Podcasts

We talk to Lisa Marsh. Lisa is the Founder and CEO of Ms. P’s Gluten Free, a gluten free baking company. She started the business after spending more than 25 years in criminal justice and federal law enforcement.

After dealing with personal health struggles, Lisa became gluten-free in 2009. She shares:

• Her thoughts on leaving her long career in law enforcement
• The impact that starting a business has had on her family and
• Why improving the health and wellness of family and friends is now her personal mission.

Her products are currently available in Whole Foods in the Chicagoland area as well as Amazon.

Justin Breen is CEO of the global PR firm BrEpic Communications and global connectivity platform BrEpic Network.

He is also the author of the number one international best-selling book, Epic Business. He is an extremely active member of:

• Strategic Coach 10x
• Abundance 360
• Entrepreneurs’ Organization

We discuss the difference between an entrepreneur and a business owner and his no excuses attitude and approach.

If you ask Michelle Calcagni what she loves about her work, you’ll get a quick answer: solving problems. Whether she’s working with entrepreneurs, small to midsize businesses, or nonprofits, she combines wide-ranging experience and proven talents to drive growth, expand efficiency, and improve results.

In 2016 Michelle created PhoneBox Group, a multi-discipline consultancy that works with organizations in North America, Europe, and Asia.

In this episode, we discuss what ultimately led her to starting her own business and why she decided to take the leap after a successful career with several large, well-known corporations.

Benjamin Warsinske is a brand culture expert and certified LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Facilitator. His focus is on how purposeful play contributes to effective people strategies, particularly in the areas of employee engagement, wellbeing, high-performance leadership, and organizational culture change.

We discuss his journey from a career in urban planning to entrepreneurship, why he decided to make a change and what he thinks the future of work looks like.

You can join 160+ of today’s leaders from around the world envisioning the workplace culture of tomorrow inside the Bricks+Brands Network.

Claire Smith is the maker, baker & founder of Teffola. She was raised on a working crop farm in Southern Michigan—she is a part of the 7th generation. After turning away from a decade old dream of becoming a pediatric cardiologist, she started making granola from a high school cafeteria for local stores. Now, four years in, she’s built a brand celebrating ancient grains that are known across the Midwest for creating high quality, low sugar granola.

We discuss how life growing up on a farm shaped her and why she is now so passionate about the food industry after her life-long love of science.

Elle Forte is a boutique photographer. She is a Certified Professional Photographer (CPP) with Professional Photographers of America (PPA) and is an accredited Associate Portrait Master in Illinois. She worked for 12 years in the corporate world as a financial analyst. Although she enjoyed her job, she longed for something more. Her entrepreneurial business mind eventually merged with her creative spirit and love of photography, which led her to her ultimate career.

Deborah Petropoulos is a transformational career and life coach and Founder of One True You, LLC. She inspires successful outcomes for professionals experiencing transition challenges in their careers, business, and life. Debbie is an accredited-coach and member of the International Coaching Federation. Leaders benefit from her thirty-three years of corporate experience in global pharmaceuticals coaching, mentoring, and developing high-performing teams and individuals.  We discuss her journey from pharmaceutical leader to trusted life and career coach and her definition of resilience.

Clarene Mitchell is the owner of TCM Communications, a social media branding firm based in Wisconsin that focuses on helping success driven entrepreneurs and corporate leaders effectively leverage LinkedIn to generate results. Clarene is an accomplished print journalist, community activist and public relations professional. For more than 30 years she has worked to craft the image of community-based organizations and advance issues of importance. We discuss her love of LinkedIn and how she turned that passion into a new career.

Diana Lowe is the CEO of Blue Light Leadership, a leadership development company focused on educating, training and coaching emotional intelligence for remote leaders. Diana is an Executive Coach who works with Directors to C-Suite Executives in Fortune 500 companies to transform their team spirit and communication. Her company focuses on using evidence based research from Positive Psychology to combat the rising stress and anxiety in leaders during the Great Resignation. We chat about her journey from financial leader to stay at home mom and what ultimately led her to start her own coaching practice.

Abbey Cannon moved to Nashville at the age of 18 to attend Belmont University. It was during her time there that she met her husband and now business partner, Tony Cannon. They were both working in the restaurant industry. She originally planned to be a professional singer, but after meeting her husband fell in love with food and cooking. Her career has taken many directions, she held several sales and management roles before partnering with her husband to build a company. A pandemic baby, Abbey and Tony’s first company, That Rub, LLC began due to her furlough in the business travel industry. We discuss how she has managed multiple life pivots and how as someone who once couldn’t cook has successfully built a business in the food industry.

Dee Bowden is the creator and author of Collect the Cash. She works with small businesses who want to solve their cash flow problems. She is on a mission to keep businesses in business. After collecting $6 million dollars in 60 days while working for a small IT company, Dee recognized small businesses also can fall prey to revenue loss because they don’t collect the outstanding invoices. Her revenue recovery strategies have been featured in Forbes, Yahoo Finance, VIP Global, and Black Enterprise and Thrive Global Magazines. We chat about how she found her passion and purpose of helping small businesses stay in business and how she pivoted and turned it into a business.