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.

Many people wanted to start their own businesses but end up hesitating because of a lack of funds. But a lot of entrepreneurs have proven that starting a self-funded business is still possible even without a huge capital. Our host Gary Schoeniger is joined by Melissa Weed, founder of Pittsburg, Kansas-based cleaning business Honey Does LLC. During their conversation, Gary and Melissa unpacked her journey towards being an entrepreneur, her relationship with education and work, and how what started as a small side hustle blossomed into a successful and thriving business that serves her community. She delved into the story of how she laid the foundation of her business with minimal funds, coupled with professionalism, motivation, and credibility.