Side Hustle to Small Business

Claudine Miles and Kimberlie Milton are friends and experienced educators, who met while working at the same school in Atlanta, Georgia. After a 10-year stint at a top charter school, Claudine was beginning to feel burned out. With the encouragement of now-business partner Kimberlie, Claudine created Restore More Consultants, an education-forward consulting firm rooted in expanding restorative practices, anti-racism, and social-emotional health.

Derrick Knudsen was working at a Fortune 500 recruitment firm in Denver, Colorado when he recognized a gap in the industry. Traditional firms were hesitant to help fill open positions at cannabis companies. In response, Derrick created a boutique recruitment firm, Meta Talent Group, which helps fill roles at cannabis, hemp, and psychedelic-focused companies. Derrick’s firm is focused on recruiting top-tier talent while maintaining its core values: People, Planet & Profitability.

Mary Nakaya and Melissa Porras met at church in Los Angeles, California. While Mary had an art background, Melissa was just excited to play with clay on Mary’s pottery wheel. As their friendship blossomed, they started a ceramic-focused jewelry business: Nomad Artisan Company. Since 2018, Mary and Melissa have expanded their business by going door-to-door to LA boutiques and growing their social media presence.

If you live in the southeast, you’ve seen them - carts with rainbow umbrellas bearing popsicle treats dubbed “King of Pops” - at public parks, live events, and music festivals. Steven Carse, who founded King of Pops in 2010 along with his brother Nick, shares their origin story, how the company innovated through the COVID-19 pandemic, and the new programs King of Pops is spearheading, including a “Cartreprenuer” franchise program.

Sean Furey is not your average small business owner. Sean is an Olympic javelin thrower who represented the United States in the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. Now retired from full-time javelin throwing, he’s channeled his long athletic career and love of fitness into his business: Furey Athletics. Sean’s side hustle is a coaching and online training resource with the mission of helping athletes and coaches maximize their potential.

Kat Carney knew she wanted to be a photographer – she had always loved taking pictures, particularly in natural settings. She tried being a full-time wedding photographer but found there wasn’t enough variety to suit her. So she started Swell & Stone, and now she plans and photographs adventure weddings and elopements in exciting outdoor locales. Hear what she learned when turning her side hustle into a full-time business.

Elle is a career strategist and founder of Forth, LLC. She helps college students and young adults achieve their dream careers by showing them how to home into who they are and teaching them the skills that make hiring managers go bananas. In this episode, host Sanjay Parekh talks to Elle about the origin story of her small business: how she started Forth, LLC by pitching her skills to student groups at LSU and how she has now developed two distinct ways to help people find a career that they will