Christina Alessi never expected her career to lead where it has.

After beginning in luxury hospitality with Marriott and Langham, Christina joined Simon Sinek’s team during a major period of growth, eventually serving as Director of Sales. That chapter gave her a front-row seat to thought leadership, leadership development, and what it looks like to build deep relationships around ideas that resonate with people.

In 2021, Christina stepped away and launched Sfera Agency, a boutique speakers bureau built around a highly personal, white-glove approach to serving both clients and speakers.

In this episode, we talk about the lessons she carried from hospitality into the speaking world, what she learned during her years with Simon’s team, the leap into entrepreneurship, and how her definition of success has continued to evolve along the way.

It’s a conversation about people, purpose, faith, and learning to keep moving forward even when you can’t quite see what the next chapter is going to look like.

Kristen Bowen has spent her career helping organizations communicate clearly, build trust, and connect with people. But some of the biggest turns in her own life came through things she never could have planned.

In this episode, Kristen shares how a career in communications led her to Princeton Alliance Church, how the loss of both of her parents reshaped her life, and how that season eventually inspired the creation of Hearts + Homes, a New Jersey nonprofit helping families rebuild with dignity, care, and a true sense of home.

We also talk about grief, resilience, leadership, volunteer culture, the difference between a house and a home, and what Kristen has learned about taking risks when life does not follow the plan.

It’s a conversation about preparation, unexpected pivots, and building something meaningful from the experiences that change us.

In this episode of The Power of Human Stories, I sit down with Christie Heimbach, a photographer, educator, entrepreneur, and nonprofit founder whose life has moved through several different seasons of creativity, service, grief, and reinvention. Christie shares the story of growing up as a multi-passionate theater kid, co-founding 2 Seconds Or Less at 19, working with communities in Zimbabwe, teaching through Teach for America, and eventually building a photography business rooted in relationships and storytelling. Along the way, we talk about youthful idealism, hard lessons in leadership, the emotional cost of caring deeply, learning not to place your whole identity in your work, and what it looks like to keep a soft heart with more discernment. This is a conversation about creativity, calling, loss, rebuilding, and the ongoing work of figuring out how to serve others without losing yourself in the process.