Networking 

Marlene Soto,  created her business to help families turn into advocates for their children by writing a series of books. Marlene is a first-time self-published author who wants to provide literacy, interpretation, and resources to underprivileged children, schools, libraries, and children's hospitals. In her first self-published children's book, the story teaches trust, positive affirmations, and learning to see themselves for their abilities as opposed to focusing on their disabilities. The 6 disabilities in the book are Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, Hearing Loss(DEAF), Muscular Dystrophy, and Rare Disease. The goal is not only to donate these books but to accept donations so she can travel from city to city to read to these children and have Q&A sessions. Marlene also offers Medical Interpretation in Spanish for our non-English-speaking supporters. To learn more please visit: The Swan Kids

A Multimedia Professional, Johnette Cruz has always had a love for music, fitness, and dancing. As a broadcast veteran and former professional dancer, Johnette has experience from across the United States, including stops in New York, California, Virginia, and Nevada but she most enjoys calling central Indiana home. 

In 2018 Johnette launched Elevated by JC, a fitness brand that coaches women to elevate their lives through high-energy dance fitness workouts, personal training, and mindset coaching. In 2012, Johnette was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder. After having 6 surgeries and 3 organs removed, she decided to take her health into her own hands. Within the last 8 years, Johnette has participated in multiple half marathons, fitness competitions and led an array of dance fitness classes, all while learning how to properly fuel your body with the right nutrition and guidance. 

Most recently, Johnette opened the Studio by JC and offers in-studio and virtual group fitness classes, personal training, and nutrition consulting. 

"I want to show others that you too can defeat the odds, get healthy, strengthen your faith, feel confident in your own skin, and create your best self. Fitness gave me the confidence I never had before, says Johnette. "I think it’s important to have your own style, love who you are, find inspiration from others, and most importantly feel beautiful!" Visit Elevated By JC for more information.

Christine was born and raised in South Florida to a Puerto Rican mother and a Spaniard father. Her mother died of Leukemia when she was just 2 1/2 years. Christine’s father remarried his 1st wife, who was Colombian and was raised with her two older siblings.

After working for 5 years and pregnant she was laid off and decided to become a stay-at-home mom. Her son, as she lovingly states, is her miracle baby. Although she loves being a mom and at home raising her son in those 4 1/2 yrs., as she explains. “I lost myself, my identity, who Christine was. I was taking care of my miracle child, my husband, the household but never Christine.” From that point, she began working on side hustles but nothing stuck. Her husband also assisted her with starting YouTube and other work-from-home opportunities. Christine began recording videos on proper care for curly hair. She began recording videos of styling hair, with that helped her maintain healthy curls to share with. It was through this journey that she was inspired to start the #CurlyHeadCrew T-shirt. 

The business is brand new, and she has only started to promote it on TikTok and Instagram. She has faith her business will grow and more importantly sharing the message to be naturally you.

Her drive is that her miracle son will see her as the superwoman she is. Pushing through every obstacle to accomplish all her dreams and goals. Her piece of advice is “never second guess yourself because the entire world will always doubt you, especially being a woman of color”

 Visit Curly Head Crew for more information.

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Cindy is a rising audiobook narrator currently based out of Southwest Florida. Born and raised in New York City, she uses her distinct Nuyorican accent to bring diversity and authenticity to Hispanic characters in audiobooks. 

From being timid and quiet throughout childhood to working in customer service to reading out loud for the world to hear. Cindy left her long time job of being a well-loved customer service representative to pursue not only her dream of being home for her kids but her dream of working with books. 

Cindy has always enjoyed books and reading out loud to her children. During the pandemic, she downloaded a well-known social media app to distract from the everyday talk of the pandemic. She fell down the rabbit hole…until she found a video of an audiobook narrator working from home. 

She began researching and learning, then decided this was the dream job she didn’t know she could do. 

Now she has been training and practicing since 2020 and has not only completed 5 titles that are on sale now on Audible but she also continues to volunteer her time to create audiobooks for children with learning disabilities. 

Look out for three bilingual English/Spanish audiobooks she currently has in the works, coming soon! 

Visit Cindy Audiobook Narrator for more information.

TRANSFORMATION MOMMA

Girl mom of 3 beautiful girls from New Jersey. Born & raised a City girl, but Suburban at heart.

Former 10-year Bilingual Classroom Teacher 60 pounds overweight, anemic, chronically depressed and fatigued, suffering from anxiety, bad food cravings, emotional eating, pre-diabetic. I began my personal

research journey after my Pre-diabetes diagnosis in 2017 and began implementing gut health. Reversed all symptoms, lost all weight since then, and have never looked back. Now I help busy Boss Moms do the same

Visit Transformation Momma for more information.

My name is Angie and I was born in the Bronx, NY, and raised in Massachusetts. My parents are from Central America, my father is from Nicaragua and my mother is from Honduras. I’m a Latina Millennial, who grew up speaking solely Spanish at home and would visit Honduras every year with my mother since I was a little girl. I am fluent in Spanish and truly embrace my Central American roots. I am passionate about healthcare and inclusively studied public health. Part of health care is also skincare. I personally enjoy taking care of my skin because my grandmother instilled in me at an early age the importance of skincare. Because of this, I created Besazo because lip care is not something that many think to be essential, but it truly is.

The inspiration behind my brand came from my insecurities in my own appearance growing up. Having fuller lips and being the only Latina in my school growing up was difficult and as I got older, I learned to embrace not only my appearance but also my culture. I realized how important lip care was when I started reading about collagen and how exfoliation is key for our skin, and I thought why not exfoliate lips? I wanted to create my own brand to not only embrace my Latinidad but for lip care to be part of everyone’s skincare routine.

My grandmother used to always say “besazo” to me when we would hang up the phone and this was truly the inspiration for the name as well as it made sense to have “big kiss” as a name because in my mind the goal is for all of us to have kissable lips. 

Aside from the yummy flavors, what makes Besazo Beauty different is what the name represents. Besazo. It is an expression of endearment, love, and kindness but it also can be romanticized. We want others to love their lips, make Besazo part of the skincare routine, and feel they have contributed to their own self-love.

Visit Besazo Beauty  for more information