How are you feeling about the last set of Bre’s Breakdown newsletters? I’ve had a ton of fun speaking about business and culture but want to hear from you. What are you liking and what do you want to hear more about? Let me know in the comments and I hope you enjoy this one!

Leave a comment

The world of influencer marketing is interesting. It reminds me of when I started my career in Social and everyone had an opinion but rarely had I met anyone working outside of it that knew what they were talking about. Across industries and traditional companies, Social Media Marketing still isn’t taken seriously. It’s seen as an afterthought, however, it’s where most customers establish awareness and decide consideration for a brand. Brands that are smart know to at least lean in. Influencer Marketing is experiencing this same fate. I can not tell you how many marketers I’ve met who speak endlessly about how the marketing funnel is broken but aren’t working towards innovative ways to break through.

Then come the influencers…creators…tastemakers? As we know, traditional celebrities are expensive and companies are learning to borrow equity from creators with large followings. What I find most interesting is people still don’t take the creator economy seriously. I don’t just mean the fundamental lack of respect, rather the lack of consideration into how the industry actually works. People treat “influencer” like it’s a dirty word, similar to how people used to think it was fine to just throw anything on Social. People still don’t take influencers, creators, or whatever you call these folks seriously because they think the job is easy. And I get it, creators who build a platform based on credibility, creativity, and conversion are intimidating.

But with this, they’ve learned the importance of being okay with having a high-income and a perceived low-status job. The word perceived is important here - let’s break it down!

Share

When you think of a creator or influencer what do you think of? I recently overheard a colleague say it’s “just a person you get to wear your stuff who has a bunch of followers.” And I find that interesting! To me a creator can represent many things, especially when we think of the traditional marketing funnel. Content creators we look to based on reach usually are for awareness, brand equity, and consideration. The people with a large number of followers and low engagement are not folks who are going to help with softness in your business. Our mid-to lower funnel creators who create ‘ad-like’ content focus on conversion (hey affiliate girlies!).

What does that mean for women in corporate - specifically the culturally fluent people who read newsletters like this? It means because it’s belittled in your day-to-day, you subconsciously have that in your head when it comes time to build yourself in public. It’s why so many women I know don’t post their wins, feel they’re bragging, or shrink themselves in rooms where their opinion is most valued. To be clear, I’m guilty of this too.

Why is that? Visibility and proximity continue to be a divisive topic because people still equate high-status with discretion. A couple months ago I went to one of Emma Grede’s stops on her promotional tour for her book “Start With Yourself.” During that time she got a lot of backlash for saying people who don’t go into the office don’t get promotions. I’m a Black woman in Corporate America - I’m well aware of the systems in place that impact my ability to climb. When it comes to career advice I take what’s meant for me and leave the rest. What I found most fascinating were the number of people who have different goals from Emma’s audience that had the most to say. I got more opinions from carrying the book around than when I actually asked people their opinion and I can confirm I did not ask a single person their opinion.

Subscribe now

What are the actual facts? Goldman Sachs said the creator economy is tracking to be a $480 billion dollar industry by 2027 and was adjacent to the AI conversation at Cannes this year. Ignoring it and failing to at least learn about it is naive and quite frankly shows an inability to understand business strategy.

This letter isn’t about if you should become a creator, the majority of my readers are corporate professionals or business women who are building and are already becoming thought leaders in their space. This letter is to reframe how we think about innovation and break patterns in our thought process.

I’m making the suggestion that you learn to lean into your influence in your everyday life. I know that Bre’s Breakdown is something I want to build into me having speaking engagements and going to Cannes next year. I built a rapport with a networking community I’m part of and they reached out to me about interviewing Taylor Frankel the co-founder of Nudestix. The event was hosted at Equinox, where I met the person who owns the event space and offered it to me for future speaking engagements and events.

Last year, I started helping at a non-profit and landed a spot at a Gala. You need to be vocal about your abilities and what you want to achieve. Yes, proximity and visibility are great but what are you doing once you get there? When people vouch for you, how are you making sure you deliver? How are you using and growing your influence?

If there’s anything I’ve learned from previous interviews is that you can’t just wait for things to happen. You have to ask for what you want and fight like hell to get after it. Kerry Washington had this amazing quote about “catching the bus”. In her TIFF interview, she said “You pray to catch the bus and then you run as fast as you can. You can’t pray to catch the bus and then stroll down the street.” Publicly speaking about your goals and your wins isn’t low-status, it’s you running towards that bus. Why do you care so much about someone who didn’t even try to catch it watching you struggle to get there in the first place?

Celebrity beauty brands are an interesting topic. In my last letter I talked about the lip gloss lady Hailey but I’d like to peel back some other ones who I think are KILLING their marketing. When you think of Beis, who do you think of? Do you think of Shay Mitchell? Or maybe you didn’t watch Pretty Little Liars on ABC Family and it’s news to you that it’s celebrity-owned (backed?). Well it was founded by Shay Mitchell in 2018. What about PATTERN beauty? If you know PATTERN there’s a 90% chance you know it’s owned by Tracee Ellis Ross. Sidenote, it is so insane to me that when you think of Tracee Ellis Ross you don’t think of her mother first, but I’ll get to that branding queen in another letter.

So, what do a queer-lead from a hit teen show and the daughter of an icon have in common? They both have companies owned by Beach House Group. According to their site, “Beach House Group is a dynamic consumer products house with a proven track record of building industry leading, global brands.” So an incubator and business development firm - let’s break it down!

Subscribe now

My introduction to Beis was Shay Mitchell’s Youtube channel. At the time, she was one of the few celebrities who’d mastered vlog style content that felt engaging. She was known for her cool girl attitude and her tips on traveling. And what did I say in one of my last letters? “...if a celeb or creator has taken a sudden interest and shares it with us, we know they’ll be selling something soon.” While her peers would’ve aligned themselves with a swimwear line or sponsorship, Shay gave us her version of the perfect travel bag - The Weekender. The October 2018 launch featured other innovative travel bags but this was their hero product and still is the most talked about 8 years later.

The travel sets have taken over the airport for young women ages 19-25. If I had to guess, their exact customer is a young girl working in SPAM (Social, PR, Advertising, and Marketing). She bought it because it’s all over her FYP and it’s cute (guilty BTW). Outside of the packing cubes, innovative compartments, in-luggage scale, and an array of other genius features - Beis does partnerships well. I’ve been following their Director of Brand Marketing Sydney Blake Thomas for a minute now and her team does amazing work. Beis has partnered with Rare Beauty, Gap, Chipotle, Poppi, and my favorite: Barbie ( I could do an entire series on Mattel’s Barbie campaign - more on that in another newsletter).

They know their customer and when she was frustrated about how quickly the bags got dirty after a single use they held a Beis Wash Pop Up. To put it shortly: Their marketing is FUN. It’s no surprise Ms. Mitchell’s brand hit a reported $200M in annual revenue in 2023.

Share

Onto Girlfriend’s Joan Clayton. Tracee Ellis Ross is the embodiment of Rich Hot Auntie (future me). Like Shay, she’s known for taking a trip or two and giving us a silly IG Reel to go with it. Again, Tracee began doing interviews talking about her hair journey. As a young girl who was the first in my family to stop using relaxers, I was loyal to the natural hair community on Youtube. I knew all about porosity, curl types, and density. I even had my fair share of DevaCurl products after visiting the SoHo salon during my freshman year of college.

What piqued my interest with PATTERN beauty is the clear focus on Black tightly coiled hair. Yes Tracee has a looser curl pattern, but this felt like an elevated haircare that catered exclusively to Black hair. Where other curly hair brands want to speak to every consumer with curly hair, the marketing for PATTERN is clear. Very rarely do I see a non-Black person in their content (across paid, social, out-of-home, or in press). They specialize in Black hair care and their line is approachable. It’s not just your typical shampoo and conditioner set, they have multiple types depending on your hair type.

At launch, they had a light-weight conditioner, heavy conditioner, and intensive conditioner within their seven skus that entered the market. It was interesting to see an array of products specific for hair types. I believe I’d only really seen that in DevaCurl at the time. Tracee used her famous and diversely curled family in marketing imagery - from her sister, nephew, and brother to illustrate how the line was made for type 3B to 4C curls.

Share

Beach House Group has found an interesting niche within the celebrity business space. Oftentimes we see people back a product and give us a story about how much it means to them, but very rarely do we see the company last. Hence why audiences have grown skeptical at launch. What is fascinating is we’re beginning to see the tide change. Now more than ever we’re seeing these women-led companies with billion-dollar (sometimes multi-billion-dollar) valuations. Off the top of my head I can think of The Honest Company (with leaders now at Rare Beauty), Skims, Fenty Beauty, and so many more. All led by women who understand cultural currency.

As I dive more into the world of companies owned or founded by celebrities and influencers I grow curious of how many of them invest versus being pitched. In Tracee Ellis Ross’s interview with Emma Grede, she stated she invested her own money, whereas Emma Grede came to the Kardashians with the idea for Good American.

Subscribe now

We’re not just seeing traditional celebrities see success, influencers are making their way into the space. One of my favorite brands at Sephora is Cyklar - a bodycare brand with body washes, oils, fragrances, and so much more. It’s founded by a YouTuber I used to follow, but many wouldn’t know even owned it. Founder Claudia Sulewski was known for giving her reviews and showing us hauls from Sephora - and now her product has an entire endcap. Talk about a story people can buy into. Another is Leah Kateb becoming a refounder of fragrance company Skylar. Leah comes from the season of Love Island that put the US version on the map. Being part of viewers’ favorites PPG, featuring Serena Page and JaNa Craig, made people want to support anything the trio does.

It’s not lost on me that much of the target demographics for these companies are young women. The world of beauty is evolving and public figures aren’t just putting their names on random products. We’re demanding more from the people we put on a pedestal and they in turn are becoming wiser. Question, when was the last time you bought a product marketed to you by a celebrity versus one owned by one? Companies like The Beach House Group already know the answer.

With Love,

Bre

People have been rallying around them for the past two weeks. From longtime fans Spike Lee, Timothee Chalomet, and Taylor Swift to your favorite influencers who’ve paid high-4 figures to be in attendance. It’s very serious for everyone involved. The energy in NYC right now is gearing up for a Summer some are comparing to 2016 (my first year of college btw and it was everything they said it was).

While I historically associated the Knicks with Carmelo Anthony and celebrity courtside pictures - the way music, politics, players and businesses have been associating themselves with orange and blue hasn’t gone unnoticed.

I believe as we move towards a society that embraces artificial intelligence, what we want from our entertainment will be a humanness that only sports can provide. While I talk about the business of the Knicks, it’s important to note there is intentionality woven through every decision made by the people I cover who truly understand this. From Mamdani to Jordyn Woods - Let’s break it down!

Subscribe now

New York has many commercial theme songs, whether it be from Frank Sinatra or Jay Z - I rarely expect to hear non-black people associating the city with anything else. So imagine my surprise when I hear Ja Rule’s “New York,” making its way onto my feed and even being posted by King Mamdani at the top of the month? When released in 2004, it peaked at #27 and spent 14 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. According to Boardroom, streams for the song are up 825% and allegedly just hit #88 on iTunes. Talk about a comeback.

Speaking of Mamdani’s post, newly elected mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani has already had a generational run. Giuliani, Bloomberg, de Blasio, and #partyboy Eric Adams were not exactly known as folks to brag about so I was skeptical. However, in Mamdani’s first 100 days he secured $1.2B in universal childcare, raised $34M on behalf of tenants, and a $12B budget that will wipe out NYC’s debt (Hello pied-à-terre tax). It is no coincidence that when the city feels like it’s being run well, its people are able to rally around sports and not just their disdain for a lack of support from its government officials. The city of New York has always felt like a business and while I’m not naive enough to think that isn’t still true, there is a genuineness and trustworthy nature that has come from Mamdani’s short reign.

Now let’s talk about the people actually on the court. From Jalen Brunson’s pay cut to Tyler Kolek’s style profile you can’t go anywhere without hearing about one of the players. As a woman who loves business and finance decisions, I was less concerned about how good Brunson was and more concerned by why he took a $113M pay cut. With players like Allen Iverson who infamously lived 10x above their means flying through $155M and had money managers put $32M in trust he couldn’t trust until he was 55, players leaving money on the table is cause for pause. In 2024, Brunson signed a $154.6M four-year contract that allowed the Knicks to build a team around him. This led to the signing of Jordyn Woods’ fiancé Karl-Anthony Towns and Brunson’s former college teammate Mikal Bridges. With the starting 5 being those three, OG Anunoby, and Brunson’s college bestie Josh Hart they were destined for success. This is a lesson in equity over salary that most usually see within the tech space. I’ve talked about this before in influencer marketing. Talent (creators, celebrities, athletes, etc.) are finally starting to understand their true value and are asking businesses to catch up. More easily put, Brunson had the vision he just needed the platform.

Subscribe now

Speaking of influential decisions, this newsletter would be remiss without the mention of a WAG. The aforementioned fiancé, Jordyn Woods, of Karl-Anthony Towns (KAT) knows a courtside image is the equivalent of millions of dollars in earned media value. Brilliantly, she chronicled herself wearing her orange bag to every game. A lucky charm that hit even harder the one time she wasn’t allowed to bring it and the team lost. Retailing on Woods by Jordyn for $125, the bag in ‘Citrus’ is currently sold out (don’t worry I got my September preorder). Jordyn’s GRWMs and WIMBs (What’s In My Bag) have been all over my timeline. The day before the Knicks won she even did a partnership with Reeses and Oreos, capitalizing on her game day tradition of sitting next to Towns’ dad. As a longtime fan of Victoria Beckham, the life of a business-savvy WAG will always be intriguing to me.

To top it all off, in January of this year Saie Beauty became an official sponsor of the Knicks. It was big news when Sephora announced their partnership with the WNBA, so a beauty brand sponsoring a male sports team is interesting. What does it say that a beauty brand understands the cachet that comes with speaking directly to an underserved audience? It says the founder Laney Crowell is a culturally fluent businesswoman who understands the value in the women who attend the game, much like Jordyn. Outside of the typical out-of-home placements around the stadium, Crowell told Vogue Business, the brand “ hosts makeup classes for the Knicks City Dancers, and named its setting spray, City Set, after the squad.” A smart move for a brand looking to reach fans waiting to see courtside fits from their favorite celebrities.

Share

What I’ve loved most about all of this is the feeling it’s restored in the city. Mamdani’s mayoral win set up the momentum, but there has been an energy that New York has been missing for some time now. Being a New Yorker often means embodying a level of resilience, unbotheredness, and overall grit that is unmatched in any other place I’ve ever been. Yes, there is a harshness and unforgivable nature this city can bring but this city also loves to reward an underdog in a way that is unfathomable. The Knicks represent underdogs in a way that could only receive a win from a city like New York.

As I said earlier in this letter, AI will never be able to replace this feeling and sports/entertainment fans will never want it to. As culturally fluent business women, where are you seeing intentionality win? Share below!

Interesting Things I’m Seeing RN:

ELF is Launching Haircare

Interesting things are happening in Beauty!

Fox Corporation just bought Roku for $22B

With Love,

Bre

It’s been a minute. I had to figure out what I wanted Bre’s Breakdown to become. At this stage, it’s less about personal updates and more about my POV of what’s happening culturally in the world of business.

This iteration of Bre’s Breakdown is for the culturally fluent business woman who wants the breakdown behind the brands she already loves. I love discussing why creators are shifting towards equity brand deals instead of getting paid for an in-feed-story combo. I want to talk about why Hailey Bieber kicked off her Rhode Summer with a launch towards the dark skin Black girls (more on this later). I want to talk about how Olandria used fashion to transition from only-relevant-during-Summer reality star to one of 2026’s biggest names in media or how Nadya Okamoto became the Chief Creator Officer at Cherub.

The current business of beauty, brands, and BIG BIG budgets is all about how people make money on women-targeted businesses (Because you better believe that Poppi branding was intentional). When it was reported in March of 2025 that we’d be seeing1 the largest wealth transfer of $124 Trillion I knew money content geared to women would be endless. To me, that meant a special focus on women-led and creator-led brands/deals. So to start, this first letter will be all about Mrs. Bieber and her newest Summer Drop - let’s break it down!

Subscribe now

It’s Summer 2022 and Hailey Bieber is known for her street style but she’s been soft launching that she has amazing skin. Consumers are smart and know that if a celeb or creator has taken a sudden interest and shares it with us, we know they’ll be selling something soon. Make no mistake, the hero product for this launch is the Peptide Glazing Fluid. As a customer since this launch, I knew that the lip treatment would be more my vibe - and it seems I wasn’t alone. She reportedly made over $10M within the first 11 days, sold 1 million units of the peptide in a year, and had a waitlist of over 100,000. Not bad for a girl who people had been speaking ill of all over Tiktok!

Cut to 4 years later, a billion-dollar sale to e.l.f.2 and the Summer where Rhode had a darker bronzer than Fenty. What was most interesting about this launch is the amount of Black women I saw talking about it. Rightfully so - who better to speak to bronzey summery skin than Black women? While this isn’t the first time Rhode has partnered with Golloria3 and Toni Bravo to develop inclusive products, their involvement overtook my feed for the past two weeks. Creators who I’ve never seen receive PR or spoken about Rhode were suddenly swatching the products. It was an interesting watch. Even as someone who has been stocked with a salted caramel peptide since launch, I was convinced I needed to be in line (virtually of course) at 8:59am PT to make sure I got a luminizer, bronzer, and new lippies.

Share

The targeted influencer approach was clear: Make sure creators with darker skin tone (Black) are a priority for this launch. Where some brands would stop a little lighter before the shade “pearly warm bronze” for the luminizers and at “bake” for the bronzers, Rhode has gone the extra mile to further cement themselves in the beauty and skincare world. It seems each summer of strawberries, lemons, and whatever edible thing Lauren Ratner/Kelsey Bidel-Niyat come up with won’t be losing any momentum any time soon.

The logical next step for Rhode is skin tint. The business has successfully transitioned from skincare (peptides being the hero ingredients at launch) to respected approachable make up (tinted lip treatments and blushes). It’s time for the good folks at e.l.f.-owned Rhode to give the people a skin tint with SPF. I’m sure this is already being formulated and the biggest hold up is getting the SPF just right. I’ll save the integrated marketing plan for my day job, but in a Summer or two I can see the full face of Rhode taking over my timeline. Who knows, we may even get body washes too.

Subscribe now

Whatever is next for Rhode, I’m looking forward to seeing how they market products that continue to justify the pandemonium. I find influencer/celebrity-led brands interesting because in my day-to-day I am always debating with people the true value of these brands. I’m often met with people who are confident consumers are just buying the name (and while true for some), the ones that stand the test of time fill a gap and feel true to the public-figure’s audience. Fenty’s foundations that revolutionized the standard of shade ranges spoke to Rihanna consistently forcing the entertainment industry to make room for a Black girl in pop music. Cecred’s emphasis on technology and innovation speaks to Beyoncé’s analytical nature and attentiveness to detail that we speak to in her performances. Rhode speaks to the beauty in simplicity. Hailey is the definition of a culturally fluent business woman.

Interesting Things I’m Seeing RN:

Create & Cultivate Just Released Their 100 List

Olandria is a long way from fire pits and Alabama

Love Island US Season 8 is Here

I won’t be watching but I’ve seen the clips! #TeamTryce

With Love,

Bre

Leave a comment