My first job was at an outfitting shop in the St. Regis hotel, where I guided small groups on fly fishing trips to local ponds. Inside the shop, I sold everything from Spanish shotguns to fly fishing gear. To those who know me today, this might come as a surprise, but I was always surrounded by the outdoors and the mountain lifestyle. It wasn't until my senior year of high school, during a visit to Miami, that my passion for fashion was truly ignited.
After attending the University of Colorado Boulder, where I studied business marketing, my interest in brands and retail deepened. During my time at CU, I worked at Nordstrom and a locally owned boutique called Weekends. Both jobs provided significant experience and insight, exposing me to both corporate and privately owned business environments. While I appreciated my time working for corporations, I was always more drawn to the private sector.
After a brief stint in Los Angeles working as a bookkeeper for celebrity clients in Hollywood, I moved back home to Aspen. There, I worked for Boogie’s, a store famous for its denim and shoes, where I took on various roles including sales, buying, and management. Eventually, I opened a children's store in a larger location across from the main store in downtown Aspen.
In my mid-20s, towards the end of my stay in Aspen, I worked for Gucci. Working for a luxury retailer in town opened my eyes to the world of styling and the heritage of fashion houses. I learned about the evolution of brand icons and the creative directors who shaped these famous fashion houses. In 2010, my mother and I moved to Florida while both my grandmothers were still living there.
I decided to move to Miami Beach and got a job at a denim boutique on Lincoln Road called Post Blue Jeans. My career in retail was varied, working for commercial brands like Scotch & Soda and Osklen. After years of applying, I was finally hired on my third attempt in 2014 at The Webster, one of the most famous designer fashion boutiques in the world. At the same time, I was finishing my accredited degree in web design and development.
I was hired as the Website and E-Commerce developer for The Webster, as the company had not yet ventured into the online sales space. This experience, which I consider my "Masters" in website design and development, was invaluable. Not only did I develop the E-Commerce platform, but I also ran the email marketing and initial paid marketing initiatives after the launch.
My first task was to sync the inventory across several stores with the E-Commerce platform. This required finding a third-party solution, which I discovered after extensive research. The company, based in Texas, synchronized all the inventory so that any in-store sale was updated online within seconds. We also created and designed a custom Magento website while uploading thousands of products and variants.
During this time, I was also getting hired to do E-Commerce websites on the side. I realized that if I stayed at The Webster, I wouldn't grow and achieve the milestones I wanted as a web designer and developer. After launching The Webster's E-Commerce site, I put in a lengthy notice and left on good terms. The company even hired my agency to build out a private label Shopify store for the owner.
After a short stint running my own agency, I joined forces with Sze Liu in 2017 and co-founded WMD. With a renewed vision to become a full-service agency offering both websites and marketing, we took over Miami Beach and the greater area, servicing a myriad of industries from luxury fashion to law firms.
At WMD, we helped kick off several well-known brands like Taja Collection and De La Heart, eventually moving on to larger clients like Cooper Street and Oura Ring. We have spoken at many notable website and marketing events from Chicago to Toronto.
In 2022, I began teaching at the Istituto Marangoni as an adjunct professor, covering everything from design to branding, and websites to marketing. Each step of my journey, from guiding fly fishing trips in Aspen to teaching at a prestigious fashion school, has been a testament to my passion for blending creativity with business.
