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Lauren is an entrepreneurs entrepreneur. She’s a grinder, a lover of life, never settles for anything less than amazing, and in this interview completely vulnerable. She owns 13 different restaurants and can’t grow fast enough. Her insights into entrepreneurship are amazing. In this interview Lauren dishes out real, authentic experience shares, something that is talked about enough, and an inside look from her first restaurant to now!

You don’t have to know how to code in order to build an app or a SAAS product, but you do need the drive and desire to solve a problem you are extremely passionate about. Marisha is the proof! She does not have a background in application development, and has overcome 6 FIGURES of mistakes to create a successful app. She create a web based application to help SLPs manage their workload, and today she has a library of over 1000 materials for her members to access. Marisha’s success also proves your MVP does NOT have to be fantastic, it just has to work and solve a problem! Check out https://slpnow.com .

Kevin is no stranger to playing computer simulated war games.  He believe in its ability to transform organizations and develop the next class of leadership that he created an entire company to realize his vision. Kevin's philosophy is that leadership and strategy are interdependent. Most times strategies do not go according to plan, requiring leaders to drive them from the ground up.   http://edgechallenges.com

Some of the best business advice comes from entrepreneurs in growth mode.  This entrepreneur interview highlight that point!   Meet the woman changing the automotive industry!  You can call her Bogi, all her friends do.  Bogi Lateiner owns 2 female driven automotive garages, teaches woman (and men) all over the country about automotive care, and stars in a TV show called All Girls Garage.  Her personal mission is simple… she wants to empower women through automotive, and change the perception of the automotive industry.   Bogi’s favorite business advice… Say YES then figure it out!  Once you’re committed, you WILL find a way.   https://www.180automotive.com/

Brandon’s message is simple, find your tribe!  He knows that this one thing can have a HUGE impact on how successful you can be in business.  He is so dedicated to helping early stage businesses succeed while also building a thriving ecosystem that he, along with his co-founder, started a non-profit called StartupAZ.  Their mission is to inspire connectivity and generosity among the most innovative young companies, helping them grow and give back.   They started back in 2014 with a “big tent” idea of what entrepreneurship could mean for a community and how they could help accelerate the growth of ventures in Phoenix through something called the Collective, their signature initiative designed to increase the success rate and growth of the region’s highest potential startup companies.   https://www.startupaz.org

Karen was part of an exit that allowed her to not only fund the acquisition of Business Radio X Phoenix, but also her husbands auto repair company!  Now she’s focused on helping entrepreneurs accelerate relationship with the right people.  She invested in the Phoenix entrepreneur community.   For over 20 years, Karen Nowicki has been helping entrepreneurs and the people who lead them drive their business strategies more effectively. As studio partner for Business Radio X and host for the metro Phoenix network shows, Nowicki has the pleasure of working with the most innovative, passionate and driven people who make a difference in their community and are willing to help others do the same.

It’s not easy to be an entrepreneur… Take it from Jessie W, she owns MisGif (like in mischief) a photo booth company. She owes a lot of her success to an entrepreneurship community called #YESPHX. Through its Startup Week event she has found mentors, business coaches, and corporate partners to help her reach her goals. Check our MisGif at https://www.themisgif.com

Tim is the head head of Canyon Angels, a Phoenix based Angel investor group, and chairs the Entrepreneur College at Grand Canyon University.  Did you know… GCU is one of the few programs in the country to be attached to an undergrad!   With his extensive experience interviewing entrepreneurs, I ask him about what an entrepreneur looks like to him, what makes a good presentation, how I would know if I would be a good fit for Canyon Angels.  He also talks about resources for accredited Angel Investors and the types of way to get involved!   If you’re interested in checking out Canyon Angels check out their website at http://www.canyonangels.org

Want to learn to code?  Galvanize is revolutionizing the transition from no coding experience to qualified applicant for a real coding job.  Not only that, but they provide career services for their students and them “learning to learn” techniques.  And although Galvanize is an education house, they also provide co-working space for companies of all size, all over the US.   In this episode Katie Hurst sits down with me to talk about Entrepreneurship resources, co-working, and how Galvanize is working to solve an upcoming developer shortage of 1 MILLION developers.   Check out Galvanize at https://www.galvanize.com

Hayley Ringle from the Phoenix Business Journals sits down with me to talk about entrepreneurship resources.  Hayley has been reporting on all things technology and technology startups in Phoenix, AZ for over 6 years.   She talks about the startup scene from her perspective… seeing a lot more activity than in recent years, tons of co-working spaces popping up, big companies moving into town, and higher fundraising amounts being acquired.   She also dish on ways to get your story published in her newspaper.  Spoiler Alert… you don’t need a PR company, if you have a story just give her a call!

U & Improved is an award-winning leadership development and training company with a mission of improving people’s lives and impacting the world on a global scale.  Jodi like to think she’s really bringing alignment and purpose back to an organization… bring more energy, collaboration, and passion back to the company’s culture.   Classes are small, intimate and designed to lead students through experiential processes that impart the knowledge to immediately implement improvements in their personal and professional lives. Students break through barriers holding them back and walk away with newfound focus, self-confidence, self-awareness, enthusiasm and passion.

CO+HOOTS is the only shared central Phoenix office location that promotes collaboration and provides a professional, inspirational and self-sustaining space to grow and nurture entrepreneurship.     Originally Jenny (founder) Started Co+Hoots to solve her own problems, and quickly realized how rewarding it is to see other entrepreneurs thrive with the community and culture she’s building.  Although she is a entrepreneur with multiple businesses, Jenny says the hardest thing for her is the people side of the business, managing the different personalities and creating space to grow and communicate.     Check out Co+Hoots at http://cohoots.com

Scaling Point helps early-stage CEOs and founders who want to grow a substantial and valuable business.  Greg knows there is a scalable growth opportunity but right now it’s just him… he’s back in the trenches just like all other entrepreneurs.  With his newest business venture, Greg works with entrepreneurs to tighten the screws on their business… to get back to the go to market strategy that will work, the marketing that is going to be heard, and the investor story that is going to get it.   There is generally an A.D.D. required to be an entrepreneur… you gotta do a lots of things and sell to a lot of people in order to find where your niche is.   Check out Greg & Scaling Point here… http://scalingpoint.com

If there is a beverage management or bar component to an event… that’s where they shine!  They are husband and wife Neal & Kensey-Beth Kendrick and they are a Couple of Bartenders.  They also have Tap Truck AZ which is a 1966 panel truck with 5 taps down the side, for wine, coffee, cocktails or beer.   His entrepreneurial sprint is really more about having a drive to make things happen and that evolved into starting a business.  For four years Neal held a corporate job while getting this business up and running and building a great foundation.  And when he went all in, the business exploded!     Check out http://coupleofbartenders.com/ and https://taptruckaz.com/ for more!

Bob figured that if he found find a job that married his passion for sports and his passion for business that would be perfect… he didn’t find what he was looking for so he created it!  Now he not only gets to work with professional sports teams and run a business, he gets to give back in order to help other get a start in the sports business.  How awesome is that!   He started working with team for free, delivered enough value to be asked to come back, and built his business from there.   http://www.sportsbusiness.solutions

Shatha left her corporate job to spend more time with her kids, and fell in love with the idea of creating a co-working space for women with a twist… it’s spa inspired! One of the reasons Shatha worked so hard to get Hera Hub Phoenix up and running was because she understood the pain points and what it’s like to be a woman entrepreneur. Many of the women entrepreneurs that work out of the Hera Hub Phoenix are 35+ and have left their corporate background in order to launch something they feel passionate about. https://herahub.com/phoenix/

Rachel was so focused on creating her cause she didn't even realize she was an entrepreneur until someone told her… #TRUTH All of her shows sell out, she has a LONG wait list, loves the AH-HA moment people get when they connect to their story, and says the key to telling your story so it resonates with others is to be AUTHENTIC! http://www.thewholestoryshow.com

Beth is changing legal services FOREVER, and it makes so much sense... She’s creating legal services as a service, and it makes SO MUCH SENSE you’ll wonder why it wasn’t mainstream earlier! The “billable hour” wasn’t working for companies, so she killed it. As an entrepreneur she’s learned that failure is actually a WIN because you are learning something from it. Check out http://nimbuslegal.co to know more!

Ray believes there are 2 phases entrepreneurs go through… Phase 1 = entrepreneurs that measure success with money… phase 2 = entrepreneurs that graduate from phase 1 and measure success with happiness. "You don’t have to start at phase 1, just jump to phase 2!" Today he measures performance in his business (outside of revenue & profit) by how happy he is… “it’s not about the money, it’s about the things that I can do the most impact”. AND he (like myself) wants everyday to feel like Saturday! Check out his story and his company https://www.raybrehm.com

Working as a crisis counselor she noticed people were feeling disconnected and lonely (around the time social media started taking off) and wanted to figure out how she could help people reconnect. And as an entrepreneur, in the beginning she made the classic mistake of creating something for “everyone” instead of “someone”. In the end she figure out how to sell "Surprise & Delight", and she is the absolute BEST at it! Check out her story and her company http://birdytell.com