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.
Ciarra Grobe
I have enjoyed gardening ever since I was a child, but didn’t get to really get going until my husband and I bought our first home in Madison, Wisconsin in 2017. At that time we desperately wanted to have a baby and the garden was our way of distracting ourselves while we struggled through infertility. Read more>>
Sonja Benson
I earned my Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology with a supportive program in Family Social Sciences at the University of MN. I’m currently a psychologist in solo practice. This is my second solo practice I’ve built, the first one being in AZ and then I moved back to MN and started again. Read more>>
Peter VanDusartz
I have been a singer-songwriter, my whole life, and I’ve been writing songs and singing them for as long as I can remember. But I have never truly shared my music with the world until recently. Read more>>
Reggie Carter
I grew up on a farm in Mississippi, where I learned the value of hard work, self-reliance, and the connection between quality ingredients and quality living. Those lessons stayed with me as I moved through different stages of life, becoming an entrepreneur, fitness professional, and lifelong student of personal growth. Read more>>
Ellie Maher
I grew up in Fargo, North Dakota and I quietly questioned everything…why things, people, places and interactions among them are the way they are. I still do. Existence fascinates me! I finished high school early and went to college for a short time to be an architect, I love structure design and buildings, but it just wasn’t vibing with me so I dropped out. Read more>>
Nicole Linde
My creative path helped led me to my psychic mediumship development. I was very intuitive growing up, and ‘knew things’ that I couldn’t explain. I was also very sensitive and expressed my connection with spirit world through my artwork. I didn’t understand that I was channeling until later in life. Through synchronic events my psychic gifts began to open more and more. Read more>>
Steven Pattee
I grew up on a farm outside a small town in Iowa, but for reasons I don’t remember wanted to be a lawyer from an early age. I went to the University of Iowa and received a degree in political science then went on to law school, also at the University of Iowa. I graduated in 1996. Read more>>
Madeline O’Donoghue
My career path began as something of a whirlwind. In college, I struggled to find the right direction and spent several years transferring schools and taking gap years while trying to figure out what truly fit. During that time, I traveled extensively through South Africa and Southeast Asia, backpacking and exploring the world before eventually returning home to Minnesota. Read more>>
Michelle Meier
I officially started my journey in the salon industry in 2003, but honestly, my love for hair started long before that. Growing up in Melrose, you could usually find me in the basement playing “salon” with my Barbies, convincing friends to let me experiment on their hair, or giving my older sister a new style whether she asked for one or not. Read more>>
Matt McFarlane
The arts have always been a vital part of my life – my parents were both music teachers and studying piano was a non-negotiable as a kid- the one requirement my brother and I both had was to take piano lessons until we graduated high school. Read more>>
Nicholas Edblad
Ive always been curious and compassionate. I wanted to understand how everything works, and desired to fix things that do not. Once i would learn how one thing works, i would discover it was apart of several other things i did not understand. Read more>>
Rachel Seppi Denzer
I’m the founder of The Visionary Bridal Atelier, a luxury bridal boutique just outside Minneapolis focused on a highly personal, by-appointment experience. Bridal has been part of my life for over a decade, and my background really spans every side of the industry from pressing gowns and working closely alongside seamstresses to styling brides and helping manage boutiques. Read more>>
Keiona Cook
My journey with sewing started at six years old at the kitchen table with my mom. I began by hand-sewing clothes for my Barbie dolls and little things for myself. Later, my Godmother taught me how to use a sewing machine, where I made my first quilt and my first pair of bellbottoms. Those early experiences planted the seed for everything I do today. Read more>>
Joshua Fuss
Each of us has lived experience. It started as a joke. We were touring a veterinary clinic for a potential location for a recovery (sober) home. It was run-down and needed more work than we could put into it. During the tour, I noticed multiple offices. Read more>>
Paul Boswell
In 2015 Paul Boswell was a professor at the University of Minnesota. He saw how valuable it was for all students to be able to code and have a solid understanding of computers. With three young kids at home, he tried to teach them all he could about computers, including building robots, playing games that teach coding concepts, and building electronic kits. Read more>>
Melissa Collins
I grew up near my current home of North Branch, Minnesota and fell in love with photographs long before I ever picked up a camera. As a little girl, I would spend hours sitting on the living room floor flipping through my mom’s photo albums, studying every image and memorizing the stories behind them. Read more>>
Jennifer Gibson
I grew up in a very small town in North Dakota, always drawn to technology and art, I found myself learning to code profiles on websites like Neopets and GaiaOnline. I excelled in my high school classes for graphic and web design, and participated in FBLA my senior year. Read more>>
Eva Leone-Kelley
I am proud to have been born and raised in Minnesota, More than 20 years ago I began making candles, soaps, and body scrubs out of necessity. Luxury self-care products were not in the budget, so I learned to create them myself. What started as a practical solution quickly became a passion; for years I crafted handmade products exclusively for myself, family and friends. Read more>>
Christina Cayer
For the past four years, I have proudly operated a gluten-free cottage food bakery in Minnesota, turning a personal challenge into a passion-driven business. After being diagnosed with celiac disease ten years ago, I faced a significant learning curve as I adapted traditional baking methods to create delicious gluten-free recipes. Read more>>
Tyjuan Morrow
Itz Personal didn’t start with a business plan. It started in my granny’s basement. I was in 6th grade when I copped my first half ounce. Me and my twin broke it down, bagged it up, and posted-up at Gateway Market. $50 for 14 grams. Every gram a dime bag. $140 in revenue if we didn’t take shorts. Simple math. Simple plan. Flip it. Reup. Read more>>
Chris Anderson
Chris Anderson: Earned B.A. Majoring in Music. Read more>>
Michaela Rai
There were many times in the last fifteen years where I was barely able to keep my head above water —family estrangement, deconstructing from a high-control fundamentalist religious sect, parental addiction and mental health struggles, surviving severe birth trauma and my child’s illness, and the unraveling of an abusive marriage with someone I once deeply loved. I lost nearly everything I had built and cherished. Read more>>
Kathy Kovala
My name is Kathy Kovala and I am a 85-year old watercolor artist and instructor. I have worked as an artist since 1965. I started teaching for Nicolet College in Rhinelander Wisconsin as a Rosemaling instructor and continued to teach for their community outreach program for 20 years. Read more>>
Amanda Rome
I moved to Cambridge with my husband in 2018 with the dream of building a more sustainable lifestyle together. Dreams of creating a self-sustaining homestead where we grew our own food started to seem not so far off. As our farm started to develop and grow the reality of what The Romestead could be started to become more clear. Read more>>
Kevin May
I grew up partly in Hawaii and there’s a Hawaiian word, ‘pono’, that means doing things the right way, with balance and integrity. Pono was part of how I was raised and it’s also the operating system for everything I’ve built. I come from a military family. Read more>>
Eddie Cohen
I’ve always been fascinated by the complexities of wine. In 1998, a bicycle tour through Bordeaux confirmed my interest. There are mysteries and joys to be revealed. In 2014 I spoke with someone about getting involved in the wine business and was told to study for, and take the Guild of Masters Introductory course and exam that was being given in Minneapolis. Read more>>
Arvind Mozumdar
I was born in India and grew up both there and in the Middle East. My family moved around quite a bit when I was very young, so adapting to new places always came naturally to me. Eventually, I went to college just outside my hometown. After graduating, I moved around a lot in India with different jobs. Read more>>
Christine Gangelhoff
I’m a Minnesota native, and music has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest artistic experiences were shaped there, and my time studying at the University of Minnesota was an important part of my development as a musician and educator. Read more>>
