Passion Project Pending

Carlee Cliff is 23, Greek-American, and building Kompsi — a sustainable accessories brand rooted in community, girlhood, and the kind of soul she felt was missing from the brands she loved. In this conversation, Carlee shares how a mental breakdown on a beach in Cinque Terre sparked the idea, how navigating years of anxiety taught her to choose herself anyway, and what it really looks like to bet...

In this episode, I sit down with Mikayla, founder of The Aesthetic Edit, who shares her unexpected journey from corporate marketing to entrepreneurship. After facing multiple layoffs and career pivots, Mikayla discovered her calling wasn't in climbing the traditional ladder - it was in building something entirely her own. She reveals how she combined her marketing expertise with an unconventi...

Randa is a San Diego mortgage lender who offers a crash course in navigating the city's unique real estate market - from both buyer and industry perspectives. After years in traditional employment roles that left her craving more freedom and flexibility, she transitioned into mortgage lending in 2022. Randa has built a thriving referral-based business by partnering with real estate agents and...

#65. Natalie Suppa is a yoga teacher and business owner who transformed years of financial struggle into a successful, fulfilling yoga business. After culinary school didn't pan out, she found yoga through therapy during one of the darkest periods of her life. What started as a coping mechanism became her calling. She spent years grinding—teaching at 10+ studios simultaneously for $20-60 per...

Kate is the owner of Studio Casually, operating multiple photo and event studio spaces in San Diego. Now 29, she started the business over three years ago after building an unconventional career path - graduating high school at 17 with an associate's degree, working various jobs while teaching herself marketing and photography, and eventually transitioning to full-time freelance work before o...

Eric Cheng is the founder and host of the existential zillenial podcast “Wait, Say More”, recently rebranded from its previous title of “No, So True”. With “Wait, Say More", he aims to tackle the real challenges of navigating your late twenties now in a funny and earnest way. After starting his career in comedy writing and performance, Eric transformed his own quarter life crisis and mental h...

I worked at a bakery in La Jolla, San Diego this fall when I had no money and no job and many expenses after moving across the country!! This bakery, Girard Gourmet, welcomed me with open arms and I learned a lot through working there. The owners, Diana and Francois, let me interview them about their experience running this place for  nearly 40 decades. Through another story that defies expectatio...

#61. What I Learned in 2024 What I worked on Solopreneurship vs being employed Lesson in self awareness: taking accountability for my actions Importance of ripping out an old life to make room for a new. How isolation was helpful but painful… because of my perception Comparison running rampant, wreaking havoc Resources that helped me - people and practices (journaling) What’s important to me now M...

#60. This will be part 2 of my interview with Dr. Sara Howell, a fourth year med student at Howard University and the founder and designer behind Pax Marila, a brand designed to be both a safe place for women of diverse backgrounds and a hub of knowledge, pride and cultural awareness.  In part 1, we discussed Sara’s background leading up to med school and starting Pax Marila, including her motivat...

#59. Sara Howell is the founder and designer behind Pax Marila, a brand designed to be both a safe place for women of diverse backgrounds and a hub of knowledge, pride and cultural awareness. Besides growing Pax Marila for the past several years, Sara has also been busy earning her medical degree from Howard University, finishing up her final year this year and looking forward to a residency in an...

#58. Not to get ahead of myself, but we are SO back sis! Alexandra Dean is the founder of Adhere To, a sustainable, gender-neutral outerwear brand launched in 2022. Previously a designer at Lululemon, Alex took her knowledge of clothing design with her into providing freelance support for various brands, which ultimately allows her to fund her very own brand. Adhere To combines 100% recycled mater...

#57. Camila Reyes is the president of Girls Club San Diego as well as a business coach through her company Simple Strategy. Tune in for a conversation on entrepreneurship, women in business, personal growth, business coaching, boundaries, mindset, and so much more. https://www.simplestrategy.co/ https://www.instagram.com/simplestrategy.co/ https://www.girlsclubsd.org/ https://www.instagram.com/gir...

#56. Hello, and welcome to the chaos! I learned to freelance this year, providing social media management software engineering services. If you have questions about freelancing, it is essentially having people pay you to provide them with specific services but now you're technically your own employer. You don't have a boss, yay! But you also have several "clients" that you need...

#55. Tayllor Williams founded Studio West Pilates this year after gaining experience teaching in studios around Chicago. She discovered her love for Pilates and low impact movement after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in 2020. After noticing the benefits of Pilates in her own life, she decided to pursue her certification and opened her own studio space in order to share the benefits sh...

#54. Dr. Meg Jay is a clinical psychologist and bestselling author specializing in the twenty something years. She wrote the book The Defining Decade in 2012, followed by a 2013 TED talk “Why 30 is Not the New 20” which has been viewed over 14 million times. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Forbes, Psychology Today, and NPR. She earned a PhD in clinical ps...

#53. I'm 4 months into my attempt at full-time solopreneurship. I've spent time developing the podcast social media, taking on freelance clients for social media management and coding, started my own LLC, and a lot of time just spinning my wheels. In this episode I reflect on the struggles I've faced and some things that have helped with clarity, mindset and attitude recently. I tal...

#52. Leslie Simionescu is a yoga teacher and member of the leadership team at Yen Yoga Studio located in Traverse City, MI. Yen Yoga was created in 2010 and Leslie joined shortly after, becoming a 200 hour Yoga Teacher through a teacher training program hosted there by Jennifer Lintvedt. She has since become a 500 hour advanced teacher through Janet Stone Yoga at Esalen Institute in Big Sur Califo...

#51. Today I am interviewing my older brother Daniel Wilson otherwise known as Dan. Dan has had all sorts of wild experiences other than being a software engineer for 6+ years. The major ones include training for and completing an ironman, living on a sailboat in the New York City Hudson River and sailing said sail boat down the east coast, and most recently white water rafting in Zambia. And yes,...

#50. Alejandra Thomas is a software engineer and content creator. She currently lives in New York City and works as a Developer Advocate for a startup, as well as a part time Web Developer for Mixed Change, an agency working with nonprofits. On top of this, she also creates coding content across Twitter, Tiktok and Instagram. I first discovered Ale while creating coding content on Tiktok myself. S...

Soulfull is a community founded by Taylor Hamilton and Caroline Ball with the intent of fostering meaningful and authentic connection, incorporating more play into life, and elevating local businesses and creatives in San Francisco. In this episode, we discuss: Their background, friendship, and how they came to both return to CA as roommates in SF Their shared passion for building community The mu...

#48. Hadlee Garrison started her health coaching business after getting her Masters of Public Health from the University of Michigan. She earned her health coaching certification after going through a health coaching program of the company she interned with during her Masters. In this episode, we discuss the following: The details of her health coaching program focused on relationship with food, h...

Ashley Luchini is my dear friend that I met during a travel writing study abroad course in Greece almost six years ago. She got her degree in nursing and is now pursuing a dual degree in women’s health nurse practitioner and certified nurse midwife. We just had the opportunity to catch up at our mutual friend Katie’s wedding a couple weeks ago and were just chatting about the general chaos of your...

#46. In this episode I discuss My history with choosing Computer Science Computer Science program at Umich First impression of compsci / what they taught us Career fairs How many classes I almost failed Choosing LSA vs. engineering (different colleges within University of Michigan with different requirements) Recruiting for junior year internship vs. recruiting senior year for full time role First...

#45. In this episode I discuss: My experience with social media (coding content on tiktok) Why Social Media Matters if You Have a Product to Market What I've done for the PPP social media so far How my account grew What I've learned from an online course I took to learn about this What I have yet to learn from the course The Effects of Being Online  How to Create Boundaries with Social M...

#44. Thanks to a recent epiphany from a podcast interview of Alex Hormozi, I've created a solo episode around this exercise of "What would it take to have authority in x", where 'x' is some arbitrary skillset or task etc. I've cycled through many forms of goal setting, some very non committal. What I like is when the focus is on what I'm able to do, and not on ex...