Alliance Wealth Advisors

For episode 11, I was joined by my colleague, Managing Partner at Alliance Wealth Advisors, Chris Ross, and Stephanie Decker, who serves as the Associate Vice President of Social and Economic Impact at Lackawanna College. Together, we recap the first annual financial impact summit held in partnership with the college in the fall of 2022.Rather than have listeners sit through the entire program, we took sound bites from our speakers that night, including Maggie Mineo Zayac (owner of the ...

For episode 10, we sat down with entrepreneur John Basalyga. John is the President of Eastern Roofing Systems, and JBAS Realty, a commercial real estate development and management company. During this conversation, John tells his personal story, how his career has evolved over the years, and why he is so passionate about improving Scranton and the entire region through his work. We also look ahead and discuss some of the projects he and his team are working on. John explains the pr...

For episode 9, we were honored to sit down with David Rutherford the founder and CEO of Froglogic Concepts. Froglogic is a motivational entertainment company. Their mission is to help individuals, executives, and organizations, overcome adversity and achieve success in any environment. He is also an internationally known motivational speaker, best-selling author, world championship performance coach, and award-winning podcast host. Whether you are a business owner, a team member in...

For episode 8, we have a unique community spotlight featuring News Director Julie Sidoni and filmmaker Al Monelli of WVIA. We discuss each of their career paths that brought them to where they are today, Al’s new documentary film being released on June 23rd exploring the impact of Hurricane Agnes 50 years later, and the future of public television in today’s digital age. When I first pitched this idea, our team was interested in hearing more, but there was one question, which Julie even...

For our latest episode, we sat down with President and Chief Innovation Officer Dr. Jill Murray and Provost Dr. Erica Barone Pricci of Lackawanna College. Lackawanna is a premier, private, college serving the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania. However, the school is focused on taking a different approach to education, and last year it was included in Fast Company’s list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for its “Level Up” Program, which we talk about in this episode. Lackawanna...

For episode six, we are highlighting a great event being held by TecBRIDGE, an organization that is vital to the business community of Northeastern Pennsylvania. On Thursday April 21st, they will be hosting the 20th annual Business Plan Competition at the FM Kirby Center in downtown Wilkes-Barre. We had TecBRIDGE Executive Director Don Webster on to talk about the event, its history, and so much more. This competition is the region’s signature entrepreneurship and innovation event, and w...

This is the first of our “community spotlight” episodes. While the goal of this podcast is to highlight business owners, high-performers, and industry leaders to better understand their stories and how they make important decisions, these episodes will be a little bit different.We are a firm focused on partnering with our clients to help them achieve their financial goals, but we know there is so much more to life than planning and investing. We also care deeply about the community in which w...

For episode four, we sat down with real estate developer and the managing partner of Montage Mountain Resorts, Charles Jefferson. We had a very enjoyable conversation that covered Charlie’s roots in Philadelphia, his career path, various real estate projects he has worked on, and how he took the leap from the world of real estate development to managing a ski resort and water park. While Charlie has family roots in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it wasn’t until 2006 that he made his first in...

For episode three, we sat down with serial entrepreneur Patrick Sandone. We discussed Pat’s career path, including the successful sale of his technology company Net Driven in 2015, which he had grown from a one-person start-up into the largest digital marketing company serving independent automotive businesses in North America. We also discuss his most recent start-up venture, the Guide App, which will launch next year. Patrick’s professional journey took him from the Univer...

In this episode, we sat down with Robert and Matt Knowles of Knowles Associates, a full-service insurance firm serving corporations, organizations, and families throughout 22 states. We had a great conversation about a very interesting (and complicated) topic: successfully transitioning a family-owned business to the next generation. According to two 2010 studies cited by Cornell’s Johnson School of Business, the average life span of a family-owned business is 24 years. Only about 40% of...