Latest / She’s Smart / Samantha Yanks - A Conversation About Purpose, Creativity & Community

Transcript

Samantha Yanks - A Conversation About Purpose, Creativity & Community · She’s Smart

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Hey, everybody. Welcome to She's Smart. I'm your host, Maria Robotham.
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Each week, we sit down with incredible women to talk about life,
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work, and everything in between.
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Today, I'm sitting down with someone who has shaped the way we think about style,
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storytelling, and community for more than 25 years, Samantha Yanks.
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Samantha's career has taken her everywhere, from the halls of Vogue to helping
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shape the iconic O-List at O, the Oprah Magazine, to leading the editorial vision
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at Hamptons, Gotham, and now Westport, Weston, and Wilton Magazine.
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She's a media strategist, founder, longtime editor, and the co-creator of the
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Connecticut Edit, a platform she built alongside her daughter that has quickly
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become a trusted voice in our community.
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Today, we talk about how the Connecticut Edit began as a mother-daughter discovery
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project in the middle of COVID and grew into a platform grounded in mission,
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intention, and service.
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We talk about trusting your gut, evolving with purpose, and what it means to
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build something that people return to because they feel a sense of belonging within it.
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And yes, we do talk about AI, not as something to fear, but as a tool that can
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actually amplify authentic connection when we use it intentionally and humanely.
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Samantha has this incredible ability to take decades of experience and translate
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it into wisdom that feels fresh, accessible, and deeply grounded.
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This conversation is filled with insight, honesty, and so many moments that
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feel like two women just figuring out the world together.
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So get cozy as we connect, learn,
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and laugh together on She's Smart with today's guest, Samantha Yanks.
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Thank you for joining me. Did you grow up here? Are you from the East Coast?
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Where did your whole story start?
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So I am from the East Coast, and thank you so much for having me.
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This is so exciting and so much fun. I'm thrilled to chat with you.
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I grew up in New York City, and we were just talking about your son.
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I grew up skiing, and when I was much younger, we had a weekend home,
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spent our weekend skiing up in Vermont and always lived in New York City,
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grew up on the Upper East side.
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My family is still in the city. My parents are New York City lifers.
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Never left. Never left. Always had an escape outside of New York City.
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And then it became closer and closer to New York City as life changed and schedules
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changed and the drive to Vermont became too long.
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We ended up with a weekend home in Connecticut in Litchfield County.
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That was beautiful up there. So beautiful. Right near Kent.
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It's such a nice place. We absolutely loved it. They had that home for 37 years.
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We sold it about a year ago in December.
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We always loved Connecticut. When my husband and I got married 20-something
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years ago, we bought an apartment in the West Village and lived there for many
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years. Our weekend escape was in the Hamptons.
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And so we were doing that for a long time. And then about five years ago, moved to Westport.
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So it's only been five years since you've been here. Gosh, you've done so much
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in those five years with this town.
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Thank you. Oh, my gosh. The town is doing to me. I don't know if I'm doing to the town.
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Ever since you started the Connecticut edit, that's where I knew you from,
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I assumed that you had been here because the love that you portray about this town.
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I'm like, she must have just been born and raised. But it's funny how I wasn't
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born and raised here. We've lived in Weston for 13 years now.
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And I've drank the Kool-Aid. Yes. I'm obsessed with this town.
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Obsessed with the people, you would think that I was from here. Absolutely not.
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No, you know, I think it's an area that you can fall in love with very quickly.
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It can also unfold really slowly.
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But most people who are here love it so much for a variety of different reasons.
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Having been in and around Connecticut for so long, I took a very big deep dive when we moved here.
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The Connecticut edit really started as a lens of our discovery when we moved
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here. Having been an editor my whole career, I'd always come from a place of
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working at a platform where we were the authority.
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It was our role as the editor-in-chief at Hamptons Magazine or at Gotham or
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in my years working for Oprah.
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We were the authority. It had already been established before I started,
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and we were there to carry that message on, right?
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As editors, we were there to tell the stories of brands, people,
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and moments that were authoritative. We started the Connecticut edit,
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my daughter and I. It came from a place of discovery.
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We were new here. We moved not because of COVID, which is a whole other piece
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of our story, but it happened to be during COVID.
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And everything was closed. It started as we just need to discover what's open.
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And if we want to know about that, other people must want to know about it.
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Sure. And that's how it started.
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So I had a question about that. You started with your daughter,
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which I absolutely love.
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Was there a perspective that your daughter had that really helped guide your
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content and everything?
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I could imagine she has her perspective about what's cool and what's not, and we have ours.
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So I'm wondering how you balanced that. So when we started,
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the one thing we both said to each other was, what are we as in any business,
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even though she was 14 going on 15 at the time,
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we treated it like any other business, not in the monetization sense,
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not in the business plan sense, not in the this is something long term.
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But in the beginning, it was, what are we both good at?
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We're spending a lot of time together because of COVID.
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We're home and we needed another outlet. We're both creative, but in different ways.
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What's going to be something that we can do together that we'll actually have
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fun doing and that we'll have momentum and keep going?
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She excels at the business plan, the economics of it, the finances of it,
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and also the back end of it, the coding and the building the website and understanding
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spreadsheets and plans and all of that.
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And I really excel in the visual and the creative and the messaging and what
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do we want this to be. And together, we just threw a bunch of words out.
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And I'm all about alliteration because I think it's easy for people to remember.
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We just kept throwing words out and all of those words started with C.
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And I'm a big believer that you need a mission statement. You have to have a reason for being.
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Otherwise, you have no filter or lens to talk through.
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So early on, we came up with our mission statement, and it's alliteration,
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and it was easy to remember, and it was fun, and it was we connect,
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captivate, and celebrate our community through the lens of social consciousness.
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Everything we talked about had to go through that lens in some way.
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It didn't have to go through all of them, but it had to go through some lens.
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I gravitated towards the community piece that we had to build a community. Otherwise, I don't.
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We're just people talking. Yep, yep. And we were just a mother and daughter.
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Yes, that's incredible and that gives you a reason for being,
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but it didn't give people a reason to come back.
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She really gravitated towards the social consciousness piece.
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It was fun as a mom to watch that piece emerge in her.
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She came up with this idea of, well, what if we tell, we don't align with one
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nonprofit or two or three.
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We don't align with specific organizations. we raise awareness for organizations.
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And that spoke to me because I was like, that's a concept I can work with and
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I can riff off of that and pull that out of people and tell those stories.
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And that was really the foundation. I love beautiful things.
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I love to tell stories. I love to discover what's happening in our community with people.
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And I think it then just naturally evolved into a relatively female-centric platform.
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It's part of our ethos that we love to tell stories about women,
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and we love to watch them through their journey, creating this together, watching her grow.
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I mean, when she started, she was in eighth grade. She's now a freshman in college. Oh, my gosh.
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And, you know, I'm embarking on the next chapter of my life and turning 50 in February.
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When we started, we said, okay, well, there's got to be some sort of parameters
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around what we're talking about.
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Young moms with infants and newborns may find our content fun,
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but that's not necessarily who we're speaking to.
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We're speaking to women who are at a chapter in their life where they're probably
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developing a relationship that they want to actively do things with their children.
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Or we're speaking to women who are seeking different opportunities,
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who are looking for people who have trailblazed before them,
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who are looking for inspiration, who hopefully are finding it with us and that
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it's a conversation that's constantly going on, we're not there to tell people what to do.
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Yeah. Right? And I think other platforms you go to and you are seeking an answer
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and that answer is there. And that's amazing.
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I follow those platforms and I engage in those platforms. We're more there to
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be a conversation for the community that we're building. Yeah.
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And that just morphs and changes over time. This is part of why She Smart started.
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It was that same reason. Right. I found all these wonderful women right here
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in Fairfield County. They would be sitting and having wine and chatting at an
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event or something. I'm like, you need to tell everybody this. Right.
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And it was only because we are at a time in our life where the shits we give are different.
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And when we give a shit, it matters. And we are 100% into what we care about.
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100%. Everything else kind of just is— In an unforgiving way. And I think that's good.
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I think that's very powerful. I think it's important as women that we also find
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those things because it gives us purpose, not just our jobs,
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which can define us, not just our children or our husbands, something else that's important.
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And the community is part of that. I think that also on that note,
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part of how the Connecticut edit evolved was discovering that as well.
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Right. So when we moved, I thought as a born and bred New Yorker,
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as what I perceived to be a lifer in New York City, when we moved,
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it was like a mic drop moment for people like Samantha's moving to the suburbs.
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I cannot, you know, I can't believe this. It wasn't that I wanted to prove people wrong.
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It was that I was truly in awe, like you're saying, after this chapter...
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In New York, that there is so much talent and passion and drive and creativity
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here that both of us, in ways that work very well together,
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are trying to shine a spotlight on that in every way we possibly can.
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There has to be some sort of filter to what we're doing.
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And there's obviously a filter to which you're picking your guests is that you
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see something in people that you think other people need to see. Yes, absolutely.
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And so it almost feels like your job.
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And then the rest of it organically, I think, and authentically kind of happens with it.
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Had Sadie and I had a business plan of what we wanted the Connecticut edit to
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be, I am pretty sure that it wouldn't have landed where it is today.
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Fascinating. And so to work with it as this living being thing is really fun.
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Yeah. It's got to grow the way it's supposed to, especially when you're in this social media space.
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It kind of molds itself, right? Absolutely. So you have a remarkable career.
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25 years, you were at Vogue, Oprah, Hamptons, Gotham.
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When you look back, I mean, that's incredible, guys. Like, let's just take a
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minute because that's pretty insane.
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When you look back, did you always know you wanted to be in magazines?
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Or did something pull you into that world?
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That's such a great question. I feel like I've been pulled into this media space.
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It has been a connective thread through everything I've done.
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As much as I have had moments where I've said.
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I think I'm tapped out. I really had a moment at one point of my career when
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I was exiting Hamptons after being the editor-in-chief of Hamptons after 13 years.
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I think I've done my job here. I've told the stories that I was meant to tell,
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and I need to do something else.
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Now, to go back to the beginning of it, I always knew that I wanted to work in the media space.
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I don't think of myself specifically as a journalist per se,
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but I always wanted to work in the media space.
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I knew early on that I didn't know where the journey was going to end,
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which I think was different than a lot of people who I came up with in my career.
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My first job was at Vogue.
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So when you start in an environment like that, you naturally work with the vast
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majority of people feel passionate about the fashion space based on the environment
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that you've chosen to be in.
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And while I felt and still continue to feel passionate about that space,
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that wasn't what was driving me.
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What was driving me was seeing how Anna Wintour was a boss, seeing how people
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took those opportunities of using that platform and where they then went from there.
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The writing piece of it was really interesting to me when I worked with,
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like, Sally Singer or different editors, and they were telling the story of
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fashion in a very different way than writing.
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A stylist like Grace Coddington or Camilla Nickerson through clothing.
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All of it interested me. And I knew I loved being in the space,
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but it wasn't like fashion wasn't my story.
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And so the thread stayed. And when I went to leave Vogue and work for Oprah,
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it was another kind of mic drop moment because Oprah was just establishing herself
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in the magazine space, in the written space.
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She was trying to figure out how do you translate what was so powerful on air,
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on television at the time, into something more tangible that people could have
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a piece of her in their home.
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And that just interested me. For no other reason, I think on the surface,
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most people said, well, you don't see that career jump like that often. Like who leaves Vogue?
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Honestly, at the end of the day, who leaves Vogue? I had been there for three
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years And it was in its heyday, not to date myself too much,
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but media is in a very challenging space at this moment.
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It was not in a challenging space at that moment.
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Vogue was at the top and Oprah was at the top of her television game,
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but kind of building in this space. What was interesting was to feel needed,
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to bring a skill set that wasn't there.
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And that's what drives me as I look back now as you kind of get older and you
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have more time to reflect on what drives the choices.
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I like to feel needed in some way that I have some skill set that I can bring
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to the table that other people don't have.
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Because if you're with too many like-minded people and everyone's agreeing on
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the exact same thing, the passion isn't there for me.
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Yeah, I enjoy that. And so when I went to Oprah, it was this time of creativity.
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It was this time of newness.
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It was this time of developing what became the iconic Olus. And when that was created, it was...
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Like, we had created something so official for a brand.
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That was one of my questions. I wanted to talk about the Olus.
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So the Olus was just this really, it came. Iconic.
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Iconic. Iconic. You know, it came from, I was working with someone who I deeply
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respect to this day, Adam Glassman.
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He was the creative director at Oprah and still is very involved in the brand.
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We were charged with figuring out something that translated to people that Oprah's
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seal of approval meant something.
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How do you develop what that looks like? What does that filter look like?
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How do you source everything? How do you get it all in front of her?
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Nobody's time was more valuable than Oprah's. She was the queen of media.
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Oprah Magazine was owned by Hearst at the time.
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And we were in this, I'd gone from Condé Nast, which was one media conglomerate,
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to Hearst, which was another media conglomerate.
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And we were a very, very small piece of that larger pie.
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And we were charged with how do you make something really important.
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It was an incredible learning opportunity.
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It gave me the peace that I really took with me for the rest of my career, which was watching...
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The life of brand founders and owners change through one moment.
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Small brands would be put on the O list and their lives would change. That popcorn?
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The dancing deer cookies. I always bring up dancing deer cookies.
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Their businesses, their livelihoods, their lives would change.
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It gives me chills to this day. If we have the opportunity to do an ounce of
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that for brands, that to me is what it's all about.
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It was just this idea that evolved. At the end of the day, it was really simple.
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It wasn't super convoluted. It didn't have a ton of layers.
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It was what spoke to Oprah. We just had to figure out what things to put in
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front of her, let her take a look at, feel, touch, smell, taste, see.
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Hear these founder stories, and let her select what they were, and put it together.
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And they were, right? There were silhouettes of images on a page.
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At the end of the day, there was nothing more or less to it.
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And it was the best part of working there.
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I was really the fashion director there. And it was just kind of this offshoot
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piece where I asked Adam if I could work on it with him. It was evolving and changing.
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And he was like, you want to do this? You want to go to these markets and look
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for cookie companies and popcorn and glassware?
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And I was like, I do. because there was no one else there to do it.
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We didn't have a budget for 1,000 people.
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And I said, yeah, I really want to do it. And that goes back to just,
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I think you keep learning, you keep remaining teachable.
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Could there have been a market editor who would have been better suited to find
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those things and bring those things?
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Maybe. But I was in the right place at the right time at the right moment.
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I had a great boss. And he was like, go for it. And we worked together. And.
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Survives to this day. To this day. To this day. And those covers,
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every one of those covers. Awesome. You're like, what's she going to be,
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what's she doing this time?
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She's surrounded by Christmas boxes. My mom read all of them.
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People framed them. They were like collector's items, those issues.
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Yes. I don't know another magazine that put their person on the cover. Every issue.
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Every issue. Every issue. I remember way back in the day, there was a controversy,
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like, is she ever not going to be on the cover?
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And it was like, no, She will always be on the cover.
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So those were great days because her time was so valuable.
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The show was at the top of the game. It was a moment of Oprah becoming Harpo.
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Harpo was really developing. So Oprah was becoming more of a brand than a television show.
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And she saw the journey she was on. And we were just all kind of along for this
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amazing ride. And because her time was so valuable, we would shoot those covers,
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like five of them, in a few days.
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Oh, wow. And so it was Christmas one day, and it was Thanksgiving the next day.
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We had a minimalist moment. I remember Narciso Rodriguez made a dress for her.
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And another fun fact, Oprah does not have pierced ears.
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So I would have clip-on earrings made for her. this really wonderful designer
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James Stéphane de Givenchy made a pair of clip-on earrings for her and I remember
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him checking in saying, you know, did you photograph them? And it was like,
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a winter surprise when the cover came out because everyone was so invested in
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what was happening and everyone knew they were part of something really special.
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And yes, she was on the cover every single time. And even we would say,
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like, is there going to be a surprise?
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And then the surprise was, I think one time it was like her and her dogs.
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We had the dogs and that was like, oh, it's not just Oprah. Surprise.
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She was like jumping out of a Sunday and there were dogs everywhere.
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But it was great. That's incredible.
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How did you transition from that to Hampton's Magazine or Gotham? Which one came next?
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So when I was at Oprah, I was the fashion director.
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And what I realized, two things.
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One, the transition going from Vogue to Oprah is jarring in terms of who your customer is.
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Your customer at Vogue, in theory, is aspirational.
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You don't have parameters in terms of price point of what you're featuring,
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there's no limitation around that.
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When you work for a brand like Oprah, there are a lot of parameters around what
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you are featuring. Where is it available?
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What is the price point? Who is our customer? Where are they located in the
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United States? What's available to them? How are they shopping?
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And remember also, So this was pre-social media. Yeah. Was really before the advent of...
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Online shopping in a meaningful way. You didn't have access to what we have
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access to today. As much online options as there are now. At all.
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And certainly not for luxury.
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And so what I learned there very quickly was that, like, my lens into what women
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primarily, because both demographic were generally towards women,
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what women spend is wildly different than it is at Vogue.
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And also how they have access to it, what the shelf life of pieces are that they're buying, right?
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They're buying more forever pieces that can be worn in their wardrobe consistently
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over a long period of time versus trend.
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They may weave in trend, but it's different.
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And I became obsessed with it.
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Is the only word I can use, obsessed
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with discovering how women shopped in different parts of the country.
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It blew my mind. What they would spend, how they would find it,
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how they would show it, what pieces they would wear it with.
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Did accessories matter? Did clothing matter? Did materials matter? Did sourcing matter?
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And also remember, this was before everyone talked about sustainability,
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but it was percolating in that you could tell women cared, but they didn't have
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access to a ton of information.
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So my obsession was, how were people shopping in Michigan versus.
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That's where my daughter goes to college now, so it was an easy,
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that rolled off the tongue.
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How were people shopping in the Midwest? How were people shopping in New York?
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I would go and I would have conversations with different designers at Saks or
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Bloomingdale's or Neiman Marcus and women would come and I'd learn about how
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they were shopping. It was a big moment for Diane von Furstenberg.
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Brands were struggling with how to speak to their consumer.
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And retailers were struggling with how to speak to their consumer because it
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was in an era of national brands expanding across the country.
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They would try to find, because money unfortunately drives everything in this
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regard, they would try to find pockets of wealth, open stores.
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But it was before like data.
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I know that sounds crazy to people today. But it was before you had like miles
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and reams and reams of data, you know?
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And so everyone would feel- It was just people literally going around the country,
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going into mall, going into town, walking around. Like, maybe we need a coach store here.
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Okay. And coach is obviously not the best example. They had more data than small brands.
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I had this opportunity to go to Niche Media, which was then the parent company.
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It's now called Modern Luxury, to a regional publishing company.
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I went from being the fashion director at Oprah to the fashion director at then Niche Media. When I.
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In its evolution, at its height, had 72 publications across the country.
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And I became the fashion director there because of that obsession.
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I really wanted to be a part of giving women fashion content in the city that spoke to them.
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The way women dress in Nashville is different than New York City. Yeah.
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And we were really part of creating bespoke fashion content for each of those
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markets. I traveled all across the country and did photo shoots in Aspen and L.A.
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And in New York, Boston and D.C. were starting to have a very big fashion moment.
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We launched magazines there, so I was a part of that. And I loved it.
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I loved speaking directly to women and understanding what their lifestyles look
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like. And they're just vastly different.
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And you know better than anybody as a stylist what women want.
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And as much as, yes, our, by the way, we did not plan this. But our full black
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uniforms, which you also don't see in Weston and Westport all the time,
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will always be part of our DNA.
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The way people dress across the country is very different. What excites them is very different.
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And I think to come full circle about some of the things we've talked about,
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I think I was ready to close that chapter.
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I feel like I had done everything I possibly could with what was...
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Available to me in terms of telling that story.
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And I had the opportunity to become the editor in chief of Hamptons.
26:31
I loved the company that I was at.
26:33
I loved what I was doing. And I got to just go deeper in certain markets.
26:38
It was probably the pivotal moment of my career that changed the trajectory
26:43
of, OK, I'm ready to leave solely this fashion piece behind.
26:47
It'll always be part of me, as it'll always be part of you, I will always think
26:52
about that lens and that filter.
26:54
I think it's informed a lot of my taste level.
26:57
And I think it's given me a lot of education to understand craftsmanship,
27:02
time spent, and the meaning behind a lot of things.
27:06
But then I became the editor-in-chief of Hamptons, and I was there for many
27:09
years, and Gotham simultaneously.
27:11
And so that was just...
27:15
The next career frontier. I split my time between New York City and the Hamptons
27:21
and I was the editor-in-chief of those two publications.
27:23
Great. That's so insightful to be aware of that.
27:27
I don't know if a lot of women or men go through their careers and listen to
27:33
it and say, okay, I'm going to do this without that fear of,
27:38
is it going to work? Is it going to happen? I have to take care of people, blah, blah, blah.
27:41
But to have that feeling and be like, okay, no, this is, I'm going to dig into
27:45
this a little bit and move on and see how successful it's become. That's a gift.
27:49
I don't know if everyone can do that. Just listening to yourself.
27:52
I think we all need to learn that if you have the ability to.
27:56
I love your picture that I'm looking at. It says, listen to your heart.
27:58
Oh God, I forgot that was there.
28:00
So I want to talk about AI and the community.
28:03
I wanted to go to this event that you spoke at, but I had another engagement.
28:07
I really wanted to hear you talk about You were discussing AI and community
28:11
building, and you shared the idea
28:13
that AI can amplify authentic human connection rather than replace it.
28:17
I'd love to know how you define that balance.
28:20
So I am a big believer that you have to embrace what is in front of you,
28:29
whatever that looks like. And those can be day-to-day challenges.
28:34
Those can be things as large as AI kind of tumbling down towards us,
28:40
which it is, in my opinion.
28:41
I always look at the Connecticut edit through that kind of lens as opposed to everything globally.
28:49
I think, how can we do this more efficiently, which is accelerating community?
28:56
At the end of the day, we are a platform that is trying to embrace and accelerate
29:03
the community in Connecticut as our core.
29:07
And so I always have to look at what are ways that we can accelerate the building
29:14
of that community in ways that remain authentic to us, but can save us time.
29:22
Because as you age, you get smacked over the head with how valuable your time
29:29
is. A variety of reasons.
29:31
One is that it's valuable because it's sacred.
29:36
Two, it's valuable because for people who work, it is an expense.
29:44
Time I spend on something is taking away from something else.
29:50
And I monetize my time because I work for a living.
29:54
So when I look at time, I think of it as how do I want to best spend it?
29:59
It's sacred. I want to enjoy what I'm doing.
30:01
And I have built enough in my career that I have the luxury to do that.
30:06
But I also want to do that while monetizing what I'm building or working on.
30:12
I have a lot of roles, Connecticut being one of them.
30:15
Things were very stagnant for a long period of time.
30:18
We transitioned from newspapers, magazines, television, to streaming and other
30:24
ways that you could absorb, let's call it, video, audio content.
30:30
And in a readable...
30:34
You had newspapers and magazines, then online platforms, then social,
30:40
and then things stopped.
30:42
And until we have whatever that next iteration is of absorbing media,
30:49
we need to leverage to the best way we possibly can what's in front of us.
30:54
And AI, in my opinion, is not as terribly scary. I'm not here to talk about
31:00
robots taking over the world.
31:02
Not my expertise. It is not my space. It is not of interest to me.
31:06
Taking AI in terms of looking at it as practical people, they're tools.
31:11
They are a new toolbox for you or me or whomever to dip into and discover what
31:19
are tools that are available to me,
31:22
most of them at very little to no cost, to help me accelerate the community that I'm building.
31:28
Now, does that help me in terms of finessing language quicker?
31:31
We're doing an Instagram post. Are there tools that I can use that can expedite
31:36
the number of things that I can do? Because if I use these tools, that will help me.
31:42
Are there AI assistants that can work while I'm sleeping so that when I wake
31:47
up in the morning, things are organized for me?
31:49
Are there tools that are available to me that can help me look at opportunities that I just don't see?
31:57
I'm only one person, and there's no way humanly possible that I can see all
32:03
the opportunities in front of me. So are there tools that I can lean into that
32:08
have the ability to see things that I can't see?
32:12
Are there events that I can build? Are there ways that I can monetize things
32:16
that I'm not thinking about?
32:17
Are there opportunities in other communities that I can partner with?
32:21
Are there people who I'm just not thinking about who might be great resources
32:26
for me or I for them that...
32:30
Make for growth. And at the end of the day, I just look at AI tools as tools
32:36
that I have the opportunity to look at.
32:39
I can cherry pick what I want to try, what I don't want to try.
32:43
At the end of the day, we're still in the power seat and I'm still in the driver's seat here.
32:48
And so I'm choosing to try different tools. And if those tools work for me, I leverage them.
32:54
If they don't, I move on Because every single day I follow certain platforms
32:58
which say, you know, the seven developments in AI this week.
33:01
For someone like me who works in media and likes to consume content,
33:05
I find that fascinating. Other people find it scary. I get that.
33:09
But for me, when I see a story, I cannot believe we are in a place within the
33:13
past two years that every seven days there is massive news that excites me.
33:22
And I've got to let go of the scary part of it. Someone listening?
33:26
Of course. They listen to everything.
33:28
Like Google scrolling through your emails? Yes. Yes, they are.
33:31
Suggested content? That's a given, right? So to me, that's a given.
33:36
And I'm not here to talk about whether it's right or wrong. I'm not here to
33:39
place judgment on the ethics and efficacy of it.
33:44
I look at what are the tools that are out there as I would with anything wrong.
33:49
Are those tools suitable to what my needs are?
33:53
If something, I used a tool that was scanning my emails and trying to determine how to reply to them.
34:02
And it didn't work for me because I'm not currently at a massive corporation.
34:09
Each of my emails still needs more of a personal response than what that tool is willing to give.
34:17
Great. Disable the tool. I would recommend it to someone who I was having a
34:21
conversation with who's a CEO of a large company and say, try this really cool tool.
34:26
I can see how this could work for you. It doesn't work for me.
34:29
And I think you need to be careful. And I think you need to be open.
34:32
And I think you need to try different things. And when they don't work, move on.
34:37
And when they do, lean into them.
34:40
And at the end of the day, we're in the driver's seat here.
34:44
So nobody is telling me that I have to do anything.
34:48
But I think it's about acceleration and saving time if there are opportunities out there to do it.
34:53
I'm the first to try it. The first time I edited my podcast,
34:56
the first episode took me six hours because I didn't know what that was doing.
34:59
And now you're on like what? Now I'm on two hours. Great.
35:01
And I use AI to help me. Right. There are programs that cut like,
35:05
I say like a lot. It's the California in me.
35:07
It cuts it out. Great. It will, you can put it in another AI unit that resounds it.
35:12
So there are opportunities that I use just for this podcast that are brilliant.
35:18
We threw our big fundraiser this last weekend and we did the grazing table.
35:24
And we were like, we need to save some money because all of the money we raise
35:27
goes to charity. You try to spend as little as possible making it a success that people love.
35:32
So we put into a, my co-chair Tyler put it into AI.
35:36
Hey, I have this many people coming. Right. I want to do a grazing table. What do I get?
35:41
It popped out everything. Totally. Probably with a shopping list,
35:45
with images of what it could look like.
35:47
Everything from the store, where to find it.
35:49
It was, and we spent. And probably if you put in there and you said everyone's
35:53
gluten-free and everyone needs to be dairy-free, it would give you five things too. And so to me.
35:57
That's like an assistant. That is an assistant, right? And so everyone,
36:00
I mean, how many times do you hear people say who are growing businesses,
36:04
I wish there were more of me?
36:06
Yes. That's like the general complaint, right?
36:09
Because I work with a lot of small businesses. I hear a lot of founders and
36:13
their complaints as well as their successes and their triumphs.
36:17
But the major thread and the major complaint I think most people make is when
36:23
they're growing a business or even when they're not.
36:26
I wish I had more time. I wish there were more of me.
36:29
At some point, I need to make the workday end. I don't think we're at a point
36:33
where we can all just shut off and say, OK, I'm going to turn it over to AI tools.
36:39
But I think if you look at it and really nuance down like that what you need
36:45
and have an experience like that, that's positive.
36:48
You begin to trust more and more. I remember it at the beginning of social media
36:54
days, and I remember it at the beginning of, like, what are we doing?
36:59
Are we devaluing ourselves by putting all of our magazine content online?
37:02
You could look at it that way, or you could look at it as an opportunity for
37:06
growth and larger viewership.
37:07
Social media was like, are we taking our protection away and our privacy away?
37:11
And it's morphed and it's changed from what it was to where it is today.
37:15
But I look at AI tools the same way. If you look at it in the red flag fire danger way.
37:21
That's one choice. And it is. And you look at it in a way where it's an amazing
37:26
opportunity until something really dangerous happens,
37:31
then you have the opportunity to tap into something that's innovative and cool
37:37
and probably very helpful.
37:38
Do you think that creators are using it to their advantage or disadvantage, the AI?
37:45
I consume less of Instagram than I used to because I don't want to go down a
37:49
hole. And I do that sometimes, go down that. doom scrolling hole.
37:53
But it's hard. Sometimes it's hard to decipher what's real and what's not.
37:58
So how do creators stay true to themselves and to the people who follow them?
38:03
I think it's a great question. And I think it's something that we're all analyzing
38:07
and living through day to day.
38:10
I think for me personally, I'm so proud of the Connecticut edit that we had
38:18
the foresight to create before the advent of AI tools,
38:22
because I think the root of the question and what we're all trying to analyze
38:26
is with the advent of AI, where is the trust going to be?
38:31
And I think it comes down to community trust.
38:35
I think if you're looking at it from a pure consumer content perspective.
38:41
Then that's a very different thing than looking to content to be a place of
38:48
trust and community, right?
38:50
So there will be a generation who will be raised purely on AI-driven content that.
39:00
Does not have kind of a why. It's just consumerism.
39:04
It's just general consumerism for consumerism's sake.
39:08
Their interest is piqued. They get sucked in. They follow some storyline. They move on to the next.
39:14
Then there are other people who consume content because they feel they're part of something.
39:18
And I grew up in the generation that I think it is important to feel part of
39:25
something because that's where trust is built. Yes.
39:28
For us at the Connecticut Edit, to bring it back full circle,
39:31
there is a filter that everything goes through. There is a lens to which we tell our stories.
39:36
There is a reason for being. There's a reason more and more people want to be
39:40
a part of it because they want the information that's there because they trust
39:44
that it's something that whether it pertains to them or not,
39:49
it is part of kind of a larger whole.
39:51
And so I think what you'll see is a dividing line between creators that thrive
40:00
because they've built community and unfortunately creators who are going to
40:04
fall on the wayside because they haven't built that community.
40:08
They are just pummeling content out to people. And I don't think it's wrong or it's right.
40:14
That's not what this is about. You and I are very smart people.
40:18
This is not a doomsday moment for creators.
40:22
But I think that there is going to be two things that are going to happen.
40:26
One, there's going to be a generation that's coming up that that's all they know.
40:31
They don't have the luxury of a look back the way that we do.
40:35
We grew through this. We've learned a lot.
40:38
We've learned what we don't want to see happen. And so we're probably holding some things back.
40:44
But there will be a generation who knows nothing else than an AI-generated world.
40:49
And there is going to be a period of people who kind of started to see it,
40:56
maybe didn't use it as a disruptor as much as they should have,
41:00
and have stayed this course of like, I'm just going to pummel out product to you and content to you.
41:06
And it's just going to be through my lens.
41:09
And I think that's going to end. Yeah. Because people like trust,
41:15
and what trust means is safety, and safety comes from community.
41:20
Yeah. That connection with the person in a way that they know is,
41:25
you might not know them, but you know that they're real.
41:28
Yes. And there's a vulnerability to what that looks like, right?
41:33
Yes. And we on our platform celebrate, but we talk about challenges too.
41:38
And do we talk about the celebration more than the challenges?
41:42
Yes, because these are our lives. And I don't think the platform is meant to
41:48
be a place where those things interweave together.
41:51
Our lives inform the decisions that we make about the brands and the people
41:55
that we share about because they connect to us.
41:59
And that connection to what you're saying is vital we are raising a new generation.
42:07
That we have yet to figure out what they're going to connect to yes so i have
42:12
an 11 year old and a 13 year old and i grew up in the 80s we were the generation
42:17
but i commodore 64 like you don't know anything about computers i'm like we
42:21
created can we please don't let them think that the biggest concern i have is.
42:25
How they create their own communities when they are on their devices.
42:30
I'm a big, as you are, trend observer, right?
42:34
Once your innate ability is to spot trends, that can be fashion,
42:39
lifestyle, any level of consumerism, or just the state of the market,
42:43
you kind of have that innate sense in you.
42:46
I know you have it. I think I have it, because that's what I have been paid
42:50
to do for my whole career, to spot trends in different iterations and in different
42:54
ways. I think it's interesting if you look at the state of the market now and
42:59
what is trending, right?
43:01
Like book clubs, knitting, mahjong. Those are three. Mahjong is huge. Mahjong is huge.
43:06
And I used to play Mahjong with a group of girls when we were growing up.
43:11
When we played in our early 20s, we were in a different era of that activity.
43:17
Now it's becoming popular again. It's an age old game, right?
43:20
And it has so much history to it. And that's really beautiful.
43:23
It's always fun to watch old world things get reinvigorated.
43:27
The game's not really getting modernized, but just the community around it is
43:32
getting excited and kind of fired up again. So what that means to me is like,
43:38
we're not all dead in the water here. Okay.
43:39
So before everyone has a total conniption fit about how we've all lost sight of reality.
43:47
Yes, I think in no uncertain terms, phones and devices and all of that have
43:54
infiltrated into our lives in a way that is unstoppable.
43:57
I do think the generation that is pushing back on the onslaught of this technology
44:03
does not want to see it happen in full force to the next generation.
44:08
And unfortunately, it puts a level of responsibility on parents and people and
44:14
individuals who are responsible to have to do.
44:19
Strike that balance. Be kids over here, build your community,
44:23
play sports, be a dancer, paint, find your thing.
44:27
And while at the same time, you know, you need to be absorbing all of these tools.
44:34
I have a daughter who's now in the generation of they have convinced all these
44:39
kids that none of them are going to have jobs because AI is going to replace all of them, right?
44:42
So at every level, there is
44:45
this push pull of what do we allow in
44:48
and what do we hold sacred and what is the most important
44:51
thing people are still having children people are still creating families people
44:54
are still building businesses and so at
44:58
the end of the day if we can try to think about are you going to let your kids
45:04
sit there and eat candy all day no are you going to give them a well-balanced
45:09
diet are you going to let them sit there on their phone all day or are you going
45:13
to say no they're parameters around that.
45:15
To me, I kind of think of it as the same thing. I'm not a psychologist.
45:19
I'm not a psychiatrist. I'm not a therapist.
45:21
I'm not here to talk about the dangers of technology at all.
45:26
I have just always tried to approach it as we're talking about in this way that
45:31
community is core to who we are.
45:35
Creating it and what that nucleus looks like can be a million different things.
45:41
And nobody should tell you what that thing is or multiple things are, but it is essential.
45:48
And when I look at what mine are, and I'm sure you look at what yours are,
45:53
you were talking about this tribe of Weston wives that you have.
45:57
I think that's amazing. A face lit up when you were talking about it.
46:00
My face lights up when I talk about my husband, my daughter, and my dog.
46:03
That community is so core to who I am.
46:08
If that community isn't safe and happy and thriving and protected under every
46:16
circumstance possible, then I'm not my best self.
46:21
And so I'm not there to build the next community. And so I think we are great
46:26
if you know about it and it's top of mind and you're thinking about it.
46:29
You're a million steps ahead of other people who are just kind of like,
46:34
oh, let's just set everyone out in the wild and like, let's go for the best.
46:36
And I see people who do that, as do you. I'm not going to do that, though.
46:41
No, I can't believe we've already been chatting for as long as we have been
46:46
chatting. I've kept you way too long. Yeah.
46:48
I have so many more questions. I want you to come back and chat with me more.
46:51
I have more topics to discuss. But at the end of every episode,
46:54
I ask three questions. Okay.
46:56
So the first question is, is there something you've changed your mind about recently?
47:00
It's the last topic we talked about. I think that we all fall prey to fear.
47:07
It is the worst emotion. It is the most dangerous thing. And I think not only
47:14
is fear dangerous, but to operate from fear is debilitating.
47:18
And one has to remember, I'm coming from the purview of a person who works in media.
47:24
So consuming content is what I do.
47:27
So I was at the beginning of really reading and following so many channels and
47:33
people and founders and CEOs talking about this. It seemed so scary.
47:39
And it does still seem scary. But I think I changed my mind of I move from fear to opportunity.
47:46
And using it correctly and responsibly.
47:49
The other question is, is there something on your bucket list?
47:54
I think that I have enough learnings to take the Connecticut edit in what started
48:01
out as a fun mother-daughter activity project passion and turn it into its own story.
48:11
Media platform in some way, something larger than it is.
48:16
Every business is only a business if you can monetize it. Otherwise,
48:21
it's an activity, it's a passion, it's a hobby.
48:24
And once a business, and I've worked with enough young businesses over the years,
48:29
consulted with them, sat on boards of them, when you see a turning point in
48:34
project hobby that turns into a business, the only way I can operate is to then see more.
48:41
And so I don't know, was the question bucket list?
48:45
I think I've worked for some very, very powerful businesses.
48:49
I've worked alongside with in building.
48:52
I've never truly built my own business in this way.
48:58
And so I think my bucket list is, am I able to do that in a really meaningful
49:04
way and grow it more than And we've grown it so far.
49:08
I feel good to say it. Totally. Now I got to do it. It's the universe.
49:11
It's going to manifest it.
49:13
It's going to manifest it. Is there one piece of advice that you would give your younger self?
49:16
Honestly, if I really look back, I would say is to trust your intuition and
49:22
to know that there is something greater at work than yourself and that you evolve
49:32
as much as the business world evolves.
49:36
And staying stagnant is debilitating. Would I give myself that advice?
49:43
Yes. Did I take it all the time? I think so.
49:46
But there are definitely moments in my career that I held on to something that had passed.
49:51
And like you're saying, to manifest what's next...
49:55
You do have to let some things go, whether those are physical things or regret
50:01
or I could have done it this way or I wish I had done that or I missed the opportunity
50:07
to partner with that person.
50:08
I saw it. It just didn't work hard enough to make it happen or I didn't trust
50:15
enough to think that person would want to go on this journey with me.
50:21
And now I've realized that you don't know until you ask, and you don't know
50:27
until you do, and you don't know until you try.
50:29
I see in my daughter now having an 18-year-old, she has guts that...
50:36
I hope I gave her an ounce of. She has so many facets to who she is.
50:43
I wanted a full life, and I think I have a full life to this day.
50:48
I was so focused on my career, so obsessively focused on my career and my trajectory.
50:55
I'm an only child and my daughter's an only child. So there are a lot of similarities.
50:59
We don't have a lot of other noise.
51:02
I think that I was so focused in one lane on my career that I probably didn't
51:09
let a lot of other things infiltrate until later in life in spirituality or
51:16
religion or how important friendship is to thrive in your career.
51:22
You need to have these communities that are supporting you and protecting you
51:27
and encouraging you and loving you, at the end of the day, let it all happen
51:34
more than being so narrowly focused.
51:37
Because if you let it evolve and you do it in a way where you're putting positive,
51:42
wonderful things and good things into the universe, they come back to you. That was beautiful.
51:46
Thank you so much for joining me. This has been a really lovely conversation.
51:50
Absolutely. So much fun. And I really appreciate it because I know how busy
51:53
you are with all the hats you wear.
51:54
So thank you. This is great. Thank you very much.
51:58
Thank you so much for joining me today on She's Smart. New episodes drop every Thursday.
52:03
Don't forget to subscribe and share. Stay cozy.