I've always loved the phoenix, not because it's a beautiful symbol, but because it represents something I've come to understand firsthand: you can lose what you've built, find your footing, and create something entirely new. And sometimes, the next chapter turns out to be the one you never knew you needed.

My life has been full of reinventions. Some were planned. Others were absolutely not.

In 1994, my husband, Paul, and I packed everything we owned into a U-Haul and moved from Texas to Colorado. We had no jobs, no place to live, and about $1,500 to our name. We didn't have a plan, but we had a dream, and apparently a pretty high tolerance for uncertainty.

After serving at a restaurant for a while, I got a break and launched into corporate America. I worked my way up the ladder until the dot-com crash took my job in 2001. Around the same time, Paul was working for a small catering company in Denver. We had a choice: sell our house, take the equity, and travel the world, or buy the company and bet on ourselves.

We bought the company.

A few months later, Sept. 11 happened. Nearly all our clients were in financial services, and business almost stopped overnight. We rebuilt it piece by piece, eventually growing it into one of Denver's top catering companies.

While we were running the catering company and raising our twins, Emma and Luke, a friend introduced me to network marketing. I joined expecting to make a few hundred dollars a month. Instead, it grew into a multiple-six-figure business, and I eventually transitioned out of catering. For 14 years, I mentored women across the United States, Canada, and Australia as they stepped into entrepreneurship, and I watched them grow in confidence and discover what they could accomplish. It became the biggest, proudest thing I'd ever built.

That business also made possible a dream Paul and I had carried since 2001: traveling the world as a family.

In 2016, we put everything we owned in storage, packed one backpack each, and took Emma and Luke out of school for a year of adventure. I planned the entire trip myself, from flights and trains to Airbnbs, hotels, car rentals, and activities. We visited 25 countries that year. I've now traveled to 35 countries in all, and that year remains one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Then, in 2024, that business came crashing down almost overnight. One weekend, I had a business and an income I'd spent years creating. By the end of it, that income was gone. After everything I'd poured into building it, starting over wasn't exactly what I'd had in mind.

But I've never been one to stay down for long. I turned my attention to land, stepped into a whole new industry, and started learning, building, and finding my way forward again.

Today, my biggest focus is my AI consultancy for small businesses. I also run my land business, and my son and I own an organic lawn treatment company in Northern Colorado.

But through all those chapters, one thing never stopped calling to me: travel. It's when I feel most alive. I love discovering unfamiliar places, trying local food, exploring villages, and finding experiences you simply can't get from staying on the beaten path.

For three years, I've been designing Wild Phoenix Adventures.

Now I'm bringing it to you.

Wild Phoenix Adventures brings women entrepreneurs together to explore extraordinary places, try new things, and share experiences that become the stories we tell for years. Think active adventures, local culture, incredible food, and the kind of connection that happens when you step outside your usual routine and experience something new together.

I don't have every answer, and I don't think we need to have everything figured out before we do something wonderful for ourselves.

I've spent a lot of years building businesses and showing up for everyone else. Now, I'm creating adventures I want to experience myself, and inviting other women to come along.