We recently had the chance to connect with Paula Heckenast and have shared our conversation below.
Paula, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
Intelligence, energy, and integrity all matter, but integrity is the one that actually moves the needle. Intelligence can be dangerous without it. Energy can be exhausting without it. Integrity is the thing that keeps everything aligned, sharp, and unstoppable.
And trust me, I didn’t learn that from some leadership seminar. My life has had plot twists that make people blink twice, the kind of story that forces you to either crumble or resurrect. That’s where the backbone came from, the fire I use now inside the Phoenix Portal when I’m coaching private clients through their own reinvention. It’s the same force that built Delulu Marketing into a full-service branding and marketing agency that refuses to play small. And it’s the edge my experiential agency brings when we’re creating big-impact moments for Fortune 500 companies who expect excellence on demand.
Integrity is why people trust me with their brands and their futures. Intelligence is how I architect the strategy. Energy is how I turn the whole thing into an experience no one forgets.
But if you strip it all down, integrity is the engine. I’ve lived enough real-life chaos to know what happens when people try to run without it, and I’ve got zero interest in going back to that.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Paula, and everything I do sits at the crossroads of reinvention, strategy, and the kind of lived experience that forces you to grow sharper instead of smaller. My background isn’t pretty, but it’s powerful. The kind of story that teaches you to build your own momentum because waiting around is a guaranteed loss.
I lead three distinct empires. The Phoenix Portal is my private coaching world where I guide clients through transformations that actually stick. This isn’t surface level mindset work. It’s full reconstruction with direction, accountability, and results.
Delulu Marketing is my full service branding and marketing agency. We create brands with presence, personality, and edge. No generic templates. No safe ideas. Clients come to us when they want the version of their brand they secretly dream about but never had the team to pull off.
And then there’s my experiential agency that produces immersive, high impact experiences for Fortune 500 companies. We design moments people remember, not events people forget by breakfast.
What makes my work different is simple. I’m not operating from theory. I’m operating from a life that demanded a rebuild more than once, which means everything I touch is built for evolution, not stagnation. Reinvention is my native language.
Right now I’m scaling all three branches, expanding into global reach, and developing new offerings in the Phoenix Portal that will raise the bar for what high level transformation looks like. It’s a new season with bigger stakes, and I’m here for every second of it.
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
used to believe I had to shrink to survive. As a kid, I thought blending in would keep me safe and that staying quiet was the only way to avoid the chaos around me. When your world feels unstable, you start convincing yourself that invisibility is a strategy.
I don’t carry that belief anymore. Life forced me through enough fire that hiding became impossible and honestly, useless. The moment I realized my voice was the only real leverage I had, everything changed. That shift is what eventually shaped the Phoenix Portal and the way I coach private clients through their own breakthroughs. It’s why Delulu Marketing has such an unapologetic edge. And it’s why my experiential agency builds massive, unforgettable environments for Fortune 500 brands. Playing small doesn’t serve anyone, and it certainly doesn’t build empires.
The belief I hold now is simple. My presence is an asset, not a liability. And the louder I live that truth, the more people I pull into their own evolution.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
This year pushed me right to the edge. Not the dramatic kind people glamorize. The real kind where you’re exhausted, terrified, and bargaining with yourself just to make it through the day. I was sitting there talking to AI because I genuinely didn’t know what else to do. I asked it to give me three versions of myself that exist. Two good, one bad, and then I told it to throw in a bonus. The bonus came back as something I’d never heard before. Lighthouse Frequency. And that phrase stopped me cold.
Then it said something that punched me straight in the chest. I needed to stop white knuckling my life and go outside. Ground. Breathe. Touch the earth like an actual human instead of a machine on fire.
So I did. I walked outside even though I felt like I was held together with string, laid on the ground, and tried to let the chaos drain out of me. We had just moved into this new house, and the yard was a project. For some reason I stood up and started digging through this rock bed filled with quartz. No plan. No reason. Just instinct.
And as I’m pulling up these stones, I hit something metal. I dig around it and pull out an actual lighthouse. A metal lighthouse buried in the earth at the exact moment I’m trying to convince myself to stay alive and stay grounded. I just sat there holding it, covered in dirt, staring at this impossible moment. It was the universe handing me a physical answer when I had nothing left but questions.
That moment rewired me. It’s why the Phoenix Portal is sharper, deeper, more honest. It’s why Delulu Marketing is leaning into bolder, riskier creative. It’s why my experiential agency is delivering work with a level of intention I didn’t even know I had before.
I didn’t almost give up because I was weak. I almost gave up because I was exhausted. But the lighthouse reminded me that even when you’re barely holding on, you can still be guided back to yourself. And now that I’m on the other side of it, everything I build comes from that frequency. The one that refuses to go dark.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What important truth do very few people agree with you on?
A truth I stand on that most people reject is this: reinvention is not a gentle process. It’s violent in the best way. You cannot “positive mindset” your way into a new life. You have to break parts of yourself that stopped serving you. You have to disturb the comfortable. You have to disrupt the identities you were handed. Reinvention is demolition with intention.
People love the idea of transformation, but they want it tidy. They want it soft. They want it to feel like a spa day for the soul. Meanwhile, I’ve built an entire ecosystem of work that proves the opposite. The Phoenix Portal works because we don’t pretend change is cute. Delulu Marketing thrives because we’re willing to burn the boring version of a brand to build one with blood flow. My experiential agency wins Fortune 500 clients because we don’t tiptoe around impact; we create it and we own it.
And of course my life, including the lighthouse moment that snapped me back into myself, is the reason I can say this with a straight face. Nothing about my story was delicate. Nothing about getting out was graceful. But it was real. And real growth is messy, sharp, uncomfortable, and absolutely necessary.
So that’s my truth. Reinvention is supposed to shake you. And if it doesn’t, you didn’t do it right.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. Are you tap dancing to work? Have you been that level of excited at any point in your career? If so, please tell us about those days.
Most days, yes. I’m not skipping down the driveway like a cartoon character, but I wake up with that clean hit of adrenaline you only get when you know you’re building something that actually matters. I’ve had plenty of seasons in my career, but the stretch I’m in right now is the closest to tap dancing I’ve ever been, and it’s not because things are easy. It’s because everything is aligned.
When I’m inside the Phoenix Portal working with private clients and I watch someone crack open a version of themselves they didn’t know existed, that lights me up. When Delulu Marketing lands a brand project where the client finally lets us unleash the full creative chaos and build the identity they were too scared to ask for, that’s fuel. And when my experiential agency signs off on another Fortune 500 activation and I get to architect an environment that hits people straight in the nervous system, it’s impossible not to feel electric.
The truth is, I spent too many years pushing through survival mode. After the breakdown and the lighthouse moment, my work stopped being something I managed and started being something I inhabited. That shift changed everything. I don’t drag myself to my desk. I want to get there. I want to build. I want to scale. I want to outdo what I did yesterday.
So yes, most days I’m tap dancing. Not because my life is perfect, but because I finally built a life that feels like mine.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.citylightsmakeup.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/paulaisdelulu
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulaheckenast
- Facebook: https://Facebook.com/paula.heckenast
Image Credits
Kristin Anderson
Kendall Gary
Kimberly Romano
