Authentic Business Adventures Podcast

Taylor Carlson - Greenbush Bakery

Who doesn't love donuts?

I met with Taylor Carlson to chat about the bakery business.  Greenbush Bakery in Madison, Wisconsin is a local staple for college kids and families.  They offer incredible donuts and have adapted to the challenging times that any business that interacts directly with customers is having to deal with now.

Taylor details the kosher quality they have continued since his grandfather purchase the bakery in the 90's.

Listen as Taylor details the expansion of this fantastic bakery that challenges diets everywhere.

Enjoy!

Visit Taylor at: http://www.greenbushbakery.com/

Want to hear more?  Hit it:   [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

 

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So you found Authentic Business

Adventures,

[00:00:02]

the business program that brings you

the struggle

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stories and triumphant successes

of business owners across the land.

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One thing I think we can all agree

on is that donuts are awesome.

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Think that's safe to say.

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So we brought Taylor Carlson,

the general manager and co owner

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at Greenbush Bakery.

How are you doing today?

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Doing good yourself.

I'm doing awesome.

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Yeah, I'm doing I'm excited because

we're in this new studio here.

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And so this is the first

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video, live video that we're doing

the podcast interview on.

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So.

So welcome man.

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And if anything breaks, sorry.

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Yeah.

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So Greenbush Bakery.

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Let's start out first.

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Where did the name come from?

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So Greenbush Bakery

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came from the neighborhood

that our original location was at.

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Oh.

So that neighborhood down

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off Regent Street is known as

the Greenbush neighborhood.

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And it's always, you know,

it was where the Italian immigrants

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arrived and it's still named the Greenbush

neighborhoods is kind of where that name

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came from when my grandparents

bought the business.

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OK.

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So there was a bakery that was down

on Regent Street few years back,

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and that's my grandparents purchased

the bakery when it was kind of rundown

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and dingy and

changed the name to Greenbush Bakery.

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And they bought that in March of 1996.

Wow.

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So they've owned the business

for 24 years now.

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That is so weird.

1996 to me

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it seems like that was just the other day,

right?

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Yeah, I was crawling back then.

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I feel old.

Yes.

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So that was our original

location down there.

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All right.

And we built another location

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on the east side of Madison

a little over three years ago now.

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Sure.

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And then we just relocated that original

location at the end of August.

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So it's almost like a year now

since we've moved to that location.

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And we just moved it

down like the block.

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Sure.

I'm still on Regent Street.

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OK.

So it's just kind of a new spot and.

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Sure.

So we've got two locations in Madison now,

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so.

All right.

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Yeah.

So do you know the story about why your

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grandparents chose a bakery

or specifically that bakery?

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It was.

It's kind of funny.

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My grandpa always talks about,

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like all things kind of led up to his life

to owning the bakery.

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All right.

So he's done numerous things in his life.

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He was in the Navy.

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He sold insurance.

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He's worked at Oscar Meyer for numerous years.

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So he

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has done all these

different jobs where he kind of

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I think it was kind of almost like

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an impulse thing where he just decided

just. Let's just buy a bakery. Do something new and

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ended up in the bakery business.

All right.

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So, yeah, it wasn't really any,

like, crazy story behind it.

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I think she was just kind

of opportunity that came up.

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And when he originally bought the bakery,

he had a business partner in on it

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with him that he ended up buying out

a few years after they purchased it.

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So him and my grandma like the main ones

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that have owned the business

for sure all these years.

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So he had to be older ish, relatively.

Yeah.

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He bought the bakery.

He's in his 70s now.

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So he was in mid 50s.

Mid 50s.

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Yeah. Around 50.

All right.

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So.

So career shift.

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Yeah, a little bit.

Going from insurance to selling donuts.

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So did he,

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the bakeries itself was existing

at the time that he bought.

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Yeah, there was there was a bakery there.

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It wasn't Greenbush but there was

a bakery there when he purchased it.

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So he had to do a lot of upkeep

to kind of bring it up to speed.

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And that's kind of what,

you know, has made the business.

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What it is, is just his

ability to be a handy man.

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And now, sure,

every aspect of the business and kind of

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do things on his own to kind of, you know,

bring the business where it was.

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And it's I mean, even the last like five

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years of us getting

the East Side location.

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yeah. And relocating,

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it's completely different game

than it was twenty four years ago.

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I bet. Just as far as the locations

and volume that we do now.

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But I mean. Is it more or less?

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Well, yeah, a lot more.

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What do you attribute that to?

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Is it more people just around Madison?

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I think just how Madisons

growing and you know, with us

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just being a staple in Madison

for such a long time

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you know, I think with,

you know, the university kind of growing

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and just the Madison as a whole, even

like the outskirts, Sun Prairie here.

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Yeah.

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You know, I think that's

kind of a tribute to it.

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And we've just kind of always had a high

quality product where, you know, people

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word of mouth kind of talk about us.

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And,

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you know, we kind of do something

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that a lot of places there's not too many

places in the area that do what we do.

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So I think as far as bakery here.

Yeah, I mean,

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I think just with the quality of stuff,

I mean, sure, there's bakeries

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all around Madison.

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But right now, our main focus

is I would say donuts.

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So, you know, there's a lot of bakeries,

good bakeries in the area that do,

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you know, cringle or cakes

and stuff like that.

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But as far as what we do,

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I don't think there's really too many

people that can compete with us for what we do.

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Sure,

sure.

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So,

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yeah. That's cool.

Yeah. That's cool.

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Yeah.

So I feel like donuts are one of those

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things that just seem to be

popular at anytime, regardless of

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the health kicks.

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I guess that people may

or may not claim to be

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right.

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It's a cool look around

the world you like.

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Well, not too many people.

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So I mean, you show up to a party or

with some friends over the box of donuts.

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No, it's going to be like

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even if it's January 2nd,

I'm going to lead them.

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Yeah.

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So tell me, is your bread

and butter business.

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The one on one,

like the the person walking in buying

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a few dozen or a dozen or six

donuts or something like that?

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Or is it a huge

butter wholesale where you're saying yes.

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So we try we do wholesale stuff in

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local grocery stores

and markets in the area.

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Okay, so we're in like

the Hiva Mecca Sherriffs Willie Streets.

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All right.

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And Woodman's.

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So we're just in the

Madison area for that.

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And we do package product for that.

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OK, but that's really only probably like

a fifth of our business that we do.

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So it's mainly like our

retail or both locations.

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Our Eastside location is kind of gradually

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grown and I think that's just what

the area here sure has kind of.

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There's apartments and houses

going crazy over here.

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Oh, my gosh.

And I like weeds.

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Yeah.

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In downtown, you know,

with the students or.

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Right on campus down there.

Sure.

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Anytime they're at athletic events

going on down there, we're busy.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

I think, you know, with our retail, that's

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definitely our, you know,

big business that we think.

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So I think,

you know, with everything that's going

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on too, it's been tough because we were

able to keep doing that wholesale stuff.

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And that was, you know,

with people only being the go to grocery

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store here these last few months,

we've been really busy with that in our

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wholesale accounts have kind

...

Dan Woll - Author

Deep down inside, almost everyone has a story that they want to write, publish, market and sell.  Well, maybe they just want to write and sell it without having to deal with those middle pieces.

Anyways, Dan Woll has taken all four of those steps, multiple times.  He has written or co-authored North of Highway 8, Death On Cache Lake, Further, Sarah Saves Christmas and Sarah Saves Her Friends, with more in the works.

This conversation stemmed from his historical fiction book, Death On Cache Lake.  This book deals with the as-yet unsolved mystery of where the person is now that set off a bomb at a hall on the University of Wisconsin campus in 1970, during the anti-war movement, after hiding for almost 50 years.

Find the book here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1937391043

Enjoy!

Visit Dan at: http://danwoll.com/

Want to hear more?  Hit it:   [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

Araceli Esparza - Wisconsin Mujer - Part II

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In the case of my guest, Araceli Esparza, she feels drawn to help remove the challenges of race.  Clearly, this is not an easy task.

I want you to know that Araceli and I come from different backgrounds and have different perspectives on these issues.  Universally, I feel like we both (if not all of us) want the same thing.  That same thing includes opportunity that is equal to the amount of work that we are willing to do.

This conversation went much longer than anticipated, so we split it into two episodes.

Enjoy!

Visit Araceli at: https://wisconsinmujer.com/

Want to hear more?  Hit it:   [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

Araceli Esparza - Wisconsin Mujer

These are challenging times for any business owner.  As we recover from a global pandemic, our next major issue delves much deeper than any virus could.  There is no magic pill to be swallowed to cure us of racism.

In the case of my guest, Araceli Esparza, she feels drawn to help remove the challenges of race.  Clearly, this is not an easy task.

I want you to know that Araceli and I come from different backgrounds and have different perspectives on these issues.  Universally, I feel like we both (if not all of us) want the same thing.  That same thing includes opportunity that is equal to the amount of work that we are willing to do.

This conversation went much longer than anticipated, so we split it into two episodes.

Enjoy!

Visit Araceli at: https://wisconsinmujer.com/

Want to hear more?  Hit it:   [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

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The dog daycare business can be super rewarding, a lot of fun and a lot of work.

When I first met Ben, years ago, he was selling financial services.  When I saw that he was now the owner of a dog daycare facility, I had to get the story.  How do you go from selling life insurance and investments to playing with dogs?

The answer is as surprising as it is practical.  Listen as Ben explains how he purchased an existing dog daycare business and the challenges he has overcome as he jumped into the business and works on growing it.  All while having a blast with a bunch of dogs.

Enjoy!

Visit Ben at: https://unleashedpetboarding.com/

Want to hear more?  Hit it:   [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

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One piece of this communication mess is when a contractor needs to find a qualified, competent and available sub-contractor.  Typically this would be done with endless phone calls and text messages.  Now, with GYLD, it can be done with the push of a button.

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Every once in a while, technology works in our favor.

Listen here as the co-founder of the GYLD app tells us how this business came to be.

Enjoy!

Visit Kyle at: https://www.gyld.in/

Want to hear more?  Hit it:   [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

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This is where Jeff can help.

Every good business needs to know their numbers.  This episode will help you discover yours.

Enjoy!

Visit Jeff at: invictus-advisors.com

Want to hear more?  Hit it:   [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

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But how to your value, market and sell your business?

That is where an experienced expert like Mark McNally comes in.  In this business podcast episode, Mark details how to value, market and sell your business, with and without external help.

Every good business has a planned exit strategy.  This episode will help you define yours.

Enjoy!

Visit Mark here: http://www.ashfordbusinessbrokers.com/

Want to hear more?  Hit it:   [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

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For over two decades they have been doing this!

Listen as Ellen explains the challenges typical of a local retail store along with her description of selling items and education to an under-served community.  This was an interesting, intriguing and enlightening show.

Enjoy!

Visit Ellen here: https://sexualityresources.com/

Want to hear more?  Hit it:   [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

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We use our mouths everyday.  We bite, chew and sometimes we even breathe through it.  Did you know that the mouth and nose are hugely important to our health and well-being?  Of course you did. But did you know that many of us breathe and often chew incorrectly?  We may not have come with instruction books, but things like this have been studied.  Who knew?

Shirley Gutkowski, owner of Primal Aire, takes us through the importance of these holes as well as details on how she started her business and has grown it.  She also details few quick ways that we can improve our lives by chewing and breathing better.  This was an interesting conversation.

Enjoy!

Visit Shirley here: http://www.primalair.com/

Want to hear more?  Hit it:   [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]