I Needed a Rebrand Too

Inside SPEEMA’s Rebranding Brunch, where a “no gatekeeping” rule set the tone for an afternoon of connection, collaboration, and women sharing what they know.

There’s something almost too perfect about attending an event called The Rebranding Brunch while you’re in the middle of rebranding your own life and business.

By the time I walked into SPEEMA’s Rebranding Brunch, change wasn’t exactly a new concept for me. I had moved back to Massachusetts, started introducing About Us to a new community, and was already making some pretty big decisions about where I wanted to take this platform next.

So, I wasn’t looking for someone to tell me what my next move should be. I was getting clearer about what that looked like, and apparently, so were a lot of the women in that room.

Maybe I needed a rebrand too.

I’m not just talking about changing how things look. I mean the kind of rebrand that makes you take a real look at what you’ve built, get clear about what you want to carry forward, and have enough confidence to leave behind what no longer fits.

The timing couldn’t have been better.

More Than a Boston Brunch

Before this event, SPEEMA was new to me, but what Founder and CEO Sherlens Bienaime has created goes well beyond one beautiful afternoon in Boston.

SPEEMA is an exclusive women’s network with a presence in Boston, the DMV, Orlando, and New York City, creating spaces for women to connect, learn from each other, and, maybe most importantly, actually build relationships.

And you could feel that intention in the room.

This wasn’t an event where networking was something you were just expected to figure out between bites of brunch.

They made us do it, and I mean that in the best way possible.

No Gatekeeping

We started the day with one rule: No gatekeeping!

The first collaboration exercise had us find a partner in a completely different field and come up with a way we could potentially work together.

Whether you actually followed through after the brunch was on you, but for those few minutes, you had to get outside of your industry and think about what you could create with someone whose work looked nothing like yours. My partner and I found it a bit challenging at first, but once we hit that “aha” moment, we locked in for sure.

Then came speed networking.

Watching the entire room shift from conversation to conversation was probably one of my favorite parts of the afternoon. You could literally watch introductions turn into ideas in real time.

And nobody got to hide in a corner.

There was a pitch competition too, where women had the opportunity to put their businesses in front of the room. Skye Warren ultimately took the first-prize win for her business, Deeper Than Beauty, and very deservedly so.

It felt like SPEEMA understood something about networking that can sometimes get lost:

Putting interesting people in the same room isn’t enough.

You have to give them a reason to talk to each other.

Ask all the Questions

I was a little nervous before I went, per usual. Not because I questioned whether I should be there, but because I knew there would be women in that room with serious experience in areas I’m actively growing in (and yes, I did my research beforehand).

Which, when you really think about it, is exactly where you want to be.

So, I gave myself my usual “Okay girl, just go” pep talk and decided that if I was going to be in the room, I was going to use it. And I’m glad I did.

I got the chance to speak one-on-one with women who are experiencing success in and around my field and ask the kinds of questions you don’t always get the opportunity to ask someone whose work you genuinely respect.

And of course, the conversations were only as good as the women SPEEMA brought into the room.

The featured lineup included Yazmine Artis, Chantel Mayo, Natalya Somers, Joanna Edwards, Ruth Joseph, Naldine Augustin, Anngybel Moreta, and Gia Bueno, with Stephanie Aldophe hosting and Jasmin Lobo moderating the conversations.

What I appreciated was the range of experience represented. These weren't eight women with the exact same career path or perspective. They came into the room with different businesses, industries, experiences, and areas of expertise. There was genuinely something different to take away from each conversation.

And because we’d already established that this was a no-gatekeeping zone, they answered. Not with a vague “you just have to stay consistent” and walk away, but with real conversation and perspective.

I left some of those conversations with advice that I could genuinely apply to what I’m building (not to mention a super cool mentor).

One conversation that particularly stood out to me was Stephanie Aldophe’s conversation with Haitian Creator, Ruth Joseph. There’s such an art to commanding a room without making the conversation feel stiff, and they did that incredibly well, keeping things personal while still knowing when to dig a little deeper.

As a storyteller myself, I truly admired that.

Okay, Now Let’s Talk About the Room

Because SPEEMA did not play about the details.

The draping. The florals. The green chairs. The table settings.

Even the guests understood the assignment because the color palette in that room was color paletting. I don’t know how they pulled that off, but they did. 😂

Everything felt considered, and by the time the food came around, I was absolutely ready for it.

The main brunch course was served by Chiki's Kreyol, a Brockton-based business, which immediately caught my attention for hometown reasons, and the food did not disappoint. Shrimp, grits, chicken, waffles, breakfast potatoes, bacon…I mean, what else could I ask of a good brunch?

That’s also part of what I loved about looking around the room.

The experience wasn’t only about the women on the panel. There were photographers, creatives, beauty professionals, entrepreneurs, vendors, and businesses contributing to what the afternoon became.

There was a lot to discover, and that’s very much my kind of event.

What’s Next for SPEEMA

SPEEMA isn’t done creating spaces in Boston.

On October 17, 2026, SPEEMA will return as one of the organizations behind The Founders Table, alongside Beyond Nursing Experience, Fleurish Design Studios, and Rooted Island.

The Founders Table is an intimate evening created specifically for 25 founders.

Rather than another traditional networking event, the idea is to bring a curated group of people together to talk about what happens behind the businesses they’re building: the lessons, experiences, and conversations that don’t always happen publicly.

Which, after experiencing the Rebranding Brunch, makes perfect sense.

What stood out to me about SPEEMA wasn’t simply that they could fill a beautiful room with ambitious women. It was how intentional they were about getting those women to actually talk to each other.

The Founders Table feels like an extension of that. Applications are currently open, and as someone building a company of my own, I will definitely be submitting my own.

A Rebrand Already in Motion

By the end of the afternoon, I felt so much more certain about what I was already doing with About Us.

I’m taking something I spent time building and giving it more room to become what I always knew it could be: a platform where we don’t just talk about what’s happening, but pay attention to who’s making it happen as well.

That’s what I needed to be reminded of that afternoon.

Growth doesn’t always mean starting from scratch. Sometimes it’s looking at everything you’ve already created and finally having the clarity and, most importantly, the confidence to build the next version of it.

And maybe I needed a rebrand too.