Until I was in my mid 20’s I was a daily, prolific dope smoker… but that was a long time ago…. way before the introduction of today’s cannabis products. These days there’s gummies, brownies, chocolate, pills, even cannabis-infused beer. So much for joints and bong hits.  Frankly It’s a little confusing.  But thanks to today’s guest, Jen Chapin, co-founder of Kikoko, I’ve learned a little bit more about cannabis. Jen patiently answered many of my naïve, ignorant questions in addition to talking about her incredible company Kikoko. Kikoko makes tea-infused cannabis. Kikoko is one of the top three cannabis beverage companies in California, the largest cannabis market in the world. If you have any feedback on this episode, I’d love to hear it. You can email me at [email protected].

Sometimes people overcome such monumental personal challenges it just puts you in awe. Today’s guest’s dad died on father’s day when he was just 17 years old and his mother suffered from her own health challenges all along. That’s why Conor Delaney, founder of the Good Life Companies, got his securities license between his freshman and sophomore years in college. Despite these and other setbacks, Conor has built the Good Life Companies to fifty million dollars in revenue with 80 offices all over the country and over 200 affiliated advisors. Conor’s story is truly inspirational. To provide feedback in this episode email me at [email protected] or send me a message through our website at www.streetsmartsuccess.com

From grade school teacher to entrepreneur. After leaving his teaching career and running his remodeling business full-time, today’s guest found a great niche by listening to one of his customers. Scott Selzer started his remodeling business during the summers while he was still a teacher but decided to do if full-time when he realized he was making more doing construction during the summers than he was all year as a teacher. After listening to one of his customers complain about the limitations of the pergolas on the market at the time, Scott patented what he calls the world’s smartest pergola. It’s a pergola where you can open and close the shutters by a remote control or an app. These pergolas are absolutely beautiful. They’re super end luxurious outdoor roofing that keeps the rain out, lets the sun in, or create shade when it’s too hot … all using the latest technology. The company is called Struxure. Scott started the company by himself, with no money – and now has 200 dealers in 50 states with $25 million in sales. For feedback on this episode you can email me at [email protected] or go to streetsmartsuccess.com and send a message.

Find a need and fill it. Today’s guest founded the very first staffing agency for freelance creative talent in the windy city of Chicago. While still living in New York at the time, founder Bejan Douraghy put a help wanted ad in the Chicago Tribune for freelancers looking for work. Right after the ad was published, he got inundated with resumes. This was how he validated there was a market to help these creative freelancers to land gigs at ad agencies. Bejan then moved from New York to Chicago and started out on his own with $1,000 in his pocket and started Artisan Talent. Artisan Talent places freelance Graphic Designers, Web Designers, SEO specialists, Social Media experts, content marketers, and other creative gig workers. Artisan now has offices in Chicago, New York, Denver, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Washington, San Francisco, and LA and they’re doing almost $20 Million in revenue.

The marketing business is an exciting business. It sure beats accounting or digging ditches. That’s why a lot of people want to get into it. But to start your own marketing agency it actually helps to have clients so you can pay the bills. Today’s guest is a guy that started his business by posting FREE ads on Craig’s list in markets all over the country to get website and app development gigs. What an industrious way to launch a business!

Over the years, he’s built a personal brand by being a guest in such publications as Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Watch, Business.com, Foundr, Goalcast, and many others. He’s done such an amazing job building awareness for himself and his company that he gets 15-20 new client leads every week through his website via organic search. Today’s guest is Michael Georgiou, co-founder of Imaginovation. Imaginovation builds custom web and mobile applications as well as websites for startups to enterprise-level companies,

If you have any feedback on this podcast, it would be greatly appreciated – just email me at [email protected] or send me a message through street Smart Success.com.

As it turns out, a lot of dentists are great at filling in cavities, doing root canals and pulling wisdom teeth, but not necessarily running great businesses. Find a need and fill it. This is how entrepreneurs build great businesses. And that’s no exception when it comes to today’s guest, James Anderson. He’s a dentist who recognized that having a front office run smoothly is as important as doing great dental work when it comes to building a profitable practice. After owning nine of his own dental offices he learned that there was a great need for improved efficiency around billing and collections that was lacking with many dental practices. That’s why he founded eAssist, the nation’s # 1 leader in dental billing.

As it turns out, you can start a company with less than a thousand dollars, build it up, and sell it for several million dollars. In fact, that’s exactly what today’s guest did. In addition, he’s started several companies from scratch and had successful exits on two of them. It just takes keeping your eyes open for opportunity, finding the right niche, and executing on a simple idea. Today’s guest is Chicago-based Donald Spann, founder of Companion Maids, Vicky virtual Assistant, and other successful companies.. Any feedback on what I could do better would be greatly appreciated – you can email me at roger@streetsmartsuccess or send me a message through street Smart Success.com

I loved speaking to Dane Chapin because he’s an American hero who’s built an extremely profitable, niche business and he did it virtually from scratch. He’s also a nice guy and fun to talk to. Dane wouldn’t give me his exact sales numbers but it’s midway between zero and $100 million in annual sales.  Even I can do that math! Dane, a founder of USAoplogy – is a relentless entrepreneur whose company is thriving in today’s market. Whether it’s the Breaking Bad board game, the Simpsons board game, Yahtzee, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, or one of literally two thousand board games by Danes estimation, Dane;’s company probably made it.

Dane is also a serial entrepreneur who’s invested in and developed real estate and also recently started two other consumer companies, Bindle Bottle, a manufacturer of stainless steel high-end water bottles and Made Here, a made in America manufacturer of t-shirts, boxers, hats, and socks. Made Here is a collaboration with Scott Eastwood, son of actor clint. In addition to being very successful Dane is also a super nice guy with some great stories to share.

Brian Mitchell, co-founder of Shryne group, a $200 million dollar vertically-integrated cannabis company, tells his story. Brian is a seasoned entrepreneur who got his start painting houses and investing in residential and commercial real estate while still in college. But after the real estate bust in the great recession, Brian lost it all and had to start over from scratch. He ended up having to rent a room from a friend for $500 a month. That’s when he started Signature painting - which he built into a 15 million dollar painting contracting business specializing in HOA’s and other large commercial buildings. Through the profits of his painting business and real estate transactions Brian invested in thousands of acres of land for cannabis cultivation. Now his company, Shryne group, is one of the top two cannabis companies in the state of California, the largest cannabis market in the world --- they cultivate, manufacture, distribute, and retail cannabis products all over the state of California.

Hear from CEO and founder of Tiny Box Company, Rachel Watkyn. Tiny Box Company makes boxes …. jewelry boxes, gift boxes, magnetic boxes – boxes you never imagined - and they’re all from recycled cardboard.

Tiny Box Company also sells paper bags, jute bags, ribbons, tissue paper, and countless other items, and they’re all beautifully designed and highly stylized. Rachel is dynamic and incredibly fun to talk to and has a fascinating story. She’s an interesting character who got her initial $90,000 in funding on the UK version of Shark Tank back in 2007. She started the company by herself and now has 70 employees with over 6 million dollars in sales.