Carla Rumsey

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Entrepreneur + CRE enthusiast documenting my journey from scratch.
✨ Founder: New Online You + 💙💛 Down Syndrome Magazine
🖋️ Branding | Family | Growth | 🌱 Vegetarian | ✈️ Travel
Sharing wins, lessons, and inspiration in real time.

A month ago I was grinding quietly.Submitting LOIs on deals I wasn't sure would go anywhere. Cleaning out a CRM full of ...
07/21/2026

A month ago I was grinding quietly.

Submitting LOIs on deals I wasn't sure would go anywhere. Cleaning out a CRM full of things that had sold, fallen off market, or just weren't the right fit for where I was heading anymore. Following up on old leads. Sending NDA requests. Doing the unglamorous infrastructure work that doesn't make for a great post but keeps the pipeline alive.

Some days felt slow. Like I was pushing through mud and wondering if anything was actually moving.

I kept going anyway.

I raised my hand for a position that didn't exist yet inside an elite group I'm part of. Got invited into the conversation. Then into the room.

I figured out what was keeping me from posting consistently. Visuals were my bottleneck. Found a way around it. Started restructuring my entire social media approach. Started building a newsletter. Not launched yet but in motion.

I spent 30 minutes three times a day negotiating antibiotics with a sick little girl and another 30 cuddling her while she cried. Made new recipes for Ellie whose gut we're still figuring out. Did all the average mom things that never make the wins list but hold everything else together.

I showed up to every Zoom call. Made some calls. Not as many as I wanted. But some.

I kept going anyway.

Then everything hit at once.

That position I raised my hand for? I was offered a seat on the internal management team as Director of Branding. A role that didn't exist yet. I just kept showing up and the opportunity shaped itself around that.

One of those LOIs I submitted during the quiet weeks? It's now a signed Purchase and Sale Agreement. My first commercial real estate acquisition. My first business acquisition. I sourced it, underwrote it, helped negotiate it, and will build the branding and digital presence post close.

I've been placed on active projects helping build the systems that define how our acquisition managers operate. Building content infrastructure with our head of tech. Learning AI agents live inside a real business. Not a course, not theory, the actual work.

And I'm starting to build out product line ideas and branding mock-ups for a motel we're acquiring. Its history. Its people. Its next chapter.

A month ago I was grinding quietly and wondering if it was adding up to anything.

Turns out it was.

I didn't see any of this coming. Not the role. Not the deal moving the way it did. Not all of it landing in the same stretch of weeks.

But I know exactly why it happened.

I kept going anyway.

If you're in a quiet season right now, submitting offers into silence, showing up when nobody's watching, doing the work that doesn't make for a good post, keep going.

The month you almost quit might be the month everything turns.

There’s a spot in downtown Nashville most people walk right past.A handful of log cabins, sitting quiet on the riverfron...
07/12/2026

There’s a spot in downtown Nashville most people walk right past.

A handful of log cabins, sitting quiet on the riverfront. A reconstruction of the first settlement here. People who showed up with nothing and just needed four walls to survive the season.

Two blocks away it’s h***y tonks, tourist filled streets, and performers throwing their dreams into the air hoping someone catches them.

But right there on the river, it’s still. Like the cabins agreed a long time ago not to be part of any of it.

Everything we’re building, the businesses, the deals, the brand, the noise, it all traces back to people who just needed to make it through the winter. No funding rounds. No content calendar. Just: survive this, then build the next thing.

Makes you look at your own “hustle” a little differently and pushes you to think smaller and bigger at the same time.

Not going to lie, this new role has me genuinely excited in a way I didn't see coming.In most of my businesses, I'm the ...
07/10/2026

Not going to lie, this new role has me genuinely excited in a way I didn't see coming.

In most of my businesses, I'm the one architecting everything: the brand, the strategy, the systems, the messaging, the design, and how it all fits together. I'm usually building the entire ecosystem from the ground up.

This time is different.

I get to focus on what I love most: branding.

I get to pour my energy into shaping the story, the positioning, the messaging, and the experience, while other team players get to do what they do best. Instead of trying to be the architect, the builder, the developer, and everything in between, I can stay in my lane and let talented people own theirs.

That makes my job not only easier, but much more enjoyable.

I'm excited to collaborate, learn from everyone on the team, and watch this brand evolve together. We each bring a different strength to the table, and that's exactly how great organizations are built.

I'm genuinely excited to be part of what we're creating. The most rewarding part isn't just seeing the finished brand. It's getting to experience and help shape the journey as it's happening, for this company and every company we acquire.

Six months ago I joined a commercial real estate investment firm as an Acquisition Manager.My goal was simple: understan...
07/08/2026

Six months ago I joined a commercial real estate investment firm as an Acquisition Manager.

My goal was simple: understand CRE at a real level, not from the outside, but from inside real deals, with an eye toward eventually investing myself, especially in adaptive reuse. Taking something overlooked and giving it a new purpose has always pulled at me. It’s the same instinct I’ve built my career around, just applied to buildings instead of brands.

What I didn’t expect was how fast my other skill set would start showing up in the room.

I’ve spent years building brands, helping businesses clarify their message, build trust, and connect with the people they’re trying to reach. I didn’t think that had much to do with underwriting a deal.

I was wrong.

The more time I spent inside real acquisitions (financials, structure, strategy), the more I noticed the same principles from branding sitting right underneath the numbers. Trust. Clarity. Positioning. The story a company or property tells the market isn’t separate from its value. It IS part of its value.

That connection kept showing up. So I started saying it out loud.

Today I’m stepping into a new role as Director of Branding, joining the management team as we help shape the next chapter of this firm’s growth. We’re evolving from a CRE investment foundation into an operator-led platform built around acquiring and growing small and mid-sized businesses backed by real estate.

My seat at the table isn’t about the deal terms. It’s about making sure the vision, the story, and the way we show up in the market are as strong as the acquisitions themselves.

Branding was never just the label on the box. It’s part of what makes the box worth buying.

And that’s where this story really begins.

The last two weeks have been a roller coaster……in the best possible way.Today, I’m giving myself permission to slow down...
07/04/2026

The last two weeks have been a roller coaster…

…in the best possible way.

Today, I’m giving myself permission to slow down.

To be a little more present, and a little less focused on perfection.

Not because everything is done.

But because I need to be more grounded in the middle of it all.

This morning started with an unexpected business call after a late night working on a project that’s going to play a major role in my future.

It came from one of our internal leadership team members.

Not just a check-in.

A real shift moment—moving one of the first acquisitions I signed as an acquisition manager in a growing M&A firm from a signed LOI into a Purchase and Sale Agreement.

The kind of call you don’t miss.

The only problem?

I couldn’t figure out how to turn my camera off in WhatsApp.

So there I was…

Bed hair. Sleep-deprived eyes. No makeup. No contacts. Barely awake.

Not exactly how you’d script a “big moment.”

And yet—it didn’t matter.

A few years ago, I would’ve cared more about how I looked than what was happening.

Today, I cared about the opportunity.

Progress doesn’t always happen when everything is perfectly put together.

It shows up in real life.

Messy hair, blurry vision, and a mind still catching up while opportunity is already knocking.

Now I’m stepping away from screens for a bit—family time, a slow afternoon, and a drive with the beardies before everything ramps back up on Monday.

Life doesn’t wait until you’re ready.

It simply asks you to show up anyway.

Happy Independence Day. 🇺🇸

07/03/2026

Today’s office: my car, in a parking lot, no signal, watching a tornado pass while I was supposed to be on a Zoom call.

Before that, the power went out twice during lunch with my family. Twice.

This is the part nobody puts on the highlight reel. Not the pitch deck. Not the “we closed the deal” post. Just me, disconnected, rescheduling, resetting, and trying again.

Building something means you don’t get to control the weather — literally or otherwise. You just adapt and keep moving.

Anyone else having one of those days where the universe is testing your flexibility?

Last night we had one of the strangest storms I've ever experienced.That's a big statement coming from me.I've sat in an...
07/03/2026

Last night we had one of the strangest storms I've ever experienced.

That's a big statement coming from me.

I've sat in an office bathroom while a tornado passed over. Watched a tree get ripped out of our yard and thrown onto our roof. Lived through three days of rain so relentless the river rose and swallowed three-quarters of our home before I even understood what was happening.

My son still gets uneasy when the sky turns that specific shade of dark. He's earned the right to.

Last night wasn't that kind of scary. But it was something I'd never seen — rain, then pounding hail the size of marbles, then snow falling in the middle of it... in July. Thunder and lightning threaded through the whole thing like the sky couldn't decide what it wanted to be.

This morning we were greeted with trees down and flooding in the areas around us.

Here's the thing about storms — the scary ones and the beautiful ones aren't always different storms. Sometimes they're the same one, depending on where you're standing and what you've already survived.

Last night reminded me that after enough storms, you stop just bracing for impact. You start noticing the strange, beautiful, once-in-a-lifetime parts too.

What's the strangest storm you've ever lived through?

Last night I was pouring my daughter a glass of water and the jar shattered. Mid-pour. In the air.Not dropped. Not chipp...
07/02/2026

Last night I was pouring my daughter a glass of water and the jar shattered. Mid-pour. In the air.

Not dropped. Not chipped first. No warning. It just broke. Water and glass everywhere, in every direction.

I stood there for a second like... what just happened.

Then I grabbed towels. Picked up shards. Mopped the floor. Again. Went to bed later than planned.

Nothing about it was anything I did wrong. It just happened. That's most of life, honestly, and definitely most of building things. You're moving along, doing the normal thing, and out of nowhere something breaks that you didn't see coming and didn't cause.

The move isn't to figure out why. Sometimes there's no why. The move is: clean it up, get some rest, and get back to it in the morning.

So go pour a glass of water. And if it breaks, grab a towel.

Mondays never go as planned. Ever.Got up early. Plans changed almost immediately. The day turned into something complete...
06/23/2026

Mondays never go as planned. Ever.

Got up early. Plans changed almost immediately. The day turned into something completely different than what I mapped out.

But here’s what didn’t fall apart — food.

Because I prepped yesterday, the kids had easy grab-and-go all day and I didn’t have to think about it once.

Dinner was me on a Zoom call eating mexican quinoa lettuce wraps in the background like the multitasking chaos person I am.

And somehow it was still productive.

Checked in on a handful of LOIs from last week. Got a broker call scheduled with our President to push a deal toward the finish line.

Not the Monday I planned. But a Monday that moved things forward.

That’s enough.

How did your Monday actually go vs. how you planned it? 👇

My sweet girl turned 12 today. 🎂Happy birthday to the most amazing, funny, full-of-spunk, sassy girl I’ve ever met.You a...
06/21/2026

My sweet girl turned 12 today. 🎂

Happy birthday to the most amazing, funny, full-of-spunk, sassy girl I’ve ever met.

You always know when to make me laugh and when to say nothing at all — just wrap me up in one of your big hugs. My movie buddy. My play time partner. My heart.

I couldn’t imagine life without you. You are a beautiful gift from God and I thank Him every single day for you.

Love you forever, sweet girl. ❤️🎉

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