Angelina Dryfhout describes a kind of loss that rarely makes it into the story of a successful business: the moment after you sell it.
You have spent years working toward that milestone. Then the business moves on, and with it goes a part of how you have understood yourself.
“There's like a mourning that happens. A piece of your identity is no longer there.”
That honesty stayed with me throughout our conversation on The Wine and Dine Me Podcast. Angelina is an aesthetician, entrepreneur, and mother of three who built Bakblade alongside her husband, Matt. After exiting the company, they found themselves deciding what to create next, while also working through what it meant to leave something significant behind.
Their next business, Signature Society, grew out of Angelina's own taste. The way she cares for herself, the objects she wants in her home, and the details she notices became the starting point for a brand. Our conversation moved from marble hairbrushes and everyday rituals to working with a spouse, beginning again at 42, and giving people a feeling they can recognize.
At the center of it was a question worth sitting with: What do you want to build when you have already built something successful?
The Identity Shift After Selling a Business
Angelina spoke openly about how closely a founder's identity can become tied to a company. There is so much focus on reaching the next milestone that the emotional experience of arriving there can get overlooked.
After their exit, she described Matt struggling creatively with what their next steps would be. The freedom to begin again came with uncertainty. They had experience and a history of building together, but the next idea still needed to take shape.
For Angelina, that idea arrived with unusual clarity. She wanted to create an entire brand around the way she already lived.
“And the muse is me because it's what I know best. It's authentic.”
I appreciate how direct that is. She recognized that her preferences had value. The objects she chose, the routines she enjoyed, and the care she brought to her surroundings could inform something other people might connect with, too.
Starting again gave her a chance to take those instincts seriously. It also required her to trust a vision that was personal from the beginning.
Building a Business Together
Working with a spouse was familiar to Angelina long before she and Matt founded a company. She grew up watching her entrepreneurial parents work together. Building a business as a couple was part of the life she knew.
When I asked how that partnership works in practice, her answer was clear: she comes up with concepts, and he executes. She described complementary strengths that show up in their business ideas and projects at home.
That understanding gives context to Signature Society. Angelina brings a distinct point of view to the brand, while Matt helps bring the products into physical form. During our conversation, she credited him with creating the pieces she was describing.
Their partnership also offers a useful reminder for anyone building with another person. Knowing what each person contributes matters. There needs to be room for an idea to develop and for someone with a different skill set to help make it real.
For Angelina, entrepreneurship, marriage, and motherhood are closely connected. She described feeling most herself when all three are part of her life.
Finding Meaning in Everyday Rituals
Signature Society begins with an ordinary part of the day: taking care of yourself.
Angelina talked about brushing your hair, doing your skincare, and getting ready for bed. These are familiar routines, often squeezed between everything else that needs our attention. She wanted to give them more care.
Her references were specific. Silver-plated brushes kept on a vanity. Mirrors given as bridal gifts. Handkerchiefs embroidered with initials and held onto because they meant something to their owner.
Those examples help explain her interest in heritage. An everyday object can carry a sense of permanence. It can be useful, beautiful enough to leave out, and personal enough to keep.
As we talked, I thought about the difference you feel when you walk into a thoughtfully appointed hotel bathroom. You notice how the soap is presented and what has been placed within reach. Those decisions affect your experience before anyone explains them.
The same attention can exist at home. Angelina's interest is in the rooms and routines we use every day, including the private moments no guest will ever see. She wants to enjoy her surroundings at the end of the day, when she finally has a moment for herself.
There is something very familiar to me in that instinct. Care is expressed through the details someone has taken the time to consider. Sometimes we are creating that experience for guests. Sometimes we are creating it for ourselves.
A First Collection With a Personal Point of View
At the time of our conversation, Angelina was preparing to introduce Signature Society's Heritage Collection. She described the name as a nod to her parents and an introduction to the brand's identity.
The collection she shared included marble hairbrushes in deep burgundy, hunter green, and a classic lighter marble, with natural veining that makes each piece different. She also described a marble and silver dermaplaning tool, travel toothbrushes with their own cases, eye patches, and a silk sleep set with a bonnet, weighted eye mask, scrunchie, and pillowcase.
The detail that interested me was her desire for these objects to belong in the room. A hairbrush could remain on the vanity because you enjoyed looking at it. Something used in a daily routine could receive the same consideration as the rest of the home.
That gives the collection a clear perspective. Materials, color, and presentation all return to the way Angelina wants people to experience their own routines. Her personal taste provides a consistent place to begin making decisions.
Choosing People Who Understand the Vision
Angelina's experience with Bakblade was very different. She recalled a video they made with little money reaching more than 250 million views. Attention arrived quickly, before they had much time to develop the broader brand around the product.
With Signature Society, she described a more deliberate process. She was thinking about the identity of the business from the beginning, including the people helping her communicate it.
Her advice was to pay attention to who represents you. Whether choosing a branding agency or another creative collaborator, she wants people who understand her perspective and can express it faithfully.
“All of this needs to be authentic to who you are.”
That resonates with the work of assembling a creative team. Each person contributes expertise, but everyone needs to understand the vision well enough to make decisions that support it. A beautiful portfolio is one part of that conversation. How someone listens and interprets your priorities matters, too.
Angelina described becoming more confident as she became more specific about what felt true to her. At 42, with three children and a previous business behind her, she was choosing to build something that reflected her own point of view.
Introducing a Brand Through Hospitality
When we discussed her plans for a November launch, I wanted to know why she had chosen an event and what she hoped people would feel when they left.
Angelina wanted a black-tie experience. She spoke about giving people a reason to dress up and bringing a sense of formality back to gathering. The occasion would introduce the heritage of the brand through something guests could experience together.
“We need to set the tone.”
As an event planner, I understand the value of that first impression. An invitation begins to establish expectations. The welcome, service, setting, and way products are presented continue the story once guests arrive. Each decision gives people information about the host and what matters to them.
In our conversation, I imagined how the sensory qualities of her products might translate in person. Seeing an object on a screen is one experience. Being able to hold it, notice its finish, and understand how it feels is another opportunity to connect with it.
Angelina also wanted people who could not attend to experience the launch through its content. The gathering would give her a way to show the atmosphere surrounding the collection and the level of detail she envisioned.
This is where brand building and hospitality meet so naturally. The experience gives substance to the promise. People can feel the attention you have been describing.
Beginning Again at 42
When I asked Angelina where she hoped Signature Society would be in five years, she spoke about recognition. She wants people to know the brand through its aesthetic and feeling, even without seeing a logo.
She also spoke about what she hopes her children remember. She wants her daughters and son to see what she built, much of it from within their home, and understand that they can pursue their own ideas.
Having grown up with entrepreneurial parents herself, she sees that example carrying forward. Her children are watching her begin something new.
We talked about reinvention, but Angelina offered a more precise way of understanding it. With age, she feels she is stepping further into who she is. Her preferences are clearer. Her sense of self is stronger. That perspective is shaping the company she is building now.
There is room in that idea for anyone considering a change, whether it involves a business or something more personal. Experience can help you recognize what fits and what you are ready to release. The years already invested in one direction do not answer every question about where to go next.
Recognizing What You Already Bring
Toward the end of our conversation, I asked what she would tell another woman who wanted to start a brand. Her answer began with looking inward.
“What are your hopes and your dreams? What are your gifts?”
Angelina spoke about how readily we focus on the next qualification, promotion, or outside resource while overlooking abilities we already have. She encouraged taking the time to recognize those strengths and then building from them.
That brings her story back to its beginning. After a successful exit and the uncertainty that followed, she found an idea in the way she already lived. Her taste, her family experience, and her attention to everyday rituals gave her something to develop.
You can hear our full conversation on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and explore Angelina's brand through Signature Society on Instagram.
What stayed with me was her willingness to give those familiar parts of herself new attention. The things we have always noticed, cared about, and done well deserve consideration when we decide what comes next.