Danielle Connor shares her story and what she has learned going from employed barista to starting her own 7-figure cafe and coffee roasting brand.

Danielle is the co-founder of Retrograde, a popular local cafe Sebastopol, California and with a separate roasting facility in Petaluma.

Retrograde was the first Certified Green coffee roaster and cafe in Sonoma County. Danielle takes a value-based approach in everything she does as a business owner, placing a focus on the people she works with and the quality of her products.

Jacques Spitzer shares the secrets of how to create high performance marketing content that people actually enjoy watching. Jacques is the founder-CEO of Raindrop, an eight-figure, four-times Emmy Award-winning and two-times Super Bowl ad-producing creative agency that is also behind the top-performing ad in YouTube history. Their ads combine the best of entertainment and advertisement and have generated over a billion dollars in sales for clients, and he shares the formula in this episode. The San Diego Business Journal named Raindrop Agency as "one of the best places to work” and Jacques as “one of the most influential people in San Diego.” The Los Angeles Times named him as “one of California's most visionary CEOs.”

Amanda is the CEO, founder and lead designer of Untamed Petals, a bridal jewelry and dresses brand that started as an Etsy shop and is now tipping 8-figures a month with a direct-to-consumer e-commerce site, over 250 wholesale accounts nationwide, and an emerging presence internationally.

Her business has collaborated with Nordstroms, Anthropologie, and the costume designer for the CW drama Reign.

Her creations have been photographed being worn on the red carpet by several celebrities, including Kate Beckinsale, Jennifer Lopez, Gwen Stefani, Sofia Vergara and many more.

Amanda is a proud member of the female founder collective, the 10th House.

Joe Allen is the owner of Jumpin' Jacks, a family owned and operated event rentals company that offers bounce houses, inflatables, and other event entertainment in Sonoma County.

Majority of rentals take place within a 6 month window from the end of April until the end of October, providing for a great lifestyle and very comfortable, livable income for Joe and his family.

Listen in as he shares his story - jumping (no pun intended) from cellular retail sales to buying (what was at the time) a very small bounce house business and making improvements that have helped him build to 750+ events per year (and growing).

Nicole Stevenson talks with us about what it takes to start and run a street fair. Nicole is the co-founder CEO of Dear Handmade Life, a company that produces Patchwork Show Festivals in nine cities twice a year, reaching over 500,000 attendees in a marketplace for over 15,000 artists and small business owners. Her business also produces the Craftcation Conference, an incredible five-day event with over 200 craft and business workshops in Ventura, California. That conference has been described as "life-changing" and "an MBA for creatives in a weekend." Dear Handmade Life has been featured on Good Day LA, the Huffington Post and Sonoma Magazine, the LA Times and countless blogs.

Alex and Buzz are two avid surfers who started and still run FERAL Wetsuits, a mostly direct-to-consumer brand from Ocean Beach in San Francisco. FERAL designs and produces the Vans Surf Team wetsuits, has collaborated with Volcom, and Stab's editor-in-chief, Michael Chiaramella, was quoted saying "it's my favorite of the entire wetsuit test.

Their business has been featured in Surfer, Stab, Vans, Vogue and in the short film "Once Upon a Time in New Zealand" with Raglan surfer and comic Luke Cederman @RaglanSurfReport.

Today we have Alison Hotchkiss chatting with us about her journey to becoming one of Vogue's top 50 best wedding planners around the world. Alison is the founder CEO of Alison Events. She is a destination wedding planner, event producer, luxury concierge and now a third-time author of Gorgeous Gatherings, a large format book that showcases some of her most stunning events. She has produced over 500 jaw-dropping events in 15 countries and 29 cities. Her exquisite celebrations have been featured in Vogue Brides, Martha Stewart Weddings, Elle Magazine, Harper's Bazaar and many more.

Ali Navid shares his journey from the corporate world to crafting Thriving Mindsets financial education programs. Ali was a former banking VP and private wealth advisor who managed client relationships with high net worth individuals before making a transformative leap into offering the same high caliber financial education, but to thousands of regular everyday people. He is the author of the bestselling book Stock Investing Without Fear and is driven by a passion for empowering others to make savvy investment choices and attain financial freedom more quickly.

Anne McGinty, the host of ‘How I Built My Small Business,’ shares anecdotes from her upbringing and the motivation behind starting her podcast.

Matt is the founder CEO of THE ART OF SURFING, a business that provides high-performance, personalized surf coaching, academy memberships and remote coaching worldwide. He's not just a former professional surfer; Matt's an inspirational figure who's story is as compelling as it is educational.

His programs are designed to help surfers (of all abilities) fulfill their potential by fine-tuning their personal style while mastering technique.

Matt has been featured on the cover of Uno Magazine and New Zealand Surfing Magazine.

Matt and Libiss Skinner are the co-founders of the Charleston Hemp Collective and High Rise Beverage Company, both which have been guided by their commitment to highest quality ingredients. Their CBD brand makes tinctures, topicals, gummies, pantry items and beverages. They've been featured in Charleston Magazine, South Magazine, the local Charleston News and many more.

Jim is the founder, owner, operator of the Petaluma Pumpkin Patch, a fall destination for many families in the Bay Area and a well -known agritourism enterprise in Sonoma County. Jim is a member of 4 -H, which promotes positive youth development, mentorship, and education, and FFA, the Future Farmers of America, an organization that encourages leadership in agriculture.

Not only does he run an incredibly successful pumpkin patch, but he is also in charge of managing over 800 acres of other land. His pumpkin patch has been featured in countless media, including Sonoma Magazine, KQED, Time Out, and was named as one of the top three pumpkin patches in the United States by the New York Times.

Amy is the co-founder and CEO of Teaspoon, a nationwide boba chain that opened its first store in Los Altos, California, in 2016 and started franchising two years later. Since then, the brand has expanded to 45 Teaspoon boba shops nationwide and growing. Her business has been featured in Style Magazine, restaurant Magazine, Chef's Warehouse and more.

Brian is the founder CEO of BeeRoll, a tech platform that empowers leading brands to weave authentic stories through user -generated content. For nearly a decade, Brian worked in the corporate world as an analyst executing strategy and business development with companies including HBO, Comedy Central, Paramount, Comcast, and more. Then in 2017, he combined his interests in storyboarding, video editing, and screenwriting and launched Beeroll.

Rachel is the co-founder of Maptote, a Brooklyn based small business that has been making fun and functional products with unique location-centric designs. With a tale that stitches together art, fashion, and sustainability, Rachel recounts the leap of faith that propelled a single Brooklyn map tote bag and an initial $600 investment into a diverse collection of over 600 products at 800+ store globally.

Maptote has collaborated with Museums, L’Occitane, Pendleton, HBO, Martha Stewart and many more and has been featured in The Spruce, on Birdie’s “Top 50 Best Friend Gifts,” in Women’s Day, Bloomingdale’s “Greatest Gift Guide,” People Magazine, Women’s Health, and so much more.

Skip Abed bought the Santa Barbara Sailing Center at twenty-seven years old back on April 1, 2000 after working there for eight years.

Skip saw a vision for the myriad of ways he could improve the Santa Barbara Sailing Center and over the past twenty-three years, he's gradually put them in place growing the business from about ten boats to over forty.

His business has been named the American Sailing Association School of the Year twice now, and he is passionate about making the sport of sailing accessible to everyone.

Rochelle Webb is a clinical assistant professor of entrepreneurship and marketing at Loyola Marymount University. She’s not only an academic powerhouse, but also the visionary founder and CEO of Optimist Made, a social entrepreneurship venture connecting global designers to the American market.

Ross Jacobson is the co -founder CEO of 3311 Productions, a company of film lovers who take movie making seriously, but not themselves.

Ross went from the entry level job as tape librarian at Magical Elves, the producer of Top Chef and Project Runway, to leading the company in just four years. Ross is a film industry veteran who has brought films to Cannes, Sundance, Telluride, Berlin, Toronto, and Comic -Con, and has been a part of Emmy and Peabody winning TV shows.

3311 Productions has produced many films including In A World , The Assistant , Brigsby Bear , and many more.

Melissa Martinelli is the founder and CEO of Superfrau. Melissa was an immigration lawyer and pivoted to crafting delicious Super Sodas made from surplus fresh whey that is generated during the youghurt fermentation process. She has been featured on the Boston Globe, was a speaker at the Tufts University Food and Nutrition Innovation Institute, and her company @drinksuperfrau has been touted as a top key player in the growing upcycled foods industry.

In this special episode, join me, Anne, and my husband Mark as we co-host a journey down memory lane, reflecting on the origins and evolution of San Francisco Holiday Lighting, Inc, a full-service holiday lighting and decor installation company. Mark, with a background in carpentry, and myself, formerly a sales representative for a nationwide oral and body care company, share the story of how we built our business.

Tune in for valuable insights as we reminisce on the lessons learned during our path to netting seven figures annually, all within the dynamic world of holiday lighting - a business that only operates for six months a year.