Doing Well & Doing Good

One of the most rewarding things about getting to know so many entrepreneurs is seeing first-hand how many of them are focused on so much more than just financial results. So many of the folks we connect with are focused on having a positive social impact on their community or the world at large. Check out some of these amazing folks below.

Emily Youree | CEO & Owner

Fort Worth Moms is committed to supporting mom throughout North Texas through encouragement, Neighbor Groups, events, original content, and more. We want every mom to know that she is not alone on this motherhood journey. Whether that means providing a list of solid indoor birthday party ideas or openly discussion postpartum depression, we want to serve and meet the needs of local moms, making motherhood easier each day. Read more>>

Cathy Champ | Rockhill Counseling, PLLC owner and Licensed Professional Counselor

What a world we live in! Just 5 months after Rockhill Counseling’s grand opening, the state of Texas virtually shut down. We knew that people craved deeply connecting with themselves and others and that being connected in nature and with animals can be very helpful in counseling sessions, but who could have predicted how that was going to be even more evident within the context of a global pandemic? The counseling center is located on a 12 acre farm and, as an essential business providing mental health services, we were still able to meet with people safely outside at a distance . We walk, swing, interact with animals, and talk. People can experience connections, not just talk about them. Read more>>

Andrea Kleinman-Parker | Owner of Big Heart Candle Company

Big Heart Candle Company was built on the mission to give back to heart health causes. As a newly diagnosed heart patient, I enjoyed the privilege of attending the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in Dallas. While listening to a researcher discuss new findings about dilated cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure (my exact diagnosis), I found both hope and direction. While listening to an international panel discuss their their collaborative research findings about heart therapies. genetic testing, and life expectancies, I realised my future included not only a personal fight against heart disease but also a lifetime commitment to funding the research that likely saved my life and absolutely improved my quality of living. Read more>>

Jason Elmore | Performance artist, singer, songwriter, guitarist, bandleader

I think that music is a kind of glue that holds civilization together. You can show up at a live music event and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves (pandemic aside) and nobody shows any concern or animosity for other people’s political leanings, gender, race, sexual preference, or any of those things that seem to be dividing society in almost every other instance. As a performer, its refreshing to look out amongst a diverse crowd with a wide array of personalities and know that they’re there to simply enjoy a performance and get lost in the music without troubling their minds about all the other stuff. I consider it a high privilege to be the focus of the room and having that music come out of our hearts, souls, brains, and hands, as entertainers. Read more>>

Paul Demer | Singer-Songwriter

For the last 10 years I’ve been playing music in hospitals and nursing homes. It has looked different this year because of COVID, but I’ve been performing lots of outdoor concerts and some concerts over Zoom. I know it’s an especially isolating time for many of us, and not just for folks in long-term care facilities. At the beginning of the pandemic I started playing “sidewalk serenade” concerts where I drive around and play in people’s front yards. Sometimes it’s just for the folks who live in the house but, more often than not, folks will invite their neighbors to bring their lawn chairs and join them as they enjoy the music. It has been a great way to bring people together while maintaining a safe distance. In addition to playing concerts, I try to write songs that bring people together. Read more>>

Suzanne Slonim | Interventional Radiologist and Medical Director of the Fibroid Institute Dallas

America is in the midst of a public health crisis. Uterine fibroids affect an estimated 26 million women between the ages of 15 and 50, across all racial backgrounds and socioeconomic levels in the United States. African American women’s fibroids tend to start earlier, grow larger and faster, are more likely to be numerous, have a higher propensity of causing symptoms that ultimately require intervention and often surgery. Due to the disparity of healthcare, Black American women are more likely to have received suboptimal care through the years, have a poorer state of health, or have delayed diagnosis of fibroids. When an African American woman has fibroid surgery, she is three times more likely to require a blood transfusion and faces fatal consequences more often than other ethnic communities. Read more>>

Emily Sanchez and Aspen Carter | Owners of Mindful Mortal

Mindful Mortal started with a simple idea of providing an affordable and cleaner way of eating cheese. When we started a business in the middle of a pandemic, we wanted to ensure our community had alternative options to the limited supply of traditional and plant-based cheese found in stores. Our queer- owned company strives to inspire people to be more mindful of the choices they make and the impact it has on the world, even if that impact starts with skull-shaped vegan cheese. Read more>>

Jody McGrath | Contemporary Painter

I believe for centuries that art, and in particular paintings was the go to for humanity for information on events ranging from new kings to new horizons. Almost akin to the social media we now find ourselves surrounded, and to an extent shaped by. Of course there is the added worry that paintings and painters may at some stage be sidelined to the obsolete as digital media is giving access for anyone to paint with a button push and upload into their virtual gallery. Personally I feel everyone of my works contains not only thirty year’s of arriving at this stage of aesthetic prowess, but a fundamental link to the human condition that binds us all. I hope that through my works I expose the world we live in and gave a visual voice to not only myself but those souls that cannot. Read more>>