Over the years we’ve had the good fortunate of speaking with thousands of successful entrepreneurs, artists and creatives. Some are happy, some are not. The happy ones almost always had a strong sense of purpose and so we are very focused on trying to help our community members and audience find their purpose. This series is our attempt to create more dialogue around finding your purpose.
Dr. Cheyenne Bryant
Once I found myself, I found my purpose. You don’t find your purpose. You already have it- it’s in you. It is you! Once you find self, there’s your purpose. I found my purpose through my broken pieces. After gaining awareness of how broken I was, I began to make peace of what was broken. Upon, making peace I found my love and purpose for helping others heal from their traumas, heartbreaks, and dysfunction. The healing tools that, I applied to myself became the exact same tools that heal millions of people across the globe today. Every time I’m privileged to be a part of someones healing journey and breakthrough a piece of me heals and breaks through too. It is one of the most fulfilling experience I’ve had. Read More>>
Nathan Jensen
I believe finding my purpose is a continuous journey that will evolve as I do, but from a very young age, I knew music would be a part of my purpose. Growing up in a musical home, where my dad was a college music professor, my mom sang and played in various groups, and my older sister built a musical career created a natural space for music in my life. I started playing piano at six years old and added trumpet and voice lessons soon after. Honing my skills provided me opportunities to perform, teach, and mentor. I began my undergraduate studies as a Voice Performance and Music Education Double Major with a Spanish Minor. I quickly discovered this was too much, and decided to solely focus on my passion: music performance. Read More>>
Rocio Lorraine
I found person at the age of 10yrs old. I was a little girl who was living in a home plaque by drug addiction. When I was invited to a church by a neighborhood friend. Next thing you know I’m hoping on a yellow school bus headed to Sunday School. My first time ever attending a Christian Church. When the teacher told us about Jesus and to find an area to pray for what our hearts desired. I found a staircase in a corner and began praying for Jesus to change my Dad, family & myself. That very moment my life changed and I found my purpose; to Trust God with my life and allow him to use me. Few months later my entire family was transformed by that one prayer. Drug addiction was no longer part of our story. Read More>>
Ashelie Gabriella
I believe that makeup is more than just a way to enhance your features – it’s a way to help people feel their best and most beautiful. Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of working with so many amazing clients, and I’ve seen firsthand how transformative makeup can be. When I’m working with a client, it’s not just about the makeup – it’s about creating a space where they can feel seen and heard, and where I can use my skills to make them feel confident and empowered. Read More>>
Jozanne Marie
I think my purpose is constantly changing as I evolve and become the person I am today. There are specific times in my life where I was passionate for one thing over the other, but what I have discovered is that in any of the mediums I find myself, my passion is to always serve people, love people, share in a way that might give answers to someone’s questions. I don’t believe I went searching for purpose, I think the more I live in my truth and do what I love, the more purpose is revealed. Read More>>
Gena Tinsley
In my experience, we are all multi purposed beings and it develops in time. Discovering my purpose came with a series of unfortunate events that I turned into my passion to help others who are in the situation I was in, in their present moment. I want to open up shelters and provide assistance to women and children experiencing Domestic Violence Abuse & extend the assistance I wish I had when I was experiencing the same. Read More>>
Kelly Punancy
The journey into finding your purpose looks different for everyone. There are no signs guiding us to what might be our purpose and so you will get lost at times and even take some detours. As for me and my journey, well you can say it took me a while and a lot of searching to find it. After working in the corporate world for years and not feeling accomplished or fulfilled I realized I needed a change and I needed one fast. Your life’s purpose should be something that fires you up, makes you happy and it allows to use your talents mixed in with something you are passionate about. What I do now allows just that. Creating my small business within the event industry allows me to use my talents, creativity and makes me so happy especially when I offer a product that brings my clients so much joy. I now get to wake up and do something that aligns with my values, allows me to be true to who I am and feels just right. I found my purpose when I let go of fear and stopped caring of what others might think and followed my own passion, my own ideas and my own definition of happiness. Everything else will follow. “For nothing is impossible with God” – Luke 1:37 Read More>>
Nancy Christy-Moore
From childhood on I thought of myself as an artist. My mom was a Fashion Illustrator and taught me to “see” things and draw and paint them. Early success in school art classes also contributed to this self-image. So naturally I pursued art in classes as an art major in college and then at 2 outstanding commercial art schools. I also enjoyed teaching others the joy and challenges of creating art. Read More>>
Lauren Tieru
I originally opened a boutique to curate home decor pieces and gifts that I personally liked and wanted to sell to others. As we began to meet customers and locals, we found a real lack of local products being sold in boutiques. We began by purchasing small amounts from local makers and vendors and gradually became an all local storefront, allowing vendors to rent space and sell in our store. Customers took to this and appreciated the local inventory and enjoyed shopping these products. Read More>>
Jeff Peacock
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
Serving others and helping them achieve success is rewarding and improves the world. It is evident to most individuals that this world needs more selfless service. Jesus Christ gave us a perfect example of sacrificial servant leadership, where He gave his own life for each one of us. I have tried to follow his example as a medical provider, soldier, and teacher. Read More>>
Ferggie Coll
I didn’t exactly choose my purpose, it found me. I attended law school and worked in a court back in my country of origin. I never considered beauty and makeup as a career path, as my focus was on excelling in my studies. After moving to the US, I held various office jobs while pursuing makeup as a hobby. However, I discovered that helping girls feel beautiful and confident was the most fulfilling aspect of my work. Read More>>
Giorgia Valenti
By traveling and losing myself. The more a person travels, the more they mingle and flirt with the idea of not belonging somewhere, of being out of place, of being clueless about themselves and others; the more they allow themselves to process what they are living for. Read More>>
Janie Charlot
I realized my purpose by going through my own spiritual awakening. Through this awakening, I have come into a deep knowing that all of humanity shares the same spark of the Divine. There’s this oneness that connects us all. I know most people see themselves separate from each other due to race, culture, religion, politics, socioeconomics, etc.; but truth is, all of these categories are merely conditional programming that we are born into. Who would we be if we were not given a name, a race, a family with particular beliefs, a religion, a culture? We would have to search WITHIN ourselves to figure it out, wouldn’t we? Without all the external identifiers, we then must go within. We are spiritual beings having temporary physical experiences called life. We are are here in this Earth classroom to learn lessons and evolve spiritually. These lessons come in many forms such as forgiveness, patience, acceptance, balance, fortitude, resiliency, etc. I personally have learned many lessons this lifetime thus for. However, Unconditional Love by far has been all encompassing and has led to my divine purpose. Read More>>
Kimberly Eugene
Self-reflection helps me to better understand my true nature, and I let it empower my purpose. Knowing myself deeply allows me to align with opportunities that are perfect for me. Read More>>
Te’Ara Arman
To be honest, I didn’t find my purpose, it found me when I was a kid. I just didn’t realize it or accept it until I was way into adulthood. You see the cool thing about my purpose is that I am blessed with the assignment to guide others to their purpose. In 2019, I Founded, Te’Ara Speaks, a media organization that provides empowerment, networking and collaboration while inspiring individual growth. I am your Purpose Coach who is passionate about helping, supporting, mentoring and guiding others to reach their potential through literature, empowerment workshops, a 90 day coaching program, podcasting, events, etc.. Although, my very first client was myself. I had to guide myself to finally accepting my purpose. Growing up I spent a lot of time at Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls club where I had the opportunity to not only learn for myself but help others learn who they were and what they wanted to do in life. Having the opportunity to become a peer health educator, summer camp counselor, be a part of keystone and even helping run a music program taught me creativity, planning, implementation, organization and strategic planning and how to lead others through knowledge and experience. At the time, I never looked at the things I was doing as being a part of my purpose because I didn’t know or fully understand what purpose was. I just loved to help others. One day I was sitting in a group, discussing my insecurities about the social anxiety I would have at school with my friends or even at home with my family and I was told then that I would have a story to tell and a testimony to give later in life. As the years went on, people would often echo that and add that I would be an Author and Motivational Speaker because I had a journey that needed to be shared with others to help get them through their journeys and guide them to where they want to be. I would always deny it and say “I don’t have a testimony, I’m not writing a book and I don’t like public speaking.” Or so I thought. You see, I had already been doing all of these things that were spoken over me but I had not realized it. Again, I was just doing the things I loved. No matter how hard I tried to fight it, I found myself being put in position to become the Author, International Speaker, Content Creator and Purpose Coach you see today. Finally accepting, owning and living in my purpose that found me, as I dare to be different, live to inspire and be authentically who I am daily. Read More>>
Karla Paola
How I found my purpose on being a makeup artist, I always loved to to draw that gave me a upper hand in being a makeup artist I knew being an artist was for me when all my clients would love there makeup I felt something in my heart making them feel more beautiful. Read More>>
Stanford White
I was always in fairly good shape. Tall, thin, active, but in 1999, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune neuromuscular disease called Polymyositis. Essentially my immune system malfunctioned and started attacking my muscles. Over the course of a few months, I went from a fit 185lbs to 130lbs of skin and bone. There is no cure for this condition, but there are several medicines that can help it stay under control enough that one can function. I was an avid karate practitioner, but could no longer do it due to my lack of strength and stability. As my condition improved I began looking for an outlet and way to keep my muscles mobile which was a condition of my improvement. I found Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Due to it’s focus on ground fighting and using leverage and technique, I was able to balance my inability to use muscular strength with my ability to apply my mind and physics to accomplish my goals. This was great for my state of mind, but also helped keep my muscles from going into atrophy and dying. I fell in love with the sport and it became a very big staple in my life. After some time I decided to open my own school and pass this knowledge on to others who may not be as athletic or strong but still wanted to be effective at defending themselves and have a great workout with friends that was both engaging physically and mentally. Read More>>
Gabby, Alex and Emma
We’re all women and we all understand how often we are not heard nor listened to in healthcare. Some of us our mothers and we’ve experienced it first hand. We find purpose in our experiences, experiences from those around us and the urge to prevent that same experience from happening to another family. Every family should feel heard and informed and make the best decisions for them when it comes to their birth, that control should never be taken away.We are birth and postpartum doulas. We assist moms from pregnancy to delivery and even once they are home with their newborns. We offer lactation support and childbirth education courses and placenta encapsulation. One of our new services that is completely free is our peer support group we host weekly. This group is for any expecting person or person during postpartum that wants to chat about their pregnancy, their birth story any trauma or mental health concern they are currently experiencing or experienced in the past. Read More>>
Leila Worby
Yoga became a daily practice when I was pregnant with my now twelve-year-old son. I had practiced for years before that, but it finally landed when I became pregnant.
When you are pregnant, your senses are heightened, and your intuition is intensified. There is a natural inclination to enter flow. I remember establishing a daily ritual at this time that became a habit. That habit became second nature until it became part of who I am.
The highlight of my day is my practice. It is something that I look forward to the whole day. After a while, the peace, balance, and well-being that yoga brought to my life naturally became something I wanted to share. My nature and my profession merged and became a powerful purpose. Read More>>
Elijah Salgado
At the age of 16-17, during my high school years in Somerset, Texas, I stumbled upon my purpose. Growing up, I was inspired by my older brother, Nathan Salgado, who passionately created music. This influence began when I was just 6-9 years old. During a challenging period, marked by issues at home and school, I turned to music as an outlet. Engaging in music allowed me to escape from the troubles of the world, transporting me to a place of pure joy and contentment. It became my sanctuary, where everything felt right. From that pivotal moment onward, I realized that my true calling in life was to pursue music indefinitely. Read More>>
Antoine Ratliff
Well, I would define my purpose as a healer in this world, so it was in being healed that I found my purpose. I received a demonstration of an energy healing art known as Pranic Healing from an exceptional master of the art named Master Stephen Co. I was on stage and in a matter of minutes, I went from total apprehension to feeling like I was being gently electrocuted by a force that felt like loving lightning. I remember opening my eyes, unable to stop myself from grinning from ear to ear, and walking off the stage feeling like I had lost several pounds. And of course all of my chronic back pain had completely vanished. From then I was hooked. I said to myself that how I felt at that moment was how I wanted to make other people feel, and I was determined to do whatever was necessary to make that happen. Fast forward through my taking many of the classes and several years of intermittent practice, I found myself unsure about how to use these abilities to financially sustain myself. It took some time before it dawned on me that my compassionate nature and intense desire for helping others was compelling me to take on a career in the healing field. Read More>>
Dr. Shanelle Fields
My purpose actually found me! I worked in the school system for 18 years. It was my love, my joy, and my stability for the majority of my adult life. I am an educator at heart, whether educating middle school, high school, college or graduate students, I love educating others. For those years in the school system, my two jobs consisted of teaching students about the wonderful world of English and finding meaning and purpose in each story or theme that was written by the authors. I worked diligently to find and develop connections for students. I can remember researching and listening to a whole rap album to engage a classroom of 9th grade boys. What else is music, but a story? Once I got them interested, they were all in. So, at heart, I have always been a helper. The other job of being a professional school counselor allowed me to be a safe place for students and to also let them know someone else was rooting for them. I loved counseling, but I wanted to see it from the inside out. So, I pursued licensure. My practice was open part-time during 2018-2019; however, I grew uncomfortable with my full-time job in the schools. It became unbearable and God told me to go right now. So, I took a leap of faith, resigned from the only job I have ever known, and opened my private practice full-time. The catch is this happened two weeks before the pandemic shut the world down, and I am still in business three years later. I truly believe I am still working and educating the masses because this is my PURPOSE!! The leap led me to greater. Read More>>
Adylia-Rhenee Gutierrez
I always knew I wanted to help people. That was the core of what I knew I wanted to do with my life. How that expressed itself for a career was very different.
I was a very quiet and shy kid. So from like 9-16 I wanted to be a nun and help people. I thought that was the best answer to helping people.
Then I fell in love with photography and journalism so I thought I could help and reach more people if I became a journalistic photographer. Read More>>
Shari Ubechel
I always had an interest in art ever since I was a child.My grandfather in NY gave me art supplies that I cherished.He was a very gifted artist ,but was not able to support a family of 5 with his art.Everyone in school and my family said that I was an artist and it was my passion.I went to art school in Philadelphia and in Rome,Italy. After about 30 jobs ,I finally quit my last job .Instead of pouring all of my energy into someone else’s dream I focused on my own dream.My thought was if it didn’t work out, I could always get another stupid job.My dream has grown bigger then I imagined 25 years later,owning 2 galleries,hundreds of art shows and selling over 6,000 paintings. Read More>>
Kristi Stoll
I love helping people to find their gifts, passions and purpose to live the extraordinary lives they were born to live – but it took me several years to know that was my purpose.
After not knowing what to study in college, I recognized that business/management came naturally to me so I got a double degree in management and finance. After college I worked for a Commercial Finance company. I had a plan to keep working up the corporate ladder, because that is the path you follow in that career, but at age 26, I discovered meditation and it changed my life. Through meditation, it was as if I suddenly woke up to the TRUE possibilities within me. Read More>>
Marty Johnson Jr
Growing closer to God has really blossomed my purpose. He’s shown me that I’m more than capable to achieve every goal that I set out to do . I’ve been gifted this talent of artistry to nourish the soul in different aspects of music that we’ve been waiting for. I’ve discovered that music has a purpose within its own way ; Music has been my life’s purpose since I was child. From imitating the drummer drum with my Mom’s ink pens during church , drumming on grandmas pots and pans , imitating my Mom directing the choir ; even singing in the children’s choir. Music is literally my life and I’m very blessed to be able to create my own wave of music. Read More>>
Mike Caliber
I found my purpose solely through what always drew my attention. Music was always my calling. From 90’s music videos to forgotten magazine brands (The Source, Rap Pages, XXL etc and other magazines. The way I have viewed and watched culture evolve in the past 20 years is addictive to talk about and debate about to others in my industry. Print Media vs the Digital Media will always be a hot topic on my platform. Read More>>
Heather Savonne
Ever since I was a little girl, I loved music and singing. You could say Disney classics had a chokehold on me and I dreamed of one day being a Disney princess (like every other little girl). As I grew older, creativity sparked within me as I began to write poems, stories, screen plays, and more! I begged my dad to buy me a piano and finally he did. It was a $250 baby grand that was from a garage sale and out of tune, but it was magical to me. I taught myself some piano chords from youtube and felt on top of the world now that I could play the music that I always listened to and I could play it the way that I wanted and desired. I continued to long after the arts like painting, drawing, dancing, singing, and even secretly practicing acting in my bedroom. I was so shy and insecure, how were these big audacious dream going to come true if no one even knew I could sing? Seriously, many of my family members and friends had no idea I could sing, act, or dance because I was so timid. Plus, the arts weren’t taken very seriously in my family, no one had ever made a career out of being creative…or they had no tried. I pulled inspiration from self-made people like Oprah. Ultimately, when I discovered God at 18 years old, it changed everything and my purpose in singing became not for man but for God. Through accepting Jesus Christ and becoming a Christian, it was then that my purpose was sealed. Yes, I was still to sing…but with more passion, more intention, and way more purpose than before. And here I am today at 28 years old doing just that. I released my first ever solo Christian album called “Found In You” and it is available on all streaming platforms. Read More>>
Brittany Rogers
My purpose comes from my two children being single mother on section 8 living with government assistance for as medical and food while owning my baking business for 9 years this journey started for me after my daughter got diagnosed with autism back in 2019 after working for Walgreens for year and my daughter started to have tantrums not really having anyone to watch her made me walk out on faith and decided to work from home living with my grandmother,mother, brother and cousin plus my two kids made me push harder to make sure me and my kids was going to have a place we can call home for ourself I came up with Dessert call waffle pops different version of funnel cake with toppings of fruit, candy, cereal , and ice cream toppings. I did a couple pop up shops where they had sold out at and was offer to be available for brunches, bridal showers and babyshowers . Sense 2019 Dessert Delights By Brittany has grew extremely desserts, cocktails,;catering for brunches. Read More>>
Sara Cox
There is a quote that I love so much that says “If you can’t figure out your purpose, figure out your passion. For your passion will lead you right into your purpose” -Bishop T.D. Jakes
I have always known that food and specifically the food-service industry were my passion. To me, being able to connect with people and bring people together through the vehicle of food, has always been a magical thing. My love language is gift-giving, and having the platform to consistently give that love with my food has always motivated me and secured my desire to work as a Chef. It is truly a blessing to wake up every day and know that I am lucky enough to fulfull my purpose every single day, meet incredible people and cook at some of the most amazing and breath-taking locations. Read More>>
Joshua Unangst
The love of the game of basketball is what drove me to my purpose, I knew I wanted to become an entrepreneur – some way, somehow – it was just a matter of combining my passion and my biggest goal in life. It has been an interestingly beautiful journey since the beginning and this purpose has sparked something significant within me that gives me a new perspective of building something incredible, being able to share it, and what that has done for my life. Read More>>
Jose Lawrence
I found my purpose when I was going through a particularly difficult time in my life. I was feeling completely low and unmotivated in how I was looking at the world. I was having many questions of myself and yet so few answers as to what was it I truly enjoyed and what made me happy. Eventually with a friends advice I decided to go to therapy to get to the source of my difficulty. After a few sessions a common theme started to emerge where photography became a source of escape for me from everyday stress and socially anxious moments. When I spoke about photography with my therapist she noted how my eyes seemed to brighten so much more and I spoke with much more intensity and wonder.
It was at that point I began to look at my photography a different way. I began to really focus more on the ways in which it has helped me to understand the world and narrow my focus down to my creativity and business mindset. Although I always took photos I now did it with a renewed gusto. Throughout my therapy sessions I utilized my photography and camera in more of a therapeutic way. Gradually I realized this is what I truly loved. I truly found joy in being creative and capturing enchanting moments. I loved the process of setting up a photo shoot with a model and creating an entire scene the evokes feelings as well as conveys ideas. It was a truly remarkable feeling that I had not felt in a very long time. This was the point that I had come to understand what my purpose is. Read More>>
Austin “Stew” Stewart
How did I find my purpose? My degree is in mechanical engineering. I thought that my purpose or goal was the save the world through science and math. To be completely honest I originally wanted to be an aerospace engineering but as I went down that path I didn’t enjoy it. By this time I had been doing media so n the side and I loved it. I always said when the time was right I would make the leap. But 2 things wrong with that: 1. There is never a right time. 2. Gods plans for you are always different than what you have for yourself. I realized this was my purpose after I failed multiple times. Yeap you heard that right! When something is what your suppose to be doing, even the failures have a purpose. Read More>>
