MY STORY
From living by default to living byDesign.
I was dating men who weren't good for me. I was lonely, spiritually empty, living paycheck to paycheck, and convinced that if I just worked harder, everything would eventually add up. It never did. I wasn't the CEO of my life — I was just reacting to it, one day at a time, and calling the exhaustion "hustle."
What I wasn't intentional about, I was still choosing. And I was done living in the gap between the life I wanted and the life I actually had.
Then, in 2014, I lost someone I loved to a traumatic murder.
At the time I was a full-time college student and a dancer for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Grief has a way of making the truth impossible to ignore — and the truth was, I wasn't building the life I actually wanted. So I made the hardest decision of my life up to that point: I dropped out of college, left the team, and started my first business, Shameless Studios.
It worked — not by accident, but byDesign. I had a plan and I stuck to it. Three years later, after touring the country teaching my signature class and speaking on stages nationwide, I moved to Washington, DC, ready for the next chapter.
FINDING MY PEOPLE
The business wasn't the only thing I rebuilt.
I rebuilt my life.
I got honest about my identity, my faith, my stewardship, my discipline — the internal work no one sees. That work is what made me the woman I needed to become to recognize and deserve the kind of partner I actually wanted.
I met my husband, Dre, and we made the decision to wait for marriage together. We've shared that journey on stages like Red Table Talk, CultureCon, Fox 8 and our YouTube Channel "Relationship Restored".
Ten-plus years later, he is living proof that the work is worth it.
That same season brought me the friendships I used to only dream about — the kind that feel like sisters, not acquaintances.
THE SUCCESS
Dre and I built a second business together — and it grew fast.
We combined my strengths — branding, social growth, coaching — with his: content, production, finance. For six years we ran it full time, working with celebrities, athletes, Grammy-winning artists, and corporate brands across the world. Eventually Dre stepped into a role as Director of Podcasting and the Creator Network at Urban One. The business grew to 15 employees across 5 locations.
Then, in 2024, I got pregnant — and we made a choice most people don't understand until they're in it. We retired the business so I could step fully into motherhood.
WHAT CAME NEXT
What came next wasn't the chapter I planned...
Back-to-back miscarriages. Misdiagnosis after misdiagnosis. Two years of appointments and bloodwork and "experts" without answers. In 2026, I was finally diagnosed with clinical depression — one I believe was rooted in something deeper than hormones: the loss of my identity. I had given up the business to become a mother, and for a long time, I was left with neither.
I had to learn to surrender to uncertainty I couldn't plan my way out of. To trust that I was being prepared for something greater, even when I couldn't see it yet. I'm grateful to say I've since gotten clarity on what was happening in my body, and I've been cleared to try again — even as we're choosing to take our time.
HERE'S WHAT I FINALLY UNDERSTOOD
I built a business based on how much money it could make, and then rearranged my life to keep up with it.
I was managing a team, chasing scale, running on a wheel that never stopped — instead of building something that was actually built to support the life I wanted underneath it.
byDesign exists because I needed it first.
The byDesign Session, the community, the brand work — none of it is theory. It's the exact path I walked to stop living by default and start building a life, and a business, on purpose and byDesign!
THE TIMELINE
From default to byDesign
IN THEIR WORDS
"Bre's plan is the reason I finally launched my business." "The accountability and weekly coaching has changed my life." "I used to procrastinate but now I move byDesign." "The byDesign session truly changed my life and my business."
