From Influencer to Founder
Why I Bet on Ownership
If you caught the not so subtle bomb drop in my first Substack post - yes, I’m writing my second book. And have decided that many of these posts will actually be a short preview and high level thoughts for what’s to come in said book...
From Influencer to Founder: Why I Bet on Ownership
The shift that changed everything - and why creator-led brands matter more than ever.
There’s a moment every creator eventually faces. Do I keep building my career on borrowed land, or do I build something I actually own?
For me, that moment came early and not necessarily by choice (but more on that aka cancel culture in my next Substack post).
I loved creating. I loved sharing. I loved building a community. But I also knew instinctively that the influencer world - as powerful as it is - can be unstable. Algorithms shift. Industries pivot. Trends disappear in 24 hours. One day you’re cool, the next day you’re cancelled.
I didn’t want my career to depend on whether or not a platform liked me that week.
So I made a decision:
I wasn’t going to just promote brands - I was going to build one.
The Difference Between Relevance and Value
Influencers often get caught in the hamster wheel of staying “relevant.” Constant content, constant visibility, constant output. But relevance doesn’t equal value, not long-term value.
Building WeWoreWhat wasn’t about chasing relevance. It was about creating a foundation that would still matter in 5, 10, 20 years. A brand with customers, products, data, strategy, and longevity - not just a following.
Because relevance fades. Ownership compounds.
Brand Partnerships Gave Me a Start, But Not a Future
I’m grateful for the early partnerships that shaped my career. They taught me how to pitch, how to negotiate, how to communicate my worth, and how to deliver results. But I also learned something else:
If you rely only on partnerships, your income, your opportunities, and your reputation live in someone else’s ecosystem.
That’s a risky place to build a life.
I wanted something I could scale. Something I could control. Something I could walk into a room and say, “I built this, and it exists beyond my personal visibility.”
That’s the difference between being the face and being the owner. Which even though I’m still both, the goal is to grow the WeWoreWhat brand passed me and my following - and it’s already on its way.
The Creator Economy Isn’t Shrinking - It’s Maturing
People love to say “influencing is over.” I hear the opposite every day.
Creators are turning into founders. Founders are using creator tools. The lines are blurring - in the best way. Consumers don’t just want product anymore. They want connection, story, transparency, and identity.
Creators have that built-in and brands spend millions trying to create just that.
We’re entering the era of creator-led companies, not creator-led sales cycles. And the brands that will win are the ones rooted in trust, community, and consistency rather not one-off campaigns with viral of-the-moment influencers.
So influencer culture isn’t dying, it’s leveling up.
What Ownership Changed for Me
Building a brand forced me to think differently.
It turned my focus inward - to operations, product development, design, customer experience, long-term strategy. Things you don’t always see on social, but that define the success of every real company.
And it gave me one thing no amount of visibility can buy: control over my narrative and my future. I dive chapters deep into this topic and I’m sorry you have to wait but promise it will be worth it.
Creators Deserve to Be Founders
If there’s one message I want other creators - especially women to hear, it’s this:
You’re allowed to grow out of the role the industry first put you in. You’re allowed to want more than visibility. You’re allowed to build something bigger than yourself.
That is not a betrayal of your audience. It’s an evolution of your purpose.
Owning a brand isn’t the easy route. It’s the meaningful one. There are more responsibilities. More decisions. More pressure. But there is also more fulfillment, more impact, and more possibility.
I’m grateful every day that I took the leap.
Because being an influencer changed my life, but becoming a founder gave it direction.
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