Hi. I’m Krista.

Thanks for stopping by.

I used to think success was linear.

By my early 30s, I had a successful career, a thriving business, financial security, and a life I was proud of.

Then at 38, much of it disappeared.

I left Silicon Valley, sold my agency shares, went through a lengthy divorce, and learned something I wish I’d understood years earlier:

I had spent a lot of time building brands, businesses, and professional equity for other people, but not enough that belonged to me.

Without my former title, I suddenly felt invisible.

That experience is a big reason Creator Paybook exists.

Fun facts about me:

I’ve spent more than 20 years in marketing and entrepreneurship. I was CMO and co-owner of an eight-figure agency, worked with brands including Apple, HP, Google, Samsung, and Sephora, and have helped more than 250 founders and independent professionals build stronger brands.

Since starting over, I’ve served as a Fractional CMO, built an audience of more than 78,000 on LinkedIn, grown a newsletter to 37,000+ subscribers, experimented with 12 income streams, and pivoted my own offers six times.

So no, my entrepreneurial career has not followed a beautiful straight line.

And I’m glad it didn’t.

It taught me that the goal isn’t to copy somebody else’s version of success.

It’s to figure out where you are, what you want next, and build the visibility, income, offers, and business around that.

That’s what eventually became Creator Paybook.

What I write about

I believe you should build something in your own name before you need it.

Jobs change. Businesses end. Clients disappear. Personal crises happen.

But your reputation, relationships, expertise, audience, and ability to earn can travel with you.

So this publication is about building those things.

I write about career pivots, personal brands and microbrands, positioning, recognition, creator income, offers, pricing, business models, and designing work around the life you actually want.

There is no single playbook that works for everyone.

And I definitely don’t believe you choose your business model once and then faithfully drag it around for the rest of your life.

Who it’s for

Creator Paybook is for independent professionals building businesses around what they know.

Consultants, founders, creators, advisors, coaches, and experts.

You might be figuring out what to build for the first time.

Or you might be 10 years in, doing perfectly well on paper, and quietly wondering:

What’s next?

I’ve been there.

What you’ll find here

→ My own experiments, pivots, wins, mistakes, and lessons from working for myself

→ Practical ideas about positioning, recognition, audience building, and creating an unignorable microbrand

→ Offers, pricing, revenue models, and turning expertise into income

→ Honest conversations about independence, money, ambition, career changes, and the tradeoffs behind building a business around your life

I’m much more interested in the full picture than the glorified highlight reel.

It’s the framework I wish I’d been following before I needed it.

If you’re building something around your expertise, reconsidering what you’ve already built, or asking yourself what comes next, I think you’ll feel at home here.