Doing things differently often leads to outsized results and so we connected with some of the most inspiring leaders and trailblazers we know and asked them to go into detail about what they do differently relative to others in their industry.

Kimone Napier

In recruitment, the corporate standard meets the financial needs of large companies and does not serve the needs of smaller businesses. Furthermore, the industry-standard focuses on filling job vacancies to make a sale versus understanding the specific needs of the client. Read more>>

Elizabeth Rishel

What makes Orion Design unique is that all of the designers that make up our team have earned degrees in the design field. We are also unique in that we offer a service based business instead of focusing on selling products. Our goal is to implement a design that best fits our clients and then to seek out the materials, finishes, and products that achieve this goal. Read more>>

Taylor Ann Drew

Direct Primary Care (DPC) and traditional health insurance are different models of healthcare provision, and each has its own characteristics and benefits. Here are some key differences:Read more>>

Milla Press

Creating something that was new to the industry is what really inspired me to open up my own tattoo shop. I started Girlxfriend because I wanted to create a space that felt less intimidating and more comforting for clients. All of the resident artists are female/femme/queer POC folk who specialize in their own specific art styles. The goal was to create a space for clients to feel at ease and for POC/queer/female artists to grow! Read more>>

 Ruth Guerra

I work primarily with mission-first brands on digital and design strategy. Some of my clients work in the activist, social wellness, and reproductive health spaces, to name a few. My approach to strategy is centered around serving different types of communities — and that usually entails building products, services, and experiences that serve edge case users or people with diverse backgrounds. One example is prioritizing accessibility on websites and digital materials to ensure people with disabilities are able to engage with brands online. Not only does this include ADA compliance on web UX but also on digital marketing materials such as color usage, text sizes, and captions. Read more>>

Dwella Nelson

 

There are 2 ways that ‘The Dr. TopicOils Way’ stands out when compared to other brands.

1) Dr. TopicOils differs from many Wellness and Beauty Care Brands because we takes a holistic approach to underlying Hair Care, Skin Care and Wellness Concerns. We focus on the entire person…not just the ‘Pain Point’.  Read more>>

Laverne Benton

As a hand dyer in the fiber arts world, I am set apart from my peers in that I primarily dye plant based fibers. Most indie yarn dyers specialize in animal fibers such as wool, alpaca, silk, etc. I however found my way to cotton yarn through my love of amigurumi. I began creating dolls for friends; small, cute animals for my daughters and lovies to donate to the children’s hospital. As I learned techniques to improve my craft through “Pinterest University”, I noticed a crisp smoothness to the stitches I saw in many of the pattern images. I wanted to replicate that in my projects and after a bit of digging learned that cotton yarn, usually DK weight, was the base being used. Read more>>

Sway Soturi

My first job was at Wendy’s at age 14. Since then I’ve worked most of the positions in the food industry – from dishwasher to bartender to cook. I’ve always been paid very little but never thought much of it because I was young and didn’t know much. Read more>>

Nikki James Zellner

These people have been through the ringer. They are typically womxn or nonbinary, they often have a past trauma of some kind or a big hurdle they’ve had to overcome, and they have this determination to put their real self out into the world while crushing life and in business. Read more>>

Tricia Case

With 17 years of dog behavior experience, we look through the lens of the dog, and believe in creating tools, equipment, and materials that promote animal welfare and positive human + canine relationships. Read more>>

Jen Benton

Close your eyes and imagine a fitness / wellness brand. What is the first thought that comes to your mind? If you are a consumer of social media, television, or societal norms, it is very likely that your perception of fitness connects back to weight loss, body size manipulation, or health. When I first became a personal trainer, that was my exact presumption too. In fact that was my goal, to help others achieve the body they desired, to help them lose weight. As time progressed I began to feel uncomfortable and out of place with the rest of the fitness industry. I knew I was meant to be doing something greater. I wanted to blend my therapeutic degree and personal training certification together to do better which is when I landed upon HAES (health at every size) and the body-positive movement. Read more>>

Nora Moore

The job hiring process is broken. As the first digitally-native generation, Gen Z has unique challenges and job search user habits. Current hiring platforms have been slow to adapt, expecting this innovative generation which 88% believe that Gen Z can change the world, to fit inside a traditional mold. Gen Z is replacing outdated social norms with reimagined creativity and place high value on self expression. GigOut fills this void to provide a job platform where you tell your job history and personal story your way. Our visual resume replaces a text one. We incorporate gender pronouns, zodiac sign (team Aries!), and photo/video storytelling into the process. We say goodbye to things like a cover letters and resume bullet points. GigOut’s unofficial motto is “Eff a cover letter.” Read more>>

MJ Vanicek

At MJ’s Photography, I strive to bring you something different than just digital images. Time and again, I have seen clients go through the entire process to fall short, with a lackluster set of photos gracing their homes. Read more>>

 Amy Ellis

There are many reasons why people become Real Estate Agents. One reason is they want to help first time buyers. However, real estate is a huge industry where one can specialize in a niche and still be relevant in the community. That is why I chose to specialize in helping homeowners who are facing foreclosure. Many reading this may think, foreclosures, how are there foreclosures in this market? While homes were selling over asking price during the pandemic, there were homeowners facing foreclosure prior. Now that the moratorium is over, it’s time for those homeowners to either catch up their payments or go into default. Read more>>

Maiah Miller

 

When most people think of a bakery, they think of rich desserts that are buttery and sugary and pastries that are an indulgence. When people think of cakes, they often think of colorful cakes made with refined sugar and vibrant colors that come from artificial dyes and heavy with overly sweet frosting. Read more>>

Slevin Mors

I think the biggest thing I do different from large corporate work is to follow my heart. I do this creatively when I conceptualize my art as well as when I am producing a final product. I look for ways to keep my art small and hand made. I find creative outlets for the final products to take things that may be mass produced and make them unique and more hand made. It can be hard with photography (especially selling prints) but there are ways to bring a touch of hand made to the final product. I do this by designing and building my own props or sets when I can or by making or customizing frames by hand so that the final result feels more special and unique. Read more>>

Michelle Taylor

When it comes to permanent jewelry, Bonded is the industry leader in techniques and quality. One of the many things we do different is that we guarantee our products! Once you get Bonded, you are stuck with us. You can confidently live your life knowing that your Bonded jewelry is covered! Read more>>

Jermel President

The DAE Foundation was founded in 1999 to educate and train student-­athletes to become skilled, effective, and responsible citizens of their communities. We met the needs of student­-athletes in a holistic manner, combining innovative basketball skills training with an emphasis on moral character, academic progress, social competence, and overall physical and mental health. Over the years, we have heard time and again from parents of our student athletes that the social competence development has been one of the most rewarding and important parts of our programs. Read more>>

Ewa Muniz

When my son started school I couldn’t believe the food that was being served to children. Coming from Eastern Europe, we always had fresh lunch available and highly processed foods were still quite a novelty. After brewing and sleeping on the idea for a few years an opportunity popped up to start my business of catering scratch made, non-highly processed kids lunches. While I’m not in place yet to fight for access to serve my lunches at public schools, I offered my services to kids in smaller private schools. Kids have a choice of freshly baked goods, scratch made and freshly prepared meats, and all the favorites, like Mac & Cheese, Pancakes, Crepes, Enchiladas and more. Every ingredients list is fully vetted, if it includes ingredients not widely available for residential use (or one we can’t pronounce!), we won’t use it. This way we aim to achieve home-style lunches! Read more>>

Evie McNeil

When it comes to blogging, influencing, or simply sharing content online there are many avenues to digital “success”. This version of success being expanding your reach to users and garnering more online engagement. It’s easy to go viral these days. That’s sorta the anticipated outcome most social media influencers or bloggers hope to reach. With my blog, my overarching goal is inspiration, humanness, and connection. These themes have presented me with asking myself questions on social strategy and content creation. Questions such as, “How do I scale such a project in a genuine way that inspires less online usage and more in-person experiences? This a question not only for those that follow me, but for myself. A paradoxical goal for an online blog, I understand, but a question I’ve thought much about as I devote more or less time each month to my endeavors. Read more>>

Heather Lisle

If there’s one thing I have learned over the years and is also the one thing that I preach and teach all the time, it’s this: No matter if you’re a business owner or an executive, you’ve got to really understand your unique communication style to draw in your ideal client or intended audience. Read more>>

Darsheena Doss

I believe that one of my best qualities of my business that differs from others like it is that I provide a comfortable atmosphere for my clients to have time for themselves. I do this by not over booking. Which is very common in the beauty industry. Their appt time is just that. Theirs. When they come in for their appt they may have had a crazy day at work, may have had a rough and busy day taking care of their families. What ever it may be. When they enter my suite they can let go and unwind for the time they are with me and can leave looking even more beautiful and feeling refreshed! Read more>>

Macy Danza

I have always wanted to own my own salon, but what kind of salon I wanted had evolved over the years. Most hair salons when I was growing up were full service salons buzzing with people. Of course that sounds like success to most, and for a long time it truly was. But about 5/6 years ago I started to see and want a change. Again you can say I was a “successful” hairstylist, booked solid every week, clients back to back, not even time for lunch. But that kind of hustle will wear you out, both physically and emotionally. But thanks to social media, as I started to follow other stylists who had similar interests as I, (hair extensions and Blonding) I saw a glimmer of hope that my career could be different. Read more>>

 Eric Reid

Absolutely.,. The value of the music can not be measured by how much money or “buzz” it generates. This is a cancerious way to look at art in general . Creation can only be valued by the impact it makes on any amount of individuals and the ripple effect that it can have on other peoples lives. It can’t be measured. Especially in the amount of one life time because recorded audio can have an effect on people that are born far after the recording artist is dead and gone. I always remind artists to do music for themselves in the same way a painter gets an idea and needs to see it through on canvas. Make it for yourself . Maybe that’s how some other approach it also but most in the industry are only interested in statistics and trends. Read more>>

Candace Hires

I have been a portrait photographer for almost 14 years now. When I first started, every other photographer I knew was photographing sessions and then just sending a disc of the final images that were created, so that’s how I ran my business. But after several years of working like this with clients, I realized that I was actually doing them a diservice with leaving them on their own for choosing their favorites from an entire gallery and then figuring out about printing and framing or creating albums. That’s now how I wanted to do business. So about 8 years ago, I completely changed my business services. Read more>>