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.

Olivia Toch

When I was little, I always made tier cakes from mud. Never thought, I was going to be a wedding cake maker. In 2002, we were looking to relocate from the city of Firebaugh. We were interested in this bakery. It was tough at first. Like any business. We never gave up. The community here is so amazing! We have awesome people around us! Read more>>

Brad Hyland

I feel so lucky that I get to Voice so many fun projects every year. So varied and different and so many different genres. Very fun getting to be a character voice for a major brand… I am the official voice of Santa Claus for the Elf On The Shelf Christmas brand. Also I am the voice for ‘Charlie tuna’ for the huge company Starkist. Read more>>

Shawnre Tieuel

This story isn’t crazy but it was one of the most exciting triumphs that I ever had. It supports the fact that I’m in the right business. My grandmother Rosetta Allen Tieuel owned a photography business named Allen Studios 1943 to around 1970. It’s ironic that we only had a small handful of photos with her face on them. Read more>>

Heather Bunch

Oh, and that was just the beginning. For the next year, every time I stepped outside my comfort zone — networking, speaking, being seen, basically breathing in front of other humans — I fainted. Every one to two months. Like clockwork. Read more>>

DK Crawford

“Can’t I eat it, it looks so good?” people would ask and I would say, “Well, you could… there isn’t anything in there that’s truly harmful to ingest as we make products safe for your skin but it probably won’t taste nearly as good as it works!” Read more>>