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.

Vivian Vega Schoch

I have always known I had a purpose. My grandmother always said we are all put on this earth with a purpose and eventually we will figure out what that is. Throughout my life my purpose has changed. First it was to be Krista’s mother, then it was to be a teacher to minority students that I as a Latino women could relate to. Then came the devastating news. You have Cancer. Never did I think that having Breast cancer would lead me to my next purpose in life, but it did. As that years went by, I realized that there was no support for women who had cancer, No one to talk to. No one like me that had fears they could not speak about openly, There was no social media, No forums. Just me and my fears that I could not speak out loud. This is not in away to dismiss my family. I have the most amazing family. When one of us is in need the Calvary arrives, all hands on deck. Whatever is needed is don’t, compassion care, meals, house is cleaned, food is made. all the needs are taken care of. I could not be more blessed. I have a loving husband two amazing daughters. Read More>>

Cayla Pennington

I think purpose isn’t something you’re handed—it’s something you discover when you step outside of what’s expected and follow what truly lights you up inside.

Growing up, I found a special kind of peace in animals. I wasn’t allowed to have cats because of my family’s allergies (and my own), but that didn’t stop me from sneaking next door to play with my neighbor’s kitten, Joey. From the time he was tiny, I’d sit with him, fascinated by his little world, wishing I could bring that joy into my own home. Read More>>

Gigi St. Hilaire

From an early age, I sensed that my life carried a purpose beyond what I could fully understand. Even as a teenager, I knew I was created for more than mere existence. Yet knowing there is a greater purpose to your life and knowing how to walk it out are two very different things. For years, I pursued dreams, ambitions, and opportunities, believing I could forge my own path to fulfillment.

That illusion shattered when I found myself battling breast cancer, fighting for my life during a season where control was no longer an option. I was placed in a posture of surrender. In that place of complete dependence, I encountered the undeniable truth: I did not create myself. Therefore, I could not create my own purpose. Read More>>

Michelle Short

When my youngest son, Riley, began having seizures at six months old, my world was shattered. Within days, he went from a thriving baby to experiencing more than 200 seizures in a 24 hour period. The diagnosis was heartbreaking, he would never walk or talk and would live with profound intellectual and developmental disabilities. As a mother, it was everything I feared hearing. Read More>>

Hanne Lie Davis

I found my purpose by getting extremely sick in my early and mid twenties. I developed extremely chronic insomnia where I didn’t sleep at all for about 4 years and didn’t receive help by either the allopathic or holistic route. In fact, they made me worse. I had other symptoms too, I was diagnosed hypothyroid and couldn’t lose weight, I had acne and difficult menses, extreme bloating and gut issues, you name it I had the symptom – but the insomnia was the most debilitating of all of them. Read More>>

Sonia Trombley

I found my purpose starting my own event planning company when I realized how much joy, connection, and impact could come from bringing people together. Ever since I was young and being in a big Italian family we always had events or parties. My amazing mom would always plan or coordinate, cater for the event and decorate. I loved helping her and gained valuable knowledge from that. So as I got older and my circle of family and friends, I was always the “go to person” to plan parties, or any kind of events. Read More>>

 Bianca Cervantes

I grew up at my parents’ jewelry store—in a predominantly Latino working-class neighborhood—
watching my mom with warmth and charisma sell jewelry and my dad skillfully repair jewelry. Their strong work ethic, resilience, and commitment to provide me with a better life shaped my own dreams and ambitions. I witnessed my parents successfully building their jewelry business from the ground up. As I grew up, so did my parent’s business. I saw the sacrifices that were made—working long hours and weekends—but I always felt grateful that I got to witness their journey be an example of hard work and success. Read More>>

Shawna Allard

The process started when I was nine, and I realized that my psychic medium talent was unique. When my psychic abilities became fully activated, I shared my insights with my closest friends and family members, asking for their feedback on the value each person experienced. After a year, it was clear that the information coming through me was accurate and of great help to others. Over three decades later, I am still working as an intuitive psychic with the Divine Guidance that manifests through me and helps others on their journey toward a fulfilling life. Read More>>

 Nate And Kelly Slover

This is really a faith question. Everything we do, flows out of our knowledge and relationship with God. We have friendship with God by believing and trusting Jesus. Knowing and enjoying God is our greatest purpose. We exist to honor him in the things that we do and the things he’s called us to do. In this season, we believe that God has called us to run a coffee shop in Quincy, WA. This is a dream that we’ve had since college, where we developed a love for good coffee as well as coffee shops. At different points, we’ve thought about jumping in but the risk always seemed too great and the timing and opportunity never felt right. Read More>>

Nina

I found my purpose the moment my life could’ve gone another way — at just five years old, when I was hit by a car. As strange as it sounds, that accident planted the first seed of my dream to become a doctor. Something about being in the hospital, watching the doctors move with such care and purpose, captured my heart. From that moment on, I knew I wanted to help people heal. Read More>>

Demetra Arvanitis

I found my purpose in the middle of a life that, on the surface, looked comfortable — but inside, I felt lost. In my mid-forties, I was a housewife with no children, no job, and no real direction. I was fortunate to have the freedom to wake up and do whatever I wanted, but the truth was, I wasn’t fulfilled. Watching others either love or hate their careers made me realize: I wasn’t doing either. I was just… existing. Read More>>

Reba Starbeam

I had a great childhood with some not so great moments. I was undiagnosed ADHD, autistic spectrum, and May-Thurner’s Syndrome (compression of the iliac vein). I wasn’t a very healthy child. I always felt weak, frail, and tired. I got sick often. Mix that in with being very spiritual and having spiritual gifts that I didn’t know how to use, and I just became “the weird girl” and got bullied quite a bit. Read More>>

Arrowyn Ambrose

I did not find my purpose; my purpose found me. If I had followed my “bliss,” as Joseph Campbell once said, I would have followed what seemed like a very promising acting career into my grave. However, after being asked to volunteer for a fledgling non-profit called Young Storytellers in 2004 and simultaneously having my palms read (bear with me here), everything changed exponentially for the better. Because of an ineffable and extraordinary experience volunteering as an actor to perform a 5th graders script in something called The Big Show, I stopped chasing after bliss and started following my curiosity. Read More>>

Yingwen Jie

You should be the one who knows best what you truly enjoy.
By starting with the things you love, you will naturally discover areas or tasks where you are more efficient and feel more motivated — and that might point to one of your strengths.
This process is rarely smooth and often involves continuous trial and error.
But it is precisely through this journey that you can uncover your potential development paths and find your true goals. Read More>>

Erin Avery

When I was 15 years old, I started to emotionally overeat due to trauma. I was young so I never told anyone about what happened and the only way I felt in control and safe when things became erratic was to eat.. Little did I know that overeating as a teenager would be the stage for all the health issues to come. Read More>>

Claire Wang

I didn’t stumble upon my purpose in a single, defining moment. There was no lightning strike or earth-shaking epiphany. It arrived gradually—like the quiet swell of an orchestra tuning before the first note. I found it in the still hours after school, coding line by line to build a tutoring platform. I felt it stepping onto the stage of Carnegie Hall, bow in hand, heart racing—the same stage where Tchaikovsky once conducted and Rachmaninoff performed. And I saw it clearly in the smile of a girl on the other side of a Zoom screen as she realized she could, in fact, do AP Chemistry problems. Read More>>

XING RONG

I’m happy to talk about how I found my sense of purpose.
I would say that I’m the type of person who needs a clear goal in order to stay motivated (though I’m not sure if that’s necessarily a good thing).
Since I was young, I’ve always had a strong sense of “playfulness.” For example, even though my parents enrolled me in extra classes when I was a child, I often skipped them or did my own thing, especially during my rebellious phase. Read More>>

Rodrigo Sacca

I used to want to be a doctor. I was into science, always felt drawn to it. But my parents kept saying I was a creative. Deep down, I knew they were right—my grades in math and science weren’t great. Still, I pushed ahead and chose a science track in high school back in Italy.

Then everything changed. I moved to the U.S., and it felt like a reset. On paper, my education lined up, but in reality, I was ahead. That left me with a lot of free time. So I started writing, filming, and editing skits—just for fun. Read More>>

Cori Wamsley

I think that our purpose is always there, quietly waiting for us to notice it, like a shy friend in the corner. It hopes for years that we will spot it, seek it out, but instead, we chase all the shiny things, the supposed to dos. For me, I knew in my heart that writing was my purpose, but I was led on a wild goose chase by well-intending adults who suggested I go into science because I was good at it. Read More>>

Barbara Clarke Ruiz

I found my purpose by building it step by step — first by mastering my craft, then by creating businesses that allowed me to lead with heart and impact.

My entrepreneurship journey officially began when I founded BCSWIRL Inc., a design consultancy where I had the privilege of collaborating with some of the world’s top global brands — including Adidas, Nike, New Balance, ASICS, Walmart, Fila, FUBU, Disney, Jockey, Speedo, Zoggs, Eleven by Venus Williams, and Kohl’s. Working alongside these incredible companies taught me how to blend creativity, strategy, and execution at the highest levels. Read More>>

 Erin Asquith

When I was 20, I met a therapist who changed the way I viewed and understood myself. Being in therapy and seeing how transformative it was led me to want to be a therapist myself. I wanted to be able to provide for others what she did and continues to provide for me- a safe, supportive voice to help me hear myself, feel known and capable of taking in the ups and downs of life. Read More>>

Pyar Anderson

I have a weird resume: mountain guide, inventor, product designer, comic book artist, photographer, actor, filmmaker, bike mechanic, EMT and a few other odd ones thrown in for good measure.

When I looked at the big picture of my whole thing and tried to discern how to use all these disparate but related skills, I wanted to incorporate as many of them as possible into one agglomeration that multiplied effort and alacrity amongst the different abilities I have acquired.

I like spreadsheets, but mind maps or doodles or venn diagrams are a few other good ways to see where the core of your purpose might lie–assuming that past work and hobby experience is an indicator. Read More>>

Myrna Buckles

I found my purpose by being obedient to God. I was happy being a mom and a professional. Then, God came along and said, take your family on a mission trip. My husband and I took our family on a mission trip to Nicaragua with our church in 2010. That was just the beginning.

Over time, I sought God out to guide me about missions in Nicaragua because the pull was so strong. I led our church’s mission team for several years and led short-term trips to Nicaragua to serve. That simply deepened my love for people and the desire God put in me to serve. Read More>>

Ximena Diz

I’ve searched for my purpose for a long time.
In high school and college, when people asked me what I wanted to do with my life, my answer was always “I want to help people”. But I wasn’t sure what that would translate to. I didn’t know what path to take. Read More>>

Jingzhi Hu

It all began during the winter break of my freshman year of college. A few friends and I, newly bonded in the first semester, had planned an impromptu road trip — a four-hour drive from campus to somewhere new, somewhere unknown. I had never taken a trip like that before, and despite the short distance, I was filled with nervous excitement. Read More>>

Karl Barkley

At the beginning of the pandemic, my roommate was talking to her younger sister about her college sports recruiting process and sounded a little dismayed. While my roommate had played soccer in college at an NCAA Division III school, she didn’t know much about the college basketball recruiting landscape that her sister was attempting to navigate. The pandemic muddied the water more by taking away all in-person events and moving everything online. Read More>>

Anahita Monfared

Growing up, I was sad a lot. Like a lot a lot. I always had friends but I was really lonely, except for when I was reading books. I would spend lunch time in bathroom stalls reading. After school I would take the bus to our local library and read novel after novel, only coming home when I needed to. In high school I worked at a bookstore for four years. I led storytime in the children’s department. Every book became not just an escape from my life but a really exciting invitation into another one. It was life affirming to be surrounded by stories, and therefore by possibilities. Read More>>

Ingrid “B” Bazin

It found me. I was in college, working a regular job, and supporting a friend’s poetry night by doing what I do best—telling people the hot spots in South Florida. I had this Yahoo group, and I’d invite folks every week. I developed a love for the art. I didn’t plan to be in the poetry world, but it pulled me in. One invite turned into a movement, and the rest is B Side history. Read More>>

 Pushpit Bagga

It all started in the bustling streets of Delhi, where I grew up. In a city where creativity sometimes takes a back seat to academics and tradition, I was that mischievous kid who saw beauty in the discarded. Whether it was bits of trash on the road or things others deemed useless, I’d collect them – not as junk, but as potential. I’d transform these scraps into little sculptures, ornaments, or quirky installations. At the time, I didn’t know the word “sustainability,” but I was already practicing it in my own playful way, building small trophies of imagination and memory. Read More>>

 Nathan Dinh

Throughout most of my life, I had no idea what I wanted to do as a future career. I was floating around several jobs when I was in grade school such as a teacher, engineer, and even a marine biologist at one point, but I believe it was the summer of 2022 when it kind of clicked that I wanted to be a voice actor. My friends and I were doing a real-time fandub of some random anime, and while doing silly voices and improv, I felt a passion I had never felt before, even if it was a silly fandub, that was mostly for fun, that realistically didn’t matter that much I found so much joy in just breathing life into these characters with my voice.  Read More>>

Zhenyu Pan

I didn’t exactly find my purpose — it revealed itself through small moments. I don’t think I’ve fully figured it out yet, but I’m getting closer with every drawing, every observation, and every story I choose to tell. Following my curiosity has led me here, which has shaped the path forward.

Moving to New York was a turning point. I was drawn to the city’s confidence, individuality, and energy. People here embrace who they are, and that openness encouraged me to pursue what I truly love. When I illustrate life using vibrant shapes and expressive colors, I feel like I’m offering a quiet kind of optimism — a gentle way of seeing the world that invites joy and imagination. Read More>>

Tessa Grzybinski

That’s such a daunting question. It always was for me at least, growing up through art school and those years following, trying to navigate the career world and afraid of choosing the wrong path. The idea of making a mistake paralyzed me, and it was impossible for me to step outside of myself until I had my daughter. Read More>>