Podcasts about skandalaris center

Arguably, the four consultants in our story have already weathered their share of pivotal moments. They've navigated a full-time MBA program, coursework across three continents in six weeks and a global pandemic halfway through their studies.Indeed, all that may have prepared them for the professional path they've taken. All four work full-time as consultants. They're also co-founders of Oystar, a student-driven platform to improve and expand university recruiting. “We're better at being comfortable with the inconsistency of what we're working on,” said Lungile Tshuma, a consultant at World Wide Technology. “We've learned how to be more comfortable with adjusting.”But that convergence of ambition might be tossing the most meaningful moments across their paths in a series of small, pivotal moments as they skip back and forth between managing their startup and managing their day jobs. “Something we learn in our real jobs we can quickly apply to our startup,” Tshuma said. “And it goes both ways.”The foursome—all 2021 Olin MBA grads—includes Tshuma, Kevin Ko, Tim Brandt and Abhinav Gabbeta. As professional consultants, they've quickly learned how to refine a presentation deck for their big clients—and adapted that skill to showcase their startup.They've run across challenging leadership personalities—learning what kind of leader they want to be … and don't want to be. They've watched how their big clients depend on Agile development practices—and adopted them at Oystar. They've mastered multitasking across four time zones. They've learned to trust each other—so they don't all have to attend every meeting with advisors, potential funders and their intern team.In this edition of On Principle, our roundtable conversation with Tshuma, Gabbeta, Ko and Brandt examine the small pivotal moments in the life of a business leader—and the high impact those moments ultimately yield.RELATED LINKSOystar's LinkedIn company pageOystar wins startup funding at the Skandalaris Center's Entrepreneurship AwardsThe company is featured in Washington Magazine, the university's alumni magazineThe company gets a shout-out in Poets & Quants after the WashU Olin MBA entrepreneurship program takes a fourth consecutive No. 1 ranking.Abhinav Gabbeta mentioned his appreciation for Asha for EducationCREDITSThis podcast is a production of Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Contributors include:Katie Wools, Cathy Myrick, Judy Milanovits and Lesley Liesman, creative assistanceJill Young Miller, fact checking and creative assistanceHayden Molinarolo, original music and sound designMike Martin Media, editingSophia Passantino, social mediaLexie O'Brien and Erik Buschardt, website supportPaula Crews, creative vision and strategic supportSpecial thanks to Ray Irving and his team at WashU Olin's Center for Digital Education, including our audio engineer, Austin Alred.

We have the great pleasure of speaking with Walker Deibel today! Walker is a fantastic individual and the number one name in acquisition entrepreneurship! He created the Acquisition Lab and wrote the book Buy Then Build.  Walker is an entrepreneur, teacher, and father. In this inspiring episode, he tells his story and talks about what it takes to be successful as an entrepreneur. He also gets into the benefits of acquisition entrepreneurship and discusses whether it is better to acquire an existing business or start from scratch. We hope you enjoy listening to today's memorable and encouraging conversation with Walker Deibel!  Bio: Walker Deibel is a serial acquisition entrepreneur, bestselling author, and M&A advisor. Walker acquired seven companies over ten years and co-founded several startups. His bestselling book, Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game, was released to critical acclaim, including being recognized by Forbes as “one of the top 7 books all entrepreneurs must read.” It is currently used in many universities.  His book and the educational company of the same name share his experiences and frameworks to help entrepreneurs learn why buying an existing company is often a better route for entrepreneurs, and how to do it. Their flagship program, the Acquisition Lab, offers buy-side M&A services for first-time financial buyers in a do-it-with-you service; providing information, coaching, tools, and community. Walker is a partner at Quiet Light where he helps online-based businesses exit. He is a Certified M&A Advisor, Certified M&A Professional, former SEC licensed stockbroker, and recipient of the Middle Market Thought Leader of the Year, awarded by the private market Alliance of M&A Advisors. He was recognized as a lower-middle-market thought leader by Axial, and his writing has been featured in Inc, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Fast Company, & Harvard Business Review. Walker is currently the owner of the premiere aluminum railing manufacturer in Missouri and a portfolio of online-based businesses. Historically, he has owned and operated in many industries, including manufacturing, fulfillment, software, education, and eCommerce.  Walker is an Emmy-nominated producer. He worked on almost a dozen films with premieres at some of the world's most prestigious festivals, including Sundance, SXSW, and Toronto International Film Festival. He holds an MBA from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, where he received the Declaration of Accomplishment in Entrepreneurship from the Skandalaris Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He is a Pipeline Entrepreneurs fellow and an adjunct professor at Olin, where he launched the acquisition entrepreneurship class for the MBA program. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with his wife and their three children. Walker's backstory Walker grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. Everyone on his dad's side of the family had a small business. On his mom's side, everyone was artistic and creative. So Walker developed a creative interest early on but always felt the need to be economically sustainable.  Stockbroker Walker was an English Literature major in school. He became a stockbroker immediately after graduating in 1995, right at the end of the tech boom when the transition from the old economy to the new digital economy was happening.   Film Walker got laid off during the tech bust along with 6,000 other people. He was full of ideas, so he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to learn from people doing their own thing in business and ended up getting a foothold in film. Learning from failure After moving back to St. Louis to get an MBA, he launched a startup with some MBA classmates. Unfortunately, it did not work out, but he learned from the experience. It also helped him get to where he is today. The first thing Walker learned that the first thing you need to do as an entrepreneur is to get off the pay-cheque because it is as addictive as crack cocaine! Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship allows you to live the biggest, most engaging, and most impactful life possible. It is part of you, all-consuming, and it gives you a vehicle for wealth creation and wealth destruction simultaneously.  A strong work ethic As an entrepreneur, it is vital to have a strong work ethic and the ability to be imbalanced at times.  The number one reason startups fail Lack of product-market fit is the number one reason nine out of ten startups fail.  Entrepreneurship through acquisition Buying an existing business is affordable. If you buy an existing business, you start with existing customers, revenue, established infrastructure, and ongoing earnings, which form a foundation for innovating and growing the business. Having existing earnings allows you to get a bank loan to acquire the business. Figuring out entrepreneurship  While figuring out entrepreneurship, Walker found that the market was okay, but it was hard to get any data. He also found the market decentralized and fragmented, and there was no efficient way to navigate it. So, after about six months, he went corporate and crushed it! An opportunity Walker did not want to spend all his time building a brand for another company, so he started doing a part-time search for a business of his own. Then his dad invited him to work for him in his small company. (It was a surprise because, for all his life, Walker's dad had told him that there was no role for him in his company.) Walker worked there for about a year. Then he bought the company.  Several things happened Immediately after Walker bought his dad's printing company, several things happened: His dad's cohorts started approaching his dad, wanting to know how he sold his business. Walker realized that knowledge about business sales could be easily acquired.  Walker understood that starting from scratch is very smart- but only sometimes! Books Even though a transition was happening in the print industry and bookstores and newspapers were going out of business because of the internet, more authors were writing and publishing books, and more people were buying books than ever before.   Digital printing technology Walker started looking at digital printing technology because he saw that all his publisher customers had massive libraries of books of which they printed only about twenty percent. They ignored the other eighty percent because that would tie up their cash and inventory. Walker realized that if he could turn short-run digital book printing into JIT inventory for his book publishers, his company could have its best opportunity for growth in eighty years. Becoming a Merger & Acquisition professional Walker sold the printing company in 2013 to an acquisition target and subsequently bought another six companies. He knew the public capital market, but he also wanted to understand the private capital market. So he became a Certified M&A Advisor, an M&A Master Intermediary, and a Certified Exit Planning Advisor. He also spent a lot of time working with brokers to learn about the M&A space.  Buy Then Build Everything Walker learned about M&A culminated in him writing the book Buy Then Build, which became a best-seller. Along the way, Buy Then Build also became a textbook for 30% of the schools that teach entrepreneurship through acquisition. The Acquisition Lab People kept asking Walker to help them find and buy a business, so he created The Acquisition Lab as a solution. The Acquisition Lab is similar to an MBA program. It is designed to help people acquire a business, understand what makes world-class content, and then learn how to build that content. The Acquisition Lab became the most popular elected course for MBA programs at some of the best schools in the world, like Harvard, Stanford, University of Chicago, North Western, London Business School, Yale, and Columbia. The Acquisition Lab program Walker wanted a vetted community for The Acquisition Lab, so only about 25% of the applicants get accepted. You will get in only if they think you will succeed. The program takes twelve months. It is designed to meet people where they are and help them succeed in achieving their dreams.  The team Chelsea Wood is the Managing Director of The Acquisition Lab. Chelsea is a Certified M&A Advisor. She grew a company to three billion dollars and spent five years doing post-merger integration. Karen Heise is the former Director of The Career Center at a top-ranked business school. Chelsea, Karen, and Walker work together to create buyer profiles, bring in debt lenders, and do personality assessments.   Entrepreneurship is not for everyone Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. Walker points out that being an entrepreneur is not a job title- it is a condition. If you are unsure whether entrepreneurship is for you or if you have what it takes, it helps to know that if it doesn't get you going, it is not for you.  Some clues that show entrepreneurship is for you You keep getting fired from your job You always find yourself second in command, and you keep on executing  Acquisition versus starting from scratch Your ability to tolerate risks, how comfortable you feel with debt, your age, and your level of experience will all indicate to a certain degree whether you would be better off starting from scratch or acquiring an existing business. It comes down to your business idea and how you approach it.  Two ways to grow a company There are only two ways to grow a company: innovation or acquisition. You can change the world with innovation, but it will take a long time and a lot of effort. For most businesses, buying an existing company is the fastest way to grow because you can double the size of a company in a single day.    Connect with Eric On LinkedIn On Facebook On Instagram On Website Connect with Walker Deibel The Acquisition Lab Buy Then Build On LinkedIn Books mentioned: Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game by Walker Deibel  

In this episode, Rob sits down with a pair of Assistant Directors with the Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation & Entrepreneurship dedicated to fostering and empowering an inclusive community that finds opportunities in problems and transforms ideas into action. The center builds an ecosystem of education, research, and resources that engages all WashU students, faculty, alumni, and staff as entrepreneurial leaders and collaborators. Joining Rob to talk about the Skandalaris Center are Assistant Director of Programs Jessica Weldon and Assistant Director of Venture Development Cyril Loum. We talk about their journeys from towns both near and far, some amazing startup-stories or startups launched by WashU students, as well as their advice for current students looking to connect with resources at the Skandalaris Center. We also talk about Cyril's life-changing non-profit in Caring Ministries, Inc. and Jessica's role as a 4-year advisor in the College of Arts & Sciences. Don't miss this episode if you want to learn how to connect ideas and launch businesses in St. Louis and beyond!

Tucker recalls the challenges of being hired on February 12, 2020 and then shutting down the program a few weeks later due to the pandemic.“I was just in the final stages of assembling the staff and had just put the strength coach in place and got everyone under contract,” Tucker tells Beekman. “We were actually going to start spring ball the following Tuesday. I was going to make a trip down to Indianapolis for the Big Ten basketball tournament, and I got word that they weren't going to have fans. And then a couple hours later, I got word the team was headed back to East Lansing. And at that point, that's when my world had changed forever.“Our staff did a great job adapting quickly to the situation. I sent everyone home and said that we're going to be working from home for a while so get with the IT guys to get packed up and get your laptops and whatever you need to work from home. Then we started talking to our academic folks about what our players were going to do and they started mentioning something called Zoom. They said that the professors on campus were using Zoom and they recommended that we do the same. And so, we're all saying, ‘What the heck is Zoom? I've never heard of that.'“So our first challenge was to figure out how to use Zoom to communicate with our players and have team meetings, have unit meetings, individual meetings, figuring out how to put a background on the Zoom, Zoom etiquette, lighting, auto mute, all of those deals, and it was fun. We recognized right away that that was going to be our most daunting challenge. How do we connect with our players when we're a new staff? All the players have been sent back to their permanent homes and they don't know us and we don't know them. Take out the X's and O's, just to introduce ourselves and just get to know each other as people was done completely over Zoom and FaceTime and phone calls and text.“And then we needed to install our playbook on defense and special teams and so we did that through Zoom and our coaches became very creative on how to incorporate chalkboards and telestrating and unit meetings with guys in various places in the country. And it was just fascinating how quickly the players and the coaching staff adapted. And now you look, Zoom is like walking the dog now. It's like riding a bike; it's just normal. But at that time, it was not, and there was a learning curve. Some of the learning curve for some of our coaches was steeper than some of the others,” Tucker quips.“You started your early coaching career as a graduate assistant at MSU back in 1997. So now going on 24 years ago, when you think about what it was like back then in the football program and across campus, what's changed? What's the same? What were some of the things that you've noticed as you've been back on campus,” asks Beekman?“Those were great memories,” Tucker continues. “I remember I felt so fortunate to have the opportunity that Coach Saban gave me to come here and start my coaching career at a great university with the football tradition. I mean, it was just huge. When I got here, my focus was, ‘what do I need to do to make Nick Saban happy?' That was my goal every day. ‘What do I have to do to get the job done? What does he need done? What do the coaches need done?' And so my focus and my world was very, very small. It was pretty much the Duffy Building and Kellogg Center for me. I didn't get to know a lot of the campus at that point.“When I came back this past February, I got a chance to see a broader scope of the university, and I became even more excited. I saw some of the changes, like the 1855 Building. That wasn't part of the campus landscape. With the Skandalaris Center and the North End Zone I just really felt like I was walking into a great situation at Michigan State.”Tucker talks about the coaches who have influenced him most: Nick Saban, Barry Alvarez, Jim Tressel, and Romeo Crenel. And he describes some of the differences between college and professional football.“In the NFL, it's all business. For those players, it's their livelihood. That's how they feed their families. So when you're coaching an NFL player, they don't have any use for you if they don't believe that you know what you're doing. All they want to know is can this coach help me stay in the league. Can he help me in any way provide for my family? And those NFL players, they make those assessments very quickly. And so you have to, in short order, gain the trust of your players and prove to them that you are an asset and that you can help them in their career.“But one of the things that's very similar is that at the end of the day, it's still football. There are fundamentals of the game, whether it's Pop Warner, high school, college, or pro that don't change.”Tucker tells Beekman about his recruiting philosophy.“Recruiting is the lifeblood of your organization. Good players make you a good coach; great players make you a great coach. And when it comes down to it, when you look at the best teams year in and year out, they usually have the best players. The purpose of recruiting is to improve your team. It's very similar to the National Football League. The purpose of the draft and free agency is to improve your team. You always have to ask yourself, ‘Is this player better than this player that's already on your roster?' Can this student athlete make us better?'“You have to recruit every day and your players have to be a good fit. Character and academic standing are extremely important. We want guys who want to graduate from Michigan State and have the ability to do that. We also want players who want to buy into something bigger than themselves. They're all highly recruited players who have individual aspirations. They all want to go to the NFL, but we want guys who believe in the concept of team who are unselfish and who pour themselves into the team and who understand that the better the team does, the better they do individually.“And so it's not just an athletic evaluation; we're also doing our best to evaluate some of the intangibles and the things you can't see on tape. Character, unselfishness, teamwork, discipline, maturity. But it's an inexact science. We lay out the standards and we communicate the standards to the coaching staff. We all know what we're looking for. And at the end of the day, I have the final say; the buck stops with me.”Tucker says this time of the year “is one of the more exciting times of the calendar year. Our players are back. We've been able to evaluate our guys who are returning, and we know what they can do, what their strengths and weaknesses are. The guys who are back are guys who want to be here. And we want them to be here. They bought into our culture, they understand the expectations and the standards, and they're ready to work. I like to coin this time of year as the out season. I believe there's an in season and an out of season; there's never an off season because football is a year-round sport now. Recruiting and training never stop.“In this out of season time, it's time for our coaching staff to do scheme evaluation, scout, and look for new ideas and look for things that we know can help our players. It's also a time for us to indoctrinate our mid-year enrollees and our high school players and our transfers. The onboarding of those student athletes to our culture is critical. We've begun our Spartan Training Program, STP. We'll have eight weeks of training in our weight room with our strength and conditioning staff. Coach Novak he has a great staff. And I told him that I wanted this to be the most rigorous, demanding, out of season training program in the history of sport. He guaranteed that it would be.“I truly believe that your team is built in the weight room. You want your team to first and foremost be the best conditioned. Fatigue makes cowards of us all. The toughness of your team, the competitive nature, the sense of urgency, attention to detail, grit, determination, straining, overcoming adversity, having adversity, all of those things really start in your weight room. That's what's exciting about this time of year.Tucker closes the conversation by describing the toughest NFL stadiums in which he's coached and telling Beekman what his favorite meal is.“Going to Seattle is probably the loudest. They've got a DJ there. And I swear they pipe music in there.  I can remember coaching a preseason game there and my ears were ringing for days. You literally could not hear anything on the headset. And that was just a preseason game. I can't imagine what that would be like during the regular season or playoffs. It's extremely loud there.”He says Pittsburgh and Green Bay are also tough.“My favorite thing for dinner would be lamb chops with mint jelly and a healthy portion of mashed potatoes with a little butter and some pepper sprinkled on. That would be ideal for me. If I need to get my weight down a little bit, then I would swap out the lamb chops for sea bass, snapper, or a grouper entree.”MSU Today airs every Sunday morning on 105.1 FM, AM 870, and however you stream your shows. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Hear how to change the way people see each other! I have had the pleasure of working with Jessica Weldon at Washington University in St. Louis where she is Assistant Director of Programs at the Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship. My husband Andy and I created the Simon Initiative for Entrepreneurship at the Skandalaris Center to help aspiring minority and women entrepreneurs take an idea and turn it into a successful innovation and a business that can thrive. Do you have a big idea that could maybe become the next blockbuster business? Don't miss this podcast! Women entrepreneurs not being heard When we were discussing the challenges of women entrepreneurs, Jessica shared with me that she had observed a serious problem for women who were pitching their ideas to investors. As great as the ideas were, the women were not being heard. The investors had biases that influenced how they responded to the women presenting their ideas and seeking funding and support. So what did she do? Design a program to help teach those investors how to listen to aspiring businesswomen in a more balanced and equitable way. Actually, her program should be taught to investors everywhere if women are ever going to grow themselves and their businesses, because it's not enough for women investors to try and find great women to invest in, like Fanta Kaba whom you will also hear from. We need men to do so, too. And we need to get rid of the implicit, outdated biases that dictate what women can or should be able to achieve. Now is the time to change I will put in a pitch here for a wonderful group of women’s organizations I am involved with that helps women get the support they need and also that encourages corporations of all sizes to embrace the value of women in the C-suite (and not just in HR or marketing). Check out the Women’s Business Collaborative and the nine major initiatives we are working hard to make happen, and soon. About Jessica Weldon Jessica Weldon directs programming strategy for the Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Washington University in St. Louis with a focus on diversity and inclusion. With a background in higher education, she earned her bachelor’s in Communication from the University of Missouri and her master’s in International Affairs from Washington University, being on campus in a variety of roles for 10+ years. She also is an advisor for Arts & Sciences students.  Jessica is particularly adept at building relationships with students and staff, as well as managing a multitude of details while simultaneously overseeing a busy front office. In addition, she has created and implemented numerous training and orientation programs for student workers. You can learn more about Jessica on LinkedIn. About Fanta Kaba  Currently a 2nd-year MBA student at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, Fanta Kaba is the founder/owner of the skincare brand Golden Roots Essentials. Fanta, also known as Dabo, launched her company in 2019 after a self-discovery trip to her parent's native country, Guinea, where she learned about the benefits of raw shea butter and the many ways her African ancestors used it to maintain the health of their skin and hair — a great example of how creative, competitive, productive women can take an insight and an idea and create their own “Blue Ocean.” Fanta's story will inspire you. Growing up as a dark-skinned woman, she was often criticized for her skin complexion. At age nine, she was even told that if she did not bleach her skin, she would never get married. But instead of succumbing to the pressure to alter her skin, she developed a passion for self-care and skincare. She created Golden Roots Essentials to offer people not only a golden skincare routine but a golden life through self-care, skincare and culture. You can learn more about Fanta on LinkedIn and on her website. Enjoy these stories of women who refused to listen to the naysayers and instead, saw their ideas become successful businesses Blog: How Brilliant Fearless Women Are Rewriting The Script In Hollywood Blog: The Most Successful Under 40 Women Entrepreneurs Podcast: Lisa Caputo—Smashing The Myths Of What Women Can Accomplish Additional resources My award-winning book: "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights" Pre-order my new book, "Smashing The Myths of Women in Business" Simon Associates Management Consultants website  

Allison Dietz is the Associate Director of Employer Relations at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. With close to 20 years of talent acquisition experience, this ‘Recovering Recruiter' moved into career services to share her recruiting knowledge with employers and students. Outside of work Allison can be found chasing her four boys or indulging in reality television with her husband. Her spirit is contagious, her work she does is magnetic, it's hard not to want to get involved>  Connect with her on LinkikedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisondietz/  Check out the Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship: https://skandalaris.wustl.edu/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mrskeshspeaks/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/mrskeshspeaks/support

Michael and Travis host this edition of the show from the 2019 Health Innovation Summit; they talk with a Global STL leader and the founders of a start-up from Israel. Want to learn about starting a company? Washington University's Skandalaris Center is holding Idea Bounce events. We'll begin the show by checking in with St. Louisans at a big geospatial conference in San Antonio.

Jill Johnson is helping women of color entrepreneurs succeed! Today, in 2019, 40% of the businesses in the U.S. are owned by women. In this podcast, Jill Johnson and I discuss the challenges faced by women of color in starting a business, finding the capital to underwrite its growth, and developing the business acumen to successfully take their ideas and turn them into brilliant innovations. It is never easy. Listen in and learn how Jill did it! Access to capital (or lack of access) is a legacy challenge with roots deep in our American history, especially for entrepreneurs of color.  Women of color are starting businesses at higher rates than anyone else, yet they get less capital, have fewer successful exits and produce less income for owners. While there have been innovative capital solutions in recent years, capital constraint remains a defining problem for the majority of women of color entrepreneurs. Jill talks with us today about how she is attacking this problem by sharing her expertise for creating the connections that open doors to opportunity. In our fascinating conversation, Jill and I talk about her family of entrepreneurs who started and ran a successful newspaper business in New Jersey. But, as we know so well, the newspaper business is not a flourishing growth industry, so Jill and her father turned their attention to developing resources for entrepreneurs, particularly women entrepreneurs, so that they, too, could be successful business leaders.  As a major step in this direction, Jill co-founded the Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership (IFEL) in 2002, then launched the IFEL Adopt-a-Business Program along with a broader initiative called Women of Color Connecting whose convening summit, January 31-February 1, 2019, helped women of color build their networks, pitch their ideas and find the support they need to thrive.   Women are becoming a major force in business: As of 2018, there are 3 million women-owned businesses in the U.S., compared to only 402,000 in 1972. Women now own 4 out of every 10 businesses in the U.S. Since 2007, the number of women-owned businesses has increased by 58%. Overall, businesses have only increased by 12%. Last year, 1,821 new women-owned businesses were launched every day, with 64% of those founded by women of color. Women are slightly more likely to start a business than men, according to the SCORE report. Now the big question facing all of us is how to help them succeed. At SAMC, that's what we're all about—helping people become successful business leaders. That's why in early 2018, Andy and I launched The Simon Initiative for Entrepreneurship in partnership with Washington University’s Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship to connect entrepreneurs, particularly women, with the resources they need to launch their ventures. In addition, we've created an Ebook Primer for Entrepreneurs and a 6-Step Process for Entrepreneurs. Along with Jill, our mission is to open doors to opportunity. Stay tuned!  Some background on Jill Jill Johnson is the Co-founder/CEO of the Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership (IFEL). With nearly 30 years' experience as a business strategist, she possesses expertise in financial analysis, marketing and business development. She is an advocate for community businesses and micro-enterprise and is a leading authority in the area of minority inclusion in the entrepreneurial world. She is also a highly-sought-after speaker on topics including: community economic development, business plan development, entrepreneurship, minority and women-led small business growth, and access to capital. Jill started her career as a financial analyst at Goldman, Sachs & Co, then joined City News Publishing Company. From there, she became President of On Point Consulting, a strategic business planning consultancy, advising early-stage businesses through a variety of strategic planning and growth issues. As CEO of the Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership, Jill is responsible for strategic direction and capacity building, and has led the company in successfully winning contracts with the New Jersey Department of Labor, the Newark Urban Enterprise Zone and the Rutgers Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development. Jill is also a member of several advisory boards, including the National Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (NCEI) Entrepreneurship Council and the Red Tape Commission. She earned her B.A. in economics from Harvard University and is married with four amazing sons.  Want to learn more? A collection of blogs and podcasts you will enjoy: Blogs: 3 Ways A Female CEO Built A Successful Business With A Culture of Collaboration Successful Entrepreneur Sees “Holes in the Cheese” and Builds Great Companies to Fill Them It's Time to Change the Workplace So Women and Businesses Can Thrive Terrific Websites to Empower Successful Women Entrepreneurs Why Women CEOS Are So Different and So Successful Podcasts: How Women Entrepreneurs Can Think Bigger, Build Sustainable Businesses, and Change the World "Work PAUSE Thrive" with Lisen Stromberg Lisa Perrine—Exciting Times to Rebuild A Business Tanya Hall—How a Woman CEO Built a Great Publishing Business Additional resources: Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership Women of Color Connecting  IFEL Adopt-a-Business Program My book: "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights" Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants    Download the 1-page synopsis of my book, "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights" here

Walker Deibel began his entrepreneurial journey like a lot of us, with a startup. But by 2004 Walker had found a far more effective business model called acquisition al entrepreneurship. During today’s episode, Walker tells me how he stumbled onto acquisitional entrepreneurship. We also discuss what he looks for in a potential purchase. He promotes his book on the subject Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game and shares what he hopes to create from it. What you will learn: Walker’s business background. Why it is harder to build a startup from scratch. The 3 types of startup entrepreneurs and the difference between them. What is an acquisitional entrepreneur? The 4 types of businesses in the Acquisitional Entrepreneur Matrix. Why Walker likes to focus on online businesses. Why you shouldn’t assume a business’s circumstances till you get all the information. How to recognize opportunity and take advantage of it. The lessons Walker learned from the sell of his first company. Why you need to sell your business before it peaks. The types of businesses that Walker really likes to buy. Takeaways: Your business looks totally different to a buyer. Go online and check out a broker’s site. Get a feel for your current market and see your company from the buyer’s perspective. You will see so many opportunities for value building and growth. Links and Resources: GEXP Collaborative Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game by Walker Deibel Buythenbuild.com About Walker: Walker Deibel is an acquisition entrepreneur. He has co-founded three startups and acquired seven companies. Walker is the Managing Director for Centra, which currently owns and manages three companies. In addition, Centra is a partner in over a half dozen firms covering: distribution, manufacturing, education, childcare, film, and television production, enterprise Software, online content, and eCommerce. Walker is the bestselling author of Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game He holds an MBA from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis where he received the Declaration of Accomplishment in Entrepreneurship from the Skandalaris Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He is a Certified M&A Advisor, former SEC licensed stockbroker, and helps online entrepreneurs exit their firms as an advisor. Walker has produced almost a dozen films and had premieres at some of the world’s most esteemed festivals, including Sundance, SXSW, and Toronto International Film Festival. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his wife and their three children.

Walker Deibel began his entrepreneurial journey like a lot of us, with a startup. But by 2004 Walker had found a far more effective business model called acquisition al entrepreneurship. During today’s episode, Walker tells me how he stumbled onto acquisitional entrepreneurship. We also discuss what he looks for in a potential purchase. He promotes his book on the subject Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game and shares what he hopes to create from it. What you will learn: Walker’s business background. Why it is harder to build a startup from scratch. The 3 types of startup entrepreneurs and the difference between them. What is an acquisitional entrepreneur? The 4 types of businesses in the Acquisitional Entrepreneur Matrix. Why Walker likes to focus on online businesses. Why you shouldn’t assume a business’s circumstances till you get all the information. How to recognize opportunity and take advantage of it. The lessons Walker learned from the sell of his first company. Why you need to sell your business before it peaks. The types of businesses that Walker really likes to buy. Takeaways: Your business looks totally different to a buyer. Go online and check out a broker’s site. Get a feel for your current market and see your company from the buyer’s perspective. You will see so many opportunities for value building and growth. Links and Resources: GEXP Collaborative Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game by Walker Deibel Buythenbuild.com About Walker: Walker Deibel is an acquisition entrepreneur. He has co-founded three startups and acquired seven companies. Walker is the Managing Director for Centra, which currently owns and manages three companies. In addition, Centra is a partner in over a half dozen firms covering: distribution, manufacturing, education, childcare, film, and television production, enterprise Software, online content, and eCommerce. Walker is the bestselling author of Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game He holds an MBA from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis where he received the Declaration of Accomplishment in Entrepreneurship from the Skandalaris Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He is a Certified M&A Advisor, former SEC licensed stockbroker, and helps online entrepreneurs exit their firms as an advisor. Walker has produced almost a dozen films and had premieres at some of the world’s most esteemed festivals, including Sundance, SXSW, and Toronto International Film Festival. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his wife and their three children.

Walker Deibel began his entrepreneurial journey like a lot of us, with a startup. But by 2004 Walker had found a far more effective business model called acquisition al entrepreneurship. During today’s episode, Walker tells me how he stumbled onto acquisitional entrepreneurship. We also discuss what he looks for in a potential purchase. He promotes his book on the subject Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game and shares what he hopes to create from it. What you will learn: Walker’s business background. Why it is harder to build a startup from scratch. The 3 types of startup entrepreneurs and the difference between them. What is an acquisitional entrepreneur? The 4 types of businesses in the Acquisitional Entrepreneur Matrix. Why Walker likes to focus on online businesses. Why you shouldn’t assume a business’s circumstances till you get all the information. How to recognize opportunity and take advantage of it. The lessons Walker learned from the sell of his first company. Why you need to sell your business before it peaks. The types of businesses that Walker really likes to buy. Takeaways: Your business looks totally different to a buyer. Go online and check out a broker’s site. Get a feel for your current market and see your company from the buyer’s perspective. You will see so many opportunities for value building and growth. Links and Resources: GEXP Collaborative Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game by Walker Deibel Buythenbuild.com About Walker: Walker Deibel is an acquisition entrepreneur. He has co-founded three startups and acquired seven companies. Walker is the Managing Director for Centra, which currently owns and manages three companies. In addition, Centra is a partner in over a half dozen firms covering: distribution, manufacturing, education, childcare, film, and television production, enterprise Software, online content, and eCommerce. Walker is the bestselling author of Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game He holds an MBA from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis where he received the Declaration of Accomplishment in Entrepreneurship from the Skandalaris Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He is a Certified M&A Advisor, former SEC licensed stockbroker, and helps online entrepreneurs exit their firms as an advisor. Walker has produced almost a dozen films and had premieres at some of the world’s most esteemed festivals, including Sundance, SXSW, and Toronto International Film Festival. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his wife and their three children.

Over the last 15 years, St Louis has evolved into a one of the top centers of entrepreneurship in the US - in Life Sciences, IT and a range of industries. St Louis was ranked as one of the 10 best cities in 2015 for starting a startup, outside of Silicon Valley and New York City, based on the integrated support entrepreneurs receive - from mentors, investors, local universities, physical facilities, grants and a highly collaborative culture. Ken Harrington is the founding director of the Skandalaris Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Washington University in St Louis. Ken was one of the key players behind developing the entrepreneurial ecosystem that supports entrepreneurs. In our interview, Ken discusses a paper he has just written for Innovations, an MIT Press Journal, on the evolution of St Louis' entrepreneurial ecosystem and how connectivity - connecting entrepreneurs, investors and their partners through events, mentors, universities and organizations - was the key to driving entrepreneurial growth.

As managing director of the Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Emre Toker has encountered many innovative ideas for products and businesses - some of which succeed, most of which do not. In addition to running the Skandalaris Center, Toker himself has founded or co-founded five companies. Here, he discusses his own experiences as an investor and entrepreneur and explains some of the common pitfalls that keep innovators from bringing their ideas to life.

Dr. James Ehrlich, a nationally renowned preventative medicine expert based in Denver, leads a discussion with three distinguished guests: Dr. Suren Dutia, senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation and the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Washington University in St. Louis; Richard Miles, vice president of the Cade Museum, and former North American director of the National Security Council; and Edward Currie, co-founder of PC Magazine. Ehrlich, Dutia and Currie served as judges for this year’s Cade Museum Prize, a $50,000 cash award designed to promote creativity and innovation in the State of Florida. Based in Gainesville, Florida, the Cade Museum aims to inspire creative thinking, future inventors and early entrepreneurs.  The museum is named for Dr. James Robert Cade, best known as the creator of Gatorade.  Dr. Cade was also an accomplished physician, musician and researcher. Business Unconventional is hosted by David Biondo and Dean Rotbart and airs each Sunday morning at 8 a.m. (Mountain Time).  The program is also streamed over the Internet at www.710KNUS.com.   Original Air Date: May 20, 2012