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

Corey Lockhart is the Founder and President of WML Enterprises, LLC with offices in Leesburg, Virginia!  They are the premier demolition and site work construction company in the area.  He is the 4th and 5th generation in Northern Virginia and grew up in Chantilly, Virginia.  He tried his hand in college and it was not for him, he decided to join his fathers landscaping company for a while until he saw the towers come down and like many others decide to do his part and join the military.  Six years later once he left army at almost 30 years old he moved back to Northern Virginia and joined his dad again this time learning different things, moved into B2B sales and learned a lot.  Corey shares his previous failures and what he learned from them and how you too can avoid them, failure is learning material.  He mentions how he has started all of his business ventures part-time as a side hustle and the main differences between those ventures and his last one and what made it a success!  He shares the process on how he was able to regain time by properly qualifying a client, it makes everything more effective.  We talk about how business is a team sport, and you cannot do it all on your own you need to surround yourself with the right people.  He mentions to keep track of what you do in your free time, and to keep pressing and stacking educational experiences!

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In this week's episode we have Burak Temel, he is the Owner of not one but several companies Urban Boxing, Saint Construction, and Med Depot located in Northern Virginia and with locations in Washington, DC and Maryland!  Born and raised in Arlington, Virginia he did a lot sports growing up, started wrestling at 8 years old and continued it all through college and we talk about the great benefits of starting wrestling at a young age.  It is interesting how things turn out, his father was a boxer back home in Turkey and did not want his son to do it.  Unfortunately that didn't go as planned and Burak picked up the boxing gloves at 14 years old and has not looked back.  After graduating with a degree in international business from American University in Washington, DC he played poker for a living and mentions the business lessons he learned from that, and was having boxing matches until one day an opportunity presented itself when his gym out of nowhere abruptly closed down.  That opportunity led to the birth of Urban Boxing and its first location, since then they have opened two more and are in the process of opening their fourth location in Washington Navy Yard. Burak shares how within the first year in business they were selected the best gym in DC by Washingtonian Magazine by doing the common things uncommonly well! He mentions how in the beginning there are no days off, for the first 7 months he opened and closed his first gym every day from 6am - 9pm until he was able scale and hire more people. It is certainly a team effort, especially when you are overseeing multiple companies. He shares great advise for new entrepreneurs and to find something you enjoy so much it doesn't feel like work. He enjoys the impact and community they have been able to build at Urban Boxing, the help and work they have been able to provide homeowners at Saint Construction, and how during COVID the lives they have touched and saved with Med Depot - it definitely does not feel like work!

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Mike Kirby is the CEO and Co-Founder of Lumina Solar with headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland!  He was born and raised in North Baltimore County in Parkton, Maryland.  Over the college summers while attending University of Delaware him and his friend started a driveway sealing business that did well and they learned a lot.  After college graduation he went straight into the solar business working with various organizations until he started his own, Lumina Solar in 2018.  In just three short years they have grown from $1MM in revenue to $17MM in 2020 to looking like 2021 is shaping up to be $37MM year, and a team of over 110 people and counting!  Mike shares how their #1 focus is on their customer experience, so much so that they have hundreds of reviews that are all FIVE stars!  He mentions the importance of being consistent, not daily or weekly or for a short period of time but over the long term - that is how you build relationships over time! 

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In this week's episode we have Christina Daves of PR For Anyone from Northern Virginia!  She was born and raised in Vienna, Virginia and went to Virginia Tech and now lives in Prince William County.  She is a serial entrepreneur, she owned a retail store in Haymarket, Virginia that she sold to a friend and when she broke her foot she had to wear a boot and saw a need for a fashionable medical boot accessory businesses that won Steve Harvey’s Top Inventor competition, and one of her designs was worn by Diana Ross while performing for President Obama.  Within the first year of business she got on over 50 media outlets and it blew up her business!  She became great at it that she then started PR For Anyone teaching people how to get publicity for themselves and their business.  She shares how you can do it yourself and gain confidence in the process, and what is needed to win in today's business game!  The best part for Christina is watching other people's success and how it has impacted their life and business!

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Sophia Maroon is the Founder and CEO of SoFine Food, LLC that produces Dress It Up Dressing located in Bethesda, Maryland!  She was born and raised in Washington, DC, went to college in the United Kingdom and spent four years studying in Scotland .  While working at the World Bank in Washington, DC she saw a film about a report they worked on and fell in love with film making which led to the next 20 years working in documentary film making.  Sophia shares how Dress It Up Dressing was born and has grown through word of mouth marketing.  She mentions how the first 6 years she made almost no money, it was no overnight success - it was a 20 year overnight success!  In 2014 with a loan she was able to grown exponentially and attend trade show to get the word out and grow beyond Whole Foods and other retailers.  She has a great partnership with the DC Public Schools serving her healthy salad dressing, they found that vegetable consumption went up when paired with her salad dressing!  Sophia shares the top 4 things every new entrepreneur needs to know and to always ask questions and for help if needed to your network or anyone you may know!  

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In this week's episode we have Martin Mayorga, Founder and CEO of Mayorga Organics with offices in Rockville, Maryland!  You cannot miss their yellow coffee bags with red lettering in Costco.  He was born in Guatemala and due to the massive earthquake ended up moving to Nicaragua which is where his father is from, he lived in Nicaragua for several years and fled because of the revolution to Costa Rica.  He was in Costa Rica for around a year, then went to Peru where his mother is from and came to the United States at 12 years old.  He shares about his childhood in Nicaragua and collecting bullet shells of AK-47's in the streets during the revolution.  We talk about our shared love for not only Latin America especially Nicaragua which is where I am from and it is really near and dear to my heart but also physical fitness and mental health.  Martin chats about the importance of defining your purpose since at the end of the day that will be your driving force!  He mentions how sometimes things happen for a reason and we all have certain gifts we need to find.  He shares that it is not all about the money but about the lasting impact you can make, and the bigger and more volume you can do the bigger impact you can have.  This episode is filled with so many learning nuggets, from his thoughts on raising investment capital for startups to his morning routine that has him way ahead of mostly everyone else.  We both go deeper into our childhood and adolescence and the influence its had on us, this is a must listen you cannot afford to miss!

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Debra Moser is the Owner and Founder of Central Farm Markets and President of MeatCrafters in Landover, Maryland!  Central Farm Markets was first started in a small parking lot with 17 vendors in Bethesda, Maryland and it now has three farm markets in Maryland and Virginia.  MeatCrafters is the top and only USDA charcuterie company in the DMV and Pennsylvania area.  Debra was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and came to the Washington, DC area at 9 months old.  We talked how she used to go out an draw the cows across the street in high school art class in Bethesda, MD before it was the city it is today.  She graduated from the University of Maryland with two degrees and has had a diverse career path that has helped her in many ways.  She mentions how the idea for both businesses came about, and how they have grown them.  Debra shares why you should not let anybody talk you out of opening your own business, especially if you are passionate about it!  She mentions how marketing is like art for her, and why she loves seeing businesses grow!  In her free time when she is not busy working on her two companies she is also a photographer, several of her photographs were recently in an exhibit in New York.  You do not want to miss this episode!

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In this week's episode we have Artin Safarian, CEO and President Arminco with headquarters in Sterling, Virginia!  They are the premier dental, medical, restaurant, and retail space construction build-out and full project management provider.  He is Armenian and was born in Iran, left Iran in 1st grade and first stayed in New Delhi, India for around two and half years before immigrating to the United States and arriving to the Los Angeles area.  He moved to the DMV area during high school and has been here ever since.  He always wanted to have his own business that right after graduating from George Mason University he started the general construction division of Arminco.  Artin believes in educating the client, and the more knowledge they have the better equipped they are to make the best informed decision.  So much so that they host seminars and CE (Continuing Education) classes for doctors, and have their own podcast Synergy Practices Dental Podcasts powered by Arminco.  He mentions about seeking to understand the other person by asking questions, observing, and putting yourself in their shoes.  They have grown their national dental build-out practice foot print averaging 40-50 practices annually and working on several West Coast projects although most of them are in the East Coast.  He mentions not having the fear of failure, don't be afraid and do it!

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Jordan Foley is the Founder and CEO of Chow in Annapolis, Maryland!  He was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Growing up he was into football and cooking with his grandma and his large Italian family.  He graduated at the top of his class at The United States Naval Academy and went to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) for a two year graduate program, and he recently graduated from Georgetown Law School in Washington, DC.  He started Chow almost 2 years ago because he did not find many programs that helped people deeply enough, and so he married the helping of veterans and military spouses with the love of cooking and Chow was born.  Jordan shares that for him it is all about the human interaction and helping people.  In his limited free time he is busy creating new recipes they can try at Chow.  He mentions how you should always trust your instincts, it is typically never wrong!

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In this week's episode we have George Dukas, CEO and Co-Founder of Send Smiles with headquarters in Chantilly, Virginia!  They provide on-demand, hand-delivered flowers that are farm direct and cold chain preserved with transparent pricing.  He was born and raised in Falls Church, Virginia, played basketball and golf in high school and college at George Washington University.  Always had an interest in business that he majored in business and marketing at GW.  Right after college graduation he immediately went full-time in the family business which was a flower shop located in Seven Corners Virginia and became the third-generation in the flower business.  The family flower business started with his grandfather when he came over from Greece to New York City and started selling flowers at 12 years old in the street corners of NYC.  Now him and his son Will Dukas are 50/50 partners of Send Smiles and Will became the fourth-generation in the flower business.  George goes into depth on all of the different marketing and advertising methods he has used starting from the 1990's until now, and where they are finding success in.  He shares the main difference between Send Smiles and the other national competitors.  Mentions the importance of a morning routine, working out, and getting the blood flowing!

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Text Me!  240-706-7584