AmiSights: Financing the Future For Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

On this episode, Ami Kassar interviews Verne Harnish, Owner and CEO of Scaling Up, on the biggest challenges businesses face today in this post pandemic world and how he and his coaches are helping their clients through them.

Verne is a world-leading expert, speaker, author, and entrepreneur in the field of business growth. He has spent more than 30 years educating entrepreneurial teams. As part of his personal mission to support entrepreneurs, he co-founded Growth Institute, a premier online training company that has helped mid-market companies in over 50 countries learn and implement the latest business methodologies.

He also founded the world-renowned Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) and chaired for 15 years EO's premier CEO program, the "Birthing of Giants", held at MIT. Verne is also the Founder and CEO of Scaling Up, a global executive education and coaching company with over 180 partners on six continents.

Known as the "Growth Guy" syndicated columnist, Verne is also a regular columnist for Fortune magazine. He's the author of Scaling Up, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits and, along with the editors of Fortune, authored The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time, for which Jim Collins wrote the foreword.

With his expertise in high demand, Verne chairs annual Growth Summits in North America, Europe, and Asia and continues to teach in the MIT-based executive program he founded. He is also a private investor in many scaleups.

Verne is a father of four who enjoys piano, tennis, and magic as a card-carrying member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.

Recorded 09/12/2022.

On this week's episode, Ami Kassar interviews Jeff Bruno, founder and CEO of B.Modelr, on how businesses manage performance.

Jeff has over twenty years of experience in financial and operating strategy. He holds a Bachelor's Degree from George Washington University and a Master's Degree in International Business Administration from the Fox School of Business at Temple University.

Jeff started his career in the retail brokerage world at Prudential Securities before several stints in the start-up or small business space before his current role as CEO. Over the past 18 months, Jeff describes his journey of rebranding from Your Outsourced CFO to B.Modelr - or Business Modeler. "We are business model specialists who use modeling, measurement, and analysis to glean insight, illustrate logic, gauge [business] performance, and inform decision making."

B.Modelr is based out of Philadelphia and works with companies nationwide. Jeff and his team help companies find clarity on their business concept, focus on the highest value areas, and decision making is supported by quantitative analysis.

Jeff has a great family with a beautiful wife and three amazing kids. While not focusing on growing his business, Jeff loves dinner out with his wife, board games with his son, and drawing contests with his two younger daughters.

Connect with Jeff at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreybruno/

Check out bmodelr.com

Recorded 09/09/2022.

On this episode, Ami Kassar interviews Eric Griffin (better known as Griff), co-founder of Mobile Outfitters, on the biggest lessons learned during his entrepreneurial journey.

Griff co-founded Mobile Outfitters, a 5x Inc. 5000 company, which is a U.S. manufacturer, innovator, and consumer brand of mobile accessories, with 900 retail locations spanning 55 countries. Mobile Outfitters is best known for its award-winning RapidCut system, an all-in-one solution for on-demand manufacturing of mobile screen protection and 360° full body skins directly in retail stores, completely eliminating the need for inventory.

Griff is passionate about business strategy, vision, startups, sales development, product design, and marketing. Finding an opportunity, bringing it to life from napkin sketch to reality, and creating a game plan that turns potential opportunity into a brand that employees and customers are enthusiastic about is his favorite thing to do. Talking with people who are interested in (or are already) building sustainable, responsible, growing companies is a close second.

Griff is also a board member of the Philadelphia chapter of Entrepreneurs' Organization, a non-profit network exclusively for entrepreneurs, chairman of the board at Back on my Feet Philly, a non-profit combatting homelessness through the power of running, co-founder of GSW Apartments, a 33 unit real estate development and property management company, and co-founder of PAW5, a consumer brand of puzzle feeders and enrichment products for dogs. In his spare time, he enjoys helping Philly not-for-profits, running, gardening, woodworking, cooking, and coffee.

Recorded 08/30/2022.

On this episode, Ami Kassar interviews Elisabeth Garson, Executive Creative Director of Steel Owl, about her creative journey, her favorite projects, and what she is working on now.

Elisabeth is an Executive Creative Director and an Experience Producer that builds interactive brand experiences, and develops gamification for corporate training (learn as you play). She's given dozens of lectures on experiential design, advertising, escape rooms and more. She authored two industry books and is the owner of Steel Owl Productions, with the award-winning game room, Escape The 1980s.

Her current work blends interactive, off-screen experiences with advertising and learning. In 2015, she founded Steel Owl Productions, a company that works with brands looking to promote or train via real-life experiences. She's developed interactive experiences for the museum industry, training industry and Fortune 500 companies.

Prior to Steel Owl Productions, Garson worked in Advertising for 20 years as a Creative Director. Her clients included large companies (Comcast, Advanta, The Franklin Mint), medium sized businesses and start-ups. From craft beer…to cable TV — her creative work explored consumer experience, from the perspective of targeted audience research. This knowledge acted as the primary building block for the Steel Owl business model, including game development, company branding, and puzzles to create player engagement.

In addition, she created several Philadelphia events including the sold-out "Dating Game Live" (set up like the 1980s show) and a sold out "Happening Event" where participants purchased tickets to something that was happening (but they didn't know what it was). She was the co-creator of an independent short film that created outlandish experiences for unsuspecting deliverymen. She also the developed The Philadelphia Arts Market concept for the City of Philadelphia, which is still in process of development, and on-hold for the moment.

Over the years, Garson's endeavors have attracted press from The Philadelphia Inquirer, CBS 3, NBC 10, ABC 6, KYW News Radio, Time Magazine and dozens of others.

Recorded 08/26/2022.

On this episode, Ami Kassar interviews Dave Mastovich, founder & CEO of MASSolutions, on how to eliminate BS marketing tactics and replace them with proven growth strategies.

Dave has helped companies achieve top and bottom line growth through marketing and storytelling for decades. He helped grow the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center into a multibillion dollar healthcare system and drove record breaking recruitment in both size and academic talent for Duquesne University as a senior executive leader before starting MASSolutions, the world's only No BULL$H!# Marketing Consultancy.

He started MASSolutions because he wanted any company, regardless of size or industry, to be able to leverage real marketing through his No BS Go To Market System. He and his team help companies achieve massive growth through strategic marketing, customer experience solutions and top and bottom line storytelling.

Dave has been quoted or published in Entrepreneur, Inc, Fortune, ABC News and many other outlets on Marketing, Branding and Crisis Communications.

He's author of the book Get Where You Want to Go Through Marketing, Selling and Story Telling and host of the No BS Marketing Show podcast with nearly 500 episodes over 7 years. His blog has been featured in over 50 media outlets with readership of more than 1 million. Dave is also a nationally-recognized speaker.

Recorded 08/17/2022.

On this episode, Ami Kassar interviews David Friedman, CEO of High Performing Culture, on the new rules about corporate culture in the post-pandemic world.

David is an author, speaker, CEO, and the developer of the CultureWise® operating system. His company helps organizations to create, drive, and maintain high-performing cultures, with a proven system that's straightforward, practical, and easy to use. The principles that David teaches are based on the process he developed while serving as the President of RSI, an employee benefits consulting firm headquartered in Mt. Laurel, NJ.

Under his leadership and direction, RSI grew from 2 employees to a staff of more than 100 professionals and annual revenues in excess of $16 million. The firm won numerous awards including being named one of the Best Places to Work in the Philadelphia region 3 times and one of the Best Places to Work in NJ 4 times. In 2006, RSI earned the NJ Governor's Award for Performance Excellence – Gold Level, the highest award for total quality available in the state. In 2008, RSI became a division of Arthur J. Gallagher & Associates (AJG), one of the largest insurance brokers in the world. David served as the Area President for Gallagher until his retirement in July of 2010.

In 2011, David published his first book, Fundamentally Different, based on the insights he learned and taught during his leadership career. His second book, Culture by Design, was published in 2018 and has already been called "the most useful book ever written on organizational culture." In 2021, David published the 2nd edition of Culture by Design, which includes insights and strategies for managing culture in the new remote/hybrid work environment. Today, in addition to leading CultureWise, he's a frequent guest speaker and seminar leader on leadership, organizational culture, and building high-performance teams. In the last 7 years alone, he's led more than 500 workshops for more than 5,000 CEOs. In 2021, David was recognized by Vistage International as their Speaker of the Year. He also serves as a consultant to scores of companies around the country. David is a 1983 graduate of the College of William & Mary with a degree in philosophy.

Recorded 08/15/2022.

On this week's episode, Ami Kassar interviews John Arensmeyer, Founder & CEO of Small Business Majority, on the toughest issues facing the small business community today, and how his organization is helping.

John has used his long experience as a small business owner to build Small Business Majority into a nationally recognized organization focused on empowering America's entrepreneurs to build a thriving and inclusive economy. Small Business Majority is the leading advocate for critical public policy issues facing America's small businesses—particularly access to capital, healthcare, taxes, retirement/asset building and numerous workforce issues. In the past few years John has spearheaded the growth of Small Business Majority's Venturize.org portal, providing critical practical resources to our nation's 30 million small businesses and independent self-employed entrepreneurs.

Prior to launching Small Business Majority 16 years ago, John was the founder and CEO of ACI Interactive, an award-winning international interactive communications company. Information Week named ACI's signature product one of the nation's top 100 e-business innovations, and the company was cited by the San Francisco Business Times as one of the top 100 fastest growing private companies in the Bay Area. Earlier, John was the chief operating officer of a pioneering multimedia business, an attorney in New York, an aide to the mayor of Philadelphia and a staff member on Capitol Hill.

John is a frequent speaker on small business policy issues and a regular guest on TV and radio, including MSNBC's Your Business, PBS NewsHour, Fox News, Bloomberg TV, NPR's Marketplace and the CBS Evening News. In 2009 he was an active participant at the White House summit on healthcare reform. He testifies regularly before congressional committees, and has briefed White House officials and congressional leadership on small business policy issues. He serves on the Advisory Board for the Access to Markets initiative, and he recently served as Board Chair of California's Insure the Uninsured Project. He has led a study group at Harvard's Kennedy School of Politics, and has served on the Association for Enterprise Opportunity's Economic Impact Council and Micro Capital Task Force. John is conversational in Spanish.

Recorded 08/11/2022.

On this week's episode, Ami Kassar interviews Finnian Kelly, creator of Intentionality.com, on how the pandemic has changed entrepreneurs' mindsets.

As a sought-after speaker, retreat facilitator, and executive coach, Finnian has been dubbed "the Business Mystic" because of his unique ability to put consciousness into business and inspire leaders to find new levels of meaning and purpose through their creative endeavors. This approach flowed through his term as President of the Colorado Chapter of Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) - the largest and most influential community of entrepreneurs in the world. Finnian helps people 'love their path' so they can feel content with a life lived in the now.

As an entrepreneur, Finnian built and exited two multi-million dollar companies in the financial industry. He's the Creator and Chief Visionary Officer of Intentionality.com, where he offers coaching and courses to guide people through the four paths of the Intentionality Framework. Finnian is also a retreat facilitator providing entrepreneurs with unique, mind-shifting experiences so they can awaken and connect deeply with their business and their true self.

Finnian has appeared on Sky Business, on ABC as a political commentator, and on Ten's morning shows as a financial expert. As a guest writer, Finnian has published articles on Money Management, Smart Company, Business Insider, and more. He was also featured as an Undercover Angel in the popular National Geographic documentary series. This was a project where he was dropped into an underprivileged community to discover their core issues, build trust and come up with a project that would support their needs. He funded the entire program himself and worked with community leaders to form a family education center in Fakulteta, Bulgaria.

As a lifelong learner, Finnian has degrees in maths, physics, finance, leadership, teaching, and a master's degree of science in positive psychology. He spent 7 years in the Australian Defence Force and graduated from one of the most prestigious leadership organizations in the World, The Royal Military College of Duntroon. Above all, Finnian is a conscious being - committed to embodying Intentionality and inspiring others to do the same. Finnian travels the world spreading Intentionality on speaking tours, exploring new places and cultures, and chasing powder as a ridiculously passionate skier!

Recorded 08/10/2022.

On this episode, Ami Kassar interviews Mason (The Chutzpah Guy) Harris, Founder of The Chutzpah Institute, on what is chutzpah and whether or not it can be taught in an organization.

Born with a "plastic spoon in his mouth" to immigrants who found both safety and opportunity in the U.S., Mason is an observer of people and a lifelong student of self-improvement and business. His education, both formal – Queens College (BA) and University at Buffalo (MBA), and informal, the streets of New York, exposed him to many different people. Mason was fascinated by their personalities and stories. There were introverts and extroverts, and feeling comfortable with both traits, Mason eventually learned that he is an ambivert. Mason also learned that actions, perseverance, and risk-taking led to more successful lives. These behaviors, among others, are the foundation of Mason's work on understanding and sharing "chutzpah." Interviews, research, and a worldwide pandemic led to finally writing his book, The Chutzpah Advantage, and teaching others the skillset for "going bigger, being bolder, and doing better."

Recorded 08/08/2022.

On this episode, Ami Kassar interviews Marcia O'Connor, CEO and Founder of the O'Connor Group, on how the employment market has changed post covid and what employees have to do to stay ahead.

Marcia started The O'Connor Group with $10K of her own savings. It was time to build the company she's been talking about doing for the prior 10 years! One day her then 6-year-old son looked up at her and said "Mom, can I see you more". You can imagine how she felt, and said 'Yes, yes you will". Marcia had gone on vacation that July and brought the book The Alchemist and came back and quit her job. That month, The O'Connor Group was born.

The O'Connor Group was founded on September 1, 2007. Originally started as a retained search recruiting firm geared to positions in the $80K to $150K range. Marcia's expertise was in the Talent Strategy world and consulting. Within six months she added an HR Consulting division. It wasn't easy to start the company in 2007, right before an unknown recession. Failure was NOT an option for Marcia; she was the breadwinner. Marcia was fortunate to have one of her former employers refer her to her first client and she hasn't looked back since. Marcia grew the company organically and didn't hire her first full-time employee until after three years, and she is still with the company today!

2009 was a very difficult time for Marcia. 5 out of 6 clients called to let her know that they were running out of funds and would no longer need the assistance of one of Marcia's consultants. She had one client left! It was hard for her to get work and it typically took around 3 months for a client to pay. Marcia dipped into her own 401K savings plan to help pay payroll at that time. A good friend referred another client that helped Marcia move her company to the next level. Marcia helps build HR and talent teams with the right talent in place. 75% of her clients come from referrals and most of those referrals come from current clients! Currently, The O'Connor Group works with over 150 clients a month and now has 80 employees. Marcia expects to have 100 employees by year-end. "It's been an honor to run a company that is fun, exciting, and growing. If you take care of your people, they take good care of you!"

Recorded on 08/05/2022.