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Curated Collection Of The Best Interviews From Our Sandy Springs Studio





TAG 2011 Spirit Of Endeavor Finalists: Vizitech USA’s Stewart Rodeheaver, And Cardlytics’ Rod Witmond

Today we interviewed TAG 2011 Spirit Of Endeavor Finalists: Vizitech USA’s Stewart Rodeheaver, And Cardlytics’ Rod Witmond . . .

The core focus of Vizitech USA’s technology is in training/education, but also provides for several key applications for operational needs.  By experiencing subject matter in an enhanced 3D environment, trainees and operators will absorb information faster, increase their comprehension, and retain matter more effectively, thereby reducing class time and cost, and reducing operational “lag” time.

Products can be tailored and produced to address specific needs, and can be delivered either by a platform instructor and 3D image combination, by recored 3D “stand alone” lessons, or as distance learning through remote, interactive 3D holo-conferencing.

 

Cardlytics is the leading platform enabling advertising offers inside bank accounts. On behalf of advertisers, banks run offers in consumers’ transaction statements targeted against actual card purchases. Click:  Customers see offers in their online or mobile bank accounts and click to ‘activate them’ or ‘turn them on’Shop:  Customers shop (in-store or online) using the debit, credit or prepaid card associated with the account at participating retailers, restaurants, and service providers Enjoy:  Rewards are earned automatically and credited through the bank rewards program.

 

 

 

 

Guest Host Vistage Chair Tim Fulton Interviews Georgia SBDC Director Bernie Meineke

The Georgia SBDC Network is a great resource for growing businesses. Funded by the SBA and the University System in Georgia, the SBDC offers a wide range of services to small businesses.

Director Bernie Meineke held management positions in insurance, retail, and wholesale businesses prior to joining The Georgia SBDC Network in 1993. In seven years as vice president and general manager of a start-up wholesale distribution company, he led efforts in finance, marketing, and operations for this rapidly growing business.
 
 His specialties include financial forecasting, cash flow management, loan packaging, and creative financing. He also serves at the Director of FastTrac and GrowSmart, programs targeting established, growing small businesses.

Mr. Meineke is a past winner of the Georgia SBDC Network’s Consultant of the Year award for excellence in business consulting. Under his direction, the Georgia State University SBDC was recognized as one of America’s Ten Most Helpful SBDCs in an article published by Inc.com.

   
 
 

 

Pat And Jackie Coan: ACTION COACH, Plus ACOPIA Home Loans’ Joe Jarrett And Barbie Brown

Pat & Jackie Coan are Action Coach Master Licensees.

Entrepreneurship through business ownership is still the American pride. Small businesses according to the SBA: (1) represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms, (2) employ half of all private sector employees, (3) pay 44 percent of total U.S. private payroll and (4) have generated 65 percent of net new jobs over the past 17 years.

What is disturbing is the number of new businesses that remain past the 2, the 5, and the 10 years mark.  Our goal is to provide entrepreneurial education upfront, before you launch into a business — to help the future entrepreneur understand what it means to own and run a business, what types of businesses there are to start, the options available, and how can you plan to build a business that will defy the statistical SBA odds.

 

Acopia Home Loans’ Joe Jarrett has been in the mortgage business since 1993 and has worked for companies such as Citigroup, Lehman Brothers and other community banks. Joe has personally closed over 2000 loans with people from all walks of life. He is very familiar with all of the FHA, VA, Conventional and Portfolio Programs out in the marketplace.

“I know the mortgage process can be confusing. I pride myself in making sure my customers understand their choices and get the best value. Clear communication is my top priority and I want my clients to feel comfortable and confident during the entire process.” — Joe Jarrett

Barbie Brown is Marketing and Recruiting Manager for Acopia.  In addition to sourcing and developing the best Mortgage talent in the business,  she somehow finds the time and energy to help coordinate and execute many of Acopia’s Community Outreach efforts — including the “Toys For Tots” program.

Brian Mattingly: Welcomemat Services, Walt Hensley: DublDeals, And Rico Pena: 2012 Stay In The Game Summit

Brian Mattingly currently serves as the CEO of Welcomemat Services. Prior to founding Welcomemat Services, Mattingly worked in business development for two prominentmulti-national software companies. Through his work in enterprise software, Mattinglysaw the potential to create a platform and a local marketing solution that would help localsmall business owners implement better strategies to attract new, loyal customers.

Welcomemat Services began franchising for national expansion in late 2010 in an effortto help local entrepreneurs. He also recently added two additional patented technologypieces to Welcomemat’s local marketing solution. Brian serves as an expert resource andspeaker on a variety of topics, including newcomer trends and effective marketing forbusinesses and was also an Ernst and Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” nominee. Brian received a B.A. from Georgia State University and has completed post-graduatecoursework at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

 

Dubldeals.com was created to help worthwhile causes and your pocketbook. Your local businesses sponsoring offers on this site wants to be a part of the solution.  Together we accomplish that by helping consumers save money first, then enable them to direct a generous donation to the cause(s) you select that comes from coupon sales.

Historically Americans consumers have been the most generous people in the world. Now participating buyers have the ability to make their spending and entertainment dollars do “double duty.”  Through “dubldeals” and the support of our generous sponsor/advertisers consumers can enjoy themselves by utilizing daily savings opportunities knowing that they are helping others.

DublDeals is a Major Sponsor for the January 2012 Stay In The Game Summit and is proud to support The Wounded Warrior Project. For More Information contact Rico Pena:  770-626-8080   rico@ricopena.com

 

ASTD Employee Learning Week Special: Featuring Greater Atlanta ASTD President Mark Myette, Zaxby’s Richard Fletcher, And Auto Trader’s David Gates Plus A Conversation With Restaurant And Franchising Veteran Seth Salzman With Sinclair Consulting

Employee Learning Week is an awareness campaign highlighting the important connection between learning and achieving organizational results.

The Greater Atlanta Chapter of ASTD is the premier community for Georgia workplace learning and performance improvement professionals, with our professional development, service and leadership recognized throughout the profession.

Seth Salzman is a restaurant and franchise industry veteran with experience creating and growing brands. Seth hasstarted a consulting firm to provide assistance to restaurants, from single unit operators up to chains. Healso works with franchise companies that operate in other industries outside of foodservice.

 

Zumbox CEO John Payne Discusses Digital Postal Mail Technology: How It Works, And How Atlanta Utility Companies Cobb EMC and Gas South Will Leverage The Technology To Cut Mailing Costs And Improve Customer Communications.

John Payne serves as the CEO of Zumbox. The company provides the world’s first platform for digital postal systems –connecting large transactional, financial and government mailers to consumer households for the delivery and storage ofdigital postal mail via the Internet.

Payne is an experienced technology industry CEO with a track record in the mailing industry, consumer and small businessInternet services, enterprise software, network and application security, Software as a Service and wireless.

He is the former Chairman and CEO of Stamps.com (NASDAQ: STMP), a profitable pioneering “software-as-a-service” providerthat leads the market for postage delivered over the Internet from the US Postal Service. While at Stamps, he lead thedevelopment of the company’s operating business and the company’s $65 million IPO and a $365 million secondary offeringco-managed by Goldman Sachs and Salomon Smith Barney.

For More Information:

http://www.zumbox.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/johnpayne

Geoff Gillon: The Pink Plumber, Stan Friedman: FranConnect, Bernadette Boas: Shedding The Corporate Bitch, CPA: Cathy Iconis, Plus . . . Afternoon In The Country with Atlanta Les Dames d’Escoffier International’s Mary Moore, Barbara Petit, and Sue Anne Morgan

Throughout the month, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we see many companies jump on the “pink bandwagon” simply for the month of October. Yet, about a year ago, one company in particular, The Pink Plumber, decided to change its entire corporate structure and devote its energyand financial resources to the cause. It’s now ingrained in the company and all of its employees, including many who have loved ones also affected by breast cancer to support this important cause.

Owner Geoff Gillon has a reason to be passionate about breast cancer research. He had a very personal experience with the disease, as his mother was diagnosed several years ago and is now a survivor. He helped her through tough times as she battled the disease and shared his story with his employees. As he sought to find meaning in the ordeal, he had an idea: to use his company to make a difference, and do what he could to raise awareness of the cause. As a result, last year, Aames Plumbing morphed into “the Pink Plumber.” Gillon painted his fleet of 40 trucks pink and completely re-branded the company. He sat each employee down and shared with them his mission. And he started giving back.

Gillon gives back 5% of his net profits year-round — and has done so since the company morphed philanthropically in March of 2010. The Pink Plumber has already donated $20,000 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation this year alone. And this month, he will raise the percentage donated to 10% and focus on helping provide mammograms for under or uninsured women.

 

A twenty plus year veteran of franchising, Stan Friedman is an “outside the box” thinker. In 1998, while directing global development for Blimpie International, he created an Urban Expansion initiative that was heralded by the media, as well as leaders of both the public and private sectors. This culminated in an invitation to the White House, where he participated in the President’s “Conference for Community Empowerment.”

Stan is a member of the board of the Southeast Franchise Forum and serves the International Franchise Association, (IFA) as First Vice-Chair of its Diversity Institute. He is a frequent speaker at business development conferences nationwide, contributes regularly to the IFA’s Franchising World Magazine and posts regularly to the blog at www.franconnect.com. StanFriedman is also the proud recipient of the IFA’s 2010 Ronald E. Harrison Diversity Award.

Specialties: Franchise development, franchise relations, marketing and public relations. Stan’s specialty is maximizing the valueproposition of franchising, for all parties concerned.

For More Information: www.stanfriedman.info

 

Shedding the Corporate Bitch is a personal story of author, Bernadette Boas, that details hertransformation from sassy young girl, into a greedy, power driven, and ego led corporate woman. Itwasn’t until she shed or let go of all of the angst, attitude and negative mindset, was she able to findhappiness and riches in her life!

Bernadette will be a Featured Speaker at Pena Global’s “Stay In The Game” Business SummitJanuary 14, 2012

 

The elite Afternoon in the Country event is in its 11 year as a much-anticipated fall food and wine tasting fundraiser.It includes inspired tastings by 85 of the area’s renowned culinary artists, paired with local farmers, and joined by top winemakers and brewers under festive big-top tents with live music, the famous cake raffle, huge silent auction and children’s activities. Proceeds benefit Georgia Organics and the scholarship fund for women in the culinary, beverage and hospitality arts. The event is hosted by Atlanta Les Dames d’Escoffier International, is held at Serenbe and is produced by ideaLand.

See http://www.cookswarehouse.com/about_us for more information on Mary S. Moore.

See http://ldeiatlanta.org for more information on Atlanta Les Dames d’Escoffier International

See http://georgiaorganics.org for more info on Georgia Organics

See http://idealand.com for more info on ideaLand

 

 

Author Pat Huddleston Talks About His New Release: The Vigilant Investor, Dynasis President David Moorman Explains The Cloud, And User Insight’s Eric Holtzclaw Helps Us Understand Social TV

Investors today face a perfect storm that threatens to make them forget Bernie Madoff. Demographic shifts. Underfunded pension plans. Inevitably less generous social security. A sour economy. Hamstrung regulators.

They all add up to an environment in which investment fraud is flourishing. As much as we like to think otherwise, we aren’t born with the skills necessary to survive an encounter with a reckless stockbroker or a cleverly-disguised fraud.

There are things at play in our brains behind the curtain of our conscious thought that make us pre-wired to fall for a financial fraud. There are cognitive biases and perceptual limitations that make us all vulnerable. Traditional due diligence methods have not yet factored those things into a pre-investment investigation.

Former SEC Enforcement Branch Chief Pat Huddleston has written a new book, The Vigilant Investor, which tells us how to recognize our limitations and account for them in a way that allows us to protect ourselves and those we love from the predators who crowd the investing landscape. Professor Burton Malkiel (Princeton University), author of the best selling A Random Walk Down Wall Street calls Pat “The investor’s perfect teacher.”

Pat Huddleston joined the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 1990 as an Enforcement Attorney. Less than two years later, he accepted a promotion to Enforcement Branch Chief, leading a team of Enforcement Attorneys in nationwide investigations of cases involving suspected insider trading, brokerage firm misconduct, and scams of every stripe.

Since returning to private law practice he has represented investors in securities litigation and arbitration. He currently serves as court-appointed receiver in SEC fraud cases, cleaning up the mess left in the wake of the collapse of those scams and working to recover assets for defrauded investors. In 2006, Pat founded Investor’s Watchdog, LLC, a due diligence company that conducts pre-investment investigations on brokers, RIAs, and unregistered investments.

Investor’s Watchdog has conducted investigations for clients all over the world and helped save millions in retirement savings that otherwise would have been lost to cleverly disguised frauds. Pat has appeared as an expert guest on television, most recently on Fox Business News and on Chicago’s Monsters and Money. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, and Wired magazine, among other publications. He blogs on investment scams and investor protection issues every weekday at investorswatchdog.com. You can follow him onTwitter where his handle is scamdemic.

 

David J. Moorman is Founder and President of DynaSis. David holds executive responsibility for the company’s strategic development as well as its overall operations.

Since creating DynaSis, David has successfully implemented complete financial systems for several of the company’s clients, including Outback Steakhouse International and Heavenly Ham. He is also credited with implementing network systems for the Scientific Games Corporation (the leading supplier of instant tickets, systems and services to lotteries), as well as designing and implementing technology for over 300 businesses in their last 20 years.

 

In January of this year, User Insight embarked upon a year long research project to study how people consume TV and related content.

The project, titled “The Social TV Experiment,” is focused on understanding behaviors exhibited in consumers’ homes and how the social TV revolution is impacting how people watch, interact and consume TV and advertising content. On October 20th, User Insight’s Social TV Event will unveil these findings at a virtual conference that will feature industry experts from television, social media and advertising. www.socialtvevent.com

As CEO, Eric Holtzclaw identifies strategic service offerings and oversees operational excellence and innovation across User Insight’s business. Eric’s 20+ years of experience include work for a variety of successful startup companies including GeoMedica, Information America, OneCoast and CyberSource. Eric has been responsible for the successful implementation of more than 30 consumer oriented and internal use products and services throughout the UnitedStates, Canada, Europe and Saudi Arabia. Follow Eric on Twitter at @eholtzclaw – linked-in profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/eric-holtzclaw/1/146/36

Russ Belin With Fifth Third Broadway Atlanta Talks About 2011-2012 Season, Renegade Concept’s Andy Lowe Describes Non-Linear Thinking And Pay For Performance Business Development

Russ Belin brings more than 14 years of entertainment, marketing and management experience to his position.

In his new role, Belin will be responsible for elevating the Broadway Across America name in the market. He will handle marketing and corporate partnerships, venue relations, oversee public relations initiatives and manage financials for the brand. He hopes to further establish Broadway Across America as a premier presenter of touring Broadway productions in Atlanta, attracting theater goers across the metro area and the Southeast.

Prior to joining Broadway Across America, Belin served Feld Entertainment in various roles for more than a decade, most recently as Regional Vice President of the Southeast. During this time, he managed local managers in marketing and corporate partnership development, serving a number of markets from Georgia to Maryland. He also previously worked as a Tour Business Manager with Feld.

A Maryland native, Belin earned a bachelor’s degree from Towson University in Baltimore. He resides in Norcross with his wife and two-year-old son.

Click Here For More Information . . .

 

 

High Velocity Radio Interviews Tri-Athlete and Business Growth Specialist Andy Lowe: “Breaking the Rules of Conventional Thinking”

The concepts of discipline, commitment and consistency are not only keys to an accomplished tri-athlete, but the driving forces of all successful businesses.  Andy Lowe founded Renegade Concepts with the single mission of increasing revenues for his clients.  After 20 years of increasing sales and revenues throughout multiple industries, Andy shares his insights on today’s marketplace and how the mindset and mental game needed for endurance sports fuels business success as well.

Andy Lowe has over 20 years of increasing sales and revenues throughout multiple industries.  He is a successful Entrepreneur, International Business Consultant, Sales Trainer and Corporate Speaker and has worked with 1,000’s of executives and sales professionals all over the world;  teaching, educating, and showing them how to increase their revenues.  Andy has empowered people to achieve peak performance in business, teams, sales and relationships to maximize their potential, grow their bottom lines, and experience unparalleled growth.  He will be a participant in IronMan Florida in November and is an accomplished cyclist, runner and enjoys helping businesses increase their revenues.

 

Contact Us

Renegade Concepts, LLC

11539 Park Woods Place
Suite 702
Alpharetta, GA 30005

(404) 909-1454
alowe@renegadeconcepts.com

 

 

High Velocity Radio Interviews PRSA President Karla Harvill and Board Member Stephen Brown

Public relations practitioners Karla Harvill, APR, and Stephen Brown, APR, shared their unique insights and stories about why PRSA Georgia has been integral to their roles as PR professionals.

The Georgia Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA|GA) is the second largest chapter of public relations professionals in the United States with approximately 850 members. It is an organization dedicated to developing and enriching the professional lives of Georgia’s public relations practitioners.

Karla G. Harvill is Director of Internal Communications for WellStar Health System in Marietta, Georgia. She is responsible for communicating with the System’s more than 11,500 employees. Prior to joining WellStar, she spent more than 20 years in corporate communications with Gold Kist and Pilgrim’s Pride, some of the nation’s largest chicken companies.

In addition to her duties at WellStar, Karla is currently President of the Georgia Chapter of PRSA, the nation’s second largest chapter. She is also a member of the adjunct faculty at Kennesaw State University where she teaches communications courses and is professional advisor to the KSU PRSSA Chapter.

A native of East Tennessee, Karla has a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Tennessee and a MBA in marketing from Kennesaw State University. She also has her APR accreditation from the Public Relations Society of America.

 

In his role as Managing Director for the Atlanta office of Cohn & Wolfe, Stephen Brown manages dynamic account teams in the retail and real estate sectors and provides creative new approaches to reaching and impacting influencers.

Stephen’s 16-year agency career includes work within advertising, public relations, marketing and interactive agencies on primarily consumer accounts. He spent the past five years managing public relations for McDonald’s in the state of Georgia and has been instrumental to crisis communications and public affairs work, new-product introductions and franchisee communications.

He spearheaded regional launches of the fast food restaurant’s first Twitter feed, Southern Style Chicken Biscuit, Angus Burgers, Fruit and Maple Oatmeal, Real-Fruit Smoothies and the McCafé coffee line. For the latter, he developed a creative program called Perfect Pairings in which culinary students paired McDonald’s food with the new lattes, cappuccinos and mochas. For Coca-Cola, Stephen has helped launch the new Freestyle touch-screen fountain dispenser in a variety of QSR locations.

Stephen’s other notable consumer accounts include Carter’s/OshKosh, Best Buy, The Home Depot, InterfaceFLOR and Porsche North America. Prior to his agency career, he was a feature news writer for Gwinnett Newspaper publications, Creative Loafing and Pre-Vue Magazine.

Stephen has been profiled in PR Week, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Marketing News, and was named one of“15 to watch” by PR News. He has led teams to more than 12 national awards.