Entrepreneurially Thinking: Innovation | Experimentation | Creativity | Business

ETHINKSTL 153: Khalia Collier |  St. Louis Surge 18 December 2019 Joining us today is Khalia Collier, Owner and General Manager of the St. Louis Surge, a women's professional basketball team that plays all home games at Washington University, St. Louis. As the Owner and General Manager of the St. Louis Surge, Khalia has taken on the challenge of building the first sustainable women's professional franchise. A St. Louis native with a deep commitment to the city, Khalia is taking the city by surge!   In this episode:   Khalia tells us about how entrepreneurship not only runs in her family but also how she got her start as an entrepreneur at an early age, from selling things door-to-door and cold calling to selling cars for Plaza Motors just to name a few to start with. For Khalia, entrepreneurially thinking means to her, creating a vision that you can scan. Khalia explains how she purchased a professional women's basketball team at 23 years old. She talks about the fact that she is fortunate to have the love an

Dec 11, 2019 ETHINKSTL 152: Janna Westbrook | Provider Pool [Season 12, Episode 8]  Joining us today is Janna Westbrook, Founder, and CEO of Provider Pool, an online labor marketplace created for the healthcare industry. Janna is a Registered Nurse and is fueled by her passion for healthcare. She has dedicated her efforts to tackle challenges within the industry.  In this episode: Janna talks about her early years of nursing and her concerns with the 'old ways' of nursing technologies as well as her frustration with nurse staffing issues which prompted her inner entrepreneur to start Provider Pool.  Janna talks about inviting a co-worker to join her on her new adventure and the process of immersing themselves in the start-up world and how St. Louis' own T-Rex became a home and a family for their new business.  Janna explains how Provider Pool streamlines staffing models in healthcare organizations while appealing to the modern-day Nurse. The Provider Pool platform algorithmically matches hospitals to their id

Dec 4, 2019 ETHINKSTL 151: Jeff and Randy Vines | STL - Style [Season 12, Episode 7]  Joining us today are Jeff and Randy Vines, Creators and Owners of STL-Style. Jeff and Randy are identical twins who have a fierce love for everything STL. Together, the two have created STL-Style, A St. Louis inspired graphic design and apparel company that has been featured in publications such as The New York Times and Fast Company. In this episode: Jeff and Randy tell us about how a hobby and a love for city nostalgia turned into a full-time business venture that went from screen printing shirts on a friends kitchen table to a now -much larger scale screen printing operation in their shop located on Cherokee Street on St. Louis' South Side of town. Jeff and Randy talk about getting involved with civic affairs such as historic preservation and urban advocacy. With much support from St. Louis Contemporaries, this caught the attention of The New York Times in 2008. Jeff and Randy discuss the term entrepreneurship and what en

ETHINKSTL 150: Keisha Mabry |heyFRIEND! [Season 12, Episode 6]  Joining us today for our 150th episode is Keisha Mabry, Founder of heyFRIEND!, a platform that teaches people how to build authentic relationships. Keisha believes that by connecting people to people and people to resources she can increase movements, access, communication, and progress to get the right people in the right seats to end inequality. She is on a mission to change the world one connection at a time. In this episode:  Keisha shares how, after leaving positions at Dot Foods and KIPP, she joined College Bound to manage their technology portfolio. As part of her mission to cultivate strategic partnerships with funders, innovators, techies, and educators to increase college access for under-resourced communities she met 100 people in 100 days – laying the groundwork for what would become the premise behind her book, heyFRIEND! Today, Keisha is an author, national speaker, creator of the Friendworking method and host of the mastHerclass ev

ETHINKSTL 149: Britany Sarhage | Rudy’s Flower Truck Joining us today is B​rittany Sarhage​, Founder of Rudy's Flower Truck. Brittany felt the need to make flowers more accessible to the community by creating a unique flower buying experience. After more than a decade of dreaming, Rudy's Flower Truck can be found all over town.  In this episode:​ Brittany talks about how "click bait" sparked an idea within her to start a mobile business that would bring floral's to the community. Brittany jumped into action by first purchasing a Vintage 1958 FC170 Jeep Truck. Brittany talks about the need and the excitement of building a unique shopping "experience" by teaming up with other small business owners such as one of a kind clothing boutiques and coffee shops.  Brittany discusses some of the challenges she faced in starting a mobile flower truck such as maintenance of the vintage 'mobile' part of the business, geographics and placement plans of the truck and of course financials.  Brittany talks about getting creati

ETHINKSTL 148: Charli Cooksey | WePower  [Season 12, Episode 4]  Joining us today is C​harli Cooksey​, Founder, and CEO of WEPOWER STL, Executive Director of Inspire STL and the Interim Executive Director of Forward Through Ferguson. Charli is a firm believer that a different St. Louis requires a different kind of leadership. In this episode:​ Charli talks about coming from a long family line of artists and shares her opinion on the similarities between arts and entrepreneurship as well as creativity and believing in things you can't see tangibly then taking that vision to make it tangible.  Charli discusses how she merged entrepreneurship and social injustice through Inspire STL and her newest venture WEPOWER STL. Charlie says she felt the need to introduce the concept of positive performance early on in education by providing college preparatory course and intense college preparatory Summer programs as early as the 7th grade.  Charli tells us in detail about WEPOWER and its mission to create solutions that

ETHINKSTL 147: Jennifer Garcia | Garcia Properties [Season 12, Episode 3] Joining us today is ​Jenifer Garcia​,  Owner, and Broker at Garcia Properties. Jenifer is a mentor to many agents who have become some of St. Louis' Top Realtors. Having been in the industry for 20 years, Jenifer instills in her tribe a focus on making life long customers through integrity and thoughtful service.   In this episode:​ Jenifer talks about how she started as an entrepreneur at the very young age of 14 and how an infomercial took her by chance down a path that would eventually steer her towards real estate. Jenifer discusses how Garcia Properties got its start with apartment buildings and how that grew into a much larger business model and what her vision for the future is for Garcia Properties.  Jenifer explains how a multi-faceted family run business fits under one business umbrella and how they make it work so smoothly.  Jenifer gives us advice on business and how to "let your freak flag fly". She says that most important

ETHINKSTL 146: Betsy Nacrelli |Collections by Joya [Season 12, Episode 2] Joining us today is B​etsy Blancett-Nacrelli, ​ Founder of Collections by Joya. Betsy's lifelong passion for Women empowerment and her 14 years of experience in international retail and design, afforded her many opportunities to travel to amazing places such as Istanbul, Bali, and India where she fell in love with the vast selection of artisan jewelry. Founded in 2016, Collections by Joya continues to grow and inspire women all over the world. Betsy believes fully that when women support each other, incredible things can happen!   In this episode​:    Betsy tells us about how her journey in product development and design in the furniture industry turned into a whole new journey in jewelry design and development which Betsy has since turned into a full-time career and business.  Betsy fills us in on the long line of entrepreneurs with her family and how she knew from a very young age that she too wanted to be an entrepreneur. She talks a

ETHINKSTL 145: Jeremy Goss | LinkMarket [Season 12, Episode 1] Joining us today is Dr. Jeremy Goss, Founder, Chairman and CEO of The Link Market. Jeremy is an advocate for low-income communities on issues related to food justice, hunger and health. Upon graduating from St. Louis University School of Medicine, Jeremy took notice to the fact that healthy food options were not available to certain communities in the St. Louis Region. Jeremy's frustration turned into a life changing idea for many St. Louis residents. In this episode: Jeremy discusses the challenges he faced upon his arrival here in St. Louis and how he began to tackle poverty and inequality in the region and how he turned the art of science and healing to a reality for a city that so badly needed it. Jeremy talks about how he reached out to his peers in the medical community to help research how he could best fill the void in the food deserts of of St. Louis and the next steps he took to make his idea take form. Jeremy discusses his very ow

ETHINKSTL 144: Shannon Thompson | Indie Eatery [Season 11, Episode 11] Joining us today is Shannon Thompson, Proprietor of Indie Eatery and Indie 4 Catering. Shannon devoted 12 years of her life to the United States Air Force. Upon returning , she spent a short time in the corporate world. It didn't take long for Shannon to realize that the corporate world just didn't fill her passion within; It was then that she and her husband started Indie 4 Catering and the rest is history. In this episode: Shannon discusses how Indie 4 Catering maintains sustainability not only in the business aspect but also on the menu side of the business with items such as 'compost nachos' and health based all natural juice drinks. Shannon talks about how being laid off from her full-time job thrust her into entrepreneurship by incident and the process of transitioning into the business with her husband by her side. Shannon discusses the difficulties she and her husband faced in trying to find a new form of employment once exiti

ETHINKSTL 143: Alexces Bartley | MO SourceLink [Season 11, Episode 10] Joining us today is Alexces Bartley, Director and Network Builder of Missouri SourceLink. At her core, Alex is a connector with a deep passion for helping communities and individuals grow through access to entrepreneurial opportunities. Prior to her work with Missouri SourceLink, Alex served as Outreach Programs Manager at Oklahoma State University Riata Center for Entrepreneurship. In this episode: Alexces talks about how she fills her role as a Network Builder and the idea of the concept that entrepreneurship is a team sport wherever you go and how social networks are extremely valuable to the growth of a business. Alexces talks about the importance of unlocking the talent that Missouri holds within it many territories and accepting that what is good for Missouri is good for its towns and what is good for our towns is good for Missouri. Alexces explains how Missouri SourceLink connects rural communities who may not have the ability

ETHINKSTL 142: Collective STL | Healing Mind, Body and Spirit in North St. Louis [Season 11, Episode 09] Joining us today are Terry and Ericka Harris and Alonzo Nelson, Jr., Co Founders of Collective STL. This team of amazing yogi's create a healthy and safe experience catered to African Americans by offering compassionate wisdom that helps heal the mind, body and spirit through techniques of yoga mindfulness and culturally relevant self-strategies. In this episode: Ericka and Terry talk about how their love for yoga transformed into the thought of bringing African American communities together through the Collective STL environment by creating a space that helps heal the mind, body and spirit. The trio talks about the need and importance of accessibility not just for some but for ALL in terms of financial and economics. Before the Collective STL, North St. Louis had no yoga studios. Alonzo discusses the platforms used to bring awareness to the African American communities about the healing qualities of

ETHINKSTL 141: Rachel D'Souza Siebert | Gladiator Consulting [Season 11, Episode 08] Joining us today is Rachel D'Souza Siebert, Founder and Principal of Gladiator Consulting. Rachel is at her best when she's starting, fixing or leading. In 2015, Gladiator Consulting came to life offering Core Values and Guiding Principles to our communities. In this episode: Rachel talks about how a need to have her voice heard and having a way to fulfill her interest in social justice led her to the nonprofit sector. Rachel discusses the importance of breaking down the barrier of being a mom and an entrepreneur and how she makes that work. Rachel talks about the power dynamic that exists in philanthropy between the people that fund and the people who need the funds and how Gladiator Consulting seeks to obtain their goals. Rachel explains abundance in the non-profit world and forging a new path for future organizations. Learn more: Email: Company Website:

ETHINKSTL 140: Jessica Hitchcock | Following Her Entrepreneurial Heart for Art [Season 11, Episode 07] Joining us today is Jessica Hitchcock , owner of Jessica Hitchcock, LLC. Jessica paints from her home in St. Louis, Missouri and it's her bold colors that give her a signature look. She only recently quit her day job in Finance and Human Resources to devote her efforts full-time to her art business. Following a recent trip to Mexico to work with an expert to discuss a business plan, she is off to a great start and getting her name out there. In this episode : Jessica tells us where and how her artistic story started in 2015 and how her mom’s entrepreneurship story may have had a little influence on her becoming an entrepreneur. Jessica explains how she went from being an artist as a hobby to having her paintings on display at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Manhattan. She tells us how it all happened very naturally for her. Jessica tells us how the transition of working full time in the Finance and Human R

ETHINKSTL 139: Nick Dunne | Marketing M.A.D.E. Man [Season 11, Episode 06] Joining us today is Nick Dunne, Communications Director For MADE, Third Degree Glass Factory and The Delmar Maker District. A 2011 graduate of Webster University with a B.A. degree in Public Relations, Nick brings a culmination of marketing experience to all three businesses while using his background as a professional communicator to elevate the community of artists, makers and other entrepreneurs in the St. Louis area. In this episode: Nick talks about how a collaborative idea turned into an evolution of a multifaceted studio for creating, making and selling; all the while building a social network. Nicks explains where the name M.A.D.E came from and its meaning;M-Makers, A-Artists, D-Designers, E-Entrepreneurs and he tells us how the MADE concept works. Nick talks about the lack of resources for children to learn, make and create and how MADE and The Magic House have collaborated to make a space for children to learn, grow and

ETHINKSTL 138: De Nichols | De-Signing Creative Cultures of Impact [Season 11, Episode 05] Joining us today is De Nichols, Principal of Design and Social Practice at Civic Creatives. As a cultural producer, De organizes artists to develop digital media and visual artworks that extend the impact of her design practice. In this episode: De speaks about the current challenges she faces and how she and her team at Civic Creatives rise to those challenges in an effort to bring awareness to these issues. De tells us about her projects such as designing the St. Louis Metro Market, The Artistic STL Collective; which mobilizes artists and creators across the region, the Unites Stories Summit and how she likes to create a vulnerable and brave space for people to express themselves in a safe environment. De describes how she came to the decision to be involved in Social Entrepreneurship. De speaks about how being an artist molded the social side and how her studies solidified the entrepreneurship side. De fills us

ETHINKSTL 137: Claire Flowers | Durable, Comfortable, Stylish Shoes for Professional Women [Season 11, Episode 04] Joining us today is Claire Flowers, Founder and Designer of Claire Flowers, LLC. Claire has a passion for making things better. While working in sales and constantly traveling for her work, Claire found herself rapidly going through pairs of heels. In a effort to make women's lives easier, Claire decided to make a change. In December of 2014, Claire quit her full-time technology career to make this idea a reality by forming Claire Flowers, LLC. In this episode: Claire tells us how Claire Flowers, LLC evolved from a self-servicing idea to a much larger production of a full-line of women's shoes. Claire talks about the many different phases of getting her idea from her mind, to a CAD file, to a designer, to manufacturing, then finally to promotion. Claire tells us the 5 things that set Claire Flowers shoes apart from the competition. Claire discusses company growth and where she sees Claire F

ETHINKSTL 136: Amy Slaughter | Aims Moon Paperie [Season 11, Episode 03] Joining us today is Amy Slaughter, Owner of Aims Moon Paperie. Founded in 2016, Aims Moon Paperie is a stationery company dedicated to providing women with tools for self-reflection and organization. Amy always wanted to create and to become an entrepreneur. A writer for many years, Amy found journaling was a way to de-clutter her thoughts. Compelled by her passion for writing, she started her own business. Aims Moon Paperie is a chic, handcrafted-gifts brand that allows you to write your thoughts in style. In this episode: Amy describes her inner entrepreneur and how it took form. She discusses the various outlets she discovered and the experiences she encountered in her first year. Amy discusses her design process and her quality control initiatives for offering the BEST product to her clients. Amy talks about becoming an entrepreneur and how it helped her learn more about herself and gave her a reasons to believe in herself. Am

ETHINKSTL 135: Devon Moody Graham | #CEOMOM [Season 11, Episode 02] Joining us today is Devon Moody-Graham, CEO and Founder of CEO MOM. Devon is a Wife, Mother, CEO, Community Leader and Serial Entrepreneur. Devon is passionate about creating solutions to ease the journey of pulling off all of the above. Devon created CEO MOM as a platform to help mothers who are entrepreneurs make their dreams come true. CEO MOM provides 'empire building' assistance, kid-friendly meet ups and opportunities for women to connect with other women while improving their businesses and grow together. In this episode: Devon discusses how CEO MOM came about through her own experiences as a mom and entrepreneur and seeing other moms struggle to achieve CEO status. Devon explains the importance of motherly figures inspiring their children to do better and to reach for and obtain their goals by leading by example. Devon also talks about a new term called 'Momager' and how inspiration goes both ways. Devon describes in detail what

ETHINKSTL 134: Leslie Gill | Rung for Women [Season 11, Episode 01] Joining us today is Leslie Gill, Executive Director of Rung for Women. Having served in leadership capacities for several profit and non-profit organizations, Leslie has been deeply involved in a wide range of social welfare issues. Before joining Rung, Leslie served as the Chief Executive Officer of Annie Malone Children and Family Service Center. In this episode: Leslie discusses how Rung got its start as a high-end consignment shop for the benefit of The Women's Foundation of Greater St. Louis and how through the years it evolved into its current state ASA program of holistic self sufficiency for women. Leslie tells us about the vision of Rung for Women and its goal to not only change the landscape of the St. Louis community, but to also help women remove barriers to success and help them to achieve higher financial goals. Leslie talks about how Ali Hogan, Founder of Rung for Women, took a pause in her efforts in order to make a succ