I Make a Living

Jewel Burks Solomon is an Atlanta-based entrepreneur who was recently named Head of Google for Startups in the US. Jewel is no stranger to startups and entrepreneurship; she launched Partpic, a visual recognition technology company in her mid-twenties, and had it sold to Amazon in 2016. She was also named on Forbe’s 30 under 30 list. Jewel is also managing partner at Collab Capital, an investment fund designed to connect black founders to the financial and social capital they need to build profitable businesses.Jewel’s dream is transforming so many realities for new innovators in entrepreneurship, and we can’t wait to see what Google for Startups does under her leadership. Here are a few big takeaways from Jewel’s story:Don’t wait for people to believe in your idea and fund it - if you build it (and it’s good), they will come.Be smart about networking - put your ideas in front of the right people and nurture relationships with themSelling your company is not always the fantasy it’s made out to be, map out wha

Since 2005, A Slice of Brooklyn Bus Tours has been showing people around Brooklyn.The company was started by Tony Muia, a proud native Brooklynite who always loved showing people around his beloved hometown.Tony slowly starting doing informal tours for those same folks when they came to visit NYC, driving them around in his car. Soon, their friends and families would visit NYC and ask Tony to do tours for them so he did them as a side hobby while still working his regular job.In 2004 Tony decided to switch careers after watching NYC tourism increase. However, it mostly focused on Manhattan and Tony felt that Brooklyn had enough amazing foods, neighbourhoods, landmarks and movie locations that it needed its own tour. And that’s when he decided to launch A Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tour in 2005 with other tours that followed.What started as a hobby turned into a family business and today he has 3 popular tours that run year round and have proudly introduced over 90,000 people to Brooklyn.Some people say don’t mak

This month, we're celebrating Valentine's Day by speaking to couples who inspire us by building strong partnerships - partners in life, partners in business, and partners in their community.We sat down with Angie Myung and Ted Vadakan, a husband-and-wife team who have artfully mastered the feat of finding their tribe through their brand Poketo.The name Poketo (pronounced "poh-keh-toe") stems from the mispronunciation of "pocket" by Angie's grandmother. It tied in perfectly with the first product ever created under Poketo: a series of artist wallets that fit right in your pocket—and Ted and Angie just loved the way it sounded.Poketo has worked with brands and companies like Nike, MTV, Disney, Target, Nordstrom and MailChimp, museums like MOCA, the Guggenheim, the de Young, and SFMOMA, and has collaborated with over 200 international artists, creating exclusive products that reflect its philosophy of "Art for Your Every day."Ted and Angie are a great example of two partners who set the tone for their business.

"I steal my kid's vitamins" isn't something that would normally lead to an a-ha moment, but the Goulds aren't your usual entrepreneurs. A couple for ten years, the Goulds are practiced business leaders who are part of the vanguard of the wellness industry: Gordon Gould crunches the numbers, and Courtney Nichol Gould focuses on the human side. Together, they're the power couple behind SmartyPants, the vitamin gummy brand launched in 2011 that now includes products for children, adults, and even pets.The Goulds practice holistic wellness in their work and their home life: we talk to them about their exercise regimes, why they used a coach to launch their business (and to get on the same page about parenting), and how the lines of communication stay fresh when, as Gordon says, "there’s no leaving it at the office, because the office comes home with you a lot of the times." They also give us valuable info on the world of venture capital, where big visions can lead to big payoffs.Guests:Courtney Nichols and Gordon

In our special Masterclass episodes, we collect questions from real-life entrepreneurs at our live #imakealiving shows around the world, and ask our favourite experts to weigh in. From social media to scaling, from advertising to work-life balance, we get insights and guidance from folks in the know.In our first Masterclass episode of the season, we are delighted to talk with Peter Shankman. He has been a vocal advocate for neurodiversity in the workplace, he is the founder of the journalism tool HARO, and is a successful writer, speaker, podcast host, and entrepreneur.In our conversation, we cover a wide ground - not surprising, given that Shankman has leveraged his own ADHD into a better understanding of his complex body chemistry and physical needs. (He tells us how to write a book in 34 hours - it involves booking a flight to Tokyo!) He also answers questions from our #imadealiving live events about why authentic social media is best, why listening to your audience will help grow your business, and why yo

A pivot can be a powerful thing. Tina Essmaker started as a social worker with a side project, a Kickstarted magazine she founded with her husband. But when her marriage ended, she had to re-evaluate: stay with the magazine, or start something new? She decided to tap into her skills as a social worker and her connection to the creative community to re-launch as a creative coach. In this week's episode, Damona talks with Essmaker about how she transitioned from publishing into a self-created role where she helps creative workers identify and stick with their goals.Essmaker offers concrete tips for people considering a shift from one path to another, and encourages listeners to consider the "emotional balance sheet" of their lives. (And Damona gets a gold star for her ability to describe her work concisely - would you get the same?) "It’s just a continual act of faith, that knowing what I’m doing is valuable and it’s needed, and then trusting that clients will come to me," says Essman, who now works as a coach,

Welcome to Season 2 of the I Make a Living Podcast. We are excited to kick off 2020 with a brand new season and incredible conversations with some of the most influential and successful entrepreneurs in North America and the world.As a television producer, Brant Pinvidic has pitched a lot. Like, a lot. In his 15 years in the entertainment industry, Pinvidic has had the chance to get his pitching practice down to a science. In his new book, The 3-Minute Rule, he lays out the basics of what makes a great pitch, and where folks fail. His challenge to readers is to get their pitches down to a crystal-clear three minutes, and on this week's episode, we get the inside scoop on how to nail that process."They don’t want to hear any of the fluff and pageantry. They just want to get to the point," Pinvidic says. He gives us some simple ground rules for pitching, including how to avoid too much promotional energy, how to separate opinions from facts, and how to come back from 99 rejections to nail that 100th pitch. His

Season 2 of the I Make a Living Podcast launches on Monday, January 13th. Follow us as we continue to explore what it takes to be a business owner in today's world. Our host, Damona Hoffman, will take you on her journey as she sits down with some of North America's most interesting and successful entrepreneurs.

The idea of success has many faces and iterations, most of us relate success to financial freedom or fame, but when you are an entrepreneur, success can mean much more than that. Who knew that waiting in line for hours on end could turn into full fledge operation, that someone could find joy in dressing up as Batman just to bring joy to tourists or that selling finger-painting art on Facebook for $50 could turn into a million dollar business or that anyone would pay for literally garbage picked up from the streets? The entrepreneurs that we talk to on this episode have all something in common; their business ideas broke the paradigms of conventionalism and defied the odds of 'success'. Robert Samuel from Same Ol' Line Dudes found inspiration while waiting in line for a new iPhone; Iris Scott had a dream of being a full-time artist, so she dropped everything and moved to Thailand where she could sell her art online while solely focusing on her craft. Justin Gignac felt challenged by a former colleague on the i

The statistics aren’t too friendly when it comes to the longevity of small businesses. Nearly 50% fail at the five year mark. But, how does knowing this statistic help you? Most people can talk about failure ethereally—hardships builds character, you can’t succeed without failing, you know, those kinds of phrases. But, when it comes to us, you, specifically failing, you don’t want to and often times we do everything in our power to avoid thinking about the possibility of it. But, accepting that failure, on some level, happens, that can actually be one of the best things you can do as an entrepreneur. If you know that failing is a part of the journey you can prepare yourself for it. It’s the unknown that makes even the consideration of failure unfathomable. Sometimes our past failures haunt us and the fear of our future failures paralyzes us. These obstacles that get in the way of moving forward are in our head. This is the reason why metal health really is an important topic and is actually the bulk of this c

Coming up with problems without immediately trying to fix them is a lot harder than you’d think. Our minds really are trained to find solutions. But, throughout this episode we focus the most on the beginning two steps— Defining the problem Confirming that it actually is a viable problem. The biggest take away from this whole conversation is to start at the beginning, with the problem—and spend a lot of time there. The last thing you want to do is create a solution that no one wants or is willing to buy into. We also discover that starting a startup is not out of reach. The steps that Seth gives us are actionable. While it will take a lot of hard work and diligence, you don’t necessarily need a big budget to start. You really just need a group of people who have a problem. Guests Seth Radman- Co-Founder at Crescendo | Tech Entrepreneur | Startup Advisor Center Stage Charla Ruschelle- CR Clothing Co. “To be featured on Center Stage, send us a voice message!” Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on th

Episode Guests Beverley Cheng- Born To Sweat Zoey Masters- Instagram Jeremy Bailey- LinkedIn Center Stage Christopher Jones- SeeJonesWork “To be featured on Center Stage, send us a voice message!” Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the guests and production team and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of '2ndSite.INC dba FreshBooks, its employees or affiliates.'

Every business starts somewhere before it's a well-oiled machine. Sometimes it's at your kitchen counter in-between your part-time jobs. The whole concept of growing your business means it was small at some point. This season, we've seen that it takes a lot to start a business from the ground up. Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur. It takes a lot of diligence and hard work to get any business off the ground. It's not for the faint of heart. There are a lot of ups, downs, failures, and successes. Sometimes, it's so important to hear what the journey has been like for others, especially, from those who are a little further along on the journey than we are. That's the reason for today's episode. The journey for any entrepreneur can be a complicated one, but, we learn from the growing pains that we encounter. And, hopefully, they make us better business owners. The growing pains of building your business are real. Determination is one of the main themes that we recognize in Kristen's story. She sacrifi

For a while now, we have been planning an episode on diversifying your business. We wanted to document the story of an individual who had just started their business and what it looked like to establish diversification in the initial steps of development. But, the story we ended up capturing was much more specific; someone who was forced to diversify due to external issues out of their control. So, we briefly discuss the general idea of diversification and offer a few tips on starting your business but the meat of this episode is really on: pivoting. Having an idea, a set plan for your business and finding out it's not going to work for some reason or another. So, back to the story of us choosing someone from the IMAL event. We didn’t know how it was going to go but the whole process in finding this one person to feature sounded fascinating and definitely worth recording. Episode Guests RM Harrison- our business coach for this episode. RM is a career and business coach based in Austin, TX. She has helped a lo

Productivity is important as an entrepreneur but so is the balance between your personal life and your work life. If you’re not careful you can easily burn yourself out, harm personal relationships, and actually become less productive because you’re not giving yourself the space to rejuvenate—which is often times why people are most productive. It’s a balance. The Western world is in a bit of an epidemic these days. Some of the leading organizations in today’s world give their employees unlimited PAID time off. Which sounds absolutely crazy…but, according to the research done by Sage Business Researcher, many people in these businesses are taking even less vacation time. And, those who do have a standard amount of paid time off, aren’t using it all. According to a 2017 report done by the US Travel Association, there are 705 million unused vacation days annually. Taking time off is essential in balancing work and life. And, if these employees find it difficult taking paid time off how much harder would it be f

Episode 05“It’s all about the money....and taxes.”   Today’s episode is about one of the most dreaded yet necessary pains every entrepreneur has to endure...tax season. No matter how big or small your business is, taxes are always going to be somewhat complicated, confusing and could create a lot of troubles if not dealt with appropriately. We are here to help! Our featured guest, Paco de Leon is a self-proclaimed ‘money nerd,’ she founded “The Hell Yeah Group” to help small creative entrepreneurs better manage their finances. Paco shares valuable advice and tips on how to organize your finances, so you are always in control of them and not them in control of you. As we were developing this episode, we realized that Darbi was not exempt from the familiar “wait till the very last minute” attitude that a lot of freelancers or new business owners have when it comes to taxes, so we decided to document her journey into filing taxes as an entrepreneur. For that, we invited Chicago based accountant Yolanda O’Neal,

Episode 04 "Being a Female Entrepreneur PT. 2" Welcome to the second episode of our 2-part series in honor of “Women’s History Month.” On this episode, we explore the role of equity in the female entrepreneurial world. We hear from 2 female business owners who share their experiences and journies to success. Equality. This is the conversation we’re having during women’s history month. However, to give this topic justice, we need also to consider what part equity plays. Equity is the varying levels of support need to obtain true equality for people from different backgrounds. Based on how you self-identify, the amount of equity needed to accomplish equality may vary. In our last episode, we covered a pretty broad view of what it’s like to be a woman in the entrepreneurial world. However, what we didn’t include is how the experience can vary from person to person.   Join us as we listen to the stories behind two successful female business founders: Kweighbaye Kotee and Laura Laban. They share their experiences

Episode 03- "Being a Female Entrepreneur PT1"   Welcome to a special 2-part series in honour of Women's History Month. We take a look at the entrepreneurship world from a female perspective. Being a woman in the small business world isn’t easy. Even if you don’t self-identify as a woman, because of recent media movements, you can probably gather that it’s not exactly a walk in the park for females. There’s been a shift, on a large scale, in society recently. The #metoo and #timesup movements have brought some incredible awareness to the issues of inequality through mass media. It’s no longer taboo to discuss experiences. There is a power behind the voices that speak up. But, these developments are relatively new when you think about it.  How is the gender gap being addressed and how can women learn to negotiate equal pay in the freelancing world. We also look at the role of men in the fight for a more equalitarian and inclusive society. **Episode Guests** Rubina Shaikh Thanks to Rubina Shaikh for sharing her

The average entrepreneur works over 60 hours a week. That’s 20 plus hours more than the traditional 9-5er. Are you using your time wisely? Explore how other self-employed folks choose to approach their productivity. Hal Elrod, best-selling author of the Miracle Morning book shares with us why morning routines can boost your productivity throughout the day. Hal is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to morning routines and jumpstarting your day in the best way possible. If you want to read one of his books and/or find out more about Hal go to: https://halelrod.com/". We also talk to 3 different entrepreneurs who work from different places: home, coffee shops and co-working spaces. What is the difference? What are the pros and cons of each of them? Join us as we take a deep look at how the space surrounding you can help you become a more productive individual. ** Center Stage** Thank you Michael Der for sharing your center stage story. To find more about Michael go to, https://www.michaelderphotography.co

Episode 01- Present and Future of Entrepreneurship Why are people turning to self-employment in the current economy? Alex, a freelancer who thought jumping ship and starting her journey would be a lot simpler than it turned out to be. A whole new set of challenges arise once someone decides to venture into entrepreneurship and a lot of times, those challenges are not-so-common knowledge. We talk to some FreshBooks folks who share some interesting numbers and data on the present and future of entrepreneurship. All these experiences, insights and pain points collectively motivated us to create this podcast, and they set the tone to all the incredible conversations we are about to share with you. Welcome to #imakealiving! Thanks to Alex Rathbun for sharing her experiences in such an honest and vulnerable form. For more on her go to https://www.brightlyalex.com/  Thanks to Carly Moulton and Dave Crosgrave from FreshBooks for sharing their data and reports insights with us. To find more about the Annual Reports F