The DMV (Washington, DC | Maryland | Virginia) Business Show

Todd Sheridan & Nichelle Roane are the Co-Founders and Owners of Treehouse Juicery out of Baltimore, Maryland!  They are a local manufacturer making all natural no-additives cold-pressed juices!  It all started when Todd lost 100 pounds due to juicing every day.  Todd and Nichelle are not only business partners but they are also engaged and have been in business since 2016.  They both grew up in Baltimore City and attended the same high school without knowing each other until 5 years after they graduated.  Growing up Todd liked playing football and playing the piano and Nichelle played sport's mostly basketball and volleyball.  During college Todd was obese and had hypertension, and was only 21 years old at the time.  He decided to go cold turkey vegan and lost 100 lbs in the first 10 months.  A few years later he met Nichelle while working together and she was inspired by his journey and mentioned to him how he should really think about starting a juice bar, she helped perfect the juice blend and they started selling it to friends and family and that was the beginning!  They share how they started testing juices and going to fitness studios and farmers markets until the pandemic happened they had to pivot their model to online with subscribers.  You can now find them online, in numerous local farmers markets and their new location that will be opening soon.  They share how you should not forget your dreams and wherever you are working now you can learn transferable skills you can utilize later.  They go in depth how they divide and conquer and who takes care of what responsibilities.  They mention the importance of networking and knowing people that is how they found many of their mentors, it will always be helpful to know more people.  Understand what you are good at and scale that.  They talk about how grants have been a tremendous help for them personally and their business, and unfortunately not many business owners take full advantage of them.  The journey of entrepreneurship is a long one with many ups and downs, but never loose focus of your end goal and be solutions oriented.  Treehouse Juicery will be opening their first location soon at 1821 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD - do not forget to visit them and order online!

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In this week's episode we have Latane Meade, Co-Founder and CEO of Allied Title & Escrow with headquarters in Arlington, Virginia!  They are doing title differently, and did their first deal in January of 2017.  They are in 11 states, over 70 employees, and process 400-500 deals monthly.  Latane was born in Virginia Beach and gravitated towards entrepreneurship growing up doing lemonade stands and other activities.  He attended James Madison University and afterwards lived in Arlington, Virginia for about a year and half until he moved to San Diego, California.  He moved to San Diego to run an adult sports league, global events, and sports entertainment company focusing on the marketing side of the businesses.  That is where he learned marketing and eventually brought those skills and ideas into the title industry making it fun and a celebration!  When he sold the sports entertainment business and him and his wife always wanted to move back to the East Coast where they are both from and moved to Northern Virginia.  It was in that move back that he had a pretty boring experience when he purchased his home and noticed there was a big opportunity in making buying a home a celebration.  Latane shares how he got together with his business partner to form Allied Title.  They focused on being different, they have a client experience division solely to make everyone's experience better and fun.  It is about great people, great service, and excellent marketing.  They work with some of the top real estate teams in the DMV (DC, MD, VA) area and mentions how they create joint ventures with them making it a win-win for all.  He mentions how they have been able to expand to other states and founded other businesses from agents demand for creative marketing.  Latane shares advice on what someone should do when starting a business and finding what is your differentiator, be different, and just do and make everyone's experience better!

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Brett Lanier is the Co-Founder & CEO of Bettor Vision out of Howard County Maryland!  They are a free mobile app that allows avid sport fans to have all of their fantasy matches and bets in one place you can track.  He was born in Texas and in first grade moved to Columbia, Maryland.  He chats about how it was growing up in Columbia, playing different sports and his favorite to play was basketball.  Both of this grandparents served, one in the Navy and another in the Marines.  After high school he attended West Point and mentions an interesting story how that happened since that was not his first choice.  Brett shares an amazing story about a training exercise he did in Ranger School which led to him choosing aviation.  He flew several different aircraft's in Iraq his favorite being the beast of the Black Hawk.  After several stints in Iraq he wanted to go teach and went back to school and received his MBA from Wharton and mentions the #1 benefit from having a Wharton MBA.  He went on to teach three years at his alma mater West Point, teaching leadership, marketing, and international management.  Brett takes us behind the scenes of a day time air assault mission in Iraq which they never do since most of them them are done at night.  It consisted of 6 Black Hawks, 1 Chinook helicopter, a couple of Kiowa Warrior aircraft's, and around 150 people to surround the town and the story unravels....you do not want to miss it!  He shares how the business idea behind Bettor Vision came about and was formed with his Co-Founder Geoff.  He mentions about getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.  As an entrepreneur you have to get comfortable with selling, failing, being told no more times than you hear yes.  Serving in the US Army taught him many tools he uses today in business such as how to manage emotions and leadership.  He says how everything takes longer than expected, have enough of a runway and to always be raising money.  At the end Brett shares his favorite basketball player of all time -  guess who it is?

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In this week's episode we have Margeaux Thomas, Founder and Managing Attorney of The Thomas Law Office headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia!  Their goal is to assist business owners in establishing a legal foundation and resolving disputes with their clients, vendors, and business partners so they can focus on growing their business and fulfilling their mission.  Margeaux was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio she loved playing basketball growing up and learning many life lessons through sports.  She stayed in Ohio for undergrad and what brought her to the Washington, DC area was attending law school at Catholic University.  After law school she went into big law and focusing on civil litigation, she worked at two different law firms for around 7-8 years before starting her own law firm.  She shares how it was starting her law firm and networking, creating relationships to building her book of business, it is also about working on the business and not only in the business.  We go deep into commercial real estate leases and gives a business lesson on Partnerships 101 you do not want miss.  Margeaux mentions how having mentors was essential, she has learned a lot through mentorship.  She shares what her goals are, one being to have her law firm run without her always being there and I share how The DMV Business Show was started.  In her free time she loves gardening and children nutrition, and has great advice on how to grow food!  She mentions how significant it is to listen to your inner voice, and not muffle it but instead encourage it!

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Nasir Qadree is the Founder and Managing Partner of Zeal Capital Partners headquartered in Washington, DC!  They are an inclusive investment franchise that is focused on partnering with exceptional diverse management teams that are rethinking the building blocks of wealth from education, financial wellness, healthcare, and more.  Zeal Capital Partners was founded in 2019 and went into market in 2020 with currently around $54M in AUM (Assets Under Management) with their fist fund oversubscribed.  Nasir has been in Washington, DC for 8 years and his story start in South West Atlanta, Georgia where he grew up.  He worked his way up the East Coast, graduated from Hampton University and afterwards headed to New York City to work at Goldman Sachs.  He then found himself in Boston at State Street Bank.  He tells the story how it all started with a coffee shop that him and his friends opened in NYC that eventually led venture capital.  What brought him to DC was working with a local venture capital firm and shares how the idea to form Zeal came about.  We chat about the lack of diversity in the Venture Capital/Investment and Founder/Entrepreneurial world and how we can change that.  Nasir does not want to be known solely as a Venture Capitalist, he is an artist with many interest.  An artist of music, in terms of the craft of DJing which he does on the weekends.  He shares advice on what startup entrepreneurs need to know if looking for investors and gives us a snapshot of what he is seeing in today's investment market. He mentions how we are not products of our environment but a product of our own expectations!  At the end of the day none of this would be possible without our health, he is a big runner and shares how those that win are those who have stamina - it is a long game!

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In this week's episode we have Danny Farrar, Founder and CEO of SoldierFit and Founder and Executive Director of Platoon 22 in Frederick, Maryland!  SoldierFit is a functional fitness program designed to help people in different ways with their 13 brick and mortar locations with group boot camps, gyms, group and personal training, and recently launched a coaching program The Herd.  Platoon 22 was started after the second soldier from Frederick County died by suicide. They work to combat the ever-rising Veteran suicide rate. With 22 Veterans lost to suicide each day. To combat these numbers civic engagement is key.  Danny was born and raised in Southern Virginia, in a rural area around an hour out from Richmond.  He joined the Army right out of high school and that is what brought him the DMV area, he served for 8 years.  He was adopted at 2 years old and was molested by his brother and sister growing up, and for him it manifested in two ways.  He overate as a child and did horrible in school graduated 146 out 147 and spent most of his life thinking he was stupid well into his 30's.  Joining the Army was his way to try to do something for himself.  He took the first team into the Pentagon when it was hit in 9/11, he helped secure the Pentagon and then volunteered to go overseas to Iraq.  Once he returned home, he tried to commit suicide and eventually turned to fitness and martial arts.  Danny mentions his mixed martial art fight that changed his life and how SoldierFit was started.  He shares the importance of having hard conversations with yourself and Fortifying the Four: Fitness, Faith, Family, and Function (your career, profession, what you do).  How having a coach has been a game changer for him and everyone should have a coach.  He has his own coach that has a net worth of over $200 million and his coach has his own coach, and Danny coaches too via his coaching program The Herd - we should all always be learning.  He teaches us how business consists of systems and processes and how to create a plan.  He mentions how to connect with your team because people don't quit jobs they quit leaders.  Danny shares how you should take the value to your customer and not be afraid to ask for the order, and don't focus on small big money!

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David Kuzma is the Founder of Aquilo Private Wealth Advisors headquartered in the Maryland area!  They are a wealth advisory firm designed for business owners who are looking to sell their business, helping them understand the integration of their business, personal, and family financial picture with their personal goals and aspirations post sale or the next stage of their life.  David grew up in Anne Arundel County in Annapolis, Maryland outside of the Naval Academy.  He went to college in Ohio and came back to the area afterwards.  At all his jobs his main focus was helping and taking care of people, learning in the early days by working at restaurants.  He shares what to do to prepare for the sale of a business and get the best possible value, focusing on the strategy part and mentioning the four exits that occur within a business.  David talks about how we should always be recruiting and looking for talent, and get to know your people because your people are your biggest asset without them there is no business.  He shares the different strategies to purchasing a business and how to excel the growth of a company by focusing on the knock on effects.  He mentions why 76% of business owners regret selling their business and how he is building a unique business!

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Text Me!  240-706-7584

In this week's episode we have Daniel Holt, Founder of Anchorage Partners in Washington, DC!  They are a crisis communication company helping people repair their reputation and focus on them learning and growing from their experiences.  Dan is from Northern New Jersey and came down to Washington, DC, then went to grad school in North Carolina and back up to DC in 2008 and has been here ever since spending most of his adult life in the Nations Capitol.  Growing up he was into music and a lot of it was focused on social and environmental issue, that is was got him into politics.  He comes from an entrepreneurial family, his father and brother are both entrepreneurs.  He started in the Clinton White House all through connections and explains the value in meeting people where they are.  He stayed in the White House with the Obama administration for all 8 years.  When he started Anchorage Partners most of his early clients where in the political advisory space, people who wanted to run for office.  He later shifted his focus to crisis management which he loves helping people and hearing how they have learned from their situation.  Dan suggests to find your flow state and take action, get in the mix.  He mentions the important method of scale it, skill it, or skip it!  He shares what has helped him become successful in his career - maintaining his network and being genuinely interested instead of interesting.  Guess what he likes to do in his free time, it involves a certain instrument - guess which one?

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Welcome to the Season 3 Premier of The DMV Business Show with our guest Shaun Taylor!  Shaun is the Co-Founder and Co-Owner of Black Viking Brewing in Gaithersburg, Maryland!  They are the first Black-owned brewery in Montgomery County, founded in 2020!  Shaun was born and raised in Montgomery County, grew up playing basketball.  He attended McGruder High School and afterwards went to play college basketball with a full scholarship to DII school Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina.  It was in college that he first experienced the beer brewing process due to the monks brewing beer.  After college he worked in a variety of roles, one of them in the Montgomery County Public Schools in which he created a program and wrote a book about children and parenting.  During this time he was always interested and learning more about the different beers and brewing process.  He started his own live show called the BYOB (Bring Your Own Beer) show in 2018, now rebranded Black Viking TV and started building a community with other like minded beer enthusiasts.  Until one day an old basketball player he used to coach reached out to him to get him to try one of the beers he had brewed and that was the start of everything and birth of Black Viking Brewing!  Shaun mentions the importance of knowing what you want to accomplish and the story you want to tell.  He shares that if you want to start a business to do it because you have to, there is no other way.  Shaun mentions how it is all about relationship capital because everything is built on relationships!  Soon they will become the first Black-owned nationally distributed beer brand in the country.  Do not miss this episode!

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Season 2 has officially ended, and we hit triple digits with the 100th episode!  A big feat considering most podcast do not go pass the eight episode.  Please stay tuned for Season 3!  Thank you to all of our amazing guests and everyone who has taken the time to listen to us,  greatly appreciate it from the bottom of my heart - it means a lot to me!  If you have not done so already, please go to Apple I-Tunes and leave us a review and comment and go to YouTube and hit the subscribe button.  Would love to hear from you, my email and phone number are below.  Send me a message, and if you have any great guests you would love see on the show please let me know.  Thank you again so much for listening, we hope you enjoyed it!  Until next time, can't wait for you to listen to Season 3 - STAY TUNED!

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