Tag: inspire

Woman Wednesday: Courtney B.

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Q and A with Courtney from Walla Walla, WA, living in Charlotte, NC

“Logic would have never told me to quit my stable job, sell everything, and move to a country where I had no job and didn’t know anyone, but it was the most life-changing experience of my entire life.”


Q: What are you passionate about? 

A: My biggest passion in life is travel. When I was 10 years old, my grandparents took me on a trip for eight weeks to Washington State, Oregon, California, Utah, Arizona, and Idaho. It was my first taste of true adventure, seeing that things could be different from my small town I grew up in and that there was so much more to see. It sparked a love of freedom, travel, and adventure inside of me. I have been to 30 countries so far, and I’m always looking to explore more! I was in Corporate America for 16 years. I recently left to go full time in my coaching business. I support women in taking their side hustle from broke to bank! We create a side hustle that can support them full time so they can create a life they truly love. I absolutely love what I do and am so excited to wake up with passion and do this amazing work! I feel truly blessed that I was willing to go for and see what I have been able to create. I have a new course coming out called DECIDE. It is all about how one decision can change your entire life. When you decide you are a traveler, travel shows up. When you decide you are successful, success shows up. When you decide you are a home owner, a home can show up. It is up to you to make the decision to change your life!

Q: What were your younger years like?

A: I grew up in a small town with teenage parents. Neither of my parents went to college when I was younger. They have both gotten their two-year degrees now. I was the first person in my family to get a four-year degree and the only person to get my master’s degree. I felt like education was my key to getting out of the lower-middle class, small town living. I learned more, hoping it would make me happy and increase my income. Working in corporate made me so miserable, and I felt so trapped. I felt like I would never get out. I felt so stuck. I didn’t know how life could be different. I listened to my intuition. I quit my corporate job in HR, sold everything I owned, and moved to New Zealand for a year. It was the most epic, life-changing experience of my life. Once I finished my visa there, I backpacked through Southeast Asia for three months. Then I came home with no idea what to do next. I couldn’t find a job and fell into network marketing. While that was not my passion or my final destination, I found my passion in helping women create a life of freedom and abundance. Through that, my business was born. I can see how the way I grew up shaped me to be exactly who I needed to be today.

Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?

A: Follow your passion. Quit that job. Get your passport. Move to that new city. Listen to your intuition. Logic will always be there, but logic comes from the stories of others. Not our soul passions or desires. Logic would have never told me to quit my stable job, sell everything, and move to a country where I had no job and didn’t know anyone, but it was the most life-changing experience of my entire life. Tap into what you want out of life. It is short. And stop living to make others happy.

Q: What does feminism mean to you? 

A: Feminism means, to me, allowing yourself to trust yourself. As women, we are taught to not let our emotions get in the way. Your emotions are your key to manifesting. Allow yourself to love them! To tap into them. Use them as your guiding force. Your emotions are your power!

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Woman Wednesday: Topaz

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Q and A with Topaz, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

“When your cup starts to overflow, get a bigger cup.”


Q: What are you passionate about? 

A: I’m passionate about serving others, specifically women entrepreneurs who are looking to have a more fulfilled life. I want to support others’ life purpose and create balance and ease. I spent over 16 years as a coach in various ways. I started out as a personal fitness coach and moved into an education role with the University of California Irvine. I taught leadership development courses at the ropes course for UCI and later became a corporate team building coach. I spend every morning exercising, meditating, and sitting with my feelings. I love anything with water, so I live 15 minutes from the ocean. I am an avid paddle-boarder, and I love to surf. I am currently working on my new life coaching business. I’ve never wanted anything more in my life and I can’t wait to support as many women as possible.

Q: What were your younger years like?

A: I grew up in a mountain town, population of 100. My house that I lived in did not have running water or electricity! I learned how to do whatever it took to make “it” happen, this carried on through my adult life and career. I think one of the most valuable quotes a past mentor told me when I said I was so overwhelmed I couldn’t even cope was, “When your cup starts to overflow, get a bigger cup.” This was a whole new perspective I had never thought before, and allowed me to take a birdseye view of my life. I realize that everything I want is possible.

Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?

A: I want everyone to know two things: First is that you need to put your oxygen mask on first! This is so important to know that you have to take care of yourself before you can take care of others.
Second is that you will get triggered by fear, and it’s okay to feel those triggers and to push past the fear and do it anyway.

Q: What does feminism mean to you? 

A: Growing up, I was afraid of other women. I was afraid of rejection and not fitting in. It’s only recently that I discovered how incredible women are and embraced the power of the divine feminine. So, to me, feminism is fully welcoming my fellow sisters with encouragement. I want us all to empower each other to grow and be stronger and love and support each other.

Thank you for reading! Connect with me here:

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My schedule link to book a complementary 30 minute call: https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=21479123&appointmentType=19218580

My August 20th workshop link: https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=21479123&appointmentType=25276636

I’d love to connect with you! 🙂

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Woman Wednesday: Michelle

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Q and A with Michelle, Tampa, Florida

“Get to know others, step out of the bubble, and really connect with people. This is how we grow.”


Q: What are you passionate about? 

A: I am passionate about how women can be each other’s best allies. When I launched my book Blue-Collar Beauty, Confessions of a Plastic Surgery Coach, I assembled a team of friends, family, former colleagues, etc. that came together to help me reach number #1 [seller] on Amazon. It was amazing! I was so moved by the experience, literally weeping from the overwhelming support from these incredible women and their willingness to help me on my journey. What struck me profoundly was the personal and professional diversity in my connections…women coming together for a common bond. It was powerful, and I could not stop thinking about what’s next.

Q: What were your younger years like?

A: I was blessed to have an amazing upbringing. I come from a small town in upstate NY and was raised in a solid loving nuclear family environment, which I believe has impacted me beyond measure. My parents are both schoolteachers and my father is a coach. I was surrounded by sports and a growth mindset from before I could walk. I had a deep love of music and played several sports all the way through my collegiate years, which too, has contributed to my success and well-being. One of my business partners always mentions to people that I was the prom queen in high school, and it makes me laugh. Yes, I was, and it was because I was friends with everyone.  

Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?

A: What I have learned is that we all have a story, and shared experiences are what connect us. Get to know others, step out of the bubble, and really connect with people. This is how we grow.

Q: What does feminism mean to you? 

A: Feminism, as the definition appears, is about equality. We live in a male-dominated world and any woman who has worked inside corporate America has shared experiences on this. Feminism, to me, is standing together and supporting one another as women. All women, regardless of our differences, whether that be faiths, class, gender expression, sizes, shapes. We, as women, need to stand together, support, and uplift one another.

MORE FROM MICHELLE: I have spent twenty years working in the plastic surgery industry. I have met with thousands of women wanting to look and feel their best. There are so many layers to this; however, at the core, it is about doing what’s right for you. This is why I am jumping in feet-first with our new platform-Ask Us Beauty, a digital magazine for women on all things beauty and wellness. We want to take our power back from mainstream marketing and provide a platform with real influencers to educate and empower women so that we can all define beauty on our own terms.

Ask Us beauty launches in August and you are going to love it! Sign up for our inaugural issue which we are offering free! www.askusbeauty.com and follow us on IG @askusbeautymagazine



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Woman Wednesday: Camille

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Q and A with Camille, Nueva Ecija, Philippines

“Just do what you love; it’ll take you somewhere far.”


Q: What are you passionate about? 

A: I am passionate about anything that requires creativity. I am currently a brand and marketing designer, and I also enjoy calligraphy and DIYing crafts as a hobby. Some say I inhale and exhale the art of designing. I’ve been designing for almost half of my life because of our family’s printing business. My eye for design has been my bloodline since I became an entrepreneur. I found joy in creating for other people. I formally started doing this for a living in 2018. Before I worked with actual brands, I tried offering my design services for free to support my friends who are just starting out, and that became the foundation on how I was able to have a good portfolio to attract my first paying clients. I chose my career path as a designer for other companies because I know they deserve nothing less when it comes to building a credible visual language. My creative solutions are the ones I wished all entrepreneurs had easy access to when starting out.

Q: What were your younger years like?

A: I grew up in the province where children from my era spent playtime at rice fields. My parents were blessed with four daughters, me being the third child. Creativity runs in our family. My dad and my eldest sister love photography A LOT. My dad is an engineer and used to be a well-known photographer in our locality, while my sister pursued professional fashion photography while juggling it with her corporate work. My second sister loves modeling and is also an online beauty influencer, our youngest is an architect in the making while my mom is the greatest cheerleader and support system in the family.

It was funny that as love for art is present in the family, I was the only one who never learned how to draw. During our younger years, my sisters enjoyed creating handmade paper dolls, coloring books, and sketching gowns…and I find it so boring! I enjoyed lettering my classmates’ names instead. I spent most of my childhood in our little printing shop sitting on the computer desk, exploring MS Paint, Print Artist (it’s like Canva during 90’s), or watching my uncle photoshop ID pictures of our customers. [She laughs.]

I may say that I was exposed to the digital world of art, especially graphic design, as early as six years old. And it is still clear for me as if it just happened yesterday how I really loved creating my own play-money, greeting cards, and fair tickets from scratch then print them in our dot matrix printer and manually cut them with scissors.

During my elementary age, I developed my love for graphic design even more. I was the youngest staff in our shop to be able to attend to our customers’ requests like photoshopping blurred documents, enhancing photos for reprinting, and creating cover arts for school projects while kids my age only played video games.

When I entered high school, I became our official newspaper’s layout artist. I’ve designed numerous shirts and uniforms for different events, and that continued till college where I sometimes received monetary rewards for my work.

At first, I never knew that graphic design could be a decent profession. So, what I chose to take on during college was a bachelor’s degree in political science and shifted to mass communication. Although I was not able to finish my degree and contrary to what others think of me, I am finally earning a multiple 6-figure as a graphic design specialist.

Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?

A: I could not stress this enough, but this is the value I want to share with others: *Just do what you love, it’ll take you somewhere far.* My story has been a roller-coaster ride. I became a parent at the early age of 19. Since then I never stopped exploring options on how I can make a living. My life partner and I paused from studying to become full-time parents and providers and we thought that if we didn’t finish college our career is bound to nowhere. My parenthood journey turned my world upside-down that it made me forget myself and my interests. My child became my everything and subconsciously forget what I loved doing – designing. It took me years of exploring what’s missing and why I still feel empty even we both earn enough. Until my partner and I decided to quit our corporate job and build a small digital printing company from scratch, our capital was from loans and credit card, our knowledge in equipment operations are all self-taught. I started designing again for our own business and I felt so alive. Everything went well from there. Until the pandemic came, back-to-back lockdowns affected our operations. To escape bankruptcy, I made a shift and use my design skills to offer it to a bigger market, and that’s when I became a freelance brand designer and it allowed me to earn 5x of our business’s profit. Without having to worry about the pandemic and lockdowns. I was able to reach greater heights for my family. Truly, doing what you love won’t fail you. It’ll take you farther than what you have imagined. Some have judged me that I could do more and earn more only if I followed the career path my degree will take me. But I chose clarity over certainty. My passion gave me clarity more than anything else and I know for sure that as long as I use this skill to help others, I am on the right path.

Q: What does feminism mean to you? 

A: For me, feminism is standing up that you are more than “just a woman”. It’s equal rights = equal access to opportunities. I believe that feminism leans more towards equality, not female superiority. And that equality is what all genders deserve, not just us women.

MORE FROM CAMILLE: I am 25, a corporate escapee, and now the creative mastermind behind Miles Creative Co. (a brand and marketing design company I started a year ago). I live in the province of Nueva Ecija, Philippines. I have a 6-year-old daughter and am expecting our second baby girl in July. I love having multiple businesses. I have an online boutique, and I also help my partner manage our small restaurant business.





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Woman Wednesday: Valentine

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Q and A with Valentine from Kenya, Africa

“Be the driver, but let passion be the drive.”


Q: What are you passionate about? 

A: I am passionate about helping aspiring service-based entrepreneurs who are stuck and confused to stop going round in circles, gain clarity, formulate a strategy whilst leveraging digital marketing to continuously generate leads, and create a wildly successful business while they live the life they choose. Over the years, I have always been interested in marketing, and at the time, I didn’t know much about digital marketing. I started my job as a waitress in Dubai in 2012, whilst learning online about marketing. It took a lot of hustle, tears, hard work, rejections, training, and a huge mindset shift for me to finally land my first job in a marketing department in one of the fastest-growing cities (Dubai) and grow to become a marketing manager. Once I started, there was no stopping me; I read many books, learned everything I could, attended so many webinars. I worked successfully in the marketing field up to when the Covid-19 pandemic hit and we had to stay at home. At this point, I realized there was a lot digitally that I had already accomplished and a lot more that I needed to learn. So, once again, I decided to use quarantine time to study. That is how my journey with digital marketing started. It was quite easy because I had already had the basics, so it was more of just advancing my knowledge and thinking bigger.

Q: What were your younger years like?

A: I grew up in a small village in Kenya, Africa. I lost my mum when I was 5. Honestly, I don’t know much about my background as I didn’t get to know my father to date. I grew up with my loving grandparents. There isn’t much to say about my background, except that I also had this fire within me that made me feel like I wasn’t extraordinary. I tried to fit in; I always wondered why I was different. Most of my skills are self-taught as I didn’t get a chance to study anything I wanted in college. I have always had a huge affection for orphans, which led me to start my foundation called TOF(Talented Orphans Family), which is geared towards developing orphans’ talents to make them independent and also teaching them skills that can make them dependable in society. This was the most fulfilling thing I had ever done, but as I was the sole financier, it came to a stop as I had an accident that caused a fracture that disrupted my earning and functioning capabilities. This would just be a tip on the iceberg to what I have endured over the years and also achieved. Everything has led me to my destiny. I am strong now, unstoppable, and ready to conquer then change the world. My experience has taught me to overcome any situation, to understand people’s situations, and to relate easily to them. I believe that this is the right time for me to make an impact.

Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?

A: When you are at the saddest and lowest, most painful level you can be, that is where you get sharpened. That is the time you can become reborn. That pain is what, when used the right way, can turn you into someone very powerful. We all have this greatest strength buried deep inside each one of us; only a few people get the chance to fully experience this strength. The feeling of being unstoppable. When you have lost it all and there is nothing else to live for, you have a choice to give up or to dig deeper than ever before for your hidden strength. It’s more like a superpower. Digging and tapping into that inner strength will change you and make you as strong as steel. You will then be ready to become anything you set your mind to and there is nothing that can put you down because you already know how to get back up.

Q: What does feminism mean to you? 

A: When I talk about feminism, this comes to me on a personal level, coming from a background where women are known to stay in the kitchen and learn to be wife material. I do not want to be put in a box of what I am supposed to become or who I am supposed to be as a woman. Being a woman is just my gender; I should be judged by my capabilities, my skills, and my intelligence. When I am talking to fellow entrepreneurs, I need them to understand that being a woman or a man has nothing to do with how intelligent one is. If I succeed in something, it’s because I am just that good, not because of favors or because I am a woman.

MORE FROM VALENTINE: Something I have learned and would like to share: You do not need to make it perfect; just start and keep learning, keep improving. If you keep going, you will keep getting better.





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