Voices that Inspire

What inspires you from WFSU Public Media? Here's this week's Voices That Inspire. My name is Michelle Mitchum. Some people call me Dr. Michelle and I am the owner of Tallahassee Woman Magazine. So I was friends with the former owner and editor and I rented an office in the Tallahassee Woman Magazine office and I ended up getting invited to meetings and invited to write and speak. When the former owner just told me to send my rent to check somewhere else, I asked a question, well why? And I realized it was for sale and it wasn't a plan at all and we kind of looked at each other and we both got teary eyed and she said, would you be interested in buying it? And I just thought that I could make a difference because I love helping people, empowering women, inspiring people. And I was already doing trainings and workshops for women's empowerment and vision boards and psychoeducational material. So I just thought that the magazine represented so much and it has so much potential to even go to greater heights. Being a mother influences the work that I do in so many ways. I've encouraged my children and I've seen how successful they are and to see how they've grown and to see how they've overcome their own challenges and they've embraced life and they're not afraid. I encourage them to be limitless and I think going through that as a mother, you want that for everyone in the community. All of the readers and you wanna say, you can do it. You can be anything that you wanna be with a support and with some risk encouraged, you can redefine the possibilities in your life. I encourage people to dream the dream even bigger than the dream they have. I think you should dream so big that it scares you. Michelle Mitchem, Tallahassee Woman Magazine and Associate Professor at Rutgers University. You're listening to voices that inspire.