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.
Sarah Wylie
It is incredibly daunting to open your own business. The freedom and self-autonomy is amazing but it also means its all on you. The fact that you are responsible for all of it, is both scary and empowering. The logistics of opening a business was definitely a challenge for me. I would get overwhelmed and shut down when hurdles and obstacles arose, but my love and partner CJ was the true gem, helping me to navigate my way through the process and extending his endless well of love and support. Read more>>
Maggie Tietz
Meanwhile, I finished my Masters Degree in Business Administration in 2019 and gained most of my first decade of fundraising and branding experience with a global Christian non-profit ministry called Young Life. In 2022, I accepted a part-time position at Free City Church in Lawrence, KS as the Communications Director. In this smaller church, we didn’t have professional photos handed to us. Quality photos would only be consistent if I mastered the trade myself. From there, my photography hobby evolved into a service that I not only used in the workplace, but I started to offer close family and friends. Read more>>
Erin Schmidt
Several years ago, I decided to see if I could turn this into a business. I love helping people and working one-on-one. I found that many people appreciated the help and encouragement of a neutral person to help them sort through their items. The benefits of decluttering & organizing are huge: reducing stress and anxiety, increasing happiness, making items easier to find and an overall feeling of being more in-control of your home – it can feel like a huge weight lifted. Read more>>
Karen DiCostanzo
Hi! My name is Karen DiCostanzo, KPA CTP, CPDT-KA, FFCP, AKC CGC Evaluator; I’m a dog behavior consultant and certified professional trainer. I specialize in helping pet parents whose dogs exhibit problem behaviors like reactivity, aggression, hyperactivity, impulsivity, compulsive disorders, fearful avoidance, and other behaviors related to anxiety and stress. I also coach dog guardians in problem prevention for puppies and newly adopted dogs. Read more>>
Jarred Donalson
I initially got in to real estate while in grad school to become a counselor. I have always loved helping people and building community. As I progressed in my early career it become clear to me that real estate was the route I wanted to go. I did end up finishing my master’s degree but was fully into my real estate career. Read more>>
Kamesha Kimbrel
Beauty didn’t just become a part of my life….it chose me. Growing up, I lived somewhere between two worlds: the tomboy gamer girl and the ultra-girly girl. I tried to balance both, but no matter how much I leaned into gaming, the girly side always found its way back to me. And eventually, I stopped fighting it. Read more>>
Michael George
I’ve been in love with Construction ever since I was a kid I used to do odds and in chores and anything to make a little bit of money so I can save up and down the street from our house. Read more>>
Shanée Eatmon
I’ve always believed entrepreneurship was in me before I had the words for it. Long before I became a business owner, I learned from my grandfather’s peanut truck and found my own ways to sell candy and snacks as a child. Those early experiences taught me how to connect with people, build confidence, and understand the value of creating something of my own. Read more>>
Casey Wimberly
In 2017, a friend of mine, Mark Skeenes, asked if I wanted to help teach OSHA safety classes for his business, Environmental Training Services (ETS). I began teaching and learning the ins and outs of the business. Unfortunately, within a year, Mark developed an aggressive form of cancer and asked me to manage several accounts while he battled it. Read more>>
Mackenzie Hoffman
I didn’t grow up knowing I wanted to be a therapist or really even thinking about therapy as a career option. I grew up thinking I wanted to be busy, productive, and impressive. As a self-proclaimed overachiever, my story took a lot of unexpected chapters before I finally landed exactly where I was meant to be. Read more>>
Skyler Koroch
I have been an Esthetician for four years now! I grew up watching my mom work as a hair stylist in a salon, so I knew I wanted to be in this industry from a young age. I got started working at a great medspa in Kansas City, and stayed there for three years before having the courage to go out on my own. Read more>>
Logan Findeisen
L&R Refrigeration is a 3 generation company that services commercial refrigeration, commercial kitchen equipment and repairs/rents ice machines. In 1972 my grandfather, Leon Findeisen decided to start a service company: L&R Refrigeration. It started out servicing residential appliances and doing heating/cooling. After a few years, Leon expanded into Commercial Refrigeration and Ice Machines. L&R Refrigeration started and still remains a small, family business. Read more>>
Truett Van Slyke
I started cleaning windows when I was 16. I went to a home improvement store, picked up some basic supplies, and started going door to door offering my services. The next year, I teamed up with a few of my friends to start Purple Pane Window Cleaning. Read more>>
Shawn Greer
I’ve spent over 30 years in the social services field, with more than 20 of those years in behavioral health. I began my career working in aging services, and after completing my Master of Social Work, I transitioned into providing therapy. Earlier in my career, I also owned a private practice, which gave me my first experience combining clinical work with running a business. Read more>>
Renferd Koehn
The idea of equipment rental began late summer of 2022 and bloomed into “open for business” April of 2023. We became interested in filling what we saw as an unmet need in this area; dependable, trustworthy access to good quality tools and equipment rents. Read more>>
Dan Millman
Kansas City entrepreneur Dan Millman launched All Clear Dryer Vent Cleaning in 2015 to bridge a gap in the industry, trading ‘quick-fix’ methods for the superior, deep-clean results he knew customers deserved. After years as a duct cleaning technician, Dan grew frustrated with the ‘fish-tape’ shortcuts common in the industry. Read more>>
Mary Cupp
The story behind The White House at Marceline isn’t really about me—it begins with someone else entirely. I never imagined stepping away from teaching and into the world of business ownership, but life has a way of opening doors you didn’t know were meant for you. Read more>>
Julie Larson
My mother was a massage therapist and my step dad practiced hand/foot reflexology and iridology so I went to the “wellness” fairs as they used to be called, with them. That is when I realized that I am able to see, hear, feel and just “know” things. Over the years life experience has “fine tuned” my abilities. No one is perfect, of course, but when you choose to trust yourself an entirely different experience happens. From herbal school I met the folk who run KC METAPHYSICAL FAIR and began doing readings there. Read more>>
John Norton
The Roots: Resilience and the ‘Why’ My perspective on housing wasn’t formed in a classroom; it was forged in the Great Flood of ’93. Watching a family home be lost to the water changes how you look at a structure. It stops being just a ‘building’ and becomes a sanctuary that either holds up or it doesn’t. That sense of resilience runs deep. Read more>>
Bret Collins
My career has really been centered around building and optimizing operational teams, I have specialized in contact center environments where performance, compliance, revenue growth and customer experience all intersect and am now expanding more into small businesses that are wanting to replicate their models across multiple locations. Read more>>
Tom Troeth
It begun in my home country of Australia, when I had my eyes set on my dream to go to the USA and play football. At the age of 15, on a family vacation to New York, there was an NFL game on the TV and I was instantly hooked. Read more>>
Ray Freeman
Ray Freeman is the founder and driving force behind One Community Jiu-Jitsu Club, a Kansas City–based nonprofit dedicated to making Brazilian jiu-jitsu accessible to youth and families who might not otherwise have the opportunity. Read more>>
Alicia Barrientos
“They say what you wanted to be as a child never really leaves you.” If you think about your dreams, the ones you had when you were younger, you will realize a part of you has always known what you were called to do. For me, I always said I wanted to be a doctor. Read more>>
Kory Kirkegaard
I grew up in Topeka, Kansas, and from a young age I was drawn to the medical field. My dad was an ophthalmologist, so I was around healthcare early on, and that definitely shaped the way I saw my future. Funny enough, dentistry was not my original plan. Read more>>
