2025: The Year My Outie Won

A year ago, I was still in the cycle. Tailoring resumes. Writing cover letters. Refreshing my inbox waiting for responses that never came.

I had worked at Google. BuzzFeed at it’s beak. Westbrook Media with Will Smith, Ryan Reynolds, Jessica Chastain, Pharrell, Alicia Keys and more. My work had generated over 2 billion views. I had the resume. I had the experience. I had the proof.

And I was still getting rejected.

The moment that made me nearly crash out? I got a referral from a CEO for a job at her company. Should've been a layup. The hiring manager was second guessing interview me because in her eyes I was "circumventing the interview process."

I didn't apply through their portal. I didn't throw my resume into the abyss like everyone else. Apparently, that was a problem. I never knew referrals were a problem until then, but apparently it was. That's when I realized the game was cooked. And I was done playing it.

I started WALTER + PEARL STUDIOS in May 2022. But if I'm being honest, I didn't really go all in until 2025.

The first 90 days were ROUGH. Cold emails. Warm leads that went nowhere. Pitches that brands loved but didn’t want to release the budget for. I heard "this is great, but we're not spending right now," more times than I can count. I heard "we're going in a different direction" even more.

It would've been easier to go back to applying. To take the "safe" route. But here's what kept me going. Years ago, there was a woman on LinkedIn (I cannot remember her name, sorry) who would comment on my posts when I would complain about the job hunt. Every single time, she'd say the same thing: "Build your own thing."

It used to frustrate me SO bad. I was trying to build, but auntie, I also have bills to pay. I needed stability. I needed a job. God bless her, because she was right and I wish I had listened years ago.

I was too broke to quit, so I kept putting up shots and eventually, opportunities began opening up. WALTER + PEARL crossed 7 figures in revenue in 2025. Yes, you read that correctly. INSANE, right?

We worked with T-Mobile, Away, Nike, and more. We created campaigns I'm genuinely proud of. Content that didn't just get views, it moved culture. But more than the revenue or the client list, here's what actually changed:

I stopped waiting for opportunities. I started creating them.

When you're applying to jobs, you're at the mercy of someone else's timeline. Someone else's budget. Someone else's opinion of whether you "fit,” the company and it’s culture. You can be the most qualified person in the room and still get rejected because you didn't fill out the form the right way. When you build your own thing, you control the outcome. Getting a “yes,” isn’t a matter of “if,” it’s simply “when,” if you keep shooting.

Betting on yourself is terrifying until it works.

The first few months, I questioned everything. Was I making a mistake? Should I just take a full-time job and do this on the side? What if I run out of money?

But every small win built momentum. Every "yes" validated my decision to be on me after a decade of building for everyone else. Every project proved I didn't need someone's permission to do great work and the WALTER + PEARL team did AMAZING work.

Eventually, the fear turned into confidence. And the confidence turned into results.

Content that moves culture beats content that gets clicks.

The biggest lesson from building W+P: brands don't need more content. They need content that matters.

Viral views are great. But if your campaign doesn't shift how people think, feel, or act, if it doesn't become part of the cultural conversation, it's just noise.

The best work we've done at W+P isn't the stuff that got the most impressions. It's the stuff that people actually talked about internally with stakeholders and externally. The campaigns that made brands feel less like advertisers and more like participants in culture.

It’s possible. I'm not here to tell you to quit your job tomorrow. That's not realistic for most people, and honestly, it wasn't even realistic for me for a long time. Still isn’t. 7 figures in revenue, is not 7 figures in profit.

But if you're tired of waiting for permission, if you know you're capable of more but the traditional path keeps rejecting you, here's what I want you to do:

Ask yourself these questions:

Where am I actually trying to go? Not where I think I should go. Not where my parents want me to go. Not the safe path. Where do I actually want to end up?

What am I waiting for permission to do? Is it starting a business? Creating the work I actually care about? Reaching out to brands I want to work with? What's the thing I keep telling myself I'll do "when the time is right"?

What would I do if I knew I couldn't fail? If money wasn't an issue. If rejection didn't hurt. If I had complete confidence. What would I build?

How much longer am I willing to wait to start and what does delaying that start mean for my future? A year? 5 years? 10?

I'm not saying you need to have all the answers right now. I didn't. But you do need to be honest with yourself about where you are and where you're trying to go.

Because the gap between those two things and the clarity? That's where transformation lives.

If you're past the "should I do this" phase and you're in the thick of it, considering reintegration, I’m proud of you, babe.

Please know that rejection comes with it. It doesn't mean you’re not worthy. Take your no’s with grace. Use the information and feedback (if they give you any) and use that to keep getting better.

Your network is more valuable than your portfolio. The best clients came from people who knew my work, not people who saw my website.

Don't wait for the perfect moment to get a new job or to start that new project, it’ll never come.

I believe in you. Talk soon.

-Key