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

What if the prescription your doctor handed you wasn't the only option?

That question led Kathy Koshgarian to build something Milwaukee had never seen before. Today she leads Food for Health, Wisconsin's first and only accredited medically-tailored meal program, delivering real results in the communities that need it most.

A 43% reduction in health care costs. Fifty percent fewer diabetic ER visits. A high-risk pregnancy that became a healthy delivery. And a movement that now has the attention of the entire state of Wisconsin.

In this episode, host Shannon Sims sits down with Kathy to talk about the moment she knew she had to act, what it took to launch and grow during a global pandemic, and how two recent Wisconsin policy wins are putting food as medicine on the map for every zip code in the state.

If you have ever wondered whether food could actually change your health outcomes, this conversation is for you.

In this episode:

• What medically tailored meals actually are and why they work
• How Food for Health launched and grew during a pandemic
• The social enterprise model built for long-term sustainability
• Wisconsin's Medicaid breakthrough and the new state food as medicine director
• Advice for social entrepreneurs ready to move from idea to impact

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

Derrick Cainion spent 20 years helping people understand each other as a sign language interpreter. Then COVID-19 hit, his son turned three, and a vacant lot on Milwaukee's north side sat waiting.

This week on Rising Forward, Derrick walks us through what he built at 35th and Vliet — ART Intersection MKE — a living outdoor gallery where art, sustainability and community healing don't just coexist. They're the same thing.

We talk about the night a street shut down for art instead of sirens. The mural of his mother watching over the neighborhood. A bio-swale that literally holds water for a community that's been drained. Solar panels that keep the lights on when the city goes dark. And international artists from Tunisia, Dubai and the UK — all landing on one lot in Washington Park.

Derrick also gets into what it took to raise nearly a million dollars without being independently wealthy — and what funders actually responded to.

If you've ever driven past a vacant lot and wondered what it could be — this episode is the answer.

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

There's money in Wisconsin right now looking for the right people to fund. Most social entrepreneurs don't know how to find it — or how to be ready when it finds them.

In this episode, Shannon Sims sits down with Tony Shields, CEO of Wisconsin Philanthropy Network, and Nina Johnson, senior vice president at U.S. Bank, to break down exactly how mission-driven businesses get funded. They cover the full capital stack — from CRA investment and community development financial institutions to grant funding and impact investing. They talk about what separates the entrepreneurs who get funded from the ones who get delayed. And they share what the funder relationship actually looks like once you're in.

This is the episode for the social entrepreneur who has the idea, believes in the mission, and is ready to stop waiting.

What you'll hear:

• Why passion and preparation are not the same thing.
• How to stack CRA investment, foundation grants and CDFIs on a single project.
• What trust-based philanthropy looks like in practice and why it matters.
• Why Milwaukee is a destination city right now, and what that means for you.
• The one thing most entrepreneurs get wrong when they walk into a funder meeting.

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

Women are breaking barriers and rewriting the rules of entrepreneurship often in systems that weren’t built for them.

Stephanie Melnick has been practicing law in Milwaukee for over 30 years.

But in 2017, she realized her clients needed more than legal advice. They needed each other.

So she founded She Stands Tall — a community for women entrepreneurs.

Stephanie has highlighted dozens of women entrepreneurs and created events that teach marketing, brand protection, financial literacy and inspire the next generation of women leaders.

In this episode of Rising Forward stories of change she shares what she’s learned about women building together instead of going it alone—and how that collective momentum is moving Wisconsin forward.

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

Kevin Newell moved fourteen times before he went to college. Today, he's transforming that instability into solutions — as founder and CEO of Royal Capital Group, Newell has built a billion-dollar portfolio proving that the people who lived the problem are the ones who can solve it.

From redeveloping Phillis Wheatley School — the grade school he once attended — to creating the Good Hope Library, to building ThriveOn King, a $105 million "lifestyle campus" in the heart of Bronzeville, Newell is rewriting what's possible. He's the first African American to build and own multi-family commercial properties in downtown Milwaukee and Madison, and the first to partner with an NBA team on a commercial entertainment district. Now he's taking the Wisconsin model to Fort Worth, Texas.

In this inaugural episode of Rising Forward, Shannon Sims sits down with Newell to explore how his mother's sacrifice, his aunt and uncle's sanctuary, and even his biggest setbacks became the foundation for a new model of community-centered development.

Credits:

Shannon Sims, host

LionArts Media, Laura Dyan Kezma, audio/video editor

Dwight Cannon, Junction Box Production, assistant editor/videographer