Every once in a while, something happens that really matters. Something that will define at least the next chapter of your journey – perhaps it’s a conversation with a client, a meeting with a visionary or a major event in your personal life. Below, you’ll find some very insightful folks sharing defining moments from their journeys.

Hazel Guenther

A defining moment in my professional career was the day I truly learned to let things be. As someone with Type A personality traits, I often preferred life to follow a clear, linear trajectory. When things didn’t go as planned, I would immediately question if I had done something wrong. This tendency was particularly challenging during my early years as a therapist. Back then, I carried an unspoken pressure to meet every client’s needs perfectly, which often led me to internalize their actions or reactions as personal failures. As a “baby therapist,” my insecurities often magnified this struggle. For instance, when a client didn’t show up for a session, decided to stop working with me, or resisted seeing things the way I did in our discussions, my initial reaction was self-blame. I’d question my competence, wondering if I had said or done something to alienate them. This mindset was exhausting and, in hindsight, counterproductive—not just for me, but also for my clients. I was so focused on what I thought I could fix in myself that I missed the bigger picture. Read more>>

Angela Fuller

The defining moment in my career came during a deeply challenging time. After leaving my corporate recruiting job due to a debilitating back injury, I became a stay-at-home mom and silently struggled with postpartum depression. Feeling lost and disconnected, I began attending fitness classes, though my back pain often made progress feel impossible. Everything changed when my best friend was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Her strength and perseverance inspired me to reevaluate my life and pursue a deeper sense of purpose. With determination, I focused on healing—physically and spiritually—by getting baptized, working with a nutritionist, and committing to weight training and physical therapy to rebuild my body. Read more>>

Sani Kohen

A defining moment in my professional career occurred during my clinical rotations in Southern California. I had the unique opportunity to work in virtually every conceivable chiropractic clinic setting—integrative clinics with chiropractors collaborating with medical doctors, physical therapists, and more. Despite the diversity of these environments, I realized a troubling commonality: most of these clinics were narrowly focused on symptom relief. Patient care was dictated more by insurance companies than by actual patient needs. Read more>>

Ariel Pasion

I’ve dabbled in entrepreneurship for a while. In college, I pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology (Exercise Science, to simplify) with the goal of becoming a Physical Therapist—like many who enter this field. However, early in my undergraduate journey, I realized this path wasn’t for me. During my internship at 3WINS Fitness, I had the opportunity to step into a leadership role as a Program Director. That experience completely shifted my perspective. I discovered my passion for leadership, event coordination, and administration. What I truly loved was empowering my peers—helping them take control of their skills and develop their own leadership potential. Read more>>

Kim Johancen

Although it’s hard to narrow it down to just one defining moment, a pivotal experience that shaped my career path was losing my brother to suicide when I was 16. That loss profoundly impacted me and inspired me to dedicate my career to helping those touched by suicide—on all sides of the issue—and has expanded over the years to supporting individuals who have faced other challenges, unthinkable pain, loss, or trauma. My work is rooted in the belief that healing is possible, even in the aftermath of life’s darkest moments. It is also rooted in the belief that through our healing journeys, we can also find meaning, greater purpose, and deeper connections. The trick is to just keep going. It doesn’t matter how big the steps are – just keep taking them. Read more>>

Rebecca Salas

A defining moment in my career came when I first started making meals for clients at Delish ME. I initially viewed my role as just cooking for people, but it quickly transformed into something much deeper. I began to realize how many individuals are struggling with their relationship with food, seeing it merely as a daily necessity rather than a vital component of self-care. Women began reaching out to me, sharing their stories of feeling broken and depleted. They expressed how they couldn’t look at themselves in the mirror anymore, how their relationships were suffering, and how they lacked the energy to engage with their children. They were going through life, feeling as though they had everything, yet were deeply unsatisfied and lost. Read more>>

Michael Blackard

The birth of Friend’em came after I reached my “Dream Job”…then got laid off less than 6 months later. I’m a person that is all about multiplying the smiles in the room. It is what I am on this plane of existence to do.  I did a good amount of volunteering and theatrical hobbies growing up. Especially as I got older, I recognized they were not just fun things to do, It made people feel good. I learned a lot about so many different people doing both. I landed the role of Fritz in Ballet Austin’s The Nutcracker two weeks after starting ballet when I was about 13. I got an award from the President of the United States for the volunteering I did when I graduated high school. I have consistently sought out opportunities to bring smiles to people’s faces. Picking a career in video games was a no brainer. Read more>>

Fiona Rooney

Discovering fulfillment and joy in daily life and work is a transformative realization. It shifts your mindset from simply “going through the motions” to living a purposeful, meaningful life. In 2022, I embraced sobriety, taking full responsibility for my life and my goals, embarking on a mission to become the best version of myself. When life pushes us to the edge, creating discomfort, it’s often a sign that change is necessary. Inspired by the incredible people I’ve met along the way, I became determined to turn darkness into light and help others who struggle to find their purpose. Read more>>

Sarah Mayo

I was an athlete my whole life. Through my late 20’s, athletics were really what I poured myself into and found my identity in through a dual-sport collegiate career and then training for and competing at the CrossFit Games in 2017. There was a lot of good that came out of those experiences, but also a lot of self-centeredness. To be a high-level athlete, you almost have to be that way, I think – I was dedicated full time to my goals, which required compromise in a lot of other areas, especially around relationships. In the midst of the peek of my athletic career and while looking for ways to optimize essentially everything about my physical performance, I had a deeply spiritual reckoning moment about my true identity… and realized that it had little to nothing to do with what I was spending virtually all of my time on. My come-to-Jesus moment radically shifted how I perceived myself and my pursuits, realizing that I wanted a life filled with more purpose. It took me awhile to wrestle with how to actually let go of my former self, but that season was what lead me to starting Point One Vision, a 501c3 nonprofit ministry that integrates physical health and wellbeing from the perspective of putting others first. It was a massive leap of faith between where I was and where I am today, but I’m so grateful for everything that God has taught me in that process and I wouldn’t change it now for all of the podiums or medals in the world. Read more>>

Eric Person

A defining moment in my professional career was when I decided to move Kansas City Aquaponics LLC from Kansas City, MO, to Atlanta in 2022. It wasn’t just a geographical shift; it was a decision that changed the trajectory of my work and deepened my sense of purpose. I wanted to expand beyond just teaching people how to grow food—I wanted to reconnect communities to the land and increase access to holistic and culinary herbs, especially in a city with a rich cultural and agricultural history like Atlanta. The experience taught me some invaluable lessons. First, embracing change is necessary for growth. Leaving the city where I had built my business was a leap of faith, but it opened doors I couldn’t have imagined. Second, staying rooted in my purpose kept me grounded. This move wasn’t just about growing my business; it was about serving a community and creating a legacy. Lastly, I learned the importance of adapting to my environment. Atlanta brought new opportunities and challenges, and meeting the needs of this community required me to listen, learn, and adjust my approach. Read more>>

Christina Canuto

The defining moment of my career was experiencing burnout and rebuilding from the bottom up. I’m taking a risk by saying this- nobody wants to think their therapist doesn’t know how to take care of themselves. The truth is we are human, too. As a systemic therapist, I can’t ignore that we live in a capitalistic society which glorifies overworking and lack of professional boundaries. As a practitioner, I also originate from a healthcare system which is not working for professionals, or clients, in terms of access to care, fair pay, or good coverage. All of these factors contribute to systemic burnout. Read more>>

Lamora Pace

A defining moment in my professional journey came when I decided to resign from my first and only job after 27 years of employment to fully dedicate myself to my private practice. In 2017, I launched Healing Hearts part-time, balancing my responsibilities while nurturing my passion for helping others heal. By 2020, during the height of the pandemic—a time when emotional and relational challenges were at an all-time high—I took a leap of faith and stepped into the practice full-time. This decision not only changed my career trajectory but also opened the door to a deeper purpose. Read more>>

Davin Wedel

Conversations about sex and sexuality are much more open these days than when I was first starting my career journey. Many younger people today don’t realize just how taboo it was in the 80s to talk about condoms. Condoms were thought of us as dirty and had a reputation as something people only use in gas station bathrooms or if someone was having an affair. In the late 80s I was a student at Tufts University in Boston, and the country was at the height of the AIDS crisis. When Surgeon General C. Everett Koop publicly endorsed condom use as a method to stop the spread of HIV, I was inspired to give condoms the makeover they desperately needed. Read more>>

Keisha Pinnock

In 2018, I had reached the pinnacle of my career in the corporate world. I was a Senior Vice President making a 6-figure salary, working for a Fortune 500 company, managing a team of over 50, and coordinating activities in the US, the Philippines and India. However, I was unhappy, the mounting pressure was leading to anxiety, and I was just unsatisfied overall with my life. I was overweight and knew I had to make a change. So, I quit my job, decided to hire a personal trainer, and returned to a plant-based lifestyle, which I had enjoyed 2 years earlier. The change was gradual, but as I began to restore my health, lose weight, and reconnect to myself through journal and daily meditation, I knew this was the path forward. That emptiness I was feeling months below started to close and I realize what I was missing was me!  Read more>>

Tomas Ramos

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the lack of access to critical resources and services for communities that need them the most in New York City, specifically in the Bronx. At the onset of the pandemic, the Bronx was one of the hardest-hit areas at the time, having the highest rates of cases, deaths and hospitalizations due to systemic inequities that left residents without accurate information about COVID-19 or access to adequate health care or vaccines. Soon after founding Oyate Group, we launched one of our first initiatives, Bronx Rising Initiative, to join the front lines of the pandemic and vaccinate the hardest-to-reach and most hesitant populations in the borough. We conducted door-to-door vaccine outreach and hosted vaccine pop-ups in public housing, senior centers, schools, community centers and on populous streets. Oyate Group’s Bronx Rising Initiative vaccinated over 40,000 Bronxites in one year, with over two-thirds of individuals self-identifying as Black or Latino, making BRI one of the most successful initiatives in reaching communities with the lowest vaccine rates and highest vaccine hesitancy in New York City.  Read more>>

Brandy Watkins

A defining moment in my professional career came when I realized how deeply skin concerns impacted my makeup clients’ confidence and self-esteem. Over the years, I’ve loved enhancing my clients’ natural beauty through makeup, but I started noticing a recurring theme—many of them were struggling with underlying skin issues that couldn’t be masked with makeup alone. This realization sparked something within me. I wanted to do more than just help my clients look beautiful for the day; I wanted to give them lasting solutions that could transform how they felt about themselves. That desire led me back to school to study esthetics, which was a big decision after spending years as a stay-at-home mom. It was important for me to show my children—and myself—that it’s never too late to follow your dreams or make a change when your passion calls you. Read more>>