Ideas aren’t everything, execution matters greatly, but starting often requires an idea and so we asked folks to think back and tell us the story of how they came up with the idea for their businesses. We’ve highlighted some of our favorite stories below.

Kelly Shoul | Adventure Elopement Photographer

It was 2016, I was engaged, and in the middle of planning a wedding. During this time, I had also just started up my photography career, taking pictures of newborns, families, traditional weddings, and really just anything I could book. I knew I needed to niche down, but nothing I was shooting really interested me to the point I wanted to pour my entire self into. Read more>>

Mimi Shim | Clothing designer, textile artist, seamstress

I’ve always been an artist at heart, and have always had an interest in fashion and textiles. I attended an art school with a fashion program, and not a fashion design school. Much of my adult life was spent learning to be a fashion designer and working as a fashion designer for other companies. However, I was always experimenting with a side hustle that involved making things and selling them or sewing things for other people. As a clothing designer working in the industry, you typically don’t spend your days sewing and don’t necessarily need to know how to do so. Read more>>

Kerry Foreman | Registered Psychotherapist & Mental Wellness Coach

I went back to school later in life and when it came time to choose an internship location, I knew I wanted something different from the norm and a place I could learn real skills that translated into a very real world. I interned at Noeticus, a mindfulness based counseling and training center in Denver and Empowerment Therapy Center, a place that specialized in working with domestic violence offenders and survivors. Read more>>

Hirut Endris | Birth Doula

My own birth story led me to my work. I experienced a hard pregnancy and near miss birth, due to neglect and disrespect by the doctors and nurses who were meant to care for me. After I moved to Denver from London in 2019, I wanted to start my own healing journey from my traumatic birth and postpartum experience. Read more>>

Aisha Martinek | Founder of Nocobox

About 8.5 months ago, I was 36 weeks pregnant with my first child when I was texting my good friend about a toy box I ordered online for my baby’s nursery. Somehow, toy box was misspelled as “YOUbox.” I went along with it, thinking how nice it would be to have a monthly box in the mail with personalized contents — a special box just for you. Read more>>

Kim Reynolds | CEO Mind Over Mountains: Leadership Development & Executive Coaching

Hi you guys – I actually wrote this article several months back and thought I had submitted it it – so I am going to repeat the original questions with my original answers so I don’t have to re-do the interview. I don’t know if you have different categories for submission, but I believe mine fit is something like “Denver women in business” – I’ll just restate the original question with my original answer….I hope this works. Thanks, Kim Reynolds Read more>>

Madison & Daniel Bowers | NASM CPT & NC

Life Elite started with a question that I posed myself which was “How do you help those, who don’t know how to help them-selves?” At the time I worked the front desk of a fitness center and would watch very consistent individuals show up to the gym on a daily bases but would not get the results they had in mind. I, being an athlete for the majority of my life new that I could help these individuals obtain the results they were looking for. Since that day I have studied and worked on how to inspire, motivate and educate individuals to obtain they results they desire and deserve. Read more>>