my life’s work has been about celebrating beauty, fostering relationships, and loving others through hospitality

To understand the person I am, the person I have become, let’s start with the present. Here; now. To understand the end result in such a way as to see what was needed prior. Although brevity is important, I believe in the necessity of context. Consider this a prologue to my narrative. I have always desired my life’s work to be a natural extension of the life I am living. As if there is no line between work and life. In that, I have recognized my identity is very much related to my work. I am a dreamer, a builder, a creator. I have dreamt of varying visions of the same life. With each business I created, I learned more about myself and developed the strengths and skills I needed to arrive closer at that final actualization of my dreams. More importantly, with each chapter, I have better understood what it is that I am dreaming. I realized that to achieve my ultimate goal, I would need to learn from others, to observe those who exemplified the strengths I was seeking to develop in myself. I left the life I knew building businesses to enter a world full of new challenges and the very much unknown. The word of the tech start-up in the Bay Area. But before that world. The world I am now living in, my life was creating…

LVR

…a naturally dyed home accessories line. At LVR, I allowed nature to reveal itself; for nature to dictate the color, the pattern.  I guided the outcome without controlling it.

Experience + Results:

• Planned and executed each season's collection handling the creative direction and design as well as the strategy and implementation of production and marketing.

• Executed photography + styling

• Naturally dyed + sewed the line

• Analyzed dye practices for mindful production using food waste and foraged plants, recycling dye vats, and repurposing scrap material for almost zero waste

• Previous wholesale clients include: Country Music Award gift bags, Manufactory LA and Fred Segal Café by Tartine, Valleybrink Road, and Renegade Craft

• Saw over an 100% increase in sales 75% of the years in business

I was busy collecting everyone’s avocado scraps (literally everyone…from the kitchen of Dropbox until they said no more (insert sad face here) to a restaurant in LA), but before foraging for avocado pits near and far in CA, I squeezed in a collaboration or two back in TN…

Pop-Up Collective

…a curated marketplace of local creatives and brands. Our vision was to create events that foster community while allowing a platform for sharing the stories and talents of all those involved.  It was about how bringing together respective talents and sharing creative abilities can build something greater together than apart.  

Experience + Results:

• Brought initial concept to actuality in under 4 months

• Responsible for vision and execution of design for 3 events in Chattanooga + Nashville, TN

• Headed vendor recruiting, from initial outreach to post event evaluation

• Led logistics team, to include set-up, break-down, vendors, guest interactions

• Managed the Instagram, @apopupcollective, which had an overall increase from 2015 to 2016 of 104% engagement