Locker Room for Growth

When you hear her voice, you hear a bit of Mary J Blige. Jackie Gouche is the foundation of music. Her decades of work included singing with the likes of Elton John, Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Quincy Jones, and so many more. She sang in The Color Purple. But she is more than that. Music is the foundation of her family. Her three sons: D Smoke, SiR, and Davion Farris have all seen th...

Imagine blowing through a million dollars, stealing double-digit funds from your wife’s retirement account, and facing criminal charges. Patrick Chester had no idea he would turn full-on into a gambling addict when he bet and won $900 on that first college football game. Like that first taste of cocaine for a drug addict, Chester was hooked. These are dark days for most sports gambling addicts. Si...

He runs a video marketing agency called Eye Am Media but Alex Minor is more than just a videographer. He’s a business strategist who helps others use the limitless powers of video to shapeshift their business. Given that YouTube is the second largest search engine with more than 2.68 billion active users and the second most popular platform for influence marketers, growing a channel takes work and...

The National Institutes of Health estimates there are 12.5% American adults that experience a phobia. Mike Oglesbee is a coach who helps people conquer their fear. We all have it: fear of failure, fear of poverty, fear of speaking, fear of writing… Debilitating fear can cripple a person into depression and self-destruction. Oglesbee’s Maximized Mind program comes with receipts. His system has empo...

Uzo Ometu is the founder of BlackOakTV, a streaming service that brings underrepresented voices into the forefront. The goal of this subscription video platform is to feature more diverse content that serves Black audiences. No stranger to streaming technology, Ometu’s prior position was with YouTube, where he helped the company partner with media agencies. He sharpened his technical digital media...

He’s in high school and he is changing the world. Rakshith Srinivasan is the founder of Unlimited Potential, which assists researchers and medical doctors to find cures and fosters innovation in prosthetics, bionics, orthopedics, and musculoskeletal research. Besides Srinivasan, the lifeblood behind Unlimited Potential is a collection of high school volunteers from across the Pacific Northwest. Sr...

Imagine looking into a family member’s story, only to discover a crime ring so big, you just had to write about it. She’s a true crime author, but her first book focuses on a well-researched and documented piece of family history: her cousin, Bob Leach. If you didn’t know, Leach was a cattle rustler, turned con man, who was the leader of the Grayson County Five in Texas. Pepper Anne wrote The Noto...

He’s worked with 56 NCAA teams. David Kitchen was destined to coach a Division I football team, but he walked away to build his own business instead. Wise beyond his years and armed with a degree focus in sports psychology, as a strength and conditioning coach, Kitchen has helped advance the careers of numerous National Football League and Canadian Football League prospects. Kitchen’s Edge Leaders...

Stephen Key is the cofounder of inventRight, LLC, a company that helps inventors from over 65 countries pursue their dreams of turning their idea into reality. He is also the cofounder of Inventors Group of America, whose members are a collection of leaders in inventing worldwide. He started a free high school program, called inventYES, which helps students learn to how to license their creations....

She is the founder and “Queer-E-O of Chesline Inc, a global diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting company. Chesline Pierre-Paul works with organizations to help them expand their DEI initiatives and do their part to make the world more inclusive. They did it all with gumshoe perseverance. Pierre-Paul speaks five languages and has been featured on Brainz with Oprah, La Presse, OMNI TV, and is...

Deanna Radulescu has seen it all and then some. Her back story is not to be read lightly. It is fraught with experiences that few might survive. How she was able to move forward and shed the demons that enveloped her past is a story in itself. A human trafficking survivor, widow, former C-level executive, fashion designer, bodybuilder, skincare expert, Ms Chicago America Nation 2021 – Radulescu ep...

He was influenced by Iggy Pop, but he also reminds me a bit of Donovan and T Rex. Jaymes Buckman is an up-and-coming glam singer who rocks to his own style. He’s done a few things, too. He appeared on Canada’s Got Talent and an episode of a television reality show. You can find him in the Toronto club scene and through all the usual music places. https://www.hotapollo.rocks/ Hot Apollo's Baby Lord...

Sandra Nomoto is The Content Doctor, a writer, editor, and publicist, who works with social and environmentally conscious organizations. She published the first vegan marketing book after discovering that such a book didn’t exist. Besides being well versed in all things vegan, Nomoto is a founding member of the Vancouver Short Film Festival. She also worked on the Vancouver International Women in...

She’s the Resiliency Rebel and her book, The Good Stripper , has been described as an unapologetic F you survival guide. Marci Warhaft is a warrior woman who teaches young men and women how to reclaim their power to build a healthy and strong self-esteem. Her background is like an edge-of-your-seat action-packed thriller series. Accepted into a prestigious theatre school, Warhaft is a mother of tw...

Imagine having to put your friend in a body bag and then carry him through a jungle? All the while you are fighting an enemy you can’t see. The conflict in Vietnam was as much against the terrain as it was the Viet Cong. At 22 years old, Robin Bartlett assumed leadership of the 1st Platoon, A Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), where he led a platoon on over 60 h...

She might be a leader in public relations, the host of two podcasts, an author, and the Los Angeles County Commissioner of Alcohol and other Drugs, but Tonya McKenzie is above all else: brave. In 2022, she made California history as the first Black woman to run for city councilor in Redondo Beach. The incumbent won, and the journey wasn’t easy, but even so, the experience also shed a spotlight on...

Joy Harris teaches high school and college athletes about the business side of sports and how they might access a career in the industry. She is the co-founder of Connect Electric, the CEO of Score, the chair of the media company CMG, and hosts the podcast Inside the League. Harris co-founded Harris House, a media company dedicated to providing content, events, and books for people who have big dr...

The skillsets are the same, whether you are an NFL cheerleader or an entrepreneur who runs a virtual business. Neither requires an academic degree to be successful. If anyone knows this, it’s Megan Meyers. While she did earn a degree through USC Berkley, she will be the first to tell you that it’s in the trenches where you learn your best lessons. Meyers learned how to run a business at age 18 whe...

Kiran Kumar has decades of experience working in human resources, training, coaching, and counselling. At a certain point, she realized she had also become what society has deemed as the unseen – a woman over 50. In taking a different path, Kumar sought to help women of all cultures and backgrounds shed that cloak of invisibility and change the narrative to fight against ageism. Through courses, m...

In a way, humans are conditioned the same way we train animals. Here’s a cookie for behaving. Here’s a spanking for talking back. Here’s a gold star for raising your hand in class. Frances Fomai has written a book called “Can You Hear Me” to take ownership of traditions and behaviors that no longer serve us. Fomai is the poster woman for breaking cultural norms. She owns a trucking dispatch compan...

Yusuf Nasir Ahmad is a digital economist from Nigeria, who specializes in digital disruption. He penned the book: Dangers of Fake News – Nigeria at the Crossroads. His mission is to educate people on how to identify disinformation, how to correct it, and the consequences when it is allowed to fester. Ahmad is also the Chief Executive Founder of The Educated Child Tutorial Center. https://twitter.c...

Matthew Reed is well versed in all things military. He served in the US Marine Corps and the US Army. Deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, Reed is a former Military Intelligence NCO, Strategic Analyst, and DOD Contractor. He has expertise in hostile intelligence services, counter-intelligence, and so much more. Today, Reed writes hybrid fiction, which combines the elements of techno-thrillers, exotic...

As a Eucharistic Minister at Our Lady of Charity Parish, Margaret O’Connor has seen some things. Things that caused this normally quiet and humble servant to speak up and chronicle the oppression of women priests. She has tried to make the Catholic Church accountable for its sins quite loudly. You can read the chronicle of her findings in her book: Scandal in the Shadows, The Original Priest, Moth...

He has appeared in some of my favorite movies. Kevin Cassidy stunted in numerous Marvel Cinematic Universe films, including Spiderman: Far From Home, Avengers Endgame, Black Panther, Captain America: Civil War, plus The Dark Knight Rises, Salt, and Sons of Anarchy. He also acted in the Sleepy Hollow television series. Cassidy was lured away from Hollywood to teach others confidence and to learn th...

Amber LeMay is the co-mother/founder of Vermont's comedy drag troupe, The House of LeMay and the host of Amber Live! Amber’s alter ego and creator Bob Bolyard spent 30 years as a drag artist performing in clubs, parties, and charitable benefits. Along with Russell Dreher, the two created Amber Live in 2020, which streams every Sunday evening. Among her many guests, Amber has interviewed Carol Bask...