Inside the Photoshoot: Pitching for Press with Veranda EIC Steele Marcoux

Caroline Gidiere: Okay, we have with us today the esteemed EIC of Veranda, a devoted wife and mother, tennis champion and former hard charging beat reporter from Washington, D.C. Since 2008, she has led Veranda, one of Hearst's most refined shelter titles, to a circulation approaching a half a million.

Paloma Contreras: You

Caroline Gidiere: Guiding the magazine through a pivotal reinvention while deepening its authority in architecture, decoration, and design culture, she came in with 12 plus years of experience across southern living, coastal living, cottage living, and country living with a keen eye for beauty and a hand-selected team of talented accomplices. and an understanding of what drives Veranda's key demographic, she increased circulation in a down market, defying the odds and establishing Veranda as one of the nation's most influential voices in gardens and design. Give it up for Steele Marcoux. No, it is true. It is true. I looked it all up. I did my research.

Steele Marcoux: Thank Caroline. That's such a nice introduction. I'm not even sure all of it's true, but we'll go with it. ⁓

Paloma Contreras: Yeah. Ha ha ha. Everyone needs Caroline as a hype girl for their intro. That was awesome.

Caroline Gidiere: Well, I would do it. I would do it. We're so thrilled to have you here with us today.

Steele Marcoux: Yeah, exactly. need you to follow me around and just, you know. Yeah. I love it. Thank you all for inviting me. It was such an honor. It was like the most exciting text or email that I'd gotten in a long time. That was like an instant yes. So thank you for having me.

Paloma Contreras: Yes, thank you.

Caroline Gidiere: Okay, oh good. Good. know, Paloma and I were talking, we're trying to come up with topics that interest everybody. you know, I think we're in a day and age where so many people are doing their own photo shoots and...

Paloma Contreras: Yay!

Caroline Gidiere: I assume everybody is like me, that you had no clue what you were doing, what you were getting into, and what you were going for when you got started. And ⁓ so many ⁓ out there who might be interested in having perspective ⁓ a photographer, a stylist, and the publisher of ⁓ they should be thinking about when they're going about this. So we were...

Paloma Contreras: Okay, so we have our listener question for the week and it comes from ⁓ friend Palmer Weiss who is a fabulous interior designer in San Francisco and she left a sweet comment on one of our ⁓ clips from ⁓ past episode of podcast recently ⁓ ⁓ us to share our beauty or skincare routines.

Caroline Gidiere: just super excited that you said yes, because I know there are a ton of people that wanna, I mean, particularly you, I think that Veranda is the end-all-be-all for so many people that's what they're aiming for, to try to maybe do a book, maybe it's for personal investment, for their website, for their social media, but they all have in the back of their mind.

Paloma Contreras: And this is an area that both Caroline and I really enjoy and are passionate about. So we thought it might be fun to share the deets of what we're doing. So Caroline, we'll start with you. What are you doing on a daily basis, like AM, PM routine? And what are you doing that for like monthly or quarterly maintenance or extra treatment to boost your skincare health and flow?

Caroline Gidiere: Yeah, yeah, well it's a it's a it's a long list and let's just say I have a side instead of a side chick I have a side card getting in Veranda and so or any of the other there's so few publications these days and there's so few opportunities there's a lot of competition for those slots so hearing from you ⁓ will make a big difference a lot of people and maybe even help Veranda get more of what they're looking for. You Shh. ⁓ Okay, so here's the deal. AMP, not too much difference. ⁓ I start with, as you know, we've talked about the toners. I've got like four essences. These are better if you can spray them on, because it goes more quickly, but just drenching my face with water. And then ⁓ I go from thinnest to thickest, and I end with a milky toner.

Steele Marcoux: ⁓ well, I mean, that would be great. but I'm just yes, I'm honored to be here with both of you. And it is. I mean, you're right that so many more designers these days are shooting their own projects. And it's such a big investment that it's like you might as well, try to get the most bang for your buck as they say, for sure.

Paloma Contreras: Thank

Caroline Gidiere: Yeah. Yes. Well, me because I would to know from the publishing side of it. ⁓ let's just assume ⁓ hypothetical purposes that there are ⁓ five features in each issue. How many of those are ⁓ Okay, and then I go in with my serums and I have two that I'm using right now. One is a volupholine Korean thing that's to be really good to help. I don't know if it's true. mean, just don't, I mean, I'm gullible as the next chick. So if this is not accurate, just keep moving. Don't worry about. ones that you have scouted and you are producing and how many come to you from designers or their publicists pitching their projects? That's a great, it's a good question. would say at this point, are still more than 60 % legal photograph compared to maybe

Paloma Contreras: Yeah.

Caroline Gidiere: I'll figure it out eventually. But I use that as one that you shake up. But then the next regimen that I move into from that is Dr. Diamond's Metacine which is a three-step process. I only use the two serums in the morning and there is a almost serum-like moisturizer that I use in the evening.

Steele Marcoux: That's a great, that's a good question. I would say at this point, are still, if we're looking at the number five, we're still like 60 % we will photograph compared to maybe 40 % coming to us already photographed. But then there were some other parts to your question that that doesn't totally address. So.

Paloma Contreras: Mm-hmm.

Caroline Gidiere: In lieu of that, in the morning, I use the Waleda Waleda, I don't know how to pronounce it. It's in the green tube. get it at supermarkets, Amazon, ⁓ or drugstores. And it's like a German company, and it's called Skinfood. It's in a green tube. And that is my daytime moisturizer. ⁓ In the evening,

Paloma Contreras: Mm-hmm.

Steele Marcoux: sometimes publicists are still sending us just raw scouting shots and we will go back in and send a photographer, send our photographer or ⁓ somebody around the country ⁓ that we work with. then oftentimes we try to ⁓ consider ourselves in the know, networking all the time with designers and other sort of very stylish folks who know of great houses where we're actively ⁓

Caroline Gidiere: And then oftentimes we are, we try to, you know,

Paloma Contreras: Okay.

Caroline Gidiere: before, after I put on the serums, before I put on the moisturizer, I use a retinol product. And I'm also starting using an estradiol cream on my eyes, okay? That's supposed to make a big difference over time, we'll see. And then ⁓ after I put my moisturizer on, as I said in the evening, it's the doctor, hey, stop, sorry, my dog, sir.

Steele Marcoux: of scouting as you said like I mean Caroline I actually physically scouted your house I drove over drove into your driveway knocked on your door and said let me in ⁓ that that's rare that's very rare but I would say so while it may still be 60 40 us photographing versus ⁓ picking up supplied photography I would say that it's more like 20 to 30 percent of the time are we finding houses versus publicists like

Paloma Contreras: Mm-hmm.

Caroline Gidiere: You did. But I would say, so while it may still be 60, 40 us photographing versus picking up supply. getting restless. After I put the moisturizer on ⁓ in the evening, I coat my face with a thick coat of Aquaphor. Okay, so that's daytime, nighttime ⁓ routines. ⁓ Annually, I do three IPLs a year every three months. I do the, I think it's called a Pico laser once a year.

Steele Marcoux: sending them to us. Yes. And I mean, I don't know if this is actually, I have not fact checked myself on this. I don't know if this is actually related to that sort of 2020, 2021 pandemic related, you know, boom, but we are getting pitched way more projects today. And for the last couple of years than we were like 2018, 2019, you know, we were doing, we were having to be a lot more active in our own scouting.

Caroline Gidiere: And that is any kind of age spots or dark spots. It removes tattoos. It's the tattoo laser. then every month or so, do, every other month or every three months, I do a PRP or a, you know, one of the facials that they offer that in some way is either glycolic or acid or

Paloma Contreras: Thank

Steele Marcoux: Now we're almost inundated. like we can't even keep up. You know, don't think it does like designers that we know and love to work with did have again, like a lot of a lot of work in 2021 and 2022. then they've been. Twenty three and twenty four. And then they're sitting. Maybe there's some of that. But then I also think to your earlier point, people are photographing their own projects so much more now. So then they're sitting.

Paloma Contreras: me.

Caroline Gidiere: some kind of little needles, things that stimulate collagen production and turnover. And that's always changing. It's whatever they're telling me in the moment is that skin treatment. ⁓ But a lot of those that make your face red for a day or two, and then really what we're doing is just burning off that top layer and encouraging it to turn over. Yeah, how about you? ⁓ okay, got it. Okay, there's more content. Yeah, ⁓ yeah.

Paloma Contreras: Right.

Steele Marcoux: the assets like we should probably try to see if someone can publish this versus if they weren't going to shoot their own I don't you know maybe they would just say somebody will find me maybe I don't know but um it does seem like you're getting way more submissions now than we were five years ago.

Paloma Contreras: Right. I would say my AM PM are a little bit different. So AM I'm doing just Kiehl's ultra facial gentle cleanser in the shower. So I'll wash my face in the shower and then I follow that with Tata Harper's regenerating cleanser, which is sort of like a scrub. It's got a texture and I'll exfoliate in the shower. And then I get out and I do Tata Harper rejuvenating serum. And then So it sounds like you're getting more submissions than ever, and there are fewer features, fewer issues. How does one stand out? What are you looking for in that massive pile of submissions that sticks out? And how are you selecting the projects that get put into each issue?

Steele Marcoux: That is like, you know, I don't know how to quantify that with a dollar amount or a page amount or time amount. A billion hour question or whatever.

Paloma Contreras: Dr. Laura Devgan Hyaluronic Serum on top of that. I use Sunday Riley ⁓ CEO, I think it's called like the vitamin C something CEO genes, vitamin C moisturizer. So I use that. And then what do I put on top of that Dr. Laura Devgan BB cream with SPF in it. And so I use that foundation because it's got a little bit in it, but it's pretty light.

Caroline Gidiere: million dollar question

Paloma Contreras: Yeah Mm-hmm.

Caroline Gidiere: use Sunday Riley CO, I it's called, like the vitamin C, Sunday CO genes. I could see a moisturizer. ⁓

Steele Marcoux: The first thing that comes to my mind is we're looking for something we haven't seen before. And I know that's like the world's most frustrating answer because it's like, well, how do we know what you mean? But ⁓ I got a pitch earlier this week, a submission that is a beautiful house. mean, so well designed, incredible. I wish it was mine. ⁓ And it almost looked like the designer had

Caroline Gidiere: Yeah. I like this.

Paloma Contreras: here, really even and then at night using the same cleanser, but not the scrub. And then I use what is it? Dermalogica, I use it in the morning too. Dermalogica, like a mist, a hydrating mist, that's sort of like a toner. And that sort of wakes my skin up and feels really good. It helps all the serums, you know, go on more smoothly and absorb better. And at night I

Steele Marcoux: designed it such like I think Veranda would like this. know, there were almost like two on the nose, like, ⁓ you know, there's this kind of room here and that kind even down to certain textiles that we featured a lot. You know, it's like, I have my this room here and my that wallpaper room there. A little bit, but it was beautiful. Like to live there would be incredible. But it's one of these things where if I could sit down with her, I'm gonna have to say like, this is a near miss because there is, this is incredible.

Caroline Gidiere: Two on the Contrived. Yeah. Yeah. Right. ⁓ Yeah. They are. It's solid. ⁓

Paloma Contreras: Typically use a stay water the advanced night repair serum in the brown bottle. It's been ⁓ But the ingredients are really good. It's just sort of a tried I think I thought an older my skin is getting more reactive and all like have stuff going on like bumps on my forehead I tried dr. Dr. Medicine and Really like the plasma serum, but one of the others I can't figure out which one made me break out on my forehead So I stopped using I have to be really careful and just sort of stick

Steele Marcoux: house we would I know our readers would love it but when we are limited by pages and photo budgets and all the like like we're gonna pick something that we haven't seen before it almost looked like she'd taken tear sheet it was this I should say oh it was so flattering but it literally kind of felt like she'd taken tear sheets out of past issues you know recreated which was a shame

Caroline Gidiere: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because I can see that Sure sure So I'll do the Essence Water Serum or every couple of days a retinol serum just to boost up and have that in the regime. And then my eye cream day and night is typically...

Paloma Contreras: things. So I'll do the Estee Lauder serum or every couple of days a retinol serum just to you know boost that, have that in the routine. And then my eye cream day and night is typically what is it Valmont it's about it's called something de Glossier, Glossier de You or something like that but it's Valmont it's a Swiss company I get it from my facial

Caroline Gidiere: You have to thread the needle of giving your demographic what they want and expect, but also what they're not expecting, but they want, but don't know yet. Yes. They don't know yet. You're right, Trein. Because again, with that same...

Steele Marcoux: Yes, they don't know yet. You're right, Caroline, because again, with that same house, and of course, that sounded so egotistical that she would ever have like looked back through old friends. I'm sure she just did what her client wanted, right? And it's a beautiful house and the client loves it. And that's all that matters. But yes, while I know, while I totally know that our readers and our Instagram followers would absolutely love this house, I have to also balance that with

Paloma Contreras: So I use that it goes on really well under makeup, but I use it in the evening, too It's a really nice texture. So that's it. It's pretty straightforward ⁓ I get monthly facials with an esthetician in Houston named Deborah Michaelson who is amazing. She uses quality product a lot of facial massage and sort of follows more of a European sensibility in terms of aging and hair so super thorough I look forward this so much because

Caroline Gidiere: Yeah. Yeah. ⁓

Steele Marcoux: let's show them something that they've never seen before that they don't know yet that they're gonna love. And I think they will. And even if they don't love it, sometimes from the editorial perspective, even at like a slightly negative reaction to something is still valuable to us because they're engaging with it. Like, oh, that's not for me. I've never seen someone do that before. Maybe it's not for them, but it makes them think in a new way. And so it's still sort of,

Paloma Contreras: My skin looks great, but I love her and it's sort of like a therapy session. You know, it's a nice hour to spend each. I do that monthly and then I started doing this thing called golden fusion, which is sort of like a pure but lighter. I think we've talked about it before. they draw your blood and blend that with hyaluronic serum and disport.

Caroline Gidiere: I have to also balance that with let's show them something that they've never seen before that they don't know yet if they're gonna love. And I think they will. And even if they don't love it, sometimes from an editorial perspective, even at like a slightly negative reaction to something is still valuable to us because they're engaging. It's not for me, I've never seen them do that before. Maybe it's not. Yeah. ⁓

Steele Marcoux: accomplishes what we're after, which is just to get to like surprise and delight them a little bit about separating.

Paloma Contreras: And what else but they stamp it into this. There's really no downtime. You're a little dry, but the glow is incredible. So I do that, you know, a week order. And I haven't done lasers yet. That's on my list. My lady that does like my botox she said I should do she's a nurse practitioner and does all kinds of things. But she recommends what is it the BBL and moxie combination, but I haven't done it yet.

Caroline Gidiere: It's interesting that you say that because I saw a lot of buzz after, particularly after the Jonathan Anderson collection for Dior and Matthew Blasey for Chanel. And that is the, like, metric is not how well received it is, but how much

Steele Marcoux: Yes.

Caroline Gidiere: it's discussed in social media. That's what they're looking at. if, and it, you know, saw all these charts of who's, who's being, who's in the conversation. And if you're not being, if you're not able to have people have a conversation about it, then you're quickly forgotten and nobody's going to go in your store and buy your bags and. So do you recommend, is it the BBL and model? Yeah. BBL, mean, what I'm doing is BBL, when I started doing it, they called it IPL and I haven't changed my vocabulary on that, but yeah, know, they look at, if you look at people, I guess they've studied that over a long period of time and

Paloma Contreras: Thank you.

Caroline Gidiere: conversely by your magazine or go to see what you're doing this month or this issue or what have you, suppose. with an IPL slash BBL, if you do three a year for like a decade, like the people that do those, if you look at their pictures ⁓ from the start of the decade and the end, they don't look any different. Like it's the one thing that you can do to kind of like maintain your collagen structure underneath your skin. But I guess you have to do three in a row.

Steele Marcoux: Yes, because it can be, it can easily become a sea of sameness. And so it's funny that you mentioned social media, because yes, some of that is like, ⁓ let's see if we can get some engagement that, you know, ⁓ all too thrown around word these days or whatever, especially about social media. But some of it, if I, if I go back to like a slightly more altruistic motivation or motivation on behalf of the reader, the consumer, it's like, let's even if they don't,

Caroline Gidiere: to get it to really take or to get deep enough or to, I don't know what I'm talking about, I drank the Kool-Aid. to do it three times a year, every year.

Steele Marcoux: want to go buy all that stuff, let me open their eyes and their minds to something they haven't seen before, because they may think about things in a new way. you know, even just they may say, well, I'm not going to do that room or I'm not going to I wouldn't want that particular textile, but I now am open to a color that I wouldn't have thought of before or something, you know.

Paloma Contreras: Well... The scheduling is what's challenging, I think, because there is downtime. You're red and you have that sort of sandpaper quality to your skin afterwards as it heals. that right? No? Okay.

Caroline Gidiere: Absolutely. I had a conversation yesterday with a client. We're trying to figure out what the best chandelier is for a sitting room and I think the first time you do it, can expect that. What does happen is anywhere you have a spot on your skin, any kind of ⁓ sun damage, it will kind of turn into these tiny little black dots, okay, on the skin, and it'll be there for several days until it just goes away. So it kind of brings things to the surface and they are these little... we were discussing Murano glass. And it was, I think it was a feature in ⁓ Veranda. And I said, I wouldn't have said before I saw that photograph that I would ever use a Murano glass chandelier. I would have told you it's just not me. But that photo made me rethink it and made me rethink everything that I've ever thought about Murano glass chandeliers and that designer as well.

Paloma Contreras: Mm-hmm. Really?

Steele Marcoux: Yeah.

Caroline Gidiere: Like you would need a magnifying glass to see the differentiation amongst those little dots. But so it looks like just a darker freckle for ⁓ like a week and then it goes away. But my face doesn't, I don't feel any different after I do it now. It really doesn't. ⁓ I'm sure, I remember when I first got started, it was a lot different, but now, you know.

Steele Marcoux: That's really interesting. ⁓ I love it.

Caroline Gidiere: They can be so chic. So, you know, that is your job to lead us where we weren't. Yeah.

Steele Marcoux: Exactly. Just even so that somebody can pull a nugget. Again, nobody's going to do that whole room or whatever. It's just like, ⁓ I never thought of Murano glass in that way or whatever. ⁓ So we are looking for, back to, Paloma, but your original question, we are looking for juxtapositions or colors or uses of materials that we just haven't seen before. ⁓

Paloma Contreras: Yeah. that.

Caroline Gidiere: The old gray mare, ain't what she used to be. Anywho. Okay. Well, I mean, you know, that's a lot. If we tried to link all of that, it would be like pages.

Paloma Contreras: Hahaha

Steele Marcoux: think that ⁓ hard to pin down. ⁓ are some things that we're always looking for. Like we do ⁓ for projects to always have like a clear sense of place. know, it's something that feels like, ⁓ even if you can't say, this feels like Birmingham or Mountain Brook, it feels like the Southeast or something like that. You know, we like for things to have a sense of place. We like for things to have a connection to the outdoors. That's something that's like very Veranda. ⁓

Paloma Contreras: Right. I know, no it is a lot, but that just goes to show I really do believe in taking care of one's skin. I will say I'm lucky, like genetically I have good skin, I've never had super problematic skin, but I've always, even when I was a teenager and was just using like Neutrogena liquid soap and Olay ⁓ moisturizer, like I always made it a point to take care of my skin from a young age.

Caroline Gidiere: in taking care of it once again. Me too.

Steele Marcoux: Even a New York City apartment, we usually feature ones that have like a balcony or a terrace ⁓ or, you know, a floral pattern inside so that they're able to, you know, somehow bring the garden inside. ⁓ You know, we like for things to have a sense of architecture. We will always ask to see a scouting shot of the exterior. Even if we don't show it in print, we as editors have to have like a grounding of some sort. Yes, context, content ⁓ of, you know, sort of

Caroline Gidiere: Yeah, agree. I agree. I remember ⁓

Paloma Contreras: I've never slept in my makeup. I just feel like you get one face and you've got to take care of it. As I've gotten older, I'm starting to introduce more treatments, more serums, it just takes more maintenance, but you get out of it when you put into it just like anything else. Sure, yeah, the context of where you are.

Caroline Gidiere: My college roommate and I were talking about that when we would, our year in Paris, we had to spend the night together whenever we went out because the Metro stopped running at midnight. And if you stayed out after that, or like walking back by yourself when we didn't have cell phones, you had to just like stick together. But just like washing our faces after a night out. we both always used ⁓ Olay oil.

Steele Marcoux: where this is and what this is. So those are some things that never change. But then beyond that, when it comes to the design and decorating, it's just sort of like, have we seen a palette before? Have we seen these textures paired together? Have we seen this artwork paired together? Things like that.

Paloma Contreras: Right. What would you say you've seen too much of? Is there anything that you're like, can't look at another project with that element or whatever?

Caroline Gidiere: of where this is and what this is. So those are some things that never change, but then beyond that when it comes to designing that great idea, it's just sort of like, you seen a palette before? Have you seen these textures paired together? Have you seen this artwork paired together? What would you say you've seen too much of? Is there anything that you're like, can't work on another project with that element? I know there was a moment in time, like there was too much Palm Beach. Everybody had done Palm Beach

Paloma Contreras: Mhm. A whale on the way. I remember when it was called a whale.

Caroline Gidiere: In the in the pink bottle. Yeah, I mean but even back in you know, our wild crazy college days We're still coming in and washing our faces and putting lotion on before we went to bed So it's important makes a difference I think Okay Yeah, I love it always being with you Paloma. I hope this next week is really wonderful and delightful for you deserve it coming out of COVID. So what is there too much of now?

Paloma Contreras: Mm-hmm.

Steele Marcoux: Yes. Well, it's funny you say Palm Beach, because we were definitely like, we've done too much Palm Beach. And now, so we sort of not turned our back on it. Obviously, like we are part of ⁓ Bay Palm Beach. But now we're planning a January 2028 Palm Beach issue. Like we're like, okay, it's time to revisit Palm Beach again, you know. Yeah, ⁓ been a bit. So, I mean, similarly, and this is, I think I can safely say this because ⁓ you see,

Paloma Contreras: Mm-hmm.

Caroline Gidiere: Circle back. ⁓ nice. All right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's been a couple of years. Yeah.

Paloma Contreras: Okay. Well, it's been so good to meet you. ⁓ thank you and sing for you and I will look forward to seeing you next week.

Caroline Gidiere: you next week. Okay. Yeah, me too. All right. Talk to you later. Okay. Bye.

Paloma Contreras: Bye.

Steele Marcoux: where I am sitting to record this. Like I had had it with like, you know, floral wall covering or chinoiserie inspired wall covering. We just saw like way too much of that. But like, I mean, it's ridiculous to say that, Paloma, I see where you're sitting as well. You know, and so the minute I say like, that's it, I've had it, too much of that, like we'll see it in a new way or ⁓ used in a different color or something like that and then we'll come back. it so I don't know I hesitate to rule anything out.

Caroline Gidiere: Sure Yeah, no ⁓

Paloma Contreras: How do you go about formulating what you are stewarding in as an editor and from the perspective of Veranda? feel like from an editorial perspective, that would be one of the most daunting things about your job is setting trends. I feel like designers are always like, I don't follow trends, I issue trends, whatever, but we may not be beholden to them, but our clients are paying attention. we need to be aware of what's happening out there. But I feel like in your shoes, that would be a really challenging thing to be like, okay, this is what we're gonna be pushing now or what we're seeing and we feel is gonna have a broader moment. How does that happen? Is it just very organic or more intentional?

Steele Marcoux: It's, would say it's more, it's maybe like 75 % intentional, 25 % organic. We do, and it is, I mean, it's probably the lion's share of like what I do. So we, in terms of just planning our edit calendar, we start with big themes and big questions. So for each, if we're talking about print, you know, well, really across all platforms, but we'll sort of pick like an issue theme or.

Paloma Contreras: Mm-hmm.

Steele Marcoux: again, like a big question that we wanna try to answer through the lens of design and decorating. ⁓ And we've gotta have at least six of those for each different issue. We've got some that we do every year. Like we always do a holiday issue, that's going nowhere. ⁓ And then, know, we, March, April time, we love spring. So that's going nowhere. But the ones that are not as like super seasonal, sometimes we'll celebrate one specific sense of place. I mentioned Palm Beach. ⁓ Sometimes we'll celebrate more of like, again, sort of an idea of like, how do you design a house, we call it forever home, how do you design a house that's meant to sort of endure multiple generations, ⁓ that sort of thing. Sometimes we'll, you know, kind of celebrate something like American heritage design, obviously with America's 250th, that's a big theme for us coming up this summer. So we start with a big idea, then we wanna slice that a lot of different ways. ⁓ when it comes to style. So like if we have five all-American feeling projects, we only want one that's red, white, and blue. The others are going to be very, very different from that. One's going to feel traditional. One will feel more contemporary. I think people think of Veranda as traditional, but we eschew that as hard as we can. And we try to give people a visual mix answering one big design question or idea. But figuring out what the right balance is there, it can be really difficult. There again is where we'll end up saying no to some fantastic projects because there are too many that are...

Caroline Gidiere: Yeah. Sure. You have a specific, yeah, thing that you're looking for to slot in.

Steele Marcoux: Yeah, and or like you may, there's a project in our next issue that comes out next week where, I'm not going to tell you which one it is obviously, but you may ladies look at it next week and think, I'm surprised that's in Veranda Well, it's serving a very clear purpose that's like balancing the project, right? That comes right before it and the project that comes right after it. So you're thinking of it almost like one would think about a book, you know, and I don't know that everyone realizes that when they send us their amazing work.

Caroline Gidiere: Sure sure yeah ⁓ Or... Sure. Well, we've talked about in the short life thus far of our podcast about how to create balance in a space and balancing tension. you know, and every time you put something on this side of the scale, you've got to add something on the other. mean, you're that's your... issue, you're trying to create that balance and tension through your projects, right? How much are you focused as a publication on...

Steele Marcoux: Yes. Exactly. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, it's very true.

Caroline Gidiere: How much as a are you focused ⁓ on ⁓ the paper ⁓ issue and the digital? mean, like, are you more digitally focused days you... ⁓ that heading, do you think? ⁓

Steele Marcoux: I mean, that is changing. Two years ago, I'd say, ⁓ that changes every 12 to 18 months. And now I'm like, that changes every six to eight weeks. I mean, it is changing so fast. But for us, for Veranda, print is always incredibly, incredibly important. We've been so lucky that ⁓ actually to kind of like revise or go back to something we were talking about earlier, like we haven't seen our page count drop, thank God, or our issue schedule drop. in a long, long time. So we've been at six issues a year for like, I mean, well over 10 years. Whereas I think like in the last couple of years, other, ⁓ you know, magazines have had to say, well, we were eight issues, now we're seven, or we were 12, now we're nine or whatever. So we've kind of been at six for a long, long time, and we've been able to, in fact, sometimes even add pages back to the issue. So we're very lucky there. Our paper quality is very high. That's been, honestly, thank, ⁓

Caroline Gidiere: Yes, thank you. So important. ⁓

Paloma Contreras: Right. Mm-hmm. It's beautiful.

Steele Marcoux: thank our founding editor and also thank Hearst for honoring their agreement they made when they bought it from her. But she put that into the contract, Lisa put that into the contract that you have to maintain the paper quality. so, mean, right? And like not to go down this rabbit hole for too long, but okay, obviously the reader values that, right? Like they can feel that it's heavier, they can feel each page in their hand. So does the advertiser, their ads look better on it.

Caroline Gidiere: Oh, nice. Good for Lisa. Leave it to a woman. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

Paloma Contreras: Right.

Steele Marcoux: And then, of course, so do designers who are thankfully sending us their best work. They want to be printed on our pages. And so it only reinforces the value proposition of what we're doing to have that good paper. So that is fundamental. But back to the question of, how much time do you spend on the website? I I can honestly say they have not invested in our website nearly as much as they've invested in the paper. But these days, I think we're very, very focused on print. ⁓ We are focused on the website, but we're trying to be increasingly focused on social and it's funny how Social and print are an eco two ecosystems that I think can almost Support and dialogue between each other a little bit more easily Websites have you have to be so focused on metrics and how do people get I mean I don't spend a lot of time like going to a website, you know I'm coming to it or through a social link or because I need to buy something or reserve something, but that I'm still using an app, probably, not an actual URL. So I think that the world of, I think we're thinking about social in a way now that is a great way to talk about the stories that we're doing in print. And it's taken us too long to get there. So we're thinking, we'll think about a story and then we'll think about how does that live on the printed page? Okay, what does that look like in a video? know, slice and get a few little micro stories out of a bigger story that we can send out in an email to somebody so that they will come and read the main story. ⁓ I think we're just thinking about every story across like four or five different expressions or platforms.

Caroline Gidiere: Have you all broken into TikTok yet? Yes. Okay. ⁓

Paloma Contreras: Mm-hmm.

Steele Marcoux: Yes, we are on TikTok. Please give us a like and follow. And you know, we are still understaffed, under-resourced on when it comes to social. Like we're not spending as much time on social, aren't we all? There's probably no way to spend as much time on social as you could possibly need to. I that would also be bad for our like brains and hearts. So maybe there's a little bit of boundary that we can do. But...

Caroline Gidiere: I will right now. Social. Aren't we all? Right. Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Paloma Contreras: Yeah.

Steele Marcoux: But yes, we basically we have one social editor. She's posting the majority of our content across TikTok and Facebook. And Facebook is back for us. It was like really. Yeah.

Paloma Contreras: Really? Okay, I didn't realize.

Caroline Gidiere: What? No. Are the young kids on Facebook? Come on. The older generation. I was going to say, my dad is on Facebook. Yeah. Yeah. Or.

Steele Marcoux: So that we're chasing the young kids on TikTok and the older. Right, maybe he's given us some love on Facebook. don't know.

Caroline Gidiere: You know, what is up with LinkedIn? Why are people on LinkedIn?

Steele Marcoux: ⁓ I know I've wondered I'm like is LinkedIn a place where we need to be showing up more because I mean designers are on LinkedIn and like do we need to be

Caroline Gidiere: showing up more because I mean, And people are, I understand it, ⁓ haven't ⁓ it yet, but like posting videos, like ⁓ LinkedIn.

Steele Marcoux: Yes, yeah, I'm seeing that too.

Paloma Contreras: ⁓ really? Wow. but I don't actively use it.

Steele Marcoux: Yeah, I don't really either.

Caroline Gidiere: Well, you know why I don't use it when I realize that somebody could when you look at their profile. Like, ⁓ do we need this for? ⁓

Paloma Contreras: Yeah, I know. That's embarrassing.

Steele Marcoux: Yes, I know. ⁓ No. Right, too embarrassing.

Caroline Gidiere: You're gonna send them a notification? ⁓ hell no.

Paloma Contreras: Mm-hmm.

Steele Marcoux: No, no, no, no, I can't be creeping on there in private. Yeah, I know.

Caroline Gidiere: Too funny, too funny. Okay. Well, if you were a... There are a lot of youngins out there or people that are second career, may not be exactly young, but they're young in their career. Trying to figure out how do I engage with Veranda? Really what's the best way to go about it?

Steele Marcoux: Yes. Yes.

Caroline Gidiere: Are there any no-nos for as far as if you wanted to get something published?

Steele Marcoux: Okay, so I think a couple things. Ways to engage with us. I mean, I would say the first thing, it's so simple, subscribe. know, we obviously, a lot of our model is built on advertising, but at the end of the day, like what we need are subscribers and a great way to engage with us is to subscribe so that you become more familiar with what we're doing and sort of what we're putting out and you get a sense of that. So that's like number one. it a step further.

Caroline Gidiere: Yes, so good. ⁓

Steele Marcoux: subscribe to my free newsletter, Trade Secrets. can like send you guys. ⁓ thank you. I feel like I need a little revamp, but ⁓ y'all are inspiring me. But I send it out twice a month. It's free. It's meant to be just for designers. we do, when you subscribe, we automatically will send you our ⁓ guide to the perfect pitch. And so that was our sort of like hook to try to get designers to subscribe is like, we'll tell you exactly how to pitch us if you ⁓ will subscribe.

Paloma Contreras: Which is so good, by the way, I look forward to it.

Caroline Gidiere: And how do they subscribe?

Steele Marcoux: Good question. you, this is the honest answer. If Google Veranda trade secrets newsletter, the first link that will pop up is a subscription link. I would also say you can go to Veranda.com and then, then looking around on our website to find the place to subscribe might be harder. So Google Veranda trade secrets newsletter. It's like four words. Alternatively, you can DM me on Instagram and I will send you the link too. ⁓ And I'm just SteelMarcu on Instagram and I spend way too much time on Instagram. So there's that. But so that would get you like ⁓ a guide to our perfect pitch. And then beyond that, I would say, ⁓ you know, you can email myself, steel at randa.com and I will make sure that it gets like put into the queue and or that we send you that guide or send you a link to subscribe to the newsletter or whatever. Those are. like there were some other things I wanted to say about this. some no-nos. We go over this in our guide to the perfect pitch, but a common misperception out there is that like people always ask me, they say, well, what if I posted some of my content, my pictures, my photos on social media? Does that automatically rule it out for ⁓ being in Veranda? The answer to that is no. That is not an automatic rule out. I would hate to go out there and tell designers, you can't post your own work on your own social media. That's bananas. You guys need to be posting your work on social media. It's a great marketing platform for you. We're gonna tell your story in a different way than you're gonna share it on social media. Now, make it super excited when a designer says like, I haven't even posted these on Instagram yet. Yeah, we do get more excited and that would be great. But, know, and, or if you want to share some of the content on social before it comes out in a magazine, share snippets, share a detailed photograph or just don't avoid doing the like carousel feature on Instagram where you show all the 10 rooms and say, here's the room looking into the dining room. Okay, here's the dining room looking into the entry hall. Cause that's what we would like to do. We would like to like guide somebody through. But if you want to show like a detail or a corner or one image from one project and then another image from another project that has like nothing to do with each other except for that it's yours. Like that makes all the sense in the world.

Paloma Contreras: Mm-hmm.

Caroline Gidiere: 20 images of the whole house. Yeah. ⁓

Paloma Contreras: Right.

Steele Marcoux: So that's definitely, I wanna like get that out there and be very clear. The other like kind of no-no is, ⁓ you know, we just get so disappointed when somebody sends us something and we're like, okay, okay, we really like this, we're looking for a place for it and we're sort of dialoguing back and forth with the designer. Like we haven't found a spot yet, but we want to and da-da-da. And if they come back and say, ⁓ sorry, well, know, El Decor already picked it up. already and we're like shoot because it feels like a waste of time. If you're we understand that a sometimes we take way too long to get back to people. We try to get back to everybody within two weeks to at least say like we've received this and we'll be reviewing it tk time frame like we sort of want to give you a response and let you know when we're going to give you an answer. We do our best to do that but I do understand that it can often take way too long. But if you're gonna, if you feel like, know what guys, you've had this for six weeks and I haven't heard back and I'm really eager to like send it around, just tell us. Cause either A, that will force us to make a decision faster or B, we may also say, we totally get that. We're not ready to commit to this yet. Cause we don't have a spot for it. We don't want to make you wait two years. So go ahead and send it to Eldecor and keep us posted, you know, whatever. We just want to like stay in communication, but that can be a big no-no. There was once. It hasn't happened to us all that often, but there was something in the last like three years where we thought I mean we had said great. That's great We're gonna run it in this issue and then we went back to the designer say, okay We're ready to get the story process started and they're like, sorry I've already shared it with someone else they're gonna run it and it was such a you know disappointment so just stay in good communication And like but here's another like misconception feel free to email us

Caroline Gidiere: Don't do that. Yeah. ⁓

Paloma Contreras: Yeah.

Steele Marcoux: me a million trillion times. Like, you know, don't worry about like feeling obnoxious about that. We get it. That's sometimes the best way to get our attention. And if we are, if you're emailing someone a bunch and you're not getting answers, then you know, it's not on you if like you have to go in another direction. anyway.

Paloma Contreras: Do you prefer to hear directly from a designer or their publicist or does it matter?

Steele Marcoux: It doesn't really matter. We can work either way. I think it is more like however y'all would rather work. ⁓ There are often times where we work directly with the designer and there are other times where we go through a publicist and that's totally fine too. We can do either way. I mean, we probably might prefer to work directly with the designer a little bit more, but we're happy to work with publicists too.

Caroline Gidiere: Great, okay. Not throw in shade.

Steele Marcoux: Publicists out there who are listening to this, love you too. Don't worry. You can still...

Paloma Contreras: Ha ha ha ha.

Steele Marcoux: I mean, not the Roach hit. We couldn't do our job without the amazing publicists who are out there. So, but we also love being in direct communication with designers.

Paloma Contreras: No.

Caroline Gidiere: Oh, absolutely. Okay, Tell us about your next issue of Veranda give us a hook? Give us the lead in Okay, so this is kind of fun. I don't think we've ever done this before, at least not since I've been here. The next issue for Anna, comes out next Thursday, is...

Paloma Contreras: They make the design world go round.

Steele Marcoux: ⁓ man. Okay, so this is kind of fun. I don't think we've ever done this before, at least not since I've been here. ⁓ The next issue, Veranda, which comes out next Thursday is all new build houses, which we do so much more focusing on like old houses that people have renovated or restored. So this year, kind of under that like forever home theme, we were like, well, how do you build a new house that's gonna endure and really last?

Caroline Gidiere: Yeah. or restored. this year, kind of under that like forever home theme, you're like, well, how do you build a new house that's going to endure and really last? And, you know, how can you build a new house that feels both, know, potentially inspired by

Steele Marcoux: you know, how can you build a new house that feels both, you know, potentially inspired by a traditional or classic style, but really reinterpreted for today? And how can you build a new house that seems like it has always been there? Like that it sort of settles in with its neighborhood more quickly and such. So yeah, I'm excited about that. And then from that, like we have ⁓ four or five, I can't remember, but anyway, a collection of houses in the next issue that are all new builds. And then starting in April or starting after the issue comes out, we're going to publish one online every month for the rest of this year, like an additional to what's in print. We had so many good ones that we were like, you know what, we'll pick these four or five to feature in print and they'll live across all our platforms as well. But then we've got April to December one every month coming out to showcase as well. yeah.

Caroline Gidiere: But anyway, a collection of houses in the next issue that are all new builds. ⁓ And then starting in April, or starting after the issue comes out, we're going to publish one online every month for the rest of this year. Like an additional to what's in print. ⁓ wow. Yeah. We'll pick these four or five that you can print and we'll. ⁓ I'll be very interested, you know, in doing that because it does seem like in our milieu, we end up, I mean, ⁓ we some renovations, but you know, like, what are the renovations I'm working on right now? They're really just keeping some of the...

Steele Marcoux: Yeah.

Caroline Gidiere: I don't know what we're actually keeping. I don't know what's actually original to the house besides the foundation. At the end of the day, it just kind of seems like that's more where are these days anyway. I mean, ⁓ unless are blessed to live in places like we've discussed, like in Lake Forest or ⁓ upstate New York or... ⁓

Steele Marcoux: Yeah, maybe nothing. Yeah, I think so. Right.

Caroline Gidiere: places or in Birmingham or you know, there are places that have beautiful homes that you can simply renovate, but there's a lot of America that has, you know, doesn't have a lot of architectural foundation to offer its residents. So, yeah, I can see.

Steele Marcoux: Yes, definitely. It was a great chance too for us to showcase the work of architects and we do that in every issue, but here we really are able to ⁓ shine a more direct spotlight on that, including like in trying to select, I hope y'all, I this bears out when you see it, but in working on the layouts for the issue, we included different mix of photographs than maybe we would if our focus had just been on

Caroline Gidiere: Yeah. Building. ⁓ Yeah. ⁓

Steele Marcoux: decorating because we wanted to show some of those like transition spaces, stairwells, hallways, know, things like that that really can make a difference in terms of making a new house or a new build sort of feel like it's been there forever or whatever.

Paloma Contreras: Well, I think it's such a timely topic because I mean, here in Houston, where I live, and I feel like in so many other cities, there's a real epidemic of people just knocking down old houses and not giving them a chance, not renovating, not preserving. And I understand our needs as modern families are very different than they were when these houses were erected a hundred years ago or however long ago. But

Steele Marcoux: Yes.

Paloma Contreras: what's put in place of these beautiful old houses is not always of equal quality and character. And so I think if we can showcase how you can build a beautiful, thoughtful new home that's well designed architecturally, that makes sense for modern living, but is also architecturally significant, hopefully that starts to trickle down and we'll see less of these like big white boxes with the black windows.

Steele Marcoux: 100%. Yeah, ⁓ my gosh, big white box with the black window, the epidemic. ⁓

Caroline Gidiere: But what's put in place of these beautiful old houses is not always an equal quality in character. And so I think if we can showcase how you can build a beautiful, thoughtful new home that's well designed architecturally, that makes sense for modern living, but it's also architecturally significant, hopefully that starts to trickle down and we'll see lots of these like big white box with black windows. Yeah, ⁓ my ⁓ white box with black windows. ⁓

Paloma Contreras: Yes, Caroline's house is a perfect example.

Caroline Gidiere: Yes. Well, it's, in. Well, at the goal, the starting point, just because I grew up in old houses and it's in an old neighborhood, I took very seriously the obligation to, ⁓ and the get go was what can we put back.

Steele Marcoux: It is, Carol Anne's is a perfect example.

Caroline Gidiere: in this space because we had to tear it down. was, it had completely collapsed through the middle of the house. There wasn't any saving it or renovating it. But what could we could put back that 10 years from now, you wouldn't be able to tell it wasn't an original contributing structure for the neighborhood. But, you know, it's easy to say that, or maybe it's not in an old neighborhood, but you know, not everything too is. is an old neighborhood. And I don't know, if you don't have good zoning, it's an interesting question. What would you do if you had carte blanche? But one thing I did want to say that really piques my interest about the transitional spaces and focusing on that, because it makes me think of Gil Schafer's books, which I like to call the Old and New Testament.

Steele Marcoux: It's true. Yes.

Caroline Gidiere: and his first two books and also his website that I routinely go to for instruction like a textbook and the places that I'm always ⁓ some guidance and instruction are those spaces. Like how do we make these, how do we connect this house and it cohesive ⁓ and

Steele Marcoux: Totally.

Paloma Contreras: So true.

Steele Marcoux: you Love that.

Caroline Gidiere: you know, seamless and what have people done before that's clever and works well and you know, just those sort of things. So I will be awaiting this issue.

Steele Marcoux: Well, thank you, Caroline. I was going to tuck into a little tip for designers too, back to the original topic of photography. One question we always get is like, well, what do want us to, if we're going to shoot either scouting or professional photographs, like what do you want to see? And I mean, of course we want to see overall shots of rooms, but we do ask people to send us even scouting shots or really more appropriately. We recommend if you're investing in your own photography, like Take the time, don't just tell your photographer, okay, I've got living room, dining room, three bedrooms, kitchen, whatever. Like take the time, even if you have to, I know it sounds crazy, but add another day. Go ahead and shoot the pantries and the hallways and the stairwells. And you know, just because like those are valuable or like even beautiful moments, like one room, you know, from one room looking into the next room, because some of those like vistas help tell a story that just aren't. or is a little bit more interesting and more visually stimulating than just like, here's the living room, here's the dining room, you know, that sort of thing.

Caroline Gidiere: Sure. me ask you this as well. Let's just say you're going to do a photo shoot for your website or your purposes are with that idea in the back of your head. Like I'd really love to see if I could get this in Veranda. ⁓ ⁓ have not yet hired a stylist. ⁓ mean, ⁓ you ever publish like or provide a list of stylists that you regularly look for? I guess you could look in the bylines or the notes. ⁓ to see who, because I feel like those stylists are ones that could guide a designer for the styling of it at least, that would at least be on brand for Veranda, right?

Steele Marcoux: Totally. Yes, I was going to say again, first thing, just pick up the magazine, look through all the bylines. You know, now granted sometimes ⁓ are way more amazing stylists out there than you will find in Veranda, of course. But if you, ⁓ do, to answer your, beginning part of your question, if you want to contact us and say like, hey, I'm embarking on a big, you know, year of photography where I'm going to be photographing like four to six projects that I'm gonna try to hire teams. We would love to help you consult on that. Like we do that quite a bit. Either you can email us or you can email me or and or I can put you in touch with our ⁓ director of visuals, our kind of photo and video director. We've definitely got lists. Like even brand actually came to us recently and said, hey, we're gonna photograph our founders house. you know, they happen to live in this location. who should we hire? And we gave them like six photographers with write-ups and same with the stylist. we've got photographers and stylists that we work with in all of the major parts of the country. We're happy to help make suggestions. Because again, we're so, we're grateful that photographers would ever think about sharing their photography. I would say designers would ever think about sharing their photography with us, that we'd love to like collaborate and sort of make suggestions where that's appropriate, for sure.

Paloma Contreras: That's wonderful. That's so generous.

Caroline Gidiere: Sure. Well, and I think too, you know, when you get hooked up with a stylist who has worked with the publications that you're interested in, and for, they're very informative and they know and they're going to tell you straight, like, they're never going to publish this or they don't like this or they don't like these things or they don't do a table shot or they don't, know, like things that you could never guess. The stylist knows all those secrets, you know, like they.

Steele Marcoux: And the stylist, like just a quick plug for Carolyn Englefield. I mean, she worked on staff at Veranda for so many years and now she's shooting ⁓ for a lot of designers. Like she has actually shaped the visual language of Veranda. And a lot of that we're still trying to honor and pay homage to today. you know, she, like there's a designer out there who will always text me. like, I'm shooting with Carolyn today. And I'm like, send me the photos, you know, like, because she just. completely knows angles and lighting and styling. mean, she's not the only one, but she's just the one who used to be on staff. So that's the name I feel most comfortable like last time. But yeah, no, we're always happy to tell you folks that we love to work with and given whatever area you may be shooting, it, know, California, the Midwest, Texas, Southeast, whatever.

Caroline Gidiere: She has actually shaped the visual language. And a lot of that we're still trying to honor the audience today. there's a designer out there who always texts me when I'm shooting with Carolyn today. I'm like, send me the photos. Yeah, sure. He completely knows Gables and Coney. really mean, she's not being polite. It's just the life of the staff. that's OK. And I feel those kind of Yeah, sure.

Paloma Contreras: Mm-hmm.

Caroline Gidiere: Okay, cool. All right. So, always look fabulous. You always have the coolest clothes. Where are you shopping these days? ⁓

Steele Marcoux: Gosh, I don't know. Where am I shopping? Well, okay. I do have a couple of favorite brands. I had the best shopping experience last summer in Raleigh of all, actually in Durham, North Carolina of all places. There's a great.

Caroline Gidiere: online or do you have a favorite brand? shopping experience last summer in There are a lot of stylish women that live in that quadrangle or triangle.

Steele Marcoux: Yes, in that neck of the woods and the yes. So it's called Vert and Vogue. it's this like great. The point is, I had been shopping online like since the pandemic, and then went to go visit a friend in Raleigh. She said, come, we're gonna drive over to Durham for the afternoon, we're gonna go to the shop. And it was just so much fun. It made shopping like so not a chore. There were these like super chic, way younger, cooler folks in that shop who were like, bringing me stuff to try on that I would have never thought of and pairing things together. I was, know, anyway, I left having spent way more than I intended to when I walked in the door. So kudos to the ladies at Baird and Vogue. And now like, anyway, they'll do like, because I know them now, this is such a dangerous habit, but they're like, we'll do a virtual styling appointment if you want to. And so then they had like some, you know, big January sales and I was like, I'm booking the virtual styling appointment.

Caroline Gidiere: You know. Nice. Nice. Well, you know, we have all gotten, we're all guilty of it. There's not any, he who, you know, doesn't do that, know, whatever, but throw the post and it's like a mixed metaphor. I don't know where I was going with that, but ⁓ ⁓ shops in person as much. ⁓ I now have a 16 year old daughter. ⁓

Steele Marcoux: ⁓ yeah, it was great! No.

Caroline Gidiere: And I'm like, let's get in the car and go and try things on. She's like, like she does not want to try things on. And I'm like, look, why don't you try this on? She's like, well, you can't tell on the hanger what it's going to look like. You just got to try a whole bunch of stuff. You'll be surprised what looks good on you. You can't just always anticipate it. much better, I think, shopping in person. just, don't do it as much.

Steele Marcoux: Go do some shops. I know! Yes. Yes. And it was fun. Like it put the joy back into it. I mean, again, I bought a lot of stuff, but like it put the joy into like, you know, just, I don't know. I felt like I made like a new friend that day working with this woman, you know? And yeah, anyway, I highly recommend. There are some great places in Birmingham too, but it was just so fun to like have that discovery on a trip. And again, like these days, you know, they can ship me a little box. They could do the virtual try, you know, appointment and then ship me a box. I've got

Caroline Gidiere: It is. Yeah, sure. ⁓

Steele Marcoux: four days to get it back to him and I'd rather do that than, I also feel like I just make a ton of bad decisions online that are very impulsive that, you know, I get, so I spend a lot of time just returning online. I don't know, anyway.

Caroline Gidiere: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And that have a lot of guilt with that. shipping and receiving center is what Stephen says he runs. ⁓

Paloma Contreras: Yeah, that's my husband's He did not sign up for that job willingly, but he now holds that title because, you you order stuff online and it doesn't work out.

Steele Marcoux: That's hilarious. Yeah. Yeah.

Caroline Gidiere: It's too funny. ⁓ Well, still, yeah. Rachel, I think I know her. I mean, not her personally, but I think I know this brand.

Steele Marcoux: ⁓ One quick brand though that I am loving these days is Rachel Comey. I'm loving some Rachel Comey. Yes. New York based designer. Yeah. And again, the ladies at Verit & Vogue like reintroduced her to me and ⁓ you know, there's just, it feels like modern but rooted in tradition. know, it just, anyway. So quick plug for some Rachel Comey. Yeah.

Paloma Contreras: I hope, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's been around for a while, yeah.

Caroline Gidiere: Nice. Okay, I am going to check it out because I feel like I've been there. There's so many great brands and then you forget about them. If somebody mentions something, you're like, ⁓ I love them. I love them. I need to check them out again.

Steele Marcoux: Yeah, exactly. Well, that's what happened at the shop is that I was like, ⁓ I love her and I've forgotten about you know.

Caroline Gidiere: Yeah, yeah. Well, you travel so much. And in fact, last year when I was doing my book tour, you were the inspiration. You were like the thing, the place that I went to in my mind when I was weary on the road. I was like, Steele does this all the time. She does it all the time and makes it look easy. ⁓ are, I want to know what your best travel hacks are. And also want to know what you're carrying.

Steele Marcoux: I'm sorry. ⁓ God, and you can see it right here.

Caroline Gidiere: in your bag that you put under the seat on the airplane. ⁓

Steele Marcoux: Ooh, okay. So I don't, probably need better travel hacks, but my my main two are I always carry on. That's just like, you know, literally every time I check, I something that happens. But, ⁓ so I try to work it out where I'm always carrying on, at least for work. I didn't recently for personal reasons and it really came back to haunt us. But anyway, we'll get through that. So carry on. And then, and even if you have to like,

Paloma Contreras: You

Steele Marcoux: There are some funny compromises you have to make with that of like, am I really taking my running shoes? Like, am I really getting up at 6 a.m. to go to the gym or can I leave the running? Or maybe I can take a walk in my cute sneakers that would make, anyway, so there are, it's harder than it seems. Or can I wear two coats on the plane, like one under the other one? So, you know, just harder and harder. ⁓ It's tough. So,

Caroline Gidiere: Yeah. It is. That's a tough call. Yeah. Me too. Yeah. You can't go back after you've done that. It really does.

Steele Marcoux: So there's that. And then I am like, swear by packing cubes. They help me stay super organized. Like I have to have packing cubes.

Paloma Contreras: Okay.

Caroline Gidiere: helps me pack and then it helps me stay organized once I'm on the journey. Do you have a good place for them? Because the company that I used to get them from has gone out of business and I need some more. I left one in a hotel room and I'm one man down.

Steele Marcoux: 100%. So I swear by those. Oh, I know, I've always, you're a man down. Okay, I'm just using Away like packing cubes. I don't even think they're the best ones. I mean, not a ding against them, but I haven't done much like vetting. I wish mine, so the Away ones are fine, but I wish that mine had more of a like compression component. I wish I could like, there's a little bit more. Yes, ooh.

Caroline Gidiere: Okay, okay, I've forgotten about them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. ⁓ yeah. Yeah. Have a double zipper so that you can have the fat and then you can it down. ⁓ ⁓ got all of mine from ⁓ or Paraval or whatever. ⁓ know, entry rock. I mean, what happened? What with her beautiful, you know, sustainable, environmentally friendly and beautiful luggage? ⁓

Paloma Contreras: Mmm.

Steele Marcoux: Brilliant! ⁓ I love them. I know. What happened to Parvel? They're my favorite. I knew. Luggage, I know. I know.

Caroline Gidiere: I don't know what happened. I don't know the story, but I do know that they're not in business anymore. And I have these really nice, ⁓ well-made packing cubes and there are two zippers. It's normal size, but you can come back in with the second zipper and it squishes it down. ⁓ It so good. Yeah. So good. good. ⁓

Steele Marcoux: And like, that's brilliant. That's what I really need. Yeah. Okay. Well, maybe ladies, do we need another side hustle? Just kidding. No.

Paloma Contreras: Yeah.

Caroline Gidiere: What are you putting? I find traveling what I have in that bag under the seat is like, yeah, like military precision of what I need in that bag.

Steele Marcoux: That is a challenge. Yes. And I've had some, I know I've had some real like, you know, some, some not so great things happen this year. Coming home from London in January, I left my laptop in the seat. You know, they say do not put your laptop in the pocket and Delta never found it. So that was a big, yeah, that was a big, you know, whiff on my part. But okay, so that being said, I always have a computer in that bag, unfortunately, for me.

Paloma Contreras: ⁓ no. Ugh.

Caroline Gidiere: Ouch. Okay. have recently. With the USBC, mean. Exactly. Same. Same.

Steele Marcoux: I've got my bag full of cords, which recently I was like, do I need all these cords? I think I need to edit the cords. Yeah, I need to, because I think, I think people are, I was gonna say we're going to a more universal cord situation. So why am I carrying around like lightning cord? We don't know. I've got like USB, USB-C and lightning and I think I only need the one. And then I've got like my other little like bag of,

Caroline Gidiere: you

Steele Marcoux: lip gloss, lotion. I'm a big like my hands always feel dry on airplanes and I'm constantly, yeah me too, feels very granny of me but so all the like kind of moisturizing kit I would say is in there. These ⁓ are attractive but they will cancel any noise. These are often in the bag below the seat. ⁓ and look I've got all kinds of props. I've got my books, I've always got a book in there.

Caroline Gidiere: Me too, like my grandma. Oh yeah, smart. They take up a lot of space though. Oh, your book. Oh.

Paloma Contreras: Mm-hmm, very important. ⁓ yeah.

Caroline Gidiere: And you know, I was reading on Vogue that books are back in, not a Kindle.

Steele Marcoux: I love it. actual.

Paloma Contreras: only read books. don't read on a Kindle or an iPad. I like print.

Caroline Gidiere: Yeah, I'm the same way. I've never read on a Kindle, but the young girlies are carrying books on the subway. Wait.

Steele Marcoux: Yeah. Yeah. Well, oh, I love that. I mean, it does add to the heft of that bag, anyway.

Paloma Contreras: Mm-hmm.

Caroline Gidiere: Well, I will tell you, I have digital subscriptions of all my magazines and makes a huge difference because I used to buy huge bag of magazines at the airport and it probably weighed 20 pounds lugging it around with that little plastic bag. ⁓ Always my fingers and everything. Cool, all right.

Steele Marcoux: ⁓ that's good. Yeah. ⁓ totally. Apple News Plus is great for those digital subscriptions. I'm reading a lot of stuff on Apple.

Caroline Gidiere: Yeah, yeah, me too. It works great. And you can really zoom in on some of those images and everything that makes a big difference. What were the books that you're reading?

Steele Marcoux: Yes. Okay, so I just read this on when we were on spring vacation, Family of Spies. Y'all, I cannot recommend this book enough. It is so good. I'm a kind of history person. ⁓ reading, I'm reading two like true stories. So this is a ⁓ true story about a woman who learns that her family has this very like difficult and challenging past as as pertains to World War Two, but it also unites the ⁓ European and Pacific

Caroline Gidiere: family of spies, you'll...

Steele Marcoux: theaters in a way that I had never considered before. So I highly recommend Family of Spies. It's very good. And then I'm coming back to this book which I started before Spring Break called Furious Hours, Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee. So this is like a little closer to home. was like a serial killer in Alabama in a man in ⁓ 70s and her brother Lee went down to cover the trial but she never finished both of those. So this other writer has come along and like kind of told the story. great. It's so good. To be honest, this one's better written than the first one. The first one is, blow your mind, that like is a true story. So anyway.

Caroline Gidiere: wow. The first one's a true story or the second one is nonfiction.

Steele Marcoux: Both of them were true stories. So like, Family Applies, true story, well written, but not the most like amazingly well written. This one, Furious Hours, also true story. And this woman, Casey Sepp, is like a New Yorker writer and it is like really, really well done. So.

Caroline Gidiere: Awesome. Paloma's a big reader. I've got to get on it. I've to get on it.

Paloma Contreras: I'll have to add those to my list. Those are great recommendations.

Steele Marcoux: Okay, yeah, Pulumet.

Paloma Contreras: Well, I would like to be a bigger reader, but I enjoy reading. just, I don't always have the time. I can read on an airplane and I'll, you know, I'll try to read before I go to bed, but I get two pages in and then I'm lights out.

Caroline Gidiere: I'm the same way I get so frustrated. Yeah, I can either. Yeah, I'm like, I mean, just like

Steele Marcoux: I'm I've started reading on weekend day mornings because I can't read at night anymore. So sometimes there's like either a Saturday or a Sunday where I can stay in bed a little bit. And read because I'm like, ⁓ I'm ⁓ awake to like read for 30 minutes.

Paloma Contreras: Yeah.

Caroline Gidiere: my mother and grandmother before if in the evening if if I have my feet stretched out I'm going to be asleep in like 10 minutes. Like whether it's a book a tv show or anything I have to sit up straight or I'll never make it I'll never make it. Okay well yeah yeah we've loved having you you really have done us a

Steele Marcoux: So me too. Haven't always been that way, but I am now. ⁓

Paloma Contreras: You

Steele Marcoux: I know, it's true. ⁓ Ladies, thank you for having me.

Paloma Contreras: Thank you so much. This has been so fun.

Steele Marcoux: I can gab all day.

Caroline Gidiere: ⁓ a solid, a big favor. It's a huge honor to have you on here. Really appreciate it. And everybody's going to love this. This is great Intel for sure. Absolutely. right. ⁓ yeah. Hope to see you soon.

Paloma Contreras: Absolutely.

Steele Marcoux: I hope I said something worthwhile. Okay, well, I hope so. But anyway, thank you for having me. It was so much fun. I love it. I know this is pitiful that this how we get to see each other, but at least we got to do this.

Paloma Contreras: Definitely. Thank you so much, Steele. I know.

Caroline Gidiere: Right. Yes, exactly. Thanks so much. All right. Have a great weekend. Yes, y'all too. Okay. Bye bye.

Steele Marcoux: Okay, happy Easter everybody.

Paloma Contreras: Thank you. You too. Bye.