DIP 044: Notes from a pseudo sabbatical

Plus, a smart toilet seat, festival-friendly mobility aids, and WeGrow regrows

👋 Hi. No small talk today—let’s get right into it. As always, reply with questions, comments, or thoughts about anything you read here.

This issue features 12 brands. Seventy-five percent are white-led, 17 percent are Black-led, and eight percent are led by non-Black people of color. You can find the complete Chips + Dips inclusion index here.

---

The Chips 👻

• Laurice Fox makes high-quality, on-trend shoes for women with larger (size 10–15) feet.

• Is your toilet seat missing a heart rate monitor?

• Dirty Twirl makes festival-friendly mobility aids.

• Relish makes products to help people with dementia continue to live independently.

• Kimbritive is a digital sexual and reproductive wellness platform for Black women.

• Loka is a Pentagram-designed chai brewer.

• Hart and Hero makes gender-neutral superhero capes and doll strollers that aim to bridge the gender play gap.

• Lila Pants makes pantsuits for kids and teens.

• Julie Bornstein, formerly of StitchFix and The Yes, is back with another business setting out to make shopping easier.

• Frida Uncensored shares unspoken yet essential guidance for people trying to conceive and recovering from childbirth.

• Naomi makes fancy soap designed to neutralize cooking odors like garlic.

• WeGrow, WeWork’s elementary school concept, is back as Solfl (“soulful”).

  ---

The Dip 📜

I’ve started to think about the past year as a sabbatical of sorts. I’m still working, but not at my full capacity. I’m pouring most of my energy into things outside of the career space. Despite purchasing business cards, I attended fewer than five “networking” events in 2024. I didn’t set out to spend the past year in this way; it’s just what happened when I got comfortable saying “no” and thinking more about how and where I want to be.

There are blips of fear that arise from all of this—that I’ve fallen behind, that my professional growth has stagnated, that I’ve lost out on opportunities, that I won’t be able to find “real success” (whatever that means) as a freelancer unless I’m showing face…

Those fears are valid and rooted in truth, of course. But stepping back has been valuable in other ways. Removing myself from online and in-person spaces where I’m surrounded by people who are doing similar work has allowed me access to a different vantage point.

↯↯↯

As an independent consultant and freelancer, I’m less in the weeds than I was as an in-house marketer. Because I’m working with multiple clients, typically within the healthcare space and typically focusing on consumer marketing, I’ve gained a more holistic understanding of healthcare marketing, the venture-based healthcare space, and how these businesses operate.

Under the hood, many of my clients operate similar businesses. But their service or product, target audience, and overall messaging make them wholly distinct. Learnings from one client may not directly translate to another, but a nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the industry at large does—from value-based care to insurance to marketplace models.

I’ve come to think that being immersed in a particular business or product can actually be harmful. The ability to critique the business you’re in is important. If you can’t see flaws or faults, whether with the business model itself or the system it operates within, you’re removed from the reality of it. It may be all-encompassing to you, but your consumers don’t see it that way.

Spending less time in professional spaces has reaffirmed for me what most people really care about and are motivated by, and what real community and affinity look like.

↯↯↯

Almost every consumer brand I’ve worked for has built its messaging around what consumers are motivated by. I’m openly critical of fear- and insecurity-based marketing, and yet the truth is that fear is a powerful motivator. We don’t want to be left behind, or find that we’re not doing enough, or unwittingly harm ourselves. Most brand messaging today is a variation on the following: “What you’re doing isn’t good enough. We offer something better.” It’s everywhere—shoes, skincare, supplements, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beverages, software…

I think a lot about agency and intrinsic motivation. For each of us, the bubbles we operate within inform our perspectives. Invisible social pressures shape our desires, priorities, and values. When I worked for a plant-based food company that spoke a lot about nutritional value, I started to only buy produce from the farmer’s market because it’s what was “best.” Media companies rake in affiliate cash from publishing round-ups of the “best” of anything and everything, and consumers often have a perspective on which media company has the “best” recommendations.

↯↯↯

My primary focus in the past year has been less about getting “better” and more about finding what I like and how I want to spend my time—outside of as many external pressures as possible. When I decided to pursue self-employment, I knew I wanted to continue learning. I thought that might take the form of online classes and museum visits. Somehow, it’s taken the form of line dancing.

Believe me when I say no one is more surprised by this than I am.

It’s physical movement with a built-in social component, but more importantly, it challenges me and allows me to witness my own progress. A dance that used to take me a day or two to learn now takes me 10 minutes. Excepting ballet as a toddler, I have zero dance experience. Getting into line dancing required me to learn how to learn a dance. In addition to deciphering steps, I needed to learn how to find the rhythm of a song and recognize when there might be a restart or a tag.

It’s so completely different from anything I’ve done before. And most importantly, it’s entirely intrinsically motivated.

So much consumer marketing today is about purchasing surface-level progress. What I love about line dancing is that it allows me to see and feel my own ability to evolve. Giving myself the opportunity to experience that feels better than any product or purchase ever has…

Still hungry? Here are some things I considered writing to you about in the last year…

• Climate-washing

• New brands reissuing older products (and/or acquiring IP), like Vacation’s Orange Gelée, Food52 acquiring Dansk, Floyd reproducing vintage furniture designs, and Rowing Blazers reviving Gyles and George

• AI and crypto technologies are easiest to adopt when they’re not the primary selling point, as we’re seeing with Blackbird and TYB

• Brands partnering with buzzy writers to produce story-led marketing copy, as seen with Hunter Harris for Reformation, Aiden Arata and Samantha Irby for Rachel Antonoff, and Hinge’s “No Ordinary Love” campaign

• Couples therapy platform Ours developing tools to support healthcare marketing (I think this is brilliant and may still write about it…)

• No-Ad sunscreen

• The business of divorce

  ---

Real Dip 🧃

Another garbage pesto.

Roughly chop carrot greens and leftover scallions and place them in a food processor. Add one clove of garlic, juice from one lemon, a big pinch of salt, a handful of pepitas, and a few cornichons because you ran out of capers. Pulse for a few seconds.

Scrape down the sides, drizzle in more olive oil than you think you need, add more salt, and blitz again. See what’s missing—you might want to add some cornichon brine.

Plays well with roasted sweet potatoes, fresh ricotta, and a good baguette.

Thanks for snacking,

— Emily 🎈

PS: My phone line is open and I have room for new clients! Schedule a call with me and see how we might be able to work together.