Are you building your brand or someone else's?
Powerful brands open doors, build credibility, and make people return your calls. But what happens when you leave and lose the corporate last name? Don't suffer from "Last Name Syndrome."
Off the Record
90s NY fashion. 2011 internet chaos. One PR insider exposing a rival before her memoir turns her into a legend. Off the Record is a Live Manuscript. You’re in the room as it’s written. Plus Backstage Pass: fashion insider stories and sharp commentary.
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Latest episodes
Chapter 15: Locked Doors
Off the Record: Secrets of a 90s Fashion Insider in New York — a Live Manuscript by Aliza Licht, every Wednesday on Substack. Before the lights, photographers, and front row come the previews. Step inside another day in the fashion industry with Chapter 15 of Off the Record.
Martha Stewart shaded Meghan Markle this week. But her own career proves that reinvention rarely follows a straight line.
Martha Stewart shaded Meghan Markle’s move into the lifestyle space, but her own career proves that the best personal rebrands rarely follow a straight line.
Chapter 14: Enough With Her
Off the Record: Secrets of a 90s Fashion Insider in New York — a Live Manuscript by Aliza Licht, every Wednesday on Substack. You're not waiting for the book, you're in the room as it's written.
Don't Fake It, Act "As If"
The Psychology of Stepping Forward Before You’re Ready
From Celebrity Publicist to Gossip Columnist: Who Really Has More Power?
Aliza Licht Live with Rob Shuter
I’m serving piping, hot tea. Want some?
Tomorrow, I’m going live with former celebrity publicist turned gossip columnist and author, Rob Shuter, to talk about secrets, reinvention, and his new novel.
Choose Your Own Backstage Pass
Tell me what you want more of, what you secretly skip, and how far behind the velvet rope you actually want to go.
Chapter 13: Before I Could Explain
A single meeting. A career-defining moment. One of the most personal chapters I've written yet—because the confrontation at its heart is inspired by a real experience I had at 22.
What if the thing you keep trying to fix about your career isn’t actually a flaw?
I asked Claude to read my natal chart. What it showed me about my professional wandering eye made my entire career make more sense.
Chapter 12: Who Do You Think You Are?
In 2011, Jessica walked out without slamming the door. In 1997, Sam walked in not knowing what was coming. Off the Record is a Live Manuscript, new chapters drop every Wednesday exclusively on Substack.
If You Were Ever Going to Start Reading Off the Record, Today Is the Day
A little warning from the writer who knows what’s coming.
Phoebe Gates, Meghan Markle, and the Moment the Founder Becomes the Product
The Phia controversy offers a lesson far bigger than affiliate marketing. Phoebe Gates and Meghan Markle took opposite approaches to branding, but both reveal the same truth: in the age of personal branding, founders often become the product themselves.
Amy Ephron Writes Without an Outline. Her Characters Handle the Rest.
Bestselling author Amy Ephron discusses Unseasonably Cold, her elegant and melancholy noir set in late 1930s New York City, during her first-ever Substack Live conversation about the novel's themes and her writing process.
Chapter 11: Where Do You Summer?
Sam finally gets her shot inside one of fashion's most coveted magazine offices, where talent is only part of the equation. Read Chapter 11 of Off the Record.
“I don’t want to do this anymore.”
What if the thing holding you back isn't failure, but your inability to stop doing something that's working?
I Was a Real-Life Gossip Girl
For two years, the internet tried to figure out who was behind DKNY PR GIRL. What started as an anonymous Twitter experiment inside Donna Karan became a blueprint for community building, personal branding, and eventually, the novel I'm writing today.
Chapter 10: Access is Everything
A fashion show venue throws Jessica into a PR fit just as her anonymous online alter ego grows bolder. In this 2011 chapter of Off the Record, every decision comes with consequences, and one click could change everything.
Personal Branding Lessons from Taylor Swift's Wedding
In a culture obsessed with constant content, luxury brands still understand that exclusivity is the ultimate branding currency.
Chapter Nine: Vogue Material
Every fashion dream starts with a door you never expected to open. Chapter Nine of Off the Record takes you inside one of New York's most coveted fashion rituals, where ambition, luck, and timing have a way of changing everything.