I found this work the honest way — by needing it
For nearly twenty years, I worked in marketing, communications, and brand — in-house at global beauty companies like Clinique, and later at the branding agency Landor, focused on brand-led employee engagement for Fortune 500 clients. In the fall of 2024, I was laid off.
What followed was a stretch of searching — long days of sending applications into one of the toughest, most automated job markets I'd ever seen, with no clear sense of what came next. Then I reconnected with a local business owner who'd once asked for my help launching a new side of his business. He knew what he wanted to do — he just didn't know how to market it, launch it, or sustain it. I had the time, and the experience. I said yes.
That one "yes" changed everything. It grew into real work, then a referral to another owner, then another. Along the way I did whatever each business needed to keep growing — strategy, brand, marketing, and plenty of rolling up my sleeves — and I discovered how much I loved seeing the whole picture, not just one piece of it.
And somewhere in there, I realized something: I love this. I love working with smaller businesses, because they're where the most potential lives — and where owners are stretched the thinnest. Helping them see what's possible, and then actually get there, is the most rewarding work I've ever done.
