January 2017. The start of my full-time entrepreneurial journey to focus on my first big vision and business, Taste of Reality.
I still remember the mix of excitement and blind optimism, stepping into a new world where I had no roadmap—just a big idea, marketing and some website development experience, and a willingness to figure things out.
TBH looking back my plan was really taking inspiration from the movie Field of Dreams believing “If you build it they will come.”
Turns out I built it and they didn’t come for a very long while. At least not at the pace my bank account needed.
I painfully realized passion alone doesn’t pay the bills.
To bring in income, I started taking on marketing and website projects for small businesses, which eventually grew into a second business—Stargazer.
For years, I was running both—scaling and managing teams for two very different business models, juggling priorities, trying new ways to market and grow. Basically always in startup mode.
Through it all I learned so much in how to do new different things and how much I love building brands and websites.
But by 2023, I was ready to scale down. I sold Taste of Reality to two folks who worked with me on it so I could focus solely on the marketing agency I was building with Stargazer.
And in 2024 I scaled down further by not pursuing the team agency model anymore.
January 2025. I’m entering my eighth year of self employment as a solopreneur with one business. It feels lighter to have a much more streamlined and sustainable focus. I continue to seek ways to grow, but growth is defined different for me at the phase.
And yet, I still feel like I’m in startup mode—not because I’m chasing scale like I was—but because I’m continuously creating, refining, and evolving.
And in my inner Carrie Bradshaw voice… I couldn’t help but wonder… Do we ever really leave startup mode? Or are we just founding new versions of our businesses (and ourselves) over and over again?
It’s easy to think of startup mode as a phase we eventually outgrow. But I’m realizing it’s more of a cycle—one we revisit over and over, whether we’re launching something brand new or reworking what we’ve already built.
I’d love to hear from you!
Are you in startup mode? Scaling? Refining? Or, like me, founding the next evolution of your business?
Send me a message with the form below and let me know!
