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SEO, social media, email, ads—these are the usual suspects when we talk about marketing.

But marketing is about sifting through a world of possibilities and unearthing opportunities to get in front of your customers.

Anything can become a potential marketing channel.

That belief is at the heart of guerrilla marketing—a scrappy, unorthodox, and aggressive approach to getting your brand in front of could-be customers by establishing a presence in the physical world around you.

Among challenges faced by entrepreneurs, that elusive work-life balance is one I hear time and time again.

Drawing the line between life and work is especially difficult for family businesses and those operated out of the home: kitchen tables overrun with production samples, packaging supplies overflowing from closets, after-hours conversations always circling back to the business. It’s a tough habit to break.

For Gotamago owners, Lichia Liu and her husband Christopher Guest, work-life balance isn’t black and white.

The lines are so blurred, it’s impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins. But for them, it works. Their business occupies a 2-story live-work building in an up-and-coming Toronto neighbourhood. Everything happens under on roof.

We visited Lichia and Christopher in the multi-functional space that serves as their HQ, warehouse, retail shop, event space, design studio, and home.

The superheroes have cornered the market on multi-tasking. A newspaper photographer by day becomes a flying strongman by night. A millionaire playboy moonlights as a crime-fighting rodent. And they still find time to squabble with each other.

Multitasking gets a bad rap these days, as the kryptonite to mindfulness, but for working moms it’s their lifeblood.

Batman v Supermom? Place your bets, folks. My money’s on the real heroes. Read the stories of 9 amazing women simultaneously nurturing small businesses and small humans – both 24/7 jobs. And they’re killing it.

Kylie Jenner emerges from the double-doors of her brand’s Manhattan pop-up shop into a street filled with her fans. Beside her is Laura Thomas, a name and face likely unknown to the masses who came here for the lipstick. That lipstick, though, is the result of a collaboration: Kylie’s vision and Laura’s 17 years of experience in the beauty business.

In 2014, her own business sprung up, seemingly out of nowhere, and here, just three years later, she’s standing beside one the biggest celebrities of the moment, sharing in her glory.

This is the story of Seed Beauty.

A line-up snaked out of sight through the wide walkways of LA’s Wakefield Mall. Hoards of people called in sick and skipped school to be the first to experience their favorite cosmetics brand in the flesh.

Until that day in December, Kylie Cosmetics had never lived outside of a website.

In November, her people called our people, and the idea spun into motion: Shopify would help Kylie Jenner bring her online-only brand to life. The embodiment of her brand—ultimately the embodiment of Kylie the person—would teach her so much about her fans.

And, it would teach us a lesson in the power of experiences.

The Shopify team that built Kylie's pop-up share their IRL insights and tips for ecommerce brands of any size.

Imagine for a second that Walter White wasn’t cooking meth in that RV in the desert, but rather screen printing t-shirts or developing apps. It’s suddenly a very different story, one familiar to many entrepreneurs building a business with limited resources.

For him, the RV was a last resort, and the conditions desperate. In reality, merchants and makers are intentionally ditching traditional workspaces in favor of offices on wheels. 

I think they’re onto something.

A few years ago, three strangers were struggling to make ends meet and to find their purpose. Little did they know, they would all, in their respective corners of the world, soon meet face to face with their aha moments. And, they would be unexpectedly connected.

Thousands of miles apart, they would become a microcosm of a thriving ecosystem of people with a common goal: mobilizing entrepreneurship and helping themselves by helping others.

Watch Unite, a Documentary, and read their inspiring stories.

Ruth Tal, against her parents wishes, quit high school to work full-time at her then part time retail job.

"Tell me I can't, and I'll just want to do it even more," she says.

She  spent two years working for independent fashion retailers who became ersatz mentors, teaching her more about small business than she says she ever would have learned in school. Several years later, she would repeat her decision, opting out of University at the last minute, using her student loan to start a business.

That business is Fresh, a vegetarian restaurant empire with multiple locations in Ruth’s native Toronto, three locations in Moscow, and one in Mexico City. Fresh expanded its reach with a series of namesake cookbooks, gift cards, and cold-pressed juice cleanses, sold through a complementary ecommerce store.

And it all started with one simple glass of carrot juice.

Read Ruth's story, and tune in today at 4PM ET for a live Facebook interview.

In 2011, a couple moves from Fiji to Australia and starts a small side business. Little did they know, within a couple of years, they’d be living on the other side of the world, remotely managing a complicated network of warehouses and multiple wholesale and retail businesses that criss-cross borders and timezones.

That couple is Peta and Charles Stinson, and there is, I learn, a method to their madness.

The Stinsons own and operate Sapling Child, a 6-year-old organic printed baby apparel brand. Learn how they turned a side gig into a global family business.

James Yurichuk is building a winter jacket brand to rival the industry stronghold, and that’s just his side gig.

Wully Outerwear is a back-up plan, soon to become his primary bread and butter, as he prepares for imminent retirement from his day job. Here’s the thing: he’s only 30 years old.

In his field, though, 30 is exceptional. James is a pro football player in the CFL, and in pro sports, especially one as physically demanding as football, an average career is significantly shorter than most professions. In fact, James’ teammates typically play in the CFL for only two years. 

Four years ago, James and his wife were living in a basement apartment, dependent on his tenuous football career, and expecting a baby. If he was going to support his growing family, he realized, he’d have to start working on his plan B.

Learn how James built his ecommerce brand from scratch—with no business experience—in the off-season.

Once every few years, during the holiday season, it seems like one ridiculous idea for a product or toy becomes insanely popular.

This is the story of those unlikely ideas and how they went from a spark of brilliant inspiration—or even a coincidental discovery—to something that was purchased, enjoyed, and loved by millions.

Being the founder of a successful ecommerce website isn’t something I would have predicted for myself. One year ago, the idea wasn’t even in my peripherals. It wasn’t something that took me a lot of planning and preparation coupled with years of experience to carry out.

Creating National Parks Depot and getting it to a recognized level of success basically took one month. During that month, I came up with a product to sell, created a store, and promoted the product to about one million targeted prospects. Sales were so great that I had to pull in an investor to help get inventory. 

Building National Parks Depot using Shopify is one of the easiest things I’ve ever done. I don’t have tons of experience in sales or marketing, so it’s not as if I was destined to be successful at this. In fact, with my history, success seemed unlikely. But with all the right pieces in all the right places, what seemed to be most unlikely actually became a reality.