$100M Engagement Ring Expert: Predictions for 2026 And How I Disrupted A Male-Led Industry

24:21The struggles of running a business, the struggles of being a mom, like I took a red eye last night, I'm taking a red eye tonight, and then I'm going to be like up at 6am with my kids. Like none of that is easy, even if the appearance is I'm doing this really cool, glamorous job selling diamonds. How have you found that balance of showing the realness, but also keeping the luxury that ring concierge has earned the right to have? As much as I will communicate that my life is not simple or easy, like visually, the content is always very aesthetic. I'm obsessed with being on brand in appearance in terms of the content we create.

25:00Like even if there's chaos happening, if it's a really colorful room, I'll never show that on our account. We don't do color on our account. Like I'll make it black and white, let's say. But it could still be like my child having a tantrum on the floor or something. And I think it's the visuals, less so the topics that keep the brand feeling elevated. You could talk about, and I've done this plenty of times, like being stuck on the tarmac for six hours and missing a meeting and like all this chaos. But I take a selfie wearing huge diamonds like so that, you know, there's an element of it that still ties back to ring concierge as I'm like complaining about my flight delay, you know.

25:37I feel like you are one of those people that just like knows exactly who you are. When there was that trend of all these like Gen Z brands coming in big color and you were like, like, we have a very specific brand. Did you feel any sense of like, but the market is moving this way and I want to get Gen Z like I have to show a little bit more of that color. and like buying into trends. Where did you sit in terms of your perspective on that? We're pretty true to who we are. Our brand positioning doesn't really change, but we will test new opportunities. So like Gen Z, it's a very small portion of our business right now because our price point is pretty much price prohibitive.

26:20If you're like 22, you're not buying a tennis bracelet. Like you're just not, you're buying your jewelry on like Amazon or whatever. And that's fine. And we all went through that phase. But we know we need to start the funnel. So we launched Sterling Silver two years ago. And the silver is our aesthetic. Like it's modern. It's simple. It's super cool. You could layer it. But it's in a material that would make more sense for that generation. And so that is how we're doing it as opposed to actually changing our branding or some of the things that really make us who we are. So you sell to a very luxury customer.

26:51How do you do that? It's not necessarily a very luxury customer. We have Lux customers. Don't get me wrong. We have plenty of billionaires and VVIPs and sports players and you name it. But that's not our core customer and that's not who I'm trying to connect with. Our core customer is a millennial woman who is working and this might be her stretch piece. A tennis bracelet might be something she saves up for for a year or asks for for a really big milestone from her partner. We are right on the brink of aspirational and obtainable. And that's kind of where we want to be. Like you can't sell what we sell and not be aspirational.

27:30You have to be. But I also have no intention to be Cartier or Tiffany or Harry Winston. I don't want to be that price point. I want people to be able to afford us and to walk in our store and feel super welcomed and comfortable, even if they're spending$300. If you want a place in 2026 where you don't have to worry about the algorithm or the charts, but you still want a profitable place to make money off of your brain and thoughts, then we need to talk about Beehive. It's a platform I've been using since 2023 that lets you start a newsletter, grow your audience, and make money through a native ad network, paid subscriptions, and digital products, all with a zero take on earnings.

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28:54But make sure you enter the code HSR30 at checkout. That's B-E-E-H-I-I-V dot com slash HSR with code HSR30. What has your relationship been like when the influencer culture came out? Influencers has been great for us. Here's the thing. Who does not want a free piece of jewelry? Everyone will wear diamonds, right? And so we've been able to get away with a really strong gifting program and not have to pay that much in cash, essentially, to get people to post about us because they're just so excited about the product. So we can gift people that otherwise we couldn't afford to pay, you know, a tennis bracelet that maybe costs us$2 ,000.

29:35And they're like, fantastic. I've been wanting a tennis bracelet where they might normally charge$15 ,000 for a reel. We love our influencers. They have served us really well. They got the brand out there in a huge way. And we like to work with people that are organically RC and already shop with us and people that were reaching a totally new audience. So it's been a really good testing tool as well for new audiences. How do you have your finger on the pulse, though, of like who's actually going to convert and who is more for awareness? Because I think Acquired Style is someone who you guys designed the ring for.

30:07And I feel like it probably brought in a totally different segment of customers for you. how do you know when to work with the right person on a level like that we look at their engagement rates and we have a formula we use because we've been doing gifting for so many years where we have a spreadsheet and we how many followers what's their engagement rate on reels or whatever we have there's a whole formula my team uses and what would be the investment and what ROI would we get in terms of followers and expected follower growth and that's how we decide how much to gift people it's pretty formulaic and there's some stuff that's just like Like, oh, she's super cool.

30:44Let's try it. She reached out. But a lot of it is formulaic. Well, I was so excited when I was invited to your LA store opening. And honestly, I got to say it was one of the best, to your point, store openings I've been to. Because I remember you had this gifting tree. And I was like, wait, I get to, like, play a game and, like, get something from this that could be a diamond. And it was just, like, a different. And then the other thing that you did that I actually reference right now because we're figuring out our new photo shoot. And there's a picture of me wearing, like, a$1.5 million diamond necklace at your event.

31:11And it was just like surprise and delight to a level that not that many brands can do. And I think you guys put yourself in such a position to be able to like have fun with a very luxe aspirational category. I think one of the things I've really respected about you is how transparent you are. You came online last year and said, I'm doing$100 million in sales, which a lot of people won't disclose. And I was so excited to have you on for this reason. what was it about your childhood and how you grew up that has empowered you to do the brave thing to disclose financials like that to like keep people learning and keep democratizing the access that you do have so that's really interesting that you asked that question because i don't think i would have known the real answer even a week ago but this is like a very long-winded way of explaining i think why i feel so confident in some of the things i do so we're applying to schools right now in New York City for my five-year-old daughter.

32:09And we're looking at, we're looking at co-eds. Like we're only, we only want co-ed. I went to co-ed public school. Like it's weird to do single sex schools. And we toured some of these all girls schools. And they basically explained that when girls are only surrounded by other girls, it results in a way more confident adult. And you have all of these leadership skills because everyone around you that are leaders. The best people at math, the best people at science are all girls. So you never feel limited in what your life opportunities are and you're just become intrinsically extremely confident.

32:44And I bring that up because my entire career path before ring concierge was in fashion and surrounded by women. I worked at all female companies essentially. There were men, but let's be honest, the fashion industry are all women. And my friends and I were talking about this and all my whole friend group that went through this fashion start we all like my best friends we all graduated from Cornell and half of us went into the fashion industry in New York City and kind of went up through these like programs we're all like abnormally confident like obnoxiously confident and we think it's because it was this environment of women can do anything the leadership are women the planning team running all the excel spreadsheets are women and it was just what we were used to.

33:29And I think it resulted in this mindset that we can do anything. And I think they're right. One of my friends brought it up literally at brunch this weekend. I think that's why we're all so confident is we kind of accidentally were exposed to this thought. And I think it's infused in how I operate. It's not intentional. I operate that way where I'm transparent and I'm confident and I'll share pretty much anything because why not when you feel good about what you're doing. So are you going to send your daughter to an all-girls school now? Like we might, we really might. We think we're going to, it's crazy.

34:03And I never thought I would. So last year you talk about bootstrapping to a hundred million dollars. Was not raising money out of choice or out of necessity? I didn't even know like you could raise money when I started it. I had no idea about investors. I just didn't want to work for somebody else. I didn't want to work in fashion anymore. I saw this white space and I was like, let me just try this. I made, I think at the time, my salary was like$40 ,000. And I just said to myself, if I can just replace my salary and walk away after taxes with the same amount, like why wouldn't I try this? That was it.

34:38That was my aspiration. Like very low goal. Just want to work for myself. Don't need to get rich doing it. And then because of that, the business had to be profitable. And it was a slow go in the beginning. Like it was more than doubling year over year, but like starting at a really small size. And because I didn't have a mentality of let's scale to exit or, you know, kind of how people think about things today, it had to be profitable. It had to be healthy. I had to understand the financials. I had to be really thoughtful in decisions I made and had to be really prudent about how I spent money.

35:10And then when it got to the size where investors were knocking on our door, we didn't really need the money because it was profitable and we hit a really huge size without ever taking on investment. So one kind of led to the other. You said something like you weren't doing this to get rich. What motivated you to sacrifice and to, in your words, like kill yourself to build a business this big? Well, first of all, I'm like a type A psychopath. So I'm not like that is also true. You know, like two things can be true at the same time. And when it started to work, it was almost like I was competitive with myself.

35:45I was like, oh, great, let's go. And it's kind of like when you're on a rocket ship. You don't ask questions. You just keep going. And because the business was working, I just wanted to see, well, can we double next year? Can we double next year? And we were. And then I just kept setting these ridiculous goals that we were able to hit. And because of all of that, there was nothing else I wanted to do. I would work like 1 million hours a week. I put off having children. I did all of these things because I was tunnel vision and growing the business. Someone listening to this that is living in New York City that like has big aspirations, but feels like they're in that job that's just like not for them.

36:25And they're not confident to go out and like chase their dreams. What would you tell that girl listening to this podcast? I think anybody can do anything they want, but it's not without hard work. And honestly, it's not without luck. I got lucky that social media did what it did for me. You know, I couldn't pretend that I knew I'd get to a million followers on Instagram when I was starting the account 12 years ago, not in a million years. I was at the forefront of this female founder kind of boom without realizing that was going to happen. I got lucky for sure. But with that luck, you have to work really hard and ride the wave.

37:02You have to see the opportunities, take the opportunities. And if you want to build something, like really build something, you kind of have to kill yourself to do it, if we're being honest. You can't half-ass it. Like, you can't say, oh, I'll just do nine to five. Like, it's not possible. There are sacrifices when it comes to building something kind of to the size that I ended up building ring concierge, for sure. I'll never lie about that. You're married. You have children now. what are those unspoken rules of your marriage that have helped you guys stay through that like sticky messy middle and be on the other side where it's like different when you have a team and you're able to like afford resources and be able to like have help in building your vision versus being the like we're the only people in here doing this right now so we are lucky in that we've almost taken turns on kind of who's taking the sacrifice so when i started this he had a stable job, which was great.

37:58We could take the risk. And because what if it didn't work, right? Like a year or two later, I would have to go find a job again. So we had stability in that he had a job at the time. And I didn't take a salary for a long time because I kept reinvesting right back into the business so that I could avoid taking on capital. Then it flipped. He started his own company. So now we are both entrepreneurs, which is a separate whole thing. And I think he's had his now for seven years. So it's not recent. And then he started his business. And then I started taking a salary. And he didn't take a salary so that he could grow his business.

38:36And so we've kind of taken turns on who's taking what sacrifice. Is it who needs to put in more time? Who needs to sacrifice financially? And that's worked really well for us so that there isn't this resentment and that one person's always working and the other's not, or one person makes money and the other doesn't. And that's worked for us. It could be different for everybody else. But we also are able to talk to each other about challenges in business because we both run companies. And totally different business. He's in data science, so I can't even pretend to be able to speak intelligently about what he does all day.

39:11But the challenges are the same. Employee challenges, financial challenges, getting the right leadership team. We have similar challenges that we can bounce back and forth on each other when we're having issues at work that we can't talk about with people at work. Was it a challenge to disclose that you were doing$100 million of revenue? We wanted an exclusive article for our 10-year anniversary. I love you. You're so honest. This is why I was like, she needs to come on the show. Yeah, we wanted an exclusive, and that was contingent. We had an article in WWD. It was a fantastic article. And they said, but we need we need revenue.

39:49We're not we can't do a standalone piece of that revenue. And so I said, All right, let's go. It's not a number to be ashamed of. Like, it's, you know, something we're really proud of hitting. And so that's why it's out there. That's the only reason. The reason I asked that, though, is because I've been on multiple sides, right? Like, I'm the thing I love about my job is like, I'm an investor, I'm a founder, and I'm a creator. And so I see every single angle. And I think what people listening to this have to realize is, you are so brave when you disclose something like that, because the pressure builds, people expect more from you, they want to get paid more, they want more, like they just want more, more and more.

40:22But being on the creator side, like also being a very transparent podcast, and like, I only want people in this seat that are going to be real and like, talk about numbers and talk about things, because that's how women grow. And that's how like, to your point, we all end up being able to like, make a better impact, because we're sharing what we're learning. Yeah. Was there any sort of blowback from even in your personal life or on the business side once you disclose that number? Not blowback. It was kind of the opposite. There were people more so my person. Well, I kind of crossed the board that never took us that seriously, that when they saw that number come out, you could like see the shift in how they treated me.

41:05and it almost bothered me more. Like, oh, before you knew how much revenue I was doing, you didn't really care about me. And now that you saw that number, like, oh, you're asking how's the business? What's going on? Like, that's so exciting. And it's like kind of disingenuous. Like, oh, now you're impressed and so you want to talk to me about it. Before then, you just kind of thought I was this girl with the jewelry business. Like, that happened a lot. And it's a little eye-opening to see who cares about that in a way that I don't love. Like, I don't care how much money anyone's made. Like, I'm impressed, but like, that's not going to change my relationship with you.

41:40And I think it changed some of their relationship or how they viewed me. I can relate to that. Like, even with my fundraising announcement that happened recently, we disclosed our numbers. Like, I was happy to do that. And it was just very eye-opening to see who came to exactly that point of like, are you raising more money? Or I'm like, if I was, I would never give you the opportunity. when you finally decided to take in money from Webster Capital. What was that decision-making process for you like? So we know we want to expand physical retail. And stores are expensive. We have five stores right now.

42:14Stores are really expensive. It's a totally different beast than e-com. I can do e-com day in and day out, but stores, that's a risk. And so we decided, I think it was a year ago at this point, maybe more, two years ago, that we wanted to build some cushion to open up stores. and this investor actually though it is Webster Capital the person that runs it is a very long time client his wife has been shopping with me forever and ever they're fantastic I've sold her so much jewelry and because of that he was always a big believer of the brand and so when we reached out to friends and family it was a it was a really small friends and family round it's I think it's like not even 6 % of the business.

42:57So it was a small round. I called him and I'm like, he had just exited. He had just sold his business for a really large amount. And I said, are you interested in investing? And he's like, yes, yes, yes, yes. I've always believed in your brand. You know, we love you. We know we love your business and we believe in it. Let's do this, which worked out so well. So it wasn't really an institutional round. It was a small round with somebody who I already knew. I know I like him as a person and he already knew He liked working with me and believes in the business. So important when you're raising money and even investing money, like to find people you actually want to work with because you're in it for the long haul.

43:34Yeah. What has your relationship been like with other female founders in the space once you made this disclosure of how well your business was doing? Like, did your relationships change at all? If it shifted, I didn't notice it as much. It was the men more so that shifted how they spoke with me and how they treated me when they found out, not necessarily the women, which I think that says something actually. That is crazy. What about your personal relationships? Do you still have childhood best friends that didn't know this boss version of Nicole? I haven't been secretive within my close friend group.

44:12I mean, I don't run around and say like, hey, here's our revenue for the year. But I think they've been aware of the success of the business. I don't think it really changed anything for them. I think people have a misperception that I personally have more money than I do because my entire net worth is still in the business because I haven't sold it or taken on really the investment we took on stayed in the business. It's a fun growth. Yeah. Yeah. I have never taken money off the table, which is separately probably foolish. So I think I think people even people close to me probably think I'm financially better off than I am.

44:45But beyond that, But the size of the business isn't really a surprise to my closer network. Now that you're in a place where your business is growing, things are good. What is something that this year in 2026, you're going to put yourself in a position to be a learner in again and just get uncomfortable with a growth that you need to do as a person? I'm trying to figure out what is the right focus for me. I'm a founder, I'm CEO, but like I said before, I'm also deeply involved in product, creative, marketing, brand, and I'm spread too thin. I'm not giving the business what it needs to be successful and to get us to that next size by doing so many things.

45:25I'm wearing too many hats. Who do I need? What are the experts? What should my focus be that only I can do? That's what I have to figure out this year. Do you have a separate personal board of directors than you do for the board of directors for your company? Who do you go to for advice like that? I have neither, by the way. We don't have a board. You don't have a board. No. I mean, our investor technically has a board seat, but we don't have a board. Okay. Which is also something we need to do this year because it just seems like a miss. There's so many people that would want to be a part of it.

45:54Yeah. We can get some crazy seats at the table. Yeah. I have a lot of people in my network that I trust. And my brothers are really smart. My parents are really smart. And I usually lean on my closest network for advice. But I do think formalizing that with industry expertise or retail expertise is, it's kind of foolish that I haven't done that yet. Okay. I read somewhere that your favorite book is The Lean Startup. Is that true? I read that book before I started the business and it served me well. I mean, I probably should have read more, but I read it and I was like, okay, I can do this with$2 ,000.

46:31But the point of that book is that you don't need to spend tons of time on R &D and all of this stuff without just testing the concept and understanding what your customer wants. So it's about testing the concept of the business in a really lean way before you overinvest, which worked really well for me. Now, what would be the most pivotal book that you've read recently that's helped you scale Ring Concierge? There's two books I really like. One is The Hard Thing About Hard Things, and it's essentially guiding business owners or leaders on how to navigate difficult situations, how to have hard conversations, because half of what I do all day is kind of putting out fires or problem solving.

47:13So how do you do that in a way you're comfortable with it? And then another book I really like is called Get a Grip. And it's about figuring out kind of what's your North Star and getting the entire company to march in the same direction and to hold them accountable, which gets harder and harder the bigger you get. I can't relate to that more. Like, you know, we've done everything in such a scrappy way, like truly lean startup vibes. And even we're doing a photo shoot set on Thursday for this like new season two of what the podcast is going to be, which is going to come out after this episode drops, I believe.

47:46and it was funny because we were talking about the cover image right and it's like me bts at a photo shoot for a beauty campaign wearing like a target shirt and like it's from an iphone photo we didn't spend money on a photo shoot we didn't do what like i feel like everyone does when they want to start a brand which is like overspend yes like they just like i know girls that have spent 30 45 000 on brand identity and i'm like i made mine in canva with a bts iphone photo and now it was very interesting because we now have a huge team with this new deal that we just did. And some of the concepts that came back were very not HSR.

48:23They were like, power suit vibe. And like, I just did not relate to it. But I was like, let's put it out to my WhatsApp group in my email marketing group. And we got back like 500 responses. All the feedback was so interesting. It was like, we just want a more elevated version of what Maggie initially set out to do. HSR is the opposite of the girl boss. It's like, it's not in a suit. And if we hadn't like done something scrappy, tested the market, gotten feedback from consumers, we could be on like a totally different planet from what people actually love about HSR, which is like the barefoot conversations, right?

48:57Like the real stuff. Right. It's so important to talk to your customer. What is a lesson that your customer has taught you the hard way at Ring Cossiers? We did not do what you did one time. And we usually really lean on our customer and speak to them all the time. That's also the beauty of having a really engaged community. We thought we should launch a diffusion line for bridal. What is that? Basically a less expensive bridal line. We knew that there was a lot more demand than we could service in terms of our price point because, and this isn't the case anymore, but probably about five years ago, our minimum to work with us on an engagement ring was$10 ,000.

49:33And like you said earlier, the average ring in the US is five. So we knew we were missing out on a big segment, but we had a really high touch experience. And this is before labs were so prominent. And most of our natural diamond rings, we couldn't service that price point. It just wasn't like economical for us. So we spent a ton of time and a ton of money. We had a branding agency. We spent all this R &D on a diffusion line of basically under$10 ,000 rings. And we're thinking this is it. This is how we're going to scale. We're going to be this billion dollar company because everybody's going to want these rings and we launched it.

50:10And it was like crickets. I mean, we sold some, but it was like crickets. And we learned out the very hard ways that people didn't want anything but ring concierge. If it wasn't branded ring concierge, they didn't really want it. They didn't want like ring concierge's like stepsister. They wanted the real deal or they just kind of weren't going to come at all. And the biggest miss was that we didn't talk to our consumers or our followers. We didn't ask them, would you be interested in this? Because we thought we knew better because we had so many years of sales data and customer data at that point that we thought we could make that decision for them.

50:46And we were wrong. It was expensive. It was an expensive mistake. Can you say how expensive it was? Oh, God. Probably like half a million dollars. Like a not okay amount. Yeah. Do those things rock you? Like do you have trouble sleeping at night? No. No. Wow. That was not a fail fast, but we typically are a fail fast mentality. Try something, doesn't work, move on. Learn from the mistake, don't do it twice. If you do it twice, you probably don't have a job here anymore. But my team is encouraged to fail fast and to come up with new ideas and to try new things as well, because that's the only way you can grow.

51:23You can't keep doing the same thing. You're going to become stagnant and people get bored. What is a lesson that was taught to you that you were not expecting in a good way? Very early on when I had the business and I was figuring out employees, which is hard. And if you ask anybody in any size business, what's one of the biggest challenges? It's always getting the right team, getting the team right. If you don't have an A team, you can't be an A plus business. Like it just, they go hand in hand. and I was at some talk with Jessica Alba. She was speaking. I don't know her. I can't pretend to know her, but I was in the audience and I was like all excited.

51:59It was pre-Honest Company having IPO'd, but it was big at that point. And she had apparently had to let go of her entire leadership team she had hired at launch to replace them with a team that could scale her to where they are today. And she talked about how hard that was And especially for like a woman, it's kind of emotional to do those types of things. But the lesson was the team that got you here might not be the team to get you there. And it always stuck with me because I think it's true. And there's some people that can kind of evolve with you. But usually the team you need in the beginning are super scrappy, sit on the floor of your apartment, help you pack boxes, are probably not the same team that's going to navigate a$100 million company that's trying to scale to$200 million.

52:50It's a different kind of expertise you need. And to have a realistic and critical eye when assessing your talent to make sure you can actually hit your goals. How can someone be like, I want to work at Ring Concierge. It is my dream brand. I want to be beside Nicole, but I don't want to be the founder. What are you looking for in the interview process with someone like that? I want people that have grit. I don't care if you have 20 years of experience to grow the business that I'm trying to grow, you have to have grit. And that's always been the case of all of our hires. And you have to be able to pivot all the time and no ego.

53:24Those are kind of the three things that are non-negotiables across any role, any level in the company. Then from within there, obviously, depending on the role, we need like a certain expertise or a certain background. But if you don't have grit, if you're not willing to pivot because we pivot like crazy and you can't be sensitive. If I tell you, oh yeah, that email was approved. But then three days later I say, nevermind, not approved anymore. We're changing. I don't want to hear it that you're annoyed about that because I am going to make those types of calls. And every decision I make is firm first, which is like the business first.

53:54It's not about me. It's not about other personalities. It's firm first. And you have to have that mentality. And then ego, I can't do ego. Like ego across the board just doesn't work at the company. I don't have ego and I expect no one else to have ego because it gets in the way of making the right decision and the best decision and having a collaborative workspace. So now do you ask people if they've been to an all-girls school and then you hire them? I'm going to start. I am going to start because we have so many women. I think 90 % of our employee base are women. And it's an interesting question.

54:28And then I'm going to start to see if I do see a difference or if it's just like the spiel. But I believe it to be true. I do feel like it's got to be true that when you're surrounded by other girls or women in leadership roles, you would feel the confidence that I can do that too. You can tell a lot about a leader for who they hire. And I remember Tori and Sydney both like we were definitely not the people there that had the most followers, like the most influence at the time. And like they treated everyone like they were a VIP. And I think I've been to a lot of influencer events where it's like there's the people with a million followers and there's like everyone else.

55:01And it was so clear that it was not that. And I just have to say like, you've hired such incredible people who I've enjoyed staying in touch with. And so to see this come full circle has been such a treat for me. Oh, I'm glad to hear that about them. I do try to hire nice people. Yeah, I really do. Yes. Okay. So we have to end with some really fun rapid fire. Nicole Wegman, what is the last thing you put on your credit card? I had an iced coffee and some like weird breakfast pizza thing in downtown LA before I came here. Okay. What is the last most expensive thing, fun thing? oh, I'm trying to shop less this year.

55:35That is like a goal of mine, but that does not mean it's been working. I mean, these are new shoes, but they're not that crazy. They're just Jenny Kane. Okay. But still, that's good. Good quality. Yeah. $300,$400. It's like not that nothing. Yeah. You can only sell one diamond ring shape for the rest of your life from ring concierge. What shape is it? Antique cushion. That was like a very fast one. Why? I personally have one. And I was literally with a client this morning who was looking at them and I just like remembered how much I love them. I want to see your ring after. You can only wear one accessory for the rest of your life.

56:09Diamond studs. Really? What size is the best size for my face? Ooh. Okay. I mean, look, you can't go too small with diamond studs. I would do a pair of four or five carat total weight. So that means like two in each year or two and a half in each year. And now with lab grown, like you can get them at a price that's really reasonable. I think my husband before you came down here was like, if there's an ancillary gift for Maggie. So maybe you can do instead. I think so. Like if it's a Christmas gift from the husband, like let's go five carats. Yeah, not be perfect. Not be stinging. Thank you, sweetie.

56:40You hear how it all happened. What is your favorite female brand that isn't yours? I love said active. I think they do a really good job of engaging their community. I'm always really impressed. I know Lindsay, the founder, she hustles. And I think I just appreciate what she's built that has personality behind it. By the time this comes out, her episode will have aired. Oh, great. You had her on? Yeah. Amazing. And it was one of the most like transparent, honest conversations where it was about how she's built a cult like athleisure brand, but also she took accountability and talked about a lot of the things that have like been one of the hard things about being a founder led brand and like all the things that she's had to go through.

57:22And it was like one of my favorite episodes because like you, super transparent. Yeah, she's smart. I think I've seen some of the things she's gone through. It's definitely not easy, but she's resilient and she has grit. And back to the type of people you want to hire. Resilient people with grit can get you through hard times. Yeah. Is there a dream celebrity that if they like made their engagement ring with ring concierge, you would just like pack it in and call it a day? Oh, pack it in and call it a day? No, of course not. OK, I should say like, my God, I'm obsessed with Kim Kardashian. Everybody knows this, which is like a really fun fact.

57:58And she is not currently married right now. So there is opportunity there. I would kill to do her next ring. Okay, so are you on the weekends like zoning out and watching Bravo? Like are you a housewives girl? Oh, I'm a housewives girl, but I am partial to Beverly Hills and that's because I've worked with a good amount of the Beverly Hills ladies and like we've been friends with Rachel Zoe for years. She's like the biggest supporter of the brand and she's on it this season. So now I have to say Beverly Hills is my number one. But in terms of if I'm having a bad week and I'm stressed, there is one show I'm going to watch that makes me feel so good about my life.

58:35And that's Salt Lake City. Like Housewives of Salt Lake City. You watch that and you're like, I'm good. Like my problem is nothing. Like they're going to jail in that show, you know. There is something about Salt Lake City, Utah. It is on the hinge. But like every reality show, like what is going on over there? It's so good. Would you with your personal brand ever do Real Housewives? No. I spoke to, I don't know if it was Bravo or the casting agency when they were rebooting New York City. They contacted me. And I think I candidly said, I don't want to be a housewife, but I would be a friend of to get like the brand on there.

59:17I think it's a big risk. and I think I have too much to lose. Okay, last question, Nicole Wegman. I love saying your full name. By the way, is that your maiden name or your... Maiden. I didn't take my husband's name. You didn't. No, like back to like, I don't need to take a man's name. And what are your kids? They have his name. Okay, Nicole Wegman, if you had to title this season of your life, what would it be called? The season of finding balance, finally. So now we're going to watch for all of 2026 and see if you're able to accomplish it. Nicole Wegman, thank you so much for coming on Hot Smell Rich.

59:51I had so much fun with you. Where can people find you? They can find me at at Ring Concierge on Instagram or then go to our website, ringconcierge.com. And plug your new personal brand. See, this is why I'm not good at this. My team would be like, hey, it's Nicole Wegman on Instagram. Love it. And how can HSR help you? I love that you are speaking in a way that I think is tangible. And it's not so high level that people can't get real advice and real help from your podcast. So I love that you're taking that approach. I think if you have a$1 million business or$100 million business, people can get advice from how you're speaking.

1:00:29Oh, I love that. Thank you so much. And thank you for coming on. Everyone go visit Ring Concierge and check out a store. Where are your five stores? New York? New York. We have two in New York, Soho and Upper East. We have Houston. We have Boca and we have one right in LA. At Century City, which is the best. Thank you so much, Nicole. Thank you. Bye, guys.