We asked some of the most inspiring folks in the community to tell us where they want to be professionally by the end of their careers.

Sammy Lyon | REALTOR® and Real Estate Investor

The end goal is freedom over my time! Professionally I want to be at a place where I choose what I do each day, and how I spend my life hours. Money can come and go but I can never get my time back. Once I had this realization, I chose to transition into real estate investing so I could focus on building “passive income” (aka income that is not a direct trade of time for dollars). Let me tell you, it is NOT passive when starting out, but it is bringing me closer to my goals of financial freedom — where I can still WORK, it just won’t be to LIVE. Ultimately, the goal is to spend my time working with integrity, and sharing with my clients the tools to own real estate and build generational wealth. Read more>>

Alexandra Russell | Author and ex yoga teacher

My end goal is still not fully clear, because the future is never certain and I am still uncovering parts of myself and finding out what it is I was put here on Earth to do. However, I know I am designed to help others. My intention is to have a career that revolves around helping others remember who they truly are. Perhaps it will lean more toward mental health, because I have done so much work on my own regarding mental health. Perhaps it will be to awaken others to the truth of the world. I am not 100% certain yet, but I know I am designed to serve others and spread truth. At the moment, I am focusing on my writing career as an author. Perhaps I will become a well known author and be able to help guide others through my writings. Whatever it is I end up doing, I strive to be able to make a substantial income to support myself, and be able to live the life I have always dreamt of. Being my own boss, while serving humanity. Read more>>

Nasir Kenneth Ferebee | Producer, Filmmaker, & Entrepreneur

My end goal is to own and operate a global enterprise including a movie studio and television network. Media moguls like Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Tyler Perry, and George Lucas are huge inspirations for me, and they are the blueprint for what I want in my career. I also want to employ as many disenfranchised people as possible. Giving BIPOC and LGBTQIA people the opportunity to build generational wealth for their families is one of my biggest dreams. Read more>>

Gaia Rhodes | Sun Space Creative director and artist

My wife Elsie and I are dedicated to making art and music more accessible. For consumers of art, but also for artists. There are so many sharks trying to take advantage of young artists. Pay to play, pay to post, it’s a minefield of scams and charlatans. Sunland Sun Space is a place for musicians and artists of all types to share their creations. The goal is to create a community of artists that support each other, to create an ecosystem where someone can share, regardless of follower count or financial concerns. The world needs more art, and artists need safe spaces to create from. At the end of our careers we hope to look back on a community of artists that got their start at Sunland Sun Space, but even If all we accomplish is making one artist not lose faith, that would be enough. Read more>>

Elle Keller | Female Photographer & Creator

I want to be fulfilled. I want to know that I have made an impact on how women see themselves and their bodies. I want to have inspired someone to own their sexuality, create their art, or empower others. I want to have listened and laughed and cried along to the stories of vulnerability. I want to have a sisterhood of other women around me who want the same. Read more>>

Ravi Sharma | Mental Health Activist, Founder and Investor

Impact. I would love to be in a position where the companies I have started have created positive change in their respective industries like digital health and clean technology. As a result of this impact, I will have had enough success to the point where I can support other entrepreneurs on their journey. I want to financially invest in and mentor hungry and foolish entrepreneurs chasing moonshots to change the world. Read more>>

Zoë Vickers | CEO + vintage curatist

My end goal is to develop vintagephiles into a global lucrative multidisciplinary platform for vintage curation my dream which i am living through vintagphiles isn’t a “career”, more of a calling | the culmination of this calling will equal providing a multidisciplinary platform for vintage creatives/curators (particularly people of colour) to flourish globally while forging my own vintage profile into the forefront | vintagephiles will be a multi million dollar business that cultivates culture & shares the true definition of curated nostalgia™ Read more>>

Austin Faber | Story Artist at Netflix Animation

Ideally, I’d like to be a show-runner for a major animation studio and have the opportunity to tell my original stories, but even that’s more of my penultimate goal. What I really want is to travel and mentor young people in areas that don’t have visibility or tend to go unrepresented in animation – the projects in parts of the US, certain countries in Africa, the middle east, etc. After I work my way up the ladder a bit, I’d want to put my credibility to good use and help integrate different people into the arts industry here in LA. Making a TV show for a major studio would be a dream come true, but providing mentorship, especially to those who feel unseen, brings me the most joy. I’m still early in my career, but I eventually hope to do both. Read more>>

Princess Haynes | Host/Personality & Media

I want to have From The Bottom To The Top show airs on television and that means not just on Roku, Apple TV and FireTV as season two is going to through TST Network. I also want to be an established actor and own a family fun entertainment plaza. I want to give back but also want to give them youth a place to go while inspiring and motivating others. By the end of it all I want to be a household name not because I did something crazy but because I give others inspiration!!!. Read more>>

Ziba Shirazi | Writer, Singer, Songwriter and Storyteller

At the beginning of my career, my end goal was sold out concerts and best selling albums, fame and… but after being in artistic world for more that 25 years, I realized there is more into life and in what I do. Today I like to bring change into people’s life, I want to make a difference. I think there is a much more value in what I do these days, weather it is singing or storytelling, or writing memoire, the end purpose is healing and bringing people closer to oneanother. Read more>>

Nina Green | Freelance Writer & Content Creator

My goals are constantly changing as I learn new skills and get introduced to new niche markets within different creative spaces. However, something that would be an absolute dream for me would be to continue my journalism writing assignments for my clients, as well as for personal projects. I travel quite frequently as it is (before covid hit) so my current end goal would be to become a correspondent journalist in different countries so that I could continue to deliver articles and features on different cultures from a larger scale and with more impact. Writing for a prestigious travel organization such as Lonely Planet is at the very top of my list, down the road in my career. Read more>>

ARIEL HART | Animator/Illustrator

I’ve always viewed artmaking for me, especially animation, as a compulsion. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely enjoy what I do. I’m obsessed with it. Working in motion graphics feels like channeling a necessity into something practical. Leveraging animation as a career is a phase in my lifelong habit. I’ll always need to make. Right now I make it with my hands, my eyes, but if they stop working I’ll have to hire someone to help me. Regardless, it’ll always need to be made. Read more>>

Bertrand Todesco | Character designer for animated shows

In the end, what I would love is that kids remember my work when they are grownups. Really, I work to make the kids dream, now and later in their life. I chose this artistic path because cartoons were what stimulated the most my creativity, over books, comic books or movies. I grew up watching the adventures of such great heroes on TV. My friends and I were skateboarding like the “TMNT”, imitating the soccer moves from “Captain Tsubasa” and dreaming to fly like in “Dragon Ball”. I am still thinking about these heroes. For nearly 15 years in the animation industry, between France and the US, I have been creating memorable characters on shows like “Gormiti” or “LoliRock” that have been broadcasted in most of the countries of the world! I’ve been receiving fan mails to this day and it always makes me happy and proud. I would love to continue to create graphic styles and aspiring characters for the future generations. The bigger goal would be to create not only the characters but the story too. I have many ideas in mind and would love to create a show that stimulates in turn kids’ creativity. Read more>>

Dustin Argumedo | Fashion Designer

By the end of my career I want to be able to make an impact in the fashion industry’s eco friendly and sustainability practices. I also want to have and run my personal brand and it be 100% sustainable. Read more>>

Valor Aguilar | Visual Development Artist

In the simplest terms, my main professional goal is to pay it forward. Stories are powerful tools for emotional work, and everyone has a story or two that really impacted them. I know for me, they saved my life. So if just one person comes to me at the end of my career, and tells me that my work made them feel less alone, then it was all worth it. Read more>>