Success Trails Podcast

Tom Kelly is the founder and owner of Potential In Motion, Inc. As a coach, Tom is dedicated to working with salespeople, entrepreneurs, small business owners, and corporate executives that want to reach their full potential in both their business and their life.  Tom has worked and studied under greats like Ken Blanchard and Ton Robbins.

In this episode I talk to Joe Chura who began his career on the Ford assembly line at age 20, reading his college textbooks seconds at a time in between building cars. Over the next decade Joe gained experience at many different levels in the automotive industry — including Ford Marketing and Sales, dealership General Manager, and BDC Manager. With a passion for both computer programming and selling cars, Joe co-founded Dealer Inspire (DI) to build new solutions to help dealers win. In a few short years, Dealer Inspire has grown to 600 employees serving over 3,000 clients and 27 OEM brands with game-changing innovation.

In this first full episode of 2021 I sit down with Marshall McCarty Chef/Owner of The Walrus Room in Geneva and Owner of The Burger Shops with locations in Geneva and Saint Charles.  Marshall's 18 year hospitality career started in college, as a bartender while getting a B.A. in Journalism & Mass Communication. From there he's worked in a wide variety of restaurant concepts from fast food to fine dining and in every position from dishwasher to General Manager. Each experience built the foundation he would later use to create the restaurant concepts he owns an operates today.

Listen to some of my favorite tips from our guests over this past year. 

Tim went from IT nerd(sorry Tim) to starting and running his own successful business. His business Magnitech in which he started 10 years ago is growing each year and is an industry leader. Tim is full of knowledge and has some great insight in how to build the right culture for your business to excel. 

Could you imagine opening a business in a pandemic? Well, that is exactly what Ed Symbol did when he opened Ed's Basement his next business venture. Learn how Ed managed to open a business in chaos and how he has succeed with other business ventures. Ed is a veteran in the hospitality industry and has learned what it takes to treat people the right way in order to thrive in business.

Michael LaFido is a real estate consultant and top-producing Realtor with over twenty years of experience in the real estate industry. Michael’s marketing has been the featured cover story in Crain’s Chicago Business and highlighted in Forbes and FOX News Chicago Business Hour. He is also the author of the books “Luxury Listing Specialist”, “Outside The Box”, and “Marketing Luxury”. In this episode you will hear Michael talk about how he went from knowing nothing to real estate to becoming one of the most successful realtors in the area. Michael also talks about the importance of thinking like a marketer no matter what industry you are in. 

Frank owns and operates Dominick's Pizza in the western suburbs of Chicago. Frank has been in the industry since he was young and has helped transform his dads business along with his siblings into the success it is today. 

Self proclaimed beer nerd, Dave is an entrepreneur who has two craft beer stores in the suburbs of Chicago. In this episode Dave talks about what he did during the COVID lockdown and how his business continue to grow today in a competitive market. 

Allison and Natalie are sisters and business partners in their women's clothing and gift store called Blonde Boutique. Natalie's background in fashion paired with her sisters business insight has helped their business thrive. As busy moms these ladies have balanced their family and business life.