No Hill For A Climber

Inspired over the decades by the farm-to-table movement of Alice Waters' Chez Panisse and Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma, Dorsey Barger has pursued her businesses as a zealot. Barger's East Side Cafe in Austin, TX, and now urban farm are part of her mission to improve the way we eat, and the way we grow food.

When Vera Deckard's obsession for brewing began to overwhelm their modest house, her husband Brent suggested they go pro. They set out to create a German-style brewpub that could serve as a third space, a neighborhood meeting place for friends and families. Success, to them, means delighting customers and attracting employees who want to run their own brewpub some day.

Janie Barrera founded one of the largest and most successful non-profit business microlenders in the country. Her journey to that founding has roots in her youth in Corpus Christi, Texas, and by no means was Barrera's a typical path to starting a finance company.

Tirso Sigg took a leap of faith coming to the United States from Mexico and taking a job at Disney World for which he wasn't quite qualified. Thanks to a little luck and a lot of ingenuity, he now owns a restaurant business and went on a personal journey to overcome his fear of the unknown.

Younger Melissa Jones would never have believed, as a teen growing up in good standing with the Church of Latter Day Saints, what older Melissa Jones now does. Her Sexology Institute in downtown San Antonio grew directly from her experience within the Mormon Church, but eventually led her very far from her childhood roots in Provo, Utah.

Walter Massey's journey from Jim Crow Mississippi to a doctorate in physics and the heights of academic leadership were just the first act in the screenplay of his life.

Dwight Hobart is a restaurateur, rancher, and storytelling original whose family roots go back to settling the Texas Panhandle. We talked during the COVID pandemic about running the Liberty Bar in San Antonio, and what success means to him in this venture. We also talk about the highs and lows of commodity markets, whether the ranching business is built on socialist principles, and maintaining the respect of his peers.

Neil Leatherbury is a bioscientist who left San Antonio, and then left Texas, to work for a biotechnology company in Durham, NC. We talk about how his own career may illustrate the “cluster theory” of business. We talk about the nature of risk, optimism, and that “failure is the default” when it comes to biotechnology startups. Finally, we discuss what it's like to be out of the closet, corporate “allyship” in 2021, and the struggle to recruit under-represented minorities to the life sciences.

Jungmin Kang built an astonishing entrepreneurial success by cracking the code of Instagram and then TikTok, amassing millions of followers for her business Snoop Slime. We talk about the "satisfying videos" that power her marketing, the genius of her restock model, and how she defines success. Also, she's 17 years old and juggles the demands of exponential business growth with high school. Subscribe for more episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app.

Stuart Allen is an artist in San Antonio, a working artist, who vehemently rejects the myth of the starving artist. He practices and models in his own career the idea that the artist needs to be a small business person. Tracking Inventory. Accounts Receivable. Appropriate Technology Innovation and Investment. Time Management. Small business basics. Too much of the art world, he believes, misunderstands the “working artist as small business owner” mindset. Too much of our society thinks money and art cannot coexist. Too many art schools train art teachers, rather than artists. We talk about this and more in this conversation that touches on his successes, his setbacks, his first big break, and whether he is too cheap.

Paula Harris smashes expectations like it's her life mission. We talk about what it was like as the only African American woman in the Texas A&M Petroleum Engineering Department, and then again as an outlier on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Paula later led ESG efforts for oil and gas services company Schlumberger, and we talk about the industry's authentic need to evolve and support the energy transition to renewables as well as transition to being more inclusive. In the end, she considers her success in building a different kind of pipeline, one that would make it easier to build a more equitable and just world.

Working at the outer limits of our physical capacity is a goal Dan Kachtik sets for himself and his fitness customers. Working at the outer limits of his entrepreneurial endurance is something Dan has been forced to do, to build his gym from the ground up since 2013. We talk about those struggles, whether he ever wanted to quit along the way, and how that struggle interacts with his personal philosophy. Dan's biggest supporter on this journey is his wife Janelle, with whom he owns King William District Crossfit. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kingwilliamdistrictcrossfit/ Website: https://kingwilliamdistrictcrossfit.com/

A new podcast from Texas Public Radio about overcoming challenges in business and surprising stories of entrepreneurship. In Texas, there's an old saying, "That's no hill for a climber." It means that a task that looks daunting to most is a welcome sight to someone who wants to challenge themselves. In this podcast, you'll meet people who fit that mold and pushed through hardships to follow a dream. New episodes out weekly starting December 10. Made possible by Texas Mutual Insurance Company.