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.
Pa Chia Xiong
During my eight years in Los Angeles, I learned about fashion, wholesale production, and discovered my love for photography—especially beauty and portraits. When I returned home to Minnesota and Wisconsin, I continued building my experience in customer service, management, and eventually opened my own photography studio in St. Paul, MN. Read more>>
Jacquelyn & Matthew Calos
Passport Restaurant was born from a simple love: trying new cuisines and flavors from around the world. For years, exploring food was our favorite adventure — discovering bold spices, unexpected ingredients, and the stories behind every dish. Cooking became our way of reliving those experiences and sharing them with the people we care about. Read more>>
Kamlika Chandla
My interest in art began as a young child but it was not until my own daughter was born that I became active in the art community and steered my way into becoming a professional artist. I felt a compelling inner voice that urged me to train professionally, study with the best masters around the world and fulfill my deep need to paint and draw. Read more>>
Marsha Anderson
While researching for a paper in an animal behavior class as an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota, I came across a short article on the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA). Read more>>
Jessi Veurink
I grew up with horses on my farm, and was very blessed to have them as a part of my every day life. Even as a young child, I always dreamt of having a big draft horse. I remember begging my parents for a draft horse, but it was just something that they were not able to accommodate. Read more>>
Van Harvieux
I grew up in the restaurant business with my parents, who owned multiple café-style spots. I did everything — washed dishes, waited tables, bartended, and eventually took on leadership roles at several restaurants. About 12 years ago, I came across the double drive-thru model out west, and I was immediately drawn to how well it could work in the Twin Cities. Read more>>
Emily Swedberg
My story starts in Moorhead, Minnesota, where I grew up and joined the thriving 5th-grade orchestra program. I immediately fell in love with making music for myself and with my friends, but the turning point came in high school when my orchestra teacher, Brian Cole, encouraged me to try teaching at a summer camp. I was instantly hooked. Read more>>
Jen Barnes, MSW, LICSW, E-RYT500, TCTSY-F, CPC
In early 2020, I was seeking a way to have additional income along side my private psychotherapy practice. I saw an ad on Facebook for learning how to create online courses and I thought would be a perfect complement to what I was already doing. I figured this would be a nice little ‘side-hustle’, perhaps even a passive income stream. Read more>>
Todd Kendall
Ive been a life long entrepreneur, opening a cafe and grocery store when I was 19 to getting a patent on a baseball and tennis training device to now building custom one of a kind furniture pieces. We started Fillory from my kitchen remodel, Gus and I met while I was picking out a piece of black walnut for my countertop. Read more>>
Courtney Wadd
I’ve always been drawn to the beauty industry and loved how lashes can highlight someone’s natural beauty and make them light up from within. Over time, I realized that helping people feel beautiful was something I genuinely enjoyed and wanted to do every day. That’s what inspired me to start Lulu Lash! Read more>>
Micah Mitlyng
EZ Breezy Movers: A Business Built on Family, Friendship, and One Phone Call EZ Breezy Movers began in 2020, right when the world shut down. Micah took his baby daughter to stay with his grandparents in New Ulm, Minnesota. He needed a quiet place to think. His job in events had stopped, and life felt very unsure. Then his best friend Mike called. Read more>>
Melissa Weidendorf
I became a therapist about ten years ago, and started out working at a community mental health clinic in a rural community. Read more>>
Cherie Ritter
We opened our first shop in 2010. It was something my husband and I always fantasized about doing in our ‘semi-retirement’ phase of our lives; but came a little early due to the banking collapse. With my 30-year banking career coming to an end, we opened our first shop in downtown Anoka. Read more>>
Aziza Poggi
I began acting as a teenager, which naturally evolved into singing in musical theatre ensembles. Before launching my music career, I worked in independent film and served as a casting assistant on major projects, including Hardball with Keanu Reeves and Diane Lane, and 61 starring Barry Pepper, Thomas Jane, and Anthony Michael Hall. Read more>>
Kyle Manley
I didn’t start my career in horticulture—I actually began as a band director. But every summer, I worked at Gertens, slowly working my way up from the pottery department to roles that put me in close contact with contractors and residential clients. Read more>>
Tacandrya Patterson
I am the Brand Developer and Chief Executive Officer at Optimismic and Gifts Shop in Minnesota. Optimismic was established in 2015. I am also a Certified Healthcare Access Specialist and Patient Access Specialist at Children’s Minnesota. Born in New York in December 1978. I was raised and educated in Milwaukee and Minnesota. My family moved to Minnesota in the late 80’s. Read more>>
Tracy Anderson
My story begins with the people who shaped me long before I ever imagined becoming an intuitive healer or creating a business. My mom introduced me to Healing Touch when I was in my late 20s, which opened the door to energy work in a way that felt natural to me. Read more>>
Kimberly Collins
I first started my career coaching singers privately after earning my Master’s in music at the University of Minnesota. Though I loved working with my students and found a lot of joy helping them achieve their goals musically, I decided to close my studio to help start an orthodontic clinic from scratch as the CFO/COO. Read more>>
Tami Allen
I always wanted to make tshirts. I grew up traveling and always hit the souvenirs shops where you pick the transfer off the wall and make your very own cool tshirt. So, I found a cheap cutter and started playing. Around 2012 I bought a towel that said, Get your fat pants ready. I loved it and showed my hubby. Read more>>
Emily Korf
I started my business in 2009 with the intention of offering affordable interior design solutions. Soon after I started, I was approached by a columnist at Pioneer Press who wanted to do an article on my business, and me. That gave me a huge boost in business at the time. Read more>>
Nick Santrizos
I got here in a very round-a-bout way. I’ve always loved taking photos and have been since I was a kid, my mom encouraging me to take pictures at school events, giving me a disposable camera and eventually a digital camera in 2003 for my birthday. I was the designated cameraman in my group of outcast skate rats. Read more>>
Bethany Hilsgen
26 years ago, I was a young mother tired of her dry, irritated skin and acne problems. I wondered what happened to the skin I was born with. One day while reading my organic gardening magazine, I found an article about old fashioned soap. My intuition knew this was the answer I had been searching for. Read more>>
Justin Hossle
As a child, I had a passion for building, whether it was with straw bales or plastic bricks. Building was in my DNA. But in school, I fell in love with live theater. After years in a career as a Stage Manager for a large regional theater, I purchased a home and began tinkering with building things again – this time with wood. Read more>>
Kathy Friedrich
I was raised in small towns around southern Minnesota by 2 school teachers. Both parents worked hard and found additional sources of income to support our family of 6 kids. Mom was driven to try to make a difference in the educational system and got her PHD and became a principal in the end of her career. Read more>>
Sarah Sannes
Art is a fairly new endeavor for me and it’s one of the ways that I’m now taking care of myself. My roles as a school counselor, parent, and caretaker of family members have meant that most of my adult life has been dedicated to meeting the needs of others. Read more>>
Mike Kosim
I was born on the equator – in Jakarta, Indonesia – and landed in (what I thought was frigid at the time) Detroit, Michigan when I was 4 years old. I’m a generation 1.5 immigrant, which means I wasn’t born here, but my childhood was very American. I was always ‘the different kid’ in school growing up in small towns in Michigan and Wisconsin. Read more>>
Reide Bibeau-peper
Jasie and Reide met 3 years ago – bonding over parenting, holistic healing, community justice, and family centered spaces. A little seed of a dream was planted to combine their vast experience of Jasies massage and somatic work with Reides whole body mental health therapy and somatic work into a space that valued people first. Read more>>
Jillian Simon
I’ve always been fascinated by how people age. Not just how long they live, but how they live. Growing up, I spent a lot of time listening to the women in my family talk around the table at the end of the day. Read more>>
Kristina Marti
I started out as a K-12 Vocal Music Director teaching in a the rural town of Sleepy Eye, MN. I have a B.S. in K-12 Vocal Music Education and a MAED in Curriculum & Instruction. After getting married and moving to St. Peter, MN, I subbed while finishing my masters before accepting another K-12 Vocal Music position at JWP in Janesville, MN. Read more>>
Adam Welz
I’ve spent more than two decades in the wedding world, starting out as a DJ, which showed me early on how much atmosphere shapes an event. Along the way I explored different creative roles that taught me how people connect with a space and how powerful great design can be. Read more>>
Robin Anthony
The Chamber was in a period of transition and needed renewed leadership, strengthened relationships, and a fresh vision for the future. With her deep love for community, her public-sector, global consulting, starting her own business from the ground up and her reputation as a connector in the St. Read more>>
Sam Mitzel
Growing up, I loved to draw and paint and always had a huge passion for art, but I never knew where my creativity could take me. I worried about being the “starving artist,” so I didn’t see a clear path forward. Read more>>
Mary Hietpas
I’ve been obsessed with nails since seventh grade, all because of one random Instagram video I stumbled across. It was someone hand-painting detailed nail art, and I remember feeling completely mesmerized. I begged my mom for supplies so I could try it myself, and when she said yes, everything changed. Read more>>
Mariah McKechnie
Welcome to our Dream Come True Weddings have been my world for over 15 years, as a wedding planner, florist, decorator, and general lover of love. I have always enjoyed fashion and especially delighted in my Brides and their gowns. Read more>>
Anthony Eaton
In my 20s, my late husband and I had an art studio in Lowertown before moving to Florida. During that time, I created window displays for several downtown retail businesses. We continued making art after we moved, but I missed designing displays. In 2022, after losing my husband, I decided to leave my 30-year career in Human Resources and move back. Read more>>
Andrea Lyn
One of my favorite quotes is one by Charles E. Hudson: ‘Life will always throw you curveballs. Some of them you duck and some you cannot. Read more>>
Londa Lundstrom
Londa Lundstrom | Biography | Long Version June 2025 Londa Lundstrom is an evangelist, pastor, disciple maker, speaker, author, worship leader, teacher, motivator, songwriter, award-winning composer and producer. The oldest of Lowell and Connie Lundstrom’s four children, she grew up traveling across the nation over 300 days each year with her family in evangelistic ministry. Read more>>
Scott Van Daalen
Tapestry Coffee started as a simple idea between friends who loved good coffee and wanted to build something that brought people together. We opened our first shop a little over four years ago with a small team, a limited menu, and the hope that if we focused on quality and relationships, people would notice. Not long after opening, we began roasting our own coffee. Read more>>
Cathy Abrahamson
Michael Abrahamson started Highway 18 collision Center, Inc in in June of 2004. Michaels passion for working on vehicles began at a young age His Grandmother Sylvia Treveranus boasted that his first word as a child was Vroom, mimicking a car noise. Mike started his career in the automotive field in 1975 working as a gas attendant then moving on in 1996 to work for a local GM dealership . Michael studied industrial education at UMD and had hopes of becoming a teacher. Read more>>
Lindsey Walsh
I actually got my start in photography at a local real estate agency, pushing paperwork, of all things! One day, my boss knew I loved being creative and asked if I wanted to try photographing listings. I thought, “Totally(!), that sounds way better than sitting at a desk 9–5!” From that moment on, I was hooked. Read more>>
Josie Bergmann
Minnesota Unknown was started by three history nerds who met working at the Minnesota Historical Society. We enjoy sharing the unique and unknown History of our great state and started our company to do just that. We began in 2024 and are thrilled to be in our second year of delivering unique tours and podcasts. Read more>>
