Crystal is a wife and mother who left a successful career to start HeartStories because she knows what it’s like for women to rush through life on autopilot, losing touch with close friends and the truth about themselves in little pieces along the way.

HeartStories was born out of her passion to help women to hear Love louder than all the negative noise in their lives. Through HeartStories, Crystal is determined to create fun, innovative ways to connect women with more joy and purpose.   Her mission is to inspire them to be all they’re meant to be, while enjoying the journey together, despite their hectic lives.  She hosts monthly GNOs (Girl’s Nights Out) speaks, and blogs  about life and learning on the journey of leading HeartStories.

When she’s not focused on HeartStories, she can often be found exploring the great outdoors, snort-laughing with her girlfriends, or dancing like a maniac with her boys and her husband Scott.

Crystal would love to connect!  Find her on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter.

Keith Jacobs graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 1996 and spent the first 5 years of his career working at consulting firms Ernst & Young and Sapient. After the .com bust and a month before 9/11, Keith founded a user-experience design firm called Bright Corner that he grew, merged with Geniant, and eventually sold to EMC in 2007. Although he didn’t have a non-compete or earn-out, Keith worked at EMC for two years before getting the entrepreneurial itch once again. Keith then co-founded another user-experience design firm called projekt202, which was ranked #13 in the 2012 Dallas 100 and #161 in the 2013 Inc. 500. After growing the firm to over 100 employees and three offices, Keith handed over the CEO reins to a fellow investor and has stepped back from day-to-day company operations to focus on growing a handful of companies, including HeartStories.

Keith is also co-founder of Sifter, an online bug and issue tracker used by hundreds of businesses around the world, and is a guest lecturer at the SMU Cox School of Business and at Rice University’s George R. Brown School of Engineering. Joanne, Keith’s wife of 14 years, is a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas and they have two adorable daughters named Emma and Lily, ages 8 and 4.

Rick Gornto, CFP®, CPC is currently is Principal Partner of First Financial Benefits, Inc. and  Managing Partner at DRDA, PLLC CPA’s and works extensively in the areas of Practice Management, Personal & Corporate Financial Planning, Business Consulting, Retirement Planning and Mergers & Acquisitions. He has been nationally recognized by U.S. Congress ,the  Texas Governor and the U.S. President for his work with governmental pension plans over the past 33 years.

Rick has extensive community involvement in local non‑profit organizations and has served as numerous boards in the past and present such as for HCA Clear Lake Regional Hospital, Communities In Schools Clear Lake, The Nolan Ryan Foundation, Child Advocates of Houston  Alvin Community College Board of Trustees and Foundation Board, Houston Society and Alvin National Bank.  Rick’s interests are his grandchildren, golf, biking, skiing, gardening , scuba and reading. He has been married to his wife Janice for 43 years and has two grown children and five grandchildren.

Sandra is a seasoned executive, Wall Street industry expert, author, and public speaker who was CMO for a $3 billion advertising agency and is now CEO of Crawford Creative Consulting. She also serves as COO for 4word, a non-profit that serves workplace women.  She’s also one of the most positive, high-energy women we’ve ever been around.  Red Bull has nothing on her!

Connect with her on LinkedIn.