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.
Patty Ostberg-Speiker
I grew up in the military as a daughter of a special forces pilot. While moving around as an adolescent and teen can be super tough, it also created in me a need for adventure and storytelling. In college I majored in journalism and worked at the Capitol in St Paul for a decade. Read more>>
Scot Combs
The Origin Story Flying Train Wreck was formed in Spring 2015 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The band came together when five veteran musicians decided it was ‘not the time to hang up their singing shoes.’ The name itself was chosen as a humorous public service announcement. Read more>>
Jon von Glahn
I started tattooing at 21, and now at 43, I can look back and see how every twist in the road shaped who I am as an artist and as a person. I always knew I wasn’t meant for the corporate world. When I was a kid watching my mom get a tattoo in someone’s kitchen, something in me lit up. Read more>>
Soulaire Allerai
Bad Rooster was a concept that was created by three friends who came together with a vision for a food truck. I had initially resisted being part of this endeavor as I had been in and out of the restaurant industry over the years with my father and wasn’t fully convinced I wanted to get back into it again. Read more>>
Lindsey Baris
Rising Sun Farm was started in 1974 as an organic vegetable farm that provided fresh produce to food co-ops around the twin cities. Ryan grew up on the farm and went out to Washington state for college. Him and Lindsey moved back to the farm in 2012 to take it over. They added the neighboring apple orchard, pigs, and sheep. Read more>>
Samantha Moe
I started my career in 2004 as a speech-language pathologist and autism specialist. I loved helping kids build social skills so they could connect with others, make friends, and feel that spark of confidence. Over time, I noticed something bigger happening: when a child struggled with big emotions or challenging behaviors, the whole family struggled too. Read more>>
Blake Vandehey
I was working for a car dealership in a small town in Washington State. I felt like I was made for more. I was playing xbox with my friends, when one of them told me this. Read more>>
Salem Lutheran Church
Our church has always been rooted in hospitality, love, and food with Swedish roots. When you walk through the basement level of the church, you’ll able to enjoy years & years of confirmation photos. Our church has been around for over 100 years and has remained on the same block with different updated versions of our building. Read more>>
Jessica DeFilippo
When I was pregnant with my second child I bumped into another pregnant woman at the post office in Homestead, Fl where I lived at the time. She was a midwife and asked me where I planned to birth my baby. I stated I was intending to birth at the military hospital at the air force base in Homestead. Read more>>
M Raksaphakdee
I’ve been working in kitchen for 14 years in los angeles, california. And i’m consider myself a foodie. My partner and i envison what if we bring more variety food to small town? We started as a rotisserie chicken restaurant and learn through mistake. We accept the failure, and try to study what we could have done wrong. Study food market and customer behavior. Read more>>
Jessica Naiberg
I never set out to open a therapy clinic. What I did set out to do—more than a decade ago—was help kids and families. I became a pediatric occupational therapist, and over the years I had the privilege of working with countless families across the north metro. Read more>>
Todd Anderson
I started performing musical theater with Playhouse 15 theater Company in Saint Francis when I was 20 years old. I fell in love with performing on stage,met my wife in our first production and we started dating. Over the next 10 years, we performed together in musical theater and opera, got married and started having children. Read more>>
Porscha Shannon
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My journey has never been a straight line at all!! It’s been a story of resilience, reinvention, and purpose. I’m originally a girl from the South Side of Chicago, raised in Englewood, and my life shifted very dramatically after I gave birth at 25. I experienced something called an Amniotic Fluid Embolism! Read more>>
Erika Ladwig
My love for therapy really began as a love for people and their stories. Before I ever envisioned myself as a clinician, I was drawn to the way literature invites us into the inner worlds of characters — the complexity, the emotion, the transformation. Read more>>
Selah Sol & Co.
Selah Sol & Co. began in August of 2025, founded by two best friends, Claudia and Sydney. We’ve always shared a love for home goods, skincare, and clean, uplifting aromas, and we wanted to create products that people could feel truly good about using; both on their skin and in their spaces. Read more>>
Natasha Everson
My story started in the summer of 2019. I was at a crossroads and felt the pull to do something creative in my life. I had a 2 year old and when she started to go to her Father’s house once a week, I felt completely lost. Read more>>
Kelly Nygaard
I didn’t set out thinking I’d end up in tourism, but looking back, it makes perfect sense. I’ve always had a wanderlust, but I also believe you can find adventure in your own back yard if you’re willing to experience it. I graduated college in 2008 from the University of Minnesota Morris, a great education in hand and full of hope. Read more>>
Lauren Robbins
I started Wild Tree Wellness as a group practice in 2015 when I was looking for a space to practice mental health therapy outside of the medical model. It felt really important to me to explore the mind-body connection within whole person health. Read more>>
Niki Johnson
After attending community college in 2006, I realized I wanted a career that felt more hands-on, creative, and meaningful. That’s when I discovered cosmetology school. I enrolled, fell in love with the process, and never looked back. After 4 years, I took a leap and moved to Colorado to work at a friend’s parents’ new barbershop. Read more>>
Allyson Reinert
I started as a self-taught fashion designer. My 2nd collection landed in Macy’s in Beverly Hills through Poshmark for a design contest. My goal was to design clothing for boutiques. My first show was scheduled in March 2020 so due to the pandemic, I needed to pivot and then started buying from wholesale brands. I now love curating collections and styles from hundreds of brands. Read more>>
Lara Valente Valente
We (Lara Valente and Tiffany Sather) met working in a Minneapolis restaurant in 2009 and both had our first kids around the same time a few years later. After years of friendship we talked about a shared dream of one day leaving the hustle and bustle of the restaurant world and opening a yarn shop. Read more>>
Kyla Reasoner
My name is Kyla Reasoner and ever since I could hold a wooden spoon, I loved baking. I took that passion and all of the baking techniques that were passed down to me by my mother and grandmother to start a home bakery business in April of 2022. Read more>>
Brendan Nagle
My wife Ann and I are buying my hometown brewery and pub. We met there in 2012. I was bartending then. We have plans to expand our offerings and are excited about this new endeavor. Read more>>
Sophie Orluck
It all started with a mission of sustainability, that really only had to do with my own household. I was tired of shopping for natural products and still finding ingredients that I didn’t approve of on their labels. So, I decided I wanted to start making a natural bar of soap, that had multiple functions and had ingredients I could trust. Read more>>
Sofia Dzyubanyuk
I am a passionate personal chef, dedicated to crafting menus for my clients, with a focus on flavorful, high-quality foods. Elegantly spiced started from a cooking class where a mom hired me to teach her daughter how to make a meal after seeing my content online. Shortly after, more people inquired. Read more>>
Anthony Nold
From a young age I was interested in art. I remember in about 2nd grade I wanted to ‘be good at drawing’ and because a friend of mine at the time was a good artist. This became a lifelong goal and journey as I spent a lot of my free time and a lot of my in school time trying to get better. Read more>>
