Small Business Stories

Danielle Perlin-Good has deep experience in digital marketing and ghostwriting. She takes her clients on a journey of personal discovery and healing as the "Soul-Aligned Ghostwriter." Danielle exudes cautious optimism and a time-proven process that takes her clients step-by-step through getting their book idea out of their heads on onto the digital shelves of amazon. For many, this can be a daunting process but she makes it simple and helps every aspiring author get their story out!

Dr. Brenda Boston is the President of the Dr. Marie Barney Boston Foundation which was founded by her late mother. It offers more than a scholarship to help students attend college, it also teaches accountability, responsibility, and giving back to the community. To date, since the foundation launched in 2015, they have helped 35 students with tuition in their respective pursuits of higher education. This nonprofit Foundation operates nationwide and is poised to continue enabling students to achieve more through the support of the community.

Jennifer Holmes founded Joyous Journeys - all because she was interested in "voluntourism" and "eco-tourism" but couldn't find the services that she needed to play her offshore vacations. She, like so many others, enjoys taking vacations but also wants to give back while she's holidaying. Whether it is for a day, a few days, or even the focus of the whole trip, Jennifer plans exciting excursions that enable people to do anything and everything from research with baby whale sharks to irrigation projects that help people access clean drinking water. Ecotourism is growing: globally, it's a $174 billion industry. The Grit Files dug into why Jennifer does what she does and what we can all learn from it.

Annie Mork is the founder of Jobs For Therapists, which is a job board made for theraplists including SLPs, PTs, OTs, and Psychs. She is helping connect recruiters and job seekers in the therapy world in a more meaningful way. Her training is in speech therapty where she now has a telehealth practice supporting children with speech challenges, many of whom are on the Spectrum with Autism. Annie offers some great tips on how to engage with your child - and that doesn't mean banning electronics from playtime.

Meet Brilly Semenova - a disability self-advocate who does not take 'no' for an answer. She has the tenacity, spunk, and knowledge of an entire team of advocates. As a child, she was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy and now has difficulty with daily living. But that hasn't stopped her from pursuing her Master's in Organizational Leadership and Nonprofit Management. Brilly is determined to change the narrative for the disabled, and she'll do it single-handedly if she has to. Good thing that she doesn't have to go it alone.

Accolade Wines is innovating everything from its bottles to its technology and production processes. Like bubbles? They have a new Prosecco ... and there are so many new ideas that will pop later this year. Enrique Morgan, managing director of the Americas, shares his gritty tales of beginning his wine journey selling to California gas stations to taking the helm of one of the largest wine companies in the world with a portfolio that is lauded worldwide.

Colin Darretta is a "reformed investment banker," serial entrepreneur, investor, and a journalist for Forbes, Inc, TechCrunch, plus other major media. He is the CEO and co-founder of Innovation Department, which spurs the brands of the future. Colin also co-founded FINN, which recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary. He lamented all the virtue signaling out there where "hustle culture" is a straight path to burnout for entrepreneurs who should be seeking health, wellness, and balance - in addition to moving their startups forward.

Christine Spang, founder & CTO of Nylas, has evolved over the last decade growing her software company which is essentially like "the plumbing for the internet" connecting code. She talks about how the highs are super high and the lows are super low but that foundation at MIT prepared her for the mental fortitude that she was going to need to lead her team on this journey. "Leadership is work and you have to work at leadership," is a lesson that she learned along the way. Along the way, she's discovered the power of yoga and rock climbing to challenge her mind as well as calm it.

Christina Richards is the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of Virtana - a software company specializing in cloud services. She took the road less traveled. Indeed, Christina calls it the "dark side" where she took a deep dive into engineering then evolved into marketing. With her role today, she has the opportunity to influence rising professionals in STEM and has a message (or two) for aspiring techies and marketers which can be distilled down to, "You don't know where life will take you - keep learning." She shares how mistakes can be fuel for better things ahead. Tune in for some words of wisdom!

Dr. Deborah Jonas is the director of SRI's Center for Education Research & Innovation. Yes, she has access to astronauts and researchers of the highest caliber in the world - but she focuses her efforts on community learning. Deborah shared her thoughts on how we can better support students to "fail productively" and essentially to fail forward so that our next generation of leaders learn how to learn by working through problems versus being given the answers. She had some insights into how colleges are challenged by the breadth of the diversity and needs of the students they need to support today - and she surprised me with her shoe choice!