Today we’d like to introduce you to Annie Gann.
Hi Annie , so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I grew up in Hazelwood, Missouri, (North Saint Louis)
and worked at an equestrian center tucked between two highways and the airport. Ace Stables, From the time I was 12 until I graduated high school from sun up to sun down i pretty much was sitting in a saddle, teaching group of girl scouts a horse back riding lesson, training colts and turning them into show horses. That was a huge part of my life was hard work. My parents worked hard. I then jumped south to Joplin Missouri for University, My advisor typed in one wrong number on my class registration and I showed up the next semester to Respiratory Therapy school. I had Applied for Radiology Tech program. A simple mix up changed the trajectory of my life. I graduated with a Bachelors in Health Science, A minor in Marketing & graphic Design and moved clear across the country and bought a house on 4 acres in a tiny town in Virginia called Orange. And began my career as a 21 year old respiratory therapist, working and navigating my way through a level one trauma center with my support system 800 Miles away.
A year and a half later, My first “person of investigation” as they called it then was covid positive and the first in UVA’s hospital, He needed to be life-flighted by helicopter to a hospital up north, to limit exposure as it was my patient, Had me gearing up in suit to get into a helicopter and learning how to save lives in the sky for the next 8 months as I took a travel contract in Brooklyn New york in March of 2020 in the height of the pandemic.
I became a mom in October 2019 later that year I moved back to Missouri to the lake of the Ozarks, Got a divorce, bought a ranch, and started life over again. In 2020 I began my company Platinum Roots, Helping women build rooted, resilient lives after major life transitions, You can grow new roots at any stage of life once you get to the right environment
My vision is to build a media company that becomes a trusted companion for women navigating reinvention. Through books, storytelling, educational resources, creative content, and community, I want to help women realize that their hardest seasons don’t disqualify them from building a beautiful life—they often become the foundation for it
In February of this year, I made one of the most difficult decisions of my life: I stepped away from my career in healthcare to pursue the dreams that had been quietly calling me for years.
For nearly a decade, healthcare shaped who I was. As a respiratory therapist, I stood on the front lines during one of the most challenging periods in modern medicine. I witnessed resilience, heartbreak, sacrifice, and the incredible strength of the human spirit. Those experiences changed me forever, but they also revealed something important—I had stories to tell.
Since leaving healthcare, I have dedicated myself to building a life centered around creativity, education, and helping others heal. I have written a children’s book that I hope to publish, narrated my first audiobook series now available on streaming platforms, and begun work on several projects focused on women’s psychology, personal growth, and parenting.
One of my most ambitious projects is a novel inspired by my experiences in healthcare. It explores relationships, identity, and the often-unseen realities of hospital life through the eyes of a respiratory therapist. Respiratory therapists are sometimes referred to as the “red-headed stepchildren” of healthcare—critical to patient care, yet often misunderstood or overlooked. Through storytelling, I hope to give readers a glimpse behind hospital walls and share what the pandemic looked like from the inside.
At the heart of everything I create is a larger mission.
I want to give a voice to women who have spent years silencing their own because someone else told them they were too much, not enough, or incapable of more. I want to share my experiences—the successes, the failures, the pain, and the lessons learned—not because my story is unique, but because so many women are living similar stories in silence.
My goal is to help break generational cycles of trauma, encourage genuine healing, and empower women to rebuild their relationships with themselves, their finances, their past, and their future. I believe healing isn’t about becoming someone new; it’s about returning to who you were before the world convinced you to be someone else.
Whether through books, media, storytelling, or community, my vision is to create spaces where women feel seen, supported, and empowered to plant new roots—no matter where they are starting from.
Because sometimes the bravest thing a person can do is begin again.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Absolutely not. Looking back, my journey has been anything but smooth, but I wouldn’t change it because every challenge taught me something valuable.
Like many people, I spent years trying to build a life while simultaneously figuring out who I was and what i wanted to be when I grow up. I’ve experienced career uncertainty, financial stress, divorce, single motherhood, health challenges, and the pressure of constantly feeling like I needed to have everything figured out.
One of the biggest struggles was realizing that success on paper doesn’t automatically translate to fulfillment. I had achieved goals that I thought would make me feel complete—a degree, a healthcare career, homeownership, and financial stability—but there were still parts of myself that felt unheard and unexplored.
Working in healthcare during the pandemic brought its own challenges. Healthcare workers witnessed things that many people will never fully understand. We carried the weight of life-and-death decisions, comforted families during impossible moments, and continued showing up despite our own fears and exhaustion. Those experiences changed me as both a professional and a person.
Outside of work, I found myself navigating major life transitions while raising my son and rebuilding my life after divorce. Starting over can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re trying to create stability for someone else while also healing yourself.
Another challenge was learning to trust my own voice. For a long time, I looked outward for validation—wondering if I was making the right decisions, following the right path, or meeting everyone else’s expectations. Eventually, I realized that growth often requires disappointing the version of yourself that exists to make everyone else comfortable.
Leaving healthcare earlier this year to pursue my creative and entrepreneurial goals was one of the scariest decisions I’ve ever made. There are no guarantees when you step away from a stable career to chase a vision. There are moments of doubt, uncertainty, and fear.
But I’ve learned that courage isn’t the absence of fear. It’s choosing to move forward despite it.
Every setback, every difficult season, and every fresh start has reinforced the message that now drives my work: healing is possible, reinvention is possible, and sometimes the hardest chapters of our lives become the foundation for our greatest purpose.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Today, I wear several hats: Mom, author, voice actor, entrepreneur, content creator, and former healthcare professional. While those roles may seem unrelated on the surface, they are all connected by a common purpose: helping people feel seen, understood, and empowered to grow.
My professional background is in respiratory therapy, where I spent years caring for critically ill patients and working through some of the most challenging moments in healthcare history. That experience taught me the value of resilience, empathy, and human connection—lessons that continue to influence everything I create today.
Through Platinum Roots Media, I focus on storytelling, education, and personal development. My work includes children’s literature, audiobook narration, women’s personal growth content, parenting resources, and creative projects centered around healing, self-discovery, and transformation.
One project I am particularly passionate about is a novel inspired by my experiences in healthcare. It explores the realities of life inside hospital walls, the emotional impact of caregiving, and the unique challenges healthcare workers face that often go unseen by the outside world.
What I am most proud of is having the courage to start over. Leaving a stable career to pursue creative work was one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made, but it allowed me to align my work with my purpose. Since making that leap, I have published my first audiobook narration project, written a children’s book, and begun building a platform dedicated to helping others navigate their own journeys of growth and reinvention.
I believe what sets me apart is the combination of experiences I bring to the table. My perspective has been shaped by working with horses, serving on the front lines of healthcare, becoming a mother, navigating divorce, building businesses, and repeatedly rebuilding my life from the ground up. I don’t teach transformation from theory—I speak from lived experience.
At the core of everything I do is a simple mission: to help people understand that their past does not define their future. Whether through books, storytelling, media, or community, I want to create work that gives people permission to heal, grow, and begin again.
If there’s one thing I hope people remember about my work, it’s this: the most meaningful growth often happens beneath the surface, long before anyone else can see it.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that mentors don’t always show up in the form you expect. Early in life, some of my greatest mentors weren’t business owners or industry leaders—they were horse trainers, healthcare professionals, patients, coworkers, and people who challenged me to grow.
Growing up around horses taught me discipline, accountability, and the value of showing up even when nobody is watching. Later, healthcare taught me how important it is to stay humble and continue learning because there is always someone with more experience and knowledge than you.
When it comes to networking, I’ve found that genuine relationships matter far more than collecting contacts. The most meaningful opportunities in my life have come from authentic conversations, not from trying to impress people or sell myself. I try to approach networking with curiosity rather than expectation. Instead of asking, “What can this person do for me?” I ask, “What can I learn from this person, and how can I contribute value to them as well?” Those relationships take time and you have to nurture those.
Another lesson I’ve learned is that you shouldn’t wait until you feel ready to reach out. Many people assume successful individuals are too busy to respond, but I’ve found that most people are willing to share advice when approached respectfully and sincerely.
For anyone looking for a mentor, my advice would be to focus less on finding one perfect person and more on building a network of people whose strengths complement one another. One mentor may teach you business, another may teach you leadership, another may teach you resilience, and another may teach you how to balance family and career.
Most importantly, stay teachable. Some of the best advice I’ve ever received came from people whose paths looked nothing like mine. If you’re willing to listen, every person you meet has the potential to teach you something valuable.
Pricing:
- Voice Acting/ Audiobook Narration $150 Per Finished Hour
- Graphic Design /Branding Logo Design: Starting at $300 Brand Kit: Starting at $750 Custom pricing available
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/platinumannie
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@platinumannie
