The heart of our mission at VoyageMIA is to find the amazing souls that breathe life into our city. In the recent weeks, we’ve had the privilege to connect with some of the South Florida’s finest artists, creatives, entrepreneurs and rabble rousers and we can’t begin to express how impressed we are with our city’s incredibly deep talent pool. Check out inspiring stories from South Broward below.
Danielle Lee-Ziadie
I was born and raised in Jamaica, where I grew up in the music industry. After high school, I migrated to the United States where I earned my law degree. I currently live in South Florida but have always maintained strong ties to my Jamaican home and its diverse culture and exquisite culinary flavors. While attending law school, I realized that for the sake of my wallet, and my waistline, I could not afford to continue dining out every day. Despite my enthusiasm, my busy schedule left little time to devote to thorough culinary education. Read more>>
Janelle Augustin
I’ve always loved to cook, and I like to try things that I enjoy at restaurants. My husband and I love this tempura ice cream from a local sushi restaurant. I googled a recipe that called for a pound cake wrapped around vanilla ice cream. So to makes things simple, I used a store-bought cake. The end result was awful. Determined to make this work, I decided to use leftover banana cake I made for another occasion. Read more>>
Jatna Banks
Exhibiting my new found talents and eagerness for more. After working with benefit for some time, I was able to move forward with my experience and joined a great team at Sephora. During this time I was exposed to many brands, distributors as well as different clientele from all over the world. With all my experience and dedication in my profession, I preceded my journey as a makeup artist and freelancer. Now I work with a wide range of talented artist, photographers and Production Companies like Telemundo as well Univision. It is currently wedding season, one of my favorite times of the year! Read more>>
Samantha Williams
As far back as I can remember I have always had a love for art. Of course it was my favorite class growing up. I was truly blessed because I was surrounded by family and teachers from elementary through high school who saw my potential and cultivated my talent for the arts. I was in my first year of High School when I got the idea to paint on a pair of jean overalls that I wanted to spruce up for a talent show. I painted my nickname which at the time was “Shampoo” which is another story but those overalls were really fly in those days. People raved so much over what I had done that I began to get all kinds of requests to paint on jeans, t-shirts and even shoes. Read more>>
Jonathan Gustave
When I was born my father abandoned my mother, and I in a cold basement in Chicago, IL. Shortly after my mother gave me to my grandmother to raise me, not knowing my father and not having a relationship with my mother made me angry as a kid. I started drinking alcohol and smoking by the age of 11 and dropped out of high school at 16. At the age of 18, I drove into a house going 90miles per hour fleeing the scene of an accident and running away from the police. After this near-death experience, I decided to turn my life around. Read more>>
Lisa Perez
It really started when I was a child with the realization and dream of being a business owner, instilled in me by my father, which kept me focused on being a business owner, but more on that later. In my early 20’s when I lived in the projects of Fort Greene in Brooklyn, NY, I put fliers up at the State University of NY and offered to type up resumes for $20.00 and Term Papers for $5.00 a page. I made some great side money which was so needed as a young mother of two children. The company name was “Type-Right” I did that for about two years. Read more>>
Lisa Morales
I was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. I studied Marketing and Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson University and then transferred to the University of Toronto where I would graduate with an HBA in Cinema Studies and English. Because I had reached the ARCT level in Piano Performance and Pedagogy with the Royal Conservatory of Music, I taught piano part-time at the same time as working full-time in advertising. I relocated to South Florida 25 years ago. Read more>>
Leah Olstein
Never Start.org, a Hallandale, Florida-based grassroots non-profit organization has launched a one-of-a-kind K-12 smoking and vaping prevention program. “Play It Smart, Never Start™” is a spirited initiative that coincides with the start of the 2018-19 school year, as the organization’s founders have unveiled the program at Ben Gamla Charter Hollywood, Ben Gamla Preparatory Academy and in 14 JFG Programs in the State of Florida. “Our mission is to educate students at schools nationwide and globally about the dangerous effects of smoking and vaping,” said Never Start co-founder Leah Olstein. Read more>>
Evelyn Onyejuruwa
Ankara Miami, Inc. is a South Florida-based event planning company committed to “Redefining African Cultural Trends.” Since its creation in August 2011 by Founder/CEO, Evelyn Onyejuruwa (Miss Nigeria Florida 2011-2012), the company has continued its mission to promote progressive people and trends within the African Diaspora. Ankara Miami’s launch event, Ankara Miami 2012: 1st Annual Ankara Fashion & Cultural Show, showcased emerging and established designers from the African Diaspora and their use of Ankara (a well-known West African fabric) as well as other African fabrics and prints in mainstream Western fashion. Read more>>
Elizabeth Micheli
In 2012, I was an intern helping to start and launch a new beauty box subscription service called BOXYCHARM. We launched the company in 2013 and soon after, I have named the COO of the company. It was an amazing experience! I learned how to manage all the aspects of a new business including sales, branding, influencer, and social media marketing and public relations. After an amazing run, I, unfortunately, lost my job at the end of 2014. This was a blessing in disguise. I decided I would never work for anyone else again and decided to start my own business. This is when EM Branding + PR was born. Read more>>
