Over the years as we connected with incredible from folks from almost every imaginable industry we realized that every nook and cranny of our economy is full of small business owners, artists and creatives who live and breathe what they do – and their stories are nothing short of heroic. It’s the immigrant parents who overcame the odds and kept their small business alive for decades allowing their next generation to thrive and the artisans who pour their passion into every piece and refuse to let even the most common items remain mundane that make our communities come alive. The stories below will inspire you and we hope you’ll take the time to read and connect with these incredible folks.

Mike Jigande

My journey began in New York City, where I developed a diverse set of passions and skills. I started my career in music, quickly finding my place as a multi-platinum producer, working with a variety of artists and building a reputation in the industry. Along the way, I expanded my skill set, diving into DJing, songwriting, and even creating lyric videos and artwork for songs. As my career evolved, I found opportunities to share my talents in other areas, such as beatboxing, comedy, and impressions, which helped me connect with a wider audience. Through my work, I’ve built a solid following as an influencer and UGC content creator, collaborating with brands and reviewing products to continue growing my platform. Read more>>

Marshall Day

When this process started I was doing video production full time and simply had an idea for a tool after seeing what I was thinking of didn’t exist
A few years went by and a good friend pushed me to go make a sample of what I was talking about so I did.
I looked at the original prototype for a few years while thinking of ways to simplify it. At that point it was just something in the garage I would mess with when I was hanging out out there.
As time went by I sat down with my grandpa and he helped take it from an idea that was 2 tools ip tied and taped together to an actual prototype. it was just a piece of pic with JB weld that held it together but it worked and allowed me to move forward. Read more>>

Mattison Shreero

Hi, my name is Mattison, and I’m a paleontologist, geologist, artist, and science communicator. I grew up in North Carolina, and I’ve actually wanted to be a paleontologist and geologist since I was a little kid. To pursue this dream, I attended Carleton College in Minnesota where I double majored in geology and studio art. Since then, I’ve primarily worked as a park ranger for the US Forest Service at the National Grasslands Visitor Center and for the National Park Service at Badlands National Park. Read more>>

Pharoah T.K.E Harrington

Oh man. Its been a while since asked this type of question. I was born and raised in Waterloo, Iowa, where the quiet, expansive surroundings gave me plenty of room to dream and imagine. From an early age, I was captivated by the magic of storytelling—whether through books, movies, cartoons or my own vivid imagination. One of the defining moments of my childhood was watching Godzilla (1998), which remains my favorite movie of all time. It was a film that sparked my love for storytelling and introduced me to the joy of popcorn films, where spectacle and emotion come together to create unforgettable experiences. Read more>>

CJ (Chequetta) Jackson

I am a proud Omaha native whose journey has been shaped by resilience and determination. Growing up in a family marked by challenges, I encountered two transformative mentors in my adolescence—a trusted guide and a dedicated track coach—who helped me see the boundless possibilities beyond my circumstances. Their belief in me inspired a core principle I live by: helping others see the beauty of what is possible. Read more>>

Millie Warren

I was the kid who always enjoyed drawing. I drew on myself, in the columns of my homework, on my school notes, I drew everywhere. When I found out about face painting, I realized this would be the perfect business for me. I could draw over and over on people . . . And actually be able to pay my mortgage! Read more>>

Mark Shevetone

I’m a Las Vegas-based artist that brings the ordinary to life through vibrant, thought-provoking art. My original paintings strive to blend humor, rich color, and texture, encouraging viewers to find beauty in the unexpected. With a focus on human experiences, I use color as a universal language to evoke emotion and reflection. Read more>>

Markita Van De Riet

When I entered my 40s, I found myself stuck in a never-ending cycle: get the kids ready, work, pick them up, make dinner, shuffle them to activities, homework, showers, bed—then repeat. It was the same routine, day after day, until one night, during my usual Netflix binge with a glass of wine, I broke down in tears wondering what happened to me? Read more>>

I am a sober woman who is trying to normalize sober choices in a society where drinking is often the currency of connection. To understand me, you have to understand the times we were living in when I first got sober. My sobriety date is February 7, 2005 and back then, there was a lot of stigma surrounding people in recovery. I was really worried that I would be judged so I relied heavily on advise I got from people in my recovery community who recommended that I didn’t tell anyone in my professional life that I was sober. Read more>>

Ikyo Bailey

I started during the pandemic. I’ve always had an interest in cameras from a technological stand point but it wasn’t until my friends convinced me to make a photo page that i took it seriously. My first shoots were on my phone, learning composition and falling in love with capturing the moment. Enough to buy a camera and dive into this world of photography. I shot everyday for several months, reaching out to friends and people on Instagram offering free shoots. Read more>>

MaKinlie McRae

After a few lessons and successful projects, I thought, “Oh, now this…this is what we are meant to do.” And by we, I mean my present self, and the little girl who was told that artists will never make money and to find a different career. For the girl who was told she was “majoring in unemployment.” We might just make it after all. Taking that class didn’t just open up a window of opportunity, it shattered the building. The possibility of a career path where I could wield my creativity and make a living deconstructed everything I thought I knew about being an artist. I found my purpose at sixteen, and although teenagers aren’t notorious for having the best judgment, I haven’t questioned it once since. Read more>>

Edoardo Tesio

I got into theatre after seeing a production of The Wizard Of Oz at 10 back home in Italy. I saw it and I was like “I want to do that too!” I got into acting first, but at 15 I got told that I needed to “man up” to have a future in the industry. I was not going to do that. So, I was faced with a choice – either I don’t pursue my dream in theater or I try to change the rules. I went with the latter. At 15 I wrote my first theater show – a show where a man being feminine is not a problem. I didn’t talk about the fact that I was feminine. It just didn’t matter. It was this cool story set in a magical circus with big pop dance numbers to Britney Spears’ songs and I produced it. Read more>>

Sanjana Satagopan

I run an environmental nonprofit called EcoLearning Together which works with the United Nations Environmental Program, but I’m also a college student studying computer science! I run it with my friend from middle and high school (we still go to the same college though)! Read more>>

Ayun Haliday

I’m a writer, theatermaker, zinemaker, occasional illustrator. I was launched on this path by virtue of being an unathletic only child with little skill or ability in STEM, as it’s now called. I majored in theater at Northwestern University, and shortly thereafter joined the NeoFuturists in advance of their first anniversary. Our show, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (30 Plays in 60 Minutes) positioned me to learn a lot about writing, comedy, mining personal experience for an audience of strangers, and low budget guerilla marketeering.  Read more>>

Allan Ali

Photography became the love of my life in 2019. I started a page for my poetry on instagram and I wanted images to go along with my words so I decided to buy a camera and eventually the camera became the engine of my creativity. If I’m being 100 percent honest and going directly to the source of why I became what I am today I would have to credit my late mother’s creativity and my love for the beauty of encyclopedias. My mother was a tailor who focused intensely on perfecting her craft her sketches were her dream board and she would sew late hours into the night to make her ideas and concepts come to life. Read more>>

Yeon Chung

I had a small front yard years ago. I was a full-time graphic designer back then so I was gone all day and couldn’t really enjoy the few flowers I had in my yard since they would have withered already by the time I got back home.
So I cut a few flowers and brought them to my office so I could actually enjoy them and I did this for a while. Coworkers who noticed that sometimes there were fresh flowers in my office commented that I must have a nice garden and this is how it all started for me! Read more>>

Valmik Puri

As far back as I can remember I always loved movies. My parents brought me up on an extravagant diet of cinema. They started showing my and my brother movies before we could comprehend them. So my mother would pause whatever we were watching every few minutes and explain what was going on. Cliched as it is, the stories these sounds and images told enchanted me. Read more>>

Tory Mather

I’ve always been interested in writing – I have journals in my house from age 6 onwards! I started my first blog in college, was an English major, and interned for a magazine. However, life happened and my career took me in a different direction.

When I moved to Ohio in 2021, I quit a job I hated and had some time in between starting my next job. Since I didn’t really know many people, I started exploring the outdoors. I had a hard time finding good information about some of the trails I did so I had an idea to start sharing information about hikes. I started MyTrailsAreMany.com in December 2021. Read more>>

Yuka Kameda

Can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today. You can include as little or as much detail as you’d like. I am from Japan and moved to the U.S. in 2005 to pursue my career as a tap dancer. I came here as an ESL student to be able to stay here and pursue my dreams of tap dancing. I vividly remember my first performance in a public school, of course, it was unpaid, but as I was young, I believed the experience would be worth a lot. After quite a few of those unpaid gigs, I started to get noticed and more and more paid gigs began to spring up. Fast-forward to now, I have my own band, Secret Drive, and regularly perform with many other musicians in New York and throughout the U.S. After a couple of years of performing, I was offered a teaching position by someone who saw one of my performances. Since then, I have been teaching regularly for both kids and adults. Read more>>

Aaron Lepley

When I was 12 years old, I saw David Bowie in a Pepsi commercial performing “Modern Love.” At that moment, I knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. It was as if the world had gone from black and white to color. I immediately devoured every Bowie album I could get my hands on. I saved my allowance, bought an acoustic guitar and a Bowie songbook, and spent every free moment learning chords and practicing. That led to writing my own songs, forming a band, and eventually studying music in college. Read more>>

Jeff Weber

My story has been a difficult one. I have Asperger’s Syndrome (Autism) which makes it hard
for me to have social relationships. But it made me a savant on AIM investing that I have
passionately dedicated my life to. My amazingly high IQ has carried me to explore AIM
investing and make many great improvements. I have had to do the AIM investing, the book
keeping and all other things involved in running a business by myself. Read more>>

Jevon Woods

Creating and art have been apart of who I am as far back as I can remember.. I didn’t always give it the attention it deserved, but never could escape its calling.. Once I finally stopped being distracted by other things and aligned with the art and creative calling the path started to appear and the feeling of being at home in my body, mind and spirit begin to grow.. I’m on the path and in the conversations… It’s where I’m going and who I’m becoming more of.. Read more>>

Jonathan Leon

I started photography when I was inspired by other photographers taking photos of me. I was also inspired by a totally different hobby which was gymnastics and I had the idea to capture photographs of me doing gymnastics to get good quality photos. So I started photography with my first Canon camera for fun and as a hobby. Then I was introduced to my first graduation photoshoot and then I started to build my portfolio by doing a lot of free photoshoots. Then after building my portfolio for social media and my website, I started to get clients for all kinds of photoshoots in which now I get bookings consistently by building good experiences with my clients. Overall, everything started by doing free photoshoots and taking self portraits and sharing my work! Read more>>

Jill Carey

From the kid who talked too much in class, never the best grades, but always in Gifted & Talented programs to where I am today, my journey has been anything but traditional.

I started college without a clear direction. Well, actually, I wanted to be a hairdresser, but my dad strongly advised against it. So, I followed my friends to a university for a semester, quickly realized it wasn’t for me, and withdrew. I spent the next year working temp jobs, bouncing between different industries, and even discovering the internet for the first time, where I, of course, went on a shopping spree. Read more>>

Josh Carples

I joined my first band at age 15, and I have been active as an artist in one way or another ever since. I’m currently a musician, actor, filmmaker, and photographer. Read more>>

Jontell Green

Sure, I was born in Torrance, California to a single mother. Lived in just about every city in LA due to housing situations until we finally settled in riverside. Growing up I dealt with a lot of self esteem issues, which led to being bullied a lot when I was a kid, as well as physical abuse at home. Eventually I turned to writing, first in the form of daily thoughts for each day. Then later progressed into poetry and then later into Hip Hop. When I first started I tried to emulate Tupac and Method Man, then in high school it was Ludacris and Lil Wayne. Until eventually, through a lot of soul searching I found my own style that I’m still perfecting to this day. Read more>>

John Stahl

When I think of what I have accomplished in my life, I think about my researches in philosophy, and then the applications of those ideas to solving problems facing the survival of life on earth. Along the way, wanting to express my discoveries of philosophy, I purchased a small, table top printing press (Adana, 8×5) and began to publish my own books from hand-set type. My first book was Symposium, by God and the Devil (Montreal, 1971). I have continued to publish books, refining the ideas and the presentation ever since, including Lapis Philosophorum, (1973, San Francisco), Theophany (1979, San Francisco), and Patterns of Illusion and Change (Laytonville, 1984). Read more>>

Danielle Bero

I started writing when I was 5years old. My mother got me a Highlights 4 Kids magazine so that I could practice reading. I got published in the magazine at six years old, and from there I knew that I wanted to be a poet forever. I kept a composition notebook on me from that moment on. Read more>>

George Denis

Music has always been a part of my life, but as a child, you don’t think much about it—you simply enjoy the music. Looking back, I realize I always had melodies and rhythms playing in my head. My journey into music felt natural, almost inevitable, as if I was drawn into this world. I felt a deep need to express myself through music, and it became my way of communicating emotions and stories. Read more>>

Lexey Nekich

I was gifted my camera in 2020 by my husband and initially used it just for fun. That same month, I started taking photos of people as a hobby not ever thinking or even wanting it to be a job. However, after a few months, people began telling me I had a gift and a unique vibe compared to what they had seen before. That feedback led me to start creative directing, styling, and taking on a few photoshoots each month. Read more>>

Latina Bohemian

As far as I can remember, I’ve always been a curious human with a wide imagination, and creativity has been at center stage. It was during my teenage years that I wanted to break free from feeling abnormal and secluded. I kept exploring the arts into adulthood, and here I am in the present cultivating it. Read more>>

Mamta Singh

I’m a documentary film maker based in New Delhi. I have a media , communications and filmmaking background with about a decade plus of experience of working in the media industry in India in various capacities. Read more>>

Masha Solus

My work has been my hobby since childhood. Like any child, I loved to draw. In school, I struggled due to dyslexia, so my path forward was pretty clear early on. I didn’t get into art school, but I was accepted into music school. Music gave me so much and taught me many lessons. Looking back now, I think my love for painting and watercolor was born from music. Read more>>

David Atkins

I was raised in a small town called Jarratt, located in Sussex County, Virginia. The first school I attended, Jefferson Elementary School, was named in honor of my family as the original school was founded by his great-great grandmother.
I was ordained as a minister at Chapel Hill Baptist Church which was also founded by his great-great grandmother, and where I currently serve as Associate Pastor. As a founding member of the George Mason University Black Alumni Chapter, I am also the longest-serving past president. Read more>>