What Building Businesses Across Ecommerce and Brick and Mortar Taught Me
I started my first business in my parents' basement. It was a clothing brand, and I had no funding, no connections, and no real idea what I was doing. What I did have was the willingness to figure it out as I went, which at the time felt like enough because it had to be.
That first brand taught me everything I needed to know about how a business actually works. I learned product sourcing by making mistakes with suppliers. I figured out margins by losing money before I made any. I taught myself how to market on a budget, how to package and ship orders from my parents' house, and how to deal with customers who expected the same experience they would get from a major retailer. None of it was glamorous, but all of it was real, and it gave me something that no course or certification ever could have, which was a working understanding of what it takes to get a business off the ground with nothing. I eventually sold that brand, and it confirmed something I had been starting to feel, which was that I was capable of building something from zero and turning it into something worth buying.
What I did next is probably the part of my story that surprises people the most. Instead of staying in ecommerce, I went and bought a grocery store. A full brick and mortar operation with employees, suppliers, inventory that expires, and customers who walk through the door every single day expecting the shelves to be stocked. It was a completely different world from selling products online, and it tested me in ways I was not prepared for.
Running that grocery store forced me to develop a set of skills that I simply would not have built if I had stayed behind a screen. Managing a team in person is nothing like managing freelancers remotely. Dealing with physical inventory that has a shelf life is nothing like warehousing products that sit until they sell. Cash flow in a brick and mortar business moves differently, and the consequences of getting it wrong show up faster and hit harder. I eventually sold the grocery store, but the operational instincts I built during that time stayed with me permanently and informed the way I approached every business I took on after.
After exiting the grocery store I did something that looking back was probably a little crazy. I started two businesses at the same time. I launched a custom journal brand while also purchasing and running an event venue. Two completely different industries, two completely different customer bases, and two completely different sets of operational demands happening simultaneously.
The journal brand deepened my understanding of ecommerce in ways my first clothing brand never did. Positioning, differentiation, fulfillment systems, and how to build a product based business that can actually scale without falling apart. The event venue, on the other hand, pulled me back into the physical world. It taught me about real estate, vendor management, and what it means to deliver an in person customer experience that people are willing to pay a premium for. Running both at the same time taught me more about time management, prioritization, and operational discipline than any single business ever could have on its own.
I eventually sold both. The venue and the journal brand had each reached a point where I knew the right move was to exit, and I made that decision on my own terms. Walking away from two businesses at once was not easy, but it was the right call, and it opened up the space I needed for what came next.
One thing I have done throughout all of this is document the process publicly. From the very first brand to the grocery store to the venue to the businesses I am building right now, I have shared the real time journey through long form YouTube content and social platforms. I did not wait until everything looked good to start posting. I shared the messy parts, the failed launches, the hard exits, and the moments where I genuinely did not know if things were going to work out. That transparency has kept me accountable in a way that nothing else could, because when you tell people what you are building in real time you do not get the luxury of rewriting the story later.
Today I am back to building a new online brand, which is where my career started and where I feel most at home. I am also running Brand Starter Academy, which is a coaching program I built for people who want to start and grow their own online businesses. The program is structured around everything I have learned across every business I have built and sold, and I work directly with my students because I remember what it felt like to be at the beginning with no one to ask for help.
I do not think there is a single right path in entrepreneurship. But I do think there is something valuable about hearing from someone who has actually been through it across different industries, different business models, and different stages of growth. That is what this site is, and that is what my content has always been. Not advice from the sidelines. Just the full, unedited version of what it has looked like to build from the ground up over and over again.