Turning the unconventional into the conventional has always been a goal for SHINE, an education and retreat center that inspires and empowers people. SHINE will share its philosophies with the community when it hosts its first-ever symposium on Saturday afternoon at the Northeast Ohio Medical Center in Rootstown beginning at 9 a.m.
“The SHINE symposium merges the two things that we do,” SHINE founder Cortney Martinelli told The Weekly Villager. “What I mean is self-care and self-development with small business success. We do offer corporate training, but it is a small piece of what we do, and we really wanted to widen our maps so there are three tracks of works at the symposium; self-care, self-development and small business success.”
The symposium will be led by a panel of keynote speakers, each one of whom will share their stories of adversity that led them to achieving success, including Martinelli, who created SHINE after working for 26 years for an insurance company.
According to Martinelli, she founded the company when she worked on self-improvement by going on an exploration of different holistic modalities.
She said that she was inspired to have SHINE host a symposium after hosting its outdoor festival SHINEfest last May.
“There were about 600 people there and it was a wonderful event, but I wanted to go back to my roots at corporate America and bring some indoor event that felt more like a conference,” she said. “We had so much fun at SHINEfest but I really realized I wanted to do some indoor conference for business professionals too.”
Members of the panel will include Cleveland Browns assistant wide receivers coach Callie Brownson, the first female position coach in the NFL, who will speak about her NFL journey of self-development.
“She is speaking on a panel about adversity and success,” noted Martinelli. “She would say that she has had a lot of failure and adversity in her life and because she kept going, she found great success in her life.”
Joining Brownson on the panel is Cleveland fashion designer and former Project Runway contestant Valerie Meyen, who is the owner of the Yellowcake Shop, a women’s clothing store in Cleveland.
Martinelli said that Meyen’s keynote address will discuss how the importance of community and empowering women of diversity can lead to generational wealth with a successful small business.
Emily Harpel, the founder of the Art of Sucre, an e-commerce cotton candy business that sells nine different cotton candy flavors and has now partnered with national brands, will be featured as the third speaker on the panel.
“She is speaking to social media collaboration and how to build a business through those two aspects and will share her secrets with us. She has 1.3 million followers on Tik Tok,” said Martinelli.
Ted Senf, a former colleague of Martinelli’s from her previous career in corporate America and a TEDx speaker, will discuss self-development as a part of his keynote address.
“He has done lots of different key notes and he has also been a TedX speaker,” added Martinelli. “He is my mentor and is the most amazing human that I know. I would never have imagined hosting or inspiring an event without him being the center of it all.”
Martinelli will also be a member of the panel and talk about her journey to making SHINE a sustainable business. Attendees will have the chance to buy products from local vendors, receive free massages, healing sessions and services that will teach them about self-care.
When Martinelli founded SHINE, the first thing she did was become certified in Reiki, a Japanese form of acupuncture without the use of needles but requires the use of hands to transfer energy throughout the body.
“You start at the head, and you place the hands at the crown of the head, and you work through these 23 hand positions and end at the feet. Before you start a session, you test somebody’s chakras,” she said. “Chakras are an indication of someone’s personal frequency, so it gives you an idea of where to start.”
In addition to Reiki, SHINE offers 14 certifications in other healing practices such as becoming certified yoga instructors. Martinelli said that her company gives people a chance to become certified in a variety of yoga practices such as Yin Yoga or Restorative Yoga. There are also meditation courses to become certified in areas like positive psychology or sound therapy.
“It makes me realize that people want to be inspired and empowered and shift their mindsets, grow and transform and that makes me happy for our community,” Martinelli said.
