It was never about reinventing yourself. It was always about becoming who you were supposed to be.

Depending on when you met me, you know a different version of me.

Maybe you knew me as the model and makeup artist in college — the girl who learned how to bring clothes to life in front of a camera, who fell in love with beauty, art, and the power of visual storytelling before she even had words for it.

Maybe you knew me as the woman who started a nonprofit to showcase artists and build a platform for creatives — long before Instagram, long before TikTok, back when "building a following" meant printing flyers, posting in Facebook groups, and showing up in person to make it happen.

"I was learning how to make others shine before I even realized that was my gift."

Then I got laid off early in my career. And instead of falling apart, I picked up a camera. Photography became my pivot — and that pivot cracked open a whole new world. Speaking events. An online course. Social media strategy. Partnerships. A growing audience that trusted me.

But I expanded too fast. Burnt out. Did not grow my team quickly enough. And I had to pivot again.

So I got laser focused on my corporate career — GEICO. TruStage. Window Nation. I stopped looking at the pieces and started learning the full picture: brand strategy, creative direction, business at scale, the ebbs and flows of what it actually takes to build something that lasts.

And somewhere in all of that, something became crystal clear.

"Every single chapter — the modeling, the nonprofit, the photography, the burnout, the corporate boardrooms — was building the same thing."

It was all rooted in helping others shine. In understanding business from the inside out. In using creativity as a bridge between who someone is and how the world sees them.

That is not a reinvention. That is alignment.

I did not become someone new. I became more fully myself. And when I look back now, I can see that every experience gave me exactly the leverage I needed for the next chapter.

Your story is the same way. The job that felt like a detour. The thing you built that did not work out. The version of you that people knew five years ago. None of it was wasted. All of it was preparation.

"Your purpose lives in the space between your gifts and your experience. And with a little reflection, you will realize — this is exactly where you were always supposed to be."

The Brandmixologist is not a new idea. She has always been here. I just finally have the full recipe.