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.
Brian Neher
I’ve always been interested in art from a very early age. My grandmother was a commercial artist who encouraged me to draw and paint. Her example would later inspire me to pursue a career as a professional artist. I enrolled in the commercial art program at Pensacola Christian College in Pensacola, FL in 1990. Read more>>
Alexandria Truesdale
Hair has always been a part of my roots—literally and figuratively. Every woman in my family went to hair school, so beauty and hairstyling were always present in my upbringing. I loved playing dress-up as a child, especially with wigs—long wigs in particular. Long before I ever stepped into a cosmetology classroom, I was already doing hair for everyone around me. Read more>>
Love Anderspm
Breastfeed Durham began with a few angry moms. That was the year Durham had the widest infant mortality disparity in the state. It was an exceptionally bad year, and we were exceptionally angry. I was doing peer to peer lactation support at the time, and the thing that made me maddest was smaller and more ordinary than the statistics. Read more>>
Shonte Youmans
My journey has been anything but traditional, but every chapter has helped shape the woman and leader I am today. I earned my bachelor’s degree in Communications from USC Aiken and later a master’s degree in Criminal Justice with a concentration in Executive Management and Leadership. For more than eight years, I worked in the correctional system, eventually moving into leadership. Read more>>
Jamelle Sanders
My journey goes back to working at a consulting firm years ago. During my time there, my boss kept talking to me about purpose and the huge impact my life would have on the world. At the time, I was not really paying her words any attention. After all, I had a desire to go to Wall Street and to be a Hedge Fund Manager. Read more>>
Nick Martin
Music has been and continues to be a devotion, passion, and a hobby for me since my childhood. I remember being a kid and listening to music from the ’70s, growing up listening to ’80s songs, and feeling the vibes from the ’90s. I started very young, when I was 14 or 15 years old, collecting music, old records, and tapes. Read more>>
Eve Avery
I always imagined myself owning my own business. People would constantly ask me, ‘When are you going to open your own store?’ Then, 26 years ago, an opportunity came along, and I realized I could either go for it or let it pass me by. So I went for it. Read more>>
Momoplush
I am a digital and traditional artist turned Vtuber. This all began from the desire to return to creating art, after being discourage to stop creating by my college department head. You may have or may not have heard the term ‘Vtuber’, but if you have not, I am a content creator that does not show her face on camera. Read more>>
Yolanda Henderson
My story starts in the military. I served in the Air Force, and that season taught me discipline, structure, and how to survive under pressure. But it was also during my time in service that I experienced domestic abuse. Read more>>
Ellen Sheffer Carattini
I didn’t start with a big business plan, a team of people, or a blue print showing me exactly where I would end up. I started with an idea, a lot of determination, and a willingness to figure things out as I went. Read more>>
Billy Rae
It was actually first working on my own brand that I realized these particular interests would bring together all the passions I had in me as a child – creativity, entrepreneurship, and serving others. Read more>>
Angel Culler
I was a victim of child abuse and sex trafficking until the age of seven. I have witnessed addiction, incarceration, and domestic violence, and I carry the trauma from my parents’ choices. At the age of seven, my parents lost custody of me, and the courts granted my grandparents full custody. Read more>>
Matt Walls
My journey into plumbing wasn’t something I had planned from the beginning. Before I ever became a plumber, I was actually digging graves. It was hard work, but I knew I wanted to find something that gave me a greater sense of purpose and an opportunity to build a future. That’s when I went to work for a plumbing company. Read more>>
Lindsay Moses
I am a graduate of Northwestern University in Chicago and that is where my career began. I was always an athletic person and gravitated towards working with an athletic population. I spent the first half of my career working in the orthopedic rehab world and although I enjoyed many aspects of that, I always felt like something was missing. Read more>>
Joel Henry Kiser
So I started playing guitar when I was about 13 and started playing in bands when I was about 15 and playing and touring ever since. I been a bunch of bands. I was in House of Fools for about 12 years and we were signed to drive thru records and we toured the country a lot and had a universal publishing. Deal. Read more>>
Daphne McKinney
I was born and raised in West Virginia. I don’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t completely consumed by music. I think the moment I got my first car; I was already planning what concert I could drive to. We never seemed to have any concerts where I was from so I started finding my way to places. Read more>>
Akori Quinones
Music has always been at the center of who I am. My mom says I didn’t have “first words” but a first song. I would sing the same song over and over with her before I could fully speak. From there, music naturally became my way of communicating and expressing myself in ways I’m usually too shy to convey to others. Read more>>
Vanessa Zavadzkas
Hi my name is Vanessa Zavadzkas. I started sewing for myself about a decade ago. Lots of companies back then sold suits as sets that could not be purchased separately. I started making things to make exact measurements rather than size chart appointed sizing. My suits stayed on during all the water sports that consumed my life everyday. Read more>>
Jamelle Flowers
I got start in acting through an award winning author named Omar Tyree. Shout out to him! We met at an event and started discussing the different ventures and projects we were working on. I was working on music and he was looking to transition into screenwriting. He was working on his first film called “Monologues” and asked me to be in it. Read more>>
Tammy Peterson
Hubb’s Farm grew from our family’s agricultural roots and a small idea that gradually became much larger than we first imagined. Our farm is located on a family farm that has been in our family for five generations. My professional background is in accounting. Read more>>
Dave Noffsinger
My journey into the professional trades began when I moved to the Raleigh, North Carolina area from West Virginia in 1999. At the time, I was still searching for a definitive career path when an incredible opportunity presented itself: a job working alongside a local multi-trade contractor named Chip Mims of CBM Enterprises. Working with Chip became the foundational cornerstone of my career. Read more>>
Andy Hoffman
I didn’t come from money, quite the opposite. I grew up in a family with no real financial acumen, and money was tight. I was scared to go to college and take on student loans when I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Read more>>
Donna Murrell
My journey into the world of pageantry began long before I ever became a Pageant Coach. In many ways, everything I have done throughout my career has prepared me for where I am today. My career began at 15 years old when I entered the modeling industry as a professional runway model and modeling instructor for major modeling schools in Charlotte. Read more>>
Roxanne Engstrom
Hawa Images started with a journey: most people don’t hate how they look in photos they do sometime hate how unseen they feel in them or how their story is told without consideration or consent. I spent 4 years in East Africa working and partnering with amazing people and something about the way relationships were built there. Read more>>
Lynita Mitchell-Blackwell
My story has been an evolution from achievement to alignment, and ultimately, to legacy. I began my professional career in accounting and business, working with global firms including PwC and Deloitte before transitioning into law. I earned my law degree from Georgia State University College of Law and built a career that allowed me to combine my financial background, legal training, and entrepreneurial spirit. Read more>>
Lois Gold
My parents were avid art collectors and so I had an interest in art at a very young age. When I was in graduate school, studying French I started to sculpt at night. I then segued to painting eventually full time. Read more>>
Justin Puckett
My story is pretty simple. About 10 years ago, I wanted to buy a drone just for fun. Drones were still relatively new technology at the time, and a good one was a pretty significant investment. Read more>>
Tracy Grogan
In 2025, my career took an unexpected turn when I was impacted by a corporate reorganization. At the time, it was unsettling, but it also fueled something in me that had probably been building for a while. My husband and I had been talking about purchasing a beach home at the coast. Instead, we started asking ourselves a bigger question: why not actually move there? Read more>>
Alessandra and Gianfranco Santagati
My wife Alessandra and I (Gianfranco )are Italian, deeply Italian in our roots, our culture, our love for food, family and beauty. But after many years, experiences and places, we also consider ourselves citizens of the world. We have always been visionaries and creators. We build businesses, develop startups, transform ideas into something real. We see possibilities where sometimes there is nothing yet. Read more>>
Ryan Allen
Born in Valdosta, Georgia, in 1986, I found my way to Charlotte, NC by way of culinary arts and the help of my homemake teacher, Mrs. Beasley, after spending 20 years learning to be creative in the restaurant industry by seasonal cooking and building a relationship with local farmers and their seasonal ingredients. COVID was the turning point in my creative expression. Read more>>
Heather Gower
Short version … I always wanted too but money held me back. In 2010 I got divorced. As a stay at home mom I needed to go to work. I became a special education teacher. The politics and the ability to really help my students to the best abilities they have left me frustrated. The system is broken. Read more>>
Shelly Shi
Beauty crew mobile was officially born in 2016, when Lindsay and I noticed the need for onsite beauty services in the busy Wilmington wedding scene. It was a natural and necessary progression that really took off to meet the demands of a modern approach for wedding day beauty services. Read more>>
Megan Perez
I started my account (@megansdesignedlife) back in 2015 posting pictures of my outfits daily before being an Influencer was a popular thing. It all started because people in random places would often ask me “Where did you get that?”. My account became much more when brands started to reach out to me to attend events and to try their products. Read more>>https://voyageraleigh.com/interview/meet-megan-perez-of-raleigh
Maria Jose Chapa
After working in politics and civic engagement for over 10 plus years I was mentally and emotionally spent. Combined with a late diagnoses of AUDHD at the age of 43, I just couldn’t bring myself to continue working in that sphere. My best friend encouraged me to start a cleaning business in 2023. Read more>>
Sonny Hennessy
Our culture is rooted in the character of kindness and excellence and to connect with people in a meaningful way. We entered the marketplace with The Exchange Brand, which includes a coffee house and eatery, a trendy salon, and a large 20-acre retreat property. The Exchange Coffee is in Wisconsin: https://www.theexchangecoffee.com/ Read more>>
Vaishnavi Vijayakumar
I grew up in a conservative joint family in India where your path was predetermined. You listened. You followed. You didn’t question. I did my undergrad in IT, married right after – arranged marriage, the traditional way – and accepted that this was my life. Then, at twenty-one, I left everything. My husband was accepted to a PhD program at University College Dublin. Read more>>
Eva Marie Carney
I started this journey to end period poverty by sending several boxes of period care items to Pine Ridge Reservation in 2017, after learning about the shocking rate of period poverty on rural U.S. Indigenous reservations — more than 1 in 4 students are affected. Read more>>
Iron Fist
Hello! Growing up, there wasn’t a lot of guidance on Business and Economics, however this didn’t discourage me from dreaming. I had no idea of the origin or truth behind my vision, only an idea of how to begin and what it should look like. Read more>>
Beth Glover
Merle Norman Cosmetics has been serving Fuquay-Varina for over 50 years providing quality skin care and makeup products made in USA. It’s local owned and operated. We love helping others look and feel confident. Having many foundation options from tinted moisturizer to fuller coverage formulas. Skincare that’s plant based natural line to advanced anti aging options. Read more>>
Shawn and Mel Frazier
Melissa and I have been married for 18 beautiful years. We first met through a mutual friend at church in New Jersey. After the service, I walked over and introduced myself and, according to my version of the story, she fell in love with me right then and there! Read more>>
Kim Ross
I got my start as a child watching my father flat-foot in the hills of Southwest Virginia. I was amazed at the way he would float across the floor when the music starting playing. Being shy, I would hide and try to dance like him. Read more>>
Terri Fleenor
A few years ago, my life changed almost overnight. Just three weeks after becoming a new mom, I unexpectedly lost my job. At the time, I had been offering mobile spray tans on the side, and what started as extra income suddenly became the way I supported my family. Read more>>
Jennifer Sluzewski
I’ve always been drawn to creative storytelling, our collective human experience, and the stories that connect us. As an introverted intuitive, I’m deeply curious about the world around us, and I think that curiosity has shaped almost every chapter of my life so far. Read more>>
Ashley Ellis
My journey into photography started after we had our first baby. At the time, money was tight, and professional photos weren’t really something we had much extra to spend on—but I desperately wanted to capture all of those little moments and have beautiful photos of my baby to look back on. So, I decided to buy a camera of my own. Read more>>
Kimberly Judd
My Candle Making Journey Made with love in North Carolina. My journey with candle making began in 2013 out of pure frustration with what I was finding on store shelves. I was tired of buying expensive candles that tunneled, lost their scent after a couple of burns, or contained mystery ingredients and paraffin wax that I didn’t want in my home. Read more>>
