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.

Max Hoyt

Yes, I worked at a gym called crunch fitness and in 1 year, I was able to lead 80 people to Jesus and see wild miracles on the gym floor! Read more>>

Claudia Carrea

defining moment in my career was when I taught a full group class, and someone told me after, “I feel stronger because of you.” That moment made me realize — this isn’t just about workouts. It’s about helping people feel confident and capable. From then on, I stopped trying to fit in and started showing up as myself. That’s when everything changed. Read more>>

Tanika Barber

In 2020, I opened my group private practice with the mission of providing mental health services to individuals struggling with depression, anxiety, and trauma. I was committed to helping others navigate their healing journeys—but what I hadn’t fully acknowledged at the time was that I was still navigating my own. Read more>>

Audrey Rose

As a Registered Nurse, I really took on a lot of work – always the people pleaser, working hard under pressure. During the pandemic, I took on the role of a lead nurse on our COVID 19 unit. It was stressful. Patients were sick, I was in charge of helping the bedside nurses to provide the best possible care while also juggling the communication with our doctors, social workers, and other team members. It was a stressful time – holding up ipads to help families say goodby to their loved ones through FaceTime (no visitors were allowed), staying on top of constantly changing policies, you name it. Read more>>

Patricia Velloza

There were a lot of moments in my life when I knew that I didn’t want to be stuck in the system and part of your normal 9 to 5 matrix. It’s something that I’ve known since I was in elementary school actually and had been fighting it for a long time, especially having become a seasonal worker at age 17 lifeguarding summers for the parks department gave me lots of freedom to have a pretty serious and really great job Without having to commit to a full year of work. However, obviously, I fell into adulthood and having bills and serious life financial obligations, when I was buying my home at age 25 I needed proof of a steady income and a seasonal job and a few other jobs that I quit every year didn’t look good on paper. Read more>>

Carla Stefanelli

Absolutely. I used to work relentlessly in marketing, specifically for the Hispanic market in the U.S. My clients were demanding, my boss was intense, and because many were on Pacific Time, the workdays stretched well into the evening. It was a high-pressure environment in a small agency where everything felt like it needed to be submitted yesterday —constantly urgent, always on. Read more>>

Paul Freedom

One of the most pivotal moments in my professional journey came at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the world on pause, I finally had time to reflect on what I wanted—not just in terms of career, but quality of life, impact, and integrity. I had been charging $120 per hour for massage, but after taking a business-building course designed specifically for bodyworkers, I sat down and did the math: how much did I truly want to earn in a year, and how many sessions per week could I sustainably give while staying healthy and present? Read more>>

Tim Plucinsky

I remember standing at the edge of the ocean, watching the waves rise and crash—each one powerful, steady, and unstoppable. It was a quiet moment, but something shifted in me that day. As I stood there, I felt deeply connected to something bigger than myself. The noise in my mind quieted, and a clear truth rose to the surface: This is what I’m here to do. Read more>>

Jerry St Louis

I never set out to open a private practice. In fact, I spent years learning how to survive before I ever learned how to build — and those hard‑won lessons inform everything I do today.

A decade ago, crystal meth had my life on mute. In my early sobriety I accompanied a friend to a Crystal Meth Anonymous meeting. Out of roughly 25 people, just three of us were Black. When the only other Black man broke down while sharing, the room froze. No one moved to comfort him. Afterward he told me it always happened that way; even among people who shared the same drug and the same pain, he still felt alone. Read more>>

Raiysa

On an ordinary day in the office, I got to learn an extraordinary lesson. I was working alongside a senior executive, a person whose presence commanded respect and whose schedule was a maze of back-to-back commitments. On this particular day, the stakes were high—a senior leadership meeting loomed, and the clock was ticking. Read more>>

Mike Edwards

A couple of years ago I went to Fascial Dissection course under the tutelage of Antonio and Carla Stecco. The Steccos are the tip of the sword when it comes to fascia research, not to mention that their father, Luigi, created a methodology called Fascial Manipulation which might be one of the most powerful holistic modalities available to us as health professionals in this space. You see when I was physical therapy school 20 years ago, we simply dismissed the fascia as a inert connective tissue. However, the Steccos research and recent developments in histological staining, as well as dynamic imaging using ultrasound, have proven that fascia’s role in the body is far greater than we ever imagined. Read more>>

MARIKA Conway

It was a perfect storm. An end of one chapter, uncertainty of what to do next, coming out of a pandemic, and…. seeing my mom in the mirror. My physical therapy & holistic wellness business was closing, and I needed a plan B. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to go back to working for someone else. I needed to find a way to combine my background in sports medicine, nutrition, fitness, holistic wellness and perhaps my love if cooking and mixology to create my next chapter. Read more>>

Marly Brodsky

The defining moment in my professional career came when my grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer and passed away just three months later. Read more>>

Sandy Pharaon

It was my first semester, freshman year. I was sitting in the front row of a first-year business seminar—excited, nervous, and uncertain of who I was becoming. As a first-generation American and college student, this was more than just a class. It was my first time away from home, away from my state, and away from everything familiar. Read more>>

Tara Accardo

The moment both of my parents died was defining for me on countless levels both personally and professionally. Both of them died from different types of cancer within six months of each other (mom first in December 2019, then dad in July 2020, and like loss often does, it shifted everything for me. I was no longer the same person I was before their deaths. It was a long road to understand what that truly meant for me, and honestly, I’m still on that path figuring it out! But it not only led me to reevaluate the perspective on my own life, my choices, my hopes and desires and so much more, but also what genuinely made me happy. Nothing puts that into perspective faster than losing the two people you depend on and need most in your life. My “North Stars”, as I lovingly call them now. Read more>>

Camille Williams

At 16 I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. This diagnosis and treatment changed the trajectory of my life. Post cancer I developed endometriosis which lead to me requiring a hysterectomy. Being in menopause as a then 28 year old, my body changed, my sex drive changed, and my energy changed; then the Love, Sex, and Applied Behavior Analysis podcast and Becoming Unfckwithable was birthed. I created these platform businesses as a means to deploy the science of Behavior Analysis, Mindfulness, and Black Positive Psychology to prompt the collective awakening of the decolonization of pleasure. As a Self-Love Behavioral Scientist, my work prioritizes the uplift, protection, pleasure, and freedom of all Black peoples, with a divine dedication to Black femmes, mascs, androgynous, and trans beings, especially those who’s medical history has negatively impacted their bodies and sexual health. Read more>>

Joseph Purita

The defining moment in my career as a physician in regenerative medicine came unexpectedly, not in a breakthrough experiment or groundbreaking procedure, but in a moment of profound clarity. I began using Platelet Rich Plasma during some of my surgical cases. I began studying cellular regeneration mechanisms; I suddenly recognized that our most innovative techniques were essentially sophisticated mimicry of nature’s own processes. What we labeled as cutting-edge science was a humbling exercise in observing and replicating biological wisdom refined over millions of years of evolution. Read more>>

Anik Cockroft

I gathered the courage to say what I knew needed to move through, “What if I turn it down?” We were on a sunset walk through our neighborhood park after an ‘Ohana surf session. As we meandered back to our little yellow bungalow, the one next to the community garden, we walked the same grass we had sprinted across to reach our rental car and hustle home to Florida on our flight 4+ years earlier. We had known Hawai’i was our next chapter even if we didn’t know all (or really any) of the details. That little surf Hale in the shadow of Diamond Head. Where I became a Doctor and JD sent me off with shakas for each shift at the hospital. In time, paws joined his shakas— our FURst baby Kai Kai, the Hawaiian husky boy.  Read more>>

 

Jenn Adamson

Yes! Have you ever had one of those moments where your soul whispers, ‘This isn’t it’—and you finally decide to listen? That was me, sitting in my corner office with a six-figure salary, impressive clients, and a calendar packed with high-level meetings… and yet I felt completely disconnected. My body was tired, my spark was gone, and deep down, I knew I couldn’t keep pretending. Read more>>

Valerie Girard DC

Defining moment: I graduated with a degree from UCSB in Directing in Theater Arts in 1977. Once out of school, I realized that I needed a different direction for my career. Through a series of interesting events, including meeting my summer romance on the beach because our dogs were fighting over a dead squid, I went to visit him at this chiropractic college to attend a party with his classmates. I walked into the party, looked around, and instantly knew this was my tribe. and that I needed to become a chiropractor. With $1.5K to my name, I jumped in and paid for the first trimester, hoping for the best. $$ showed up when needed from recently initiated Fannie Mae, and including a great story about my dad coming through with $$ at a critical moment. Read more>>

Megan Kozak

It was 2013, I had just graduated nursing school and, with stars in my eyes, spent my last $5,000 on a weekend injectable course. Back then, being a nurse injector wasn’t trendy like it is today—it was rare, uncharted, and a risk. But by the end of the course, I looked around at my classmates—a doctor, a dermatologist, another nurse—and we all shared the same look: Is that it? What we had just been taught were cookie-cutter injection patterns and point-and-shoot techniques. It was all templated. Zero customization. Read more>>

Mireia (Mimi) Puig

For most of my life, I struggled with hormonal imbalances and menstrual issues. I had symptoms that aligned with PCOS, although I was never formally diagnosed. Every time I voiced my concerns, I was told it was “just part of being a woman” and that I should simply accept it. So I did. For years, I ignored my health. I smoked, didn’t exercise because I never felt well, and although my diet wasn’t terrible, it definitely wasn’t supporting my body the way it needed. Read more>>