Trista Kutcher is the founder and CEO of Trista’s Sunshine Company - where she sews many different products in order to spread happiness and inspire others to "be someone's sunshine." She sews several varieties and sizes of bags, baby items, pet items, accessories, and home decor items. Her items can be found at www.tristasunco.com or on her company Instagram @TristaSunshineCompany. You can also follow along with her personal Instagram @TristatheBarista with 50,000+ others for daily joy, happiness, and Down syndrome self-advocacy.

Certified Health Education Specialists Danielle M. Jackson, MPH, CHES, is a food advocate and children's book author based in Atlanta, Georgia. Her purpose is to educate and equip individuals of color on the benefits of local food access. Hello Legendary Press (HLP), a publishing company confounded with her teenage son, creates adventurous children's books journeying them on a path to becoming healthy for life. She currently has six titles under HLP that encourage life-long veggie lovers, community adventures, and self-care activities such as physical activity.

Cofounder and CEO of UncagedInnovations.com, Stephanie Downs has over 20 years of experience creating, building, and selling businesses in a variety of industries. She also spent over a decade serving as a Corporate Social Responsibility Consultant advising companies on alternatives to animal materials. She founded her first venture in 1999, an internet marketing company, that she sold in 2014 to a VC firm.

Then in 2016, Stephanie founded the venture, Good Dot, an organization that grew into the largest plant-based meat company in India. She sold her interests in that organization to embark on helping build more innovative material companies. Now, Stephanie serves as the CEO of the emerging next-generation leather company, Uncaged Innovations.

Philip Sessions is a speaking coach who helps business owners, leaders, and salespeople become confident in public speaking. With over three years of experience being a podcaster, public speaker, and Toastmaster, Philip specializes in helping business owners step into their true speaking potential by building their confidence to empower them to lead their companies and express the vision, mission, and strategy of their company so all their employees can understand the WHY behind their work and not just the what!

Rena Zaharov is a leadership business coach who specializes in team building and helping organizations create compassionate work environments that support growth and contribution.

In this interview series, called “5 Things You Need To Be A Successful Author or Writer” we are talking to successful authors and writers who can share lessons from their experience.

As part of this series I had the pleasure of interviewing Emily Wolf. Emily is an ardent feminist, U2 fan, and native Chicagoan who now lives in Houston with her husband, children, and dogs. She volunteers with Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast and with her synagogue’s Board of Trustees and Social Justice Core Team. Emily has published several essays in the Houston Chronicle and on emilyvwolf.medium.com.

Writing can be wonderful. There will be days when creativity blooms and the words flow, when your characters reveal their own arcs and scenes come to you fully formed. There will be times you read your work and find yourself filled with joy and a sense of accomplishment.