Telling Women's Lives

Madison Woodruff – WS Entrepreneur Profile

Natalie Sevin Profile

From harvesting mangoes in West Africa to farming organic vegetables in Winston-Salem, Natalie Sevin, 2004 Wake Forest graduatee, has a passion for sustainable agriculture.

Sevin managed to turn that passion into a successful business. In 2014, after studying, interning, and managing other people’s farms Sevin created Sungold Farm where she harvests various organic vegetables to sell fresh produce to the Winston-Salem community and is now a leading producer of local and sustainably grown vegetables.

Sevin wasn’t always as intrigued with farming as she is now. At Wake, she majored in anthropology. But through studying so many different cultures, she quickly began to understand the power of food.

“Food is the underlying system for everything to operate,” Sevin explained, “Only once you have food can you go to the next level.”

During her senior year, a professor who served in the Peace Corps encouraged her to do the same.

That led her to spend a few months doing internships on farms after graduation, and soon after Sevin was sent to Mali in West Africa. For two years she served as a natural resource management volunteer, working in agriculture.

There, Sevin learned intensively about sustainable agriculture. Because the village didn’t have much money, there was virtually no waste. Everything was being used for something. After seeing first-hand the possibilities of sustainable agriculture, she knew she wanted to pursue this back in Winston-Salem.

“It just really made sense to me to continue working in agriculture, and to do so sustainably” Sevin said.

Sustainable agriculture aims to produce food in a way that protects the environment and creates the least amount of waste of water and produce as possible. It omits the use of any herbicides or pesticides, and tries to create the least amount of carbon emissions as possible through various different methods.

Sustainably grown agriculture was virtually non-existent in Winston-Salem a decade ago, but Sevin was determined to change that. First, she wanted to learn more. After Sevin left Mali, she became a research intern at The Rodale Institute studying sustainable agriculture.

Sevin quickly came to the conclusion that a large part of her passion for sustainable food lies in the production. She wanted to be able to do things with her hands instead of working with numbers in her research. To continue learning more, Sevin interned at Cherry Valley CSA in Pennsylvania and then Serenbe Farms in Georgia.

Eager to return to the Winston-Salem area, Sevin began managing Sugar Creek Farm, a sustainable farm on the outskirts of Winston, to learn more about the business side of farming. Through this experience, she learned how to run a farm while making a profit on the produce she was growing.

By 2014, Sevin decided she was ready to launch her own farm – Sungold Farm. She started out renting three acres of land on the edge of Winston-Salem.

Sevin does almost everything by herself including finances, marketing, cultivating, seeding, irrigation, and harvesting.

It’s often difficult for people to conceptualize a woman running a start-up farm. People often assume she is just an assistant on the farm, not the one in charge.

“It’s more about just fixing people’s assumptions, but after that there’s usually no further conversation,” Sevin said.

Sevin carries the main load, but she does have help. Her parents sometimes pitch in for harvesting and her brother serves as a substantial help with marketing at farmers markets. Sevin has two part time employees from Burma she met through her father’s church. She particularly appreciates how well they understand the land, plants, and weeding.

She pays her part-time employees considerably more per hour than she pays herself. Nonetheless, she receives more many benefits because about 80% of the food she eats is from her farm.

“Everything can be improved upon,” she said. “I will say that much about this business, but I have learned so incredibly much”

Sevin grows a variety of crops which are mostly vegetables, but she also grows herbs and some fruits. She grows almost every vegetable imaginable including radishes, lettuce, broccoli, kale, turnips, spinach, eggplant, pepper, zucchini, potatoes and many more.

Sevin sells her produce to a few restaurants, at two farmers markets every weekend, and also participates in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). With CSA, customers pay $500 upfront and then Sevin provides them every week with a box of in season veggies.

Through Sungold Farm, Sevin is having a significant impact on the Winston-Salem community by providing a way to receive healthy, organic, and fresh produce in a sustainable way.

As Sevin sells her produce, she is able to show people the importance of eating organically and the effect it can have on one’s health. Allowing people to eat healthy serves as a preventative approach to many health issues.

Because Winston-Salem is one of the largest food deserts in the nation, Sevin also works with others to provide less affluent areas of Winston-Salem with fresh produce. She hopes to take greater measure in the future, but she currently donates all of her unsold produce to local food bank which primarily benefits people within the food desert.

Sevin also continues to make remarkable strides to farm sustainably to positively impact the environment locally, and for the entire planet. Everything including weeding, irrigation, protection from pests, and harvesting aims to leave as little of a footprint on the earth as possible.

Because of the popularity and demand of Sevin’s produce, she recently bought 17 acres of land inside Winston-Salem and plans to move her farm onto her new land.

To grow her business, Sevin wants to focus more on the business side so that it becomes much more efficient. She also intends to hire more people and create higher quality produce. Despite this, she still wants to spend most of her time cultivating and harvesting herself.

“I feel like most people who become big spend more time in the office, but I don’t think that’s a good goal to have,” Sevin said. “I like spending my time outside.”

Adam Dailey – Shayla Herndon-Edmunds

The Heartfelt Healer of Winston-Salem: Shayla Herndon-Edmunds

It was a while before Shayla Herndon-Edmunds finally took her own advice. While working as Director of Inclusivity at Wake Forest University, she had been telling people for years that they owe it to themselves to follow their passions. This is how Oh My Goodness! Herbal Bar began.
Herndon-Edmunds is the founder and sole operator of Oh My Goodness! (OMG) Herbal Bar in Winston-Salem, NC, while still working as the Director of Inclusivity at Wake Forest University.
Oh My Goodness specializes in herbal remedies and aromatherapy products that are intended to provide natural and worry-free methods to support health and well-being.
The entrepreneurial process began for Herndon-Edmunds organically. Since her oldest son was a baby, she has been making herbal remedies to treat his eczema and to give to friends and family.
Herndon-Edmunds eventually gained enough experience in the field of herbal remedies and aromatherapy that she felt comfortable taking the first step to turn her passion into a business. In 2015, she opened up Oh My Goodness! Herbal Bar, selling her products via Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Oh My Goodness! Herbal Bar has been more than a simple online boutique since its inception. Herndon-Edmunds says she has always had a “secret mission” from the outset to teach people about different ways to invest in their health.
“It’s important to help people explore other ways and means of being healthy,” she says, “whether that involves exposing people in communities of color to concepts like acupuncture and alternative medicine, and just being engaged more in your health in general.”
Herndon-Edmunds is charismatic, funny and warm. Wake Forest senior Ann Nguyen describes her as “Super calm and humble, especially considering how much she has on her plate all the time.” From Herndon-Edmunds’ perspective, these achievements are thanks to one core principle that she has employed throughout her life: “I’ve always known that if I just kept helping people, things would work out.”
Nguyen describes Herndon-Edmunds’ compassion and work ethic as “infectious”, while sophomore Julie Aaron says that she is “really happy about what Ms. Herndon-Edmunds is doing, and that providing such well-made products that also benefit our local community will make you feel happy about spending money on yourself.”
Herndon-Edmunds takes motivation from many sources, among them being the joy and confidence that her products can bring to her customers and members of the Winston-Salem community alike. “I consider myself to be a healer, and I’m seeing that a lot of people are gravitating towards my business as a way to do fundraising.”
While Oh My Goodness is a for-profit business, Herndon-Edmunds sees no reason why the success of her online boutique can’t benefit others as well.
Herndon-Edmunds is currently working with a local non-profit to create a special candle to be sold at vendors throughout Winston-Salem to raise funds for the local disadvantaged community. “OMG has also been a vehicle I can use to partner with these wonderful organizations that are making an impact out in the world – whether it’s local or sending proceeds to the Standing Rock Protests in South Dakota.”
Herndon-Edmunds believes she is “reinvesting in our community”. Oh My Goodness is an extension of both the Winston Salem and global collective, and a vessel through which she can empower others on her own terms.
The work involved with splitting time between her job at Wake Forest, Oh My Goodness and being a mother to three children is immense. However Herndon-Edmunds sees the work that she does at Oh My Goodness as being therapeutic.
“I am an introvert by nature” says Herndon-Edmunds. The seminars that she conducts while at Wake Forest and the responsibilities of being a mother are not only physically draining but take a toll on her mentally.
The work that she does at Oh My Goodness helps to provide a release from daily life. She enjoys the process of making her products, and she is proud of her craft and the benefit that her customers receive from Oh My Goodness.
Herndon-Edmunds frequently does her work on a case-by-case basis, creating new products for customers with specific requests and individual needs. “People understand what I’m trying to do, and when you are able to make a proactive effort to improve people’s circumstances they recognize that and respond.”
This has also helped stimulate Oh My Goodness’ product line, producing several new goods such as the post-natal belly butter and hydrating sugar scrub, which through customer request were successful enough to be made available to the general public.
Being a female entrepreneur has its own host of unique difficulties, but Herndon-Edmunds says that sexism has strangely worked to her advantage thus far. “Women are often seen as being much more kind and nurturing than men”, she says, “and that is the principle that my business revolves around, so when people associate me with my products it makes them feel more at ease.”
While it remains unclear to Herndon-Edmonds how this social dynamic will impact her business as it continues to expand, she is unfazed.
“I’ve learned the importance of understanding and articulating your story”, said Herndon-Edmunds. “Staying true to my principles has helped OMG expand into the business that it is today, so I know that if I stay proactive, constantly learning and stay kind, it’ll be okay.”

Community Leader Profile-Katina Parker

Emmie Davidson

“It’s an illusion, do not be fooled!”

Every year, Wake Forest allows prospective students of color to visit and experience the campus under the supervision of an undergraduate. My MOSAIC trip resonated with me because I was confronted by the truth. Students of color lined up across the stage as they boldly recited lines that painted a picture of their reality.

Black students and students of color comprise a small percent of the Wake Forest population, as is the case at many universities and institutions. This, along with several other factors, makes it difficult for black students to assimilate and call this campus home. This was no different for Katina Parker roughly 20 years ago.

Parker was a Joseph G. Gordon scholar and graduated from Wake Forest University in 1996. During the 1990’s, black youth were inspired by media representation of educated and successful African Americans. While shows like A Different World captured the experience of attending a historically black college/university (HBCU), Parker’s undergraduate years were drastically different.

“A lot of us were struggling with the financial challenges of being students at Wake [as a result], we were very separate from white culture of campus,” Parker said. “[We experienced a] sense of financial and cultural isolation and also the sense of danger [at parties].”

Parker even recounted a frightening situation that was eerily similar to that of an event that occurred in 2010.

“The first time that I was pepper sprayed or maced was at Wake Forest, at a school that I was supposed to be able to call home. We happened to have a “Pit Gym” scheduled and the fellas got into a line and they were dancing and they were big. That scared security and so they started pepper spraying folks.”

Such instances motivated Parker to stand up and voice her concerns and opposition to injustices on campus. Parker’s zealous and persevering attitude made her an extraordinary activist and leader. Parker possessed some of the same qualities of her late mentor, Dr. Maya Angelou.

“I was one of the more militant people at the school, other folks were envious of some of the stances I took,” Parker said. “But, it was important to be able to show up as the person that I was and combat racism whenever it presented itself in public spaces.”

Dr. Malika Roman-Isler, one of Parker’s classmates during undergrad, admired her energy and remarkable vision.

“I have experienced her as an outspoken, truthful, and authentic artist and advocate,” Roman-Isler said of Parker’s tenacity. “She has a heart for social justice for all people and uses her voice and pictures to share lived experiences, underrepresented perspectives, and love for humankind.”

Parker went on to make an impact on campus as vice president of Black Student Alliance (BSA). BSA was a refuge for her and many other black students which made her contributions meaningful.

“I can’t remember all of the programming that we did, but I would imagine it was ambitious and it was a lot because that’s the kind of person that I was,” she stated.

Events, as well as other inspirational efforts are photographed in the BSA scrapbook of 1994-1996. Black students are seen smiling and laughing while either embracing one another, exhibiting their talents and strengths, or simply enjoying a sunny day at Reynolda Gardens while sharing a meal. However, the pictures could not capture the full story and excitement.

“I remember senior year, [we] invit[ed] Michael Coulier for homecoming because we wanted to make sure we had a real black student homecoming that was somehow be comparable to the type of homecoming Winston-Salem State would throw for their students,” Parker said.

One of the many notable actions portrayed in the scrapbook was BSA’s participation in Project Pumpkin.

“The reason why we became involved [in Project Pumpkin] was because we wanted there to be toothbrushes and floss, some sort of responsibility piece,” she explained. “If you’re going to load them up with candy and caffeine, at least teach them how to take care of their teeth and give them the tools and resources to do so. Also, they needed to see us; they needed to see black kids.”

Finally, Parker executed her own program called My Kidz, which she began her sophomore year.

“The program at Cook Middle School happened because I was studying with a poetry professor who had taken us to Cook Middle for a poetry event,” she said about the program. “I had such a good time with the sixth graders that I decided that I would create some kind of creative writing program at the school.”

“The basis of the program was that there were so many underutilized resources that were going to waste at the school… so, the My Kidz program was a literacy and poetry and performance program and also an incentive program. We gave out t-shirts… I collected money from different groups to throw them a party at the end of the semester. I was able to get Tim Duncan and Randolph Childress to talk to the kids. ”

Parker says that her involvement in BSA allowed her to acquire several valuable life skills including how to raise money, organize, and strategize events. Also, she improved her abilities to leverage, compromise, and connect with people.

“I wasn’t particularly great at [compromising] when I was in college,” Parker said. “I wanted things my way and now I look back realize that there was a way to get what I wanted and I could’ve been softer about it.”

The life lessons that she learned enabled her to go on to prosper elsewhere in North Carolina. Currently, Parker serves the role as instructor at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. She continues to use her position in the community to encourage students to voice themselves.

“I sometimes work with black students here at Duke University,” Parker said. “Something that we’re doing at Duke in the fall that is associated with the Black Lives Matter exhibit that I’m installing is we’re doing a Black Joy Turn Up. [We’ll] have a DJ, some food, some poetry, whatever it is that people enjoy doing. [Also, we’ll have] some dancing, some games…”

Her leadership paved the way for students like myself who are members of BSA and hope to make a positive impact at Wake Forest and in the Winston-Salem community. Though Parker describes her time away from Wake as a “lifetime ago”, the legacy that she and others left is an impressive example of black excellence.

Community Profile on Deborah Wishon by Luke Vith

In the deafening silence of early morning, Deborah Wishon unlocks her jewelry vault door and scans over the valuable merchandise of innumerable colors. Lights gleam off brightly colored bracelets, earrings, rings- and necklaces, as she slowly removes the objects and sets them into glass-protected display cases throughout her small store, Deva Fine Jewelry. The care and precision of this daily ritual allows her mind to be cleared before the hectic pace of the day begins.

“I just try to keep my head above water,” Wishon said.

Working in Winston-Salem as a jeweler in the business for over 20 years, she knows every day is full of surprises. Running her own business, often with only one or two employees, she is busy greeting customers and taking requests as soon as her shop opens. The store is filled with a wide range of individuals, from young women looking for a new ring to clueless husbands in search of the perfect necklace for their wives birthday. The jewelry she creates is often considered art by her customers rather than fashion. Countless raving reviews on the Deva Fine Jewelry Facebook page along with consistently high ratings prove that the beauty in her work is unique and personal. This artistry is something she longed for since she was a young girl.

This isn’t how life always was for Wishon.

A 1976 graduate of Appalachian State, Wishon started her professional career in the airline business. “I enjoyed talking and meeting new people,” she said. “I needed an interactive job.”

The one drawback, however, was that she missed beauty in this environment.

Being an artistic, hands-on person who loved the beautiful things life has to offer, Wishon left the industry, went to school for jewelry in Santa Clara, Cali., for one year and made the transition to become a jeweler.

“It was an easy choice for me,” she said. “I always felt inclined to use my hands.”

Her new profession allowed her to do just that.

Nowadays you can find Wishon sitting behind her crafting desk diligently using forming tools and torches with the simple goal of making someone’s day. The art of crafting is something personal she believes. “The best part of my day is showing my customer their newly fixed or crafted piece and seeing the smile on their face,” Wishon said. This joy is something that not all people get to embrace on an everyday basis.

This enjoyment she gets from others keeps her spirits high when she is forced to get to the gritty parts of her job. Owning this business means she must decide the marketing of her product, how much inventory to hold, and the amount of material she needs for each season.

“It’s difficult running all facets of my business. Especially in today’s internet age,” Wishon said.

One of the biggest difficulties she has come into during her career is the internet. With the accessibility and simplicity that comes along with online purchases she has been forced to find her own niche within the industry.

“I think that the in person experience is important when it comes to expressing exactly what you want in your jewelry,” said Jocelyn Chamber, a customer of Wishon’s. It’s this personable touch that leads to customers returning consistently to Deva Fine Jewelery.

Nonetheless Wishon’s day doesn’t pass without its tough moments. “Being a woman in this industry is actually more of a rarity than people think,” Wishon said. In a graduating class of 17, she was one of two females.

“I’ll have a man come into my store looking for a piece for his wife and refuse to cooperate with me because he wants advice from another man,” Wishon explained.

This issue is something she sees more frequently than she wishes. Unfortunately she will often see these men leave to go obtain information from a store with men working in it along with women. “It’s just something you have to deal with and move on from,” she said.

She wants to see more women get into the industry. She thinks she knows how to start this as well.

“Get yourself known,” Wishon said.. This is something she has excelled at in her local community and wants to continue to do in order to encourage other women to start their own businesses. She believes that this idea can be applied not only to the jewelry industry, but all areas of business.

Marketing and charity events is something that Wishon has been participating in since opening her shop. Often times appearing at the Women’s Counsil, Habitat for Humanity, the Art Council and many more places she continues to stress community involvement.

“Some weeks I’ll give away as much as I sell,” Wishon said. She believes that jewelry has the ability to lift one’s spirits and evoke a sense of pride in everyone. This is why she can often be found donating jewelry to those less fortunate. This practice of giving back to the community is something she hopes to spread.

“When wealthier individuals can donate and help those less fortunate, everyone is better off,” she said. This type of positive mindset helps in her daily work as well.

“The job she did fixing my ring almost brought tears to my eyes when I saw it,” said Michelle Anderson who brought her grandmother’s ring into the shop one day. Wanting it resized and a few gems added, the ring became a masterpiece after the work from Wishon.

“This is why I do my job,” Wishon said. “It allows me to connect to people on a personal level and that’s all I can ask for.”

At closing time, when the sun begins to set, Wishon can be seen using the same care as when she brought the jewelry out. “Whenever I close the vault door,” she said, “I take a second to look over my pieces and realize how lucky I am to see such beauty everyday.”

Relevant Article

Check out this really cool article targeted at the Financial Times.

Gorzeman- Community Leader Profile- Lawren Desai

Eric Gorzeman

Dr. Rubino

Women Entrepreneurs: Profile on Lawren Desai

Aperture, Winston-Salem’s popular indie movie theater and brainchild of Wake MBA grad, Lawren Desai, may show some of the most interesting and creative movies in town. But since it opened on 5^th Street in 2010, it’s also been a key attraction that’s helped the revival of downtown.

“Winston has changed a lot since 2010- There was only a Mellow Mushroom, no Camino Bakery when we first got started,” Desai said. “Now there is a lot more downtown, and I am happy to have been able to contribute to that.”

Lawren Desai is the owner and manager of Aperture Cinema, the downtown Winston-Salem independent movie theater, known for its independent and art-house film showings, including some selections from the Riverrun International Film Festival every April. Desai, a Winston-Salem native who remembered how vacant and quiet downtown used to feel, has transitioned from being a passionate film enthusiast to trying to break into the film industry to finally finding a way to curate and bring interesting film to her hometown, known as the city of arts and innovation.

“She’s not an owner or a boss. She’s just trying to educate the public and bring entertainment to them,” said Nate Loftin, a long-time employee at Aperture Cinema in downtown Winston-Salem. “Aperture is so much more than just a movie theater.”

When Desai left the Triad to go to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, “I said that I wanted to go to a big city- and that I was never coming back.” And she did not, at least for a while.

“I sort of dabbled in the film industry and almost went to graduate school for film,” she said. “I really developed my interest in film when I was out in L.A., but my real interest is independent films, the stuff that we are showing here.”

Desai went out to Los Angeles without at any plans, just aspirations and a love of movies. “I took internships and whatever I could get.” Desai said.

She then returned to Winston-Salem to work with the film department at Wake Forest. After another stint away, this time pursuing film industry work in New York, she decided that she liked to watch and show movies more than she liked to make them. That led her to get her MBA from Wake Forest.

There at Wake Forest, she met her husband and found a job as a financial analyst in Greensboro. Desai had given up hope on her career in the film industry until the birth of her son. Desai noticed a lack of places to enjoy independent and art-house movies in Winston-Salem. There was an independent film theater in Greensboro, about 40 minutes away from downtown, but none in Winston.

“You start writing a business plan- you don’t think that it could happen, it just kind of happens.” Desai said. It started in fall of 2008 and the building was under construction in the beginning of August 2009. The business plan quickly took off for Desai and turned a dream into a reality.

Aperture, opening with two screens, started off as a for-profit venture in January 2010. It has since expanded up to four screens to meet increased demand for independent and art-house movies.

Desai was able to convince Riverrun to move their headquarters downtown with Aperture as they were a much better place to screen the independent films.

There has been a lot of challenges for Desai and Aperture in its seven years.

In 2013 Aperture had to transition from 35mm to digital because the distributors required the upgrade, which was a massive setback to Aperture since it requires large up-front costs to buy the equipment.

Another hurdle for Desai and Aperture was a change in the business plan. “We transitioned last year to a non-profit from a for-profit at the start of 2017. We converted to a non-profit and we transferred all ownership, and now as a non-profit, they can fundraise and apply for grants. Around 75% of all independent cinemas are non-profits around the country.” Desai said.

Aperture has gained a lot of community support around Winston, especially from a tight knit group of “regulars” as Loftin calls them. Many people come to Aperture for the community and atmosphere. “Often we have to kick people out after the showings because they stay around and talk about the movie for an hour or two, long after we have closed.” Loftin said.

Desai can create this community and social atmosphere through creating an environment open to discuss and enjoy films. The whole vibe to Aperture creates a homey and welcoming feeling, a place to buy a snack, a local Foothills beer, and/or baked goods from a local favorite, Camino Bakery.

“Desai does an excellent job of creating an atmosphere for the movies she shows there. She has been a key part of the re-boom of downtown.” Dedee Johnston, Chief Officer of Sustainability at Wake Forest, said about Desai.

Desai annually goes to Sundance and the Toronto Film festivals to curate films for Aperture.

Aperture has been expanding into showing other traditional films too. For example, Aperture recently opened up Jordan Peele’s critically acclaimed film, Get Out, this past weekend.

Desai’s next goal? Trying to bring out more Wake Forest students outside of the “Wake bubble” and into downtown.

“We are the city of arts and innovation. Film has to be a part of that,” Desai said. “Film, to me, is one of the most accessible and one of the most communal art forms. Us being here contributes to Winston being the city of arts and innovation.”

Building Her Own “Om Sweet Om” : A moment of meditation with Bonnie Phillips

On a crisp morning in late March, Bonnie Phillips tapped a quick note onto her iPhone’s screen: “I rode my bike over and grabbed a frozen yogurt. Just let me know when you arrive.”
We had agreed to meet for an interview at Winston-Salem’s new healthy-fare outpost “Village Juice,” but in this blue blurb that appeared in my inbox with a “bing!”, Phillips had, with concise exactness, already told me who she was: an ardently active woman who nevertheless makes time to pause and enjoy life’s sweetness.
As the owner of Village Yoga, now one of the leading yoga studios in Winston-Salem, Phillips dedicates herself to teaching others the art of finding stillness in motion. In a mirror-lined studio just two miles from campus, she offers a range of mindfulness-centered classes, taught by more than fifteen teachers, to four hundred students who regularly breeze through its doors.
“Yoga creates space,” Phillips explained. Not just in your body, with increased flexibility—it creates head space.”
To Phillips, there is no greater sense of fulfillment than in witnessing her students’ metamorphoses– both physical, into individuals with newfound strength—and mental, into individuals who relish in their newfound ability to sit still and listen.
One former student—a hypercompetitive Wake Forest student-athlete—wrote, years after attending her last class at Village Yoga, that Phillips was the first person who had ever given her permission to “just breathe.” They are still in contact today.
“When somebody let’s you know that you have impacted [him or her],” Phillips said, “That’s where the validation is.”
Standing before her tribe of loyal mat-unfurlers, it is hard to imagine a Phillips who once scoffed at the idea of “sitting in a room “breathing and rolling around.” But it was only the urging of her doctor that drove her—”a total type A,” as she describes herself– to her first yoga class in the early 2000s. An avid runner and part-time personal trainer, Phillips began to experience crippling back pain in the early 2000s. After her first few classes, Phillips was shocked to find that the pain began to subside.
“What I found” said Phillips, after sticking with the practice for nearly two decades, “was that not only did it sustain me physically… it sustained me emotionally.”
Though she could not have foreseen it during her initial years of flirtation with the practice, yoga would soon sustain her financially, too.
After a painful and unexpected divorce in 2004, Phillips was in crisis.
The 5,000 square foot home (complete with the Mercedes in the driveway) she once called ‘ours’ was now ‘his,’ and she became the resident of a new reality– —one characterized by the pressing need to support herself and her four children on her own.
“I had to find a job,” said Phillips, who hadn’t worked in years. “And I thought, well, what do I love?”
Her mind immediately turned to the mat.
When she shared her vision of opening her own yoga studio with her closest friends, however, almost all urged her to reconsider.
“It’s not going to be profitable,” they warned her. “You’ll never earn a living. Go back to school.”
But she would soon find three supporters that mattered: fellow yogi Lucinda Jones, and homeopathic medicine guru-brothers Jade and Keoni Teta.
Jones connected Phillips with the Teta brothers, who were looking for a “holistic practitioner” to occupy a spare room in the Reynolda Village office of their medical practice. But Phillips told them she was so hard up, she couldn’t afford the rent. She was stunned by their response: The Tetas offered to let Phillips teach yoga in that space and pay mere 10% of whatever she earned in her first month as rent, giving her infant business a fighting chance at life.
“I explained to them that I had no money to start a business, but I knew that I could build a business,” she said, “and they were remarkably generous.”
“Giving and expecting something in return is the opposite of giving,” Teta remarked on his initial decision to back Phillips.
So it was set: there, in a sliver of space only large enough to hold five people — “ten if we squeezed,” said Phillips — the first class at Village Yoga commenced.
Within a year, Phillips moved her budding business along with the Teta brothers to their new Reynolda Road location, where “Naturopathic Clinic” resides today. But Village Yoga quickly outgrew this new space, too. After eight years on Northwest Blvd., Phillips transplanted the studio to Coliseum Drive, only about a five-minute drive from campus.
“Business was just phenomenal during those years” said Phillips, who moved her flourishing venture a final time in 2016, to its current address at 710 Coliseum Drive.
Before “Village Yoga” grew into the studio mothers, teens, and college students alike frequent today, Phillips—quite literally—supported her business in a headstand, calling upon every ounce of her strength to ensure it didn’t topple.
Without the revenue to hire additional teachers, Phillips initially taught every Village Yoga class herself. Even with the exhausting class load at her own studio, she continued to teach at Forsyth Country Club, pursuing a crucial source of regular income that ultimately sustained her startup.
“Failing was not an option for me because I had four children at home that I had to feed,” Phillips said. “There was never a time when I said, ‘This isn’t going to work.’ Ever. It was just going to work. And it did”
In the months following her divorce, Phillip’s business became her guiding force, helping her to heal as she showed the healing power of yoga to others.
“I’d be in my car, and I’d stop somewhere and scream,” Phillips said, “but then I’d have to be on the mat [teaching class].”
Having experienced a personal transformation through yoga firsthand, Phillips brings a level of passion and earnestness to the practice that has proven to be her business’s greatest asset.
“She’s a ‘meaning over money’ type of person, and I think that has helped her be successful, and help people get her authenticity and her caring,” Teta affirmed. “It’s really meaning first for her, and a money second.”
Yet Phillip’s greatest strength as an entrepreneur is, perhaps, her firm belief that no transformation is complete.
“Bonnie is never afraid to admit when she doesn’t know something,” said Jones, a friend for many years. “When she first opened her studio, she was afraid of headstands and being upside down. But not afraid to admit it.”
“What I love about yoga is that we don’t have a stopping point in mind,” Phillips said. “It’s a destination without an ending.”

Jennifer Gentry/Entrepreneur Profile/Helen C

Profile: Jennifer Gentry

Sometimes career paths develop in unexpected ways. For Jennifer Gentry, a visual art major at Wake Forest 20 years ago, it was the need for an illustration of a fetal pig dissection.

Gentry explains that there was a comparative biology lab manual that did not include illustrations. After connecting with her Biology Lab TA, she was granted permission to work on illustrations of the fetal pig as well as illustrations of a bee. The fetal pig illustration shows what you find when you make your first incision into a pig. The illustration of the bee showed the bee’s pollen sac. While she did not get paid for these tasks, the Teachers Assistants used these illustrations in their lab manual.

“[In sculpture] I saw what I was capable of. I could make a project come together using pieces that I needed to orchestrate. I gained confidence in these art classes and this confidence eventually carried over into my science courses, but it took time”

Jennifer Gentry effectively combined her degrees in studio art and biology to better the Wake Forest community as well as understand her own interests. Today she is an award winning medical illustrator, an entrepreneur, and a studio art professor at Wake Forest University. She blazed her own trail and is a perfect archetype of a creative, logical thinker.

Entrepreneur Jennifer Gentry is considered as highly creative and thoughtful, and struggling to combine a degree in the arts and sciences while in undergrad she managed to create a career best geared for her many talents.

Wake Forest graduate and recipient of a degree in Art as Applied to Medicine, Gentry began her career designing prosthetic breasts for women who dealt with mastectomies and lumpectomies. She was hired to help transfer the design process where they were sculpting clay and plaster. She and a partner digitized the process as they scanned women’s bodies, torsos, and then would use software to create a form that matched a remaining match.

“Gentry did paintings of women’s braziers while in college, even trolls with braziers,” said Page Laughlin, her college painting professor. “I think it is interesting that she went on to work with women’s breast prostheses and working for companies that work with women’s intimate garments.”

Gentry worked for a couple of companies and believed she could handle many realms of her field such as 3D animation, directing art, medical illustration, but she realized this was too hard of a feat. She honed in on medical illustration and in 2005, after illustrating scientific discoveries, she created a portfolio and branded herself as ‘Gentry Visualization’.

She admits to feeling fearful in the beginning of this venture as she didn’t know how to gain clients, but knew this was something she could very well do and did not want to work for the company, Coloplast, any longer. She discovered she could get work by networking with peers from graduate school.

She has run her business successfully now for twelve years, developing it as a sole proprietor, rather than incorporating and expanding it. If someone requests a project for too low a price, she will not accept the project. Her hourly rate is $75 to $100. She can estimate how much time a certain task would take. She then asks if her clients want to own a copyright, want to be sold exclusive rights, etc. All of this is important, as she needs to figure out if she can resell her work or reuse a sketch. She maintains her assets, her work, by selling exclusive rights.

Gentry’s client and colleague, Brenda Bunch, said “Jennifer’s best work was created for ‘Reconstructive Surgery: Anatomy, Technique and Clinical applications’ by Michael Zenn and Glyn Jones.”

Bunch notes that Gentry is detail-oriented. While Gentry may not produce work as quickly as her competitors, Bunch says the quality of her work is always worth waiting for. Gentry agrees saying “If there is an error in my illustration, it is on me and that is part of the professional practice. I have to give myself enough time to make sure it is correct where as with art, your client it yourself.”

“I just think Jennifer is gifted in all areas” says Laughlin

Gentry’s business model is ever-changing. Her competitors are her colleagues in the field, but she says it is easy to network for job opportunities. There is a department in a hospital in Winston-Salem geared towards medical illustration, but she says she preferred working on her own over this. Her main connection to the Winston-Salem community has been through Wake Forest as she is a studio art professor. As a professor and medical illustrator, she admits that a lot of her supplies and techniques overlap which is helpful. .

Gentry admits that her goals aren’t profit based. “I am not the best business person. I know that. But I am a medical illustrator. That is what I do. That is who I am.” Gentry says she has to make a certain annual salary for the upkeep of her practice, but laughingly she admits that her intellectual curiosity falls in areas that do not help her increase profit which leads her to assume she may not be the best business person. Gentry wants to further her career by working on scientific discoveries that are cutting edge or that are in a really exciting place in scientific discovery. Similar to Laughlin, Bunch hopes that Jennifer is able to work on projects that interest her most. They think she will be happiest if she can expand her horizons, allowing more room for creative and intellectual experimentation in the field of medical illustration.

“Jennifer is independent, capable, and always does beautiful work” says Brenda Bunch

Gormley– Community Entrepreneur Profile: Lonnie Atkinson

Finding one’s passion is not always easy to do. However, as Lonnie Atkinson found, sometimes it has been there all along. You just need to know where to look.

Atkinson, a Winston-Salem native and mother of three, discovered her passion for healthy juices and foods while working as a photographer in California. But it took her mother’s cancer to bring her back to her hometown. Then with a bit of prodding from her husband and some help from local food advocates, Atkinson found a way to bring her dream to life. As founder and co-owner of Village Juice, she now draws cold-pressed juice fans from as far as High Point University, a half hour drive away, to her juice bar and cafe.

This wasn’t always her dream though. After graduating from Savannah College of Art and Design, she moved to California to pursue a career in photography with National Geographic.

“The work was pretty slow,” said Atkinson about her photography career. “I did some freelance stuff from weddings to bar mitzvahs to local magazines, but there was no job security and my heart wasn’t in it.”

To supplement her income, Atkinson first took up a part-time job as a sales representative for a shipping company. Her heart wasn’t in this either though, so she looked for something else that would be more enjoyable. Eventually, Atkinson decided to apply for a job at her favorite raw-vegan restaurant.

That’s where Atkinson discovered her passion for raw-vegan food. “I realized I wanted to be there everyday,” Atkinson said. “I would even get up early and stay up late at night reading books about the food.”

It didn’t take long for Atkinson to realize she had to make a change. “The thing you just can’t wait to do when you get off work, that’s your passion,” she said. With this revelation, she began to think about how she could make it into a career.

Shortly thereafter, in 2010, Atkinson’s mom was diagnosed with cancer and she flew home to be with her. While in Winston-Salem, she helped her mom recover by switching her diet to raw-vegan meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Within two weeks, Atkinson’s mother had lost 10 pounds that she had put on while in the hospital and her cholesterol dropped 100 points.

This further stoked Atkinson’s passion.

“Holy cow,” she said to herself. “This is real. This is not just a fad. You can really make a change in yourself just by what you put in your body.”

While home taking care of her mother, Atkinson met her husband-to-be. They soon got married and had a child, but Atkinson never let go of her dream.

Eventually, in mid-2014, her husband convinced her to give the business a shot.

She spent the next few months developing recipes, establishing a business plan, getting permits and licenses and creating her brand. She barely saw her family at all for the first six months. “When I first started, I remember having my baby strapped to my chest with carrots slices stuck all over her hair and in the ceiling” Atkinson said.

She then moved her operation to the beta-verde kitchen, a local industrial kitchen owned by a mother and daughter who rent it out to local foodstuff startups, including local startup UpDog Kombucha.

Social media was also important. She began growing the business by word of mouth and via her Facebook page. As word spread, the orders she received skyrocketed. For the first few months, customers could place orders on Sunday for delivery on Tuesday and on Wednesday for delivery on Friday. She then opened up a booth at Cobblestone Farmer’s Market, a local market which she ran by herself every Saturday.

Atkinson soon realized she needed help keeping up with demand. First, she enlisted her father and brother, who would help her squeeze fruits and vegetables into juices for 12 to 16 hours a day on weekends.

She also needed help on the administrative side. Although she retains full control of everything related to operations, creative development, recipes, and customer interfacing, there was still more to do.

She first partnered with her husband, who is an attorney in Winston-Salem. He handles business development and expansion. Next, they partnered with her husband’s best friend, who serves as chief financial officer. They then partnered with a third friend, who invested enough money to get the company on its feet.

With her support network in place, Atkinson was able to lease her current location on Stratford Road and grow it from a smoothie bar to a restaurant, featuring all sorts of healthy bowls, salads, toasts, and sandwiches.

“Super busy but still pretty laid back,” Atkinson said, describing the work environment at Village Juice. “We like to blast music and have fun.”

Meghan Grigspy, an international business major at Forsyth Technical Community College, is also a big fan of the friendly environment. Grigspy has been working with Village Juice for over a year now and is a “front of house leader.”

“I absolutely love working here. It’s the best job I’ve ever had,” Grigspy said. “Lonnie is the coolest boss ever and I love the girls I work with. It’s a great vibe everyday.”

Grigspy even seems to have fun working at Village Juice when things go wrong. “The worst part about working here is when we have keg explosions during rush times,” she said. “Kombucha goes everywhere, even on customers sometimes. We generally start to panic but it always turns into laughter.”

Store manager Arianna Ayuso, head store manager since last year, also loves working at Village Juice. She graduated in 2015 with a master’s degree from Wake Forest in sustainability. “I love working here,” Ayuso said. “It’s very hands on and we get to try new things.”

Ayuso had lots of praise for Atkinson’s innovation in starting her company in Winston-Salem and is proud to be part of a company that sources most of its produce from local farms, one of which Ayuso also works at herself; Fairshare Farm.

Although Winston-Salem was not where Atkinson had envisioned opening her first juice store and restaurant, she has since realized this tester site in a small market was exactly what she needed. She even surprised herself by the success they’ve had so far. “I knew it would completely bust or it would be awesome, we lucked out,” Atkinson said.

It wasn’t all Luck though. Atkinson also benefited from solid brand development and pop-culture trends of healthy eating. As Kathryn Hurd, a junior at Wake Forest University and Village Juice enthusiast, puts it, “I feel like Village Juice is the only place around to get fresh, local, and super healthy food.”

This seems to be a fairly common opinion considering Atkinson estimates 30% of her business comes from college students.

Although she wouldn’t give any details, Atkinson says there is certainly more to come from Village Juice. “There’s still lots of room for this company to grow,” Atkinson said. “Keep an eye out for us.”

Community Leader by Matthew Fernandez

Profile : Cindy Essa

By Matthew Fernandez

It’s 12:30 p.m. on a Monday in a local Italian Restaurant in Greensboro, N.C., called Pastabilities. Whether it’s friends gathered for a bite to eat on their lunch break or assistants picking up the carryout order for the office they work, this energetic restaurant is packed. Guests are swarming in and filling up the 26 tables, along with others picking up their orders in at the bar. It would be chaos if not for Wake Forest graduate Cindy Essa.

Greeting guests, answering the phone for carryout/delivery orders, scheduling catering events, and overseeing six full-time staff members with 45 part-time workers on call keeps Cindy Essa working full time as owner of Pastabilities. Along with running a business, Essa is also devoted to helping the community by sharing business tips and best practices as a member of two local organizations, Business Women of the Triad and Triad Networks.

Essa, a 1988 graduate, had wanted to pursue law school, but her family had other plans. “I did not really have a choice,” Essa said. She had grown up in the restaurant business and worked throughout college for her brother who owned Café Pasta in Greensboro.

Essa began managing Pastabilities in 1995 for five male co-owners who wanted the restaurant to be delivery and carry-out only. She had a different concept in mind. “I suggested that we needed a sit-down service so that people could get comfortable with the food first, before they ordered it to their home or office,” Essa said.

But she had to wait five years – until November 2000, when she and one of her business partners, Dwight Stone, were able to buy the restaurant themselves. As a result, it allowed her to implement her vision for Pastabilitites. “I focused on the dine-in business and began to grow a customer base,” Essa said. Once accomplishing this, she moved to catering and carryout. After being in control for over 17 years now, Pastabilities sales are currently made up of 55% dine-in, 20% catering, 15% delivery, and 10% carryout. On an average day at “meal times,” Pastabilities rings up $500 in sales.

Pastabilities has a wide variety of foods on their menu. Essa has created authentic Italian food with delicious appetizers, salads, homemade soups, and desserts. “Cindy goes to the farmers market every Saturday morning to buy food for the restaurant,” said Jason Dingman, the chef at Pastabilities. By obtaining only the healthiest and freshest food for her customers, Essa strives to limit the preservatives and chemicals added to their food. Essa is continuously helping the community because “she loves to deal with people,” Dingman said. This attitude allows the customers of Pastabilities to gain a trust for her.

Even though there are six other restaurants near Pastabilities, Essa lets her food do the talking. “When someone comes in and enjoys the food we offer, they will tell there friends who might want us to cater an event,” Essa said. “If we do a good job catering, we will gain another customer who will want to dine-in.” Thanks to word-of-mouth recommendations, Essa has landed many catering events in the Winston-Salem area. Essa has planned events in the Bridger Field House for the Men’s Wake Forest Basketball team with over 80 people attending.

One of Essa’s newest endeavors was creating a menu for a catering event for former Wake Forest wide receiver and NFL player, Ricky Proehl. The event will be June 1 at Proehlific Park in Greensboro to benefit Rick Proehl’s P.O.W.E.R. of Play foundation, an organization that provides financial assistance to at risk youths to participate in after school academic and athletic programs.

“I’ve worked for a week to create a barbeque menu for over 300 people,” Essa said. Although the theme “bourbon and beer” is not one of Passabilities specialties, Essa accepted the challenge anyway.

Her work ethic is prodigious. “Even when the dine-in is slow, Cindy is constantly working on new catering menus for events,” said Margaret Essa, who is Cindy’s mother and part time worker at Pastabilities. “She puts in incredible amounts of time into Pastabilities and only takes one week off a year.” Essa devotes all her time to the growth of her beloved restaurant, Pastabilities. It has become her life.

Due to her significant involvement in the business growth of the Triad area, Essa was a one of a few women chosen to be a member of the Business Women of the Triad in 2005. It is recognized as Greensboro’s oldest networking group for women. “I have been able to inspire fellow businesswomen to find resources that will help grow their own businesses,” Essa said. When holding weekly meetings on Thursday mornings at Friends Homes West, each member shares information about her business and respectively takes advice from other female members of the organization.

As a member of the Triad Network, the original referral-based marketing organization for Triad-area businesses, Essa has learned how to gain people’s confidence. She has particularly contributed by giving advice on how to develop a business structure.

“I have been able to promote and establish my business by creating relationships with people,” Essa said.

Those relationships and her loyalty to the Greensboro and Winston-Salem communities for more than 20 years are critical to her success with Pastabilities. As for the future, she says she plans to keep providing a great dinning experience for her customers.

Essa lives by the motto, “If you are good to people, they will keep taking care of you.”