Today we’d like to introduce you to Tonya George.
Hi Tonya, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I come from a bicultural background of American and Trinidadian/Tobagonian descent. As a child, growing up in Brooklyn, NY, I wanted to become a Veterinarian and a dancer. I have a great love for animals and medicine, which were realized as a child. I often brought stray animals home and cared for them while growing up. I wanted to become a Veterinarian, but I learned at an early age that severe allergies to cats and asthma were not a good combination for Veterinarian medicine. I began to study dance at the age of eight. After many years of continuing to dance, I received my BFA in dance. My parents, unfortunately, believed life as a dancer was not in my best interest, so they “encouraged” me to go into medicine. Shortly after undergraduate studies, I got accepted into Physician Assistant (PA) school and I have been a PA for nearly 20 years now, working in various surgical subspecialties. Over the past 20 years, I developed a strong passion for public health. I went back to school to obtain two Masters’ degrees in Clinical Leadership and Community Health/Public Health. I moved to Texas in 2007, where I lived in the Houston area. While in the Houston area, I completed a Ph.D. in Public Health. Using my clinical and public health skills, I began to author scientific journal articles, engage in research, and co-author clinical book chapters while working as an Assistant Professor at one of the Universities in Houston. Although I love my career as a Physician Assistant and Doctor of Public Health, my desire for educating people about health and wellness in a non-clinical setting has become a passion in my life. In 2019 I left the Houston area to move to Dallas for spiritual reasons. Once I came to this beautiful city, I realized I did not want my passion for wellness coaching to remain void. That is how my company NoonieLand, LLC, was born.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Life has not been easy for me in many ways. People can easily look at me and think that my life has been without challenges because they focus on the superficial outward things in life. Having a career or materialistic things in life doesn’t mean you haven’t gone through some stuff. Unfortunately, I have experienced a great deal of trauma, loss, and hardships. Just to name a few challenges or obstacles, my oldest brother passed away suddenly right next to me the day we found out he had renal cancer. He was just 33 years old. This was before my mother, her sister, my father, and his brother all found out they had cancer. We lost my aunt and uncle. My family also loss one of my younger brothers. He went missing for two months right after Christmas two years ago and was tragically found in a body of water. He was 21 years old. The cause of his death was never discovered, although we feel foul play was involved. I have also faced medical challenges that have resulted in nearly a dozen surgeries and procedures. There’s unfortunately so much more that I can tell you, but through God’s grace, I am still here. Having gone through those obstacles has strengthened my “fight for life” and my faith, and has left me with a warrior mentality about never giving up. Despite mastering “whining” about my circumstances (laugh), I never give up on my dreams, myself, or my role in the Body of Christ.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about NoonieLand?
As a Christian Wellness Advocate/Coach, author, speaker, and creative, my mantra is “Living Creatively, Loving Passionately, and Walking Purposefully. NoonieLand LLC is my platform to encourage others to live their lives in the same fashion. NoonieLand LLC is a health and wellness business that offers individualized wellness coaching, invited speaker engagements, and wellness products. Having nearly 20 years of clinical experience and a Doctorate in Public Health allows me to offer quality wellness coaching and to provide customized speaking engagements for small or large groups (online or in-person). I have a great deal of experience in the medical and health fields, but the thing that sets me apart from other wellness coaches or speakers is that I am not coming to you to “preach” about wellness. I am not coming to you as a person who has not dealt with obstacles and challenges myself. I am coming to you from a place of familiarity, knowing the challenges life can bring. Using that lens, my focus is on tackling wellness through the utilization of your struggles. I use your struggles as a strength to develop practical applications to help individuals achieve wellness. I do this with the understanding that life can simply be hard at times and knowing there is no cookie-cutter formula for achieving what I like to call “total wellness”. Wellness is an ongoing process and it has to be individualized. NoonieLand LLC does just that. Ultimately, the goal of my company is to inspire individuals to improve all dimensions of wellness so they can reach their God-given potential despite the challenges that life may bring, while using the individual gifts they have been given from the Lord.
In addition to wellness coaching and speaker invites, I offer a variety of self-care and wellness products. I make hand-poured soy candles in a variety of scents and hand-made body butter (“Noonie Butter”) and sugar scrubs. I have scented and natural dead sea salts, journals, inspirational jewelry, bath and body products, and NoonieLand branded water bottles, just to name a few. My website also has my newly released Christian children’s book titled “Beyond The Clouds”. “Beyond The Clouds” is a rhyming picture book for children ages 3-5 that focuses on the goodness of Jesus Christ. It is self-published book with vibrant illustrations and it is one of my prize creations available for purchase on my website. All of my products are quality products geared at helping individuals take time for themselves to relax and “smell the roses” or my candles (laugh).
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
My favorite book is the Holy Bible. It gives me inspiration, insight, and knowledge about our Lord. It gives me the strength to keep going. I use my Instagram and Facebook apps every day. They help me grow my following and potentially reach more people to provide them with words of inspiration, products for self-care, and services that will hopefully change their level of wellness, I enjoy TED podcasts when some of my favorite inspirational/motivational speakers are giving talks. It is my hope that one day I will be a TED speaker.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@noonieland.com
- Website: www.noonieland.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noonielandllc/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonya.george.142
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/noonielandl
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB2D92PhUvk02F0LWyMWAfQ
- Other: https://noonieland.blogspot.com/
