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.

Reece Young

I started this music thing out in college not really knowing what I was doing. I began a hockey player for most of my life. But for some reason always felt drawn to music. I knew I wanted to be on stage helping people with my songs. The goal is to help the listener through whatever life is throwing at them. Because that is what I needed at my lowest and music helped me. Last year I got to play two shows for 3 thousand people opening for the band “Underoath” in Chicago and Cincinnati. If you were to tell college Reece that he’d get this far, he wouldn’t have believed you. Read more>>

Manny Cabo

The craziest and most painful chapter of my entrepreneurial journey hit like a three punch combo I never saw coming. First came the pandemic, which essentially shut down life as we knew it. As an artist, live performances were my livelihood, and overnight, that world vanished. I had to quickly pivot, learning new software, adapting to virtual performances, and essentially rebranding myself in a space I had never navigated before I just to keep the lights on. Read more>>

Tiara Johnson

One day, I had a client in my chair, and everything was going well as usual… until she told me that she found money that another woman had dropped in the salon suites hallway. Instead of returning it immediately, she said she wanted the woman to tell her how much it was first, as if honesty had to be earned. I was stunned. I calmly told her, “Since we’re in suites, the right thing to do would be to give it to the office manager. They can make sure it gets back to the rightful owner.” Read more>>

Jeff Carpenter

My most touching story involved a woman who contacted me shortly before the end of quarantine 2020 to book a boudoir session as soon as we were able to resume sessions. She had her session in July 2020, which was especially fun because she brought her mom with her. She loved her experience so much that she booked another session for September 2020. Read more>>

Krystin Friend

It was a regular Thursday morning. I was sipping coffee and going through orders when my phone exploded – DMs, texts, tags, emails. Total madness. At first, I thought something was wrong – a customer issue or maybe a viral complaint. But no. It was the kind of plot twist that changes the game. Read more>>

Martha Lilia Soto Ceballos

Throughout my professional and personal journey, I have encountered many experiences that have shaped my perspective and approach on inclusivity. One of the most impactful lessons came from working in environments that claimed to be inclusive and culturally responsive but, in practice, often implicit bias would get in the way. Too often, leadership would encourage staff to be vulnerable and advocate for their communities, yet unconscious bias within those in positions of power (hence implicit bias) created barriers that ultimately would block or prevent innovative initiatives to create and foster inclusivity and cultural responsiveness. Read more>>