The heart of our mission is to find the amazing souls that breathe life into our communities. In the recent weeks, we’ve had the privilege to connect with some incredible artists, creatives, entrepreneurs and rabble rousers and we can’t begin to express how impressed we are with the incredible group below. Check out our favorite stories from across the Voyage family.
Jasmine Dawa
Unfortunately, my bio mother was on drugs so when I was born there was to much in my system for her to take me from the hospital, so my grandparents were so selfless to take me in as their own. I have been extremely fortunate to not have had major physical disabilities, but as a teenager into young adulthood, I have my struggled with diagnosed mental health disorders. Fast forward to adulthood, I wanted to make a change and advocate for young children, so I decided to pursue a career in early childhood education and loved it endlessly. Read More>>
Matt Gustafson
I quickly learned after working for many companies that I was the guy doing all the work so I decided to venture out on my own as a subcontractor. I also found some success in flipping houses at that time. Over the years I grew a solid customer base through referrals and in the past year my business quadrupled so I brought on a project manager, marketing manager, book keeper and a team of reliable and quality subcontractors. Read More>>
Sir Nvision
Yes, I’m an Artist that resides in Minnesota. I’m a refugee that migrated to the United States when I was practically a newborn. I was born in Kampala, Uganda of September 1997, my family through certain generations were always poor with not much resources for us to get us by in life. Growing up I’ve always loved anything that enhanced my creativity. Whether it was Music, Visual Arts, writing, etc. I was able to do it all. I ended up moving to Minnesota. As I was growing up, as an adolescent I was always being bullied in school with not much social skills and friends. Read More>>
Courtney Hicks
My passion for essential oils and low toxic living amplified, I started selling Young Living and posted diffuser blends and DIY recipes on Pinterest. It has snowballed from there. My husband and I dove head first into creating a small homestead, built a garden that has doubled since that time and has truly become my happy space. I now look forward to teaching my followers how to garden on my social media channels while feeding my family homegrown food right from our backyard. Read More>>
Naomi Beyene
Inspired by the motto, “when you look good, you feel good and when you feel good, you do good”, I wanted to be an advocate by giving them the confidence to pursue their wildest dreams. The goal and ultimate purpose behind Kawaii Beauty is to leave every client better than I met them. Beyond beauty services, I achieve this by always being a listening ear, and giving valuable advice to each client during our beauty ‘therapy’ sessions. So they can leave with a clear mind and a confident mindset. Read More>>
Magnolia Taylor
This year I also added the Clay for a Cause program. Over 40 Million children around the world are living in severe food poverty. Many starving children will eat mud, or clay “cookies” in an effort to quell hunger. These “cookies” are simply dried discs of the very dirt they walk on. The Clay Ceramics donates 10% of profits to Feed My Starving Children, a non-profit organization that provides nutritionally complete meals for starving, malnourished and hungry people. We use clay for art, so children have food to eat. Read More>>
Wesley Newell
As exhilarating as it was, the long hours and weekend commitments started to take a toll, especially during the busy wedding season. The winter months were always slower, and that’s when an opportunity presented itself—a friend had purchased a truckload of appliances and asked if I wanted to help sell them. I was intrigued. I had always enjoyed learning how things worked, and appliances felt like a challenge I could dive into. Read More>>
Ray Callahan
I laid out a plan for 2024 and how I would launch my knew music project “Ray Callahan”. I have been hard at work making music. It’s a mix of Jazz and house music. This is my focus and where my heart is at right now. I got to play my first show at skyway theater about a month ago and as wedding season is winding down I am gearing up for a very busy winter. I will be releasing music, posting a lot on social media, and hopefully doing lots of shows! Read More>>
Baby Tee
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth journey and that’s just life. One of my saying are, “it aint easy, but it ain’t been hard” if it’s easy everyone will do it or would have done it. Most of the struggles I faced was mostly staying consistent and knowing if it was really for me and aligned with my purpose. Throughout meditation I was able to face these demons and reach my full potential. Read More>>
Sami Alkharrat
My name is Sami Alkharrat, I’m 18 years old and I’m in my freshman year of college studying on the Computer Science track at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. I’m half Arab (Syrian) and half American, and while I am currently Minneapolis-based, I’m pretty well traveled. I was born and raised in Dubai, U.A.E., for half of my life until my family moved to the U.S. at age 9 to San Jose, California. It was there that I finished primary school, middle school, and high school while picking up martial arts along the way and, eventually, competitive sport karate. Read More>>
Sherief Elabbady
In 2022, I walked into a card and board game store at the mall and was struck by the variety of card games available. I had recently become obsessed with the game “Black Card Revoked” and was excited to see it among many other games that celebrated different cultures and ethnicities. However, I noticed there were no games specifically for Arabs or Arab-Americans. This observation sparked the idea to create a card game for Arabs. After conducting some research, I found nothing similar on the market. Read More>>
Katie Mauch
As we got closer and closer to moving back to South Dakota, I started taking on more freelance work and realized that’s where I wanted to make a difference; by providing design and marketing services to businesses and producers in the ag industry and in the rural areas where I grew up. When we settled back in South Dakota we moved to a really rural area, and the time was right for me to take my freelancing full time and start Katie Mauch Design + Marketing. Read More>>
Jamie Radosevich
Don’t get me wrong, I have deep admiration for those in the education field. It takes a special kind of person who feels truly fulfilled in that role, but I quickly realized I didn’t feel that way at all. It was tough to face the fact that I had spent four years studying something I no longer felt connected to, but I found solace in trying new things! I kept my nanny job for the summer, continued the personal training business I’d started in college, and took on work as a waitress and bartender at a country club. Read More>>
Kyle Te Poel
I got into this line of work a little later than most, and being married as well, I needed to aim for something with more stability. It was frustrating to find that, despite my many years of experience and my education (I have a Masters of Education in Outdoor Recreation), most opportunities were paying at or near minimum wage with no benefits and limited hours. Well into my 30’s, I was working up to 5 jobs at once, which was just not sustainable. Read More>>
Candace Hensley
Having lived with bipolar disorder, now in remission for many years with several ups and downs along the way, I’ve gained a unique perspective and appreciation for life’s beauty and joy. Photography became not only a creative outlet but also a way for me to give back. I use my work to support various charities. I also help to raise awareness for mental health by collaborating with legislators and local groups to advocate for change and be a voice for those struggling with these issues. Read More>>
Anika Wirth
At 19 I became part of a local duo with one of my best friends from high school. I think our first show was at a small coffee shop in St. Joseph MN and I don’t even think we got paid! I didn’t care, I was so happy to finally be playing a real show as it was something I had always dreamed about. At first we had a few shows but then by the next year and into my first year of college we had almost 40 shows per summer all over MN. We started doing lots of covers and posting those on social media as well as the beginnings of some originals. We even made our own Christmas CD fully produced and recorded in my basement bedroom! Read More>>
Suzanne Krasnow
It’s an ongoing battle but now I have chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiation treatments. While battling cancer I have made it my life’s mission to keep people well informed on what I am going through, setting and hitting crazy high goals to prove that a life changing diagnosis does not mean you have to stop living. This past summer I was recognized by Color Street for being #9 in the company for number of parties hosted. I am still incredibly proud of that! Read More>>
Lee Noland
We’ve become the brand for those who take fishing seriously—who don’t settle for ‘good enough,’ but demand excellence. We’re for the anglers who’d rather spend their weekends on the water than talking about it. The ones who know that every cast counts and every detail matters. That’s the Outkast way. We’re here for the anglers who know what it means to be different—and embrace it. So, whether you’re new to the game or you’ve been chasing trophies your whole life, Outkast Tackle has your back. We’re not just along for the ride. We’re here to change the game—one jig at a time. Read More>>
Nicole Kunkel
We discussed a tiny house and other options but landed on flipping a camper! Dave is very handy and has brought many of my ideas to life – and this proved to be no different. We officially launched The Flipping RV in September 2023 and had our first guests in May 2024. It took us 6 months to flip the camper between raising three daughters and both working full time. Because we are a camper business, we are only able to operate 6 months out of the year and we chose April 15th to October 15th. So far, we have truly enjoyed being able to allow guests to enjoy our space. We include a slide for kids, paddle boards, sleeping space for 5 – perfect for couples or families, fire pit, and more. Read More>>
M’kenna Krchnavy
My story begins with my content creation journey back in 2015, when I first started working with long-form video and photography. Throughout high school and college, I steadily built an online presence by sharing lifestyle content on Instagram and YouTube. As the digital landscape evolved, so did I! I’ve transitioned to primarily focusing on short-form content that highlights interior design, the journey of self-discovery in your 20s, and embracing a mindful life. Read More>>
Jaina Two Rivers
I was a competitive swimmer for first 20 years of my life. I swim in college, I swim club, I trained for many hours a day…practices a day before school, and after school, so I was very much an athlete. I found that in the spring of my junior year of college I wanted to do something different. I had started meeting people that were involved in yoga, so that was kind of my first introduction. I moved to Hawaii and ended up learning about meditation and Bhakti practices of devotion. The Hari Krishna temple that was there and was really attracted to that kind of diving into spirituality learning about science and Buddhist and Hindu philosophy. Read More>>
