Rust Belt Startup

In this episode of I sit down with Richard Young, founder of CivicLex, an innovative organization based in Lexington, Kentucky, focused on improving civic engagement and strengthening local government responsiveness. CivicLex bridges the gap between citizens and local government, offering workshops, newsletters, and tools that make local governance more accessible and transparent. They are creating a more engaged, informed, and cohesive community. We’ll get into the details of some of CivicLex’s projects, and their role in shaping community-wide conversations around critical issues like land use, public policy, and civic health. We’ll discuss how CivicLex led hundreds of conversations around Lexington’s comprehensive land use plan, gathering over 17,000 public responses, which influenced city planning decisions. We’ll talk civic literacy, building trust between citizens and government, and the vital role of responsive institutions in fostering a vibrant, engaged city. If you’re interested in how cities can become more inclusive, dynamic, and collaborative by building civic engagement from the ground up, this episode offers valuable insights into replicable strategies that can work in any community – even yours. Learn more about Richard’s work at CivicLex.org

Today I’m talking with Casey Massimino, the founder and executive director of Green Arrow CoLab, a non-profit that integrates mindfulness and gardening to assist individuals affected by the justice system. Broadcasting from Sicily, Italy, Casey shares her  journey in digital media, building text-based shows on Facebook Watch,  to ultimately establishing her organization, all while re-locating to Italy.

We’ll talk about her role in text-based media, building Green Arrow CoLab, including its partnership with Netflix, logistics of starting a non-profit, and Casey’s diverse experiences across continents.

Today I’m sharing a conversation with Kristin Fahy, someone who is living an unconventional life in multiple locations.

She’s the founder of Impetus Health, a strategy consultant for healthcare and life science firms, the author of “Profressionaling Is Hard – 22 Lessons to Help Make It (a little) Easier”, and the Professionaling Podcast.

So in this conversation we’re going to talk about “Professionaling” – how you should think about exercising and developing particular skills to position you for success as a professional or position yourself for the next big opportunity.

We’ll also talk about the difference between being ready to and being willing to, the process of writing and publishing her book (with a little help of The Tiny Book Course), and much much more.

If you want to learn more about Kristin or reach out, visit her website www.kristinfahy.com or subscribe to the Professionaling Podcast.

You can also order your own copy of “Professionaling Is Hard” direct from Amazon.
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Today on the pod I’m speaking with Mr. David Casullo – He is the CEO and founder of Denali Partners – an executive leadership development agency, that works with companies, organizations and educational institutions to build leaders, and change culture. David is the author of the book “Leading the High Energy Culture: What the Best CEOs Do to Create an Atmosphere Where Employees Flourish ” and he is a relentless champion of building community and supporting many of the things that make upstate New York a great place to live and work.

In this conversation, we’re going to talk about what makes a great leader but we’re also going to talk about how you identify the unique gifts and talents of all of the individuals that make up an organization, harnessing them to the mission and to supercharging it. We get into his time as the head of HR at Raymour and Flanigan, and how he transformed the culture to align people to create delight in a business where we typically don’t think about that as as a core mission. Finally we’ll talk about some of the tools that he uses when he’s developing and working with Fortune 50 Leaders and Executives, and how you can use the same tools to become the best version of yourself.

I can’t thank David enough for spending time with me and unpacking his valuable toolkit.

On this episode I sit down with Katie Aiello for a long overdue conversation about local government, civic engagement, and using data to empower citizens. Katie is the founder of Character Coffee in Utica, NY, and found her calling in public service when she decided to run for Common Council. Now she’s using social media and open data tools to shed light on the inner workings of her city.

We talk about how she’s leveraging digital platforms to educate constituents and apply pressure for transparency. Find out how Katie is mining municipal data using Instagram and TikTok to help constituents think more critically about budgets, ARPA funds, and getting involved local politics. This is a must-listen for anyone interested in innovative approaches to civic participation and government accountability.

Learn more about Katie at KatieforUtica.com and @katieaiello on all the socials.

I recently had the opportunity to take a 40 min demo of the Apple Vision Pro – while there are tons of tech reviews out there already about the specs, what it can and cannot do, I wanted to add my thoughts on what makes this device special, some of the most impressive experiences, the drawbacks I see – and weigh in on the AR/VR debate. Remember, I was a Google Glass user for about 18 months and I’ll get into what I see as the bifurcaton of use cases rather than one device that we’ll use in our daily lives. This was recorded almost immediately after my demo while it was fresh in my head. The bottom line – this is an amazing device that’s the beginning of a whole new category of devices.

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My guest today is Leon Etienne. He is a world renowned illusionist, and he’s rolling through upstate New York, doing a show this Saturday at Stanley theatre. He’s the creator of Magic Rocks, has been featured on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, America’s Got Talent, Penn & Teller’s Wizard Wars, and much more.

We had a fantastic conversation about why we need a little bit more magic. In our lives. We talk about the business of magic and how he started from learning some simple tricks at home when he was 12, to building this career, where he travels all over the world, showcasing one of the kind illusions.

We talk about his trajectory of making magic a career that’s become a full fledged touring operation that goes all over the world. We’ll talk about some of those big breaks, whether that’s America’s Got Talent, or working with Penn and Teller, meeting his heroes, bringing magic to the people during the pandemic and much much more. It’s a really wide ranging conversation and it was awesome to catch up with Leon. I hope you guys all check out the show if you’re in the region this Saturday night at the Stanley… and let’s let’s get right into it.

This is a special episode of Rust Belt Startup because it was taped in front of a live audience this past July at MVCC’s thINCubator. This event was a partnership with The Rising Tide Society of Utica and featured a fireside chat with the founder of Utica Coffee Roasting Company, Frank Elias.

It’s a conversation that focuses on not only the origin story of the company, but how they’ve experienced growth. We spend a lot of time talking about building a culture and cultivating talent within your network and within your region – instead of importing that talent.

How do you create a culture where people want to be a part of the business and gve them opportunities for growth? We spend a lot of time here but also as UCR has expanded they now do a ton of their business online.

We get into that strategy and using partners like Shopify and Amazon and the pros and cons of each as it comes to online retail and distribution. So hope you find this conversation interesting and thanks to everyone that came out to this first fireside chat.

This event was also filmed and you can watch the conversation in its entirety on YouTube.

Hilda M Jordan is the founder of HMJ Equity Consulting, an anti-racist social equity firm that helps organizations attract and retain more diverse talent by identifying systems that stand in the way of helping members of the team be successful.

She is a graduate of Harvard University, and honestly one of the most inspiring your people I’ve every met.

Our conversation today centers around her personal journey from upstate NY to Harvard University and back again – learning to navigate systems from colleges to courts to companies that can stand in the way of her (and YOUR) success.

This is one of the most inspiring conversations you’ll hear  – It’s been a great privilege to get to work with Hilda in building HMJ Consulting but a greater privilege to call her a friend.

It’s great to be back and welcome Scott Grates to the podcast. Scott is first and foremost in the insurance business – but this isn’t a podcast about insurance. It’s a conversation about how do you figure out how to reverse engineer a career that helps you live how you want to live. It’s about building systems that can save you from yourself, and it’s about essential advice from a dad to a son.

He’s created a robust online community and service called Insurance Agency Optimization, that leverages his superpower of building efficient processes for agency owners that are trying to optimize their own businesses. So we spend time discussing how you build, grow and nurture an online community.

 Finally we talk about Scott’s new book – Essential F-Words for Teens: The 117 Things You Need to Know Before Graduation. https://www.amazon.com/Essential-F-Words-Teens-Things-Graduation/dp/B0BW2MGVJW/

It’s all of the things that he wish he knew before he graduated and a message to his son who graduates this year.

Thanks for tuning in and you can learn more about Scott at the links below: