LoudounPossible Pod

On this episode of the Pod, we will hear from one of Loudoun's top employers, Verizon Business. In this edition, we'll get into cybersecurity with Verizon's John Loveland.   John leads cyber security strategy and marketing for the Verizon Business Group, one of the world's largest providers of managed security solutions and professional services to global companies and governmental institutions. John is a seasoned technology industry executive and entrepreneur with 20+ years' experience in leadership positions with public, private and start-up companies. He specializes in building and leading global teams, developing and executing go-to-market strategies, and driving revenue through direct sales and channel partnerships. A pioneer in the information risk management disciplines, John has founded companies and built practices in the areas of data breach response, cyber risk, electronic discovery, regulatory compliance, and data privacy. He is a published author and frequent speaker and has testified as an expert in Federal and State courts in the US.

In this episode of the Pod, we will hear from one of Loudoun's top employers, Verizon Business. This episode will focus on continuity of business with Alex Doyle.  Alex is responsible for Verizon’s Business Communications products, including Unified Communications, Collaboration, Call Centers, and One Talk, Verizon’s award-winning mobile-first business communications solution. The products and solutions delivered by Alex and his team support Verizon’s Global Enterprise customers, Business Markets customers, and Public Sector customers around the world. Alex has over 20 years of product management, marketing, and engineering experience in Unified Communications, VoIP, and video solutions. Prior to Verizon, he was a member of the founding team at BroadSoft (acquired by Cisco), Director of Service Provider Solutions at Polycom, and VP Marketing at cloud video conferencing provider Vidtel. Alex began his career at Nortel, where he was responsible for product development for Nortel's mobile switching system solutions. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a MBA from Johns Hopkins University. 

On this episode of the Pod, part 2 of our conversation with Tom Corley. Tom is the author of the Rich Habits and several other best-selling/award-winning books.  His new book is called Effort-Less Wealth: Smart Money Habits at Every Stage of Your Life.  His books and his research are known to almost 100 million people in 27 countries around the world.  In addition to writing books, Tom travels the world speaking to thousands at a time. He is a CPA, CFP and runs a financial services firm in New Jersey. In this episode, we talk more about Rich Habits, Continual Growth, Planning for the future and the importance of teaching children about saving. You can follow Tom at RichHabits.net. 

On this episode of the Pod, part 1 of our conversation with financial guru Tom Corley. Tom is the author of the Rich Habits and several other best-selling/award-winning books.  His new book is called Effort-Less Wealth: Smart Money Habits at Every Stage of Your Life.  His books and his research are known to almost 100 million people in 27 countries around the world.  In addition to writing books, Tom travels the world speaking to thousands at a time. He is a CPA, CFP and runs a financial services firm in New Jersey. In this episode, we focus on COVID 19, how businesses and individuals can deal with the disruption, the PPP program, and we get into some interesting discussion on the impact of your health on your wealth.  You can follow Tom at RichHabits.net. 

In this episode, we're bringing you the some highlights from Loudoun County, Virginia Supervisor Caleb Kershner and Supervisor Tony Buffington's Rural Teleconferece held on Tuesday night. There was a lot of really good information from the Supervisors and other guests, including myself, Beth Erickson of Visit Loudoun, Eric Byrd from the Loudoun SBDC, BCT, Alice Frazier, CEO of BCT, The Community Bank, Pete Snyder of Disruptor Capital and the man behind the 30 day fund, and Ryan Lambert with the Small Business Administration.   Rural businesses play an important role in Loudoun County, and like all businesses, the businesses in Western Loudoun have been impacted by COVID-19. This pod talks about the Loudoun Business Interruption Fund, working with the EIDL and PPP programs on the federal level, and other resources that have been established. 

On this episode, we talk with Tammy Bjelland of Workplaceless. These days, so many of us are remote workers, and Tammy is a recognized expert in the subject. It's a fascinating discussion full of great ideas for working during the pandemic.  Tammy started her professional career in academia. In 2011, she began working remotely in edtech, and became interested in the techniques and methods necessary for individuals to not only learn new skills, but to do so remotely. She has put her experience with learning and development, education, and edtech to work helping people achieve location-independent growth ever since. Find out more at workplaceless.com

On this episode of the pod, we talk with Loudoun Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis Randall and Russell Seymour, the economic development director from the Town of Leesburg.  Chair Randall talks about how the county is dealing with COVID-19 and the new Business Interruption Fund that the Board passed last week. The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved $1.15 million in grant funding for the  COVID-19 Business Interruption Fund to support Loudoun businesses impacted by the coronavirus  outbreak. On Thursday of last week, the Economic Development Authority added another 250 thousand dollars to the fund.   Mr. Seymour discusses the initiatives in Leesburg that the Town Council has approved to assist businesses and talks about how he and his team have worked to assist companies during this pandemic.

Today on the pod, we'll be talking about Take Loudoun Home, an initiative to support businesses with Beth Erickson, President and CEO of Visit Loudoun and Tony Howard, President and CEO of the Loudoun Chamber. Take Loudoun Home is a call to action—a rallying cry for our community and visitors to support local businesses. Buying local products and utilizing local services is always a priority, but now it is even more important. With the unprecedented business interruption caused by the coronavirus, these businesses need you more than ever in order to recover.  Then we will talk with Loudoun Economic Development's Chris Blosser about the Loudoun Made, Loudoun Grown Marketplace. Loudoun County’s farm-to-consumer experience has gone digital with the launch of an e-commerce platform that offers a one-stop-shop for consumers to support local farms. It is being provided free to participants of the Loudoun Made, Loudoun Grown program. Get more details at TakeLoudounHome.com.  

On this episode of the Pod, we talk with Maria Madigan from IT Cadre. We'll get into their business, their community service, how they're continuing to connect while teleworking and Capitals, Wizards and Redskins. IT Cadre is a great company, Mark Madigan founded in 2001 with the belief that holistic understanding of organizations, operations and systems is much more important than its individual parts. The company is known for Innovation and Transformation and has developed and successfully implemented IT Cadre’s Visualization Engineering®, Transformation Support, and Integration and Implementation methodologies. We've used their services across the county and in our department to help us make data driven economic development decisions.   Maria Madigan is the Vice President of Marketing and Community Relations at IT Cadre. Maria is responsible for overseeing marketing as well as developing and implementing IT Cadre’s community outreach program. As a founding member of IT Cadre, Maria was responsible for creating IT Cadre’s marketing programs and setting up the internal business operation functions. Maria has a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Communications with a minor in Fine Art from the College of New Rochelle and Iona College in a cooperative program. 

On this episode of the Pod, we talk with Mayor Bridge Littleton of Middleburg, VA. Like all communities, Middleburg has been financially impacted by the Coronavirus. But, the Mayor and Council have been proactive in coming up with programs to help.  Bridge Littleton is the President and Co-Founder of Hellen Systems, a technology development company focused on the development and deployment of enhanced LORAN (eLORAN) as a resilient back up system to the Global Positioning System (GPS) being executed through a Public Private Partnership with the US Government. Mayor Littleton received his BS in History and Political Science at Radford University and his Juris Doctor from the University of Richmond School of Law. He is also a certified Value Based Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. Mr. Littleton currently serves as the Mayor of the Town of Middleburg Virginia, having previously served as a member of the Middleburg Town Council and a Planning Commissioner.  

Today, we have a special edition of the pod with Pete Snyder.  Pete Snyder is the man behind the VA 30 Day Fund, which is currently open to Virginia Small  Businesses. The Fund’s goal is to help save as many Virginia jobs as possible while small  businesses await recently approved federal funding. Virginia businesses that qualify for assistance  from the Fund are: * Small businesses that employ three to 30 people; * Based in Virginia and have been operating for at least one year; * Owned and operated by a Virginia resident. More specific information and the link is on our website at biz.loudoun.gov/covid19.  

We spoke with Mary Ellen Taylor, President and general manager of Endless Summer Harvest. Mary Ellen is a retail executive  with over twenty years of staff leadership and client counseling. Mary Ellen has served as the  President of the Loudoun County chapter of Business Network International, is a former chair of the Loudoun County Rural Economic Development Council. Mary Ellen has also served as the president of the Loudoun Valley Home Grown  Market Association. She has pivoted her business during the pandemic and is thriving.

We spoike with Justin Li of Qore Performance. During the global ebola outbreak, Qore Performance created garments, such as underwear and arm bands, designed to hold cold thermal packs in place on those pulse points without compromising a person's  range of motion. The cooling systems allowed first responders to spend twice as long in the suits  before suffering from heat-related issues, and this will likely be an issue in combating coronavirus as well. We talked to Justin about that and more.

We spoke with Scott Harris from Catoctin Creek Distillery.  Scott, Becky and team have jumped in the fight against the coronavirus by producing hand sanitizer at the facility in Purcellville. Scott founded Catoctin Creek with his wife Becky in 2009 as the first legal distillery in Loudoun since prohibition.  They source their grain from local sources, free of pesticides and chemical additives. The results are the finest, cleanest spirits possible, with the greatest attention to detail in every single bottle they produce. 

If you own a business or have been impacted financially by COVID-19, this is an episode that you'll want to listen to carefully. I'm happy to talk to two of my favorite Loudouners...Alice Frazier from BCT, the Communities Bank and Chauvon McFadden from Crimson Wealth Strategies. Alice is President and  CEO of Potomac Bancshares, Inc. and BCT, The  Community’s Bank. Chauvon is the Principal of Crimson Wealth Strategies. If you benefit from this episode, please call another business owner, in Loudoun or not, and tell them to listen because these two great people dropped some serious knowledge and inspiration today. 

We welcome Loudoun's Workforce Development Analyst Nancy Evanko to talk about the debut of a Loudoun job board. We also speak with Molly Kroiz of Georges Mill Farm. Georges Mill has consistently been one of the most innovative Loudoun farming operations,  embracing traditional agriculture, value-add products, in-person events, baby goat cuddling, bed and  breakfast, farmers markets, collaboration with other farms, and an on-site farm store that’s based on  the honor system. Many of those outlets for money are being threatened by the virus, but they’re  exploring ways to innovate.  Molly has details and insight into the challenges faced by our rural businesses during the pandemic. 

We spoke with Dr. Crystal Icenhour of Aperiomics. Aperiomics is a Loudoun-based company that has made great strides forwarding diagnosis tools in the identification of parasites. Over the past few weeks, they have shifted operations to creating covid-19 tests. Dr. Crystal Icenhour is one of the rising stars of American biotechnology. After more than 25 years in medical research and biotech, she was named founding CEO of Aperiomics, a company that harnesses the power of next-generation DNA sequencing to identify any known pathogen (bacteria, virus, fungi or parasite). Aperiomics is the only company of its kind and scope in the world. Throughout Dr. Icenhour’s career, she has demonstrated strong leadership in business and science and has dedicated herself to “bridging the translational gap between these two worlds.”

An interview with United States Senator Mark Warner. From 2002 to 2006, Senator Warner served as Governor of Virginia. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2008 and reelected to a second term in November 2014. He has been a champion for business and technology throughout his time as Governor and as Senator.  He's currently the Vice Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Co-Chair of the Senate Cyber Security Caucus, and has been a leader on legislation to support and encourage innovation. nterview with United States Senator Mark Warner. From 2002 to 2006, Senator Warner served as Governor of Virginia. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2008 and reelected to a second term in November 2014. He has been a champion for business and technology throughout his time as Governor and as Senator.  He's currently the Vice Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Co-Chair of the Senate Cyber Security Caucus, and has been a leader on legislation to support and encourage innovation. Senator Warner provides insight into the multi-trillion dollar relief package for the coronavirus COVID-19 crisis.