We reached out to some of our favorite entrepreneurs and asked them to think back and tell us about how they decided to start a business. Check out their responses below.

Kaetlynn Pastore | Wellness Coach

My thought process behind wanting to start my own business was pretty simple. I wanted to take the love I had for wellness and the experiences of my own personal struggles with the space, and bring them together to help other women who may be going through the same things I’ve experienced. Read more>>

Kristine Cooper | Artist & Founder of Cooper Art and Abode

I resonated with small business owners even before I began my own endeavor. In 2016 I graduated with a fine arts degree in my hand, which provided a deep understanding to create art, but very little to becoming a business owner. This placed me on a path of self discovery after graduating. I worked for several other small businesses working closely with the business owner to absorb as much knowledge as I could until 2020 when I knew it was the time for me to take a bold step in my career path. Read more>>

Emily Lamont | Photographer/Photo Editor

I actually started out just wanting to take beautiful images of my kids! I have loved photography since I was in Highschool – I got to take a film and digital photography course, I learned a ton but honestly didn’t truly get back into it until I was an adult. I would share the images I took of my kids on social media for family to see and I started having friends message me telling me I needed to consider becoming a professional photographer. I honestly doubted myself at first but I took a leap of faith and started my own business. Read more>>

Michael Hering | Event and Production Producer

My thought process behind starting my own business was being able to do what I love and finding clients to make it possible. When I first started out, that wasn’t always the case. I was taking jobs that introduced me to the industry and trying to make ends meet. After a few years, I had contacts and contracts that made it possible to do some really amazing things. Read more>>

Regina Noel Downing | Entrepreneur, Music Instructor, Coach, & Children’s Author

I’ve always been sort of entrepreneurial. In middle school and high school I had my own babysitting business. I loved being with kids. And I liked the flexibility of making my own schedule, as well as all the fun business things, like book-keeping and such. That seemed to just carry through to adulthood. While I was working on my MA in education, I taught piano lessons on the side. I finished my MA, got married, and started a family. Teaching was put on hold. Read more>>

Andrèa D. Wells | Coach. Matchmaker. Moderator.

Starting my own business was realization of my purpose in action. It is my commitment to the world to guide people to attain and maintain love.
I began my journey connecting people with homes they loved which helped me realize my desire to connect people with mates they love. Understanding that love is first modeled within I established a Coaching/Matchmaking practice that focuses on the theory of how you love yourself energetically, mind & body in order to attract an identity an aligned partner. Applying adjustments in these areas to achieve one’s love goals. Read more>>

Dr. Jordan Adrian | Physical Therapist and Holistic Health Coach

I think it’s imperative that we work to improve the current state of healthcare in this country and that people deserve a more personalized and holistic approach than what we currently have. We currently focus heavily on being reactive when something has already gone wrong and on what structure is causing this instead of asking why this problem occurred in the first place and what we could have done to address it before it even started. Read more>>

Garret Nicodemus | General Manager

We saw an opportunity to provide a place for community to gather, eat, drink and be merry to be honest. Louisville is a special town and after everything that has happened specifically here the last few years, we wanted to build something that others could come enjoy together with us. Most of the ownership group has been involved in startups of some form or fashion so the idea of doing it again wasn’t as daunting. The key we have learned in making sure to have the right support, team members and experts to lessen the learning curve. Read more>>

Nick Gossert | Lucha Libre & Laughs booker and promoter

Honestly, there wasn’t much of a thought process at all until it was too late! Lucha Libre & Laughs was intended as a one off show to raise funds for a movie that was never made. The very first show in 2013 was successful and fun enough that we wanted to do it again, and again, and again. Soon it became successful enough to be the albatross around my neck that I can never escape. A growing audience meant a growing revenue, Read more>>

Payton & Jonathan | Designer/Developer & Chef

Jonathan speaking here, and I have been in the hospitality industry since the age of 15. This industry is one of misfits that want to stand out in some way or another. When you think of a chef, the stereotypical white chefs coat comes to mind and maybe the funny hat. But in the real world, we are either in t-shirts or chefs coats and always wearing an apron. I want to make something real for the misfit creatives to feel seen. Read more>>

Kayla Lowman | Tattoo Artist

I had a retail job prior, that came with benefits and set hours. It also came with a lot of unhappiness. As a creative person, I felt suffocated by not getting to use my creativity in my career. I had a lot of self doubt about being able to start a career let alone survive off of being a self employed artist. My family also struggled with the thought of me leaving my job “security”. I got to a point where I was so miserable that I just took the leap. Read more>>

Jon Altschuld | Landscape Architect, Trail Planner, Drone Pilot, and Visual Graphics Specialist

I’d been practicing landscape architecture for a little over 10 years at companies of varying size-from as small as a few people, up to several thousand employees. I knew I liked the smaller companies more, but I wanted more control over the types of projects we worked on and who we worked with. Over my career I’d built a lot of good relationships with clients and colleagues, and I’d also built a reputation as a leader in 3D modeling, visual communication, and landscape architecture focused on environmental restoration. The timing seemed right, and I took the leap! Read more>>

Josh Sheldon | Tournament Fisherman

The thought process was quite by accident. We wanted to do something to help other fisherman in the area expand their knowledge and have a little fun at the same time. We started a blog and thought it would help us attract sponsors and build a fishing resume. The blog quickly turned into a full blown website and one snow spring day we sat around and talked about starting a podcast. We taped our first podcast on an iPhone in the living room of Brad’s house and found a provider the next week. We published the podcast with no production or marketing, just a fun 2o minutes with the 3 of us talking fishing. Read more>>

Amy Warneke | Owner, Designer

My business grew organically out of necessity and happenstance. My first job when I was 15 was with a florist, and I did all the “dirty” work if you will. But! With that I learned about different flowers, how to take care of them, how to manipulate them, how to use them as a medium. Then as the years went on I would create for friends and family weddings, holidays, small events – recently after COVID, I decided to really pursue the one “job” I had always loved and continued to go back to. Read more>>

Paula Robbins | Metaphysical Hypnotherapist and Soul Coach

I’d been in Corporate America in the Staffing and Recruiting industry for 16 years and loved my career for most of that time. However, a chain of events that were not really of the highest integrity in the last few years, really made me consider my own purpose and path in life. I began to put it to prayer and really seek some direction about my next chapter in life, as I was also approaching 40. I often call this time my “mid-life awakening”. Read more>>

Morganne Foster | Martial Arts Instructor

My husband, Ryan Foster, started the martial arts academy we run together; however, before I met him I always wanted to own my own business. Both my parents own their businesses, so for me it was the goal in life. Now I also own an irrigation company. I’ve always dreamed of making a big impact on the world around me. I love working with kids and the youth and that’s where I believe I can create the most change in the world. I wanted my own business, so I could run the programming the way I thought was best. My husband had 7 students before I met him and now we have 200. We get to do what we love everyday. Read more>>

SaRa Cobb | Entrepreneur & Founder of The Adorn Co.

Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, I always had a drawn towards building a business. Prior to starting Adorn I was a marketing consultant for a few different small companies. Watching other people build their dream companies was both inspiring & telling that it was time. I remember saying to my husband, “I’ll sell fax machines at this point, I’m just ready to start something of my own.” My sister-in-law Lilly & I had been dreaming about ways we could collaborate. She’s an incredibly creative and talented individual and I loved business. Adorn is the fruit of our talents combined. Read more>>

Allie Wu | Business Owner

Let me first start by saying, it wasn’t easy. Starting Bakin’ Allie has been a challenging, yet rewarding journey. One saving grace is that it has allowed me a creative outlet. Not only has it been a long time dream of mine to have a formalized baking business, but, I find that the creative aspect of the work has been good for my mental health. One of the first challenges I encountered was finding the right mix of products to bring to my popup shops. I experimented with products that vary in quantity, design, & price and found that brightly colored cookies with simple designs have brought the most success. I also dialed in the amount to make for each popup as to not overwhelm myself or my clients with the number of options. Read more>>

Austin Martz | Business Owner and Founder

I was raised in the 80’s, in a small, Texas town eating boxed, frozen, or fast food. Not because my parents didn’t care about my health, but because they thought processed food was perfectly fine. This was during the height of “Milk, it does the body good” campaigns, followed by “got milk?” ads featuring celebrities wearing white milk mustaches. Needless to say, I was utterly shocked and offended when the raw vegan at Whole Foods in 2005 told me that milk was for baby cows, not humans (gasp)! He also told me the food pyramid only contained dairy because it was created by the USDA, which was highly funded by the beef industry. Read more>>

Jocelyn Rico | Crochet Designer

My Thought Process during this Journey so far has been to Convince all Audiences that Crochet can be considered High Fashion. Crochet is often looked at as the “granny” fashion, and I have had to expand my creativity to keep my looks modern and to meet the fashion for today’s society. Successfully this has helped grow my clientele base in all cultures, sizes, shapes & styles. Read more>>

Katie Pine | C-IAYT Yoga Therapist

I started my own business to be able to bring yoga therapy to more clients and communities. Being in private practice has allowed me to develop a solid foundation for my therapeutic offerings, and to figure out what works best for my clients and students. Now, I am expanding those offerings to bring yoga therapy work to underserved and disenfranchised communities, as well as to individuals who are seeking tools and practices to help them heal from things like physical pain, muscle weakness and tension, emotional triggers and wounds, and mental stress. Read more>>

Makayla Juniel | Entrepreneur & Influencer

My thought process behind my business has been an interesting one. It started out with my love for fashion and a desire to sell clothing. It developed with me wanting to be fashionable but not being willing to let go of my cheapskate nature, my nana calls it thrifty. I believe you can be fashionable and not break the bank. I also have an intense passion for traveling which brought my business to its current purpose. A women’s travel and clothing boutique; Twice the Charm offers limited quantities for client exclusivity, and every item is under $50. We cater to sizes XS-3X and have Afterpay available. We strive to be an affordable go to fashion and travel hub for the on the go woman. Read more>>

Yun Jae Chang | Small Business Owner

It just started as small talk in my friend’s car while we were on our way to eat Korean-BBQ while visiting a town in Alabama. I commented just how few Korean restaurants there are around these parts of the US and that’s when a lightbulb lit up in both of our heads. Picking a franchise as our first business was crucial as it would alleviate a lot of the workload such as marketing, branding and etc that would otherwise have been a major issue for us to deal with. Read more>>

VanN Demand | CEO and Artist at Level UP Entertainment

I knew I wanted to entertain. I felt like I was born to do so. It just so happens that I entertain with my music. It’s never been about the money for me, I seriously wanted to help others and put them in better positions to do better and showcase their talents. That’s what Level UP Entertainment is all about. “Leveling up” yourself and having a drive and determination to do better in more ways than one. I put up the money in order to do so, signed a couple of acts, and the rest is history! I’m even getting ready to go on tour all around the south part of the USA. Dreams do come true! Read more>>

Lauren Hribek | Certified Exercise Physiologist & Yoga Instructor

Creating my business came from many years of life experience with my own healing journey and experiencing the disconnect between allopathic healthcare and whole-body wellness. I experienced first hand how the medical system does not address the root of the issue and how it often leaves out important pieces of healing that can be so simple, such as breathing correctly, connecting with nature and finding a bit of stillness each day. Read more>>

Greg Karis | Graphic Designer/Illustrator

It’s quite simple: It’s a second job. In this day and age, it’s almost necessary to earn a second income. Rather than deliver food or drop people off at the club, I’d make extra money developing concepts and exploring ideas for friends and colleagues. The inception of my side hustle came about from social media; old friends or members from my old BNI group would make a blanket request for a logo, an illustration, a poster design, etc. I’d simply offer my services and more often than not, I’d be engaged in a video chat discussing what was needed. Read more>>

James Milburn | Tattoo Artist

My beautiful wife. She came into my world and helped encourage me to expand my artistry and turn it into an amazing business. I had been in the industry for years but brought a new light. I also have to thank my parents really supported me growing up. They always believed in me and instilled the confidence that I could do anything I set my mind to. They were hesitant about the tattoo industry at first but realized it was where I would thrive. Read more>>

Sally Spooner | Business Owner & Fitness Professional

The vision and business plan for PeaksFit started nearly 20 years ago when Sally started in the industry. Throughout her fitness professional journey, she kept track of things she thought were positive and what things that she would choose not to be part of PeaksFit. After years of experience and traveling the country to visit other studios and get a feel for what she thought was best for members, PeaksFit came to life in 2019. Sally & Jess met while working at OrangeTheory Fitness and decided to join forces and start PeaksFit in order to gain members and gain a more personal fitness experience. Read more>>

Brent “Zico” Ward | Soccer Trainer

Haha! Funny question! I guess you could say I tripped into it, or got shoved into it. About 2 years ago, during this strange time, I got laid off from my club. Of course, at the moment I didn’t realize the blessing it would be. I really wasn’t enjoying what some off youth club soccer was/is becoming. That said, I don’t believe I would’ve jumped off that ship. I don’t have an entrepreneurial mindset. I’ve always had people of all ages, calling me for private lessons and other trainings. Since I had a job with a club, my time was obviously limited. Now, unemployed, I have more time to accept these requests for private lessons and more. It’s been great, satisfying, and exciting. Read more>>