Author Archive for Laura Mosley

Nic Bianchi’s Candles

Candles are becoming increasingly popular today, especially at this time of the year.  Yet many candles are made from paraffin wax, which releases carcinogens into the air when burned.  Natural candles made from soy or beeswax are on the rise and Nic Bianchi is capitalizing on this trend.

When he was twelve years old, his parents gave him a candle-making kit because he had always been interested in crafts.  He soon learned the art of candle-making and began selling his candles to family.  Over time, relatives began asking him to make more and when he sold 125 candles his first day at a craft fair, he knew he needed to market his product to a wider market.  They created a website and sold his candles in two stores: Bel’ Angelo and Twisted Sisters Salon.

He said in an interview that there were some hectic weeks like when he did a fundraiser for the late Omaha Police Officer, Kerrie Orozco.  He sold about 125 candles in 12 hours, he said, and they all needed to be finished in five days.  He ended up calling his cousins to come help him finish the orders in time.

Nic says his dream is to one day have a store-front for his candles, but for now, he’s taking the process slowly while he’s in school.  Nic is now 16 years old and is still selling his all-natural soy candles on his website, bianchicandleco.com.

Me & the Bees Lemonade

 

We often think of a kid making a lemonade stand as a starting place for entrepreneurial ventures, but Mikaila Ulmer found a way to market her lemonade to a mass market at just the age of four.

According to Mikaila, when she was four years old, her parents encouraged her to make a product for a children’s business competition and Austin Lemonade Day.  She says that while she was trying to come up with ideas, she got stung by a bee and later, Mikaila’s great-grandma sent her family her old cookbook with her recipe for flaxseed lemonade.

After this, she became fascinated with bees (though simultaneously a little scared of them) and learned all she could about them.  She says that one day she thought what if she could make something that helped honeybees and used her great-grandma’s recipe.

Me and the Bees utilizes her great-grandma’s recipe and local honey as a sweetener.  She says on her website that every year she sells out of her lemonade at youth entrepreneurial events.  A portion of the profits always goes to organizations that help to protect honeybees – thus the origin of her slogan, “Buy a bottle, save a bee!”

In this video, Mikaila shares some of the things she’s learned about being an entrepreneur.

 

Mikaila is now 14 years old and is working hard in school, but Me and the Bees continues to grow and can be readily found in Whole Foods Market.

GORUCK – Jason McCarthy

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After the events of 9/11, Jason McCarthy decided to join the Army.  He was eventually deployed to southern Iraq in 2007 and realized humility.  “War was most humbling not for its costs, but for its clarity. I’m a better person because I went to war, because I served in Special Forces, because of the guys to my left and right who expected and demanded more of me than I knew I had. It’s not the revenge I sought after 9/11 that has endured, it’s the love in my heart for those I served beside. If there’s a nobler way to live a life than in service to others, I’ve not yet seen it.”

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During this time, his wife, Emily, was a diplomat in Baghdad, and when they were together, he decided to make a go-bag (or go-ruck) for her just in case.  It was when he began organizing a second ruck that Emily suggested he should do more this.  However, their marriage did not last and he soon moved back to New York City with their dog, Java.  During this time, McCarthy said he lacked purpose in his life outside the Army.

He credits his recovery to his dog forcing him to get out of the house every day and also to deciding to go back to school.  While he slowly adjusted to civilian life, he continued thinking about go-bags.  “What lived on was the idea for a bag that you could use in Baghdad or New York City, that would be tough enough for Special Forces, but that I could use in NYC without looking like I was still in the military. GR1 would have to build a bridge between the military world I was coming from, to the civilian world I was in.”

According to McCarthy, being an entrepreneur had never occurred to him and was out of his comfort zone.  “I never even had a lemonade stand as a kid.”  In February of 2008, he finally founded GORUCK.  Not knowing how to build a backpack, though, McCarthy was stumped.  So, he placed an ad on Craigslist for a backpack designer and connected with a design team in Montana who were searching for a new project after being laid off in New Zealand.  The new team went through 6 prototypes, eventually settling on a usable design in 2010.

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The process of designing, scaling, and preparing to sell all but destroyed his savings, eventually causing him to partner with his Dad.  To market the product, McCarthy and some of his old buddies packed up and headed to Allentown, Pennsylvania to go rucking with the bags.  They were surprised by how many people wanted to join them.  In the summer of 2010, he did not sell many of his bags, but it gave him a new idea: the GORUCK Challenge.

He realized that people want a challenge and they want to push themselves.  He discarded his old plan of selling his bags in local men’s or sporting shops and instead marketed a challenge.  The GORUCK Challenge focused on people wearing the bags, not the bags themselves.

In 2011, he graduated from business school and focused more on GORUCK.  During this time, he and Emily remarried and now live in Florida.  GORUCK continues to grow, as well as the GORUCK Challenge where people push their limits with others.  McCarthy is not a typical entrepreneur – he never really wanted to be one, but with an idea and an earnest desire to help people and bring them together, he ended up creating a thriving business and finding a new purpose in his life.

Beaux and Paws – 12 year old makes bow ties for a cause

 

Meet Darius Brown – a 12-year-old entrepreneur with a passion for bow ties and helping animals find their forever homes.  It all began back in 2017 when Darius was watching hurricanes Harvey and Irma on TV.  As homes were destroyed, so were pets’ lives.  Shelters became overcrowded and began to consider euthanasia as an alternative.  Darius saw this need and decided to do something.  He began sewing bow ties for the shelters to put on their animals in hopes of making them look cuter to prospective adopters.  This would help animals find a home and free up the system for new animals who would inevitably come in.

Later in 2017, he created “Beaux and Paws” to reach a larger audience.  He began making his custom bow ties for both people and pets and donating a portion of each profit to the ASPCA.  His additional GoFundMe has allowed him to visit other cities around the U.S. and volunteer his services as local shelters, helping even more pets to find a loving home.

Darius’ commitment has gained him national attention and he has appeared on NBC, the Rachel Ray Show, and has even received a letter from former President Barack Obama.

His story is particularly amazing because of his own struggles.  When Darius was two years old, he was diagnosed with speech delay, comprehension delay, and fine motor skills delay.  With the help of his mother and sister, he overcame these challenges by learning to sew, and today he hopes to one day attend Standford and launch his own clothing line.

Lilly Singh

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One of the most recognizable faces on the internet these days, Lilly Singh first got her start on YouTube under the name, IISuperwomanII.  Her story really begins after she graduated from York University with a degree in Psychology.  She has since stated in YouTube videos that after her graduation, she struggled with depression.  When she started making videos later in 2010, she found it to be a therapeutic outlet.  According to Lilly, she chose the name “Superwoman” because that’s what she called herself when she was younger when she “wanted to deal with life’s obstacles like a hero.”

Her channel soon took off and her tomboy, down-to-earth personality became her staple.  As her fanbase grew, so did recognition of her “catchphrase” and signature red lipstick, so in 2016, she launched her own lipstick line called “Bawse.”  The next year, she released her first book, How to be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life, for which she went on tour for a few months later on in 2017.

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Lilly has always made sure to stay connected to her audience, going on tour in 2015 (for her documentary, A Trip to Unicorn Island) and in 2017 (book tour), filming daily vlogs on her second channel, and regularly having live-streams where fans can ask her questions.

Her success is likely due to her unique style, but also her constantly trying something new besides just YouTube videos.  Just this past March, it was announced that Lilly will host her own late-night talk show, A Little Late with Lilly Singh, which premiered this September.

In just nine years, Lilly went from a depressed college grad to touring the world, having her own lipstick brand, writing a book, achieving 14.9 million subscribers, and hosting her own show on NBC.  With the help of the internet, Lilly Singh branded and marketed her signature personality to the world.

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4Ocean – Andrew Cooper & Alex Schulze

(L to R) Alex Schulze and Andrew Cooper owners of 4Ocean, a company that actively removes trash from the ocean.  Photo by Tim Stepien.

I’m sure we’ve all seen ads from time to time about 4Ocean – the company that sells bracelets and puts money towards cleaning up our oceans.  In the last few months, I’ve seen an increase in these ads before Youtube videos and I’ve wondered who it is that’s behind this endeavor.

As it turns out, there are two people: Andrew Cooper and Alex Schulze.  Recently, these two made it to the 2019 edition of the Forbes 30 Under 30 for their efforts.  So how did it all start?

In 2015, Cooper and Schulze went on a surfing trip to Bali and were appalled by the amount of plastic they found in the ocean.  As we are learning in class, they found trouble and sought to fix it.  By 2017, they were selling the bracelets we all know of today as a way to fund the cleanup effort.  According to the organization, the bracelets are made of recycled materials and each represents a pound of trash that will be removed.  4Ocean has since created more products to help fund the effort, but the bracelets remain the most widely known.  According to an article in PR Newswire, “By creating jobs, utilizing the latest technology and raising awareness about the impact of trash in the ocean, the company is building the first economy for ocean plastic and creating a cleaner, more sustainable future for the ocean.”

Cooper and Schulze are excellent examples of entrepreneurs who used their passion to change how the world sees a problem.  They are both surfers, fishermen, and divers.  They spend much of their time around the water and were perfectly suited to see and frame the problem of plastic in the ocean in a way that many people around the world have not known.  They did not just say that there was a problem, but they showed pictures and gave people a simple way that they could help – all with the easy purchase of a recycled bracelet.  Every time a customer would look at the bracelet, they would be reminded of the ongoing problem and the fight to clean the world’s oceans.  By presenting the problem in a way that gave people something easy to do and inspiring them with the need, they made the daunting task of cleaning up the oceans seem very possible and even exciting.

Sources:

https://4ocean.com/about/

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/4ocean-co-founders-andrew-cooper-and-alex-schulze-named-forbes-30-under-30-social-entrepreneurs-300750165.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/07/4oceans-cleaned-up-1-million-pounds-of-ocean-garbage.html