Stephanie Hernandez, Voyage Magazine reached out to me on April 25, 2022 and said that she was interviewing local entrepreneurs, creatives, and community readers as a component of their Inspiring Stories Series in Raleigh, NC. She then inferred that she believed that the general populace would love to hear my story and that they would likely gain some benefit from hearing about my experiences. Voyage Magazine believe that our communities are great because of the little guys and gals, the mom-and-pops, rising artists, local makers, creatives, and others who go off the beaten path, who take risks and try to serve their community with something unique and special. Their goal is for people to spend more of their money with mom and pops, local artists, creatives and makers rather than with large, one-shape-fits-all corporations (e.g. Walmart, Target, etc).
Stephanie then inquired if I’d be willing to set aside some time to interview with her. I initially said no because I’m at a place where I’d rather help other people as opposed to myself right now. She rebuffed me in saying that if I inspired just one or two people through participating in the interview then I’d be doing that very thing and that that’s one of the central points of the series. I laughed but I still didn’t relent. I asked instead how she happened upon me or rather who nominated me for the series. She retorted, ”Unfortunately, I looked at your file and we don't have a name listed so either someone on our team came across your social media / website / other media you might have been featured in and thought you would be a good fit for our series or someone anonymously recommended you.“ I finally broke down in agreeing to participate in the interview and I’m glad that I did because I had fun. I can’t wait to receive the hard copies in the mail.
Those of you that would like to check out the interview can do so by going here. I also took advantage of the opportunity to recommend three community leaders who I'd like to see covered in the pages of the magazine. If not mine, I hope that one of the shared stories helps encourage one of you that's reading.
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