Freedom to Fail

This week I'm doing something a little different than in the past! I want to highlight more local businesses that are just in the startup stage so that my guests are anywhere from the initial struggle to initial public offering.

London Chandler is an up-and-coming entrepreneur who just started an affordable jewelry line, The Muse Supply. She literally just started last month, and already has had an impressive start. Plus, her jewelry is affordable and very nice. I personally bought some and everyone I gave them to loved them.

If you are just starting a business, you will find this conversation very relatable. But no matter where you are in your journey, you'll be able to learn a lot from London!

Resources
The Muse Supply Website: Click Here
Instagram Page: Click Here

This is a repeat of an episode with Kory that first aired on January 6, 2020.

For our listeners out there with good taste in shoes or style, you may have heard of the shoe and boot company, Taft. Easily one of my favorite companies and brands, I was ecstatic to find out that they were based in my backyard here in Utah. Kory Stevens is the founder of Taft, along with his wife. Besides being the CEO of a multi-million dollar company, he was also named the EY Entrepreneur of the Year, has been on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and Taft was recently ranked the 56th fastest growing company in the country by Inc Magazine. But most importantly to him, he is a devoted husband and father.

While he has been able to find much success in business, Kory has also found himself in the depths of depression and lifelong struggles with mental health. What is most inspiring about him is that instead of struggling in silence, like many of us do, he instead chooses to be vulnerable and share his struggles in hopes that he can help people understand that mental health struggles have many different faces, and that anybody can find themselves struggling with it at some point in their lives.

At 28, Tate Stock is still very young in the entrepreneur community. Yet based on what he's been able to accomplish, you would never expect it. His company, Chirp, has only been around for a couple years so far, yet he recently just landed a deal on Shark Tank for the largest valuation in history. Listen to this episode to find out where he got his idea for his business, as well as to learn some tips for your own business experiences! There are lots of practical tips, regardless of where you are at in your entrepreneurial journey.

2020 was a crapshoot for everybody. Good things happened, but so did plenty of difficult things. And nobody was immune. Yet while some people faltered and didn't see much growth, others flourished. The difference was the accountability that these people took in their situations. Some people (including myself) blamed 2020 for their struggles and only saw it as bad things happening to them that they had no control over. Sure, there isn't much one person can do to prevent a global pandemic, but there are other ways of being prepared for such situations, and many of us found ourselves caught with our pants down when COVID-19 hit. I talk about the lessons I learned about moving on, as well as how to create goals and make plans to make 2021 the best year possible.

Ten years ago, at age 60, Judy and her husband were trying to figure out what they were going to do for their retirement. They had started multiple businesses in the past, with varying degrees of success, but were still needing something more to help them feel more secure with their finances. At the same time, Judy went to the doctor to get help with a medical problem she had always had. That meeting with her doctor changed her life forever, and inspired her to create a product that has now changed the lives of millions of people. Since starting Squatty Potty, they have sold over $160 million worth of product, and were able to sell their shares of the business to be secure and comfortable in their retirement. Listen to this episode to hear about that doctor's appointment and how a stool for your stool changed everything.

Hello again! It has been a hot second since I have come out with a podcast episode. That is on me 100%. I spent the last couple months just waiting for things to get better in my life before I did, but I realized that there will never be a time when everything is perfect. Life sucks, and life is also great, and it will be a constant balancing act between the two. What matters is finding ways to stay positive and find the good in every day. In this episode I dive into that a bit more, and then I also talk about the importance of building our personal integrity by keeping promises to ourselves in order to build our self-confidence. Hope you enjoy, and I promise I will be back with more soon!

If you know anything about the Utah entrepreneur scene, odds are you've either heard of Johnny Hanna or the businesses he's started. In 2003 he was one of the founders of the company PropertySolutions (now Entrata) that was doing over $100,000,000 in recurring revenue by 2015 when he felt like it was time to leave. After leaving, he went on to start a company by the name of Homie, which is a digital solution to buying and selling properties that has helped save their customers millions of dollars. They are headquartered in Utah and have offices throughout the Rocky Mountain region, and have raised over $50,000,000 in funding. They also had their two best quarters ever in Q2 and Q3 of 2020, during the peak of COVID-19 when most businesses were struggling to even stay open.

Basically, Johnny Hanna is extremely successful in business, but after interviewing him I learned that he's an even better person. In this podcast, Johnny shares some of his secrets to finding success and how to stay level without riding the highs and lows too much. He also shares some of his most difficult times in life and his business, and the lessons he learned throughout. This is one episode you do NOT want to miss.

Sierra McCleve is a local Utah entrepreneur who now runs multiple successful businesses. She started with Dottie's Kolaches in a little town called Heber, and now also runs a company called Thirst Drinks that has multiple locations in the Salt Lake City area, as well as inside of Vivint SmartHome Arena, where the Utah Jazz play. In this episode learn how Sierra focused on building a strong team experience at Thirst in order to challenge the massive competitors that already existed within Utah, as well as hearing some of her (and my) shortcomings as leaders and the lessons we've learned in how to improve.

Resources

Subscribe and Review: Click Here

Fear-Setting: Click Here

Rejection Therapy: Click Here

Tristen Persons is a Utah entrepreneur who has grown his jewelry business significantly since he started just a few short years ago. He makes unique rings based on his travels around the world, usually out of spoons he finds. He started wearing rings like that when he was a teenager and always got asked where they were from, so he took that initial interest and has ran with it. In this episode you'll learn more about what inspires him and how trying to go outside of the niche he carved for himself lead to his biggest professional failure.

Osmond Designs started 19 years ago when Heather Osmond was initially a realtor. She started staging the homes she was trying to sell in order to increase the value she could receive from them, and soon people were asking where they could get that stuff. So she started it out on the side, and since then has grown it into a very successful interior design company that operates three locations and is one of the name partners for the very successful and busy Parade of Homes. But it hasn't all been easy, as there was a point in the business where they didn't have the necessary cash flow to pay their bills. Learn what she did to make it through and not just survive, but thrive, in this week's interview.

Resources

Subscribe and Review: Click Here

Osmond Designs: Click Here