Balboa Park-Hillcrest

Camden Weisbruch

For as long as I can remember, I have tried to be “in business”. My younger years were filled with trying to make money. I set up my bedroom as a store and a restaurant, sold cookies door to door and much to my mom’s dismay tried to sell custom Lego guys to my friends and neighbors. I’m sure she spent a fortune buying them. Read more>>

Ashley Nell Tipton

Ashley was born in sunny, beautiful San Diego, CA in 1991. She has three siblings and a large extended family. Family and living the California lifestyle were crucial elements in her upbringing. Her passion for fashion started at a very young age, where she learned to sew on her grandmother’s sewing machine when she was just seven years old, and only continued to grow her talents from there. Read more>>

Del Mar, Encinitas & Carlsbad

Stacy Pierce

During Harrison’s freshman year of lacrosse, he suffered a pretty nasty knee injury that benched him for the season. He was starting to feel a little depressed about missing out, and I knew we needed to get him moving and active again as soon as possible. Once he was cleared to exercise by his PT, he joined me and my husband for our 5 am sweat sessions at a local fitness studio. Harrison and I started noticing everyone (including us) bringing old. Read more>>

Peter Wilson

I started my journey into the world of music at the age of 13. I needed an escape from the abusive household I was being raised in, and my guitar gave me just that! After teaching myself the basics, I fell in love with the art of music and started learning as much as I could! I taught myself how to sing and write my own songs. Which eventually lead me down the road of music production. Read more>>

Amparo Rojas

Having to grow up at a very young age under a dysfunctional household and having to cross the border illegally at the age of five. Raised in the US, raped, molested, and living under fear for eight years. Bullied at school for being too skinny & not knowing English. Moved back to Mexico at age 14, drugs, alcohol, married and divorced. Became pregnant, physically abused and forced into an abortion that almost killed me by the same partner that was killed right in front of me. Read more>>

Irina Shekhtman

I was born in born in Odessa, Ukraine in 1984. My success story really stems from my parents. My family immigrated to America in 1989. My parents were 27 years old, I was five years old and my sister was four years old. My parents brought our family to America for freedom and a chance at having a better life. They gave up everything they had. They didn’t know English, had maybe $200, no friends or family in America. Read more>>

Tammy Loftis

I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, from both my mother and biological father, which started around age 2.5-3 years old and went on until I was almost seven. Teenage rape from my stepdad at the age of 13. He was the only man I ever called dad. After all, the sexual abuse stopped the mental, verbal, emotional and physical abuse started. One night, I was drug out of the shower and plates broken on my naked body in the kitchen because it was not clean when my mom got home from work. Read more>>

Adam Uribe

Red Earth Ovens: A Feast For All The Senses. Red Earth Ovens provides opportunities to create and celebrate Mother Earth’s many gifts in the heart of an outdoor kitchen. The Red Earth Oven cooks, roasts, and smokes inside a 100% all-natural red clay ceramic shell. It is an age-old sustainable method of experiencing unforgettable earthen flavors. Read more>>

Bruna Mori

My work has been described as visual ethnography. The books hinge on poetics of the everyday through drifts of cities, suburbs, and of commodities. ‘Dérive’ (Meritage Press) is based on riding subways to the end of each line in New York, ‘BEIGE’ (Upset Press) documents long walks through San Diego and Gardena, and ‘Poetry for Corporations’ (Insert Blanc Press) republishes my copywriting as poetry. Read more>>

Alexa Walker

All in all, I’ve always been a risk-taker – a true “yes” person. I think the real shift I first noticed in myself was when I was around 19 and found the practice of yoga. I’m not sure what the magic really was, but once I found my practice, a whole new reality started to unfold in me. A new kind of voice was developing inside my head and new doors to the real me opened up. So many of the parts of me I had been quieting became more prevalent. I became really committed to my practice. Read more>>

Rafael Ramos and Nelson Monteiro

Gracie Barra Encinitas (GBE) was founded in Aug 2005. Our school was founded by Master Nelson Monteiro, a 7th Degree Red and Black Belt and Prof. Rafael Ramos, a 4th Degree Black Belt. Both Nelson and Rafael earned their Black Belts under Master Carlos Gracie Jr. Our school was the first-ever Jiu Jitsu School in San Diego. Our founders have extensive tournament experience. Read more>>

Travis Wolfe

Bee Leaf USA was born out of a passion to not only save bees but save our planet and the generations that follow. In 2014, we had the good fortune to work with the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina to launch a honeybee program the construction for the new Marriott Hall was under-way. Initially, the hives served a few purposes centered around doing fun stuff at the hotel while satisfying requirements for the LEED Certification process. Read more>>

Stacy Pierce

Owner Lori Riordan and her fellow dance mom friends shared frustrations over the lack of dance apparel options close to their daughters’ dance studio. Lori envisioned a mobile store that could accommodate the various studios in the area with shoes, tights, apparel, and accessories. When she found an outfitted boutique truck for sale in LA, she pulled together a group of friends with unique professional backgrounds and they made this dream a reality. Read more>>

Jamie Webster

I was a Division I lacrosse player at Virginia Tech. Throughout my later 20’s, I went down a road of treating my body very poorly. I strayed really far from my athlete days and went down a pretty dark path for quite some time. The day I turned 30, I decided it was time to make a change. All of the changes. I am a “all in or don’t do it at all” type of woman… so I traded in all of my bad habits (& even worse substances) for good ones. Read more>>

David Wiesley

I poured over magazines such as Sports Illustrated and National Geographic studying the photographs and then trying to feebly replicate them, as best as I could, with a simple film camera. Although my results were less than stellar, I nevertheless kept on but never got close to the quality I sought. Never believing I could be a good photographer I went on to a professional life in the business world although I never stopped pursuing my passion for photography. Read more>>

Robbie McCarthy

In 2016, I quit my “dream job” to travel the country in my vintage Volkswagen bus. Halfway through my travels, I realized that meeting new classic VW owners and helping them with their cars was a potential business idea. Since then, I have helped more than two hundred classic Volkswagen owners learn to take better care of their priceless antiques while making life-long friends in the process. Read more>>

Rushell Gordon

I was interested in tea as a business but I really wasn’t sure if it was something that I could make a living doing. I was supposed to do a marketing assignment on tea and I opted not to and my professor was really irritated with me for not doing it because he thought it could have been the start of my business. Fast forward several years, I decided to revisit the idea and I started visiting tearooms and really looking at the business side of tea and I found that there probably was a real opportunity there. Read more>>

Kyle and Jessica Harris

Our story is not unlike most – we both went to college, got degrees, and landed jobs at a great company. We are CPAs who have worked at the same company since we graduated college in Colorado in 2012. We would hang out all the time at work and eventually became best friends, ultimately falling in love. In 2015, we were traveling to the beach all the time having both grown up in landlocked (albeit beautiful) Colorado. Read more>>

Elli

For lack of a better term, I face-planted into what I do now. I am the lead copywriter and photographer, as well as the creative director and account manager. To understand how I got here, we have to go back to a few years to when I had a brief stint with Network Marketing. It was incredibly intriguing to me from a marketing standpoint. Essentially, it was just individuals marketing for themselves. I have a background in writing, and a love for connecting with people, so, pair that with a deep love for iPhone photography. Read more>>

Liane Melo and Bruno Albuquerque

At the top of our careers in Brazil (Bruno is a lawyer and Liane Psychologist) tired of the violence and problems of an underdeveloped country we decided to come to the US in 2017, one year later we found out that we were pregnant and the decision to stay in order to provide a more peaceful life for our daughter spoke louder than homesickness and we decided to invest in Bruno’s passion Brazilian jiu-jitsu that he has been training for more than 25 years. Read more>>

Deante’ Pate

I am originally from Cleveland, Oh. I moved to southern California at the age of 15. My parents felt that California was a great place to excel in athletics and education. I attended High school in Mission Viejo and after high school, I continued my education at Saddleback college. Read more>>

Downtown & Little Italy

Vasili Petrushko

I came from a small country named Belarus two years ago, which is located in between Poland and Russia. I do have mistakes in my gramma and speech because English is not my native language, so if you will recreate them, it will be nice. At the age of 17, I left home and came to Russia and started my bachelor’s degree in Saint-Petersburg in architecture. It was a cool journey which had been going for five years. Since that moment, I launched my creativity, architecture and art. Read more>>

Esther Adams

I started my business ERJ Divine Legacy in 2014. The idea came to me after I was crowned miss unique at my high school prom, The gown I wore that night was sowed and designed by my mom and I. From there I shared my recognition with my AAU basketball coach and mentored at the time (Charles Thompson). It was within that very moment we both knew we had discovered what I now know is My passion purpose and calling. Read more>>

Habib Abbas

Born and raised in the streets of Detroit, MI Habib comes from a middle-class family of eight. Originally from Beirut, Lebanon His parents fled the country in 1975 with hopes of creating a better future for their children. Growing up as a middle child, Habib quickly learned to be independent and strong. Focusing on sports to keep himself out of trouble Habib Excelled in Football, Swimming, Track, basketball and Volleyball eventually playing football at the college level. Read more>>

John Carter

My music journey began when my moms moved from Puerto Rico to Syracuse with me my brother’s and sisters, I was the youngest out of six, so I was left alone most of the times because my siblings would be out doing them, my three older brothers would be in dance battles, rap battles and DJ battles because each of them was one of the other, so every night they would be listening to music and I’ll be up listening also. Read more>>

Jeff Silverman

In 2009 I hired a barbershop quartet to sing for my wife for Valentine’s Day and thought to myself, there must be something cooler than this… (there wasn’t). I started Rockstar Singing Telegrams soon after with the goal to rock people’s birthdays and events with epic performances by pro musicians. Being a lifelong musician and wanna-be rock star, it is a blast to use my musical talent to surprise people on their special day. Read more>>

Deinno O’Keefe

In 2017, my national guard unit was called up to deploy to Afghanistan. During the physical preparation for the mission, I snapped the tendon in my bicep. Having to get immediate surgery, I was then cancelled from the deployment and for the next six months healing and going to physical therapy. During that time of recovery, I panicked. Being that it happened to be my first big injury and only surgery, my mind created scenarios of “what if” – what if I wasn’t able to work out again. Read more>>

Leah Singer and Jessica Abu

As my mother became sick, she gifted me some of her jewelry, which I put away. One day, I was thinking about a favorite jewelry shopping trip we took, so I pulled out the box of jewelry she had given me. As I was looking through the pieces, I imagined repurposing them, making them more modern and wearable. Read more>>

Anayo Nworjih

I start it at a different moment: a neighborhood carwash I started when I was eight, other times it starts when I was stuck in a dead-end job—on the phone nine-to-five trying to get people to close on mortgages. At parties, I’ll start at the point where my best friend Jovan and I ran a fashion brand out of our garage. Read more>>

Jaread Thomas

June of 2019 I decided to go to school to become a licensed bartender and certified by the state of California to serve alcohol. I decided that I wanted to go into business for myself at the end of the month and launched Bad Decisions Mobile Bartending in the beginning of July 2019. When I started, I knew that I wanted to separate myself off from the other companies that already existed and doing the same thing. Read more>>

Shane Faye

I started a side hustle as a video producer in the Tacoma, WA area back in 2013 when all my friends were getting married and wanted me to shoot their wedding films. After years of doing that, my wife and I moved to Northern California, where I worked as a promotions producer for a local news station. That’s when I started producing my first commercials and social media videos. Read more>>

Erik Garcia

Cloud Productions all started with an idea back in 2018 that stuck with me, and in January of 2019 I started my business, all on my own. I saw a lot of people doing what I’m doing now but I never got discouraged because I always knew there was something unique about my vision. The thought and deep planning I put in was a lot of work but it allowed me to create something amazing. Read more>>

East San Diego

Jacob Smith

The girl that I was dating at the time decided to call it quits, and it seemed as if the whole world was crumbling down over me. This was the only point in my life where I felt truly lost and helpless. I was assigned a senior project in my English class, we were told that it could be anything, a book, a poem, a video, etc. I decided to make a video about what was going on in my life at the time. Read more>>

Adria Vey

I’ve always loved art! A trip to a craft store was one of my favorite things to do with my mom as a child (and now I go far too often). I come from a super creative and fun-loving family who taught me that you can do anything you set your mind to. Throughout school, I took part in as many creative classes as I could. Senior year of high school, four of my six classes were electives and some form of art. Read more>>

Kendall “Kdot” Johnson

I have been around music, thanks to my parents, especially my dad, who was always playing some genre of music throughout the day. From Prince to Billy Joel, I was constantly surrounded by sounds from Rap to Alternative Rock and all the in-betweens. Growing up, my sister was always the more musically talented on even going to singing classes and guitar/piano lessons, whilst I stuck with sports (football and baseball mainly). Read more>>

Michelle Tramel

I never thought that I was going to be in this industry or even thought that I was going to be successful. As an immigrant, it is hard coming from other country and finding a new career field where you can be successful. It can be very stressful when English is not your first language. Back in 2017, I got married to a Navy Corpsman, who was stationed at the Naval Medical Center here in San Diego. Read more>>

Delilah Strukel, Cortez Glawson and Laith Palma

I got a guitar when I was a kid but never really took it seriously until I got into my sophomore year of high school. Delilah and I have been friends since we were babies, so it’s a really comfortable environment in the band. Delilah really wanted to start playing drums again and we needed a bass player so I called up my friend Erin and told her she’s going to learn how to play bass haha. I went out and got a bass and an amp for her the next day. Read more>>

Natalie Crew

I did all of the traditional things you are supposed to do. Went to school, got a Master’s degree, got married, bought a house and had a kid. I really feel like having my son changed my life. I knew something was missing, a way to continue to connect to myself physically and mentally. I deeply immerse myself in my yoga practice and meditation after having my son. Read more>>

Cokeuh

Kill Cokeuh most easily explained is a collective. Initially starting after I dropped out of my first semester in college, I came to realize there were things I wasn’t’ looking to do for the rest of my life, whether it be taking orders from a boss everyday or waking up to do something I felt nothing for anymore. I invested everything I was worth, and then some in order to get things off the ground and in motion for something bigger. Read more>>

Omar Hamilton

It all started at a young age for me; my mother’s uncle had a non-profit and owned some homes that housed men, women, and children. It was the first time I experienced my mother volunteering her time to check in on the children and cook them food etc. I saw what it meant to the kids for the fact their parents weren’t around. I took this for granted in my own home but it made me appreciate my mother and her huge empathic heart. Read more>>

Nekol Gaskins and Kia Phillips

In 2016, we came together with a desire to create an activewear brand that represented and inspired women of color. We felt highly underrepresented in the activewear market. We almost never saw women that looked like us in big name activewear advertisements. We decided to create comfortable, culturally inspired activewear that compliments all skin tones and designed to fit all body types. Read more>>

Nisha Logan

In 2018, I went for my YTT (yoga teacher training) certification after only my third yoga class. During that class, I experienced transcendence for the first time. I had been battling anxiety and depression. Yoga helped me to see the light by giving me the ability to calm the mind. That day I learned yoga is not only a physical practice but can be healing mentally and spiritually as well. I remember after that class thinking. Read more>>

Tatiana

I am a San Diego Native. Born and raised. I spent my early childhood growing up in Chula Vista and finished the rest of my adolescent years in Spring Valley. I began reading Tarot and Oracle cards roughly six years ago in 2014. My spiritual journey began with me diving deeper into myself. I connected with spirit through tarot and it helped me shift my life in becoming more self-aware. Read more>>

Jocelyn Sevier

Jocelyn Sevier was born and raised in San Diego, CA. Jocelyn begins her career as a musician, songwriter, producer, and record label owner. In 2006 Jocelyn and a friend founded KaoticKlone Productions, Jocelyn began producing beats for music artists and in 2015, she started producing films and web series. Jocelyn is working on a sci-fi drama called “The World We Know”, a crime drama called “ILLFaded”. She is also working on films such as “Elusive Delusions”. Read more>>

 

La Jolla & UTC

Jenny Paglinawan

I started my virtual assistant business with the deep desire to be home with my two-year-old daughter while also contribute to my family finances. I had more than ten years of experience providing administrative assistance for nonprofits and the public sector. So, I figured there must be an opportunity that offered this flexibility. I never thought this meant starting my own business. Read more>>

Sarah Henson

Wedding photography was never in my line of sight while I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up. I took two years of photography in High School with my little dinky point and shoot pink camera. Low and behold did I realize where my elective turn hobby would take me. I got my first real big girl camera for high school graduation. I was so excited to use it, I took my friend’s senior portraits for their graduation announcements. Read more>>

Rachel Quinto

Since I was young, I loved watching people write. I admired watching people create letters and I would often copy certain parts of their letters into my own writing style. Hand lettering videos were becoming such a huge trend on YouTube and Instagram and it reignited that love for them. After years in the biotech industry, my husband and I made the decision for me to stay home after the birth of our second daughter. Staying home gave me the opportunity to explore more creative outlets. Read more>>

Laina Gossman

I’ve worked for over 14 years in orthotic design, studied kinesiolgy & biomechanics. I got my start in a small comfort shoe store in Carmel Valley, apprenticing in orthotic design under a brilliant biomechanist named Michael Kendall. Through my time there and after, people always came to me with their serious foot ailments, oftentimes after exhausting every other resource including doctors, $500 custom orthotics and surgeries. Read more>>

Mandy Love

Growing up, with my older sister without parents, I was an uneducated, shy and quiet kid. I was born and raised by my grandmother in a small town called Bac-Lieu, South Vietnam. How do we get to America? It’s all because our mom sacrificed and risked her life for better. I’ve never met or even heard about my biologically blood father. He left my mom when she was about seven months of pregnant. Read more>>

Ahmed Kousba

“Producing our food” a quote I heard back in 2012 that started it all. I wondered, how hard could it be, how long would it take, what resources do I need, and can I even do it?; questions and thoughts that were running through my mind. I whispered to myself, I can do it, one day I will, even though I work a full-time job as a research fellow in the area of new drug discovery. A scientific field that involves a lot of trials and error. Read more>>

Yevgeniya (Zhenya) Lomeyko

I am originally from a small town in Ukraine, after high school, I moved to Kharkiv – the second largest city in Ukraine. I have never dreamed or thought I would be a makeup artist. I have always loved math and science, so I got master degree in finance, then I even tried to do my Ph.D. – still was not my passion. I liked working as a financial analyst for a while, but 2008 crisis made me finally realize. Read more>>

Sabrina Fabi

I decided that wanted to become a doctor when I was six years old because I wanted to help relieve people’s pain. However, it wasn’t until I struggled with childhood eczema, then developed cystic acne at age 12 that I decided I wanted to be a Dermatologist. I started working for my her childhood dermatologist, David Lorber, MD, during summers away from college at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Read more>>

Valeria Estrada

I moved to Nashville from Argentina in 2013. Until then, I could never imagine being an “artsy” person. For most of my life, I have been concentrating on higher education and I could not understand why art was so important to so many people. I have always wanted to find creative ways to express myself, but I never thought I was that kind of person. Inspired by Music City, I discovered my musical side. Read more>>

Brooke Benner and William Webster

Dream clean windows started as an obsession to listening to our favorite motivational speaker Eric Thomas and a drive to do something more with our lives. My fiance and I both have a passion for horses and we’re working steady equestrian jobs. I was working as a rehab tech at one of the largest vet offices and San Diego and my husband were working for a high-class dressage Barn, but we knew something was missing. Read more>>

Jennifer Kennedy

Thank you for asking, we are very proud of our story and how we got here. I am a San Diego native, born and raised in Chula Vista, CA. My mother is Hispanic and my father is Caucasian. I’m deeply a product of my upbringing and am proudly a South Bay girl at heart. I went to San Diego State (before it was impossible to get into haha) and majored in business, marketing specifically. Read more>>

Christy Bruneau Littlemore

I started out writing songs and singing at the open mic night at Java Joe’s coffee shop in Ocean Beach, California, in the late 1990s. I had a broken heart and a fierce desire to sing about it at the time. I caught the bug there in Ocean Beach, and I have been writing songs and more ever since mostly about heartbreaks of life. The late 1990s was an amazing time to be starting out as a singer-songwriter in San Diego. There really was so much talent here. Read more>>

 

 

North Park, South Park, Kensington & Normal Heights

Shavanda Chante

I’m a small-town country girl from Alabama that got away by serving in the United States Navy. After serving 11 years in Virginia, I am approaching my 13-year mark here in San Diego, CA. Along my journey, I have come to realize the importance in finding my passions and being bound to live out all my desires as an entrepreneur. My art career actually started back in 2006, where I studied film photography. In 2o14, while stationed in the beautiful city, Charleston, SC, I decided to partake in painting. Read more>>

Kellie Shoten and Amanda Johnston

Kaari Foods is a plant-based salad dressing and sauce brand, founded by sisters Kellie and Amanda, and focused on bringing healthier options to market. Our products are vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, paleo, and contain zero preservatives, gums or additives. We became passionate about plant-based diets when our grandmother was diagnosed with cancer. Read more>>

Esmeralda Bahena

I am Ezme Bahgue, 32 years old. Born & raised in Tijuana. My parents María de la Paz Guerrero & Lauren Tino Bahena, were both very creative and adventurous to always learn about life. They make sure I was always enjoying my childhood and encouraged my creative side since I was five years old. They both have very interesting life stories. Read more>>

Kyle Burkitt

I began photography when my family moved to Laguna Beach, CA. I started around the age of 15 with action/water photography. I just used it as a way to get photos of my friends and I surfing and bodyboarding. I used some knockoff GoPro called an SJ4000! I eventually got a DSLR and moved to shooting skimboarding, a popular Laguna Beach sport. After my friend invited me to the very first H-Influencer. Read more>>

Ryan McMillan, Darius Davis and Kreig Cabacungan

EDGE started as a couple of guys looking to make a difference in their community. The original idea was created by our very own Ryan McMillan. Ryan’s mother was a school teacher and through her, he has always had a passion for education. Ryan wanted to share the skills and knowledge he learned over his finance career with the San Diego community. Ryan knew this journey could not be accomplished alone so he then reached out to his friend Darius Davis. Read more>>

Old Town-Mission Valley

Nicole Chapman

Born in Miami, Florida to young parents, surviving an abusive childhood and moving around too many times, I eventually found myself moving in with my now mother in law at the age of fourteen. It was at this time where I could finally focus on my passions in life. Always wanting to get into the fashion industry, I was finally able to find opportunities with local photographers. Read more>>

Alicia Miller

Photography was a complete shot in the dark. I was a student that had all eyes on my dedicated student affairs future. I was doing well in life, but I was also struggling with my mental health. I was struggling to feel good, to wake up happy, and to remember my own beauties, let alone the beauties of the world. I am lucky to have had friends that helped me step out of the box. Read more>>

Alyssa Ramones

Before I was a photographer and a full-time mom, I owned my own dog grooming business and was about to start school for dental hygiene. Back in October 2016, on our honeymoon road trip, we decided to stop at Best Buy in Santa Cruz and use our money we got for our “dollar dance” to purchase a camera so we could document our trip and our soon to arrive baby girl. Read more>>

Alireza Alemohammad

My name is Alireza but my friends call me Ali. If we met and we spoke for more than two minutes, I probably have told you about my business, SAHARA Date Brandy. If you ever visited the Cochella Valley area like Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Indio or city of Cochella you must have come across date farms that make all types of products most famous of them Date shake and now we are excited to present to you SAHARA Date Brandy. Read more>>

Kimberly Sandstrom

As a little girl, I was fascinated by the psychology world and told my mom, when I was eight yo that, “I wanted to be that kind of doctor” Growing up in a family that included divorce, blended family, alcoholism, verbal & sexual abuse, and mental illness, it is no surprise! In HS and in college, many of my friends would come to me for advice, and I provided understanding and a non-judgmental space to vent (although at the time I didn’t know that was later to be my profession). Read more>>

 

 

Pacific, Mission & Ocean Beach

Melanie DiBlasi and Gerardo Ponce

It started with a Winter getaway to New York City. We were working minimum wage jobs, but we somehow scrounged up enough money to take a trip and enjoy a few days away. One day, we went to a popular spot called “Chelsea Market.” It was so cool inside, with food vendors and crafters selling their goods. We stopped by a little crafters nook and saw tons of jewelry. Read more>>

Alison Zebron

I’ve been a physical therapist since 2014. I got my doctorate at Temple University. Since then, I’ve worked in various settings including hospitals, nursing homes, subacute facilities, pediatrics and home-based. I’ve worked all over the country doing travel PT and including volunteering in Malawi, Africa helping in cerebral palsy clinics. But it wasn’t until after I had two traumatic births and became a mom that I found my true passion. Read more>>

Trevin O’Cain

Fitness and athletics has always been a large part of my life growing up. However, High school was the first time that I really began to become versed in weight training, as well as nutrition. I carried this passion into college and now post-grad having learned a lot through my self-study along the way (I actually graduated SDSU with a Bachelor’s in Economics and minor in Finance). Read more>>

Bruno Moreira

Our Event Pagode do Urso. Pagode do Urso is the authentic “Roda de samba” in the backyard with cold beer, good food, beautiful people and lots of music. An event for all ages, nationalities, for the family, with the mission of promoting samba in the state of California and presenting this part of Brazilian culture to Brazilians born here in the United States and to everyone who admires and wants to learn more about the traditions of Brazil. Read more>>

Shaun Uyeda

I grew up fishing with my dad and uncle. First, at Lake Chollas and Lake Jennings, then we started saltwater fishing when I was about ten years old. I was hooked. While watching my dad fight brain cancer in 2017 and 2018, I knew I wanted to turn my passion into my career and spend my time doing what I absolutely loved, because you never know how life will unfold. Read more>>

Jonas Harris

It started less as an idea and more as a problem. Dress socks make for the world’s worst workout and gym socks simply can’t be worn in a professional environment. What we thought would be a simple solution turned into an obsession, bringing together the best performance dress sock on the market. Read more>>

Gavin Dawson

I came to San Diego 19 years ago after meeting a Lady while traveling the world. I started a handyman business and worked for different contractors while I Gained experience in the US building methods. I learned from some great people slowly working towards the conclusion it was time to take my License test to be a General contractor. Read more>>

 

Point Loma & Shelter Island

 

Brian Hoffman

Two years ago, I was looking for ways to reduce my carbon footprint. I started by commuting on an electric cargo bike vs. driving my SUV. I have pretty average transportation needs and I found that “life by bike” could be challenging. I struggled to carry around my daily needs on the bicycle and any time I needed to make a stop, I would have to carry my belongings with me or they would be stolen. Read more>>

Katie Alyse

I’ve been a hairstylist for 14 years, a level three reiki practitioner for four years and a student of astrology my entire life. Two years ago I left the salon industry to pursue astrology and spiritual healing full time. I hosted workshops, connected with clients from all over the world and hosted sold-out retreats in Salem, MA. I decided to get back into hair recently to combine all of my gifts in one. Read more>>

Tyler Durant

After graduating from college with my Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Southern New Hampshire University, I was still searching for my passion and what I really wanted to do with my life. I moved to Europe, where I was an Au Pair and tour guide for a travel company. When I moved back home to Massachusetts, I felt trapped and knew it was time for me to make a change. Read more>>

 

South San Diego

 

Miguel Aldrete

I was sitting one day in my first-grade classroom. That day our teacher taught us about deforestation and I knew I needed to do something about it but at that age, I didn’t really know how to help. I decided to start recycling cans and bottles to raise money for tree planting efforts. This small idea led to the foundation of my non-profit at the age go eight called “Kids 4 Our World” which has now planted over 16,000 trees in eight countries. Read more>>

Austin Dale Mariano

I was born in a town called Olongapo City, Philippines. I moved here when I was just about to turn eight, and it’s been amazing being a San Diegan (I mean, what better place to move to right?). During my senior year of high school, I started following a lot of faith-based clothing brands and noticed that at the time, there weren’t too many of them (that I knew of) from San Diego. Read more>>

Rich Benares

I came across some vlogs, I quickly got engrossed in them, and for some reason, I could not stop watching them. Something about them was attracting me. As I continued to watch these vlogs, I started to think to myself, “I wonder if I could do it too”. I have a background in graphic design and have done some video production/editing in the past, so the technical side wasn’t so daunting. I was familiar with it. Read more>>

Flair Shay

In 2013 I was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer (Fibro Sarcoma). This process was a long, stressful and painful journey. Having beat this disease two times and avoiding a full left leg amputation, I knew that I wanted to be able to acknowledge those who I met and fought alongside me and honor those we lost before and after. I really had no idea how. Last year in 2019, I was playing with umbrellas and decided to try my shot with putting myself on one and my son on his. I LOVED how they came out. Read more>>

Brandon Martinez

Originally from Oxnard in Ventura County, Brandon has taken his competitive edge in football and transferred it into the world of real estate. With 17 years of experience in lending, his prowess in everything home loans is evident. With his partner Troy Moritz, he established West Coast Funding 13 years ago – and opened 24/7 Realty last year. He dominates in residential lending through innovative thinking that truly benefits his clients and continues to advance his spectrum within San Diego. Read more>>

Allan Quijano

My name is Allan Quijano. I’m a footwear designer for Professional athletes of all sports like the NFL, NBA, MLB, etc. I’m based out in Southeast San Diego! It has been a long journey to get where I am at today, creating this website will give you a better understanding of who I am as a person. Growing up in Southeast San Diego shaped the person who I am today. The community has taught me a lot of life lessons. Read more>>

Judi Wells

About five years ago, my husband told me that he would like to have a gun in our home and learn how to use it. I was a staunch anti-gunner, had never seen or touched a gun, and did NOT want one near me, least of all in our home. We had many, many discussions over many months. In the end, because he really was interested and wanted to learn, I relented. Read more>>

Dominique Hankins

I always knew there was more to life, and the world, than the neighborhoods that surrounded me growing up. Traveling the world quickly became an eye-opener and an outlet from everyday life. Traveling gave me the opportunity to see the world and literally leave my footprint all over it. I knew I wanted to start a business. I wanted something I could call my own and something that would reflected my biggest passion. Read more>>

Stephanie Villegas

In the fall of 2018, my Boyfriend actually stumbled upon a few YouTube videos that were talking about working from home and how to make money from re-selling fashion items. At first, I was sceptical because I already had a full-time job and I didn’t want to invest money into a pipedream. But, my boyfriend tried it out for a few months, buying items at low cost from stores like Marshall’s. Read more>>

Cheyenne Canones

I thank the music, fashion, food, street art, and local artists for getting me where I am today. I call myself an uprising creative and I wouldn’t be where I am without the diverse city of San Diego. My goal is to inspire the youth to pursue their own creative dreams through the content that I create. It all started out in the third grade when my mother had let me decide what to wear to school the next day. Read more>>

Jaime and Jessica Ocampo

My passion for designing and printing began at Hoover High School in 2006. I took a Graphic Design class and stuck with it throughout high school. That’s how I met my now wife, Jessica, She was taking the beginner’s class while I was the TA in 2008. Although she enjoyed the class & appreciated the craft, she had other plans and pursued her Liberal Studies degree at SDSU. I, on the other hand, wanted to attend the Art Institute. Read more>>

Lightning Beatz

I have always been an artist. It started with fine arts like painting and drawing. Then once I got to high school, I started getting more into computer arts. Finally, once I got to college, I realized that I wanted to make music. in the back of my head, I always wanted to make music but didnt have the equipment. My friends gifted a few DAWS to me and it took off from there. I am still learning till this day, putting in work and making the sacrifices to better myself. Read more>>

Geovana Perez

Geo’s Decor started two years ago when I was planning my daughter’s quinceñera, I always had a creative side but was unaware how to put it into practice but while planning the event I was able to discover my passion. Through this experience, my husband and I allowed ourselves to step out of our comfort zone and build our very first backdrop which jump-started our business. Read more>>