Name: Sonda Eunus
Age: 31
Title/Company or main life pursuit: Leading Marketing Solutions. We are a marketing consulting and event marketing agency working with business owners to help them strategically market their businesses and attract new clients.
What is your word and why did you choose it?
Evolve. I chose this as my word because it is extremely important that we all work on becoming the best and most authentic versions of ourselves, especially in these times of crisis, chaos, and change.
What aspirations do you have for yourself in the next 40 years?
There are two main things that I am most passionate about doing: teaching and connecting.
On the teaching side, I love sharing the knowledge and experience that I have acquired throughout my career and I do so with individual business coaching, webinars and online classes, public speaking, and writing.
On the connecting side, I absolutely love networking, meeting people, and connecting them with other people in my network that could become a beneficial connection for them. My company hosts a lot of networking events, as well as expos, educational seminar, and other types of events. We have gotten some great word of mouth in the community by being able to create fun and productive environments for professionals to connect, learn, and grow.
In the next 40 years, I want to continue doing these things on a larger scale: hosting huge events nationwide, growing as a professional speaker, providing extensive teaching and coaching opportunities, supporting great causes and helping business owners reach the next level in their businesses.
Favorite way to give back to the community?
We love working on great community initiatives and causes and we often offer free event planning and marketing assistance to local events that are supporting great causes or non-profit organizations. We have a platform and a network that we are able to reach easily and I find it very important that we use this platform to promote good causes and involve our network in helping out.
Additionally, (when there is no COVID-19) we host many free networking events (over 50 last year!) which are a great free way for local professionals and business owners to meet and connect. Many of our attendees have become regulars at our events, developed great new friendships and referred business to one another. It has been really awesome to be a part of their journeys and to see their progress and growth.
What do you love and/or hate about the Ocala area?
What I love about Ocala is the monumental growth that it is currently experiencing. I moved here in November 2012, and in less than a decade it feels like a completely new city. I believe this is largely due to the phenomenal work being done by the Ocala CEP, and I am incredibly proud of being a CEP ambassador. I love the connections that I have made in this community so far and many professional connections have now become close friends as well, which makes work incredibly fun!
Hate is a strong word, but I would definitely enjoy more variations of different cuisines, restaurants, and bars. I’m a foodie who hates to cook so I’m really running on limited options here.
Also, on a much more serious note, there are still a lot of underlying (and some much more obvious) racist sentiments in our town and they are being exposed more than ever now in the wake of the George Floyd murder and protests. I will not get into politics, but I believe that we should all feel individually obligated and committed to spreading love over hatred, inclusion over discrimination, and justice over ingrained beliefs and long-standing party affiliations.
A few albums and movies you’d bring to a deserted island?
If I ever ended up on a deserted island it would not be by choice, and I wouldn’t have had time to prep. However, here are three movies that everyone should watch in their lifetime:
- “Pulp Fiction”
- “Fruitvale Station”
- “Bridesmaids”
You never leave home without: My phone! I get anxiety when it’s not in my immediate field of vision.
If you could tell your 16-year-old self one thing: Figure out what you are passionate about: what you really enjoy doing, what you are naturally gifted at, and pursue it wholeheartedly. We do not all have the same mission in this life and it is futile to try to pursue other people’s dreams. This is actually a great way to waste your own time, just to realize years later that you are not happy because you are not being true to who you really are. It is our responsibility to figure out what it is that we are on this earth to do and to start working on it as soon as we can. So much time is wasted in high school and college on things that will not actually matter in the real world: so many distractions, parties, heartbreaks, and everything else that we face as young adults. It is easy to get lost, side-tracked, and sometimes even fall off the rails completely. However, when you have a clear vision of your mission in this life, you have a guiding light that can help you navigate the turmoil of young adulthood, peer pressure, emotions, and all the other obstacles that you will inevitably face in your journey.
Anything else you’re super passionate about that you’d like to tout: Each one of us has a unique combination of genes, skills, knowledge, life-shaping experiences, connections, and other factors that collectively form who we are and what we can achieve. May we all be brave enough to be true to ourselves and to pursue our most fear-inspiring dreams passionately and unapologetically.
