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Location: Bellingham, WA Business: Marli currently works at Western Washington University, where she “helps college kids navigate their universe”, but she is hoping to become an inspirational speaker and consultant who works with high school and college students to help them follow their dreams. How we met: Through the Pioneer Nation Facebook group Marli is in the beginning of her entrepreneurial journey, and she is getting out there by saying “yes,” and, in her words, “putting my passion and ideas out there and saying this is what I want to do.” A friend who works in a high school recently asked Marli to present to a group of her students.  …

Location: Denver Business: Yoga and meditation for corporate businesses Like me, Grace is seeking out many opportunities to learn about how to network effectively. She took an online class called “Connect With Anyone” from Scott Dinsmore, in which she and 8 other people worked together to identify people with whom they wanted to connect, and then to brainstorm together how to connect to those people. Grace said she learned that there are different ways to connect with different types of people. For example, connecting with a well known, industry leader, can be more challenging than connecting with a peer, and might take longer to accomplish. On connecting with influencers: …

    Location: Denver, CO Her business: Annette Slade Photography Annette is a very talented food photographer, but she says it has taken time for her to feel worthy of her success. Now that she has a more abundant mindset, she finds that more people approach her to work for them. For a long time, Annette thought that she had to have a lavish studio or drive a certain type of car to be  successful.  Over the years, she has learned to value herself and her work more and more and now she realizes it’s not the lavish studio or the car you drive, but a comfortable, positive environment  …

Location: San Jose, California His business: Therapy Pioneer Josh is gathering a vibrant community of therapists who are in private practice and want to deeply impact the world, do what they love, and have financial freedom. Therapy Pioneer provides a place for connection, collaboration, and helping therapists make their businesses thrive. Josh is doing his own 100 Therapists Project. If you are a therapist and want to join the conversation, schedule an appointment here. How we met: Josh posted on the Facebook wall for Pioneer Nation asking for feedback on his website.  I responded, asking him if we could chat on the phone, so that I could give him …

Carie is a passionate educator and a mom who is developing innovative ways to help traditional teachers feel encouraged, grounded, and connected to a supportive community. She is also interested in helping entrepreneurs feel competent, capable, and encouraged as they develop teaching skills and design curriculum to educate their clients. Location: Corvallis, OR Business: Helping teachers How we met: Carie and I met at Pioneer Nation, on the last night of the conference. Unlike many of the business owners I have talked to, Carie is in the very first stages of her business.  She knows what she loves and what she is good at, and she is still figuring out …

Location: Portland, OR Business: Graphic design and marketing for small businesses How we met: Through Pioneer Nation It amazes me that every person I talk to has different and unique ways of building a network and a community. Melissa is building her community in a number of ways: Something that stood out to me about Melissa was her focus on collaboration.  It’s a way of connecting that I hadn’t thought of before. Melissa said that she used to work for a marketing firm before going off on her own.  Working for herself is great, but it gets lonely sometimes.  This year, she has really been focusing on working with …

Location: Denver, Colorado Business: Discovery College Consulting How we met: I have known Sara for a few years.  We are friends, and I built her website! Sara is an extrovert who has no problem going to networking events, or doing what it takes to make connections. For Sara, who has no fear of getting out there and meeting people, the challenge is finding networking opportunities where she can meet potential clients or power partners.  Luckily, she has a good idea of who her clients are, and who can be successful referral partners for her. Sara has done many things to grow her network, including attending networking events, doing presentations, …

  Location: Lansing, MI Her business: The Eclectic Editor How we met: Brenda was a fellow attendee at Pioneer Nation, the conference where I got the idea for 101 Conversations. After the conference, I put up a post in the Facebook group asking if anyone would be willing to talk to me, and she responded! When I asked Brenda why she went into business as an editor, her passion for her work was obvious. She said, “I wanted to be a cheerleader for writers.  When I was a little kid I would write little novels.  Aside from profits and rights, the traditional publishing industry is mean to writers, and …

  Location: Sunnyvale, California Business: Art and illustration How we met: Lena was at Pioneer Nation Lena is in the beginning stages of defining her target audience and her business. She has already done a lot of different things, including doing portraits, working with brides, and creating artwork for people doing ancestry research, but she is searching for a more well defined brand and niche. We discussed the difficulty of knowing how much planning to do before you jump in and start “doing business.” My experience has been to hit the ground running and refine along the way.  The problem with doing that, however, is that I sometimes find …

Location: Denver, Colorado Business: Be Legendary How we met: James attended an event I facilitated called Collaborative Coffee. James is passionate about “cracking open” the inner walls of his corporate clients through unique workshops and experiences. The company summary from the Be Legendary website reads: We are a true social enterprise that ties philanthropy with every service we offer.  Giving back to the community cannot be separated from what we do or our service is not possible.  We have intentionally stayed a for profit company to show that companies can be for-profit, for purpose at the same time.  Being a social enterprise means we can continue impacting the world and …