Here's the thing most founders and CMOs aren’t telling you when they post the brand activation photos: yes, that weekend costs real money, and lots of it.

It also potentially costs less than the trade show booth you're saving up for. In this issue I'm giving you the receipts from Casa Noon's first real creator and pop-up activation weekend — the line items and how to run the same play at whatever scale you're working with right now.

I just got back from Montauk and I'm still finding sand in my beach bag turned laptop bag. I loved what we did out there… it was truly one of my favorite working weekends ever.

So to catch you up ICYMI: last issue I mentioned we were popping up at a beach club out east — Barlume for pilates and brunch, plus an Airbnb Creator House shared with friends of the brand and a pop-up shop experience at Aura Montauk.

The name of the brand is Casa Noon, so of course we needed a summer home. The question was whether we were doing one IRL, or keeping it figurative.

I mulled this over in my mind:

Is renting a Casa Noon beach house in the literal Hamptons worth real deal dollars for a brand new baby brand? Or is it a nice (but costly) weekend with friends that won't result in much actual traction?

First, if brand season out east is new to you, here's the gist:

Every July, beauty and fashion brands descend on the Hamptons and Montauk to host pop-ups, dinners, and wellness activations for editors, creators, and the customer they wish they had. Historically this was a big-budget game — think Revolve houses and hotel takeovers. What's changed is that the infrastructure (small hotels, boutiques, studios with followings) is now accessible to independent brands who ask.

So let's get into the Casa Noon x Montauk weekend:

I've done a couple of trade shows this year and I'm not against them at all — I've had really great early conversations with national retailers because of them. But whew, they're expensive.

So last weekend, for roughly the same budget I'd have put toward one luxe level NYC trade show, here's what we spent:

Airbnb, 4 days — $3,000. Eight creators, who are also investors in the brand, stayed with us. Over 2 million combined followers, making content the entire time.

Creative director to shoot — $2,500. Not a traditional photographer. A creative director who's worked with beauty brands and makes her own content too. Shot everything on iPhone so we could turn it around fast.

Brunch + pilates — $3,000. Hosted at Barlume, a brand new beachfront hotel.

Additional T&E — a train ticket. I was already in New York for retail meetings. The only extra spend was Ubers around town, dinner for our house guests, and stocking the house with coffee and snacks.

Call it $8,500 and change all in. That's what replaced a booth.

Steal this: run the comparison on your own next spend before you commit to it. Not “what does this cost” but “what does this cost versus the obvious option, and what does each one actual give me in terms of real ROI.”

A trade show gets you in front of buyers for a few days and then it's over. The relationship lives in a follow-up email you cross your fingers and hope gets opened.

Here's what a weekend of memory creating moments looked like for Casa Noon.

We opened at Barlume with Slow Burn, a pilates + brunch morning. Armani Beauty happened to be hosting an influencer event on the same property that same weekend, which was a useful thing to watch up close.

Theirs was talent, and I feel pretty confident it was expensive talent. These girls were being shuttled in in Mercedes vans. The couple that I recognized had very large followings, but tbh, I didn't see a lot of actual love for the brand, it was more snap the photo and move on.

Ours was community — Helen Phelan (my Oui, We Studio Accelerator client turned friend) has 35K followers; she taught the class and brought her own people, we went out the night before and ended up inviting a few local tastemakers I knew would help spread the word, and editors and creators came in from the city.

There was a torrential downpour looming the entire morning, but despite that, when I started to present about the brand, the questions went really deep. The care for what we're creating was obvious.

That one event opened the door to Casa Noon potentially being stocked in Barlume's own boutique when it opens next year, and in their in-room guest totes now.

Then we popped up at Aura Montauk, a clean beauty shop right in the middle of town. Once we knew we'd be out in Montauk, we pitched a founder meet and greet. We sold 20+ units in the hours I was there, and the product is staying on their shelves for the rest of the season.

Steal this: stack the asks around a trip you're already taking. The pop-up, the boutique, the hotel, the dinner — none of those were the reason to go. They were the reason it paid for itself.

Days later, I walked into national retailer meetings in New York. And I wasn't describing what the brand will do to build community someday.

I had the creative from the weekend in hand. National and global buyers could see exactly what it looks like — and feels like — to be in relationship with us. The creative director I hired to shoot the content really understood how we'd use these assets and she totally nailed getting me something that worked just as well on IG as it does in a deck.

Steal this: budget for the person who captures it, not just the thing being captured. An unshot event is a memory. A shot one is six months of assets and a buyer meeting that goes differently.

So yes — for a brand new baby brand, I'd absolutely do this again.

The women who stayed with us for the weekend are all in our Creator Angel Investor group, lovingly called the Out of Office Club. I truly believe the right five women in your group chat will do more for your career than an MBA from Wharton.

I know how that sounds. So look at what's quietly become one of the most powerful forces in business that most people have never heard of: the #ANGELS. Six women who built their careers together at Twitter, got their equity when it went public, and instead of investing alone, did it as a group. Twitter's top lawyer. The woman who ran product. Together they've backed Coinbase, Stripe, Gusto.

They're literally a co-worker friend group that became a cap table. I talked more about this here:

Here's what they figured out. When you go out on a limb — start the company, make the thing, put your name on it — the people who lock in aren't usually your old friends. They're other women out on the same limb. I call it the exposure bond.

It's not “women supporting women” exactly. It's what happens when shared risk creates a loyalty a normal friendship never will.

On the first morning in Montauk with outdoor beach pilates and brunch in the sand on the schedule, everything that could go sideways did. Torrential rain. A group of geese had reclaimed their beach (if you know what I mean)… Our shipment of product was missing. But by the time guests walked in, it felt flawless because that group of women jumped in to help. They weren't my staff. They were my investors — who are also founders and CEOs in their own right.

Steal this: you might not have been an early employee at Twitter. Neither was I. But these rooms are everywhere now — angel collectives, founder dinners, the group chat that turns into a syndicate. Find your team and lock in together.

Every one of these comes back to the same thing. The booth, the badge, the MBA, the networking fee — that's the version of visibility you can buy, and everyone else can buy it too.

The house is the version you have to build.

Wharton gives you a network you paid two hundred grand to borrow for two years. The exposure bond gives you women who show up in the chaos, write the check, and hopefully, never leave you. That's worth more than any degree, and nobody's teaching it.

Whatever your version of the house is this season — a beach rental, a backyard, a dinner for six — build it like it's supposed to keep working after everyone flies home.

This is the Oui, We Studio IRL version of everything above. For two days in a private home in Brooklyn, I’m hosting a small group of founders. We’ll be building your content approach and shooting it live, so you leave with finished work instead of a to-do list.

It’s not a course or a conference; instead, it’s the opportunity to come together with other women doing their thing and work together on content and so much more.

REGISTER HERE

1. Content Weekend New York — September 19-20 Open now. A focused weekend for founders who want to get their visual story right in a room full of other creators building cult brands. → Register here

2. Dream Ventures Accelerator - August 12th Kickoff Interested in learning how to fundraise for your business, this is where I learned the basics and met a community of amazing founders doing the same thing → Join here

3. Cult Brand Accelerator — Fall Cohort Begins in September. This is where founders do the actual brand infrastructure work together — structured, specific, and in community. If you've been thinking about it, this is the cohort to do it in. → Register here

Fractional CBO — Brand Direction: Think of me as your brand sherpa: I know where you're going, how to get there, and I make sure nothing goes out misaligned. Monthly strategy call, updated content plan, and a brand strategy document — all built on the Cult Brand Blueprint™ framework. Our next opening for this work is September.

The Content Studio Brand strategy from me. Content from my Studio team, created and delivered to you each month — ready to post. Photo-forward or video-forward, depending on where your brand lives and what we decide you need.

Engagements start at $3,500/month. → Let us know you're interested here, and we'll set up time to chat.

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