The sto­ry of Am­i­na Blake-Fore­man be­gins on the south­ern tip of Trinidad, in Fyz­abad, where en­tre­pre­neur­ial sparks were al­ready fly­ing by the time she turned sev­en. Back then, she was sell­ing spices from Grena­da—an ear­ly sign of a girl who would grow in­to a woman de­ter­mined to do more than just make a liv­ing. She was on a path to cre­ate op­por­tu­ni­ty.

To­day, Blake-Fore­man is the founder and CEO of a vir­tu­al staffing com­pa­ny con­nect­ing pro­fes­sion­als from Trinidad and To­ba­go with clients across the US. Her busi­ness has al­ready placed over 130 peo­ple in re­mote jobs, fun­nelling more than $13.5 mil­lion in­to the lo­cal econ­o­my, she said.

But her sto­ry isn’t just about num­bers or ti­tles—it’s about stay­ing ground­ed while build­ing some­thing big, and about car­ry­ing the Caribbean with her even as her busi­ness ex­pands far be­yond its shores.

Her ear­ly foun­da­tion came from home. Her fa­ther’s in­sis­tence on fi­nan­cial in­de­pen­dence and self-re­liance made a deep im­pres­sion. Those val­ues stayed with her as she moved to the Unit­ed States and carved out a path in re­al es­tate, start­ing as an as­sis­tant at 16, earn­ing her li­cence at 19, and ris­ing to com­plete more than 1,000 trans­ac­tions over two decades.

In 2017, she was recog­nised as the top re­al es­tate agent in the New Eng­land re­gion, and a year lat­er be­came a na­tion­al re­al es­tate coach and CEO for Keller Williams in Con­necti­cut.

Through­out that jour­ney, Blake-Fore­man leaned in­to the pow­er of sys­tems and sup­port. Hir­ing an as­sis­tant ear­ly on was once seen as un­usu­al in the in­dus­try. Now, it’s stan­dard prac­tice. But her shift to vir­tu­al staffing wasn’t just a busi­ness de­ci­sion—it was sparked by the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

Watch­ing her busi­ness piv­ot to re­mote work opened her eyes to some­thing big­ger.

“Wit­ness­ing how my or­gan­i­sa­tion piv­ot­ed ef­fort­less­ly to re­mote work made me re­alise the un­tapped po­ten­tial of Caribbean tal­ent in the glob­al dig­i­tal econ­o­my,” she re­flects. “That’s why I want to cre­ate op­por­tu­ni­ties for those who don’t have that lux­u­ry; op­por­tu­ni­ties for those who are tal­ent­ed, ed­u­cat­ed and ea­ger to work but lack the path­ways to do so.”

Launched in 2021, Blake-Fore­man’s busi­ness has be­come more than a staffing agency. It’s a plat­form for vis­i­bil­i­ty and val­i­da­tion—for show­ing the world what Caribbean pro­fes­sion­als can do. “It’s about cre­at­ing a plat­form where our tal­ent can thrive with­out bar­ri­ers—no visas, no phys­i­cal re­lo­ca­tion, just pure skill and ded­i­ca­tion,” she ex­plains.

And her heart nev­er left home. “While I’ve built a life in the Unit­ed States, my heart re­mains here, and my des­tiny is in­ex­plic­a­bly linked to Trinidad,” she says.

She plans to re­turn this Oc­to­ber to speak with stu­dents at her for­mer school, Fyz­abad An­gli­can Sec­ondary, about en­tre­pre­neur­ship and vir­tu­al ca­reers.

Blake-Fore­man’s mod­el places cul­ture and care at its cen­tre. It “is not just about fill­ing roles,” she says. “It’s about cre­at­ing a com­mu­ni­ty where our peo­ple feel val­ued and em­pow­ered to suc­ceed.” Ini­tia­tives like “Mo­ti­va­tion Mon­day” brings the vir­tu­al team to­geth­er to share, re­flect, and start the week with en­cour­age­ment.

They have al­so tak­en con­crete steps to sup­port em­ploy­ees—of­fer­ing soft loans to help them buy com­put­ers, pro­vid­ing ma­ter­ni­ty leave, and work­ing along­side the Min­istry of Labour in T&T on a work­place pol­i­cy ad­dress­ing HIV and AIDS. If com­plet­ed, it would be the first com­pa­ny of its kind in T&T with such a pol­i­cy in place.

And once a year at an an­nu­al staff ex­trav­a­gan­za, this vir­tu­al com­pa­ny meets face to face. This Oc­to­ber’s gath­er­ing in Trinidad, themed “Den­im & Di­a­monds”, is what Blake-Fore­man calls the com­pa­ny’s “heart and soul” as it brings em­ploy­ees and stake­hold­ers to­geth­er.

Her de­f­i­n­i­tion of lead­er­ship reach­es well be­yond busi­ness. For every vir­tu­al as­sis­tant hired, her com­pa­ny al­so sup­ports chil­dren in Africa. So far, over 3,000 chil­dren in Sier­ra Leone have re­ceived food aid as part of the ini­tia­tive.

“When our clients lever­age our ser­vices, they’re al­so part of our mis­sion to help those in need—whether here or abroad,” Blake-Fore­man says. “This is a move­ment—an op­por­tu­ni­ty to help peo­ple live bet­ter lives, feed the hun­gry and cre­ate a bet­ter world, one job and one vibe at a time.”

Re­cent­ly, her work re­ceived a spot­light at the CBN X USC 2025 Busi­ness Pitch Com­pe­ti­tion in Brook­lyn, held dur­ing Eye­land­Fest.

Blake-Fore­man’s pitch, fo­cused on Caribbean tal­ent and dig­i­tal op­por­tu­ni­ty, won over the judges—in­clud­ing Grena­di­an so­ca artiste Mr Kil­la. She took home over US$12,000 in prizes, a sev­en-night Uber­So­ca Cruise, and valu­able me­dia ex­po­sure. “Win­ning was sur­re­al,” she re­calls. “It’s a val­i­da­tion of our po­ten­tial. It shows that Caribbean tal­ent can com­pete on the world stage.”

And she’s not slow­ing down. With Grena­da next in line, her busi­ness al­ready has 18 can­di­dates prepar­ing for its three-week boot­camp. The long-term vi­sion? To be­come the vir­tu­al em­ploy­er of choice for Caribbean pro­fes­sion­als.

“The Caribbean’s sto­ry of per­se­ver­ance and tal­ent is un­par­al­leled. We’re de­vel­op­ing a mod­el where our di­as­po­ra can work and thrive with­out bor­ders,” she says.

Blake-Fore­man’s jour­ney con­tin­ues to be root­ed in ser­vice and pur­pose. “My jour­ney is about giv­ing back,” she says. “I want to help as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble—cre­at­ing jobs, feed­ing chil­dren, em­pow­er­ing women and build­ing a lega­cy of re­gion­al pride.”

In her world, the bor­ders don’t de­fine the lim­its. They de­fine the op­por­tu­ni­ty.