A dad can’t find a bakery to make a birthday cake that can accommodate his daughter’s allergy-related needs. Two freelancers realize they need a way to organize all of their client contracts and can’t find software that adequately handles their use case. Necessity is often hailed as the mother of innovation – but not all ideas come from necessity. Unfortunately, in our experience, often media coverage of the ideas that powered amazing businesses and projects often stops at a very superficial level. The founders noticed a need and boom – idea. Often the ideation process has a much longer, more complex story and so we’ve asked some entrepreneurs and creatives we admire to go into detail about their ideation stories.

Amanda, Chelsea Delk, Mishler

Lots of wine… just kidding. Sort of. Getting into this business was really a coincidence. We had briefly discussed opening up something of our own but then a space became available in downtown Owosso. We decided to look at it, attempting to put most of our hesitations aside knowing full well we had no plan, no vendors, nothing. Once there, we knew that was it; we were all in. It became a collaboration of our two personalities; just two friends who had both expressed interest in owning an inclusive space that offers affordable products that we both love; Amanda, who loved the idea of having a refillery for the community, and Chelsea who was interested in a little witchy type book shop. We combined the two and now offer a selection of everything from books and crystals to skincare and soaps. Read more>>

Asia Chianta Muhammad-gary

Nine years ago in New Mexico, Asia and Kia met when Kia’s husband introduced himself to the Muhammads, the only African American couple in the neighborhood. The Muhammads invited the Kennedys to Mr. Muhammad’s birthday party, marking the beginning of Asia and Kia’s friendship. The Kennedys were delighted to learn that the Muhammads also hailed from Detroit, Michigan. Their friendship flourished as Asia and Kia shared their hair care struggles, realizing the New Mexico climate severely affected their hair. They both chose to embark on a natural hair journey, which meant eschewing chemicals for straightening their hair. Read more>> 

Austin Ardrey

I got a phone call in January of 2021 from two college football officials that wanted to take themselves to the next level. They reached out asking for help learning how to improve their running mechanics and get into shape specifically for their upcoming football season. We met in person and I took them through what a college athlete would do within an on-field conditioning session, catering it to what they do as officials. I took them through– Soft tissue prep, teaching them how to prepare and recover – Dynamic warmups they could do before trainings or games – Running technique drills they could implement on a regular basis to improve their technique Read more>>

Becky Kemp

I remember being a little girl, around 9 or 10 years old, daydreaming about becoming a speaker, author, and media personality. These dreams filled me with curiosity and excitement, but as I grew older, fear, doubt, and insecurity began to stifle that curiosity. Instead of pursuing those dreams, I took a different path—one that many women can relate to. I married my high school sweetheart shortly after graduation, started a family, and settled into what seemed like a wonderful life. But beneath the surface, I felt unfulfilled and disconnected from my true self. Read more>>

Bivian Lee

Son of a Saint is a 501c3 youth development nonprofit dedicated to transforming the lives of fatherless boys throughout Greater New Orleans through mentorship, education, and life skills enrichment. The mission and purpose of the organization stem from my personal story. I was just 3 years old when my father, Bivian Lee, Jr., who played cornerback for the New Orleans Saints in the 70s, died of a heart attack at age 36. Growing up without my father, I remember just kind of being lost many times during my adolescence. Read more>>

Brad Walsh

As a child, for the most part, he was a pretty happy kid growing up and led a pretty normal life as far as lives go for children. He always received lots of love and support from his Mom and Grandparents (his Mom’s parents). He had lots of friends, played sports and soccer in particular was the sport of choice. He absolutely loved the game. His upbringing was middle class, Mom was a stay at home Mom and his Father worked at General Motors on the assembly line to bring in the money to support the family. Read more>>

Bryan Dillard

As a young teenager, I often found myself framing the world through an invisible lens, capturing moments in my mind’s eye with an instinctive precision. Whether it was the golden hues of a sunset or the candid joy of a friend’s laughter, these images were imprinted on my memory. At the time, I wasn’t sure if this was a universal experience or a unique consequence of the beautiful moments I encountered. Read more>>

Carol Huls

I didn’t actually come up with the idea of DittoForm. This is what happened… I am not a natural entrepreneur. I never had a vision or goal to own my own business. In fact, if you look at my resume you would notice I have changed jobs many, many times. I have worked in a variety of fields, from non-profit to Fortune 500 companies, and in nearly every level of an organization – with the exception of C-suite level leadership. [I guess now I have that too!] When I had left what I refer to as my last “real job,” I decided to take a minute to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. So I was doing lots of part-time gigs. One of them was with a small sewing studio.  Read more>>

Cate Mcquaid

I’ve been a freelance writer for my entire career, working mostly as an art critic for the Boston Globe. But the print industry is on the decline. I’m blessed to have a long-term relationship with the Globe. I used to make a living there, but there have been cutbacks. And two years ago, in July, 2022, my work there was significantly trimmed. In the past, after a cutback, I’d just be in fear mode until my sense of my budget stabilized. This time, I took it differently. I was lucky to have a bit of a financial cushion, and I decided to take the time to let ideas come to me. To just be open and allow things to percolate. My contemplative practices led me to visioning and gave me patience and faith that something would arise. By November, I knew I wanted to still be writing. Read more>>

Cedric Solice

During the latter part of my time as an assistant coach and staff member for the Syracuse University Women’s Basketball team, I discovered a deep passion for public speaking. There had always been an internal motivation to help people grow and maximize their skill sets and potential, which initially drove me to pursue an education background in the performing arts and eventually a career in coaching. However, public speaking became an avenue that I recognized provided a platform to reach more people and communicate a helpful or developmental message that could change their lives. Read more>>

Charlie Greene

A few weeks after my tenth birthday, our family lost my dad. It was tragic, sudden, and completely unexpected. In the years that followed, to say I missed him would be a tremendous understatement. I’d often think to myself, if I could sit down with him just one more time, what would I ask him? Would it be about his childhood? Lessons learned through his career? Or about the way he approached raising children? The topics of potential conversation felt limitless. That’s why when my mom was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer seven years ago and the doctors told us she might not live more than a few years, I knew I had to ask her some of those questions. Read more>>

Chastidyi Parrott

Back in 2013, we lost our home in a fire. We had just lost my grandfather to complications from a car accident a little over a month before, and my grandmother passed away in the fire. It was a really rough time for us. We had to scramble to find a place to live, plan a funeral while we were still grieving from a previous death, deal with PTSD, and I had to borrow photography equipment from other professionals in the area until insurance came through to shoot the weddings as we were just getting into season. Read more>>

Darla Delayne

The idea for my company, SHE’S C.E.O. started over 40 years ago. With education, psychology, and math degrees under my belt, I started my career life as a public school teacher, student teacher mentor, and curriculum specialist. I “retired” from teaching 4 times before I was 35 to follow my dream of time and money freedom until I finally accepted that I was not cut out to be confined to a room all day. Read more>>

Dashay Perry

I came up with the idea for my business “The faultless Beauty foundation ” during a time where I had just come out of a traumatic situation. The name comes from the scripture Jude 1:24 “Now unto him who is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless in his presence with exceeding joy” to me that means although you have issues in life and various situations that may be unfavorable God will cover, keep and protect you. Even when you walk through the fire you will NOT smell like smoke or come out burnt. That is my life story.. and it is my goal/mission to help other beauties understand, see, and be just that. Faultless Loud and proud! Read more>>

Day Dixon

The idea for Brandkandy came when I was running a creative marketing agency. While I loved the creative challenges and client successes, a recurring theme grew on me: the frustration clients experienced when trying to manage their digital presence. They were talented in their respective fields but felt completely out of their depth regarding the technical difficulties of the online world. I remember one client in particular. She was brilliant but building and maintaining a website filled her with dread. She was a creative soul, not a coder or a designer. She spent precious time and energy on tasks that hindered her core business. Read more>>

Demetris Ross

Loaded Business Productions Came About In My College Era, Around My Sophomore Year. Looking Back, I Remember Growing Up A Black Sheep Within My Family. Which Typically Left A Notion Of Incapability In Me. Before I Knew It Small Habits Became Normal Within My Patterns, Ultimately Leading To A Vast Amounts Of Irresponsibility.  With the Brand I Aimed To Base It Around Responsibility, And Or Finding Comfortability In Productivity. “Having Everything You Need In Order To Produce The Best Outcome Of Any Situation” Is Our Main Goal Here. Loaded Business Productions Is “Where Dedication Meets Commitment, Half Stepping Is Not An Option”  Read more>>

Don Noble

As far as I can remember, I’ve always been creative, and I’ve always loved horror. I design horror book covers now, and have been for the last decade or so, but I grew up making my own comics, writing short stories and poetry. Eventually poetry turned to music, music became my life for a long while working construction to pay the bills.  Then, as I was leaving construction to become a hospice caregiver, a best friend died. I stopped making music for a long time after that. I went back to art and writing. Somewhere in that haze of events I wrote my first short story collection and my first novel. Started an indie publishing house, and toured all over the states to book shows and horror conventions.  Read more>>

Dr. Wanita Mercer

First, thank you so much for inviting me to share more of my entrepreneurial journey again! I launched Lead My Heart in 2022 as an executive coaching business, but it quickly became clear that my vision extended far beyond traditional coaching. I wanted to offer something truly unique—a blend of creative and strategic services that catered to the diverse needs of my clients. My background in fashion management and design, where I not only styled and produced fashion shows but also designed clothes and even launched my own clothing line, gave me a wide range of skills that I knew could benefit my clients. Read more>>

Eduard Monteagudo

When I was in my last year studying interior design in Barcelona, 20 years ago when I was 22, I started to work for design studios in NYC. It wasn’t until 2016 that I rented commercial space in Greenpoint to start experimenting as a designer. The original idea was a two-story and rooftop commercial space on Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint. I wanted to create a lab of design, just for the pleasure of designing. I wanted to monetize it – I got bookings for events, music presentations, private events, and more. Read more>>

Emilia Medick

My husband John and I started small with maple syrup producing as a hobby and a way to be outdoors during the end of winter. It becomes an addiction every year to see how many more trees you can tap and how much you can make. Our first year we tapped 19 trees in 2013. We progressed to around 80 taps and buckets and then began the discussion of using maple tubing to make gathering the sap easier especially during the muddy season. My husband’s mother was a great inspiration to us. Read more>>

Erika Jensen

A lot of people think I came up with the idea for my business through months of planning and research, and really diving into a skill that I was already very good at. That’s not true at all. I was in a job that I was “supposed to be in”. I went to school, got a degree, went to work in marketing at a very popular company. I hated it. I was young, newly married and depressed. After eating my weight through pints of Ben&Jerry’s, my husband asked “Is it me?” :). No, I just thought after college you would get the chance to impact the world around you, and honestly, back in the 2000s, nobody cared about the voices of 20-yr-olds and there weren’t as many platforms as there are now to make yourself “seen and heard”. Read more>>

Haley Gray

For years, I was one of the few people focused on researching for true crime podcasts, and it was something I truly loved doing. As word spread about my work, people began asking me how I did it and whether they could learn to do the same. Clients would often comment on the unique service I provided, and some even joked that they wished they could clone me! Despite this interest, I wasn’t quite sure how to go about teaching others to research in the way I did. Read more>>

Heather Lukela

The experience from my career led me to this. I learned to spin ice cream professionally at Nobu. I created my recipe at The Vintage Cave. I put a Baked Alaska on the menu at Top of Waikiki. The flavor always changed so learned alot about what worked and what didn’t. A friend asked me to supply dessert to his restaurant. I presented him with a mango buttermilk ice cream pie I had just put together with gifted mangoes. Pitching that it was a great item because it was grab and go. As long as you had freezer space. He agreed and I still supply him today. My oldest wholesale account. Read more>>

Hep

I think there’s nothing special about how I decided to become a tattoo artist, i believe that it’s an idea that crosses every creative’s mind, I just think it happened to me at a time when i was ready for the commitment. With the growth of instagram i started to see more and more possibilities of how tattoos can look, and that made me wanting to become a tattoo artist. Read more>>

Imad-ad-dean Ahmad

As a long time libertarian activist and Muslim activist,m I approached the brilliant historian Prof. Leonard Liggio of George Mason University after taking a workshop on the history of liberty from him and ,mentioned that I wished to write an article on the role of Islam in the development if liberty. I was pleasantly surprised when he demonstrated a great familiarity with the prevalence of libertarian ideas among medieval Muslim scholars. He told me that when I was ready to begin sich a project I should come to see him. Read more>>

Javi And Andrés Romero

JC Events started throughout our childhood years. As we both grew up Javi and Andres both had a very creative mind. No matter the occasion we were both one to come up with a “project” or an idea to decorate or create something unique for a special someone and/or holiday. Javi grew up making every birthday and holiday special for every family member, whether it was a simple gift or decorating his house to add a memorable touch he always had something under his sleeve. Read more>>

Jennifer Makowski

Boochie Bar was a wild dream that I had in the back of my mind for many years. The dream and concept started to really get clearer after the pandemic in 2020. Health seemed to be something that everyone was talking about, however it was still so hard to find. Where is the local place that offered healthy, yet quick options for consumers? Especially, those consumers with any type of food allergy or Auto-Immune disease. Read more>>

Jennifer Curnutt

Well, the story of how we started La Vie Yoga Destination Retreats is actually pretty interesting. Several years back, I wrote an article about a unique experience I had staying in a hogan within the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park in an area where even most native tribal members are not allowed to wander. It was the Navajo New Year and I had been invited by my dear friend Verna to spend a few days in her hogan that was passed down from her grandmother to her mother to her. Read more>>

Gregory Jones

“I have had the privilege of working with a diverse range of young people, spanning ages 6 to 30. The experiences I gained ignited a fire within me and fueled my passion to start my own business. My journey began when I found myself working with youth facing extreme challenges—struggling with issues such as fighting, robbery, truancy, carjacking, gang violence, and homelessness. Read more>>