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.
Sean Sherrod
My name is Sean Sherrod, and I’m the Owner of Sherrod Music Agency. Which Is an Independent Record Label. I am also a Music Manager and A&R Consultant. I scout Music Artists to get them ready for Major Labels. I also offer Management Services, Marketing, Major Label meetings, Artist Development and much more Read more>>
Wyatt Crabtree
I’m a working musician, a one man band with the stage name Joe’s Cousin. What started as a hobby has turned in to a full time profession. I started playing open mics and farmers markets and now keep up a fairly extensive tour schedule playing over 100 shows a year in multiple states and markets. Read more>>
Mitch Webb
My buddy and I started Midtown Detailing of N.C LLC when we were juniors in high school. We were passionate about cleaning our own vehicles and decided why not clean others? We started marketing and spreading the word of our new business. Something important to us was to serve the triangle area with an emphasis on building client relationships. Read more>>
STACEY PEREZ
Hi, I’m Stacey! I am a travel and tourism specialist, a certified travel agent, and the creative voice behind StacePlores. My journey began in beautiful Puerto Rico, where I grew up surrounded by vibrant colors and tropical landscapes. Read more>>
Emmitt Terrell
Ever since I was a little kid I envisioned having a gym of my own. I knew one day it would be full of happy, healthy & smiling people. I was drawn to fitness & health as a vehicle to help people live more vibrant & fulfilled lives. Read more>>
Al-Nisa Lawson
I started comedy in 2016, right after my divorce, when I went to see a friend do an open mic and support her. When I arrived at the show, she chickened out. She declined to do the open Mic. I crossed her name out, and I went back. I went up in her place. The producer of the show asked me afterwards. Read more>>
Stu Nichols
I wanted to get into the operation of an artist space and so I partnered with a well-known local developer who was forming an artist collaborative. We partnered successfully for five years. He was at a stage where he wanted to simplify his life and we bought out his interest. Read more>>
Tina Burnette
I am currently pursuing a Masters in Divinity in professional Chaplaincy. I have experience many deaths of loved ones in life. I lost my father three months after my high school graduation. With my professional Chaplaincy degree I plan working the Healthcare setting. In the near future I plan to open an grief counseling practice. Read more>>
Madrina Claudia Chambers
Beginnings My Madrina, Lorna, was my sanctuary—the one person with whom I could be completely, unapologetically myself. In her presence, I learned that love begins with honoring who you are. She taught me to walk through the world without fear, rooted in self-worth, curiosity, and compassion. I spent time with her every time we went back to Puerto Rico growing up. Read more>>
Ande Donar
I started drawing at a young age, unaware that it was going to be a lifelong passion. Every year growing up I’d have at least two new art kits for Christmas. I was the ‘artsy” one in the group, and that title came with me to middle and high school. Read more>>
Stephen Hobbs-Stone
I started in this trade at 19, working a five-year IBEW apprenticeship. That’s where I learned the work — commercial and industrial jobs: restaurants, retail buildouts, warehouses, manufacturing plants, food processing facilities, and large-scale corporate breweries. Every one of those had its own set of demands, and none of them tolerated sloppy work. That apprenticeship set the standard I still hold jobs to today. Read more>>
SKaDanko XOXO
Started out believing that I should be doing a different type of genre than hiphop music. That’s how I started getting more intuitive within myself. Going back to the beginning of my basis of music and working back with instruments. Such as playing electric guitar. When I noticed that watching Adult swim was my main thing as a kid in elementary school. Read more>>
Elena Granovsky
My story didn’t start with design — it started with feeling. Painting was my first language, and it still is; even now, I paint several times a year to stay connected to where it all began. From there, I earned my BFA in Interior Design, and architecture pulled me in next. Read more>>
Ruth Danoff
Thank you. Here’s the corrected version: I spent most of my adult life pushing hard, over-functioning, and quietly wondering why ordinary things felt so much harder than they seemed to be for other people. I could rise to a crisis, hold a lot at once, and look capable from the outside. Read more>>
Marissa Williams
I was born in Trinidad and Tobago and grew up as a military kid, so home has meant a lot of different places throughout my life. I’ve lived in Panama, Italy, Turkey, and different parts of the U.S., but I’ve called the Raleigh area home for about 20+ years. Read more>>
Tobias Jacobs AKA SuperSonic
My journey with roller skating began when I was very young, and it has remained a major part of my life ever since. What started as something fun became a passion, a form of self-expression, and a community that helped shape who I am today. Over the years, I developed my own skating style and began performing under the name Supersonic. Read more>>
Natacha Sochat
My story has never followed a straight line. Looking back, however, I can see that what once appeared to be separate directions were always interconnected. I was born in New York City to a Puerto Rican mother and Cuban father, but when I was four months old, I was flown to La Habana, Cuba, where I was raised by my paternal grandmother and uncle. Read more>>
Julie Marie
My story is really about starting over and finding my way back to creativity. I’ve always been an artist at heart, but after a major life change at age 41, I found myself rebuilding my life and looking for a way to turn that creativity into something of my own. That’s where Lavender Rain began. Read more>>
Cameron London
It’s crazy to look back and remember that all of this started with being signed up for a high school talent show as a joke. I spent the rest of high school studying and practicing, teaching myself as much as I could to release my first album on the day I graduated. Read more>>
Judi Melton
I spent 28 years in corporate America before I made the jump into real estate. That change opened my eyes to how much people need good, trustworthy information about the place they’re moving to — I’d watch families get emotional at closing, starting a new chapter in a town they barely knew yet. Read more>>
Yara Sultan
My story in Raqs Sharqi (Arabic translation – Eastern Dance, known in English as ‘Belly dance’) officially started at age 15. My mother had signed me and my sister up for a summer session. By the first class, I knew this was something special for me and would be part of my life for a long while. Read more>>
Huzaifa Ismail
The Pixel Loop was founded in 2018 on a simple idea: good digital work is never really finished. A website launches, then it gets measured, then it gets better — and that cycle is where the real value gets built. Read more>>
Neal Lagatta
Like many others I discovered Pickleball during Covid. I was immediately hooked and played nearly everyday. As I got better I had people asking for tips and eventually lessons. Read more>>
Sonia Pal
I did not grow up, thinking of myself as a creative. Actually, until early 2020, I did even know what Calligraphy was. My first career was in medicine and clinical research. Creativity arrived much later in November 2019 I wrote two things in a journal under a prompt asking me to make a list of new things I wanted to try: Calligraphy. Journaling. Read more>>
Dilshod Rustamov
Currently, I am passionate about how technology is transforming the modern world. My main job is in Fintech and enterprise risk management, where I focus on risk mitigation and making sure the organization has adequate controls to stay secure, resilient, and ready for future growth. Read more>>
Amy Karlgut
Hello and thanks for sharing your time with me! My name is Amy and I’m a Mom, partner, daughter, sister, friend, and business owner. After growing up outside of NYC and Upstate NY, I lived in Europe, and then went to college on beautiful Lake Ontario. Read more>>
Kristen Martinez
I built a creative career long before motherhood ever entered the picture. I still remember selling my first set of illustrations while I was in college at NC State—fashion sketches to my sister’s boss. It was the first time I realized that something I created could become the foundation of a business of my own. That idea quickly grew. Read more>>
Dr. Vanessa R. Brooks
I think my story really begins when I was eight years old. It was my birthday, and my mother let me choose and wash my own clothes for my surprise birthday party. I picked turquoise corduroy jeans and a long-sleeved top—in the middle of summer. I know. It was hot. But I liked that outfit. Read more>>
Isha Reed
EPIC—Empowering People In Communities—was born from both my lived experience and more than a decade of walking alongside people through some of the hardest moments of their lives. Read more>>
Mary Trice
My story began in a place I never imagined it would—but it has become the foundation of the woman I am today. I spent part of my childhood in foster care and was adopted at the age of 10. Growing up, I always felt like I was a different kind of child. Read more>>
Alexis Karpf
North American Canicross really started with a shared love of being active with our dogs and the realization that there was an opportunity to build something that didn’t yet exist. We founded North American Canicross in 2019 after discovering canicross and experiencing firsthand how much more there was to the sport than simply running with a dog. Read more>>
Samantha & Jeremy McClayton
My wife, Sam, and I launched JS Consulting and Marketing about five years ago in Arlington, Virginia. Before we joined forces professionally, our careers were on very different, yet complementary, paths. Sam—the ‘S’ in JS—had built a prolific career as a graphic design and marketing specialist in the commercial real estate space. Read more>>
Azarae Renee
I’ve been modeling for as long as I can remember. It’s always been something I’ve been passionate about, but sometimes the path you envision for yourself isn’t necessarily the path you end up taking. Over time, I realized that I wanted to do more than just be in front of the camera. Read more>>
Emrie Carlton-Jackson
I fell in love with wine from the ground up. I started out by self-educating and working at local shops to learn the trade. The real turning point came when my husband caught the bug, too. We both became captivated by the geography, history, and agriculture of wine, and exploring it together made me realize where I belonged. Read more>>
Alysha Pytlarz
Well, I originally wanted to be a film editor – still do if the opportunity comes up – and during college when I was figuring things out in my major, what I want to do, etc. I did my first paid photoshoot for $15. Read more>>
Courtney Hamlett
Walking through plant nurseries during stressful times in mortgage lending was my original escape—it opened my eyes, awakened my senses, and sparked a whole new passion. Read more>>
Maria Geary
My path to becoming an artist was anything but traditional. I didn’t grow up dreaming of becoming one, and I certainly didn’t go to art school. In fact, it took me about 50 years to get here—which is pretty amazing considering I’m only 45! Read more>>
Craig Ladd
My story with photography really started when my son was born. My older brother came to the hospital with what, at the time, looked like a really nice DSLR. It caught my attention, so I borrowed it from him for a while and eventually bought it from him. It was a Canon Rebel XT, and that’s really where all of this started. Read more>>
David Probert
My name is Dave, and I write horror and thriller fiction. Over the years I’ve published a bunch of short stories and multiple novels. One of my short stories was even adopted as a short film that ran several Horror Film Festival circuits. Of all the genres, I think I landed on horror / thriller for a reason. Read more>>
HPFANGS
Maaaan, listen! You know what question I hear on permanent repeat and always sends me into a doom spiral every dang time!? Read more>>
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>>
