Hi, I'm Stephenie Zamora!

Purpose is my purpose, and I've spent well over a decade building a company that is as multifaceted as I am multi-passionate when it comes to helping others uncover and live their purpose.

So, how did I get here? That’s a question I get asked all the time, so I wanted to give you a little background on my own healing and growth journey and what's allowed me to get to where I am now. Well, there's a lot that happened on the way. Like, a lot a lot. But here's an abbreviated timeline with the highlights!

CIRCA

1993–1995

I make my own little newspapers.

The earliest newspaper that I can remember was made in the car on a long drive from Chicago to Albuquerque to see our grandparents. I write and draw it out on the way, sharing important stories like having annoying sisters. When we get there, we photocopy the original and I sell them to the family.

After we move home to the Land of Enchantment at eight years old, I continue to make little newspapers sporadically. They have breaking fictional stories about the neighborhood, petitions to arrest people for littering cigarette butts (a pet peeve to this day), and custom-created word search puzzles.

This was the first clear indication that writing, design, and entrepreneurship were a big part of who I was!

CIRCA

2001–2002

I discover that graphic design is a thing.

My best friend and I decide to sign up for an "easy A" by taking art for our elective in high school. We end up in separate classes, but I discover a passion and talent for art.

I start writing angsty teen poetry, painting with acrylics, drawing, and creating things every chance that I get.

During my sophomore year, I take art again and continue to love it. It gets better when I open up my art teacher's storage cabinet and find decades of Print magazines piled up. I pull out a design annual and I am immediately smitten. The beautiful collateral, brilliant logos, and incredible designs captivate me.

People do this for money? Where do I sign up?!

My fantastic art teacher sneaks me into a seniors-only visit from The Art Institute of Colorado, and I'm hooked.

CIRCA

2003–2006

I move to Colorado and attend The Art Institute

Finally motivated and excited about something, I turn my abysmal grades around, petition the administration to let me take correspondence classes and summer school, and graduate a year early so I can start my career!

I get accepted into The Art Institute of Colorado and begin in the spring of 2003. I'm ready to do my thing, so when the career services office tell me there are no internships or opportunities available for first-year students, I take it upon myself to start finding freelance clients and projects.

After freelancing for a while, I get an internship at Blue Mountain Arts and get to sit around playing in painting programs, making test cards for the local market. I leave this incredible place and take a lower-paying internship at a local design agency in downtown Denver, where I begin learning from some of the most brilliant designers I've ever known.

It's an accelerated three-year program, and I graduate at the top of my class in 2006 with a full-time position at the agency, making more money than most of my peers. I buy a townhouse with my high school sweetheart, get a car, and begin excelling at my super high-achieving adult-like life.

CIRCA

2006–2008

I have a quarter-life crisis and tear my life apart, eventually starting my next design business.

Shortly after I graduate college with my fabulous agency job, I begin questioning every single thing in my life.

How did I end up in this suburban townhouse with all the matchy-matchy furniture? Why am I in this relationship if I'm not happy? Is this even what I want to be doing with my life?

I switch from the agency to a corporate job, leave my almost seven-year relationship (with divorce-like drama), throw myself into a new relationship with a new co-worker, and rent out my house. I'm changing everything externally (continuing to job hop while increasing my salary and seniority rapidly), but I'm still not happy. The boyfriend and I decide to move to Hawaii, where my mom and stepdad recently moved.

Even better? We decide to start a design agency on the islands called Creative Spark Design in 2008, right as the recession hits everything hard. But we do it! We build a local and national client base with sheer persistence and a big vision that I'm continually driving forward with gusto.

CIRCA

2009–2010

"I don't want to be just another designer."

Despite all the changes I've made in my life, I'm still not happy. In fact, I'm deeply numb and depressed, totally out of sorts, and still questioning everything about my life.

While working a part-time job to help pay the bills while we build our business, I discover the whole big world of personal development books in my boss' desk-side library. Jack Canfield's 
Success Principles practically hit me over the head one day, so I took it home to read.

The first chapter, "Take 100% Responsibility of Your Life," deepens my appreciation and use of taking ownership in my life in a big way. The second chapter, "Be Clear Why You're Here," gets me started thinking about passion and purpose.

I begin really contemplating why I'm here and, in doing so, realize that I don't want to be "just another designer." Design begins to feel like a tool to do more in the world; I just don't know what that "more" is... but I'm going to find out.

I learn a ton about legacy projects, purpose, and how to find and follow your passions. This leads me to create a new side business, StartupCorner, and I pour everything into it.

I start interviewing other entrepreneurs and creatives that I know or admire on what it really took for them to get started. It's short lived, and I'll later wish I'd kept up with it because this was well before podcasts were really a thing!

While building StartupCorner, I enter into a contest with an entrepreneur that I'm following online and win a free ticket to her event for women taking place in New York City.

I'm stoked! And broke.

Between conspiring with my boyfriend and finding out that I have a great aunt I can stay with in the city, I get myself there.

It changes everything.

CIRCA

2010–2011

Leaning into my passion and purpose work.

I apply to the online entrepreneur's high-level mastermind while at the event and get accepted! I'm thrilled about the three retreats and a chance to work with other brilliant women building their own companies.

On my way to the first retreat, I learn about a Guest Blogger contest that Brian Tracy is running. I've been blogging more publicly about my take on the world after years of doing so anonymously, and my friend encourages me to submit.

So, I do. While flying to New York and with only hours to submit, I write about how taking 100% responsibility has the power to change the world—something I've been wildly passionate about since reading Success Principles.

I make it to the Top 10 and begin exploring building a business that helps women through the quarter-life crisis.

With the encouragement of my mastermind, I pivot my focus from the design business that I share with my boyfriend to starting my own thing. I form Stephenie Zamora Media, LLC and turn my little blog site into a legitimate business.

I spend nine months writing about personal growth and finding your passion, loving every minute of it. Toward the end of the mastermind, I get the idea to launch a program. I've learned so much about cultivating joy and prioritizing my passions that I'm feeling happier and more fulfilled. I want to teach other women how to do this, especially in their twenties.

My very, very expensive mastermind coach tells me that my program isn't a good idea, so I table it. But I quickly learn something that still drives me today: I'm not really in charge. If something wants to come through me and be created, I have to make it, or it will eat at me until I do.

So I ignore my very, very expensive coach and proceed to launch
 Foundations for Unshakable Joy™My first program, something I still love and cherish to this day, poured out of me in one fell swoop and hasn't really changed since. It goes on to change the lives of the many individuals who've taken it.

CIRCA

2012–2014

I go full time in my own business and make major life changes... again.

This year, I ultimately break up with my boyfriend/business partner, and I decide to give him our business. He wants to do branding for more prominent names; I want to build brands and websites for solopreneurs and nonprofits trying to make a difference in the world in ways that matter to them.

Our relationship ends shortly after, and I move into my own tiny Hawaiian studio apartment. I start prioritizing my joy and self-care, feel divinely called to return to Colorado, and begin dating a sweet Southern boy I met online.

In the spring of 2013, we move back into my townhouse in Denver that I've been renting out. Shortly after, I take a job as a designer at a local startup to shift my business and launch new programs and offerings. I'm basically getting paid to learn how to develop websites, and I love the people I work with.

Meantime, everything I want to do in my business gets a "no, you can't do that" from colleagues and mentors, but I do it all anyway. I create my second program, Your Passion-Based Business™, launch a low-cost membership site that thrives, introduce the Jumpstart package to my design business, and start working on my first Awesome Life Tips® book.

I leave the startup, bring on a fantastic team for the design business, and make more money than ever before. I start running, join a local mastermind and networking group where I begin making amazing new friends, and am generally feeling very happy and content in my life.

Except for one thing... my relationship.

CIRCA

2014–2017

Loss and trauma sucker punch me in the back of the head.

Two years after beginning it, my relationship with the sweet Southern boy comes to an end. After a couple of weeks of showing up at my door, I ask him to leave me alone. Two days later, he commits suicide, and it turns my life inside out.

Over the following months, my brain begins deteriorating rapidly. To the point that I cannot put my own life story in order, let alone remember what I did the day before.

I sit in front of my computer and just cry because I cannot remember half of the clients on my list, nor can I remember how to build websites. When I can’t handle one more day, I ask a friend and mentor to help me. We immediately schedule a healing process. After two incredibly intense and painful hours, I wake up the next day with most of my memory and the ability to work again.

Due to the PTSD, I end up in a toxic and abusive relationship with a drug addict that I believe is the love of my life.

This relationship further compounds the PTSD and trauma, and I begin developing a slew of health issues. I have adrenal fatigue so bad it exhausts me to walk from the couch to the kitchen, severe back and hip pain, growing anxiety and intense panic attacks, and develop dysphagia: the inability to swallow.

I'm unable to eat or drink for nine long days, let alone swallow my own saliva. It's the most awful and terrifying experience of my life, and it's nearly a year before I can eat and drink normally. I go even further into survival mode.

Thankfully, I get myself out of that relationship and am surrounded by an amazing community. I begin a "full-court press" on my healing, throwing everything I can at it. As a result of everything I go through, I ultimately launch a new site:
CallOfTheVoid.tv and a powerful new program called Journey Mapping to help others heal after these experiences.

CIRCA

2018–2020

I move to the mountains to restart my life.

At the end of 2017, I get my spark back after two events that activate something deep inside me. I'm ready to rebuild my life and business, and making money is a priority.

Despite making more money than I ever had in 2018, I also file for bankruptcy to help get back on my feet after everything. It's a hard decision, but ultimately a good call.

My neighbor and I discover that the house we're renting has mold, which prompts me to think about where I really want to be. I'd thought about moving to the mountains, but when I stopped swallowing, all plans went out of the window.

I decide to make it happen!

My uncle sells me his low-mileage, well-maintained 2000 4Runner, and I pack up my life and move to a beautiful little canyon that's always had my heart.

I spend the next two years resting in my quiet, peaceful little life, continuing to make great money in new ways, healing my heart, and living the adventurous life that I've always wanted.

CIRCA

2020–Present

I release two books and a podcast, and create a new vision for my life and business.

Before the pandemic hits, I release my first memoir about everything I've experienced called Unravel: Rising Up and Coming Back from a Season of Living that Damn Near Killed MeIt hits the #1 New Release in five out of six categories!

Additionally, I launch my new podcast Tales from the Journey and release our second collection, Awesome Life Tips®: 365 Tips for the Dark Night of the Soul. It's a surprisingly productive year, despite everything going on.

I start writing my 
second memoir about healing from relationship trauma, rediscovering myself, owning my worth, and living a fully expressed life. We also release a ton of exciting and affordable products in our new online store, including AcuSesh Albums, three new books, our first workbook, and our updated self-coaching guides!

At the start of 2022, 
I move myself back home to New Mexico to be near family and good food. I "reduce my life to zero" by selling or donating pretty much everything I own, not wanting to bring anything that's no longer aligned with who I am and who I'm becoming into this new chapter of my life.

Which brings us to today!

In the summer of 2022, I take the first step towards my dream of living off-grid by purchasing a 2011 Heartland Sundance 5th wheel camper. It's parked on family property while I continue to spend time with family and work to redecorate the inside and get it set up for eventual off-grid living with solar!

Eventually, I want to own land and have a self-sustained farm, finally launch The Institute (which has been simmering for over half a decade now), and start doing more of the things that I'm drawn to (traveling, rock climbing, mountain biking, backpacking, etc.). I'm in the process of upleveling our brand and business and have so many good things coming!

Curious How We Can Work Together?

Book a complimentary 30-minute consultation call with me today.

CIRCA

1993–1995

I make my own little newspapers.

The earliest newspaper that I can remember was made in the car on a long drive from Chicago to Albuquerque to see our grandparents. I write and draw it out on the way, sharing important stories like having annoying sisters. When we get there, we photocopy the original and I sell them to the family.

After we move home to the Land of Enchantment at eight years old, I continue to make little newspapers sporadically. They have breaking fictional stories about the neighborhood, petitions to arrest people for littering cigarette butts (a pet peeve to this day), and custom-created word search puzzles.

This was the first clear indication that writing, design, and entrepreneurship were a big part of who I was!

CIRCA

2001–2002

I discover that graphic design is a thing.

My best friend and I decide to sign up for an "easy A" by taking art for our elective in high school. We end up in separate classes, but I discover a passion and talent for art.

I start writing angsty teen poetry, painting with acrylics, drawing, and creating things every chance that I get.

During my sophomore year, I take art again and continue to love it. It gets better when I open up my art teacher's storage cabinet and find decades of Print magazines piled up. I pull out a design annual and I am immediately smitten. The beautiful collateral, brilliant logos, and incredible designs captivate me.

People do this for money? Where do I sign up?!

My fantastic art teacher sneaks me into a seniors-only visit from The Art Institute of Colorado, and I'm hooked.

CIRCA

2003–2006

I move to Colorado and attend The Art Institute

Finally motivated and excited about something, I turn my abysmal grades around, petition the administration to let me take correspondence classes and summer school, and graduate a year early so I can start my career!

I get accepted into The Art Institute of Colorado and begin in the spring of 2003. I'm ready to do my thing, so when the career services office tell me there are no internships or opportunities available for first-year students, I take it upon myself to start finding freelance clients and projects.

After freelancing for a while, I get an internship at Blue Mountain Arts and get to sit around playing in painting programs, making test cards for the local market. I leave this incredible place and take a lower-paying internship at a local design agency in downtown Denver, where I begin learning from some of the most brilliant designers I've ever known.

It's an accelerated three-year program, and I graduate at the top of my class in 2006 with a full-time position at the agency, making more money than most of my peers. I buy a townhouse with my high school sweetheart, get a car, and begin excelling at my super high-achieving adult-like life.

CIRCA

2006–2008

I have a quarter-life crisis and tear my life apart, eventually starting my next design business.

Shortly after I graduate college with my fabulous agency job, I begin questioning every single thing in my life.

How did I end up in this suburban townhouse with all the matchy-matchy furniture? Why am I in this relationship if I'm not happy? Is this even what I want to be doing with my life?

I switch from the agency to a corporate job, leave my almost seven-year relationship (with divorce-like drama), throw myself into a new relationship with a new co-worker, and rent out my house. I'm changing everything externally (continuing to job hop while increasing my salary and seniority rapidly), but I'm still not happy. The boyfriend and I decide to move to Hawaii, where my mom and stepdad recently moved.

Even better? We decide to start a design agency on the islands called Creative Spark Design in 2008, right as the recession hits everything hard. But we do it! We build a local and national client base with sheer persistence and a big vision that I'm continually driving forward with gusto.

CIRCA

2009–2010

"I don't want to be just another designer."

Despite all the changes I've made in my life, I'm still not happy. In fact, I'm deeply numb and depressed, totally out of sorts, and still questioning everything about my life.

While working a part-time job to help pay the bills while we build our business, I discover the whole big world of personal development books in my boss' desk-side library. Jack Canfield's 
Success Principles practically hit me over the head one day, so I took it home to read.

The first chapter, "Take 100% Responsibility of Your Life," deepens my appreciation and use of taking ownership in my life in a big way. The second chapter, "Be Clear Why You're Here," gets me started thinking about passion and purpose.

I begin really contemplating why I'm here and, in doing so, realize that I don't want to be "just another designer." Design begins to feel like a tool to do more in the world; I just don't know what that "more" is... but I'm going to find out.

I learn a ton about legacy projects, purpose, and how to find and follow your passions. This leads me to create a new side business, StartupCorner, and I pour everything into it.

I start interviewing other entrepreneurs and creatives that I know or admire on what it really took for them to get started. It's short lived, and I'll later wish I'd kept up with it because this was well before podcasts were really a thing!

While building StartupCorner, I enter into a contest with an entrepreneur that I'm following online and win a free ticket to her event for women taking place in New York City.

I'm stoked! And broke.

Between conspiring with my boyfriend and finding out that I have a great aunt I can stay with in the city, I get myself there.

It changes everything.

CIRCA

2010–2011

Leaning into my passion and purpose work.

I apply to the online entrepreneur's high-level mastermind while at the event and get accepted! I'm thrilled about the three retreats and a chance to work with other brilliant women building their own companies.

On my way to the first retreat, I learn about a Guest Blogger contest that Brian Tracy is running. I've been blogging more publicly about my take on the world after years of doing so anonymously, and my friend encourages me to submit.

So, I do. While flying to New York and with only hours to submit, I write about how taking 100% responsibility has the power to change the world—something I've been wildly passionate about since reading Success Principles.

I make it to the Top 10 and begin exploring building a business that helps women through the quarter-life crisis.

With the encouragement of my mastermind, I pivot my focus from the design business that I share with my boyfriend to starting my own thing. I form Stephenie Zamora Media, LLC and turn my little blog site into a legitimate business.

I spend nine months writing about personal growth and finding your passion, loving every minute of it. Toward the end of the mastermind, I get the idea to launch a program. I've learned so much about cultivating joy and prioritizing my passions that I'm feeling happier and more fulfilled. I want to teach other women how to do this, especially in their twenties.

My very, very expensive mastermind coach tells me that my program isn't a good idea, so I table it. But I quickly learn something that still drives me today: I'm not really in charge. If something wants to come through me and be created, I have to make it, or it will eat at me until I do.

So I ignore my very, very expensive coach and proceed to launch
 Foundations for Unshakable Joy™My first program, something I still love and cherish to this day, poured out of me in one fell swoop and hasn't really changed since. It goes on to change the lives of the many individuals who've taken it.

CIRCA

2012–2014

I go full time in my own business and make major life changes... again.

This year, I ultimately break up with my boyfriend/business partner, and I decide to give him our business. He wants to do branding for more prominent names; I want to build brands and websites for solopreneurs and nonprofits trying to make a difference in the world in ways that matter to them.

Our relationship ends shortly after, and I move into my own tiny Hawaiian studio apartment. I start prioritizing my joy and self-care, feel divinely called to return to Colorado, and begin dating a sweet Southern boy I met online.

In the spring of 2013, we move back into my townhouse in Denver that I've been renting out. Shortly after, I take a job as a designer at a local startup to shift my business and launch new programs and offerings. I'm basically getting paid to learn how to develop websites, and I love the people I work with.

Meantime, everything I want to do in my business gets a "no, you can't do that" from colleagues and mentors, but I do it all anyway. I create my second program, Your Passion-Based Business™, launch a low-cost membership site that thrives, introduce the Jumpstart package to my design business, and start working on my first Awesome Life Tips® book.

I leave the startup, bring on a fantastic team for the design business, and make more money than ever before. I start running, join a local mastermind and networking group where I begin making amazing new friends, and am generally feeling very happy and content in my life.

Except for one thing... my relationship.

CIRCA

2014–2017

Loss and trauma sucker punch me in the back of the head.

Two years after beginning it, my relationship with the sweet Southern boy comes to an end. After a couple of weeks of showing up at my door, I ask him to leave me alone. Two days later, he commits suicide, and it turns my life inside out.

Over the following months, my brain begins deteriorating rapidly. To the point that I cannot put my own life story in order, let alone remember what I did the day before.

I sit in front of my computer and just cry because I cannot remember half of the clients on my list, nor can I remember how to build websites. When I can’t handle one more day, I ask a friend and mentor to help me. We immediately schedule a healing process. After two incredibly intense and painful hours, I wake up the next day with most of my memory and the ability to work again.

Due to the PTSD, I end up in a toxic and abusive relationship with a drug addict that I believe is the love of my life.

This relationship further compounds the PTSD and trauma, and I begin developing a slew of health issues. I have adrenal fatigue so bad it exhausts me to walk from the couch to the kitchen, severe back and hip pain, growing anxiety and intense panic attacks, and develop dysphagia: the inability to swallow.

I'm unable to eat or drink for nine long days, let alone swallow my own saliva. It's the most awful and terrifying experience of my life, and it's nearly a year before I can eat and drink normally. I go even further into survival mode.

Thankfully, I get myself out of that relationship and am surrounded by an amazing community. I begin a "full-court press" on my healing, throwing everything I can at it. As a result of everything I go through, I ultimately launch a new site: 
CallOfTheVoid.tv and a powerful new program called Journey Mapping™ to help others heal after these experiences.

CIRCA

2018–2020

I move to the mountains to restart my life.

At the end of 2017, I get my spark back after two events that activate something deep inside me. I'm ready to rebuild my life and business, and making money is a priority.

Despite making more money than I ever had in 2018, I also file for bankruptcy to help get back on my feet after everything. It's a hard decision, but ultimately a good call.

My neighbor and I discover that the house we're renting has mold, which prompts me to think about where I really want to be. I'd thought about moving to the mountains, but when I stopped swallowing, all plans went out of the window.

I decide to make it happen!

My uncle sells me his low-mileage, well-maintained 2000 4Runner, and I pack up my life and move to a beautiful little canyon that's always had my heart.

I spend the next two years resting in my quiet, peaceful little life, continuing to make great money in new ways, healing my heart, and living the adventurous life that I've always wanted.

CIRCA

2020–Present

I release two books and a podcast, and create a new vision for my life and business.

Before the pandemic hits, I release my first memoir about everything I've experienced called Unravel: Rising Up and Coming Back from a Season of Living that Damn Near Killed MeIt hits the #1 New Release in five out of six categories!

Additionally, I launch my new podcast Tales from the Journey and release our second collection, Awesome Life Tips®: 365 Tips for the Dark Night of the Soul. It's a surprisingly productive year, despite everything going on.

I start writing my 
second memoir about healing from relationship trauma, rediscovering myself, owning my worth, and living a fully expressed life. We also release a ton of exciting and affordable products in our new online store, including AcuSesh Albums, three new books, our first workbook, and our updated self-coaching guides!

At the start of 2022, 
I move myself back home to New Mexico to be near family and good food. I "reduce my life to zero" by selling or donating pretty much everything I own, not wanting to bring anything that's no longer aligned with who I am and who I'm becoming into this new chapter of my life.

Which brings us to today!

In the summer of 2022, I take the first step towards my dream of living off-grid by purchasing a 2011 Heartland Sundance 5th wheel camper. It's parked on family property while I continue to spend time with family and work to redecorate the inside and get it set up for eventual off-grid living with solar!

Eventually, I want to own land and have a self-sustained farm, finally launch The Institute (which has been simmering for over half a decade now), and start doing more of the things that I'm drawn to (traveling, rock climbing, mountain biking, backpacking, etc.). I'm in the process of upleveling our brand and business and have so many good things coming!