Earlier this year, I was seeking new routines to help boost my mood.
I realized that if I stopped pressing the snooze button, my mornings would feel less rushed.
My morning routine has become my favorite part of the day, and I've become a morning person.
At the start of the summer, I was desperately craving some new routines to propel me into a new chapter. I wanted to create some scaffolding in my daily life that would help hold me up during a difficult time. I didn't intend to become a morning person in the process, but that's what happened.
I realized that if I wanted to change the way I felt throughout my day, the best place to start would be, well, at the start of it. If I could get myself into a better headspace as close to when I woke up as possible, maybe that good mood would be more resilient, and so would I.
I decided to ditch the snooze button
By waking up with just enough time to walk my dog Rooney and hop on my computer to work, I was starting my days feeling rushed and cranky; that needed to change. So, I started getting up so we would have enough time to take a more leisurely stroll and go to the dog park in the mornings.
I didn't even need to change the time my alarm was set for — I just needed to stop pressing snooze.
When I thought about it, I realized that I'd never been glad I pressed the snooze button; I'd never thought to myself, "I'm so glad I got that extra seven minutes of sleep." Instead, I often woke up after a snooze — or series of snoozes — feeling more groggy and disoriented than had I just stuck to the tiny promise I made myself the night before when I set the alarm and put my feet on my floor when it first went off.
Over time, both Rooney and I started to love the dog park; not only did it become part of our routine, but we both made friends. He is learning how to play with other dogs — he used to just make the rounds from person to person, enjoying getting pet — and I enjoy starting my day talking to other people, rather than staring at screens.
Starting the day with something pleasant creates a ripple effect throughout the day.
Courtesy of Rosemary Donahue
After the dog park, I also have the energy to exercise
I also realized that by waking up earlier and starting my day with something I actually enjoy, it's become easier to exercise in the morning afterward. I've tried — and failed — plenty of times to be a morning exercise person, but it's never the first thing I want to do when I open my eyes.
By doing something I actually look forward to first, it eases me into my day, and I'm awake enough to then get some intentional movement in when I get home. And if I still don't feel like it, I still get on my yoga mat and do a very gentle video that basically amounts to a nap with a stretch, just so I don't get out of the habit of doing something.
I feel more grounded since starting my new morning routine
Starting my morning like this has a few benefits. I feel less rushed and more productive by the time I sit down to work, which sets me up to feel more positive throughout the day. Overall, I feel less anxious, and I've been sleeping better, as well.
It also means I've barely looked at my phone for the first couple of hours that I'm awake; for some reason, this has translated to less mindless scrolling throughout the day. I feel more grounded, calmer, and more mindful, and though I rolled my eyes at them before, I'm now a proud member of the morning person club.
Welcome back to our Sunday edition, where we round up some of our top stories and take you inside our newsroom. Burnout is common. For $130,000 a week, this burnout clinic treats CEOs, founders, and ultra-high-net-worth individuals who require discreet and private care. Included: medical treatments, a midday IV, a personal trainer, and a private chef.
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This week's dispatch
Tomorrow's leaders are here today
Zhang and her team working out of her apartment.
Gabriela Hasbun for BI
Forget big lecture halls, dream internships, or comfy full-time jobs.
There's a growing cohort of young professionals who are approaching their careers differently. They're torching the traditional playbook and doing things their own way in an effort to reshape industries and solve global challenges.
We've spent the past year interviewing "young geniuses" — the next wave of leaders, innovators, and builders who are taking unconventional approaches to work, some as early as high school.
These folks aren't just making a living, either. They're earning serious dough at a young age by building AI tools, moving fast, and raising money from investors willing to bet big on the AI race.
Here are some of their stories and advice for others.
Zach Yadegari sold his first app at 16 and cofounded an AI-powered nutrition app while he was still in high school. It's generating around $30 million annually. "My advice to anyone would be to get started. Ignore the noise, ignore the people telling you that it's impossible to do it at a young age, and ignore the people trying to push you down a specific path to accomplish your goals."
Christine Zhang turned down an internship to spend two months building an AI startup with her college roommate. By the end of the summer, they raised $1 million. She's taking a gap year from Harvard to focus on the startup. "I had to delete my Instagram during the first week of classes so I wouldn't get FOMO. However, I don't regret my decision, and the feeling of missing out has definitely improved over time."
Arlan Rakhmetzhanov dropped out of high school to launch an AI coding agent startup that's raised $6.2 million. Both of his parents are entrepreneurs. He taught himself to code and founded his first company at the age of 15. "Being young gives you a head start. There's still time if you fail, which is why young people try crazy things."
Are you a young genius? In awe of what the kids are doing these days? Drop me a line and let me know what you think — srussolillo@businessinsider.com
The United States of Fraud
Getty Images; Rebecca Zisser/BI
What are the values that define America? Liberty, patriotism — and thievery, as it turns out. From petty shoplifting to return fraud, everyday Americans are becoming small-time scammers.
They're not stealing from everyone — just the companies they deem big enough to weather the loss, or those they think are making money off their backs. But too much Robin Hood-ing could have unintended consequences for small businesses … and the rest of us who are still paying for things.
While much of the broader labor market has been marked by slow hiring, it's also been cushioned by low levels of firing. That's not the case for the tech industry, though.
US tech companies have announced roughly 154,000 layoffs through November, according to Challenger. That's a 17% increase from the prior year and the most of any private-sector industry. These cuts have fueled fierce competition for roles. BI spoke to more than 20 tech professionals who are struggling to find work.
When a jury returned an $11.5 million verdict to a former SHRM employee who sued for racial discrimination, CEO Johnny Taylor sent a clear message: The fight isn't over yet.
In a video seen by Business Insider, Taylor said the case lacked merit and would go down as "just a blip in the history of SHRM." The company said in a LinkedIn post that it planned to appeal the decision.
When Sima Sistani left her role as CEO at WeightWatchers, she called Oprah for advice. She told Sistani to take a year to say no to everything. Now, Sistani is an adjunct professor at Duke University, teaching a course on women's leadership.
For BI's Power Hours series, Sistani shared what a typical day in her life looks like — from reading a physical newspaper and prepping talking points for her class, to ending the day with a romance fantasy novel.
"It's a zero-sum game they're losing, and it's only going to get worse."
— Doug Shapiro, a media analyst and senior advisor at BCG, on media companies struggling to get people to engage with their content following Disney's deal with OpenAI.
The TM-B fit me well, and turning the pedals felt like it did on a normal bike.
Erica Domena / Business Insider
BI rode a Rivian spin-off e-bike around New York City
Bike fanatic and BI correspondent Jack Newsham took Also's TM-B e-bike for a spin around the city. Here's what happened.
Harvey CEO Winston Weinberg said junior lawyers should focus on getting client experience.
Harvey
Harvey CEO Winston Weinberg said the fundamentals of being a good lawyer aren't changing.
Weinberg's startup, Harvey, creates AI tools for lawyers.
Harvey just hit an $8 billion valuation.
AI won't change what it takes to be a good lawyer, according to one industry leader.
"So I actually think a lot of what makes an incredible lawyer today is still what will make one tomorrow," Winston Weinberg, Harvey's cofounder and chief executive, wrote during a recent Reddit Ask Me Anything chat.
"I've found that the best partners are the ones that are incredible at understanding what the actual business needs are and framing an agreement based on that," Weinberg wrote. "Same goes for litigation, it's who can come up with the best arguments/story not who is the best at going through emails in discovery."
Overall, junior partners should try to get "as much client experience as possible," Weinberg said.
"That's actually the main thing I pitch to firm leaders – they should focus more on giving juniors client experience, and be okay with them making some mistakes – that's how they become the best partners in the future," he wrote.
Last week, Harvey reached a valuation of $8 billion, thanks to a recent funding round led by A16z. Weinberg said that no single company, including Harvey, will own the legal tech market.
"I don't think a single player is going to capture all of the pretty enormous amount of value that will be created in the next 10 years in this space," he wrote in the Reddit chat.
As for lawyers who want to follow in his footsteps, Weinberg said they need to get used to failure.
"Junior lawyers are often practiced perfectionists, and startups are all about risk, reward, and resilience," Weinberg told Business Insider after his Reddit chat. "So I meant what I said–the biggest thing a lawyer who wants to work in the tech space should do is build up tolerance for failure."
J. Crew was the most-shopped brand on ShopMy this year. The retailer has embraced influencers like Delaney Rowe, pictured, as part of its holiday campaign.
Courtesy of J. Crew
Affiliate marketing is on the rise, driving $216 billion in sales this year.
Using platforms like ShopMy, influencers and publishers can suggest products and earn a commission.
These are the best-selling brands on ShopMy this year.
Influencers have changed the way we shop, quite literally influencing the trends that hit, the brands we buy, and the items we covet.
Affiliate marketing — a way to drive sales through links posted by creators or publishers — is expected to drive $216 billion in US e-commerce sales this year, according to data from EMARKETER.
These links are a direct way to track the shopping that is actually inspired by influencers.
ShopMy, a social commerce platform, enables creators to build shoppable landing pages and earn commissions from sales driven by their links on social media.
More than 185,000 creators use the platform, and their recommendations drive more than $1 billion in sales annually, according to the company. In October, ShopMy raised $70 million in a Series B funding round, a testament to the belief that the model will continue to grow.
"Affiliate has become a core part of brand building," Tiffany Lopinsky, cofounder and president of ShopMy, told Business Insider over email. "The top brands now treat creators as cultural partners."
A total of 1,200 brands use ShopMy.
The platform gave Business Insider an inside look at the best-selling brands on the platform this year as part of ShopMy's year-end report.
1. J. Crew
At the end of last year, retailer J. Crew named a new chief marketing officer, Julia Collier, who previously built out clothing brand Skims' very successful influencer marketing arm. She has made creators a key part of J. Crew's strategy; its holiday campaign featured popular influencers, like "Subway Takes" host Kareem Rahma and TikToker Delaney Rowe, who created shoppable wishlists on Shopmy.
2. CurrentBody
Redlight masks are all over social media, and CurrentBody has won customers through influencer partnerships.
In job descriptions, CurrentBody's parent company, The Beauty Tech Group, has said influencer marketing is a "growth engine." Its masks are featured on the ShopMy profiles of reality star Bethenny Frankel and fitness instructor Melissa Wood-Tepperberg.
3. Tory Burch
TikTok star and model Alex Consani walked in Tory Burch's New York Fashion Week runway show.
Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for Tory Burch
Fashion brand Tory Burch's social media marketing has stood out this year. In addition to being a best-selling brand on ShopMy, it had the most engagement of any brand at New York Fashion Week earlier this year, according to social analytics firm ListenFirst. Its social posts featured influencers like TikToker Alex Consani and celebrities like Sydney Sweeney, Lana Condor, and Chloe Fineman.
4. Tuckernuck
A multibrand e-commerce retailer, Tuckernuck's executives have discussed the importance of creators to its brand. Cofounder September Rinnier Votta told EMARKETER last year that the company looks for influencers who are already touring Tuckernuck, as well as microinfluencers with an authentic following.
5. Veronica Beard
Veronica Beard has multiyear relationships with several influencers, including Tinx.
Steve Eichner/WWD via Getty Images
Women's contemporary label Veronica Beard is favored by big-name influencers like Tinx and Valeria Lipovetsky, who have posted in the brand's clothing for years. Long-term relationships with creators are key to the company's strategy, Veronica Beard execs have said in multiple interviews, and the brand brings them in to launch products and at other key moments.
6. Jenni Kayne
Direct-to-consumer home and apparel brand Jenni Kayne understands the power of influencers. Its first hit product, a pair of flats, went viral thanks to one. Now it has a large and eclectic influencer network; Reese Witherspoon, Sofia Richie Grainge, and Gucci Westman feature Jenni Kayne products on their ShopMy pages.
Recruiters say hiring doesn't stop in December, and some managers need to fill roles before budgets reset.
Many job seekers pause their searches anyway, leaving less competition for those who continue to apply.
It's a good time to ask for job-search help because people tend to be jollier, career advisors say.
If all you want for Christmas is a job, don't let the holiday fanfare slow down your search.
Recruiters and hiring managers say a common misconception is that employers pause interviewing at the end of the year because decision-makers are all on vacation. In reality, they say hiring activity tends to hold steady, and in some cases, managers are pressed to fill openings before their talent-acquisition budgets reset in January.
They need to "use it or lose it," said Nicole Fernandez-Valle, lead talent acquisition partner at Miami-based Royal Caribbean Group. "This is still a pretty hardworking time for our recruitment teams."
Brian Fink, an independent recruiter in Georgia, said he's helping an AI startup in Atlanta find two managers and six software engineers to bring on board before 2025 comes to a close.
"Employers want to start 2026 ready," said Fink. "They don't want to start recruiting in January. They want to start running a race."
Lighter competition
While other job seekers put their searches on hold, take advantage of the lighter competition to submit applications, said Aaron Roberts, a hiring manager at commercial real-estate company JLL. He has more than 50 openings he's looking to fill in California, including ones for administrative assistants, facilities managers, and producers. He anticipates filling at least a third by New Year's.
"You might miss an opportunity if you put your job hunt on hold," he said. "Keep going."
Roberts knows from personal experience. He applied for his current position as vice president of operations at JLL just before Thanksgiving in 2019 and did several rounds of interviews in December that year. The last one took place five days before Christmas.
Seize the holiday spirit
Since people tend to be jollier around the holidays, it's a good time to reach out to folks who could potentially help with your job search, said Julia Levy, an independent talent-acquisition executive in Memphis and author of "From Hi to Hired: Your Insider Guide to Internships." They'll be more likely to take your call, she said.
By contrast, if you hold off networking until January, your odds of getting a meaningful response — or any at all — will be slimmer since this is when people tend to be busy starting new projects, Levy said.
Competition for jobs will also likely intensify in January, she added. People who put off their searches for the holidays return, and those resolving to find a new job in the new year enter the market, Levy said.
Yes, this is tough
Job hunting during the winter holidays can be more mentally challenging than at any other time of year. Your family and friends may be shopping for gifts, decorating the house, and baking sweet treats, while you're still at a computer searching for newly posted job listings.
And if you're a parent, your kids are likely off from school and may be eager for your attention.
"It's so hard," said Helene Vo, a career strategist in Los Angeles. "You're almost going against the grain of what the holidays are about."
But this is also why competition for jobs dies down — and why it can pay off to stick with your search routine. When you're used to applying to five or six jobs a day, "it's much easier to override" all of the holiday hoopla around you, Vo said.
Carl Rinsch's sci-fi epic "White Horse" turned into a debacle for Netflix. Until his criminal trial, the public hadn't seen any footage from the project.
Carl Rinsch trial defense exhibits; Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty; Lloyd Mitchell for BI; Rebecca Zisser/BI
When Netflix executives first saw a glimpse of "White Horse" in 2018, they were blown away.
Cindy Holland, who at the time oversaw the streaming service's original content, read the script sitting in Keanu Reeves' home, she said in court testimony earlier this month. "White Horse" was the brainchild of Carl Rinsch, who had previously directed Reeves in the big-budget "47 Ronin."
At the time, Rinsch had already created a trailer and six preliminary episodes of "White Horse," funded in part with his own money. Holland testified she found the footage "stunning" and the script "really impressive."
"I believed we should pursue the project," testified Holland, who is now an executive at Paramount.
Netflix agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars on the project, but "White Horse" was never finished. Instead of premiering on the nation's biggeststreaming platform, "White Horse" has become the subject of legal disputes, news articles, and, finally, a criminal trial against Rinsch in Manhattan federal court.
Over the years, the public has seen very little of the sci-fi passion project that wowed Netflix executives into shelling out $55 million for the project — until now.
Early versions of "White Horse" episodes show the "Organic Intelligence" beings learning how to stand and move their bodies in a human-like fashion. Netflix executives testified they found the project "visionary."
Carl Rinsch defense trial exhibit
"White Horse" depicts a world with artificially created "Organic Intelligence" beings, which resemble humans. When the world discovers they're not flesh-and-blood humans, the artificial beings create their own private cities, walled off from the rest of the world, and form their own society.
In 2018, Netflix agreed to pay $44 million for Rinsch to deliver about 13 episodes, ranging from about four to 14 minutes and totaling about 120 minutes. It gave Rinsch an additional $11 million in March 2020 to finish "White Horse" — money the jury found he spent on luxury goods instead of finishing the show.
The first preliminary episode of "White Horse" features a futuristic auction where people bid on a formula that unlocks the secrets to organic life. Carl Rinsch developed the project for years, turning it into a passion project that impressed Netflix executives.
Carl Rinsch defense trial exhibit
The lack of public images has made it difficult to understand why a major entertainment company would agree to spend $55 million on "White Horse" and why Netflix continued to infuse cash into the project after Rinsch exceeded his initial budget.
Netflix even gave Rinsch coveted "final cut" privilege, effectively giving him ultimate creative control over what "White Horse" would look like, despite "47 Ronin" flopping at the box office.
The "White Horse" footage featured a futuristic world, designed by Carl Rinsch, that stunned Netflix executives.
Carl Rinsch defense trial exhibit
Some of the work that went into the production made it into the evidentiary material for Rinsch's trial, including six episodes that Rinsch created with his own money, before Netflix agreed to invest in the project.
Prosecutors played the trailer for jurors, then asked former Netflix executives about their high hopes for "White Horse" — and the disappointment and anxiety that followed as the production fell apart.
Peter Friedlander, another Netflix executive, testified early in the trial that he was "blown away" by Rinsch's "visionary" footage.
"The visuals were something that I had never seen before," Friedlander said.
Carl Rinsch spend some of his own money shooting scenes, before Netflix's involvement. Prosecutors say "White Horse" was ultimately an excuse for him to scam the company.
Carl Rinsch defense trial exhibit
Rinsch's defense lawyers showed jurors concept art that Rinsch and his production team created to illustrate the elaborate sci-fi world the director had built. Rinsch — a protégé of "Alien" and "Gladiator" director Ridley Scott — described "White Horse" as a potential franchise on par with "Star Wars" and "Game of Thrones."
After Netflix agreed to pay Rinsch for the project, the writer-director-producer spent months filming hundreds of hours of footage in Brazil, Uruguay, and Hungary, using the production codename "Conquest."
According to federal prosecutors, Rinsch "abandoned" "White Horse" after running out of money in the fall of 2019. He swindled Netflix out of the additional $11 million the streaming service agreed to pay him the following March, prosecutors said.
In "White Horse," the "Organic Intelligence" beings are sent on humanitarian missions around the world. The preliminary footage ends on a cliffhanger. Netflix executives greenlit a script that would allow Carl Rinsch to finish one season of the story.
Carl Rinsch defense trial exhibit
During closing arguments, Rinsch's attorney Daniel McGuinness urged the jurors to watch the six episodes — which totaled about 40 minutes — while they deliberated the verdict.
It was absurd, McGuinness said, to think that Rinsch planned to scam Netflix through the production of the project when he had put so much creative energy into making it a reality.
According to Rinsch's defense attorneys, the director believed that the bulk of the $11 million March 2020 payment was meant to reimburse him for cost overruns he had paid out of his own pocket.
Rinsch continued to work on "White Horse" throughout 2020 and in 2021, his lawyers said.
To demonstrate this, the attorneys pointed to additional concept art that he had commissioned and created himself.
After Carl Rinsch received an $11 million infusion from Netflix, in March 2020, he put some of the money toward concept art for costume design.
Carl Rinsch defense trial exhibit
The artwork featured architectural and costume designs, which Rinsch said would go toward a potential second season.
Much of the concept art depicted scenes in a castle. Trial records showed that Rinsch booked Palais Liechtenstein, a castle in Vienna. Rinsch testified he wanted to film additional scenes there, but he believed Netflix decided to scrap "White Horse" altogether before that could happen.
Rinsch staged scenes that took place in a castle. He testified he planned to film the scenes in Vienna before Netflix officially pulled the plug.
Carl Rinsch defense trial exhibit
According to one draft of Rinsch's screenplay, two twin-like "Organic Intelligence" beings would rule over their society and then betray each other in a Shakespearean fashion, legal records show.
The concept images for the unfinished scenes, entered into evidence in Rinsch's criminal trial, depict an apparent murder, with one of the beings lying on the floor in a pool of golden blood. The scene is not included in Rinsch's preliminary episodes.
Netflix executives testified that Rinsch failed to complete principle photography for "White Horse," and that the project could not be salvaged from the existing scenes.
Carl Rinsch defense trial exhibit
Prosecutors said Rinsch's concept art was a fig leaf. Pointing to an agreement between him and Netflix, they said Rinsch was supposed to spend the entire $11 million infusion on finishing the first season — not just a small fraction of the sum for concept art. One prosecutor described the funds Rinsch paid to book the castle as "a $30,000 down payment on an $11 million fraud."
One of the prosecution's arguments centered on Rinsch's purchase of multiple Rolls-Royces.
Rinsch testified that the cars would be used for what he called the "Calvacade" — a procession of cars that shuttled diplomats through the "no man's land" between the "Organic Intelligence" beings' independent cities and the human world.
The concept art featured what Rinsch called the "Calvacade" of cars that shuttled diplomats between the human-controlled areas and the "Organic Intelligence"-controlled cities. Prosecutors said Rinsch's purchase of multiple Rolls-Royces weren't needed for these scenes, as his lawyers suggested.
Carl Rinsch defense trial exhibit
In closing arguments, Assistant US Attorney David Markewitz turned the concept art against Rinsch.
He pointed the jury to planning documents that showed he had planned to shoot the "Calvacade" scenes in Brazil in 2019 — two years before he purchased the Rolls-Royces under his own name. On insurance records, Rinsch had said the cars were for himself, not for a Netflix production.
"At an even more basic level, you know it would make no sense to actually buy five Rolls-Royces just to shoot a few scenes with them," Markewitz told the jury."
Shortly before a sober-faced jury walked out of the deliberation room and announced they found him guilty of all counts, Rinsch said he was happy a journalist at Business Insider had watched the six preliminary episodes and understood his vision.
"I'm glad you watched it," he told Business Insider. "It means a lot to me."
After multiple tech layoffs, Kelly Withers focused on her yoga mat startup, Carmu.
She had intended for the company to be a side hustle, but doubled down on it after the layoffs.
Withers is reluctant to seek outside funding because she doesn't want to give up control.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kelly Withers, 36, who lives outside Detroit and is the founder of Carmu, a yoga mat startup. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.
About seven years ago, I was in my 20s and getting divorced. I was a single mom to a 2-year-old and a 3-year-old, with no outside help. I had no place to live and no full-time job. So I started coming up with ideas as fast as I could. How am I going to take care of these two kids? I felt alone.
At that time, I was doing photography to help restaurants build their brands. Then I went to a yoga class. When I walked in, every person had the same mat and the same outfit. I started thinking about my mom and how she raised us to be individuals and stand out. I had this idea that since I was designing so many things already, I would go home and try to design a mat so I could feel more like myself when I went to class.
About a week before I went to place my order for all the mat designs, the pandemic hit, and I was back to square one. I also lost my photography clients, because restaurants were shuttered. I panicked because I had two tiny humans relying on me.
So, I started teaching myself design for tech, because it seemed much more lucrative. From everything I've ever heard, you go into the corporate world — that's how you have a comfortable life.
I got a syllabus from an online boot camp, but I couldn't afford it. So, I bought a book on every topic. Then I hired a tutor for 30 minutes at a time to go over my work and my portfolio, to make sure I was doing it right. He worked at Microsoft. He told me how much money I would potentially make as a junior designer. I remember thinking, "Well, I'm going to have to pretend I'm a senior designer."
Pretty much on my first interview, I got a corporate job doing UX design as a lead designer. I was bullshitting, so it was a little nerve-racking. Whenever I had a project, I'd run it by the tutor, just praying that I didn't get busted. I caught on quickly, and it was fine. I did that for a couple of years.
The layoffs
Eventually, there was a lot less work. So, I started panicking.
I found another job, so then I had two. Sure enough, about a month later, layoffs hit, and our whole team from the first job got wiped out.
People talk about corporate life and how that gives you security. In my experience, you're handing over your control, your finances, your future — and it's still a gamble. I can't live my life constantly betting on somebody else and somebody else's company.
I've always been into design. I want to build something tangible. I ordered about 250 mats to start. The idea was that I would continue working in tech, and then I would soft-launch these as my side hustle. That way, if I ever got laid off again, I'd have some security.
The day my yoga mats got delivered to my house, I got laid off. I looked at it as a sign: Go all in. You have some savings. See what you can do. Within about a month, I sold out.
I was like, "Now what am I going to do?" They're made outside the US, so it takes a while for them to get here. I took the few mats that I had left and reached out to style editors.
Doubling down
I took the rest of my savings, and I bought 1,000 mats. It was a scary moment because I was living off those savings, too.
People talk about entrepreneurship and say, "Oh, it's so risky." Well, it isn't. If you have the product, I like to think of it as a calculated risk. At this point, if I'm being honest, it was the only way I could think of making money, as I could not get a job interview.
The company is named after my mom, Carolyn Mulligan, who passed away 10 years ago after she was hit by a car on her bicycle. She had just been on my mind, and I'm convinced that because she was so strong, she has something to do with how this is working out.
The day I launched, in May, I sent out this post on Instagram to announce it. My friend called me and said to open up Vogue. Hailey Bieber was on the yoga mat in the magazine. About a week later, GQ wrote about Carmu. From there, it was just enough leverage where I could take it all over the place. We got into Goop, and we got into Anthropology in Europe. It's just crazy because it's been such a little amount of time.
When I got the next shipment of mats, I hadn't had an interview in tech for a year. With my business, I was profitable from day one.
The big question now is whether I want to have outside investment or do it myself. I believe I could find outside investment. Have I been traumatized in handing over control of my life to other people? Yeah. I don't know if I'm ready to give up control of anything right now, just because of how everything has gone.
Rebag sold popular Van Cleef & Arpels and Cartier secondhand bracelets in 2025.
Moritz Scholz/Getty Images
Three luxury jewelry and watch brands saw the most growth in the resale market in 2025, according to Rebag.
Tariffs and rising retail prices boosted demand for secondhand jewelry and watches, Rebag said.
Bracelets and watches were among the most popular items among pre-owned shoppers overall this year.
The resale market is heating up, and certain jewelry and watch brands are outperforming the rest, according to new data from US-based luxury resale company Rebag.
Tariffs are driving up retail prices and prompting more shoppers to turn to the secondhand market. At the same time, more consumers are looking at jewelry and watches as investments, pushing 2025 to be one of the most dynamic years yet for luxury resale, Rebag said.
The resale market is expected to reach as much as $360 billion by 2030, according to an October report from Boston Consulting Group and pre-owned fashion marketplace Vestiaire Collective.
"Rising primary market prices pushed more consumers to the secondary market, reaffirming its stability as a trusted and lucrative channel for collectors," Charles Gorra, CEO and founder of Rebag, said in a press release.
These are the jewelry and watch brands that saw the most significant value increase and experienced the fastest growth in 2025, according to Rebag's annual resale report.
Van Cleef & Arpels
Van Cleef & Arpels introduced the Sweet Alhambra line in 2007.
Van Cleef & Arpels
Van Cleef & Arpels leads among jewelry and watch brands in resale value for 2025, with styles holding 112% of their value on average, up 9% from 2024. The growth was led by the Sweet Alhambra collection, which features necklaces, bracelets, and more with unique motifs.
That means styles can resell for more than their original retail price.
The Sweet Alhambra bracelet retained 117% of its value in 2025. The 18-karat gold, mother-of-pearl bracelet with a single motif, retails for $1,540 before taxes as of December. The same style — tagged as an investment piece — is going for $2,020 on Rebag.
Rolex
The "Hulk" Submariner was discontinued by Rolex in 2020.
SwissWatchExpo
Rolex maintained its "unicorn" status — reserved for brands with over 90% value retention — with a 104% value retention rate. That's a 4% jump from 2024.
Demand for secondhand watches is on the rise as Swiss watchmakers respond to the previous 39% tariff imposed on Switzerland. In November, the country reached a deal with the US that brought the staggering rate down to 15%.
One model, the Oyster Perpetual Submariner Hulk Date, was particularly valuable on Rebag in 2025, with an average resale value retention of 244%. A "good" condition Hulk Submariner sold for $19,415 on Rebag. Rolex discontinued the style in 2020, fueling demand for the piece.
Cartier
Cartier watches are popular among Gen Z.
Cartier
Cartier is a brand that's gaining popularity among Gen Z secondhand shoppers. It's been spotted on famous wrists like Taylor Swift's in her engagement photos. Its bracelets, like those from the "Love" collection, are also particularly popular.
The French brand, which makes its watches in Switzerland, grew 4% toan average value retention of 87% in 2025, driven by its bracelet and watch offerings. The Santos de Cartier saw its value retention reach 92% with an "excellent" condition iteration of the model selling for $8,840 on Rebag and carrying a retail price tag of $8,650 for the same style.
Amati still eats some animal proteins, but gets most of her intake of the macronutrient through plants.
ZOE
Snacking on junk food can harm your health even if you're careful to eat nutritious meals.
A nutritionist said packing 2 simple healthy snacks at work helps her stay on track and energized.
Aim for snacks that provide fiber as well as protein to help you stay full for longer.
Eating more snacks can make it easier to stay on track with a healthy diet, according to a top nutritionist — if you pick the right kind of snacks.
Researcher Federica Amati said smart snacking has been a game-changer for her personal eating habits on a busy schedule.
"If I've got a really busy day, sometimes I don't get time to have a proper lunch. If I have these snacks with me, I'm good and I'm feeling good. If I don't, then I'm ravenous later," she told Business Insider.
Amati, medical scientist and head nutritionist at the nutrition app ZOE, has also seen the power of snacking first-hand in her work.
Even if you're careful with most of your diet, snacking on junk food can leave you struggling with metabolic health issues like weight gain, low energy, high cholesterol and high blood sugar, she said. That's backed up by research from ZOE and other experts.
"Crappy snacks can basically outdo a lot of the greatness you are doing for yourself with good food," Amati said. "Snacking per se isn't good or bad for you, but what you snack on has a massive influence on your metabolic health."
She shared the two foods she always carries for a nutrient-dense boost, and how to optimize your snacking routine for a healthier diet.
Fresh fruit + nuts = A perfect dose of fiber and good fats
Amati's go-to snack combination at work is an apple and a small jar of mixed nuts.
The pairing of fruit and nuts offers gut-healthy fiber, plant-based protein, and healthy fats — all satiating nutrients that tell your brain you're full.
"It doesn't have to be some sort of chef situation," Amati said."It's just about having a very different mentality to snacking. If you are hungry, eat something that's a food."
What's key is that you reach for whole foods. If you snack on ultra-processed foods, like a granola bar loaded with additives like sugar, fat, and salt, it's easy to overeat.
Why? Because the nutrients in ultra-processed foods are already broken down, leaving you with less to digest. So, they offer a temporary energy fix but leave you crashing afterward, often leading to overindulgence at your next meal or snack.
"It's nutritionally pretty void. So though you may temporarily not be so ravenous, your body's not benefiting from it, and your hunger will remain later that day," Amati said.
Plus, the benefit of Amati's fruit-and-nuts snack is that it's relatively inexpensive and requires zero prep: just grab and go.
The specifics aren't crucial — you can make a healthy snack from fruits like berries and other nuts and seeds, from almonds to pepitas.
Start snacking early
Whatever you choose to snack on, being proactive about your hunger cues can lead to better results, according to Amati.
Eating early helps you stay in tune with your circadian rhythm to feel consistently energized and make better choices throughout the day.
"We're primed to more efficiently deal with nutrients and with energy storage and distribution from fats or sugars at the beginning of the day," she said.
Skimping on early meals and snacks can leave you so hungry by dinner that you double-down on dessert or late-night snacking, often with less-healthy choices.
While timing your snacks can be a matter of personal preference, eating when you're hungry but not hangry can stave off temptations for a more balanced diet.
"You'd be surprised how many people who struggle with their weight or who struggle with poor metabolic health don't eat enough during the day," Amati said.
Jennifer Goldsack said cancer forced her to redefine what leadership looks like as a CEO.
Thomas Simonetti for BI
A CEO was surprise-diagnosed with late-stage colon cancer at 42.
The diagnosis forced her to be more vulnerable and transparent with her co-workers.
She shared three basic rules she's developed for managing her workday and diagnosis in tandem.
When Jennifer Goldsack woke up after emergency surgery last Christmas, she was waiting to hear she had a stress ulcer. Maybe appendicitis. But not this.
The surgeon had news that made no sense to her, as a 42-year-old CEO and former athlete: late-stage cancer.
Goldsack had always prided herself on being able to get anything done — Olympic training schedules, corporate roadmaps, back-to-back meetings.
Goldsack, a former Olympic athlete, is now the CEO of the Digital Medicine Society, a global healthcare nonprofit.
Courtesy of Jennifer Goldsack
Cancer forced her into a new, uncertain kind of leadership: one built on vulnerability, delegation, and uncertainty.
"Good leadership is to be able to be clear and to have a plan," Goldsack, head of the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe), told Business Insider. "Or, to at least have a plan to make a plan. And I wasn't able to do that."
She is sharing her story to highlight the pressures that today's leaders face, often having to shoulder pain and stress in silence. And to share how she's learned, over the past 10 months, to lead her organization with more vulnerability than she ever imagined she'd allow.
She dismissed early signs of cancer as personal failures
As a world-class Olympic rower, Goldsack knew how to push her limits. She had perfected the art of identifying her strengths and working effectively as part of a team.
Jennifer Goldsack (front seat) rowing for Team USA at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Courtesy of Jennifer Goldsack
That helped her move seamlessly into leading a company. As a CEO, she prided herself on being the kind of boss who never asks her employees to do more than she would. "Be humble, be hungry, and always be the hardest working person in the room" was her mantra.
The early signs of cancer crept in slowly over time. With the omniscience of hindsight, it's easy to say Goldsack should have realized something was really wrong last year. In the moment, she just thought she was run down.
She was rejected from giving blood for two months in a row, because her iron levels kept getting lower and lower — too low to help others. She was dealing with stomach pain that was bordering on excruciating.
Through it all, she was telling herself she was a failure. This was her fault. How else to explain it? She'd perfected the art of training hard and recovering smart over many years. Inexplicably, her winning strategy wasn't cutting it anymore.
"It was almost an affront on how I defined myself as a person because I didn't know what I was doing wrong," she said. Her self-talk disintegrated. "You idiot, suck it up, get it together, you need to get better with your sleep."
She was so tired in a way that a good nap on the couch simply couldn't fix. Picking at meals, stopping for Pedialyte at the gas station regularly. Was she experiencing the "hot girl IBS" that everyone on the internet was buzzing about? Did she need to start drinking one of those expensive green supplement powders every morning?
How foolish she had been to let the stress of her work get to her like this, she thought. Becoming that sad kind of character who eats girl dinner over the sink each night.
"My self-talk was really poor, that it was my fault," Goldsack said. "I sort of absorbed pretty aggressive symptoms of a pretty frightening disease and allowed myself to drift until it really was a late-stage diagnosis."
3 big leadership lessons: clear communication, vulnerability, and a 'take 5' attitude
For Goldsack, one of the hardest parts of being a CEO with colon cancer is the endless uncertainty.
Her cancer diagnosis was a crash course in living in the moment — not in the eat-pray-love and meditate way (she hates that stuff) — but because she had to constantly reassess her prognosis day by day. She was out of work for a month in January, living in the hospital.
Unable to eat, she lost 40 pounds, dropping almost a third of her body weight. She felt like a frail little bird. Even walking was exhausting, and she needed help with everything.
Goldsack remembers feeling like a "frail little bird" when she left the hospital after surgery.
Courtesy of Jennifer Goldsack
As a result, she got better at communicating vulnerability and signposting her own limits for others. Some of the learnings were small, but meaningful; others were radical shifts in the way she delegated her work. Here are three of her biggest lessons:
1. Create clear schedules with calendar blocks
Goldsack uses green to block off anything health-related on her calendar. Chemotherapy appointments and infusions are clearly marked as such on the work calendar, so everyone can see when she's out and know when she'll return to her desk. At first, the shift felt radical, but as a leader juggling cancer treatment, it's been crucial to her workflow.
"I've really leaned into using my calendar and being really clear about what I'm up to," she said. She expects her team to carry on while she's away, knowing she'll get to her work when she can. "Really communicating with them early: 'Look, this is what's going on with me.'"
She hopes the transparency helps foster more open lines of communication, even as she juggles care. "You don't have to be my gatekeeper," she said. "I will be my own gatekeeper."
2. Radical transparency and consistent communication
She also began to feel more comfortable stepping back, at least sometimes.
On mornings when she felt unwell, she'd tell her team she had to go back to bed or cancel her meetings for the day — something she would have never done before.
"It's been interesting for me on a leadership journey, but also thinking about what it means to have a healthy workforce, and healthy in every sense," she said. "Me saying 'guys, I can't do it today,' and I'm giving myself space, and I'm being very transparent about that and hopefully creating an environment where you guys know that you can do this too, and you will be supported."
It was a kind of vulnerability she'd never experienced before. She asked the chair of the board at her organization if he wanted to "bench" her. He didn't.
"50% of Jen's effort is like 150% of a normal person," DiMe chairman Dan Karlin said. "Together we came to the conclusion that staying engaged while making sure to make time to attend to her treatment and her needs, her physical needs, of course, she needs to do that."
3. "Take 5" minutes
Back-to-back meetings during cancer treatment quickly became an untenable situation.
So, Goldsack started giving herself five minutes at the top of every call. She starts meetings at :05 and :35 now. Those few extra minutes have been game-changing during treatment. She uses them for grabbing a drink, using the bathroom, closing her eyes for a few minutes, or vomiting. Everyone found them restorative and replenishing, to the extent that "take 5" has become an unofficial company policy.
Goldsack moved her meeting times to give herself five minutes before a call.
Thomas Simonetti for BI
"That's now sort of become best practice across the organization," she said. "People realize it's actually quite nice when you're stacked with calls."
Looking ahead
After a year of cancer, Goldsack's anxious to get back to normal life. She had a public speaking gig at a major industry conference in Las Vegas in October and has her sights set on more in 2026.
Her treatment course is technically over, but the odds of remission are still high, so she's being closely monitored, in a kind of cancer limbo.
The good news is that her feet no longer feel like they're stuck in flippers. Now, she's able to work out more, regaining her muscles.
She knows she's lucky. But she's also frustrated by the time she's lost.
Working has been such a gift during treatment, she said, to be able to be something other than a cancer patient. And yet the way she works has been forever changed by this year of cancer treatment.
"I always used to think that by being the toughest person, I was leading by example in the best possible way," she said. "This has been an interesting way for me to think about leadership through a different lens."