Talking Business Now

By Kelly Scanlon & C-Suite RadioBusiness Entrepreneurship

Talking Business Now episodes

January 12, 2018 Entrepreneur Impacts Youth Through Sports
Jeremy McDowell, founder of Midwest Sports Productions, joins Smart Companies Thinking Bigger host Kelly Scanlon to share his entrepreneurial journey.
MSP promotes youth fastpitch and baseball across the Midwest through tournaments and other events create lifetime experiences.
McDowell got his start in fastpitch in 2001 when he became a volunteer. By 2007, he had joined the USSSA as State Director of Kansas. Currently, in addition to running MSP, McDowell is the executive vice president of USSSA Fastpitch. His passion is to impact youth through sports, and he surrounds himself with like-hearted people who want to make a difference.
Tune in to learn about:
How a personal event with one of McDowell's own children was a sledgehammer moment that now guides all his decisions for his company and the sport.The growth of the Hawaiian Hitfest.The MSP Love program, McDowell's vision is for it and how it has impacted the community. The All Sports Media Awards

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
31 min
January 12, 2018 KC Restoration: Experts in Fresh Starts
KC Restoration specializes in metal refinishing and stone and wood restoration. Experts at preserving iconic spaces and restoring custom pieces, the company's owners know a bit about fresh starts themselves.
Co-founder LeAnn Luemmen joins Smart Companies Thinking Bigger host Kelly Scanlon to share her entrepreneurial journey. You'll learn how she and her husband and co-founder Bill Luemmen spent most of their lives as civil servants in California before striking out for Kansas City in late 2010, in search of a better place to raise their daughter.
With no contacts or relationships in their new city, no business relationships or experience, the couple decided business ownership would provide a vehicle for impacting their new community.
Listen in as LeAnn discusses how they learned the business, gained customers and built a company culture that personifies their core values of excellence, community and giving back.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
20 min
January 05, 2018 Royal Services: Close Out Becomes a Buyout That’s Lasted 25 Years
When Thomas Shyver was asked to close out a fledgling company in 1993, he answered the call. But after assessing the situation, he and his wife Charlene decided to buy the company—then called Royal Mechanical Services—rather than close it.
Brad Shyver, the couple's son and current co-owner and CEO of the company—now called Royal Services—joins Smart Companies Thinking Bigger host Kelly Scanlon to discuss how his parents grew a turnaround company that sold home warranties into a company that provides project and facility manageent—including HVAC, plumbing, electrical, life safety, signage, IT, security and a host of other services.
The company, now under the leadership of the couple's three sons, is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Under the leadership of Brad and his brothers, the company has won several large corporate accounts and government contracts nationwide.
Tune in to learn from Brad's experiences growing the company, including how to:
Successfully survive ownership transitionsWork peacefully and productively with other family membersCreate a workplace that lives its core valuesPartner with customers and form long-term relationships with themInnovate to develop creative, cost-effective solutionsBe a committed community citizen
Listen to all the Smart Companies Thinking Bigger episodes in the archives.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
20 min
January 04, 2018 How Meridian Business Services Achieved Explosive Growth, with Amy Goode
Amy Goode, co-founder of Meridian Business Services, joins Smart Companies host Kelly Scanlon to discuss her entrepreneurial journey.
Amy founded the consulting company in 2003 with Heather Wright, in Louisburg, Kansas, the community outside of Kansas City where she grew up. She knew that tax and accounting services were lacking in Louisburg and the surrounding area, so providing those services seemed like a good business idea and a way to give back to the community. Fast forward 15 years, and Meridian is now a full-service consulting firm. As the company grew over the years, its original vision expanded into the business solutions arena where the Meridian team helps companies with operational inefficiencies.
Tune in to learn how to:
Expand your services by gaining the trust of customers and adding services to address their other business needs.Live your company's vision.Build a strong company culture, even when employees are not on site every day.Exhibit growth or sustainability..Develop a strong record of giving back to the community.
Visit the archives to listen to all the episodes in the Smart Companies Thinking Bigger lineup.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
19 min
December 29, 2017 How KC Crew Hit a Homerun, with founder Luke Wade
KC Crew founder Luke Wade loves playing sports. But as an urban dweller, he tired of driving to the suburbs to play in organized leagues. So, he started forming leagues for fellow downtown Kansas City residents who wanted to participate in leagues closer to where they lived.
In its first year, KC Crew signed up nearly 1,000 participants. That was in 2012. During the next two years, the company saw a 32 percent increase in sign ups. Luke finally quit his full-time job in 2015 and turned all his attention to the growing company. That year, participation grew by 53 percent, to 3,600. Since then, his partnerships with KCMO Parks and Recreation, Kemper Arena and other venues has resulted in even more growth.
Tune in to learn how Wade has continued to expand the company geographically as well as beyond traditional sports to include pickleball, skee ball, cornhole and other activities and community events such as pubcrawls. He's also introduced software called League Ally that will be central to the company's expansion
Visit the archives to listen to all the episodes of Smart Companies Thinking Bigger.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
21 min
December 29, 2017 Always On: One Woman's Story of Life as the Only Woman in the Room
Former Kansas Citian Jeanne Johnson joins Smart Companies Thinking Bigger host Kelly Scanlon to discuss what it's been like to be the "only woman in the room" during her tech career, and she passes along the insights she's learned to create a pathway to success.
Johnson is currently Americas Azure Strategist in the Global Black Belt organization at Microsoft focused on Azure. She has spent her career in the technology industry, founding her own tech companies and also helping others build theirs. Johnson helps companies save money, make money, reduce risk and gain competitive advantage by digitally transforming their businesses. Prior to joining Microsoft, Johnson started up, rapidly grew, and profitably sold several technology companies in the United States. Her companies were known for the early adoption of disruptive technologies and the nontraditional partnering with her competitors to build greater success.
Jeanne lives on the beach in Washington State and has recently been recognized for her work in tsunami preparedness.
To listen to all the episodes in the Smart Companies Thinking Bigger lineup, visit the archives.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
27 min
December 22, 2017 How WBE Certification Has Opened Doors for ARJ Infusion Services
Lisa Sackuvich, the owner and president of ARJ Infusion Services, Inc., joins Smart Companies Thinking Bigger host Kelly Scanlon to share her entrepreneurial journey and the importance of her WBE certification to her company's growth.
ARJ Infustion Services offers in-home infusion expertise and dispensing of specialty pharmacy medication to patients with chronic conditions. Sackuvich has been able to leverage her WBE status to grow her business, including securing contracts with major insurance companies. Among the benefits of WBE certification, Sackuvich says it has helped her establish credibility and tap into a collaborative network where she and other women business owners can share skills and resources to improve company efficiencies and deliver better products and customer experiences.
Under Sackuvich’s leadership, ARJ ranks in the top 10 percent across the region in home health/infusion care.
In this episode, Sackuvich will address:
Why she applied for WBE certificationHow has WBE certification has helped ARJ Infusion ServicesHow she has used WBE certification to grow her businessWhat the WBE certification process entailsAdvice to other WBEs considering certification

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
26 min
December 22, 2017 Using Purpose to Drive Profits, with May McCarthy
Best-selling business author and consultant May McCarthy joins Smart Companies host Kelly Scanlon to discuss how finding your company's purpose can lead to more profits. She'll discuss:
Creating a purpose or a “why” for your companyExamples of successful companies and their “why”Emphasizing your company’s purpose through demonstrative actionStrategies for using purpose as a driver of strategy and decision makingHow purpose creates profits
McCarthy is an author, speaker, university lecturer and angel investor has co-founded and helped grow seven successful companies. She is the author of the best-selling "The Path to Wealth: Seven Spiritual Steps for Financial Abundance."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
24 min
December 15, 2017 How Al Hess Built Wholesale Trucks of America
Al Hess didn't know it at the time, but the purchasing skills he learned as a young man buying cows with his cattleman father gave him a strong foundation for building and growing Wholesale Trucks of America. Hess joins Smart Companies Thinking Bigger host Kelly Scanlon to share his entrepreneurial journey. He not only discusses how he's built WTA, but also how he and others created an industry association to raise the standards and repuation of his industry as well as educate newcomers to the industry.
To listen to all the episodes of Smart Companies Thinking Bigger, visit the archives.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
18 min
December 15, 2017 Turning Disruption and Change Into Opportunity and Advantage, with Daniel Burrus
Daniel Burrus, one of the world's leading futurists on global trends and innovations, joins Smart Companies Thinking Bigger host Kelly Scanlon to discuss his New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-seller "The Anticipatory Organization: Turn Disruption and Change Into Opportunity and Advantage."
Burrus discusses:
What an "anticipatory" organization isThe difference between hard and soft trendsThe three types of hard trendsHow to use hard trends to create positive disruption and innovation
Burrus has delivered nearly 3,000 keynote speeches around the world, and he's helped executives from companies of all sizes—from small businesses to Fortune 500—to develop paradigm-shifting strategies for capitalizing on untapped opportunities. He's started six companies, and four of them became national leaders in their first year. Five were profitable during their first year in business.
Listeners may download a free hardback copy of his book at www.theaobook.com.
You can listen to all the shows in the Smart Companies Thinking Bigger lineup in the archives.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
24 min

About Talking Business Now

From the publisher's feed

Get the inside scoop on how America’s most successful entrepreneurs are transforming their industries. On each episode of Talking Business Now, you'll meet one of your fellow business owners, founders…