Every day we have a choice. We can support an up and coming podcaster, try a new family-run restaurant, join a boutique gym started by a local fitness champ or we could keep giving away our money to the handful of giants who already control so much of our commerce. Our daily decisions impact the kind world we live in; if we want a world where small businesses are growing and artists and creatives are thriving then we should support them with our time, money and attention. We’re proud to highlight inspiring creatives and entrepreneurs each week in Hidden Gems series. Check out some of our latest local gem features below.
Dmitri Jean
I started Code Before Cash from a mindset more than anything. Growing up, I always paid attention to how people moved, how they carried themselves, and how discipline and loyalty separated people long term. The name ‘Code Before Cash’ represents putting principles, vision, and work ethic before money. To me, money comes after you stay solid to your code. Read more>>
Claudia Domo
I was born in Peru into a world filled with creativity, elegance, design, and philanthropy. My father is an architect, and my mother worked in the fashion world while dedicating much of her life to helping others. Between architecture, fashion, art, and charity events, I grew up understanding that beauty was never only about what we see, it was about how we make people feel. Read more>>
Tatiana Gutierrez Galeano
Yoga first found me when I was an NCAA beach volleyball player at the University of Tampa. At the time, I had no idea the practice would eventually become such a defining part of my life. Read more>>
Travis & Erica Green
The Greens Inc. was created from our real-life journey of love, growth, faith, and overcoming challenges together as husband and wife. What started as a vision to help strengthen marriages and relationships has grown into a platform that encourages couples to reconnect, communicate, heal, and intentionally pour back into each other. Read more>>
Alan Caren
Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, Alan Caren has spent more than 23 years working in real estate and construction management across Ireland and the United States. As founder and president of ACA Development, he brings a hands-on approach, deep industry knowledge, and a genuine passion for building exceptional homes. Alan’s introduction to the industry came early. Read more>>
Matt Feder
I’m Dr. Matt Feder, a physical therapist, Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, and the owner of Charge Physical Therapy and Performance in Miami Beach’s West Avenue neighborhood. Really grateful to VoyageMIA for shining a light on what I’m building here. Honestly, my path to physical therapy started the way a lot of the best ones do, through my own pain. Read more>>
Kamila Abreu
I am 30 years old, and I am from the South of Brazil. When I was 10 years old, I was a very active child. I was doing all kinds of activities, and anything the school offered, I wanted to try. Because of that, my parents didn’t think too much about it anymore when I signed up for something new. Read more>>
Alivia Clark
I’ve been singing since I could talk. I was born in love with music. I knew from a young age what I wanted to do and started asking my parents to let me sing and act professionally for years when I was little. I ended up getting signed at the age of 8! I grew up working in film, TV, theater, and voice-overs. Read more>>
Dr. Samanthessa R. Jacob, PhD
Dr. Samanthéssa R. Jacob, PhD is a second generation master jeweler, holding a PhD in Management with a specialization in Leadership and Organizational Change. Read more>>
Imene McCoy
My journey didn’t start in bridal — it started with watching my mom. We left North Africa for London when I was five, and she worked relentlessly to give us a life, never hiding what it cost her. That became my blueprint: keep going, no matter what. At 18, my family and I moved to the U.S. Read more>>
Jessica Gharzani
From a very young age, I learned the art of design, décor and wedding planning from my mother, Colette back in Lebanon. I spent countless hours watching and learning from the best. At times it felt repetitive, even boring, but I understood the impact it would have on my future. Deep down, I always knew one day I would take over. Read more>>
Melissa Lori
I started modeling at the age of 9 but wanted to continue with school and get my degree. I graduated from the University of Florida with my bachelors in Psychology because I had always wanted to become a therapist of some sort. Read more>>
Giselle Aguayo
My journey started with a love for vintage at a very early age. Being one of the youngest in my family, I grew up learning from the people around me and was constantly inspired by their stories, style, and creativity. Read more>>
Madala Arnold
In 2019 I hit probably one of the lowest points in my life. My husband and I were new parents to our infant daughter, I was on maternity leave still. We were transitioning between relocating and plans to upgrade our living space when we became victims of a rental scam that depleted us of all our funds. Read more>>
STEPHANIE ABURTO
I’ve actually been in the medical field most of my life, but deep down I always knew I wanted to become a business owner. In 2020, I opened a women’s boutique selling clothes, shoes, and purses, but unfortunately COVID hit and the business didn’t survive. Read more>>
MytyMyke
I got started DJing back in high school, playing house parties, school dances, and proms. At first it was just a passion for music and creating a fun atmosphere, but over time I realized I really loved the energy of bringing people together through music. Read more>>
Jeremiah Jenner
Last August, my life divided itself into two distinct exposures: before the stroke, and after. Until that moment, photography had always been my language—my way of interpreting light, form, memory, and human connection. I spent over seventeen years as an instructor for Broward County Schools teaching others how to see, how to compose, how to wait for the precise intersection of patience and illumination. Read more>>
Ozan Hosgor
Looking back, my path to Miami real estate wasn’t exactly typical. For years, I worked in high-tech medical education, specifically inside operating rooms providing surgical support and training doctors on brain implant technologies. It was a world where there was absolutely zero room for error, requiring extreme discipline and an analytical mindset. Read more>>
Paul Lehr
GroundUP Music Festival was founded in 2017 by Miami arts veteran and CEO Paul Lehr alongside Artistic Director and Snarky Puppy bandleader Michael League with a vision of creating a different kind of music festival, one that was intimate, not defined by genre or driven by social media numbers or artist draw, and deeply artist-centric while also being genuinely attendee-focused. Read more>>
Jessica Peramo
Before I was a Speech=Language Pathologist, I was an early childhood teacher with Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) for 9 years. The year I co-taught an inclusion classroom with 11 out of 19 children with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) was the year that I thought there had to be a better way. Read more>>
Debbie Thomas
Although I have always loved writing and storytelling, I never imagined myself stepping into the world of children’s literature until I became a mom to two young children. As they grew, I discovered a passion for simplifying big ideas through stories, music, and characters children could connect with. Read more>>
Irina Tolstaja
I was born in Moscow when the Soviet Union still existed, and from an early age I moved frequently, living in different countries — from the Baltic region to the UAE, Ukraine, and now the United States. This taught me to adapt easily and start over in new environments. Read more>>
Alicia Guirand
I’ve always been someone who loves connecting with people, bringing them together, and helping them feel like the best version of themselves. From a young age, I gravitated toward events, performances, and anything that involved community and expression. Read more>>
Iryna Corrigan
Our Story Founded in 2023, BYOB Sports (Bring Your Own Balls) is a Miami-based community-first sports technology company reimagining how today’s players connect, compete, and belong through racket sports. What began as a small WhatsApp group of tennis enthusiasts has rapidly evolved into one of the fastest-growing social tennis communities in South Florida and beyond. Read more>>
Zechra Radawn
My journey started long before I became a 3x award-winning celebrity hairstylist, educator, salon owner, entrepreneur, and community leader. Honestly, it started around five years old. I was the little girl cutting my Barbie dolls’ hair and using scrap fabric from my grandmother, who did a little sewing, to create tiny skirts, shirts, and outfits for them. Read more>>
Ricci Robson
After 17 years deep in the Shenandoah Valley area new age community and initiation by a Native American teacher, I took the leap back to school and a calling to work directly with people and institutions. The bridge was 10 years as a volunteer mediator where others noted my skills. Read more>>
Good Problems Collective
Good Problems Collective is an artist collective and multimedia production house founded by Matthew Kelly and Christian Medina Beltz in 2020. Good Problems specializes in music, event production and digital content creation. Over the course of its existence, Good Problems has produced multiple concerts and events throughout California and the South Florida regions. Read more>>
Esther Jules
I started cooking at a young age, heavily inspired by my Haitian roots and especially by my mother’s cooking. Watching her create meals with so much love, flavor, and creativity made me fall in love with the experience food can bring. Read more>>
Diana Yazhbina
DesignLab22 began after COVID, during a time when I suffered tremendously with the unexplainable disconnect I felt from myself. During a time when people were craving connection, a project dedicated to reconnect community back to each other started to evolve. What started as Casa Grace was a project rooted in bringing people together again. Read more>>
Kristina Tokar
My journey started with Pearl’s Arts & Craft store in Oakland Park, Florida. If you never had the pleasure of visiting during their glory days, it was a store for everyone. For children, amateurs, and professionals alike. From aisles of toys and model kits to more aisles of paints, papers, and pencils. Art classes in the back and framing services in the middle. Read more>>
Maryam Davani Hosseini
My story started nearly 20 years ago when I went to school for strategic design management in New York City at Parsons. While there I learned business from a creative perspective and jumped straight into fashion. I worked for a few fashion houses in PR and production, then made my way to branding and strategy. Read more>>
Fernando Baez
I was born in Baracoa, Guantánamo, Cuba, where baseball was a huge part of my life growing up. I came to Miami at 13 years old and struggled adapting to a completely new environment. During my teenage years and early twenties, I made a lot of mistakes and went through some difficult experiences that ultimately changed my perspective on life. Read more>>
Jennifer Campos
I have always loved filming and documenting memories and so I started content creation about 6 years ago and have loved every step of this journey. I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with over 50+ brands, buisnesses and local resteraunts. Ive also gotten to connect and meet so many amazing creators and entrepreneurs. Read more>>
Keroles Bebawy
I originally came from Egypt and eventually found myself building a life in New York City. Like many people who move to NYC, the beginning wasn’t easy. I was trying to balance school, work, personal growth, and figuring out where I truly belonged. Photography slowly became more than just a hobby for me. Read more>>
Celine De Paz
My name is Celine De Paz. I live in Miami Beach, work as a real estate broker, but I’m a ceramist at heart. Ceramics has quietly become one of the most essential parts of my personal journey. I’ve always been drawn to objects made with intention, things that bring beauty into ordinary moments. Read more>>
Manuela Britto
I’m Manuela Britto, founder of Bizu Agency. But before I was a founder, I was just a Brazilian girl with a big dream and the audacity to actually chase it. I’ve always been someone who feels everything intensely. I’m a dreamer by nature, but the kind that doesn’t wait for permission. Read more>>
L-Squeeze tha Doughboi Washington
Well I’m Lamont aka L-Squeeze tha DoughboiIm a Godly Gifted unique Gentleman who comes from South bend Indiana who makes something out of nothing an make it a whole lot if hustling on the block or hustling on the mic 
or giving million dollar worth of knowledge to the world an I do it being clean fresh an dripped up an I’m great not perfect I would like to make a great living out of my craft an share with the world love an Respect Read more>>
Sharveal Johnson
I started with a vision much bigger than my circumstances. From the beginning, I knew I wanted to build something meaningful through music, entertainment, and business — not just for myself, but to inspire people and create opportunities for others. I began by investing in my creativity, learning the industry, building relationships, and staying consistent even when progress was slow. Read more>>
Vanessa Claudia Garcia Canto
I am a professional artist and painter originally from Cuba. Since I was very young, I have been passionate about art and creativity. I studied at San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts, one of the most recognized art schools in Cuba, where I developed my artistic foundations and learned different techniques in painting and visual arts. Read more>>
Kelly Pender
My entrepreneurial journey began in 2019, when I was working full-time as a yoga teacher. During that time, I became the first person in history to create, direct, and model in my own yoga collection on the Asana Rebel app, which marked an early milestone in blending my creative expression with my professional work. Read more>>
Nicole McCauley
I was born in Lima to a multicultural family and grew up moving around the world every few years—living everywhere from Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Europe, and eventually the United States. Read more>>
Jose Perdomo III
My grandfather pioneered photography in our hometown of Moca in the Dominican Republic in the 1940s, and I grew up around my father’s movie theaters. Images and cinema were in the air I breathed as a kid. I started professionally in 1998 in the Dominican Republic doing graphic design and commercial photography. Read more>>
Megan Anthony
One of the most meaningful parts of starting Nailah Enchanted LLC is that it began from a very personal place in my life. After becoming a mother, I experienced post-partum depression and was searching for something that could bring me peace, comfort, and a sense of self again. Candle making started as a simple hobby and quickly became a form of therapy for me. Read more>>
Nelson gonzalez
I am Nelson Enrique González Prieto, a communications professional specialized in advertising and public relations, floral designer, educator, and event producer with more than 23 years of experience in the social and corporate events industry across Venezuela and the United States. Read more>>
Jonay Martínez García
My story with cars began as a child; I used to devour car magazines and knew every single model I saw on the street by heart. That same passion is what I share today through Jonay Coches. Read more>>
Kelly Roberts
I’ve always been naturally creative and drawn to designing experiences that bring people together. What started as helping family and friends with events gradually turned into a business through word of mouth, consistency, and a genuine passion for creating meaningful moments. Read more>>
Kevin Bastidas
I’ve always had an interest in skincare from a young age. I remember saving money just to visit an esthetician in my city and get facial treatments, it was something i really enjoyed. Read more>>
Ronda Gale
I’ve been creating art for as long as I can remember. I grew up in New York and studied Illustration at FIT, later studying painting in Florence, Italy, before traveling throughout Europe tattooing. While in college, I worked for Temptu designing temporary tattoos for film and editorial work, including Robert De Niro’s tattoos for Cape Fear. Read more>>
saul rivera
Been lifting weights since the age of 12 never thought training people would become my profession. As and adult I worked as a mailman for the United States postal service made a decision at the time that ended my career, destroyed my marriage, and cost me two years of my life along with my freedom and memories with my children. Read more>>
Laura Fernandez
Photography has always been something that fascinated me, the way a camera could capture a moment in time, and how those images could become memories that families would hold onto forever. When I was finishing my Master’s degree in Miami, I needed to find a small side job that I could do on weekends without interfering with my studies and internships during the week. Read more>>
Yasniel Valdes
I Ran and Swam to Get to This Country My name is Yasniel Valdes, and today I am a nurse practitioner in Miami, Florida, specializing in aesthetics, longevity, and preventive medicine. But my story did not begin here—it began in Cuba, where I was born and raised. Read more>>
Alyssa Diaz
Photography has always been part of my story. When I was little, I dreamed of becoming a marine life photographer. My grandfather was a marine biologist & marine life photographer in the Florida Keys and also taught marine biology at Fort Lauderdale High School. Some of my earliest memories are sitting beside him looking through the photographs he had taken over the years. Read more>>
Jennifer Fernando
I’ve always been someone who balanced multiple passions at once. Professionally, I work with the New York City Department of Correction, where I started my career in 2017 as a Correction Officer. Over time, I became more involved in leadership, recruitment, and community outreach, which eventually led me to the Recruitment Unit. Read more>>
Kileigh Nichelle
My journey began at the intersection of style and digital storytelling in Pittsburgh, PA. What started as a fashion blog expanded into a virtual styling service and eventually into a professional remote role as a culture writer for a Las Vegas blog. That era was my training ground to understand consumer behavior. Read more>>
maddie bee
I first started as a stylist, fresh out of college. I had no previous styling experience but knew this was the career path that I wanted to pursue so I reached out to Yaya Diaby, who at the time was just recently drafted to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Read more>>
Lynnel Gilbert- Marshall
My journey started with a simple passion for helping people feel better in their bodies. Growing up in Grenada, wellness and caring for others always came naturally to me, I was always the one taking care of the people around me and over 17 years ago I decided to pursue massage therapy professionally. Read more>>
Allen Benatar
I started playing drums when I was around six or seven years old after getting involved in school plays and local music programs. Music immediately became a huge part of my life, and by the time I was 15, I was already playing my first real live shows with local bands. Read more>>
Antoine Constantin
My name is Antoine Constantin, and my journey has always been driven by creativity, storytelling, and the desire to build meaningful projects around culture, lifestyle, music, and innovation. I started by developing creative and media projects, which eventually led me to launch Monsieur Lifestyle, a magazine and digital media platform dedicated to lifestyle, culture, fashion, travel, and inspiration. Read more>>
Monefa White
My journey into floristry and event design started long before I officially launched Bold Bloom Expressions. I grew up surrounded by flowers in the beautiful island of Jamaica. Both of my parents were florists so creativity, beauty, and serving people through life’s most meaningful moments were always a key part of my foundation. Read more>>
Sofia del Rivero
I’ve been an artist for as long as I can remember, and ever since I was a little girl, my dream was always to create and sell art professionally. From 2014 to 2024, I ran my own art school in Miami called Art Box, where I taught hundreds of students of all ages. Read more>>
Tyrese Saint-Cyr
If you ask my family where my passion for acting grew, they would probably cite the year I was six, when my sisters and I repeatedly hijacked the living room TV to recite ‘High School Musical’ in its entirety. I can confidently say that my singing skills have not improved, but my excitement and grit for the craft of acting absolutely have. Read more>>
Milagros Cubelli
From a very young age, I knew I wanted a global career built on leadership. My life has moved through very different chapters, each one rich in its own way, but the thread that has always defined me is a commitment to learning. I played professional tennis, and later competed at the collegiate level in the United States. Read more>>
Sofia Cervantes
I am a holistic healer integrating a range of practices to support transformation of mind, body, and spirit. Originally from the West Coast, I’ve spent years studying healing modalities around the world. My journey has taken me from Indonesia and Vietnam, where I trained in vinyasa, hatha, and ashtanga yoga, to the Ecuadorian cloud forest, where I studied Reiki, sound healing, and hypnotherapy. Read more>>
Rafael Aguirre
I got my start working inside a range of marketing agencies, from smaller shops to larger operations, and across all of them I kept seeing the same problem repeat itself. Too often, profit came before performance. Read more>>
Miki Racine
I’ve always had a passion for people, storytelling, and community. Before becoming a wedding officiant, I worked as a corporate trainer, so I was already comfortable speaking in front of large groups, keeping people engaged, and communicating in a way that felt meaningful and relatable. Read more>>
Josie Music
Music has always been a part of who I am. From an early age, songwriting, singing, and playing guitar became my way of expressing emotions, stories, and life experiences in a deeply personal way. Like many artists, my journey hasn’t been a straight line. Read more>>
Kristina Kostenko
I started working in weddings back in 2014 in Russia. That’s when I created my agency, In Unison Wedding, and I still work under this name today. From the very beginning, I was focused on creating weddings that feel personal, emotional, and really true to each couple. Read more>>
Diane Younes
I always wanted to be a lawyer. In fact, I loved law school so much I went twice – earning one degree in Canada and another from New York Law School. I spent five intense, fast-paced years working as a lawyer in Investment Banking in New York City. It gave me a rock-solid foundation in corporate structure, negotiations and legal strategy. Read more>>
Rebecca Frey
I got into fitness through my own personal transformation, and what surprised me most wasn’t just the physical change, it was how much it improved my confidence, mindset, discipline, and the way I approached everyday life. That experience made me want to help other people create those same kinds of changes for themselves, and in 2018 I became a personal trainer. Read more>>
Yanely Peña
I graduated from FIU in the summer of 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and went straight into a startup where I got a ton of hands-on experience in social media marketing. I was doing lots of work and learning the industry, but then (un)fortunately I got let go. Read more>>
Ivania Rodriguez
I’m Ivania, aka redlipsivania-a miami hispanic native artist that’s obsessed with love. Broken hearted too many times to count, I began to write love letters. Love letters that turned into Spilled Milks; the pinkest, deepest, saddest parts of me. Each Spilled Milk is a poem alongside a doodle I would make. Each one is suppose to feel unfinished. Read more>>
Jordan Strum
Jordan Strum began his career in private aviation after recognizing the industry’s growing demand during the pandemic while working in private equity. He transitioned fully from private equity into private jets with one clear goal: to become one of the best in the business through operational urgency, attention to detail, and the level of execution required to serve elite clients. Read more>>
