Everyday we meet business owners, professionals, artists and creatives. Photographers, florists, realtors and more. They might come from different backgrounds, work in different industries, have varying personalities, and have vastly different income and educational profiles, but the one thing we’ve seen over and over again is that most people have a unique and special reason for why they do what they do. From a realtor helping families afford the first home he always wished for as a kid to a photographer using her skills to give a voice and face to victims who feel voiceless, we have been blown away by what happens when you just ask people a simple question – why do you do what you do?

Troy Bushido

For decades, the ‘geek culture’ space has been underserved. Growing up, we were seen as the ‘weirdos, nerds, losers, outcasts’ etc. A lot of our fandoms were designed as mental and emotional escape for socially troubled lives. A lot of times, trauma creates habits that are unhealthy in the body and mind. A lot of times, we carry the trauma and the habits they bring for YEARS. Read more>>

Melanie Hower

I’ll be honest, I didn’t quite know what my mission was until somewhat recently… I never thought of myself as an artist that had a mission until I became a therapist. It was always clear to me that I wanted to work with (primarily) womxn with eating disorders and negative body image. It wasn’t until I was working in that universe that my art started to reflect on more diverse bodies. Read more>>

Guy Phillips

I grew up running from my southern roots until I hit 18 or 19. Some of that was angst but a lot of it was lacking the understanding of the nuance of southern culture. Southern America gets a bad wrap and a lot of that is deserved, but because of the intense stigma that most of the world holds toward southern culture – I started to realize that a whole lot of voices, good art, and folks that had something unique to contribute to the world were getting stifled out. Read more>>

Sam Watkins

My wife and I started a company called Sam Watkins Country back in 2007 as a means of promoting my music. We had met in 2006 at a coffee shop where I had just written and performed a song for a gentleman who was proposing to his girlfriend. Upon meeting her, we eventually recording an album of 12 of my original songs and decided to create the company. In 2009, I created a band and in 2010 we created In The Neon Spotlight Radio, the show by musicians for musicians. Read more>>

Morgan Phillips

Growing up in Central Pennsylvania, western fashion was hard to find, but mid to plus size western fashion was even harder. The closest western store was over an hour away and it was more made for horse or farm girls, not for girls who love experimenting with trendy western. I knew that if I wanted to dress that way, I would either have to buy online or get it myself. Read more>>

Paige B. Thompson

This is so much more than just a transaction of buying, selling and investing in real estate. This is about changing peoples lives, and becoming a servant in the community, and guiding others to achieve a goal that they didn’t think was possible, and building those life long relationships. The transaction itself brings me a tremendous amount of happiness, as I hand over those keys for the very first time or helping people capitalize on their investment. It a very emotional feeling for me because most of these goals reached started with a thought of “is this even possible.” Read more>>

Kimberly Collins

All About Mommie is my baby and it represents everything I stand for. It’s a company embodied by compassion, understanding, endurance, strength, greatness & feminine energy. I saw there was a lack of attention and support around the subject of postpartum care, so I sprang into action due to a personal encounter. Backstory, my friend was having a baby and I wanted to gift her with something that was just for her and that would be helpful, I begin searching what to gift a mom after birth. Read more>>

Ronen Hirsch

Setting up a custom shop with Shopify is meant to be so easy and quick. Just create a Shopify account, choose a theme to install, and start adding your products and other content. Voila, your storefront is ready for customers! Read more>>

Haz Mayoral

If you’re from any coastal town in Baja, eating sea food is just part of life, but if you’re from Ensenada Baja California, Fish tacos are part of the culture. I was born in Ensenada and grew up in a small coastal town called San Quintin, I grew up eating pretty much anything that came from the ocean, however being that we’re from Ensenada Fish tacos were just part of our everyday meals and my mom would make them regularly as any other item like chicken, or pancakes for breakfast since we always had fresh fish available, it wasn’t even a choice back then, it was just what we ate and a steady part of our diet. Read more>>

Kylie Stetler

Mindful Works is a social enterprise providing empowering work to individuals striving to overcome employment barriers due to mental health challenges. We do this through the design and production of high quality, locally crafted products. Employment is an evidence based tenet of recovery, but it isn’t always as easy as going out and getting a job. Something you need a transition. Read more>>

Raimek Taylor

My mission is to create timeless pieces that can be appreciated by ALL walks of life & inspire individuals to fearlessly be themselves! I want to show my community that you don’t have to conform in anyway, shape, or form in order to be successful. I made vows to stick MY vision no matter what opportunity present itself. This is so meaningful to me because I’ve seen so many of my people get lost trying to be something they’re not when it’s way cooler to just be yourself. Read more>>

Shelandria Jordan Williams

S. Jordan: The C-Suite, LLC is a self-titled business with a mission that is deeply personal to me as the founder. The mission, “where creativity and function collide”, is rooted in the desire to fuse left brain and right brain thinking. Read more>>

Valar Dubose

I honestly just wanna show others that are wanting to start their own career that you can do it, all it takes is time, patience, a lot of intuition and a tough skin. Read more>>

Genavieve Moyer

My husband DJ & I are on a mission to redefine the family farm. My husband’s grandfather’s almost 100 acre dairy farm is now in the hands of the next generation. Like many small family farms that had their hay-day in the mid-70s & 80s, their children grew up to not be farmers. This leaves many small family farms vulnerable to being sold off into lots to the highest bidder. Read more>>

Yolanda Knox

My biggest mission when I started this company was to create non toxic, cleaner burning candles. Like most people, I bought any candle that I thought smelled good, never thinking about the health risks. After suffering many migraine headaches over the years, I found out it was the candles I was burning in my home. After much research and trial and error, I was able to create a safer solution with 100% Soy candles. I turned my mission into a passion that lead to a business. Now I not only make scented soy vegan candles, I also educate others. Read more>>

Hernán Castro

My mission was to make a product that could provide help to people who are seeking natural support for illnesses. When I first started I told myself I was going to help the whole world with my mushroom products. My father was paralyzed from strokes and after long research I made a mushroom extract that eventually helped him repair his nervous system and he became mobile again. That event galvanized me to bring this mushroom along with others to help everyone willing to try something different! Read more>>

Nicole Laby

I am a musician not because I want to be a musician, but because I have to be. If I’m not writing new music, recording new albums or performing with my quartet, I feel like something is missing. Music is alive in the poor plumbing of a San Francisco Victorian: the clinking and clanking of the rusted pipes. Music is in the rhythmic crushing of padding through the snow. Read more>>

Amanda Chinitra

Beaneka Coffee Roastery came from a need to balance coffee farmers’ economic growth, environmental sustainability, and social well-being through Indonesian specialty coffee. Our values stem from witnessing the inequality in coffee industries towards coffee farmers. This issue could decrease the quantity and quality of coffee production if we don’t reward the farmers for their hard work. Read more>>

Chiquita Thomas

My mission is to help individuals embrace their own natural beauty and to be confident within thy self. The mission behind my story is based upon how l felt as a woman growing up, I wasn’t very confident and my self esteem wasn’t at its highest. But, going through growth and understanding that going through life obstacles put me at a stand still on who I was as a woman and what I saw in myself. I began to feel stronger mentally, emotionally and began to express me the way I saw me. And, that’s being this woman l am today. Read more>>

Darqueze Dennard

Imagine a small town kid watching his mom struggle, watching his grandparents struggle–not having anyone close to redefine what life is actually like on the other side, not having a vision of success because in our family success, riches, opportunities were merely dreams; and those dreams simply didn’t represent us. Our reality was survival. Read more>>

Zac Greenberg

I have an arts and medicine non profit with my grandmother called Musicians for Health. Are mission is to create platforms for artists to get involved in the medical field in what ever way speaks to their individual story. For me and my family, the story is cancer. Right around the time I was graduating from 5 years of arts college, after 2 years of performing arts high school, I asked the age old question, “what now?” Read more>>

ARIEL GOODE

There are a few missions that I had and still maintain when deciding to leave corporate America to blindly step out on my own to start Funkly Lil Pooch. To provide dog owners with a healthier alternative to mass-produced dog treats that often contain artificial preservatives, additives, and other unhealthy ingredients. By using only all-natural, wholesome-locally sourced ingredients, we can help improve the health and well-being of dogs. Read more>>

Brittney Perry

Women never had as many options for sneakers as men did at sneakers stores. This resorted to me wearing mostly men’s sneakers from childhood into adulthood. Having feelings of being excluded from certain sneakers, I made PerryCo a unisex company to strive towards equality for all. I believe this company is important not only because it’s unisex, Read more>>

AYAKA SHIOYA

I have two big missions. One of them is that I want new moms to experience the power of photography. I gave birth to twins in Australia and began raising them. It was not easy, especially since my family lived in Japan and my husband’s family was in Puerto Rico, so they couldn’t easily come to help. I developed diabetes during pregnancy and had to inject insulin myself every day. Also Since I was pregnant with twins, it became increasingly difficult to move around and even drive a car on my own from seven months of pregnancy. Read more>>

Bubba Albrecht

I have a background working with the Teton Valley Ranch Camp, where I served as a camp counselor for many years, guiding kids and cheering them on toward independence in the Wyoming outdoors. The return on investment of working with kids had such a big impact on me. That childlike wonder is what we’re looking to support in every person out there. The kind of hype that is so genuine and real, and it doesn’t have to stop at adolescence. Read more>>

Erin Whalen

As a 20 year old first tear teacher, I had immense energy and passion to find new and exciting ways to connect with my students. This interest is what led me to founding my own dance group at North Miami Middle School in addition to teaching all sections of English. Prior to holding auditions, a little boy came into my classroom. He was mute and folks within the building didn’t have the context to understand why. Read more>>

Britney-kay Sloley

Being from a Nigerian and a Jamaican household, culture is a big part of our lives. Telling the stories of our respective roots and bringing that to life in our products is what drives us every single day. Not to sound demeaning or condescending, but not many Americans know much about Africans or Caribbean’s. That’s not necessarily the fault of any American; it’s the same as me having little to no knowledge about Asian or Latino culture. Read more>>

Carissa Monroe

As the owner of a community dance studio that teaches children as young as 14 months – adults, we stand by our mission statement on many levels. Our mission is to provide a warm environment that is accepting and nurturing for all of our dancers and their families! We are committed to fostering strong and respectful dancers who will head out into our community read to make a positive and influential impact on the lives of others. Read more>>

Darneshia Smith

FROM SIDE HUSTLE TO MAIN GIG: HOW I BECAME A MOMPRENEUR? In February 2021 I found out I was pregnant with my real boss, my baby girl Danielle. The pandemic exposed that certain aspects of Corporate America is as stable and adaptable. In fully transparency, entrepreneurship was never on my mind. Read more>>

Sarah Frick

Small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy and for many, the ticket to true happiness and prosperity. The main focus of our shows is to showcase and uplift small businesses and makers. We strive to create an inclusive space for like-minded individuals with a focus on community, sustainability, and an appreciation for preserving history. We provide our attendees with a curated shopping experience where they can directly support 100+ local and regional vendors all in one place, in person. Read more>>

Romina Caristo

At Ocean Fever our mission in paper is TO CREATE AWARENESS FOR WATER SAFETY AND MENTAL HEALTH. We believe these 2 topics are well related when it comes to the importance of topics, and even more when you involve your community. We believe Water Safety should be a right, not a privilege. We are located in the South Bay area, Redondo Beach, and the ocean is our big pool. After coaching many years high school and masters, we decided to expanded to the ocean where our youth volunteer their time on a Sunday FREE program, not only to reduce drowning cases, but to also fight anxiety and depression, topics that increased after COVID. Read more>>

Brenna Holloman

Our mission is to add massive value through innovative marketing – Xtreme! Marketing Our mission is personal to our owner, John Tarn, due to his business and engineering background. The 2 key parts are innovation and marketing. These are the 2 things every business has to do in order to be successful. One of John’s favorite quotes is Peter F Drucker’s, “Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two and only two basic functions: marketing and innovation. Read more>>

Dana Cohen

I spent over a decade working in corporate fashion. I watched fabrics get ordered and never be used and garments pile up on sale racks. During that time, I discovered I am REALLY passionate about waste. I knew there was a better way to design. I thought-What if, instead of depleting resources to create new materials, we just used the “waste” out there to create beautiful things? HYER GOODS was born. Our name is a riff on the word higher, since everything we do aims to be better. Read more>>

Jeffrey Marshall

I believe that in the music business people with disabilities have been very unrepresented. It seems like it is the only industry that has less representation now than it did 50 years ago. In the 70s, you had disabled musicians such as, Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles. They were both excepted in their industries and went on to have tremendous success. Read more>>

Maecy Richardson

To be safe. I was told by so many of my family and friends that getting a salary job with the gov. or with any other business or tech company will be the financially safest way to live life and push my dreams to the back burner. I was tired of hearing the sentence “i love to do “this” but I chose the business world for security”, that wasn’t going to be me. If I have Artsy talents I must have them for a reason, why not see where I can go and what adventures I can experience with them. Read more>>

DeShaun Williams

The Mission behind my business “Inner Power Network” is anything less than simple, but I can say that it is very impactful. In September 2018, I actually tried to take my own life, because I felt like their wasn’t a purpose in my life, and everything seemed to falling apart around me, such as my school life, relationship, friendships, and even my work life. When I got off work, I thought to myself “You know this will be the final time someone sees me, because they won’t miss me when I’m gone.” Read more>>

Leeann Manzoni

“Capturing life’s memories, one click at a time” is my mission and my slogan, but it’s so much more than that. Growing up, my family did not focus much on taking pictures. For one reason or another, it just wasn’t a priority. When I was a teenager, my Mom passed away. When someone passes, what’s something that people almost automatically start to go through or look for? Pictures. Read more>>

Jewell Swetman

I am a fitness trainer and nutrition coach with a BIG Sweet tooth! I also have lost over 100lbs naturally. I love food, but I really love healthy food that tastes really good. As I found myself accumulating a busier and busier life, I found myself reaching for convenient foods that could satisfy my sweet tooth while respecting my goals and my health. Read more>>

Kelly Vitt

My company tagline is: “Embrace Your Self,” because this was my personal journey after losing my breast to breast cancer, something 1 in every 8 women will experience in her lifetime. Through accepting the way I looked after surgery and living with side effects of chemo, I found that self-love was the greatest challenge in my recovery. Read more>>

Jimena Castano

After years of making logos, catalogs or corporate images for companies I wanted to find a way to add more value, meaning and emotions to my designs, Ikigai .passion became a wonderful way to connect with people and make them feel special through a gift personalized. Ikigai.passion allowed me to create something that goes beyond a logo creating special moments and memories that will last a lifetime for my clients and their loved ones. The idea is focused on bringing joy and emotion to my clients through my designs doing what I love. Read more>>

Obadiah Clemans

Three Crowns Coffee provides sincere forum and community and, above all, is dedicated to providing the highest quality coffee that is within our power to make. Thus, Three Crowns is a specialty coffee shop. I get green coffee beans from all over the world, decide on what should be on the menu for a time, and roast the coffee in the shop. I do exclusively light roast as that is what I prefer to drink and, in my opinion, it brings out the most powerful and balanced flavors of the coffee. Read more>>

Pamela McKenney

My mission/Goal is to enhance my sons (MacFour) an R&B entertainment group’s career to the top level. In the beginning my sons express that they would love to be entertainers, so we began their journey by taking them to see Broadway shows and having sing-alongs in the car. Read more>>

Alejandra Valdez

Our mission at Viva Fit Kitchen is to build healthier communities by providing them the convenience of nutritious balanced meals. For me, food changed my life. In 2016 after a long day of walking at the zoo, my feet became so swollen, this had not been the first time but it had been the first time they stayed swollen for DAYS! I knew that I was pre-diabetic and that if I continued down the unhealthy habits I had that it wasn’t going to end well for me. Much of my family on both sides had diabetes and my grandma had almost passed away from diabetes some years prior. Read more>>

Mya Baker

I am a filmmaker, writer and activist against gun violence. As of today, gun violence is the leading cause of children and teen deaths in America. I want to live in a world with no gun violence. My mission is to bring awareness about gun violence to every neighborhood with my brand to give people who have been impacted by it in any way a voice. Shoot Films Not People is a brand for people who envision a world jus like me. Read more>>

Samantha Dittmann Struemph

My mission is to show Women that they are amazing, strong and confident beings. Too much these days, we completely beat ourselves up over the smallest things. We want to be skinner, stronger, more confident, when in fact, it is already there inside of us. We want to celebrate each woman the way she is. We are all unique and we need to embrace it. Each day we go through struggles and come out the other side. Read more>>

Stefanie Barboza

The Barboza Method was created to help one 60-year-old woman’s need; not desire, to exercise, because her life depended on change. When we met, her health was failing due to multiple health issues; hyperparathyroidism and dialysis within the year. Simple tasks of going to the grocery store or picking up her granddaughter from dance school seemed almost impossible, depending on her body that day. Read more>>