Our stories are often hard to understand until folks understand our true motivations, our true drivers and the stories behind why our mission or purpose truly matters to us. We’ve asked some inspiring folks from the community to talk to us about why they do what they do and have shared some of our favorite responses below.

Amanda Rodriguez

Join The Wavement is an eco-conscious brand that inspires people to live a conscious life. I, Amanda Rodriguez, have always wanted to do something with meaning and purpose that’ll benefit humanity and the planet. I’ve volunteered, worked with non-profit organizations, and more. Read more>>

Chris Esh

I started off working the nonprofit industry for about five years. I was very idealistic coming out of college and wanting to change the world but after quite a few jobs, found myself a little bit disillusioned and feeling like despite my high ideals, I didn’t really have practical, marketable skills that could tangibly help organizations. Read more>>

LANCE BRIMMAGE

The story behind my mission with Zero Dark Thirty was always to grow the company to be bigger than me. I started 3 years ago after picking up my first camera and I haven’t looked back. Read more>>

Synclaire Butler

Pleasure Hauz’s Mission: Creating spaces where Black folks can pursue, commune, and conceptualize pleasure. Read more>>

Cecilia Kolbash

I founded Cecilia’s Community Closet to repurpose donated clothing for underserved students in the Rome, Georgia area. This mission started when I joined Berry College’s Entrepreneurship program and had the opportunity to start a business. I have always had a passion for fashion, as I say, and I have always strived to create and innovate things that help others. Read more>>

NEHAL KAISER

The mission has always been clear – since day 1, our goal was to be a highly successful, sales driven organization with a NON-CUTTHROAT culture. Rather, a family unit that protects each other and helps their fellow man win. I come from a highly successful sales driven organization, however, the culture was very suspect when it came to “winning”. Read more>>

Kristina Simmons

I am a mom, wife, yoga and meditation teacher. Yoga has helped me work through my post kids challenges. My mission is to help women, moms, working moms to work through life challenges. Read more>>

Cairo Aibangbee

I went to University in Plymouth, Cornwall. It is an incredibly white town, and though I had Black friends, I was the only Black Women in my class. I wanted a space where I could dress up and look cute, while talking to other women who has the same or similar lived experiences as me. I couldn’t find anything like that in Plymouth so I started it myself. Read more>>

Alexandria (Alex Nicole) Garza

Keeping the dream alive; my husband and I are excited to share with the world a dream that was born over 20 years. We are launching a new children’s entertainment property that involves music, books, and a cartoon series for children ages 3 to 5. In 2017, Read more>>

Joshua Davis

My mission is to educate, develop, and create opportunities for our professional clients, as well as other aspiring talents & creatives alike. Using years of resources for my clients and partners that I work closely with, we help to expand our clients brands, services, and products! We rely on major target marketing, grass roots marketing, and gorilla promotions, along with years of experience and relationships to garnish attention for our clients. Read more>>

Feva Daniels

I have served over two decades of the beauty industry. Giving my time, energy, blood, sweat, and tears to those who needed me being that chair. Also lost my identity behind that same chair, working my fingers to the bone. Not to mention, the main source of my identity was ripped from me at the tender age of four years old. Read more>>

Lynne Dela Cruz

Our family has always been into hospitality. Throughout the years, we’ve been hosting gatherings for birthday parties, and all of the holiday events. We love to have people in our home and feel the presence of peace and harmony during their time with us. Read more>>

Sydney Sage

Growing up on the run for 10 years, I was used to hustling, poverty, to stress, and powerlessness. My family was often broke, in fear, and victim to all kinds of intense circumstances. It took me a long time to break free from those patterns and cycles within my family. Read more>>

Ashanti Pender

My ultimate goal for my business is to make it a dreamer’s hub. Somewhere who inspires people to pursue and achieve their dreams, no matter what. I know it sounds cliche, but we all hit a point in our life when we forget how to dream or the world has beaten us so badly that we no longer can dream. When you’re a kid, dreaming is easy. Read more>>

Tylor Mars

Dragon Roylty (DR) is a passion project that soon turned into more ambitious goals. (interests including, but not limited to) hybrid plants, sound manipulation construction and medicine and leading a country. Read more>>

Faye Cullina

Most brands produce products for customers that they will never see or know. Their approach is impersonal and they care solely about single moment of beauty in mind. Not so for Orjanic. Read more>>

Jenna Woods

Growing up, I always had a love for fashion & knew I wanted to work in the fashion industry one day. My senior year of high school I got accepted into Kent State’s School Of Fashion, but due to mental health reasons, I had to decline. I spent the next several years trying to figure my life out & really found a love for social media. Read more>>

Stormi Banks

Pink Print Firm was started to give women of color the opportunity to get well deserved funding needed to start or scale their businesses. In our community we receive less than 1% of funding and that needed to change. Our founder Stormi Banks spent months saving money to raise seed money to start her desired business just to have that money robbed by her best friend. Read more>>

Sophia du Brul, ISA AM

Stuff is a problem, and that’s what I deal with. When my clients come to me, something traumatic is happening. No one thinks to themselves, “Oh, I think I will have an estate sale.” People think of having an estate sale when someone died, they need to downsize or are getting a divorce, Read more>>

Shaniequa Washington

Coming from one of the largest companies on the Fortune 500, one of the things that I understand is the people that make the difference, but was not being treated as the difference. As I started my company the biggest portion of my business is to make community impact, for my fashion to be statement pieces that start the right conversations of understanding and change. Read more>>

Matt Amsden

I started Rawvolution in 2001 with a goal of serving the finest and most vibrant living foods to Los Angelenos right in their own homes. The mission soon expanded to offer the same meals nationwide. Rawvolution’s commitment to plant-based foods and organics is unwavering and we pride ourselves on sourcing the very finest and freshest ingredients available. Read more>>

Abby Green

There are many businesses out there. And woman run businesses are starting to take the stage with some incredible deliverables. But for mothers who are craving more flexibility in the workplace and at home, we wanted to create an experience specifically for them. Read more>>

Katrina Doss-Owens

K.I.M.I. Fashions, LLC x The Kyrie Brand’s mission is to provide services and products that aim to help others begin their own healing journey. No matter what you are going through or have been through the mission of my brand is to help people find their inner courage to heal. Healing is not an easy process and the pandemic really made a lot of us have to sit down to take a good look at ourselves from an internal perspective. Read more>>

ShirtKingPhade Sacasa

Growing up in Brooklyn then moving to the Bronx and witnessing the core elements of a culture influence daily actions created a mission. A way out, an answer to prayers. The backdrop of the Bronx was not a pretty site. We made due, some settled and said,’this is the way it has always been and will be. The new generation saw it different. We saw the silver lining Read more>>

Carrie Hauskens

Sharing my story is something I’ve always done. When struggling with infertility, I started my blog and disclosed every aspect on Instagram. I was saying what others were thinking. After five years of trying and two rounds of IVF, I became pregnant. And eight months into the pregnancy, our daughter Clementine died. The grief that followed somehow led me straight to love, and I began celebrating everything. Read more>>

Samantha Jordan

I am here to trailblaze a path of expansive living, authentic leadership & sovereign + unapologetic self expression. I am so passionate about giving others full permission to be who they came here to be, because the world is a better place when we all shine bright. My path of leadership began with my affinity for multi media journaling and discovering the community in Sedona, Arizona.. Read more>>

Derek Nielsen

In 2016, I was standing at the base of one of the great volcanoes inside Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda, just after spending the day with wild Mountain Gorillas when I had the stark realization I had to do more with my photography. I was so emotionally moved by the experience I had to find a way to use my skills as a photographer to help protect this planet. Read more>>

Evan Burger

My business partner Johnathon and I opened Ames Bottle and Can in December of last year. We are a new can and bottle redemption center in Ames, Iowa, and our goal is to make recycling fun. The two of us had been talking for years about how there weren’t any good redemption options in Ames, and we decided to do something about it. Read more>>

soona cook

I was a care giver for all of my life since young age, took care of my disable grandmother, young cousins who were incapacitate to take care of themselves after war. I worked in fish market, sold onions in fresh market in my very young age. I never really had a home that I could hang my coat and lay my head down as growing up. But I alway had my comfort moment with crayons and paper. Read more>>

Lauren Parlier

My mission is that I want to love people well! When I show up to a photoshoot, I’m already thinking “how can I love and serve them well today”. I show up to sessions ready to laugh, but also ready to listen! There are so many different people who show up to my sessions, and so many people have a lot of life happening. Read more>>

Jen Shirley

The main thing that I love to do is coach & teach people. After spending 25 plus years in public education as a Principal, it was time to figure out what my “Second Act” was going to be. One of the biggest drivers for this decision was to create a business that suits my lifestyle for where I am currently at in life. I wanted to no longer work for someone else. I wanted to have better control over my time & schedule. Read more>>

Savannah Williams

At the age of 3, I lost my Dad and Grandpa in the same year. Loss continued to snowball from there, and I’ve been riding the waves of grief for as long as I can remember. When photos became the only thing I had left of my loved ones, I started documenting all of my friends and family because I wanted to make sure I remembered every moment with them. Read more>>

Aloha Kelly

Growing up in the pre-digital age, I spent hours upon hours flipping through fashion magazines. I didn’t know then that this ‘idea’ of what a woman should look like was leaving such an impression upon my young, developing psyche. I’ve spent over two decades photographing hundreds of women. Read more>>

 Shantoni Holbrook

The story behind my mission, which is to spread awareness, inclusivity, individuality, uniqueness, love, light, and positivity unapologetically to the world and especially to those that have been conditioned to feel like they aren’t seen and don’t have a voice, comes from not actually seeing much of those things aforementioned growing up. I remember stumbling upon a quote that just stays with me. Read more>>

Kristy Smith

I grew up moving from one place to the next. I remember each home whether it was a rental or owned that my Mom would do her best to make each place a home. Even on the tightest budget she would figure out a way to make the space a haven. Who would’ve known that you could rent art from the public library for your home! Read more>>

ALESSANDRO GALEA

I have always had a dream of helping to navigate and minimize the stress levels that occur naturally in the world of Canadian Real Estate. My mission is to help avoid the emotional and judgmental mistakes I see every day that put people in an unfavorable position with so much of their hard- earned month at stake. Read more>>

Alana Almonte

While my mission has “changed” throughout the years, there has always been a common denominator- healing. When I originally started my business, I started off with a “smaller” mission than what I was actually capable of. I wanted to share my art and energy healings with people who appreciated what I did. Read more>>