On this week's special episode of Creator Stories we sit down with Interact's very own Partner Program Manager, Jessmyn Solana. 

Jessmyn joined our team when she was just 23 years old—a recent college grad at the early start of her career. After being part of our team for many years, she shares the obstacles she experienced before she joined Interact and what led her to make a risky move in her career to join an early start up company and the self-care practices she uses to handle the stress of adapting to changes. 

From an early age Andrea Jones was convinced that she wanted to pursue a traditional career path and climb the corporate ladder. Coming from a family of business owners, Andrea had direct insight into the struggles and hardships that came with entrepreneurship and she was certain that it wasn't for her. 

But over 6 years ago, Andrea quit her job in Atlanta, Georgia, and moved to Toronto, Canada with her husband. Little did she know, this move was the catalyst that led her to discover her true passion and embark on her own journey to starting a business. 

Growing up, Michelle Tu had a creative spirit and curious eye for all things business—but she was born to immigrant parents in the 80's who really wanted her to focus on having a stable career profession. She decided to focus on her education and school work, and fell in love with math and science. 

Michelle then went on to study biomedical engineering in college and completed her Ph.D. in cell biology. Soon after, she realized how much she had been pushing her creative spirit aside, so she took the leap. She's learned, she's failed, and she's flourished. And it's all brought her to where she is today.

Natalia Gomez grew up and lived in Mexico City with her family where she earned a degree in Marketing. She joined the Corporate world and finally began earning a steady income, until one day, she had to leave it all behind when her and her husband decided to move to the U.S.

Natalia gave up all of her professional pursuits back in Mexico and came to place where she couldn’t legally work. But as a creative marketing strategist, she wasn’t the type to sit at home idly. She was determined to find a way…and she did. This is her story.

Jerried Williams was in and out of the corporate world for nearly ten years. He worked in diverse industries and even spent a fair share of time working at start-ups. He was constantly on the move, but having grown up in a Military family, he had become accustomed to his ever-changing surroundings.

The one thing that was constant, was his feelings of confinement and constraint that arose from working in very bureaucratic, corporate environments. But this past December, everything changed. Starting from a blank slate, Jerried began exploring all the avenues that he simply couldn't ever do in the past, leading him to where he is today.

Paul Fishman lived an incredibly fast-paced life as a personal trainer, nutrition coach, spin instructor, and pilates instructor. He taught dozens of high-energy spin classes a day, pouring his energy into each and every person around him...leaving him utterly drained. 

One day, as he looked in the mirror, he realized that he didn't recognize the person starring back at him; all he saw in his reflection was a people pleaser. He was living his life for others, and it had to stop. Over the course of nearly 10 years, Paul has been on his own self love journey. And now he's on a mission to empower and inspire others to do the same.

Throughout her career, Latasha James worked for many tech startups, nonprofit organizations, multiple Fortune 500 companies, you name it. But one day, this shy introvert decided to ditch the corporate grind. 

It all started with a blog and a few freelance gigs, when she soon discovered her passion for helping others. Now, this introverted entrepreneur is a business owner doing meaningful work helping others pursue their dreams.

Eman Zabi was a young graduate living with her parents in the sandy deserts of Qatar. She was unemployed and unsure of her career path, like many of us in our early 20's. But she was steadfast on discovering her passion. 

When Eman started her own business in 2016, she was young and inexperienced. She quickly realized that she had to grow into the shoes that she had already built for her business. But with a competitive background in Martial Arts, if there's one thing Eman knew how to do, it was to commit to the punch.

Vivian Chan's career began as so many of ours do - climbing the corporate ladder. She was great with people management, untangling problems, and was absorbing all the ins and outs of business at a senior level. In the eyes of everyone around her, she was ‘successful’.

But Vivian didn't feel successful. She was spending her energy building a kingdom for someone else...and it didn't feel fulfilling. She quickly realized that sitting at a desk from 9-5 wasn't something she wholeheartedly believed in.

She wanted to help people grow, and help them leverage the talent they didn't realize existed. But first, Vivian had to discover what her own talent was, what would make her truly feel successful. This his her story.

When Zafira Rajan was six years old, she went mute for a year. She grew up amongst a family of outgoing entrepreneurs, but you could always find her somewhere buried in a book immersed in stories or writing as her creative outlet. 

After many years of finding herself dissolving into other people's voices, she found her own. Her journey uncovers the purpose and power behind discovering one's voice and now she has created her own business helping other people discover their voices - this is her story.