1. Queen Anne’s Lace. My favorite arrangements to make are anything resembling a meadow. Maybe it’s my constant desire to run through a field while living in the concrete jungle, but these beauties do just that for your imagination.

2. Harmless Harvest Coconut Smoothie. Um, if you like coconut this IS life changing. I drink their coconut water daily and decided to give this a go and wow. Like a creamy Pina Colada after a hard workout full of super clean fuel and electrolytes.

3. The Brits Do it Better. I’m lucky to have a mom that has always been wildly ahead of the curve when it comes to creativity. Always teaching me to gather my inspiration from places outside of my own world. One of those being the UK when it comes to all things interior design. What I’m loving on my desk this week: the newest Dienst + Dotter antique selection (printed on the chicest cards) and Scenery (my new FAVORITE design publication. like another level of interior photography) '

4. Ina on the TV. Forget podcasts and music, cooking shows while you work are insanely therapeutic. Maybe it’s fall in the air, but this has been an absolute favorite way to work.

5. Pinterest. The algorithm on Pinterest has been ELITE lately. And what a refresher to gather inspo with no influencer intermissions (sorry).

6. My typical grocery haul: a restock of everything I eat on a daily basis that has me feeling AMAZING. Featured in my health article here.

7. The Odeon. New York is full of amazing new restaurants, but the longer I live here, the more I have my ride or dies, one of those being the Odeon. Without fail, a bar seat, dirty vodka martini and burger just hits, ever. single. time.

A little bit of summer and a nod to fall. Enter my summer squash lamb bolognese. Taking my classic winter recipe and swapping veg for peak season produce like yellow squash, golden zucchini, Fresno peppers and white wine. Trust me, it’s going to be on repeat.

Ingredients

• 1 package organic ground lamb

• 1 yellow squash

• 1 golden zucchini

• 1 shallot

• 4–5 cloves garlic

• 1 Fresno pepper, seeds included if you like it spicy — recommended

• Rigatoni

• ¼–½ cup dry white wine

• 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed

• About ½ cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano, plus more for serving

• Kosher salt

• Freshly ground black pepper

• Fresh parsley, finely chopped

Method

Bring 4–6 cups of generously salted water to a boil and cook the rigatoni until al dente.

While the pasta cooks, roughly chop the squash, zucchini, shallot, garlic, and Fresno pepper. Add everything to a food processor and pulse until very finely chopped, but not completely puréed.

Heat about 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the processed vegetables and cook until softened and fragrant.

Add the ground lamb, season generously with salt and black pepper, and sauté, breaking the lamb apart as it cooks. Pour in ¼ cup of white wine and allow it to cook down into the lamb and vegetables, adding a little more wine if needed. Drizzle in the remaining olive oil as everything cooks together.

Begin adding the pecorino a little at a time, stirring it into the lamb mixture until melted and incorporated. Use about ½ cup total, or more to taste.

Once the rigatoni is al dente, drain and add it directly to the pan. Toss thoroughly with the lamb and summer squash mixture until every piece of pasta is coated. Add another drizzle of olive oil or a splash of pasta water if needed to loosen the sauce.

Finish with plenty of freshly chopped parsley, cracked black pepper, and another generous shower of Pecorino Romano.

Serve immediately with extra pecorino at the table.

Sometimes change can take place quickly, but often those deeply ingrained patterns can take weeks, months, even years to transform. In my career, I have experienced working in many situations where, despite how incredibly I could execute certain skills, the ones I wasn’t best out were where I was punished.

For example, I have always been incredibly good at efficiency. Give me 100 things to do and I will take them head on and whip through a to-do list. But if you ask me to sit and do an extremely detail oriented task, I start to struggle. I could go in and lead a photoshoot and plow through a whole shot list and make a client incredibly happy, but if I came back to my desk and didn’t perfectly align all the boxes on a deck, the earlier part of the day I excelled at didn’t seem to matter.

In running my own business and having the opportunity to work with my friends and family, the biggest belief I have is this: Focus on what someone is really good at. Actually, what they are GREAT at. And play up that strength so much that when they are perhaps not as good in another area, it is still the strength that wins for them. Allow that strength to OVER POWER. Because if someone’s not as good at something. That’s okay. Someone else will be or is.

It takes patience to see past something someone might take longer to learn, or maybe they never fully will. But the entire point of this belief is that everyone excels at something different and that is what makes a team great. You’re not ignoring things going wrong, you’re maximizing optimism.

When you play up someone’s strengths the following happens:

• That person stays confident. Confidence is key to success and also to being happy about what you’re doing. When you know you’ve got something, you do.

• Business moves keeps moving forward. Optimism is futuristic thinking. Believing in what someone IS good at, is not just believing in them, it’s believing in the future of your business.

• That person does not move with fear. Fear carries an energy. If you are worried trying to do something you can’t do as well, that energy impacts your entire team. Again, confidence is an energy that your team and your clients are going to receive and feed off of.

• The more you learn without force, the more you learn intuition. When you are forced to do something, you can often begin to dread it. When you are guided organically to learn things over time, by watching someone else who IS good at your skill you need to improve on, your brain don’t just learn, your intuition does. This saves your business time in the long term. Why? Because intuition does not have to think, it does not have to problem solve, it already knows.

• Trust is built. Believing in someone’s strengths is the greatest gift you can give them. The second you do that, you’re not just trusting them, they begin to trust you. Why? Because when you are acknowledged for a strength, you are understood for a part of your being. Especially as a creative. To feel understood, is to trust.

The more you place emphasis on resistance, rather than focusing on what is, you create a block. Play up your own strengths, play up your employees strengths, let the stuff that’s not budging go, and watch how much faster you grow.

Starting off with my current obsession that Substack has been lovely for: writing. I have written in a notebook everyday for almost 10 years. It’s always been a deeply personal love of mine, but I’m loving sharing more. Lately I’ve been clocking almost an hour a day because there’s just nothing like it.

I am a beverage aficionado. One of my top faves in NYC is the Croft Alley ginger lemonade. Enter my favorite mineral replenishing version I keep making on hot days. Gerolsteiner (best fizz of any sparkling water from the minerals), a whole lemon squeezed and a huge chunk of ginger grated over ice. It is SO refreshing. Especially post workout.

Grilling. Never did I think I would develop such a passion for a cooking skill I’ve always preferred to be the recipient of, but boy do I love to try something and work at mastering it. One week in and a few perfect steaks, grilled peaches, and zucchini later, my baskets are currently filled with grill tools and produce.

My go to weeknight dinner: Ginger Scallion Basil Roasted Chicken + Japanese Sweet Potatoes. It’s SO good I can’t even explain. I make this weekly and also save leftovers for a quick lunch. Recipe is:

Marinate one pack of organic chicken breasts in:

1/2 cup olive oil, 1/3 cup coconut aminos. 1 bunch of scallions chopped, 1 head of basil chopped, 2 inch piece of ginger grated, pinch of salt and pepper. Toss and let sit in a bowl refrigerated for 1 hour. Bake on a sheet pan at 400 for 25 mins next to sweet potatoes (just tossed in olive oil, salt, and Aleppo pepper) and you’re golden.

Shell Wall Sconces. I’ve dreamed of having two gorgeous shell sconces for either side of my mantle and luckily, my best friend Ruby happens to have a wild talent for all things shell mosaics. (DM her for customs!) Needless to say they are my new apartment jewelry.

Haikure Jeans. I can’t even begin to think how many days these jeans have been worn, but all I can say is, the Haikure Bethany jeans are constantly air drying on my desk chair because they’re comfy enough to wear every day.

Tinto Amorio Red Wine with frozen cherries. My all time favorite red wine to chill. It is pure cherry in flavor notes and I can’t get enough. I even put frozen cherries in as ice cubes this week and wow.

The limelight hydrangea bush on my terrace of my apartment. I discovered it and immediately knew I needed to cook dinner for a friend outdoors this week. Needless to say I will be stationed by this plant until further notice.

I have a new dinner recipe I tested this week and it is perhaps my most favorite of 2026 so far. Full recipe dropping next week, but look out for: Fresno, Zaatar Lamb Meatballs with Pistachio Tahini Mint Sauce. NEXT LEVEL.

Bonfire Scents. My favorite scent is the smell of your clothes after sitting outside by a fire. Or a fireplace burning on a cold winter night. Can you tell my astro chart is all fire? After many tests these are hands down the best for home and personal fragrance if you’re also team smokey.

Reading. I embarrassingly enough have not completed many books since moving to NYC 7 years ago. But in the summer I slowed down, I made it a goal to sit down and take more time offline and more time pouring over pages. In my first year of building my own business, I’ve found myself turning to my female entrepreneur idols. Luckily for me two of them have EPIC memoirs: Ina Garten’s Be Ready When The Luck Happens and Erin French’s Finding Freedom. So good in fact I finished 2 books in 30 days. Big win.

Back next week with more! Xx

That said, being curious by nature, I’ve tried just about every single health trend, practice, ritual, way of eating you could possibly try. Infrared saunas, cold plunges, red light, chlorophyll drops, colostrum, pre/probiotics, mushroom powders, palo, pescatarian, thousands of dollars in trying it all. I’m not naturally lean, fitness is something I have to work incredibly hard at. I don’t naturally have good skin, in fact, I spent 90% of my life with acne covered skin. Clear skin is something I’ve had to work incredibly hard at. Every single doctor I have ever seen has immediately taken a glance and walked to write a prescription, I politely never filled them. Rather, I would head home to dive into an academic journal.

I’ve seen influencers post workouts and nutrition advice without any certification, I’ve seen doctors tell me to just use ChatGPT for healthy recipe ideas, I’ve heard specialists tell me to not eat dairy, the list goes on. It wasn’t until I was about 7 years into my journey of changing my health and wellness that my body got really smart. It learned how to talk to me. I talk about this in my way of eating article here. I got so intuitive that I knew I could throw everything I had ever seen and heard out the window and start listening to myself. When you get quiet, the body really does talk.

I don’t stand here with a certification, a PhD, or an MD. But I do stand here rooted in deep research, in deep belief that through your own studies of getting quiet, the body listens and boy does it talk. Like prescriptions, supplements are a business. They are designed to make a company money, not necessarily to make you better. The truth is the things that have healed me the most are the things that are free. I actually don’t take a single supplement at all. I eat, drink, move, and fuel every ounce of my being on the belief of FEELING good and in alignment with how we are designed to live, in our most natural human state. Below, the practices you might hear recommended daily that I actually threw out the window.

Food + Nutrition: (& if you aren’t following Dr. William Li for your nutrition studies you definitely should)

• 2 Kiwis A Day: Pre/probiotic supplements no more. One kiwi has the power to change your gut microbiome overnight. I eat 2 every single morning first thing on an empty stomach and wow, my skin TRANSFORMED, in this practice.

• 1 Cup of Coconut Water a Day: Electrolyte powders have more additives than hydration elements. I drink a glass of pure Thai coconut water first thing every morning for hydration.

• 1 Handful of Organic Cherries a Day: Next to kiwis, cherries are life changing. The antioxidant content for muscle recovery, skin health, and sleep always make me feel my best and are a super fruit I swear by. When they aren’t in peak season, I always add them to a post-workout smoothie.

• Grass Fed Ancestral Beef Daily: I rarely say a brand has changed my life, but Force of Nature definitely has. I had always heard of the benefits of organ meat, but transparently was a bit scared to try it. Enter Force of Nature’s ancestral grass fed beef and WOAH. First of all you, can’t taste it. Second, my hair, skin, and nails have been in heaven from the added nutrients this meat contains. I buy their frozen meatballs and eat them like protein balls daily.

• Broccoli Sprouts Daily: The EASIEST way to increase your nutrient density of every single meal is through broccoli sprouts. These bad boys contain 140x the nutrients of a whole piece of broccoli. Full of sulforaphane for amazing anti-cancer benefits. I put a heaping handful on every single savory meal. Yes, every single one.

• Quality of caffeine: I used to drink cold brew with oat milk as soon as I woke up. Last year I switched to an iced cortado with whole milk after I had been awake for at least 30-40 minutes. Having less caffeine in my espresso and having un-processed whole milk over a processed plant based alternative, changed my inflammation levels like crazy. I also always walk while drinking my coffee to again, use the energy as I consume it rather than having it spike me while I’m stationary.

• Fueling For Energy Output: Thinking of what you need energy for and choosing what to eat and when is a game changer. Need a pre-workout snack? Dates + almond butter give you sugar for energy and healthy fat for satiation your body can USE. Have an important meeting? Overnight oats with nuts and seeds for omegas fuel your brain for focus and stabilize your blood sugar. Eat better, perform in all areas of your life better.

• Nothing from a package: A croissant made from pure butter, flour, eggs, is better than your protein bar in a package. Of course snacks are inevitable for an on the go life, but when it comes to your snack and even treats, eat your foods in as whole of forms as possible. When I want a snack, I eat hard boiled eggs + avocado smash, dates with almond butter, roasted chicken + sweet potato. Even health food snacks are still processed.

  

Mind:

• Time outside within 15 minutes of getting up: I haven’t spent more than 15 minutes inside from the time of waking up in almost a decade. Physically getting out into nature as soon as you rise will change your mood and motivate you like nothing else.

• 40 minutes of total silence upon waking: I used to be a headphones in music on as soon as I woke up kind of person. I then realized, especially in NYC, that it’s rare we have total silence with our thoughts. Every morning I walk in total silence, only listening to my breath, and nature around me. It gets uncomfortable, but it is essential to have this total silence to let your brain flow. I let my imagination run totally wild. No one can disturb me in this time. I always feel 10x more centered than when I started.

• Direct sun first thing: I could spend 10 hours a day in the sun if I could. It is one of my biggest healers and sun first thing is essential. Not only does it regulate your circadian rhythm (aka helping your body flow in its most natural, aligned state), it also boosts your mood, energy, and creativity. I always like to sit in it for at least 5 minutes, even if it’s just a patch, and fully let my body absorb it.

• Heart Openers for Stagnant Energy: While I’m in the sun I typically do chest opening stretches that really allow me to open myself up for the day ahead. The mind actually responds to this space being open more than you think. Physically opening your heart, automatically opens your mind to all of your interactions for the day ahead.

  

Movement:

• Choose the mirror spot: Not to look at yourself and study your outfit. But to focus on your form. I always find a mirror spot so I can make sure my form is impeccable, whether in a class or in the gym. Your results are 10x better when you’re keeping stellar form. I swear by this.

• Your core loves to be engaged: You’d be surprised how much of your core definition comes from your everyday life and finding where you can train yourself to engage it. At your desk, as you walk, as you clean your apartment. Notice where you can engage it and watch how much more defined it becomes.

• 1x Heavy Weights, 1x HIIT, 1x Pilates: I love a class. I am motivated beyond words by being instructed and surrounded by other people. The mix that has given me the most insane results is a mix of heavy, hiit, and resistance training. I usually do the following:

  • Monday: 20 minute tread walk (15 incline, 3.5 mph walk) + 15-20lb arms + legs

  • Tuesday: 1 hour power walk + stretch

  • Wednesday: 1 hour Nofar Method pilates with Chris (the hardest class in NYC, Chris will transform you in just a few sessions)

  • Thursday: 1 hour power walk + stretch

  • Friday: Soto Method Sweat Class (EVERY instructor is incredible, the structure of this workout is AMAZING for your mind, and the addition of HIIT has been crucial to my workout routine)

  • Saturday: Intuitive (sometimes I walk, I Soto again, I pilates again, I let my body tell me what it wants)

  • Sunday: Intuitive

• 3 Hour Sit = 40 minute walk: I am incredibly lucky to be able to break my work day up into blocks. For every 3 hours I sit, I walk for 40 minutes. Not only for my body, but for my mind. If you run very ADHD, creative brained, this blocking method has proved immensely helpful. I typically follow the following:

  • 40 mins: Silence + breath work

  • 3 hours work

  • 40 mins (lunch): Phone calls + matcha break

  • 3 hours work

  • 40 mins (pre or post dinner): Emails, texts, podcasts

  • 3 hours work

• Breath synced movement: The way you breath greatly improves the way you move. You breathe deeper, you push harder. You breakthrough mental blocks better. You breathe deeper, your core muscles can engage further. It also is entirely how to allow your mind to turn off for the duration of your workout and come back entirely refreshed.

Health is taking all of the learnings you can, soaking up science like a sponge, but most importantly becoming so aligned in your body, it is ultimately YOUR intuition that will lead you to your greatest health when you condition it to teach you.

Naturally, I was determined to keep trying and master baking with ingredients that were better for me. Years of testing later, understanding how natural sweeteners come together, how cakes and cookies can be bound without standard fillers, I have become the queen of a gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free, chocolate chip cookie amongst my friends.

It is without a doubt the most requested recipe and rightfully so. The secret ingredient: tahini. The nuttiness, the creaminess, makes for the best binder to bring your standard cookie to another dimension.

My favorite restaurant in Montauk, Mostrador at Marram, has the BEST banana oat cookies you will ever have. After many taste tests of theirs, I knew I had to master my own to make when I can’t be in Montauk. A bunch of tahini, bananas, dashes of vanilla (can you tell I don’t use measuring cups?), and oats later, they came to life. And yes, I measured the final batch so you can make them too.

Tahini Banana Oat Macadamia Nut Cookies (Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Vegan, Refined Sugar Free)

Oven at 350 F for 12-15 minutes.

1. Caramelize your Bananas:

Take the following and sauté over medium heat in a saucepan until lightly brown and allow to cool.

2 very ripe bananas (chopped)

1 tbsp vanilla

1/4 cup coconut sugar

2. In a food processor, add the following with the banana mixture and blend (you should still have some whole oats):

1/3 cup tahini

1/3 cup medjool dates

1 tbsp maple syrup

1 tbsp vanilla

1/3 cup of sprouted rolled oats

3. Fold in:

1/3 cup of whole oats

1/3 cup of dark chocolate chips

1/3 cup of roasted and roughly chopped macadamia nuts

Scoop onto a baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes. TIP: For more chocolate-y cookies, don’t let the bananas cool after caramelizing and add your chocolate chips to naturally melt into the batter.

I’ve made these 3 times in 7 days they’re that good. ENJOY! xx

When you want or know you need to change how you do something, there is often pressure to make that change right then and there. I practice the opposite.

For example, I am a big picture thinker. I fly through things like a tornado, speed and efficiency are my love language. But often, the details and taking my time are a weak point. The words I’ve heard at every job I’ve ever had: “Slow down.” Feedback I know is true and have immediately felt pressure to implement, doing anything in my power to get better at something I’ve gotten feedback on that I currently am not performing to my best ability.

Instead of practicing slowing down at work, in my job, in my tasks, I’ve practiced slowing down in my personal life. Taking more time to unwind at night. Giving myself more time to rest in my free time. What I haven’t done directly? Practice slowing down at work. Yet, it has trickled over.

Why? The place from which you practice. When something challenges us, or we know we need to make a change, it’s often under the watch of others, and with that, pressure, whether said directly or not. Growth is uncomfortable and discomfort matters. Yet, taking yourself out of an environment of pressure to get better at something is key.

When you practice what you aren’t best at in an environment where you are at your best. Your deepest state of calm, comfort, peace. Often times that is probably in your free time alone. Your body learns to drop in to a skill faster because it is comfortable. Dropping in naturally then becomes intuition under pressure.

I’ve always had anxiety. I used to, and sometimes still do, have panic attacks. Rather than trying to learn how to calm down when these moments of panic are already happening, I began to practice calming down from a place of calm. Doing breath work when I’m totally fine and peaceful. Practicing the way I talk to myself when I’m in state of total calm.

Your body remembers its happiest, calmest memories for a reason because it wants to pull from them. When you have these practices stored as a calm moment in your life, your intuition then begins to grab them when you aren’t at your best, without you having to fight for how to fix yourself because the body knows.

So the next time you’re told you need to get better at something or you personally want to improve on a skill, don’t practice it in the situation you want to become better in. Practice it from your personal place of peace. Allow the body to absorb it in this state. Then carry it into the place in which you need it and watch how your intuition brings it to life. No resistance needed.

As a creative, I have always used the platform to share my portfolio, it has become my website if you will. The interaction I’ve had from posting has been passive. Likes, comments, reposts are engagement, but they are not direct conversion to pay. What is you might ask? A DM. Here’s why:

1. Our world is so digital, the platform matters: There are so many ways to get a hold of people nowadays. When you want to work with someone think about where their headspace will be most present in seeing your message. Whenever I have an idea, I want to work with someone, I want to shoot something for a brand or company, I do not send an email first, I send a DM. Look at how you interact with your different forms of communication. Emails are either junk mail or work that then pulls you into distraction. Social media is where people go to relax. Your message stands out here. Instagram automatically feels more personal than an email. Therefore, the immediate connection has the opportunity to be that much greater.

2. Less room for clickthroughs: A website is great, so is a portfolio attachment, but why create opportunities for click through when a DM provides an opportunity to instantly see what you can do creatively. Removing any kind of opportunity for people to get lost or distracted changes the game in your ability to get through to them.

3. Directness > Formality : I love an email more than anyone. I actually try to email more than text with clients, but the reason I love a DM is how direct it is. In light of that keep it concise: Introduce yourself, ask the question, request an email to share additional info. This ending shows initiative that you aren’t here to DM, you want to take it to email and make it more serious.

4. Speed: Social moves fast. Your chances of a quick response are much higher than the speed at which most people text.

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About a decade ago when I was experiencing severe anxiety and inflammation in my body, I turned to my dad, the OG health influencer, for learning how to eat better. The second I felt results, it sparked one of my deepest passions. I didn’t just start reading lists that said what was good for you, I took the foods from those lists and would read scientific studies for hours. Knowing how each ingredient impacted, not only my entire body, but every individual cell. I never take general health information without finding the exact science behind it.

I developed a deep understanding of micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, etc.) in addition to the macronutrients (fats, carbs, proteins) that most people fixate on and stop there. In knowing exactly how the vitamins and minerals in foods could heal very specific things in my body, wildly enough, my body began to heal when it needed it. I felt iron deficient? I would eat red meat. I felt exhausted? I would eat more seaweed for iodine. I felt like I was getting sick? Strawberries for Vitamin C.

The body is incredibly intelligent. Your subconscious picks up on these conscious decisions over time, and soon enough, your body knows exactly what to crave based on what it needs. I now crave these foods when I need them without even having to research.

In eating this way, I developed the concept of eating I refer to as “Nutrient Flooding”. Now I constantly focus on getting a very healthy balance of carbs, fats, and proteins, but I build every meal on the question of “How many nutrients can I pack into one dish?” In other words, how can I FLOOD my body with so many beautiful, rich nutrients that it heals everything it needs.

Now all this goes without saying that it’s important to test exactly what you might need more or less of when it comes to micronutrients, but choosing what to eat with the visualization of flooding your body with beautiful things, has consistently led me to some of the greatest changes in my health.

The flood is about beauty. All while being obsessed with understanding food science, I’ve spent years in recipe development and styling. Fascinated by the beauty of produce and how it can be made into art. While the focus on science is important, focusing on the beauty of what you eat is one of the most organic ways to lead yourself to a nutrient dense plate.

Again, imagining with each bite, each cell being enveloped in the rich colors, textures, and nutrient density of the food you are eating. Visualization is everything. So is what you eat.

While working in this way has been a natural fit because of my love for the beauty and lifestyle of this part of Long Island, it somewhat, after year one, became quite intentional. I’ve always felt drawn to The Hamptons. Not for its glitz and glamour, not to party and shop, but for its natural beauty. Montauk particularly has fed much of my creativity for the last few years of my career. The way the light hits the cliffs, the way the sand dunes at the back of the IGA parking lot feel like a 70s summer, the way the rocks frame the shoreline.

My first ever official hospitality shoot was at a hotel in Montauk. I remember the excitement I felt shooting a property in a place I had just naturally loved for so many years. That summer, I kept doing more. Before I knew it, I was working with just about every hotel in Montauk to creative direct, photograph, and lead video production with my business partner each summer. Very quickly, I saw The Hamptons not just as a place of enjoyment, but of great business opportunity.

What I began to realize was this:

1. You have 3 months to make a year’s worth of profit. The way you market it matters.

2. Your clientele is the top 1%, there must be high level marketing that also matches a high level experience.

3. A place with a short calendar for profit, has a high sense of urgency. Meet demand where it is.

4. A place people come to for a short period is not their permanent stay. There are always networks and opportunities that lead beyond the vacation town. You just so happen to have them in a concentrated area.

5. Attention is at an all time high. Garnering attention in a big city can be done, but it is much easier in a small town. Working in a small town means word travels fast. One job can easily lead to another.

6. I’ve lived in NYC for almost 8 years. It’s a great place to build community, but nothing will connect you with friends and fellow business partners like a small town.

3 month’s to make businesses a year’s worth of profit. The pressure, higher than ever. The speed, the opportunity, all while being able to jump in the ocean every now and then? Priceless.

I’ve spent long hours in many hospitality properties. In the kitchens with chefs, in the dining rooms at peak hours of a packed house, in the lobby while a party rages on, in the rooms set to standard, out in front of the hotel as guests arrive to check in.

When you step into a hotel, the goal is for you to be able to turn your brain off. For a space to run so efficiently, that your experience is nothing but a feeling you take with you as a memory that lives within you for years to come. While many of my travels have been filled with this experience, it is actually my job’s responsibility to be the opposite. To see every opportunity where an experience can be made better, captured better, shown better.

I have watched how every piece of food gets to your plate in the restaurant. I have watched how details have to be in place so that the moment you step into a room, you step into a sanctuary. I have watched how staff have to be trained to give you the best possible experience.

I am on the ground as much as I am on a computer editing, posting, and putting marketing assets back into the world.

Yet lately, I open my phone daily to see articles, reels, countless videos about how to plug an entire marketing plan into Claude or ChatGPT. (I talked recently about my overarching thoughts on AI vs Creative here.)

While this is appealing to think of the idea that you can have someone do all of the thinking, planning, organizing for you, and for free at that, it does not work for hospitality. Why?

Hotels, restaurants, nightlife establishments change by the second. AI doesn’t know what your experience at your property is like. It hasn’t been there, and it never can. It can’t stay in your room to know what it was like to use your towels and feel your bedding. It can’t go to your pool to know what the service was like. It can’t go to your restaurant to understand what the food tasted like, how it came out, how packed the house was the night before. It can’t go to your club and watch that the highlight of the night was a group of young girls singing at the top of their lungs and taking film photos of each other as if their phones didn’t exist. It doesn’t know how people are actually living with your walls.

It is what makes hospitality so sacred, that we get to work in a world that no matter how advanced AI can become, your marketing is entirely up to the experience on the ground. To watch it yourself, to understand it yourself, and then create. To then devise a strategy. AI doesn’t know how many martinis the bar carried out the night before, or how many people were actually dancing by the DJ, or how many people showed up to a workout class and stayed through the whole thing, it knows as well as someone who has never been.

When your entire existence is marked by experience, why would you look to someone who has never been?

Flash forward to 2026. I now log on to a platform with about 50x as many creatives and properties, brands, and places putting out production that mimics the intro to a motion picture film we would have waited to go see in theaters 10 years ago. This world has always been a visual one, but with social it has become a place where you don’t just see a few players in the game, you see the entire field. The blessing: more job opportunities for creatives than ever. The curse: brands and businesses having the ability to choose. To price compare. To compare to what other businesses are doing. To feel as if they can always have something better.

To work in a job that doesn’t rely on social media for your final product to be shared with the world, is in a way, rather sacred. You can keep to yourself, your clients can’t see what is being done by other people in the field so easily. As a creative, every day is working against another incredible photo or video being shared by another photographer, technology advancements allowing other creatives to get ahead at lightening speed, all while AI feeds the rate at which this industry loses its human touch. The iPhone has given everyone a camera, an opportunity to create at their fingertips, and what a gift that is. But when everyone suddenly has access to your job in the palm of your hand, how are you going to differentiate?

While the world isn’t getting less competitive, these are the things I see as major game changers to keeping your edge:

1. Your creativity is also a business. The creative is beautiful, but you must also approach how you share strategically. You must approach how you pitch a creative job like you would prepare a strategy for a client if you worked in consulting. A photo or video post isn’t enough, you have to sell an entire value proposition.

2. You have to tell a story. You can share a beautiful photo, but your caption should tell the why. Beauty is your strength, storytelling makes it your asset.

3. Instagram is a piece of your portfolio, not all of it. I still use a PDF pitch deck in every email I send. It’s private, contains way more of my portfolio and cannot be accessed unless I share it directly with who I want to work with. Sharing your work personally allows your prospective clients to feel more connected to you.

4. Connect with other creatives. Rather than making it competition, creative collaboration is sometimes what takes your name to another level.

5. Show how your creative can impact the numbers of a business. Often times the people setting the budget and calling the shots are not creatives themselves. To sell them on your creativity requires a constant tie back to the numbers.

6. Keep creating for fun. It’s often the work you do for yourself personally that sells people on working with you for their business. Showcasing your style is just as important as your portfolio of work for clients. This has led to 75% of my jobs.

Ultimately, the industry doesn’t get easier, but you do just get better.

I’ve always wondered what it was about working for myself that fulfilled me so much and I finally realized exactly what it is. The thing that gives it the most value.

There is no limit. To what you can create. To the amount you can earn. To the relationships you can build. To the passion you can share. There is not a single boundary on where you can climb. Your output is entirely in your control. Control is your greatest power. We don’t always have it, but when we do we must treat it with the highest amount of respect. How exciting knowing where you can get the EXACT amount or more out of what you put in. No interruptions, no hesitations, but direct translation into results.

Evaluate every moment in your day with the question, “Where do I have opportunity for control of my output?” For me it’s:

My workout: I get to control how hard I push and what results I get.

What I eat: I get to control how I fuel and nourish myself so that I can perform at the highest level possible.

The amount of outreach I can extend: I get to control how many pitches I write, what I say in them, and to who.

The posts I share online: I get to control what I say, when I say it, how I say it.

The way I fill my free time: I get to control when to speed up, when to slow down.

The people I interact with: I get to control who I let into my day, how I speak to them, how they can add to my life.

When you work for yourself, your greatest privilege is that every single part of your day has this opportunity for control.

However, If you’re in a full time job still trying to build a business on the side, look at your daily to-do list and ask yourself with the blocks of time you have, “Where do I have opportunity for control of my output?”

When I would work in an office and have gaps in my day, I would draft as many outreach emails for freelance as I could and send them out. I saw it as my opportunity for control, even though I was still required to be in an office and sit at a desk.

Outreach, output, out is an extension beyond ourselves. The reason it’s important to recognize, is that this word is deeply rooted in energy. The energy of what you put OUT carries an energy that will go find an energy that matches it to come back IN. Not just thinking of pushing things out, but the quality and intention behind them is as much a part of your control and power as the action itself.

It is the way I have made every single $ living in NYC for the past 7 years. Yes, every single one, even my full time jobs.

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Now don’t get me wrong, AI has saved me on many a day of a technical camera question or needing thoughts organized into a quick bulleted outline, but when it comes to the creative, there is not a single idea generated from Chat GPT or Claude.

My imagination has built my entire business and continues to run it every single day. I wake up in the middle of the night with dreams about the photo shoots I show up to in person and shoot and edit with my own two hands.

In a world of careers threatened by the continuous growth and evolution of AI, I had begun to wonder what would happen to photography and videography with the rise of AI generated content. Not that I ever believe it will replace the art of human production, but I had begun to wonder its impact.

Upon being asked the question, I realized that the value in NOT using AI in my line of work, is the best current value you can give your creativity. What business owners WANT to hear from a creative is that you don’t touch AI. The value in the work you do with your own imagination, your own two hands, and your own unique magic is worth more than any AI generated image.

While some businesses need and actually applaud the use of AI, if you’re a creative, put it down, from there your value can only go up.

I walked out of those calls proud, proud to know that what the industry still values is a human imagination. It’s still the most unlimited asset you will ever have.

You know what you want in this life. You are going to grow up from now at age 5 to your 25th year of life with this undying belief in something really big. In something really great.

You are going to get to middle school and feel like you don’t have your people, that you’re keeping up to fit in. But deep down you believe in your individuality more than show.

You are going to get to high school and realize you want to move to New York City for college not knowing a soul, but believing that it is the place that lights a fire in you that nowhere else can. And you’re going to make that happen.

You are going to get to college and meet the people that become your rocks and business partners as you move through the rest of your 20’s. You are going to hit the ground running working every job you possibly can because you believe in something really big. You are going to build your own creative business because you can’t sleep until your hands have created some kind of magic that day. And you’re going to make it a career.

You are going to graduate college and step into a job because it is stable, but you know that deep down your career doesn’t stop at a company, it starts the moment you bet on yourself. And you’re going to find a way to do that even when you get let go of your full time job unexpectedly.

You are going to have the best 6 months of your life working for yourself. Because your soul is free and you’re doing what you love. And you’re going to realize that your soul wasn’t lying about your purpose when it spoke to you at 5 years old.

You are going to go back to a full time job when your own business slows down because New York requires sacrifices and a societal belief in stability. And you’re going to realize that no matter how hard you try, you don’t fit in because you believe in something greater.

You are going to resign from that job and take a massive leap back into the unknown again because you believe in something greater. And you’re going to realize that your belief in a beautiful life was the force driving every single one of these changes all along.

For the girl that never has fit in, or at least felt like she fit in. To a job, to a school, to a group. You feel like you don’t because it’s true. This feeling is not the negative you’ve been told to believe it is, rather this is your truth. When you realize this, congratulations. You are now going to be able to free yourself from the walls you’ve tried to contain yourself in. And when you do, you’re going to find a happiness you can’t even explain.

So to 5 year old Charlotte, and any other girls out there wondering what if and living with this deep feeling of wanting something so big and so beautiful, do not ignore the screams telling you to chase it. Listen to them and let them change your life.

1. Librae (Best Plain Croissant, perhaps of all time?)

2. Radio Bakery (Twice Baked Chocolate Almond)

3. Acre (Matcha Almond Croissant - weekends only)

4. Elbow Bread (Buttermilk Cake Donuts

   + Walnut Butter sandwich)

5. Raf’s (10/10 perfect chocolate croissants)

6. Interlude (Your solid coffee shop butter croissant)

7. Bakeri (The banana bread with dates + walnuts will change your life)

8. Gem Home (Breakfast bread plate)

Save this for your next weekend outing! And let me know if I missed any? :)

I’ve been starting off spring strong returning to my roots: weekends packed with design. From beautiful restaurants and cafes, to interior shops, galleries, and more. Your ultimate weekend guide to a design filled weekend in NYC.

Friday Night:

Dinner at The Odeon. Grab a friend, grab a bar seat. Order an extra dirty martini and a burger. Ideally in your favorite trench or vintage leather jacket. Head home early to prepare for a Saturday of sourcing.

Saturday:

Start your day with movement. An essential to get your creative brain flowing! A top favorite: Pilates at Nofar method in Flatiron. Follow up with a Foreigner coffee cortado.

Head to 28th street for floral and plant inspo. The start of any beautiful day revolves around a morning of flowers. Head up to 28th St between 6th and 7th ave for a bouquet of beauties or branches. Your mood and apartment will thank you.

Head to SoHo for some of my design favorites: Roman and Williams Guild (best ceramics and tabletop items and amazing floral inspo), BDDW (closing soon but a forever interiors favorite), Nickey Kehoe (a California classic).

Head uptown for an afternoon of museum and drink hopping. First stop: The Frick (go to the cafe for the club sandwich), follow up with a stroll down Fifth Ave to Casa Tua for drinks, perhaps pop over to the Met, end the afternoon at Casa Cruz for a pre dinner drink.

Finish the day at Le Cou Cou because it’s gorgeous, the bread and butter is perfection, and the steak is epic.

Xx

While I have always used yoga and breathwork to enhance my creativity, it was upon entering the creative business world that I realized their power in a business setting. The direct connection of heart openers to leadership, decision making, and strategic thinking has allowed me to push through some of my greatest challenges and come to some of my greatest breakthroughs in business.

What exactly is a heart opener you might ask? A heart opener is any kind of pose that physically expands through your chest, opens up your shoulders, and allows your heart to shine outward. For example, any kind of back bend is a form of a heart opener. The opening through your chest cavity when this movement takes place, physically opens up the space around heart. When the body physically opens and makes space, the mind senses that space and shifts. It now knows it has more space to give and to receive.

The ways I like to do this?

• Purchase a pilates ball. Lay on the ground, placing the ball between your shoulder blades and drape your back across the ball. The opening is wildly expansive and a favorite after a day of desk sitting. I try to do this at least 2-3x a day when I work from home. Deep inhales through the nose, audible exhales out of the mouth for 2-3 minutes.

• Lay on your back and lift your hips into a bridge. Clasp your hands underneath of your back and tuck your shoulder blades up underneath of the body. Slowly lower the hips onto your hands. This is a top favorite shoulder and chest opener. Deep inhales through the nose, audible exhales out of the mouth for 2-3 minutes.

Now for the how. How do I use heart openers to propel my business skills forward?

When you physically create an opening in the body, there is more room for the natural flow of your energy to make it’s way around the body and all the way to the mind. The physical feeling of opening signals your brain to feel as if it has more to give and more to receive.

When it comes to business, this sensation makes you a better leader:

• To better understand others, to make decisions from a higher level and a human one. To not just see something one way, but to see all sides. Zoomed in, zoomed out, past, present, future. Opening creates the space for all of these perspectives to exist at once.

• To face challenges without resistance and more open arms. Allowing you to acknowledge them and work with them not against them.

• To be honest. With your needs and the needs of the team and project you are a part of.

• To feel. Physical transformation reinforces the idea that the mind knows what has been, but also what can be. The act of creating space is a reminder that you are not trapped, there is always room to expand and transform.