I probably should have known. The girl who walked into a bank at seventeen to ask for a $5,000 business loan. certain that a sewing machine and a dream were enough - was always going to end up here.

The bank said yes, my parents said no. I remember being heartbroken but I also remember no letting it stop me.

So I kept sewing. Dance costumes, late nights, fabric scraps everywhere. One day, someone handed me fabric, a pattern, and $100 to sew a pair of stretchy leggings with my serger. I didn’t think twice about it. It was years later that I found out they were one of the very first Lululemon yoga pant samples.

I didn’t recognize it for the moment that it was, I was just doing the next small thing in front of me. But the thread was already there - see a need, make the thing, connect it to someone who needs it.

That thread led me through a ladies golf clothing line, that I designed and sold by hand, then a decade representing nine Ralph Lauren brands across Western Canada. In 2020, retail shutdowns took that career overnight.

But the real turning point had already happened - quietly on my long commutes throughout Vancouver.

In 2015, I turned my car into my classroom and started filling my drives with podcasts and audiobooks. I kept hearing the same idea: a small business could reach the world with nothing more than a website, a problem, a solution, and a genuine connection with the people who loved what you made.

Something in me lit up.

In 2018, I launched Oil Culture Labels - built entirely on that idea. No retail deals, just a website, Instagram, and email marketing. It grew into a six figure business in its first six months and we shipped to over 50 countries. Somewhere in all of it I realized that I didn’t love the labels as much as I loved the connection with customers and the creativity and problem solving an online business brings.

In 2025, I closed Oil Culture Labels. Not because it failed - but because I finally understood what I wanted to spend my days doing.