How I Started: Lessons from Entrepreneurs to the Next Generation

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.

How I Started: Lessons from Entrepreneurs to the Next Generation is a business podcast hosted by Kids Markets, with 28 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Kids Markets hosts How I Started: Lessons from Entrepreneurs to the Next Generation, a business show with 28 episodes published.

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  How I Started: Lessons from Entrepreneurs to the Next Generation

  Perfecting Your Product: Hilom Candles

  Sep 30, 202612 min

  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

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  How I Started: Lessons from Entrepreneurs to the Next Generation

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

  Sep 23, 202622 min

  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

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  How I Started: Lessons from Entrepreneurs to the Next Generation

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

  Sep 9, 202626 min

  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 company Why rejection of your product is never a rejection of you and how understanding that difference unlocks the confidence to start selling How to discover what you're truly passionate about by noticing what makes people stop and listen when you speak Tools & 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 markets The Passion Discovery Method: identifying your entrepreneurial niche by asking what topics make others lean in and keep listening The 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

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  Episode #11

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

  Sep 2, 202611 minS1

  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.com https://www.instagram.com/happyfacecreations24/ https://www.etsy.com/shop/HappyFaceCreation Key topics: Building a bookmark business Focusing on quality Overcoming operational challenges #bookmarkbusiness #youngentrepreneur #kidsmarkets #orlandomarkets #smallbusiness #operationaladvice #customorders #inventorytracking #POS #overcomingweatherchallenges #familysupport

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  How I Started: Lessons from Entrepreneurs to the Next Generation

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

  Aug 26, 202630 min

  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 doing How to choose a co-founder whose skill set complements yours and avoid the partnerships that fall apart Why hyper-focusing on one thing early in a business create more success than chasing multiple ideas at once Tools & Frameworks Covered The Adjacent Possible: a method for recognizing and acting on business opportunities that emerge naturally from your current work and customer relationships Bootstrapping as a Learning Tool: using lean, self-financed growth to stay close to your customer's real problems instead of spending your way past them The 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

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