The Honest Field Guide®

Giovanna Sun, aka dubwoman, is a futurist, writer, a blockchain advisor, artist, curator and owner of several platforms that you can find on linktr.ee/dubwoman. Giovanna is also a specialist in creating original art and selling them as NFTs (non-fungible tokens). NFTs are controversial and complex and are now trending, for better or for worse, in the global art ecosystem. Our conversation revolves...

Jacob Adlington is a visual sound artist and photographer from New Zealand, based in Brisbane, Australia who has a deep belief in the power of music and sound to shape our physical and mental realities and beyond. I met Jacob after stumbling down the Instagram rabbit hole of wonder, and discovered his vibrant and gorgeous channel representing the circular sound of vibration through color and water...

Dr. Akilah Cadet, is founder and CEO Change Cadet, a global agency that prepares individuals and companies to be soldiers of change in the workforce so there can be more women and people of color at the top. Our vibrant and at times uncomfortable conversation will have you questioning your own internal narratives about race and will challenge you on language, thought and perceptions about white su...

Rana Reeves , CEO of global ad agency RanaVerse, shares his unique and spidey-sense upbringing journey from London to NYC, the impact that the recent American #blm movement had on his continued transformation of self, as well as strategies on what leaders in advertising can do to nudge brands to change -- from the inside.  Visit RanaVerse at https://www.ranaverse.com and on IG at https://www....

Visit Erika Gerdes at https://erikagerdes.com. When superstar Madonna stepped off the mic and onto the big screen for “Desperately Seeking Susan,” she had no idea how it would transform her life and career and cement her as a timeless global icon. Meet Erika Gerdes, a business leader formerly from Google who turned herself from outward reflection to internal inspection and found an authentic woman...

Welcome to season two of the Honest Field Guide Podcast! Ep. 50 - The Oprah Winfrey of Plants: A Growing Conversation with Nika Vaughan, Founder of Plant Salon We've missed you all! It's been a minute since we've released an episode. 2020 may have slowed us down, but it didn't take asunder! No sir! Excited to present our first conversation of 2021 featuring serial entrepreneur Nika Vaughan of Chic...

This is a great time to reintroduce our audiences to our founder JinJa Birkenbeuel's story, which was originally broadcast in 2018. Given the recent earned media interview of JinJa by legendary designer Doreen Lorenzo in Fast Company Magazine ( https://www.fastcompany.com/90596177/want-to-succeed-in-design-and-business-support-women ), we thought it would be a great time to do this. Enjoy JinJa's...

How do you stay driven, purposeful, focused and positive while being Black at work? Listen in as Dr. Jeffreen Hayes, Ph. D., founder of for the love of blk, https://www.fortheloveofblk.com, and Executive Director of Threewalls, https://three-walls.org, talks with The Honest Field Guide about how she stands her ground for Blackness during her magnificent and driven journeys through oceans of Whiten...

Guiding question: How are you surviving being a business owner during the pandemic?  #### Follow our show on http://www.instagram.com/honestfieldguide or at http://www.twitter.com/thehonestfield. We would love your dollars to keep going! We can take a donation to support our podcast here and we will shout you our when you do it on an upcoming podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/...

David Stephens, owner of Chicago's premier youth swim team CWAC Swimming (https://www.teamunify.com/Home.jsp?team=iscwac) saw a big gap in the Chicago youth sports market. Coming from one of the country's number one swim states, Georgia, the city of Chicago had no elite swim teams, and no one seemed to be thinking of starting one. Chicago IS known for its championship basketball, football, basebal...

Take a ride and listen in on our rich and passionate conversation with Nicholas Whitaker, mindfulness and wellness coach and strategic partner lead for news at @google. The topic of health and wellness is so relevant for right now. Why? Because we, as entrepreneurs and small businesses in the United States, are all in what is turning out to be an infinite struggle of emotional and financial surviv...

We speak with The World Economic Forum nominated and Forbes contributor Talal Rafi from Sri Lanka to hear his undertones of hope and promise of a better world for all entrepreneurs. Listen all the way to the end to find out what he would like from Apple for the future. Find our more about Talal https://profiles.forbes.com/members/business/profile/Talal-Rafi-Founder-CEO-Sesame-Associates/64e6d58d-0...

How in the world does a young science student go on to earn her B.S. in Zoology to become an international fine artist, a cultural diplomat in Syria and Kuwait for the United States Department of State, and an entrepreneur all at the same time?  Armenian-American artist Jackie Kazarian shows us the way in this rich conversation around creativity, curiosity and cultural exchange.  Fi...

Dayna Isom Johnson knew from when she was eight years old making and selling mud pies in rural Virginia, that she wanted to be in the creative fashion industry. Think about this: Eight years old, and you already have your career planned out and designed! Dayna speaks brightly about the clarity of her creative path unsupported by racial "mirrors," but powerfully guided by her working Aunt in corpor...

They say small businesses are the backbone of America. But what no one understood until the pandemic, was how under resourced, unprepared, uninformed and unconnected most American small businesses were from America's global supply chain.  What is a supply chain? As our guest Brittain Ladd, a supply chain expert shares, it's the process to grow cotton, the get the cotton to a mill for processi...

The impact of entrepreneurship on the America dream is too often taken for granted. Consider Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Viet Thanh Nguyen, who escaped Vietnam as a refugee with most of his family in the 70s, almost immediately torn from his mother's arms when they hit the ground in America. Then a few years later, reunited with his brother and parents who started their own successful, yet back...

We're back with more INSTAGRAM conversations, America's most favorite and fun social media channel! JinJa Birkenbeuel and Esther Ikoro have updated their "Episode 1, State of: Instagram" and are sharing more insights, strategies and inspiration with YOU. As always, a fun and lively conversation. We talk about monetizing on Instagram (no) and how Apple has been helping artists monetize (yes) free e...

Seemingly, Matt Burzec was born an entrepreneur. In the third grade, Matt made custom origami and sold them for a few dollars a piece and made $200 in under a month. He was almost expelled because he was making too much money. He then went on to create a new online company in the eighth grade, and sold it a year later. He self-taught himself about e-commerce by searching on Google. But that doesn'...

When we think about pairings, we usually are considering liquor and food. But what if you could figure a way to pair great music and high quality liquor? What would that music sound like and how would it feel as you drink a dark amber tasting rum on ice? Jim Powers, the founder of Minty Fresh pivoted his music label career and founded a rum company PARCE Rum . With his eye still focused on maintai...

Robert Runcie, superintendent of Broward County Public Schools visits with us during this time of the astonishing and rapid breakdown (albeit temporarily) of society and the economy in the United States--in large part due to public schools being ordered to shut down across America. Parents are unable to work, families and children are unable to get food and computers that are needed for teachers t...

Back in 2018, we had a conversation around the opportunities and possibilities for small businesses surrounding LinkedIn. Esther, was not convinced that LinkedIn was a good platform for her. JinJa was obsessed with LinkedIn and tried to convince Esther to give it another chance. It's been over a year, and Esther has come around to LinkedIn. Not as much as JinJa, but progress has been made. Check o...

What is Black political power and who does it benefit? How important is the availability of capital for Black business? Where is Silicon Valley and are there any Black people there? We are speaking with Dr. Eric Whitaker, co-founder of Zing Health, founder of CPASS Foundation and also an entrepreneur in the health equity space to unpack the narratives around Black business mindset, success and als...

Is the concept of “a woman’s intuition” a myth? Not according to Kate Leydon, entrepreneur and founder of Ruby Room, an experiential wellness and boutique retail shop and hotel in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. Learn about Kate’s journey from a satisfying career working for one of the world’s top cosmetics brand to her eventual collapse from exhaustion to path of clarity through deprivation i...

Everybody thinks they are an artist. Every creative person believes they can make riches on the internet because it seems like every other creative is doing it. (Ever heard of photoshop, comping, prototyping and fake news?) I'll get my art on a wall mural at Coke! Nike will love my designs for their shoes, as soon as they see my instagram, I will be GOLD! I am a much better photographer than the o...