“I like to say, ‘One mission, two locations.’” Tim Brown smiled as he spoke, the phrase capturing both the scope and the spirit of the organization he leads as President /CEO - Tracy Aviary in Liberty Park and the Nature Center at Pia Okwai along the Jordan River.

“Why am I working for somebody else’s dream and not my own?” That was the question Ryan Miller, owner of SaltFire Brewing Co. kept asking himself as he crisscrossed the country doing software support in the early 2010s. A self-described punk rock rebel raised by scientists in Idaho Falls - his father a nuclear physicist, his mother a paleontologist - Ryan had taken a far different path.

“We need to accept dogs for the creatures they are - different from us but equally deserving of respect and understanding.” Ashley Wolf speaks with the kind of clarity that comes from lived experience. Her journey into dog training was a winding path that began in Santa Cruz, California. It wove through rebellious teenage years, university classrooms, and a series of other careers. Eventually, it led Ashley - alongside her husband, Ryan Heidt - to co-found Bark & Biscuit, a business dedicated to helping dogs and their owners understand one another.

“It is all about what you have in your own backyard.” And that backyard for James Fowler is Salt Lake City where he has run Sugar House Distillery since 2013.

“I come in every day and still cannot believe this place is ours,” Tammy Barrow said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s the most fascinating place I’ve ever been.” Nestled in a nondescript building, Got Old Wood is anything but ordinary. Step inside and you are instantly transported into history, into craft, into heart. The mother-daughter team of Tammy and Julie Adler-Birch brings reclaimed barnwood back to life, one story and one board at a time.

“We didn’t start with a business plan or a brand. We started with trust and respect,” said Jorge Rojas. “And a shared belief that artists need each other.” That quiet foundation is what makes Material feel so different. Tucked into a modest building in Salt Lake City, the artist-run space opened with a clear and deliberate mission: to support, exhibit, and elevate other people’s work.

“We’re much better at making beer than marketing. At the end of the day, we just want people to feel like they’re hanging out in our living room, enjoying something we love to create.” Tim Chappell’s path to owning his eponymous Chappell Brewing, one of the smallest breweries in Salt Lake Valley, was anything but linear.