Amy Hamilton, herbalist, farmer and mother is living her dream of farming medicinal herbs in western NC, where she's lived for nearly 20 years.

She is a founding member of Appalachian Botanical Alliance (ABA), a cooperative of herb growers, formed in 2012 with a mission to continue the legacy of Appalachian sourced medicinal herbs. ABA is focused on cultivating western and traditional Chinese medicinal herbs of high quality and in consistent supply.  Amy's farm is Appalachian Seeds Farm & Nursery. She grows heirloom tomato seed and medicinal herbs.

Dr. Jeanine Davis is a horticulture professor with NC State University located at a research facility in the beautiful mountains of western North Carolina.  For over 25 years, her program has been dedicated to helping farmers improve the profitability of their farms by growing new crops, transitioning to organic agriculture and adopting more sustainable practices.  Her current efforts are focused on woodland botanicals, Chinese herbs, hops, truffles, broccoli, and organic heirloom tomatoes.  You can learn about her program on her website at http://ncherb.org which has links to her blog, Facebook page, and Twitter account.

Ms. Alison Dressler is a Research Assistant in the NC Alternative Crops and Organics program at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center.  Her efforts are dedicated to helping grow the agricultural sector of the natural products and medicinal herb industries in western North Carolina.  She is currently involved with helping a new medicinal herb cooperative, a natural products branding effort, and a growing bloodroot for dye project.  She recently completed a 168 page report on special forest botanicals in Southern Appalachia.

Josh learned early on that success is achieved by commitment to hard work and discipline. He took this to heart when he decided to enroll at North Georgia College and State University, one of six senior military colleges in the United States. In four years at North Georgia, he graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BBA in Management and Finance, held leadership positions in six activity boards, and worked part-time at a boutique financial planning firm. After spending four years helping individuals with retirement and estate planning, he realized his true calling was in providing clients with tax planning ideas and solutions to grow their businesses. He took the next two years working in a local CPA firm, going to school at J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University and fulfilling the requirements to become a CPA.

Josh remains actively involved in the community through various organizations to include the North Georgia Alumni Association, Psi Chapter Alumni Association, Pi Kappa Alpha Psi Chapter Advisory Board, Lifecycle Building Center of Greater Atlanta, Griffin Rotary Club and the Gutcheck Program of the Gainesville Jaycees.

In his spare time, Josh enjoys spending time with family, whitewater rafting, snow skiing and spending time with his Weimaraner.

Southern Fried Strings was started by three great friends who simply LOVE Lacrosse. Brothers, Zach and Sam, along with their best friend Matt began their business with a mission to offer superior lacrosse head stringing services and supplies at affordable prices. They also created a unique wax coated mesh which allows the mesh to be water resistant greatly increasing consistency and control during bad weather, a quicker "break in" period for the mesh pocket and gives more hold to the ball.

Zach specializes in stringing traditional pockets closely resembling the Native American Style.

Sam specializes in stringing goalie heads.

Matt specializes in stringing modern mesh pockets that are most commonly used today.

Check out their videos on YouTube at Southernfried Strings, or email them at southernfriedstrings@aol.com

While working at a UPS store while studying video production in college, Marisa decided that she wanted to do something "more stable" with her life.  It was then that she decided to become a small business owner.

Melissa and her father, Chuck, purchased the store at at 3162 Johnson Ferry Road in East Cobb in June, 2011.

Their UPS store offers not only shipping and packaging, but also can do all sorts of printing such as business cards, brochures, flyers, large format printing such as yard signs, banners, canvases, promotional items – hats, shirts, pens, etc.

Ken Robbins is a recognized expert in the fields of direct marketing and marketing strategy.

He is a frequent speaker to CEO groups and  conferences on the subject of marketing strategy, and how to identify the leverage points in your marketing and sales system that turn accelerate growth. He can be seen at KenRobbinsBlog.com or contacted through ResponseMine.com

Response Mine works with mid-size and large companies to help them get a lot more new customers and revenues through internet marketing. They work with national retailers, large home service providers, and healthcare organizations to generate online sales, and online leads.

GG Gibson is the owner of GG's Fine Foods.

GG learned how to cook generations-old Creole recipes through her grandmother, Ella D. Smith, who never compromised on flavor or presentation, but taking great pride and pleasure in presenting fabulous meals. This passion for food continues to inspire GG today.

GG’s Real New Orleans Creole Cuisine include Original Seafood Gumbo, Famous Crawfish Pie, Classic Creole Seasoning, Remoulade Sauce—all infused with GG’s rockin’ flavors. The cuisines can be found on www.ggsfinefood.com.

GG’s flair for culinary art developed into a career after a lifelong mission to bring people together around good food. After overcoming many hardships, GG established GG’s Fine Foods, which operates in a HAACP safety certified manufacturing facility in Woodstock, Georgia.

NODE is the worlds smartest wireless sensor platform. It makes your smartphone into a tool to measure anything, from temperature to color to carbon monoxide!

Dr. George Yu is a Georgia Tech alumni and has worked for NASA and DHS on wireless technology.

He invented the NODE platform and successfully raised money on kick starter to have the first Node’s produced. You can buy the NODE right now on NodeSensors.com

The Melanie Thornton Youth Arts Foundation, a non-profit organization, develops leadership potential in youth through arts enrichment programs and experiences throughout the Metro Atlanta area.

Lois Thornton Chisolm has over 15 years experience developing youth arts enrichment programs and instructing youth from age 2 to 18 in a large variety of arts disciplines.  While living in Europe, Lois taught performance skills, image creation and dance to performing artists. Lois also choreographed for TV shows and live concert performances while she managed their careers.  Some well known artists Lois managed include La Bouche, Melanie Thornton, C-Block, Jemini and T-One.  These artists performed in numerous countries, sold over 12 million singles and albums and have been awarded gold and platinum sales awards in more than 25 countries around the world.

Throughout the years, Lois has used her skills, knowledge and experience to teach in a way that increases student’s self esteem and gives them a genuine appreciation for art forms.  Lois has developed exciting and captivating teaching techniques that keep her students motivated as they grow more poised, graceful and confident in themselves and their expression.   She started a small scholarship fund in memory of her most famous client and sister, Melanie Thornton, in 2002 and then developed and expanded it into the Melanie Thornton Youth Arts Foundation, Inc., an official 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

The foundation’s mission is to develop leadership skills in youth, particularly those that are disadvantaged, by providing an opportunity to experience the arts and be inspired to do positive and creative things with their lives.  For more information go to www.foundationforyoutharts.org, The Melanie Thornton Fan Page on Facebook, Youthartsfund on Twitter and Youthartsfund Channel on Youtube.

Jay Reid began working construction in high school and has been in construction management for the last 20 years.  He was looking for a new opportunity and Great American Cookie / Pretzelmaker appealed to Jay and his wife.

Great American Cookie offers fresh baked cookies, brownies, and unflavored pretzels as well as 100% beef pretzel dogs and mini pretzel dogs.

They also offer fountain drinks, lemonade, ice products and 5 different flavors of blended fruit drinks.

Jay and his wife have been married for 25 years and have 2 children.