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A paralegal, a law student, and a property manager all at once, and a plan built around tax law, with our newest member Emerald Vaughan.

This week on People at Pyramid, we're spotlighting our newest member, Emerald Vaughan, who joined the Club just two weeks ago and is already running three careers at once. She is a paralegal by day, a law student by night, and a property manager on the weekends.

Emerald walks us through what a paralegal really does, and why the job comes down to being a details person: reading contracts, drafting motions, and catching the small things that keep a client protected. From there she traces her path from debate-team captain to the courtroom-adjacent work she does now, and the moment she asked herself why she was not the attorney in the room. So she went to law school, and she is set on tax law.

Her case for tax law is refreshingly practical. She likes finding a deal, and she likes helping people, and reducing what someone owes is one of the most direct ways to do both. For a lot of people, she points out, it is easier to trim expenses than to earn more.

Then we get into her weekends. Emerald manages several properties and does much of the renovation work herself, from swapping a faucet to redoing a backsplash. Her advice for anyone intimidated by home projects is to start small and build up, and to remember her golden rule: measure twice, cut once, and if you mess up, call a contractor.

Meet Emerald, and see why she is the kind of member you want to know.

CHAPTERS:
0:00 - Meet Emerald Vaughan
2:05 - Why Tax Law
4:15 - Real Estate and DIY Renovations
7:00 - Taking On New Projects and How to Connect

GUEST LINKS: Emerald Vaughan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emeraldvaughan

ABOUT PEOPLE AT PYRAMID: People at Pyramid is the Pyramid Club's member spotlight podcast. Every episode, we sit down with one of our members to hear what they do, what drives them, and the stories that make them worth knowing. Hosted by Vince Quinn.

SUBSCRIBE for a new member spotlight every other week.

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/people-at-pyramid/id1784545290

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7alEumoeEpbqgHzaugBPLZ Watch on

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdd93VlJAwBR_m7jDhPxq3agoS8iLuT4G People at Pyramid: https://feeds.transistor.fm/people-at-pyramid Vince Quinn on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/vincequinn

Interested in being featured on People at Pyramid?
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E-mail Vince Quinn [email protected]

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This week we sit down with our member Yola Vital, owner of Recovery Space and founder of Green Girl Era, on how showing up built her business and her community in a brand new city.

When Yola moved to Philadelphia, she did not know anyone. She was building a business, but the community was not there yet, and it wore on her. What turned it around was putting herself in the right rooms, the Pyramid Club among them, and letting the connections find her.

Out of that came Green Girl Era, the women's golf and social club she launched in 2026. For Yola, golf is a networking engine first and a sport second. She goes for the conversations on the course, the lunches after, and the introductions that travel from Philadelphia to Ghana, Kenya, and beyond.

The other side of her work is Recovery Space, the social service agency she owns. It grew from sober homes into transitional and emergency housing, case management, and partnerships with the district attorney's office and private landlords, serving people coming home from incarceration and rebuilding their lives. She talks about learning the business from the ground up, writing her own grants and proposals, and going all in to own her agency.

Interested in being featured on People at Pyramid?
Register here

Want help with your podcast?
E-mail Vince Quinn [email protected]

Want to learn about Pyramid Club Membership? 

Click here.

What does it take to find purpose once you've already "made it"? This week we sit down with our member Charley Timmins, who has been part of the Pyramid Club for eight years and spends his days helping talented professionals get unstuck and figure out what's next.

Charley calls himself the "what's next" guy, and it fits. He works with high achievers who have built careers, companies, and wealth, then reach the moment where they ask, is this all there is? His answer starts with purpose. Not the quota, not the title, but the impact you have beyond yourself.

We talked about why community matters more than ever. As Charley put it, the pandemic proved we can't do things alone, and real connection doesn't happen through a screen. We have to be in each other's presence. That belief is a big part of why he values the Club, and why he tells new members to give it a full year before they judge it.

The heart of the conversation is a story. Charley walks through how he helped a 62-year-old consultant prove his irreplaceable value to a company that was about to move on without him, using nothing more than a roll of butcher paper and the history of a product only he understood. The outcome changed that man's retirement, and his legacy.

It's a warm, generous conversation about purpose, community, and helping people become who they were meant to be. Meet Charley Timmins on this week's episode.

GUEST LINKS:
Email Charley: [email protected]
Connect with Charley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charleytimmins/

ABOUT PEOPLE AT PYRAMID:
People at Pyramid is the Pyramid Club's member-spotlight podcast, hosted by Vince Quinn. Every episode, we sit down with one of our members to hear who they are, what they do, and what makes them worth knowing. It is a look inside a community built on the people who make it what it is.

SUBSCRIBE for new episodes every two weeks.

CONNECT:
Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/people-at-pyramid/id1784545290
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7alEumoeEpbqgHzaugBPLZ
Host: https://linkedin.com/in/vincequinn
Show website: https://feeds.transistor.fm/people-at-pyramid

Leadership is the constant that holds steady through AI, economic shifts, and everything else. This week we sit down with our member Stephen Novak, Client Lead at Aiir Consulting, to talk about what that looks like in practice.

Stephen spends his days coaching leaders at companies of every shape and size, and he keeps his definition of the job simple: leadership is the act of realizing a clear and compelling vision through others. Everything else is detail.

We talked about AI first, because Stephen had just hosted an event on AI and leadership. His take is steady and clear. The tools are changing fast, and good leaders adapt to them. What does not change is that business is still built by people. AI can hold a lot of knowledge, but it does not carry lived experience or judgment, and it only works with the context you feed it. As Stephen put it, your team can tell when a response came from a model instead of from you, because the model does not have your wisdom.

From there the conversation turned to sports, home turf for Vince after a decade in sports radio. Stephen, a Pittsburgh guy through and through, drew the parallels between coaching athletes and coaching executives. Even the best in the world keep a coach. Tiger Woods always had one. The demands keep shifting, the game rarely goes to plan, and the ability to adapt in the moment sits at the heart of both sports and leadership.

We got into coaching styles and culture, from the burnout that follows a coach who pushes too hard to the patient, culture-first rebuilds that pay off over years. Stephen and Vince talked about coaching trees, the way one strong leader develops people who go on to develop others, and how that compounds across a whole organization.

It is a warm, wide-ranging conversation about the parts of leadership that technology cannot touch. Meet Stephen Novak on this week's episode.

GUEST LINKS:

Email Stephen: [email protected]

Connect with Stephen on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-novak/

CONNECT:

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/people-at-pyramid/id1784545290

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7alEumoeEpbqgHzaugBPLZ

Host: https://linkedin.com/in/vincequinn

Show website: https://feeds.transistor.fm/people-at-pyramid

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdd93VlJAwBR_m7jDhPxq3agoS8iLuT4G

Follow People at Pyramid wherever you listen.

Interested in being featured on People at Pyramid?
Register here

Want to learn about Pyramid Club Membership? 

Click here.

Steve Melchiorre went from carrying a gun as a juvenile probation officer to building wealth plans for everyday Philadelphia families.

In this member spotlight, host Vince Quinn talks with Steve Melchiorre — financial planner and co-chair of the Pyramid Club's Young Executive Committee — about a career that zigzagged through law enforcement and carpentry before landing in financial planning. Steve works with everyday individuals, families, and businesses, using the same tax and finance strategies usually reserved for the ultra-wealthy, and he's building an "I got a guy" network to connect Philadelphia's young professionals.

Be a guest on the show — if you're a Pyramid Club member with a story to tell, check the show notes and reach out.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• An unconventional path — juvenile probation officer, then carpenter — shaped how Steve works with clients today
• He serves everyday people, not the ultra-high-net-worth, with the strategies the wealthy already use
• Financial health starts with a mindset shift, not just cutting spending
• The Young Executive Committee is uniting Philadelphia's siloed young-professional groups into one connected network
• Community in action: volunteering at MANNA and a World Cup Fan Fest watch party

CHAPTERS:
 00:00 — Introduction
 00:50 — From Probation Officer to Planner
 04:52 — Financial Planning for Everyday People
 06:26 — The Young Executive Committee
 08:28 — Building an "I Got a Guy" Network
 11:13 — Martial Arts & Wrap-Up

GUEST LINKS:
 Steve Melchiorre, Financial Planner, Fortune Financial
 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-melchiorre-cfp

CONNECT:
 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/people-at-pyramid/id1784545290
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7alEumoeEpbqgHzaugBPLZ
Vince Quinn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincequinn
Show website: https://feeds.transistor.fm/people-at-pyramid
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdd93VlJAwBR_m7jDhPxq3agoS8iLuT4G
 

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

Want help with your podcast?
E-mail Vince Quinn [email protected]

Want to learn about Pyramid Club Membership? 

Click here.

This week on People At Pyramid, we talk with Deep Parmar, founder and CEO of Caramel Advisors and a longtime Pyramid Club member. Caramel is an outsourced accounting firm that takes bookkeeping, tax, audit, and financial planning off business owners' plates so they can focus on growth.

Deep breaks down how he manages a team of nearly 120 people spread across a ten-and-a-half-hour time difference, the best career advice he ever received about when to speak and when to hold back, and how cooking became his way to slow down and reset.

 Connect with Deep on LinkedIn

Interested in being featured on People at Pyramid?
Register here

Want help with your podcast?
E-mail Vince Quinn [email protected]

Want to learn about Pyramid Club Membership? 

Click here.

Fred Bender has been a Pyramid Club member for over 15 years and a technologist since the 90s. As CTO of StirData, he specializes in the projects other vendors couldn't finish complex healthcare data systems, custom development for large-scale organizations, and some of the messiest IT problems in the mid-Atlantic.

In this episode, Fred and Vince break down how technology touches everything but rarely gets the credit it deserves. Fred shares what actually goes wrong with data (hint: you probably haven't tested your backups), how ransomware is changing who gets targeted, and what you learn about an industry when a client never leaves. They also get into what it means to collect expertise the way some people collect stamps — from healthcare and M&A to water coolers and fencing academies.

Fred is one of those guests who can explain deeply technical concepts without ever losing the room. And yes, there are three kinds of fencing. He knows all of them.

Connect with Fred:
LinkedIn Account: | https://www.linkedin.com/in/fred-bender-14640440/
Email | [email protected]

Interested in being featured on People at Pyramid?
Register here

Want help with your podcast?
E-mail Vince Quinn [email protected]

Want to learn about Pyramid Club Membership? 

Click here.

Businesses everywhere want to implement AI, but very few are thinking about governance first.

Dredeir Roberts brings a rare perspective at the intersection of business law and AI, breaking down how companies can protect themselves while still moving quickly. From employee AI use policies to contract drafting, system optimization, and decision-making risk, this conversation explores what it really takes to use AI well. The core message is simple: AI can accelerate the work, but expertise is still what makes it reliable.

Connect with Dredeir - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dredeir-roberts-esq/

Interested in being featured on People at Pyramid?
Register here

Want help with your podcast?
E-mail Vince Quinn [email protected]

Want to learn about Pyramid Club Membership? 

Click here.

Adedeji Adebayo is changing the way people think about life insurance. In this conversation, he breaks down how it can support wealth preservation, long-term planning, and smarter financial strategy, while sharing the career journey that brought him from IT and banking into the business of helping others plan ahead.

Beyond the office, Deji talks about the things that keep him grounded: the gym, swimming, reading, experimenting with app development, and spending time with his wife and three kids.

Connect with Adedeji -

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adedeji-adebayo-34198088/

https://www.instagram.com/dejobad/

Interested in being featured on People at Pyramid?
Register here

Want help with your podcast?
E-mail Vince Quinn [email protected]

Want to learn about Pyramid Club Membership? 

Click here.

Cassandra “Cass” Philips, Pyramid Club’s Member Experience Director and the person who helps “make the magic happen.” Cass breaks down what member experience really means, what kinds of ideas she can bring to life (think happy hours, nonprofit spotlights, and more), and how Pyramid Club creates so many different ways to connect.

You’ll also hear Cass’s path to Pyramid, from member-focused roles in radio and nonprofit work to unforgettable experiences with Philadelphia sports teams, plus the fun personal side that fuels her energy and community-first mindset. If you’ve ever wanted to get more involved at the Club, this episode is your invitation to reach out, share an idea, and help shape what happens next.

Connect with Cass -

[email protected]