Meet Connie Feda, Co-Founder of Cookie Cookie Ice Cream Company in Pittsburgh, PA, a company that trains individuals living with disabilities how to bake, engage with others in a service role, and get involved with the community.

Connie is a mom of six kids and she started Cookie Cookie Ice Cream to find a place for her daughter with Down's Syndrome—now 26 years old—to work. "We couldn't find a place that worked with her in the way that she needed to train, so we decided to start something that would take time out of the equation for learning. We realized that there were a lot of people in our area who needed the same thing."

Connie's team works with 10 schools in the area to teach their students how to work with others and grow in a service role. Their cookies (and ice cream!) are phenomenal (we checked the store out after this episode) and Connie was kind enough to bring us cookies to taste.

Learn more on https://cookiecookieicecream.com

Follow our podcast, I Can't Hustle Any Harder Than This, anywhere you get your podcasts or on YouTube at YouTube.com/rachaelwonderlin

"I went home and I opened my laptop and thought, 'I'm going to find a new job.' I was on Indeed for about five minutes before I realized, I can't do this again—I can't go work for someone else. I'm going to leverage this blog I've built and turn it into a dementia consulting business."

Rachael Wonderlin started Dementia By Day as a blog in 2014 and turned it into a consulting business in 2016 after being laid off from her 9-to-5 role. "I think in order to start a business, you have to want to deal with the difficulties of starting a business. You have to be willing to wade around in the muck for a while before you can be successful."

This episode is all about the ups and downs of Rachael's start in entrepreneurship and how the road to business ownership has changed since 2016. Rachael started this podcast in early 2025 and is now finished with the first draft of her fourth book—this one about consulting!—and is on the lookout for an agent.

Find Rachael on Instagram at DementiaByDay or Can't_HustlePodcast or visit her site at rachaelwonderlin.com and dementiabyday.com

Follow our podcast, I Can't Hustle Any Harder Than This, anywhere you get your podcasts or on YouTube at YouTube.com/rachaelwonderlin

"It was the first night of our vacation and I looked at my husband and said, 'I hate my business and I don't want to do this anymore.'"

Amanda Nowak and Rachael met years ago when Amanda owned a successful, 7-figure senior living-based design business.

From the outside, everything looked perfect, but on the inside, Amanda was suffering. "I was ashamed of how I felt about my business," she says.

Amanda is now the founder and owner of Element Eight: https://element-8.com and on LinkedIn under Amanda Nowak. "Now I help people in transition periods like when they fall out of love with their business and need to either restructure or pivot, or when they're in corporate and have that entrepreneur itch. Very much a 'what the hell am I doing with me life, I know I want something else and it's not this.'"

Follow our podcast, I Can't Hustle Any Harder Than This, anywhere you get your podcasts or on YouTube under YouTube.com/rachaelwonderlin

On this episode of I Can’t Hustle Any Harder Than This, we talk to Nick and Kat Walker, the owners of Burgh Bus - Pittsburgh’s best and most unique experience on wheels! The Burgh Bus offers interactive comedy shows, themed tours, private party rentals and more. Find out how Nick and Kat got started and all the twists and turns along the way (including some of their craziest passengers!).

To learn more or get onboard, visit www.burghbus.com.

"I was working for a government contracting company that promised me all the talks of the government shutting down would never happen. But when they did indeed shut down and then reopened, they'd changed the parameters of our contract and I was no longer needed. So I said, 'I'm not going to work for anybody ever again because you can't trust, you have no control.'"

Mindy McHale had a "late in life career change," as she says. "When I got divorced, I realized I was in this very precarious situation financially. I took advantage of the time I had, though, and used my savings to become a personal trainer."

Join us on this episode of I Can't Hustle Any Harder Than This as we talk to Mindy McHale of StrongerNow Studio, a women's fitness studio based in Pittsburgh, PA. After becoming a personal trainer, and later, after March 2020, she realized that there was a need to own her own physical space.

https://www.strongernowstudio.com

https://www.instagram.com/strongernowstudio/

IG @strongernowstudio

FB @strongernow

Mindy McHale is a certified personal trainer and owner of StrongerNow, a business offering fitness services to women with a positive, not punitive, approach. Based on her own personal and professional experience, Mindy knows that women face unique challenges when it comes to exercise, and that exercise allows women to better navigate their life transitions. Mindy opened StrongerNow Studio in 2020 where women build strength, confidence, and long-term health — without the pressure of a traditional gym. What started as a one-woman business has grown into a thriving community of expert trainers and empowered clients, all benefiting from the safety and support of a women-focused fitness space.

On episode 11 of I Can't Hustle Any Harder Than This, we talk to Candice Komar, partner in the family law firm of Pollock Begg. Candice works in family law—primarily in divorce—and that's why we wanted to talk to her about the business of getting divorced: what's involved, who gets divorced and when, how she got into family law, and much, much more.

Candice has been practicing law for almost 40 years exclusively in the family law area. She often represents individuals with complex financial and business matters. Candice has been a frequent lecturer on various family law issues throughout her career for family law organizations.

On this episode of I Can't Hustle Any Harder Than This #podcast join us as we interview Zack Roach, our friend and #realtor as we talk about how difficult it actually is to get a real estate license. "When did you decide to become a real estate agent?" "When my wife showed me her pregnancy test." We've known Zack for years from #improv and #sketchcomedy and enjoy some beverages as we dive into the challenges of running your own real estate business. I've often heard people say things like, "You want to go out and work for yourself? Just get a real estate license!" Find Zack on Instagram at zackroachagent

"It started on Instagram. This woman commented on my photo about a breakfast shake, 'Way to go mom!' For the next month, on every picture, she'd comment something smart underneath it. That turned into her reaching out to me. Next thing you know, I ended up getting sucked into her pyramid scheme. I spent so much money. I got suckered into buying the powder and the DVDs..."

Being a stay-at-home mom is an enough of a full-time job, in and of itself. But if you've been sucked into a pyramid scheme, too?

Join us as we talk to Leah Peysha about her time as a SAHM and accidentally getting roped into an MLM!