Foundry Day 2026

Topsail Island and Surf City have really shown up in the past 7 years. I have watched a single stoplight town turn into a hustling wave of spirited, yet humble, & talented entrepreneurs who are not afraid to get their hands dirty… uh, salty.

Before I dive into the recap on Foundry Day, let me paint a little picture for you.

Back in the jewelry business (I worked there for 10 years), we believed in cross-discipline training. The jewelry folks would learn from the watch people. We all learned from the bench jewelers. We studied merchandising, branding, sales, marketing, and we all wanted to know the engineering of the product we sold. It made us much better able to serve our clients.

I bring that same energy to the consulting side of my branding business. I won’t photograph a brand until I understand it intimately and have perspective from all angles and industries that I am privy to.

One thing that has been majorly missing from the Topsail area is a serious training platform for business owners to come together for much more than networking — to actually learn from each other’s strategies in a way that doesn’t deepen competition, but lifts all the boats in town together.

In comes Topsail Foundry. Framework to be unveiled in coming months.

The Day Itself

We hosted our first Foundry Day in June. I booked a quaint Airbnb in Wilmington, NC — La Petite Chateau — and pulled a dozen business owners into the living room over caffeine and brunchy plates to talk through the foundations of branding in a way that lights a flame of action, not just inspiration.

The biggest takeaway from the day:

Just because you have a business, 
does not mean you have a brand.

We talked through why selling to the masses results in frustration — for the business owner and for the client. We covered how to actually decide who your ideal client is, and how to speak directly to that person. We shared our business goals, our offers, our hopes for client care, and the ways we each maintain consistency in our marketing and media.

The BOTB Guest Panel

• Sasha Fedunchak is a brand strategist, business advisor, & the founder of Daring Haus. Roots in content marketing, digital media, and brick & mortar ownership, she specializes helping founders scale. Found online at daringcreative.co and @sashafedunchak.

• Shannon Gallaher is the founder of City & Sea Creative. Former NY Creative Director with deep roots in branding, UX, & digital strategy across ecommerce & design industries. Found online at cityandseacreative.com and @cityandseacreative.

• Mary Bailey is a certified Nurse Practitioner, twin mom of three, & the voice behind Well. Emphasis on wellness, medical aesthetics, and lifestyle-care. Podcast Host. Where sales and education meets lifestyle influencer. Found online at www.wellbymaryb.com, @maryb_np and @toxandteapodcast.

To each of you, my sincerest thank you for your insight, expertise and loving support 🤍

The Brand Sessions

Here’s the part I’m most proud of.

Attendees who purchased the full experience (including a branding mini photoshoot) received a personalized brand questionnaire before the big day. Then I read every response, thought deeply about each business, and handed each woman her own custom feedback the moment she walked in, before we had even started talking. They knew, right away, that I had paid attention. That their brand had been studied, not skimmed.

That groundwork meant our mini brand photography sessions that afternoon weren’t generic. Each session was catered specifically to that business – her aesthetic, her offer, her ideal client. And here’s what I love proving over and over again: even in 15 minutes, you can walk away with real, usable, on-brand content. It’s not about how much time you have in front of the camera. It’s about how much thought went into it before you ever picked up the camera at all.

See a few gallery sneak peeks below ⬇️⬇️⬇️

What’s Next

Foundry Day 2.0 is already taking shape — restructured breakout sessions, more room for the conversations that matter most, and a sharper sense of who this is really for. I’m also building something smaller and more intimate to bridge the gap: Foundry Bruncheon, a quarterly gathering for local women business owners over brunch and one open, yet guided conversation.

And further out, there’s a bigger vision brewing for Topsail Foundry that I’m not quite ready to share yet. But it’s coming.

So, if you’re a service provider in this area who has been doing the work but still feels like something in your brand isn’t clicking – this is for you. Stay close. The next invitation is coming.

Topsail Foundry is a community and education platform for small business owners on the coast, built by Brittany Lineberry of Lineberry Photography Co.

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ROSALIE

Rosalie Enna – Hairstylist on Instagram @rosalieennahair

ANNA

Anna Danison – Real Estate Agent online here and here + on Instagram @annadanison

PATTY

Patty Cullura – Balance Aesthetics online here + on Instagram @balanceilm

ANGELA

Angela Thorne – Oliveda and Executive Marketing Consultant & on Instagram @angelakayley

For more on Foundry, find us online here and on Instagram @topsailfoundry. Thanks for being here.

BL.