It’s more important to understand someone than to judge them. We think the first step to understanding someone is asking them the fundamental questions about who they are and how they became the person they are today. Understanding and empathy are essential building blocks for a better, more compassionate world. We’re incredibly fortunate to be able to ask these questions each week through our interview series. Below you’ll find inspiring interviews from in and around Tampa.
Lynn Principe
I am often asked how I became an End of Practitioner and Grief Coach, mostly because it’s a very uncommon career path! Like most of us, I don’t remember death or dying being normal topics of conversation when I was growing up and any grieving that I’m sure was happening, was done behind closed doors. It wasn’t until I was an adult and had relocated to Florida that I had my first intimate experience with death. My father’s aunt and uncle, both in their late 80’s lived in Florida and had no children or other family to look out for them. I became that person. As my great aunt’s health declined, I spent a lot of time at her bedside and served as a liaison to the rest of our family up north. She was very generous in sharing what was happening for her physically and emotionally. There was both beauty and sadness to the entire process. She was a beautiful teacher for me. After our visits, I would go home and write down all of my impressions into my journal. Read more>>
Amarilys Morales
My business story begins in January 2018. After being with a company for 5 years, my values for my career and life shifted and I set out to find something different. When I didn’t find this in another company, I embarked on the journey to create the company that I dreamed to work for. 5 years later, AMA Behavioral Consulting does that! I’ve created not only a quality ABA program but a company that’s compassionate and caring and has tons of fun doing so! Read more>>
Mia Bell
I am a woman of faith and a strong believer of God and his Grace. At the young age of 11 I was injured in a domestic violence dispute which resulted in the loss of my left eye. That changed my life, and the trajectory of my childhood , since then I have faced many hardships and challenges all of which led me to the realization that I needed to heal. Read more>>
Charissa Shatanoff
While growing up in Clearwater, Florida, I was fortunate enough to be immersed in the dynamic world of the hospitality industry through my family’s ventures on Clearwater Beach. As I pursued my college education, I continued to immerse myself in this field by working as a server at a local restaurant and bartending at Steinbrenner Field during the exhilarating Yankee spring training season. Read more>>
K.D Collins
As a young wife and mother at 19, I didn’t get to travel due to timing and finances. As my kids got older and we became more financially stable I began to travel more with husband and kids. As a getaway from everyday life me and one of my best friends Tasha would go on a “Girls Trip”. It would always start out as a big group then it would just be us the day of the trip. Read more>>
Gina Wilkins
Gina Wilkins is the Founder and CEO of Kind Mouse Productions Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit established in 2012 assisting local families in transition and their chronically hungry children. In 2012, Gina was a self-employed certified architectural draftsman. With the decline in the economy she saw many of her friends and peers fall into financial despair. These hardworking career people were too prideful to ask for help and eventually lost their homes and businesses. Gina, wanting to help her proud friends, saw a need to assist these displaced families and to also feed the hungry children of her neighborhood. Read more>>
Teena Scaia
When Teena Scaia wanted to branch out from her corporate graphic design job, she took a leap of faith and started her own creative design firm. Eleven years later, BrandMunki is now considered one of the leading boutique branding and advertising design firms in Tampa Bay and beyond. An artist, a hustler, daughter of a Jamaican-born dentist and Puerto Rican mother with big dreams for her little girl, Teena was born with a spirit for entrepreneurship and the discipline to know the value of hard work. As a leader among other Minority Woman Owned Businesses in Tampa, Florida, she met President Barack Obama during a 2012 campaign event very early into her career, and has been recognized for her accomplishments with BrandMunki in multiple media outlets. Read more>>
DANIELLE MONTANYE
Growing up as an only child I put a ton of pressure on myself to make my family proud. All through high school and college I took on as many things as I could to prove I could handle it all. Sports, activities, clubs, internships, and multiple jobs, I sacrificed much of my social life in order to create a reputation for myself that would make others say “wow.” As an adult I’ve continued down that same path, while also continuing to want to make others proud of me. Besides being a single mom and working full time, I have played semi-professional women’s tackle football, competed in Strongman competitions, completed Spartan races, ran bootcamps for youth, and coached multiple youth sports. Read more>>
Julia Roslawski
I grew up in a somewhat stable home but I was definitely the least favorite child. That shaped who I became and how I handled everything. I became a major people pleaser due to wanting to feel like I belonged and mattered to someone. Helping people became second nature and influenced me joining healthcare. Read more>>
Tina Bailey
I have always been passionate about exercise. I’ve also always been a work-aholic. My career in the Office Furniture Industry began in my twenties. I worked long hours and weekends too. I missed my workouts but was too tired after work to go to the gym. Read more>>
Mimi Mala
“Mimi Mala” was born and raised in Long Island, New York parents of Puerto Rican ascendants. She knew at the age of seven that she had a gift of being immensely outspoken, truly lively, extremely connected with everyone and spunk that attracted others to her instantly. By the age of thirteen her parents took her to a large audition at John Casa Blanca in Queens New York where she was signed immediately! Read more>>
Amee Persaud
I’m a stay at home mom; and cancer warrior. I was diagnosed in 2019 with an incurable blood cancer. It shook our family to the core and transformed our daily lives. We had to learn a new normal. Read more>>
Kathleen Ribeiro
When I first started, I was struggling mentally at my current 9-5 job and couldn’t seem to find the right fit elsewhere. However, after stumbling upon a Facebook post that suggested reaching out to local businesses and offering administrative help as a side hustle, I found myself exploring the vast world of online business. Despite having spent a decade in the auto body industry, I began working as a virtual assistant for female business owners and within just four months, I was able to leave my 9-5 job behind. Read more>>
Eboni Gee
I’m a nurse who desired to help people in a different way. I started my entrepreneurial journey teaching dialysis wellness and wanting to help people on dialysis find and maintain a level of well-being. I started thinking back to my direct care days and how I was dialyzing generations of families and moved to teaching kidney health. I wanted to help create healthier communities by helping to create healthier families. From here, I realized that finding time to make wellness a priority is really difficult for many people. Many people knew the basics of how to maintain a level of wellness, but actually being able to commit and be consistent was an issue. Organization, efficiency and implementation are some of thing things people ask me about a lot. Read more>>
Ebony Grooms
I’ve been in retail management for 24 years, 20 of those years as a General manager. The most rewarding part of my journey is the relationships I’ve built along the way. Creating confidence in people through their wardrobe is in my DNA and it continues 24 years later to bring me great satisfaction. Being a leader of leaders is the other part that keeps me motivated and inspired. During my 24 years of leadership, I’ve worked for 3 brands. I’ve given 13 years and counting to my current brand because they see me as an individual, they’ve supported me through becoming a mother and created a space where I felt safe and included, and they feed my need to lead through my people. Read more>>
Bobby Saunders
Rank-Up Athletics was started in 2019 when our CEO, Tyrone Rhem, had a vision of helping potential football p[ayers that may have had an unfortunate injury or bad combine day to have another chance of performing in front of professional scouts of all level of football. This has led to us to providing a service for these athletes to train, be filmed doing combine testing and/or playing in showcase games where scouts attend. Rank-Up Athletics has now branched off into the nutrition supplement industry by launching Rank-Up Nutrition in 2023. Read more>>
Rhonda Criss
I started researching fluid art after seeing a couple of videos online. I thought to myself “Oh, I think I can do that!”. I had no idea until I got into it how much of a science it truly is. I purchased some necessary supplies and started my journey by finally just trying my first painting. It still hangs in my office today! Once I started, I just kept researching different fluid art techniques, which paints and pouring mediums to try, and looking for anything I could “pour” on: canvases, ceramic tiles, ceramic figurines, vases, cradleboards, wood rounds, other wood cut-outs, even Christmas ornaments. Read more>>
Karen Blucher
As women, so much is expected of us as Christians, and the weight is even more to bear. We are expected to have it together at all times, so we find ourselves living in a pretentious state of well-being just to fit in. No matter what we are facing behind closed doors. A few years ago, I found myself in that very place. I was broken, hopeless, and ashamed. Hiding from the world and if I had to go beyond the four walls of my home, I would hide behind a mask, one in the form of makeup and a huge smile. I pretended that I was all together while deep down inside, there was so much hurt and disappointment that was destroying me from the inside out. Read more>>
Tina Doland
It took a long time for me to start my journey. I had been yo yo dieting for years been through multiple health problems Ive had double knee replacement, wrist and thumb reconstruction’s just to name a few got to a point that I had given up. Then one day I really saw myself in the mirror because I didn’t like what I saw how I felt inside and out. That was the day I realized I had to do this for me all the years of being told my drs there was nothing I could do because of genetics and aging I was tired of taking medication only for it not to work and I wanted to feel good. Read more>>
