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.
Emilyrose O’Donovan
My journey into the wellness world was born out of survival. Years ago, I suffered from debilitating chronic pelvic pain and women’s health issues that completely stripped away my quality of life. The physical and emotional torment was so severe that it brought me to the very edge of ending my life. Read more>>
Caty Brown
For years, I was searching for something I couldn’t explain but knew I needed. I found it through sound healing, and that experience eventually became Soul Body Finesse. I started Soul Body Finesse in 2019 after relocating to Minneapolis from Los Angeles with my 2 and 3 year old. Read more>>
Tyler Edward
I grew up in Crystal, Minnesota; a suburb of Minneapolis. I discovered my passion for filmmaking at a very young age. My brother and I would constantly use any resources we could get our hands on to make little skits, fight scenes, and parodies of movies we watched. Read more>>
Holly Sobrack
My story begins in Iowa, where I grew up watching my dad run his own business. From an early age, he taught me how to answer the business phone, take messages, and, most importantly, genuinely care about customers. My parents instilled in me the values of hard work, integrity, and serving others—principles that continue to guide Westbrack Marketing today. Read more>>
Sarah Swenson
Growing up, I always seemed to have some sort of camera in hand. Disposable cameras, film cameras, polaroid cameras that printed on stickers, and later as an adult I eventually had a digital camera. I had intended to go to school for photography right out of high school, but found out there was a waiting list to get into the program a few years out. Read more>>
Kathleen Johnson
How I started was in the den of my South Mpls home doing talent shows for family events. I then moved on to being a vocalist in a girl group with my2 sisters and best friend called “MYST”. From there I was sought after to be a backing and front line vocalist for many real “BANDS” through out my teens, 20’s and 30’s. Read more>>
Frankie Torres
Minneapolis-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Frankie Torres has been performing for over 17 years. She started her singing career with her decade-long attendance at the School of Rock, which allowed her opportunities such as 6 national tours, performing at locations such as Lakefront Music Festival, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, and Lollapalooza. By the time Frankie became an adult, she was a seasoned musician and performer. Read more>>
AP Lit Class
I got started playing in my school band. I began playing the trombone and the conga drums. This is what got me connected to music. I grew up listening to Jazz, Funk, R&B, Rock and hip hop music, so it was always natural for me to be involved with instrumentation. Read more>>
Annette Huebner
I discovered Ayurveda on a trip to India when I was 26 years old in 2018 . I had traveled to Rishikesh for a yoga teacher training. One day on my lunch break I was walking by the river and stumbled upon an ayurvedic clinic, I felt immediately pulled in and I walked in to check it out. Read more>>
Uchenna Ngwu
In 2022, I started college and found myself surrounded by an abundance of new experiences and emotions. For a while, I stuck with journaling and recording video diaries to express my emotions. I always felt like something was missing: a sound, a voice, some form of art. I have always been an artistic person, theatrical even. Read more>>
Michael Moe
I started doing carpentry work when I was 21. My father and brother took me on after a fun but not so productive try at college in Mankato MN. With them I learned about framing single family homes, roofing, decks and siding. After I worked with a small remodeling company in the north suburbs of Mpls. There I learned a lot about kitchens and bathrooms. Read more>>
Matthew Christoff
I started off as a child of a musical family in Door County, Wisconsin. My earliest memories are sitting in the choir loft as my parents, Nancy and Jim Christoff, sang, or while my mother played organ, or for masses, weddings, and funerals at our Catholic Church and for many parishes in Door and Kewaunee counties. Read more>>
Justin Strom
I was born in 1980 in Fridley, Minnesota. I was only in Minnesota for 6months, and then we moved to Garland, Texas. Texas was my home the first 12 years of my life. I was born in Minnesota but feel like I’m still part Texan. Read more>>
Dyeisha Thomas
My beauty business was built on one simple belief: beauty is about more than appearance—it’s about confidence, connection, and caring for one another. I started my beauty business ‘Beaute and Beast’, with a vision that went beyond just building something for myself. From the beginning, I wanted to create a business that could grow into a family legacy. Read more>>
Amanda Gomand
Art has played an integral role in my life since I was a child. It has always been a refuge to return to- a place of familiarity and comfort. I continued practicing and eventually got my Fine Arts degree in 2019. In addition to being a full time printer, designer, and project manager I’m a practicing studio artist at home. Read more>>
Stephanie Caron
At age 12 I wanted to put on a play with kids in my neighborhood. After a few failed attempts, I got a committed group together to perform an original play in my parents backyard. The next year, I put together another original play and produced it. My theatre group,Shooting Starz Productions was officially founded in 2006. Read more>>
Maurice Buchanan
I was always fascinated with the human body and the concept of having to live and walk around in this goofy machine almost as a separate entity of ourselves was equally fascinating and terrifying. Played sports to explore those ideas and feed that curiosity. Sports was the tool that helped me determine what I wanted to study in college. Read more>>
Maria Bossert
I have been an occupational therapist (OT) since 2009. My first job was in an out patient pediatric clinic where I worked with kids of all ages and collaborated with other OTs, speech therapists and a physical therapist. I loved learning about and using sensory integration theories and interventions with the pediatric population. Read more>>
Ogechi Sama
My name is Ogechi (Oh- gay -ch- E) Sama! I am a 25 years old African American. My parents were immigrants from Nigeria. Fun fact my first name means God’s time is the best in Igbo which is my parents native language. Read more>>
James Whawhen
My Story begins from a small country in west Africa called Liberia. I was raised in Liberia for half my life and I moved to Minnesota as the city slowly cultivated my teenage years through school and art. I first found out about photography in high school taking an elective class and from that day I fell in love with it. Read more>>
Kyle Paper
We are a sawmill, rough sawn lumber, and kiln dried lumber supplier based out of Central Minnesota. We started K & J Lumber to serve woodworkers, DIY hobbyists, and local homeowners with high-quality regional wood, and we also share our daily work and passion online through our YouTube channel, @kandjlumber. https://www.youtube.com/@kandjlumber Read more>>
Ron Wilson
I was born in Minnesota and grew up through my adolescent years in San jose, CA (then moved back to MN). I grew up in a single parent home. San Jose was where I got my first taste of hip hop, that was introduced to my by my cousin. Read more>>
TellyGP
My story “Telly Tales” starts in Kankakee, Illinois raised under a single mother who had a full 3 kids at this time and I came in this world with illnesses so I didn’t develop properly at first. I remember seeing “missing kids” posters around the neighborhood in the city when I started to develop, remember thinking they’re as young as me. Read more>>
Lindsey Audrey Bergan
My current project; ‘Paper Dolls; Atypically Designed Personalities Through the Decades” is a mixed media collage collection sharing my journey of masking, misunderstandings and misdiagnosis through the last 44 years of my life. I was officially diagnosed AuDhd in September of 2024 after going through another major breakdown (which turns out that all of my breakdowns were really just my succumbing to severe burnout). Read more>>
Jeff Mozey
Back in high school I took a photography class, then when it was time to move on to college it was either graphic design or photography. I ended up going with photography because I didn’t want to take the required math course that went along with graphic design. It was as simple as that! Read more>>
Christa Reed
I think it really started on a trip in the Rocky Mountains with a group of students, my freshman year of high school. We hiked up into the mountains, and I had a little disposable film camera. Read more>>
Peter Hoffman
My journey started in middle school … I started doing local musicals when I was 12 or 13; shortly after that, I joined a show choir group in Woodbury and I performed with them for a few years. Read more>>
Bryce Gapinski
I started Gapple Co in 2013, right out of college. I was home recovering from shoulder surgery when my wife — my girlfriend at the time — introduced me to cribbage. We had an old wooden board lying around, and I couldn’t get past how cheap it felt. I’d played with quality chess sets before, but never a quality cribbage board. Read more>>
Kathleen Krueger
I have enjoyed creative endeavors since I was a child – drawing, painting, writing, sewing, and crafts. As adult life became busy with work and raising a family, I had little time for those creative pursuits except on a practical level. I still did quite a bit of sewing like making dresses for my girls or doing small craft projects. Read more>>
Jesenya – “Sen” Meissner
I feel like I’ve always had an entrepreneurial side to me, even before I really knew where it would take me. For a while, I was working a traditional 9–5 while also running my own spray tan business on the side. Read more>>
Susan Joyce
As a financial adviser with a Wall Street firm. I noticed that women did not seem as confident in making decisions about their investments as their male counterparts and often would acquiesce to the nearest male—husband, father, son—or me, their financial adviser, for assurance. Read more>>
Jeff Reed
I grew up dealing with a lot of traumatic things. As a kid, I didn’t understand what that was. When I started going to therapy in my early thirties, I began to see that many of those painful things shaped who I chose to be for better and worse. The healing that started to take place in my life was awesome. Read more>>
Hannah Aldrich
My path to real estate has been anything but traditional. I was born and raised on Minnesota’s Iron Range and spent three years serving as a police officer with the City of Eagan. Read more>>
