Everyday we meet business owners, professionals, artists and creatives. Photographers, florists, realtors and more. They might come from different backgrounds, work in different industries, have varying personalities, and have vastly different income and educational profiles, but the one thing we’ve seen over and over again is that most people have a unique and special reason for why they do what they do. From a realtor helping families afford the first home he always wished for as a kid to a photographer using her skills to give a voice and face to victims who feel voiceless, we have been blown away by what happens when you just ask people a simple question – why do you do what you do?

Olesha Haskett

The story behind my mission started in 2019 when I realized that in a group of over 9,000 boudoir photographers I could barely find Black boudoir photographers. I could also barely find examples of Black womxn in the images that were placed in the group by photographers. There were also no Black educators on the paid platform side of the group. Read more>>

Sheretta Danielle

As a little girl, my parents instilled self-love and who I was at an early age. They taught me I was here for a purpose and lead by example of how that purpose was supposed to serve others. Getting older I realized the lack of self-love and assurance in our community, so I have made it my mission the uplift and support everyone I can with the gifts God has given me. Read more>>

Alejandro I. Sanoja

Alejandro I. Sanoja is the founder of Latinpresarios and has been named 1 of the 6 Personal Branding Experts to Follow in 2022. He is an award-winning MBA, a TEDx & Bilingual Speaker, a guest lecturer at several MBA entrepreneurship and financial investment management classes. He has faced economies with inflation levels of more than one million percent (this is not a typo, 1,000,000.00% inflation), GDP drops of more than 30% in a year, and rumor has it he once had to cross the US-Mexico border on foot at midnight. Read more>>

Mallory Kincaid Cassie Lopez

We started Wild Social Micro Weddings a few months before the pandemic hit. We felt passionate about creating a new space in the wedding industry for smaller scale events that didn’t break the bank. We were heavily inspired by Mallory’s own wedding planning experience. She felt overwhelmed, stressed and pressured into pleasing everyone around her instead of focusing on the true meaning of the wedding itself. We’ve found that many recently married couples were experiencing the same regrets, spending too much money on people they didn’t even know. Read more>>

Coach Dee Coleman

Self-Love is the story behind my mission. When I learned to accept and love myself, all I wanted to do was help others do the same. Breaking limiting beliefs and overcoming childhood traumas is not an easy thing to do. It took me many years to accept myself, stand in my truth, and live my life unapologetically. As a black woman who identifies as queer, it is so important for me to be visible and courageous with my voice. Representation matters and many of us are seeking a safe space to be ourselves. I never had that growing up. Read more>>

Merilyn Strowbridge

Merilyn Strowbridge is no ordinary Women, she is a Woman Of God , a Ambitious Queen. Married for 16 years to her loving Ambition King Roosevelt Strowbridge Jr. she is a loving Mother, she is a Role Model to Women and young girls all around the world. Merilyn Strowbridge founded an Womens Organization entitled ” Ambitious Queens Purple *the organization Empowers Women and enhances their confidence. The Vision and Mission of the Ambitious Queens Purple encourage them, letting them know that they are “Ambitious Queens Designed By God” helping them find their Purpose, and pursuing their dreams. Read more>>

Lorence Ricks

The story behind my mission is to alter my clients mind and way of thinking as we embark on our fitness journey. No matter what end goal is for the client, whether they want to gain weight, lose weight or just simply tone a little, the main factor that needs to be improved is their mental knowledge of what to expect throughout the process. That’s where I come into play! Read more>>

Megan Kober

When I was in school studying to become a dietitian, we were taught to put clients on low calorie diets and send them to the gym for cardio to drop weight. I used the methods I was learning in school to fuel my own (unneeded) 5 lbs weight loss that turned into a 20 pound weight gain, eating disorder, and battle with food that would last for the next several years. When I started my nutrition coaching practice 5 years ago, I knew I wanted to do things very differently than I was taught. Read more>>

Talla Kuperman

The story behind why I felt compelled to launch Love Talla is born out of great loss but also shows how someone can be forged in fire to create a vehicle to make this world a better place. And that’s where my story begins… For as long as I can remember, it was my brother Amir and me against the world. He was my big brother, my biggest challenger, and most importantly my best friend. Amir was my world. Read more>>

Denisse “Foodie from Tj”

I decided to start this journey in my life because I wanted to do something that truly made me happy, that inspired me and made me share my passion with everyone, but most of all I wanted to show the real authentic me! In all my professional career I was so afraid to show the real authentic me because in the corporate world appearances do matter, you do get judge from what you say and how you act, and I felt like I was repressing myself, I felt like I was hiding from the rest of the world, I felt miserable, Read more>>

Justin Lane

My name is JP Lane, I joined the U.S. Army in 2008 to serve our great nation and protect others from acts of terrorism. During my deployment to Afghanistan in 2010-11, I was tasked to search for bombs on route clearance missions. July 2nd, 2011, I was blown up by a 200lb IED that penetrated my vehicle, causing 26 injuries including the amputations of both my legs, snapping my pelvis in half, separating my spine from my pelvis, snapping my right arm in half, amputation of right middle finger, TBI, and everything inside my torso destroyed except my heart and left lung. Read more>>

Alexis Wood

Hairstyling didn’t get super personal to me until I had my first baby. I had a really traumatic labor and delivery with her that caused me to have severe postpartum depression. The first few months of her life I stayed in doors and battled with crippling anxiety. I let myself go and threw any and all self care out of the window. I remember just feeling lost in my new role as “mom” and constantly questioning myself. Read more>>

Ellen Kerchner

The mission of our business and farm is to opperate in such a way to protect and create natural habitat, enhance the ecosystem functions on our property and give back to the land that sustains our business. We believe in taking care of the people that produce and enjoy our flowers. For that reason we use no synthetic chemicals on our farm. We hope that in sharing our story we can bring people closer to agriculture in our region and close the gap between farm and consumer. We aim to demonstrate the merits of locally and sustainably grown flowers and contribute to the growth of the local agriculture movement. Read more>>

Chelsea Pyle

Career Pro supports career changers, entry level professionals, executive level professionals, or those returning to the workforce by landing their dream career. Our mission is to position professionals to stand out and shine above the competition by partnering with them to understand their career development goals and curating the career documents they need to get their foot in the door and land their dream career. Career Pro is passionate about showcasing our client’s accomplishments and impacts and leveraging them to earn up to an $80,000 pay increase. Read more>>

Brett Engle & Penpa Dolma

It’s Time for a Consciousness Shift We are all living through a great zeitgeist shift on our planet, globally purging and releasing the behaviors which are driving our civilization off of a cliff, while simultaneously awakening to the interconnected nature of our reality. As Innovative Yogis, we see a glorious opportunity to live a sustainable, abundant, vibrant, and joyful life on this planet, not just for the few, but for all, and we are deeply grateful to be here to help manifest it into being. Read more>>

Leticia Negrete

Jesse and I met by coincidence at the age 12 & 14, through mutual friends. We became inseparable since the first day. He was my best friend and within a year of meeting, became the father to our child. Being together so long put us through many trials and tribulations, some of which we conqured, and others which assisted in our growth. The road has never been an easy one, to say the least, but the love we shared for one another was plenty to get us through. In 2007 after having our third oldest, we talked about creating a motivational clothing brand, something to serve as a daily reminder to those around us, to keep pursuing their goals; Read more>>

Jessica Correnti

For the last 14 years I have served vulnerable children and families in the hospital setting as a Certified Child Life Specialist (CCLS). Children who have entered the hospital for things like open heart surgeries, accidents and traumas, routine procedures like getting their tonsils removed, emergency room visits, inpatient hospital stays for new diagnoses or injuries. All of these experiences come with the potential for major stress, anxiety, fear, and trauma for a child. My role is a keen to an ’emotional first responder’. The child has numerous professionals that focus on specific pieces of the medical care. Read more>>

Sarai Thompson

I wish I knew the exact day and time when I became an event planner. I guess you can say it all started in college. I was always coming up with creative ideas for birthday parties, trips, and photoshoots — you name it and I had a big and bright idea on how to make this happen for everyone’s budget. However, I never took that talent seriously. I am a multi-hyphenate creative, but first, I am a journalist. I did not want to gear away from my goal of becoming a big fashion journalist in the industry, not realizing that I can do and have it all. Years later my best friend Myles and his wife Aaliyah who are both family to me asked me to be the day of coordinator for their wedding. Can you say honored?! Read more>>

Nick Hernandez

More than 15 years ago, as a medical practice administrator I saw a need for private practice physicians to get help with a niche of services that were not being addressed. That was the motivation for me to start my own business that assists physicians with strategy, transactions, and partnerships. Read more>>

Darchi Anderson

So we started the journey of photography to deliver cost affordable photos to those who don’t get to take them often. The main client we looked to help was the single mother. Having a single mother myself I didn’t get many chances to take family photos or have those memories with the family before my father and grandfather passed away. So seeing that was an opportunity I missed out on me and my wife came together created The Anderson’s Photography and over 2 years in business . We have had 3 missions of giving food to the homeless and pictures . 3 free photoshoot a for single mothers and countless smiles! Now we set out to do a free photoshoot for at least one single family household a year. Read more>>

Scott Bowen

A couple of years ago I would have simply said our mission at FitTogether is to build a platform that connects the gym industry in a much more effective and logical way than what is available to us today through the big tech platforms. What I realized over the past two years during the pandemic is that while the industry does very much need its own purpose driven platform for our community, the world desperately needs more education about health and fitness and how changes in your lifestyle can not only lengthen your life, but prepare you and strengthen you against viruses and illnesses that can really cause a lot of damage to unhealthy people. Read more>>

Cori Cook

For 11 years I suffered from a debilitating health condition which consisted of tremendous daily pain as well as limitations within every aspect of my life. The medical community ignored my pleas for healthcare, minimized the pain and symptoms I experienced, all while telling me that everything was ‘in my head.’ Although this condition had a name, Endometriosis, and a known gold standard treatment of care, I was repeatedly denied proper care by numerous physicians and surgeons that claimed to be experienced with Endometriosis. Read more>>

Paul and Karen Bonarrigo

Our mission at Messina Hof is simple. We are a family-owned business that focuses on three primary pillars: family, tradition, and romance. We work every day to share these wines through experiences of hospitality, food, and customer service so we can successfully bring people into our family and inspire them to share our wines with their own. Read more>>

Johnny Obando

Of course nothing in life comes easy.. I grew up in the circus business moving from town to town almost every single day. Ten months out of the year traveling every corner of the country. Certainly it was a lot of traveling and no time at home.
Back in 2017 my wife kateryna bezrodnia from Ukraine decided that it was time to spend less time on the road and try to spend more time at home.so our daughter can start going to Public school ( she was 3 at the time. I was nervous at first cause all I knew was circus and how things moved in the circus world. Read more>>

Keith Harmeyer

Both my partner and I have been creative professionals for our entire careers. During our years working together in advertising, we noticed that, for many (and especially those who didn’t consider themselves “creative”) the creative process could be challenging and, all too often, intimidating and demoralizing. Team leaders consistently expressed frustration over their group’s inability to generate truly unique, creative ideas, on demand. It seemed that many people simply lack the confidence, understanding, and skills necessary to effectively and efficiently come up with innovative solutions. Read more>>

Erika Montero

It motivates me to promote that women take responsibility and move forward because the digital gender gap is a reality. The invitation is to develop digital skills. According to the European Union, it refers to the “set of knowledge, skills, attitudes, strategies and awareness about the use of ICTs and digital media for their critical, creative and safe use and thus achieve the objectives related to work, employability , learning, free time, inclusion and participation in society.” Read more>>

Consqula Allen

I started Urban Lafleur as way to bring joy and love into peoples’ lives. At the time of me coming up with this idea, I was battling a serious health condition. I had just received some life changing news, and I decided to take a breather. In that moment someone walked past me with the most beautiful bouquet of roses, with tears in my eye, I smiled! It instantly changed my mood. I feel that roses can be an expression of many things. Read more>>

John & Sara Robinson

Our mission is to create and serve organic and intentional plant medicine to assist humans in obtaining a healthier + peaceful balance within their mind and body. After working in the medical field for 10+ years, having anxiety and autoimmune health issues of my own, and witnessing the DIS-ease of so many around us…my husband and knew it was necessary to share the plants and practices that have made such an impact in our lives. Primarily it has been cannabis in all of her forms, from oils, to tinctures to hemp flower…it is truly a miraculous medicine. Read more>>

Jessica Dao

The story behind my mission is to simply capture time and freeze the moment for my clients. I understand that pictures hold extreme value, especially sentimental values. Its really a pleasure and an honor to be able to provide this value to my clients and that they trust me in doing so. Read more>>

Manny King

When I was younger, I always loved watching my family’s home videos, and looking at our photo albums. So many moments in time and so many stories came from these images. I got my first camera when I was 9, and since then I’ve wanted to recreate those feelings i felt when looking at those videos and pictures. I create to attempt to envoke those feelings of tenderness and nostalgia in all of my work. I want to make you feel those things when you watch my films or look at my photos. Read more>>

Adriana Saurini

Neighborhood Art Studio strives to provide a safe, supportive environment where there is no such thing as making mistakes. We encourage artists of all ages to open their minds, create without boundaries, and ignite the spark of ingenuity that lies within. Through exploration of various techniques, materials, and processes, artists learn to solve problems and overcome obstacles using the resources that are available to them, while building self-confidence and pride in the art they create. Read more>>

Janae Marie

Growing up as an only child I spent a lot of time alone. So, to escape boredom I read plenty of books. At the age of 13 I started writing poetry. Then a few years later I began writing books. Reading my favorite urban fiction books really inspired me to tap into my own creative outlet. When I got to college at Wayne State University I researched how to self-publish my own books. At the age of 25 I published my first book. Shortly after, I published 2 more. Read more>>

Andrea Steponaitis

As a seasoned personal trainer and small business entrepreneur for over 18 years, I have witnessed our industry have many pitfalls. Large box gyms are well kept, typically positive and motivational but tend to lack knowledgeable staff on subjects such as clients with disabilities or prenatal and postpartum expertise. Injury prevention is another area that these gyms lack significant training. Read more>>