In this episode, host Dave Fiore speaks with Sherman Rosier, owner of Fit and Functional, a personal fitness and wellness studio in Tallahassee.

Sherman’s interest in fitness was born as a runner at Cobb Middle School, where he had the chance to train with the Lincoln High cross country team. He would go on to study physical therapy at Florida A&M University and become a personal trainer – developing a hybrid approach to wellness that focuses on general fitness and also helps those with limitations.

His interest in business was piqued after working summers with his grandfather on a hog farm and in his stucco business. While he appreciated the experience, Sherman decided he would rather be the person writing the checks.

His path took a twist, literally, in high school, when he felt his decision to wear dreadlocks negatively impacted the way he was perceived – both at his jobs at a grocery store and fine dining restaurant and later as a student in the FAMU College of Business and Industry.

Sherman has weathered the storms of the Great Recession and COVID shutdowns and continues to follow his dream to make Tallahassee a little more fit – and functional.

In this episode, host Dave Fiore speaks with Robin Hassler Thompson, the executive director of the Survive and Thrive Advocacy Center. STAC provides direct support for victims of human trafficking and focuses on community education. Robin says she has always loved learning, but when she got bored with high school in 1976 she jumped into politics – not running for class president – but as a volunteer chair for Jimmy Carter’s successful presidential campaign.

She attended college in Washington, D.C., and went to summer school at Oxford before landing in Tallahassee for a program that combined a master’s in international studies and a law degree. Her love of politics led her to the Florida House, the Governor’s Office and eventually on a State Department trip to Bangladesh that would change her life.

Robin has spent much of her career focused on human rights, specifically violence against women and human trafficking. She says, “I am doing what I’m supposed to be doing.”

In this episode, host Dave Fiore speaks with Dave Westberry, the “Voice” of the Florida State University Marching Chiefs for the last 42 years. Dave won the job as the band’s announcer at an open audition the year after he graduated and calls it the best volunteer job you could ever have.

The Nashville, Georgia native who grew up in St. Augustine found his way to Tallahassee as a junior and never left. Dave spent much of his 35 years in state government with the Florida Auditor General’s Office before finishing his career at the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. He is a longtime member at First Baptist Church Tallahassee, and his volunteer work includes eight mission trips to Haiti. Dave has been married to his wife, Janie, since 1988.

In this episode, host Dave Fiore speaks with Alan Keesee, CEO of HCA Florida Capital Hospital. Alan is a graduate of the University of North Carolina and earned a Master of Health Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University. After graduating, he launched his career at the HCA regional office in Reston as director of business operations where he was involved in strategic planning for 12 area hospitals.

Alan’s career as a hospital administrator includes two stops in Tallahassee and being in the center of the storm in Las Vegas after a gunman killed 60 concertgoers and injured hundreds more at a country music festival in 2017. He has been a key player in navigating the care of this region during COVID and Hurricane Michael, and recently helped implement a complete rebrand of the hospital. Alan and his wife, Jackie, have two daughters, and say they are grateful to be back in the capital city.

In this episode, host Dave Fiore speaks with Alix Miller, president and CEO of the Florida Trucking Association. If being a woman in this role was not unexpected enough, Alix holds a doctorate in interdisciplinary humanities, was a college professor, plays the oboe and was a world-class ballet dancer. Not exactly the typical career path to run an organization associated with the image of tough guys living life on the roads of our state and beyond.

But there is not much typical about Alix. After a successful career in dance and academia, Alix transitioned to communications and advocacy, which she said was essentially the same as teaching – just applying the skills in a different way. The New York native and mother of twin girls now leads an industry responsible for transporting virtually everything we need to live and thrive in Florida. She believes they are up to the challenge.

Alix provides a great reminder about how discipline and excellence are a great foundation for wherever life leads you, no matter how unexpected.

In this episode, host Dave Fiore speaks with Christic Henry, co-owner and managing broker at Kingdom First Realty, who is probably best known for her passionate advocacy for the Southside of Tallahassee.

A Detroit native who grew up in Central Florida, Christic found a voice in high school as a stellar student, cheerleader and anchor on the school TV channel. It was also the time she began to realize the different social dynamics and opportunity gaps between the haves and have-nots in her school.

Working to create equity for all members of the community would become the driving force of Christic’s adult life. After ignoring advice from her friends at FSU to stay on their side of the tracks and not date anyone local, she fell in love with a man and the people of the Southside while serving the children of Bond Elementary. She now helps Southside residents realize the dream of home ownership, advocates for strong families, celebrates her community and lives out her faith every day.

In this episode, host Dave Fiore speaks with Madison Zabala, owner of Tallahassee Picnic, a luxury pop-up picnic service she bought with her twin sister, Makenzie, just after graduating from Leon High School. The Tallahassee native with strong roots in nearby Hosford also works as a bank teller, is a college student and just celebrated her one-year wedding anniversary with husband, Ish.

The 20-year-old homeowner has experienced a lot in her young life and was recently recognized by Rowland Publishing and 850 magazine with the 2021 Marjorie Turnbull Pinnacle Award for young women of extraordinary promise.

Madison’s parents say she always had a vision for her life, and she has proven that she will work as hard as necessary to make it happen. She is currently pursuing a degree in communication science and disorders and hopes to one day be a speech pathologist.

In this episode, host Dave Fiore speaks with Dr. Dennis Fiorini of Fiorini Chiropractic Center, a practice he founded with his wife, Kim, in 1992. Dennis grew up in Detroit, the youngest of five children, and learned to love sports and music, playing the trumpet in jazz bands with dreams of studying music in college.

All that changed when he was injured in a car accident and received care from a chiropractor to help with severe neck pain. He finished high school with a flurry of science classes, got his prerequisites from a nearby university and then headed to Georgia for chiropractic school.

While there, he received an adjustment from a fellow student for a headache that did not go well, and that led him to the door of the man who would change his life. More than 30 years later, Dr. Fiorini is helping people with the same treatment he received that day and built his professional life around. The year he graduated, he also met and married Kim, also a chiropractor, and they soon settled in Tallahassee with the idea that it was a place they could be successful professionally and would enjoy living for the rest of their lives.

He and Kim have raised their three children here and seem to have made the adjustment pretty well. Dennis did not give up on his musical dreams, however, as he taught himself to play guitar and had quite a run performing Garth Brooks music, complete with the trademark shirts and big hat, at local events and festivals.

Don’t miss the bonus content at the end as Dave and Dennis discuss the similarities of their names and the confusion it can cause.

On this holiday mini-episode of How I Got Here, host Dave Fiore speaks with none other than the man in the big red suit, Santa Claus. Santa was kind enough to spend a few minutes discussing his plans as he prepares for the big day, which is coming up fast.

Santa shares his thoughts on the rigors of being the CEO of Christmas, the logistics of delivering all those presents and even his favorite Christmas movie. It’s Santa like you’ve never heard him before. Please join us for the special holiday treat.

Special thanks to our friend Dave Murphy for helping make this interview possible! ;)

In this episode, host Dave Fiore speaks with Royle King, the founder and executive director of Omega Lamplighters, a mentoring program for minority young men that now has 20 chapters across the country.

Royle is also the volunteer services manager for Leon County, a job he started in March 2020. The FAMU graduate is a native of Dallas who loves all sports, but especially basketball. He grew up in a loving home with involved parents who believed in the value of having other adults speak into the lives of their children. Royle was strongly influenced by childhood mentorship programs and his father’s trusted fraternity brothers – experiences he says shaped who he is today. After struggling a bit with focus in college, Royle rebounded with the help of others and was motivated by his desire to deliver on the promise his family saw in him. Today, he works to help others do the same.