Passion Project Pending

Kate is the owner of Studio Casually, operating multiple photo and event studio spaces in San Diego. Now 29, she started the business over three years ago after building an unconventional career path - graduating high school at 17 with an associate's degree, working various jobs while teaching herself marketing and photography, and eventually transitioning to full-time freelance work before opening her studios. 

In this conversation, Kate shares guidance on entrepreneurship, including how to take calculated risks, the importance of the people you surround yourself with, and why she avoids studying competitors to maintain her creative v...

Eric Cheng is the founder and host of the existential zillenial podcast “Wait, Say More”, recently rebranded from its previous title of “No, So True”. With “Wait, Say More", he aims to tackle the real challenges of navigating your late twenties now in a funny and earnest way. After starting his career in comedy writing and performance, Eric transformed his own quarter life crisis and mental health journey into a platform that has already reached over 13 million impressions across media channels in the first 9 months. Through his work as a teacher, dance coach, and 988 suicide and crisis lifeline counselor, Eric bring...

I worked at a bakery in La Jolla, San Diego this fall when I had no money and no job and many expenses after moving across the country!!

This bakery, Girard Gourmet, welcomed me with open arms and I learned a lot through working there.

The owners, Diana and Francois, let me interview them about their experience running this place for nearly 40 decades.

Through another story that defies expectations, I share about/how:

#61. What I Learned in 2024

#60. This will be part 2 of my interview with Dr. Sara Howell, a fourth year med student at Howard University and the founder and designer behind Pax Marila, a brand designed to be both a safe place for women of diverse backgrounds and a hub of knowledge, pride and cultural awareness. 

In part 1, we discussed Sara’s background leading up to med school and starting Pax Marila, including her motivation to become a doctor and fashion founder. In this episode, we get to hear all about the details of what it’s been like building Pax M...

#59. Sara Howell is the founder and designer behind Pax Marila, a brand designed to be both a safe place for women of diverse backgrounds and a hub of knowledge, pride and cultural awareness. Besides growing Pax Marila for the past several years, Sara has also been busy earning her medical degree from Howard University, finishing up her final year this year and looking forward to a residency in anesthesia.

This is Part 1 of my interview with Sara, where we hear about the background behind her journey and decision to attend medical school while growing...

#58. Not to get ahead of myself, but we are SO back sis!

Alexandra Dean is the founder of Adhere To, a sustainable, gender-neutral outerwear brand launched in 2022. Previously a designer at Lululemon, Alex took her knowledge of clothing design with her into providing freelance support for various brands, which ultimately allows her to fund her very own brand. Adhere To combines 100% recycled materials, ethical manufacturing and a low-carbon supply chain, all while maintaining a focus on high performance, durability and contemporary design. In this conversation I ask her all about her background in the fashion industry, experience...

#57. Camila Reyes is the president of Girls Club San Diego as well as a business coach through her company Simple Strategy.

Tune in for a conversation on entrepreneurship, women in business, personal growth, business coaching, boundaries, mindset, and so much more.

https://www.simplestrategy.co/

https://www.instagram.com/simplestrategy.co/

https://www.girlsclubsd.org/

https://www.instagram.com/girlsclubsd/

#56. Hello, and welcome to the chaos!

I learned to freelance this year, providing social media management software engineering services.

If you have questions about freelancing, it is essentially having people pay you to provide them with specific services but now you're technically your own employer. You don't have a boss, yay! But you also have several "clients" that you need to please at any given time...

In this episode, I get into the following topics after 4 months of experience of figuring this out as I go: 

#55. Tayllor Williams founded Studio West Pilates this year after gaining experience teaching in studios around Chicago. She discovered her love for Pilates and low impact movement after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in 2020.

After noticing the benefits of Pilates in her own life, she decided to pursue her certification and opened her own studio space in order to share the benefits she experienced with her community. Tayllor has had a wide variety of career experiences in her twenties leading up to today, from teaching Spanish to working in real estate.

In this episode, we...

#54. Dr. Meg Jay is a clinical psychologist and bestselling author specializing in the twenty something years. She wrote the book The Defining Decade in 2012, followed by a 2013 TED talk “Why 30 is Not the New 20” which has been viewed over 14 million times.

Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Forbes, Psychology Today, and NPR. She earned a PhD in clinical psychology and in gender studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

Her first book, the Defining Decade, did wonders to transform the way millions of people thought about their twen...

#53. I'm 4 months into my attempt at full-time solopreneurship. I've spent time developing the podcast social media, taking on freelance clients for social media management and coding, started my own LLC, and a lot of time just spinning my wheels.

In this episode I reflect on the struggles I've faced and some things that have helped with clarity, mindset and attitude recently. I talk about a pivot I want to make with the podcast in attempts to connect you with the entrepreneurs themselves, how I'm motivated to get more experience, and what it's like to go through a...

#52. Leslie Simionescu is a yoga teacher and member of the leadership team at Yen Yoga Studio located in Traverse City, MI. Yen Yoga was created in 2010 and Leslie joined shortly after, becoming a 200 hour Yoga Teacher through a teacher training program hosted there by Jennifer Lintvedt. She has since become a 500 hour advanced teacher through Janet Stone Yoga at Esalen Institute in Big Sur California. Leslie is trained in Bhakti yoga which is the yoga of devotion, mantra, chanting and sound. She brings meditation through crystal bowls and vibration. Leslie has taught to the community for many years, facilitated...

#51. Today I am interviewing my older brother Daniel Wilson otherwise known as Dan. Dan has had all sorts of wild experiences other than being a software engineer for 6+ years. The major ones include training for and completing an ironman, living on a sailboat in the New York City Hudson River and sailing said sail boat down the east coast, and most recently white water rafting in Zambia. And yes, unsurprisingly, he also has a stint of van life under his belt. Dan is certainly the most adventurous out of our family and is currently located in Denver, where we...

#50. Alejandra Thomas is a software engineer and content creator. She currently lives in New York City and works as a Developer Advocate for a startup, as well as a part time Web Developer for Mixed Change, an agency working with nonprofits. On top of this, she also creates coding content across Twitter, Tiktok and Instagram. I first discovered Ale while creating coding content on Tiktok myself. She uses social media as a way to connect with the broader coding community although she’s been able to monetize it as well at this point. In this episode we discuss

Soulfull is a community founded by Taylor Hamilton and Caroline Ball with the intent of fostering meaningful and authentic connection, incorporating more play into life, and elevating local businesses and creatives in San Francisco. In this episode, we discuss:

#48. Hadlee Garrison started her health coaching business after getting her Masters of Public Health from the University of Michigan. She earned her health coaching certification after going through a health coaching program of the company she interned with during her Masters. In this episode, we discuss the following:

Ashley Luchini is my dear friend that I met during a travel writing study abroad course in Greece almost six years ago. She got her degree in nursing and is now pursuing a dual degree in women’s health nurse practitioner and certified nurse midwife. We just had the opportunity to catch up at our mutual friend Katie’s wedding a couple weeks ago and were just chatting about the general chaos of your twenties. In this episode, we discuss the following:

#46. In this episode I discuss

https://www.pass...

#45. In this episode I discuss:

Tune in to hear the tea :)

*in this episode I mention a course I p...

#44. Thanks to a recent epiphany from a podcast interview of Alex Hormozi, I've created a solo episode around this exercise of "What would it take to have authority in x", where 'x' is some arbitrary skillset or task etc.

I've cycled through many forms of goal setting, some very non committal. What I like is when the focus is on what I'm able to do, and not on external factors or outcomes.

In this episode,  I'll walk you through examples from my personal goals of how I set numerical goals of doing something repeatedly for...

#43. Broc Crandall is the co-founder and CEO of Stocked, a pre arrival delivery service saving vacationers time and money while connecting local businesses for a better check in experience. He founded the company with an old friend and roommate, Zach Hite, in 2020 after years of noticing the time suck in using precious hours of vacation time to go grocery shopping in new and unfamiliar places. Stocked provides grocery deliveries to vacationers in northern Michigan, collaborating with property managers, airbnb owners and local grocery stores. Broc also runs a coffee shop with a friend in Elk Rapids, Michigan, called Happy...

#42. In this solo ep / life update I walk through my answers for a Q1 Review exercise I found online, leaving the questions below:

Review Q1:

Chris Miller joined Jarret Beaudis, a best friend from childhood, in growing the primarily menswear fashion brand Signature, about five years ago. Chris and Jarret seek to fill a gap in the market and have a say in the redesign of fashion by fusing genres together to create the perfect urban workwear. Their clothing is beginning to attract female customers as well, especially with the oversized trend’s recent surge in popularity.

Over five and a half years ago, Jarret started on the journey of being a fashion brand founder. Chris was attending grad school for marketing wh...

In this empowering episode, I delve into the transformative journey of overcoming limiting beliefs. 

After some *ahem* research, I share practical strategies and insightful wisdom on identifying, challenging, and conquering the mental barriers that hold us back. From reframing negative thoughts to cultivating a growth mindset, discover actionable steps to unlock your full potential and achieve your goals. 

Throughout the episode, I share examples of my own challenges over the course of my twenties so far. Tune in to gain the confidence and resilience needed to thrive in every aspect of your life.

Re...

#39. Rebecca Suby-Long is an independent brand and web designer in San Francisco, CA. Previously working as a designer for Gap Inc. and a variety of other companies in tech in the Bay Area, she eventually moved towards freelancing and has been self employed for just over a year now. Most recently, Rebecca helped Butter & Crumble with their web design, a San Francisco bakery started by previous show guest Sophie Smith. Offering services including brand identity design, web design, art direction, merchandise design, and brand strategy, Rebecca juggles a variety of roles while working directly with creative entrepreneurs. Due to...

#38. Amney Mounir is a lead Data Analyst at Poshmark as well as the founder of Dataford.io, a live editor platform where users can practice technical data analytics interview questions commonly asked by top tier companies. 

Amney’s mission is to help those with the technical skills required to work in data analytics roles bridge the gap between education and real life application of those skills. Through his experiences recruiting himself as well as interviewing others for data analysis roles, he found that many applicants had excellent communication skills but lacked the abilities to pass technical interviews tha...

#37. Sarah Pinner is the CEO and Co-Founder of Beni, a chrome extension that finds resale alternatives from across the internet in the click of a button. Originally from Santa Barbara and having studied political economy at Berkeley for undergrad, she went on to work at Rabobank Wholesale Banking North America for four years, where her passion for sustainability, agriculture and policy served her through multiple roles working with food and law. Eventually she transitioned to work on innovation initiatives with startups within this company as she wanted to be close to people actively solving problems within the space. Following...

#36. Henriette Husby is a 26 year old podcast host, business coach, public speaker and real estate agent. She started her podcast, Businesstalk with Henriette, over two years ago in January of 2022. Originally studying real estate at BI Norwegian Business School, followed by a Master’s in Strategy, Organization and Leadership from Copenhagen Business School, she worked for a year as head of sales at a proptech company called ReData. Working in a male dominated industry, she sought out conversations with ambitious and driven women to learn from them. She decided to turn this into a podcast a short while later, an...

#35. Devon Rule studied chemical engineering in college, but after graduation she jumped straight into management consulting. After that two-year stint, she spent the next five working in pricing and strategy at fashion companies Gap and Cuyana. Within each of these roles, she navigated into smaller and smaller teams that allowed her to have a great deal of leadership and visibility into projects, enabling a smooth transition into her now startup Indyx, cofounded with Yidi Campbell, a former colleague from Gap. Yidi had been asking friends to allow her to catalog their closets to test out an idea for reducing...

#34. Ash Yao and Kyle Gillaspy launched their tea brand in November of last year after nearly a year of preparation. Ash grew up in Taiwan and has loved tea since childhood - later, after graduating with a neuroscience B.S. at Santa Clara University, she started brewing tea for friends during her weekly family nights where she would cook dinner for her close friends. Due to popularity, she kept making her tea for others and eventually decided to turn it into a brand. After three years of work in tech sales post college, she was laid off, but this...

#33. Carly Hill is the founder of Carly Hill Communications, her influencer management agency. She is also from my hometown, Traverse City, MI, and was around entrepreneurial spirit from a young age as her mom owned a clothing store in our downtown there. Since moving to New York City post college, she’s had various jobs in fashion and marketing and worked with several brands over her career of over ten years. When COVID hit and she was laid off from her job at the time, she started her own company by reaching out to influencer friends and offering to be...

#32. (BONUS EPISODE)

Happy New Year's Eve and may you bear witness to the curveball thrown my way at the tail end of 2023. 

I've been working as a contract data engineer for a prestigious tech company and now I'm finally getting what I've wanted for a long time - time off to pursue my own entrepreneurial pursuits with undiluted focus. It just came a bit sooner than I'd anticipated, and with it is coming a wave of emotions and reflections. Bit of a torrential downpour. 

Tune it to hear the life update of a 26 ye...

#31. Skylar Sorkin is the dynamic 26 year old force behind Regardless, a podcast that serves as the ultimate life manual for navigating the tumultuous terrain of one’s twenties. Recognizing the gap left by traditional education, Skylar founded Regardless two years ago to provide fellow twentysomethings with a potent blend of competence, community, and confidence as they navigate the uncharted waters of post-college life. For her day job, she is an account executive for Influential, the largest influencer marketing company in the world. Skylar started Regardless about two years ago and has worked consistently to cultivate a community wherein the tw...

Lola and Aorthi both work in the tech industry and met at the University of Auckland in Auckland, New Zealand. Lola is 23 and studied software engineering before becoming a full stack developer for 1.5 years. A full stack engineer is a mixture of front end and back end, where front end means working with a product’s user interface and back end is focused on how things work behind the scenes. Afterwards she transitioned into a Delivery Lead role, a more managerial role focused on the delivery of software products. Aorthi is 25 and studied Computer Systems engineering, and became a fu...

Portia Reinholz is the founder and creator of the skincare brand Chrysalis Cosmeceuticals. Originally going to college for business and communications, she has spent the last six years working for her father’s construction company and started building her skincare company on the side about two years ago. Her exposure to entrepreneurship from a young age has helped her understand what is possible, and her lifelong passion for lotions and other potions led her to the decision to create her own skincare brand. Throughout the process of building this brand, she took an online course to learn about product fo...

#28. Lauren Dunn grew up in the Bay Area and attended college at the University San Diego. Once graduated, she had various jobs including working at an art gallery, in events at Stanford and then in Sales and Customer Experience at a tech company in San Francisco. She began to seek out a career in East Asian and Integrative Medicine because of her own journey in healing her hormones and digestion. Alternative Medicine was a powerful catalyst in reframing how she viewed health and the different ways you can heal. Ultimately, she just really wanted to help people. Seeing the...

#27. John Peterson is the CEO and co-founder of The Nudge, a company that will text you fun things to do in your city. Originally studying Economics and Computing at UCLA for his undergraduate degree, he then became a growth analyst at American Airlines before moving on to becoming a growth consultant for 6 years. While working as a consultant, he also created a product called 9 Financial that analyzed public stocks and delivered recommendations and sold this to friends as a side hustle. Later he founded the company Livday which was a social network sharing local itineraries and partnering with Lyft...

#26. Wrapping up season one, this episode will cover everything we’ve achieved so far (statistics and more), the challenges I’ve faced in producing it, the learnings I’ve had after reflecting, the current status, then deeper topics like my mental health throughout this process and how my work with Sage, my life coach, has impacted my thoughts and goals around the show in general. I will also cover why I'm going to continue to do this and what it means to me.

https://www.instagram.com/passionprojectpending/

https://www.tiktok.com/@passionprojectpendingg

https...

#25. Patrick Wilson is the oldest sibling of 3 in our family so my oldest brother. He was the first of the three of us (so between me and my other brother Dan) to go to college, and to pick a major - he picked Computer Science even though both our parents were teachers although we do have some engineers in the extended family. At the time, Computer Science seemed to be quite a hot and emerging major and so he kind of trailblazer that path for Dan and I, studying at the University of Michigan and going on to get...

#24. Maya Campos is currently an assistant designer at Reformation, learning about the clothing production process and other elements involved in designing their clothes. During and after getting her degree in fashion from Syracuse University, she has worked in a variety of roles to get experience in design, social media marketing campaigns, styling and more. She is a big proponent of reaching out to people via email to introduce herself and pitch herself for roles, attributing her ability to get most of her past opportunities to this tactic - among them being an intern for LoveShackFancy, styling for Athleta, and...

#23. Dalton Viggers is the co-founder and CEO at bubl, where he's building a revolutionary soundproof booth with advanced technology to create the ultimate work environment. Dalton and his co-founder, Austin, have been working on bubl for the past 3 years, bootstrapping their company all the way from prototype manufacturing to at scale marketing and distribution.

Prior to bubl, Dalton was a senior design manager at Uber where he had the opportunity to have creative jurisdiction across multiple projects. His experience building Uber Kiosk suite to streamline driver sign up and support, order rides without a phone, and improve...

#22. (BONUS EPISODE) Mom and Pop, or Margaret and Michael Wilson met at Michigan State University. Margaret was studying Geography and Michael studied Mathematics. Both ended up getting their teaching certificates after college to turn their favorite subjects into a marketable skill that could translate to a career in education. 

My dad spent his first three years of teaching in Oahu, Hawaii, while my mom worked as a city planner there. After moving back to Traverse City, Michigan, my dad’s hometown and still in my mom’s home state, my dad embarked on a series of teaching roles...

#21. From random gigs in tech to working in fashion and paving her own path upon graduating during the pandemic, Fiona Tran is the founder of 2 companies; FT The Label & LOCO Wetsuits. Two years, many lessons, and one company later- Fiona fell in love with surfing but found issues with her wetsuit and the surf industry. With her entrepreneurial experience and retail background, Fiona finally felt like she found a niche and could produce something of real value while also cultivating a community of surfers. Speaking with Fiona was lovely because on top of all this experience and risk-taking, she...

#20. Hello anyone and everyone out there in the void listening in. So appreciate your listening, would absolutely love to hear your feedback (to do so please leave a review in Apple Podcasts or message me on the pod instagram @passionprojectpending - website with feedback option coming soon). In this episode, I give an update on how it's going being a solo podcast host after 20 episodes in 22 weeks total of podcasting, coordinating and interviewing with 15 different guests so far.

It has been an absolute ride and we are not done but we are definitely learning some valuable lessons...

#19. Damian Tenuta is the founder of Contente, a company geared towards providing social media marketing solutions to doctors and natural health clinics around the world. He started the company in 2019 while still in college and at this point he is working with his brother, leading a team of about 10 people, providing services to 75 clients currently. Damian is a proponent of career coaching and investing in your own growth through hiring others with more experience than you to teach you, something I learn a lot more about from him in this episode. If you've heard of the book "Buy Back...

#18. Lexi Whaley is the creator and founder of War on Sanity, the brand that revolutionized cowboy hat fashion. It's a symbol of boldness, elegance, and the irresistible allure of the Wild West. War on Sanity may be best known for their creatively designed cowboy hats but they also sell one-of-a-kind pieces of clothing as well as art. On top of running the brand, Lexi also hosts events around L.A., not only advertising War On Sanity but also providing an environment to showcase other growing artists and partner with nonprofits with causes close to Lexi's heart.

Tune...

#17. Sage Miller is a Life Optimization coach and her journey to get to where she is today has been anything but ordinary. From years of working in the field marketing space with brands like Clif Bar and Suja Juice, to creating and managing the marketing strategy for Wanderlust Hollywood, to producing events for Nike, to launching and running a digital marketing agency for years – she has been on a journey to find her deepest passion for quite some time.

After years of struggling to get clear on who she is and how to design her dream life, he...

#16. Adrienne Lin is a food blogger, software engineer and recovering tech founder. In other words, she’s an incredible guest for me to have on this podcast, which is meant to be geared towards discovering what you love to do and aligning that with your career. I used to work with Adrienne at Poshmark, so that is how I knew her from before. She has over ten years of industry experience, working as a civil engineer, product manager, backend engineer, product engineer, and even startup CTO. On top of all of that, she has a blog and instagram account wh...

#15. This week I’m interviewing Cora Kyler, co-founder & CEO of SOON. A dating app that recently launched in San Francisco. The premise is, first messages are date invites! They’ve acquired thousands of users in a few months time & are responsible for more than a thousand dates in San Francisco, so far. They’ve also hosted a number of sought after SOON singles mixers & are ramping up these events in haste. Before founding SOON, Cora was a grad student in Math at UC Berkeley & her best friend & co-founder was studying Architecture at MIT. When COVID hit, Cora & Alena, along with m...

#14. This week I’m interviewing Cora Kyler, co-founder & CEO of SOON. A dating app that recently launched in San Francisco. The premise is, first messages are date invites! They’ve acquired thousands of users in a few months time & are responsible for more than a thousand dates in San Francisco, so far. They’ve also hosted a number of sought after SOON singles mixers & are ramping up these events in haste. Before founding SOON, Cora was a grad student in Math at UC Berkeley & her best friend & co-founder was studying Architecture at MIT. When COVID hit, Cora & Alena, along with m...

#13. Beya Alcaraz is the owner of The Animal Connection, an exotic animal pet rescue and store in the Outer Sunset district of San Francisco! Beya has owned the store for 4 years but has worked there since high school. I’m going to save all the details about her background, decision to buy the store and more for the ep. but FYI this is a very wholesome episode getting to know a San Francisco local who loved working at this store so much she bought it at 22 years old! I’m convinced there’s not a person out there better suited...

#12. Kristina Schagane is the 25 year old owner and founder of Moody Goose, a vintage clothing store in San Francisco. 

If you haven’t been yet, it is an absolute must it’s on Polk street. Kristina started the store about 1 and a half years ago. Moody Goose is this perfect combination of affordable prices and really trendy but unique secondhand pieces. Throughout the store there’s a variety of styles of vintage clothing and then in the front she’s selling jewelry and some apparel by other small business owners.

Moody Goose sel...

#11. Interviewing my cousin John this week! John Kunz went to school in upstate New York and studied Computer Animation. During college, he DJ’d a bit (known as DJ Doctor Teeth) and worked with his friend, playing at house parties and some events and competitions. Also while in college, John interned for Mad Decent in L.A. which is the record label founded by Diplo. After college, he and his friend, going by Chemicals of Creation, continued to play at different clubs and venues and at one point even opened for Tiesto for a crowd of over 10,000 people. Since sc...

#10. Alec Huth  is the creator of the apparel brand Fruit Face SF. I first found out about Fruit Face while shopping at Moody Goose Vintage on Polk, who Alec partners with to sell her shirts in their store. I bought this cute baby tee with a little cow on it, that I later came to find was her Valentine’s Edition tee. Another popular design is their “Strawberry Cowgirl” tee, boasting “I Love SF” where the heart is a strawberry with a cowgirl hat on it (aka v cute). Alec started this brand while still in college at Berkeley and after g...

#9. This week I'm interviewing Tess Garcia, an absolute queen in media. She is also from Michigan but is currently living in New York City. For her main gig she creates marketing and social strategies catered towards Latinx audiences for clients like HBO Max at a company called Worthi. In addition, she produces a Shorty-awards nominated podcast called Going Mental by Eileen Kelly with over 100,000 monthly downloads, and incredibly also finds time to be a freelance journalist focused on pop culture, fashion, social justice and the intersection between the three. From writing her first cover story interviewing Jack Harlow for...

#8. In this episode it’s literally just me talking to myself for an hour. I talk about my background, history with working as a software engineer, some side hustles I’ve tried, my experience with social media and entrepreneurship and more. Some of my main topics of focus are the pressure I felt with student loans, the pressure I felt in picking a career, and the pressure I put on myself to do things on top of work LOL. Are we sensing a theme here. To be concise, I briefly considered pursuing doctorhood before I realized that meant more loan...

#7. This is Part 2 with Elise, a San Francisco fashion and lifestyle content tiktok creator. In part 2 we hear more of Elise’s advice to aspiring content creators and her experience of managing a healthy relationship with the app that is notorious for its addictive quality. Elise and I both have experience with tiktok and both have an eye for style, so this episode’s conversation gets into managing the comparison that comes from being on tiktok and seeing success stories from other creators, some who have started their own fashion brand. An example is what we see of someone like...

#6. Elise Andersen works in fashion merchandising for Gap in San Francisco and is a well known SF tiktok content creator on the side. She creates content around lifestyle, fashion and life in your mid twenties with plenty of info about San Francisco restaurants and experiences as well. When I first joined tiktok, Elise was one of the first accounts shown to me (via algorithm) and since then I have enjoyed her relatable and genuine content immensely and based a lot of my ideas for content off of what I see her do. In Part 1, we hear from Elise on...

#5. Miela Foster is a 23 year old working for Apple as a Project Manager and an artist on the side. This February, she hosted her first art show at Another Cafe in San Francisco, after spending 8 months preparing for it. The show, featuring 10 pieces, was called A Sister of the Yam, centered around black femininity and dedicated to black women that came before her as well as black women who will be here after her. In addition to her acrylic paintings, Miela also prepared pieces of poetry to accompany her art as a part of her vision. Largely inspired by...

#4. Andros Wong is a 27 year old cofounder of two venture capital backed startups, Wonderverse and StemsDAO. Wonderverse, founded in 2021 while Andros was still working as a software engineer for Instagram, focuses on building collaboration tools for people to work online and remote, together. Specifically, the concept is aimed at web3 communities or DAOs, decentralized autonomous organizations. Stems was founded in 2022 and helps people drop remixes of their songs as NFTs. It allows musical artists to drop layers of different parts of their songs that can be used in music collaboration. Wonderverse has received 2.5 million dollars of funding and Stems...

#3. This is Part 2 of the story of Butter & Crumble, Sophie Smith’s San Francisco bakery. After a challenging first couple years of handling the overwhelming growth of Butter & Crumble with little to no support, Sophie signed up for a pastry class in Paris and put her business on hold last summer. In Part 2 we talk about Sophie’s Parisian summer spent learning patisserie, the signs and implications of burnout, and the future of Butter & Crumble. Check out her bakery here.

https://www.instagram.com/passionprojectpending/

https://www.tiktok.com/@passionprojectpendingg

https://www.youtube.com...

#2. Sophie Smith started her bakery and business Butter & Crumble in the midst of a pandemic in one of the most expensive cities in the world, San Francisco. Regardless of the challenges, her notoriously beautiful cakes with unique but delicious flavor combinations caught fire in terms of popularity. As her business grew, she moved from one kitchen space to another depending on availability and increasing needs for size and equipment. Sophie has the help of an assistant today, but in the early days it was just her handling all aspects of her booming cake business. In this episode, we get...

#1. In my first episode, I get to interview Sivan Peleg about her vintage clothing popup sales, otherwise known as Sensitive Vintage.  She started this business out of her San Francisco garage a year and a half ago, managing everything primarily by herself and with the help of her partner Evan and a recent hire Greta. Since the first garage popup sale, Sivan has grown the social media presence of her brand, which has inevitably caused her monthly garage pop ups to increase in popularity. In this episode I ask Sivan about her background before starting Sensitive Vintage, how she f...