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.

Denise VanBriggle

In 2008 I was co-facilitating a prison writing program when I was a doctoral student at Penn State University, Capital Campus, and one of the professors recommended a seminal memoir to ground my work with incarcerated individuals: Jimmy Santiago Baca’s A Place to Stand. When I read the last page, a certain knowing washed over me. Read more>>

Todd Hicks

I spent the last 40 years as a successful Financial Advisor serving clients to create wealth and then help them manage their assets thru their retirement. Once my wife and I went through a similar program in Dallas Tx, everything changed for me. I watched people that had been carrying pain, hurts, resentment and bitterness due to life’s situations and hard knocks, release the pain and baggage and flourish afterwards. Read more>>

Derek Chase

Yes! It was when I turned the page on my 10 year corporate career in 2017, quitting my job with L’Oreal (at the time, Head of Retail Marketing for Kiehl’s), moving to California (I’m a Boston native), and starting a new career path, making ends meet by liquidating my 401K, and doing sales and marketing freelance work. Read more>>

Shakeisha Johnson

When I initially wrote my book 100 days of singleness, it began as a blog series, evolved into an email devotional and a group mentorship program before it was published for public consumption. Around the time I was about to publish, I met with a coach because I needed direction and clarity. Read more>>

Christian Sarran

I had started my professional counseling career in January of 2018, working with children of child abuse. I, like so many others, had been taught Cognitive Behavior Therapy throughout graduate school to help individuals work through trauma, anxiety, and depression. The belief was, change your thinking and you will change how you feel and behave in the world. Read more>>

Rene Bramlett

I Rene Bramlett-Reed Ceo/Founder of DA’SHADE ROOM EYEWEAR. Embodies my  personal journey that  transformed into a mission.I’ve being living  with glaucoma in 1999  which sparked a commitment to revolutionize eye care through fashion and advocacy. My mission is to provide stylish, functional eyewear while spotlighting sight-threatening diseases with early detection screening like glaucoma.  Read more>>

Roben Green

I would have to say a defining moment in my career was when I started it. I was always the go to girl for all my friends and their kids … they always came to me for guidance, inspiration, help and it came naturally for me to give them tools and advice to help them along on their journey. I did this for many years before even knowing I could start a business and make a living mentoring and helping others. Read more>>

Marije Terluin

For me the defining moment in my career as a past life regressionist was when I realized I’m really made to do this. To become a past life regressionist for me was a big step, especially because I was not a spiritual person before and had never had a spiritual job either. I worked in fashion and branding within a world that was far away from anything conscious or spiritual. Read more>>

Tom Andre

We do not always recognize the moments that define our career when they happen. My mind keeps going back to a moment when I was working in advertising sales, sitting at the table of the ad agency whose business we were pitching. Read more>>

Nathalie Jaspar

Just before the 2019 pandemic hit, I got a free business mentor from the city of New York. On our first meeting, she went through my Reiki website. She sighed and said: I didn’t know much about Reiki, so I did some research. All the sites listed the same things you did. So tell me, why would I choose you? I started listing reasons: Read more>>

Sana Yusuf

Yes, absolutely there was a defining moment in my professional career. I was 18 years old when I got pregnant with my son. I remember finding out the week of finals, 2nd semester of my freshman year at college. I remember taking the pregnancy test from the dollar store in my shared dorm bathroom and saying that can’t be right, it’s from the dollar store. Read more>>

Stefany Ting

There have been many defining moments in my journey as an Ancestral Healing Facilitator. The first time I experienced the power of Sound Healing in a restorative yoga class, my world changed forever. I became aware of a world that existed beyond my senses. Read more>>

Dr. Kamaria Washington, PT, DPT

Absolutely, there was a defining moment in my professional journey that altered the trajectory of my career. While attending the University of Michigan, I initially pursued a path toward becoming a pediatrician as a pre-med student. However, the challenges posed by organic chemistry prompted me to reevaluate my career goals. Despite being enrolled in the School of Kinesiology, my pursuit of physical therapy also didn’t align with my aspirations. Read more>>

Mariam Sufi

I feel blessed that over the 20 years I have worked in fitness, there have been quite a few pivotal, defining moments in my career that have changed the trajectory of my path. I find that evolution is constant and that we are given many opportunities in the chapters of our stories to do something uncomfortable, take a chance on ourselves, or even seek growth on a different path than we are on. Read more>>

R.G. Shore

The Defining Moment is an-going process, less like a lake, and more like a river. When you tap into that creative flow within you, you realize that all moments are really connected, and not separate from each other. But for the sake of this interview, I think it’s important to point the reader to where it all began. Read more>>

Amber Miller

I’ve been a nurse for almost 5 years now. I’ve been in the medical field for about 15 years total. My career changed when I was 23. I was struggling with my own mental health and I attempted suicide. My mom called me just before I was going to finalize the attempt. I picked up the phone and I told her everything. It saved my life, but it didn’t stop the severe depression. This occurred at the end of September. Read more>>

Sistah Yaya

It was late Summer of 2021, typical raining season for New Orleans, Her name was Hurricane Ida and she tore through the Southern Louisiana in the same manner as her distance cousin Katrina on the same day August 29. I wasn’t familiar with the Hurricane but my husband who is a native to New Orleans knew we needed to evacuate. So we did, not knowing if we would return. Read more>>

Renata Skoupy

Originally from Brazil, my 20+ year career in massage therapy began in women’s salons working exclusively with women, eventually I moved on to carve my own path providing out-call services exclusively to female clients. After moving to the United States, and having to perform a “reset” by going back to school, and obtaining my USA massage therapist’s license my initial move was to get my foot in the door by again working for others. Read more>>

Madelyn Nance

After high school and the death of a good friend, I went into college not sure of what I wanted to do future wise and not really right minded to make big decisions. Initially, I thought about going into healthcare and started in a nursing program following advice from others, however shortly after I decided that teaching was a better fit. Over my teaching career, I worked for private schools, charter schools, and public school systems. Read more>>