Our Radio Series
Here are some episodes from our 300+ library of stories. Every 90 second story is about an everyday person who had a great idea, took action, overcame hurdles and created a business, brand or invention we all know!
As heard on great radio stations like:
#12 Gus has the drive!
Calgary Story: Gus is working at the Palliser when he has a great idea!
#292 - Dressing for Success
Paul loved making salads and his own dressing. One Christmas he gave his friends and family a bottle of his salad dressing as a gift. Two months later when they had used it all up they asked Paul for more.
#311 - Evelyn takes the cake
Evelyn lived in Detroit and one day she made a dessert for her husband’s boss. It was a hit. So naturally she opened a dessert shop and it was all a massive success. The End. Well, not really.
#119 - A Sign of Things to Come
Shoults and Woodruff were real estate partners who built a grand real estate development in the hills overlooking their city. They built a crazy big, temporary sign to promote the development that was 50 feet tall and had over 4,000 lights. Then the sign took on a life of its own.
#258 - Coming Up with a Cool Name
Reuben was a Polish immigrant who grew up in the Bronx selling his family’s homemade desserts. Believing New Yorkers would be willing to pay more for a better quality dessert, Reuben just needed to come up with the right name.
#287 - Exciting & New
Geraldine was a former model who became a hostess on a cruise ship. Every week Geraldine would write her mother a letter telling her about what had happened aboard the cruise ship with the passengers. Unbeknownst to Geraldine, her mother sent the letters to a book agent who promptly asked for more.
#301 - Trailing After Others
Sam and Anna were moving from Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon. They packed their car to the brim with everything they could haul buthad to leave other stuff behind because they just didn’t have enough room.
#291- Guys Who Delivered
Chris worked in IT in Saskatchewan, Canada and Josh was an investment banker in London, England. One day Josh was working late at night and thought about skipping out to get some food. There had to be a better way.
#273 - Running Out of Ideas
Carolyn was a graphic design major at Portland State University. To make ends meet she did some work for a professor who ran a company on the side and often needed charts and graphs done up when he met with executives. One day he needed a logo.
#307 - Flush with Dough
Martin loved making bread. Together with wife Linda, they built a little bakehouse in the backyard of their Caledon, Ontario home. Soon Martin and Linda were making all kinds of bread and giving it away to friends and family.
#62 - The Middle Name
Leroy and his wife had a drive-in restaurant called the Green & White in their Montana hometown. When a new highway interchange forced its closure, they luckily ended up with more money than they likely would have had otherwise, so they took a big risk and moved their young family north to Edmonton to start a new restaurant.
#121 - Room for Growth
Brian and Joe were designers, roommates and unemployed. They desperately needed money to pay the rent.
#155 - Tornado Sale
Richard was living an absolute nightmare. Over 15 years he had carefully built up a small chain of hifi audio equipment stores across Minnesota called the Sound of Music. But now he was staring at a pile of rubble as a tornado had destroyed his best and biggest store.
#148 - The Winner Takes It All
Judy fell in love with a single song. She sang it all the time and it became her anthem. When she unexpectedly got to work with the song’s writers she took a chance and pitched them on turning their music into a full-fledged musical.
#250 - Pay Up
One rainy night in Toronto staring out of his condo window David was captivated by a major traffic jam on Highway 401 … thousands of cars literally going nowhere with their drivers bored to tears … and that’s when he had a great idea and got really serious.
#188 - Write On
Tabby and her husband struggled to get by. She worked at Dunkin Donuts and he was a high school teacher who wrote short stories & magazine articles to earn a few extra dollars for groceries or to fix their used car. One day her husband came home excited about a possible promotion that would give them a little extra money. Tabby’s first great idea? Don’t accept it and just keep on writing.
#72 - The Aristocrat Sandwich
Jim is a fast food franchisee in blue collar Pittsburgh who creates his own sandwich he calls the Aristrocrat. But sales for the sandwich are poor. So he changes the name a few times until sales take off.
#167 - Not Waffling
Frank specialized in turning farm fresh eggs into mayonnaise, breakfast batter, salad dressings and noodles … but, to maintain freshness, could only deliver quality food products a certain distance from his factory. How to grow?