Defining moments aren’t just exciting – they are thought-provoking and fertile ground for learning. These inflection points often are the result of an illuminating moment where some truth of the universe presents itself in an easier to recognize form. Below, you’ll find talented and successful entrepreneurs and artists sharing the stories of defining moments in their lives.

Jalynne Messer.

The year of 2020 was a defining moment for me. Like most individuals, covid 19 affected our social life, mental and physical health. Prior to the shut down I had already been researching natural remedies to anxiety and depression; such as essential oils, crystals the benefits of the sun and water around us I became so fascinated. Experiencing multiple jobs post college graduation; nothing seemed to be fulfilling and it felt every experience became even more traumatizing and my anxiety grew tremendously. Read more>>

Odilakachi Hezekiah-Onwukwe.

The defining moment in my career isn’t just one; it’s an amalgamation of moments where my clients realized that I was their therapist. The population that I’ve worked with the most is Black youth. For them to see someone that looks more like an uncle or tee-tee than someone who’s going to reprimand them for being human. So then for me, the defining moment is knowing that these humans—at least for this time—feel safe, supported, and seen. Read more>>

Barb Hill.

This defining moment actually happened in 2014 while I was in grad school. At the time, I had a growing feeling that some big changes were coming in my life but I didn’t have a clear picture of what that would look like or mean for me. In the summer of my second year, I was sitting in the airport and was suddenly reminded of an anti-human trafficking organization I had heard about months prior. I googled the organization and noticed they were offering internship opportunities in California, which just so happened to coincide with an internship I needed to complete that coming fall. Read more>>

Lindsay Stephens

I started a residency at the President’s Hospital in the DC metro area. It is a Military hospital so we worked with soldiers coming back from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars as well as local active duty military. We would consistently get patients that the traditional medical community could not help. They would do all the testing and imaging, drugs, procedures with no help and sending them to us was their last resort. Read more>>

Amy Hicks.

I have come to understand that everyone is only as successful as their team – not in one single epiphany, but rather in several key moments in my training and career. My great-aunt, Katherine Pope, was a nurse and inspired me to pursue nursing at a very early age. She set the first example to me that hard work does pay off and illustrated the profound importance of everyone’s interdependence both in calling me to help the vulnerable and in demonstrating how I can best do so with the right hard-working team members. Read more>>

Haley Robertson

I was gifting crystal singing bowls at the end of my Yoga Teacher Training in 2020. I didn’t know how to play them nor did I believe I could play them especially for a living. At the beginning of 2021, I woke up from a dream that affirmed this was a path I was meant to be on. In the dream, I had some stackable cups that were really popular a while back. I remember saying in the dream, I don’t know how to play these, I don’t know how to use these and tossed them in the trash. Suddenly the cups lit up and were vibrating and I received a text messaging saying, “it’s inside you, just do it!” Read more>>

Tamara Kahn & Terry Hord Twinscoast2coast

We are the “Haber” twins. Tammy and Terry. We were born identical twin sisters in the sunshine state of Florida in 1968. Today, we go by our married names Tamara Kahn and Terry Hord. We were both diagnosed with multiple sclerosis twenty plus years ago. We have both been married for almost 30 years and have two daughters each all in their twenties. Currently, Terry lives in Atlanta and Tamara in the San Francisco Bay area. Our passions include MS related fundraising, Broadway theater and traveling. Recently, Terry was invited to join the The Board of Trustees for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Georgia Chapter. Read more>>

Adina Diaz.

There has been quite a few defining moments in my career, but the ones that truly changed me and my path, were the ones that hurt the most. In the moments of success and recognition, you can forget that in a blink of an eye, it can all change. That is exactly what I learned from the pandemic. Read more>>

Chad Clark

Growing up I was an overweight child who struggled with issues of self-confidence and feeling comfortable in my own skin. I spent many years not fully feeling like I fit in, and it wasn’t until late in high school that I realized I could make a change. I began exercising and researching nutrition when I was in my junior year of high school, and made significant weight loss progress before going into my senior year. Read more>>

Mary Phipps.

One of the most defining moments of my life occurred shortly after I moved to Kansas City in 2015. I chose to move here to be closer to my boyfriend (now husband) who was in chiropractic school at cleveland chiropractic college. One night he took me to a meet and greet with several chiropractors following a seminar. One of the doctors asked me what I did for a living and I must have explained with little to no enthusiasm because immediately he asked me if I had ever thought about going to chiropractic school. I laughed it off and shook my head no. Read more>>

Nicole Roberts

As a proud mother to three daughters it became a priority of mine to provide them the best nourishment as possible. Over the years, we have developed a recipe book, that includes meals, beauty rituals, and cleaning products with my love for natural ingredients. Through balancing work, family life and self care I learned the true meaning of what we put in and on our bodies and how this relates to our overall health and well-being. Read more>>

Kristen Bender

When I started tuning into my body and really listening, my life was changed. I would have never thought my relationship with fitness was unhealthy before this moment. However, after I grew my mind and body connection I realized that I was moving out of punishment not out of love. If I ate a certain way I felt like I had to “work it off”, I thought I had to always be sweating and sore after a workout, and even though I loved movement I wasn’t really enjoying the process. Read more>>

Kayla Merritt

My defining moment in my life is when I was at my lowest point! I knew I had to turn my life around or I wouldn’t make it to see my next birthday. I struggle with mental illnesses that I am no longer ashamed of, and refuse to be defined by! One day I woke and I realized I wasn’t living a full life . I had let all my pain, insecurities, and disappointment in myself take my joy. Read more>>

Todd Ristorcelli

I graduated from the University of Central Florida in 1996 and was skiing on the U.S. Pro Water Ski Tour. Soon after, I was fortunate to find my dream job at WATERSKI magazine, where I eventually became editor and chief and traveled the world competing in events and reporting on the sport I loved dearly. During my tenure at the magazine, I learned many skill sets that are still valuable to me now as a virtual fitness and mindset coach. Read more>>

Ashley Walburn

Yes! I’ve had a few defining moments that led me to where I am at hOMe holistic today. The first one was I was sitting on my back deck, talking to a friend on the phone. I’ve been staying home a few years with my children and ready to get back to work I thought I would go back to work full-time as a marriage and family therapist. The career that I had left when my babies were so small. I’ve been practicing yoga for several years at that point and at the time there was no prenatal yoga at all in Kansas City and my friend said to me he want to become a prenatal yoga teacher. Read more>>

Adriana Dobbs

Beginning in 2010; I exited a toxic 15-year marriage, I lost my father to a long and devastating illness, and lost 3 beloved pets all within a 3-year time. Eventually, my mind, body and spirit started to breakdown. I sought out treatment from various medical doctors with little results or improvement. By 2016 I was diagnosed with Hashimotos Thyroiditis, an autoimmune condition where an overactive immune system attacks body tissue, in my case, it was my thyroid. Read more>>

Casey Coleman

After my first year in physical therapy school I found a physical therapist online who taught healthcare professionals how to create additional income outside of their traditional clinical career. I took his advice and used it to help build what is now Pre PT Grind. Pre PT Grind is a holistic consulting platform designed specifically for the student who wants to become a physical therapist or a physical therapist assistant. If not for that defining moment before my physical therapy career started, I would not be where I am now. Read more>>

Erika Washburn

I have not always been a birth doula, a birth educator, or a self proclaimed pregnancy and birth nerd. If you had told me 10 years ago that I’d end up as any of those things, I’d probably laugh and think you were crazy. Because a decade ago, I was well into my career in the corporate world, and happy to remain on that path. However, becoming pregnant with my first child nine years ago, started me on a new trajectory. Read more>>

Jean Atman

I grew up in an extremely abusive and toxic environment in which I developed many limiting beliefs about how life worked. I ended up carrying those belief systems with me into adulthood and found that I continued to draw in narcissistic relationships, struggle, hardship, and pain. When I finally reached a breaking point and hit rock bottom from a narcissistic relationship, I had no choice but to make a radical change. I was a single mom of 2 and was stripped down from anything that felt supportive of our existence. Read more>>

FRANK KING.

What goal would you pursue, if you knew for a fact that you had absolutely nothing to lose? What audacious dream would you pursue, if you knew that by not pursing it, and remaining in place, you would literally die? That’s where I was in January of 1984. I was married and miserable, selling insurance and miserable, not pursuing what I believed that I was born to do, standup comedy, and miserable. Read more>>

Vesna Rysdale

Right NOW, is a defining moment in my professional career. After 20+ years in clinical research, I’m pivoting to health and nutrition coaching full time. Over the last few years, I’ve been doing both jobs, climbing the corporate ladder, while growing my health coaching business. I’ve personally experienced how coaching can transform an individual’s health and wellbeing in ways that science takes decades to prove. Read more>>

Chasity Putman.

My journey into yoga and energy healing started with a live changing decision followed by a series of unfortunate events. It was the year that I decided to end my 7 year relationship with my oldest daughters father. After that decision the entire year seamed to unravel. The landlady of the house I rented discovered she had stage 4 breast cancer and needed to sell immediately, my mother remarried despite pleads against the marriage, and my little brother passed away not 4 days after our mothers wedding in a motorcycle accident. Read more>>

Brian Pruett

My professional career story is one from Pharma rep in corporate America to Holistic Coach! I focus on fitness, nutrition, mindset and lifestyle coaching with my clients through my online program, BFIT. I was settling in my last role as a pharma rep, settling for less than God’s best for my life. I have a unique gift to coach, encourage and inspire them to become more of who they are for the people they love the most. Read more>>

Al Siamon

In 1999, I came back from a trip in my motorhome, I heard a report that 2 million people got staph infection and 80 thousand people died. They went in for minor surgery and came out dead. I knew I had a product that could help this situation. I came out of retirement, in an effort to bring it to the world. I have spent over 2 million dollars as of today. Read more>>