Hello hello!
We’re still in California, currently in LA where we’ve been for the past month or so enjoying some much needed sun and warmth. It’s been a breath of fresh air being down here, especially after the past two months during which I felt like I was in deep review of various aspects of my life. I spent a lot of time reflecting, journaling and talking to my therapist (and husband – bless him for handling the tears lol) as I worked through limiting beliefs and fear about my career and a being a woman in my 30’s right now. I wouldn’t say I have it all figured out, but I do feel like I have more clarity or, at minimum, a deeper trust in myself that I will in fact figure it out.
This leads me to my first life update – at the end of last year I decided it was time to move on from the brand that I Co-Founded when I left adidas in 2019. While I’m still committed to the success of the brand and involved as an investor and advisor, I knew it was time to move on from co-managing business. This was not an easy decision or process for me. I would even go so far to say that at times it was rather traumatic. It took me most of 2021 to come to terms with the decision for a lot of reasons that I will one day unpack.
One thing I will share is that when I started with BRANWYN, I thought that I had finally found my “thing” and that it was going to define my career in the best and biggest of ways. When I realized that working in BRANWYN was not what I wanted it brought up a ton of fear and low-self worth around my career. If BRANWYN wasn’t the end-all be-all then what was? What was I going to do? It felt like a massive career failure and midlife crisis all at once. However, once I worked through the fear, began to see the experience for what is was, and truly owned what I wanted without judgement or shame, it became a lot easier to taken the necessary steps to exit the business.
In a way I’m still figuring out what’s next, but I do know that this blog and creating will be a part of it. For as long as I can remember (looking at you 2013 Tumblr blog…) I’ve always longed to spend more time blogging and “creating content” as they say. It’s been such a creative escape over the years and I’m excited to spend more time on that. Outside of that, I’m trying to give myself the time and space though to let it unfold instead of jumping into something or many things at once (something I’m very seasoned at doing). One thing that became very clear last year was that I wanted to bet on myself, my skillset and my creativity in a bigger way for a long time, and create my own business. It’s both exciting and uncharted territory!
The other part of my (our) life that’s been occupying a lot of brain space as of late is that we want to leave the PNW and give another state and city a try. We’ve toyed with idea of spending more time in Europe, which we will again this Summer, but for the time being we’d like to have a home base closer to family on the West Coast (while also low-key manifesting a European pied-à-terre). Surprise surprise – LA is at the top of the list. It’s funny as I’ve talked with friends who live in Southern California they often say you’re either an LA person or you’re not. Much to my surprise I think I am and much to an even bigger surprise I think Chris is too. We’re still very early in the process, but will keep you posted as it unfolds!
Lastly, I want to take a beat and acknowledge that the world is a little intense right now. And intense is most definitely an understatement. I think because we exist in a society with a never-ending news cycle and unprecedented access to all types of information and content, it’s easy to tune out uncomfortable events or information or doom scroll. It’s important to make space to process it though so that we can navigate it all from a more grounded place. If I can offer my two cents, take time to soothe your own nervous system and process everything that’s been going on.
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Intentions & On The Calendar
Now that I have some more direction (albeit broad direction) in where I want to put my energy and generate income, I’m going to spend a good chunk of this month getting my professional ducks in a row. I’ve been procrastinating updating my resume for years (I absolutely do not recommend this) and plan to work through some personal branding exercises (more on that below), work on my bio and offerings, and update my platforms. It will be a bit more of an admin month, but it will give me a solid foundation to build upon.
We’re coming up on our last week in LA and decided to treat ourselves to a few nights at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel. It’s been on my hotel bucket list for a while so I’m excited to check it out! Get ready for interior porn overload. Then it’s back to PDX and taking the rest of the month to tend to house and travel stuff. I did book us a massage the Sunday we get back. After almost 30 hours of driving I feel like we deserve it!
Listening To
On the topic of career, I’ve been listening to a lot of personal branding and brand building podcasts across various industries. One of my favorites is Beyond Influential podcast because it focuses on personal branding as a whole, regardless of if you’re in the creator or entrepreneur space. Highly recommend it for anyone that might be feeling stalled in their career or looking to move jobs. She also has a few courses that I’ve found tremendously helpful and plan to revisit this month.
Inspired By
I’m incredibly inspired by the people of Ukraine. It’s beyond me that in 2022 we still live in a world where war and killing innocent people is acceptable. I wanted to share a few resources that I’ve found helpful, ways that you can donate and support Ukraine and highlight a few Ukrainian photographers and designers that you can directly support as well.
Resources
Help animals affected by war (scroll to the last slide for organizations)
Creators
A few personal favorites – Sleeper, Bevza, and Anna October (also available on FRWD). Vogue also has an article with several other designers that I haven’t heard of.
Anya is a Ukrainian photographer based in Kyiv. Her work is absolutely stunning. You can directly support her and Ukraine via her Patreon.
