Entrepreneurial Stories 2.0

Lee Abbott is a born and raised Santa Barbara native, and his first job at 7 years old was with his neighbor the butcher. Over the years that business grew from BBQ into a full-fledged catering service with Lee cooking, serving and being introduced to some of the original wines of the region.

While at UCLA and as a semi-pro water skier, Lee continued in food service waiting tables and bartending where he gained a reputation as “the guy to ask” long before most folks even heard of the word “sommelier”. For the next 2 decades, he moved his focus into television production, working both behind and in front of the camera. Now he’s combined all his passions into Food and Wine Television based once again out of Santa Barbara, or as he puts it, “The perfect way to raise my children away from Hollywood!”

Lee was just the runner up (and the hands down audience favorite) on the Food Network show All Star Academy.
Check him out here.

Read more: http://www.foodchannel.com#ixzz48aMRzHBa

Just over three years ago, equipped with her passion for local food and extensive event planning skills, Katie took the plunge and left the 9-5 world to start Cultivate Events, a full service event planning and production company that specializes in creating experiences that connect attendees to their local food system. What started as a leap of faith in herself to create a career that pays the bills and feeds her soul, led to a flourishing business that has accomplished so much more. The Cultivate Events team produces more than a dozen festivals, conferences, and culinary events per year that promote local food and farming, support area non-profits and offer educational elements that inspire a commitment to local. Cultivate Events’ flagship events are the Santa Barbara Fermentation Festival and Wild Brew Fest; other productions Cultivate Events supports include Santa Barbara Earth Day, Santa Barbara Vintners Festival, and Santa Barbara Food & Wine Weekend.

Peter Gaum grew up in a small town in the southern part of Germany where he lived an active lifestyle and developed a taste for good, fresh, and homemade food. He arrived in the US in 1988 and fell in love with the beauty and active life-style of Santa Barbara — which motivated him to create a healthy and great-tasting line of nutrition bars.

This healthy and active life-style that began in Germany continues today in Santa Barbara. Peter hikes, plays golf, loves riding his bike, and works out. Based on his personal need to balance a busy and demanding workday with a healthy and active lifestyle, the nutrition bars have become an integral part in maintaining his healthy life.

Summers McKay has led teams to success for over two decades and has a dedicated career in team building, business skills excellence, business management and multi generational workforce resource development. Working with both entrepreneurial startups at their inception like ROAR, and Television Four and institutionalized businesses like UCLA Anderson and California United Bank, she develops their team efficiency, creates effective operational strategies, and helps clients manage multi generational work forces.

McKay taught classes at UCLA Anderson in Management Communications, Networking Practicum, Social Media Strategy, and Personal Branding. As the founder and Program Director of UCLA Anderson EDGE, she launched the first undergraduate business skills program at the university and led the program for its first two years. Passionate about individual and team success, she brings an ability to assess team challenges and provides collaborative solutions that elevate the functionality of business units.

In addition to offering her expertise to her fellow entrepreneurs at Noospheric, McKay has launched her own company, Delight Wipes, LLC. Delight Wipes is a sexual health and intimate wellness company focused on creating natural intimate care products and sex life enhancing apps. Delight Wipes won the 2015 Audience Choice Award at the Silicon Beach Fest Startup Pitch for their app concept, Make Love More. The company is readying for product distribution in Fall 2015 and app launch in the winter.

A proud Cal Bear, McKay attended U.C. Berkeley and received a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications and holds a Masters in Business Management from UCLA Anderson.

For more than 10 years, motivational speaker, self-help author and success mentor Shannon Graham has helped countless individuals and businesses reach their goals through a wide range of effective, life-changing strategies. Shannon invests his work with an unwavering dedication to the success of his students in various facets of their lives and careers.

Recognized across the globe as a premier motivational speaker and leader in the self-help and coaching industry, Shannon Graham has developed a number of transformative coaching programs to tackle the hurdles of life and business. Some of Shannon Graham’s more recent innovations include “The Ultimate Lifestyle Intensive”: a highly popular weekend mentor coaching program that helps developing coaches skyrocket their personal and professional success, and “Legacy”: Shannon’s intensive one-on-one program for visionary entrepreneurs which combines one-on-one coaching with a powerful mastermind.

Daniel Colantonio and Matt Turner are twin brothers and co-founders of Hustlers for Humanity. Born and raised in Boston, they earned their BAs at Boston University and Boston College respectively. Since moving to Los Angeles nearly ten years ago and Santa Barbara in 2012, the brothers have become social entrepreneurs committed to raising the consciousness of humanity.

In 2014 they founded Santa Barbara Hustlers for Humanity, a non-profit organization dedicated to transforming humanity by merging play and service. The organization’s mission is to positively impact every resident of Santa Barbara by the year 2020.