Today marks one year of Shop Talk with Radiate Prints. I've spent twelve months asking other business owners how they built what they built, and now I’m in the hot seat.

I started Simple & Sentimental in a dorm room at ECU as an interior design major who couldn't sell a single thing on Etsy. Buying a vinyl cutter at 2 am on Black Friday run turned me into “sticker girl." Then, I won $18,500 in 24 hours at two pitch competitions.

And in 2020 when COVID hit, every product I was selling came to a screeching halt overnight. I made a major pivot that kept the lights on, then happened to create a "Happy Quarantine Birthday" box that exploded my business. In a matter of weeks I scaled from 5 to 25 people six feet apart. It's an honest look at growing too fast, the mentors who picked up the phone, and why I started this podcast in the first place.

About the Host: Taylor Walden is the founder of Radiate Prints and a serial entrepreneur who started her first business in her dorm room at East Carolina University. 

More Shop Talk:

Thank you for your continued support of the Shop Talk with Radiate Prints Podcast! Know someone who should be a guest? Nominate them! Head to the Radiate Prints website and fill out our nomination form under the “Podcast” tab. 

You can find more episodes of the Shop Talk with Radiate Prints Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. We release new episodes weekly on Wednesdays!

Connect with Radiate Prints:

We print apparel people love to wear. If you need t-shirts, hoodies, hats, or a company store for your organization, reach out to us! Taylor and the team would love to help.

@radiateprints on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn

Website: https://radiateprints.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/radiateprints

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@radiateprints

We’ve all had an experience where we thought “there has to be a better way”, but today’s guest tells the story of how she built a business from it.

This week, Taylor sits down with Dr. Sharon Moore, ECU professor, athletic trainer, and founder of Sportscale. Sharon shares how a 2008 tragedy on a high school football field pushed a school system to put an athletic trainer in every school, and how that work led her to a burdensome weigh-in problem no one had solved. Sharon turned that problem into a smart scale that automatically tracks athlete hydration and flags who's lost too much weight to safely practice.

She walks through her journey as an inventor and founder: securing a patent, having an NFL team reach out before she even had a prototype, building the first version in a friend's garage, raising half a million dollars one month before the pandemic, and iterating through a decade of hardware.

Sharon’s story is an honest account of what it looks like to go from idea, to prototype, to market.

Connect with Sharon Moore:

Follow Sharon on social media at Sharon Moore on Linkedin and https://www.sportscalesystem.com/

About the Host: Taylor Walden is the founder of Radiate Prints and a serial entrepreneur who started her first business in her dorm room at East Carolina University. Shop Talk highlights the stories of leaders with ties to Eastern North Carolina.

More Shop Talk:

Thank you for your continued support of the Shop Talk with Radiate Prints Podcast! Know someone who should be a guest? Nominate them! Head to the Radiate Prints website and fill out our nomination form under the “Podcast” tab. 

You can find more episodes of the Shop Talk with Radiate Prints Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. We release new episodes weekly on Wednesdays!

Connect with Radiate Prints:

We print apparel people love to wear. If you need t-shirts, hoodies, hats, or a company store for your organization, reach out to us! Taylor and the team would love to help.

@radiateprints on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn

Website: https://radiateprints.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/radiateprints

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@radiateprints

Mayor PJ Connelly has a simple rule for running Greenville: you don't have to run a city like a business, but it definitely helps to model it like one.

This week on Shop Talk, we pull back the curtain on how governing a city of almost 100,000 people actually works. PJ came to Greenville to play baseball at ECU, spent a few years in the LA Angels organization, and got into real estate in 2007 right before the real estate market crashed. Now, he's leading one of the fastest growing cities in Eastern NC.

So what does a mayor actually do? We dive into how the City of Greenville is structured and who is responsible for what. PJ shares what success looks like for himself as mayor and for the city as a whole, and dives into what’s next for Greenville. He shares Greenville’s position on data centers, his goal for the local airport, and the story of a local program he believes is helping to address affordable housing in the city. He’s also open about taking criticism, and why he asks for feedback from citizens on Facebook. 

Connect with PJ Connelly:

Follow PJ on social media at PJ Connelly Mayor of Greenville

About the Host: Taylor Walden is the founder of Radiate Prints and a serial entrepreneur who started her first business in her dorm room at East Carolina University. Shop Talk highlights the stories of leaders with ties to Eastern North Carolina.

More Shop Talk:

Thank you for your continued support of the Shop Talk with Radiate Prints Podcast! Know someone who should be a guest? Nominate them! Head to the Radiate Prints website and fill out our nomination form under the “Podcast” tab. 

You can find more episodes of the Shop Talk with Radiate Prints Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. We release new episodes weekly on Wednesdays!

Connect with Radiate Prints:

We print apparel people love to wear. If you need t-shirts, hoodies, hats, or a company store for your organization, reach out to us! Taylor and the team would love to help.

@radiateprints on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn

Website: https://radiateprints.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/radiateprints

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@radiateprints

Most business owners use AI as a chatbot and stop there. This episode shows you everything you're leaving on the table.

This week, Taylor sits down with Scott Johnson, a real estate agent and investor who taught himself to use AI to build custom tools for his business. Scott was paying $60/month for a clunky CRM. Using AI, he built his own CRM that was better, fully owned, running for about $2/month. 

He breaks down exactly how AI works (what a "token" really is, why it costs money, why AI has a bad memory), how to go from chatbot to building real tools, the hiring shift coming where employers ask candidates "what agents do you have?", and the one security mistake that can run your AI bill up to $10,000 overnight.

No code. No jargon. This episode is full of AI advice that is current and practical to help you save time and money in your business.

Check out this link for more information from Scott: https://reilize.com/build/

Connect with Scott Johnson:

Follow Scott on LinkedIn, or connect with him at https://reilize.com/build/

About the Host: Taylor Walden is the founder of Radiate Prints and a serial entrepreneur who started her first business in her dorm room at East Carolina University. Shop Talk highlights the stories of leaders with ties to Eastern North Carolina.

More Shop Talk:

Thank you for your continued support of the Shop Talk with Radiate Prints Podcast! Know someone who should be a guest? Nominate them! Head to the Radiate Prints website and fill out our nomination form under the “Podcast” tab. 

You can find more episodes of the Shop Talk with Radiate Prints Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. We release new episodes weekly on Wednesdays!

Connect with Radiate Prints:

We print apparel people love to wear. If you need t-shirts, hoodies, hats, or a company store for your organization, reach out to us! Taylor and the team would love to help.

@radiateprints on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn

Website: https://radiateprints.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/radiateprints

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@radiateprints

Steven Lipscomb turned a side hustle selling discount cards into a full-time business. And somewhere along the way, he ended up in not one but two Mr. Beast videos.

This week on Shop Talk with Radiate Prints, hear what it's actually like being in a Mr. Beast video, and how the same instinct for standing out shows up in the way Steven sells in his business.

During our conversation Steven shares the story of surviving down to the top 10 in "100 People vs. the World's Deadliest Traps," that time he sat on top of an 8-foot ladder outside a restaurant to sell cards (and why it worked), and his best advice for networking your way into any room.

This episode is a fun, candid conversation about content creation, sales, and what it really takes to build your network. Whether you're trying to grow your network or just want to hear what a custom airsoft and 2,000 balloons have to do with $10,000, you'll get something out of this one. 

Connect with Steven and Lion’s Eye Promotions:

Follow Steven on Instagram @slipscomb15 or find Lion's Eye Promotions @lionseye_promotions

About the Host: Taylor Walden is the founder of Radiate Prints and a serial entrepreneur who started her first business in her dorm room at East Carolina University. Shop Talk highlights the stories of leaders with ties to Eastern North Carolina.

More Shop Talk:

Thank you for your continued support of the Shop Talk with Radiate Prints Podcast! Know someone who should be a guest? Nominate them! Head to the Radiate Prints website and fill out our nomination form under the “Podcast” tab. 

You can find more episodes of the Shop Talk with Radiate Prints Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. We release new episodes weekly on Wednesdays!

Connect with Radiate Prints:

We print apparel people love to wear. If you need t-shirts, hoodies, hats, or a company store for your organization, reach out to us! Taylor and the team would love to help.

@radiateprints on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn

Website: https://radiateprints.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/radiateprints

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@radiateprints

Chris Loignon wanted to open a new franchise location in a town that initially seemed “too small”. He joins Taylor on Shop Talk with Radiate Prints this week to share how he grew his first location, and how he leveraged his systems to acquire an existing franchise in another city hours away. 

During our conversation Chris shares the story of starting a new franchise location in a town where he knew no one, what it was like to run the New York City Marathon, and that time he tried to launch multiple businesses at once (spoiler: he doesn’t recommend you do it). 

This episode is a fun, candid conversation about entrepreneurship, running, and the moments in between. If you enjoy Chris’s story, be sure to check out his podcast The Running Playbook available wherever you get your podcasts.

Connect with Fleet Feet in Greenville or Virginia Beach:

FF Greenville Website // The Running Playbook Podcast // @fleetfeetgvl

About the Host: Taylor Walden is the founder of Radiate Prints and a serial entrepreneur who started her first business in her dorm room at East Carolina University. Shop Talk highlights the stories of leaders with ties to Eastern North Carolina.

More Shop Talk:

Thank you for your continued support of the Shop Talk with Radiate Prints Podcast! Know someone who should be a guest? Nominate them! Head to the Radiate Prints website and fill out our nomination form under the “Podcast” tab. 

You can find more episodes of the Shop Talk with Radiate Prints Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. We release new episodes weekly on Wednesdays!

Connect with Radiate Prints:

We print apparel people love to wear. If you need t-shirts, hoodies, hats, or a company store for your organization, reach out to us! Taylor and the team would love to help.

@radiateprints on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn

Website: https://radiateprints.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/radiateprints

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@radiateprints

This week, Taylor sits down with Skylar Woolard, owner of The Foundry Barbell, to talk about how training clients in his garage during the pandemic became a 6,000-square-foot gym with a culture all its own.

Skylar shares the saga of the neighbor who reported him to the police, parking enforcement, and the city, and the $300-a-day fine that was on the table until the mayor personally stepped in and called everyone off. He explains how a last-minute, sight-unseen equipment deal (and a client with a trucking business willing to barter) let him jump from a cramped 2,000-square-foot unit to the warehouse he's in now, why he built The Foundry as a semi-private gym for powerlifting and bodybuilding instead of trying to be everything to everyone, and how word of mouth quietly became his best marketing.

Connect with The Foundry Barbell:

https://www.thefoundrybarbell.com/ // @thefoundrybarbell

About the Host: Taylor Walden is the founder of Radiate Prints and a serial entrepreneur who started her first business in her dorm room at East Carolina University. Shop Talk highlights the stories of leaders with ties to Eastern North Carolina.

More Shop Talk:

Thank you for your continued support of the Shop Talk with Radiate Prints Podcast! Know someone who should be a guest? Nominate them! Head to the Radiate Prints website and fill out our nomination form under the “Podcast” tab. 

You can find more episodes of the Shop Talk with Radiate Prints Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. We release new episodes weekly on Wednesdays!

Connect with Radiate Prints:

We print apparel people love to wear. If you need t-shirts, hoodies, hats, or a company store for your organization, reach out to us! Taylor and the team would love to help.

@radiateprints on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn

Website: https://radiateprints.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/radiateprints

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@radiateprints

Will Kornegay started a sweet potato gummy company the week COVID shut down the state. Six years later, he's running a vertically integrated food business, a nonprofit feeding 22 counties in Eastern North Carolina, and breaking ground on a 60-acre community campus. Hear how he's bridging the gap between farm excess and food access, one rescued crop at a time.

This week, Taylor sits down with Will Kornegay, founder of Ripe Revival and Ripe for Revival, to talk about how a COVID-era pivot turned into one of the most innovative food businesses in Eastern North Carolina. Will shares the 3 a.m. moment that almost ended it all, how he built a vertically integrated company that buys 100% of a farmer's crop (yes, including the "ugly" 40% that usually never makes it to market), and how a $2 million grant from the NC Department of Agriculture is helping him break ground on a campus that will include a food processing facility, an outdoor amphitheater, a farmers market, a food hall, and a vocational trade school. You'll also hear about Ripe for Revival, the nonprofit arm bringing pay-what-you-can grocery stores on wheels to 40 sites across 22 counties. 

Will’s story is a textbook example of vertical integration, or what Taylor referred to as “the ripe revival universe”.

Connect with Ripe Revival:

riperevival.com or @riperevival on Social Media.

About the Host: Taylor Walden is the founder of Radiate Prints and a serial entrepreneur who started her first business in her dorm room at East Carolina University. Shop Talk highlights the stories of leaders with ties to Eastern North Carolina.

More Shop Talk:

Thank you for your continued support of the Shop Talk with Radiate Prints Podcast! Know someone who should be a guest? Nominate them! Head to the Radiate Prints website and fill out our nomination form under the “Podcast” tab. 

You can find more episodes of the Shop Talk with Radiate Prints Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. We release new episodes weekly on Wednesdays!

Connect with Radiate Prints:

We print apparel people love to wear. If you need t-shirts, hoodies, hats, or a company store for your organization, reach out to us! Taylor and the team would love to help.

@radiateprints on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn

Website: https://radiateprints.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/radiateprints

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@radiateprints

Half of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, and that stress is walking into your business every morning.

In this episode of Shop Talk with Radiate Prints, host Taylor Walden sits down with Heather Davis, a money coach based in Eastern North Carolina, to talk about why financial stress shows up at work and what business owners can actually do about it.

Heather shares the warning signs to watch for in your team, why offering great 401(k) benefits isn't enough if employees don't understand them, and her hot take that more income usually isn’t the answer. She also opens up about leaving a decade-long career as a speech therapist before launching her coaching business, the imposter syndrome she had to push through, and the moment in January 2025 that pushed her to stop treating her business like a hobby.

Whether you're an Eastern NC employer looking to support your team, a small business owner tangled up in mixed personal and business finances, or an entrepreneur trying to budget around irregular income, this conversation has practical advice you can use this week.

Connect with Heather and Cents with Intent:

centswithintent.com or @centswithintent on Instagram and Facebook.

About the Host: Taylor Walden is the founder of Radiate Prints and a serial entrepreneur who started her first business in her dorm room at East Carolina University. Shop Talk highlights the stories of leaders with ties to Eastern North Carolina.

More Shop Talk:

Thank you for your continued support of the Shop Talk with Radiate Prints Podcast! Know someone who should be a guest? Nominate them! Head to the Radiate Prints website and fill out our nomination form under the “Podcast” tab. 

You can find more episodes of the Shop Talk with Radiate Prints Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. We release new episodes weekly on Wednesdays!

Connect with Radiate Prints:

We print apparel people love to wear. If you need t-shirts, hoodies, hats, or a company store for your organization, reach out to us! Taylor and the team would love to help.

@radiateprints on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn

Website: https://radiateprints.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/radiateprints

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@radiateprints

This week on Shop Talk, Taylor sits down with Brock Hudgens, founder of Play’n Sports and GoCombine, two software companies reshaping how athletes, coaches, and families connect in the sports industry.

Brock's story is anything but ordinary. A 94-MPH pitcher drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers, he was once stuck in a hotel room for 24 hours as punishment during summer ball and walked out having started a Twitter account that he'd later grow to over a million followers and $60K in revenue. From there, it was Enterprise Rent-A-Car, pharmaceutical sales, and finally a leap into software during COVID that built Play’n Sports into a platform now working with 180 college programs nationwide.

We cover what AI actually means for small business owners in 2026, why he believes hiring a co-founder developer is non-negotiable if you want to start a software company, and the unexpected reason most kids stop playing their sport at 13. Brock also opens up about the yips, why he wouldn't change a single step of his path, and the lessons that translate from the pitcher's mound to the founder's chair.

Find Brock:

🌐 PlaySports.com | GoCombine.com | BSBLR.com

🐦 Twitter/X: @BrockHudgens

About the Host: Taylor Walden is the founder of Radiate Prints and a serial entrepreneur who started her first business in her dorm room at East Carolina University. Shop Talk highlights the stories of leaders with ties to Eastern North Carolina.

More Shop Talk:

Thank you for your continued support of the Shop Talk with Radiate Prints Podcast! Know someone who should be a guest? Nominate them! Head to the Radiate Prints website and fill out our nomination form under the “Podcast” tab. 

You can find more episodes of the Shop Talk with Radiate Prints Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. We release new episodes weekly on Wednesdays!

Connect with Radiate Prints:

We print apparel people love to wear. If you need t-shirts, hoodies, hats, or a company store for your organization, reach out to us! Taylor and the team would love to help.

@radiateprints on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn

Website: https://radiateprints.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/radiateprints
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@radiateprints