Honestly, I'd been preparing for that layoff my whole life.

I grew up at the poverty line, in a trailer until I was twelve, raised by a single mother who never had the luxury of waiting for someone to hand her a solution.

The problem was that I'd done everything right. I'd done more than right. And it turned out that excellence doesn't protect you the way they tell you it will.

I gave myself one week to fall apart. Then I read five novels in a month, went to my first Renaissance Faire, and spent time with the people who had always shown up for me.

Then I started writing to brands I admired to tell them, plainly, what I could do for them. Not from a pitch deck. From conviction.

That makes you resourceful in a way that never quite leaves you. I've been the most resourceful person in nearly every room I've walked into since, and I learned to build with whatever I had long before it was a marketing skill.

So when I tell a founder I can help her build a world without hollowing it out, I'm not speaking theoretically.

I know what it costs to be left standing outside a room, and I know how much it matters to build one that lets the right people in.

In August of 2025 I was laid off from a director role at one of the biggest names in my industry.