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.
Maria Elena Dominguez
Maria E. Dominguez Biography Maria was born in Guanajuato, Mexico until her family decided to migrate to Texas when she was just nine years old. She attended Texas State University where she received her Bachelor’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies, majoring in Bilingual Education in 2007. Maria received her EC-4 Bilingual Certification from the state of Texas in December 2007. Read more>>
Nicole Ridgwell
I grew up playing street music next to my mom’s flower stand. I played fiddle in other people’s bands for years, then during the pandemic I made my first solo record on a friend’s tape machine, while I was living out of my car. I printed CDs, played anywhere that would have me, and slowly put together a band. Read more>>
Mel France
Founded in 2006, we are Austin’s original and only full-service scooter shop, proudly located in the heart of South Austin. We specialize in both new and pre-owned scooter sales, offering one of the largest selections of scooter parts and accessories in the region. Our experienced service department performs more maintenance and repair work than any other scooter dealer in Central Texas. Read more>>
Keyla Martinez
Born in Nicaragua, my parents brought me to the United States at the age of 14 in hopes of a better future. I spent eight years in Los Angeles, California, where I got pregnant with my oldest son. Giving my children the best opportunities was the main thing on my mind, and I began looking for a better place to raise my family. Read more>>
Connor VanVeckhoven
I’ve always been drawn to helping people feel good in their environments; it started when I was young, rearranging friends’ bedrooms just because I loved seeing how a space could completely shift with a few small changes. That same instinct carried into high school, where I worked in retail and discovered how much I loved helping people feel confident through what they wore. Read more>>
Malik Mariano
As for music and how it started, it’s sort of all I remember. Whether it was playing piano at a young age, or inspired by the music around me. Makan, is a project i’ve been working on for a handful of years. It’s still molding, but with one main backbone; Aspire to Inspire. Read more>>
Serena Blake
I started off as a bedroom queen in 2020, for the first few years, I would post transition, lipsync, funny clips all on Instagram and Tiktok. A few years into it I went to my very first drag show in 2023 and was absolutely in awe with the art of drag. Read more>>
Naomi Stinnett
I’ve been a lifelong artist and musician. Coming from a family of painters I am a 4th generation artist with a background in studio art from the University of Texas and classical training on the violin since age 11. I spent about 7 years on the road as an internationally touring musician and became a songwriter at 27. Read more>>
JJ Alexander
came to a crossroads in 2016. put on probation for 5 years. i was 22. january of 2017 i was given a push mower and a corded blower. my day job paid $400 a week and i wasnt getting by at all. decided i was going to start hustling outside of my full time job. nights and weekends. i was consistent and had fair prices. Read more>>
Lee Ann Grohman
I grew up.in a small very active community, Rockne Texas. I graduated from Bastrop high school, where I participated in a cosmetology program my junior and senior years. I was able to get all the hours in that are state required to get my cosmetology license before I even graduated. Read more>>
Ellen Bruxvoort
I came up in the maker movement of the early 2010s. Living in Austin, I was naturally surrounded by creatives and small businesses who were making an unconventional living. Read more>>
Leah Tremblay
The story of Leah Tremblay’s journey into the world of short-term vacation rentals (STRs) began not with a business plan, but with a personal connection to a place. Over eight years ago, while Leah and her husband were living in California, they felt the pull of real estate investment. Read more>>
Phyllis Hartfiel
I originally purchased this property just before COVID with the intention of creating a peaceful lake getaway for my 1969 Airstream. However, the Airstream required far more work than expected, and after an unsuccessful attempt to have it renovated, I made the decision to sell it and invest in a tiny home instead. Read more>>
Shea James
I started Shea Social Studio five years ago, right after graduating from Midwestern State University with my BFA in Photography. I’ve always had a creative eye and a passion for bringing ideas to life, and what started as a love for photography quickly turned into something bigger. Read more>>
BRIANNA BARBO
I started Canyon Lake Locals after realizing how many incredible small businesses and local stories were being overlooked simply because they didn’t have visibility online. One experience that really changed my perspective was trying a small Chinese food truck tucked away near storage units in Canyon Lake. Read more>>
Jake Harrell
I was surprised to hear from y’all. While I’ve made a career in music, it’s a modest career to say the least. But with that said, I guess the fact that I’ve managed to support myself creatively for over a decade is meaningful in its own right. My parents had me involved in music and creativity from a very young age. Read more>>
Alexandra Sleeping
I am an engineer who has always loved performance art, but lacked the courage to try. After some beloved friends strongly encouraged me to try comedic storytelling, I built out my performance skillset to complement my aesthetic skillset. I began producing community events when I realized that the only way to provide opportunities for marginalized artists in Austin is to create the opportunities ourselves. Read more>>
Heather Powell
My story began in Austin, where I was born alongside my twin sister and have been lucky enough to call this city home for almost 58 years. Read more>>
Oksana Day
I moved to the US in 2011 from Ukraine with very minimal English language skills and no work US experience except a few months of waiting tables. My first job here was a cashier at HEB, after 6 months I moved to back office to an admin assistant position and started to get exposed to a little bit of HR world. Read more>>
Shorna Haque
I’ve been an artist for as long as I remember, but my current life as primarily a figure model in Austin began pretty recently in 2024. Read more>>
Jennifer Childress
I have been a ballroom and Latin dancer/teacher my whole life. I started teaching dance when I was 16 and continued teaching right up until COVID. The dance industry was one of the first to close during the pandemic and the very last to return. During the pandemic, I created a ton of art. I love doing stained glass, macrame, and painting. Read more>>
Nikki Zahka
I was never comfortable or confident in my own body growing up. I was the chubby friend – never the pretty or athletic one. My most insecure body part was always my stomach. I would look in the mirror, grabbing what I didn’t like and pick myself apart of everything that was wrong and that I hated.. Read more>>
Lani Derrick
Life Anchored Home began with something very simple in my own kitchen. I started making vanilla extract for personal use, and after seeing how much better it was than store bought options, I became curious about whether it could be turned into something more. That curiosity led me to start exploring how to bring it to market. Read more>>
Beth Freeborn
I grew up in South Texas on a cattle ranch. I graduated from high school in 1979 from a very small town. I was good in math, so I decided that since computers were taking over the world, I needed to control computers. I graduated from Texas A&M University with a Computer Science degree. Read more>>
Tori Gordon
My path into this work wasn’t something I planned, it was something life initiated me into. Before I was a coach, speaker, or author, I was a young woman trying to make sense of a lot of loss, grief, and chaos. Read more>>
Mark Wonderlin
Right out of college I worked for a small sporting goods manufacturer on a tiny marketing team, which meant I was doing a little bit of everything. Packaging design, print ads, social, web, SEO, product photography, and of course video. It wasn’t a video job. It was a marketing job that happened to include video. Read more>>
Victor Zapien
I live in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, a city shaped by the fast pace of the maquiladora industry and marked by an open wound left by relentless violence. Read more>>
Robert Strong
We stay true to our principles and create true chef crafted sauces free from all fake ingredients. I am also proud of my ability to stay with the brand despite our personal tragedies. We are trying to build the brand in honor of our son and build a legacy in his name. We are also trying to build a non profit, which we support through our brand. Read more>>
Nick Barnes
Growing up, I was a doodler. I was awful at it–there was this kid named Tyler in my kindergarten class that could draw well and subsequently considered the cool kid. Screw you Tyler. Skip to around 5th grade, I began to teach myself a little program known as Photoshop 7.0 on a Mac G5 Tower that crashed every 10 minutes due to faulty RAM. Read more>>
Kara Jones
My story is a long one, but a good one. I was a college athlete, which I feel like is the best place to start because it is what really defined me and who I am as a person. I studied chemistry and did division 1 college gymnastics, and while I was in college, I worked at the police department to make some extra money. Read more>>
Erin Leon
this was recently written but was not published Erin Leon, Founder of Cover Your Assets, LLC — Turning Chaos Into Control Like a lot of great businesses, Cover Your Assets, LLC didn’t start from a perfectly mapped-out plan—it started from real life. Read more>>
Leslie Kell
I’m a lens-based artist and designer, and my path here has been anything but linear. I earned my degree in illustration and painting, which led into a career in graphic design. Over time, those foundations began to overlap and evolve into what is now a fine art practice. Read more>>
Caitlin DeWeese
I grew up in a suburb of Dallas and was a good and busy student who decided she wanted to be a teacher at 6 years old. I was taught that if I worked hard, it would pay off and I’d find the life I was looking for (spoiler alert: this isn’t how it works). I loved being a part of our burgeoning music scene, playing on the drumline, and crafting and thrifting with my friends. Read more>>
Catia Holm
I’ve always been deeply interested in people — in what shapes us, what wounds us, and what helps us heal. Over time, that curiosity became formal training in marriage and family therapy. Today, I’m a marriage and family therapist that specializes in relationships, trauma, and OCD. But long before my credentials, there was a personal journey of learning how intergenerational patterns, trauma, and resilience live inside families — including my own. Read more>>
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