Tash Insights

Tash Insights continues with Kelly Bond, The Customer Experience Alchemist at Elle Sera.

In this episode, Kelly joins Tash Courtenay-Smith to talk about the kind of customer experience most brands say they want, but very few are willing to build. At Elle Sera, customer service means picking up the phone, starting real conversations and treating every customer like a person before they become a ticket, query or retention metric.

Kelly shares how she joined Elle Sera during the pandemic, after losing her work as a singer overnight, and learned ecommerce from the ground up alongside founder Alyssa. From boxing orders and working NHS 111 calls to becoming the person customers turn to for support, reassurance and honest conversation, her story is a powerful reminder that the strongest brands are often built through direct human connection.

The conversation explores why women are overwhelmed, overstimulated and expected to carry too much, and why so many customers open up when someone simply asks how they are. Kelly also shares why AI has a place in customer service, but cannot replace the emotional intelligence, kindness and trust that come from speaking to a real person.

You’ll hear:

• How Kelly became the wearer of all hats at Elle Sera
• Why the brand was built through direct conversations with women
• How customer service can drive retention, loyalty and word of mouth
• Why picking up the phone is still one of the most powerful things a brand can do
• What thousands of customer conversations reveal about women’s overwhelm
• Where AI helps, and where human connection still matters most
• Why kindness can be a serious commercial advantage
• How Kelly’s background in performance shaped her approach to work
• Why loyal customers become a brand’s most powerful advocates

This is a warm, honest and practical episode for founders, operators and ecommerce teams who want to build stronger customer relationships, create genuine loyalty and remember the person behind every purchase.

Tash Insights continues with a deeply personal conversation with Georgina Davies, also known as Brighton Stylist.

Georgina sits down with Tash Courtenay-Smith to share the remarkable story behind her career, from spending 18 years in the criminal justice system to building a personal styling business that helps women feel visible, confident and like themselves again.

Before becoming a stylist, Georgina worked with high-risk offenders, including men who had served long prison sentences for serious offences. Her role involved assessing people before release, supporting them into semi-independent housing, helping them rebuild their lives, and managing risk as they adjusted back into the community.

That experience shaped the way she works today. Georgina explains how styling is really about people, trust and confidence. Just as her previous role required her to connect quickly, listen closely and understand what was really going on beneath the surface, her work now helps women unpick the internal monologue that stops them wearing what they want and showing up fully in their lives.

This episode explores the real psychology of style. Georgina explains why clothes are never just about clothes, how colour and shape can change the way women feel, and why so many women lose confidence through life transitions such as motherhood, perimenopause, career change or simply years of putting themselves last.

Tash and Georgina also reflect on their 44-year friendship, the moment Brighton Stylist was born, and how personal style has become a powerful part of Tash’s own brand and visibility.

You’ll hear:

• How Georgina spent 18 years working with high-risk offenders
• What her criminal justice career taught her about trust, confidence and human behaviour
• How she moved from rehabilitation work into personal styling
• Why styling is really about identity, self-trust and feeling visible
• How colour analysis can transform the way women shop and dress
• Why wardrobe audits often unlock more outfits with fewer clothes
• How women’s internal monologues shape what they feel allowed to wear
• Why personal brand photography starts with colour, personality and intention
• How the right outfit can help women feel more confident in work and life

It’s honest, funny and unexpectedly moving, with powerful insight into reinvention, confidence and the everyday impact of feeling good in what you wear.

Tash Insights presents the closing keynote from CEW Future Beauty Summit 2026, hosted by Tash Courtenay-Smith in partnership with CEW, Google, Amazon and Tash Partners.

In this keynote, Natasha Kizzie of Google shares a wide-ranging view of where beauty discovery is heading next, and why search is evolving from information into intelligence.

Drawing on Google data and years of observing consumer behaviour, Natasha explains why AI is expanding the search universe rather than replacing it. From AI Overviews and AI mode to agentic commerce and the Universal Commerce Protocol, she explores how beauty brands can guide consumers toward confident decisions before the search journey is even complete.

The talk also looks at the consumer shifts shaping 2026, including the demand for clinical proof, value and sustainability, the growing influence of Gen Alpha, and the three need states brands should understand: proof investigators, metabolic investigators and dopamine investigators.

You’ll hear:

• Why search is shifting from information to intelligence
• How AI is changing beauty discovery and decision-making
• What the 2026 beauty consumer is demanding from brands
• Why Gen Alpha should already be part of future planning
• How proof, metabolic and dopamine investigators are shaping the category
• What AI Overviews and AI mode mean for beauty brands
• How the dupes phenomenon can become an opportunity
• Why GEO and YouTube credibility matter for LLM visibility
• What agentic commerce and the Universal Commerce Protocol could unlock
• Why YouTube is becoming one of the world’s most powerful storefronts

This is a practical and forward-looking listen for beauty founders, marketers, retailers and operators preparing for the next era of AI-powered search, discovery and commerce.

Tash Insights presents a live conversation from CEW Future Beauty Summit 2026, hosted by Tash Courtenay-Smith in partnership with CEW, Google, Amazon and Tash Partners.

In this session, Wonderskin co-founders Michael Malinksy and Marina Kalenchyts share the story behind one of beauty’s most talked-about brands of the last three years.

A viral lip stain made Wonderskin famous, but the real work came afterwards. The conversation covers how the brand moved from a lockdown-era viral product into a global multichannel business, now operating across Sephora, Boots, Selfridges, Amazon, TikTok Shop and DTC.

Michael and Marina discuss what actually drove growth, how they amplified the content that was already working, why lo-fi creative often outperformed polished brand assets, and what it took to turn TikTok attention into a more durable brand.

You’ll hear:

• How the viral lip stain started and why profitability took time
• Why the algorithm decides what makes a good ad
• How Wonderskin amplified organic content with paid media
• The real channel mix behind the brand
• Why DTC and Amazon still matter inside a multichannel strategy
• How raw, lo-fi creative can outperform polished content
• What TikTok Shop seeding really costs at scale
• Why affiliate communities work better than one-off creator posts
• Where Michael and Marina would put first budget in 2026
• What they learned from the products that nearly cost them the business

This is a practical listen for beauty founders, marketers and operators trying to understand what happens after a product goes viral, and how to build something more sustainable from that moment.

Tash Insights presents a live panel from CEW Future Beauty Summit 2026, hosted by Tash Courtenay-Smith in partnership with CEW, Google, Amazon and Tash Partners.

In this session, Tash is joined by Joe Yates of Somerce, Daisy Kelly of Glow For It, Kenny from TikTok and creator Rita Flora for a practical conversation on the future of social commerce and the real impact of TikTok Shop on beauty brands.

The panel looks at why TikTok Shop should be understood as more than a direct revenue channel. For many brands, it is becoming a discovery engine that drives growth across Amazon, retail, search and wider brand demand. The discussion covers the halo effect, affiliate strategy, creator communities, profitability and why major beauty businesses are now using TikTok Shop for brand building as well as sales.

You’ll hear:

• Why TikTok Shop can drive incremental return across other channels
• How TikTok discovery can translate into Amazon, retail and search demand
• What happens when brands pull focus away from TikTok
• Why affiliate strategy depends on creator communities, not one-off seeding
• How many videos it can take before creator content drives a sale
• What creators actually need from brands to make content perform
• Why rigid briefs can limit performance
• How legacy beauty brands are using TikTok Shop for share of voice
• Whether TikTok Shop can be run as a profitable channel
• What could come next, including premium categories, subscriptions and faster shipping

This is a practical listen for beauty founders, marketers and e-commerce teams trying to understand how TikTok Shop is reshaping growth beyond the platform itself.

Tash Insights presents a live session from CEW Future Beauty Summit 2026, hosted by Tash Courtenay-Smith in partnership with CEW, Google, Amazon and Tash Partners.

In this session, host Tom Marco-Norel of Superco is joined by Matt Brindley of Yotpo and Emily Bloomberg of Medik8 for a practical conversation on what AI really means for beauty e-commerce.

Customers are already asking AI what to buy. The challenge for brands is making sure they can be found, understood and recommended when those searches happen. The panel looks at what “AI-ready” actually means, from clean product data and syndicated content to reviews, UGC, customer service and the rise of agentic commerce.

Emily shares how Medik8 is balancing automation with human care, using AI to reduce low-lift queries while keeping the team focused on more meaningful customer conversations. Matt explains why AI-readiness starts with your existing tech stack, structured data and internal competence, rather than simply adding another tool.

You’ll hear:

• What “AI-ready” means for beauty brands
• Why clean, syndicated data is becoming essential
• How Reddit, YouTube and Wikipedia are influencing discoverability
• What agentic commerce means for ChatGPT, Gemini and future checkout journeys
• How Medik8 is balancing AI automation with human customer care
• Why reviews and UGC now shape conversion, visibility and product development
• How translation and personalisation can become immediate AI use cases
• Where beauty brands should focus over the next 12 to 18 months
• Why one internal AI champion can be more effective than disconnected tool adoption across teams

This is a practical listen for beauty founders, e-commerce leaders and marketers preparing for the next phase of AI-driven shopping.

Tash Insights presents a live panel from CEW Future Beauty Summit 2026, hosted by Tash Courtenay-Smith in partnership with CEW, Google, Amazon and Tash Partners.

In this session, Tash introduces an insider conversation on the business of beauty and influence with Joy Osinloye of CreatorIQ, Jane Harper of Shiseido Group and NARS, and Ginny Sanasi of Space NK.

The panel explores how creator marketing has moved from a PR add-on into a core commercial growth channel, influencing marketing, digital, retail, commercial planning and legal. Drawing on the long-standing relationship between NARS and Space NK, the conversation looks at how major beauty brands and retailers discover, brief, vet and scale the creators who genuinely move product.

You’ll hear:

• How creator marketing became central to commercial strategy
• Why NARS built a “trend squad” to move at the speed of social
• How Space NK uses education across more than 135 brands
• How brands discover, tier and vet creators from nano to celebrity level
• Why human judgement still matters in brand safety
• What happened when a colour-match moment hit 14 million views
• Why EMV needs to connect to traffic, sales and acquisition
• How NARS and Space NK built a co-branded trip strategy
• Where creator commerce is heading next, from community sellers to luxury on TikTok Shop

This is a practical listen for beauty founders, marketers, retailers and operators trying to understand how creator partnerships really work inside major beauty businesses.

Tash Insights presents a live panel from CEW Future Beauty Summit 2026, hosted by Tash Courtenay-Smith in partnership with CEW, Google, Amazon and Tash Partners.

In this session, Tash is joined by Becky Watson of Absolute Collagen, Gilbert Corrales of Leaf and Sebastian Kraft of Sebastian Kraft Consulting for a practical conversation about the rising pressure on beauty brands to produce more content, faster.

Every channel now demands more creative. Meta’s Andromeda update has made purpose-built assets more important across placements, personas and funnel stages. At the same time, lean brand teams are being asked to produce hundreds of assets a month while keeping quality, brand consistency and performance under control.

The panel explores what a scalable production system actually looks like, why beauty brands may need to rethink the traditional social team structure, and how AI, offshore teams and human creative judgement can work together without weakening authenticity.

You’ll hear:

• Why content demand has exploded across beauty and e-commerce
• What Meta’s Andromeda update means for creative production
• How many assets brands may need each month to stay competitive
• Why a newsroom or live-TV production mindset can help teams scale
• How offshore teams and AI tools can increase output
• Why human judgement remains essential in creative workflows
• Where fully AI-generated content works, and where authentic UGC still wins
• What the Coca-Cola Christmas ad revealed about audience response to AI
• Which tools the panel actually use, and why not every new tool deserves a place in the stack

This is a practical listen for beauty founders, marketers and operators trying to build content systems that can keep up with modern platform demands without losing creative quality.

Tash Insights presents a live talk from Tash Courtenay-Smith, recorded at Built by HER in New York.

Built by HER, hosted by Shopify and EmpowHER, brought together founders, operators and senior leaders in commerce for a hands-on summit focused on making AI practical, tangible and operational for women-led teams.

In this clip, Tash talks through the two businesses she is currently building and why both are focused on the same underlying challenge: improving marketing efficiency in a world where attribution is increasingly unreliable and the demand for content keeps rising.

She shares how Transact Media Group is building a CPA-first AdTech ecosystem in partnership with Mastercard, allowing brands to pay on results measured at card transaction level across programmatic, CTV, audio and social. She also explains how her AI-powered content factory has grown from an offshore creative support team into a global production operation for brands under pressure to ship more content, faster.

You’ll hear:

• Why attribution conversations are becoming less useful for brands
• How CPA-first media models can change performance marketing
• Why transaction-level measurement is becoming more important
• How AI is reshaping creative production and content output
• Why production capacity is now one of the biggest growth levers
• How digital twins can help founders scale their own content

This is a practical listen for founders, operators and marketers trying to improve efficiency, reduce wasted spend and build the production systems modern brands now need.

Tash Insights presents a live talk from Tash Courtenay-Smith, recorded at Built by HER in New York.

Built by HER, hosted by Shopify and EmpowHER, brought together founders, operators and senior leaders in commerce for a hands-on summit focused on making AI practical, tangible and operational for women-led teams.

In this clip, Tash makes a different case for AI adoption. Beyond productivity, she argues that AI is changing how founders process problems, make decisions and move from idea to output.

Using the analogy of training for a marathon, Tash explains why AI fluency needs to be built through daily practice. The founders who gain the most advantage may not be the ones with the most advanced tools, but the ones who get used to solving problems faster, producing work faster and operating at a new pace.

You’ll hear:

• Why AI adoption is becoming a daily operating habit
• How faster output may change the way founders think
• Why AI fluency works like a muscle
• How AI can compress the gap between idea and execution
• Why mundane work can be reduced to create more space for creativity
• What founders should be practising now to prepare for the next five years

This is a useful listen for founders, operators and leaders who know AI matters, but have not yet made it part of their daily way of working.