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.

Chase Chapman

There are a lot of defining moments I have endured in the shaping of my career, but the one that stands out the most was the one that really put my mortality in perspective. I don’t want to sound so “doom and gloom” but this moment was the catalyst to what “Live The Seven” is and how it was created. Read more>>

Kelly Coté

experience in my personal life that ultimately led me to me opening Evolve Counseling, PLLC. After earning my Master’s Degree in Community Mental Health Counseling, I began working for a program at Urban Peak supporting youth experiencing homelessness who were struggling with a co-occurring mental health and substance use disorder. This time in my life was exciting both personally and professionally. Read more>>

Camille Weiss

The most defining moment in my career so far was learning that I can’t do everything myself! I am a very driven person however sometimes life throws things at you that are hard to handle alone. My first year of college cheerleading, I went through a really bad stage in my mental health. I began to critique every little thing I did like what I would eat, how I looked, and my entire life as a whole. This caused me to develop terrible anxiety and eventually an eating disorder. Read more>>

Kristine Griffin

Taking my experience back to living in Germany in my early 20’s introduced me to natural remedies to heal the body from illness. After returning to the states, I was given an opportunity to be trained as a Medical Assistant for an Integrated Physician who thought “outside the box” when it came to helping his patients. As a single mother of 3, I split my days working as a personal trainer and Medical Assistant. An idea started to germinate and felt I had something greater to offer. Read more>>

Jason Vanderford, DC, DACBR.

I am a chiropractor and went to school to obtain the training for that. Along the way, I came to understand that the chiropractic profession has specialties. Among those are sports, nutrition, neurology and others. The one that really caught my attention was radiology. I took my first x-ray anatomy class and fell in love with diagnostic imaging. I loved everything about imaging and excelled in my radiology related classes. Read more>>

Russ Kyle

Strung out for years and living on the streets for months, again I stood at a family member’s front door, late at night, asking for “just some food.” As she cried and closed the door, I suddenly realized something for the first time, I was truly alone. No one was going to rescue me. Many had tried to rescue me many times and this had gone on for years. But this day, this episode, at this time, I suddenly knew now, finally, I was alone. I had felt alone but now I knew I was alone. Read more>>

Sapna Bafna

I am an Engineer turned Holistic Health Practitioner. During my 15 years in the corporate world, I found myself constantly worrying about what now seems trivial. From the outside, it appeared that I had a perfect life – a loving family, a great job where I was growing, and an active social life. However, deep down, I knew something was missing – I felt overwhelmed, often tired, and anxious about petty matters. Read more>>

Gemma Garcia

I had always been interested in psychology and the inner workings of the human mind. It even made the top three careers I would choose from to study for my Bachelor’s degree. The theatre performance won, and I thought “well, hey! In theatre I’ll get to be EVERYTHING!”. It was an incredibly fun experience and I would do it ten times over, but in the end, Read more>>

Kylie Ross

Hi, my name is Kylie Ross, and I am a recovering food junky. My journey has taken me through many levels of highs and lows. I reached a point of depression from being in various relationships that made me feel defeated and lonely, so I turned to food and more food. My highest weight was 400lbs! Can you believe it?! I couldn’t, but I grew accustom and only changed my dress size, but not my lifestyle. Due to other underlining health issues, I turned to bariatric surgery. Read more>>

Ricky Prestige Leverett Jr.

I always had an inner knowing that I would be a speaker. I remember being in elementary school and speaking in front of hundreds of adults. I first tried out for a singing solo. Standing at the mic and belted out a horrific note along with the mic screeching. I saw my peers holding their ears and laughing. It was rough and embarrassing. The teacher pulled me to the side and said “you have a great voice just not for singing”. I was crushed until she said you do the 5th-grade speech.” I said “okay” not knowing I would be in front of hundreds of people at our graduation. Read more>>

Amber Beck

When I was 25 years old, my doctor gave me a prescription for blood pressure medication. I asked how long I would have to take the medication and she (very matter-of-factly) responded: “More than likely for the rest of your life.” I was shocked, but I believed her. I later decided that was not going to be my story. I didn’t know anything about health and wellness, so I started cutting back on salt and sodas and thought I was doing something right. Read more>>

Emily Bartlett

I went to college for my undergraduate degree in theatre education. And when I finished my degree – I knew I wasn’t going to be a teacher. I loved half of it and hated the other half. I floated around doing many different jobs and ended up learning Trauma Touch Therapy as part of my massage schooling. I started working at a clinical mental health facility and knew that I was in the right place but needed more tools. My friend mentioned that with my theatre background, drama therapy might be right for me. Read more>>

Caitlin Shrader

The defining moment in my career was when I left the service industry to follow my passion in the beauty biz, not really knowing where it would lead me. After many years of waiting tables, and other various places of employment I found a job as a laser tech, and this is where the history of my aesthetic career began. I started working in a clinic as a laser tech while I was continuing to take my PRE – Reqs for Nursing school, all with the idea of becoming an aesthetic nurse provider.  Read more>>

Dr. Laklieshia Izzard

I would have to say my defining moment as a mental health professional would be working in substance use addiction recovery as a novice counselor. I conducted group and individual therapy. I counseled many individuals with mental health and substance use challenges. During my time as an addiction counselor, I did not only focus on the clinical view. I allowed myself to be open and teachable in the world of recovery. As I realized quickly as a novice counselor that there was not a one size fits all approach for individuals. Read more>>

Ania Chee

In my last year of college I had the worst panic attack I ever had to this day. My hands were shaking, stomach in knows, I couldn’t catch my breath, and my heart was pounding so hard that I thought I was going to die so I called my mom and told her to meet me at the hospital and I drove myself to the emergency room. This was when I realized how bad my anxiety and panic disorder had gotten, and it made me really start to take my mental health seriously. Anxiety and depression have gotten the best of me more times than I care to admit but this moment was truly life-changing for me because I knew I couldn’t go on living with this kind of disordered thinking. Read more>>

Valerie Aguinaga

My name is Valerie Aguinaga; I’m the founder and creator of Pampúree, an online spiritual boutique established in May 2020. I am a young 34-year-old Puerto Rican/Peruvian woman who is raised and born in Queens, New York. Raised in the city of creativity, every corner you turned, there was something to be inspired by, and that’s the beginning of my artistic birth. This last year has been one of the most defining moments in my life, and I’ll dive into why that is. Coming from the concrete jungle, Read more>>

Kareem Tyler

There was a time where I didn’t know how to market my business. I use to go to the malls and pass out business cards, parks, salons, stores, etc… and I’ve learned that some people don’t like being bothered with business while they’re out enjoying leisure time. And social media really wasn’t working for me either. I talked to GOD and asked him for a sign on what to do next, and he gave me a sign to hold on the corner to market myself and that’s when business began popping. I’m 6’5 215lbs, I stand out on the streets. So I understood why GOD gave me this height. To stand out!!! Read more>>

Katie Contreras

The last 19 years have been a ride to say the least; from Schlitterbahn and Superguard, to EMT school and fire academy, then becoming a paramedic and spending countless hours in an ambulance… Each step brought me a little bit closer to the person I am today. These days I usually call myself an educator before anything else, but I am also a small business owner and paramedic, though the latter titles are directly tied into the former. Read more>>

Tamela Todd

I feel it is very important to practice self-care because when I first started my business/ entrepreneurship I didn’t prioritize my work-life/balance. I began gaining weight and experiencing health challenges. After discussing my issues with my doctor he told me I had two choices lose weight or deal with having diabetes. At that moment I decided that I was a priority to myself. I began to change my eating habits and shut down working at 6 pm every day. Exercise three times a week, get eight hours of sleep, set boundaries with family and friends, and outsource help when needed. Read more>>

Chaya Abrams

My career as a a counselor educator and supervisor as well as a psychotherapist has been multi-faceted and rich thus far. One defining moment that occurred when I was a doctoral student was when I realized the importance of connection in both of my positions and how gifted I feel to work with students, clients, and supervisees. Each day, I feel extremely fortunate to work in the helping professions Read more>>

Ivette Hawthorne

My husband and mother-in-law were peering down at me, the floor underneath me hard and cold. Tile. The kitchen floor. It took me a few seconds to piece it together. The baby was crying from the other room. Quiet whispers. They helped me up and led me to the sofa in the living room. I couldn’t speak, but if I could I would’ve told them that I didn’t like the way they were looking at me. Read more>>

Jeff Cooper

My father was a butcher and a pastor. I spent a lot of time at both the shop and the church. I knew and understood those worlds. My mother, on the other hand, went into nursing when I was in grade school. By the time I was ten she was working in the hospital and in just a few years she was head of the OB Labor and Delivery floor. Every evening during family dinner she would tell exciting stories of deliveries, of complications, of stat c-sections. She would tell of the time the physician didn’t make it to the hospital in time and she delivered the baby, or the time that she got called to the ER and delivered a baby on a gurney. Read more>>

Mary Ann Massolio.

I have been working as a pediatric oncology social worker for the past 30 years in the Tampa Bay area. Three years into my career, my own 9 year old son, Jay, was diagnosed with 4th stage non hodgkins lymphoma, 9 hours after my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer. This was truly a defining moment in both my personal and professional life. His short journey battling childhood cancer changed the direction of my social work career to add the opening of the first school in the United States for children with cancer in his loing memory. Read more>>