Heidi Bach-Harod [1:45]

Heidi is the Executive Director of Women’s Voices Now, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to advancing girls' and women's rights globally through the use of film.She empowers filmmakers, produces social-change films, and engages audiences to promote girls’ and women’s rights. The organization achieves its mission through a film festival, a youth program, and a free online film collection, and has been internationally recognized for impacting six of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Jon Ostenson [13:40]

He’s a top 1% national franchise broker, investor, author, & international speaker specializing in the area he has coined as ‘Non-Food Franchising’. Having served as the President of an Inc. 500 franchise system and now as a multi-brand franchisee, himself, he’s uniquely positioned to educate others on franchising & franchise selection. Jon serves as CEO of FranBridge Consulting and has helped thousands of entrepreneurs and investors explore business ownership and investment opportunities. Jon is a frequent contributor and thought leader for publications, such as Forbes, on the topic of franchising and franchise investments.

Manoel Amorim [22:28]

He served as CEO/Partner of several companies in Latin America, Europe and the USA. He was a Director in several Corporate Boards in six countries. He is a founding partner of MXF Investments in Orlando, FL and a partner of Peak Capital in UT. Manoel served as CEO of Abril Education, a startup in Brazil, which he took public in 2012 and quickly became the 5th largest K-12 education company in the world.

Shawn Kaplan [37:00]

Shawn Kaplan has been a licensed mortgage banker for over 22 years now. He has personally funded in excess of $1 Billion dollars in residential real estate volume with a clientele base currently exceeding over 10,000 families. His success has been consistently recognized nationally by Scotsman Guide’s Top Originators rankings.

Dr. Vonda Wright

As an accomplished researcher and author of Guide to Thrive, she speaks worldwide and develops programs for optimizing performance and minimizing injury from the ball field to the boardroom. Dr. Wright is also the founder of the Performance and Research Initiative for Masters Athletes (PRIMA), a one-of-a-kind program for maximizing performance and minimizing injury. Her award-winning basic science and clinical research has resulted in multiple grants, presentations, and peer-reviewed publications.

Marci Zaroff

Marci was a key driver in defining the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) and the world’s first Fair Trade textile certification with Fair Trade, USA. She shares her expertise in a regular column in Women’s Wear Daily, “The Outside View.” She is also a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute. The Henry Crown Fellowship Program seeks to develop the next generation of community-spirited leaders, providing them with the tools necessary to meet the challenges of business leadership in the 21st century.

Steven Sashen

Before his business in the footwear industry, he was a known international marketing expert. He was known for consulting in internet marketing involving search engines and social media. He was named one of Colorado’s Top 100 CEOs & C-level executives for 2021; he received the title for embracing open book accounting and quarterly equitable profit-sharing-inspired bonuses and ran one of the most successful Reg A+ equity crowdfunding raises in history while generating profits. He specializes in barefoot running, SEO/SEM, marketing, meditation, and turning ideas into products. He is also a Masters All - American sprinter, known as one of the fastest 55+-year-olds in the United States, and a former All- American gymnast.

Tony Potts

Tony is an emmy-winning anchor, writer, producer and executive that has had a, successful career in platforms such as news, entertainment, sports, esports, and DTC. He is the Co-Founder of the Content Artist, a global content strategist creating and delivering award-winning content solutions across all distribution platforms, and with exclusive DOOH partnerships.

Alex Israel

Alex Israel is a mobility entrepreneur, investor and advisor. Alex is the Co-Founder & CEO of Metropolis. Metropolis is an autonomous platform disrupting traditional city infrastructure to, make way for modern mobility, starting with parking. It is vertically integrating the entire experience from online to offline & building the infrastructure for modern mobility, making it possible for cities to be adaptable for future transportation tech.

Loren Baidas

Loren’s philosophy: Be better. He strives to make General RV a better place for, employees, customers and manufacturers. He is someone who has an “ always something to work” on view, making new goals as he accomplishes previous goals. ones. His decision making process is looking ahead and considering the impact they will have on the long term health of the organization and with the next generation of stewards in mind.

Dominic Volek

Dominic spends his time between London, Dubai, and Singapore as a private, client specialist in residence and citizenship planning and provides advice to ultra-high-net-worth individuals and their families across the globe. His work targets destinations/countries deemed attractive to wealthy individuals regarding mobility, security, privacy, personal tax, estate planning, and lifestyle.

Bill Pidto

He was one of the original hires at ESPN2 in 1993 and is now hosting Knicks, games on MSG. While he was at ESPN he hosted “SportsSmash” in the inaugural year of ESPN2 and anchored “NHL 2Night,” “NFL Primetime,” “Baseball Tonight” and “SportsCenter”.

Angelique Rewers

She is building her company while also being mother to twins. She is a mother , entrepreneur and in-demand business advisor, who has been named “A Fierce Champion for Small Business Owners” by Business Digest, and the “The Undisputed Champion at Helping Small Businesses and Big Clients” by Inc. Magazine.

John Cerasan

He founded Glencrest Global in 2020, a venture firm based in the Greater Chicago area. He wants to do more than just invest but also assist entrepreneurs as they build their businesses with advisement and resources. His book “Paid Training” was his first attempt at doing so in 2011.

Kyle Kiser

Kyle has helped create the nation's largest price transparency network, between payers, PBMs, providers, and EHR vendors. He focuses on helping partners improve prescription workflows and lower the cost of care. Prior to RxRevu, Kyle was an early employee at Welltok and Catapult Health, and a senior leader at Principal Wellness Company. He has helped develop incentive strategies for some of the country’s most innovative employers and led product launches with some of the nation’s largest payers. “To affect change requires a dedicated and aligned effort, and we are committed to investing in the future of healthcare to create lasting, positive change.”

Yona Shtern

He formerly served as co-founder of Beyond the Rack, which launched in 2008. He was, instrumental in taking it from concept to what became an e-commerce marketplace that served 15 million consumers and 5,000 brand partners. Under his leadership, Beyond the Rack reached $150 million in annual revenues and had 450 employees. Yona was named CEO of the company, Hapbee, in June, taking over for Scott Donnell, the company's co-founder, director, and former CEO. Hapbee is the only wearable wellness technology that delivers the molecular signature of compounds (like melatonin, caffeine, CBD and many others) through magnetic waves - so you can experience the benefits digitally without any of the side effects. 

Carla Romaine

She started as a garage-based bootstrapped business from a home basement in 2002 and turned it into a multi-million dollar global venture. Since then the venture has won Clutch’s Top Web Developers award in 2020, Builtin’s 2020 Best Places to Work, and also Clutch’s 2021 Top B2B Companies in Texas. Engagency is repeatedly recognized as a leading digital transformation agency, including the Clutch 1000. At Engagency they believe AI will be the future of marketing and tech, starting now. They are also strong believers of building on your passions as the best way to success. At Engagency, their mission is to make the web a better place by helping companies create websites that are accessible and intuitive to everyone. They value individual strengths and aim to empower individuals. They focus on encouraging growth, community, and collaboration.

Dr. Yuvay Meyers Ferguson

She is the Assistant Dean of Impact and Engagement and an Associate Professor of Marketing at Howard University’s School of Business. She teaches Marketing Communications, Consumer Behavior, Digital Marketing, Marketing Strategy, and Brand Management. Her research interest is focused on the representation of Blacks and Millennials in advertising and their consumer behavior in the marketplace. She is educating the next generation of marketing professionals at Howard University to lead a cultural shift in the advertising industry - a shift to embrace and celebrate diversity in the marketplace. She wants to promote and embrace diversity in advertising agencies to address cultural sensitivity in a meaningful way.

Kenny Lofton

He is a former Major League Baseball (MLB) center fielder, where he was a six-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove winner and amongst the all-time leaders in stolen bases (15th). He is the co-founder of blockchain solutions platform CenterBlock Asset Management and film company Filmpool. He’s a member of the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame.

J'on Dennis

He is a Certified Public Accountant that has over 20 years of experience with a, proven track record scaling organizations, managing corporate financings, and advising on strategic structuring. As a transactional service expert, J’on has provided these services to both large publicly traded companies and emerging start-ups

Buck Wise [0:00]

In 2022, Buck founded #ClosingDay Agency, a full-service agency that specializes in helping business owners achieve fast and effective results. #ClosingDay Agency takes a data-proven approach to marketing, which enables us to save owners time and drive more sales to scale your business faster.

Talia Fox [15:19]

She's the CEO of KUSI Global, Inc. She holds an M.Ed. in psychology and is a Harvard University Fellow. A leadership strategist and a legacy builder, she has transformed thousands of executives over the last two decades in every sector, assisting leaders in developing innovative strategies for some of the most critical and complex missions globally, including defense, wealth inequalities, racial and social justice, aviation, and healthcare.

Trent Griffin-Braaf [25:16]

As the CEO & Founder of Tech Valley Shuttle, it’s grown from a hotel-based transportation agency in 2016 to a fully customizable company specializing in workforce transportation. He now owns two of the larger Black-owned businesses in the Capital Region. He’s been highlighted in Bloomberg Business Week, Forbes 1000, and the New York Times for his work. He was also recently named the 2023 SBA Upstate NY Small Business Person of the Year for expanding his ride services during the pandemic, filling a critical community need.

Adam Jablin

Adam’s book, Lotsaholic: From a sick to Sober Superman is about his journey of facing all of his addictions and dependencies, including alcohol and drugs. He shares the very tools & secrets that helped him overcome his addiction & live the life he only could have dreamt about.

Hussein Hallak

In his previous role as Evangelist & General Manager at Launch Academy, he mentored & trained hundreds of entrepreneurs, helping it become one of North America's premier tech incubators with over 6,500 founders & 500 startups raising more than $1 billion. As an accomplished professional, he’s launched successful ventures like CreativeArab, the world's first and largest marketplace for Middle Eastern art, and The Content People, an award-winning content marketing agency with prominent clients such as Virgin Mobile, Pfizer, and Starbucks.

John Neubauer

A business executive for 50+ years, John has devoted most of his business career to helping others build their businesses or business ideas. He innovated Tai Chi Yoga 46 years ago in 1976 - combining the Chinese martial art of tai chi with the Indian stretching, breathing, and relaxation of yoga. Now at the age of 74, he has begun to build a legacy of taking the unique health and wellness benefits of Tai Chi Yoga to millions worldwide.

Kimberly Reed

She is the founder of the Reed Development Group, the author of Optimists, Always Win: Moving from Defeat to Life's C-Suite, she also helped launch a new brand and joint partnership called Kaleidoscope Diversity, based in Houston, Texas, “the only omnibus approach to organizational diversity based on performance metrics and supplier diversity”.

Andre Fluellen

He is an avid investor and entrepreneur, and has earned his Series 7 and Series 66 investment licenses. Andre was drafted by the Detroit Lions in 2008 as a defensive tackle and played in the NFL until 2015. He’s a co-founder of the Beyond the Game Network, which he founded with businessman Anthony Flynn and investor Brian Zwerner, seeking to bring together athletes, startups and investments. Fluellen says it aims to “turn professional athletes into athletic professionals.”

Simon Mainwaring

Simon was a finalist for Global Australian of the Year in 2015 and received the MAKE CHANGE, “Conscious Leadership” Award in 2016. Simon also has a book (WE First: How brands and consumers use social media to build a better world) that is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller.

Maureen Plowman

With more than 6 million members, and millions of connections across more than 30,000 local communities, Alignable is the largest referral network for small business owners. She joined the company's executive leadership team as Vice President of Marketing in February 2021. With over 6 million members and millions of connections across more than 30,000 local communities, Alignable is the largest referral network for small business owners.

Julia Rivard Dexter

Eyeread is an innovative learning company that has developed a platform to deliver the best research-based and adaptive learning content to players worldwide through hyper-engaging games they want to play. At the core of the success of the Eyeread games is the underlying technology that delivers a proven and unique method of leveling up readers from no literacy to advanced comprehension.

Scott Greenberg

He has over ten years of experience as a multi-unit, award-winning franchise owner of Edible Arrangements. His operation won international recognition, earning him "Best Customer Service" and "Manager of the Year". Scott delves into the human factors of business that directly impact how well people work. He helps leaders THINK at a higher level with a peak performance mindset that keeps emotions in check and yields the most straightforward, most productive perspective possible. He helps them LEAD more effectively to develop their teams into a high-performance workforce. Then he helps them SERVE customers better than anyone and create emotionally satisfying experiences customers remember, talk about, and want to repeat.

Jon Mendoza

He has over 24 years of experience in Information Technology and Cybersecurity—and has created security programs for businesses and organizations, leading teams of engineers from various IT disciplines and domains. He has a Bachelor's in Computer Information Systems and is completing his Master's program in Cybersecurity engineering.