June 27, 2026 - Market Daily

Audrey Faust Explores the Hidden Connection Between Identity, Wealth, and Business Growth

Market Daily Staff on June 27, 2026

By: Raquel Homes

Many entrepreneurs believe the next level of success comes from finding a better strategy, creating a stronger offer, or simply working harder. Audrey Faust believes those things matter, but they are only part of the equation.

Behind every business decision is a deeper layer that often goes unnoticed: identity.

The way entrepreneurs view themselves can influence how they price their services, pursue opportunities, handle growth, and respond when challenges appear. According to Audrey, financial growth is not only about what someone does externally. It may also be about what they believe they are capable of receiving.

That idea is central to You Are an Abundant B, where Audrey explores the relationship between mindset, neuroscience, financial strategy, and the personal shifts that may support sustainable success.

Learning to Recognize Aligned Action

One of the challenges for entrepreneurs is knowing whether they are moving toward something meaningful or simply reacting to pressure.

Audrey believes the difference can often be felt before it can be explained.

Aligned action usually comes with a sense of excitement and possibility, even when the decision feels uncomfortable. Fear-driven action tends to feel rushed, heavy, and connected to the belief that something must happen immediately in order to feel secure.

A question Audrey often encourages women to ask themselves is whether they are taking action because they are genuinely excited about the opportunity or because they believe the action will finally give them something they are chasing.

Those two motivations may look similar from the outside, but they can create very different experiences.

When decisions are made from scarcity, Audrey believes businesses may eventually reach a limit because the foundation is built around fear instead of confidence.

The Relationship Between Self-Worth and Net Worth

Audrey challenges the idea that financial success and personal confidence are separate conversations.

In her experience working with entrepreneurs, she has seen women reach significant revenue numbers while still carrying deep fears about money, success, and whether they are truly deserving of what they have created.

Income growth does not automatically create a stronger sense of self-worth.

According to Audrey, net worth may be connected to what people believe they are capable of receiving, maintaining, and expanding.

When someone changes the way they see themselves, their decisions often change with them. They may become more comfortable increasing prices, setting boundaries, pursuing larger opportunities, and allowing themselves to be visible.

The financial results may follow because the person behind the business is operating from a different identity.

For Audrey, growth is not about becoming someone completely new. It is about removing the internal limitations that may prevent entrepreneurs from fully showing up as themselves.

Rewiring the Beliefs Behind Success

A major part of Audrey’s approach focuses on how the brain can influence financial behavior.

Many entrepreneurs understand the importance of strategy, but they may overlook the subconscious patterns that affect how they approach money and success.

Audrey incorporates practices such as visualization, tapping, and brain priming as tools intended to help entrepreneurs create new patterns.

She explains that visualization has been used by high performers for years because the brain may respond strongly to imagined experiences. By repeatedly seeing a desired outcome, people may strengthen the mental pathways associated with that possibility.

Brain priming is intended to help rewire subconscious beliefs and patterns so success can begin to feel natural and aligned.

Tapping, also known as EFT, works with the emotional side of beliefs by helping release some of the stress and resistance attached to old experiences.

Together, Audrey sees these practices as a way to support change on multiple levels. The goal is not simply positive thinking. It is creating a stronger internal foundation for new decisions and behaviors.

Breaking Through the Invisible Income Ceiling

Many entrepreneurs eventually reach a point where growth slows down.

They may have a proven offer, strong skills, and a successful business, yet something seems to prevent them from reaching the next level.

Audrey believes these plateaus are often connected to an internal upper limit.

As people approach a level of success that feels unfamiliar, their subconscious can create resistance. That resistance may appear as procrastination, distraction, hesitation, undercharging, or constantly giving more than they receive.

The issue is not always a lack of ambition.

Sometimes it is that the entrepreneur has not yet developed a sense of safety around the level of success they want.

Audrey believes the next stage requires becoming someone who can comfortably hold that level of growth.

That means creating new evidence, building confidence through action, and shifting the identity that determines what feels possible.

Bringing Together Strategy and Intention

One of Audrey’s key messages is that practical business strategy and personal energy do not have to compete.

As a CFO, Audrey understands numbers, financial planning, and business systems. She is not suggesting entrepreneurs ignore the practical side of building wealth.

Instead, she believes sustainable success can come from combining both sides.

Strategy without self-awareness can create limitations because the person may not be prepared to handle the opportunities they create.

On the other hand, intention without action does not create a business.

Audrey believes many successful entrepreneurs understand both parts of the equation. They build systems, track numbers, and make smart decisions while also paying attention to their beliefs, confidence, and relationship with growth.

Creating a Different Conversation Around Wealth

Through You Are an Abundant B, Audrey Faust is encouraging women entrepreneurs to look beyond the traditional definition of success.

Building wealth is not only about revenue milestones or external achievements. It is also about becoming someone who trusts herself enough to pursue opportunities, make bold decisions, and create a business that reflects her values.

The book’s message is that abundance is not something that begins when everything is perfect.

It begins with the choices made today.

By understanding the connection between identity, mindset, and financial decisions, entrepreneurs may start building success from a stronger foundation.

For Audrey, the goal is not simply to help women make more money.

It is helping them become the person who feels ready to receive it.

Your next level of success may begin with the beliefs you carry today. Find You Are an Abundant B by Audrey Faust on Amazon and learn how to build a stronger connection between your confidence, decisions, and financial future.

University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Rises 10.5% as Inflation Expectations Drop to 3.3%: What the Data Signals for Markets

Market Daily Staff 2 on June 27, 2026

The University of Michigan’s final Consumer Sentiment Index for June landed at 49.5, a 10.5% increase from May’s record-low 44.8 and the first monthly improvement after three consecutive declines. The reading came in just below the 50.0 consensus forecast from economists polled by Reuters. More consequential for market participants than the headline figure, however, was the sharp decline in long-term inflation expectations — a data point the Federal Reserve watches closely and one that carries direct implications for the trajectory of monetary policy.

Five-year inflation expectations fell to 3.3% from 3.9% in May, a 0.6-point single-month drop that represents one of the steepest retreats in recent survey history. The figure was revised slightly lower from the preliminary June reading of 3.4%, signaling that the improvement deepened as the month progressed. Short-term expectations moved more modestly: the one-year inflation outlook edged down to 4.6% from 4.8%, a level that still sits well above February’s 3.4% and every comparable reading from 2024.

Decomposing The Rebound: Where The Gains Came From

The sub-indices offer a more granular picture than the headline. The Index of Consumer Expectations — the forward-looking component — climbed to 50.7 from 44.1, a 15% increase that accounts for the majority of the overall improvement. The Current Economic Conditions Index rose more modestly to 47.7 from 45.8, suggesting that households are more optimistic about the direction of the economy than about their present circumstances.

Joanne Hsu, director of the Surveys of Consumers, attributed the rebound primarily to easing gasoline prices in the early weeks of June, following the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding signed at Versailles. The fuel-price relief was disproportionately meaningful for lower-income consumers, for whom gasoline represents a larger share of household budgets. That demographic posted the strongest sentiment gains in the June survey — a notable reversal from May, when the same group had experienced the steepest declines.

The improvement was broad-based. Gains were recorded across income levels, wealth brackets, and political affiliations, a pattern that distinguishes the June reading from months where partisan divergence dominated the data. Assessments of personal finances and expectations for business conditions both rose.

Despite the breadth of the rebound, the index remains the second-lowest reading in data going back to the 1970s, according to Bloomberg. It sits 13% below the February 2026 baseline — the last reading before the Iran conflict began reshaping the economic landscape — and nearly 20% below June 2025’s reading of 60.7.

The Inflation Expectations Divergence Matters For The Fed

The most market-relevant finding in the June data is the divergence between short-term and long-term inflation expectations. The five-year outlook dropped 0.6 points in a single month. The one-year outlook dropped just 0.2 points and remains elevated at 4.6%.

That gap carries a specific interpretation: consumers are distinguishing between what they expect to endure in the near term and what they believe the economy will look like several years out. The near-term pain — elevated food prices, lingering energy costs, tariff pass-through effects — still feels real and immediate. But the assumption that these pressures will persist indefinitely is loosening.

Hsu reinforced this reading directly. A 16% surge in five-year business-conditions expectations led her to conclude that households increasingly view the economic damage from the Iran conflict as temporary rather than structural. If that assessment holds through the next several survey cycles, it would represent a meaningful psychological shift — one that could reduce the risk of inflation expectations becoming unanchored, the scenario the Fed has been most concerned about.

The Federal Reserve has historically treated the Michigan survey’s five-year inflation expectations as a key input in its policy deliberations. The spike to 3.9% in May had intensified concern that expectations were drifting above the 2.8%-to-3.2% band that prevailed throughout 2024. The retreat to 3.3% in June brings the reading closer to that range, though it remains above the upper bound.

Stock Market Gains Did Not Distribute Evenly

The survey captured a wealth effect that was heavily concentrated among higher-income households. Approximately 28% of consumers in the top tercile of stock holdings cited favorable asset values as a positive factor in their financial outlook — the highest share since January 2025. But only 8% of middle-tercile consumers and 4% of those with the smallest holdings reported the same benefit.

That asymmetry matters for interpreting the sentiment rebound. To the extent that improved financial assessments are driven by equity portfolios rather than wage growth or reduced cost-of-living pressure, the recovery is structurally narrow. More than half of all survey respondents continued to cite high prices spontaneously as a primary concern for the third consecutive month. Some 36% identified inflation as the greater economic risk in the year ahead — the highest share since February 2025 — while only 7% named unemployment.

Implications For Monetary Policy And Consumer Behavior

The sentiment data arrives at a moment of tension in the policy landscape. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said on June 26 that he now anticipates one interest rate hike this year, reflecting ongoing concern about persistent inflation pressures even as the Michigan data suggests household expectations are moderating. The BEA’s Q1 2026 GDP data, released the same day, showed the PCE price index rising at a 4.6% annualized rate with core PCE at 4.4% — both well above the Fed’s 2% target.

The practical question for the second half of 2026 is whether the decline in long-term inflation expectations translates into changed consumer behavior. The timing is relevant: the final June reading lands one week before the July 4 holiday, a period that typically catalyzes discretionary spending on travel, dining, and retail. Amazon’s Prime Day results, which projected $26.3 billion in total spending across a four-day event, showed consumers are still spending — but average order values dropped roughly 17%, and purchases skewed heavily toward household essentials over big-ticket discretionary items.

That pattern — more consumers participating, each spending less per transaction and prioritizing essentials — aligns with a sentiment profile that is improving in direction but remains depressed in level. The rebound from 44.8 to 49.5 represents progress. But a reading below 50 still describes an economy where the majority of consumers feel worse about their financial situation than they feel good about it.

The next University of Michigan sentiment reading is scheduled for late July. Whether the five-year inflation expectations continue their descent or stabilize near 3.3% will be among the most closely watched data points in the release.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or tax advice. Readers should consult a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.

Not Every Acquisition Is a Power Play: What The Lauren Ashtyn Collection Is Really Doing With TYME

Market Daily Staff on June 27, 2026

By Kate Sarmiento

Not every acquisition is about getting bigger faster. Some moves are about getting more complete, and if you’ve been following what Lauren Ashtyn Guest has been building since 2015, the TYME Style acquisition reads less like a business pivot and more like the next sentence in a paragraph she’s been writing for a decade.

The Lauren Ashtyn Collection was never a brand that chased trends. Lauren and her husband, Christopher, affectionately known as “The Hair Hunk,” literally sold their home, packed their lives into a camper, and hit the road to bring confidence back to women experiencing hair loss. That origin story tells you everything about how decisions get made here… More than 30,000 women have walked through their salons, pop-up events, and online consultations feeling like themselves again. The pieces are handcrafted from 100% European Remy human hair, fully customizable, and designed by a stylist who has lived on both sides of the chair.

So when the opportunity came to bring a professional-grade hot tool brand into that world, it wasn’t a surprise. It was the missing piece of a conversation the brand has been having with its clients for years. Your hair deserves better, and here’s exactly how to give it that.

When Your Tools Actually Care About What They’re Doing to Your Hair

Ask any woman who has navigated hair thinning or loss, and she will tell you the same thing: at some point, everything gets reconsidered. The shampoo. The products. The routine. And especially the tools, because what works beautifully on a full, thick head of hair can be genuinely damaging to hair that’s already dealing with something.

Hot tools are one of the most underestimated factors in that equation. The relationship between heat styling frequency and cumulative hair damage is well-established at this point, and the research is not subtle about it. More frequent use without the right temperature management leads to measurable damage in the hair shaft, particularly at the root where mechanical stress from pulling and clamping already adds strain over time (Source: Ann Dermatol., 2011). For women managing thinning, that’s not a theoretical risk. It’s something they feel every time they run a brush through their hair.

TYME Style was built with exactly that problem in mind. The Iron Pro uses titanium plates because they distribute heat more evenly across the strand, which means fewer passes to get to a finished style. Fewer passes equal less total heat exposure per session. For someone whose hair health is an active concern, that’s a meaningful difference between a tool that supports what they’re trying to build and one that quietly chips away at it. The TYME line was tested in real salon settings and refined for consistent heat output, because temperature spikes are where the real damage happens to the hair cuticle.

Lauren Ashtyn has spent years watching clients come in with breakage from tools they trusted because the packaging looked expensive. Her approach to hair has always been prevention-first: style with the natural pattern of the hair, not against it. Use tools that finish the job without creating a new problem in the process. TYME fits inside that framework without needing to be forced into it. That alignment is not incidental. It’s the whole point.

Consistency Is the Real Luxury Nobody Talks About Enough

Here’s what gets lost in conversations about premium hair care: no single product does the work alone. A hand-tied luxury hair topper crafted from 100% European Remy human hair is a genuine investment, and it pays off over time, but only when the routine around it is being taken just as seriously. The styling habits, the heat being applied to blend a look, and the tools touching the hair every single morning. Those details add up, for better or for worse.

Lauren Ashtyn has been saying this for years in her own way: the women who see the best long-term results are the ones who approach their hair as a whole system. Not just the piece they’re wearing, but everything that touches it.

What makes the TYME acquisition interesting is that it closes a loop that The Lauren Ashtyn Collection had previously been leaving open. Recommending heat protectants, yes. Pointing clients toward better tool choices, absolutely. But now there’s an in-house option built to the same standard Lauren applies to everything else she designs. After the deal closed in January 2024, she spent the entire year personally redesigning the tools, testing them in real salon environments, and refining the results before launching the new lineup in early 2025. That’s not the behavior of someone who picked up a brand to add to a portfolio. That’s a stylist who saw something worth doing right and decided to do it right.

The ethos tracks, too. TYME’s “don’t be trendy, be tymeless” philosophy runs parallel to everything the brand has stood for since the camper days. Women who have navigated hair loss understand better than most that the quick-fix mentality rarely serves them. What they need is a routine built on tools and products that don’t require starting over every few months. Both brands, now operating together, are pointing toward the same answer from different angles, and that’s not something you can fake or manufacture after the fact.

The data supports this line of thinking as well. Hairstyle professionals working with clients in hair-vulnerable situations consistently flag tool quality as one of the first variables to address when someone wants to stop a cycle of damage and actually start retaining healthy growth (Source: Lifestyle INQ, 2025). The right tool, used correctly with proper protectants, genuinely behaves differently against the hair than an inferior option maxed out on heat. For their clients, that distinction has real consequences.

Your Routine Deserves the Same Standard as Your Hairpiece

If you’ve spent any time in The Lauren Ashtyn Collection community, you already know the experience is not transactional. Free online personalized consultations. A team of stylists who have been doing this alongside Lauren for nearly 10 years in many cases. More than 50 pop-up salon events annually, designed around real connection, not just a selling floor. Over 80% of clients at the Spartanburg home salon fly in specifically to be there. That’s not a statistic about marketing. That’s a statement about trust.

That culture doesn’t stop at the product line. It extends into every decision the brand makes, including this one. For a woman who has invested in one of their luxury hair toppers or wigs and wants to build a complete, health-forward routine around it, TYME being in the ecosystem means she has somewhere to turn that was designed with the same standard in mind.

The TYME Luxury Collection, launched in January 2025, includes curling irons developed for consistent heat and effortless results. The TYMELESS Collection followed in early 2026, continuing that trajectory toward elevated, long-lasting performance. These are not tools built for a single season and then discontinued. They’re made to be part of a long-term routine, which is exactly the orientation of a client who has already chosen to invest in her hair properly.

This is what real alignment looks like. Not two brands sharing a logo, but two brands sharing a belief: that the women using these products deserve a routine that works together, thoughtfully, from the inside out.

Build the Routine Your Hair Has Been Waiting For

The Lauren Ashtyn Collection has been doing this work long enough to know that great hair is never an accident. Book a free online consultation with one of their expert stylists, or find an upcoming pop-up salon event near you and experience the difference in person. Your hair deserves tools and pieces that were actually built for it, and this is exactly where that starts.