What's Your Story?

Sonia Hunt shares her journey of overcoming severe food allergies and the impact it had on her identity and outlook on life. She discusses the importance of shifting mindset and taking control of one's health. Sonia also explains how she applied her professional acumen to develop systems for her own health and well-being. She now helps marketing leaders thrive by prioritizing their health and...

Dre Baldwin shares his journey from playing backyard sports in Philadelphia to becoming a professional basketball player and successful entrepreneur. He emphasizes the importance of education and self-improvement, as well as the value of logical thinking and effective communication. Dre discusses his transition to digital content creation and the impact of YouTube on his career. He also highlights...

Kamini Wood, an author, speaker, and certified life coach, shares her journey of finding her authentic self and building a successful coaching business. Growing up as a shy and introverted young person, Kamini learned to fit in by pleasing other people. However, through self-reflection and self-advocacy, she discovered her passion for helping others and created her own path. Kamini emphasizes the...

Vernon Beckford, CEO of Diversified Lending Solutions, shares his journey from childhood hearing he would do big things to becoming a successful executive in that brought the story to fruition. He discusses the impact of his upbringing, education, and early career experiences on his professional growth. Vernon highlights the importance of connecting with people and building strong relationships th...

Lamaiya Lancaster, a dancer, choreographer, and adjunct professor, shares her journey and experiences in the world of dance. From her childhood passion for dance to founding the L Theory Collective and starting Soul Flow Yoga, Lamaiya emphasizes the importance of education, community engagement, and authenticity in her work. She discusses the power of dance as a universal language and shares stori...

Sharon Harris, CEO and founder of the Sharon Harris Collective, shares her journey from a curious and talkative child in Louisiana to becoming a leader in the marketing and digital media industry on this episode of What's Your Story? podcast. She emphasizes the importance of community support and guidance in shaping her path and the value of embracing curiosity and taking risks at each step....

Wrapping up Season 4 of What's Your Story? with 5 takeaways and 5 predictions based on the 45 episodes of amazing stories shared with us. This season was filled with milestones from passing 100 total episodes to the most downloads of the pod for any season. While we celebrate the end of this season, we are already at work preparing for Season 5 (kicking off in January).  5 Takeaways Your grea...

In this episode, Jaia Thomas, a sports and entertainment attorney and advocate for diversity and representation, shares her journey and how her background led her to refine her unique ability of finding solutions to problems. She discusses her early life, career aspirations, and the influence of her community, as well as her decision to focus on sports and entertainment law. She shares the inspira...

Valerie Rainford, a trailblazing executive and entrepreneur, shares her inspiring journey in financial services and her mission to advance diversity and inclusion. From her childhood experiences to her career achievements, Valerie emphasizes the importance of authenticity, resilience, and embracing opportunities. She discusses the impact of her upbringing on her skills and mindset, as well as the...

LaMecia Butler has collected a number of experiences in different industries throughout her journey. The consistent theme has been her ability to always go for what she wanted though. It likely is thanks to her parents encouragement for her to ask question. As she's gained more experience, she's been able to act as a bridge to help her local communities thrive. Listen to her story to hea...

Alice Sesay Pope, Vice President, Global Device, Digital and Alexa Support at Amazon, has a proven track record of being successful. She has really set herself apart as she discovered how to not only win but to win on her terms. This includes using her superpower of delivering results in a way where people at all levels feel good about it. All that said, her journey has not been easy as she has so...

Rishad Tobaccowala wears multiple hats including author, speaker, teacher and advisor. With over four decades of experience helping people, teams and organizations reinvent themselves, he has a wealth of knowledge on brand building, leadership and innovation. What is most impressive isn't that he is willing to share that knowledge for free via a number of platforms BUT that he continues to be...

Dr. Joel A Brown Davis, Chief Visionary Officer of Pneumos LLC, has never been able to take things at face value and therefore kept a curious mindset as he has navigated his journey. Growing up, the world didn't seem to fit him so it led him to question almost everything around him. His path led him becoming a lawyer where he came to realize the structure of practicing law did not align with...

Faisal Bhutto, SVP of Cloud and Cybersecurity at Cailan IT and Cyber Solutions ,  learned at an early age that he had a lot of capacity to absorb and do things. This superpower combined with a constant desire to learn and understand to not become complacent helped set him up for a great career on the cutting edge of the tech industry. In a tech world that changes by the moment, he has navigated wi...

Ana Flores, Founder & Co-CEO of #WeAllGrow Latina, grew up with the benefit of bi-cultural knowledge. It has helped her build supportive communities throughout her journey and enhance of superpower of connecting people as a bridge. While she is still working on her initial dream of working with Oprah, she has created an outsized impact for others across a number of different roles, responsibil...

Aaron Walton, CEO & Founder of Walton Isaacson, has witnessed and created spectacular moments throughout his journey. From starting his career at Pepsi going on tour with Michael Jackson to helping Lexus partner with The Black Panther movie, he has used his diversity of experiences to blaze a advertising hall of fame path. He continues to use his superpower of listening to help his teams and c...

Lionel Foster, Investor at Camber Creek,  believes he is defined by the triumphs, joys and struggles of the lower income and working class Black people of his hometown, Baltimore. The love that surrounded him in his community made him feel there was nothing he couldn't accomplish. He put this to the test as he has accomplished so much throughout his journey to become a reporter then communica...

Corissa Hernandez wears a lot of hats as the co-founder and visionary of Legacy Full Circle Financial & Insurance Services, The Empire Tavern, House of Xelas, and Nativo HLP. However, she consistently creates impact and uplifts her community no matter the role she is playing. She credits her success to having parents that built a strong sense of pride in being from Mexico and allowing life to...

Anthony Ware, Mental Wealth Strategist, is on a mission to help underestimated entrepreneurs and professionals build mental wealth, trust themselves, and make better decisions for their lives and businesses. He recognizes that we all have mental health from the time we are born and the state of it changes as we move through life. Through his collection of diverse experiences as an entrepreneur, he...

Maria Medrano, Co-founder and CEO of Inspirame ,  has been a pioneer since she was a little girl. As the first in her family to go to high school, college, graduate school and the corporate world, she felt the responsibility to share back with her family and community what she learned and what she was able to do to show them what was possible. She is now continuing that pioneer spirit as she has s...

Bennie Fowler has been successful in a variety of different roles throughout his journey. From Super Bowl Champion to Author to Venture Partner, he has created a vision and sought to execute in partnership with his teammates. In our conversation, he how he develops trust with his teammates that ultimately led him to  catching NFL Hall of Famer Peyton Manning's last pass for a touchdown in the...

Since she was a little girl, Dr. Viviana Coles has always had her superpower of being confident. She combined that with a curiosity for psychology, sociology and eventually intimacy to become nationally recognized marriage and sex therapist that was featured on the hit show Married at First Sight . She's also found ways to increase her impact as an author, speaker and more recently matchmaker...

Victoria Tollossa, Founder & CEO of Illume, could be found trying to monetize her ideas as early as being 7 years old. Her journey from growing up as the one of the few kids of color in Ukraine to starting a career in the music industry has helped her with being comfortable in environments where she doesn't know anyone. Along the way, she recognized the power of developing and using story...

Shama Hyder, Founder & CEO of Zen Media, has been curious and undaunted since she was a kid. She recalled always having a plan and being busy even as a 7 year old. Those traits and her early understanding of social media helped her blaze a trail of entrepreneurship and innovation. She uses her superpowers of seeing what is next and connecting dots to help leaders grow brands through sales-enab...

Sandra Hunter, Founder & CEO of Wild Women Leaders of Color, faced challenges learning about her history. Like many of us, her story is a mixture of different cultures from colonizers to those they colonized. This combination of contradictions on the surface required her to find compassion for herself in her story. She's is now helping others do that and find a sense of grounding by conne...