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

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

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

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

There is a moment Mike DiBlasi does not forget. It is 2008, the market has collapsed, every broker around him is either making excuses or making an exit, and he is beyond broke. Not almost broke. Beyond it. His dad is telling him he should have stayed in accounting. His friends are leaving the business. And Mike is standing there thinking: at this point, I can't get any more broke. Might as well keep going.

That decision to stay when everything said leave is the thread that runs through everything Mike DiBlasi has built.

A former closer on the FSU baseball team that went to the College World Series three times alongside future MLB players Kevin Cash and Matt Diaz, Mike came out of school with a CPA he did not love and a plan that fell apart fast. He cold-called every major Tampa brokerage looking for a shot. Most did not call back. He found his way in anyway. What followed was nearly two decades of grinding through commercial real estate at Cushman and Wakefield, Liberty Property Trust, and Feldman Equities before landing at CBRE, where he now serves as Senior Managing Director and North Florida Market Leader overseeing Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville.

Nearly 650 transactions. More than 9 million square feet. Four consecutive years on the Tampa Bay Business Journal Power 100 List. And a 125-person office he has helped build into the number one commercial real estate operation in the market.

In this episode, Tracie Domino sits down with a guy she has known since the late 1990s at Florida State, and the conversation goes everywhere. How losing a lead in the College World Series semi-final taught him more than any win ever did. Why locker room culture is the non-negotiable he never compromises on. What he looks for in people that goes way beyond a GPA. How AI is reshaping demand for commercial space across North Florida. And what he tells every young professional who reaches out to him still grinding and wondering if it is ever going to turn.

This one is for anyone who has ever been told to go back to the safe path and chose to keep going instead.

Visit cbre.com to find Mike DiBlasi and his team across Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville.

00:00 Beyond Broke Beginnings

00:51 Podcast Intro Mike Delos

02:41 Closer Mindset Under Pressure

03:25 Pivot After Baseball Ends

04:27 CPA To Brokerage Hustle

06:23 Early CRE Lessons And 2008

08:08 From Producer To Leader

10:31 Building Team Culture

13:26 North Florida Market Trends

14:58 Failing Forward Like Sports

17:01 People Skills And Hiring

20:38 Legacy Vision And Growth

21:44 Advice For Next Generation

25:02 Lightning Round Fun

26:16 Closing Thoughts

Mindy Murphy did not plan to run a domestic violence center. She had been out of the workforce for 13 years raising her son, was not looking for a job, and had never worked in domestic violence. Then she had a dream, called back the board member who had been quietly recruiting her, and interviewed in the back room of a Cracker Barrel. A week later she was giving a speech about an organization she barely knew.

That was 2012. Since then she has grown the Spring of Tampa Bay from a three and a half million dollar organization to nearly ten million, added the largest domestic violence law firm in the state of Florida, built a licensed therapy division, launched a sleepaway camp program, opened a new survivor services center in an 85-year-old World War II building in Drew Park, and maintained the only accredited onsite school for resident children in the United States.

In this conversation with host Tracie Domino, Mindy talks about what most people get completely wrong about domestic violence, why the most dangerous moment for a survivor is when they decide to leave, the societal habit of blaming victims instead of holding abusers accountable, and what it looks like to run a nearly ten million dollar organization with 90 employees across a law firm, a therapy practice, a shelter, a thrift store, transitional housing, a childcare center, and a sleepaway camp. All through one lens. All in service of one mission.

She also talks about the phone call she took yesterday. And why fourteen years in, the disclosures still stop her cold.

The Spring of Tampa Bay has provided sanctuary and services to more than 60,000 adults and children since 1977. If you or someone you know needs help, call the Spring at 813-247-SAFE.

Before she was dressing Water Street in large-scale art installations and producing seven-figure destination weddings, Anna Richardson was a project manager in real estate development with a company called Exceptional Events and no real plan. On this episode, she sits down with Tracie Domino to talk about what it actually takes to build a boutique luxury brand in a market people used to underestimate, why she turned down Miami, how growing up in construction taught her more about running a business than any MBA would have, and the midnight phone call that ended with a grand piano in a Ritz-Carlton presidential suite. Anna is the founder of Anna Lucia Events, a global boutique brand known for sensory-driven weddings, high-end social celebrations, and major art activations across Tampa Bay and beyond. This one is for anyone who has ever bet on themselves in a city no one was watching yet.

00:00 Guest List Magic

00:58 Podcast Intro and Guest

02:14 Naming the Brand

04:48 Grit and Early Lessons

07:03 Being Underestimated

08:27 Why Tampa Won

13:20 Raising the Local Bar

16:59 Designing Emotion

21:50 Surprise and Delight

26:26 Multi Day Wedding Flow

28:39 Art Activations Leap

32:03 Big Art Activations

34:04 Making Art Accessible

37:07 Weatherproof Event Planning

38:56 Hurricane Venue Pivot

45:35 Permits Gone Wrong

49:52 Bridezilla Stories

55:06 Red Flags and Fit

58:23 Press and Success Shift

59:16 Publications Matter Less

01:01:19 Top Planner Lists Critique

01:02:19 Referrals And Legacy Clients

01:03:14 Client First Publishing Ethics

01:04:48 Founder Stress And Cashflow

01:07:50 Sales Cycles And Budget Talks

01:11:16 Behind The Scenes Reality

01:15:46 Sacrifices And Boundaries

01:20:55 Lightning Round Fun

01:24:34 Final Thanks And Wrap

Scott Price did not plan to start a company. He had a spreadsheet with his entire career mapped out and Arthur Andersen was part of every line of it.

Then Enron happened.

At 26, he signed voluntary termination papers, walked to the Hilton, had lunch, had a beer, and by Monday had delivered his first contract with his name signed as president.

Twenty-four years later, A-LIGN is one of the top three cybersecurity and compliance firms in the world. Two of the top three were founded in Tampa Bay. Scott built his from a clearance speakerphone, a $29-a-night hotel room, and 10 holiday seasons in Baton Rouge that no one was watching.

In this conversation he talks about the failures nobody saw, the sacrifices that shaped everything, what servant leadership actually looks like across 770 employees on multiple continents, and why success now means watching other people succeed.

When someone needs him at 2 AM, Scott Price shows up. With a gun or a shovel. Every time. This is that story.

00:00 Laid Off At 2601:55 First Customer Rush03:51 Enron Changed Everything04:57 Spotting The Market Gap06:42 Scrappy Early Sacrifices09:24 Tampa And Private Equity10:15 Florida State Mindset12:03 Servant Leadership Culture15:28 Life Moments With Employees17:25 Values Hiring And Retention20:47 Staying Grounded In Growth24:01 Success Redefined26:58 Client Chaos Stories30:07 When Align Became Brand32:33 Starting Today With AI34:18 Proudest Culture Moments37:51 Legacy In 25 Years40:16 Lightning Round43:18 Final Thanks

What if removing the ask from your biggest fundraising event actually raised more money?

Frann Leppla, President of the Tampa General Hospital Foundation, joins host Tracie Domino to share how TGH Foundation eliminated night-of fundraising from their signature gala and sparked one of the most productive donor engagement periods in the foundation's history.

Frann breaks down the psychology behind major gifts, the rise of the investor-donor who wants a real return on their philanthropic investment, and why the hard work of fundraising begins after the check is written, not before. She also addresses the biggest misconception in healthcare philanthropy: that donors receive better care as patients. At Tampa General, the mission is simple. Every human being deserves the best possible healthcare regardless of their ability to pay. Philanthropic dollars make that standard of excellence possible for everyone.

This conversation also covers the extraordinary growth of the Tampa General system, what it truly means to be a Level 1 Trauma Center, and why the TGH Foundation has turned down significant gifts in order to protect the integrity of the mission.

Whether you lead a nonprofit, work in healthcare, sit on a foundation board, or simply believe in the power of community investment, this episode will change how you think about giving, gratitude, and the brands people choose to believe in.

Frann Leppla has served as President of the Tampa General Hospital Foundation for nearly eight years, growing its philanthropic impact year over year and helping position TGH as one of Florida's most trusted healthcare institutions.

The Bay Builds Podcast features weekly conversations with the founders and executives behind Tampa Bay's biggest brands, businesses, and boldest ideas.

00:00 Why Events Fall Flat

01:01 Meet Fran Leppla

02:00 No Ask Gala Strategy

03:27 Psychology of Giving

04:41 Momentum After Events

06:13 TGH Growth Vision

07:35 Where TGH Operates

08:24 Donor Motivations Today

09:46 Showing Impact After Gifts

11:31 Philanthropy Misconceptions

12:47 Major Gifts Shift Works

13:57 Proof the Model Worked

16:13 Sales to Fundraising

19:23 Building Team Culture

21:12 Protecting Brand Trust

22:51 Academic Care Difference

24:18 Trauma Center and NICU

25:58 Foundation Goals Ahead

27:13 Lightning Round

28:53 Closing Reflections

In this episode of “The Bay Builds,” we sit down with Richard Gonzmart, the fourth-generation owner of the Columbia Restaurant Group, to delve into a remarkable 120-year legacy of resilience, family, and community impact. 

Richard shares profound stories of how his family navigated challenges from the 1903 opening amidst the Wright Brothers' first flight to enduring World Wars, the Spanish flu, and the COVID-19 pandemic. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining quality, supporting staff, community commitment, and honoring Tampa's rich history. 

Join us for an intimate conversation that goes beyond the usual interview to explore the deeper essence of what it takes to sustain a historic family business through generations.

00:00 The Beginnings of the Columbia Saloon

00:18 Challenges Through the Generations

00:53 Introducing Richard Smar

01:33 Legacy and Resilience

01:49 Memories and Stories

02:49 The Importance of Human Connection

03:25 Family Business Realities

06:16 Overcoming Financial Hardships

08:35 Commitment to Community and Staff

12:50 Preserving History and Legacy

23:23 Inspiring Medical Breakthroughs

23:57 Personal Impact of Childhood Cancer

24:21 Commitment to Cancer Research

25:28 Legacy and Education

28:00 Family and Business Values

29:53 Memories and Lessons from the Past

33:26 Living Life to the Fullest

36:17 Advice for the Next Generation

42:19 Honoring Family and Community

44:56 Final Reflections and Legacy