From Building Brands to Building Me: How Loss Led Me to Live Bright™
How five years of loss led me to stop building other people's brands — and finally start building my own.
From Building Brands to Building Me: How Loss Led Me to Live Bright™
I spent 25 years building brands that millions of people trusted.
The Coca-Cola Company. Nestlé. Mastercard. NIVEA. Aquaphor. Eucerin. Coppertone.
Household names. Brands with heart, purpose, and carefully crafted identities designed to make people feel something real.
I was good at it. Really good.
Omnichannel strategy, shopper marketing, retail media, experiential campaigns — I lived and breathed brand storytelling. I knew exactly how to take a product and make it mean something to someone.
What I had not figured out yet was how to do that for myself.
The Years That Took Everything
Between 2021 and 2025, life handed me a gauntlet I never could have prepared for.
In 2021, I lost Chloe — my dog of 17 years. If you have never loved an animal that deeply, I will not try to explain it. If you have, you already know. It was the darkest period of my life. “Gut-wrenching” does not even begin to cover it.
Less than a year and a half later, I lost my mom. She had fought Stage 4 cancer for eight extraordinary years — eight years of courage, resilience, and strength. I was holding her hand when she passed away. My therapist, Jessica, became a guiding light during that time. She helped me find my footing when the ground kept disappearing beneath me.
Then, in 2023, I lost my dad. We had experienced difficult times — distance, complexity, and the kind of unresolved pain families sometimes carry. But before he passed away from Stage 3 cancer, I got on a plane to Arizona. I needed to see him, to be there for him, and to find closure where I could. That visit gave me a peace I will always be grateful for.
In 2024, my role was eliminated during a corporate restructuring. Honestly, it hurt far less than everything that came before it. Leadership had changed. The job had changed. In many ways, they did me a favor — even if I could not fully see it at the time.
Then, in 2025, I lost Steve — a dear friend and my “vacation husband,” as Theresa jokingly called him, because whenever we traveled together, Steve and I would inevitably sneak off to find the nearest watering hole and people-watch while everyone else followed the itinerary.
He had retired to Florida with his wife, Theresa, who is also one of my closest friends. I watched his health decline visit after visit, each trip becoming harder than the last. I was able to see him one final time at Thanksgiving — a gift I did not know I needed. He did not make it to my next visit.
Five years. Five losses.
Each one chipped away at the version of me who had always known exactly who she was.
The Moment Everything Shifted
It was during my fourth visit to Florida — this time to comfort Theresa after Steve’s passing, which also happened to coincide with their anniversary — that something inside me finally settled.
I looked around at the life I was standing in: the warmth, the water, the slower pace, and the clarity that comes when you stop running from grief and simply allow yourself to feel it.
And I made a decision.
It was time for a reset.
A fresh start.
My corporate life was behind me. The woman who had spent more than 25 years pouring herself into other people’s brands had done her part. Now it was time to pour that same energy, expertise, and love of storytelling into myself.
I had a list.
Not a business plan — a list.
Things I had always wanted to do but kept postponing for deadlines, deliverables, and someone else’s quarterly goals.
Write a book.
Start a blog.
Build something that was entirely, unapologetically mine.
And at the top of that list was a name I had carried with me for years — a name given to me by a dear friend who saw something in me that I was still learning to see in myself.
Summersun™
What Summersun™ Really Is
Summersun is not just a lifestyle brand. It is a declaration.
It is what happens when a woman who has spent decades building brands decides that she is the most important brand she will ever build.
Yes, it is apparel, accessories, and a content platform. But beneath all of that, it is a philosophy:
Live Bright™
Two words that mean something different to everyone who hears them — and something deeply personal to me.
It is the belief that no matter what life hands you, life is always better lived brightly.
Not perfectly.
Not without pain.
Just brightly — with intention, gratitude, and joy wherever you can find it.
It is something I choose every single day.
To Every Woman With a List
Maybe you are mid-career and quietly wondering if this is all there is.
Maybe you have faced your own gauntlet of losses — your own years that took too much.
Maybe you have a list too, tucked away in a notes app or hidden in the back of your mind, filled with dreams that belong to the version of yourself you keep postponing.
I am here to tell you this:
She is still there.
Waiting.
And she has more to offer the world than she has been given credit for.
You do not need a perfect plan.
You need a decision.
I moved to Punta Gorda, specifically to Babcock Ranch.
I am launching Summersun™.
I am writing the book.
I am building the brand.
And every morning that I wake up on my own terms, I think about Chloe, my mom, my dad, and Steve — and I choose to Live Bright™.
For them.
For me.
For every woman still discovering that she is the brand worth building.
Krissy is a marketing strategist, lifestyle brand founder, and the creator of Summersun — a brand rooted in the belief that every woman deserves to Live Bright™.
Stay tuned for the Summersun™ launch, coming soon.
