: It's all very interesting. I'm sure they've got tales to tell.
11:31
Speaker 5: Yeah.
11:32
Speaker 2: Well, a few hours after Sarah's announcement, Raquel Boris released
11:36
Speaker 2: her own statement via her personal Instagram, which was then
11:40
Speaker 2: later shared to her business's social media. And in it,
11:43
Speaker 2: she wrote, Hi all, I've seen the video going around
11:46
Speaker 2: and just wanted to clear a few things up. We
11:48
Speaker 2: honestly have so much love and respect for Sarah. It
11:50
Speaker 2: was such an exciting project to work on together, but
11:53
Speaker 2: the decision to pause the collab... wasn't random or without reason.
11:57
Speaker 2: As Who Is Elijah grows into international markets, hello Europe 2026,
12:00
Speaker 2: we've had to make some tough calls to stay focused
12:04
Speaker 2: on our global plans and timelines. That means shifting our
12:07
Speaker 2: resources towards retail expansion and other internal priorities. This was
12:11
Speaker 2: never about Sarah personally. We were super proud of what
12:14
Speaker 2: we created and we offered for her to continue the
12:16
Speaker 2: project under her own brand with our support. That was
12:19
Speaker 2: unfortunately declined, which we respect. We get that this might
12:22
Speaker 2: be disappointing to some of you and that was never
12:25
Speaker 2: the intention. We were always back creators and we genuinely
12:27
Speaker 2: wish Sarah all the best.
12:29
Speaker 3: Well, when you look at both of the statements from
12:31
Speaker 3: Who Is Elijah and Sarah's Day, both are quite professional.
12:35
Speaker 3: They've been pretty reserved in what they've said.
12:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that's why there's a bit of
12:39
Speaker 2: confusion around this situation because a lot of people are like,
12:42
Speaker 2: hang on, Sarah didn't really even say anything that bad.
12:45
Speaker 2: She just said that she was disappointed that the collaboration
12:47
Speaker 2: was over and that's because all the shit went down
12:50
Speaker 2: in the comments underneath the reel. So unsurprisingly, Sarah's reel
12:55
Speaker 2: went absolutely nuts. At the time of recording, it's got
12:57
Speaker 2: over 1.2 million views. It's got over 20,000 likes, over
13:01
Speaker 2: 500 comments and 2,000 send-ons. So obviously a lot of
13:05
Speaker 2: people were talking about it. But the comment section turned
13:09
Speaker 2: into an absolute free-for-all for Sarah's fans to slam who
13:13
Speaker 2: is Elijah. And Sarah was also getting in on the action. So-
13:19
Speaker 2: She did not hold back. She dropped all these extra
13:22
Speaker 2: details that she didn't mention in the video. And it
13:25
Speaker 2: was clear just how angry and upset that she was
13:27
Speaker 2: that this collaboration has ended. So via the comment section,
13:31
Speaker 2: Sarah revealed that she only learned that the collaboration was
13:34
Speaker 2: over via an email. And she said it felt like
13:37
Speaker 2: she was being strung along for free promotion and content.
13:41
Speaker 2: She also alleged that she didn't receive a dime for
13:44
Speaker 2: the collaboration and everything that she did was in good
13:46
Speaker 2: faith because she was committed to the project. She also
13:50
Speaker 2: labeled the situation icky and wrote, honestly, it's not about
13:53
Speaker 2: the money for me. It's about the time and the
13:55
Speaker 2: sneakiness of it all. There were also a lot of
13:58
Speaker 2: comments from Sarah's fans telling her to make her own perfume.
14:01
Speaker 2: And Sarah responded saying, literally this, I've been talking to
14:04
Speaker 2: Kurt about it. So I wonder if we will see
14:07
Speaker 2: something from Sarah.
14:08
Speaker 1: But That's ironic because Who Is Elijah said in their
14:11
Speaker 1: statement that they were willing to help Sarah do this,
14:14
Speaker 1: but it just wasn't under the Who Is Elijah brand.
14:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know why if you were so invested
14:19
Speaker 2: in this collaboration and you were really happy with the
14:22
Speaker 2: product that you had created, why you wouldn't take that route?
14:25
Speaker 1: Well, the thing with Sarah is the only in-house thing
14:27
Speaker 1: they've done is their app Sunny and that ended. They
14:31
Speaker 1: actually shut it down. I think she's had more success
14:33
Speaker 1: doing stuff with other brands like White Fox Boutique.
14:36
Speaker 2: It's quite clear that Sarah is worried that the brand
14:39
Speaker 2: are going to re-release her scent under a different name
14:42
Speaker 2: because she told a follower in the comments that she
14:45
Speaker 2: has kept a sample of the scent just in case
14:48
Speaker 2: they do that. And she added, honestly, I would expect
14:50
Speaker 2: nothing less from them at this rate. She also complained
14:54
Speaker 2: about the brand taking valuable time away from her and
14:57
Speaker 2: her kids. She wrote, it's about the time wasted and
14:59
Speaker 2: robbed by When I was having someone else hold my
15:01
Speaker 2: baby so I could work on it, time is the
15:03
Speaker 2: most valuable commodity truly.
15:05
Speaker 1: Now, one follower's comment even ended up triggering a war
15:08
Speaker 1: of words between Sarah and the CEO of Who Is Elijah.
15:12
Speaker 1: So one of Sarah's followers wrote, Sarah liked this comment
15:15
Speaker 1: and replied, Unfortunately, I just started making content in good
15:17
Speaker 1: faith because I was so committed and excited. Contract and
15:28
Speaker 1: wrongdoing is only really useful once the product has launched. Now,
15:32
Speaker 1: this is when Who Is Elijah's CEO, Adam Burris, entered
15:35
Speaker 1: the chat. And as we mentioned earlier, Adam is also
15:38
Speaker 1: Raquel's husband. So he wrote, Sarah, this is absolute rubbish
15:42
Speaker 1: and you know it. You are fueling this with a
15:45
Speaker 1: false narrative. Sarah replied saying, would you like me to
15:48
Speaker 1: forward you the email my team was blindsided with after
15:51
Speaker 1: two years of working on this collab? Now, Adam wrote back,
15:54
Speaker 1: things happen in business. Some things work and some things
15:57
Speaker 1: don't and we move on. That is business. We apologize
16:01
Speaker 1: for the change in direction and offered to still do
16:03
Speaker 1: the perfume under your own brand, completely your own, which
16:07
Speaker 1: we fully supported, which was immediately rejected. I won't stand
16:11
Speaker 1: and watch you gaslight your own followers here and talk
16:13
Speaker 1: badly about my team.
16:15
Speaker 3: I would tread carefully.
16:16
Speaker 2: Now, this is where Kurt, Sarah's husband, entered the chat.
16:19
Speaker 2: He fired up, writing to Adam, tread careful as you
16:22
Speaker 2: threaten a woman. Come on, mate. Sarah hasn't said a
16:25
Speaker 2: single bad thing about the two of you, the team
16:27
Speaker 2: or the brand. She has simply let her community know
16:30
Speaker 2: that it's not going ahead, which considering she has shared
16:32
Speaker 2: pretty much every aspect of her and my family's life
16:35
Speaker 2: for the last 11 years is a pretty normal thing.
16:38
Speaker 2: Sarah then wrote a 300 word response back to Adam.
16:42
Speaker 2: I didn't actually know Instagram allowed comments that long. So
16:45
Speaker 2: to summarize it, she said that she was flexible when
16:48
Speaker 2: they pushed out the launch by 12 months, but asked
16:51
Speaker 2: for Adam to put himself in her shoes as she'd
16:53
Speaker 2: been promoting and working on this collaboration for over 24 months.
16:57
Speaker 2: She wrote, for bombshell news like that, I would have
17:00
Speaker 2: really appreciated a call or even an email to me,
17:03
Speaker 2: or at least be CC'd in it. Not an email
17:05
Speaker 2: to one of my team members after being ghosted and
17:08
Speaker 2: us following up what was happening with the collab. Not
17:10
Speaker 2: an email to one of my team members after being
17:12
Speaker 2: ghosted and us following up what was happening with the collab.
17:16
Speaker 2: She also claimed she'd been told nothing except that they
17:19
Speaker 2: were going in a different direction.
17:21
Speaker 1: So Adam replied to Sarah. He wrote, we also put
17:24
Speaker 1: an enormous amount into it, hundreds of hours and thousands
17:27
Speaker 1: of dollars and things change. It's the way things go.
17:30
Speaker 1: To be super clear, I don't have.
17:32
Speaker 3: An issue with the post.
17:33
Speaker 1: I have an issue with you telling your followers we
17:35
Speaker 1: used you for promotional content and the way you are
17:38
Speaker 1: controlling the narrative in your comments. It is misleading to
17:41
Speaker 1: everyone and damages your reputation and ours. Now, another person
17:46
Speaker 1: chimed in claiming Sarah hadn't been compensated for the time
17:50
Speaker 1: she invested in promoting who was Elijah. And Adam replied,
17:54
Speaker 1: you are wrong.
17:55
Speaker 2: Now, while Raquel remained quiet in Sarah's comment section, she
17:59
Speaker 2: shared a photo of a glass of wine with the caption,
18:02
Speaker 2: cheers to all the keyboard warriors in my DMs. And
18:05
Speaker 2: then an hour and a half later, she followed up
18:07
Speaker 2: writing on her Instagram story, it's giving up. tantrum. Now,
18:12
Speaker 2: not only did Sarah's fans flood Raquel's DMs, but they
18:15
Speaker 2: also left negative comments on the Who Is Elijah Instagram account.
18:20
Speaker 2: And on Saturday, Raquel released her own response on her
18:23
Speaker 2: Instagram story. Let's listen to some of what she said.
18:26
Speaker 6: I wasn't going to respond to this in this way.
18:29
Speaker 8: But when someone with a huge platform starts encouraging bullying
18:34
Speaker 8: and spreading a false narrative, I have to say something.
18:39
Speaker 8: We ended a contract well within the agreed terms.
18:43
Speaker 6: There was no breach.
18:44
Speaker 8: And yes, the decision to end the collaboration was sent
18:48
Speaker 8: from me personally to the other party via my email,
18:53
Speaker 8: just to make that clear.
18:54
Speaker 6: That doesn't make it dramatic. It makes it responsible.
18:58
Speaker 8: I left the door open in this email for further discussion,
19:02
Speaker 8: but what I received in response was unprofessional.
19:06
Speaker 2: Raquel went on to say that Sarah's claim that she
19:08
Speaker 2: worked on the project for two years simply wasn't true.
19:11
Speaker 2: And she said that her first text exchange with Sarah
19:14
Speaker 2: was in May 2024, which was when the project truly began.
19:18
Speaker 2: And their last discussion was in April 2025. She then
19:22
Speaker 2: said this.
19:23
Speaker 8: We were responsible for everything, including fragrance sampling, product manufacture,
19:29
Speaker 8: logistics compliance and global product registration.
19:33
Speaker 6: The other party's involvement stopped at the sampling stage.
19:37
Speaker 8: We had not yet begun any joint marketing outside of
19:41
Speaker 8: what they independently chose to share on their own socials,
19:45
Speaker 8: which was not instructed or directed by us.
19:48
Speaker 6: From our perspective, I could count the hours worked on
19:50
Speaker 6: this project on one, maybe two hands.
19:54
Speaker 2: Raquel explained that her move to London at the start
19:56
Speaker 2: of the year naturally caused delays with the project and
19:59
Speaker 2: went on to say this.
20:01
Speaker 8: I've kept quiet out of respect but what's being said
20:04
Speaker 8: now is deeply misleading and it is harmful. What I'm
20:08
Speaker 8: seeing in the comments and encouraged in the comments is disgusting.
20:13
Speaker 8: This was a business decision made professionally and with fairness.
20:17
Speaker 2: We offered for the project.
20:18
Speaker 8: To continue under the party's own brand with our full support.
20:22
Speaker 6: That offer was declined.
20:25
Speaker 8: There's no scandal here, no villain, just a strategic decision
20:29
Speaker 8: for the future of my business. And it is one
20:32
Speaker 8: that I fully stand by. What is truly sad is
20:36
Speaker 8: seeing how easily people fall into parasocial loyalty, blindly defending
20:41
Speaker 8: someone they don't actually know, have most likely never met
20:45
Speaker 8: or never will meet, and in doing so are bullying
20:49
Speaker 8: another woman and another brand without facts. It is also
20:53
Speaker 8: easy to control the narrative or a narrative when you
20:56
Speaker 8: have the louder microphone, but louder does not mean truthful.
21:01
Speaker 6: I am also a mother. I support a team of
21:04
Speaker 6: 30 women and my family. This isn't just internet noise.
21:09
Speaker 6: It's damaging. It's harmful to a lot of people and
21:13
Speaker 6: it's really hurtful. This is my first time running a business. Yes,
21:18
Speaker 6: I am still learning and this has been a massive
21:21
Speaker 6: learning moment for me and one that I will not
21:24
Speaker 6: soon forget.
21:25
Speaker 8: I will do what should have been done from the beginning,
21:29
Speaker 8: and that is to turn off the comments. And I
21:32
Speaker 8: want to make one thing extremely clear.
21:35
Speaker 6: As a woman, as a mother, I do not support
21:40
Speaker 6: women being pinned against other women or cyberbullying.
21:44
Speaker 8: I don't want to speak about this matter any further.
21:47
Speaker 8: There's a lot more going on in the world that
21:49
Speaker 8: needs attention. I wish everyone the best.
21:53
Speaker 6: And thank you.
21:55
Speaker 3: What did you make of Raquel's response?
21:58
Speaker 2: I think influencers and business owners need to take note
22:01
Speaker 2: as she provided a masterclass in how to respond to controversy.
22:04
Speaker 2: She was eloquent, classy, respectful. You'll notice that she didn't
22:08
Speaker 2: name Sarah. She also made the noble decision to turn
22:12
Speaker 2: the comments off on her video to let her words
22:14
Speaker 2: speak for themselves and avoid drama in the comments, which
22:17
Speaker 2: I think was a fantastic move.
22:20
Speaker 1: I agree with Raquel's sentiments about Sarah's intentions with posting
22:24
Speaker 1: that video because she said, you know, she was encouraging
22:27
Speaker 1: her fans to talk badly about who was Elijah. That
22:30
Speaker 1: is a hundred percent what the intent of that video was.
22:34
Speaker 1: She knew that if she put it out, her stands
22:37
Speaker 1: would go after the brand.
22:39
Speaker 2: And it's not the first time she has done it.
22:41
Speaker 2: So she has a history of weaponizing her followers against brands.
22:45
Speaker 2: If you cast your mind back to 2020, a small
22:48
Speaker 2: homeware company called Sabian Soul ended up shutting down after
22:52
Speaker 2: Sarah put them on blast on Instagram story. And it
22:55
Speaker 2: was all over a Moroccan pillowcase that she ordered. So
22:58
Speaker 2: she claimed at the time that they ripped her off
23:01
Speaker 2: and said that she didn't want her followers to fall
23:03
Speaker 2: victim to them. It actually turned out that the website
23:06
Speaker 2: wouldn't allow pillowcases to be purchased without the insert. So
23:10
Speaker 2: when Sarah made her order, the website's e-commerce system automatically
23:15
Speaker 2: processed a refund and cancelled the order. So the money
23:18
Speaker 2: was never actually taken from Sarah's account. But the damage
23:21
Speaker 2: was already done and Sabi and Sol ended up going
23:24
Speaker 2: out of business due to the backlash they received from
23:26
Speaker 2: Sarah's fans.
23:28
Speaker 3: So Sarah is definitely aware of.
23:30
Speaker 1: The power that she holds with her followers and I
23:32
Speaker 1: think it was a deliberate move to punish Who Is
23:35
Speaker 1: Elijah for ending this collaboration. I think it was quite
23:38
Speaker 1: a strange collaboration to begin with because Sarah's not really
23:41
Speaker 1: known in the beauty space. She does have a huge
23:44
Speaker 1: following but it makes more sense for her to be
23:46
Speaker 1: collaborating with brands on fitness stuff. as opposed to a
23:50
Speaker 1: beauty product.
23:51
Speaker 2: Well, I think that's why she's so upset about it,
23:53
Speaker 2: because she saw a lot of status with being a
23:55
Speaker 2: celebrity that has their own fragrance. And I think that's
23:58
Speaker 2: why she was putting so much extra effort and attention
24:01
Speaker 2: into it, because it was something that really excited her.
24:04
Speaker 2: And you can tell that she's absolutely devastated that the
24:06
Speaker 2: collaboration is over. It's very natural, but it doesn't mean
24:09
Speaker 2: that you can go lash out in your comment section,
24:11
Speaker 2: because when you take the emotion out of this situation
24:14
Speaker 2: and look at the facts, It was a strategic business
24:17
Speaker 2: decision from who was Elijah. It wasn't personal. This is
24:20
Speaker 2: a business that is currently undertaking a global expansion after
24:24
Speaker 2: signing this landmark deal in the UK. You know, doing
24:28
Speaker 2: a collaboration with an Australian influencer clearly no longer served
24:31
Speaker 2: their new business model. And as I said, I can
24:33
Speaker 2: sympathise with Sarah that it would be really disappointing, but
24:36
Speaker 2: she's gone about it in completely the wrong way.
24:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a really terrible move by Sarah because at
24:40
Speaker 1: the time it might have felt great to put them
24:42
Speaker 1: on blast. But all she's now done is put a
24:45
Speaker 1: red line through her name for brand deals because people
24:48
Speaker 1: are not going to want to work with someone who.
24:50
Speaker 3: Is that volatile.
24:51
Speaker 2: And it's really interesting timing as there's been a lot
24:53
Speaker 2: of talk about Sarah severing ties with a lot of
24:56
Speaker 2: their long-term partners. From all accounts from Sarah, it doesn't
25:00
Speaker 2: appear that they've ended on good terms either. While she
25:03
Speaker 2: has never made an official announcement video like she did
25:06
Speaker 2: with Who Is Elijah?, She's made cryptic statements again in
25:10
Speaker 2: the comment section of her post when she's been asked
25:13
Speaker 2: about these partnerships by followers. And she's previously commented to
25:17
Speaker 2: a follower that she doesn't feel comfortable supporting Tropica anymore.
25:21
Speaker 2: And I find it interesting now seeing that she did
25:23
Speaker 2: this whole reel about why she's not working with Who
25:26
Speaker 2: Is Elijah and she felt like she had to explain
25:27
Speaker 2: it to her followers. But hang on, you were the
25:29
Speaker 2: face of Tropica and you've never made an official statement
25:32
Speaker 2: about that partnership ending. So why with who is Elijah?
25:35
Speaker 2: I think Sarah should.
25:36
Speaker 1: Have just stopped after she posted the initial video because
25:40
Speaker 1: I watched it and said, oh, that's pretty reasonable. And
25:42
Speaker 1: she should have turned the comments off because her responding
25:47
Speaker 1: in the comment section, it just made her look really immature.
25:50
Speaker 2: Oh, and unprofessional. And I find a lot of her
25:53
Speaker 2: commentary quite unprofessional on Instagram because It seems like she
25:56
Speaker 2: thinks she can just say whatever she wants in there
25:59
Speaker 2: and people won't really notice, only the people that really
26:02
Speaker 2: dig into them. And in terms of her other sponsorship deals,
26:06
Speaker 2: within this post about who is Elijah, she even commented
26:10
Speaker 2: on her relationship with some of her former partners. So
26:13
Speaker 2: a follower wrote, can you talk about Loving Earth? I
26:15
Speaker 2: can't get their products anywhere. So that's a brand that
26:18
Speaker 2: she worked with for years back in the day. I
26:21
Speaker 2: remember going and buying Loving Earth chocolate because she spoke
26:24
Speaker 2: it up so much and it tasted terrible. Anyway, she
26:27
Speaker 2: responded saying, honestly, babe, I haven't worked for them for
26:30
Speaker 2: like seven years or something. They had an entire company
26:33
Speaker 2: restructure and majority of the staff left, including me. That's
26:36
Speaker 2: all I really feel comfortable saying. Another person also wrote
26:39
Speaker 2: more White Fox collabs and she wrote, I love my
26:42
Speaker 2: White Fox fam, but I'm just focused on other areas
26:45
Speaker 2: right now. pretty interesting because white fox have all of
26:47
Speaker 2: her active wear on super sale at the moment it
26:50
Speaker 2: seems like they're clearing it all.
26:51
Speaker 1: Out well maybe white fox was smart enough to get
26:53
Speaker 1: her to sign a non-disclosure agreement i mean also talking
26:56
Speaker 1: about contracts let's not forget sarah's day she touts herself
27:01
Speaker 1: as being a huge businesswoman i mean she's made a
27:03
Speaker 1: lot of money she's incredibly successful.
27:05
Speaker 2: Well she also runs a creative agency with her husband.
27:07
Speaker 1: Yeah why was there no contract in place and she
27:10
Speaker 1: seemed to be blaming who was elijah but it's on
27:13
Speaker 1: her to make sure there was a contract protecting her.
27:16
Speaker 2: I find it very difficult to believe that Sarah would
27:18
Speaker 2: spend two years, as she says, working on a project
27:20
Speaker 2: without signing a contract. That's just bad business. It seems like,
27:25
Speaker 2: who is Elijah, have said that she did sign a contract.
27:28
Speaker 2: What I think is the contract probably ran out. that
27:31
Speaker 2: there was an expiry date on it and they were like, okay,
27:34
Speaker 2: we'll reassess at that point. And they decided that they
27:36
Speaker 2: no longer wanted to do the collaboration, which was well
27:39
Speaker 2: within their rights.
27:40
Speaker 1: I did see a lot of comments where people were saying, oh,
27:42
Speaker 1: you're better off without them and this is in God's plan,
27:45
Speaker 1: et cetera. And Sarah was saying, yeah, yeah, it's so good.
27:47
Speaker 1: I thought, well, if it's so good and you're happy
27:50
Speaker 1: about this falling through, then why are you being so
27:53
Speaker 1: gnarky in the comment section?
27:55
Speaker 3: Just move on.
27:56
Speaker 2: I think her emotional response to this shows that it
27:59
Speaker 2: is more an ego thing I think she's made a
28:01
Speaker 2: lot of money off her cookbook, but she's always been
28:04
Speaker 2: known to have these long-term partnerships. Ever since she started
28:08
Speaker 2: on YouTube, she was originally so great at incorporating these
28:13
Speaker 2: deals into her videos and making them seem really organic
28:16
Speaker 2: and that she really liked the brand. And I think
28:19
Speaker 2: at the moment she's in that stage where she's trying
28:21
Speaker 2: to get new brands on board for a long period
28:24
Speaker 2: of time. And she thought that was going to be
28:27
Speaker 2: the case with Who Is Elijah? And I think she
28:28
Speaker 2: thought it was a real win because it's actually a
28:30
Speaker 2: very cool perfume brand that a lot of people were
28:32
Speaker 2: surprised that she was working with. And I think this
28:36
Speaker 2: has been a complete fracture to her ego.
28:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, but if you think about it as well, she's
28:40
Speaker 1: no longer getting that income from White Fox Boutique. It's
28:43
Speaker 1: not coming from any of the other brands that she's
28:46
Speaker 1: severed ties with. And she doesn't have the Sunny app anymore.
28:50
Speaker 1: So maybe she's reacted so badly because it is affecting
28:54
Speaker 1: her bottom line now.
28:56
Speaker 2: Oh, there's definitely a financial element involved there. I'm just
28:59
Speaker 2: so intrigued if Sarah and Kurt are going to try
29:02
Speaker 2: and make their own perfume.
29:03
Speaker 1: Well, there were quite a lot of Sarah's followers saying,
29:05
Speaker 1: you need to make this and I would buy it.
29:08
Speaker 3: Kate, would you buy Sarah's Day's perfume?
29:10
Speaker 2: Look, I'm not proud to admit it, but I have
29:12
Speaker 2: purchased from Sarah's Day before and I wouldn't again.
29:16
Speaker 3: Well, I think that's where we're going to leave things today.
29:19
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Outspoken.
29:22
Speaker 1: If you did enjoy the show, we would love if
29:24
Speaker 1: you could go and leave us a five-star review because
29:27
Speaker 1: it really helps us out. And if you do love
29:29
Speaker 1: our content and want to hear more from us, we
29:31
Speaker 1: drop a bonus episode to our subscribers.
29:34
Speaker 2: On a Thursday. We're also bringing you part three of
29:37
Speaker 2: our Tammy hembro deep dive on friday that is the
29:40
Speaker 2: map pool era and i'm very excited to share that
29:43
Speaker 2: with you this podcast was recorded on the traditional land
29:47
Speaker 2: of the people of the adelaide plains we pay respect
29:49
Speaker 2: to elders past and present