Orlando is one of Florida’s most well known tourist destinations and technological hubs, and as such is a major source of revenue for the state. It stands to reason that a prosperous Orlando helps to create a prosperous Florida, and Tim Giuliani is doing whatever he can as the President and CEO of the Orlando Economic Partnership to make Orlando as successful a it can be. Having previously worked for the Chambers of Commerce for the state of Florida, Gainesville, and Raleigh, NC, Giuliani knows the importance of leadership and giving a community a voice in policy decisions. “If you’re in the business community taking an active leadership role in the community, it can make a world of difference. It can get things done faster. It can give voice to issues that might have gone unnoticed. And it really makes for a much more dynamic community.”

Giuliani is fluent in Floridian. When asked what he felt deserved more attention in Florida, he referred to the state’s historic involvement in the space program. “People sometimes forget that even before tourism, you had the founding for a technological university, now UCF, that helped bring this country to the moon. That happened right here in Central Florida.”

When he’s not helping the city of Orlando, Giuliani likes to relax in some of Florida’s more tropical locations. “One place I can’t wait to get back to is the Keys. I’ve gone there a few times with my family and just had great times. There’s this one place particularly in Key Largo, Conch House, that did well through the hurricane. It has the best key lime pie, so I’d say that’s one of my favorite places in Florida.”

If you listened to the radio in 2014, chances are you heard the hit song “Best Day of My Life,” meaning you’ve heard Tallahassee-native James Adam Shelley. Shelley, the lead guitarist of the band American Authors, has spent his life making what often seemed like an uphill climb to break through into the music industry. This struggle is reflected in the hit song that would later make their name, which was written when the band was at their nadir. “People are telling us, ‘No, you guys will never do it.’ The song is maybe when we’re sleeping, that that’s the best day of our life, and that’s a better version of where we’re at right now.”

Being no stranger to overcoming uphill climbs, Shelley is an avid mountain climber, a hobby that helps him remember to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. “I think there’s nothing, for me in my life, there’s nothing that makes me enjoy simplicity like getting off a mountain because I hate… truth is, I hate being on the mountain […] I’m just counting down the days, and the minutes, and the hours before I get off of it. Then, I come down and the first thing I do is I go get fried chicken […] And I sit in a t-shirt and jeans, and sandals, fried chicken and French fries and drinking coca cola, and just think, ‘Man, it’s good to be alive.’”

When asked which place in Florida he loved the most, he stayed away from the popular tourist destinations and stayed close to home. “The North Florida coast is really beautiful and amazing. The food, the culture, and people don’t realize. That also makes it special because there’s not… the only tourists really on the Florida coast is other Floridians.”

Christopher Still, whose paintings can be seen in the Governor’s Mansion and Smithsonian Institute, has earned acclaim throughout his career for the way in which he takes Florida landscapes and depicts them in styles more often reserved for “higher” subject matter, such as historic European architecture. Still’s dedication to Florida through his art has earned him an induction into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame, as well as a commission from the Florida House of Representatives to create 10 paintings that tell the history of the state.

Still is fluent in Floridian. He has spent much of his career trying to capture what makes Florida distinctly beautiful in his paintings, and believes this uniqueness is something that more Floridians should embrace. “35, 40 years ago, I had a very difficult time making that transition to people seeing the Florida landscape painted in ways they didn’t think of their own – we have a self-esteem problem where we don’t think of our own subject matter as being worthy of important art.”

A notable highlight of his career is when he was commissioned to paint a portrait of former Florida Governor Lawton Chiles. While Governor Chiles sat for the portrait, Still had to ask him to keep from fidgeting, until he realizes that the governor had important business to attend to. “I was looking at him and he kept moving a little bit. And I was saying, ‘You’ve got to move your head back.’ Kind of correcting him. Someone came over and whispered in his ear and he said, ‘I don’t know, let me ask Chris if it’s okay to take a break.’ And he said to me, ‘Is it okay if I take a phone call from the President of the United States?’”

When Marshall Criser III’s father left his law practice to serve as the president of the University of Florida, he couldn’t wrap his head around the choice. “I didn’t really understand why he chose to leave […] Could not understand why my parents would make a decision like that.” However, later in his life, Criser would prove to have more in common with his father than just their names, as he made a similar career change to become the Chancellor of the State University System of Florida. “When I later made something of a similar decision in 2014, I suddenly understood what it was all about[…] You want somehow to have as much of an effect in making it stronger, better for our students.”

Criser is fluent in Floridian. While talking about what makes Florida unique among the nation’s 50 states, Criser stated that, “There’s something about our state that is worthy of pride.” He continued, saying, “In my career, I’ve had a chance to live in a lot of places, and I was always happier, literally, when I crossed the state line and came back to Florida.”

When asked if he had a favorite place in the state, Criser’s answer was a bit more intimate than many the show has received in the past, with his thoughts turning towards peace, serenity, and misnomers. “There’s a little piece of property north of town that sits kind of… a grove of oak trees looks over a place called Straw Pond, which is not really a pond and it’s not really straw. I don’t know why they call it the Straw Pond, but it’s a quiet place. Sometimes it’s good to have a quiet place.”

While most would consider earning either a World Series or Super Bowl ring to be a career-defining honor, Mark Lamping is one of the very few who can boast ownership of both. Lamping, the current president of the Jacksonville Jaguars, earned his World Series ring while president of the St. Louis Cardinals, and his Super Bowl ring while CEO of the New York Giants’ MetLife Stadium. However, he’s not content to stop there. “I was fortunate enough to be president of the St. Louis Cardinals for 14 year […] and won the World Series in 2008. And that was wonderful, but that was [their] 10th world championship. If I could be part of bringing the first Super Bowl champion to Jacksonville, you only have the opportunity to do something for the first time once.”

Lamping is fluent in Floridian. He sees his role as the Jaguars’ president as being more than just improving the team and taking them to new heights; it’s about contributing to Jacksonville as well, and helping the city develop to the point that the city could qualify to host a Super Bowl. “We need to do some work locally before we would even consider becoming part of the Super Bowl picture. Super Bowls do great things for our communities, but my experience has been that the Super Bowl comes after you’ve done great things in your city.”

When asked which Florida leader he most admired, Lamping admitted that although he’s only lived in the state for five years so far, one of the first to come to mind was Henry Flagler, the 19th century industrialist and namesake of Flagler College who was responsible for developmental projects such as the Florida East Coast Railway.

Cissy Proctor can blame her former coworkers for her interest in public service work. Having attended Florida State for her undergraduate and law degrees, Proctor went on to work at a local Tallahassee law firm called Bryant Miller Olive, where she said many of her colleagues “Had been inside state government, inside state agencies, inside the governor’s office, legislature, and really spoke so highly of their time inside stat government. So I kind of got bit by the bug to really go do more public service work.” This led to a series of public service jobs, including serving as Jesse Panuccio’s Deputy of Legislative Affairs Director, his Director of Strategic Business Development, his Chief of Staff, all culminating in her current role as the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity’s Executive Director.

Proctor is fluent in Floridian. She believes that it’s important to remove barriers that prevent some of Florida’s people from attaining work, including those who have served jail time and veterans. “When you’re getting out of jail and you have a job waiting on the other end, they’re seeing the recidivism rate go down significantly because you’ve got a job, you’re able to support yourself and your family, and you see a future, which is incredibly important.”

During the interview, she reminisced about her family’s trips to St. Teresa when she was younger, and the meaning the place holds to her today. “It’s a great part of the state. Beautiful beach, [I] go down there quite a bit throughout the year. So, it’s really just something that has a special place in my heart. My husband and I both grew up going down there. We actually have a picture of us before we knew each other in the water together.”

In today’s volatile political climate, it can be hard to “cut through the noise,” as Dr. Bob McClure puts it. But Dr. McClure, as the CEO and President of the James Madison Institute, one of the oldest non-partisan think tanks in the country, makes it his (nonprofit) business to cut through the noise. The James Madison Institute focuses on “policy that advances opportunity and economic prosperity for all Floridians,” working with organizations such as the Republic Party, or the ACLU on issues such as criminal justice reform.

Dr. McClure is fluent in Floridian. He believes Florida is emblematic of the American Dream, saying “To me, what gets lost in all the weird Florida stuff, which is hilarious, I agree […] is that Florida is the prototypical example of the American Dream. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re male or female, it doesn’t matter where you come from, and it’s not something somebody designed.”

Dr. McClure’s interest in politics and public policy began at an early age, in a household that he described not as being “overtly political,” but as engaged. “Both my parents were college educated class America, in the ‘60s and ‘70s […] they were informed. SO, I remember the first landing on the moon with that old black television set. I remember Richard Nixon resigning on television.”

Described as “today’s seminal civil rights lawyer” by Morgan & Morgan founder John Morgan, Ben Crump has represented some of the most high profile civil rights and discrimination cases of the 21st century, including Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Martin Lee Anderson, and the currently unfolding Chris Jones case.

Crump is fluent in Floridian. After graduating high school in Fort Lauderdale, he attended undergraduate and law school at Florida State University, and he feels his love for the state divided between those two places. “I think Tallahassee’s an incredible place to raise my family. Great educational institutions, as well as there’s not too much traffic. And there’s all four seasons, but we get three.”

When asked about what drove his career choice, Crump reminisces about a childhood desire to emulate the historic lawyer and Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall. After being told by his mother and school teachers that the reason why he had the opportunity to go to a new school with new books and technologies was because of the work of Marshall, Crump “made the decision right then that I wanted to be like Thurgood Marshall so that I could make it better for my community and people who look like to have a chance at the American dream […] That’s what motivates me, that’s what drives me and I clearly know that my focus is every day I wake up in the morning.”

For some college students, a hospitality job is nothing more than a necessity to pay for school. For Carol Dover, it was more than that; it was a stepping stone that led to her becoming the President and CEO of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, a position she has held since 1995. Dover represents over the interests of over 10,000 members of the Florida hospitality industry in front of the state legislature.

Dover is fluent in Floridian. When asked about her favorite part of Florida, she responded by admitting that it’s difficult for her to choose, and that she’s reminded of the beauty of our state whenever she meets her counterparts. “There’s so many amazing places here. I feel so fortunate when I go to my national conferences, and I sit with my 49 other colleagues, and reminded about how blessed we are in Florida to have over 800 miles of beaches.”

Unconventionally, Dover commutes to work from a home that is likely quite different from those of her colleagues: the family farm that her father-in-law bought in 1942. “It’s an old tobacco farm […] I fell in love with that particular lifestyle, and my passion are my horses. I love the horses, and I jokingly say, ‘We’re a little bit like the Clampetts.’”