Mandi Brix stopped running events for other people and bought two Fraser Valley home shows. Here’s how she knew it was time to pivot.
Permission to Pivot: Stop Waiting for an Invitation
Have you ever hit the goal and felt… nothing?
You did the thing. You grew the business, said yes to every opportunity, maybe even hired help. From the outside, it all looks like success. But on the inside, something’s quietly off.
That’s exactly where Mandi Brix found herself, and what she did next didn’t make sense on paper.
This summer, Mandi went camping with no cell service and one really good book.
On paper, she had nothing to escape from. Her event business was growing fast, she’d hired support, and she’d hit the goal she set for herself. But somewhere between the campfire and the pages, she asked herself a question most of us avoid: “What do I actually love doing?”
And then she walked away from a good income to buy two struggling Fraser Valley home shows and focus on the one event she can’t stop thinking about: The Power of Presence.
Mandi is our October Society Pages Cover Woman, and her story is a real-life guide to pivoting your business when your gut leads before your spreadsheet. It’s also the story behind her next event, The Power of Presence: Permission Granted, happening November 6 in the Fraser Valley.
Grab your ticket here.
How do you know it’s time to pivot your business?
When Mandi started Creme de la Show, the plan was a full-blown event agency with a bigger team and a packed calendar. She called her first stretch her “Yes Year” and said yes to every opportunity that came her way.
It worked. The demand was there, and the events were wildly varied. But something was off.
“Nothing felt like it mattered. I felt very little joy in this business I had built. Even though, from the outside looking in, I was doing well.”
She’d hit the goal she set, and it still didn’t feel like she’d made it. Ummm. Ouch.
This summer, she went camping and read a book that made her look hard at where she was leaking energy. What did she actually love doing? The answer surprised her. It was trade shows, the very thing she thought she’d been running from. And it was supporting other women in their entrepreneurial journeys.
If you’re wondering whether it’s your turn, Mandi’s story points to three gut-check questions:
1. Does your business look like success from the outside, but not feel like it from the inside?
2. Where is your energy leaking, and what keeps filling it back up?
3. Is there something you love that you’ve been avoiding because it doesn’t fit “the plan”?
Why buy an existing business instead of starting something new?
The Chilliwack and Abbotsford home shows were struggling. Mandi knew the owners, who were older, ready to retire, and it showed in the shows’ decline. She knew she could breathe life back into them. Everything lined up.
Along the way, she’d also figured out something about herself: she loves sales. Not the pushy kind. The kind where you genuinely care about people and actually have a solution to their problem.
“While I admit I’m the biggest technology nerd, nothing compares to face-to-face, real, human connection. That is my secret sauce, as you might call it.”
So why not build her own show from scratch? For Mandi, buying an existing business meant inheriting something you can’t manufacture.
“There were human connections already made. Trust earned and built up. Someone who poured their heart and soul into something. And that was something I wanted to be part of, to carry that on.”
If you’re weighing whether to buy a business or start one, that’s the lens worth borrowing. You’re not just buying a name. You’re buying relationships someone else spent years building, and the responsibility to honour them.
What do you have to let go of when you pivot?
Mandi takes pride in being the person who can do everything. So learning to say no to opportunities? “THAT was a journey,” she says.
The hardest part was a couple of clients who’d been with her from the beginning and trusted her before she’d established herself. She’d promised them the home shows wouldn’t get in the way of their work together, and she honestly didn’t know how to have that conversation.
Then the conversation happened without her. One client emailed to say they were leaving her contract partway through an event. A week later, a second client walked out. (Side lesson: her cancellation clause was NOT strong enough.)
It was a blow to her ego. People knew she was working those events. Would they think she’d done something wrong?
When she told her personal branding coach, the response was blunt: this is for the best, you needed this. Mandi was almost offended. Then she sat with it on the drive home.
“She didn’t think less of me. She didn’t think I had failed. She knew that it was actually the best thing that had happened to me. Because now I could walk away from that version of me, that version of my business, and walk into what Creme de la Show and I were becoming.”
Sometimes the thing you’re dreading is the exact door you needed to walk through. It just doesn’t feel like a door when it slams.
What happens when you stop waiting for approval?
Mandi has waited for approval plenty of times in her life, and been disappointed. So she doesn’t anymore.
Today she has an incredibly supportive husband. But the photography studio she ran for 10 years? She built it in spite of her partner at the time, not because of him.
She learned to trust herself at 29, as a single mom of two small children she was fully responsible for, financially, emotionally and physically. Suddenly every business decision carried real weight. “I HAD to trust myself; I had no other options,” she says. And her business expanded massively in those years.
So this time, she didn’t stand around and question. When something feels right in her soul and she has peace about it, she knows she’s on the right path.
But she’s honest that it isn’t easy. Mandi is a logic-first decision maker, and walking away from a good income to focus on four trade shows a year and The Power of Presence didn’t look right on paper. It was stressful.
Her advice is simple, and she believes it to her core:
The only permission you need is your own.
-Mandi Brix
“If the first iteration of your dream, your business, your first product or launch, doesn’t embarrass you later on, you didn’t start early enough!”
She started her photography business at 22. She looks back at those first photos and can’t believe people paid her for them. But her very first client stayed with her for the whole 10 years she owned the studio.
The Power of Presence: Permission Granted, a women’s leadership event in the Fraser Valley
“Permission Granted” has become Mandi’s motto this year. She’s talked with women across the country and beyond who want to grow, expand, pivot, or even step into a season of rest. Dig deep enough, she says, and the permission they’re asking for can only come from within.
“Only you know what you are needing. Only you can feel your intuition. People disappoint. Your body, your nervous system, your core, knows what you need.
– Mandi Brix
Give yourself that permission.”
That’s what her November 6 event is built around. The first Power of Presence in April 2025 sold out, and women who came alone left with community. This second chapter is an evening to fill your cup before the holiday rush and go in-depth on what you need next: expansion, inspiration, transformation, all directed by you.
Who is it for? Mandi is clear: women who are ready to listen to themselves. She can promise transformation, but only if you actually show up ready to hear your own answer.
Date: Friday, November 6, 2026
Time: 5:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Location: A2 Creatives Studio, Langley, BC
Tickets: Available at CremeDeLaShow.ca
Use promo code: YVRCreatives to receive $30 off your ticket.
Remember that move that doesn’t make sense on paper yet? This might be the evening you stop waiting on it.
Frequently asked questions
How do you know when it’s time to pivot your business?
For Mandi, the sign was a business that looked successful from the outside but brought her very little joy. Time away with no cell service helped her see where her energy was leaking and what she actually loved doing.
Who is Mandi Brix?
Mandi Brix is the founder and CEO of Creme de la Show and the creator of The Power of Presence. She now owns the Chilliwack Home, Leisure & Outdoor Living Expo and the Fraser Valley Home & Backyard Expo in Abbotsford.
When is The Power of Presence: Permission Granted?
Friday, November 6, 2026, at A2 Creatives Studio in the Fraser Valley.
Who should attend Permission Granted?
Women entrepreneurs and leaders who are ready to listen to themselves, whether they want to grow, pivot or rest.
How do I get tickets to Permission Granted, by Creme De La Show?
Tickets are available at cremedelashow.ca/event-tpop
Connect Mandi
Instagram, @CremeDeLaShow
Website: https://cremedelashow.ca/
About the Author
Christine Coughlin is the founder of YVR Creatives, a community where women entrepreneurs come to be seen, get connected and grow their businesses.
With a background in marketing communications and PR, Christine helps women become the confident face of their brand. Through VIP Content Filming Days, she pairs on-camera coaching with strategy so women walk away with content they’re proud of.
She also brings women together in real life through Leaders Lounge, her monthly networking event, and Creators Society, a private membership for founders who want support, visibility and community in one place. Through The Society Pages, she shares the real stories of women building businesses their own way.
Christine lives in the suburbs of Vancouver with her husband, three kids and one million plant babies. A self-proclaimed personal development junkie, she finds peace and inspiration in nature.
