Best Productdevelopment Podcasts (2025)

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Learning Faster Than the Market 1:00:38

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38m ago1:00:38

1:00:38

When I sit down with product leaders who’ve spent decades shaping how Silicon Valley builds products, I’m always struck by how their career arcs echo the very lessons they now teach. Michael Margolis is no exception. Michael started his career as an anthropologist, stumbled into educational software in the late 90s, helped scale Gmail during its fo…

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412 | Your Wholesale Pitch Isn't The Problem with Katie Hunt 18:19

20h ago18:19

18:19

I am recording this episode the same week that we are running week three of Paper Camp, which is our marketing week. Marketing week is where we talk to buyers about their buying preferences, how they like to be pitched, how much follow-up is too much, etc. I often see a lot of our students, and even non-students, struggling with this concept of “I'…

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411 | How To Get Better At Selling Your Products In-Person with Karen Sawyer-Meehan, Pier Six Press 38:56

8d ago38:56

38:56

Do you struggle with the idea of selling your products? I am hearing from a lot of creative entrepreneurs who are telling me that they feel uncomfortable with in-person sales. They're worried about how they'll be perceived. They don't want to be seen as pushy or overbearing by their customers. I'm hearing this with online sales too, but it's partic…

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How Product Business Owners Can Use Grants to Fund Their Business with Ashley Sutton, Hustle & Hope [Replay] 41:06

15d ago41:06

41:06

Hey, friend. I'm pulling an amazing episode from the archives with over 400 episodes here on the Proof to Product podcast. There is a gold mine of information for you to help you grow your business, and, frankly, it can be hard to take it all in. Today's episode is a look back at an interview I did with Paper Camp alum Ashley Sutton of Hustle and H…

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From Chaos to Clarity: How AI is Rewriting the Playbook for Product Managers 1:04:20

18d ago1:04:20

1:04:20

From Chaos to Clarity: How AI is Rewriting the Playbook for Product Managers Lessons from my conversation with ex-Google PM Assaf Reifer on building tools that tame the noise, sharpen priorities, and give PMs back their most valuable resource: focus. When I think back on my time at Google, one of the highlights was building and scaling teams with i…

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Utilizing Abandoned Cart Email Automations to Drive Sales with Katie Hunt [Replay] 10:12

22d ago10:12

10:12

Hey, friend. I'm pulling an amazing episode from the archives with over 400 episodes here on the Proof to Product podcast. There is a gold mine of information for you to help you grow your business, and, frankly, it can be hard to take it all in. Today's episode is a look back at one of our most downloaded episodes, discussing how to utilize abando…

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How to Get Your Products Noticed by Key Buyers with Sally Diguette, Anthropologie [Replay] 35:21

29d ago35:21

35:21

Hey, friend. I'm pulling an amazing episode from the archives with over 400 episodes here on the Proof to Product podcast. There is a gold mine of information for you to help you grow your business, and, frankly, it can be hard to take it all in. Today's episode is a look back at guest Sally Diguette, a home and lifestyle buyer with Anthropologie. …

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410 | How Quickly Will I Make Back My Paper Camp Investment with Katie Hunt 21:47

1M ago21:47

21:47

Have you been thinking about joining us for Paper Camp, but aren’t sure if this program is a good fit for you? Or maybe you're a new listener of the podcast, and you're thinking, what the heck is this Paper Camp program that I keep talking about? This episode is for you. I'm answering the top questions that we get asked about our wholesale program …

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409 | Live from Shoppe Object with Paper Camp Alumni 26:26

1M ago26:26

26:26

I'm back again today to share interviews from our Paper Camp alumni who exhibited at Shoppe Object. On Tuesday, I shared my conversations with our alumni who are exhibiting in NY Now. Today, we're focusing on the exhibitors that were at Shoppe Object. This is a wholesale trade show that was happening in New York City this past week, and I spoke wit…

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408 | Live from NY Now with Paper Camp Alumni 34:48

1M ago34:48

34:48

I am back from a whirlwind trip to New York City where over 40 of our Paper Camp alumni were exhibiting at Shoppe Object and NY Now. These were two independent wholesale trade shows that happened to be taking place in New York over the same days. I was able to navigate between both shows and meet with a lot of our different alumni. It was such a tr…

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407 | Alumni Spotlights: Before & After Paper Camp 19:10

2M ago19:10

19:10

We are currently in the middle of the biggest wholesale buying season of the year, so naturally, it is both a fun and easy time to share wins from our community and talk about our upcoming wholesale coaching program, Paper Camp. This is where we teach you everything you need to know to successfully sell wholesale and we've got a pretty strong track…

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406 | From 0 to 60+ Stores Selling Watercolor Kits with Kate Talcott 36:51

2M ago36:51

36:51

I'm curious, have you been thinking about niching down or focusing in on one product type? But maybe you're nervous about making that transition or having all your eggs in one basket? This is exactly what Kate Talcott did and she reaped the benefits and then some. Kate is our guest this week, and I'm excited to share her story. Kate is one of our P…

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405 | I Just Got On Faire. Am I Supposed to be Pitching My Products? with Katie Hunt 13:58

2M ago13:58

13:58

Today I wanted to answer a great question that I received from a student. It's a simple one on the surface, but it opens the door to an important conversation about how we are approaching wholesale as product-based business owners. Here's the question Lindsay asked: I just opened on Faire recently. Am I supposed to be pitching my products? I'm a to…

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404 | 5 Things That Paper Camp Scholarship Winners Have in Common with Katie Hunt 9:27

2M ago9:27

9:27

It is that time again. We are now accepting Paper Camp scholarship applications. If you have wanted to attend our wholesale intensive coaching program, but you need a little help with tuition, now is your time to shine. We award one full tuition scholarship for each and every round of Paper Camp. Since 2011, we have awarded more than $345,000 in sc…

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403 | Best Wholesale Pitching Practices with Two Shopkeepers, Victoria Venturi & Katie Wilson 15:21

2M ago15:21

15:21

One of the highlights of our Paper Camp program is the weekly coaching calls that we host by me and our guest experts. You not only get to ask questions about that week's curriculum and content from Paper Camp, but you also get to hear firsthand from industry experts. These are wholesale experts: large-scale wholesale manufacturers, retail shop own…

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402 | 5 Big Mistakes I See in Product Catalogs (and How to Fix Them) with Katie Hunt 11:39

2M ago11:39

11:39

Today on the podcast, I want to talk about your wholesale catalog. Your wholesale catalog is the most important sales tool in your wholesale toolbox. Yet simple mistakes may be costing you a lot of money and a lot of headaches. So this week, I want to talk about five common errors that I see when I'm reviewing catalogs for clients so that you can a…

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401 | Going From 20 to 120 Wholesale Accounts with Carley Hussain, Parcel Island 29:21

2M ago29:21

29:21

Hey friend. You know how much I love sharing success stories here on the podcast and this week is no exception. I had the pleasure of connecting with Carley Hussain of Parcel Island, which is a gift and stationery business based out of Philadelphia. Carley is one of our talented Paper Camp alumni who started with 20 wholesale accounts and she is no…

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Celebrating 400 Episodes: Getting Candid About Podcasting, Resilience, and Business Growth with Katie Hunt 52:50

3M ago52:50

52:50

Hey friend, it's Brittney Lynn. I know you're likely expecting Katie Hunt and I promise she is featured in this episode. If we haven't met before, I am Katie's publicist and I am also the podcast producer of this very podcast. We wanted to do something special for the 400th episode of the podcast, so we decided to turn the tables and I'm interviewi…

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CMO Chemistry: Hiring for Fit, Firepower, and the Future 39:37

3M ago39:37

39:37

When Jess Gilmartin talks, I listen. If you've been in Silicon Valley long enough, you might have heard of Jess. She's been a full-time CMO, a founder, a startup whisperer, and most recently, one of the sharpest advisors to CEOs I know when it comes to hiring marketing leadership that actually works. In our recent Fireside PM conversation, we went …

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We're on Summer Break! 1:46

3M ago1:46

1:46

The Proof to Product team is practicing what we preach and we are going on summer break for the next two weeks! We will be back in your ears soon and we are so excited about our upcoming episodes, including our 400th episode! In the meantime, we are gearing up for another round of our Paper Camp program which will start soon. We only run Paper Camp…

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399 | A Peek Inside Paper Camp - Our Alumni Panel with Janine Kwoh, Jesse Regis, and Lucia Saisse Morris 14:42

3M ago14:42

14:42

When we have our eyes set on a specific business goal, something like selling wholesale, it is incredibly beneficial to hear from people who are a few steps ahead of us in the process, which is why we close out every round of our Paper Camp program with an alumni panel. I want our students to hear from their peers. In today's podcast episode, we're…

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398 | How Do I Know If I’m Ready to Exhibit at a Wholesale Trade Show with Katie Hunt 16:05

4M ago16:05

16:05

It is officially trade show season, so today we are diving into a question that I hear all the time. It's how do I know if I'm ready to exhibit at a wholesale trade show? This is one of the biggest topics that we cover inside of Paper Camp. Paper Camp is our coaching program for product-based business owners who want to see their products on the sh…

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Digital Twins, Real Impact: How Palatial’s Pivot Is Fueling the Robotic Future 57:13

4M ago57:13

57:13

We’re back with a Startup Spotlight episode on the Fireside PM podcast. It’s not every day you get to speak with someone who’s straddled the worlds of architecture, gaming, AI, and robotics—and managed to turn those disparate threads into a startup tackling one of the most important problems in our robotic future. Steven Ren, the co-founder and CEO…

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397 | How to Achieve More by Learning Less with Pat Flynn, Smart Passive Income 34:55

4M ago34:55

34:55

I'm excited for today's episode because we've got Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income. Pat is a father, a husband, a lifelong learner, and, honestly, one of the most generous teachers out there when it comes to business and entrepreneurship. He has built several successful companies, launched best-selling books, and invented products like the Switc…

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The AI Lawyer Will See You Now 56:49

4M ago56:49

56:49

Twenty-five years ago, Tim DeSieno and I were two outsiders on the tropical island of Singapore, me trying to build a startup, him fresh out of a restructuring law practice. We reconnected recently on the Fireside PM podcast, and what followed was one of the most illuminating conversations I've had this year. Tim's career arc is anything but conven…

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396 | Prioritizing When Everything Feels Urgent with ADHD Coach Skye Waterson, Unconventional Organisation 27:14

4M ago27:14

27:14

This week's podcast topic has been highly requested, and so I'm happy to bring it to you today. I invited Skye Watterson who is an ADHD strategist, coach, and the founder of Unconventional Organisation. She helps business owners stay focused, build consistent revenue, and scale without feeling burnt out. Skye was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, an…

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From Creators to Corporations: How the Smartest Founders Are Monetizing Attention in 2025 59:14

4M ago59:14

59:14

“We Are Not in Kansas (or Creatorland) Anymore” When I kicked off this Fireside PM interview with Ben Grubbs, I knew we’d cover the creator economy. What I didn’t expect was how much of it would end up being an MBA seminar for product managers. Ben isn’t just another ex-YouTube guy with creator war stories. He’s seen the evolution of the online vid…

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Always Be Recruiting: The New Rules of Hiring in the AI Era 1:08:35

4M ago1:08:35

1:08:35

If you had asked me five years ago whether product managers would need to worry about AI-generated job applicants or remote interviews with operatives from North Korea, I would've laughed you out of the room. But here we are. I recently sat down with Shannon Anderson, longtime recruiter and talent scout at Madrona Ventures, for an episode of the Fi…

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395 | Navigating Profit Margins, Burnout, and Tariffs with Jessica Totillo Coster, eCommerce Badassery [Part 2] 44:22

4M ago44:22

44:22

We are back with part two of my conversation with Jessica Totillo Coster, covering the State of the Product Industry survey. You can listen to part 1 by heading to prooftoproduct.com/394. During part two of my interview with Jessica, we cover how product-based businesses are making money in their businesses, including the percentages of those that …

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394 | How Product Business Owners Are Leveraging (and Missing Out On) Email Marketing with Jessica Totillo Coster, eCommerce Badassery [Part 1] 35:15

5M ago35:15

35:15

I’m loving all the feedback that we're getting about the State of the Product Industry survey. Last week, we released two podcast episodes. One was an overview of what the report was saying, what the different stats were, and then the second episode I covered 10 opportunities that all of you should be harnessing as we continue into 2025. Because we…

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From Fans to Founders: How Community-Driven Product Development Builds Better Tech (and Teams) 55:25

4M ago55:25

55:25

Hey Team, In the latest episode of the Fireside PM podcast, I had the pleasure of chatting with Jake McKee—one of the early advocates of modern community strategy in tech. Jake’s résumé is legit: he’s helped companies like Lego, Apple, and Southwest Airlines transform how they engage their most passionate users—not just as customers, but as collabo…

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393 | 10 Opportunities for Product-Based Businesses: State of the Product Industry Survey with Katie Hunt 18:26

5M ago18:26

18:26

Today’s episode continues the conversation about the State of the Product Industry survey that we did. Last episode, I summarized what we learned when 400 product-based business owners shared intimate details about their income, profit, how much they pay themselves, their product line, their team, their sales and marketing strategies. If you have n…

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392 | Revenue, Teams, Tariffs, and Trends: The State of the Product Industry in 2025 with Katie Hunt 28:46

5M ago28:46

28:46

Every founder I know has been wondering at some point or another how much other brands are making, what tech they're using, and how big their teams are. Everyone wants to see what other brands are doing and how they are successful. Even though we know that every business journey looks different, it's natural to be curious. The product world is shif…

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How Executive Search Really Works: Lessons from Somer Hackley for Product Leaders Navigating Uncertain Times 1:00:20

5M ago1:00:20

1:00:20

I rarely read career books cover to cover. But when I listened to Search in Plain Sight by Somer Hackley, I was hooked. It wasn’t a blog post padded into a book—this was the real deal. Structured, thorough, and full of insights that I wish I had twenty years ago. Naturally, I invited Somer onto the Fireside PM podcast to dig deeper. What followed w…

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391 | Selling Your Excess Inventory with Melodie van der Baan, Max Retail 23:35

5M ago23:35

23:35

Do you have excess inventory that you have no idea how to move? On today's podcast, we have Melodie van der Baan, cofounder of Max Retail. It's a platform designed to help independent retailers and brands easily sell their excess inventory online. During our conversation, Melodie shares how she started out as a sales rep, and then how she owned her…

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She Turned Down a $350K Job Offer—And Why You Might Want to as Well 45:52

5M ago45:52

45:52

Early to mid-career product managers in Silicon Valley often dream of landing the perfect job—high comp, strong team, great product, and a clear path for impact. But what if I told you that sometimes the smartest move is walking away? That was the case for Elizabeth Hague, a seasoned marketing leader with two successful exits under her belt. She re…

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390 | How Trump's Tariffs Are Affecting Small Business Owners with Emily Ley, Simplified® 36:48

5M ago36:48

36:48

Today's episode is an important and timely one. It is a conversation about resilience as small business owners and what we can do or how we navigate things when we are backed into a corner by forces outside of our control. Our guest this week is Emily Ley. She is the founder of Simplified®, a wildly successful brand of planners and organizational t…

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The Vertical AI Advantage: Lessons from Building GenAI Products for Lawyers 38:09

5M ago38:09

38:09

Earlier on the Fireside PM podcast, I sat down with Carl Wu, a veteran product leader who built and launched an AI-first product from scratch—targeting one of the most conservative and risk-averse professions out there: immigration law. Carl's story isn't just a case study in GenAI product development. It's a case study in how technical intuition, …

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389 | Communicating Price Increases to Your Retail and Wholesale Customers with Katie Hunt 14:58

5M ago14:58

14:58

With everything going on in the global economy right now, there have been a lot of discussions about price increases. It's been a hot topic in Paper Camp, in our LABS community, and even in my Advisory Board mastermind. People are asking about how to raise their prices, if they should raise their prices, and also how to communicate those price incr…

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388 | Leveraging Funding to Expand Your Business with Zeba Parkar, Treleaf 30:47

6M ago30:47

30:47

Let's talk money. Money is a necessity in business, but it can also be a pain point, particularly for product-based business owners because our investments, overhead, and risks are generally heightened compared to service-based businesses. We not only need to make money, but we also need to spend money for future expansion and growth. But where doe…

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387 | 2025 State of Product Industry Survey Now Accepting Submissions 6:58

6M ago6:58

6:58

It has been almost one year since we conducted our 2024 State of the Product Industry survey, and we are back doing it again. So from now until April 11, our 2025 State of the Product Industry Survey is open, and we wanna hear from you and all of your physical product-based business owner friends. You can head to prooftoproduct.com/2025survey to sh…

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From Application to Acceleration: Lessons from Reviewing 100+ Startup Pitches 18:23

6M ago18:23

18:23

All right, what's going on, team? We are back on the Fireside PM podcast, and today I want to share some hard-earned insights on applying to tech startup accelerators. I just finished reviewing over 80 applications for UC Berkeley SkyDeck and Stanford GSB's summer entrepreneurship programs, and I have a ton of thoughts on what makes applications st…

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386 | How Do I Align My Product Release Cycles with Wholesale Buying Seasons with Katie Hunt 8:56

6M ago8:56

8:56

When should I release new products to the wholesale market, and how do I align my release cycles with wholesale buying seasons? I get these questions and more about product release cycles all of the time. In fact, this has been a hot topic in this round of Paper Camp, our coaching program about wholesale. If our Paper Camp students are asking about…

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Mastering the PM Interview: The Hidden Hack You're Probably Missing 48:56

6M ago48:56

48:56

I recently had a fascinating conversation with Rodolfo, a Senior Product Manager at Spotify and a good friend from my days mentoring at Harvard Business School. Rodolfo shared a powerful insight into nailing product management interviews, particularly valuable for anyone early to mid-career in Silicon Valley or looking to break into tech. His exper…

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385 | How E-Commerce Brands Are Using Pinterest Trends To Get More Sales with Heather Farris, Heather Farris Co 27:57

6M ago27:57

27:57

It's been a minute since we've talked about Pinterest marketing here on the podcast, so I thought it was time that we revisit this topic. A lot has changed over the years with Pinterest, especially given the explosion of AI. So this week, Heather Farris is joining me on the podcast. She runs a Pinterest agency and education company. Heather has hel…

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How the Best Product Managers Use AI (And What Everyone Else Gets Wrong) 57:40

6M ago57:40

57:40

AI is transforming product management, but not everyone is using it effectively. Too many product managers treat AI as a glorified autocomplete—something that speeds up basic tasks but doesn’t fundamentally change their workflow. But after my conversation with Mustafa Kapatiya, a former Google executive and AI consultant, I walked away convinced th…

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384 | How to Find and Pitch Year-Round Gift Guides with Gloria Chou, Gloria Chou PR 27:28

7M ago27:28

27:28

When you think of public relations or PR, what first comes to mind? Is it holiday gift guides, being on the Today Show? What if I told you that PR can often be more effective than social media or paid ads for boosting a business's credibility and visibility? That's exactly what today's guest is sharing. Gloria Chou is an award-winning PR strategist…

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5 Interview Mistakes That Cost You Great Product Leaders—And How to Fix Them 30:48

7M ago30:48

30:48

Hiring a Great Product Leader Is Harder Than You Think Team, we’re back on the Fireside PM podcast, and today, I want to talk about a topic that keeps coming up: why even experienced executives struggle to hire strong product leaders. If you’re a CEO or CPO at a mid-to-late-stage company and you need to hire a killer Director or VP of Product, this…

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Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling & Empowering AAPI Founders 44:32

7M ago44:32

44:32

Alright, team—we are back on the Fireside PM podcast, and this time, I had the privilege of speaking with Dave Lu, a veteran in tech and one of the most influential voices in the AAPI founder ecosystem. Dave’s career spans Yahoo, Apple, eBay, startups, and venture capital, and in our conversation, he shared his journey and insights on breaking barr…

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383 | Navigating Seasonal Fluctuations in the Gift & Candle Industry with Sarah Hart, Simply Curated 40:51

7M ago40:51

40:51

Today's guest is LABS member, Sarah Hart, the founder and creative director of Simply Curated, a home fragrance brand that has been in business for twelve years. Sarah also recently launched a sister brand called Hart and Co. In this episode, Sarah shares the origins of her candle and home fragrance business, including the pivotal moments and chall…