It’s not every day you meet someone like Tori.
As a Forward Cities Navigator and business coach since early 2020, Victoria Snyder, MEd., MSLPA, is leaving the business ecosystem in Pittsburgh more active and thriving than when she started. After completing the Navigator training program, Tori was added to our website for one-on-one coaching and consulting for small business owners and entrepreneurs in Pittsburgh. Through mentorship, she's helped numerous companies of all sizes and specialties.
Victoria Snyder Coaches Businesses, Entrepreneurs, and Wellness Clients
Victoria Snyder, MEd., MSLPA and Owner of Self-Care Senorita
In the past year-plus, Tori’s helped countless small businesses and entrepreneurs in the Pittsburgh area find their voice, open new avenues for growth, and navigate the intricacies and challenges of running a small business in a pandemic. The latter was an unexpected skillset to learn for all of us, but Tori is one to take challenges head-on and meet them with excellence.
Helping Underserved Pittsburgh Neighborhoods
In her role as a Forward Cities Navigator, Tori met and supported entrepreneurs in Pittsburgh to start their businesses and help prove their idea concepts. She reached out to organizations in Carrick, Arlington, and Mount Oliver south of the city, the West End, and Troy Hill and Spring Garden in the north. Ensuring those underserved areas of the Greater Pittsburgh area allowed Forward Cities Pittsburgh to expand their footprint and help more entrepreneurs as ar result.
“One of the things I am most proud of was being able to include minority organizations in other areas outside the three designated neighborhoods, typically well-supported in Pittsburgh,” Tori says. “Many of them are located in deserted areas of the city that already receive zero to no support because of their location, so it was important for me to create equity in the access of resources for those particular businesses.”
Education and Recognition
Tori is a 3x Telly Award-winning film producer and part of the 2019 class of Pittsburgh Magazine’s 40 Under 40. She earned her master’s degrees in education and in science leadership with a concentration in professional administration (MSLPA) from Duquesne University. After over a decade in diversity, equity, and inclusion work in higher education and the film industry combined, channeled her creative juices and business knowledge into a thriving business around mental health and self-care.
Personal Life and Career
As a Latina single mother, Tori knows how to get innovative and work hard to meet challenging goals. She quit her job as an Executive Vice President in the film industry at the top of her game. Why? She was a burned out, single mother that needed to learn how to take better care of herself and share that knowledge with others. Today she runs her own business as the Self-Care Senorita and coaches small business owners to find their own success.
Pittsburgh Forward Cities Navigator Takes New Challenges
Tori has innovation and entrepreneurship in her bones. As she leaves the Forward Cities formal navigator program, she’s not going far as a Pittsburgh-based entrepreneur and her community-supporting business, Self-Care Senorita.
Here’s just a brief snapshot of what she has in the works:
Self-Care Senorita Subscription Boxes
Sleep Inspired subscription box from Self-Care Senorita
As an advocate for mental health and cheerleader for being selfish with your own self-care, Tori developed monthly self-care subscription boxes to help others invest in their self-care throughout the pandemic. Each box has a theme, such as financial literacy and getting a good night of sleep, and includes items from small local or minority-owned businesses.
A Community of Positive Energy
To keep the self-care conversation going, the Self-Care Senoritas Facebook Group has 1,400+ members with new friends joining every day. In the free group, you can share how you’re taking care of yourself throughout the day, ask for advice, or simply scroll through amusing memes posted by the community.
An [ex-]Royal Encounter
Recently Tori was featured on Marketers in PJs: The Podcast, where she shared about her Zoom call with Prince Harry and Meghan. Yes, for real! In the eight-minute conversation, she was able to share her business story and how she supports mothers through civic engagement and providing space for fellow mothers to share their stories.
One of the greatest joys of the navigator work for Tori includes being able to connect with so many businesses and hear their dreams in their wants, as well as the reasons for creating a small business, especially during a pandemic. “Navigation work is more like dream work, being able to help others fulfill a dream or actualize an idea that they feel will give them a better chance to support not only their families, but their community as well,” says Tori of her time with Forward Cities as a Navigator.
Thank you, Tori, from the entire Forward Cities team. This isn’t the last time we’ll be hearing from you.
Small Business Resources for Pittsburgh Entrepreneurs
Running a small business in Pittsburgh is challenging for anyone. From sending invoices and navigating new regulations and procedures in a pandemic, you can certainly use a pocket full of resources from seasoned small business owners.
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