My Alex Cooper era

From Columbia Business School to a Prada campaign.

My work wife Jamie and I spoke at the VC Club at Columbia Business School this week. This marks the third time I’ve spoken at a business school (Columbia, NYU, Harvard) which is not something I ever thought I’d add to my list of accolades, but here we are. What’s funny is that earlier that same morning, I was hired by Prada to shoot a video for their Valentine’s Day pop-up, so the contrast of going from a Prada job to discussing the fund I’m building at Columbia felt like the perfect metaphor for my life right now—two very different worlds that I’m trying to bring together and streamline because there’s no reason why you can’t “do” both. I’m very much in my Alex Cooper era at this moment in time and it’s been interesting to say the least.

The weekend itself was pretty mellow otherwise on account of the absolutely torrential downpours going on in New York. We had friends over on Friday night which turned into a very late one, but I love that our place is finally feeling like a home we can really entertain in. We also hosted a full-on dinner party on Sunday night with our friends and made the most incredible zuppa tuscana (I will def be writing about that recipe in another newsletter because it was great/pretty easy). I mentioned this around Valentine’s Day but Brendan and I are trying to make a more concerted effort to make plans with other couples and host at our place when we can. I read this article on the death of the dining room and how the decrease of the dining room is symbolic of how we as a society are sharing less meals together, and it really stuck with me: I want to make sure I’m creating “real life” connections not just for me but for my kids too.

We also took the kids to two museums so they wouldn’t go stir crazy in the house all day. We did the Whitney and the Natural History Museum (we had planned to visit MoMA for their kids’ exhibit but of course the day we wanted to go, it was sold out. Classic us lol so heads up that you need to reserve that in advance). We also ate at Frenchette with the kids which is connected to the Whitney and I highly rec! No shortage of amazing things to do in New York and being here for an extended stretch instead of constantly bouncing in and out with work/travel has made me appreciate it so much more.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about how to organize my week in a way that I can refine my productivity, and that’s still a huge work in progress. Re: the Alex Cooper energy I mentioned earlier and the dichotomy of balancing a fund and traditional brand deals / content creation makes it feel like I can never truly shut my brain “off” because there’s a never ending list of to-do’s. And because of that, everything can seem so overwhelming that I end up doing what feels like nothing. I bought these ADHD-friendly notebooks that have been surprisingly great, and I finally perfected my coffee routine which has been life-changing, but all in all? I’m focusing on those small wins and baby steps for now.