Stories & Lessons for Finding Your Purpose

Below you’ll find the stories and lessons of some of the best and brightest entrepreneurs, artists and creatives in the community and how they found their purpose.

Chuck Pfoutz

Working behind the camera. I often pretend that the camera is a time machine that can take us back in time to a place that makes us happy or fills us with a memory of someone we lost or to visit history. Covering over 800 events many of them historic, meaning once in a lifetime and it got me thinking. Hey if I am going to devote so much of my time documenting history why not recreate history in our shows and that his how I got to where I am today. Without the camera I would be lost! Read more>>

Dr. Elise Brisco

My purpose has always been to improve the quality of life of the people around me. This is why I became a Doctor of Optometry and Clinical Homeopath. I chose Optometry because vision is so important for us to work, play, study and enjoy the beauty that surrounds us. I also want to help people live healthier lives by harnessing the power of their own body and immune system instead of only using pharmaceuticals. This is why I went back to school to study Homeopathic medicine. Read more>>

Marisa Carson

I love this question because for so long I felt lost and purposeless, so to have found that in myself is HUGE. Growing up I was an athlete. Movement was always a natural part of my life. I took that with me through high school and then college. Like most of us out there, in my younger years I developed a really negative self image. I would limit the amount of food I was eating in order to be as small as I could. Read more>>

James Gilbert

I find purpose though my commitment to exploring sculpture, installation, and drawing by searching into narratives at the convergence of history and modernity. At the core of my process is a philosophical responsibility – to myself, audience, the community, addressing injustice, tending to the environment, and embracing the human experience. It’s in the nuances of our existence, the stories we tell. Read more>>

Terry Briscoe

I found my purpose when Covid really hit the US hard. I was running my Non Emergency Transportation Business which I operate as the sole employee. I lost over $3000 the first month because people were afraid to go to medical facilities and a lot of people cancelled their doctors appointments. Read more>>

AMARA RUSSELL

It’s been said that your purpose is found in your childhood. Which I found through life experiences and reflecting on my younger self, to be true. Since, the age of ten, I have been creating stories, developing relatable characters, and inspiring others through writing to see themselves, take accountability, and be all they were created to be. Read more>>

Kevin Le

I found my purpose at a young age. Like many ambitious and wishful kids, I had ambitious dreams after discovering my passion, film. I would spend majority of my day outside of school watching movies and sinking into worlds outside of my own. With the mix of story telling, limitless possibilities, and the capability of creating something that can be achieved into history, my purpose was presented to me. Read more>>

Christine Fitzgerald

I like to joke that I accumulated a lot of name tags and lanyards to get to where I am today, but it really was a long journey to find where I fit in perfectly. I feel like all of my previous endeavors have contributed to my success in one way or another. Working in the tourism industry in college (and in my early twenties) taught me how to be a good “people person.” Read more>>

Sue Costello Sepulveda

Just look around our communities or our nation. People are desperately crying out for help. Some are lost in anxiety, others in substance abuse, some dealing with health issues. It seems as though we can’t get a break. Prices keep going up, global warming or news of wars. We are bombarded with so much negative energy that it can be overwhelming. Read more>> 

Shane McCormick

I always knew from a young age that I was creative. However, throughout my entire life, society told me that there was no viable way to lead my life – that I would end up broke, hungry, and unable to support myself. For the most part, society was right. However, society never accounted for happiness. We exist in a society that demands we work ourselves into an early grave, leaving us with no time to find real purpose. Read more>>

Christine Brown

I would never have guessed that my own exhausting journey would lead me to where I am today and out of our challenges, a business could flourish. Read more>>

Whit Devereaux

I would say that purpose found me. Everything I have experienced in life has been used by God; the great times and tough challenges. All of it led me to identifying that I could help others simply by living an intentional life beyond my circumstances. Read more>>

Bri Coelho

Purpose was something that I struggled with when I was younger. I didn’t listen to what my soul was saying I listened to what others were telling me. I listened to what others said I should do and be like. I listened so much to others that I became someone who I wasn’t, I became depressed and lost. Read more>>

STEVEN FOSTER

It took a while. Read more>>

Cyndee Sparre

I found my purpose in the midst of leaving a 20 year career in HR with a Top 500 company and starting a new career in a totally different industry. Business networking was CRITICAL with the new company I was working for, which I had no experience in. I was like a fish out of water with no mentorship, other than to pickup on what other people were doing. Read more>>

Tequia Lester

I found my purpose by doing what makes me happy. It’s important to not chase the money but to allow your gifts to open up doors for you. Everyone has been created for a specific purpose that is meant to edify others in life. We all have a divine assignment. Read more>>

Jasmine Jones

Initially, I thought that my purpose was in my responsibilities to my family. Makeup was a hobby, that eventually turned into a hustle for me. I had no intention of establishing a career as a makeup artist. At the time, I was a single mom, and finding work-life balance did not seem possible. Read more>>

Lauren Kellar

People and celebrating people and serving people well is always what has driven my sense of purpose. Photography is so much about creativity but it’s also so much about the people we capture. I have always loved to highlight them and their stories. Read more>>

Kay Rediers

It seems I have been drawn to performing arts of one type or another during my whole life. As a child, I watched musicals on television and wished that everyone would sing and dance in the streets in real life. In high school, I had the option to take dance as my physical education credit, which I quickly decided on. Read more>>

Amir Sharafeh

I was a lost child. I went through high school, not wanting to be there. I focused so much on being a great scratch DJ. I had so much love for it that I would spend days and nights on two turntables and a mixer; so much so, that at age 13, still physically developing, my middle fingers have curved like the spin of the vinyl. Read more>>

Molly Mitchell-Hardt

I always envied those who knew what they wanted to dedicate their lives to from a young age, mostly because I was not one of those people. Finding my purpose became an all consuming labor of love and fear in my early twenties. I feared going down a path that did not align with the calling of my deep self and I refused to get a job that simply paid the bills. Read more>>

Jason Gaines

I found my purpose through the lens of DIY creativity. It all started when I delved into the world YouTube, using any tools I could get my hand on to express an idea. With each project, I discovered my passion for storytelling and visual effects, which allowed me to express myself uniquely. Read more>>

Gina Rothwell

Reflecting on my journey, it’s been quite a ride. My parents’ creativity, from customizing a ChevyVan and crafting walls of seashells and driftwood, along with their distinctive fashion style, left an indelible mark on me. Read more>>

Symone Allison

Navigating through life I hit a pitfall after 3 car accidents and started to spiral with anxiety and depression. I went through cognitive testing and at one-point doctors wanted to do MRIs on my brain due to them finding I deal with high anxiety & depression disorder causing memory loss. In order for me to feel like myself again I had to find passion in something. Read more>>

Kelly Tracy-Holly, LE, CAE, CMLT, Owner, Co-Founder

Thank you for asking. In some ways I think I always knew what my purpose in life was and is. For me though, this question really has many answers. I knew from a very early age that I wanted to make people laugh and feel good about themselves, but I was also a lover of education. I was a sponge when it came to learning anything new. From school, to books to anything hands-on I craved to learn more and teach others what I learned. Read more>>

Dede Croy

My resilience is from God alone. The ability to stand my ground and have compassion at the same time comes from a source that is not human. An understanding of direct but love, guided, but not perfect. Read more>>

Beverly Baldwin

I found my purpose for the work that I do through tragedy. At the tender age of 64 my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I was a mere 24 years young myself. I had just entered the workforce as an elementary teacher and began working on my master’s degree full-time. Read more>>

Clarissa Epps

I started doing photography in 2018, as a side hustle to make ends meet in college. My side hustle quickly turned into a passion for photography. Read more>>

Sarah Fischer

My purpose of being a Regenerative Farmer became when I became a mother. I began researching food, how it was produced and how it could be affecting our health. I turned to “alternative” sources of information other than what I was told by doctors, nutritionists, etc. I was mortified at what I was learning. Read more>>

Cory Bryant

Finding, re-finding and allowing the evolution of my purpose while here in this life has been an ongoing process. From I very young age I knew that I wanted to do something with my life that “helped” people (or animals) and I vacillated between answering “doctor” or “veterinarian” when people asked me, which they did and quite often. Read more>>

Ken’Ja Pharr

I Honestly Believe that I found my purpose through owning my truth. I always grew up very outspoken but not exactly being my authentic self. At times I felt that if I show my true self maybe others wouldn’t lean towards me. The thing I’ve done half my life was pretend to be someone I was not versus staying true to my own story. Read more>>