#ThirstyThursday Issue #254

🏠 Aura House’s cold-air diffusers make home smell like a boutique hotel without harsh chemicals. Use ASSIST10 for 10% off.

🤖 AI therapy’s sycophancy problem: it agrees with you when it shouldn’t.

💬 Outsourcing your work chats to AI kills the messy moments that build trust.

📅 Decide your missed-day rule before day one of any 30-day challenge.

Takeaways:

• Jump anywhere with Cmd + K (Ctrl + K on Windows) plus the channel name, then hit Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + A to see every unread message on one screen. Two shortcuts, and you stop clicking through the sidebar all day.
• Set a custom status with Do Not Disturb, schedule messages to land tomorrow morning, and add reminders to anything you need to circle back on. Keyword alerts (Preferences → Notifications → Keywords) mean you only get pinged when something actually needs you.
• Find that one message from three weeks ago with search filters like from:@name, in:#channel, and before:[date]. Stack a couple together and the thread turns up in seconds.

See all 8 tips on LinkedIn.

After some serious health issues a few years back, I got obsessed with my gut. I can name the standard probiotic strains in my sleep, and most of them blur together.

Then I found Akkermansia, a next-gen strain that dies on contact with oxygen. Pendulum built an oxygen-free facility just to grow it (hence the price), and they publish their own clinical studies, which is rare for supplements.

I added their live Akkermansia plus Gut Fuel, a prebiotic with oat beta glucan I wasn’t getting anywhere else. Thirty days in, I felt lighter and steadier. Both are staying. I also love that the CEO, Colleen Cutcliffe, is a microbiome scientist and mom.

👉 Take a look at what I’ve been obsessing over.

Takeaways:

• Your first ten seconds set the tone. Skip the “thanks so much for having me” warm-up and open with a bold statement, a question, or a quick story, then plant your feet, make eye contact, and pause before you start.
• Try the BMW method: control your Body, point your Mind at what the room needs to walk away with, and choose your Words so filler like “um” and “just” drops out. Short sentences and natural pauses make you sound sure of yourself, even when you’re nervous.
• Make it feel like a conversation by asking the room questions, then close on one clear takeaway and next step. For Q&A, use ABC: Answer the question, Bridge back to your key message, and Communicate the one thing you want them to remember.

Read the full post on LinkedIn.

Takeaways:

• Pick the one idea you want to be known for, even if you sell ten things. People remember the realtor who teaches first-time buyers how to avoid expensive mistakes, or the bakery that makes birthday cakes feel like a family tradition. (Same rule applies to your personal brand on LinkedIn.)
• Build three repeatable content series so you’re never staring at a blank screen deciding what to post. Customer mistakes on Monday, behind the scenes on Wednesday, and a client story on Friday gives people a rhythm they start to expect and trust.
• Sell the moment your customer is picturing. Someone hiring a pressure-washing company is imagining pulling into a clean, cared-for driveway, so show the before and after they’re paying for.

Watch all five on TikTok.

Meet Merit’s best-selling set. Most mornings, your makeup routine is whatever you can finish before the first meeting, and half the drawer never gets touched.

Merit’s Five Minute Morning edits it down to the seven pieces you actually use: complexion, cream blush, highlighter, lip, mascara, brow pomade, and one brush.

You pick every shade, it’s all clean and vegan, and it’s what some of our fave celebrities are wearing right now (Brenda Song, Hilary Duff, Kate Hudson, Billie Eilish, and more).

👉  Save 15% on your Five Minute Morning Routine.

Takeaways:

• If your brows always look slightly off, check your placement before you blame your natural shape. A few pencil dots mapped first can fix what no amount of filling in will.
• Use a micro brow pencil to line up the start of your brow with the outside edge of your nostril, then angle the pencil outward from the nostril to find where your arch should peak.
• Fill sparse spots with tiny, hair-like strokes that flick out toward your ears, the same direction your brow hairs grow, so the result looks natural up close.

Watch the tutorial on Instagram.

👉 Swap the morning doomscroll for The Daily Good, a free 30-second read 350,000 women start their day with.

🧴 OneSkin’s OS-01 Eye targets the thin skin that shows a bad week first.

🌱 Thinning hair, handled while your coffee brews: a 90-second laser band you use three times a week.

🍷 Women-owned wine in a can we can get behind: Bev.

 Upcoming Events

• TODAY 9/24 @ 9AM PT: 3 AI Plays to Get Your Hours Back and Credit for the Work You Do
• Tue 9/29 @ 12PM PT: Coworking Session (SGS Only* | Join the waitlist)
• Wed 9/30 @ 3PM PT: Gossip Hour: What Happens Here, Stays Here (SGS Only* | Join the waitlist)
• Fri 10/2 @ 8AM PT: Play-by-Play Series: Session 1 (SGS Only* | Join the waitlist)
• Fri 10/2 @ 9AM PT: Speed Meet (SGS Only* | Join the waitlist)

* Smart Girl Society is our private community for women who want deeper conversations, accountability, and tools that actually make life easier. Join the waitlist to get in the next round.

🧠 Quiz of the Week: [insert quiz name + link]

 Browse our job board here.

Have more feedback? 💌 Reply to this email and tell us.

✨ P.S. Want more inspiration and positivity to kick off your week? Sign up for our Motivational Monday texts (U.S. only).