My Brand Wasn’t Enough- Until I Was

The old me can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Because she’s dead.

Okay, I’m not dead. And I’m definitely not Taylor Swift. But my old brand? That version is.

New year, new me, right?

Kind of.

I realized something uncomfortable recently: my brand felt… off. Not because mental health isn’t central to who I am now (thanks, trauma). It absolutely is. But it’s not all I am.

Part of my healing journey has been accepting that I am more than what happened to me. And as much as that sounds empowering, it’s also inconvenient. Because if I’m more than my trauma, then I have to figure out who I am outside of it.

That requires a more holistic view of myself.

After years of reading student applications holistically-  looking at the full human, not just one metric-  I guess it’s my turn now. Ironically, it’s much harder to apply that logic to yourself.

In a funny twist of timing, I realized the reason it’s been hard to approach this “passion project” with love is because it wasn’t the full picture. It was a slice (like pizza!). An important one. But still just a slice.

Just like my healing journey has had ups and downs, my brand has different angles too. Like a prism, different lights reflect different colors depending on the angle.

So here’s the shift *cheers*:

Latina career pivoter into marketing.

A Latina navigating burnout, trauma recovery, and a career pivot into marketing — in real time.

The good. The bad. And especially the ugly.

Because I don’t just want to talk about surviving. I want to talk about building through the mess.

On a lighter note, Canva and I have been frenemies lately. Hopefully we’ll be besties soon.

But truly- this is about being intentional. Not just about who I am, but about the impact I want to make.

Because part of healing isn’t just understanding yourself. It’s growing beyond yourself. Turning self-reflection into community.

And that feels like the real evolution.