You're Not Behind in Life: What Starting Over at Every Age Actually Looks Like

I'm turning 30 this year. I just hit three years at a job that has genuinely changed my life. And I've been doing markets since September 2025, watching my little paper goods business grow faster than I ever expected. Looking back at all of it... the starts, the pivots, the quiet years, the overwhelming ones... I can only really say one thing: every single chapter led here. And I wouldn't change any of it.

It started with a camera and a love for this city. In 2020, I started LKLDlense, and at the time, it was simple. It was just a place to share my photography and my love for Lakeland. But it didn't stay simple for long. It slowly transformed into something I hadn't planned... a platform for telling the stories of local small business owners. Specifically, the micro-businesses. The ones without a storefront. The makers, bakers, and creators you'd only find at the Downtown Curb Market or a local makers market. I loved it.

I got to connect with Mike & Mike's Desserts and attend their launch party at Catapult. I got to know Andrew Logans and his incredible handcrafted chocolates. I featured businesses like Milk & Honey Macaroons, Mamcita Lifestyle Co., Meraki Bakehouse, The Baking Brewer, Orange Blossom Poems, Help(her), Botany Cats, and so many more. Each one had a story. Each one had a human behind it who was betting on themselves, and I almost felt like covering them was my way of living vicariously through that bravery. It was exciting and exhausting in equal measure. But I was all in.

From 2021 to 2023, I worked for the Lakeland Chamber of Commerce. And between LKLDlense hitting its stride and being embedded in the local business community through the Chamber, I was everywhere. I knew people, and people knew me. I connected with everyone from micro-business owners to CEOs of major Lakeland companies. It was a genuinely incredible season. But here's the thing about being everywhere: it comes with a version of yourself that you have to maintain.

The person most people knew wasn't just Emily. It was "Emily from the Chamber." And she was polished. Put together. Always "on." Every time I left the house, there was this unspoken pressure to look the part, act the part, be the part. There is a very specific kind of freedom in being able to throw on leggings and a ratty t-shirt to go to the farmers market and leave without talking to a single soul. Emily from the Chamber did not get to have that. And then came the influencer chapter.

By 2023, going into 2024, LKLDlense had evolved again. I was being hired and invited to events as an influencer. I attended Mike & Mike's launch party. I was hired by Visit Central Florida to cover the 50th Anniversary of SUN n' FUN and the Grills Gone Wild BBQ Competition. I did a marketing video for the RP Funding Center's 50th Anniversary. On paper, it sounds like a dream.

The business cycle is relentless. Businesses close. New ones open. Trends shift. Algorithms change. Keeping up with what's new, what's relevant, what's performing... making content every day just to stay visible, it's genuinely hard work. Anyone who tells you being a social media influencer or content creator is easy is lying to you. It takes everything. And for me, the payout wasn't worth the cost. Not because the money wasn't there, it was. But I'm naturally introverted. I get drained. And "Influencer Emily" was just an extension of "Chamber Emily" ... a polished, always-on, front-and-center version of me that real Emily was exhausted by. I didn't want to be the main character. I wanted to tell other people's stories. So I stepped back. And honestly, it was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

When I left the Chamber and let LKLDlense go quiet, I went from being a recognizable face all over Lakeland to working from home as a graphic designer for SouthState Bank. Locally, I basically became a cryptid. People would spot me at a random event or market, and it was almost a surprise. I kind of loved it. But more than the quiet, what I found at SouthState genuinely changed the trajectory of my life. The right job with the right team gave me the foundation to build everything else.

In three years, I've bought a home, gotten married, and opened my business banking account for Killer Creative. SouthState has been woven into some of the biggest real-life milestones I've ever had. And I don't take that lightly.

I started doing markets in September 2025. And watching how quickly things have grown from then to now, there's a part of me that thinks... if I had started this six years ago, where would I be? When I see a 24-year-old confidently running their own booth at a market, I feel a little flicker of "I wish I had been that brave at that age." But then I remember what 24 looked like for me. It was 2020. A global pandemic had just upended everything. I was coming out of one of the hardest personal seasons of my life. The stress of my job at the time was the highest it's ever been. Nobody knew what was coming next, and yet that's also exactly when I started LKLDlense. Even then, I was creating.

Every chapter since has led somewhere. The photography. The Chamber. The influencer era I walked away from. The quiet years at home. The job that changed my life. The markets. Killer Creative Studio.

You can start something, realize it's not right for you, and pivot. You can do that more than once. You can be good at something and still choose not to do it. You can step back from visibility without disappearing. You can let a version of yourself go and still be wholly, completely yourself. There are no rules. You're not behind in life. And if you're lucky, you'll look back someday and realize that even the chapters that felt like detours were actually the whole point. Every chapter led here.