Alumni-Owned Business Showcases

63 Visual

If you’ve ever been bar hopping in Jacksonville Beach, then you’ve likely come across Ink Factory on the way to the shore. While the first floor of this microbrewery is bustling with craft beer connoisseurs and chill vibes, the second floor is home to a bold and brilliant graphic design firm gradually updating the look, brand and feel of local, national and international businesses.

UNF alum Patrick Carter (‘05) is the president and founder of 63 Visual, which provides graphic design and branding services with a visual component that calls back to the visual flair of early 1960s media and design while remaining modern and fresh. The early 1960s experienced a revolution in design as a whole and Carter’s first car was a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle. The number 63 soon became his “lucky number” as he built the business up to be a leading trendsetter for design on the First Coast.

Carter said when clients want to refresh their brand, they come to him because his team is going to help make their clients stand out among the competitive business spheres. But even small businesses have small beginnings.

Swooping to Undergraduate Success

Carter hit the ground running when he started as a junior at UNF back in 2003.

During his long nights in UNF’s computer lab, Carter said he enjoyed working alongside his fellow classmates on projects and getting feedback from them. He wasn’t heavily involved in extracurricular activities, but worked through college and also embraced the importance of the internship and applying what he learned in the classroom into his work experience.

Carter had confidence in his abilities as a designer and knew that his skills would take him far in the industry. While working his unpaid internship, he expressed his need to be paid for his work to his superiors, even if it was only minimum wage. They agreed to pay him a nominal fee during this time, especially since he lived in Neptune Beach and was driving over to the agency’s San Marco location. After weeks of paid work, the agency saw promise in his talent and hired him on as a part-time designer while he completed his education.

It was important to get that agency experience, Carter said, in order to prepare himself for running his own company. After graduating, He launched his own small business, initially named Patrick Carter Design Inc., but he found this boring and limiting in the opportunities available to him. He said he wanted to establish a concept for his brand that would help him stand apart with a specific visual flair calling back to the 1960s.

“I knew that I needed a name that was going to be bigger than just myself,” Carter said. “I also didn’t want something that would pigeonhole me to a certain industry.”

Carter secured a BFA in Graphic Design, graduating Magna Cum Laude in his undergraduate studies.

The Birth of a Brand

At 63 Visual, Patrick Carter and his team handle all visual aspects of a company’s branding, including logos, websites, package design, printed sales materials, marketing materials, and other needs.

“As a designer, you have to solve problems for your client,” Carter said.

The firm has worked with clients from a variety of industries, with roughly half of the business coming locally and the rest from national and international clients. Early on in his small business days, Carter said he focused on local companies and really blew the projects out of the water in order to highlight his firm’s offerings to clients outside of Northeast Florida.

The main industry Carter works with is food and beverage, which he enjoys because of the creative component of setting the vibe and presentation of breweries, restaurants, distilleries or even frozen food packages. He said it’s essential to drive people to your business with a look that appeals to positive experiences.

“You want to make it look fun,” Carter said when referring to the work he does with his clients. Nowadays there is a lot of competition for those looking for dinner, a drink or an enjoyable night out, and he said it’s imperative to establish a look for a company that’s going to draw in potential clients and customers.

63 Visual also helped fully develop the branding, logo, merchandise and packaging, print materials and website for Wicked Barley, a popular brewery located in the Mandarin area of Jacksonville.

One of the company’s recent clients has been Equiderma, a horse and dog shampoo company that’s been a major client. Carter and his team also provided branding and design services to New Leaf Vapor, Marlin & Barrel Distillery, Sunshine State Plumbing, Strings Sports Brewery in Springfield, Stay the Course and others.

Carter said he enjoys working with different industries because he has to research them and educate himself on the industry in order to fully provide a quality service to his clients.

“I really have to understand this stuff in order to brand it,” he said.

Representing DUUUVAL for the NFL

Patrick scored the graphic design equivalent of a touchdown this fall with a chance-of-a-lifetime collaboration with the NFL and the Jacksonville Jaguars.

This NFL season, The Jaguars offered an opportunity for local artists to pitch ideas for game-day posters for the season’s home games. Patrick Carter learned about the opportunity on social media and quickly threw a Hail Mary and applied, telling them about his background as a graphic designer and what he could bring to the project. He studied and researched texts and paintings on the sides of bodegas and other parts of Mexico and also incorporate paper flags into the design with the traditional Jaguars colors.

When he got the go ahead to move forward, he said he poured over research on Hispanic culture, sparked by his love of Central American travel and a budding concept inspired by Mayan and Aztec civilizations.

He designed a poster for the Sept. 24 home game against the Houston Texans, depicting an Indigenous warrior wearing a Jaguar headdress and adorned in jewelry and regalia — bull skulls, horns and Texas references — hinting at the demise of the Jaguars’ adversary on the field and the team’s mascot: Toro. Carter went with the indigenous theme because he wanted a bold statement of his work that honored Hispanic Heritage Month, during which the game took place.

The response to his work was extremely positive and he got the opportunity to sign copies of his poster at the game and coordinate with the team for further media exposure.

“It was nice to be able to have the Jaguars as a client and work with them,” Carter said.

Soar and Shore

As far as business for 63 Visual, it’s been better than ever with a banner year for the small firm. Carter said he and his team have been busy as ever with clients and when he has the time, he plans to deck out his 1963 ragtop Volkswagen Beetle with branding to make it look like a race car, including the number “63” and other graphical components. But for now, he’s just happy he’s got the car running! He hopes to further expand the Beetle into the firm’s brand in a greater sense moving forward.

When asked about securing success as a designer, he said it is imperative for those in the industry to always push yourself by continuously learning about design trends, new software being used, and following industry leaders on the latest styles. With design being a detail-oriented industry, he said it’s important to always see forward momentum in this type of growth.

When he’s not working, Carter enjoys spending his spare time with friends and at the beach, as well as quality time with his children, Landon, 16, and Ansley, 11. Carter said he’s fully invested in Neptune Beach life after living there for most of his life.

(Written by Tyler White)

Arble Baking Company

It’s all in the family for today’s #LocalBusinessShowcase. Located in the Dunn Village shopping center in North Jacksonville, Arble Baking Company held its Grand Opening on May 20. Co-owner Monica Anderson (UNF alumna ’06) shares her story of how this dream came to fruition. Not only was cookie baking a family tradition for the Anderson family, but it actually helped put each of the children through college.

Family Recipe

Looking for something to do outside of her day job, Veronica (Monica’s mother) picked up baking, a skill she inherited from Monica’s maternal grandmother. As she began perfecting her recipes, Veronica would often take her cookies into work to share with the coworkers, who loved them so much they offered to pay so she could keep baking them.

Willis (Monica’s father) spent 32 years as a firefighter, but to much of the Jacksonville community he was simply known as “The Cookie Man.” Monica said, “when you saw him, you knew cookies were close by.” Selling those cookies helped them raise enough money to send all four of their children to college. While the other three siblings attended school in Gainesville, Monica stuck around Jacksonville to attend the University of North Florida.

The Bird is the Word

A lot of factors went into Monica’s choice to be an Osprey. The reputation of the UNF education program was a huge draw. She also wanted to be a dancer and knew sticking around Jacksonville gave her an opportunity to join The ROAR of the Jaguars. Plus, she said her maturity played a role, as the price of attending college at UNF was the most economical of the options.

Monica graduated with her UNF College of Education and Human Services Elementary Education degree in 2006 and became a local teacher. She built up a lot of vital skills, but after seven years decided it was time for a career change. She pivoted to the finance world and started working at a call center before moving into a traveling role assisting with project management.

Sibling Connection

The siblings had always talked about launching a family bakery, but when the pandemic hit, it really made them focus on what they wanted to do. Jamaal was the visionary to book the space in the growing Northside area and convince the others to come together. Each of the siblings had their own successful careers in different fields, but they were able to leverage their collective knowledge to get this business up and running.

Named after the street the Anderson family lived on growing up, Monica says it still feels surreal to see Arble Bakery finally open and is excited their family can extend their reach in the community. Even though their parents have retired, you’ll likely see them still hard at work in the kitchen. In addition to her mother’s signature cookies, they also feature specialty sweets like pies and cupcakes. So next time you’re up in North Jacksonville, make sure to swing by Arble Baking Company and see the family business in action!

Bad Chic Chicken and Waffles

Nothing says homecoming like some home cooking, and we’ve got Ivory Orr (’03) bringing his Bad Chic back to the Nest in this month’s #LocalBusinessShowcase.

Bad Chic Chicken & Waffles launched in 2022. Orr and his daughter, Maliyah, are noted foodies, so while they base their menu off items they enjoy, it’s fortunate everyone else finds them just as delicious. Items like the Cinnabun waffle have been a huge hit, and they keep introducing new options like Fruity Pebble and Cinnamon Toast Crunch waffles. A new Strawberry Cheesecake waffle is currently in the works.

Before applying to UNF, Orr played football and wrestled in high school, sometimes getting himself into shenanigans. Around his junior year, he found faith, decided to get serious about his future and really turned his life around. One of the deans noticed his improvement and approached him about applying for a new Honorees Scholarship partnership between Nike and the Jaguars. He took his time and filled out the application and next thing you know he’s meeting the NFL Commissioner and CEO of Nike as their first scholarship recipient, receiving a full ride to attend UNF.

We Like to Party

Orr graduated from the UNF Coggin College of Business with degrees in marketing and management. He loved football and music, and his entrepreneurial passion fueled dreams of running a record label. While other labels at that time were funded through shady practices, Orr refused to go down that path and instead funded his music by throwing parties. He noticed all college students like to party, they just need a good location and the right playlist. He started the Hip Hop Union as an officially student organization and used that to get free reservations on UNF’s campus. He would partner with other organizations like fraternities and the Filipino Student Association to host their events, and even have the DJ slide some of his own music in. His parties were so off the hook, rumor has it the original Boathouse shut down because it couldn’t contain them.

Once he realized this is something that extends past the college realm, he’s been running entertainment in Jacksonville for the last 20 years. He went from hosting events with local businesses and nightclubs to owning those nightclubs and restaurants. He started Crown Capital and built his name in the entertainment industry, working for DEF JAM and managing BET’s Rap City. Orr said the connections he developed through his time in college and in the entertainment business helped propel his career and his newest business venture.

Orr comes from a big family. His grandmother has 10 kids, so his family reunions have hundreds of guests. But unfortunately, he never met his father. That’s why being a father is his most important job. His daughter is his best friend, and everything he does is to protect and provide for her. When the pandemic struck, the entertainment business took a huge hit. He and Maliyah pondered how to pay the bills when they were driving around and saw some food trucks. They started brainstorming the idea of opening their own food truck, and what started out as a joke ended with a menu, a marketing strategy and a name.

Cookin' Up a Plan

As a previous restaurant owner, Orr had experience with some successful practices, but also learned from his share of failures to help shape their business in a better direction. The goal of this business was to teach his daughter about business before she heads off to college, while establishing some passive income. He partnered with one of his friends he had worked with from the UNF FSA. Their original plan was to hire a restaurant veteran for their official launch at their first booked event, but after the chef got sick, Orr had to learn all the ins and outs to keep the business running. “We were going from zero to one,” he said. “Starting a startup, you’re looking for the minimum viable product.” So instead of worrying about all the things going wrong, they just thought about all the things going right, which helped them continue the business. After continuously learning and growing with new product development, this upcoming April will mark their two-year anniversary.

While Maliyah heads off to college, she looks forward to taking her knowledge from the classroom and applying it to her business. She still doesn’t know what she wants to do after graduation, but she appreciates the legacy she created working with her father and the opportunities it will provide her down the road.

Blissfully Bookish

Like many other central Florida natives, Kathryn Wyckoff (’12) wanted to attend a school close enough to home, yet far enough to spread her wings. She grew up an introverted child who buried her head in fantasy books, and even though she was “painfully shy” when she arrived at the University of North Florida, she believed the smaller classes — along with a beautiful campus that makes you want to spend time outside —helped her come out of her shell. While she had always enjoyed creative writing, she was concerned about the job market for journalists, so she graduated from the UNF School of Communication with a specialty in public relations instead.

Starting Up

After graduation, Wyckoff began working for a startup in Jacksonville that created a HIPAA-compliant e-fax solution for medial organizations needing to transfer patient information. “It was a great starting point because it was such a small team, and they valued my ideas and what I brought to the table,” she said. Soon after, she married a UCF graduate, Daryl, and moved closer to home.

She took jobs working for a couple different marketing agencies in Daytona Beach that specialized in website development. She felt like this time resulted in the most professional growth, learning from established professionals and trying her hand in all aspects of marketing, including blogging, social media, paid advertising, analytics and even some coding. However, there wasn’t much work-life balance. She said based on her personality that she feels the most fulfilled when she’s moving forward toward a goal, so she decided to take control and make a change.

Booking a New Gig

She’d always liked the idea of following in her parents’ footsteps and owning her own business. She watched their successes and struggles growing up, which helped prepare her for the journey. When she was looking for a way out of the corporate world, tying her PR skills and her passion for reading together seemed like an easy decision. She started by designing a few shirts and posting them on Etsy, while marketing to the “bookstagram” community. After she made a handful of sales on her first day, she felt validation in her creations. Wyckoff founded Blissfully Bookish Company as a side hustle, then as it became so successful, she made it her full-time job. The business has grown enough that her husband was able to leave his career to help with the administrative and logistical aspects of the business.

Blissfully Bookish partners with authors and publishers to make merchandise based on books so you can “Wear What You Read!” When it comes to literary fandom-based merchandise, usually the large IPs such as “The Lord of the Rings,” “Harry Potter” and “Game of Thrones” come to mind, but she believes there are so many terrific books and authors that deserve to have products. After she became more established, Wyckoff started to collaborate with authors in an official capacity, and over time authors started to approach her directly. She said it’s an unbelievable feeling collaborating with authors she grew up reading. Recently, Reese Witherspoon contacted her to do a collaboration for Reese’s Book Club, in addition to a Spirit Jersey collaboration. Her vision for the brand has always been about establishing connections, and she’s able to connect fans to their favorite stories, authors to their fans, and fans to like-minded individuals.

She’d love to see the business continue to grow, expanding their publisher and author partners, while also becoming more scalable. She’d like to be able to hand off additional projects but knows the importance of even the smallest of details. “Fandom culture is full of extremely passionate people, and they can sus out who is not a true fan,” she said. Customer service is an important part of her business, and she said, “my public relations track [at UNF] has shaped my approach.” Outside of her work, it might shock you to learn that her hobbies include reading and more reading, but she’s always interested in making new bookish friends, so if you ever want to fan over your favorite read, you know where to go!

Chic Booth

Sitou Gilles Byll-Cataria ('11) is no stranger to being a leader, as many of you may remember him as the 2010 UNF Student Government president. But it’s his current leadership we’re highlighting with this month’s #LocalBusinessShowcase.

Coming to America

Originally from Togo, the first time Byll-Cataria stepped foot in the US was to attend college. He originally wanted to attend school in China, but was convinced by his family to join his older sisters Nabad and Lauriane (’09, ’14) at UNF. When his flight landed in the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, he realized the English he learned to speak at home didn’t correlate with the southern draw of the Georgia locals. He got lost along the way but made it down to Jacksonville where his sisters helped him.

During the Week of Welcome, he started to rethink his decision and he missed his friends back home. Classes were tough for him to comprehend — mainly due to not understanding the professors’ accents — but he persevered, getting jobs working for the arena and for Chartwells. Soon after, his viewpoint started to change.

“Everyone I met at UNF was so nice to me,” he said. He made friends while he was working on campus and said, “the International Center was a huge resource.”

Political Party

He joined a few clubs and earned a spot on the executive board for the International Student Association, where a year later the leadership recommended him to take over as president. His new role took him to meetings all across campus meeting other student leaders.

Despite being in the UNF College of Computing, Engineering and Construction, Byll-Cataria earned a Rotary International scholarship through the UNF Coggin College of Business to study abroad in Spain for the semester, and while he was catching up with some friends back at UNF, he learned about the student government election. They weren’t pleased with how the incumbent party had been handling things and convinced him to run.

When he arrived back in Jacksonville for the Spring semester, he had to make up a lot of ground campaigning, but after grinding for the next few months, the underdog somehow captured a record number of voters to become the UNF student body president.

Entrepreneurial Energy

Flash-forward a year to graduation, Byll-Cataria earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science with a math minor. He took a job working in IT for three years with Duos Technologies but had entrepreneurial dreams to be the leader of his own company.

He first tried to found an app, uConnectHome, and then a web design company, Craycrayweb.com, but neither took off. However, when looking for his next IT venture, one of his friends hosted a party with a photo booth. Where most of the guests saw a fun time, Byll-Cataria saw a business opportunity.

He and his friend purchased the photo booth in 2014 and would loan it to others as a side hustle, which became profitable after he landed a contract with Nordstrom. “This was a crazy time,” he said as he had just got married and learned his wife, Diana, was pregnant with their first child. He took a risk and left his job to pursue this new venture as a full-time job. He trademarked Chic Booth and went full speed ahead.

By the time Isabella was born, he had turned Chic Booth into a moderate success. It wasn’t until 2019 though when the business started to boom. They expanded into the Miami, Dallas/Fort Worth and Charlotte markets, and even went international with operations in Quebec and Paris. But when the pandemic started in 2020, events stopped happening, which halted Chic Booth right as it was about to take off. Byll-Cataria has faced adversity before and capitalized on his frugality and low operational costs to stay in business. He also created virtual meetups during the pandemic between all different types of industry vendors, which became a great resource when normalcy returned and event planners were looking for referrals.

Photo Finish

Chic Booth’s standard offerings include a modern photo booth, a 360° video booth, an LED-powered vogue booth, a black-and-white glam booth (and its inverse deep black booth), and an adult ball pit. Byll-Cataria also offers customers a way to create a custom experience, which is originally how the ball pit became a staple. Some of his most memorable activations include the 25th anniversary of The Brumos Collection, where they installed a photo booth in the driver’s seat of a new Mercedes Benz S550, and Love Feast, a SKYY Vodka fundraiser for the Pulse night club shooting victims, where they printed life-size portraits of their guests in real time.

When he’s not busy at work, he’s either helping engage UNF alumni as part of the Alumni Association board and the Student Advisory Community Council, or spending family time with his wife, 8-year-old daughter, Isabella, and 5-year-old son, Enzo.

Cobalt Moon

“Movement is not something we do, it’s something we are.” -Emilie Conrad.

Donnalea Goelz (’94) might have earned her degree from UNF at a leisurely pace, but who are we to question an expert on movement?

First Coast Community

Having lived in Jacksonville since the 1960s, the Duncan U. Fletcher High School graduate learned business from her father and understood the potential of real estate by the beach. She has always been invested in the local community and put her money where her mouth is by investing in the neighborhood real estate to improve properties.

After traveling and studying all across the globe, she used one of the properties to found Cobalt Moon, an integrative health center designed for the wellness of the Neptune Beach community. There she taught esoteric healing along with workshops to help people understand their psychology to center themselves. This center currently consists of tai chi, yoga and other somatic practices while previously hosting Pilates, physical therapy, acupuncture and even a shop carrying sacred art, books and clothing.

The goal for Cobalt Moon was to create a place for people to come “improve their consciousness.” As a child, she went through a traumatic experience while doctors were still understanding how to treat it. But her mother enrolled her in dance, which allowed her to “dance her trauma out.” Since then, she’s made it a goal to help others in a similar fashion. After some time, she decided to return to grad school while focusing on her tai chi and movement classes, so she now rents the remaining spaces out to groups with similar interests like M Body Fitness Pilates and Yoga Studio.

Continuing Education

She started at UNF in 1976, back when it was still a senior college, when she had her first child. She initially pursued a teacher profession, but after finishing the education curriculum and teaching middle school in the field, she realized it wasn’t her passion. She took a break to spend time with her brother, Don, who was studying in New York City, and started to dance again. This is where she learned somatic practices and the idea of movement being a form of both art and therapy.

She returned to Jacksonville with two more children, and while the three kids were off at the UNF Preschool, she started taking classes again. Professors Dr. John Maraldo and Fr. Neil Gray drew her in, and that she took every course they offered before finally turning in her application to graduate.

Body of Work

In the 1990s, while Donnalea was working on her research and finishing her graduate studies, Don had been attending classes with ballet stars including Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland. She first discovered Emilie Conrad, the founder of Continuum Movement, on the cover of Yoga Journal. Donnalea and her brother visited one of her workshops and realized they all had similar philosophies, so the three of them developed a connection. Later, Don and Emilie collaborated to teach their own class together called “The Future of the Body.” After fighting a battle with cancer, Conrad entrusted Goelz to succeed her as executive director of Continuum Movement. So in addition to hosting classes at Cobalt Moon, she currently leads about 50 teachers across the globe in the practice of Continuum.

Goelz also still conducts research at UF and UNF, having previously worked with war veterans and pandemic nurses to study how movement can combat PTSD. In addition, she’s writing a chapter in The Science of Embodiment on the impact of trauma. She serves on the UNF Student Affairs committee – after previously chairing the Student Wellbeing and UNF Military & Veterans Resource Center committees – and has established the Goelz Family Scholarship Endowment with her husband, Tom, to support students in the COAS behavioral neuroscience program.

DOS Coffee and Wine

We continue #FeBREWary focusing on a different type of brew, featuring two tennis players who know all about the grind. An alumni-owned business and St. Augustine staple has made its way up to Duval County as Julie Stoppelli Jacobson’s (’05) DOS Coffee & Wine recently opened a location in Town Center.

Service Ace

The former North Florida Ospreys women's tennis athlete graduated from the University of North Florida with a degree in psychology. She then returned to UNF as an assistant tennis coach before joining the Marsh Landing Country Club as their tennis professional. Her husband, John Jacobson, also coached tennis at Marsh Landing.

The two of them shared a passion for coffee and wine and in 2013, inspiration struck after coming across a former auto parts store in St. Augustine. They were determined to create a space where everybody was invited.

Wine and Dine

Julie is known for her great wine palate, so while she focused on developing the wine bar side of the business, John learned how to roast coffee and earned his grading certification. What separates them from other coffee houses is that they established their own roastery, Relampago Coffee Lab, to ensure their coffee beans are of the highest quality. They also make all their baked goods, salads and sandwiches in-house.

Coastal Expansion

While there’s no recreating the magic of the DOS Coffee . Wine flagship, Julie aims to curate each location based on its location and size. When the idea of expansion came up, they considered opening a shop either near the St. Augustine outlets or next to Jacobson’s alma mater before deciding on both. This current Jacksonville operation became a reality through its building partner, Mayday Ice Cream, whose owner was coached in tennis by John.

e-File.com

For many, tax season can be a nightmare. That’s a fact alumnus Aaron Rosenthal ('02) knows all too well. As co-founder and director of marketing for this month's #LocalBusinessShowcase, the online tax preparation company E-file.com, Rosenthal strives to remove as much of the anxiety and stress from the tax-filing process as possible.

Entrepreneurial Spirit

After having moved to the North Florida area during high school, Rosenthal wanted to stay local for college, so the University of North Florida felt like the best fit. He never anticipated starting his own tax preparation business, but without realizing it at the time, the Coggin College of Business helped arm him with many of the tools to be a successful entrepreneur.

As a student, he had the opportunity to take a study abroad trip to the UK during his final semester, visiting London, Cambridge and Edinburgh. He met the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, took a tour of Lloyd’s of London and heard from numerous London stock traders. “It was the most enjoyable experience I had while earning college credit,” Rosenthal said.

Fine, We'll Do It Ourselves

After graduating with degrees in finance and economics, Rosenthal started working for a marketing firm where he met another Osprey, Robert Reynard (’10). Rosenthal had an idea for a startup that focused on lead generation, which he named Thought Projects LLC, and soon after Reynard left to join him in this venture. In this business, they would build websites that helped visitors find products and services they were in search of. “We attracted a large number of visitors looking for tax filing solutions,” said Rosenthal. “It was during this time that Robert and I had the idea to provide our own software.”

Rosenthal and Reynard co-founded E-file.com because of their frustration with other online tax preparation companies. While their company is similar to other online tax-filing programs, Rosenthal said that cost is one factor that sets E-file.com apart from its competition.

“Our software is only offered online via the Cloud,” he said. “We don’t have that production cost involved, which means we pass along that savings to the customers.” They also provide a free “no-strings attached” federal tax filing to users who qualify for their basic software.

In addition to the lower cost, Rosenthal said that E-file is dedicated to protecting its customers’ privacy.

“There are other companies in the space and they tend to resell their customer information to third party advertisers,” he explained. “We’ve taken the stance that we are never going to sell any of our customer information.”

Growing, Growing, Gone!

During the early years, everything was reinvested back into the company for the sake of growth. As they built E-file.com, both Rosenthal and Reynard continued to work for Though Projects, which meant the work hours added up. However, it allowed them to create it without taking any outside investment.

The sacrifice has paid off as E-file.com has been featured by Inc. Magazine as one of the 5000 fastest growing private companies in America five times. It was also named the fastest growing company in North Florida by the Jacksonville Business Journal as well as included in a Financial Times list of the fastest growing private companies in America.

When he’s not working, he enjoys spending time with his family. He’s got three kids between 11 and 16, so they’ll try to make it out for the occasional North Florida Osprey basketball or baseball game.

G's Charcuteries

You’ve seen a lot of #LocalBusinessShowcase stories, but this one may be the char-cutest!

G’s Charcuteries is a custom charcuterie catering company founded by Gaby Haddad (’19, ’23), where she has the power to turn food into art. They get all their ingredients fresh and source their meats from Bar Molino in San Marco to elevate any event with a gorgeous spread.

Making Moves

Haddad was born and raised in Jacksonville and loves the city. Her older brother attended school at FSU, and while she enjoyed visiting, she knew that type of college environment wasn’t right for her. She chose to attend UNF instead, and after graduating from COAS with a B.S. in communication focused in public relations, she returned to graduate school to earn her M.S. in communication management with a business concentration.

Upon graduation, Haddad had five years of experience in marketing, as well as nine years of experience teaching kickboxing. But after spending her whole life in Duval County, she wanted to explore a bit before settling down. She and her dog, Paul, moved to Denver where she got a job in sales, and despite not knowing anyone in the area, it was one of the most incredible experiences of her life. After a year, she decided to return home and put her degree to use becoming her own boss.

Building the Right Board

Haddad has always wanted to start her own business but wasn’t sure which route to take. She always loved making charcuterie boards for personal events but started to see the potential of making professional boards. Her master’s courses at UNF helped her develop her business plan, and after she did extensive research on the field and got all the certifications, licenses and insurance, G’s Charcuteries hit the ground running.

Since starting this business, Haddad has made incredible spreads for all types of events. She’s catered a V for Victory fundraising event, the grand opening of DJ’s Clam Shack, plus countless art gallery instillations, small business soirees, weddings, engagement parties, birthdays and more. None may be more important than the board she created for her brother’s engagement in Tuscany, Italy, where she got to use locally sourced Italian meats and cheeses.

To see some of her work or to book her for your next event, follow @GsCharcuteries!

Historically Hoppy Brewing Company

A professor, a nurse, a lawyer and a psychologist walk into a brewery … because they own it. We continue #FeBREWary highlighting Historically Hoppy Brewing Company, a quadruple alumni-owned craft brewery in Springfield.

#MetInTheNest

Natalie Hofmann (’12) was an undergraduate student at the University of North Florida doing research while Aaron Leedy (’08, ’12, ’24) was completing his program at The Graduate School so they’d often pass by each other in the hallways.

The first time they officially met was when Aaron walked into a research meeting and said, “Hey guys, there’s a keg party at my house tonight and you should all come!” Aaron had just started homebrewing and was excited to show off a new brew he was experimenting with. Natalie, of course, didn’t know this and just assumed he was a party guy looking to go wild, so she did not show up.

Over the years, a number of people had tried to set them up, only for Natalie to respond, “I know Aaron Leedy, and I don’t want to date Aaron Leedy.” Aaron’s sister actually went to middle school with Natalie and was rooting for the two to pair up. As if that wasn’t enough pressure, Natalie remembers talking to this nice woman at a wedding shower who she really hit it off with, only for this woman to end the night trying to set this beautiful, single lady up with her handsome, single son, Aaron Leedy.

She finally stopped fighting fate and hung out with Aaron who, to her surprise, was nothing like she had initially pictured. He was really nice and funny – radically different from the first impression she had of him. They started dating in 2012 and ended up engaged in 2013.

The Osprey Connection

Ryan (’14) and Brianna McFarland (’14) had known each other through high school before attending the University of North Florida together. Both couples happened to live right next door to each other in the Visit Historic Springfield district and a mutual friend connected them. 

Aaron had been brewing as a hobby for years, and Ryan is always quick to find and perfect new interests. When the pandemic hit, they socially distanced as a group and brewed with the idea of one day opening a brewery. Well, that one day came quicker than they imagined. After the space that formerly held Main and Six had gone on the market, their dream started to become a reality.

Something's Brewing

“Making beer is simple,” Ryan said. “Making good beer is not nearly as simple.” Their goal is to have a good variety of options for everyone’s palates. They’ve brewed 44 different varieties but carry 16 beers on tap – 10 of which are staples with the rest rotational or seasonal. Whether it’s their K&M Lager, Westside IPA or Banana Bread Brown, each brew they release aims to be a good example of each style. Brianna said, “making new brews is the fun of it,” and with their small system they’re able to turn beers around in the taproom. They also host events like trivia, open mics and “language parties,” where once a month they invite multilingual patrons to engage in conversation in various languages.

Aaron earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology and is completing his Ed.D. in leadership while serving as a full-time academic advisor and adjunct professor at UNF. Natalie earned her bachelor’s in psychology before completing a Ph.D. at USF. Outside the brewery, she is a clinical and school psychologist. Ryan got his B.B.A. in economics, then pursued a law degree at FSU, passing the bar to become a criminal appellate, post-conviction attorney. Finally, Brianna got her associate degree before completing a B.A. in nursing from FSU. She is an operating room nurse and continues to take classes in pursuit of a doctorate.

HC Brands

If you’re looking for a personal gift for Father’s Day, look no further than HC Brands. If you’re looking for a personal story, well, they’ve got that too. For this month’s #LocalBusinessShowcase, we sat down with Osprey alumni and father-son duo Bob (’73) and Bryan Croft (’98).

Holmes Custom (HC) Brands, originally the Holmes Stamp Company, is based in San Marco and serves as the parent company for nine niche e-commerce brands – 904 Custom, All State Notary Supplies, The Corporate Connection, Custom Signs, MyKoozie, Name Tag Wizard, Simply Stamps, Sticky Life and WallMonkeys – that all focus on item personalization for their customers.

Putting His Stamp on the Company

As a Jacksonville native, Bob graduated from Terry Parker High. He served as delivery boy for Owen Holmes at the Holmes Stamp Company while taking classes at the nearby FJC (now FSCJ). He then joined the inaugural UNF class as a junior, completing his upper-level classes in marketing.

After graduating from UNF, Holmes offered Bob a full-time position with his company as he and his wife, Eileen, settled down in Jacksonville. “We had a pretty decent lifestyle for somebody who’s making rubber stamps,” Bob joked. Twelve years later, Holmes retired and sold 70% of the company to his son, Owen Holmes Jr., with the remaining 30% to Bob. He said, “The culture is what kept [Holmes Stamp Company] going.”

“When my dad and Mr. Holmes ran the business, they had great service, word of mouth marketing and a phone book,” Bryan said.

They beat out their competitors and expanded across state lines mainly due to their quality products and service. Bob recalls days when he would take an order from a supply store first thing in the morning, then produce the stamps, and he’d have them delivered before the end of the day. He joked that the only way to make a business making stamps is “to make a lot of them.” In 1998, Holmes Jr. was set to retire, so Bob and Eileen bought out his shares and became the sole owners.

The Son Also Rises

Growing up, Bryan would help his parents out with the occasional order, but otherwise wasn’t too involved with the family business. The family’s priority for him was always to earn his degree. He was a Bishop Kenny High graduate before joining UNF Coggin as an undergrad in business admin and marketing, and he paved his way through college working at a handful of local restaurants.

After graduation, he looked to enter the workforce when Holmes Jr. announced his retirement, so Bryan joined his father at the stamp company making $8 an hour. “At the same time, I just met this beautiful blonde who’s a fancy lawyer … I gotta up my game!” Bryan said. He wanted to help the company become more profitable – which would help him justify asking for a raise – so he put his degree to good use and started exploring the “new internet thing people were talking about.” He helped usher the business into the e-commerce space and develop into the global presence it is today. In 2009, Bryan purchased the company shares from his parents looking to retire and became the owner.

Taking Care of Business

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the company, although it’s practically indistinguishable from its original model. “From physically making a stamp from hot type and lead to this … it’s really amazing,” Bob said. The one thing that has remained consistent throughout the years in the culture as they’re always looking to add new “Holmies” to the team.

Technology has been key to the growth of the business. “It took us from a small Jacksonville company with 10 employees all the way to a global company with over 100 employees, more than 10% of which are UNF Alumni,” Bryan said. As the company continues to grow, Bryan now looks to these students and young alumni to understand how to utilize this generation’s technological advances.

His goal for the company is to just be where the customers are, and his way to achieve that is by building a culture for great digital marketers. Back when he started, eBay was his go-to place to reach the consumers, then website traffic was key, and then Amazon and Etsy became the hotspots. “We might be the only rubber stamp company in the United States with a TikTok Shop,” Bryan said.

Although retired, Bob and Eileen still reside in Jacksonville and are celebrating 50 years together. Likewise, Bryan married that “beautiful blonde” Amy and they just celebrated their 24th anniversary with their three children.

Ink Factory Brewing

“Whatever’s in season, whatever’s fresh, whatever’s fun.” 

It’s the motto of the hit microbrewery and espresso bar Ink Factory, the watering hole / social spot owned by UNF alumnus Aaron Meisenheimer (2000) and UCF alumnus Tye Wallace. 

Ink Factory Brewing is located at 602 Shetter Ave. in Jacksonville Beach, just a few miles away from the shores, and right below our previous LBS, the alumni-owned 63 Visual. 

Meisenheimer has a history of contribution to the overall culture in Jacksonville and the Beaches, thanks to his creative spirit, knack for effective branding and commitment to creating great community spaces across Duval County. 

Letting the Brews Flow

Meisenheimer prides himself on Ink Factory’s “over the top, sensational sours,” as well as the brewery’s “layered, delicious stouts.” 

His team of microbrewers are interested in “trying to create things that are really approachable,” he said. “There’s always something new.”  

Meisenheimer touts his business’s originality and commitment to trying new things and providing variety to the customer base. The brewery keeps a few staple beers on tap alongside 16 others that allow their creative freedom to … brew.  

Electric Beach is a Hazy IPA that Aaron is especially proud of for its fruit forward flavor, which he calls a “real juice bomb. Meanwhile, brews like Sip and Destroy and Teal Haze also remain popular with customers. 

Meisenheimer encourages patrons to come by Thursdays through Sundays when Hard Pressed Smash Burgers’ food truck is camped outside to sling patties and food for the masses. He wanted a resident food truck available and coordinated with colleagues in his network to make it a reality. 

Ink Factory also features a thrift space with vintage clothes and records, plus a new arcade and gaming alcove. It is known for its popular “Name that Tune” trivia competitions on Friday nights. 

The Origins of Ink 

The name Ink Factory comes from Meisenheimer’s previous ventures in publishing. He made waves – both figuratively and literally — with the launch of Void Live magazine in 2010. This free monthly North Florida culture and lifestyle magazine had a glossy and distinct presentation, with circulation at over 27,000 copies across 400 area locations across Jacksonville. Void’s unique aesthetic called back to beach culture, surfing and all things Jacksonville Beach. 

For most of Void magazine’s life cycle, Meisenheimer said they were relatively successful, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the prospects for this business started to dwindle. “On March 17th, we got the news we lost 90 percent of our advertisers,” he said. 

Void went from having a slew of full-time staff writers and designers to a skeleton crew, and the financial blow ultimately led to the paper’s shutdown in the summer of 2021. 

But Meisenheimer and his business partners took this opportunity to reinvent the space they had previously made on Shetter Avenue, and renovated the building into the brewery it is today. 

Ink Factory isn’t Meisenheimer’s only claim to fame for Jacksonville beer and nightlife. He is also co-owner of Hoptinger in Jacksonville Beach and Five Points, serving an assortment of food, drink and festivities. The latter of the two has been recognized as an award-winning rooftop bar, Meisenheimer said. 

Osprey Life and Post-Graduation 

While at UNF, he met a lot of people living in Ospreys Landing. He made a name for himself by working alongside a number of local bands, creating their websites and branding in efforts to fine-tune his graphic design skills and build up his portfolio. 

He also recalls immersing himself deeply in his coursework with his classmates. He believes it helped him hone his skills in design, while establishing some lasting connections with his peers. 

“I was a total geek,” Meisenheimer said. “I was the guy at the design lab pretty much nonstop. We had a crew —I still hang out with some of the guys — that literally just lived in the computer lab.” 

After graduating, Meisenheimer worked for over six years with Groundswell Media, a marketing, opportunity, and incubation company that garnered a winning portfolio of media-related, event planning and digital companies. In this role, Meisenheimer, oversaw development and growth of all of the companies with a heavy involvement in the early stages through research and creation, including defining market, positioning and rollout. He played an active role in talent selection, teambuilding, and developing various brand offerings and services. He also contributed work as a creative director to The Surf Project and Ecisive, as well as a new media designer for Push Interactive. 

Meisenheimer said in order to be a successful business owner, you have to know your financial numbers, as well as set goals, milestones and maintain a cohesive vision of success. 

In his spare time, Meisenheimer enjoys being on the water, whether it’s surfing, boating or fishing. 

Jax Dragonfly Field Labs

We continue highlighting our Ospreys in nature as we visit Jax Dragonfly Field Labs, founded by alumna Elizabeth (Lizzy) Ellis (’16).

The Larva Stage

As a child born and raised in Jacksonville, Ellis was very into nature. She joined the UNF College of Arts and Sciences Environmental Science program in 2012 where she spent all four years living on campus. She enjoyed all the opportunities for hands-on experiences in the biology department, and her favorite moments were when her herpetology professors would take the students into nature, running around searching for reptiles.

Following graduation, she joined the Tree Hill Nature Center as a naturalist and got her teaching certificate to serve as an elementary science teacher for Kipp Jacksonville schools. However, when the pandemic hit, she stepped out of the classroom to pursue her passion for environmental education.

The Pupa Stage

Despite her love of nature as a child, Ellis never experienced a lot of outdoor activities, including camping, until she came to the University of North Florida. With many elementary schools pivoting to a virtual space, Ellis founded Jax Dragonfly Academy as a way for students to still have hands-on experiences in their education. “Miss Lizzy” created a safe outdoor space for these kids to learn about science and nature through activities, including survival skills and wild species conservation. Her goal is to provide an education you could not access online or through a textbook.

It started with groups from the homeschool community and then they hosted summer camps, but as the classrooms started to return to normal, the demand for the program expanded throughout the community. Now, their schedule is booked months in advance. They still operate with a capacity of 20 students at a time, so there is an extended waitlist.

The Adult Stage

Nowadays, Jax Dragonfly Field Labs continues to grow, and Ellis hopes to add more programs and locations to expand their reach to students all across Jacksonville. In addition to their camps located by the Beaches, Westside, Mandarin and Nocatee, they’ve integrated some fun themes like Harry Potter and Minecraft.

Luksha and Co.

The decision to start your own business is a big step in many Ospreys lives, but it takes more wingspan to fly against strong winds that may lead you to failure.

In Alanna Luksha’s case, that meant starting a wedding planning business, Luksha and Co., at a major turning point during the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020. At the time, many businesses started to experience shutdowns, and this social distancing requirements for certain locations meant many weddings were either postponed or canceled for the foreseeable future.

Not only did she and her husband, Lawrence Luksha, maintain the business during the many challenges of the pandemic, the business is thriving to this day.

All According to Plan

As a wedding planner, Luksha said she and her husband provide outstanding, comprehensive services aiming to make the wedding planning process enjoyable and stress-free for couples. Alanna and Lawrence offer full-service planning and month-of wedding management, as well as budget management, event design, vendor selection, and venue coordination, ensuring a seamless wedding process. The couple frequently works with clients establishing detailed timelines and overseeing day-of logistics in order to bring a couple’s vision to life, she said.

Alanna said she found inspiration in weddings due to the “distinct joy and emotional connection associated with weddings.” She said she has a “deep passion for creating unforgettable moments and transforming dreams into reality.” She loves to fine tune the intricate details of a wedding that makes each one special to the other.

“The idea of being an integral part of such a significant milestone in people’s lives resonated with me,” Luksha said. “Witnessing the love stories and diverse visions of couples fueled my determination to craft personalized, seamless and memorable experiences for them.”

She also holds a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation, which is the highest accreditation for professionals in the events industry and reflects a commitment of time and experience in excellence.

Alanna and her husband, Lawrence (Larry), met in eighth grade while attending Arlington Baptist Church and have been dating ever since. While busy with the wedding planning business, she and Larry are expecting their first child together in April 2024! She likes to spend time with her cats, Ruca and Orca, as well as exploring the local coffee shop scene with Larry. She also enjoys long drives down A1A and watching reruns of “The Office.”

From the Chamber to the Nest

While Lawrence completed his bachelor’s degree in 2018, Alanna took a longer time to finish college, mainly due to juggling one or two classes a semester and paying her way through and working full time at the JAX Chamber, where she worked in events and community engagement. This experience since 2016 at the Chamber developed the backbone of her knowledge in event planning, and she learned a great deal from her time working with this downtown Jacksonville organization. She said she initially didn’t see a need to complete her education after getting her associate degree and acquiring the job at the Chamber. But during her time with the organization, she developed an interest in political science and pursued a degree in it after taking advice from one of her mentors.

“She said, ‘You don’t want not having a degree to be the one thing that holds you back from hitting that next level,’” Luksha said.

She gradually worked through her coursework and graduated summa cum laude from UNF in December 2022 with a B.A. in political science and a minor in leadership. 

She actively participated in extracurricular activities, with Renewing Dignity being a major way for Alanna to give back to the community by combatting period poverty — the lack of access to menstrual products such as tampons — in Northeast Florida. She also worked as an events professional, frequently volunteering time to assist local organizations in planning and executing events. During these volunteer hours, she said she would work anything from check-in management to overall event implementation.

One of Alanna’s defining achievements is being the first person in her family to get a college degree. “I invested countless hours and late nights, trying to strike a balance between work, studies and entrepreneurial duties to pay my way through school,” she said. “This journey not only shaped my work ethic but also gave me a profound appreciation for the value of education and the sacrifices it takes to reach my goals.”

Lynx Fit + Well

If you’re looking to start your New Year’s fitness goals off on the right track, there’s no better place to get your pump on than Lynx Fit + Well, owned by Dustin Swinney (’13). Located on Hodges Boulevard between Beach and JTB, this gym has everything you need with workout equipment, knowledgeable trainers, classic rock music and Osprey alumni.

Knowledge is Power

Swinney graduated from COAS with a degree in public relations. The convenience of UNF’s location and a class schedule that balanced well with his work made it a great choice for him. He was the second generation of his family able to attend college, so earning his degree was important to him. As a senior, the UNF Recreation and Wellness gym had just opened, and between the top-of-the-line equipment and staff, odds are that if you stopped by at any given point, you would find him there. Learning all the ins and outs of the gym also helped confirm that he was on the right career path.

Jeff Fronk – the owner of Lynx’s predecessor Fitness by Fronk – took Swinney on as an apprentice in 2009. While he initially explored the pursuit of a job in the corporate world, he started to earn advanced certifications in his apprenticeship role and decided to pursue this as a career. After Swinney completed his degree at UNF, Fronk started expanding the business into Ponte Vedra, so he appointed him as manager and passed along most of the duties at the Hodges location. Swinney served in this facet until 2017 when he decided to purchase the gym from Fronk and rebranded it to its current name.

Like a Boss

He has always enjoyed working in the world of fitness, but being the boss has its perks. The only exercise he doesn’t do is jump through hoops, as he can now bypass a lot of the red tape that he used to face to make things happen. He has now hired seven knowledgeable employees to help operate the business, including former North Florida Ospreys baseball star TJ Gavlik. Swinney believes the factor that separates Lynx from the other gyms is the customization they can offer based on the experience of their staff. He said, “we can work with high-level athletes to people that are dealing with different ailments and injuries.” They’ve trained people ranging from the “Average Joes and Janes” looking to lose weight and gain muscle, to therapeutic exercise for members with ALS and Down syndrome, to MLB, NFL, PGA and LPGA athletes aiming to perform at the highest level. Plus, they have a great network to connect their gym members with physicians and physical therapists.

When he’s not working at the gym, he stays active in the community. And we literally mean “active” because this gym rat spends his free time frequenting other local Jacksonville gyms, both to get some more exercise and to learn new ways to improve his business. But he also has three sons – a 6-year-old, 2-year-old and 4-month-old – so we use the term “free time” very loosely.

Moksha Yoga + Spa

At Moksha Yoga + Spa, UNF alum Connor Lanser (‘18) and his staff are trained in assisting others develop self-care habits that will refresh the mind, replenish energy and lead to small steps in consistency that will bring better overall health and wellness within each client who walks through their doors.

The yoga studio is located near Tinseltown in Suite 110 at 9726 Touchton Road — next to Cantina Louie’s — and provides both traditional and hot yoga classes for patrons, as well as massage therapy, infrared sauna treatments, cupping, high-intensity interval training classes, and seasonal acupuncture. Moksha also provides express 30-minute yoga classes, allowing for greater flexibility for clients, Lanser said, as well as meditation and aerial yoga courses.

Finding Ones Self

Moksha opened in 2018 at a different location before moving to its current home in 2022. It’s a culmination of the experience Lanser received while teaching at local studios in Jacksonville since 2016, with its name inspired by the concept of moksha from the Hindu religion, which focuses on breaking the wheel of reincarnation to achieve freedom. Like that concept, Lanser hopes to help people achieve freedom in a spiritual sense by partaking in the services he and his staff provides.

Moksha has two small yoga rooms: One for traditional, one-hour yoga classes and the other for hot yoga classes, which typically are set in the 90–100-degree range to add some extra heat to the sessions. The studio also has a cubby room to store belongings during sessions, as well as private restrooms with showers to accommodate the needs of clients coming in during the workday, Lanser said.

When it comes to the practice of yoga and his mission, Lanser said yoga is about “establishing awareness of what is” and checking in with both your body and mind and how they are feeling. By doing so, he and his staff can provide modalities to help facilitate healing. “Our goal is to provide everyone with the tools they need,” Lanser said.

One of those tools is community, which Lanser said is essential to his mission overall. “We are who we surround ourselves quite often,” he said. He said he wants to help others have different conversations, where it leads to getting that text message at 3 or 4 p.m. from a friend that says, “Hey, do you wanna go to yoga?” Instead of “Hey, do you wanna grab that beer?”

Lanser said many studios are worried about their bottom dollar and want to pack classes with dozens of clients, but Moksha prioritizes smaller class settings with sessions typically having no more than 15 participants.

“For us, It’s all about quality over quantity,” Lanser said, marking this as essential to his business model. “The teacher can really establish that rapport and that relationship with everyone coming in and that each practice can be designed based on who’s showing up and how they’re showing up.”

Moving into the new year, the studio will provide new workshops and classes, as well as a gentle yoga and journaling class each Friday in January, bringing two introspective practices together for growth and healing.

Journey to UNF

Connor Lanser initially had no intention of ever moving to Jacksonville from his home in Boca Ratón in South Florida, but when his high school friends were applying out to the big state schools like Florida State University and University of Central Florida, Lanser found those large colleges unappealing. He applied to Florida Atlantic University with sure hopes he would get into his hometown university. But when the rejection letter came from FAU admissions, it sent Lanser back to the drawing board.

After doing more research on his options for school, UNF caught his eye thanks to its beautiful campus, Lanser said.

“I fell in love from day one,” Lanser said, noting how impressive the campus weaved into the nature and wetlands nearby. “I wanted to have more of like a university experience, but not quite as large as UCF or FSU.”

He started at UNF in 2014, double majoring in psychology and sociology. He had initial aspirations of working as a school counselor and really enjoyed his psychology courses, but “the sociology department changed my life,” Lanser said.

Lanser credits Dr. Jenny Stuber with helping steer him in the right direction in the program. He said he had a positive experience with his psychology professors, but those larger classes did not bring the same sense of community that his smaller courses in sociology provided for study.

Stuber knew that Lanser taught yoga and rallied some of the other sociology professors to come partake in his class once, which is part of why he said he felt so supported from all angles of the department.

“It’s the people that make the experience,” Lanser said. “You can go to a restaurant and a meal’s a meal, but a lot of times it’s the serve who makes that experience for you.”

While he didn’t have the opportunity to get involved heavily outside of the classroom due to working a full-time job throughout college while also teaching yoga, he did study abroad in Iceland and met with major union leaders and a member of Parliament who went on to become the Prime Minister.

He also has fond memories of living on campus during his first year at UNF, when he met two of his closest friends within the first week, whom he still talks to today.

Lanser credits both Dr. Stuber and Dr. David Jaffee as “two of the most important people in my life,” and said they “completely shook up my framework of thinking” while offering him numerous challenges along the way.

Lanser works seven days a week — sometimes clocking in 70-80 hours a week — but says that he’s grateful that he loves what he does not work never really feels like work to him. Whenever he does get tired or stressed, his work is a source of calm.

“My job lends itself really well to helping to decompress from anything that’s been built from the job itself,” Lanser said.

He has plenty to celebrate nowadays after recently becoming a homeowner. Since moving to Jacksonville in 2014, he’s lived in 11 different places across the River City and hopes this may be the last time he moves for a long time.

He enjoys spending time with his boyfriend and their cat, reading, going outdoors and building genuine connections with others through yoga.

St. Augustine Wild Reserve

This edition of Alumni Business Spotlight leads us to an Animal Kingdom all its own located right around the corner in nearby St. Augustine. This 2011 alumna committed her life to the care and betterment of exotic animals, starting in California before calling the First Coast home in 2000.

Animal Lover from Day 1

From an early age, Deborah Warrick-Rossi (‘11), a self-described tomboy, never played with dolls. “I hated dolls,” she said. “I had spiders and snakes.”

She grew up in the hills of San Jose, California, and there were all sorts of animal life roaming the streets and hillsides. Warrick-Rossi recalled bringing home raccoons and rattlesnakes, “you name it, I could get my hands on it,” she said as her parents let her follow her passion.

“Whatever I brought home, they’d go, ‘Oh God here she comes again,” Warrick-Rossi said. “So, I’ve always been this way.”

Now decades later, Deborah stands 5 feet 7 inches tall with big blonde hair and even bigger cats and exotic animals at her St. Augustine Wild Reserve, a rescue organization that spawned from her nonprofit, Soul of the Wolf Wildlife Sanctuary.

“I knew someday I would own my own zoo and here we are,” she said with confidence.

With over 40 years of experience with exotic animals, she’s become a local expert in North Florida. At the Wild Reserve, she houses, feeds and maintains the health of numerous animals alongside her staff members and volunteers. She has a biology degree from the University of North Florida, as well as a master’s degree in veterinary forensic science from the University of Florida, as well as an animal husbandry certificate from the Los Angeles Zoo. She oversees the sanctuary and caring for about 90 animals, including wolves, African lions, tigers, hyenas, coyotes, leopards, jaguars, and a few birds. The complex also houses a Florida black bear, a coati mundi and an African-crested porcupine.

It’s hard not to talk about big cats and exotic animals without mentioning the 2020 sensation of the “Tiger King” docuseries on Netflix that put a giant spotlight on exotic animals in various industries. Warrick-Rossi’s guiding principle is the care and welfare of animals through her nonprofit, as well as ensuring that she can be an educational resource to the community. “We’re not Joe Exotic,” she said. “We don’t raise tiger cubs and sell them.”

Many know of Carole Baskin from “Tiger King” and people often come to the park mistakenly thinking that they might meet her there, Warrick-Rossi said. In fact, The Wild Reserve is the new home to several of Joe Exotic’s former animals, including Chandra, a Ti-liger — a cross between a tiger and liger — which Warrick-Rossi said is 1 of 6 in the world.

If you’re interested in supporting these animals, The Wild Reserve has a number of private donors, but they sustain their business and the welfare of these animals through their tours, which they host about five times a week, Warrick-Rossi said. General admission for the tours, which are by appointment only, are $35 and last roughly 1.5 hours. These tours are packed with educational material and an opportunity to get close to the caged animals while learning more about their needs and why these types of animals are not suitable as pets. Sometimes you’ll even get a chance to see a tiger bubble bath!

A Gift that Led to a Calling

Deborah suffered a difficult health setback in 1981 in California after she broke her back while skydiving. As she recovered from her injury, her instructor gave her a wolf puppy as a get-well present. This gift led to a deep love for bigger animals that she pursued further in the following years, focusing mostly on acquiring wolves until the ‘90s. She eventually took in some cougars, tigers and lions in the ‘90s, as well as a Florida black bear named Teddy, whose backstory is a major story itself!

Warrick-Rossi said Teddy’s previous owner bought him out from under another bidder at an animal auction many years ago because the other bidder wanted to shoot and kill the bear in his cage, simply to get a bear pelt for his own use. But Teddy lived alongside this man for 20 years before he retired from the animal business and gave him to the Wild Reserve. Warrick-Rossi said he loves sweets, and some special tours allow attendees a chance to feed him some of his favorite foods via tongs, since it’s illegal to feed them otherwise.

One of Warrick-Rossi’s surprising joys of working in this line of work includes the time famed zookeeper Jack Hanna knocked on her mountain-top home’s front door searching for another rescue location. While at her home, he took interest in her wolves and asked to see them, promising to do a special TV episodes surrounding her wolves. He did so in 1994 with the episode, “Uncommon Canines,” for his show “Animal Adventures.”

She also was responsible for capturing the wolves of Jane Brolin — actor James Brolin’s ex-wife and actor Josh Brolin’s mother — after she passed away. She learned a lot about capturing animals from that experience, including how to use pole syringes to sedate and capture the wolves. Those wolves lived with her for the rest of their days, dying at an old age of about 17 years old.

While ensuring these big animals have a healthy home, death escapes none. For Deborah, she’s trained to both sedate and euthanize animals as needed with a license. She said they maintain a high-quality level of care for the animals at the reserve, resulting in longer life expectancies than are typical of these animals while living in the wild. With the last three tigers that have passed while living at the Reserve, Warrick-Rossi said they each lived to be 20 years old, which is longer than their typical lifespan in the wild.

“We can really squeeze a lot of life out of them,” she said. “Everybody’s just real fat and healthy here.”

Warrick-Rossi collaborates with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the USDA as a rescue expert for large animals, applying her specialty and experience spanning several decades of work with lions, tigers and bears … oh my.

“We do everything by the book,” she said, highlighting that her organization works well with FWC and the USDA. “They tell us to fix something, we fix it. If they say build a bigger cage, we build a bigger cage. So, we get along really well with them.”

Rediscovering her Path to College

After Warrick-Rossi graduated high school in 1972, she took college courses at San Jose State University for a year or two but got bored and wanted to work.

Despite her decades of varied experience with large animals, she said many other people would underestimate her expertise and knowledge of these large animals based on her looks. She said some would see her as “the dumb blonde with a tiger in the back yard,” which was unwarranted given her time in this line of work.

She said she always regretted not getting her biology degree, so she did just that and started going back to classes at UNF in 2003. She completed her degree in 2011, graduating magna cum laude.

While taking classes at UNF, she met her husband through her coursework in ecology and they’ve been together for 15 years and married for two.

She said it was really hard going back to college and graduate school later in life and regrets not doing it sooner, but she values the knowledge she acquired and not having to prove her credentials to others anymore because they see her as inexperienced.

“They don’t do that anymore,” she said. “It really makes a difference to have that piece of paper.”

Simply Grace Photography

Grace Restivo is a double alumna from the UNF College of Education and Human Services, having graduated with a bachelor’s in elementary education in 2018 before returning to obtain her master’s in 2020. She currently teaches the 5th grade at Kings Trail Elementary, but it's her second job that's the focus of this month's #LocalBusinessShowcase.

Say Cheese!

Restivo has always enjoyed photography, carrying around her camera for all her family’s and friend’s events. After seeing how well her photos turned out, they would always ask how much she charged. That’s when she realized she could turn this passion into a profession. She opened Simply Grace Photography in April of 2021.

Picture Perfect

The “Simply Grace” aesthetic could be described as authentic and candid. She focuses on showcasing natural movements to create timeless photos. From weddings and engagements to professional headshots and graduation photos, Restivo does it all.

Depth of Field

While she’s generally based in Jacksonville, she’s gotten to travel all over for photoshoots. Her favorite destination was at the Washington National Cathedral in D.C. earlier this summer. As her business continues to grow, she wants to continue growing with the brand. As long as she focuses on what she loves, she knows she’ll be successful.

T5 Sportswear

It doesn’t get much more local for this month’s #LocalBusinessShowcase. Located just on the other side of I-295 from the University of North Florida, T5 Sportswear and Promotions owner Robert Talley (UNF alumnus ’89) has been in the sports business since his student days. The UNF School of Communication major was working for UNF Recreation and Wellness purchasing the championship shirts, referee gear and more from a company called All American Specialty. After graduation, he landed a job with that same apparel company and worked there until 2001 when he and a partner purchased the company from the original owner. In 2011, Talley bought out his partner and rebranded his business to T5 Sportswear & Promotions (representing the 5 Ts in the Talley family).

Support Local

While many of the Englewood High School graduate’s classmates left the city to attend UF or FSU, Talley and his friends saw the first freshmen class come through UNF and decided to keep the talent in the region, making North Florida their home for the next four years. For Talley, it means a lot to be able to contribute to the youth sports community in Jacksonville. Not only did he play basketball through high school, but he watched his daughters (Peyton ’16, Kenedy ’16 & Hunter ‘18) grow up through youth sports.

Roll Up Your Sleeves

Every day is something new for their business as just the other day he transitioned from working with a tee-ball coach to the Brooks Rehabilitation CEO. T5 has also recently implemented their new Force5 sportswear line which allows for total customization through their overseas factory on items. This includes their unique girls’ flag football uniforms or the attire for the recent Jacksonville Guns & Hoses event. His favorite part of the job is that he’s active from the beginning of the order placement, through the design/customization process, all the way until the customer happily receives their finished product.

The 5 T's of Talley

The 5th “T” in T5, Hunter (Talley) Dailey currently serves as a Sales Representative and Accountant for the business. Once a little kid running through the warehouse, she’s excited to be a part of the company's growth, from the creation of online stores with custom merchandise for the local schools to their new direct-to-film printers which provide customers with another cost-effective printing option. In the future, she would love to see T5 launch their own line of merchandise (similar to the DTWD Originals Shop).

So whether you’re looking for apparel or promotions items for your team or company, keep it local and visit https://www.t5sportswear.com/

Twinkle Toes Nanny Agency

When Carolina Rodriguez (‘16) got into the University of North Florida, she had already started working as a nanny for Twinkle Toes Nanny Agency in Gainesville, the company’s first branch. Luckily, the agency had just opened its Jacksonville location around the time she made plans to move to the First Coast and easily transitioned roles in preparation for college.

Fast forward to 2024 and Rodriguez now owns and operates Twinkle Toes Nanny Agencies in Jacksonville and St. Augustine after working her way up the business ladder.

A Commitment to Quality Childcare

Twinkle Toes Nanny Agency serves hundreds of families on the First Coast and beyond. Rodriguez said the most popular service would be the occasional babysitting and date nights and weekend nanny duties. This is especially useful in cases where a parent has an appointment or a grandparent is unavailable to provide care.

Rodriguez said Twinkle Toes has a lot of nurses, doctors, surgeons and medical field workers who can’t call out of work due important emergency procedures that arise.

The key quality of a Twinkle Toes nanny is reliability, and this is important for quality customer experience and maintaining a positive reputation, Rodriguez said.

“We do a really good job at vetting those candidates to make sure that they’re reliable and they’re going to meet the expectations of the family,” she said.

All Twinkle Toes nannies are required to have CPR certification and pass multiple background checks before working with any families, Rodriguez said. They also need to have three years of professional childcare experience and not just time looking after family members. Any further credentials ultimately impact the pay range and open up doors for more full-time positions, she said.

Since Rodriguez was once a regular nanny, she knows how to provide guidance to her employees through years of experience.

Finding Her Footing

Rodriguez said she loves UNF especially for its small classroom sizes that fostered deep connections between her and her peers. She said she founded a religious club, Adventist Christian Ministries (ACM), during her time as a student, facilitating meetups and bible study sessions for students on campus.

As a psychology major, Carolina took classes in child psychology which led her to research how children respect rules of sharing and taking turns when their parents are in the room with them compared to when they leave the room. She was fascinated by early childhood development and enjoyed learning how the brain and behavior changes during the many stages of human development.

After she graduated from UNF in 2016, Rodriguez moved to Massachusetts and worked as a special education teacher for Teach for America, where she said she loved the students but hated the snow. While working, she completed a master’s degree in education from Boston University in 2018. She also worked with the State of Massachusetts teaching employees how to work with adults with disabilities.

She moved back to Florida after finishing her master’s degree and had the opportunity to rejoin her Twinkle Toes location in Gainesville, but this time as a branch manager. She worked in this capacity for over two years before deciding she wanted to own her branches.

Growing the Business

Rodriguez has worked hard to expand the company’s name and footprint across Northeast Florida with slow progress at first. Her success has led her to become an owner, and she bought the Jax West and St. Augustine Agencies in October 2020, and later purchased Jacksonville East in 2022 to serve about 700 families across the region.

She said she brings a “unique flair” to the agency due to experience and background as a child psychologist, special education teacher and seasoned childcare provider. But when Rodriguez entered into the business side of Twinkle Toes, it came with its own set of daunting challenges, she said.

“There’s so much to it you don’t even know is a part of it until you’re in it,” she said as she recalled the difficulties of not having a business background, as well as finding more families and re-integrating into the local community.

While working as a special education teacher in Massachusetts, Rodriguez said she would frequently write Individual Education Plans (IEPs) for her students and coordinated with several other professionals, including speech pathologists, therapists, school counselors and her students’ parents. She said she found through this process an affinity for being a parental liaison -- someone reliable for guidance and information to best assist their children’s growth and development.

“I loved being able to answer questions,” she said. “I loved being able to be someone that you can reach out to if you had any questions about your child.”

Childcare puts her in a position of advocacy for both children and parents to meet their mutual needs and set expectations for both the families and the nannies. Meanwhile, she said her education in psychology allows her to pinpoint and educate nannies and parents on behavioral issues, potential screenings for learning disabilities or neurodivergence, and effective methods for proper parenting that suite each family’s specific needs.

“I can understand really what’s going on in your family home and how we can best support that,” she said.

Rodriguez has found success in her time in the business side. The challenges strengthened her determination and grit for her work and allowed her to wait to be able to see the fruits of her labor.

“I had to learn a lot more patience in the role,” she said. “I had to be very comfortable with hearing ‘no’ as well or being OK with that silence.”

Twinkle Toes will sometimes have a presence at UNF Market Days to look for new nanny candidates. Rodriguez encourages education and psychology majors to apply if they are interested. She said some previous nannies have even stayed on with the agency through their doctoral programs.

“UNF students make amazing nannies,” she said. “I love them.”

When Rodriguez is not molding young minds and running a thriving nanny agency across Northeast Florida, she enjoys spending time with her husband and high school sweetheart, JuanDavid, along with their two dogs and cat. Rodriguez said she loves the outdoors and is always up for a hiking or camping trip, as well as time spent at the Florida springs and beaches. She is currently training for her first half marathon, slated for May around the time of her birthday.