In our view, far too many ideas die at the imagination stage. It’s not because people are lazy, we think the primary reason is because many people don’t know where or how to start. So, we connected with some sharp and generous entrepreneurs who’ve agreed to share their stories of how they went from idea to execution.

Nina Schulze

My writing career actually started with a past life regression. I had a client at the time through my old business who wanted me to learn how to facilitate past life regressions. As I had never had one, I booked a session to see if it would be anything I would be interested in bringing to my business. I picked an intention that at that time seemed silly- wanting to find a connection with a person that I had never met, yet continuously haunted my dreams. My mind was blown! Read more>>

Patrena Miller

The scales tilt in my world and very seldom do they even out. I create a lot of things and it really depends on which area you speak of. From an artistic point of view – when I say I want to do something, I do just that. It is my creativity and sometimes there is a plan and majority of the time, I have no plan. I put it into place and work it out. From the aromatherapist point of view – I look at KWAP (knowledge, wellness, aid, prevention). This requires a lot of studying, reading, testing and knowing properties. Read more>>

Ashley Snyder

It all starts with a script. When I was brought on to design costumes for a stage production of Euripides’ Heracles, I received the script alongside Anne Carson’s H of H Playbook, a fragmented, collage-style interpretation of the myth. Director Hunter Mahmoud Abal envisioned a fusion of the two, reimagining the Greek tragedy in 20th-century America. So, I began where I always do—with questions. How long has Heracles been gone? What happens to a lion’s body over time? If Megara is royal in ancient Greece, what does that look like in postwar America? Read more>>

Mimi Miller

There was a time a few ears ago when I had all these ideas. Most of them come when I’m in flow-journaling, walking on the beach or out in the ocean. A surf brand. A book. A lifestyle. And I kept saying “one day”. I had notebooks full of dreams, but I was still operating off survival mode. No clear schedule, no roadmap, just trying to stay afloat. Then one day I caught myself. I was journaling, like I always do, and I wrote, You don’t need another idea. You need a plan”. Read more>>

Anthony Cupo

Stacie Passon is a brilliant creative partner, and I had the pleasure of working with her for many years on impactful promos and marketing campaigns for Warner Music Group. During that time, I launched my own boutique post-production house in Lower Manhattan, which quickly gained traction. As we grew more successful, I found myself becoming more selective with outside projects—when you hit a certain stride, you naturally want to stay focused and avoid distractions. Read more>>

Jahnte Williams

have always been a gamer. For as long as I can remember, I’ve played games with my older cousins. Even as a child, they would hand me a controller without batteries, pretending I was playing alongside them just to keep me entertained. This passion for gaming persisted throughout my childhood, into my teenage years, and now into adulthood. It has always been my favorite pastime and a genuine way for me to express myself.In 2021, when the pandemic hit, I created a gaming video that surprisingly garnered around 200,000 views. I brushed it off and continued with my school and daily life. It wasn’t until July 2024, with the release of the latest college football game, that I considered creating gaming content seriously. Read more>>

Remi Roy

I’m a self-proclaimed trier. I love to come up with ideas, execute, and launch things. The idea for my podcast started in 2016. It was called Follow Your Feet. I didn’t overthink or overanalyze it. I have a bias toward action; I just move. And that’s what I did. I gave it my best. About 7 months later, I realized I knew nothing about how to actually succeed at this new venture. I had no idea what success looked like. The storytelling, content-crafting part was easy. Even the technical aspects of recording and editing were a breeze, even though I’d never really done it before. What had me stumped was making it work. How do I get people to listen and come back for more? How do I find a community of people who were doing the same thing? How do I learn and grow? Read more>>

Princess Castleberry

I launched Castleberry Global in 2019 as a fractional risk management and HR consultancy, just months before the world changed. I didn’t know a pandemic was coming. What I did know was that I was sitting on over 20 years of experience leading global insurance programs, navigating corporate crises, and guiding senior leaders through high-stakes decisions. I had always seen risk differently—not just as numbers on a spreadsheet, but as behaviors inside organizations quietly eroding performance and trust. Read more>>

Malory Campian

It started with an idea — and honestly, a lot of excitement mixed with uncertainty.
I had always loved hosting for family birthdays, baby showers & more, until one day, I realized there was a real need for a mobile cart that could bring something elegant and customizable to events — whether that was a charcuterie experience, a mini tres leches cart, or a mini pancake bar. I really didn’t want to be a caterer or an event planner but instead wanted something unique in NJ. Read more>>

Rosy Muto

The idea for JustRosyStylin didn’t come to me all at once, it grew out of years of seeing people underestimate their own beauty and potential.

I had always loved styling, not just putting together outfits, but helping people see themselves differently. Whether it was a friend, a client, a brand, or a volunteer backstage at a fashion show.

I noticed the same thing: a shift would happen when someone felt seen, valued, and styled in a way that honored who they truly were on or offline. Read more>>

TYNAIZAH WATTS

The crazy part is I’ve always dreamed of being a dance studio owner. At the age of 9 my 2nd grade school teacher enrolled me in an actual dance studio. I learned the basics of dance then and soon started working in the studio to help pay my tuition fees and costume fees. I studied my dance instructor from how he ran the classes to how he collected the invoices for clients. I wanted to be everything like him. Any time I had a chance to lead the class I would take full advantage of the opportunity. Fast forward to my early twenties I started putting together workshops in public parks to help my community stay fit through exercise dance sessions. Everyone kept stating I needed to start my business and look into spaces to rent out. Read more>>

Natania Marshall

When I was younger, I knew I wanted a career in the creative industry, and photography has always been second nature to me. It started with a Polaroid and a cell phone camera. Every time I looked through the lens of a camera, I felt moved to create and capture something beautiful that words cannot express. So, when I would capture spontaneous moments in nature, of a pile of sticks in the shape of a cross or a bee pollinating a flower, I saw the beauty of God’s creation and it truly felt like God was nudging me to see the world the way He does: with intention, beauty, and purpose. With photography becoming more than an art to me, but a way to capture the sacred in the everyday. Read more>>

Eric Scot Tryon

I launched the literary magazine Flash Frog in January of 2021, but the seed of the idea started at least 8-10 months before. First, it was really important to me to really consider and decide every little detail well beforehand. This included what the magazine would look like visually, what exactly it would and wouldn’t publish, what its submission guidelines would look like, what the submission and editorial processes would look like, and I could go on and on. But in order too gain credibility in the online literary world, I knew it was important to project a confident clear vision from the outset. In a space where magazines are sprouting up and dying faster than you can read a piece of micro fiction, I knew it I didn’t want to take the “learn on the job” approach. Consistency, professionalism, and attention to detail, were key. Read more>>

Gavin Buckland

Creating Clipsense (an AI-powered software that eliminates the time-consuming process of manually sorting through hours of raw b-roll footage) started with first-hand frustration. I’ve spent over a decade as a filmmaker editing videos for brands like Under Armour, Apple Music, and NBC. And like most filmmakers, I’ve wasted countless hours sorting through raw footage which is a slow, manual process that bottlenecks creativity, drains budgets, and makes scaling impossible.  Read more>>

Mabi Morka

When I first started my business, I was 18 years old and living on my college campus. I initially had the idea to do nails because of my love for creativity and art. I also felt like it would be a great skill to know how to do on myself. So I just went from there. Within a few months, I bought my first supplies with the support of family and started to take clients who also attended my college. A few years later I mastered my skills and became a licensed nail tech. From there, I taught other nails techs online and in person how to grow their own nail business. I also scaled my business by selling products. This was a pivotal point in me for my business because I had to search for vendors and invest into my supply. Read more>>

Nikhil Titus Tatapudi

The Story of Cone & Kulhad: From Spark to SizzlePicture this: it’s early 2024, and I’m sitting at a bustling food stall in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, sipping a lassi from a plastic cup, munching on a slice of pizza. The flavors are great, but something feels off—plastic waste, generic vibes, nothing memorable. That’s when the idea for Cone & Kulhad hit me like a bolt of inspiration: what if I could combine the fun of pizza with the eco-friendly charm of traditional kulhads, creating something fresh, sustainable, and purely vegetarian for the young crowd? I imagined cone-shaped pizzas stuffed with vibrant toppings and creamy lassis served in earthy kulhads—affordable, Instagram-worthy, and planet-friendly. Read more>>

Kelsey Schoen

When it comes to planning things, some would say, I am obsessive. My husband and I wanted to start a small business and we both love coffee, so we decided to open the first bikini barista trailer in Springfield, Missouri. The idea to execution took about 2-3 months and probably would’ve been faster if we didn’t have to wait for funding to come through. We joined several mobile coffee trailer and coffee shop owner Facebook groups to start learning what all we would need. My husband found an adorable trailer for sale on one of the groups and after falling in love with the trailer, we purchased a truck, just so we could drive to Mississippi to get it! Read more>>

Alisha Kumar

I didn’t wake up one day with a full-fledged business plan. It started after an event, just a gut feeling that I was meant to build something more. I wanted freedom, real impact, and to create something that could support my life and legacy on my own terms. I had a background in marketing, leadership experience, and this deep desire to make ideas happen, not just for myself, but for others. Read more>>

Jantana

Launching my independent motion design practice was a natural next step after years of building experience at top studios. I started by refining my portfolio to focus on concept-driven, emotionally resonant work—the kind of storytelling I wanted to be known for. I reached out to collaborators, updated my reel, and began taking on projects that aligned with that vision. Read more>>

Michael Washington

You know, I hate to be that guy, but I think Argyle Rebel Films—and now even our newest company, Argyle Rebel Capital—was born from the idea that I couldn’t do something. We—me and my best friend, Robert Hatfield—started writing plays because we were told we couldn’t. That naturally turned into making films when Lab! Theatre at UNC said they wouldn’t produce one of my scripts. So we said, “Cool. We’ll just do it ourselves.” And we picked up cameras from the Undergrad library and started making short films. GDI, our first full-length comedy film, came from people saying, “Yeah, y’all are funny, but there’s no way you can actually make a movie.” So we made one. And before we knew it, we had a company. Read more>>

Anna Mantini

Honestly, it all started as a hobby I just couldn’t get enough of. After graduating, I was working full-time as a nurse, and photography was this creative escape for me—it gave me so much joy. I’d get done with a 10-hour nursing shift and my brain would shift into a fully different mode of creativity. I’d be up late editing, squeezing in shoots before or after work, just trying to make it all fit. At first, it was just a hobby and I never seriously considered photography as a full-time career. It felt so far-fetched. But then I started getting more inquiries—friends of friends, people on Instagram—and I realized, that it could be something more. Read more>>

Brandon Moreno

I was 15 when I first realized that building a personal brand could help me escape the feeling of being stuck. It wasn’t a sudden idea, more like something that slowly grew in my mind. I saw people on YouTube and Twitter sharing their work and building followings. They weren’t just sharing things, they were creating identities, telling stories, and even making money from it. Read more>>

CJ

I have always loved reading and a good story. I tried my hand at writing a novel and then articles but still couldn’t find my niche. Then, I attended a Screenwriter’s Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico—my life changed. I discovered the art of screenwriting, and I have never looked back. Read more>>

Marika Ray

Ask any author and they’ll tell you the aspect of creating a story is their favorite part of the job. We all have ideas and we love to share them or think about them! The hard part is the weeks and months after that brilliant idea hits where you have to actually sit down and write the whole book. Read more>>

Fortuna Sung

The start of my journey dates back to my roots, growing up with parents deeply involved in the arts world. Both worked in the film industry — one had a double career in music and film, while the other was an actress — and their creative paths were a major source of inspiration for me. Read more>>

Kasey Blaustein

I didn’t launch Kasey Jones, Ink. with a formal plan or a big reveal. It honestly started with one small “yes.” I was working full-time, and a friend asked me to help design something for an event. I said yes, even though I had no clue how to price it or what the process should be—I just knew I could make it special. That led to someone else reaching out… and then another. Suddenly, I was saying yes to more projects than I ever expected. Read more>>

Jessie Jarvis

Being the third-generation on my family’s Southern Idaho cattle operation, I have always been connected and involved with agriculture and the western way of life. After college, I worked in agriculture marketing and communications, and then a few years later moved back to the ranch to work alongside my parents. After marrying my husband, he too began working on the ranch, which gave me the opportunity to do some freelancing and contract work in marketing, communications, and journalism. Those experiences allowed me to have a very unique perspective. In less than ten years, I had been a college-aged student, looking for her first internship. Read more>>