Hardwork? Luck? Good habits? What would you say is behind your success? We’ve shared some thoughtful responses below.

Perry Yee | Founder

Success has a lot of different meanings. To some, it’s the amount of money they generate, to others it can be how widely know their brand is. For us at Active Valor, the measure of success is very apparent and it’s the amount of impact we have on the people we serve. With our mission, we have created a program that takes transitioning veterans and places them in a mentorship role to children that have lost a parent while serving on active duty (referred to as Gold Star Families). We felt that there was a very important need to give our veterans a new purpose and meaning in life after they discharge from the military and venture on a new path back into the civilian world. Using their years of acquired skill sets and knowledge, we wanted to give them a chance to pass it down to children that no longer have access to that type of learning anymore no that their military parent is gone. Read more>>

Thierry Denis | Owner & Creative Director

I believe that the most important factor behind my success has always be to be trustworthy and just easy to work with. I run a video production, and in my business, every project is a prototype, which can sometimes be stressful for everyone. In that regard, being able to smooth that process over and make the work environment enjoyable makes a ton of difference. Additionally, while I’ve typically produced similar things in the past (otherwise we may not be considered in the first place), I’ve rarely done an exact copy of what I’m offering to create for our clients. And therefore, it often times takes a bit of imagination, especially for an outsider, to get a sense of what the end deliverables will actually look like. In that sense, it takes a healthy dose of trust for a client to believe early on that we will deliver something that fulfills their needs and hire us for it. Trust and being agreeable is also paramount when working with freelancers, which make a big chunk of our crews. Read more>>

Chad Yarvitz | Business Owner & Inventor

The most important factor behind the success of Xplicit Fitness is integrity. Since opening our doors in 2010, our reputation, and how we treat our customers, has been the number one priority. Every day is a choice to show up authentically; some do and some don’t. Being real and true to ones values while treating people the way I want to be treated is the foundation to Xplicit. Respect is earned, not given, and work needs to be done every day to gain and maintain it. Read more>>

GOZ | Artist, Content Creator, Black Business Owner & Entrepreneur

Being authentic. That’s 100% it! Everything I do started genuinely out of pure love for the art and people can see that. When you’re building with love and showing love to others as well there’s no way you can’t succeed! Read more>>

Samantha Goble | Owner & Director

I think one of the most important factors was curating a really unique, one of a kind rental collection. Hostess Haven was known for artisan pieces, curated collections and tabletop rentals that weren’t your ordinary run of the mill, from the big box companies. Farra, the previous owner, did an amazing job of sourcing pieces that not only were aesthetically beautiful but also helped tell the story of the table. The second most important factor was exposure, taking on styled shoots, free events, etc. and getting our name out there that Hostess Haven was under new ownership. We did sooo many free event and shoots I honestly couldn’t tell you how many we did in our first year but it worked. We have built up our clientele base as well as have been working our way up in California as well as across the US working with the best and most creative planners and designers. Doing this has kept us in everyone’s line of sight and provided this great momentum of growth. Read more>>

Ludi Ryon | Co-Owner

My husband Guillaume Ryon and I started Le Parfait Paris with the goal to share our passion for French Pastries to our community. From the beginning we’ve had for first objective to offer sweet delicacy made with high quality products and by hand. Keeping these two criteria is really important to us, even though we’ve been approached by many suppliers with cheaper and lower quality raw product or even finished product to cut on Food and/or Labor cost. At Le Parfait we aim to stay true to ourselves and constantly self-develop and improve our creativity throughout our full menu without never cutting the quality of our product line. Keeping our customer taste bud excited is definitely a big factor behind our success. Read more>>

Ken Schulenburg

People, Ice Cream, and Community. At Cali Cream, we empower and trust our team to take care of our guests and have fun while doing it. Julie and I start by interviewing every person that we want to welcome into our Cali Cream family. Our focus is looking for people that have leadership skills, peer accountability, and are self motivated. We are all on the same level and it is just as important for me to coach, teach, train, and hold the team accountable as it is for the team to coach, teach, train, and hold me accountable. This takes a special person to work in this type of environment and we believe that everyone that we bring on board is ready for the responsibility and challenges that it brings. We believe that we have built and developed an amazing local product. We source local Real California Dairy, using a natural Super Premium mix and we focus on sourcing California ingredients to add into our ice cream. Read more>>

Laurent Yung | French Wine Makers

There are many factors behind somMailier’s success today but if I had to pick one, I strongly believe that the quality of my wines is the most important one. When I started this adventure in 2017, I knew the idea was a good one as many people like drinking great wine and French wine has always had a great reputation everywhere in the world. I also knew that I was in a unique and incredible position, via my whole family in France having made wine for 5 generations including my brother Patrick who owns one of the oldest French wine distribution company in Paris. The sourcing (and great sourcing) was not a problem and I really felt I had all the ingredients to propose something unique and exclusive to many wine lovers in the US. At this stage, I only had the concept in my head, and I had built a business plan to validate it. This point was easy for me as I always loved creating financial simulations and trying to predict the future. Read more>>

Meredith Castin | Owner

I truly believe that I have been successful largely because everything I do with my business is 100% mission-driven. My mission is to help physical, occupational, and speech therapy professionals use their skills and experience to launch exciting new healthcare careers outside direct patient care. I want to help them feel inspired and supported while they create their “plan B.” Whenever I consider launching a new initiative, I ask myself whether I’m doing so to make money or to support the company’s mission. Ideally, whatever I am considering will do both! However, if I do find myself pulled toward a project that is driven purely by profit, I know that I should not pursue that initiative. I value people’s trust more than their money, and that mentality has served me very well. In that vein, I only partner with people who share that mentality. That, too, has served me very well! Read more>>

Amy Chadwick | Naturopathic Doctor

Understanding my core values, how life moves through me and dances in me, and leaning in to these values and strengths as I make business decisions, as I create new offerings, as I study and learn new skills, and as I collaborate with others has become the foundation of my power. Every patient interaction, podcast episode and teaching opportunity is rooted in my core values and allows for my most authentic expression to come forward with greater ease. I am not struggling to overcome my weaknesses, or trying to do it all. I am trusting that life became me, in a unique way, and my invitation is to recognize that, honor it, celebrate it, and live it every moment of every day, as skillfully as I am able. I practice building my trust muscle which allows me to make decisions from this core root and trust the outcome will truly be in my highest good. My invitation is to meet my unique needs, and to show up for life. Read more>>

Alexander S. Kunz | Photographer

I guess what ultimately matters is passion and authenticity – photography as a whole will never cease to excite me, and similarly, landscapes and nature will never cease to excite me either. There’s no need to “slip into a role” or play a certain character for an audience or a customer. It’s 100% me. I think people can see and feel this passion, this love, and that it is authentic. There’s something deeper that drives me than the thought of my profession as just as business. It’s a calling, really. Read more>>

Gary Parker | Owner & Founder

Diversity. The WineSellar & Brasserie has multiple revenue resources, as well as other challenging National/World events that are outside of our control. 1. We are a professional wine storage facility, renting wine lockers to 175 private wine collectors. Revenues cover rent for the entire facility each month. 2. We conduct interesting small and large scale wine tastings and wine dinners a few times a month. 3. We added a wine/cocktail bar targeting the local work force, which is more casual than the Brasserie Restaurant. 4. We have a wine shop that specializes in hard to find gems at reasonable prices. We can obtain many wines that are not commonly seen on other wine stores because the producers prefer to be associated with fine dining restaurants versus a wine shop or liquor store. 5. We have three wine of the month wine clubs with hundreds of subscribers. We include tasting notes, food combinations, and special discounts for the wine club members. 6. I broker and appraise wine for our locker renters, as well as outside wine collectors. Read more>>

Rachael Soares | Creative Director

We look at our employees like family and genuinely care about everyone’s success. Our employees are our greatest asset. This positive culture and appreciation for each other is definitely why we have been successful as a brand. Read more>>