I've spent the last few years building something I believe in. A brand rooted in an ethos that made my dream surmountable, designed with intention for people who care about the details. But somewhere along the way, I got so good at applying a beginner's mind to my work that I forgot to apply it to my own life.

A beginner's mind brought me here. Staying curious, releasing ego, seeing everything as new. It carried me from daydreaming about fashion at UC Irvine to working alongside John Elliott to building my own brand from nothing. The philosophy isn't just the name of the brand — it's the reason it exists at all.

But lately I've been sitting with something harder to design around. I've been applying this philosophy narrowly. Outward, not inward.

That's the thing about muscle imbalances. You can be strong. Genuinely strong. But if you're only training one side, the other quietly falls behind. I was developing the creative muscle with everything I had while the human side of me quietly atrophied. The friendships that needed tending. The family moments I showed up to physically but not really.

A muscle imbalance doesn't make you weak. It makes you uneven. And eventually, uneven catches up.

So in 2026, I'm growing the brand and getting to know myself at the same time. Both, together, intentionally. Who am I outside of WABM? What do I actually need? I'm learning to apply a beginner's mind to the parts of my life that don't have a tech pack or a deadline. I don't have clean answers yet. But a beginner's mind isn't about having it figured out. It's about staying open to the process.

Noticing the imbalance isn't a failure. It's the beginner's mind doing its job. You can't correct what you can't see. I remind myself that seeing it clearly is already progress.

The value I was overlooking wasn't somewhere else. It was already here. In the people I love. In the version of myself that exists outside of work. In the slow, everpresent process of becoming more whole.

It's ok to not be ok. Not as a platitude but as a genuine truth. Things are temporary. Struggling is temporary. Nothing is fixed. Nothing is final. That's not a sad thing. That's the whole point.

If you're in a similar place, you're not behind. You're just at the beginning of something new. And if there's one thing I've learned from building this brand, it's that the beginning is exactly where you want to be.

I'm still figuring it out. But I'm approaching it the way I approach everything that matters — with a beginner's mind.