The Honoree Corder Show

Anna-Vija McCloud built Piccolo Solutions out of a spare bedroom and one email to 350 people, and grew it to within fifty thousand dollars of a million-dollar year. Then the next year she had to lay off her entire team on her fortieth birthday — and the year after that posted the highest net income she had ever had. On the drum beat of scale, trusting your gut, and why the calendar date with her best friend is not weird.

Anna-Vija McCloud is an expert in small business efficiency and growth. She is the Founder and CEO of Piccolo Solutions, a development firm that provides businesses with numerous ways to scale, from marketing services to workflow solutions, now in its twelfth year. Anna-Vija is active in the Nashville community through numerous charities, boards, and volunteer efforts, including serving as past President of the Nashville Emerging Leader Board. A longtime mentor with SCORE Nashville, she was selected as host of the SCORE Connect television show on News Channel 5+. She has been named to the Nashville Business Journal’s 40 Under 40, Most Admired CEOs, and Best in Business lists, was selected for the 2022 Forbes Top 1000 list, and was most recently named the Nashville Business Journal’s 2024 Woman of Influence, its 2025 Nashpreneur of the Year, and one of Nashville’s Titan 100 top CEOs.

“Stop waiting for other people to make you happy. You make your own happiness.” — Anna-Vija McCloud

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Melissa R. Collings spent years in the operating room taking down one side of a spine while the surgeon took down the other — and her favorite part of the job was sewing the tattoos back together, because that part was art. She read the statistics on getting published and had exactly the wrong reaction. On rejection, waiting, and the book she was told to put away that sold in a week.

Melissa R. Collings is an award-winning author and former spine surgery physician associate. She writes humorous, diverse romance and women’s fiction, as well as probing psychological thrillers. When she’s not writing or plotting, you can find her engaging in deep philosophical conversations with her husband and kids in Nashville, studying preventative health, or losing time in a painting. Her imagination never fails to get her into trouble, and she lives by the philosophy: nothing is impossible, and everything is better with glitter — except surgical wounds.

“Some people think I’m just not even gonna try. And other people say, well, someone’s gotta be chosen — why not me? That’s who I am.” — Melissa R. Collings

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Cliff Jones started a temporary landscape company in the 2008 recession and is still running it seventeen years later. He has also been through three brain cancer diagnoses in fourteen years while building it. His word for his life right now is thankful. On the migraine that would not quit, what he had to give up control of, and why he now blocks time on the calendar to sleep in.

Cliff Jones is the founder of Landscape Solutions, a landscape design-build firm focused on thoughtful landscapes, craftsmanship, and lasting relationships. Guided by faith, family, and the Golden Rule, Cliff leads with resilience, humility, and a passion for creating meaningful outdoor spaces.

“You have to react to the moment you’re in. It’s okay to be sick. It’s not that you’re down — it’s that you’re not a hundred percent.” — Cliff Jones

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Jim Daneker is an award-winning and Billboard-charting composer, producer, and musical director. In addition to twenty-seven years as Musical Director, Keyboardist, and Producer for CCM icon Michael W. Smith, Jim has enjoyed a diverse musical career. He has produced several #1 albums, written music for film and television, and created a popular virtual instrument series called Backstage Pass in 2019. After two decades of serving other artists, Jim fulfilled his dream of scoring a cinematic instrumental album, Ad Alta (2017) — a project that fused soaring melodies reminiscent of classic film scores with creative synth textures, ethnic instruments, massive percussion, and lush orchestration supported by top musicians from around the world. In 2018 he produced another Billboard #1 album, this time for quadruple #1 artist Paul Cardall: an album that had the distinction of debuting on nine charts simultaneously and won a Dove Award for Instrumental Album of the Year. In February 2023 Jim retired from touring to launch his life dream project, Arcade Orchestra, which reimagines the biggest hits of the ’80s with iconic guest artists, live orchestra, and a spectacular live production. Arcade Orchestra is on track to open as a major long-term residency in one of Las Vegas’ biggest venues in Q1 2027.

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Justin Zebell is a founder, creator, and lifelong learner who has spent more than twenty-eight years at the intersection of business, creativity, and human experience. A natural entrepreneur, he has built multiple companies and led teams that have helped some of the world’s leading brands tell their stories through unforgettable moments. Through the highs of success and the lows of failure, Justin has discovered that the real lessons live in the hard seasons — that failure, more than success, shapes who we become. Today he channels those lessons into new business ventures of his own, helping others build lives and companies rooted in purpose, resilience, and forward motion. Whether leading companies, writing, or speaking, Justin is driven by one core belief: progress happens one intentional day at a time. No Zero Days. Above all, he is a proud father of four daughters, whose laughter, curiosity, and courage inspire the legacy he hopes to leave behind.

"Fault and blame have a way of always looking back. When you take responsibility, you are looking forward." — Justin Zebell

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Joel Robare grew up the youngest of seventeen children in the farm fields of Illinois, in a house where the loudest thing was the drama. Thirty years later he has scaled luxury brands across North America and has four letters tattooed on his wrist that tell him what to do with his one life. On the $50,000 that walked out the door with his name still on it, the plan he could not see, and why the subway is where he does his hardest thinking.

Joel Robare is a growth executive and design-industry leader with more than twenty years scaling luxury brands, architecture practices, and premium product businesses across North America. He is based in New York.

Grayson Garvin was a first-round MLB draft pick out of Vanderbilt who spent seven seasons with Tampa and three of them under a surgeon’s knife. When his body ended the career his identity was built on, it took the better part of a decade to work out who he was without it. Today he is a Certified Financial Planner who has helped steward more than half a billion dollars — and he says the recipe for success is simple, just not easy. On attitude, effort, and what being rich actually means.

Grayson Garvin, CFP®, is the Founder and Principal of Arrow Alliance, a Nashville-based financial advisory firm, and the host of The Pursuit Podcast. A former first-round MLB draft pick out of Vanderbilt, he is a Certified Financial Planner who has helped steward more than half a billion dollars.

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Jeff Goins is a bestselling author of five books including the national bestsellers Real Artists Don't Starve and The Art of Work. As the founder of Bestow Literary Group, he is a prolific book collaborator and ghostwriter of more than thirty titles, including Gen. Stanley McChrystal's recent New York Times bestseller On Character and Pat Flynn's Lean Learning. He also runs a bestselling Substack newsletter on creativity and transformation called The Ghost. Jeff lives just outside of Nashville with his wife Chantel — where you can usually find him sitting on his front porch or cooking a five-course dinner for their family of six.

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