The Bay Builds Podcast

Before he ran a company approaching $750 million in revenue, CJ Schmidt was a kid stuffing envelopes and packing boxes in his dad’s warehouse. He was supposed to become a sports agent. Instead, between his junior and senior years of college, he told his father he wanted in.

CJ is the CEO of Hit Promotional Products, a Tampa Bay company that most people in town have never heard of, and he likes it that way. His father, Bill Schmidt Sr., was a legend in the promotional products industry. CJ spent his first years making cold sales calls, getting yelled at, and bringing honest feedback home. He got to know his dad as a mentor on 15-hour flights to Hong Kong. When Bill passed in April 2016, CJ took the reins while carrying both the grief and the responsibility.

In eight years, he more than doubled the company, from about $319 million to just under $750 million, through a tornado that took out a building and a pandemic that shut down the world. He talks with host Tracie Domino about the bets that made the industry stop and stare, including print-on-demand apparel, the Barstool account, and the ProFill fulfillment business. He explains why the apparel move went sideways before it became a $100 million business, and why Hit has taken zero private equity money while competitors have. He also covers the balance between his aggressive instincts and his mom’s conservative ones, what fatherhood and faith have changed in him, and why he wants to be remembered as tough but fair.

Listen now and follow The Bay Builds Podcast so you never miss a conversation with the people building Tampa Bay. New episodes drop every other Wednesdays.

00:00 Loss and Resolve

00:43 Meet HIT and CJ

01:58 Growing Up in HIT

03:38 Early Sales Struggles

04:55 Taking Over After Loss

06:08 Doing It Right

06:52 Scaling Through Chaos

08:25 Big Bets on Apparel

11:02 Why Apparel Is Hard

13:10 Staying Family Owned

15:52 Fixing Industry Systems

18:11 Fatherhood and Faith

23:58 Legacy and Lightning Round

27:24 Closing Reflections

In 1995, the University of Tampa was, in Dr. Ron Vaughn's own words, languishing. Financially strapped, academically uncertain, and staring down a budget that barely closed. People around him asked why in the world he would take the job. He took it anyway.

What followed was nearly thirty years of what Dr. Vaughn calls a rocket ride. Full-time enrollment grew from 150 to 900. The university's assets climbed from $38 million to more than $1.1 billion. Nearly 70 building projects transformed the campus. And this fall, roughly 44,000 students applied for about 3,000 spots, a level of demand almost no one could have imagined for the school he inherited.

In this episode, Dr. Vaughn walks through the decisions behind that turnaround: convincing the Sykes family to make the first $10 million gift that reset an entire capital campaign, buying up land years before anyone understood why, and building a university on the belief that you are either getting better or you are getting worse. He also opens up about stepping away in 2024, the book he has just released chronicling the university's transformation, and what thirty years of leading people taught him that he could only have learned by doing it.

If you have ever wondered what it takes to turn a struggling institution into one of the most competitive private universities in the country, this conversation is for you.

Listen now, and subscribe to The Bay Builds Podcast for more stories of the founders, builders, and leaders shaping Tampa Bay.

00:00 Rocket Ride Numbers

00:57 Show Introduction

02:25 Early UT Vision

04:04 Taking the Risk

04:54 Speed Game Turnaround

07:06 Growth By The Numbers

09:40 Building Boom

11:14 Raising Academic Quality

13:34 Fundraising Playbook

19:45 Leadership Lessons

20:58 Life After Presidency

21:57 Alumni Impact Stories

24:22 Beyond The Title

25:39 UT And Tampa Future

27:40 Legacy And Advice

31:02 New Book Release

33:21 Lightning Round

36:21 Closing Reflections

Picture this: you're at your best friend's wedding, you dive in for a quick group photo swim, and sixty seconds later everything you own is gone. That's exactly what happened to Avin Samtani and his two college fraternity brothers at a five-star resort, and instead of just chalking it up to bad luck, they got obsessed with a question: why isn't there a safe by the pool when there's a safe in every room?

That obsession became AquaVault, a hotel-security safe built to lock onto lounge chairs, umbrellas, and pool furniture, born from three guys with zero product experience, a filed patent, and a shared conviction that resort theft was a real, unsolved problem. They self-funded the whole thing, taught themselves manufacturing from scratch by sourcing overseas factories, and went hotel to hotel in Miami with product in hand, sitting in lobbies until a GM would talk to them.

Then came Shark Tank. Avin walks us through what actually changes after you land a deal with Daymond John, why the real work starts once the cameras stop rolling, and how that credibility opened doors at places like Disney, Universal, and major cruise lines. From there, the AquaVault story became a whole travel brand: Flex Safe, the Charge Card, and their newest product, Sound Charge, a speaker and charger in one.

Avin also gets candid about running a company with lifelong friends without letting money wreck the friendship, why he'd never hire an agency before proving out talent on commission, and why he believes a one-person business is more possible today than ever thanks to AI.

If you've ever had an idea you were too scared to say out loud, this episode is your push to just start.

Listen now on Spotify, and catch the full video episode on YouTube.

00:00 Beach Theft Shock

00:45 Meet AquaVault Founder

02:01 From Resort Theft to Idea

03:27 Patents and First Prototype

04:43 Building With Friends

05:37 Two Years of Belief

06:50 Manufacturing and Iterations

08:46 Shark Tank Breakthrough

11:03 Scaling Through Partnerships

13:00 Expanding the Product Line

13:42 Lean Founder Mindset

16:05 Theft Data and Deterrence

17:59 COO Operator Mindset

18:31 Hiring Fractional Help

19:18 Marketing Partners Not Retainers

20:07 AI Tools For Lean Teams

21:23 Working With Friends

22:23 Customer Feedback Motivation

24:14 Tampa Market Tailwinds

25:22 Expanding Travel Product Line

27:34 Why Direct To Consumer

28:13 Keeks Eyewear Side Hustle

29:13 Advice For New Founders

31:02 Legacy Lightning Round

32:19 Closing Takeaways

Tracie is the founder of Event Outfitters, the gifting partner for donors, VIPs, executives, and honored guests. If you want the framework she uses with every client, grab the free Guide to Gifting That Builds Relationships: https://stan.store/EventOutfitters

Matthew Heller was tired of being invisible on the road. Stuck in South Florida traffic, cut off again and again, he did something most frustrated drivers never do. He put a train horn on his truck. Within weeks, strangers were asking where they could get one too.

That small fix for a personal problem became HornBlasters, a company Matthew built while working three retail jobs at once and hiding in the racks at Home Depot to take customer calls on his cell phone. His own family thought he had lost his mind. His aunt suggested he apply for the Geek Squad instead. It took four years of side hustling before Matthew could walk away from retail and run HornBlasters full time.

Twenty five years later, HornBlasters has served over a million customers worldwide from its home base right here in Tampa. Matthew walks Tracie Domino through what actually separates a real train horn from the cheap knockoffs flooding the internet, how he turned himself into the face of the brand despite calling himself an introverted extrovert, his unexpected detour into film as co-producer of Come What May, and the surprising places his horns end up, from cattle ranches in Central America to catfish farms in Arkansas.

This is a conversation about following your gut when everyone around you says you are chasing a joke, and what it actually takes to stick with something for 25 years until it becomes undeniable.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts and follow The Bay Builds on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube

00:00 Pickup Truck Origins

00:50 Meet HornBlasters Founder

02:03 Road Rage to Idea

03:05 Early Hustle and Doubters

04:36 Going Full Time

05:32 What Makes the Kit

07:38 Winning on Support

08:37 Building in Tampa

09:28 Brand Personality and Clown Mom

10:28 TV Influencers and Marketing

11:17 Noise Pollution Debate

12:31 Introverted Extrovert Spotlight

15:00 Advice for Dreamers

15:45 Giving Back Locally

16:32 Future and New Markets

18:54 Lightning Round Fun

20:04 Closing Takeaways

Tracie is the founder of Event Outfitters, the gifting partner for donors, VIPs, executives, and honored guests. If you want the framework she uses with every client, grab the free Guide to Gifting That Builds Relationships: https://stan.store/EventOutfitters

Kerry Irvin married a Night Stalker. She raised two sons who joined the Army. And she grew up watching her Vietnam-veteran father's brothers in arms come home to a country that didn't know how to hold what they carried. So when Kerry says this work is personal, she means it in her bones.

In this episode of The Bay Builds, host Tracie Domino sits down with Kerry Irvin, CEO of Operation Healing Forces, the Tampa-based nonprofit serving Special Operations veterans, their caregivers, and families of the fallen. Kerry traces her path from national security intelligence officer working alongside special operators in the Middle East and North Africa, to leading an organization that has grown from two therapeutic retreats a year to more than 63, and from zero emergency grants to over three million dollars in hardship funding annually.

Kerry explains the signature Bonds That Cure retreat model, why healing happens faster in donated homes than in clinics, and the story of Travis Dunn, a paralyzed Army Ranger and Tampa neighbor who became one of the reasons this mission feels personal to her every single day. She speaks candidly about the veteran suicide rate, the toll of the "death gap" after transition out of service, and what it means for MacDill and USSOCOM to sit right here in Tampa Bay's backyard.

This conversation is about trust, transparency, and what it actually looks like to build an organization capable of carrying other people's weight. Follow The Bay Builds and share this one with someone who needs to hear that help is closer than they think.

If you or someone you know is struggling, the Veterans Crisis Line is available 24/7 by calling 988 and pressing 1, or by texting 838255.

To learn more about Operation Healing Forces or to donate, visit https://operationhealingforces.org/

00:00 Early Lessons of Service

01:03 Meet Kerry Irvin

03:01 From Childhood to Motherhood

05:00 Inside Special Ops Culture

06:22 Growing Operation Healing08:29 When the Mission Hits Home

11:37 Tampa and USSOCOM Link

13:40 Why SOF Needs Different Care

17:17 Bonds That Cure Retreats

23:35 Scaling Without Losing Touch

25:22 Earning Donor Trust

27:56 Measuring Real Outcomes

28:07 Measuring Long Term Impact

30:10 Breaking Through Skepticism

32:29 Trust Built in Groups

32:59 Living With Suicide Loss

35:39 Behind the Nonprofit Curtain

36:56 Family Pride and Perspective

38:01 Why Tampa Is Home

40:39 Vision and Waitlist Challenge

42:28 Serving on Women Commission

44:42 Message to Those Struggling

47:39 Lightning Round Fun

50:13 Closing Reflection and Call

Tracie is the founder of Event Outfitters, the gifting partner for donors, VIPs, executives, and honored guests. If you want the framework she uses with every client, grab the free Guide to Gifting That Builds Relationships: https://stan.store/EventOutfitters

She was on the floor, vomiting from pain so severe she couldn't move. Jimmy Barker got the call from a friend who said they'd never seen his mother like this. What he found when he started digging wasn't a diagnosis her Western doctors had caught. It was mold, hidden in the walls, quietly wrecking her body for years while a rotating cast of specialists treated her symptoms one at a time without ever talking to each other.

That moment became the turning point for Jimmy Barker, Founder & CEO of BioDesign Wellness Center, a functional medicine and longevity practice that has grown to serve patients from Wesley Chapel to Tierra Verde and was acquired earlier this year by national longevity company Agentis Longevity. In this conversation with host Tracie Domino, Jimmy traces his path from a financial career that collapsed in 2007 and 2008, down to counting how many weeks of food he could afford, into building a practice rooted in root-cause care instead of what he calls sick care.

Jimmy talks about the moment he realized the system had failed his mother, why he refuses to recommend a protocol he hasn't tested on his own body first, what happened when he tore his shoulder and skipped surgery for a peptide instead, and how BioDesign is scaling into a national platform without losing the personal, look-you-in-the-eye care that built its reputation in Tampa Bay. He also gets honest about where Western medicine still gets it right, where it falls short, and what he wants anyone to hear if they've been told their labs are normal but they know something is wrong.

Follow The Bay Builds wherever you listen, and share this episode with someone who's been dismissed by a system that was never built to ask why.

00:00 When Trust Breaks

00:45 Meet Jimmy Barker

02:14 Mom’s Health Crisis

04:57 The Mold Clue

06:50 Jimmy’s Health Journey

08:59 Building BioDesign

11:28 Functional Medicine Defined

12:49 Sick Care vs Real Care

14:18 Results Need Partnership

17:13 Testing on Himself

19:26 Scaling a Wellness Business

24:19 Longevity for Real Life

26:20 Hiring and Culture

28:37 Future of Preventive Care

30:32 Acquisition and Scaling

35:34 Tampa Bay Wellness Hub

38:05 Advice for the Dismissed

39:27 Lightning Round Fun

41:04 Closing Takeaways

Tracie is the founder of Event Outfitters, the gifting partner for donors, VIPs, executives, and honored guests. If you want the framework she uses with every client, grab the free Guide to Gifting That Builds Relationships: https://stan.store/EventOutfitters

He was the first one through the door. His two partners hadn't arrived yet, the office was empty, and Brett Lindquist sat there alone in 1995 thinking, "I hope this works." Thirty years later, The Mortgage Firm has grown into dozens of branches across more than twenty states, more than 30,000 reviews, and a near-perfect rating. But Brett still refuses to be called boss.

In this episode of The Bay Builds, host Tracie Domino sits down with Brett Lindquist, Co-Founder & CEO of The Mortgage Firm, to trace a career that began long before the branches and the billions in loans. A scholarship swimmer and team captain at Florida State, Brett learned discipline, focus, and a high tolerance for pain doing three practices a day from the age of five. He carried that grit into residential lending, a business he describes less as paperwork and rates and more as managing fear and obsessing over communication with the people on the other end of the biggest investment of their lives.

The conversation moves through the hard things that built the company: launching into the teeth of the 2008 mortgage meltdown, surviving the rate spike from three to seven percent that cut the industry by 60 to 70 percent, and running every branch like its own business. Brett talks about scaling without losing the relationships that matter, why he hires people who already have a track record, the rare 30-year partnership built on three partners and majority-rules decisions, and a leadership team that is roughly 85 to 90 percent women. He and his wife Cindy have given generously back to Florida State, and when asked what he hopes people say about him a generation from now, his answer is simple: one of the nicest guys I ever met.

If you are building something in Tampa Bay or thinking about buying a home in a market Brett calls the hottest in the country, this one is worth your time. Follow The Bay Builds, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

00:00 Mortgage Cycles and Fear

00:57 Meet Brett Lindquist

02:11 Starting The Mortgage Firm

03:54 Mentors and Athlete Mindset

05:40 Swimming Discipline Lessons

07:15 Real Craft of Lending

08:38 Scaling Through Meltdowns

13:00 Five Star Service System

14:16 Downturns and Home Values

17:29 Hiring and Branch Leaders

20:28 Tampa Bay Market Outlook

21:58 Grit and Giving Back

28:00 Partners and Future Legacy

31:57 Lightning Round and Wrap

33:31 Final Takeaways

Tracie is the founder of Event Outfitters, the gifting partner for donors, VIPs, executives, and honored guests. If you want the framework she uses with every client, grab the free Guide to Gifting That Builds Relationships: https://stan.store/EventOutfitters

Santiago Corrada was 13 years old when his family visited Tampa from New Jersey and he told his parents they were not going back. Decades later, he runs the organization responsible for putting Tampa Bay on the map for the rest of the world -- and he will tell you plainly: the greatest days are not coming. They are already here.

In this episode of The Bay Builds, Santiago Corrada, President and CEO of Visit Tampa Bay, sits down with Tracie Domino to trace a career that began in fast food, moved through inner-city education, city government, and the mayor's office, and landed in one of the most visible leadership roles in the region. Santiago breaks down what destination marketing actually is, why Tampa was a blank slate when he arrived, and how Visit Tampa Bay transformed a city that people in Mumbai thought was a neighborhood in Miami into a destination that Time Magazine named one of the 50 greatest places on Earth.

This conversation covers the Bollywood Academy Awards, Brentford Bees, pet influencers on the Riverwalk, the bed tax most Tampanians don't know they benefit from, and a destination development plan that is already reshaping how developers invest in Hillsborough County. Santiago also gets candid about what keeps him up at night: transportation, housing, and the very real risk that prosperity can disappear faster than it arrives.

If you love Tampa Bay, work in hospitality, lead a public-private organization, or want to understand how a city builds a brand that actually sticks, this is the episode for you.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts and follow The Bay Builds on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube.

00:00 Miami Growing Pains

00:41 Meet Visit Tampa Bay CEO

02:31 Roots and Early Hustle

03:47 From Education to City Hall

05:18 Leading Visit Tampa Bay

06:52 Leadership Lessons Tested

09:16 Building Tampa's Brand

12:21 What DMOs Actually Do

15:58 Tourism Powers the Economy

17:27 Post Pandemic Marketing Shift

21:11 Big Events Without Dependence

23:16 How Bed Tax Funding Works

26:11 What Excites Him Next

26:46 Rethinking Strategy

27:30 Destination Development Roadmap

30:11 Luxury Gaps and Smart Placement

30:40 Leadership Misconceptions

32:24 Why Tampa Feels Like Home

34:08 Tampa in 10 Years

37:57 What Young Pros Need

39:25 The People Make Tampa

41:30 Legacy and Handing Off

44:36 Lightning Round Favorites

48:23 Closing Thanks and Wrap

Tracie is the founder of Event Outfitters, the gifting partner for donors, VIPs, executives, and honored guests. If you want the framework she uses with every client, grab the free Guide to Gifting That Builds Relationships: https://stan.store/EventOutfitters

In 1926, 22 women sat down together in Tampa and decided to do something about the unmet needs of women and children in their community. They did not have cell phones, fax machines, or the internet. They had a mission statement that was, by any measure, ahead of its time: to foster interest in the social, economic, educational, and civic conditions of the community and to make volunteer service efficient. One hundred years later, The Junior League of Tampa has 1,900 members logging 50,000 volunteer hours a year, has launched permanent nonprofit institutions into the Tampa Bay community, and is still asking the same question those 22 women asked in 1926 - where is the gap, and how do we fill it?

In this episode, Tracie Domino sits down with Katie Crowe, President of The Junior League of Tampa, during the organization's centennial year. Katie pulls back the curtain on how a volunteer-led organization sustains a coherent long-term strategy through rotating leadership, what it actually takes to spin a project out into a self-sustaining nonprofit, and why a third of what has been built in Tampa Bay traces back to women who never collected a paycheck for the work. She also talks about the stereotype the League has spent decades dismantling, the hiring of the organization's first ever Chief Operating Officer, and what keeps leadership up at night as they look toward the next 100 years.

This is a conversation about legacy, leadership, and what it looks like when women decide to build something that outlasts them.

00:00 League Strengths

00:53 Century Legacy

02:51 Founding Vision

05:36 How It Works

07:10 Diaper Bank Impact

10:00 Centennial Projects

13:53 Learning From Leagues

15:37 Projects That Last

17:09 Strategy With Turnover

19:28 Breaking Stereotypes

22:05 Recruiting Next Gen

24:08 Evolving The Model

25:44 Next 100 Years

28:37 Tampa Storytelling

32:14 Gala Highlights

34:10 Bicentennial Hopes

35:24 Lightning Round

37:20 Closing Call To Action

Tracie is the founder of Event Outfitters, the gifting partner for donors, VIPs, executives, and honored guests. If you want the framework she uses with every client, grab the free Guide to Gifting That Builds Relationships: https://stan.store/EventOutfitters

Before Mike Griffin knew what commercial real estate was, he was walking up and down the sun-baked stands of Tampa Stadium selling Cokes and peanuts to a crowd of strangers. That early lesson in showing up, working hard, and earning something stuck. So did Tampa.

Mike Griffin is Vice Chair and Co-Head of the Florida Region of Savills, responsible for more than 13 million square feet of transactions across 18 states and 15 countries. He brokered the first Fortune 500 relocation in Tampa's history and signed the first lease in Water Street. He became the youngest chairman in the 135-year history of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. He was appointed to the Tampa Port Authority by the governor. He serves today as Vice Chair of the USF Board of Trustees and Chair of the Finance Committee, where he has been a central architect of the new on-campus football stadium. And he did all of it from the same city where he grew up, choosing to double down on Tampa before most people believed it was worth the bet.

In this conversation with host Tracie Domino, Mike talks about what it means to invest in a place before the world catches up, how his mentor Ann Duncan hired him as her first employee straight out of USF and changed the trajectory of his life, why trust is the only thing he is actually selling, and what it cost him personally to build a city-level reputation over two decades. He also gets into the global lens he brings to Tampa deals, why life sciences is the city's next North Star, and what it took to get a $400 million on-campus football stadium across the finish line at USF.

This one is for the builders. The ones who stayed. The ones who are still deciding whether to stay. And the ones who just need someone to remind them that the best time to bet on something is always before everyone else figures out it's worth it.

Find Mike at savillsus.com and follow what's happening at USF at usf.edu.

Chapters

• Betting on Tampa Before Anyone Else Did
• Selling Cokes and Learning Everything
• The Publix Years and the Standard of Excellence
• Ann Duncan and the Job That Changed His Life
• What He Is Actually Selling
• The First Fortune 500 and the First Lease in Water Street
• Telling Tampa's Story to the World
• Why Life Sciences Is Tampa's Next North Star
• The $400 Million Bet on USF Football
• Legacy Versus Leverage
• What Building a City-Level Reputation Actually Costs
• A Message to the Next Generation
• What Makes Tampa Still Special
• Lightning Round

Tracie is the founder of Event Outfitters, the gifting partner for donors, VIPs, executives, and honored guests. If you want the framework she uses with every client, grab the free Guide to Gifting That Builds Relationships: https://stan.store/EventOutfitters