Emily Vaca, Founder & CEO of LA VACA Designhouse, talks about having a one-in-a-million idea, designing the iconic MINNIDIP pool, and what it’s like to take a huge bet on yourself. Tune in to learn: What it’s like to balance creativity and art (4:30) Why 4 am can be a game-changer (4:00) How to gain the courage to take a bet on yourself (29:00) This season of the Journey is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by UPS. To learn how UPS can help your small business, go to https://UPS.com/pivot. Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at&nbs ..read more

Steve Denton didn’t grow up knowing how to be accountable, he had to learn that skill throughout his life. Along the way, accountability turned into dependability and, more importantly, resiliency, which has helped him see his way through a journey filled with highs and lows.  Tune in to learn: What does it take to learn accountability? (4:00) Why you don’t necessarily have to be better, you just have to be different. (5:55) How Steve decided to leave the corporate world and dive into entrepreneurship. (7:10) When his company was facing hard times, what kept Steve working to save it? (10 ..read more

Jackie Burke wasn’t interested in being an entrepreneur. As an engineer, she was very risk-averse. But when her own skin allergy had her searching for a hypoallergenic earring and coming up empty, she felt called to solve a problem - and in the process, started a business, Tini Lux, that has since become a solution for folks with sensitive ears everywhere.  Tune in to learn: What it’s like to be a risk-averse entrepreneur (3:00)  How to create an idea from a problem (4:45)  How Emily balanced a day job and side hustle (6:00)  The challenges of being a first-time founder ..read more

To be an entrepreneur is to be constantly adapting. In a world where the market is ever-changing, it’s important to be able to shift, to refocus and rebrand… to be ready for whatever is coming next. Iva Pawling, the Founder & CEO of Richer Poorer, a California-based inner wear company with a cult following, knows a thing or two about having to think on the fly.  “It was completely the opposite of what we expected, and they ended up filing for bankruptcy within thirteen months of acquiring us,” Pawling said of Richer Poorer’s ill-fated acquisition. “It was just insane. It really taught ..read more

Any entrepreneur is going to face competition – it’s the nature of the game. All you can do is make your product the best it can be and hope that your consumers feel the same. But sometimes, your timing is unique, making that competition even fiercer than normal.  Amy Weisman had her work cut out for her. After she had her first baby, she knew two things: she wanted to use her entrepreneurial prowess to carve out an idea of her own, and she hated the smell and feel of the hand sanitizer she was constantly pouring all over her hands. She had an idea for a sustainably-packaged, germ-killing ..read more

The road to entrepreneurial success is long. It’s tedious. And there are points where it might make more sense to cut losses than it would be to keep forging onward. But sometimes, an idea gets bigger than just you – it becomes a movement… something that changes lives.  “I was like, what happened, why do you not have water bottles,” Travis Rosbach said. “Because I did rock climbing in college, and I knew plastic water bottles were the way to go – the non-single use kind. And he said they didn't have any because of this stuff called BPA. He said ‘We're not really familiar with what it is o ..read more

The world often wants to put people into boxes, to sift everyone into categories. It just seems easier sometimes: rich or poor. Successful or not. Worth listening to or worth tuning out. Right or wrong. Male or female. But there are people who are pushing back on those categories – people who believe that life can be richer without harshly-drawn lines. Matthew Herman of Boy Smells — a rapidly-expanding queer-owned personal fragrance and product brand — is trying to change that.  “For us, it’s just about showing up… whatever way you want to show up, it’s right,” Herman said. “And you can s ..read more

When Raili Clasen’s interior designer left just a week into the job, Clasen was left looking at a massive project that seemed daunting. But when she listened to her gut and decided to take a swing at designing the space herself, it opened up a world of possibilities that launched an incredibly successful business. “So I bought some business cards,” Clasen said. “I didn't have a website. I obviously had nothing, but I put some business cards out on the table and at that point was like, ‘Well, if these things are gone at the end of the day, then maybe I'm doing something cool. Maybe someone will ..read more

When Kelley Higney moved to Florida, she knew she’d face some challenges: She was a young mother in a new state. She was in a new house in a new town. But there was one problem she didn’t expect: her daughter’s severe reactions to mosquito bites. Higney would watch helplessly as her six-month-old daughter’s limbs would swell just minutes after being bitten. After trying everything she could – every ointment, every gimmick – Higney knew she was going to have to find an answer on her own. She did some research, and found an answer in a strange little tube: a suction tool that could pull the veno ..read more

If you’d asked Francois Kress what he thought he was going to be when he grew up, he probably would have told you that he was going to be a mathematician. It seemed like a very obvious answer, given his background. But life had other plans, and now Kress has arrived at the top of an industry he never expected, running a company he never could have foreseen. But it turns out that his different path gave him the ability to see things in a way others might not. And merging his love of science and entrepreneurial spirit with more than twenty years of experience running luxury brands resulted in so ..read more