The Launching Point with Mike O'Toole

Kim Kaupe, the co-founder of ZinePak, was a naturally curious, outgoing, and gregarious child that had no intentions of becoming an entrepreneur.  She met her co-founder right as she was becoming disillusioned with corporate life and they began to innovate in the physical products space as CD sales were declining rapidly.  Today, she is more confident than ever as her company is experiencing strong and consistent growth.

Brian Clark, the founder of Copyblogger and Rainmaker Digital, was in law school when he already started thinking of an exit strategy.  After spending a few years as a lawyer, the emergence of the Internet sparked his curiosity and he began spotting opportunities for making money.  He quit being a lawyer and pursued entrepreneurship full-time.  Today, he has started nine businesses with eight of them being successful while learning to become well rounded in all aspects of his life.

Lindsay White, the owner and designer of Lot801, got a 9-to-5 job right out of college and worked her way up in the company.  After her boss told her that he was going to retire soon and would like to pass the business down to a few employees including her, she ultimately came to terms with the fact that she hated what she was doing.  When she was looking for non-gender specific items for her daughter and couldn't find any, the light bulb went on.  A year and a half later and she has been able to quit her job and pursue what she loves full-time.

Swami Tirtha, owner of The Hip Guru's Guide, started as a regular guy from the suburbs, but when he was a freshman in college, both of his parents were killed in a car accident.  He discovered meditation as a way to help move forward and it ended up being the beginning of his entrepreneurial journey.  Today is is a speaker, educator, monk, shaman, and energy healer.

Jason Treu, an author and business and executive coach, was in law school when he observed that most lawyers were not happy with their career choice.  He decided to pivot and pursue the life that he loved, but was faced with the death of his father and a girlfriend that tried to commit suicide.  In the midst of these obstacles, he persevered and grew a business that today allows him to be authentic and generous and help VPs get unstuck and find their purpose.

Peter Merit, the owner of Custom Business Planning and Solutions, worked in the corporate world for decades, traveling all over the world and constantly on the road.  After an unreasonable travel request was made right around Thanksgiving, his wife told him to quit.  So he did and he's never looked back.

Lea Pica, an analytics, data visualizations, and presentations consultant, always found herself as an unconventional round peg trying to fit herself in a square corporate hole.  After having her first child and returning to the corporate world, she couldn't ignore the feeling that time spent away from her family should be towards something meaningful.  She started presenting on data visualizations and it was an instant hit even if a bit controversial.  Things began to progress from there and today she continues to present and train companies and individuals.  Listen to Lea's podcast, The Present Beyond Measure Podcast, at LeaPica.com/Podcast.

Joshua Dorkin, creator of BiggerPockets.com, started his entrepreneurial journey in college when he built an online directory for colleges and universities around the world.  Later, he became a real estate investor and, when he couldn't find information online to help solve his problems, he started his own website to share what he was learning and benefit others.  Today, BiggerPockets.com has grown to be an authority in the real estate investing space.

Agie Sundaram, the co-founder of Span Enterprises, spent 11 years as a cruise ship photographer before starting his own photography business.  After having an epiphany at a photography conference and seeing his future should he stay on this path, he put everything on the line to grow a software business.  Today, his company offers a variety of tax related web-based software.

Yoram Baltinester is the founder of Decisive Action Workshops.  Born and raised in Israel, he chose to go down the corporate IT path before he was laid off in 2001.  Seizing an opportunity to start an IT consulting business with a coworker that had also been laid off, Yoram build it into a profitable business and sold it several years later to focus on his passion.  Today he is a personal development coach and is living his dream.