Some business origin stories start with a pitch deck. Tiffany Miller's started with a seed.

A word written on a chalkboard in a Near West Side Milwaukee classroom. A flower made for her mother's 60th birthday. A neighborhood that deserved a coffee shop someone could walk to and one woman who decided she was going to build it.

Tiffany Miller is the owner of Fruition MKE — a 4,000 square foot cafe, co-working space and makerspace on Milwaukee's 27th Street. But Fruition is more than a business. It's the manifestation of everything Tiffany has ever built — Fly Blooms, Live in Bloom, the Bronzeville Collective rooted in one belief: that joy is a business model. And that belonging has a return on investment.

In this episode, Tiffany talks about building a community institution from the ground up, losing a business partner three weeks after opening, and the ancestors who showed up when things got hard — including a grandmother who ran a restaurant in Cotton Plant, Arkansas, until someone burned it down because she was doing too good.

This one is for every entrepreneur who has ever talked themselves out of the thing they were built to do.

"I am not a transactional cafe. I want to know what your favorite drink is."

Rising Forward: Stories of Change tells stories of Wisconsin social entrepreneurs who build businesses that solve real problems in their communities. New episodes drop every Tuesday. Subscribe so you never miss one.

Credits:

Shannon Sims, host

Bryce Richards, graphic designer/ grip

Brianna Sitkowski, producer

Junction Box Production, Dwight Cannon, audio editor/videographer

LionArts Media, Laura Dyan Kezma, audio/video editor

William Howell, photographer/ assistant editor

Mic’d & Ready Media