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.

Mike Pozorski

Yes. There was a defining moment that completely changed not just the direction of my career — but my understanding of why I’m here. Read More>>

Cory Haywood

Early in my career, I was humbled by a former client who challenged me to look inward.

“You lack empathy,” she told me. “I came here today not feeling my best, and you haven’t shown me an ounce of kindness or understanding.”

She wasn’t wrong. I was so focused on delivering the perfect workout that I missed the most important part of the session—her. Read More>>

Jennifer Richards Wilson

I am from the beautiful Caribbean island of Jamaica. I taught in the primary school system for 18 years. I had been suffering from heart problems for about a year and knew that I needed to change my job. I stayed because I believed that it was all I had; it was my identity and purpose. My defining moment came after my doctor told me that I would die if I chose to continue teaching in my current position. Read More>>

Erica Leone

Yes, there was a defining moment, but it didn’t arrive with clarity or celebration. It came disguised as devastation.

What I experienced is known in many spiritual traditions as the shamanic illness: a complete collapse of my physical, emotional, and mental faculties. My body was in constant pain. My mind fractured. My reality unraveled. Western medicine had no explanation. But somewhere deep within, I knew: this wasn’t random. This was an initiation. Read More>>

Dr. Avra Lyraki

There was a time in my career when I threw everything into a project that seemed like the perfect opportunity. I invested countless hours, thinking this was my chance to make a big leap forward. But despite all the planning, energy, and excitement, things fell apart in a way I never saw coming. The project got cancelled, and I was left with nothing but a sense of defeat. The worst part? It wasn’t just a minor setback; it was a huge blow to my professional confidence. Read More>>

Raelene Weaver

When I was working on my TEDx talk, Let Boys Be Kids First, a dear friend and colleague asked when I first became interested in boy’s and men’s issues. I told her it was when I was working on my Masters thesis, titled “How Repressed Emotions in Men Negatively Affect Society. She said it must have been way before that. I thought about it, and realized that when I was eight years old my mom died of breast cancer and my dad’s drinking got worse. Read More>>

LaShunda Armstrong

I’ve always been someone who puts in the work—no matter the role. That dedication helped me advance quickly in my career and step into leadership with confidence. I’ve long been passionate about encouraging others to chase their dreams, but I hadn’t considered that owning a business could be part of my own. I used to think entrepreneurship was something other people did. Read More>>

Alycia Anthony

I would have to say one of the defining moments was in 2019, the time I instructed the Guinness Book of World Records Largest Goat Yoga Class with 501 participants!

At the time, I had only been teaching at Grady Goat Yoga Tampa Bay for a couple of months. All I was really told at that time was that I needed to create a class to be officially submitted and that I would lead that class with (hopefully) enough people to break the previous record. I wasn’t aware of the number of participants in the previous record when I 100% agreed to teach the upcoming record attempt. Read More>>

Ashley Velasquez

Health and wellness have always been a passion of mine, even back in high school. But everything shifted in 2021 when my mom passed away. That loss triggered a major decline in my own health—physically, emotionally, and mentally. I went to several traditional doctors, but their solution was always the same: medication. Deep down, I knew there had to be another way. Read More>>

Natasha Perez And Kaeli Hernandez

A defining moment in our professional career was post COVID when prominent yoga studios in our community closed down, this began the birth of Sacred Sisters Wellness. We viewed this time as an opportunity, and with a few hundred dollars opened our own space. We continue to educate yoga as a lifestyle practice emphasizing cyclical living and conscious rest. Read More>>

Marcelli Pascal-Rodriguez

Thirty days before I opened my first business, my mother was murdered.
That word still stings every time I say it—but it’s the truth. And it shaped me in a way nothing else ever could. Read More>>

Shayna Barksdale

One defining moment in my career was making the leap into private practice after working as a school social worker. While I valued the stability of a steady paycheck and health benefits, I recognized a deeper calling—the need for specialized support for girls and the people who love and support them. That realization inspired me to create a space where meaningful, focused work could happen outside the limitations of the school system. Read More>>

Angie Ng

Absolutely. The moment that changed the trajectory of my career—and ultimately my life—was the first time I experienced acupuncture.

At the time, I was working full-time in IT as a web application developer for a large corporation. On paper, it was an ideal job: a steady paycheck, great benefits, low stress, and predictable hours. But beneath the surface, I felt deeply unfulfilled. I struggled with anxiety, depression, and chronic back pain, and I often found myself wondering if I was really meant to sit in a cubicle for the rest of my life.  Read More>>

Shana Auguste

There have been many defining moments throughout my career in property management, but the most pivotal came while I was pregnant with my twin daughters. After 12 years in the industry, I had a sobering realization: I couldn’t see myself thriving or truly enjoying the growth opportunities ahead. For the first time, I admitted to myself that I felt trapped in a career I no longer loved. Read More>>

Kimberly Stewart

Organizational skills never came naturally to me. If you told me at the beginning of my career that I’d spend my days promoting them, I would have run for the hills. I always viewed organization as rigid and stifling, something that would squelch my creativity, something for other people, but not for me. Read More>>

Candice

Yes—and it came during the darkest and most defining chapter of my life.

In 2021, both of my parents were hospitalized with COVID. At the time, I was vice-chair at the very hospital where they were admitted. I was a physician and their daughter—but none of that mattered in the face of institutional policy. I was escorted out by security—policy over personhood—and it was devastating. Read More>>