The best way to explain the creation of W.D.Gafs is to share a little bit about my life's journey.

I was born the runt of five, the one who never stopped moving. As a little kid I counted everything (steps, ceiling tiles, heartbeats) because numbers made sense when people didn’t. I was precocious, curious, and painfully aware that I didn’t fit in. My wit showed up early; it was the only bridge I had to other humans. So I became the class clown. It worked… until it didn’t.

By high school I had a driver’s license before most kids had braces, and I let people use me and my car because crumbs of pretend-friendship felt better than none. My self-esteem was underground. Real friends were rare, but the few I found loved the real me, and that kept me afloat.

College was a blur of graphic design, then architecture, then leaving in my fourth year to marry young, have a baby, and follow a Navy SEAL husband. We were kids trying to play grown-up; we ended up better friends than spouses. After the divorce I moved home, finished a nursing degree, and stepped into hospital life still feeling lost inside.

For years I was the helpful nurse with the big smile who drank too much, partied too hard, and wasn’t the mother I wanted to be. In the early 2000s I hit the wall: keep going like this and I would lose everything that mattered. So I got honest, got spiritual, and got to work on becoming a decent human being. It wasn’t a hobby; it was survival.

Something shifted. The woman who used to break rules started following them (and writing better ones). One day my boss looked at me and said, “You’re a born leader.” I thought she was joking. She wasn’t. I leaned in. I studied, I stumbled, I learned from every mistake, and leadership started chasing me instead of the other way around. I was recruited over and over because word got around that I could fix broken teams and make people feel seen.

Five years running a hospital education department felt like coming home: creativity, teaching, and spirituality finally got to live in the same room. I trained leaders, but I was really trying to grow better humans (myself included). I learned the most important lesson of my life there: the day you think you know enough is the day you start shrinking.

Eventually I wanted more. I wanted to reach farther than one hospital, one city. I looked at the world (so full of division, selfishness, and noise) and decided to build something that carried everything I am: the spiritual seeker who crawled out of darkness, the perpetual student, the recovered addict who understands shame, the anxious-depressed young mom who hasn’t felt those shadows in decades, the grandmother who never lost her childlike wonder, the “born leader,” and the smart-ass who still counts everything (only now I count breakthroughs).

So I created this company. It’s every character that lives inside me (some straight from my real life, most embellished so you can see yourself in them). My mission is the same one that saved me: to help you become the best version of yourself, not because you’re broken, but because you’re already perfect underneath all the noise, and it’s a crime to keep that hidden.

Whatever part of you clicked the link today (the clown, the sufferer, the leader, the lost kid, the spiritual seeker); you’re home. I’ve been all of those people. And I’m living proof that the story isn’t over until you decide who you’re going to become. So welcome to W.D. Gafs (Well done good and faithful servant).

Let’s write the next chapters together. I’m counting on you.