“Never let a mistake or what you see as failure to stay with you for life. Live, learn, and move forward.”
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: My passion and work is to assist rescue dogs and families with dog problems. Sharing my knowledge and wealth of experience hopefully keeps more dogs out of the shelter, where their fate is not always a good one.
I started assisting caregivers and then moved to dogs. When I started focusing on dogs, some people were surprised. Many were not. Fostering and having a rescue dog showed me how much dogs need help, especially shelter and rescue dogs.
I have been involved with many rescues, including fostering and sheltering. [“Fostering” means to provide a home-like environment in one’s residence, with the goal of reuniting the dog with their family or finding a permanent home later. “Sheltering” means providing basic care in a designated facility.]
Each experience taught me so much, as well as the mentors I met along the journey. Mentoring is important to me to keep dogs in a home and not dumped. My work includes helping owners learn to understand their dog as well as their dog’s nutrition needs. Each person has their own plan; we work together so that all are happy in a home. Along the way, I want to share with others how rescues are amazing dogs to have in a home.
This is Bandit. I rescued him at five weeks old. He is the one who got me involved to be the voice for dogs. We lost him in March 2024. He motivates me to help even more.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: Growing up, I danced in a competition company as well as taught younger children how to dance. Doing this really taught me discipline to put the work in; you will not only improve, yet be able to do your passion as your career. I attended college to be a pre-k teacher. Sadly, teaching was not my thing, and I did not teach for more than three years.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: We all will make mistakes along our journey. Learn from them improve and move on. Never let a mistake or what you see as failure to stay with you for life. Live, learn, and move forward.
Q and A with Leana from Chicago, Illinois, living in the Washington D.C. Metro Area
“As a wife, mom, and professional, I’ve had to navigate a lot, but staying grounded in what truly matters—my family, my faith, and making a positive impact—has kept me thriving. There’s so much peace and empowerment in choosing to grow intentionally rather than rushing to ‘have it all.’”
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: I’m passionate about living with intention and creating a positive impact in everything I do. My interests center around wellness, culinary, creativity, and connection—whether that’s through practicing Pilates and yoga, creating innovative marketing strategies, or cooking flavorful meals with healthy ingredients.
I discovered my passion for wellness over a decade ago when I started yoga and Pilates. What began as a way to stay fit and combat anxiety evolved into a deeper appreciation for how movement can bring mental clarity and emotional peace. This passion for balance and growth extends into my professional life as well.
I own and run Xenful Marketing, a boutique digital marketing and communications agency. It’s built it on values like integrity, creativity, and stellar customer service. My work allows me to collaborate with small businesses and nonprofits, helping them turn their goals into realities. Seeing my clients’ visions come to fruition is incredibly fulfilling.
I also own Xenful Kitchen (formerly Love, Food. Caters), where I create and sell low- to no-salt and low- to no-sugar spices and herbs. This ties in perfectly with my love for cooking and creating dishes that are healthy with dynamic flavor—something that became even more important to me as a mom. My cooking style and the flavors I like to play with has been called “tropical soul” by most of my clients.
Right now, I’m focused on growing both businesses while creating systems that give me time for my family and my own well-being. Personally, I’m working on habit-building systems for goal-setting and helping my toddler transition into her next developmental stage. Everything I do comes back to building a life that feels authentic and inspiring—for myself, my family, and the people I serve.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: Being the only child to my parents, I was always busy with activities like gymnastics, dance, volunteering, etc. Growing up, I was surrounded by a strong sense of community and family values that really shaped who I am today. I’m forever grateful to my parents for raising me that way. The cultures of my family and beliefs played a huge role in my upbringing, teaching me the importance of resilience, community, and love for others.
Education was always emphasized as a way to open doors, and I embraced it wholeheartedly throughout college and even now. I worked hard in school and participated in activities that challenged and pushed me creatively and academically. Currently, I often take courses to continue my education in my respective fields and industries so that I can ensure that my knowledge is fresh and up to date as things change so swiftly.
I’ve always been a curious, inquisitive, and determined person, which led me to explore my passions early on. I was heavily drawn to dance, culinary experiences, full creativity, and expressing myself—skills that are central to my core and drive me as a culinary aficionado and digital marketing and communications professional. My family encouraged me to dream big and stay grounded, which instilled in me a strong work ethic and a love for helping others succeed.
One of the most impactful parts of my younger years was my introduction to yoga and Pilates. I started practicing over a decade ago, and it became a way for me to find balance, peace, and strength—mentally, physically and emotionally. That practice has carried into my adult life and influences how I approach challenges with mindfulness and intention. In fact, I continued practicing Pilates throughout my pregnancy until two days before giving birth! Overall, my upbringing taught me to value integrity, continuous improvement, and showing up for others. Those lessons remain at the core of everything I do as a mother, wife, or professional.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: Something valuable I’ve learned is the power of integrity and intentionality in everything you do—whether in business, relationships, or personal growth. I’ve discovered that success isn’t just about reaching goals; it’s about the values you uphold along the way. Showing up with authenticity, prioritizing continuous improvement, and genuinely serving others create deeper, more fulfilling results.
From my story, I’d like others to learn that balance is achievable when you align your work, passions, and purpose. As a wife, mom, and professional, I’ve had to navigate a lot, but staying grounded in what truly matters—my family, my faith, and making a positive impact—has kept me thriving. There’s so much peace and empowerment in choosing to grow intentionally rather than rushing to “have it all.”
Q: What does feminism mean to you?
A: Feminism, to me, is about equality, empowerment, and the freedom for women to live life on their own terms – not terms built by men. It’s not about superiority; it’s about ensuring that women have access to the same opportunities, respect, and autonomy as men.
More so, it means honoring the strength and resilience of the women who’ve come before me, breaking barriers so that my daughter grows up in a world where her voice is valued and her potential is limitless.
Feminism is also about standing against injustice, creating inclusive spaces, and making intentional choices that uplift others. It’s ensuring that women—especially women of color—are heard, respected, and given the tools they need to thrive. For me, it’s about living and working with integrity, love, and progress for all women.
“Introduce your self to people. You don’t know which one will be your friend for life.”
Q: What are you passionate about?
A:I am a photographer who started drawing this year and am taking watercolor lessons through Zoom from our Baltic Sea detailed artist, Oksana.
Moved to the Phoenix–Coronado art district in March 2017. In March, 2018, my one-story house burned from an old lamp while I was running errands. I decided to add a personal photo gallery on one side of the top floor. I had an opening March 7, 2020, but closed the gallery the next day due to the COVID pandemic.
Then a year after that, my Sri Lanka artist friend [who depends on my help to make a living], his wife, and young daughter were starving. He would love to leave that oppressive country, and I would like to help them more.
In 2022, I converted the photo gallery into an art gallery. After that, 21 artists found and joined our gallery. We are a consortium of Arizona, Southeast, Northeast, and Hawaii artists, plus artists from five countries.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: My childhood, travel experiences, jobs, hobbies, and friends have impacted my life. The biggest incentive was to show my mother I could succeed.
As a child, I thought we were poor. My mother didn’t buy much, besides simple groceries and household items. [It was a] simple existence. I had no allowance, a really old radio, an old record player, and couple of games. My room was 9×9 feet, my haven to escape.
I attended junior college one year, worked one year to pay for university tuition, then attended KSU, and worked during full-time college. After my bachelor’s degree, I worked another year in Kansas City, but cleaned out my desk, flew to Hawaii for a vacation, got off the plane and in the airport, I wired and quit my job.
I wanted to live in Hawaii since I was a child. When I started my business, I joined a professional women’s network in Hawaii and gave a motivation speech called, “Living my Dream Now” to 200 women and received six letters of thanks for inspiring them to start their own business.
In Hawaii, I worked for a computer company. I quit and flew to Singapore and Hong Kong. When I returned, I asked myself, “Now, what am I going to do?” I decided to start an employment agency. I passed the employment exams and obtained a license in Hawaii. I managed this business for 25 years, working up to 16 hours a day, which supported my photography/travel passion. I traveled to Europe, Australia, and New Zealand several times and visited all but two of the 50 U.S. states, including three times to Alaska.
I have over 300,000 photographic images of animals, scenes and models.
In 2012, I wanted a change and moved to Phoenix, Arizona, and built a 400 sq. photo studio. In 2017, I bought the east side house near downtown. A year later, it burned. I decided to add a second story room for a photo studio, and that became Gallery Coronado–original art, sculptures, and photography.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: 1. Everything happens for the best.
2. Watch your back, hard to know who to trust sometimes.
3. Don’t spend money on art magazine ads. It might be useful if you can afford them monthly for an extended period, but they are thousands of dollars.
4. Write press releases and hope a newspaper publishes them.
5. Be kind, generous, and fair. Compliment and help others. Help now; not later.
6. Smell good.
7. Introduce your self to people. You don’t know which one will be your friend for life.
8. Travel now when you are younger. The less iPhones you buy often, will give you money to travel.
9. Hire self-motivated people. Independent contractors work hard then many employees.
10. In your job, do more than expected to get ahead rather than back-stabbing your coworkers.
11. Be gregarious and playful. Above all, have fun.
12. Write a thank you LETTER or email after an interview stating what you will do for the COMPANY not all your demands. You will be the only one and you most likely will get the job.
Q: What does feminism mean to you?
A: On feminism, I am very much for women getting ahead. Most of the private industry jobs I had, women made less money. I am sorry to say, I didn’t think Kamala was competent to serve as President. I saw interviews of her, and I can think of five other ladies in government who are high-profile people who would have been great.
I found in my business that some women are not supportive of other women.
MORE FROM PATRICIA: I would say I am from Hawaii, since most of my life was spent there and I couldn’t wait to leave the Midwest and snow. My mother would not pay for my college because she thought I would not finish (I finished with both bachelor’s and master’s degrees). I worked before college to pay for it.
Q and A with Ginny J. from Katikati, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
“I believe every one of us has a mission here, to be kind, compassionate, and to treat others how we would like to be treated ourselves.”
Q: What are you passionate about?
A:My passion, well, I have more than a couple:
1. I am passionate about helping people heal, have an open heart and a positive mindset, as I know this raises the whole human collective and the earth, creating a path to a new earth.
2. I am passionate about tapping into higher states of consciousness to explore multidimensional pathways.
3. I know this might sound strange to some, but I am passionate about gaining deeper connections through higher states of awareness to extraterrestrial beings and higher dimensional beings from the spirit world. I am in a physical mediumship group, and I facilitate ET contact groups.
4. I am passionate about coaching others to be the best version of themselves.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: I was born very near Stonehenge in the UK, and I was an extremely sensitive child. I have always sensed energy and spirit—back then it used to frighten me. I could sense things about people and had a natural calling to help if I could. I have always been creative. I think it was natural to me; I had really amazing parents and an older sibling. I was always very good at art, pottery, creative studies, and loved environmental studies. I ended up training as a hairdresser and barber; I was in that industry for many years (15 of those years I had my own business).
As a hairdresser, you tend to become like a counselor, often knowing very deep personal things about people. I always had the energy that seemed to help people feel safe so they could open up and discuss things. I met my husband in 1987, and we married in 1990. A few years later, we had two children (who are now in their late 20s 30s). My husband and myself are still very happy, we have one grandson, and we moved to New Zealand just over 20 years ago.
Once we moved here, the spiritual flood gates seem to open. There is something special about the land and nature here; it has the most amazing energy and life force here. I know fete brought us here. We had never been here before, yet we ended up selling our house in the UK. My Hubby got a job over here, so we all came over, brought three cats with us. We arrived here on New Year’s Day, once we settled into life here, I got a strong calling to pursue my psychic intuitive side. This is when I trained as a Reiki master teacher, life coach, medical intuitive, and intuitive reader and medium. Allowing my creative artist side to be free helped me open to my intuitive gifts. I have been healing and coaching people for many years now and love it.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: One of the main things I would say to people is to trust your own intuition; it is your compass that will help you through life, keeping you safe and leading you on your true path. I believe every one of us has a mission here, to be kind, compassionate, and to treat others how we would like to be treated ourselves. Once all of humanity starts to live like this, we will truly create the new earth. It is our destiny to make this world a better place for our children and grandchildren.
Q: What does feminism mean to you?
A: Feminism, to me, is about creating a world where everyone is equal, living in unity, women and men standing together equally. That’s what I feel the feminist movement originally stood for. There has been, over the years, varying degrees of this. It used to be, many years ago, what was known as a “man’s world,” but not anymore; we are heading into the age of Aquarius, which is the feminine age. Women are extremely spiritually and intuitively powerful, as we reach an era of expanded consciousness, more soul-lead life, expanded awareness, all leading into quantum mechanics, multidimensional awareness and connection, and self-empowerment and sovereign embodiment. This is where we will lead humanity forward, women and men together.
MORE FROM GINNY: I know now that I am a gifted healer and intuitive whose passion lies in transforming lives and empowering others on their healing journey. With a deep love for my work, I am dedicated to helping individuals clear unwanted negative energies, release old beliefs and patterns, and step into a place of renewal and empowerment.
Through my unique healing sessions, I can tap into ancestral patterns, past lives, and old negative thoughts, transforming anxiety and depression into uplifted and lighter ways of being. My sessions are a harmonious blend of energy healing and spiritual healing, working on multidimensional levels to facilitate profound transformation. With my intuitive gifts and compassionate approach, I create a safe and nurturing space for individuals to release what no longer serves them and embrace a new way of being. I love my work.
I feel I have always been ahead of my time as my healing sessions are truly transformative. I know I am an activator.
I have that energy about me and am a natural nurturer and encourager of others, but it runs deeper than that. I know I am a soul and intuitive gifts activator for others. All my work is done with pure love, light, and integrity.
“You never know how strong you are until being strong is all you have.”
Q: What are you passionate about?
A:I am passionate about helping people empower themselves to become the best version of themselves personally and professionally. I am currently working on building my hypnosis business.
Q: How does hypnosis work?
A: How the hypnosis process works is first I explain what hypnosis is and what it isn’t to make you as comfortable as possible. I ask for permission to hypnotize you. Then, you get into a comfortable position, either reclining in a chair or lying in bed. You would close your eyes and I would talk to your subconscious mind. You don’t have to talk at all. I do all the work.
Hypnosis is a state of physical muscle relaxation and focused concentration. It is a lowered state of brain activity, in which a person is highly receptive to suggestions. You are not asleep.
It can be over Zoom or over the phone. It doesn’t need to be in person. It is 100% safe. I could set up a Zoom session with you to do a free subconscious block removal session so that you could experience hypnosis. No two people experience it the same way. If you enjoy the experience, you can decide for yourself if you would want to purchase any sessions. I have a really good referral program. If let’s say [your friend] Sally wants to purchase a session or package deal, you would get a free session to use for yourself or that you could gift to someone. There is no limit to the referral or expiring time.
Q: How did you first discover hypnosis?
A: I first discovered hypnosis from a lady who was also in one of the network marketing companies I was in. She was blowing away the sales. So, the owner had her speak on a sales call. She was using hypnosis, not in a brainwashing way, but in a positive way to market the products.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: I was brought up in a loving middle class family of four. I’ve lived in Washington state my entire life of 54 years. I have an associates degree in marketing management. I am a Certified Professional Hypnotist and Certified Subconscious Block Removal Specialist. I am a domestic violence survivor. I basically just had one day when I had enough of the abuse (mental) and a switch flipped in my head. I divorced my husband and never looked back. My son was 16 when that happened. He’s now 29. I work with adults who have developmental disabilities for my work. I love photography and dogs. I have been involved in network marketing for 30 plus years.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: Something valuable that I have learned is basically summed up in this quote: “You never know how strong you are until being strong is all you have.” I pride myself on my determination and my desire to be the best version of myself that I can.
Q: What does feminism mean to you?
A: Feminism means to embrace all the beauty and things that make you a unique soul.
The Woman Wednesday Blog 