PERSONAL SIGNAL The story moved. Here is where it went.
Some of you found the peach story on LinkedIn. You know about the Other Art Show, about Katya Jackson, about the triptych that stopped me in the middle of a room. What you do not know yet is what happened next. This is that part.
Two pieces came home with me and live on my wall. Katya had also made a third piece: a peach pit necklace. I did not buy it that night. I have never been a necklace person. They have always felt heavy on me, constricting, like something closing around my throat. I could not explain it, but I had always known it about myself, so I left without it.
I could not stop thinking about it.
I mentioned it to my coach Elizabeth. She said: buy it and hang it somewhere beautiful. I sat with that for a while. It was loving advice and it was not quite right. Something in me knew the necklace was not meant for a wall.
Yesterday afternoon it arrived at my door, wrapped the way Katya wraps things, with care, like she already knew where it was going. I held it for a moment and then made a decision I did not fully think through. I put it on and went out.
The moment it settled against my chest I felt it. Anchored. Connected. Not heavy at all. I stood in the mirror and thought: it is also beautiful. Something about that surprised me, the way the things we resist longest sometimes turn out to be the ones that were always meant for us.
My closest childhood friend was the first to notice. She asked. I told her the whole story. Then we went for oysters and a drink and the bartender noticed too, and I told it again. Each time I did, something warm moved through the room. His name was Fernando. He adored peaches. He is gone, and last night the best of him got to live in two new conversations with people who never met him. His memory traveled. Katya's story traveled. The risk she took to paint something completely outside her comfort, the compulsion she followed to finish it in time for that show, that risk is still expanding into the world in ways neither of us could have planned.
I know something magical lives here. Something mysterious and connecting and just beginning. I do not fully understand it yet and I trust it completely.
Creating is my superpower. What I keep learning is that this creative force moves through all of us, in the artist who follows a compulsion she cannot explain, in the woman who puts on the necklace she was not sure about, in the bartender who asks the right question at the right moment. We are all creating for each other, even when we have no idea that is what we are doing.
What have you been resisting that might be exactly what was always meant for you?
THE NEXT LAYER The layer most people skip entirely.
For two weeks I have been giving you one piece of a ninety-minute sundown ritual. You picked your anchor habit from Issue No. 1. You dimmed the lights in Issue No. 2. Here is the layer the research says matters most and the one almost no one does consistently.
Set a hard stop time for decision-making. Every evening, at least ninety minutes before sleep, stop making decisions. No emails that require a response. No financial choices. No planning conversations. Your prefrontal cortex — the part of your brain responsible for judgment and self-regulation — depletes across the day the way a battery depletes. Decisions made after 9pm carry a measurable quality cost. Protecting the last ninety minutes of your day is not laziness. It is executive hygiene. The leaders I most respect treat their evening brain the way athletes treat the night before a competition.
Next week: the final layer that pulls the whole ritual together.
FOUNDER FIELD NOTES Katya Jackson — the risk that kept expanding.
The Other Art Show returned to Los Angeles this year with 155 independent artists, 65 percent of them new to the fair, 45 percent from right here in LA. The whole premise of the show is emerging artists over established names, fresh voices over safe bets, work that is trying something for the first time. That is the environment Katya Jackson walked into with a peach triptych that was nothing like her usual work, finished just in time, because something compelled her to.
I was there alone that night, the way you sometimes have to be for the things that matter most. I found her in the middle of the room. You already know what happened next.
What I keep thinking about is what it takes to show a piece of work that feels like a risk. To hang it on a wall in a room full of strangers and let it be seen before you know how it will land. Katya did that. The peach triptych now lives on my wall. The necklace she made from the pit is around my neck. Her risk is still expanding into rooms she has never been in, carrying stories she has never heard. That is what creative courage does when it is genuine. It does not stop at the edge of the gallery. It keeps moving.
Katya's work is at staviskystudio.com. She is worth knowing.
HEALTH SIGNAL Last week I told you about mouthwash. Here is what I did about it.
The response to the mouthwash signal was one of the strongest I have received. Several of you wrote to tell me you immediately put your bottle under the sink. I want to give you an update from my own experiment, because this is what Signal Edge is about; I do not just share the research, I live it.
I have used antibacterial mouthwash morning and night for decades. After sharing the nitric oxide and blood pressure findings in Issue No. 2, I started researching alternatives. A new 2025 study published in Frontiers in Oral Health adds more weight to the concern; regular use correlates with lower systemic nitric oxide levels and elevated endothelial inflammation markers, with prior findings linking chronic use to a 55 percent higher pre-diabetes risk and an 85 percent increase in hypertension. The evidence is moving in one direction.
I am switching to oil pulling. A tablespoon of coconut or sesame oil swished for five to ten minutes in the morning before you eat or drink anything. The research on oil pulling suggests it reduces harmful oral bacteria without disrupting the nitrate-reducing bacteria your cardiovascular system depends on. It also whitens teeth, reduces plaque, and supports gum health.
Here is what it actually looks like in practice, because Signal Edge is about living the research, not just sharing it. I say: Alexa, set a timer for five minutes. While I swish I pick up my bathroom and bedroom, set out my clothes for the day, and run my bath. When the timer rings I spit into the sink. What comes out is not what went in. Something is being pulled from somewhere and it is going down that drain. It is genuinely gross and completely fascinating and I cannot stop thinking about what my mouth was holding onto before I started doing this.
I am fully in. I will give you the deeper report next week. If you try it before then, I would love to hear what you notice.
This is not medical advice. Talk to your doctor before changing any health routine.
THE SIGNAL STACK AI agents are not the future. They are this week.
There is a shift happening right now that most people are still watching from the outside. Autonomous AI agents, systems that do not just answer questions but take actions, build things, complete workflows on your behalf, are replacing the traditional app model faster than anyone predicted. Enterprises are embedding AI agents into 40 percent of their applications by the end of this year. The productivity gap between people who understand this and people who do not is widening every month.
I want to tell you what this looks like from the inside, because I am living it. I have built three apps this year using Replit, a platform that lets you build functional web applications using plain language — no coding required. The first manages my three homes so that moving between Mexico, Long Beach, and Roanoke feels coordinated instead of chaotic. The second supports my R&D program at Santosa Delivery, where three driver groups log their daily activity and complete surveys so I can track results in real time. The third is a custom research tool I built specifically for Signal Edge; it searches the internet for signals by section and tone and returns curated findings I can drop straight into the newsletter. I built it this week. It is already changing how I work.
The tool I use is Replit. Start there. Describe what you want in plain language. Watch it build. The women who figure out how to deploy AI as a personal infrastructure layer will have an edge that compounds quietly and fast. Agency is the new edge.
PASSIVE INCOME PULSE The energy you reclaim is the most valuable passive income you will ever create.
I want to reframe something this week. We talk about passive income as money that flows while you sleep. The most valuable passive income I have created this year is not financial. It is time and energy returned to me through systems I built so I do not have to think twice.
Every hour I used to spend coordinating between my three homes, tracking my drivers manually, or searching the internet for newsletter research is now handled by tools I built in an afternoon. Those hours do not go back to work. They go to the temple with Mr. Douglas. They go to dinner with a childhood friend. They go to standing in front of Katya's painting and letting something settle.
Zone 2 gives you energy. AI agency gives you time. Both compound. Both are forms of passive income that have nothing to do with a revenue stream and everything to do with how alive you feel inside your own days. Build one system this week that returns something to you. Start small. The compounding begins immediately.
A SIGNAL FOR THE WOMEN WHO BUILT Sara Blakely just launched a sneaker. Pay attention to why that matters.
Sara Blakely built Spanx into a billion-dollar company by solving a problem she had herself, in a category no one thought needed disrupting, with a product she funded on her own terms. That is a story most Signal Edge readers already know. What happened last month is the part worth paying attention to.
Sneax, her first product completely outside shapewear, debuted at number one on NPD Group's women's athletic footwear tracker for the week of January 20, 2026, outselling Nike and Hoka in the comfort sneaker category with 120,000 units sold in the first week. Consumer reviews pointed to blister-free fit and machine-washable materials. The market responded before the marketing machine even had time to fully run.
I am a runner. I have never spent more than $120 on a pair of shoes in my life. I kept hearing about Sneax and then I kept reading about them and then I bought a pair. They are remarkable! Comfortable, cool, and they start conversations everywhere I wear them. The signal in Sara Blakely's story is not the sales number. It is the courage to build something completely new outside the category that made her famous, to trust that the same instinct that worked the first time is still intact. The women who built real things do not stop building. They expand. They trust what they know about themselves and they take it somewhere new. That is the whole signal.
ONE MORE THING
Twelve founding members in the first two weeks. Thirteen spots remain before Signal Edge becomes a paid subscription and the founding chapter closes.
If you have been thinking about forwarding this to someone, this is the week. The women who arrive at the beginning of something always help shape what it becomes. There are thirteen seats left at that table.
Stay curious. Stay in charge.
Holly
Everything in Signal Edge reflects my own research, curiosity, and lived experience. I am not a licensed financial planner, certified tax advisor, registered investment advisor, or medical professional. Nothing here constitutes financial, investment, tax, legal, or medical advice. It is personal opinion, shared openly and honestly from one thinking person to another. Please consult qualified professionals before making decisions about your money, health, or property.
© Holly Culbreth / Signal Edge. All rights reserved.