Lillian Rafson did not plan to start her business Pack Up + Go. But, on a trip to Latvia, she came across an idea that was too good to pass up. Booking surprise travel for vacationers.
She came back to the US, started the business, and hoped to get 50 clients that year. She got 500.
She followed the sharp trajectory upwards and remained bootstrapped the whole way. Now she runs a team, does millions in revenue, and is charting expansion plans.
In this conversation, Lillian and Aaron discuss the inspiration for the business, how she got initial traction, and the way she has built her team.
Pittsburgh’s best conference to Expand your Mind & Fill your Heart happens once a year.
Lillian’s Challenge; Go visit a new neighborhood in your city or town.
Connect with Lillian Rafson
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Michele McGough is the founder and CEO of solutions4networks, a professional services and integration company that provides network engineering and network security consulting as well as associated equipment/software to a select client portfolio.
She’s been in IT for more than 30 years and has learned a lot of lesssons along the way.
In this episode, you’ll hear her discuss retaining the talented people on her team, how & when to fire a client, and how she got started.
Pittsburgh’s best conference to Expand your Mind & Fill your Heart happens once a year.
Michele’s Challenge; Perception is not reailty. Don’t make assumptions about others.
Connect with Michele
If you liked this interview, check out episode 361 with Jason Wolfe another top-notch entrepreneur, operator, and team builder.
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Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
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We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Sign up for one of Piper’s weekly newsletters. We curate links to Expand your Mind, Fill your Heart, and Grow your Tribe.
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Michelle Walters founded Liberty Closet Systems in 1993. The family-owned and operated business serves up custom closet, cabinetry, and storage solutions in Westmoreland County & surrounding areas.
Over time, operations have been scaled to meet the demands of over one hundred builders in PA, WV, and Maryland. In 23 years LCS, Inc. has grown from a single designer/installer to a full staff of designers, fabricators, and installers specializing in custom closet design & storage systems.
In this conversation, Aaron and Michelle discuss starting the business, how to sell a great closet, and working with her family.
Pittsburgh’s best conference to Expand your Mind & Fill your Heart happens once a year.
Michelle Walters’s Challenge; Be kind. Not just people that agree with you.
Connect with Michelle Walters
If you liked this interview, check out episode 396 with Kristy Knichel where we discuss 3rd party logistics, woman-owned business, and great customer service.
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James Haluszczak founded SteelBridge Consulting in 2008. The boutique consultancy exclusively focuses on serving as a strategic advisor to Private Equity and Venture Capital fund managers, investors, and administrators.
He is also a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of SteelBridge Laboratories, which he and his partners founded in 2016 as an investment firm focused on early-stage Fintech companies.
James has 20 years of experience in Financial Service operations, finance, and technology roles, and is a seasoned Fintech founder and investor. James has held management roles inside of four currently operating Fintech startup companies, and he and his team have invested in more than 10 Fintech companies since 2016.
In this conversation, James and Aaron discuss scaling a consulting firm, finding deal flow for investing, and helping a young company grow.
Pittsburgh’s best conference to Expand your Mind & Fill your Heart happens once a year.
James Haluszczak’s Challenge; Use a fintech tool to donate to a cause, like cancer research.
Connect with James Haluszczak
If you liked this interview, check out all of our interviews with the world’s biggest financial leaders and writers.
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Austin Webb is leading a startup that aims to upend the food system. How? By using robotics and AI to build and operate highly efficient, commercial-scale urban vertical farms.
In late September 2019, his company Fifth Season (originally founded as RoBotany) came out of stealth mode by announcing a $35 million round of funding. With this capital, it plans to build its first commercial-scale indoor vertical farm to be located just outside Pittsburgh, in Braddock.
The startup plans to expand into other similarly-sized cities throughout the US.
In this episode, Austin and Aaron discuss the seismic impact Austin believes vertical farming can have, how this model reduces labor costs & water usage, and the composition of the team pursuing this goal.
Pittsburgh’s best conference to Expand your Mind & Fill your Heart happens once a year.
Austin’s Challenge; For an entire week, try to eat only fresh food for every meal.
Connect with Austin
If you liked this interview, check out our other interviews with top Pittsburgh entrepreneurs Jason Wolfe and Cooper Munroe.
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We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
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Hayden Cardiff is the co-founder and CEO of Idelic. Idelic is a B2B Saas startup that helps trucking companies track data on their fleet & drivers to improve safety.
Idelic recently announced a Series A financing round of $8M led by Origin Ventures with participation from TDF Ventures, Birchmere Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and SaaS Venture Capital.
Hayden, with cofounders Nick Bartel & Andrew Russell, spun Idelic’s software out of Pitt Ohio, a logistics service firm providing less-than-truckload, truckload, supply chain solutions, and ground services in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest United States.
In this episode, Hayden and Aaron discuss spinning a company out of a larger business, fundraising millions of dollars, and bringing software to an old, conservative industry.
Pittsburgh’s best conference to Expand your Mind & Fill your Heart happens once a year.
Hayden Cardiff’s Challenge; Consider and respect the truck drivers you’re sharing the road with.
Connect with Hayden Cardif
If you liked this interview, check out episode 396 with Kristy Knichel where we discuss building an $80M 3rd Party Logistics Provider using customer service, hustle, and humility.
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Denise DeSimone has started & run 9 different companies. Some have been successes, some have been failures, some have fallen in between.
In 1998, Denise founded and grew one of her greatest successes, Unicorp where she developed the privately-held technology-based business from the ground floor to over $74 million in revenues.
In this conversation, Aaron and Denise discuss where to get good mentorship, how she has changed her service offerings, and the importance of company culture.
Pittsburgh’s best conference to Expand your Mind & Fill your Heart happens once a year.
Denise Desimone’s Challenge; Be kind.
Connect with Denise Desimone
ddesimone@c-leveled.com
If you liked this interview, check out two other episodes with prolific entrepreneurs Jason Wolfe and Dave Nelsen.
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We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
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Nathan Martin is the founder and CEO of Deeplocal, a Pittsburgh-based marketing agency. The firm is comprised of creative engineers, hired by brands to build interactive experiences.
Since spinning Deeplocal out of an art and technology lab at Carnegie Mellon University in 2006, Nathan has become a leader of innovation and invention in advertising, creating custom solutions that are often the world's firsts.
In the last decade, Nathan has grown Deeplocal’s portfolio to include advertising work for some of the world’s biggest and most celebrated brands — including Google, Netflix, and Nike.
Prior to founding Deeplocal, Nathan was an originating member of a hactivist art group and the frontman of Creation is Crucifixion, a grindcore band.
In this conversation, you’ll hear Aaron & Nathan discuss how to build a talented team, what it took for Deeplocal to get off the ground, and how he explains the company to others.
Pittsburgh’s best conference to Expand your Mind & Fill your Heart happens once a year.
Nathan Martin’s Challenge; Do not look at income and money as the driver of happiness. Evaluate your work on the basis of how you spend your time.
Connect with Nathan Martin
If you liked this interview, check out episode 340 with Craig Markovitz where we discuss generating more than $300M in shareholder value.
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We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
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Kristy Knichel is a second-generation logistics executive and the president of Knichel Logistics. Prior to leading the company, she led the operations team for 10 years.
Kristy has driven a staggering amount of growth for the company. Since its inception, Knichel Logistics has grown from $2 million in revenue to $80 million under Kristy’s leadership.
Knichel Logistics is a woman-owned and operated, non asset based third-party logistics provider. In this interview you’ll find out what that means.
The company specializes in intermodal, less than truckload, full truckload, and specialty services and has a veteran staff that prioritizes customer service.
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Kristy Knichel’s Challenge; Put yourself out there.
Connect with Kristy Knichel
If you liked this interview, check out the rest of our interviews with the top business people in the city of Pittsburgh.
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Çetin Meriçli is the co-founder and CEO of Locomation, a Pittsburgh startup building autonomous trucks. His company is taking a novel approach to the technical challenge by pairing trucks together, instead of building a single truck to stand alone.
Locomation has raised more than $5 million from 13 venture investors, including Pittsburgh VC firm Draper Triangle Ventures.
Çetin’s team, including 5 co-founders, have been working together for a decade and are aiming to realize the opportunity in the multi-trillion-dollar logistics industry.
Çetin and Aaron discuss how to sell into the 4 key groups that will determine Locomation’s success: investors, employees, customers, and regulators.
You’ll walk away from this episode with a much better understanding of the timeline and challenges associated with autonomous vehicle technology.
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Çetin Meriçli’s Challenge; Find a way to give back.
Connect with Çetin Meriçli
If you liked this interview, check out episode 306 with Bryan Salesky (Argo AI) where we discuss self-driving cars or episode 297 with Jorgen Pedersen where we discuss robotics and removing humans from harm’s way.
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A digital agency that provides strategy, delivery, and analysis specializing in a few key service offerings.
If you aren’t creating or curating content regularly, your clients and customers might forget you’re open for business.
Ryan Kulp is both a marketer and a programmer. This unique skill set allows him to do things that most entrepreneurs only fantasize about.
Ryan constantly builds and ships new products and services on a monthly basis. This gives him the opportunity to experiment and test lots of ideas, seeing which ones stick.
He also uses this skill set to buy small technology companies & software products that most private equity firms are forced to overlook. In this uncharted terrain, Ryan uncovers value by applying his skillset to businesses that were previously run by someone lacking the skills or bandwidth to apply the best techniques.
Now, Ryan’s companies generate more than $5 million in annual revenue and he travels the globe with the freedom granted by cash flow + operating businesses with no geographic restraints.
In this conversation, Aaron and Ryan discuss how to think about entrepreneurship, rules to abide by in business, and the greater “Why” behind Ryan’s work.
Pittsburgh’s best conference to Expand your Mind & Fill your Heart happens once a year.
Ryan Kulp’s Challenge; Work via negativa. Don’t watch Netflix.
Connect with Ryan Kulp
3 Books Ryan Mentioned
Negotiation Genius by Deepak Malhotra & Max Bazerman
Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher & William Ury
If you liked this interview, check out:
Episode 269 with Brent Beshore where we cover investing for the long term, boring businesses, and starting a career.
Episode 216 with Noah Kagan where we discuss Facebook, Mint, and how to be an effective entrepreneur.
Episode 383 with Zak Slayback where we discuss how to avoid copycat careers, why job descriptions usually suck, and How to Get Ahead when you’re early in your career.
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Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Sign up for one of Piper’s weekly newsletters. We curate links to Expand your Mind, Fill your Heart, and Grow your Tribe.
Follow Piper as we grow
Meredith Meyer Grelli is the co-founder of Wigle Whiskey, the first Pittsburgh distillery since Prohibition. Wigle’s spirits are distributed throughout the country and the distillery has been the most awarded Craft Whiskey Distillery in the US for four straight years.
Meredith and her team have followed up the success of Wigle with Threadbare Cider & Mead.
In this conversation, Aaron and Meredith discuss what it takes to build a strong team, why they develop so many different product lines, and the importance of engaging with the community.
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Meredith’s Challenge; Write a thank you note to someone every morning.
Connect with Meredith
Connect with Wigle Whiskey
Connect with Threadbare Cider House
If you liked this interview, check out episode 382 with Barry Young where we discuss distilling vodka and episode 232 with Christian Simmons where we discuss selling craft spirits.
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A digital agency that provides strategy, delivery, and analysis specializing in a few key service offerings.
If you aren’t creating or curating content regularly, your clients and customers might forget you’re open for business.
The best way to prepare to run your own startup is to learn from one of the best. Ajay Kori got to work under Marc Lore and learn from an eCommerce master before launching his own company.
Ajay founded UrbanStems in 2014 to fix a flower delivery industry that was institutionally broken. The company offers same-day, on-demand delivery in New York & DC, while offering nationwide next-day shipping.
The company has raised millions of dollars from top VC firms including SWaN & Legend, The Motley Fool, Kevin Plank & Under Armour, and NextGenVentures.
In this discussion, you’ll hear Aaron & Ajay discuss the challenges associated with scaling a team, the meta-entrepreneurial skill set that can apply anywhere, and what was broken about the flower business.
Ajay’s Challenge; Keep a journal where you write down what you’re grateful for every day.
Connect with Ajay
ajay@urbanstems.com
If you liked this interview, check out episode 340 with Craig Markovitz where we discuss building $300M in shareholder value, commercializing technology out of universities, and finding a purpose behind your business.
ALLEN GANNETT KEYNOTE
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Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Sign up for one of Piper’s weekly newsletters. We curate links to Expand your Mind, Fill your Heart, and Grow your Tribe.
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How do you catalyze change within a large organization? Sarah Ahmad shares her insights from in the trenches.
Sarah is the senior VP of innovation and transformation strategy for Pittsburgh’s Highmark Health, a national health and wellness organization, and America’s second-largest integrated delivery and financing system.
Sarah Ahmad leads Highmark Health’s effort to transform health care by developing innovative health solutions and value-based, high-quality health experiences for their customers and communities across the U.S.
Since joining Highmark Health in 2017, Sarah has evolved the Highmark Health VITAL Innovation Program into a revenue-generating test-and-learn platform that provides health solution companies, health plans and other stakeholders with robust evidence related to patient experience, care outcomes and cost impact. This means solutions can be covered and utilized faster—accelerating both their availability to patients and their adoption in the broader
healthcare marketplace.
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Connect with Sarah
If you liked this interview, check out more interviews with leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators in Pittsburgh.
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A digital agency that provides strategy, delivery, and analysis specializing in a few key service offerings.
If you aren’t creating or curating content regularly, your clients and customers might forget you’re open for business.
David Passavant is the CEO of Numo, a subsidiary company of PNC Bank. Numo is tasked with funding innovative technologies that can meaningfully move PNC’s business forward.
In this conversation, Aaron interviews David about what life is life running a corporate-backed financial technology incubator in Pittsburgh and how David found his way into the role.
David has been the CEO of Numo for 2.5 years and has recently launched its first two products. Great episode for anyone interested in corporate innovation strategies and careers.
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David’s Challenge; Be an original thinker.
Connect with David
If you liked this interview, check out episode 356 with Toni Murphy where we discuss negotiating a large enterprise as you build your career. You might also like this interview with Joe Lubin, the co-founder of Ethereum, on the future of cryptocurrency and financial technologies.
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Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
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We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
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Lily D is an ASMR YouTuber. What does that mean? Listen to the podcast to find out.
ASMR helps with anxiety and insomnia. Lily started making ASMR videos in 2013 and has racked up over 65 million views of her videos.
In this conversation, Aaron and Lily discuss how she got started, the positive & negative messages she receives, and what the future holds for a brand built around an individual.
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Lily’s Challenge; Try deleting Instagram (or your most used social network) for a week.
Connect with Lily
If you liked this interview, check out episode 386 with Jon Shanahan where we discuss men’s fashion, learning from working in a corporate environment, and how he’s built a YouTube following.
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Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Sign up for one of Piper’s weekly newsletters. We curate links to Expand your Mind, Fill your Heart, and Grow your Tribe.
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Dave Nelsen has been a successful CEO in multiple businesses. Two of his startups, CoManage and TalkShoe, raised more than $70 million in angel and venture funding.
He has since moved into a full-time speaking career, traveling to country to share his perspective on Social Media for Business and Technology for Executives.
In this conversation, Dave and Aaron discuss how Dave went from a large corporation to a startup, where Dave found the ideas for his companies, and how he launched his speaking career.
Valuable listen for any aspiring entrepreneur.
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Dave’s Challenge; Do more listening.
Connect with Dave
412-779-2788
If you liked this interview, check out episode 362 with Jason Wolfe where we discuss multiple successful startups, investing, and leadership.
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Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Sign up for one of Piper’s weekly newsletters. We curate links to Expand your Mind, Fill your Heart, and Grow your Tribe.
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Matt Stroud is the co-founder & CEO of Postindustrial Media. His new media startup is aiming to change the tenor of journalism in the Midwest.
He’s come a long way since founding a bimonthly magazine, called Deek, out of his basement apartment while enrolled full-time at the University of Pittsburgh.
Matt has written short- and long-form journalism for Esquire, Harper’s, The Atlantic, Buzzfeed, Politico, The New York Times, and Reuters, and held staff writer positions with the Associated Press and Bloomberg Businessweek.
In this conversation, Matt & Aaron discuss new media, recruiting team members, and Matt’s reporting on policing technologies.
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Matt’s Challenge; Ignore political campaign polls and pay attention to where government dollars are spent.
Connect with Matt
Matt’s Book
Thin Blue Lie: The Failure of High-Tech Policing by Matt Stroud
If you liked this interview, check out our interview with Todd Bishop about running a bootstrapped media business, our interview with Chance Humphrey about Instagram and photography, and our interview with Jon Shanahan about building a men’s fashion YouTube channel.
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Our clients become better storytellers.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
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In the past, magazines like Vogue & GQ were exclusively at the epicenter of fashion and style. They alone could play kingmaker to the tastes, trends, and brands clothing of an entire culture.
Today, the influence has been disseminated to a broad swath of creators and media outlets with their own perspective. Jon Shanahan saw this opportunity coming and has staked a claim with his brand, The Kavalier.
He started a YouTube channel more than 4 years ago and now creates content full-time reviewing menswear.
In this conversation, you’ll learn how Jon got started, the intentional approach he takes to his style, and the patience & discipline required to break through.
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Jon’s Challenge; Throw out the clothes in your wardrobe that you’re not excited about. Tailor the clothes that don’t fit just right.
Connect with Jon
If you liked this interview, check out episode 318 with Brad Driscoll where we discuss building a following on Twitch, starting an SEO business, and the value of persistence.
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Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
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We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
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For half a century, women wore bras that had been designed by men. Sophia Berman knew there had to be a better way.
She’s spent that last 3 years launching and growing Trusst Lingerie, a company that has re-engineered the bra for larger-busted women.
In this conversation, Aaron and Sophia discuss what she’s learned about running a company, how 3-D printing failed to live up to the hype, and how to develop a product and take customer feedback.
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Sophia’s Challenge; Allocate some time every single day to learning something new.
Connect with Sophia
If you liked this interview, check out episode 36 with Sophia where we discussed her Kickstarter campaign and her vision for the company.
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Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
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We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
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We had a guest no-call/no-show. No fun.
HP & I made the best of it by recording a podcast reflecting on Piper Creative being 18 months old, our hardest days of the process, and how great our team is.
Hope you have a lovely day.
Zak Slayback returns to the podcast after a 317 episode hiatus. He’s here because he’s ready to help even more people with his new book, How to Get Ahead.
It builds off of Zak’s talk at the 2018 Going Deep Summit where he laid out his framework for building a great career from scratch.
Zak is a career building expert and a Principal at Peter Thiel-backed 1517 Fund.
He was one of LinkedIn’s most influential voices on education in 2015 and has been published in Newsweek, the New York Examiner, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Christian Science Monitor, the Foundation for Economic Education, among others.
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Connect with Zak
If you liked this interview, check out episode 241 with Michael Gibson where we talk about the vision behind 1517 Fund and episode 226 with Ed Latimore where we discuss his writing, boxing, and pathway into running an online business.
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Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
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We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
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Barry Young used to be a pharmacist. Now he makes vodka and rum.
In this interview, you’ll hear how Barry transitioned out of corporate life, what makes some vodka better than others, and why he’s so passionate.
Barry’s company, Pennsylvania Pure Distilleries, is based in Glenshaw and has been around for about 10 years. Boyd & Blair Potato Vodka was awarded the Chairman’s Trophy from the Ultimate Spirits Challenge - the beverage industry's most coveted award.
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Barry’s Challenge; Buy a stranger a drink the next time you’re out.
Connect with Barry
If you liked this interview, check out episode 232 with Christian Simmons where we discuss disrupting state liquor stores, Christian’s humble beginning in sales, and how to run a great retail location.
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Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
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Kurt Schnieders has served as CIO of DICK’S Sporting Goods, L Brands and ING Latin America and worked internationally in corporate America for 35 years. As a steward of digital revolution in large organizations, he has overseen the creation and launch of websites taking in over 1 billion dollars in annual sales.
Throughout his career, he has provided executive leadership, business strategy and technology solution delivery across multi-cultural landscapes, working in Dubai, India, Australia, Brazil, Argentina and Amsterdam.
In this conversation, Aaron and Kurt discuss a career in IT, how drastically things have changed, and what the future might hold.
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Kurt’s Challenge; Read something different.
Connect with Kurt
kurt@dickersoncreative.com
If you liked this interview, check out episode 340 with Craig Markovitz where we discuss building a business valued over $250M, university technology transfer, and hard truths about entrepreneurship.
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Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Sign up for one of Piper’s weekly newsletters. We curate links to Expand your Mind, Fill your Heart, and Grow your Tribe.
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Ever wonder how bills get passed and how policy gets changed? While elected officials and public servants hold a lot of power, lobbying firms like Wellington Strategies influence the government, too.
Joe Kuklis, the founder and president of Wellington Strategies, came on the podcast to talk about how his business works and the challenges of building a lobbying firm.
Joe focuses on helping small-to-medium-sized businesses to navigate the government marketplace in Washington and state capitols.
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Joe’s Challenge; Look at how federal, state, and local government affects your business and adjust your plan accordingly.
Connect with Joe
If you liked this interview, check out episode 314 with John Dick where we discuss the next generation of polling, recruiting a team, and how to be empathetic to people with different political viewpoints.
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Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Sign up for one of Piper’s weekly newsletters. We curate links to Expand your Mind, Fill your Heart, and Grow your Tribe.
Follow Piper as we grow