It’s natural to face many challenges when journeying on a new path. The question is, how do we turn adversity to an advantage? In our first episode of 2022, Theodore Moore joins us to discuss the founding of Elohim Cleaning Contractors. He shares how he started the business with a few hundred dollars and some used office equipment he fished out of the garbage. Ted's story emphasizes the power of hope and the value of helping others. Listen in as Ted discusses ways to navigate the trials one might face while setting out on their own path.

We often think of government employees as the polar opposite of entrepreneurs. But what could happen if we teach them to think this way, transforming them into empowered employees? In this episode, we are joined by educator and entrepreneur Tom Darling. Tom serves the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico as a Division Manager of their Employee Learning Center. In addition, he has undertaken a radical experiment to teach the city's employees to think like entrepreneurs. Listen to a fascinating conversation about how managers can empower organizational employees by solving small problems for their coworkers and the people they serve.

In this episode, Gary is joined by serial entrepreneur and public speaker Sirena Moore-Thomas. In the conversation, Sirena and Gary unpack her early life and how her experiences shaped her trajectory. As a single teenage mother of twins, raised in public housing, with no college degree, Sirena is the epitome of an unlikely entrepreneur. Her accomplishments—not the least of which is co-founding a million-dollar cleaning business with a few hundred dollars in her spare time—have garnered national media attention, including the New York Times, Black Enterprise Magazine, and NBC. She is also one of the featured entrepreneurs in the Ice House Entrepreneurship Program. She emphasizes the importance of showing up. Keep moving forward! Tune in to hear valuable insights to take those steps to be a successful entrepreneur.

As a Palestinian refugee growing up in Kuwait, Faris Alami was a straight-A student on his way to university and a stable career. And then life intervened when the Iraqi invasion turned his world upside down.  

Fresh out of high school, in the midst of a war zone, Faris found himself in charge of a local grocery store, a precarious experience that he barely escaped with his life. Yet, it was an experience that taught him how to think like an entrepreneur.  

In this episode, we talk about his transition from being a straight-A student who knew how to follow the rules to learn how to survive in a war zone and how by selling T-shirts, he became an unlikely entrepreneur.  

Going to prison is a serious, at some points depressing, form of solitary confinement. It is commonly seen as a depressing community, and released inmates are usually discriminated, if not entirely rejected by society. But in reality, prison time can provide the needed reinvention one truly needs. In this episode, new entrepreneur William Snoddy joins us to discuss his life leading up to and including his entrepreneurial journey. After going to prison several times, William is now getting a trucking business off the ground. He and Gary Schoeniger talk about the books and the people that inspired him, the lessons he learned while in prison, and the power of a compelling goal.

In this episode, Yiannis Nikolopoulos joins us to discuss how he became an entrepreneur. He is the Co-founder of Clio Muse Tours, an Athens-based company that offers self-guided audio tours and virtual tours for museums across Europe. Yiannis describes how curiosity and humility enabled him and his partners to find the right product-market fit before going all in. And they pulled it off in the midst of the worst recession in modern Greek history.

Entrepreneur John Kendale joined us for an engaging conversation about his journey to become the inventor and owner of Toppy Toddler bibs. Listen in to hear about how John began his entrepreneurial journey with one simple idea, solving a problem any parent might face, a messy baby eating a meal.

Ryann Halo joins us to talk about her entrepreneurial journey. Hear her dig into surviving tragedy and trauma, overcoming it all to become a successful business owner of two award-winning salons.

Middle school teacher Elias Ruiz joined the podcast to talk about his journey from garage inventor to a successful business owner. Starting in his garage with a piece of plywood and empty 2-liter bottles, Elias has gone on to invent the Feather-Raft, a lightweight raft perfectly suited for a variety of outdoor water sports. The patented design was an iterative process to craft, and Elias shares an array of hurdles he had to overcome while bringing his product to market. Starting from meeting a personal need, Ruiz has created a successful and growing business selling Feather-Rafts all over the United States.

Veteran and long-time entrepreneur Patrick L. Hughes Sr. joined us to discuss his life, the various businesses he has started, and his thoughts about what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. Throughout the conversation, Patrick shares his entrepreneurial roots growing up as the child of a sharecropper, his various companies and side hustles, all the way to his successful government consulting firm, Hughes Group LLC. Hughes is the winner of the National Minority Small Business of the Year Award for 2010.