The Dare Dreamer Movement by Julene Fleurmond

On January 12, 2010, thousands of lives were lost, buildings destroyed and many injured and in desperate need of aid after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the small nation of Haiti. I want to encourage you to both pray and send your support to help those affected. This news is very close to my heart as a Haitian American, as I have several family members there and I know many others feeling helpless and trying to make sense out of confusion. Let’s continue pray for peace in the hearts that are hurting and put action and love behind our faith.

How You Can Help:

Visit A Home in Haiti for information on how you can help build schools and orphanages in Haiti. Currently they are doing their first construction project – “the largest home and school for severely disabled orphans with cerebral palsy, autism, and more in all of Haiti.” Watch the video below chronicling some of their recent work:

Yara Shahidi is a young talented model and actress, most recently seen in the film “Imagine That” alongside Eddie Murphy. I recently created this fun interactive interview header for the awesome organization Young Black Starz for an interview they did with Yara. Roll over an object below to find out more about Yara and click here for the interview.

Recently I worked on creating a website for one of my mentors, an incredible Life Coach, Author and Speaker, Evelina Solis. Evelina has several years of experience in motivational speaking, in higher education, as well as in communications and entertainment as a Television and Radio Personality, Diversity/Social Justice Awareness Advocate, Celebrity Interviewer, Photographer/Videographer, Sports Director, News Producer, Writer, Production Assistant, and Producer. Stay tuned for more about her website and exciting life coaching company, currently touring at schools around the country, and inspiring young people to discover, know and live their true life purpose.

Visit Evelina at her site, www.mysol2soul.com

I had the opportunity to be featured in the upcoming entrepreneurship education textbook from the Network Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, or NFTE. This was such a blessing to me because NFTE was the organization that helped me start a business as a teen.

The feature is about cultivating relationships to help your business succeed. The textbook entitled Entrepreneurship: Owning Your Future is used in the NFTE curriculum to teach high school students the art of starting and running a business. NFTE is the program that enabled Julene to start her own marketing business when she herself was in high school.

Read a portion of the feature below:

Relationship Building: The Art of Success
When Julene Fleurmond was in the tenth grade, she entered a Web design contest at her South Miami high school. “I began teaching myself how to use different Web-design programs,” she said. “I didn’t think I would win, and I won first place.”

Relationships Lead to Business
Along with being awarded a scholarship, Julene also impressed one of the judges, who asked her to work with his organization, the National Urban League, on other projects. Julene began doing community service projects. She researched how to operate a creative graphic design business, took on internships at other firms, networked with professors and mentors, and made sure her work was on a professional level.

After two years of freelancing, Julene started Envibrance Studios, a media and promotional company that creates Websites, multimedia, creative content, and publications. Envibrance’s motto is “Envision the possibilities; we’ll bring them to life.” Julene was confident about providing her services, but she didn’t feel confident about pricing them…

Relationships That Count
In the beginning, Julene tried to do everything herself. Eventually she found that “Asking for help is not some thing you should be afraid of. Sometimes I would ask other designers I knew to do part of a project. Or we would collaborate if I didn’t know how to do something. They would do one part of it and I would do the other.”

Julene also learned how to take on projects that she’s passionate about. “My genre now is mostly youth-oriented organizations or organizations that cater to youths. Having a genre or an audience that I’m very passionate about really helps me to be more passionate about my work.”

Her advice to other entrepreneurs is to make sure they’re passionate about whatever they do, even if others say it won’t be profitable.

“I think that if you pursue what you’re truly passionate about and what you were made to do, financial benefits and everything else will follow naturally.”

Continue Reading »

I’ve recently launched a special project for young people to feature and inspire people who are living their dreams vibrantly, and who are pursuing them with passion. Dreamer ENT will be a special resource featuring interviews, resources and inspiration that will help inspire teens and tweens get their dreams off the ground and into the air, soaring. I created the site because as a teen myself it was mentors who helped me in starting my business and go to a wonderful college, and I wanted to share opportunities with others.

Visit DreamerENT.com for our first features and interviews…

Check out some of the latest posts below:

Interview with Young Entrepreneur Jasmine Lawrence

Jasmine Lawrence is a young successful entrepreneur who has definitely been soaring and growing toward her dreams. It all sprouted when she was 11-years-old, after she mixed together natural ingredients to create her own hair oils for her broken, damaged tresses. By age 13 her hair was flourishing, and she was selling her hair products to friends. At 15 she shared her story with Oprah and other major news outlets, and began discussing distribution deals with Wal-Mart – all while striving to get her homework in on time.

Now at 17-years-old, Jasmine’s natural beauty care company Eden BodyWorks has bloomed immensely, and she hopes to bring it to even greater heights. She recently graduated from high school, and is studying computer engineering at Georgia Tech. She’s also featured in the film Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon (that we wrote about in a previous post) featuring young entrepreneurs. Watch Jasmine below in a clip from the film:

Jasmine spoke to Dreamer ENT about her amazing experiences, what motivates her to keep going, and how other young people can bring their dreams to fruition…

Click Here to Read Our Interview with Young Entrepreneur Jasmine Lawrence