Fried but inspired

In today’s issue: A week of weird vibes turned life shift, how I used ChatGPT to decode IRS letters and bedroom lighting, and the collabs + culture drops worth watching.

---

Wanna sponsor this thing? Hit reply. For everything else, find me here.

---

Notes from a messy desk

Hey, you. Time for my weekly dear diary thingie.

Last week was a bit brutal. On Monday I attended the Firstminute Capital conference. Tuesday evening I suited up for a black tie gala at the Tate Modern (my first time there, but sadly saw no art). Wednesday morning I spoke at London Tech Week then drove nearly 2 hours up to Soho Farmhouse for the Founders Forum event kickoff. Spent all day Thursday doing some half-assed networking, interviewed the founders of Wix and Miro onstage, hosted a lunchtime roundtable, then drove back to London Thursday night — drained, overstimulated, and asking myself why I’d crammed so much into four days. I enjoyed my weekend then was back at it – woke up Monday, and attended another conference (Giant Ventures puts on a great event), back at the Tate Modern (still saw no art).

I wasn’t particularly social, which made me feel a bit guilty (my greatest talent!). I was surrounded by energy, opportunity, ambition—and just felt… quiet. Disconnected. Like maybe I’d wasted my time showing up when I didn’t feel fully present.

But then I ran into someone — someone who hadn’t replied to my last text (which I didn’t take personally; he’s wildly busy and just had a Netflix documentary made about his life). That brief hello gave me the perfect excuse to follow up afterwards. I sent a quick “great to see you” message, slipped in the question I’d meant to ask weeks ago, and, somehow, that conversation turned into advice that led me to say yes to something that will absolutely, completely change my life.

It’s one of the biggest decisions I’ve made in the past decade. I’m not ready to share what it is just yet — but assuming it happens, you’ll be the first to know.

And it reminded me: even when it feels like nothing’s clicking, even when you’re tired or low or not your most magnetic self, showing up still matters. You don’t know what that one interaction will lead to. A career shift. A creative breakthrough. A new friend. Or advice that rewrites your story.

So this is your reminder to stay in it. Keep circulating. The world has a funny way of meeting you halfway.

Wheels up,

Sophia

---

🫖 Tea with GPT — This Week’s Uses

I used ChatGPT to…

• Review a bunch of legal agreements, of course

• Ask what kind of blackout blinds would fit in my weird angled attic bedroom window by uploading a photo while lying in bed (no luck here)

• Uploaded a photo of something from the IRS, asked what the fuck it was, and what to do with it

• Remind me of who wrote the song “bike” (it’s Pink Floyd)

• Calculate the time difference between London and New Zealand to schedule a Business Class live with Simran Kaur, founder of Friends That Invest

• Find out if the Royal Academy of Arts has a special restaurant for members

• Pondered the best way to remove my microbladed eyebrow tattoo

• Help me draft questions for an interview with the founders of Wix and Miro at Founder’s Forum

• Ask if Ibiza real estate is ever gonna go up in value or if it’s too late to invest

• Find out if I could wear jeans to a member’s club in London called Annabel’s (the answer yes if they’re dark denim and not torn)

• Figure out how to properly delete my profile from Raya

🧠 AI That Actually Works

So many AI memberships are just shiny prompt packs or tool dumps you’ll never use. The Distillery is different. It’s an operator-built (by Business Class’s COO) lab for founders who want workflows, not overwhelm. Think: plug-and-play bots, curated tools, and AI systems that actually stick—without a dev team or another course to half-finish. If you’re tired of your stack collecting dust and ready to actually run smoother, this is the room. I’m in it. You should be too.

---

Collabs on my radar

Khy’s new drop with Turkish-British designer Dilara Findikoglu is full gothic glam—the sculpted corsets and deconstructed denim hit somewhere between villain origin story and runway rave. Hill House Home is celebrating 10 years with a Peppa Pig collab—think mommy-and-me Nap Dresses with cartoon-level charm. Mountain Dew and KFC joined forces on a “dirty soda” slushie for F1: The Movie and the Internet lost it. Nike’s launching its first-ever collab with an Indian designer (finally), and the early teasers are stunning—global luxury meets street-level power. Selena Gomez’s horchata-inspired OREO just dropped, and it’s giving cinnamon sugar nostalgia with a Rare Impact twist. And K-pop group Seventeen’s plushie collab with Labubu raised thousands on Pharrell’s auction platform—yes, people are bidding over $2K for goth-y Carhartt-clad figurines. Peak internet.

Shop my favorite brand collabs.

---

Links to make you smarter and more interesting

Drag and drop is back, baby. Instagram’s adding drag-and-drop to their profile editor. While that might sound minor, it’s giving the girlies a reason to actually go back, dust off some old posts, and bring them to the top of their feed. Honestly, this should’ve launched five years ago, but I’ll take it.

The social media gear drop you didn’t know you needed. Rachel Karten just published the equivalent of a beauty shelfie for content creators—tripods, tech, and tiny things that make your setup sexier.

Kim x Nike is... delayed? Nike is hitting pause on its launch with SKIMS. A rare delay for two juggernauts, and a reminder that even the sexiest brand mashups aren’t immune to logistics hell or “strategic realignment” (read: someone got cold feet).

Welcome to the workday that never ends. A new report from Microsoft reports that, due to an increase in a distributed workforce, 20% of meetings are happening outside of typical work hours. So while the era of remote work might be giving you more flexibility (we see you taking that Zoom call from your vacation in Paris), it’s also creating a world where we never really shut off from work.

Influencers are ad agencies now. Word on the street at Cannes Lions, the international ad festival, is that influencers aren’t just getting brand deals—they’re becoming the brands' whole ad strategy. Some agencies are being cut out entirely. If you’re building something right now, think less billboard, more bestie with a ring light.

Meta tried to poach OpenAI talent with $100M offers (and failed). Sam Altman says Meta tried to wave nine-figure offers at OpenAI staff... and still couldn’t land a hire. It’s juicy, yes, but also a low-key lesson in loyalty culture. Money doesn’t always win.

Google Cloud knocked itself offline. You didn’t imagine it; pretty much the entire internet wasn’t working last week. A bug in a bug fix caused Google Cloud to take down popular websites and servers, including Spotify, Discord, Snapchat, UPS, and Google Workspace. So next time you have a typo on your website, just remember: at least you didn’t take the internet with you.

Midjourney enters the AI video chat. Midjourney just dropped their first AI video tool and it’s blowing the other video models out of the water. Whether you want to animate your product photography or just want to bring something from your imagination to life, creating sick video content just got a whole lot easier.

---

More from my rich universe of endeavors

• Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X

• Join the waitlist for Business Class, my digital course

• Buy the Flight Planner

• Check out my free downloadable resources

• Book me to speak at your event

• Pitch your startup to Trust Fund

• Hire me to consult

I may include affiliate links, which means I receive commission on purchases made from some of the links. But I’ll only show you stuff I really like.