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.
Meghan Gonzalez 
My background is in broadcast journalism. Ever since I can remember, I’ve loved talking and telling a good story. After graduating from college, I started my career in news and eventually moved to Austin, where I worked for Spectrum News 1 for many years. Over time, I started to notice how much the news industry was changing and how people were losing trust in it. Read more>>
Erin Jantz, BSN, RN
Hello, I’m Erin Jantz, BSN, RN I can remember back when I was a little girl playing nurse, diagnosing ailments and treating my family with my life saving sweet tarts. Apparently, they were my cure all for just about everything. Read more>>
Dania Hunter 
I moved from Mexico to the United States when I was 15 brining with me my culture, my love of dance, and the determination to build a meaningful life here. Over the years, education and dance became two of the ways I could serve my community. I became a teacher, and eventually I turned my passion for dance into Infusion Dance in Pflugerville. Read more>>
Allison Garland 
I am originally from Michigan. I moved south to Texas in 2018 for love and found a rewarding nursing career and community in Austin. After travel nursing for years I have planted roots in the city and love to explore on my days off. I am passionate about travel, outdoor activities, yoga and the community I’ve encountered here. Read more>>
Sarah Heard 
My passion for food and hospitality began around the family table, inspired by my grandfather’s love of the restaurant experience, my mother’s from-scratch cooking, and my great-grandmother’s Amish traditions of making everything by hand. Read more>>
Dr. Joyce Wong 
I didn’t start out in dentistry. I earned my degree in chemical engineering in 1997 and moved to Austin that same year for my first engineering job. I spent five years working as an engineer and enjoyed the problem solving, but I wanted a career where I could work directly with people and see the difference I was making for them. Read more>>
Ryan Hopkins 
Born and raised in Davie, Florida, I started playing guitar at 7 years old. Throughout my early years, I always had my guitar on my side, but pursued writing over music. While I was in college, I started the gigging circuit with buddies to make a few extra bucks and enjoy the open tab. Read more>>
Kelvin Demps
I graduated with his B.S. in Nutrition & Food Sciences with minor concentrations in Chemistry, Biology, and Psychology from Georgia Southern University in May 2012. Before investing in the education and care of Austin’s future scientists, I worked at the United States Department of Agriculture from 2013 to 2022. Read more>>
Laura Ivy Blessing 
Before real estate, I was an athlete. I played Division 1 volleyball at Texas State on scholarship, and we had an undefeated season. That’s where I learned a team with a clear plan and a lot of reps beats talent alone. I’ve been building teams ever since. I got my license in 2004 and learned the business at Pohl Brown and Associates under Bill Pohl. Read more>>
Alyssa Merrifield 
Hospitality has been my passion for over 11 years, and The Boozy Botanist grew straight out of my love for bringing people together. I started out bartending on boats on Lake Travis, pouring my personality into every event and learning the ropes. Things really took off when I began working events in West Lake Hills. Read more>>
Tetiana Vasyliuk
My journey in the beauty industry began in Ukraine, where I discovered my passion for helping people feel confident through professional hair removal services. In 2020, I founded Laser Time with a vision to provide high-quality treatments based on safety, education, and professional expertise. In 2022, my family and I moved to the United States because of the war in Ukraine. Read more>>
Alissa Bayer 
I never thought of myself as a typical entrepreneur. I studied philosophy and literature as an undergraduate, then went to business school at UT Austin, where I wrote the business plan for milk + honey as an independent study in my final semester. Read more>>
Eseoghene Akpoyoware 
I was a collegiate D1 track & field athlete at the University of the Incarnate Word from 2017-2022 and had a fruitful career holding the indoor track and field school record at one point. Once sports was over, I struggled to find my identity outside of athletics and it was a real struggle. Read more>>
Luciana Prado 
My path into interior design has been anything but linear, but looking back, there’s a common thread: I’ve always cared about how design shapes people’s everyday lives. I moved to the United States 18 years ago and decided to study something I had always loved but hadn’t pursued professionally: interior design. Read more>>
Kamilah Broadway 
My story is one of resilience, transformation, love, ambition, and learning to embrace every version of myself along the way. I was born in Arkansas and raised in Dallas, Texas, but my journey began a little differently than most. My birth mother gave me up at the hospital, and I was partially raised by her second cousin. Read more>>
Randal Ford 
I’m an Austin-based photographer and director, and I’ve spent more than twenty years creating portraits and commercial images. Over time, photographing animals became a major part of my personal work, and that grew into a fine-art collection of limited-edition animal portraits. My approach is rooted in studio portraiture: simple backgrounds, deliberate lighting, and close attention to the subject. Read more>>
Sarah Thompson 
I’m Sarah Thompson, a brand and visual identity designer based in Austin, Texas. I started college as a biology major. Science had always been my goal and a passion of mine, while art was my way of channeling energy. When trouble found its way into my life, I had to step away from school and recalibrate. Read more>>
Dr. Bobby Banner, MPC 
I’m an artist and musician from El Paso Texas. I studied traditional visual arts at OLLU in San Antonio. I then worked for the Dougherty Arts Center for 10 years. During that time I established myself as a working hip hop producer, event organizer and touring musician with fatbeats distribution. Alongside many features and placements. Read more>>
Dag Larson 
I fell into photography in quite the most random way. I was going to community college, lost, living in a college town with no direction, skiing 70+ days a year. Read more>>
Chingri Shimray 
Early education has always been a passion of mine and I feel grateful to have a natural gift to be able to connect with those newborn to 4 years of age. As the oldest of four daughters, there was an innateness in caretaking over those younger than me. My first job was working in the nursery at the church I grew up in from 2007-2017. Read more>>
Tanner Shepard 
We started LawnPop in 2010 to get families back outside using their backyards. Lot’s of families with kids, pets, a pool and large live oaks made it hard to grow real grass. Many homeowners had dry, barren backyards that were dusty and muddy after a rain. Kids and pets tracking dirt into the house. With LawnPop artificial turf that pain went away. Read more>>
Evgenia Hutson 
My story is a story of transformation – and of learning that strength is something we build from the inside out. I grew up in Russia and eventually moved to the United States, where my life took many unexpected turns. Along the way, yoga became much more than a physical practice for me. Read more>>
Lisset Castillo 
It all started back in 2016 when I still lived in Miami, I longed to be a Veterinarian & I scored a job working at one and for a couple of years I worked at different vet clinics but soon realized I wanted more out of life, I didn’t want to work for anyone anymore, so in 2021 I decided to do Lashes,eyebrows & teeth whitening as a side hustle & then was an assistant to an Insurance broker… there was where everything changed. Read more>>
Cathy Vasilev
My journey into financial services started like a lot of people’s — I thought I wanted to be a stockbroker. It didn’t take long to realize that selling mutual funds wasn’t my thing. What actually pulled me in was the rules — the regulations, and the why and how behind them. Read more>>
Chris Gebhard 
Graduate of G.I.T in Hollywood 1990 / Graduate of UW-Milwaukee MBA fine arts / I moved to Austin in 2000. Read more>>
Tin Brendel
Brendel didn’t set out to end up in film — it’s closer to something he backed into. His earlier short AIDA, about desire and love, went through several rounds of Germany’s DAFF Deutsche Filmfestspiele before winning outright, qualifying it to represent Germany at the World Movie Competition in the Netherlands. Read more>>
Rachelle Meenan 
I’ve always been a creative yet goal-oriented person. Growing up, I loved painting, making art, and writing, although I was set on being a lawyer one day (that’s a story for another time!). My grandpa, who always had an incredible judge of character, used to say, “that girl is gonna do what she wants to do.” Looking back, that pretty much sums me up. Read more>>
Derika Evans
I moved to Austin in 2016 and sort of floated around without much of a purpose, like a lot of twenty-somethings do. I was figuring things out, trying different things, and living life without really questioning whether the path I was on was the one I wanted for myself. Read more>>
Alexandra Perez 
I’ve always loved doing hair and makeup, even as a teenager! I would always love to experiment with my hair and dye it different colors, doing things like split dyes with high contrasts. It was right around that time in my life that I enrolled in the cosmetology program at my high school at 15 years old. Read more>>
Heidi Nichole 
My Small Business Story I started pedicabbing in Oklahoma City in the fall of 2015. At the time, I was cleaning houses, doing animal and home sitting, and working a shipping clerk job. I needed an extra job to make ends meet, and I also wanted time to exercise. I saw pedicabs downtown and wondered if I could do it. Read more>>
Tyler Evan Sledge 
From the time I was 3 years old, I found great joy in viewing new construction homes and model homes. It started when my parents would ask me what I would like to do on any given weekend. My answer would always be the same; “Let’s go look at new construction houses and model homes”. Read more>>
Staphanie Ortiz 
I spent years in roles that never fit. Then I decided to stop playing small. I didn’t have a map, but I had the courage to keep moving toward what felt right, and that led me to charcuterie. When I decided to build it as a real business, I stepped away from a career that no longer fit, and I went all in. Read more>>
Nhi Nguyen 
My parents came to the States as refugees and settled in Fresno, CA, where I was born. We moved to Baton Rouge, where I spent my time helping out at the restaurants my family owned (I was that little asian kid in the corner). Read more>>
LisA Brzostek
Ahoy! I grew up on Long Beach Island, New Jersey, a small beach town where I spent my childhood dreaming of a career in television and film. Even as a kid, I was drawn to storytelling, creating and editing videos for our school’s homeroom news. Looking back, I guess I was getting an early start on my career without even realizing it! Read more>>
Michelle(Heejin) Cho 
Growing up, I used to watch my mother bake and often joined her in the kitchen. That early experience naturally sparked my love for baking, which turned into a hobby after getting married. When I first started baking on my own, information wasn’t as accessible online as it is today, so I relied heavily on cookbooks. Read more>>
Shanshan Rothlisberger 
My story has never followed a straight path, but looking back, I can see how beautifully the different chapters of my life have come together. Movement has always been part of who I am. Read more>>
Thadeus Gonzalez 
My name is Thadeus Gonzalez – singer /songwriter from SF bay area CA. Been blasting rock n roll and playing shows since I was extremely underage. Always lived and loved recording , writing and performing. I can’t remember when I wasn’t into anything else … maybe Batman Read more>>
Patrick Barrow 
I grew up in Houston and made my way out to Austin as a student at Texas State University in San Marcos. That’s where I got started with playing in bands and finding my way around the music scene in Central Texas. Read more>>
Jeremiah Sudarmanto 
My parents tried putting me in a lot of things, primarily sports. I was bad at all of them. A lot of my time as a child went into exploring the internet, I was fascinated by different cultures, fandoms, lifestyles and interests that people had. One day I took their camcorder that they never use, I was in 2nd grade (2011/2012). Read more>>
KJ Mensah
I grew up in Tafo, a town in the Kumasi area of Ghana, the youngest of five kids. Being the last one teaches you to watch before you speak, and I think that’s where I learned to read people. That skill has followed me into everything I do now. I came to the US in my twenties with big plans and very little road map. Read more>>
Final Frontier Rescue Project 
Our story really began with heartbreak. We had been involved in animal rescue, fostering, volunteering, and advocating for No Kill animal sheltering for many years, but we kept seeing dogs we loved being killed in shelters. We knew these were dogs who deserved a chance at life, and we couldn’t just stand by and accept that as the way things had to be. Read more>>
