Every day we have a choice. We can support an up and coming podcaster, try a new family-run restaurant, join a boutique gym started by a local fitness champ or we could keep giving away our money to the handful of giants who already control so much of our commerce. Our daily decisions impact the kind world we live in; if we want a world where small businesses are growing and artists and creatives are thriving then we should support them with our time, money and attention. We’re proud to highlight inspiring creatives and entrepreneurs each week in Hidden Gems series. Check out some of our latest local gem features below.
Taylor Conn
Aaron and Taylor come from a background in real estate, owning a local brokerage and investing in properties throughout the state. Purchasing a resort was never part of the plan, but when the opportunity arose, everything fell into place over the following months. The idea of raising their children on a resort quickly became something they were excited about. Read more>>
Chris Perricelli
From age 13, playing guitar was my focus and performing in a band as a teen in local clubs professionally, was my highway ‘on ramp’ so to speak, in an area north of Boston. While attending college in Chicago, I formed a band called Little Man and then after many years I moved to Minnesota in 2002 continuing to write and perform here. Read more>>
Jen Rawson Franzwa
I’ve been obsessed with hair for as long as I can remember, even though my career didn’t start there. I took a more traditional route into business management, eventually landing in an upper-management compliance role in low-income property management—until I was laid off and forced to pause. That moment became the catalyst I didn’t know I needed. Read more>>
Giizh Agaton Howes
Heart Berry began as House of Howes in my kitchen in Northern Minnesota on the Rez. In 2014, House of Howes was a small custom regalia business. I created custom beadwork, quilts, regalia, and moccasins for clients across the midwest. The demand for cultural art and cultural tools quickly out grew what I could manage. Read more>>
Sarah Crawford
Born in New Zealand, I began my career in hair and makeup before moving to Australia to specialize in film and television. After several successful years in that field, I transitioned into destination weddings, honing my craft further. In 2015, I relocated to America, where I co-founded Smokeshow Studios, a comprehensive destination for all things beauty and fitness. Read more>>
Amber Will
I’ve loved to create since I was a little girl. Though I’ve dabbled in many different mediums, I always had the most fun with a camera! (Starting all the way back in the 90’s with a disposable one!) I played around with photography through the years and eventually started offering sessions and photographing weddings. Read more>>
Tim Dachtera
As a young kid, I was interested in cars. Model cars, RC cars, go-carting etc, however my family didn’t have a good exposure to the hobby, so I tagged along to the dirt track in a nearby town, created a RC club group in school, and tried to do what I could to get more involved. Read more>>
Alyssa Wennerberg
I graduated with my Masters of Education in Clinical Mental Health Counseling in May 2017. Shortly after graduating, I began working at a nonprofit. I was an In-Home Family Therapist for 3 years before going to Outpatient Counseling. After 8 meaningful years serving clients within the nonprofit world, I opened up Authentic You PLLC. Read more>>
Denis Boci-Beaird
My name is Denis Boci-Beaird, I was adopted from Albania in 1999. My parents previously had a son, Michael Beaird, who was a student at BSM and sadly passed away in 1998. I attended BSM from 2007 to 2013, an experience that played a significant role in shaping who I am today. Read more>>
Derek Funk
Yes, first off what a great opportunity, thank you for that. I got my start very early on, it was around 1995 to be exact. We were an all inclusive buffet style company in the landscaping and construction industry. We did just about anything for a buck. Tree removal and tree trimming, retaining walls, paver patios, soft scapes, and the occasional deck. Read more>>
Alexa Wavrin
We are a woman owned local business! We each have a different story of how we got into aerials, and we each have a specialty apparatus! Read more>>
Nicole Rasmussen
As a life long learner, I had aspirations early on to work as an athletic director in a school. Shortly after graduating from college I found out I needed a teaching license, that was not part of the plan. I decided to pursue my athletic journey of supporting athletics and enrolled in graduate school and started coaching at local high schools. Read more>>
Isabelle Lanari
I started working at the Dunn Brothers location in Maple Grove in high school, first as a barista and later as a roaster. Over the next five years, I grew to love both the coffee industry and the community that formed around that shop. Read more>>
David Tolchiner
Car stereos, cel phones, paintbrushes, and real estate all preceded my life in the bar and entertainment business. As a kid, my family owned a business in Saint Paul called Crazy Louie’s Surplus City and Museum. Crazy Louie’s was my training ground for business. The surplus business required creativity, flexibility, deal making, and marketing. I was lucky enough to have had a front row seat. Read more>>
fafa aguilera
I have lived in the United States since 2001. I graduated as an architect in my home country Argentina, in 1986. I come from a time when architects with a pencil in hand, we communicated what we imagined through sketches and drawings. That language grew within me as a way of expression. Read more>>
Linda Carlson
I have always had a great interest in stained glass. I loved being in churches, old bank buildings, college buildings where you could sit and see the story being told with many colors of glass. I promised myself that someday I was going to learn how to do this art form. As time went by we moved to Winona, MN. Read more>>
Rita Sandquist
My passion is to help people. I am the youngest in my family with a large age gap between myself and my older siblings. My father was also the youngest of his family with an even larger age gap between him and his oldest sibling. Read more>>
Mark Schneider
I grew up in St. Paul, in the Mac-Groveland neighborhood and attended Nativity of Our Lord Grade School and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High school in Bloomington. I went to high school out there, because they offered a variety of shop classes that sparked my interest. Read more>>
AMBER STOKSTAD
Where I Got the Name The name comes from the initials of our family: Amber (me), Hans (my husband), Torby (our oldest, 7½), and Ayden (our youngest, 4½). Both of my boys are my rainbow babies. While I’ve been making cakes sporadically for many years, their arrival truly changed everything. Read more>>
Mark Wade
I began playing upright bass at age 10, studying privately and performing in numerous community orchestras before becoming a member of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra at 16 years old. I went on to study bass performance at Music Tech in Minneapolis. I started playing bass for the indie power-pop band The Melismatics in 2000, since then we have released seven albums and toured extensively. Read more>>
Josh Higgins
Saint Luke’s Church began over a century ago as a small, Christ‑centered congregation in Faribault, committed to worship, discipleship, and serving its neighbors. Read more>>
Marguerite Ohrtman
I’m Marguerite Ohrtman, founder of Next Adventure Counseling & Consulting. Although I grew up watching my parents run a small-town hardware store for over 40 years, I never set out to own a business myself. My career path was always centered on counseling, education, and supporting young people and families. Read more>>
Micayla Scott
I’m originally from Los Angeles County California and did hair in Huntington Beach for five years when Covid hit. It took a big change in my career. I stopped doing hair for a small portion of time moved to the wonderful state of Minnesota and restarted my career here. Read more>>
Jeff Wesley
I was the opening day bartender at Junior’s in 2009. What began as a college job quickly turned into a career I love! I was promoted to Restaurant Manager in 2011 and never looked back. I was blessed to have an amazing boss and mentor, whom our head chef, Jason, and I purchased the restaurant and catering company from in 2022. Read more>>
Marques Johnson
I’ve always been an entrepreneur at heart. Before food, before storefronts, before logos — I was a party promoter. That world taught me how to build energy, bring people together, and create experiences people wanted to be part of. More importantly, it taught me how to bet on myself. Read more>>
Stacy Crawford
A family crisis became the turning point that inspired me to leave my 25+ year career in education to move into Klear Water Coaching & Wellness full-time. What began as a personal calling has evolved into work I’m deeply honored to do in supporting individuals and teams in cultivating clarity, connection, and resilience through coaching and facilitation. Read more>>
Jen Barney
I am a professional pastry chef who has a bakery storefront in La Crosse, WI. I have won 3 Food Network Baking Championships, which really accelerated my growth. Meringue Bakery specializes in detailed artistic cakes and we also do a large amount of wholesaling gourmet pastries and desserts to coffee shops and restaurants. Read more>>
Rosy Posey
I’m always giving my family and friends advice on boundaries, consequences, and conditions. Eventually, enough people told me that I should get paid for it that I decided to go into business. I decided to start small and took my first client in April 2025. I’ve been relying mostly on word-of-mouth to gain more clients. Read more>>
Erik Lee Chommie
I was born and raised in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. Nearly five decades later, I’m still here – still building, still refining, still paying attention. My path has never followed a straight line. I’ve rarely taken the main road, and I’ve never mistaken it for the only one. I’ve learned from experience, not instruction, and it’s shaped a life that’s humble, unorthodox, and deeply instructive. Read more>>
Monica Birrenkott
My personal journey started in high school theater as many do. I fell in love with the theater world instantly, and my involvement quickly evolved from school productions into professional theater work. By the time I went to college for a technical theater degree, I had been working professionally as a theatrical stage manager and technician for a few years. Read more>>
Sara Morgan
I grew up traveling — visiting a new state nearly every year, with a mom who planned every detail long before the internet made it easy. Those early trips sparked a lasting appreciation for travel that felt meaningful, not rushed. Read more>>
Megan Olson
Nordic Escape LLC began as a personal journey and quickly became a passion we felt called to share with others. After spending the past five years growing our family and raising our three young children, my husband and I found ourselves ready to prioritize our health again in 2024. Read more>>
Mary Ostazeski-Johnson
I was always captivated by color and lines through nature and especially fascinated by reflections in water. As a child I spent hours and hours drawing anything and everything. As a young teen I drooled looking at the oil painting sets in the Sears Christmas catalog for weeks before Christmas—on Christmas of my 8th grade year I got one! Read more>>
Jeff Perry
Growing up as the youngest of six, I was exposed from an early age to a lot of great and diverse music through my older siblings – rock, jazz, Broadway, blues, classical and the great pop music of the 1960s and 70s. Read more>>
Nicole Peluso
Alfredo Massa, MN and myself, Nicole Peluso, DNP come from big system healthcare, having led service lines/units for many years. We saw a gap that needed to be addressed in fragmented care, and the need for more integrative, comprehensive, mental health care. Read more>>
Bob Vogel
After graduating from college, 1971, I was bit by the travel bug. I became a house panter, I realized that traveling was about time and not money. I traveled the winters, as I was painting houses in the summer. I took my first stained glass class, to be constructive during the winter months, in Minnesota, when I was not traveling, the world. Read more>>
Rachel Surratt
I knew I wanted to be a therapist when I was 10 years old. A family member experienced a mental health crisis and I was so curious, and concerned, and confused at that age, that it lead me to pursuing therapy; I so badly wanted to help and understand! Read more>>
Kristine Edstrom
My interest in psychology started in high school when I took a college intro to psych course. From there my guidance counselor helped me get into UWS for my BA in psychology. However, life took hold and I ended up quitting during my last semester of my BA. A couple years later while having a young son I went back to school online. Read more>>
Tim Mullin
Started martial arts as a kid leaning from my father. At 18 started formal lessons from Jay Hyon who owned the Karate Centers around the twin cities. Started working for him as a program director in the uptown location on 31st and Nicollet. Read more>>
Jake Sobieck
We started because we saw an opportunity to bring top-tier customer service into an industry that stereotypically didn’t have it. There aren’t very many people in Northern Minnesota who are willing to brave the elements year-round when it comes to moving, so we decided that we would conquor that task while keeping a smile on our face. Read more>>
Amanda Beehler
I always wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps and become a physician. After graduating from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, I attended medical school in New Jersey. I fell in love with dermatology during that time and was accepted into a residency program in Mesa, AZ after medical school & internship. Read more>>
Candace Wostrel-Glatch, BSN, RN
Origin & Founder — HAVEN Mobile MedSpa at DeepHaven Rejuvenation DeepHaven Rejuvenation was launched by Candace Wostrel-Glatch, BSN, RN, who serves as the owner and master injector of the concierge mobile med spa. Candace’s career began more than 16 years ago in nursing, where she built deep clinical expertise across a wide range of healthcare environments. Read more>>
Ann HUDDOCK
Spinning Sirens started very organically. I began teaching out of my home because the nearest pole studio was a long drive, and I kept meeting people who wanted to train but didn’t have realistic access. From the beginning, I knew I wanted something different—especially a space that welcomed students of all ages, not just those in their 20s. Read more>>
The O’Neill Brothers
Over the past 25 years, piano-playing brothers Tim and Ryan O’Neill have had their music streamed online more than 5 billion (!) times; sold more than 10 million copies of their songs; toured with ’80s pop sensation Debbie Gibson; and provided music for movies, NBC, CBS, HBO, PBS and more. The duo was inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame. Read more>>
Brian Dowdy
I started practicing aikido in 2011, at my brother’s dojo in Richmond, VA. As a professional classical guitarist, I used to tell people that I was super fit, but “only from the wrists down.” I was looking for a way to feel connected to and grounded in the rest of my body, which is unfortunately often neglected in “classical” musical training. Read more>>
Lane Soderberg
We have all known each other and played in various Minneapolis bands for years. I kinda dipped out of playing in bands for a few years and was making black metal records by myself in my basement. Read more>>
Jerald Little
Well my name is jerald little I grew up on the Northside of Minneapolis Minnesota.I gained my passion for music at a young age around 7 years old…Artist like Cassidy jadakiss Fabolous gave me my drive to have my own unique style me and a few of my friends started a independent record lable called RoyaltyNationEntertainment. While on my journey with music. Read more>>
Kate Barnett
I’ve had a passion for interior design since I was a child, having made elaborate LEGO houses and meticulously decorating my Barbie Dream House. Around 10years old I started playing The Sims, and again obsessed over making houses. These creative interests also included more fine art skills and knowledge as well. Read more>>
Terri Orth
Lake City Area Arts (LCAA) is a community focused 501c3 art center in beautiful Lake City. Background: Lake City Area Arts started out as a one day street art festival in 2014 under the name Washington Street Arts Festival. In 2015, the name was changed to Lake City Area Arts. We’ve existed for a decade, growing each year. Read more>>
