Nashville was never part of my master plan.
When I moved here, it was for a job. A marketing manager role at Meharry Medical College. If I am being honest, I saw it as a pit stop. A career move. A stepping stone. I had no idea this city would reshape my entire trajectory.
Once I got involved in the community, something shifted. I met people who were building businesses from sheer ideas. A peach truck subscription. Jewelry brands born at kitchen tables. Toy stores built from imagination. Creators, founders, dreamers who simply decided to try. Nashville showed me that entrepreneurship was not reserved for Silicon Valley or Wall Street. It was happening right here, through courage and creativity.
Before we were ever called influencers, I was building in this space. There was no blueprint. No roadmap. No one explaining usage rights or brand contracts. I was figuring it out in real time. There were seasons I wanted to give up. Seasons when I questioned whether this work was legitimate. Corporate America gives you a title. It gives you a lane. But entrepreneurship gives you a question: who are you without the title?
Simultaneously working in corporate and building my own brand gave me a unique trajectory. I could sit in boardrooms during the day and interview Broadway stars and business owners at night. I could learn marketing at an institutional level and apply it to my own platforms in real time. I have had the honor of sharing stories of lawyers, doctors, founders, philanthropists, and artists across Nashville. In corporate spaces, you often share your title. Through The Sweet House, I get to share stories.
Being named a Nashville Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree feels like validation not just for me, but for the influencer industry as a whole. Influencers are entrepreneurs. We negotiate, produce, market, manage, lead, and build community. It is real work. And it is finally being taken seriously.
Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16 has carried me through seasons of doubt. Nashville may not have been on my radar, but clearly I was on God’s. And this recognition feels like full circle grace.
