Adriel's Curious City

Brad Brinegar is the CEO of McKinney, one of the most awarded advertising firms in the nation. He is a student of history, and remarkably thoughtful about his industry and his work.

We talk about what it was like to move an agency into the internet age, how culture affects creativity, the importance of open attitudes towards the future, and how he helped birth the phrase, "Behold, the Power of Cheese!"

Enjoy!

Hello my friends!! Welcome back to Curious City, the podcast where I, Adriel, interview local leaders in the arts, education, business, and technology about creativity, leadership, and growth. It’s even more fun than I just made it sound.

Today I speak with Michael Goodmon, Vice President of Real Estate for Capital Broadcasting Company, the 70 year old North Carolina Media Giant started by Michael’s Great grandfather. He’s been a part of leading a historical transformation of an entire city and region of our world, and has a lot of love for the city of Durham.

We talk about authenticity, building cities, technology, Duke University and why it is unique, and much more. Enjoy!

This episode is the first double showing, two-guester. Rich Harris and Mac Hammer are the ultimate dream team. Funny, outgoing, sharp, quick witted, philosophical, and with a faithful trust and support I’ve never seen in other pairings, these two have had a lot of success over their combined 30+ years in real estate. As cofounders of a commercial real estate firm that was acquired a few years ago, cofounders of a real estate tech platform, and two of the highest value producers in North Carolina Real estate, these two are just plain awesome.

Much of the conversation is with Rich, who was there from the beginning. Mac comes in about 30 minutes in, and we dive into the future of real estate, what makes a great agent, philosophies around management, what a conversation between one’s conscious and subconscious mind might look like, and much more. So let’s get to it! Here is my interview with Rich Harris and Mac Hammer.

Hello my friends!! Welcome back to Curious City, the podcast where I interview local leaders in the arts, education, business, and technology about creativity, leadership, and growth. It’s even more fun than I just made it sound.

John Grinnell is the CEO and founder of Grinnell Leadership- a (well named) leadership development and coaching company that he’s been working with for over 20 years. Before today, I’ve never met John, never even exchanged anything more than a few short emails wit him, so this conversation was as spontaneous and sporadic as any first meeting! The conversation got so good so fast, that I didn’t want to cut it off anywhere- and we kind of just start talking about journalism, and go from there. Every question and conversation was as much of a surprise for me as it will be for you, so I won’t spoil any of it.

Let’s just get to it- without further ado, John Grinnell.

Bill Buxton has spent a long career across the spans of the professional workforce. Currently, he is the chairman of Vistage, one of the top leadership development organizations in the country. Bill was one of the few to leave his rural midwestern town, and has since worked across myriad professional industries. We talk about the philosophies of great leadership, the importance of self-development, how to give and take advice, how to lead the best leaders, and much more!

And perhaps my favorite single quote from any prior interview:

"Leadership is not what you say, it is not even what you do, and it is certainly not what you say you do. Leadership is the consequences of what you say and do."

Matt Philips, from Matt Philips and the Philharmonics or Matt Philips and the Back Pockets, or any other Matt Philips related groups is one of the top local musicians in the Triangle. He’s a creative, ambitious, hard working, risk taking, hustling musician who jams brilliant, funky pop tunes on guitar, keyboard, and his perfect-pitch vocals. We talk about how he thinks about choosing band members, the creativity behind song writing, the influence of his family and religious upbringing, and much more.

For this episode, I was fortunate enough to speak with one of the real powerhouses of North Carolina, Bob Geolas. Bob is a North Carolina native who has reaped the benefits of the region’s growth over the past 50 years, and has made it his life’s work to give back first and foremost to the people and the future of this fine state. Bob’s career has taken him from politics to technology to his current job, which can only be described as building the cities of the future. As humble as he is, Bob knows the kind of individual and the sort of culture it takes to develop Research Triangle Park, one of the world’s best examples of brilliance in workplace engineering and culture building.

RTP is an office park that houses some of the world’s greatest companies in technology and life sciences. The big ones, like IBM, Glaxo-Smith-Klein, and Cisco all have some of their largest and most forward thinking employee pools in RTP, each with over 5000 employees. They are housed next door to tiny startups, as almost 50% of RTP companies have fewer than 10 employees. Over time, companies housed in this 7000 acre park- a combination of trees, lakes, hiking trails, and massive buildings- can be credited with prolific inventions like Control-Alt-Delete, the scannable barcode, 3d Ultrasound technology, and Astroturf (that athletic turf we’ve all scraped our knees on during high school gym football.) Among the most significant of RTP accomplishments was the discovery of Taxol, hailed by the National Cancer Institute as the most important new anti-cancer drug of the past 15 years, and AZT, a drug used to fight HIV-AIDS. So ya, they do good work.

Bob Geolas is the man charged with creating an environment for continued success in RTP. We talk about his time as an artist, his life as a non-technical leader in a technical world, his awesome snow day policy, Michillen restaurant guides, and much more. As Bob tells it, Walt Disney is a huge inspiration for him, so I’ll launch our conversation with a quote from the famed imagineer. “No city of today will be a guide for the city of tomorrow.”

Kimberly Jenkins is one of the most impressive and diverse individuals I’ve ever met. She has worked with some of the most legendary leaders in tech, including Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, was almost singlehandedly responsible for pioneering education software back in the 80s, and has since made education and encouraging excellent female leadership her life’s mission. Kimberly and I cover a lot of topics, including her 3 hour long job interview with Steve Jobs, the importance of being a good listener to leading a company, the current issues in the ‘bro culture’ within tech, what the next president of the United States should make his or her priority, and much more. Enjoy!

In this episode, I interview Tom Rau. Tom is formerly one of the top online poker players in the world. Since then, his career has followed his interests as he pursues music, writing, design, and coding all with equal passion. This funny creative made for an awesome conversation, and his giant dog Genghis can be heard providing background noise, panting and drooling on my arm. Enjoy!

Ben Adams is one of the top barbecue chefs in the undisputed top barbecue state (sorry, Texas). We talk about Ben's start as an investment banker, his accidental transition into chefdom, his time under James Beard Award winning chef Sean Brok, the craziness of a professional kitchen, how he likes his eggs, what it's like to finally start his own restaurant, and much more.

If you're looking for good barbecue, check out Picnic in Durham, to be opening in the next few weeks! http://www.picnicdurham.com/