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:
#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.
#259 - A Bright Idea
John was a psychology student at Stanford University in California … and one day he witnessed something that shook him to his core … a gruesome, multi-car accident on a San Francisco freeway. He was so shocked, he took time off from his PhD work to see if he could come up with something to help prevent car accidents.
#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?
#298 - Intermission
Moya has to come up with a seven minute performance to play during the intermission between acts for a major show. The resulting intermission performance outperforms the main acts and becomes its own event!
#290 - Educating the Masses
James was fortunate enough to grow up traveling the world and became a rich and renowned scientist. When he died, he left his sizeable fortune to country he had never been to before with instructions to build an institution in their capital city for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.
#308 - Never The Bride
After directing a couple of modestly successful movies, a studio executive tells Rob he can choose any project he likes … except the one Rob mentions really wants to do!
#35 - Tired of the Lake
Tom starts a service station in Vernon, BC on a shoestring. After struggling for 18 months he and his partner realize their one bright spot is selling tires. So they convert their store and then convince other tire dealers in other cities to adopt their brand so that they all could share buying power and branding.
#64 - An Enterprising Woman
After a major television network rejects the first pilot for a potential television series, Lucy (a rare female Hollywood studio executive at the time) greenlights a second, expensive pilot despite company cash flow issues and major objections from her Board of Directors.
#33 - Stick with Your Core Values
Harry is a Canadian working in the UK television. When a frustrated kid’s show writer asks to do something else, Harry suggests writing a script about “something out there” while waving his arm at the window.
#47 - Building A Business Brick By Brick
Bill is all set for the NHL when tragedy strikes and he takes over the family business instead.
#28: On Track to Victory
Phil loved to run and when his career ended he started selling running shoes made in Japan from the trunk of his car.