The Fling

Tim Fitzpatrick is President of Rialto Marketing, a marketing agency based in Denver, Colorado, that’s hyper-focused on back-to-basics marketing. Rather than the spray-and-pray, experiment with every tactic out there method, Tim’s group narrows in on marketing fundamentals, laying strong foundations off of which their clients can build in the long run. With this narrow focus, Rialto eliminates distractions and helps businesses grow with less stress. Listen in on our conversation to hear what marketing wisdom Tim has acquired along the way. Enjoy! 

 Want a quick overview of our conversation? Visit: https://blog.thegistcontent.com/tim-f...

Emmily Bowman is the owner of Braid Babes, a one-of-a-kind hair braiding service based in Buffalo. You can book a Braid Babe braider to come to your house and braid you up for an event, or hire them for a braid party. In the first official episode of “The Fling” podcast, Emmily shares her journey from a quiet nine-to-five into entrepreneurship, with plenty of inspiring nuggets along the way for other aspiring entrepreneurs. If you feel the itch to make a change in your career but are not sure of your next move, this episode is for you. We talk about exploring your interests, networking, and the steps Emmily took toward venturing out on her own. 

For a quick overview of our conversation visit: https://blog.thegistcontent.com/emmily-bowman-and-accidental-startups-influencers-and-braids

Matt Vaadi is a social entrepreneur focused on alleviating homelessness in Columbia, SC and the surrounding areas. He accomplishes this mission by donating three percent of all revenue from his company, ERG Payroll & HR, to local charities focused on addressing this need. On top of all that, and being a best-selling author, Matt is a marketing nerd on the down-low and just a great guy.  

During my chat with Matt, we discussed what it really means to operate a mission-based organization, starting with goal setting and company policies. Both of us being newbie podcasters, we swapped lessons learned and success stories. Finally, we hit on a few foundational concepts of inbound marketing that make it an effective strategy for businesses. Enjoy!  

https://blog.thegistcontent.com/matt-vaadi-and-mission-based-organizations-podcasting-and-inbound-marketing

For almost two decades, Jason Pearl has been a high impact growth specialist leading businesses of all sizes to get the most out of their leaders and revenue-generating staff. Having worked with Jason for many years now, it's obvious to me that his unclouded focus in life is what has driven his success as an entrepreneur and sales coach. It is also what makes him so magnetic—a natural leader. In this episode he shared with me his approach to staying focused on what's most important. I also asked him for a bit of wisdom on being a dad, of which he has 13 years' experience, and his best advice for those of us powering through a pandemic in a sales capacity. He believes the secret lies in agility and quick action. Enjoy!

CJ sat down with Doug Levin. Doug is living his best life thanks to a successful private label business he built from the ground up. Even so, he never considered himself the entrepreneur type. He shared his interesting trajectory from musician to wholesaler to product development specialist in a matter of seven years in our conversation. Enjoy!

https://blog.thegistcontent.com/doug-levin-and-chicago-arbitrage-and-lifestyle-design

Casey Kelly runs Buffalo Design Studio and teaches design at the Rochester Institute of Technology. In this episode, I pick her brain on the leap from doing to teaching, her creative process, and the public art she creates. 

https://blog.thegistcontent.com/casey-kelly-and-career-leaps-graphic-design-and-public-art

Melissa Wilson is the VP of Customer Engagement at EZaccessMD, a mobile tele-health company based in Rochester, New York. EZaccessMD partners with employers to offer an innovative and revolutionary benefit to their employees and their families. Enrolled members can access healthcare remotely through telemedicine technology while also having healthcare providers come to them to conduct patient visits at their homes.  Melissa talked about how she's adjusting to life during a global pandemic professionally, while also being a working mom. We also discussed the importance of a solution like EZaccessMD can offer for people who need medical care but would prefer to steer clear from hospitals and other public places where they can risk infection. 

https://blog.thegistcontent.com/melissa-wilson-and-telemedicine-healthcare-and-working-parents

CJ sat down with Eric Fisher. Eric and CJ grew up together in Newtown, Connecticut and have known one another since about the fifth grade. Eric attended the University of Pennsylvania for Digital Media Design and moved to Silicon Valley to work at Microsoft, Google, Apple and Facebook. When he realized he wasn't happy in that career, Eric started moving around the country living in different places for only months at a time to experience life without being tethered to a specific place. Now Eric resides in Boulder, Colorado and his work is designed to help people find true consciousness and self-awareness. His work can be featured at HighExistence and TruePlace. 

HighExistence: https://highexistence.com/

TruePlace: https://trueplace.org/

Full episode: https://blog.thegistcontent.com/eric-fisher-and-consciousness-societal-expectations-and-silicon-valley

CJ sat down with Sean Lewis. Sean is the President of SLC Advisory Group in Buffalo, New York. Our conversation begin with Sean sharing all the places he's lived and how he ended up in Buffalo as a musician. Then we discussed how he eventually "grew up" and started running companies, including starting his own consulting firm. Our conversation centered around a LinkedIn article he published in mid-April about the value of apprenticeships and how employers and employees alike can use this opportunity to establish a new social contract that will deliver more productivity and freedom for all parties. Enjoy!

https://blog.thegistcontent.com/sean-lewis-and-buffalo-apprenticeships-and-entrepreneurship

CJ sat down with Emily Hart. Emily is the Director of Business Development at Seating, Inc., a chair manufacturing company headquartered in Nunda, New York. Emily brings great energy and a lot of passion about business, local manufacturing and horseback riding. We covered a variety of topics including the importance of a good "presentation" during remote video meetings. And we speculated about how the traditional office or workplace might change even after the acute effects of the current pandemic subside. This was a really fun, engaging conversation and we hope to do it again. Enjoy!

https://blog.thegistcontent.com/emily-hart-and-remote-work-local-manufacturing-and-riding-horses