Life Of A Career: Recent Episodes
Mentor Access
Even though we are in the digital age, access to careers and career advice from professionals is still very much gated by wealth, status, pedigree and personal resources.
At Life of a Career Podcast, we are bringing life to careers and jobs by proliferating access to professionals and mentors for those who may not have personal connections to different industries. Our mission is to open up access to professional stories that might one day inspire children, students, and other job seekers who might otherwise settle for a career path because they weren’t privileged enough to know about other opportunities.
Susan Landers is a retired neonatologist, author, & speaker. She practiced full-time in the NICU for over thirty years both in academic medicine, on the faculty of two medical schools, and in a private practice. In this episode, she shares her insights into a career in medicine and factors to consider when it comes to work/life balance.
Now retired, Susan wrote a book about her experience: "So Many Babies: My Life Balancing a Busy Medical Career and Motherhood." She is an expert in physician burnout, breastfeeding medicine, & donor human milk banking. During her career she also published over thirty peer-reviewed papers.
To learn more about Dr. Sanders, you can find her at her website: https://susanlandersmd.com/
You can also find her books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Susan-Landers-MD/author/B08TFGLRK3?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
Casey Cavaliere Is an American Record Producer, Mixing Engineer, Songwriter/Musician, and Artist Coach. His creative work ethic has been sculpted by a career spanning over two decades with his band The Wonder Years, including multiple Billboard chart-topping releases, extensive global touring, and the mentorship of music industry heavyweights.
This wealth of experience has galvanized his creative philosophy around trust, authenticity, experimentation, and self-discovery. His dedication to these ideals has cultivated insights that he draws upon at every stage of the creative process - helping you to discover and refine your artistic voice, and creating strategies to help you grow and amplify your music career.
To learn more about Casey, you can find him at the below locations:
Website: https://www.caseycavaliere.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/case_rock/
Dallin is a writer, poet, and creator. In this episode, he shares his tips on how to approach and engage with people to develop genuine relationships. He has been able to find jobs through his methods and it is a refreshing take on a skillset that is not so common in today’s world. His podcast name is YIELD Today with Dallin Candland where YIELD is an acronym for Yes I Envision Love Demonstrated.
To learn about Dallin or to contact him, you can find him at the below locations:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dallincandland
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dallinsyield/
Website: https://dallincandland.com/
Ryan is a mindful leadership coach who helps individuals navigate their life and careers. Previously, he spent a decade in the technology industry in Silicon Valley working for a variety of tech companies. Some notable ones were Pandora and Gong where he drew from experiences in human resources and training to develop his current business.
To learn more about Ryan or to contact him, you can find him at the below locations:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rtgiordano
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rtgiordano/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rtgiordano
One of the most sought-after teachers today, Yogi Aaron is trailblazing a new path in the world of yoga. Known for his unorthodox perspectives on stretching and flexibility and how both cause more harm than good, his teachings aim to help as many people as possible live a pain-free life so they can realize yoga's true intentions.
He is the creator of the revolutionary approach to yoga — Applied Yoga Anatomy + Muscle Activation™ (AYAMA) and the online platform: The Yogi Club, host of the yoga podcast ‘Stop Stretching’, author of ‘Autobiography of a Naked Yogi’ and his new book ‘Stop Stretching! A New Yogic Approach To Master Your Body + Live Pain-Free', and is the Co-Owner of Blue Osa Yoga Retreat & Spa in Costa Rica where he leads The Yogi Club Yoga Teacher Training Immersions year-round for students from all across the globe.
To learn more about Yogi Aaron, you can find him here: https://www.blueosa.com/
He also has a book out called “Stop Stretching! A New Yogic Approach To Master Your Body and Live Pain-Free” https://amzn.to/3xHJmMk
Brandon is the owner at SEO Optimizers. He started his career in digital marketing in 2007 after graduating from college. Brandon helps small and medium-sized companies get ranked at the top of Google by using search engine optimization tactics and bringing in traffic via social media, paid ads, etc.
He has since helped many companies in optimizing their SEO to help get free traffic to their websites.
To learn more about Brandon, you can visit him here: https://seooptimizers.com/gift
Donnie Boivin is an entrepreneur and serves as CEO and Founder of Success Champions and Success Champion Networking. Donnie is considered one of the leading global minds on sales, business development, and business growth. He is described as the first person to make sales and business development relatable and human.
In addition to running multiple businesses, Donnie runs a full working farm with goats chickens ducks, turkeys, and geese., his podcast ‘Growth Mode’ ranks among the top podcasts globally. He is a five-time Best Selling Author and a highly sought-after public speaker.
To learn more about Donnie, you can find him here: https://donnieboivin.com/
John is a serial entrepreneur, engineer, marketing specialist, talk show host, and the president of his local chamber of commerce.
To learn more about John, you can find him here: https://linktr.ee/johncmorleyserialentrepreneur
Milad is currently a VR software developer. However, his career started in the music industry where he produced songs that have been featured in TV and movies! His songs have been featured in major films such as the 2016 Ghostbusters starring Melissa McCarthy.
He now works at Google’s Owlchemy Labs. Milad’s career is an exciting and inspirational story that spans multiple industries from music to running a laundromat, and VR software development.
He also has a podcast where he rambles while he jams out on his piano: http://pianoramble.com/
Dr. Shane Steadman is a chiropractic neurologist and the owner of Integrated Health Systems in Denver, Colorado.
To learn more about Dr. Steadman and his practice, you can find him here: https://integratedhealthdenver.com/
Andrew Mondia is an actor and a voiceover professional who has been involved with independent movies, commercials, and an animated series called Lego Spider-Man Series.
To learn more about Andrew and his career as an actor, you can find him here: https://www.instagram.com/andrewmondia/
John is the podcast host of the Walk 2 Wealth Podcast. He is dedicated to helping others realize their potential, grow wealth, and live abundant lives.
After dropping out of college during the pandemic because he realized he couldn’t network with anyone via video classes. So, he embarked on an entrepreneurial journey that eventually led him to podcasting and using it as a platform to elevate his other business ventures.
To learn more about John and his podcast, you can find him at https://www.bit.ly/walk2wealthgift
Vinnie is an Emmy® Award-winning Media Advisor with a 25 years track record of guiding personal brands and founder-led business to new heights through strategic content distribution, brand visibility, and media reach.
As a network executive at MTV Networks (98-07) he discovered talent and developed new ways to support their goals, pioneering the way brands and business owners could contribute to their public narrative by making them stars and producers of their own television series. Early hits include Punk’d, The Osbournes, TRL, 8th & Ocean, Wild n Out, & The Challenge.
To learn more about Vinnie, check out his website at: https://vpe.tv/hub
Joi is an educator, adoption advocate, and author of several books. Her career began as a secretary and she debated between joining law enforcement or becoming a teacher. Torn between the two, she found herself passing the examinations of both professions and Joi decided to pursue the path that allowed her to do what she loved most: working with children.
From there Joi continued to take on challenges and rose quickly into administrative positions within the education field. She has continued to pursue additional higher education, as well as, writing about adoption advocacy inspired by her own personal challenges of having been adopted.
To learn more about Joi and the organization she supports, you can find their links below:
Joi’s website: https://www.findingjoi.us/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/findingjoirenee/
Miriam’s Heart: https://www.miriamsheart.org/
Fatemah is the founder of CareerTuners where she helps ambitious job seekers and professionals find, apply for, and get higher-paying jobs, more fulfilling jobs. She also provides additional coaching services to help employed professionals solve their work-related challenges.
In this episode, she tells us about her career journey from getting a degree in environmental engineering and deciding to pursue a different career path after graduating. She also details a lot of great advice on things to consider when it comes to applying for jobs and getting the job you deserve!
If you’d like to learn more about Fatemah, you can find her at her website: https://careertuners.com/podcast
Brenden is the founder of MasterTalk, a private coaching communications business along with a popular YouTube channel. He started his career in accounting at a Big Four accounting firm before transitioning into a management consulting role at IBM.
After discovering his talent for communications coaching while helping students with their case competitions, he started a YouTube channel to give away his knowledge on the subject to the public. Following the advice of a mentor, he eventually started the coaching business while still working as a consultant. However, once he began to see traction, Brenden decided to pursue MasterTalk as a full-time business.
If you’d like to learn more about Brenden, you can find him at the following locations:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MasterTalks
Website: https://www.rockstarcommunicator.com/
Kim Hamer is a Fractional and Interim HR leader that helps companies with human resource needs. She started her career with an adventurous streak where she helped take people into the outdoors and then gravitated to traveling the world in her 20s.
She ventured into the HR career field after she got married. Unfortunately, her husband passed away but she took a lot from the grieving process and how it affected her performance at work.
With this newfound experience, Kim has started a new focus area in her human resource business to help companies develop processes and programs to support their employees in the event of an employee or spousal death in the company.
To learn more about Kim Hamer’s career and her work, you can find her at the following locations:
Website: https://www.100actsoflove.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/100actsoflove/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimthamer/
Thanks @podpros for the introduction! #podmatch
Terence is currently a senior systems engineer in the biomedical engineer industry at THINK Surgical. He first found his interest in biomedical engineering when a tragic accident occurred which left his uncle as paralyzed. From there, Terence was determined to pursue this career field even though his first passion was drawing and in the arts.
After switching from pre-medicine to biomedical engineering in college, he decided to immediately start his career to gain real-world experience in building products. Since then, he has gone on to pursue a Masters degree and worked for several companies.
If you have any questions about the biomedical engineering career field, you can contact Terence at info@mentoraccess.com or at his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmichaeltw/
Terence is currently a senior systems engineer in the biomedical engineer industry at THINK Surgical. He first found his interest in biomedical engineering when a tragic accident occurred which left his uncle as paralyzed. From there, Terence was determined to pursue this career field even though his first passion was drawing and in the arts.
After switching from pre-medicine to biomedical engineering in college, he decided to immediately start his career to gain real-world experience in building products. Since then, he has gone on to pursue a Masters degree and worked for several companies.
If you have any questions about the biomedical engineering career field, you can contact Terence at info@mentoraccess.com or at his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmichaeltw/
Lynn is the founder and Chief Engineer of WowSuccessTeam. She found her interest in engineering in a high school mechanics class. From there, she went on to college to study engineering and became an aerospace engineer. She also started a business in her equestrian passion and was the owner/trainer at LAM Dressage.
After 16 years in the aerospace industry, Lynn realized that she needed to do something else. From there, she moved to Hawaii where she worked as a scuba diving instructor. Following several other stints helping businesses in Hawaii, Lynn discovered her ability to help business owners scale their companies and has been pursuing it ever since!
If you’d like to learn more about Lynn and her career, you can find her here: https://www.wowsuccessteam.com/
Chancellor is the author of 14 Days in Beijing, an unforgettable tale of his experience being locked up abroad in China. He is also an educator, coach, and entrepreneur.
After playing football in college, Chancellor found himself struggling to find a career in the corporate world and discovered an opportunity to go abroad to teach English. So, he packed everything up and moved to China to start his teaching career. However, after 6 months of being in Beijing, he found himself in a Beijing prison for 14 days before getting deported.
In this episode, we learn about how he was able to turn his life experiences into a successful career.
You can find Chancellor’s book and his information here: https://linktree.com/korleh
Thanks @podpros for the introduction! #podmatch
Zarin is a cyber security threat intelligence analyst at a banking institution. She started her career working for the state of Florida as an Economic Self Sufficiency Specialist. After the position was eliminated, she found herself struggling with finding a job because of her disabilities.
After several years of job searching and getting a cyber security certificate, she found a disability advocacy organization (https://disabilityin.org/) that helped her communicate her skills to land her first cyber security job at a bank.
Zarin is also a volunteer and advocate for diversity and inclusion in the workplace especially around raising awareness for disabilities in the workplace. As someone who has a disability she is a champion for herself and others in the workplace.
Here are some resources that she suggests for persons with disabilities when it comes to job searching support: https://disabilityin.org/
Never Discount Your Personal Experiences | The Antropologic Roots in Technology and the Future of Careers
Mike Bechtel is the Chief Futurist at Deloitte and an Adjunct Professor of Corporate Innovation at Notre Dame.
Mike is also an alumnus of Notre Dame where he graduated with an Anthropology degree and a minor in Economics. In his earlier career, he started as a consultant in the professional services industry. Following his initial stint in consulting, he became a venture capitalist for nearly a decade before venturing back into the consulting industry to become Deloitte’s Chief Futurist.
To follow Mike and his futurist team’s insights into tech and innovations trends, you can follow his LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikebechtel/
Or, you can find more detailed information and reports at Deloitte’s tech trends page here: https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/focus/tech-trends.html
Lois Letchford is a literacy problem solver who focuses on supporting children with dyslexia. She started her career as a physical education educator but she eventually became an educator focused on solving dyslexia problems after her son was diagnosed with learning disabilities and struggled in school. From there, Lois has made it her mission to spread awareness and help other parents who have kids with literacy challenges.
If you’d like to learn more about the topic or about the career field, you can find Lois at https://www.loisletchford.com/
Thanks @podpros for the introduction! #podmatch
Camille is the co-founder of FELOH and an entrepreneur in residence at JumpStart, Inc. Following graduate school, she started her career in corporate america as a policy analyst in the healthcare insurance industry.
After several years of working a corporate career, Camille decided to take the leap and start building FELOH, a beauty technology company that she had formulated while in graduate school. Since then, she’s been pursuing her entrepreneurial career full time and hasn’t looked back!
For those interested in learning more about entrepreneurship or have any questions for Camille, you can contact her at info@mentoraccess.com
Shellee Howard is the founder and CEO of College Ready. Shellee knew early in her life that she wanted to be an entrepreneur because of her parents and also selling products at her mom’s salon. Following high school, she decided to go to college and fumbled her way through multiple degree programs eventually landing in communications. However, due to her desire to ultimately pursue a business career, she worked hard during college to communicate her value in the business community and was able to get a job as a territory manager at Procter & Gamble.
After spending 8 years at P&G, Shelle decided to go back to her roots and began her journey as an entrepreneur. As her son was applying to college, Shellee developed a program that helped her son graduate Harvard without any school debt. Although Shellee never thought she would do this as a business, she quickly found herself constantly being asked by other parents how she was able to help her son. From there, College Ready was born.
If you have any questions for Shelle, you can find her at the following locations:
Free Book: https://freebook.collegereadyplan.com/
Website: https://collegereadyplan.com/
Thanks @podpros for the introduction! #podmatch
Stephanie Lemek is the founder of a HR and talent consulting practice. She started her career as an HR generalist following her undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Stephanie spent much of her career within the construction and real estate industry and has a big passion in promoting the career field because they are lucrative careers that are often overlooked and gated.
In this episode, Stephanie walks us through her career and the opportunities that are available within the construction industry and the trades. She also had experience at a real estate startup. Following the pandemic years, Stephanie decided to take a leap and made the decision to help other companies with their HR challenges due to her passion for helping people.
If you have any questions for Stephanie, you can contact her in the following ways:
Website: https://www.stephanielemek.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanielemek/
Resources:
https://www.shrm.org/
https://www.troophr.com/
https://amplifytalent.com/
Shira Ali is the founder and CEO of a property management company and the host of the Manage Your Property With Ease Podcast. After 20 years in the real estate industry, she is now focused on helping other professionals discover their career path.
Shira started her career in multi-family property management after getting her real estate license. After spending 8 years in the multi-family properties sector, Shira felt she had accomplished everything she could in that world and decided to transition into commercial real estate.
If you have any questions for Shira, you can reach her at the following:
Podcast: https://www.reichics.com/podcast
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shira-ali-cpm%C2%AE-arm%C2%AE-ram-396b87190/
Email: shira@shiraaliandassoc.com
Resources:
IREM: https://www.irem.org/
Thanks @podpros for the introduction! #podmatch
Liliana Petrova is the founder and CEO of The Petrova Experience. It is a consulting firm that helps businesses with customer experiences. She was born and raised in Bulgaria where she initially grew up specializing in learning languages where she learned Russian, French, and English in high school.
During her college years, she participated in a student exchange program in the United States and decided to apply to a school in New York. After graduating from college, she was able to work in the banking industry during the formative years of her young professional experience.
After graduating from her MBA program, she decided to take a pay cut and work at JetBlue. During this experience, she was able to rotate through different business functions and learn details about operating a major business. At JetBlue, she was eventually given the opportunity to help redesign terminal 5 at JFK airport where she leveraged all her professional experiences to implement a design that focused on improving customer experiences.
If you’d like to learn more about Liliana and her company, you can reach her at the following locations:
Website: https://thepetrovaexperience.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lilianapetrova/
Melissa Loggins is the owner of Music Authority. It is a music retail space that offers music education and is also a music store. The company empowers musicians to reach beyond their potential through dedicated instruction, world-class facilities, music equipment sales, rental and repair; to formation of rock bands that are booked at real gigs and events to building confidence through family, expert and peer support networks and monthly community-service projects.
Melissa Loggins studied music in college and immediately went into the music retail industry following graduation. After several years, she was offered a position to help open a new store and, with that opportunity, she was able to end up acquiring the store with her husband and has been running the school for nearly two decades!
You can find Melissa Loggins at the following locations:
Website: www.musicauthorityinc.com
Email: melissaloggins@att.net
YouTube: musicauthorityga, @musicauthority2
Thanks @podpros for the introduction! #podmatch
Tracy Coenen is a forensic accountant where she specializes in finding money in cases of corporate fraud, high net worth divorce, and other financial shenanigans. She started her career after college as a parole officer while attending graduate school. For a short period of time before she graduated from her MBA program, she was also an IRS agent for about 3 months.
After realizing that the government bureaucracy was not a great fit, she left the IRS and fully immersed herself in her graduate studies. Following graduation, she worked at Arthur Andersen and then a smaller accounting firm afterwards. After a couple of years in the small accounting firm, Tracy took the leap to starting her journey as a solo forensic accountant and she’s never looked back since!
Nicky Billou is an entrepreneur who helps business owners reach their full potential. He is also the author of several books geared towards helping people learn about business. His career started in the technology industry but it ended abruptly when the dotcom bubble burst.
Following his corporate career in the technology company, he went on to become a fitness coach. From there, he discovered his unique gifts in motivating people and helping them attain their goals. After writing his first book, he was off to the races in making millionaire business owners.
If you have any questions for Nicky or would like to learn more about his services, you can find him at his website or purchase his books. Below are some links to his content:
Website: https://ecircleacademy.com/appointments/
Books: https://www.amazon.com/Books-Nicky-Billou/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3ANicky+Billou
Kirsten is a global account manager at a market research company. After deciding to change her major in college from pre-medicine to advertising, Kirsten developed an interest in market research.
Following graduation, she spent one year at an advertising company but quickly realized that it was not a good fit due to their lack of market research emphasis. This reaffirmed her desire to pursue a career in the field and she was able to land in her current company where market research is their main focus.
If you have any questions for Kirsten, you can reach out to her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsten-kozarits/
Greg is currently a staff accountant in the financial services industry. From the time he was a kid, he was always interested and good with numbers. He started his career in the restaurant industry where he learned the fundamentals of business by working at nearly every job within a restaurant. After his restaurant career, he looked towards gaining some management experience and became a catering supervisor for the local baseball team in Cleveland.
His love of numbers ultimately drew him into exploring the world of accounting and he was able to land a job in the financial services industry by first getting his foot in the door through a clerical role.
If you have any questions for Greg, feel free to contact us at info@mentoraccess.com
Sam is currently a Senior Talent Acquisition Partner at Woodruff Sawyer. She started her career after college working in human resources. After only 10 months there, she left on good terms but decided to leave the corporate life to live in Hawaii and work at an adventure company. Following her return from Hawaii, she returned to the corporate environment and through professional relationships forged from her first job, she found her way into recruiting.
Sam is a staunch believer in the power or relationships and views every introduction as a new opportunity.
Andrew is a strategy and partnership lead in the Allstate innovation team. He is also a host here at Mentor Access. Andrew started his career by working odd jobs in high school and college. One of them was as a towel boy at a private athletic club in Chicago. This is where he received his first opportunity to venture into the finance industry by talking to a member of the club and receiving an internship at the Chicago Board of Trade.
This initial internship experience helped set him apart from other candidates when he graduated college where he was able to start working at Chicago’s prestigious hedge fund, the Citadel. From there, Andrew was able to navigate his career in the finance industry and finally came to a crossroads in his career after working at BP. He then decided to get his MBA at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. From there, his career in innovation and startups began.
If you have any questions for Andrew, you can contact him at info@mentoraccess.com
Rich Kozarits is currently a commercial real estate broker at Marcus & Millichap and has been in this career for 35 years. When he was younger, he discovered his entrepreneurial passion by providing a variety of different services from lawn to being a handyman while he was in high school. From there, he knew he wanted to pursue a career in marketing or sales so he studied marketing in college.
After graduating college, he found a job selling Apple 2 computers for a local store. He talks about the difficulty in finding a job in the early 1980s when the unemployment rate was at a staggering 18%. He eventually was able to get a job at 3M corporation but he quickly realized he was dissatisfied working in a large corporation and was introduced to commercial real estate.
If you’re interested in learning more about Rich or his career you can contact him at info@mentoraccess.com
Scot is currently a Senior Front End Engineer and an owner of a couple AirBnB properties. He grew up in Iowa and left for NYC to pursue an acting career. However, things didn’t pan out well in that endeavor and he found himself homeless in New York. After a lucky break from being scouted off the streets for a modeling career, he was able to get back on his feet.
His journey then led him to become a fitness instructor and finally to software engineering. His story is a harrowing and winding path that was filled with obstacles. Learn more about how Scot was able to overcome these challenges and finally find his career.
If you have any questions for Scot, feel free to contact us at info@mentoraccess.com
Lauren is currently a social media project strategist where she handles content creation, scheduling, strategy, and research. When she was younger, she had a big interest in writing and decided to study sociology and journalism in college.
She started working in the serving industry during and immediately after college as a bartender. During that period of her career, she was also constantly pitching herself with a goal of getting into the journalism industry without any success. While discussing her frustrations with a former co-worker, she was able to find an opportunity to transition her career into social media project strategy.
If you have any questions for Lauren, you can contact her at info@mentoraccess.com
Brandon is currently a customer success product lead in a business-to-business software-as-a-service company. He first started his college experience with a desire to become a doctor, more specifically an OBGYN. However, he was quickly able to identify that the pre-medicine coursework was not a right fit for him. He then switched to an economics degree and pursued a business path.
Following college, he started his career in retail before transitioning to the healthcare industry with the hopes of going back to the industry that he enjoyed as a child. After pursuing the path in healthcare for a few years, Brandon learned that it was difficult to advance in the field without a clinical background. So, he decided to attend an MBA program to help him with a career change.
After receiving his MBA, Brandon finally found his way into his current company in the B2B Saas industry.
If you have any questions for Brandon about his career or about his life, feel free to contact him at info@mentoraccess.com
Lisa is a talent strategy consultant and a program director at a EdTech startup. She began her career as a teacher and spent 20 years in education. During that time, Lisa was able to rise to be a founding high school principal and Chief People Officer.
If you have any questions for Lisa, you can reach out to her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisafriscia/
Lori is currently a Program/Project Manager in the semiconductor industry. She always had a natural drive towards being a leader and she started her professional career as a gymnastics coach. After realizing she needed a change, she went through extraordinary lengths to study for her GMAT and quickly started her MBA program.
Following graduation, she was able to restart her career at Amazon and a couple of years later she left to go into the semiconductor industry with her operations and management experience.
If you have any questions for Lori, feel free to contact her at info@mentoraccess.com or reach out to her on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lori-okamoto/
Tina Baxter is an advanced practice registered nurse, a board certified gerontological nurse practitioner, and the owner of a legal nurse consulting firm. She started in healthcare by becoming a certified nursing assistant after deciding not to pursue medical school in college.
She realized her passion in nursing and decided to attend nursing school after working as a CNA and never looked back. Following her initial career as a nurse, she eventually went on to pursue graduate school to be a nurse practitioner and an educator. With her nursing career, she has been able to branch out into a multitude of opportunities while continuing her profession as a nurse. Tina is highly involved with her community and found many opportunities to turn her skills into a business.
If you’re interested in learning more about Tina or the nursing profession, you can find her at the following channels:
Website: https://www.baxterprofessionalservices.com/
YouTube: @thenursesharkacademy
Instagram: @baxterprofserv
Michael is currently a financial advisor, public speaker, and author. He started his career with a desire to become a police officer. Throughout college, he worked a variety of security jobs in order to apply to the police academy. However, his life perspective changed and he decided to not pursue policing.
After the academy, Michael started a few business ventures and, at one point, had a very successful dating coach business. Again, life changes happened and he switched paths again towards the financial services industry because it was a career field that was familiar to him due to his parent’s experience in banking.
If you have any questions for Michael or would like to know more about him, you can find him at links below:
Website: http://erctaxcredits.co/
Mark Corona is a trivia host at Jack Trivia, a TV-style game show for bars and restaurants. He started his career in entertainment as a radio show host in Arizona where he picked up his stage name ‘Kid Corona.’ After gaining some notoriety as a feature in the song AZ Side by Nasty Boy Kick, Mark was able to build on his career in entertainment where he eventually landed his dream job at a radio station in Los Angeles.
After the radio industry began to decline, Mark made his exit from radio and started to work odd jobs, such as an epoxy salesman. Due to his energetic personality, he discovered he was a natural salesman and began to venture into his own business as a DJ and starting a marketing business.
In 2017, due to mere happenstance, Mark’s wife told him about a possible job opportunity as a TV personality. Reluctantly, he contacted the job lister and immediately hit it off. From there, Jack Trivia App was born!
If you’re interested in learning more about Mark and his career, you can find him at his website at https://markcorona.com/
Kim Dang is currently the founder of Group Convert, a software and coaching business that helps business owners increase their income by pitching their passions and profiting big on smaller audiences. She shares her incredible entrepreneurial journey starting in high school and college selling products on eBay.
Kim then took a gigantic leap and began selling car parts on eBay. She details how she saved up enough money in college to purchase her first vehicle and pay for the warehouse. Following her successes in selling car parts and living in the desert near her warehouse, Kim discovered the world of software and created her first software application after discovering a problem she had using Facebook’s native interface. From there, she was off to the races and has been helping business owners increase their earning potential by more than tenfold.
Her story is incredibly inspirational and she has plenty more to share. If you’d like to learn more about Kim or her business, you can find her at the following places:
Website: https://www.groupconvertignite.com/price
IG: https://www.instagram.com/kimpossibledang/
Amy is a strategic change leader. In college, she heard a big four accounting firm professional speak about his career and decided that’s what she wanted to do with her life. After being mentored by her fellow college teammates, she began preparing her journey into a big four starting sophomore year in college. Amy started her career working at KPMG after earning her accounting degree but, to her dismay, was laid off a half a year later.
Being confronted with the loss of her dream job, she embarked on a journey to move away from her hometown in Pittsburgh, PA and moved to Charlotte, NC to work at another accounting firm. This move sparked multiple changes throughout her career and was the beginning of her exciting career working as a controller, salesperson, and strategic change consultant.
If you have any questions for Amy, you can reach out to her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyhorner/
Below are some references for the article she wrote regarding mentorship and mentee relationships:
https://mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?m=27622&i=753669&p=39&ver=html5
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mentor-monday-amy-c-horner-cpa-mba/?trackingId=BUsh8X2lS52k%2FwCWT9P33w%3D%3D
David-Matthew is a published author, playwright, and screenplay writer whose work has been published in different countries and has even been turned into feature films. He joins us in detailing his journey beginning at the age of 15 and getting published for the first time with a short story. After that experience, he never looked back and kept writing for a variety of different mediums.
In this episode, David-Matthew also spoke about the business of writing and how to monetize your works and get picked up for film projects and theater plays.
To learn more about DM’s work, you can visit him at his website or his social media channels:
Website: http://www.dmatthewb.com
IG: https://www.instagram.com/dmatthewbarnes/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@davidmatthewbarnes
Keri is currently a monitoring, evaluations, accountability, and learning technical advisor in the humanitarian industry. She started her career in college thinking she might want to pursue medical laboratory science work and studying music. She quickly hit a crisis after realizing she couldn’t see herself in a lab and that music wasn’t practical.
So, she drew from her experiences volunteering overseas with her church and decided to find a route to do that full time. From there, she discovered the path to that goal was through public health. After receiving her MPH, she worked several internships overseas and was eventually referred to a contracting role in the U.S. Army. After her contract role, she was able to find a job at ADRA International where she currently works.
If you have any questions for Keri, you can reach her at speaker@adra.org or www.ADRA.org
Kevin is now the CFO, Founder & Co-Host of Next Level University where he coaches and elevates listeners to achieve what they’ve always dreamed of accomplishing. Kevin’s career was a winding journey filled with deep troughs of fear and despair. He started out working at a gas station after college while trying to pursue his dream of being a mixed martial arts fighter. However, after he realized that he didn’t have the actual hunger to pursue such a tough career path, he went on a career exploration from fitness, working at a warehouse, truck driving, firefighting, and construction.
Throughout his journey, he faced a series of obstacles. But, after hitting rock bottom, Kevin realized that the main thing he needed to change was himself. From there, he started anew and started Next Level University and never looked back!
If you’d like to learn more about Kevin or contact him, you can find him in the links below:
Website: https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/next-level-5-to-thrive-registration/
YouTube: @NextLevelUniversity
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/next-level-university/id1221110027?mt=2
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neverquitkid/
Samantha is a full time elementary school teacher in rural Vermont. She also has a blog called “The Life of a Teacher” that provides insight to everyday events in the world of teaching. She is also the author of a book called “The Little Kids; Lessons learned from our perspectives.”
After college, she earned a teaching certificate but decided against pursuing an education career. Instead, she went on to work at a variety of different industries from restaurants, pharmacies, and banking. She first returned to the education field through administrative roles and found the spark to finally become a teacher after having received a teaching certification decades ago.
If you’d like to learn more about the teach profession or speak with Samantha, you can find her at her website: www.samanthabovat.com
You can also purchase her book at https://www.thelittlekids.us/
Josh is a part-owner of two behavioral health provider businesses where he is the chief financial officer. He started his career in high school by starting a window washing business. He continued the business through the middle of his college experience where he decided to begin working accounting and finance internships to prepare for his goal of working for a big four accounting firm.
After college, he was able to successfully get hired into a big four accounting firm only to quickly find out that he was not interested in continuing down this career path. He then took a leap of faith and acquired a failing treatment center. After cutting his teeth for the first few years in the business and living off of intermittent paychecks, the business began to thrive and they’ve since been able to start another business and are looking to create several more.
If you’d like to learn more about Josh or have any question for him, you can contact him here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshkgardner/
The two companies he currently runs are the following:
www.havenwoodacademy.org www.engagelifenow.com
Ericka is currently a resilience coach and entrepreneur. Her company is Savage Grace Coaching. She started her career as a cardio kickboxing instructor at her taekwondo studio.
She talks about how she learned through martial arts that the body’s movement can have a profound effect on our mental health. After discovering this connection, she dove deeply into researching the topic and providing the relevant coaching and instruction to help others.
If you have any questions for Ericka or would like to know more about her company, you can find her at links below:
Website: https://savagegracecoaching.com/
Fitz Koehler is currently a Fitness Expert, Professional Race Announcer, Speaker, Author, and Cancer Crusher! After college, Fitz randomly discovered kickboxing because she wanted to teach a kickboxing fitness class. Quickly finding a passion for the sport and her relentless work ethic, she became an elite competitive kickboxer and eventually found her stride within the fitness industry by being a fearless entrepreneur. Fitz possesses an iron-will because of her mindset that, "Unless something causes bleeding or broken bones, I'm going for it!"
A few years ago, Fitz discovered she had cancer and, instead of it defeating her, she took on the opposite approach and decided to live every moment doing what she loved! She continued to work as a professional race announcer, conduct speaking engagements, and promoted fitness. After 15 minutes of brutal cancer treatments, she crushed cancer and is now back stronger than ever!
You can learn more about Fitz on her website and social media accounts:
Website - https://www.fitzness.com/blog/
FB, IG - @fitzness
YouTube - @fitzness
Kristy is currently an educator and author. She started her career as an elementary school teacher after having an epiphany in college that she really wanted to help kids feel supported in their early childhood years. After almost getting fired the first year as a teacher, she became an assistant principal 10 years later. And, in a short 6 months afterwards, she was hired to be a principal at another school!
Due to personal reasons, she left her career as a principal and began her journey as an education consultant to her newfound career today in higher education and being an author.
If you have any questions for Kristy, feel free to contact us at info@mentoraccess.com
You can find her book here: https://www.kristyhouleauthor.com/
Mark is currently a Senior Front End Engineer who found his way into a software development career through a high school program. Later he went to college to study video game design and ultimately landed in being a developer for Glassdoor. He goes into detail how he found his first job and what it was like to navigate his career in a technology company.
If you have any questions for Mark Spina, you can reach him at info@mentoraccess.com where we will pass it along to him for his response.
Roman is currently a project designer in architecture. He discovered architecture very early in his life while he was taking a drafting class in high school. However, he didn’t immediately go into college to study architecture. Instead, he graduated and worked at a CVS pharmacy.
After a year of working at CVS, he decided to start studying at a community college part-time to get his associates degree. He then had to make a difficult decision with his wife on how to pursue their respective four year degrees and decided to split up their time in supporting each other in their educational pursuits. After a few years of first supporting his wife through school, he was able to finally complete his bachelors in Architecture to fully begin his career in architecture.
If you have any questions for Mario or would like to learn more about a career in architecture, you can reach Mario at info@mentoraccess.com or directly from his LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mario-roman-235a43a7/
Os is a fractional Chief Product Officer, speaker, and author. She tells us how she began her career at the age of 16 writing articles for a magazine publication with a dream of becoming a journalist. After she graduated, she entered mandatory service in the Israeli Army where she started to work with computers which sparked her career journey into technology. Following the Army and graduating from college, she began a career in business working with technology. She has worked for many major companies from AOL to being the Global Head of Product for WeWork Labs Digital.
She continues to work as a fractional CPO for a variety of different companies but she has also begun her journey back into writing with her first book Starting From Scratch! With both her book and speaking career, Os provides us insights into the steps that are necessary to start from scratch in our careers and our jobs.
You can find her book at the links below.
You can pre-order today or purchase it when it comes out on January 3, 2023:
Purchase on Amazon: http://bit.ly/3Y0WjMI
Purchase on Barnes & Nobles: http://bit.ly/3P3rjYp
You can also find Os at her website: www.startingfromscratchthebook.com
Jimmy Clare is a motivational coach focused on autism advocacy. Jimmy's goal is to provide helpful advice on how to live a healthy and active life. In this episode, he walks us through how he had to overcome doubts cast by his own teachers and doctors about his autism.
Now, he has dedicated his life towards the motivating and advocating for people with autism.
He has an upcoming speaking event where he details what it's like to live with Autism: https://bit.ly/autism-a-different-perspective
If you're interested in learning more about his services or listening to his podcast CrazyFitnessGuy® Healthy Living Podcast, you can find it at https://www.crazyfitnessguy.com/
Nikki is currently a UX Researcher at a major telecommunications company. In this episode, she details her winding career path that led her to UX research. User Experience (UX) Researchers work at companies to conduct research on how to optimize their software's interface for the user's experience. She started her career in mental health counseling before transitioning to project managing research for an academic institution. Nikki also talks about getting her Masters in Public Health and Business Administration and how graduate school programs will often times waive the tuition if you work for the school during your academic studies. Her parting advice was that we should all normalize being unsure on what we want to do for the rest of our lives.
If you have any questions for Nikki, you can reach her at her LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikki-fillingim/ or emailing her at nfillingim2@gmail.com
Miguel Aranda is a strategic development manger for a major telecommunications company, as well as, a real estate broker in the Chicagoland area. He talks about his life growing up in a violence infested area of Chicago and how he was able to avoid gang life by being responsible for the care of his siblings from a young age. Miguel also walks us through where he first started his career as a retail sales representative and how he rose to manage the sales development of a region in the telecommunications industry. He also shares with us his passion to help mentor others and helping his real estate clients in purchasing their homes to achieve the American Dream.
If you have any questions about the telecommunications industry or being a real estate broker, you can contact Miguel at miguelmiranda84@gmail.com
Daniel Walus is the managing broker at PadScouts, a boutique real estate brokerage that services the Chicagoland area. In this episdoe, he shares his career journey of how he went from working in the telecommunications industry and worked his way up to managing stores to his final decision in taking the leap of faith to pursuing real estate full time. He also talks about how he dipped his toes into the real estate industry first by purchasing a rental property and worked up his confidence to be more than a real estate investor to ultimately become a broker and manage his own brokerage team.
If you have any questions about the real estate industry, you can reach him at daniel@padscouts.com or you can find him and his team on www.padscouts.com
As always, if you'd like to ask a question to any of our guests, you can also reach us at info@mentoraccess.com and we will help relay the message.
Zari Ivey is currently the founder of Noiz Media. Noiz Media is a marketing and public relations agency that services celebrity and influencer product brands. Prior to starting Noiz Media, she was an early employee at BoxyCharm and stayed with the company through their acquisition. In this interview, she talks about how her focus on relationships and openness to learn has been essential to her successful career. Zari also provides great detail on how someone can get into the marketing industry in today's landscape through traditional and unorthodox means.
You can find Zari on her social media and website here:
Noiz Media: https://www.instagram.com/noiz.media/
Website: https://www.noizmedia.com/
Zari's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zariivey/
Nick Stone is currently a Senior Front End Engineer at Glassdoor. Nick shares his story of how he went from teaching English to playing in an American football league in China before finally becoming a software engineer. His career is a great reflection of how careers are rarely a linear path and that it's okay to try out different career fields to figure out what really brings fulfillment to your life.
Robert Shepherd is currently a Major in the U.S. Army as a Logistician. Robert shares his story of how he went from dropping out of college and enlisting in the Army to getting his degrees to become an Army Logistics Officer. Robert also shares how his life isn't limited to being a Soldier and walks us through the life lessons he learns about finding balance. Along with being a father, a husband, and a soldier, he is also a songwriter and content creator.
You can find Robert in the links below: The Conversation 98 YouTube - @The Conversation 98
Proverbs2Music - https://www.facebook.com/proverbs2music/