We love grabbing drinks with our entrepreneur friends because they always have the craziest stories. Sometimes it’s a big, unexpected win. Other times it’s a problem that came out of nowhere and couldn’t possibly have been foreseen. There is so much to learn from these stories and so we asked some of the brightest entrepreneurs and creatives in the community to share some of those stories below.

Audrey Panson

We had a very unconventional start to our small business. During the pandemic we bought and lived full time in a fully converted 40ft school bus, traveling up and down the coast of Northern California. We eventually moved back towards a more conventional living situation and out of the bus. Instead of selling the bus, which we almost did, I had an idea to make it a clothing shop on wheels and that is just what we did. We filled every corner of the bus with vintage clothing and ephemera and thus, The Bus Stop Vintage was born. Read more>>

Aaron Josefczyk

After a long day of photographing the Ohio State Buckeyes playing the Michigan Wolverines in Ann Arbor Michigan I suffered a massive heart attack as I walked off the field. Fortunately I was in a place with a massive amount of high level EMS. I was treated at the stadium and then taken to the University of Michigan hospital to repair a blocked artery. I returned to photographing a week later but was unable to travel any distance for the college football or NFL playoffs. Three months later I would have a triple bypass and returned to a full photo schedule in 4 weeks. Read more>>

Julia Butterfly Hill

i have had many lives in my crazy life. Everything from working in a warehouse making windchimes at 16 years old to one of the youngest people to be chosen as area supervisor for a fashion chain company to co-opening a restaurant and club at the age of 18. i left home at an early age, so i had to hustle to pay rent, car insurance, food, and everything that goes along with living on ones own without any support or safety net. i was working multiple jobs while also going to high school and then later college. This is relevant because for me, just living, required creative thinking and skills. Read more>>

Paul Lanner

It’s the impactful stories that have happened thru the years that stick with me and keep Haunters Against Hate going. Just this past July, during Texas Haunters Convention, a 14-year old girl came up to the booth to look at the merchandise and see what the organization was about. Having done for this for eight years now, I can read people quickly, especially younger people. I said hello and asked her how she was doing and if she needed any information about HAH. She proceeded to tell me how her family didn’t accept her. I could see she was sad and distraut over this and told her she could always reach out to me, or the Haunters Against Hate family and know that we would always accept her as part of our spooky family. Read more>>

Brittany Ross Ellerbe

In February on 2024 I took a risk to scale my business by investing in a commercial property with multiple studios to grow my team. I was able to do two walk throughs before signing the lease and all looked well to me despite a few red flags. One of the red flags was the attitude of the owner leasing the property, something about her was very nervous and off putting but I didn’t want to make a decision based on my feelings so I ignored that. Second red flag was the owners were 100% unwilling to negotiate lease terms and provided me with zero start up time like a month free for an extended lease which is common when people are furnishing and moving into a new space. Read more>>