Jewel Burks Solomon is an Atlanta-based entrepreneur who was recently named Head of Google for Startups in the US. Jewel is no stranger to startups and entrepreneurship; she launched Partpic, a visual recognition technology company in her mid-twenties, and had it sold to Amazon in 2016. She was also named on Forbe’s 30 under 30 list. Jewel is also managing partner at Collab Capital, an investment fund designed to connect black founders to the financial and social capital they need to build profi...
Feb 24, 2020•42 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast Since 2005, A Slice of Brooklyn Bus Tours has been showing people around Brooklyn. The company was started by Tony Muia, a proud native Brooklynite who always loved showing people around his beloved hometown. Tony slowly starting doing informal tours for those same folks when they came to visit NYC, driving them around in his car. Soon, their friends and families would visit NYC and ask Tony to do tours for them so he did them as a side hobby while still working his regular job. In 2004 Tony dec...
Feb 17, 2020•40 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast This month, we're celebrating Valentine's Day by speaking to couples who inspire us by building strong partnerships - partners in life, partners in business, and partners in their community. We sat down with Angie Myung and Ted Vadakan, a husband-and-wife team who have artfully mastered the feat of finding their tribe through their brand Poketo. The name Poketo (pronounced "poh-keh-toe") stems from the mispronunciation of "pocket" by Angie's grandmother. It tied in perfectly with the first produ...
Feb 10, 2020•35 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast "I steal my kid's vitamins" isn't something that would normally lead to an a-ha moment, but the Goulds aren't your usual entrepreneurs. A couple for ten years, the Goulds are practiced business leaders who are part of the vanguard of the wellness industry: Gordon Gould crunches the numbers, and Courtney Nichol Gould focuses on the human side. Together, they're the power couple behind SmartyPants, the vitamin gummy brand launched in 2011 that now includes products for children, adults, and even p...
Feb 03, 2020•45 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast In our special Masterclass episodes, we collect questions from real-life entrepreneurs at our live #imakealiving shows around the world, and ask our favourite experts to weigh in. From social media to scaling, from advertising to work-life balance, we get insights and guidance from folks in the know. In our first Masterclass episode of the season, we are delighted to talk with Peter Shankman. He has been a vocal advocate for neurodiversity in the workplace, he is the founder of the journalism to...
Jan 27, 2020•36 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast A pivot can be a powerful thing. Tina Essmaker started as a social worker with a side project, a Kickstarted magazine she founded with her husband. But when her marriage ended, she had to re-evaluate: stay with the magazine, or start something new? She decided to tap into her skills as a social worker and her connection to the creative community to re-launch as a creative coach. In this week's episode, Damona talks with Essmaker about how she transitioned from publishing into a self-created role...
Jan 20, 2020•39 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to Season 2 of the I Make a Living Podcast. We are excited to kick off 2020 with a brand new season and incredible conversations with some of the most influential and successful entrepreneurs in North America and the world. As a television producer, Brant Pinvidic has pitched a lot. Like, a lot . In his 15 years in the entertainment industry, Pinvidic has had the chance to get his pitching practice down to a science. In his new book, The 3-Minute Rule , he lays out the basics of what mak...
Jan 13, 2020•34 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast Season 2 of the I Make a Living Podcast launches on Monday, January 13th. Follow us as we continue to explore what it takes to be a business owner in today's world. Our host, Damona Hoffman, will take you on her journey as she sits down with some of North America's most interesting and successful entrepreneurs.
Jan 06, 2020•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast The idea of success has many faces and iterations, most of us relate success to financial freedom or fame, but when you are an entrepreneur, success can mean much more than that. Who knew that waiting in line for hours on end could turn into full fledge operation, that someone could find joy in dressing up as Batman just to bring joy to tourists or that selling finger-painting art on Facebook for $50 could turn into a million dollar business or that anyone would pay for literally garbage picked ...
Jul 15, 2019•42 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast The statistics aren’t too friendly when it comes to the longevity of small businesses. Nearly 50% fail at the five year mark. But, how does knowing this statistic help you? Most people can talk about failure ethereally—hardships builds character, you can’t succeed without failing, you know, those kinds of phrases. But, when it comes to us, you, specifically failing, you don’t want to and often times we do everything in our power to avoid thinking about the possibility of it. But, accepting that ...
Jul 01, 2019•31 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast Coming up with problems without immediately trying to fix them is a lot harder than you’d think. Our minds really are trained to find solutions. But, throughout this episode we focus the most on the beginning two steps— Defining the problem Confirming that it actually is a viable problem. The biggest take away from this whole conversation is to start at the beginning, with the problem—and spend a lot of time there. The last thing you want to do is create a solution that no one wants or is willin...
Jun 17, 2019•40 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast Episode Guests Beverley Cheng- Born To Sweat Zoey Masters- Instagram Jeremy Bailey- LinkedIn Center Stage Christopher Jones- SeeJonesWork “To be featured on Center Stage, send us a voice message!” Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the guests and production team and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of '2ndSite.INC dba FreshBooks, its employees or affiliates.'...
Jun 03, 2019•25 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast Every business starts somewhere before it's a well-oiled machine. Sometimes it's at your kitchen counter in-between your part-time jobs. The whole concept of growing your business means it was small at some point. This season, we've seen that it takes a lot to start a business from the ground up. Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur. It takes a lot of diligence and hard work to get any business off the ground. It's not for the faint of heart. There are a lot of ups, downs, failures, and...
May 20, 2019•28 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast For a while now, we have been planning an episode on diversifying your business. We wanted to document the story of an individual who had just started their business and what it looked like to establish diversification in the initial steps of development. But, the story we ended up capturing was much more specific; someone who was forced to diversify due to external issues out of their control. So, we briefly discuss the general idea of diversification and offer a few tips on starting your busin...
May 06, 2019•40 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast Productivity is important as an entrepreneur but so is the balance between your personal life and your work life. If you’re not careful you can easily burn yourself out, harm personal relationships, and actually become less productive because you’re not giving yourself the space to rejuvenate—which is often times why people are most productive. It’s a balance. The Western world is in a bit of an epidemic these days. Some of the leading organizations in today’s world give their employees unlimite...
Apr 22, 2019•33 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast Episode 05“It’s all about the money....and taxes.” Today’s episode is about one of the most dreaded yet necessary pains every entrepreneur has to endure...tax season. No matter how big or small your business is, taxes are always going to be somewhat complicated, confusing and could create a lot of troubles if not dealt with appropriately. We are here to help! Our featured guest, Paco de Leon is a self-proclaimed ‘money nerd,’ she founded “The Hell Yeah Group” to help small creative entrepreneurs...
Apr 08, 2019•34 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast Episode 04 "Being a Female Entrepreneur PT. 2" Welcome to the second episode of our 2-part series in honor of “Women’s History Month.” On this episode, we explore the role of equity in the female entrepreneurial world. We hear from 2 female business owners who share their experiences and journies to success. Equality. This is the conversation we’re having during women’s history month. However, to give this topic justice, we need also to consider what part equity plays. Equity is the varying leve...
Mar 25, 2019•44 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast Episode 03- "Being a Female Entrepreneur PT1" Welcome to a special 2-part series in honour of Women's History Month. We take a look at the entrepreneurship world from a female perspective. Being a woman in the small business world isn’t easy. Even if you don’t self-identify as a woman, because of recent media movements, you can probably gather that it’s not exactly a walk in the park for females. There’s been a shift, on a large scale, in society recently. The #metoo and #timesup movements have ...
Mar 11, 2019•27 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast The average entrepreneur works over 60 hours a week. That’s 20 plus hours more than the traditional 9-5er. Are you using your time wisely? Explore how other self-employed folks choose to approach their productivity. Hal Elrod, best-selling author of the Miracle Morning book shares with us why morning routines can boost your productivity throughout the day. Hal is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to morning routines and jumpstarting your day in the best way possible. If you want to read one of...
Feb 25, 2019•26 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast Episode 01- Present and Future of Entrepreneurship Why are people turning to self-employment in the current economy? Alex, a freelancer who thought jumping ship and starting her journey would be a lot simpler than it turned out to be. A whole new set of challenges arise once someone decides to venture into entrepreneurship and a lot of times, those challenges are not-so-common knowledge. We talk to some FreshBooks folks who share some interesting numbers and data on the present and future of ent...
Feb 11, 2019•17 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast 
