14 months ago, I was sitting in Italy with my co-founder after an impactful day during our first-ever Business Renaissance Retreat. The entire retreat was designed to help us get out of our day-to-day and leave the grind of entrepreneurship behind.

We designed it to expand our senses. Move slower. Taste better. Feel deeper.

As we fast-forward a year later, I've started to reclaim important parts of my story by excavating the value of what I really do.

I just spent the last 2.5 weeks in a swirly, creative, confusing, and challenging headspace.

Since the acquisition of Her Brand & Co., we've been collecting customer data and feedback in anticipation of our new launch. I was really on the struggle bus to figure out how to tie it all together.

Your past, present, and future is smushed up into one messy, unclear memory soup.

I have distinct memories of being 14 years old, relatively new to the internet (I’m an ancient Millennial), researching marketing and advertising colleges.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated by how stories, images, music, video and other forms of media can drastically influence human behavior. You see, I was raised by a single mom with very little options for growth in a relatively unremarkable town. I never really felt like I belonged, always had my eye on the prize, the next step, a way out.

What a way to dip my toes back into writing after a 5-year hiatus.

And well, I have some news. After many months of investigating why I was feeling so burnt out, a family trip to the Netherlands and finding some time in Italy to get back into my body — I’ve decided, along with my co-founder, to step away from growing our company.