I started this blogging journey about my career path at 22 years old here. Don’t @ me – I haven’t read it in ages for fear of cringey content but I broadcasted my existential career crisis for that decade). Btw if you ever find yourself cringing at things you’ve done in the past – that’s a good sign – it means you’re growing and not the same person you were then. Anyway, I hope you have your cup of coffee ☕️ and attention span ready because it’s a long one…
Chapter 1
I excelled in High School and did whatever it took to get into a good college. Got into UCLA and double majored in Economics and Sociology. Graduated within 3 years with the hopes of going to fashion school afterwards. After all The Hills was trending and almost everyone in OC wanted to go to FIDM.
I got accepted but second guessed this decision because fears of being a “starving artist” in a creative industry was a real thing back in the days. So, by default, I went to law school.
I thought I could somehow fuse the two worlds of fashion and the law together – Fashion Law was in its infancy stage so was not a tangible option at the time.
Instead I doubled down on a supposedly stable career path in International Tax and tacked on a Tax LLM within those 3 years. I secured a job at a Big 4 accounting firm before I graduated law school.
I was set… or so I thought.
In 2013, one year into the job at 27 years old – my 22 year old self reared her head up and asked me “did you just make the worst decision of your life?”
Why did I blindly follow the path society paved for me and not what I truly wanted deep down inside – something more creative. Whatever that meant.
During my time in corporate something just didn’t sit well with me – I was not happy and I couldn’t put my finger on what was causing me all this angst.
So I decided to start a creative side hustle in 2014 – a small e-commerce retail business called SOPHI- workwear for the sophisticated, young professional. I bootstrapped and figured out everything with 0 industry knowledge or experience- building a website (with the help of my husband), sourcing clothing, finding models, doing photoshoots, packaging, shipping, etc. That lasted for a year – I was, after all, juggling a full time job and a quarter life crisis.
I lost my dad in 2015. After taking a couple weeks off for bereavement, I returned to the office with even less motivation and more demanding managers who didn’t seem to quite understand why I was not mentally or emotionally capable of continuing business as usual. I broke down in tears at a couple of those meetings and realized something had to change.
Chapter 2
I quit the end of that year – before I turned 30. I picked up a legal consulting position with more flexibility and transitioned the e-commerce site to now a podcast called The Corporate Creatives in June 2016, where I interviewed women who went from corporate employees to creative entrepreneurs.
Podcasts weren’t really mainstream at the time – but I managed to squeeze out 17 interviews and 33 episodes, with 13,000+ downloads and 100+ email subscribers in 7 months. I also published this piece on Elite Daily. Small, exciting wins.
Then I pressed paused on everything. I must admit at the time of doing my consulting work and trying to stay positive for the podcast, I was dealing with one of the roughest patches in my life… infertility. I fought hard and lost that battle with a hysterectomy in 2017.
We immediately started gestational surrogacy abroad in 2018 and that chapter of my story ended with my miracle baby Lennon in 2020. 👶🏻
Then the pandemic hit and we got stuck abroad – but that’s another story.
Upon our return to the US, I immediately took on another project of expanding my family’s florist business to another brick and mortar location. We opened the doors to Le Fleur IV on January 1, 2021 (during the pandemic) with an e-commerce presence.
Building SOPHI- taught me how to build a website and it also taught me that customers just don’t show up once your site goes live. Marketing is so critical and I had no clue (you don’t know what you don’t know, you know?). So this time around I poured hours into educating myself and coming up with a marketing strategy. I lost a lot of sleep that first month when it was mainly just crickets in an empty store. 🦗
Once I implemented a marketing strategy, we started getting sales and building momentum. It’s been over a year and it has exceeded my expectations in revenue and growth.
Now you’re all caught up.
I decided that with all the “free time” I have left from my legal consulting practice, running a small business and after a toddler (with hopeful surrogacy plans for baby #2), I’d go full circle back to blogging.
I’m still not exactly where I thought I would be but I love where I am – life happens and we all go at it our own pace. Either way, I’m sure 27 year old me would be proud of 36 year old me today and the me today would be proud of the future 40 year old me – and onwards and upwards.
With each project I felt like I failed publicly – now I realized all these incremental events were merely compounding to set me up for exponential growth in the future. ✨Manifesting✨
As it is with all rough patches we’re able to live through – we come out stronger on the other side. You’re here, you’re alive, these have all shaped you to become this very person. I’m not afraid of reinventing myself – because it’s never too late to be who you might have been.
Chapter 3
*happening now*