How I Started: Lessons from Entrepreneurs to the Next Generation

Kids Markets
  • 4.9 (53)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

The Kids Markets team brings you inspiring ideas from entrepreneurs to help children explore, innovate, and become a builder in their own right. How I Started features conversations with founders and young entrepreneurs about building businesses from the ground up. Hosted by Connor Boyack, the show explores the lessons, pivots, and mentorship behind successful companies. Episodes include long-form founder interviews and Startup Standouts, short spotlights on teens launching their first ventures through Kids Markets.

  1. 3d ago

    Perfecting Your Product: Hilom Candles

    Samantha White talks with Noa Schlosschberg, a 14-year-old candle maker in the Atlanta area, about how a candle-making class turned into a real business. Noa shares her early trial-and-error process, how Kids Markets helped her go from testing ideas to selling consistently, and what she’s learned about confidence, pricing, and standing out as a small business. Guest Links: https://www.instagram.com/hilomcandles/ Key topics: Building and growing a candle business Building Inventory Investing in your business Advise for young entrepreneurs Creating a cozy brand #YoungEntrepreneur #TeenBusinessOwner #CandleMaking #SmallBusiness #SoyCandles #KidsMarkets #AtlantaEntrepreneur

    Perfecting Your Product: Hilom Candles

  2. Sep 23

    How Bill Reynolds Started in Real Estate and Built a Property Empire Across the Front Range

    What happens when you walk away from a steady job with no income, no plan, and no safety net? Bill Reynolds did exactly that in his twenties and spent the next six decades building one of the most enduring commercial real estate portfolios along Colorado's Front Range. In this episode of How I Started, Bill, a longtime real estate developer and philanthropist funding the next generation of entrepreneurs, shares the real founder journey behind millions of square feet of offices, shops, and warehouses. From shoveling snow for a quarter to personally signing on every loan to build his first buildings, Bill walks through the mountains he had to climb, the partnerships that shaped his path, and the failure that knocked him off his “cocky perch” early on. Things You Will Learn Why taking calculated risk is essential to entrepreneurship, and how Bill's higher tolerance for risk shaped six decades of real estate success.How to choose a business partner by looking at their values first, not just their resources or skills.Why a single major failure can become the most valuable lesson of your entire career, and how to use it to grow stronger.Tools & Frameworks Covered The Contribution Mindset: reframing work and jobs as contributing to family, community, and country to build the foundation for future success.Burn-the-Boats Decision Making: removing your safety net to force focus and urgency, used by Bill when he left his father's business to start his own.Values-First Partnership Selection: evaluating partners on aligned values rather than liquidity, since shared values carry partnerships through the inevitable hard decisions. #FounderJourney #Entrepreneurship #YouthEntrepreneurship #StartABusiness #MentoringTheNextGeneration

    How Bill Reynolds Started in Real Estate and Built a Property Empire Across the Front Range

  3. Sep 16

    Turning Moldy Inventory into Financial Success: Elisheba Sam

    This week, Samantha gets to talk to Elisheba Sam, an incredibly talented crochet artist with a unique range of products and amazing storytelling skills. She shares how she got into crochet, her experiences selling her more unusual products, and how she overcame unexpected setbacks to have success. You won’t want to miss this enthralling episode! Guest Links: https://www.instagram.com/freedomfam.us?stkn=aGZrZGhwYjI4Yjht Key Topics Youth entrepreneurshipStarting a handmade business as a childCrochet entrepreneurshipSelling at children’s entrepreneur marketsCreating unique productsProduct experimentation and innovationBuilding confidence through salesOvercoming fear and self-doubtHandling slow markets and bad weatherLearning from business setbacksProduct presentation and booth displaysUnderstanding customer behaviorFinding a target audienceSelling plushies and crocheted weaponsCustom orders and online sellingPersistence and not giving upTurning a hobby into a businessCreative problem-solvingThe importance of customer feedback #KidEntrepreneur #YoungEntrepreneur #CrochetBusiness #HandmadeBusiness #SmallBusiness #YoungCreators #EntrepreneurialMindset #CrochetMarket #OrlandoMarkets

    Turning Moldy Inventory into Financial Success: Elisheba Sam

  4. Sep 9

    How Mary Crafts Started a Catering Business from Her Kitchen and Built a Multimillion-Dollar Company

    What does it take to go from door-to-door card sales at age eight to building a multimillion-dollar catering company? Mary Crafts, Founder of Mary Crafts Inc. and one of Utah's most recognized culinary entrepreneurs, joins host Connor Boyack to share the real founder journey behind decades of growth. In this episode of How I Started, Mary walks us through her earliest entrepreneurial experience in a small Iowa town of 250 people, how watching her father identify community needs sparked her own instinct to create value, and how she turned home cooking and a red wagon into a thriving catering empire. Things You Will Learn How to identify a real need in your community and turn it into a business idea the same way Mary did at age eight and again when she launched her catering companyWhy rejection of your product is never a rejection of you and how understanding that difference unlocks the confidence to start sellingHow to discover what you're truly passionate about by noticing what makes people stop and listen when you speakTools & Frameworks Covered The Need-First Business Model: spotting what a community is missing before building the product, used by both Mary and her father to find their marketsThe Passion Discovery Method: identifying your entrepreneurial niche by asking what topics make others lean in and keep listeningThe Value-First Selling Approach: leading with service and customer experience over profit, which Mary credits as the foundation of long-term business growth #YouthEntrepreneurship #FounderJourney #StartABusiness #Entrepreneurship #MentoringTheNextGeneration

    How Mary Crafts Started a Catering Business from Her Kitchen and Built a Multimillion-Dollar Company

  5. Sep 2

    How Simplifying Your Business Can Help You Grow Faster: Happy Face Creations

    This week we get to speak with Wilfred Bailey, a 13-year-old entrepreneur behind Happy Face Creations, about turning a love of reading into a business selling custom bookmarks and stickers. Wilfred shares how he improved product quality, organized inventory with a POS system, and kept growing through market feedback, weather challenges, and constant iteration. Guest Links: www.happyfacecreations.comhttps://www.instagram.com/happyfacecreations24/https://www.etsy.com/shop/HappyFaceCreationKey topics: Building a bookmark business Focusing on quality Overcoming operational challenges #bookmarkbusiness #youngentrepreneur #kidsmarkets #orlandomarkets #smallbusiness #operationaladvice #customorders #inventorytracking #POS #overcomingweatherchallenges #familysupport

    How Simplifying Your Business Can Help You Grow Faster: Happy Face Creations

  6. Aug 26

    How John Pestana Built and Grew Omniture into a $2 Billion Business

    What does it actually look like to grow a student side hustle into a company worth nearly $2 billion? John Pestana did exactly that, starting by building websites for $20 an hour out of a college computer lab, and eventually selling Omniture to Adobe for close to $2 billion. In this episode of How I Started, Connor Boyack sits down with John, an entrepreneur, CEO and Co-founder of ObservePoint, and a seasoned mentor to founders, to uncover the real story behind one of Utah's biggest tech success stories. They explore how John went from DJing church dances and shoveling fire pits to discovering an adjacent opportunity in website analytics to leading a company of over 1,200 employees. Things You Will Learn How to spot and act on adjacent opportunities that naturally grow out of the work you're already doingHow to choose a co-founder whose skill set complements yours and avoid the partnerships that fall apartWhy hyper-focusing on one thing early in a business create more success than chasing multiple ideas at onceTools & Frameworks Covered The Adjacent Possible: a method for recognizing and acting on business opportunities that emerge naturally from your current work and customer relationshipsBootstrapping as a Learning Tool: using lean, self-financed growth to stay close to your customer's real problems instead of spending your way past themThe Co-founder Compatibility Check: evaluating a potential business partner on complementary skills, shared ethics, and a clear wind-down agreement before committing #HowIStarted #YouthEntrepreneurship #FounderJourneys #StartABusiness #Mentorship

    How John Pestana Built and Grew Omniture into a $2 Billion Business

  7. Aug 19

    Customizing Your Product to Each Market: Kyler’s Kreations

    Samantha White sits down with 12 year old Kyler Whaley, who sells at Indianapolis markets and has built a business around 3D printed products tailored to different audiences. He shares how he learned the business side of selling, from inventory and pricing sheets to customer conversation and market research, and why adapting to each event matters. We discuss how Kyler chooses what to make, what sells best, and the lessons he has learned from selling in both kids markets and frequently speaking with adults. Key topics: Market researchIdentifying top sellersObserving trendsLearning skills behind the scenesThe challenge of staying motivated #3Dprinting #youngentrepreneur #kidsmarkets #IndianapolisMarkets #smallbusiness #marketresearch #customerpitching #inventorytracking #pricingsheets #fidgets #timemanagement #motivation #socialskills #productadaptation #audiencespecificproducts #familysupport

    Customizing Your Product to Each Market: Kyler’s Kreations

  8. Aug 12

    From Street Corner to Global Reach: How Zuby Udezue Built a Music Career Without a Record Label

    What if you never needed anyone's permission to start? Zuby Udezue didn't wait, and the result was 30,000 albums sold hand-to-hand, across cities and countries, with no label, no manager, and no gatekeeper standing between him and his fans. Zuby is a global rapper, author, and podcaster with millions of followers who built his entire career by going directly to his audience, starting with geo arbitrage as a teenager between Saudi Arabia and the UK, and scaling to a self-released music catalog, books, and a hit podcast. In this episode, Connor and Zuby explore how founder journeys begin with a single bold move, why rejection is just the price of admission, and how the habits of early entrepreneurship compound into long-term success. Things You Will Learn How to identify a geo arbitrage opportunity and turn a personal advantage into your first saleHow to reframe rejection as a data point, and use it to sharpen your sales process over timeWhy going direct to your audience, without gatekeepers, is a viable and powerful growth strategy at any age Tools & Frameworks Covered Geo Arbitrage: How to identify price gaps between markets and turn them into early-stage profit without upfront riskPre-Selling Before You Spend: How Zuby took orders before buying inventory, eliminating risk and proving demand firstThe Rejection Reframe: A mindset method for tracking wins, ignoring losses, and building sales confidence through repetition#YouthEntrepreneurship #FounderJourney #StartABusiness #Entrepreneurship #HowIStarted

    From Street Corner to Global Reach: How Zuby Udezue Built a Music Career Without a Record Label
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4.9
out of 5
53 Ratings

About

The Kids Markets team brings you inspiring ideas from entrepreneurs to help children explore, innovate, and become a builder in their own right. How I Started features conversations with founders and young entrepreneurs about building businesses from the ground up. Hosted by Connor Boyack, the show explores the lessons, pivots, and mentorship behind successful companies. Episodes include long-form founder interviews and Startup Standouts, short spotlights on teens launching their first ventures through Kids Markets.

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