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.
Lindsay Rose
In 2020, like a lot of people, our life changed almost overnight. My partner and I were both working in the medical field, we had a five-year-old at home, and COVID completely changed what “normal” looked like for our family. Read more>>
Pam Pearce
My story is one of redemption. I grew up in Lake Oswego, OR, in a family that, by all society’s standards, looked successful from the outside but was deeply affected by alcohol. Read more>>
Cameron Francey
Moving to the Pacific North West in 2006 from Scotland was quite a big step for me. Being surrounded by mountains lured me towards them, and really brought my interest in being active and outdoors to the forefront. I started my coaching business after leaving the corporate stresses behind, where I had a successful IT career with a large global company. Read more>>
Erin Eggenburg
I started my business, wrenbirdarts, as an Etsy shop in 2012, selling hand-embroidered handkerchiefs. It was meant to be a side gig, but blew up almost overnight, due to some internet attention, and the fact that the pool of hand embroiderers doing custom work was very small. Most of my business turned into stitching custom wedding handkerchiefs. I embroidered ALL THE TIME to keep up. Read more>>
Lorie Deller
In 2012, I was living in East Texas, earning my Bachelors degree in Fine Arts, when I met a talented, professional face-painter who trained me as one of her artists. I painted at birthday parties, festivals, and celebrations of all kinds, while finishing school, and I instantly fell in love with the joy and connection that this art form brings to children AND adults. Read more>>
Adriana Edwards
I have always dreamed of owning a business. Growing up I watched my dad start many business ventures; not all of them were a ‘success’ but in the end he found the right one that worked for him and it made a huge impact to my family’s life. Read more>>
OLIVIA COPPOCK
My passion for photography began in middle school when I took a photo of a flower while vacationing in England, and I was so incredibly proud of how it turned out that I immediately started taking more and more photos, which turned into photography classes in high school, and from there majoring in photography at Seattle Pacific University. Read more>>
Nadiya Huliychuk
I started Garlic Bloom right before COVID, originally as a catering business. Then the pandemic hit, events were canceled, people were staying home, and suddenly the business I had just started had to completely change. I switched to personal chef services and began cooking for families in their homes. What started as a way to adapt ended up becoming the heart of Garlic Bloom. Read more>>
Julia Kenyon
I grew up as a creative kid, but never really considered myself an artist. I actually never took art classes in high school because I thought they were ‘dumb’ (lol!), but was introduced to Photoshop and Premiere Pro in a computer class and LOVED it. Read more>>
Rhian Arp
My story is one that was not straightforward. It began with the suicide of my husband in 2019, which devastated my family and me. I was left as 32 year old grieving widow, trying to raise two young boys (2 and 4 at the time) and teach elementary school full time as my life crumbled apart around me. Read more>>
Melina Zaytseva
Content creation was always something I kept getting pulled toward. I’ve loved fashion ever since I was a kid. For any event, holiday, or celebration, getting dressed was always my favorite part. Read more>>
Victoria VanDyke
My Story I first fell in love with tooth gems in the ’90s when I saw gold and diamond tooth gems and grillz on hip-hop artists and rappers like Flavor Flav, André 3000, Lil’ Kim, and Salt-N-Pepa. I thought they were so edgy and elegant: completely different from anything I had seen before. Read more>>
Kirstin Ardrey
In 2024 I was working in the trades as a fiber splicer. I was really burnt out in life, I was at a really low spot wondering how we keep working so much and have such little time for LIVING. Read more>>
Don Dexter
My story has taken a few turns I never could have predicted. I grew up in rural Oregon, a Modoc Indian boy from Beatty, and eventually found my way into dentistry. I practiced general dentistry for 25 years and built a career and a life around it. I assumed that was probably the road I would stay on. Then, in 2022, everything changed. Read more>>
Suzy Korn-Keefe
Back in 2005 I was working as a registered vet tech down in Rancho Santa Fe, California… I came across an ad on Craigslist for a little pink grooming van for sale…. that sparked a little idea…. that could be a business for me! Read more>>
Azragaura Zengia
I’ve always been sensitive. I seemed to pick up on people, environments, and things I couldn’t necessarily explain, and I was reminded of that sensitivity often when I found myself faced with something that just didn’t feel right to me, which happened a lot. Growing up, that sensitivity wasn’t simply misunderstood. It was treated like there was something wrong with me. Read more>>
Emily and Josh McGraw
Wild Hare Coffee & Cocktails really started as one of those “what if we did this?” ideas that we decided to actually run with! After owning The Studio in downtown Pendleton and seeing how much we love creating spaces where people can gather, have a drink, and enjoy themselves, we started dreaming about a way to take that experience on the road. Read more>>
Katie Standen
After I graduated from college with an undergrad in Human Sciences and a minor in Gerontology, I struggled to find my place in the workforce. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my career. So I went into something somewhat related to my degree- property management in low income housing for elderly and disabled through the Rural Development housing program. Read more>>
Shawn Lioyryan
Cats in the City began in Portland in 2006 when my husband, Daniel, and I set out to create the kind of care we wanted for our own cats. I came from a background in clinical social work, while Daniel brought his training in behavioral neuroscience. Read more>>
Jordan Stanton
My artist name is EndTide. I am an electronic ddance music dj and producer born and raised in Oregon. Having been a guitarist for over two decades I was on the search for the next musical adventure. After attending my first Excision show, the Thunderdome, I fell in love with heavy dubstep music and had to give it a try. Read more>>
Armand Milazzo
I grew up in Rhode Island, where the state drink is a thing that eventually got called soft-frozen lemonade. The idea was to make something like fresh snow mixed with real fruit, usually lemons. Somewhere along the way the old-world traditions behind it got traded for commercial shortcuts. The mom-and-pop stands disappeared and one big company took over. Read more>>
Jen Capener
Like many farms, Wild Hare Farms began as a dream—one that took years to finally take root. Brad and Jen Capener are both educators who never set out to become farmers. Read more>>
Tammy Yorba
I was with Wells Fargo Bank for 23 years, before receiving my displacement notice. I wasn’t honestly sure what I would do post displacement, but I wrote a list of everything I wanted in an ideal future career. My list included: People, Community, to use the Spanish that I’d been studying on Duolingo for 6 years, Helping people, Fulfillment, and flexible schedule. Read more>>
Natalie Brite
I have been working for myself for well over a decade now. I started as a life and business coach/consultant while living in Ohio, where I grew up. I previously went to college for Fine Art and Philosophy, yet struggled to envision what to do with that path in terms of a career. Read more>>
Brent Hayes
I think I stumbled upon this industry like so many do. It started two decades ago as a 16 year old looking for a job so I could buy a car, get a cell phone, and try to keep up with my friends. Read more>>
Kristy Krugh
The “Wicked” in my company name is a love letter to the Boston area where I was born, raised, educated and worked for 30 years. I had a storied career working with purpose-driven organizations for over a decade in the non-profit sector in Boston, Hawaii and Oregon. I still work with charitable companies when their needs align with my service offerings. Read more>>
Ronnie Tha Great
I am Ronnie 29 years old female entrepreneur and business owner based in Dar es Salaam Tanzania East Africa. I started fashion business back when I was 20 years old making waist beads, anklets and other pieces tho the business was not stable because it was on and off. After some time I stopped working due to school and lack of capital. Read more>>
Amber Amos
Westside started as a garage based catering company in Southern California. We built and built and 4 months after opening, we were invited to compete in Tacolandia, a curated event put on by the LA Times (invite only) and our rootbeer carnitas taco took 2nd overall out of about 1000 tacos. Read more>>
Sarah Alldritt
I started drinking in high school, and by the time I was working in restaurants, it was just part of the culture. During COVID I started getting sober curious, mostly because drinking felt like the only thing there was to do, and I began asking myself if I actually wanted it or was just going along with everyone else. Read more>>
Han (Eraysable) Jasper
I have been drawing since I was old enough to hold a crayon, but I’ve been sharing my work since 2009. I branded myself ‘Eraysable’ in 2012 and have been making art under that name ever since. I was first encouraged to sell my work in high school by my art instructor. I made primarily custom painted accessories, hand drawn bookmarks, and original acrylic paintings. Read more>>
Dusan Obsajsnik
My partner/wife and I had been dating for a while and we both had dogs. Our favorite thing to do together was to take our pups (Shelby Rose and Tobey) for epic hikes. When covid hit, we had a sweet baby girl come into our lives in Aug of 2020. We were both looking for a career change and we decided to do something together. Read more>>
Aubrey Kyung
My story started long before I came to this Earthly experience. I’ll keep it to this current lifetime. I was born in Busan, South Korea to a Korean mother and a Japanese father. I was put up for adoption because my birth parents wanted me to have a chance at a different life. Read more>>
Steven Strasshofer
Well I grew up with two deaf parents. Two sisters three brothers in a small town on reservation in northern Minnesota my moms enrolled my fathers German and Norwegian.. I play piano enjoy hiking nature exploring gathering mushrooms rocks ect.. Read more>>
Michelle Ceccarelli
The story of Halle Sophia Gifts began in 2017, when my family and I gathered around the kitchen table to make personalized sock snowmen for the holidays. That simple tradition planted the seed for what would eventually become my own business. Read more>>
Ashley Jo Bloom
I think my path into automotive started before I even realized it was going to become a career. My dad was a mechanical engineer and was always tinkering with something. I grew up asking questions while he worked on cars, rebuilt carburetors and figured things out in the garage. That curiosity stuck with me. Read more>>
Melissa Mugisha
I think my story starts with being an artist my whole life. It’s been my longest and truest passion. I’m self-taught, and I started out doing black-and-white realistic portraits with pencils. I’ve always had a lot of interests, and I ended up going to business school because I’ve always had a very creative business mind. Read more>>
Kim Rose Adams
Becoming a full-time creative entrepreneur felt like cracking a Morse code without the manual at the beginning, but it hits the center of the Venn Diagram for me. If you would have asked my kid self, who was designing stickers on her dad’s printer label paper in her closet and drawing pictures of sunsets with crayons in her backyard, she probably would have said, “yeah!!”. Read more>>
Victoria Fisher
Hey! I’m Vicki and I’m a cosplayer! I started 12 years ago now. My sister was making herself a dress and she had extra green fabric. We had learned to follow patterns and work a sewing machine together. We had the idea to turn the scraps into an Anna dress from Frozen (it had come out about a year ago and we both loved it!). Read more>>
Kellie Marie
I started getting tattooed when I was in the military. I would say that tattoo shops and the art of tattooing were my main coping mechanism for alot of the trauma I was going through at that time. Read more>>
Carrie Reinagel
I owned and operated a holistic spa and wellness company in Los Angeles for 21 years. After selling it in 2021, I thought I would ‘just get a job’ and be a contribution to someone else’s business. Little did I know that the job market and ageism would be so hard to manage. Read more>>
Carmen Kosicek
Visionary Psychiatry began very simply — with just my husband, Mike, and me, with a shared vision, and a belief that mental health care could be delivered differently. What started as the two of us building the practice from the ground up has grown into an organization serving patients and families throughout the entire state of Oregon. Read more>>
