Stories are incredibly powerful – their ability to teach, inspire, and create understanding is why we are so in love with storytelling. Most stories have a defining moment and so we’ve asked some of the most talented, insightful folks across a broad range of industries and markets to tell us about a defining moment in their story.

Yaicha Bryan

The first time I met with a client under the umbrella of my private coaching practice — outside the confines of the healthcare system — was liberating. For the first time, I had the space to be fully present: to listen deeply, without rushing, without distractions, without the constant pull of emails, messages, and refill requests. Read more>>

Aaron Rose

The moment that changed everything for me started right before covid. I was working for an airline company for 13 years and all that came crashing down after I had my spiritual awakening which helped me remember who I truly was. Read more>>

Alexis Gonzalez

The defining moment of my life came in 2018 while I was living in Shenzhen, China, working as a speech therapy consultant. On the outside, I had everything I thought I wanted—six-figure salary, a high-rise apartment, regular travel, weekly massages, and a lifestyle that looked picture-perfect. Yet inside, I felt unfulfilled and disconnected. Read more>>

Danielle Hall

One of the most defining moments in my professional life didn’t start with a business breakthrough or a big opportunity. It started with a health crisis. At the time, I was working in the commercial photography industry and had just won a major award among my peers. But while everything looked successful on the outside, internally, my body was shutting down. Read more>>

Elena Brandner

February 7th, 2022 everything changed in the blink of an eye. I had recently graduated from the University of Florida’s Pharmacy program with a doctorate in pharmacy in May, 20021. Upon graduation I decided to take some time off before diving into the career. Read more>>

Denise Hutchins

As a last-semester senior Psychology major at the University of Maine, I knew I had two options: Get a lower-paying job with my BA degree or go to graduate school. I decided graduate school was worth the cost, so I applied. Read more>>

Mylira Green

My defining career moment actually happened before my professional journey officially began. As a senior in college, I was invited to share a few words of wisdom with incoming freshmen. I thought I’d simply speak briefly and take my seat. To my surprise, when I arrived, I discovered my name listed as the keynote speaker. Read more>>

Janie MacMillan

My life changed when I first connected with the Akashic Records. Before devoting my life to spiritual teaching, I spent over 20 years as a corporate trainer and coach, specializing in leadership and career development. Spirituality wasn’t something she had even thought about—until an unexpected invitation set me on a very different path. Read more>>

Maria Lucey

One of the biggest turning points in my career came early on when I was working in clinical settings. I kept seeing the real-life consequences of poor nutrition information online. Read more>>

Becca Schroeder

I have always wanted to help people so a career in social work just seemed like the right choice. When I first began this journey I wanted to be a counselor and eventually own my own practice providing counseling services to people for free. This all changed when, after years of trying, my husband and I discovered we were pregnant! Read more>>

Elizabeth Tilly

I’ve always been impulsive, and truthfully, some of my best decisions have come from that impulse. My nursing studies gave me more compassion and clinical knowledge and my bodybuilding journey taught me discipline and resilience. Together, those experiences led me to open my business, Well by E, a place where movement and pain management come first, but where care goes far beyond the physical. Read more>>

Chris Cullen

The moment that changed the trajectory of my career, and life, came in the form of a gnarly ski fall. For 6 months I was trying to fight this nagging voice inside telling me to leave the company I was with after 11 great years. As I was interviewing for my 5th promotion, I kept feeling this tug to look another direction. Read more>>

Jenna Stewart

I launched my company ‘Canyon Adventure Vans’ in February 2020, just before COVID without a business plan or business-school training — only grit, a vision, and the urgency to create something real. Running a company while learning on the fly soon turned into a pressure cooker: constant people-pleasing, sleepless nights, and an unrelenting need to keep the business afloat. That stress showed up physically. Read more>>

Christa Bouchez

For years, I thrived on a vegan lifestyle. I even stepped on stage eight times as a vegan bodybuilder. I thought the obvious path was to coach others on macros and muscles like every other fitness coach, but deep down I was always more fascinated by the micros that fuel our energy. Then came November of 2021. Read more>>

Hillary Melchiors

I had been working as a doula for 5 years in 2019, and was still trying to find a way to truly connect my doula work to my academic background in medical anthropology. I was still on several academic listservs, and saw an email with a call for proposals for book chapters on obstetric violence. Read more>>

Rylee Ionascu

Attending my first home birth, and especially my first free birth, were both incredible and defining moments in my practice as a birthkeeper / doula. Until then, my professional experience primarily revolved around supporting mothers and families having hospital births, even though the vast majority of them desired another model of care for themselves, and ended up having a (relatively) undisturbed physiological birth regardless. Read more>>

Jessica Tanner

The moment that changed the trajectory of my career was when I began the process of healing my body naturally through holistic methods. I was battling a lot of health issues including IBS, painful menstrual cycles, and constant fatigue. Read more>>

Caroline Jones

It was the year after Covid and I had started staying home with my 5 girls but I wasn’t feeling fulfilled. I started teaching fitness classes after being a client for many years and realized that I had a true passion for teaching. I taught for a couple of years before my family had to move. Read more>>

Johaida Jean-Francois

In 2018, I was honored with the Alumni Award for my graduating class, and that same year I was featured in Forbes Magazine, where I spoke about navigating Identity in the workplace as a first-generation Haitian American nurse- full circle moment Read more>>