What’s the Snark on Lindsey Carter/Set Active?

20:42I'm sorry. Best real estate show in the game. I heard that one was really good. Did you ever watch the London one? No. I know there's a Paris one too, but it's like in French.

20:51Lindsey Carter:Yeah. And I can't do the subtitles. It's too much. It depends on my mood. I feel like for a real estate show, it's kind of background noise for me. Like if it's a really good, like I watch Squid Games with subtitles, if it's something I want to pay attention to, but like real estate shows, it's supposed to be background noise. Right. I get that. So going back to her career overview, she was just about to finish her degree in elementary education at U of A when she realized she really didn't want to be a teacher. And she completely shifted gears at the bottom of the hour and pivoted into social media.

21:19Lindsey Carter:And she got her start helping other companies build social media presence. And then she kind of had the idea, like, I'm doing this for other people. Why won't I do it on my own? And based on her LinkedIn, she's worked several jobs. She was an EA at NBC Universal, a social media manager at Trendera, which is where her mentor, the founder, the company her mentor founded, a marketing manager at Variety. She was a personal social media manager for Maddie Ziegler of Dance Moms. Oh. Yeah. And she later founded her own micro social media agency called Elle. And then she started Set Active in 2017. and she also has a sub stack that is quite popular and that a lot of set community people follow and read.

22:03Lindsey Carter:So actually, she had the idea in 2017, but it really became a thing in 2018. And she said, you know, one day I was sitting at Alfred Coffee on Melrose Place, waiting to sign a new client for my social media PR agency. And as I watched women walk in, something clicked. No one was wearing a matching workout set. They had on Lululemon leggings, but a different colored sports bra or something from one brand and something from another. At the time, Lulu was super technical and Alo Yoga was focused on hardcore yoga poses. I didn't see an activewear brand that was just made for the everyday girl, whether she made it to the gym or not.

22:35So I went home and started researching, but I couldn't find a brand that fit that space. So that's when I decided that I'm going to do this. And I was thinking, is she really the first person to have started sets? No, absolutely not. I'm like, that's a bit of a stretch. I mean, if that's what inspired her seeing people in mismatched like workout outfits, I'm sure. I know to this day, like, Lululemon is definitely more technical than it is, like, fashion-y. And Aloe, I see as more fashion-y than technical. A million percent. She definitely didn't, like, invent matching sets. Like, I had—oh, my God, I'm thinking of one in my mind.

23:05I had a matching set from Lulu in college. Yeah. That was pre-2014. That was, like, in the 2010s, early 2010s. Right. I think this was definitely a thing. But I think maybe what she's saying is she focused on matching sets that were made just not exclusively for working out. Which I guess Lululemon was totally—

23:21Lindsey Carter:It was very technical. Yeah. Yes. And I will say, I've never tried said active, and I said this before, but Lululemon, I think quality-wise, is definitely the best, at least between Aloe and Lululemon. There's not even a comparison. I don't really shop at Lululemon that much, except when we get our Amex stipend or whatever that they always have a Lululemon deal, and we'll get T-shirts and stuff. So I shop at Aloe, and I'm a girly that's not an athlete or workout person. And my friends that work out swear by Lulu over Aloe. It's so much more comfortable. Yeah. And durable, in my opinion. It's like for real like runners and cardio and like real workout.

23:59Right. And so begins the origin. So she says, I was 20K in credit card debt when I started Set Active. It was really scary and I cried hysterically the night before launch day, which again, we talk about so much. Hardly zero, like hardly any of us in this world are willing to get ourselves in$20 ,000 credit card debt if we didn't have some kind of fallback. And I'm not saying she has a trust fund or whatever it may be, but you were comfortable enough where you were willing to take on that level of risk, I think. Just me being risk-averse, I don't think I would go into a$20 ,000 line of credit if I didn't have something comfortable to back me up.

24:31Right. So again, you have to spend money to earn money. You have to be willing to go in debt to earn a huge multimillion-dollar company like Lindsay. And she talks about how on her sub-sac, like she never wanted to work for anyone. She's like, my dream is really to work for myself. And that really started her entrepreneurial journey. And she said that that very day after having lunch with one of her friends, when they asked her what it is that you actually want to do with your life, and she said, work for myself. She walked into her boss's office and quit with zero plan. Again, that's something that only you can only do if you have, you know, something to fall back on a safety net.

25:06Exactly. Exactly. I certainly would not be comfortable doing that. I can't. And like, who doesn't hate having a boss? Yeah, yeah. I guess people would rather just like walk out. No, 100%. It's like that's why they call it work. It's not supposed to be fun every single day. It's work. They don't call it fun. Yeah, you're showing up to work. Work, you know.

25:26Lindsey Carter:So Lindsay developed the brand for about 18 months while still running her social media agency on the side to pay her bills. So I guess she had a little bit of a side hustle, but like I'm sure no benefits or health care or anything like that. She was packing orders out of her own apartment. She did her own customer service, graphic design, shipping, etc. I mean, we've done, we've dabbled a little bit in merch and that in and of itself is like a whole full-time job. So like good on her for being able to do all this. Customer service, shipping, all that. That's very impressive. Yeah, it's a lot.

25:53Lindsey Carter:And ultimately what changed everything about Set Active was the Instagram page. So she launched the brand's account before it even launched. Like the Set Active where it even launched as inventory. And she treated the Instagram as a community building tool, which makes a lot of sense because in looking at the Set Active website, one of the first things mentioned on the mission statement or on the About Us widget on the page is building a sense of community. Community comes first. We're our community first and brand second. Seriously, everything we create is with you in mind, from styles and colors to what's to come and what's coming back.

26:26Lindsey Carter:We believe open communication is key because we're at our best when you feel yours. And she also mentioned that she started Set Active in the direct-to-consumer space at a time when no one really was prioritizing their community. She was like, you know, it was all about shiny aesthetic brands on Instagram, which is kind of true. I'm thinking about that millennial core branding. We've talked about this before, like Casper mattresses or I'm trying to think of like there's so many other ones. So what is she what is she saying that sets her apart direct to consumer? Yeah, which it's a little I mean, it's 20.

26:57Lindsey Carter:Let's see. 2018. I feel like Glossier, because that was always direct to consumer before Sephora. Kylie Cosmetics, Although I know Kylie is a very different founder than Lindsay Carter. But Glossier is a very good analogy. And I think she's a founder that people often compare Lindsay Carter to because of the branding and the community that both of those brands really built and how they were able to get a lot of attention without really having much product. I mean, Glossier, we did an episode. I think they have just a couple of SKUs and they focus on those few SKUs. But yeah, that's a really good analogy.

27:30She said that, you know, on building Set with the mission of community, she's like, listen, this wasn't just a marketing strategy. It was our fundamental business philosophy. I made it a point to be incredibly accessible to our community.

27:41Lindsey Carter:More on that later. She says, in the early days, I would personally respond to DMs and I still check our messages regularly to see what's happening and what conversations are happening about Set Active. And whether I'm feeling motivated, I'll hop into Set's DMs to see customers telling us how our products have changed their lives and made them feel more confident. These direct connections with our community members are what drive me. And I get this a lot, like from so much chaos that there is on the internet. There is, it's really nice to, especially as you and I have started Snarkbait, it's really nice to connect with our listeners and feel connected to them because whether the conversation will turn personal and we'll talk about like what the podcast has done for them or when they listen to it, what the, you know, maybe sometimes I'll be going through a hard time and I'll say, I'll turn you guys on just to kind of, it's an escapism.

28:23And it's so nice to get to talk to listeners like that. So I completely understand what she means. There's like a high to that in building a sense of engagement with your community. And she said that she would have her customer base really engage in the development process, like the R &D process. She would say we would pull our followers on color preferences, new product ideas, feedback on existing items. And I started showing a lot of the behind the scenes social, like behind the scenes content on social before it was even common practice. I think now it's very common for you to go like behind the curtain and see like what it takes to build this brand.

28:56But Lindsey Carter was kind of one of the first to do it in an Instagram page. I think that kind of content is far more common in TikTok. But, you know, this is 2018. So this is well before the TikTok era came. And let's see. Okay, another thing that she was saying was existing brands like Lulu and Aloe were targeting specific niches like runners or yogis. But she felt like there wasn't a company marketing to the everyday person. Like, I don't think she's ever identified herself as someone who's been like a super athletic woman, at least in the research that I've done. Like, I think of, for instance, like patrons, right, who always brings up her skiing background to talk about founding Dairy Boy.

29:34Or like Ty Haney, for instance, of Outdoor Voices, who's like always been a surfer and does yoga and stuff like that. I've never heard Lindsay Carter say Pilates and yoga have been my life. And I wanted to turn this brand into something that for a sport or hobby I'm passionate about. It's always been about the everyday girl. Yeah. She's like, if you need something to wear to brunch.

29:52Lindsey Carter:Yes. You know. Exactly. Running errands. Like, I don't want to run errands in jeans. Right. Right. And she's like, I wanted to create activewear that made me feel put together and confident. And that's what really inspired Seth. And I figured it was feeling a need for transitional athleisure. People were craving it, but they didn't know that they even needed it, really. And really, I think like so many other brands that I'm curious, Sophie, if you can think of other brands too that really skyrocketed during the pandemic, Set Active is no different. It started to pick up a lot of steam when people would be photographed, celebrities would be photographed donning Set Active.

30:24For instance, Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner. And at this point, it doesn't seem like Lindsey Carter sent them any merchandise to wear, like with paparazzi. Wow. They just organically discover the brand. Organically discover the brand. And I feel like what you just said, Emily Kaiser, you always see wearing set active, or Alex Earl, always wearing set active. And it creates this insane brand awareness. I don't even think Lindsey Carter herself was really ready for because there was so much organic growth from these celebrities. And it makes sense that during the pandemic, everyone was looking for comfy clothes, matching sweat sets.

30:59Like I remember like Aviator Nation or like tie-dye, sweatshirt and pants. Like everyone was just looking for matching comfy sets. So I feel like it was like the perfect opportunity for her because that's literally what her MO is basically. Right. And the comfy sets, you're so right. That became such a boom during the pandemic of being on Zooms and just wanting to just put on something without having to think about it, without actually having to commute.

31:21Lindsey Carter:It made it easy. And something else that was really nice about set was that it was it still definitely is a little bit of a higher price point. Like it's not something you can just buy at Target, for example. But it was sitting between a gap between$58 to$88 price points, which is much different than, say, Lululemon. I went on Lululemon's website just because I was curious. I'm like, what does a pair of leggings run for? $118. So, you know, Set Active, their leggings can run$40 more affordable than Lululemon, which is significantly cheaper, in my opinion. But still not cheap. And Set was so small.

31:54Lindsey Carter:Set was small enough to actually capitalize. lies. They weren't fighting through a 12-month corporate retail calendar. She really took her time to make these types of samples, generate like which color, thoughtful color she wanted to put on the product. She would drop a very small batch, see if it sold and then reordered. But she didn't really feel like it was going to take off as big as it did when she started to do this. And I think one of the other ingredients was Hailey Bieber specifically. Hailey Bieber was photographed in Set Active by Pabst in 2021. And that's when really it started to blow off.

32:23and then Kaya Gerber as well was wearing it. After Hailey Bieber kind of generated this brand recognition, Lindsey Carter went to exclusively a drop model, which again is very similar to Glossier, where you would create this scarcity growth engine and you would have limited edition colors

32:39Lindsey Carter:selling out in minutes and the site would usually crash. Everyone has all this FOMO and then you set your calendar for the next time there's another drop. And I feel like when we did our Alex Earl, when you took us through our Alex Earl skincare thing, we had talked about how Alex Earl intentionally didn't do a scarcity drop where she said, we made sure to have enough units on hand to where we would not sell out in minutes because I don't want people to feel like they can only get their hands on this one time. Like I want it to feel very accessible to my community. But I think this is kind of what generates the buzz about the brand to begin with.

33:10Alex Earl didn't need that buzz. She's Alex Earl. She didn't need that buzz. She needed to have as many units as possible because so many people wanted to buy it. But it is like, it's a marketing technique, the scarcity thing. and yes but it's also really like frustrating for consumers and can leave a bad taste in their mouth you know like not everyone will come back and be like you know what i'll get them next time some people are like no fuck this like this isn't worth my time right if the drop is set to go at 9 a.m pacific and i log in at 902 and it's already gone i'm just like discouraged and annoyed yeah exactly i don't really care to go back yeah but it but it works for like kylie cosmetics it works so well at the beginning yeah so it just depends it depends then now really look where that brand is.

33:50I mean, it kind of relied on the scarcity thing. And then once they had all of these other products available all the time, no one wanted them. Right.

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36:55Lindsey Carter:Even though I spend a lot of time on the internet, with my house being renovated, all I want to do lately is be outside, whether it's strolling on the beach or walking Hank. And of course, I feel like I kind of need a new wardrobe for my new outdoorsy persona without having to break the bank. That's why I love Fabletics. I joined Fabletics as a VIP and it's completely changed how I shop. I actually recently ordered the Principal built-in broad tank in the shade almond milk and I paired it with the same matching set for the leggings. It's called the Oasis Pure Lux high-waisted legging in that same color.

37:24Lindsey Carter:It is honestly so stretchy, makes my boobs look perky, and is one of my favorite sets that I own today. I actually was at Le Gris the other day and someone was like, wait, that's such a cute matching set. And I was like, thanks, it's Fabletics. Being a Fabletics VIP means I get 70 to 80 % off everything. It's so easy to grab new, high quality activewear sets and loungewear without overthinking or overpaying. And is there anything that makes getting dressed easier than a matching set? Don't even have to think about it. Also, for all of our healthcare provider baby snarks, Fabletics has scrubs too.

37:51Lindsey Carter:New VIPs can get a scrub set for just$15. Shop now at fabletics.com slash snark to get 70 to 80 % off everything when you sign up as a new VIP. Take a really quick style quiz and be sure to select Snark when prompted to unlock this offer. This is a limited time offer, so do not wait. Again, that's fabletics.com slash snark for 70 to 80 % off everything as a new VIP. So let's talk about the ownership and the funding drama. So as I mentioned before, when she started Set, she put$20 ,000 of her own money, put herself in debt and personal loans in order to kickstart this business. And she was only 26 when this happened.

38:26She had no manufacturing experience, no entrepreneurial experience.

38:29Lindsey Carter:She didn't go to business school. And I almost, I just put a note in here, like I'm always very astounded at people that just have a vision and like go full force with it. Like I feel like we get this question all the time of, you know, Lindsay Carter, for instance, she walked into her boss's office and was like, peace out. I'm going to pursue my own dream. But like, what would it take for you to just say, I'm going to pursue snark bait full time? Like, I'm sure it would just be like a comfortability blanket where if I meet this number that I'm going to do it, would you have done it, you know, five months into us starting this business.

38:57In a dream world, I would, but I would have, yeah, I would have to be financially comfortable enough to. Like, it's not something that I take lightly. Like, I need to have an income. Right. And I think beyond that, too, it's like health care as well. Yeah, health insurance, 100%. Yeah. Right. And, you know, for those of you that live in Canada or Europe, you know, it's difficult probably for you guys to fully, like, because you guys have such a better health care policy than we do here in the States, but it is very scary to leave a job and realize, oh, in four months here, I'm not going to have any, you know, if I get laid off and I get severance for four months, I'm not going to have health care.

39:32Like, that's very scary. So it's a huge risk. Yeah. And if you're over the age of 26, because if you're 26, you can be under your parents and unmarried, then you literally need health insurance. You do. And there are like, there's like Oscar Health, like ones that you can like buy, but they're really expensive and annoying, but you need it through your employers too. Yeah. And, you know, but she, so I respect her. I respect the hell out of her for being able to take this risk because I certainly could not do that. And she really was pretty brazen. And I think when I listened to other founders, whether female, male founders, they often talk about how pathetic it was to become like an entrepreneur and how hard it was because you would get so many people turning you down.

40:14And she said she herself was no different. She would start cold calling factories with her pitch deck and most hung up and said, no, no, no, we don't care. And one factory finally was like, okay, this sounds like a legitimate idea. Let me pass you up to like the big head honcho. His name is Asher Lugosi. And Asher agreed to meet Lindsay with and talked a bit for a couple hours about the business and about her vision for set. And Asher was like, okay, listen, I can help you, but I'm going to need stake in the company. Like you're going to have to give me some equity. She gave him 25 % of the company, which is like enormous.

40:43Like that is significant. Like I don't know anything about business, but that's like a lot. Like on Shark Tank, like they would be like, yeah, that's a lot.

40:51Lindsey Carter:Right. Like I get 2%. 1 % even is pretty high, but like 25 % is, I feel like that's unheard of. I don't know too much, but I feel like I've never heard of that. And Lindsay, you know, she's young in her mid to late 20s. She's like, sure. Not knowing anything about how important equity is in a company. She's like, okay, great. Here's 25 % of my company. Now help me. And Asher Lagasse essentially traded production access. So saying, okay, I'll help with factory connection, sampling, manufacturing setup, kind of like the operations behind the business for one, for 25 % of the company. And Set Active kind of started to blow up.

41:22But once it started to blow up, it seemed as if Asher Lagasse was seemingly taking a step back. He's like, okay, cool. Like, I've done a bit of work. Set Active is taking off. I can kind of chill and just take a backseat and I guess get

41:34Lindsey Carter:a paycheck coming in. It's like mailbox money. And, you know, Lindsay was kind of annoyed. She's like he wasn't even willing to leave his full-time position to come and be our like basically COO. And I was like, I can't justify giving you 25 % of my company if you cannot even be willing to make a switch to leave your full-time job to come help me. And Asher and Lindsay never actually signed anything in writing saying like there were terms to him having 25 % of the company. It was kind of like a handshake. Yeah. Where I think she agreed to 25%, but I don't think she necessarily outlined on the contract.

42:05Well, if I give you 25%, what do you need to do for me? It was kind of more ambiguous. So here comes a legal battle. Asher files a complaint against Lindsay and Sed Active in June 2021. And the cause of action is breach of contract, breach of the covenant, of good faith, of fair dealing.

42:22Lindsey Carter:And later that year, Sed Active and Lindsay file a demur, which is a legal motion arguing the complaint is legally insufficient, even if the facts are in fact true of what he's saying. Lugosi side files in opposition and then said active sues Asher back, said active's attorney files to push the trial date back. And the trial continues to get pushed, pushed, pushed. And at this point, this is going on for nearly two years. Like, are they going to go to court? Are they going to settle? What's going on? In December of 2022, the trial and final status conference are vacated by the court, which typically signals that there is some kind of settlement that's about to come down.

42:53And sometime after, Asher Lugosi files a request for dismissal without prejudice as to the entire action, which basically means he's going to let it go for now, but he can refile at any time within the statute of limitations and the case kind of ends. So nothing really happened from it. But it seems, I guess, the TLDRs, that she made a couple of business decisions being young and still an immature company, not realizing the impact of what she was really signing away. And so I think she really had to learn the hard way of like, okay, there's this man who seemingly understands how the business works.

43:22I'm going to give him a quarter of my company and now look where it got you it's like super litigious and sounds very stressful to be honest a learning lesson though yeah um she really started to take off though like i said in 2022 after asher lugasi helped kind of get her off the ground and in november she opened her first store in west hollywood which was right by the alfred coffee of course she initially had the idea to start this athleisure brand uh that's next summer she started a flagship store in Bleecker Street in New York City's West Village. She also had an Equinox

43:55Lindsey Carter:wholesale partnership where she could sell set active clothing wear at the retail locations at Equinox. And just last year, she had a TSA bin out of home ad campaign. And I had no idea TSA bins did this. I guess I'm not paying attention when I do fly. Exactly. It's like, how effective could this be? When I'm at the airport, I'm like, okay, here's a bin. Throw my bag in, get my laptop out, put my headphones over here, my password. Like, I'm not paying attention to an advertisement when I'm going through security, but maybe that's just me. No, I'm the same way. I'm, like, trying to get in and out as quickly as I can.

44:27I'm in survival mode, as Chad GBT would say. Yeah. I'm literally in survival. No, genuinely, because they're screaming at you, TSA. Not in that bin. Put it in another bin. Everyone's like, they change their mind every day about whether the laptop should be in or out. Yep. Even if you have TSA pre-check, they're like, nope, sorry. Laptop, need to stay in. What do you mean? Why do I pay$85 for every four years for me to keep my laptop in? That's not my, that's, you know, it's against our constitutional rights. You know what I mean?

44:53Lindsey Carter:But, you know, many other brands like Shay Mitchell's base has done this before. Also a brand called Kazik, K-I-Z-I-K. I'm sure a lot of brands have. But like, that doesn't make it effective. Yeah. I wonder what the ROI is there. I was just going to say, what's the ROI on this investment? Like, I understand like subway ads. Like, I'm standing on the subway commuting and I'm like reading this ad. like on the subway. Like I have nothing else to do, but I have other things going on when I'm in the TSA line. Oh yeah. That's genuinely whatever's on the bottom of that bin. It's least of my concerns.

45:25Least of my worries. Just overstimulated. No, it's so overstimulated. And it's always in the morning when they're yelling at you. It's like, dude, it's seven. Okay. I got up at 4.30 to be here. And I understand that they're tired too. 100%. Like I think everyone's just frustrated. Everyone. No one wants to be there. Not us, not the TSA workers. Like no one wants to be there. Yeah, no, it's so overstimulating. That's such a good. And yeah, we could do, don't get me started on the London airport. That's like the worst airport ever. Okay, so in revenue, she claims that she did that one drop in particular, did$1 million in sales in one hour.

46:00Okay, who was the other brand that we were talking about that did$1 million in one hour? Alex Earl. I think hers was like five minutes. I think it was someone else. Oh, it was someone else that we were like, that's a lot. Yeah. Oh, it was Kai. Kylie Jenner's Kai. We were like, there's no way. There's no way. Yeah, I don't. Thank you. That's what it was. Forbes published an article about Set at the beginning of 2025, saying it was a self-funded seven-year-old athletic brand. And it has developed a drop strategy that recently netted the brand$1 million in just one hour for its first ever resort collection, which launched in early May.

46:34Lindsey Carter:And Set Active earns approximately$20 million in annual revenue. And its core customer base spans between 25 to 34-year-olds, followed by women 18 to 24. And nearly 50 % of the recent$1 million sales figure was earned within a 15-minute early access period for reward members and Instagram broadcast channel followers. Again, generating that sense of Stanhood community, feeling like you're a part of something. And you're on this broadcast channel with the founder and other said active members, quote-unquote. It breeds a sense of community. And furthermore, 72 % of customers have previously purchased from the brand in the last 12 months.

47:10And according to Kira Jackson, the chief brand officer of SET, the brand has earned$1 million from its drop model before, but the fast pace of sales for the resort collection was unprecedented. So it keeps like impressing itself, like every time they hit their new figures that are even better than the time before. But there are some question marks on just unethical practices, the manufacturing, the materials, lack of sustainability. So let's talk about that. All said activewear is manufactured in China. And Carter confirmed this, Carter confirmed that it was being manufactured in China in an April 2025 interview.

47:45And they really make no public sustainability claims. They hold no third party ethical certifications. and I actually listened to a podcast episode where Lindsay Carter was featured and she said, and this was as of June 2025 when she did this interview, she said that said actress does two drops a month. That's a lot. That is like fast fact.

48:02Lindsey Carter:Yes. Yes. Thank you. Yes, you would know most about this and there is no B Corp, no good on you rating, no GOT. It's like a bunch of words. Yep, yep. It's like the third party like sustainability certifications. Gotcha. Yeah. So they have no such thing on their website, contains zero references to the factories that they're developing the clothes in. No sourcing, no materials, no ethics, no environmental practices that they adhere to. That is kind of crazy for like a modern day brand. Yes, and that's exactly, yes, that's exactly what I said here is it's unusual in 2026 to not have those practices disclosed on your website.

48:36Transparency, because people just want transparency. You don't have to be like the most sustainable company in the world, but like have some sort of transparency about where your clothes are manufactured and under what conditions. Like, yeah, that's kind of just like a given at this point, but maybe not. And I feel like consumers do deeply care about these things. Yes, consumers care more than ever, especially Gen Z.

48:56Lindsey Carter:Right. And I think that they would be remiss not to be transparent, but they're relying so heavily on the quick, like the multiple drops a month, creating buzz online, creating this community that they're kind of forgetting, like what's really important to, I think, a lot of its consumers. Yeah. And they're operating really as a fashion forward direct consumer company without a sustainability narrative, which is odd. And they continue to just harp on the fact that they are designing athleisure that blurs the lines between form and function, community first, brand second. And again, it's just totally relying on that scarcity mindset.

49:29Lindsey Carter:But like we've seen with Kylie Jenner, how impactful is that really seven years later? Like she just, I feel like, started to gain recognition in 2021. So it's been about five years where it's really come up and up. But who's to say that this kind of model could still be sustainable, no pun intended, in the next five years? It's hard to say. let's talk about lindsey carter herself outside of set active the controversies that she's had 2025 just seemed to be a bit of like a rougher year for her just in terms of more brand awareness people are more aware of who she is so of course she's getting a lot more heat on the internet yeah she posted this tiktok that she later deleted in june 25 about five people are branding this the 5 p.m coasting tiktok and she says quote now all i see are people sprinting out of their offices at 5 p.m.

50:12Lindsey Carter:like it's a fire drill and then wondering why they feel so unfulfilled in their careers. Balance is important, but balance without ambition, that's just coasting. You don't build something great by just doing the bare minimum. And of course, so many people were slamming her, suggesting that she was promoting. I mean, I'm just thinking about your fashion episode that we just recorded about unpaid labor and working people to death. Not that you were being worked to death, but just like exploitation, exploitative work environments, harassment in the workplace, things like that. And people being quite frankly burnt out and emotionally distressed.

50:42Lindsey Carter:And you're just ignoring that. And I think like when I was I I listened to like old surface tech talks of people that were commentating on this. And I think like, you know, you and I have been in the corporate corporate world a very long time. And I think that unfortunately, this is just the way that the world works, is that in order to set yourself apart, to earn promotion, sometimes it does, depending on the company that you're at, sometimes it does take having you work extra hours or being going above and beyond what your normal job description is, challenging the status quo, contributing towards processes that will improve efficiencies.

51:13Like that's so much of what I have to do all the time and encourage my team to do. And I think that sometimes that's just the way of the world and that's fine. But I think to impress upon your followers that this is what they need to do in order to be like worthy, that's not up to you, Lindsay Carter, to decide. So many people would rather spend time, that time they would be spending at the office to fight for that promotion with their family, with their kids. So stop acting as if you are not working past 5 p.m. that you are like lazy or you're not promoting like good work ethic. It's just like I understand what she's saying.

51:43The messaging is unfortunately true. And that's just objectively like life and corporations in corporate America. But that doesn't mean you need to shame people into thinking that if they don't do this, that they're not good. Does that make sense? Yeah, but it's like 99.9 % of people are not like working their jobs at this moment. It's like they are at their corporate job to make a living, to survive, to pay their bills, to pay for groceries. It's not like it's some passion project where it's like, I need to be ambitious and build something great at this. I need to increase shareholder value at this corporation I work at.

52:15No, it's like so many people are just working to pay the bills, trying to survive. And that is perfectly OK. Perfectly fine.

52:23Lindsey Carter:Like, do you know how many people I know that are older and in their careers that have higher titles that could have gone further? and they simply just don't want to. Because they prioritizing, they prioritize their mental health. Exactly. And their personal life, which is honestly what everyone should be doing. Yeah, I completely. I mean, if you want to burn yourself out to, you know, make a lot of money, that is also perfectly okay. But like the majority of people don't, would rather have happiness. Yeah. And I think if you look at her demographic, what I just spoke about, it's between the ages of 18 to 34.

52:51Lindsey Carter:Like it's hard right now in the workforce. Okay, whether we have a good job or not, whether you're searching for a job, it's hard for everyone right now. So you're just the audience. If you're speaking to, it's not going to land. This feels more like a boomer mentality. And it feels a little bit shamey. Exactly. That's exactly what it is. It's yeah, it's very shamey. So I can see why people had a strong reaction to this. It's a very triggering topic, I think, right now. And to talk about it so flippantly, it's like, well, easy for you to say, Lindsay, like you're running your empire. It's your business and it's your name.

53:19So it's easy for you to work past five because it's your name. Exactly. It just comes from a place. Right. So people were irate in the comments. They said, how can I be active? For instance, some person said A-L-Y-A-N-N-E-8-5-1. How can I be active if I have to be strapped to my desk after 5 p.m.? Someone with the title, Just Call Me Clean. Good point. It's like, when am I supposed to wear these workout clothes that you sell if I'm always wearing a fucking business casual outfit at my desk? Right, right. That's so true. Isn't this like different, like complete opposite of what you're trying to sell?

53:49What is it you're trying to sell? You're not selling like pencil skirts. Right. Sensible shoes. We don't want that. We support the working class. And people were, you know, the internet did what they did. And she quickly deleted the post and that blasted her critics on her IG story and claimed that she had been canceled. And she was upset by the response. And she wrote a very long Instagram story. Sophie, do you want to read? You're better at reading. Do you want to read everything that she wrote here? Yes, it's very long. A few days ago, I shared a video about work ethic and work-life balance.

54:20I spoke from the heart about how I was raised, what I believe, and how I've built my life. At first, people resonated with it, and then the internet did what the internet does. A response video was made. It didn't agree with me, and that's okay. Disagreement is part of dialogue. But what followed wasn't dialogue. It was a pylon. It was people who don't know me, don't know my values, and certainly don't know the full story, using a few seconds of content to decide everything about who I am. People made assumptions. They picked apart a single moment and used it to create a version of me that doesn't reflect my reality or the work I've done or the leader I've grown into.

54:46That's what happens in cancel culture. It doesn't leave room for the thing we all say we believe in, growth. So let me tell you who I am today. I'm someone who's made mistakes. I'm someone who once led in ways that weren't perfect. I was learning. I still am. I've spent years listening, evolving, working hard to create a culture I'm proud of. One where feedback is welcome, where work-life balance and ambition coexist and where no one is above accountability, including me. It's easy to criticize a stranger on the Internet. It's harder to do the real work, to look inward, to reflect, to grow. And if there's one thing I hope people remember, especially the ones quick to judge, it's that growth isn't always loud or visible.

55:15Sometimes it's quiet. Sometimes it's hard, but it's always human. To the people who saw my video and felt seen, thank you. To the people who saw it and felt hurt, I'm listening. and to the people who only see what they want to see. I hope one day you'll allow yourself, allow others the grace you'd want for yourself. This experience has been painful, but it won't make me better. It will make me better. That's the promise I make to myself, my community and my team. It's giving chat GBT. Yeah, this is really long too. It's really long. Sorry, I was trying to read it as fast as I can. It's really long.

55:39It's really long. It's like several paragraphs, but you did a really good job reading that.

55:44Lindsey Carter:Yeah, it's kind of like maybe, interestingly enough, actually, you know what other creators kind of got canceled for a similar sentiment was the girls got to eat girls. In 2022, they did a episode on their podcast called Quiet Quitting. And they talked about the epidemic of employees being at their desk in 2022 and kind of putting in the bare minimum, knowing that the economy was so bad that there was no room for promotion. So it's like, why should I do what the article was saying? I think it was in the New York Times. Why should I bring any more effort into this job if I'm not going to be like paid for my, or compensated fairly for the extra work that I'm giving?

56:17Lindsey Carter:And basically they were kind of shitting on that quiet quitting mentality and saying like if you want to get somewhere you got to work far harder and again there's a little bit of truth to what they're saying but it's like it does not land when you're arguing at your audience tell them to like get your fucking ass up and work kim kardashian style exactly it doesn't land it's like it's the way that you're delivering that message it's very off-putting there's a better way to deliver that feedback maybe if it's someone that you're like is your direct report and they want to earn more money and they want to promote then you can have that conversation with them privately but you don't need to like do a gospel talk to your listeners saying you don't work hard and this way you don't make enough while all the while well, girls got to eat and this girl is making millions of dollars every month.

56:51Lindsey Carter:It's like easy for you to say. Right. It's like no one wants to hear you just need to work harder from like a rich, privileged person sitting in their ivory tower. You know, like it's just it's never going to land. Yes. Just work harder. Shut up. Right. It's like the James Charles thing. I mean, we will definitely this is a couple of weeks ago at this point, but we're recording this on Sunday, May 10th. So this is fresh. But yeah, it's like no one wants to hear it. Save it. Yeah. Yeah, it just comes off as very tone deaf. And it's like, you don't know the life that we've had to live. It's not the same as yours.

57:20So you cannot truly identify with what it is we're complaining about. So please just don't speak on it. Yeah. And she tripled down in a May 2025 sub-essay that she paywalled. She said, quote, I'm a millennial. I grew up in a culture where hard work pays off. It wasn't just a phrase. It was a promise. Two truths can coexist. We can honor ambition and protect our peace. Oh, my God. It's all chat GBT. Yeah. Hard work pays off was a phrase. It was a promise. And honestly, I respect the hell out of that. And honestly, you were in survival mode. Like, chat GPT, I just ran someone over with my car and pushed them down, like, down the cliff.

57:54What do I do? Honestly, it was dark. And honestly, you're asking a really hard question at this point. And honestly, I respect the hell out of that. No, genuinely, that's what it sounds like. I think you're right. I didn't even put that together, Soph, but I think you're right. It is chat GPT generated. Right. Right. And obviously, this Substack post further added fuel to the fire because she's commentating on it a second time. It's like, just let it go. You were wrong. Let it go. Right. And a bunch of people were commenting on this one girl's TikTok. She was kind of summarizing the scandal. And someone by the name of Erin Heller wrote on TikTok, quote,

58:29Lindsey Carter:Set Active requires you to complete projects when you interview. I unfortunately fell for it and sent over my project when they then they ghosted me. Noticed a couple of months later that they use my project for their campaign. I know countless of people that this has also happened to. And interestingly enough, when I was listening to this podcast episode this morning that she filmed on June 2025, she said as part of her interview process, she goes, you know, as a company, I don't know why I'm giving her this voice. As a company, we're leveling up. And before we were in such a reactionary mode where we wanted to hire people simply because we needed the role to be filled as quickly as possible.

59:03Lindsey Carter:Now we're far more intentional with who we bring onto the team. We're a team of over 100 people now. So what we do in the interview process is we have two remote interviews. And then the third interview is them meeting with the entire C-suite staff, so including myself. And we have them prepare a case study to present to the C-suite staff. First of all, that's so much pressure and so much time and so much energy. Oh, my God. Don't do a case study. Like, call my resumption and look at my resume. It's too much. And this is something that I actually didn't mention in our Patreon episode about all of, you know, the career tea from the fashion industry.

59:32But so much of it is, like, edit tests or writing tests. and they make you like sometimes write full articles, pitch a bunch of stories. And I have heard from so many other writers that like their story idea that they pitched was eventually written, commissioned by another writer for the company. And yeah, it's just like, it's so stupid. And just to not get the job is just like salt in the water. Agreed. And the interviewer in this podcast episode, she asked Lindsay, oh, I'm sure you guys, you commissate them for their time because that seems like a lot of work.

1:00:05Lindsey Carter:And Lindsay said that she did. The company did compensate them. No, I doubt it. I mean, I doubt that because I'm thinking of the one time I had to do, it actually was with Slack, the company that later got acquired by Salesforce. But, you know, they had me do case studies, which I understand. Like, sometimes that is asked for, but I wasn't compensated, nor was I expecting that. It's just part of, unfortunately, part of the application process that is really, really, really a waste of time most of the time. It is. And to not compensate them when they're asked to put on an entire presentation to the entire C-suite team.

1:00:37Lindsey Carter:First of all, I'm pretty sure your C-suite team has a lot more to do than listen to a potential interviewee. That just tells me your interview practices are kind of messed up if you're having everyone do that. Like, I get higher level management having to interview with C-suite, but that tells me your C-suite is not busy enough if that's what they're doing with their time. Yeah, like, are they just twiddling their thumbs all day? That's a really weird assignment and just shows kind of juniorness to her leadership. Is there anything better than feeling like you finally nailed your bedding? Everything is soft in the perfect weight.

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1:03:33But let's now talk about the pinkwashing scandal that you brought up at the top of the episode that happened in October 2025. Set Active launched a Susan G. Komen breast cancer collection. And Carter confirmed that only 2 % of proceeds of the sales would be donated to this foundation. And people were obviously very upset. And they said, okay, you're using breast cancer to clear out old stock. And you're only giving 2 % until Lindsay gets called out for like such a low percentage. And they're saying like, this is such elitist behavior. This seems like you're just disposing of old shit in your warehouse that you don't want.

1:04:05And people were saying this is not a good look PR wise. What were your thoughts when this first came out? Because I remember this kind of like taking the internet by storm last summer. I mean, 2%, like you could argue like, well, it's better than nothing. It's like you can afford to give more if you are going to profit and make it seem that, you know, if you buy our pink sets, you are directly supporting breast cancer. You are profiting off of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Like, you are profiting off of it without actually distributing money to them in a fair way. So it is pinkwashing.

1:04:40It is. By definition. By definition, it is. Like, 2%, I'm sorry, just at that point, don't even do it. Don't even bring up breast cancer. Right. It's just, it's a slap in the face.

1:04:50Lindsey Carter:To me, it would be even more lucrative to just make an offline donation of$10 ,000 to the charity. Like, if it's for tax reasons, then fucking do that. But don't say 2%. It's like, it's just pointless. Yeah, it reminds me kind of. I know it's like very, very, very different. But this is why Chiara Ferragni, the Italian influencer, got in trouble was because she said, if you buy these specific cake, you are contributing to X charity, which obviously is an incentive for a lot of people. They're like, oh, my God, I'm doing something good. Yeah. Turns out that it didn't matter if you bought the cake.

1:05:21They had already decided that they were going to donate X amount. So that was, you know, illegal in Italy. That's deceitful practices to make someone think that they're doing something and it has nothing to do with this donation. That's like, yeah, that's weird.

1:05:36Lindsey Carter:And as we talked about, Lindsay is very connected to her community. She has a broadcast channel. I don't know if it's still ongoing since she's been through a couple scandals since then, but it used to be called, if not so-called, Linny Circle. And she addressed the feedback about the 2 % spot on. She says, I've seen some comments about us only, she put on quotes, only donating 2 % and I want to be straight. The quotes kills me only in quotes. Like, yeah, only. It's so like, oh, you idiotic girls. It's so like sassy. Like, please with the sass, Lindsay. It's patronizing as hell. Yeah. The 2 % is over$10 ,000 going directly to Susan G.

1:06:12Lindsey Carter:Komen. I'm really proud of that number. And here's why it's 2 and not 20. Running a business costs money. Thank you. We had no idea, Lindsay. But enlighten us. Like, a lot of money. Production. Chat GBT. Once again, chat. Like, a lot of money. Honestly. You're right. Like, honestly, you're so right. Production, materials, labor, shipping, marketing, keeping our team paid, all of it adds up fast. Our margins aren't what people think that they are. We could have done a bigger percentage and made this a one-time thing, or we can do 2 % and actually sustain our ability to keep supporting causes that matter.

1:06:43We chose sustainability. Rich, coming from the girl who is manufacturing out of China and doing two drops a month, but sure, go off.

1:06:48Lindsey Carter:I'd rather give what we can give responsibly than overcommit and not be able to do it again. $10 ,000 is going to research, support, and programs that save lives. That's not nothing. If you're upset about the percentage, I get it. But we're doing what we can while still being a functioning business. And I'm proud of what we're contributing. Oh, also my favorite thing about broadcast channels is that you really don't have to do anything to enter them. So you can like get tea without actually being like a real fan. Like you can just be like, okay, join. Like it's not like you have to like subscribe or anything.

1:07:18Like you can just press one button and then it's like they act like they're only talking to like their biggest fans. No, I know. It's like you and I could go on right now and start her little broadcast channel. Yeah, exactly. And she faced a lot of criticism, even more after she posted that to her broadcast channel. But she like doubled down.

1:07:33Lindsey Carter:Right, right. And she's like, okay, okay, we hear you. We hear you. We're going to significantly now increase our donation after all this backlash. And she said, breast cancer is a cause that's deeply personal to many people on our team. And our initial 10K contribution did not reflect the weight of that cause or the heart of our community. We let our focus on business operations make us lose sight of our why. We are truly sorry for that. After a deeper discussion internally, we are proud to share that we have since increased our commitment to 95K. In addition to what we've pledged to the Susan G.

1:08:03Lindsey Carter:Komen Foundation, we'll be diversifying our donations across multiple organizations such as MetaViver to ensure we're making the largest possible impact. So gun to your head, let's add$75 ,000 for 85 ,000. It was literally a definition of, okay, damn, sure. Here, damn. No. No, like I. Pull my leg. God, it's fine. But like a good response, all things considered. I know it was obviously because of all the backlash. So it doesn't really, that's not saying much, but I think them, you know, increasing the amount that much and, you know. Yeah, that's a sizable increase. Yeah. Sizable increase. And also saying that they were going to donate a crossbow to an organization.

1:08:42I think, you know, it wasn't the worst response. It just, again, it came after tons of backlash. Yeah. And I think this response is very good. It's just everything leading up to the response is a little bit cringe. And I think now the response is even like, well, it's a little bit wasted because your last two responses were even worse. So now we're kind of just annoyed. But sure, we're happy. Like why? Like her doubling down was like the worst move because it's like, OK, like we fucked up. Like we're going to fix it. But it's like she doubled down and then she saw how more pissed people were after that.

1:09:11This response would have been fine in lieu of the first broadcast channel. And I'm hearing feedback that we only contributed 10K. And the quote kills me. I know. So it's so patronizing to the viewers. Like sass queen. Yes. This is another scandal that actually happened two years before this Breast Cancer Foundation thing happened.

1:09:32Lindsey Carter:So there was a scandal also known as Superset. And Lindsey Carter announced Superset on TikTok, which basically eliminated the dedicated social media team. And they were planning on redistributing the work across 12 creatives on their team. So I looked at this video. She posted. She goes, hey, guys, Lindsey Carter here. We're getting rid of our social team. I know, crazy, right? But we're actually just redistributing the work across 12 creatives, across social, marketing, PR. And she said that the landscape for the social media role has changed drastically over the last few years, while the roles for a social team aren't really evolving.

1:10:05Lindsey Carter:And that this new program where they're centered around 12 people, 12 creatives, has been operating smoothly since they launched this new initiative the last couple of weeks. And a lot of people were like, oh, shit, is the company in trouble? Have you laid off your entire social media team? And she says, you know, she responded to it in an Instagram comment. She says, you know, social media is not the same. It's really ever evolving while the roles for a social team aren't really evolving. At the end of the day, I'm psychotic about little details when it comes to social in terms of creative and strategy.

1:10:35Lindsey Carter:And so much of it is marketing. And it was really hard to simply execute my vision or expect someone to execute it. It's a lot easier to work collaboratively with a creative team, content creator, art director, brand team, copywriter, etc. to execute content and strategy. So far, we were on week three of this and it's going so smoothly. There's still some kinks to iron out, but it's working for us as of now. And people were so mad. This one is a little bit disproportionate. I feel like people were like, you're laying off hardworking people. Right, because it sounds like she's like, we're getting rid of our social media team!

1:11:06Exclamation point, exclamation point. When people are like, wait, you're excited about having to lay people off? Like, what? Yeah, I don't think she's ever really aware of the tone at which she presents certain things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like, genuinely, I feel like that could be said about me too. Like, I'm a software queen. So I understand, like, it wasn't the best presentation, but I don't think it really was that.

1:11:24Lindsey Carter:I think it was more, she didn't frame it in the right way. When she said, like, we're getting rid of our social media team, it should have been, no, no, no, we're restructuring the organization. And these people are not only going to be focused on Instagram, they're instead going to be focused on PR, advertising, all things considered, not just Instagram and TikTok. Right. And she deactivated her personal account, which had over 31 ,000 followers in 2023 because of all this backlash. And also like the way that this Yahoo article phrases it or Business Insider, a CEO deactivated her Instagram after facing facing immense backlash for announcing she restructured her social media team, forcing other employees to contribute to those roles.

1:12:01Like that is also even though no one was laid off officially, it is fucked up to say, hey, I know we originally hired you as a copywriter. So that'd be like me. And then all of a sudden it's like, well, now you're going to be doing analytics for right for Instagram and meta. like I'd be like that's not what I fucking signed up for like I don't know anything about that like running social media is like a whole different beast than like what I'm sure all these people do

1:12:26Lindsey Carter:right 100 % it's like okay yeah there's a creative side department it's marketing but there's like so many people under that umbrella and just because you're under the marketing department there's so many other things in that department I have no idea what the fuck to do that's basically what you're saying like don't hire me to be a copywriter and then do all the Instagram like that just doesn't seem fair or normal. So it's also a little bit questionable because what do you mean you didn't lay anyone off and you're restructuring? So what does that mean? They've had to now learn new skills in this new role.

1:12:52It's just kind of confusing, honestly, from an organizational perspective. I don't know how that was actually enforced. Right. So there's some glass door reviews about just really working at the company. And in all fairness, like I've worked at every company I feel like I've worked at is always below four stars. There's always like disgruntled people that will write certain things. But I think because their employee size is a lot lower. Like they're basically a startup. They have 44 reviews and 24 % of those reviews trend below industry average. Only 39 % recommend to a friend. Work-life balance is rated as a 2.9 out of 5.

1:13:24Culture and values 2.8. And some direct quotes from Glassdoor. The CEO is cruelly egotistical, making every decision based on self-importance rather than a sense or strategy. Another person says, you are only allowed to work three work from home days a year. Sick days are strongly disencouraged, which is crazy in a post-pandemic world. Pandemic world. That's crazy. Yeah, though, three work from home days a year is fucking insane. And then also, sick days are discouraged? Like, what if someone's sick? Let me get the whole office

1:13:52Lindsey Carter:sick then and then everyone's out of commission for the next week? Like, how is that normal? What is, like, the strategy here? Because this, like, I would rather work anywhere else. Yeah, having to show up to an office every single day post-2020 and only allowed three work from home days is not normal. And barely any sick days. Right. That does not make sense. And beyond that, there was an additional blackout period in November, which obviously is close to holiday season. Yeah. Where no employees are allowed to take a single day off. Fuck that. That's, I've never heard of that, like ever. I mean, I get it's a busy time, but that seems quite.

1:14:27No. Yeah. Like it's a busy, I work for, you know, a retailer and like we can take time off. Yeah. Like it's I'm sorry, like you're allowed to take time off when you want to take time off. That's what PTO is. And it's Thanksgiving. When you want to take PTO. Yeah. It's Thanksgiving. People are spending time with their families like fuck that.

1:14:44Lindsey Carter:This this company just seems very poorly managed and it seems like the leadership is very, very junior. It comes from the top. Yes. There is a lack of inclusion and diversity at set. It is mostly white women, which, again, this is so topical because we just did your fashion secrets industry. And you talked about how often women that are able to climb the corporate ladder are often white, conventionally attractive, thin. Yep. Privileged. Wealthy designer clothes. Yep, yep, yep. So this literally is a copying paste of what you just said in our previous episode. Yeah, I love this timing. Yeah, this is like really, actually, I'm like reading and looking at this, these notes with a different lens just after having listened to you.

1:15:18And someone else wrote on the Glassdoor review, do not trust these positive reviews. They were written because the CEO coerced people into even writing them, including people who do not even work at the company.

1:15:28Lindsey Carter:When I was an employee there, she did this to me, and I have physical proof to show it. Wow. And it's really bad. Another person on Reddit, ZestyBear96 said, I worked for her for years and she is genuinely one of the worst human beings I've ever encountered. The environment was a straight up cult. Total control, zero boundaries, the expectation that you'd sacrifice your entire life for the job. She spoke to employees and manufacturers horribly, had absolutely no empathy, expected people to work past midnight over the tiniest details. She also somehow believed everyone on the planet was copying her.

1:15:58Lindsey Carter:Meanwhile, her entire social feed was recreated from the inspo photos that she forced the models to recreate in the studio. And if anything was not exactly like the inspo pic, we had to go back the next day and reshoot. The fact that they're constantly hiring is honestly hilarious. It's a nonstop revolving door. So people turning over every couple of months, that is not a good sign. And like there's a lot to be said about like the fact that female CEOs are disproportionately criticized compared to male CEOs. We've seen it time and time and time again. Oh, yeah. It's a theme. Yep. It's obviously a theme.

1:16:30I think some of this stuff does sound like objectively crazy, though. Yeah. It just does not sound like a good place to work. Yeah. I think for me, when reading any place that I've worked at, and I'd be curious for you too, I've read a lot of Glassdoor interviews like the ones I'm reading right now. But the specificity about the not being able to work from home except three days a week, not allowing to take off the entire month of February, I think that actually speaks far more to the talk. Oh, yeah. Sorry. November. That speaks far more to the toxic work environment than these kind of like anecdotal things.

1:17:04Because people could say whatever they want. You know what I mean? That's a little bit tricky for me to diagnose and judge. But like that just speaks to a very toxic work environment. Yeah. And I'm sure, you know, there are like other people at the top other than her. Like it's not just on her, but it does sound like she has helped foster a toxic work environment. Yeah, yeah.

1:17:25Lindsey Carter:And there is this thing called Geneva Chat. It seems kind of like it's not a Reddit and it's not, it feels almost like a Slack channel. I'm not sure exactly what the form was. Some kind of Discord, some kind of Slack channel where a lot of set community members could join and talk about their favorite drops, what they're buying on the next drop, things like that. And it actually was created by Lindsay and other fans of the brand and where they could connect for their love of Set Active. And there ended up being like a Geneva 2.0 group chat that got started for women that wanted to talk about other things outside of just like athleisure.

1:17:56Lindsey Carter:They were like, oh, we've actually become real friends. We want to kind of take it outside of the main chat, start our own group chat. So that became like, let's call it Geneva 2.0. So a user named Capricorn Princess on Reddit says, The Geneva chat at first was all positive vibes and girls fangirling over Set and Lindsay. A bunch of girls decided to create a new Geneva chat just for us, where, yes, we would talk about set, but we also would talk about other things and personal stuff. The second chat was a safe outlet for us because we felt like constructive criticism of the brand wouldn't be received as well in the main Geneva chat.

1:18:27Lindsey Carter:Things started to go downhill during the set list drop. Many girls were expressing their frustrations with set in our private chat. Their frustrations ranged from issues with shipping, fabrics being way different than from previous drops, issues with their promised PR boxes, etc. So this kind of actually reminds me of that one girl that we talked about a couple weeks ago on TikTok, how she was gifted a bag of clothing and it ended up being trash. I think Set Active did something similar where they said, we're going to gift you a box of our favorite items and it actually ended up being pretty much trash.

1:18:55One of the girls in the private chat

1:18:56Lindsey Carter:took screenshots of some of the comments made in the 2.0 chat and sent an anonymous email to Lindsay, resulting in Lindsay scolding the members in the main Geneva chat. The way she did it was so off-putting too. She basically scolded a group of grown women for having personal thoughts and opinions. Anyway, she asked us to please give all main feedback, excuse me, give all feedback in the main chat, which you then started to do. I have to say this is when some of us loyal customers started to notice the cracks in the brand and in Lindsay's way of handling things related to the brand. I feel like for someone to cattily email Lindsay, that's kind of messed up.

1:19:26Lindsey Carter:But also for her to even call attention to the nasty emails, it's like, I don't know, you're almost giving them fire to like criticize. Well, it's like, I mean, if they have feedback about your brand and they're sharing that feedback why are you like yelling at them for having feedback that isn't just purely positive like they are allowed to have opinions and they're allowed to share feedback like i don't understand like where like scolding her customers for having opinions like what are you talking about just so we're clear the boxes with the goodies there were things that had mold on the apparel they were gifted things like fanny packs hats that they did not ask for they're like we want sets we don't want a fanny pack or like a random junk they were trying to get rid of right and yeah Yeah, it's kind of like those allegations where people were saying when they try and get shit out of the warehouse, they'll gift us the trash, most trash stuff.

1:20:15Lindsey Carter:And it's not like they're given to us for free. We pay for this. Right. And it's trash. And they're also met with a lot of criticism about their lack of inclusive sizing. And when apparently when employees have brought this up to Lindsay and to higher level management, they're like, hey, other brands are doing it. Let's start with like XXL sizing. And the leadership was... Which isn't even that inclusive. Yeah, it's not. There's like so many more that could go up. Yeah. Like even XXL, can we do that? They just go, the demand is not there. And the point of inclusivity is to have those sizes available to begin with regardless of demand.

1:20:47Lindsey Carter:And Set likes to tell that there are these industry leaders in the active wear, yet all their other competitors are offering. Girlfriend Collective. I'm glad that Girlfriend Collective was brought up here because that is such an inclusive brand and they have amazing leggings. Yeah. And they size up far more inclusively than Set. And they're a smaller company. Right. And I think this brings up like a good topic that I was thinking about of just like the community that Lindsay's built was what shot her up to such relevancy and fame and success in the beginning. And I likened a lot of this back to Taylor Swift.

1:21:17Lindsey Carter:I came across a TikTok and I apologize. I don't have the creator on here, but they were basically saying how Taylor Swift now is very private. And she kind of not in an aggressive way, but she'll often kind of tease her fans in interviews saying like, oh, my fans and their Easter eggs, their crazy theories. And it's like, Taylor, you built this monster. Your entire career, the first 10, 15 years of your career was holding secret sessions for your fans to come to your house and listen to unreleased songs. Putting Easter eggs in all of your album booklets for the capital letters in every single song and fans being able to decipher what each song actually means.

1:21:50Lindsey Carter:Easter eggs in your music videos. Like, this is something that you have created and the fans have globbed onto it and they've been so parasocial with you because of it. And then now you're kind of shading us for being so parasocial. Like, you can't have it both ways, Taylor. And I think that's kind of similar to what people are experiencing with Lindsay, is that she has created such a strong, strong community of avid, of strong, strong followers and people that love Set Active. But at the same time, it's also kind of been the cause of a bit of her demise is that they feel like you've created this sense of community.

1:22:18Lindsey Carter:And now we want to tell you that like moldy clothing is not acceptable. And then you're basically telling us we're wrong. Like, that's not right. Yeah. Like, if you're going to have a community whose opinions you care about, it can't just be the positive feedback. Like there will be negative feedback sometimes and that's okay. Yes. Yes. And I think that it's been hard, I think, for her to balance that because Set Active is honestly everywhere over the last couple of years. And it's just she's getting more and more attention. And I think that the response has not been the best. And listen, she's still learning.

1:22:50She's still growing. But I thought it was really interesting when I thought about the Taylor Swift effect of like it's very similar with Taylor where like you can't get mad at your fans because you're the ones that kind of made you created this monster, Taylor. like you did i'm sorry yeah um and really you know she's been doing a lot of other kind of weird things like she uses ai to promote drops like people were saying that over the last couple

1:23:11Lindsey Carter:of months they've been seeing videos on tiktok of girls promoting set drops and then posting pics saying like plan your buy and they'll go back to the account and like all the posts are gone or that account only has 1500 followers so someone's like are these ai generated influencers that are Hawking set active where that they're just doing some mass AI influencing campaign all over TikTok. Random scandals like that, sending out claims that she's like bullied. And she wrote an Instagram post saying building and building in public has a line of like being close to something doesn't make you responsible for it.

1:23:44Just like her kind of response to the negative feedback that she's been receiving. That sounds crazy that someone posted some negative TikToks about her and she dox them in her broadcast channel and said, guys, this girl is going off. She follows me and is in this broadcast channel making 50, I kid you not, 50 TikTok videos as if she knows anything. I feel so badly for her, but please, if you see anything, just encourage kindness and positivity. I hope she gets well soon. But it reminds me of Avery Woods. It reminds me of Avery Woods. It's like, oh my God, I hope she gets well soon. I like, what I'm sure, I haven't seen those TikTok videos, but I'm sure they were like reasonable enough, criticism, feedback, whatever it is.

1:24:19It's like, it's crazy that she is like a CEO that is acting like this in her broadcast channel and like doxing people. Like, it's just like, I don't know. Are you like, she has built her following so well and built her brand so well because of the internet and on the internet, but it's like, she's too online. Like you are paying way too much attention to what people are saying about you on social media and what people are. It's like, concern yourself with your product and that's it. Like get touch grass, literally. Yeah.

1:24:46Lindsey Carter:Yeah. It's, she's clearly a very smart person and she works hard, but yeah, I think that her, I mean, it's hard, right? I think that it's not just to Lindsay. I think that when you rise to success so quickly, it's hard to understand what it's like. It's hard to know what it's like to be a good leader because you're learning also how to do everything for the first time as well. It's not like you have a seasoned CEO coming in and helping to mentor and guide you. So I totally understand it's all new for her. Not only is she building a brand with very parasocial audiences, but she's also building like, you know, an athleisure wear brand and inventory.

1:25:19and there's a lot of logistics and production. It's all very stressful. It just seems like I think she might do better of maybe bringing in some outside counsel to help her grow this brand because it's clearly becoming bigger than she is. Right. Or it's like she needs to just go away and stop being like the face of the brand because the brand is a reflection of her. So every time she does something like this, people are like, okay, well, I'm done buying this brand because I don't like the face of this brand, Lindsay Carter. It's like maybe just like stop being the face of the brand then if you can't take the criticism and you lash out and then you turn people off from the brand further.

1:25:51I mean, the brand is doing great by all accounts. So I'm sure that all of this stuff has barely made a dent. But yeah, it's very interesting. I mean, it's very, very, very impressive what she has built. And clearly she had a really, you know, clear vision and she has accomplished it. But yeah, it sounds like she's like a little too online maybe and a little averse to criticism and feedback, which is fair. But like, you're a CEO. Like you kind of got to buck up at this point. Of a multi-million dollar company. And I think part of that, too, is when you have that much wealth, too, you can create a world where you are shielded from that while still offering guidance to, like, push the company forward.

1:26:28Like, I think that Taylor Swift lives in such a, there's obviously two very different levels of success, but Taylor Swift and Lindsay Carter both have the means to create a world where they do not have to be online as much as they do to create safety for their mental health. And I suggest if I were in her position, I would do that. I would just be like, listen, I don't need to be the CEO. I can step down as like a board member or I can be advisory position, but I don't want to be in the day to day because it's impacting my mental health.

1:26:52Lindsey Carter:And it genuinely sounds like it does impact your mental health just by her activity online. So, oh, yeah. Where was it where like when she deleted her Instagram, a spokesperson for the brand was like, she has been on medication. Oh, wait. Yeah. Seth spokesperson, Gina Sheldon, said told Insider that Lindsay Carter took her countdown for a few hours to protect her mental health. She's openly on medication for her diagnosed generalized anxiety and depression disorder. which is like not funny obviously it's just like this is not good for you like being so online and being the public face of your company is not good clearly yeah yeah yeah yeah and it's it sounds like she needs some help like on the on the leaderships i think she needs to step away for a little bit like you said take a take a beat take a beat take a beat take a beat and you know recalibrate a little bit but yeah this was very enlightening like i said i didn't know a ton about her the brand um their stuff is cute tbd if i purchase something again if i do it'll probably be once again on 260 sample sale but um yeah i like i said like she is the reflection of the brand could i say that i'm a huge fan of hers no so no i probably actually won't buy something no that is such a good point so if that you bring up of that she is the brand you cannot dissociate set active and lindsey carter they are one in the same you cannot dissociate victoria beckham from Victoria Beckham Booty, Selena Gomez from like she is very much the face of the brand.

1:28:17So she better act appropriately or that her image could impact sales in the future. It certainly is not doing anything now. But it's yeah, yeah. And it's not it's just not doing her any favors.

1:28:28Lindsey Carter:Yeah. So, yeah, that's that on that on Lindsay Carter. I we were just talking offline and on Patreon about how we want to do like a Silicon Valley tech CEO billionaire episode because there's while we have talked about female founders on this show, I also want to go into the seediness that is Silicon Valley. That is the tech industry. That is these men coming in and changing everyone's lives with the technology that they've implemented, but also the darkness that is Silicon Valley. So we'll probably spearhead that up in a couple of weeks here. Other than that, you guys know where to find us on Instagram or in our show notes, our live shows, our Patreon, our sub stack.

1:29:07Lindsey Carter:All that is in the show notes for you guys to look at and enjoy. And if we don't hear from you guys, We will see you guys for next, for another episode of Dark Energy Tuesday in a couple days. Bye. Bye. Even though I spend a lot of time on the internet, with my house being renovated, all I want to do lately is be outside. Whether it's strolling on the beach or walking Hank. And of course, I feel like I kind of need a new wardrobe for my new outdoorsy persona without having to break the bank. That's why I love Fabletics. I joined Fabletics as a VIP and it's completely changed how I shop. I actually recently ordered the Principal built-in bra tank in the shade almond milk, and I paired it with the same matching set for the leggings.

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