Gabrielle Lewis is an artist who illustrates, makes film and works across many mediums. She is one of twelve winners from the 2021 StickerGiant Logo Sticker Design Contest, and we will be featuring these stories throughout the month of April.

Listen in to this mini episode to hear about how Gabrielle came up with her winning design and where she finds creative inspiration for her business Brelse Illustration.

In early 2020, Jasmin Foster started Be Rooted, an inclusively designed stationery company so women of color could see themselves in a place they hadn't been traditionally. Weaving her own culture into every design and message, Jasmin and Be Rooted inspire their customers to explore their inner muse and celebrate self. In this conversation, Jasmin shares how her idea went from a home business to Target store shelves nationwide, all in the space of a year. Her story is an incredible story of growth and marketing during a global pandemic, and she talks about how she's managing the future of her brand.

Tisha McCoy-Ntiamoah is the owner and Chief Popcorn Enthusiast of PrePOPsterous® Gourmet Popcorn & Sodas. In this episode she talks about the journey of her brand, from her first job experience serving popcorn to working with trademark attorneys that helped secure her business name.

The story behind her branding is pretty unique and covers four major parts, including why she decided early on to invest in her intellectual property and trademark the brand and the rules she had for coming up with her name.

Second, PrePOPsterous is a SWaM-certified business, which means they are a small, 100% woman-owned and 100% minority-owned business. No small feat, and a storyline that has some interesting advice for like-minded entrepreneurs.

Third, this is a tale about a girl who's first job as a freshman in high school was working in a gourmet popcorn store, how she loved everything about it and vowed to have her own popcorn company one day, and how she launched that dream 25 years later.

Listen in as Tisha shares how PrePOPsterous started in a home-based kitchen, evolved to a basement factory, and eventually launched into a retail space in the middle of a pandemic.

Katie Jesionowski is a co-founder of MySuperFoods, a food brand that is committed to empowering parents and growing healthy, SuperKids. MySuperFoods creates organic and gluten free, nutrient dense food for kids and families. In this episode, she shares some of their early success and how most recently they've adapted to the pandemic to keep growing their business.

Terah Eatmon started Body Baked Body Butter with the goal of helping people with dry skin. Her entrepreneurial journey is one based on perseverance, as she's found her market and she's updated her brand to meet the needs of her customers. In this episode, Terah shares how she rebranded her labels and is planning on launching a new product due to the feedback from her loyal fans. Listen in as she discusses juggling a full-time job in healthcare while keeping in touch with her passionate fans.

Angie Chua is a designer and entrepreneur who truly lives the travel life from her Airstream that doubles as Bobo Design Studios. Her business centers on The Wanderlust Passport, a custom journal that helps document the serendipity and discovery that happens during an adventure. She also has beautiful prints, calendars, stationery, and of course, stickers of all shapes and kinds. Listen in as she shares her creative process and where she gains inspiration, plus how she's turned a passion for travel into a business.

David Dewane is an architect, publisher, journalist, and educator. He is a co-founder and president of Mouse Books. David’s approach to life is part entrepreneur and part journalist. He maintains an ongoing commitment to design theory and regularly publishes essays and interviews. He was recently featured in the Wall Street Journal for his take on the future of the office.

Courtney Garvin is a graphic designer and college professor. She is a co-founder and the vice president and creative director of Mouse Books. Her work has spanned all aspects of design: from strategy and design to final production and implementation. Her clients have ranged from large brands such as Accenture, The Coca-Cola Company, FedEx, Charles Schwab, The Walt Disney Company, Hewlett-Packard, and musician will.i.am.

Together they are part of the small team that helps create and develop Mouse Books and the Mouse Book Club. They make books for readers who believe in the power of reading and the how a book can transform humanity. The Mouse Book Club is a quarterly book club of portable books that link human experiences across generations, languages and cultures. The Mouse editors carefully curate selections of literature, short stories, speeches, poetry, and more, all structured around themes that are topical, challenging, and varied.

In this episode, they talk about starting their business and how they are taking intentional steps to manage their growth, while simultaneously creating a community of passionate readers through their book club meetings.

In 2018, Jon Bjorgo started a Chicago Style food stand called Jonny's of Longmont, where he brought a taste of Chicago to Colorado. When Covid-19 spread across America, he was forced to close down his brick-and-mortar shop and focus on his food trucks. Now working out of a commissary kitchen with a can-do attitude, he's pivoted his business, including pitching in to feed firefighters during one of the most devastating fire seasons in Colorado history. Listen in as he shares his passion for the food from the Windy City and how he's grown his community of loyal fans who travel to find his food.

Anna Costello is the founder of Ship Sunshine, a business where the goal is to make it easy to brighten somebody's day through thoughtful gifts. While hiking in Bali Anna watched the sun rise over the mountains, and at that moment, she wanted to capture the feeling of being washed over by warmth and light...and Ship Sunshine was born. Now she's developed a collection of different boxes available on the website along with custom options, which means more people can spread joy, one box at a time.

Josh and Jenine are the creators of Tubby Nugget. What started off as little doodles to make themselves laugh has reached thousands of people around the world. They went from printing stickers to actualizing a dream of theirs: to create plush toys and t-shirts based off their beloved character, Tubby. The main work they put into the world is their webcomic, which is wholesome, uplifting content for thousands of people to see, and they believe a little nugget-love can make a huge difference in people’s lives. Learn about how they started this business off an inside joke between them and where it's going next.