Podcasts about sysco foods

Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.   Justin and his guest, Jeff Strege, Senior Director for Risk Management at Academy Sports + Outdoors, explore what led Jeff to risk management, and the path that led to Academy Sports + Outdoors within the sporting goods and outdoor retail space. Jeff comments on his work building out the ERM framework at Academy to improve claims management, employee safety, and liability prevention. Jeff shares his approach to workers' compensation and Academy Sports + Outdoors's goal to help the workers recover and return to work. In addition to career insights, they discuss Jeff's upcoming panel participation in HUB's webinar on April 17th, “From Defense to Prevention: Strengthening Your Liability Risk Management Approach,” covering topics such as third-party litigation funding and its impact on the industry.   Listen to Jeff's wisdom, born from experience, on managing your risk career. Key Takeaways: [:01] About RIMS and RIMScast. [:14] Registration is open for RISKWORLD 2025. Engage Today and Embrace Tomorrow with RIMS, from May 4th through May 7th in Chicago, Illinois. Register at RIMS.org/RISKWORLD. [:25] After you register, visit your App Store, search for RIMS Events, and download the RIMS Events App. Select RISKWORLD 2025, load the show onto your phone, and start building your RISKWORLD itinerary! [:41] About this episode of RIMScast. Our guest is former RIMS Houston Chapter President, Jeff Strege. We will talk about his career and how ERM continues to play a pivotal role today. [1:08] RIMS-CRMP Workshops! As part of RIMS's continuing strategic partnership with Purima, we have a two-day course coming up on April 22nd and 23rd. Links to these courses can be found through the Certification page of RIMS.org and this episode's show notes. [1:28] Virtual Workshops! On June 12th, Pat Saporito will host “Managing Data for ERM” and will return on June 26th to present the very popular new course, “Generative AI for Risk Management”. [1:45] A link to the full schedule of virtual workshops can be found on the RIMS.org/education and RIMS.org/education/online-learning pages. A link is also in this episode's show notes. [1:56] RISKWORLD registration is open. Engage Today and Embrace Tomorrow, from May 4th through 7th in Chicago. Register at RIMS.org/RISKWORLD. Also, remember that there will be lots of pre-conference workshops being held in Chicago just ahead of RISKWORLD. [2:14] These courses include “Applying and Integrating ERM,” “Captives as an Alternate Risk Financing Technique,” “Contractual Risk Transfer,” “Fundamentals of Insurance,” “Fundamentals of Risk Management,” RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep, and more! The links are in the show notes. [2:33] The Spencer Educational Foundation is having a Flash Sale for sponsorships at RISKWORLD! Sponsorship pricing has been reduced for the Spencer-CNA Pickleball Social on Saturday, May 3rd, and the Spencer-Gallagher Golf Tournament on Sunday, May 4th. [2:51] Sponsorships are still available for the Spencer-Sedgwick 5K Fun Run on Tuesday, May 6th. Visit Spencered.org/riskworld2025 to learn about these opportunities and more. Also, reach out to Spencer's Executive Director Megan Miller at MMiller@Spencered.org. [3:13] Our guest today is Jeff Strege. He is the Senior Director for Risk Management at Academy Sports + Outdoors. Academy is one of the U.S.'s largest sporting goods and outdoor stores with 301 locations across 21 states, as of March 2025. [3:33] Jeff is also a long-time RIMS member. He's the former president of the RIMS Houston Chapter and is a RIMS-CRMP holder. [3:41] In addition to his outstanding resume, Jeff will be lending his insight to the RIMS Webinar on April 17th, presented by HUB in their Ready for Tomorrow series. It's called “From Defense to Prevention: Strengthening Your Liability Risk Management Approach.” A link is in the notes. [4:01] In today's RIMScast interview, we will discuss how ERM has played a role in his career and how he manages risk in so many locations at the Academy. We will get a preview of his upcoming appearance on the Hub webinar and his thoughts on third-party litigation funding and its impact. [4:27] Interview! Jeff Strege, welcome to RIMScast! [4:45] As a Houstonian, Jeff grew up with Academy Sports + Outdoors. He's a long-term customer. In September 2020, Jeff promoted himself from customer to team member, although he still is an avid customer of Academy. [5:07] As the Academy brand is so well-known and beloved in Texas, Jeff has had the Risk Director role on his radar for many years. He had told his wife many times that if that role ever opened up at Academy, he would want to talk to them. In mid-2020, it did, and here he is! [5:29] Academy has 301 stores across 21 states as of March 7, 2025, and is headquartered in Katy, Texas, a Western suburb of Houston. Jeff graduated from Katy High School. [6:23] Academy Sports + Outdoors sells fun. They say “Have fun out there.” The items Academy sells are intended to help people be outdoors and active. Academy does a lot of work around product safety with manufacturers and suppliers, making sure they're sourcing safe products. [6:45] Academy Sports + Outdoors sells firearms and ammunition. Its goal is to be the most responsible retailer of those items in the country. [7:13] Academy Sports is responsible for following the laws of 21 states. Jeff has worked for national, multi-national, and global organizations, so he has worked with similar requirements. [7:48] Jeff worked for Sysco twice, first in the 90s and then in 2016 in a risk role similar to his current role at Academy Sports. Sysco went on a growth initiative while Jeff was there the second time and it was fun to be part of that but he couldn't pass up the opening at Academy. [8:23] Academy Sports + Outdoors has a risk department of 10 who report to Jeff. Jeff oversees the Enterprise Risk Management framework, the Insurance and Data Analytic functions, the Safety functions, and the Claim Management functions. [8:50] Jeff has three direct reports and they have functional contributors who are assigned to and report to them. Jeff's management style is to find the best possible people he can find. He's not a micro-manager. All of his staff are solid professionals who are good at what they do. [9:14] That allows Jeff to focus on strategy and executing strategic objectives while the staff keeps things working from day to day. Jeff reports to the General Counsel. In other companies, Jeff has reported to the General Counsel, HR, Treasury, or Finance. [9:42] Risk can logically report up a variety of chains to the leadership of an organization, as it touches so many aspects of the business. [10:22] Relative to firearms sales, Academy Sports has a compliance team to manage the process. They do an outstanding job. [10:39] When Jeff arrived at Academy Sports, one of his charges was to mature the ERM framework across the various organizational functions. Having the opportunity to work on that made Jeff a student of the business, which is one of the Academy's values. [11:09] Coming into the business, Jeff was fortunate to receive a safety culture already well-entrenched in the distribution centers. That team has been retooled over the years and continues to evolve as it trains and supports the operators in safe practices in their work. [11:45] Academy workers' compensation goal is to help team members recover so they can come back to work. They take a deliberate approach to working with them so they get the treatment they need, their benefits are paid timely, and their questions are answered. [12:11] Academy made a TPA change a couple of years ago that's given them more proactive tools. Both safety and claims are processes that Academy Sports continues to fine-tune. [12:25] The foundational strategy is “safety first.” If you're talking about managing claims but not about safety, there's a miss there, in terms of managing risk. [13:01] Plug Time! During this interview, we discuss the RIMS Texas Regional Conference 2025, held from August 4th through the 6th in San Antonio, Texas, at the Henry  B. Gonzalez Convention Center. That's where we held RISKWORLD 2018. [13:22] The day of this episode's release, April 15th, is the day registration opens for the RIMS Texas Regional Conference. You can get the Advance Rate from now through May 16th, 2025. A link is in this episode's show notes. You can also visit the events page of RIMS.org to register. [13:43] If you will be in the Dallas/Fort Worth area on April 17th, be sure to stop by Lonestar Park for DFW RIMS's 7th Annual Night at the Races. It will be a blast! Guest, Member, and Student tickets are available. Visit DFWRIMS.org and the link in this episode's show notes. [14:12] Let's Return to My Interview with Former RIMS Houston Chapter President Jeff Strege! [14:32] Jeff arrived at Academy Sports on Monday, September 28, 2020, and the company executed its Initial Public Offering on Friday, October 2nd, 2020. In preparing for the IPO, the company had built an ERM framework that helped inform the prospectus for investors. [14:59] When Jeff joined, he was charged with taking the framework foundation and building upon it to round out how Academy Sports views risk, scopes it, and manages it across the organization. It was a fascinating process. [15:21] He's gotten to know many good, smart people who are driving aspects of the business. [15:28] Every year, Academy Sports looks at ways to enhance the framework, to make sure it's as meaningful and informative to the leadership team and board as it can be. [15:54] The framework looks at ISO standards but most of it is inward-focused within the business of Academy Sports. What's going on in the world? How do we prevent or prepare for it? Should something occur, what strategies do we have to respond, react to, and recover from it? [16:39] Before the recent tariffs were passed, the risk team had discussed tariffs generically. Tariffs appear as subsidiary risks in a few places within the framework. Nobody in an organization can control what government leaders do. [17:22] In a way, sporting goods is a seasonal industry. Academy Sports + Outdoors sells a variety of different things and operates in a variety of climates. There's a holiday season and there are gift-giving holidays. The seasons for outdoor activities differ depending on location. [17:54] In Texas, Jeff grills and fishes year-round. It's different in a Northern climate with four distinct seasons. Hunting seasons are specifically defined. The things Academy Sports sells peak at different times of the year and the peaks sort of offset themselves. [18:25] The Academy Sports merchandising teams are diligent and deliberate in how they plan for cycling products for the seasons. [18:44] Holiday is the big season. In that, Academy Sports is like other retailers. Back-to-school time is also important. [18:57] The backyard grilling is Jeff's favorite section of the store. When he goes into the store with his wife he has to look at some grills. Jeff also works out and runs so there are several aspects of the store that he shops. [19:16] Academy sells location-specific licensed apparel. In Academy Sports + Outdoors in Houston, there is gear for the Astros, Texans, and Rockets. [19:49] From the standpoint of team member safety, Jeff refers to OSHA. Also, some states have more stringent safety requirements. Jeff's safety team drives consistency of practices and training across the footprint of the 21 states where Academy Sports + Outdoors operates. [20:36] Most of Jeff's work is done in Houston but his team gets out in the field periodically on a schedule. Jeff likes to go into the stores and distribution centers. That's where the business occurs. The work at Corporate supports the people who serve and interact with customers. [21:10] RIMS Webinars! Following the success of their recent webinar, HUB International returns for the next installment of their Ready for Tomorrow Series, “From Defense to Prevention: Strengthening Your Liability Risk Management Approach”. That session will be on April 17th. [21:29] Today's guest, Jeff Strege, is a panelist in that session! He's going to talk about it a little bit right after the break. [21:38] On April 24th, RiskConnect returns to deliver “Better Together: The Marriage of Insurable Risk and Business Continuity”. [21:45] Zurich's webinar, “Understanding Third Party Litigation Funding” was rescheduled to May 1st at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. If you were already registered for the original date, you are now registered for the May 1st session with Zurich. [22:09] On May 22nd, GRC, a TÜV SÜD Company, presents their newest session, “Asset Valuations in 2025: Managing Tariffs, Inflation, and Rising Insurance Scrutiny”. [22:22] More webinars will be announced soon and added to the RIMS.org/webinars page. Go there to register. Registration is complimentary for RIMS members. [22:33] Let's Return to my Interview with Jeff Strege! [22:46] Jeff will be joining RIMS on the HUB webinar about third-party litigation funding (TPLF) on April 17th, two days after the airing of this episode. Third-party litigation funding is a major issue for RIMS and the profession. [23:08] Academy Sports + Outdoors sees TPLF from time to time in litigated matters, but not often. The HUB webinar is largely focused on rising litigation costs and the rising value of litigated matters. Third-party funding is a driving force of that rise. [23:35] When there's a funding mechanism behind the damages claim by a plaintiff, there are interest obligations with that mechanism, which can be stiff. It does inflate the value of some matters. [24:13] Once Academy Sports + Outdoors learns third-party funding is present in a litigated matter, that's in the front of mind as they evaluate and proceed with trying to conclude the case. [24:32] In the HUB webinar on April 17th, Jeff will be discussing the client's experience, not only with TPFL but also around social engineering. There is a good panel put together for this discussion with varied perspectives that will offer a well-rounded conversation. [24:55] Panelist Bob Tyson of Tyson & Mendes, a defense lawyer in California, has creative approaches to managing and negotiating litigated cases. Panelist John Ferguson, Head of Excess Casualty at Zurich Insurance, brings an insurer's perspective to the webinar. [25:29] Panelist Carol Murphy of HUB is one of the best brokers Jeff has worked with. Jeff is looking forward to sharing the stage with this group, talking about managing claims litigation, prevention, and pre-litigation management. Safety is critical. Jeff will bring that up. [26:02] The link to the webinar is in the show notes. Register today! Registration is complimentary for RIMS members! You'll hear this webinar live with Jeff Strege of Academy Sports, Fred Ferguson of Zurich, Bob Tyson of Tyson & Mendes, and Carol Murphy of HUB. [26:34] Jeff has been involved with RIMS since the mid-1990s when he was with Sysco Foods for the first time and was elevated to the risk management role there. Starting with Houston, Jeff has been involved in various chapters in various capacities. [27:07] RIMS has been an important part of Jeff's career. He's gained solid relationships through RIMS that have yielded business relationships and relationships where he's been able to help others and be helped by them. RIMS will be very important to him as long as he works in risk. [27:51] Jeff was President of RIMS Houston for two years, until January of 2024. He serves on the board as Past President. [28:12] Having moved around the country and having held different roles, Jeff has met risk professionals from many areas. He says RIMS has high-quality chapters all over the country. The four Texas RIMS chapters have a lot of positive energy. [28:47] The chapters are working together with Justin's team in New York to host the first-ever Texas RIMS Regional Conference this August. Jeff is on the planning committee and he's excited about it. [29:04] The RIMS Texas Regional Conference will be held from August 4th through the 6th at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, on the River Walk, the site of RISKWORLD 2018. San Antonio is Jeff's favorite city in Texas. It's a wonderful host city. [29:30] There is a link in the show notes to the RIMS Texas Regional Conference 2025. Registration will open the week of the airing of this episode! [29:49] Jeff is a RIMS-CRMP holder. He earned that certification in November of 2019. He was excited to see RIMS introduce the certification. What he likes about CRMP is its governance focus. [30:23] Jeff had been doing risk management for a long time. The CRMP website has good sample test questions on it. He decided to work through the test questions several times. Then went and took the exam and scored pretty well, largely based on his experience. [30:48] Jeff says his ERM work over the years was helpful. The RIMS-CRMP is a good designation. Jeff appreciates that RIMS gives CRMP holders opportunities to network. He will continue to carry the designation as long as he is working. [31:09] Mos recertification points are CE-related. Jeff relies heavily on the Houston chapter's offerings and the sessions and seminars at RIMS functions. He appreciates the flexibility in terms of what qualifies, such as participation in broker-sponsored industry education. [31:50] Developing and delivering educational content is a favorite of Jeff's. He has served as Risk Manager in Residence (now Risk Manager on Campus). Jeff tells every risk manager it's amazing and they need to do it at least once. Jeff enjoys education and is always learning. [32:24] Jeff shares his advice for risk professionals. As Boomers in the industry start to retire, it's important to help the industry recruit, train, and young talent. It's a passion of Jeff's. [32:52] There are a few things Jeff would tell young professionals. One is you are the CEO of your career. Your career is your responsibility. Don't wait for a leader to bring opportunities or promotions to you. Be a student of your craft and trade. Set goals with plans to achieve them. [33:20] Jeff has managed his career that way by making strategic moves when it made sense for him to do so. He has no regrets. You're the CEO of your career, all in. Don't wait for others to act on your behalf. Whatever it is, be a student of your craft and seek opportunities to learn. [33:45] Grow your knowledge base, your experience, and your network. Jeff has benefited from RIMS in having a network of people who lean on each other and learn from each other. It's a wonderful thing! [33:58] Be a student of your business, wherever it is. Make connections within it. Seek out mentorships to learn on a broad basis what the business does and what its objectives are. You position yourself more visibly to add more value and to grow. [34:29] Jeff Strege, you have been such an inspiration today. I appreciate you so much for joining us here on RIMScast and being so giving with your time and wisdom! I look forward to seeing you at the first-ever Texas Regional 2025, August 4th through 6th in San Antonio! [34:48] Special thanks again to Jeff Strege for joining us here today on RIMScast! I look forward to seeing him at many RIMS events, including the first-ever RIMS Texas Regional Conference 2025, which will be held from August 4th through the 6th in San Antonio, Texas. [35:05] Register today through the link in this episode's show notes. [35:12] Plug Time! You can sponsor a RIMScast episode for this, our weekly show, or a dedicated episode. Links to sponsored episodes are in the show notes. [35:37] RIMScast has a global audience of risk and insurance professionals, legal professionals, students, business leaders, C-Suite executives, and more. Let's collaborate and help you reach them! Contact pd@rims.org for more information. [35:56] Become a RIMS member and get access to the tools, thought leadership, and network you need to succeed. Visit RIMS.org/membership or email membershipdept@RIMS.org for more information. [36:13] Risk Knowledge is the RIMS searchable content library that provides relevant information for today's risk professionals. Materials include RIMS executive reports, survey findings, contributed articles, industry research, benchmarking data, and more. [36:29] For the best reporting on the profession of risk management, read Risk Management Magazine at RMMagazine.com. It is written and published by the best minds in risk management. [36:43] Justin Smulison is the Business Content Manager at RIMS. You can email Justin at Content@RIMS.org. [36:50] Thank you all for your continued support and engagement on social media channels! We appreciate all your kind words. Listen every week! Stay safe!   Links: RISKWORLD 2025 — May 4‒7 | Register today! Download the RIMS Events app! Spencer's RISKWORLD Events — Register or Sponsor! RIMS Texas Regional 2025 – August 3‒5 | Advance registration rates are now open. DFW RIMS - 7th Annual Night at the Races / Lone Star Park – April 17, 2025 RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RIMS Risk Management magazine RIMS Now The Strategic and Enterprise Risk Center Spencer Educational Foundation — General Grants 2026 — Application Dates Announcement: RIMS and The Institute for Internal Auditors' Strategic Alliance on Education Nominations for the Donald M. Stuart Award [Canada] RIMS Webinars: RIMS.org/Webinars “Ready for Tomorrow? From Defense to Prevention: Strengthening Your Liability Risk Management Approach” | Sponsored by Hub International | April 17, 2025 “Better Together: The Marriage of Insurable Risk and Business Continuity” | Sponsored by Riskonnect | April 24, 2025 “Understanding Third Party Litigation Funding” | Sponsored by Zurich | May 1, 2025 “Asset Valuations in 2025: Managing Tariffs, Inflation, and Rising Insurance Scrutiny” | Sponsored by GRC, a TÜV SÜD Company | May 22, 2025   Upcoming RIMS-CRMP Prep Virtual Workshops: RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep with PARIMA | April 22‒23 Full RIMS-CRMP Prep Course Schedule   Upcoming Virtual Workshops: “Managing Data for ERM” | June 12 | Instructor: Pat Saporito  “Generative AI for Risk Management” | June 26 | Instructor: Pat Saporito See the full calendar of RIMS Virtual Workshops RIMS-CRMP Prep Workshops   Related RIMScast Episodes: “Maintaining an Award-Winning ERM Program with Michael Zuraw” “Scenario Planning with the RIMS SERMC” “ERMotivation with Carrie Frandsen, RIMS-CRMP” “Risk Quantification Through Value-Based Frameworks” “Applying ERM Theory with Elise Farnham” “On Risk Appetite and Tolerance”   Sponsored RIMScast Episodes: “Understanding Third-Party Litigation Funding” | Sponsored by Zurich (New!) “What Risk Managers Can Learn From School Shootings” | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog (New!) “Simplifying the Challenges of OSHA Recordkeeping” | Sponsored by Medcor “Risk Management in a Changing World: A Deep Dive into AXA's 2024 Future Risks Report” | Sponsored by AXA XL “How Insurance Builds Resilience Against An Active Assailant Attack” | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog “Third-Party and Cyber Risk Management Tips” | Sponsored by Alliant “RMIS Innovation with Archer” | Sponsored by Archer “Navigating Commercial Property Risks with Captives” | Sponsored by Zurich “Breaking Down Silos: AXA XL's New Approach to Casualty Insurance” | Sponsored by AXA XL “Weathering Today's Property Claims Management Challenges” | Sponsored by AXA XL “Storm Prep 2024: The Growing Impact of Convective Storms and Hail” | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company “Partnering Against Cyberrisk” | Sponsored by AXA XL “Harnessing the Power of Data and Analytics for Effective Risk Management” | Sponsored by Marsh “Accident Prevention — The Winning Formula For Construction and Insurance” | Sponsored by Otoos “Platinum Protection: Underwriting and Risk Engineering's Role in Protecting Commercial Properties” | Sponsored by AXA XL “Elevating RMIS — The Archer Way” | Sponsored by Archer   RIMS Publications, Content, and Links: RIMS Membership — Whether you are a new member or need to transition, be a part of the global risk management community! RIMS Virtual Workshops On-Demand Webinars RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RIMS Strategic & Enterprise Risk Center RIMS-CRMP Stories — Featuring RIMS President Kristen Peed!   RIMS Events, Education, and Services: RIMS Risk Maturity Model®   Sponsor RIMScast: Contact sales@rims.org or pd@rims.org for more information.   Want to Learn More? Keep up with the podcast on RIMS.org, and listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.   Have a question or suggestion? Email: Content@rims.org.   Join the Conversation! Follow @RIMSorg on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.   About our guest: Jeff Strege, MBA, ARM, RIMS-CRMP, Sr. Director, Risk Management, Academy Sports + Outdoors   Production and engineering provided by Podfly.  

Dr. Fran Scott-Diehl, who embarked on her journey in the safety profession in the mid-1990s, initially intended to study architecture but was steered towards occupational safety and health by encouraging female professors. Her career began in claims processing, a role she found emotionally taxing, prompting her to transition to the utility industry and private sector positions, including at Sysco Foods and PODS. Dr. Fran underscores the necessity of establishing a robust safety framework, particularly when integrating new safety professionals lacking traditional backgrounds, emphasizing that effective safety leaders require strong interpersonal skills, curiosity, and a commitment to hard work. As an educator, she encourages upcoming safety professionals to be independent thinkers who challenge authority and innovate, while also highlighting the importance of self-reflection and self-care to prevent burnout. She advises safety professionals to prioritize nurturing themselves to enhance their leadership in the new year.Dr. Francene Scott-Diehl, PhD, MPH,CSP, CIT, CDSFranny the Safety Nanny Books

Send us a textJessica and Michael Garcia are a powerhouse entrepreneurial duo. They share a story of hard work, determination, and a passion for their craft. Both raised in the San Gabriel Valley, Jessica graduated from Alhambra High School, continued her education at Pasadena City College, and earned her bachelor's degree in Business Management from the University of Phoenix. Michael, a graduate of Monrovia High School, attended Citrus College before pursuing his culinary dreams at Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena.  The couple met in 2000 while working at Wells Fargo Bank, where their shared ambitions and dedication brought them together. They married in 2007 and began building a life that balanced corporate careers and family. Jessica climbed the ranks to become a branch manager, while Michael transitioned to culinary school and later worked for Sysco Foods.  In 2009, they embarked on a new chapter, welcoming their first child in 2010. Over the next five years, they grew their family to include four boys, including a set of twins. Juggling the demands of corporate life and raising four children under eight, Jessica and Michael realized they needed a bold change to create the life they envisioned.  In 2018, they took a leap of faith, quitting their corporate jobs, selling their home, and investing everything into launching their business, West Coast Cheesesteaks. Their dedication and risk paid off, as the restaurant quickly gained recognition, earning accolades such as being named one of Yelp's Top 50 Restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley twice, as well as one of Yelp's Top 100 Restaurants in Los Angeles County. The business has also been featured on prominent platforms like LA Eater, CBS Channel 2, KTLA 5, FOX 11, and ABC Channel 7.  West Coast Cheesesteaks represents more than just a business for Jessica and Michael; it is a manifestation of their passion for quality food, excellent service, and community. Their slogan, “Quality + Service = Excellence,” embodies their commitment to every aspect of their work. They view their employees as family and are passionate about mentoring them, teaching them the skills needed to run a successful business and navigate life's challenges.  Jessica and Michael believe that the growth of their employees directly impacts the growth of their business. This philosophy, coupled with their dedication to serving their community, staff, and customers, continues to drive the success of West Coast Cheesesteaks.  Through their inspiring journey, Jessica and Michael have created a thriving business while staying true to their values, proving that with courage, hard work, and a vision, anything is possible.___________________Music CreditsIntroEuphoria in the San Gabriel Valley, Yone OGStingerScarlet Fire (Sting), Otis McDonald, YouTube Audio LibraryOutroEuphoria in the San Gabriel Valley, Yone OG__________________My SGV Podcast:Website: www.mysgv.netNewsletter: Beyond the MicPatreon: MySGV Podcastinfo@sgvmasterkey.com

Jenn Harper is a beacon of innovation in beauty and philanthropy. She's not just a name in the beauty industry; she's a revolution. An award-winning social entrepreneur and international speaker, Jenn is the trailblazing founder and CEO of Cheekbone Beauty Cosmetics—a brand that has gracefully painted the ideals of sustainability and inclusion onto a global canvas. From its inception in 2015, Jenn has nurtured Cheekbone Beauty into a B. Corp Certified force, now gracing the shelves of Sephora Canada and 550 JCPenney locations across the USA. Jenn's journey with Cheekbone began as a digitally native, direct-to-consumer brand that took pride in its commitment to reducing environmental impact and supporting Indigenous communities. Her formidable leadership made sure Cheekbone stood out not only for its stunning products but also for its ethical backbone—it became a symphony of transparency, philanthropy, and support for women and youth. To date, over $250,000 have been donated to philanthropic causes, testament to Cheekbone's core values. Cheekbone's prestige has been hard-earned. In 2019, Jenn Harper made a confident appearance on Canada's Dragon's Den, the nation's equivalency of Shark Tank. While she turned down offers, her unwavering resolution steered Cheekbone towards exponential growth. Regularly sought after for her insights, Jenn weaves her narrative as both a woman and a representative of North America's Indigenous peoples, substantiating the importance of these values in today's business ecosystem. In 2022, she was listed among the 100 Women of Influence by Entrepreneur Magazine—a list graced by the likes of Jennifer Lopez and Kim Kardashian. And importantly, in 2023, Jenn was conferred an Honorary Doctorate degree from the Goodman School of Business at Brock University. This honorary degree recognized her unwavering dedication to community betterment and adamant endeavors in championing sustainability.In This Conversation We Discuss:[00:40] Intro[01:26] Shaping a business inspired by social impact[02:51] Navigating ecommerce highs of 2015 and 2016[03:55] Imperfect launches of chasing perfection[05:04] Balancing ideals with realistic beginnings[06:40] Validating ideas before building products[07:19] Growing customer loyalty with transparency[09:15] Shifting focus from story to product performance[10:08] Building customer trust through action[11:11] Connecting with communities for brand growth[13:07] Understanding customers for tailored messaging [15:35] Episode Sponsors: StoreTester and Intelligems[18:47] Using media opportunities to boost Ecommerce[20:45] Focusing on local markets before expanding[21:56] Inspiration from great company success stories[22:47] Rewarding customers during the holiday season[24:04] Preparing for successful product launches ahead[25:10] Crafting authentic and digestible brand narratives[26:04] Creating exclusive bundles from customer insights[27:40] Connecting customers to ethical beauty choicesResources:Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on YoutubeIndigenous owned cosmetics brand cheekbonebeauty.com/Follow Jennifer Harper linkedin.com/in/jenn-harper-0b200a23/Book a demo today at intelligems.io/Done-for-you conversion rate optimization service storetester.com/If you're enjoying the show, we'd love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!

This week on the Titans of Food Service podcast, Nick Portillo speaks with Mike Pilkington, CEO of KEY Sparkling Water, to discuss his diverse career journey from corporate management at Sysco Foods to entrepreneurship with Death Wish Coffee and now, KEY Sparkling Water. Mike shares insights on leadership, and resisting unionization, and underlines the importance of “beginning with the end in mind”. Listen this week as Nick and Mike discuss how strategic transitions within a company can lead to significant career advancements for entrepreneurs and the importance of surrounding oneself with like-minded and skilled individuals.Quotes"In entrepreneurship, bet on yourself, as the days of corporate loyalty are dwindling." -Mike Pilkington"To me, experiencing success is the first stage to be able to bring other people along with you." -Mike PilkingtonTIMESTAMPS(00:00) Mike Pilkington's Journey from Cisco to KEY Sparkling Water(04:41) The Journey to Sobriety and Its Unexpected Challenges(10:00) From HR to Sales Leadership at Sysco(12:12) Leadership, Change, and Personal Growth in Business(20:12) Entrepreneurial Journey from Coffee to Sparkling Water(28:18) Entrepreneurial Success Through Community and Self-BeliefRESOURCESPortillo SalesCONTACT Nick: nick.portillo@portillosales.com

Brace yourself for a gripping recount of heroism on the highway as we join the extraordinary team of Suburban Towing operators who've turned their day-to-day challenges into tales of bravery. Picture this: A tractor-trailer dangling precariously off a bridge, and the only thing standing between it and disaster is the skill and nerves of Stan Stanley, Jeff Edwards, Justin Shaper, and Jim Knight. Their meticulous planning and precise execution remind us that the unsung heroes of the road are more than just tow truck drivers—they are lifesaving operatives working against the clock. We delve into the heart-stopping moments of this rescue and celebrate the unsung heroes who keep our roads safe.Tune in for a rare behind-the-scenes look at how advancements in technology and training are reshaping the towing industry. Discover how a tight-knit collaboration among first responders leads to the seamless execution of complex recovery operations. Our guests from Suburban Towing, including seasoned pros and safety supervisor Jim Knight, recount a particularly nerve-wracking recovery involving a Sysco Foods delivery truck. You'll get an insider's perspective on the rigging process, the strategic placement of hooks, and the invaluable role of teamwork when the stakes are at their highest.As we wrap up another episode filled with heart-racing stories and professional insights, remember that your engagement fuels our efforts to shine a spotlight on these highway heroes. If you're moved by the courage and expertise showcased today, share your own stories by reaching out to our hotline—you might just be the next voice guiding our community. The road ahead is all about connection, learning, and most of all, safety, so buckle up and join us next time for more untold stories from the front lines of towing and recovery.

“It became this trifecta: gardens, farming and architecture. And then the pressure was on. We couldn't use food that we were buying from Sysco Foods, it had to be food off this property and food from the Rio Grande River Valley. The land was challenging us to do the right thing, the place was challenging us to do the right thing.” We're in great company with Matt Rembe, second generation Owner and CEO of Los Poblanos Historic Inn and Organic Farm, iconic for it's Santa Fe styled architecture and set in the heart of the Rio Grande River Valley amongst 25 acres of lavender fields, enormous cottonwood trees and lush formal gardens.  With a rich heritage and continued appreciation for sense of place, it has taken the Rembe family decades - since 1976 in fact when Matt's parents first purchased a piece of the property to raise their four children - to reunite the properties and undertake a preservation plan to maintain the architecture, gardens and open farmland in perpetuity.  Today, Los Poblanos is seen as one of the most magnificent stays in the Southwest given its family focused values, tenured community involvement, locally crafted design, regenerative agriculture, field-to-fork dining and artisan lavender product line.  In this episode, Matt shares what it was like to grow up on this land, how his time away always seemed to call him back home, and how now he is looking forward to passing this stewarding responsibility along to the next generation. Top Takeaways [1:40] Matt looks back on what he coined a “Huckleberry Finn childhood”, growing up as the youngest of 4, working the farm when told to, otherwise having fun getting dirty exploring the great outdoors.  [3:50] Los Poblanos was always much more than a farm to Matt's parents, Penny and Armin, once they discovered the historical significance of the buildings about the property originally designed by the “Father of Santa Fe Style” architecture, John Gaw Meem, dating back to 1932.   [8:00] Over the past 20 years Matt explains how his family took on the preservation of this property, starting as a 6 bedroom BnB to today, a multifaceted business boasting a 45 bedroom boutique inn, 25 acres of organic farms and formal gardens, artisan lavender product line, spa and wellness experiences, award winning casual fine dining, small batch distillery and craft cocktail bar, event space, retail shop and cultural programming. [16:30] Matt explains his love for his home state of New Mexico, while being one of the poorest states in America, it is one of the richest in culture and community, and Matt feels a real sense of responsibility in playing his part.  [20:40] When you look out at the sprawling lavender fields, taking in their aromatic scent and blue-violet hue, realize there is much more to these flowers - as biodynamic, organic, low water use crops that create value added products for economic development. [29:45] The intentional “Hide and Reveal” architecture and garden design of Los Poblanos is meant to evoke different feelings and heightened senses as you progress throughout the property's “Cultural Landscape.” [37:10] “What is the palette of the Rio Grande River? What is the flavor profile of this sense of place?” Learn how a collaborative effort by numerous Los Poblanos team members went into the distillation of their new western and lavender gins. [46:00] Physical wellbeing is engrained in the culture at Los Poblanos and guests can experience it through the Hacienda spa, lavender products, wellness activities and daily interactions with others about the property.  [51:50] It is a collaborative community affair to create the Rio Grande Valley Cuisine that is constantly evolving out of Campo's kitchen. [1:01:00] Los Poblanos is reviving their local communities by opening Town and Ranch in Albuquerque, and Farm Shop Norte in Santa Fe.  Visit For Yourself Los Poblanos Website @lospoblanos Los Poblanos Farm Shop  Use code FREEGIFTPC for a free gift with your Farm Shop purchase.

Tony Monaco began his keyboard life at age eight, on the accordion. When he was twelve, his destiny as a jazz organist was sealed when he first heard Jimmy Smith. An enthusiastic student, Tony began working in Jazz clubs as a teenager in his native Columbus, Ohio, guided by local organ gurus Hank Marr and Don Patterson. For further inspiration, he studiously absorbed the mastery of Jimmy McGriff, Richard "Groove" Holmes, Charles Earland, Jack McDuff, and Dr. Lonnie Smith. All would play a role in the development of his musical palette. On Tony's sixteenth birthday, his prayers were answered. He received an encouraging phone call from Jimmy Smith, who soon became his Mentor/Teacher. Four years later, Jimmy Smith invited Tony to play at his club in California--a peak lifetime experience for Tony. From 1980 to 2006, Tony stood by his family businesses and married to have three daughters, while running Monaco's Palace Italian restaurant for ten years while performing weekly in the lounge. Tony then entered the food brokerage industry peaking towards Torchbearer status with SYSCO Foods. Always inspired by music, Tony then went to work as an assistant Broadcast producer for a prominent ad agency learning his production skills and playing gigs at night to continue supporting his family. After graduating from college with a B.S.B.A. from Franklin University in 1989, Tony's occupation changed again to supervisor of Monaco Concrete (“my Father needed a good manager and my daughters were getting close to going to college!”). Tony now enjoys and concentrates on all his musical energies flourishing ultimately as he pursues his passions. In April 2000, Tony met fellow jazz organist Joey DeFrancesco, who offered to produce a debut CD for him. This collaboration resulted in the critically acclaimed "Burnin Grooves”. The international success of the recording served as the catalyst for regional and national tours. This success was followed by two more releases for Summit Records that received critical acclaim and significant sales, charting in the Jazzweek Top 10. In September 2003, Summit Records released "A New Generation”, a unique recording featuring both Tony's and Joey DeFrancesco's Trios. They recorded the project using two "Hammond-Suzuki New B3's" as Tony was awarded a major endorsement role with Hammond and Suzuki. As Tony's reputation has grown, he has been blessed to play with some of the greatest musicians in jazz, including Mel Lewis, Lewis Nash, Red Holloway, Plas Johnson, Sonny Fortune, Jon Faddis, Adam Nussbaum, Bruce Forman, Harvey Mason, Chester Thompson (drummer) Herlin Riley, Matt Wilson, Jeff Clayton, Terrell Stafford, Eric Alexander, Late Bobby Durham, Russell Malone, Peter Bernstein, Paul Bollenback, Bruce Forman, Kevin Mahogany, Victor Lewis, Pat Martino, Fareed Haque, and even George Benson. An ardent student of the organ, it's no surprise that Tony is an accomplished teacher as well. In addition to private students, classes and clinics, Tony has produced a series of instructional DVDs titled "Playing Jazz Hammond" that have quickly become indispensable for any serious student of the organ. Tony teaches Lessons online with a system he created giving lessons one on one online to anyone from anywhere around the globe! Presently, Tony maintains a busy schedule touring, including festival appearances, clinics, and workshops In 2007 he appeared on the cover of Keyboard Magazine. In April 2012, Tony released "Celebration Life * Love * Music, a two-disc set of all originals as he continues to Celebrate his Musical gifts and shares his skills with everyone. Tony's drive as an innovator and missionary continues to carry forward his passion for the Hammond Organ. Now Executive Producer of the Summit Records subsidiary Chicken Coup Records, he has recorded and released CDs for several undiscovered organists around the globe, and his role as an educator has allowed him to spread and cultivate many new hopefuls to the art of the jazz organ. In 2014 Tony released Furry Slippers with fellow guitarist Fareed Haque and Drummer Greg Fundis! Topping the Jazz and College charts and gaining several reviews! Tony continues his mission to raise awareness and appreciation of the jazz organ and its importance in genres as diverse as traditional Gospel, RnB, and Modern Jazz. He is formulating new strategies and record deals using his network through Chicken Coup Records to help himself and his peers and students advance in this ever-changing music market and utilize new technologies and markets. Tony is a vital source of musical experience, knowledge, and humility ready, willing, and able !!! In 2017, Tony celebrated a special anniversary, celebrating 50 years as a musician! In January 2019, Tony released his 11th Internation release "The Definition of Insanity" on his Chicken Coup Records label. He will be recording his second venture with Drummer great Steve Smith and Guitarist Vinny Valentino as Groove Blue Trio Tours Russia and Europe! Tony's looking forward to recording both new Instructional Vids as well as New Music while touring globally! In this episode, Altin shares his background, education, and musical journey.

In this week's episode, host Nick Portillo talks with Kristine Bowen, Regional President at Sysco Corporation in the Pacific Northwest. Kristine shares valuable insights from her time in foodservice and discusses the importance of trying different positions in your career to grow and open yourself up to opportunities. She also discusses why she believes leadership begins with listening and how leveraging the different skill sets of each team member can lead to greater success. QUOTES“If you want to continue to grow, do not just drive down the only lane you think you will be in. Shift gears and have a different perspective. You need to stretch yourself and try new things. It will get you noticed and build your portfolio for opportunity.” -Kristine Bowen [12:41]“Anybody can accelerate their career. They have to have personal drive, be willing to learn and be willing to listen. Listen. Learn. Leverage. Lead. Lead is last because if you listen to those around you and learn you are expanding your ability to succeed.” -Kristine Bowen [35:09]TIMESTAMPS2:15 Kristine's Background8:57 Kristine's Journey at Sysco Foods and How She Navigates Obstacles15:08 Sysco Pacific Northwest23:40 Leading with Empathy and Care29:05 Covid: Emerging Food Chains and Independent Restauranteurs34:47 Kristine's Advice for Accelerating a Career in the Foodservice Industry RESOURCESPortillo SalesCONTACTNick: nick.portillo@portillosales.comKristine: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristine-bowen-2118315/

Corey Perlman is a speaker, consultant and nationally-recognized social media expert. His latest book, Social Media Overload!, ranked #1 on Amazon.com in every major business category. Corey's spoken for brands such as General Motors, The PGA Tour and Sysco Foods on how to drive business results through social media. His company, Impact Social, Inc., employs a team of highly-skilled digital specialists that manage the social media accounts for over 40 businesses. When not working, Corey loves singing Jimmy Buffett lullabies to his young son and trying to overtake his adolescent daughter for the most Instagram followers. In this interview, Corey and Cindra discuss: The mental barriers that get in the way of using digital marketing What is means to be “Authentically Social” on social media Steps to being “Authentically Social” Tips to do social media your way Ways to find a balance on social media HIGH PERFORMANCE MINDSET SHOWNOTES FOR THIS EPISODE: www.cindrakamphoff.com/512 FOLLOW CINDRA ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/cindrakamphoff/ FOLLOW CINDRA ON TWITTER: https://twitter.com/mentally_strong TO REACH COREY: https://coreyperlman.com Love the show? Rate and review the show for Cindra to mention you on the next episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-performance-mindset-learn-from-world-class-leaders/id1034819901        

I am back with another episode!  Good to be here.  Today I discuss OTR pay vs Local pay and that OTR should pay more, way more.  The eCascadia is here and Sysco Foods is buying them.  What do you think about a truck with a range of 220 miles and 90 minutes to recharge to … Continue reading Trucking Answers | Trucking News | Automotive | A Reason we are not on Mars | #83 →

The 16:9 PODCAST IS SPONSORED BY SCREENFEED – DIGITAL SIGNAGE CONTENT The cannabis retailing industry is interesting in a whole bunch of ways. It is a unique vertical market with an absolutely screaming need for digital signage and interactive technologies. While longtime recreational users may know their stuff, as US states and Canadian provinces have legalized, there's a whole bunch of new users coming in with needs that have more to do with sleep problems or arthritic joints. They walk into dispensaries and are confronted with products and options that are somewhat or entirely unfamiliar, so screens that promote and explain are very helpful and relevant. The dispensary business is also interesting because the industry has its own overcrowded ecosystem of payments and management systems that need to somehow be tied together. The largest player in cannabis digital signage is the Bowling Green, Kentucky firm Enlighten, which is in some 1,200 dispensaries in the United States, I had a fun conversation with Enlighten founder Jeremy Jacobs, who found his way into digital signage when the clean energy business he was running went south in the late 2000s recession. He pivoted into screens in businesses, and menu displays for restaurants led to an opportunity to branch into cannabis retail. He's a super-smart, interesting guy more signage people should know about. Enjoy. Subscribe to this podcast: iTunes * Google Play * RSS TRANSCRIPT Jeremy, thank you for joining me. Can you give me the rundown on what your company does?  Jeremy Jacobs: Yeah, absolutely, Dave. Enlighten is the only real omni-channel company within the cannabis vertical particularly, and by omni-channel, we affect the customer journey throughout that entire customer journey. We have a product real quickly called AdSuite that targets people in a digital environment, whether it be mobile, Roku or even desktop computers based upon audience segmentation data we have, to know those are known cannabis consumers. And then we have our SmartHub product, which is an in-store product which is why we're here today, digital signage, kiosk related, and that product helps to upscale the customers that were brought in from the marketing from AdSuite. And this could be on menu boards, this can be on information displays, this can be on tablets, any number of things, right? Jeremy Jacobs: Yeah, so SmartHub is really unique. Even if you zoom out of the cannabis vertical and just look broadly at the digital signage industry, SmartHub is an extremely unique product that we created. It manages kiosks, it manages digital signage, all sorts of menus, feature boards, order queue systems, break room TVs, where the audience has shifted from a consumer to the actual employee. It uses extremely advanced logic and filtering with the point of sale data that it's consuming to make these things and even has an e-commerce component to it. So really the way to think about it is that SmartHub is an extremely robust merchandising platform that manages all of your consumer facing surfaces, whether that surface is a passive screen, an interactive screen, like a kiosk or even the webpage where someone would come to purchase and make an order on your website. And the cannabis industry is its own unique ecosystem, right? There's POS companies that only do cannabis business, and so on?  Jeremy Jacobs: Yeah, I would say there's no true word than cannabis is its own individual ecosystem. So as a veteran, not been in the industry quite as long as you but since 2008, I've seen a lot of things and cannabis extremely unique. So it does have all of its own tech stack companies for the most part. There are a few companies, Microsoft Dynamics makes a sort of a POS system that's been modified for cannabis. But outside, I'll see a Square every now and then, but for the most part 99.99% of all point of sales systems at a digital signage company would integrate with are extremely cannabis specific and they all compete for what is roughly 8,500 retail clients across just short of 40 states, and so to talk about the uniqueness, even in more depth, not only are the stacks different in cannabis than they would be outside of that, but all the individual laws and rules that apply very literally from state to state. So you even have state variances.  Why would so many companies decide, “I want to be in a space that's changing constantly and not all that big and in the grand scheme of what retail is”? Jeremy Jacobs: That's a great question. I think what your question was alluding to, there's the TAM, the total addressable market. You look at restaurants and there's literally hundreds of thousands of them, and I would argue there's barely as many POS companies in restaurants as there is inside of cannabis. And I think it's a couple of things. From an emotional standpoint, this is “the green rush” right? Any cannabis advocate that for the last hundred years that it's been illegal has felt violated by the error, has seensocial injustice from that. I believe there's an emotional component why a lot of these companies are there, a lot of these leaders are there. Second, there's a power vacuum that gets field when no one wants to go somewhere. So when you take a look at the cannabis industry, none of these major POS companies that we're referring to, none of them had any interest at all whatsoever in getting involved in cannabis. So the result of that is someone has to, and then the third prong, I think of this little fork here is that there is a green rush. The Anheuser Bushes of the world are about to be made of cannabis. There's very unique transactions, very unique audiences, and there's a lot of money to be made there. There's a lot of value and you can see companies that are in the space that make tech.  If you look on the internet, Weed Maps is probably the largest one, listed on the NASDAQ billion plus dollar company, recently Dutchie has made some announcements for billion plus dollar companies as well. So fortunes are being made even though the total addressable market is small. Yeah, I've always thought that the cannabis dispensary business was a particularly interesting one for digital signage, because unlike most retail where you walk into an apparel retailer, you know what you're looking for, clothes, I need a shirt or whatever. It's pretty obvious.  But if I walk into a cannabis dispensary, I'm pretty much lost. I don't know what I'm even looking at and all these different strains of flowers and buds and this and that. It is like Mars to me. But, and I suspect a lot of people walk in like that who maybe aren't recreational users, but want it to help them sleep or calm them down or whatever purpose they have for it? Jeremy Jacobs: Yeah, and so to drill into that observation you've made is really there's two kinds of consumers that very quickly develop in cannabis. There's the customer that you just described, which is a new customer, and there's a lot of those, because again, cannabis was technically illegal for about a hundred years. And so there's a huge amount of new customers that don't know anything, and so there's a massive educational vacuum there, and that's actually, Enlighten really started as we recognize that, and so we created an in-store digital out of home, a television network that runs ads for brands and things of that nature, endemic or non-endemic. We've got clients like Door Dash or Vans shoes or FX networks and their cannabis shows, but the content that's on that network is educationally driven specifically to satisfy that lack of education that you just talked about, and then on the other end of that spectrum, there are these clients that very much know what they want and precisely what they're looking for and those particular clients aren't looking for that same experience. They're looking for, digital menus that can be sorted based upon terpenes are based upon cannabinoid profiles so the highest THC value, they're looking for is express checkout kiosks, so they don't have to have an interaction.  So uniqueness of the cannabis dispensary from a digital signage perspective is you have to create digital environments that satisfy both of those polar opposites.  I gather when you were talking about omni-channel that it's really important or helpful to a company playing in this space to be able to serve multiple needs and to integrate with the other technologies that are part of the ecosystem. If you just did digital signage, it's a walled garden thing where you're going to get much better reception for many users, whereas you can provide multiple components, right? Jeremy Jacobs: Oh, absolutely. I've been in a lot of industries. The restaurant space was the first one. I was really into digital signage. Sysco Foods started slinging my digital menus for me, and like things 2009 and their 30 different offices and so I got to see a lot of things there. But in the first week in cannabis, eight years ago, the word integrate came up like 40 different times within an hour, and so I've never seen an industry that's so demanding of integrations. Like for example, you walk into a restaurant and any number of restaurants and you look over by the hostess stand and there's the DoorDash tablet, and there's a GrubHub tablet, and there's a Postmates tablet and there's all these tablets. And so the hostess is watching these orders come in and then they're putting them in their POS system. That would never fly in the cannabis industry, like it's a demanded integration by these people, and so if you're going to create an integration engine, you're going to want to make it have more points of influence than just a TV menu, you're going to need to provide that e-commerce plug and you're going to need to provide those kiosks. You're going to want to link up with their customer data for targeting those customers, on their mobile devices. You're exactly right, if you're going to be relevant in cannabis, your stack better be serious because they're trying to reduce that vendor set to if they could just one, nobody does all of it, but they want to reduce that number to the smallest possible. Is that in part, because it's a younger buyer audience who understands technology more and didn't grow up in kind of old style restaurants or whatever, where there were all these different systems?  Jeremy Jacobs: Interesting thing you said there,t because it's a younger buyer, so that was very true eight years ago. But at this point, that is not the truth at this juncture. So just a few years ago, I think it was two and a half years ago, the fastest growing segment of users shifted from 20 year olds to middle-aged mothers and it was the fastest growing audience, and then over the last few years, what has really been the fastest growing audience has actually been elderly people. It seems like they're starting to come to grips with, “Hey, I have pains and aches and cannabis is actually the solution”, and so it's a big growing segment.  But I think the answer to the question that you did ask is why is there this desire for a consolidation of a tech stack more than anything.  Yeah, I was thinking more of the operators that tend to be younger. Maybe that's not the case?  Jeremy Jacobs: Same thing at this point, it's not the case now, it's weird. So it was the case before, a hundred percent because who was willing to take that risk to get in the weed business, and so a hundred percent, but now I'm sitting in meetings with digital officers and marketing officers from Abercrombie and Apple, and they came from big organizations and so it's a very changing landscape.  But at the end of the day, I think that some of them are young, so yes, to your answer, very good observation. Second is the ones that aren't young are professionals, and they're used to dealing with that. But thirdly, I think for both of them, the demand of tech stack is necessary because the regulations and the data that they have to send back to the state agencies and authorities and all of those sorts of things and the compliance they have to undergo is worse than any other industry ever. Like they're under so much scrutiny and you could lose your license at the drop of a hat, and so they want less to deal with so they can focus more on staying in business.  Does that touch on your platform and what you do? Do you have to have a Nevada version of it and a Colorado version and I forget where else it's legal, California, obviously. But do you have to pass them out state by state or is it pretty uniform? Jeremy Jacobs: Great question. So the technology itself is the same across all the states. AdSuite is AdSuite and SmartHub is SmartHub, but there are definitely nuances. So let me give you a couple of interesting examples in the state of Pennsylvania, you're not allowed to put anything up on a screen from a digital signage perspective, unless absolutely it has been medically proven. And so it needs to come from a doctor or some position, a medical authority, and in Alaska, for example, they don't believe anything has ever been proven by a doctor or medical authority and so you can't put anything up that even closely resembles a recommendation. So there's two polar opposites. So from a content perspective, I gotta watch those things. From an advertising perspective. Some states, even though it's cannabis, won't let you show pictures of weed in the advertisements. Go figure that out. How do you advertise weed without showing weed? You can't show people consuming the product in a lot of states with advertisements. So there's another nuance, and then a third nuance is like in Pennsylvania, what I'm able to put on a digital menu is very specific and I cannot put any imagery into one thing, and I have to, I'm required to put certain testing results, similar to the way in the restaurant industry. Now everybody went digital whenever they were required to put the calorie count for these items, and that's when you saw this massive uprising in digital cause they got to replace all this stuff anyway, might as well go to the screen, and in Pennsylvania, I got to put things like that, testing results.  What's the content that seems to be required across all the different dispensaries, kind of the money messages that need to be there, and the operators want to have up there? Jeremy Jacobs: Yeah, so from a TV menu perspective. We'll start with our that's the most largely adopted digital signage product ever and so the TV menu, what's necessary is the name of the products, the type of the product, the weight of the product, the price, the product, but really importantly, people want to know about cannabinoid profiles, is this high or low in THC? The psychoactive ingredient that gives you the feeling of a high, is it higher, lower in CBD, which is the non-psychoactive ingredient that really focuses a lot on pain, arthritis and inflammation and things of that nature, muscle pain. So consumers sort of demand that, operators want to provide that. And from an educational perspective, if you're talking about a different digital signage product and just more like digital signage, we're producing educational videos, the demand really is around education of what are these different terpenes, what are these different cannabinoids, these little things inside of the cannabis that creates different effect for each strain, like this one makes me sleepy, this one makes me energetic, this one's great for back pain, and so that's the demand from a regulatory standpoint of pretty much the only uniform thing that I can't really do is show anything that's cartoonish that might want to lure children into the store.  There was a big problem with packaging for edibles for a while there, right? Jeremy Jacobs: It was, they've got sour patch kids on the box, and the first versions of edibles were very kid friendly because they took kids candies and made them, and now that's pretty much been regulated out. So the same thing, that same sort of concern with the packaging that you pointed out with edibles is also a concern in digital signage and even digital advertising. So if I'm targeting a mobile phone, even though I'm targeting a known cannabis consumer, just stay away from anything that might be alluring to children. So if I'm a customer of Enlighten, is it a SaaS platform that I am using?.  Jeremy Jacobs: Yeah, so the two products are different. The SmartHub is the in-store signage, kiosk, kind of technology that manages all of that and talks to your POS system. That is definitely a SaaS product. As far as pricing models, there's been a lot of those in digital signage, our kiosk system is one price for your entire store and use as many as you want. Our signage model is the same as anyone else's, per node. SaaS model on our AdSuite product, though that is a SaaS product, if you will, it's a piece of software that gains you access to those audiences on our DOH network and in stores, as well as, digital Roku devices, mobile devices, desktop computers but that's driven just like any other digital advertising model would be external on a cost per impression basis. What's the footprint for your company at this point? Jeremy Jacobs: So we've reached a really interesting crossroads, very few companies in cannabis have ever got over that thousand mark. Right now, I would estimate we're in probably roughly 1200 dispensaries, somewhere thereabouts and then have several hundred other clients that are brands and so forth so our footprint reaches to about 1500 or so clients, big number and a TAM of 8,500, if you look at it that way.  And this is an industry that like more and more states seem to be coming on stream, or at least there's a push to bring them on stream. So it's not like it's a finite market right now? Jeremy Jacobs: Yeah. So that's part of the growth. When we're assessing growth, there's a couple ways to look at it. One is how we can get more money out of the existing customers and that's to offer premium versions of our products, additional services that might be out there that we could focus on. But also there's just the overall growth of the entire market itself, and there's a couple of phases of that. The first phase is for the state to go medical. So now, they can be a client of ours. But typically, we find the greatest traction in the states once they go recreational because what happens is their revenue growth is astronomical.  People don't appear to want to go to get a medical license nearly as easily as just walking in a dispensary. So whenever they go recreational, they buy a lot of other products from us and really focus on that retail environment and creating a magical experience for those recreational customers. So really there's two phases, medical, and then recreational. But right now you're looking at cannabis in almost 40 states at a medical level roughly 10 or so at a recreational level. I'm averaging there, the number changes. I haven't kept track of it in a minute, but to give you an idea of growth, there's about 10-12 to go to medical and then there's the vast majority or 80 plus percent that are not yet recreational. So a lot of growth in them.  Are you up in Canada as well?  Jeremy Jacobs: We are. So it's a lot of challenges working inside cannabis, anybody's ever nailed internationally. You have to have your own bank accounts, your incorporations, your teams up there. It's hard to import hardware products, and as a company, we do also provide the hardware. So that has its own challenges, but we do operate in Canada. We've got some systems in Puerto Rico, which is a US territory.  Jamaica, we send some things too. We have some plans we're brewing up. Spain has a pretty good sized cannabis market and so we're looking internationally there because the challenge is the same. People don't understand cannabis, they need education. That's the same worldwide. It's been illegal globally, for a hundred years.  How did you get into it? You mentioned that your first foray into digital signage was restaurants for Sysco, how did you end up in this?  Jeremy Jacobs: So in 2008, I started a company called IconicTV, and it's had many offshoots with verticals. I've been one of those guys when I see a vertical, I'd make a very precise product. We helped build a C-store DOH network called C-store TV. We had a school product called, school menu guru. We had a lobby product called lobby Fox, it does visitor management and so one of those products we noticed early on was digital TV menus, and so in 2009, I formed a deal with Sysco foods and they have 30 offices across the country that would distribute my digital signage, digital TV menu products to their restaurant tours. And so I hired these vice presidents in each of those areas to partner with those offices as Sysco calls an opco, and so Sysco would have reps and my reps would go do ride alongs, and so they would ride along with these representatives and go in and meet these restaurant tours at work and stuff. One of them, the guy in Denver, Colorado, Ted Tilton's name? So Ted called me one day and this is right before cannabis goes legal in Colorado, which was the first state to legalize recreational cannabis, Washington and Colorado voted on it basically at the same time. But Colorado was the first actually who implemented, and he calls me, he says, Hey man, I got this idea and I said, what is it? He goes, these TV menus we're selling through Sysco. I said, yeah, he goes, what do you think about making some for marijuana? I said, what are you talking about? And he says I've got these buddies opening this dispensary called DANK, and it'll be the closest dispensary to Denver International airport and I got this feeling as soon as weed was legal in Colorado, a lot of people are going to be coming into DIA and this place is going to be really busy since it's the closest one, and he says, and I was like, what would be the difference? And he said, essentially we put up marijuana buds instead of chicken sandwiches. And I said, I'm in. I've been a big advocate of cannabis for a long time. At one point, I was even the executive director of Kentucky NORMAL, the division of the national organization for marijuana legalization. It's the Kentucky chapter. I've been a big advocate of it. I've been a self prescribed patient for many years. It was an interesting opportunity to take a couple of things I was very passionate about both cannabis and digital signage and went to do some real work on two things I care about. So we dove in.  Has the profile of the operator changed?  I remember talking to another person who's involved in this space and actually being out in Denver and he was saying that there's two types of operators. There's a business people who see this as a growth opportunity, and they've already had some experience in retail or in investing or whatever, and then there's growers and growers who are turning into retailers and he said the challenge with the growers as they're growers, they're not business people and they don't really understand retail, and I'm curious if in the early days you saw a lot of them stories of dispensaries that would start up and then drop off because they didn't really know what they were doing?  Jeremy Jacobs: Yeah, and I'll take that example. Your friend gave you a pretty good insight there, but to expand on that, I don't even think it's just growers though. It's I think just very weed passionate people, like they're very passionate about it. Whether it's consuming it or making concentrates or growing it or whatever. So I would just call them plant passionate people versus business people, and it very much exists, and it doesn't today to the degree that it used to. In the beginning, someone that's a senior executive vice president of Abercrombie is not going to go start a dispensary, like during the first couple of years, we were all wondering if everybody opened these things, were all gonna go to jail. I'm sure everybody in America is going everybody in Denver is going to do it, just wait, and if all my friends at open dispensaries were sitting around, I would have conversations with the night and they're like, I'm just wondering if tonight, the DEA raids my house, and so nobody wanted to be under that scrutiny except plant passionate people. But as time got on and the federal government sorta started to take a position, even if the position was, “we don't have a position”, that's still a position, and so they're not taking an aggressive stance on it then you began to see real business people start to come into the environment and at this point, you have organizations like Cresco who just bought Columbia Care, and these operators have over a hundred stores and they're doing hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars in retail cannabis sales. These are not the type of marijuana dispensary that I think most people have in their mind. These people have entire floors of IT teams. They have entire floors and marketing teams. They do in-depth customer insight studies, and that influences every tiny nuance of their packaging and their store layouts. These are real operations, but I can still take you to Oregon right now and  walk into the shop or Nancy and Megan who are best friends and they have tie-died things up on the wall and they're very whimsical people that are just very passionate and who also have a successful sotry. Now they're not going to sell hundreds of millions of dollars to cannabis, but they're also successfully operating.  Think of it like liquor, for example, Liquor Barn exists and that's a big corporation. But, in the town I live in, everybody wants to go to Chuck's Liquors when Chuck was alive, because Chuck was just the coolest guy ever. So you went to Chuck, so they both have a place.  Yeah, I've certainly seen the same thing. I remember being an Amsterdam for ISE and, you'd stick your head into one of these coffee shops, and it was just a hole in the wall and weird but out by the hotel where I was staying, there was a dispensary that looked like an Apple store, like it was very slick.  Jeremy Jacobs: Interesting you say that. So there's this place called Euflora and Jamie Perino was one of the owners at the time and it's at the 16th street walking district in downtown Denver. This is the big street with the old piano outside and everybody wandering around a very touristy area and so we did the first project for them that I remember getting a call from them and they're like, “Hey, we open in 11 days and we've got this crazy idea where there'll be a touchscreen kiosk and it's sitting next to a jar of marijuana, and this kiosk has all this interactive stuff on it with everything about that strain of marijuana. We needed in our stores in 11 days. Can you guys do it?” And they said, oh yeah, and our budget is X, and I just laughed, and I said X is missing a couple of zeros, especially for 11 days, what are you talking about? And they're like, can you do it or not? And I said I can, but I shouldn't but I'm going to, and so we did, because we wanted to be part of the exposing of this whole thing. And so we took it on, and so when you would first walk on your floor, you can dig up some old video files from the news channels from eight years ago, it very much looked like an Apple store cause we had Apple iPads on every table next to a jar of marijuana and you can scroll up and down and see what the euphoric effects would be and does it make you sleepy, happy, hungry, horny, what's it going to do? And, in what genetics, where did it come from? And just all this interesting stuff, and people would come into that store fascinated, and so it was very Apple-esque.  How did you end up in digital signage? Cause I was looking at your bio and you've got patents in Magneto, hydrodynamics for energy exploration, drilling and everything. How did you get here?  Jeremy Jacobs: What the hell happened? Early in life I realized I didn't really like formal education. So I think I'm like nine hours from a college degree, but I dropped out and became entrepreneurial. So I became an investment broker and I worked on several different fundraising deals, most of them were driven around biodiesel. That was very active at the time when I dropped out of college, nearly two thousand, biodiesel was a thing, a lot of different technologies. And very quickly I got interested in alternative energy technologies and energy efficiency technologies, and just anything that was energy related, and technology related, and so I had an operation with about 20,000 acres of natural gas wells in Eastern Kentucky that were clean natural gas wells using advanced technologies like hydraulic fracturing. I started inventing Magneto hydrodynamic technologies that's used by Chevron and Exxon and people that. It goes down in oil wells. It's used to eliminate paraffin and that technology has now been adopted by the DoD to make airlines, to make fighter jets fly farther because the fluid systems flow better and a lot of different things, and then 2008 came, so I own a quarry, that's mine and silica for Silicon to make marker processors, and I got a bunch of natural gas, wells and magnetic technologies, and 2008 comes, 2007 comes, the housing crisis collapses, everything and natural gas went from about $14 in MCF, which was a vast majority of the revenue that we were driving to like a dollar and a half in MCF, which is the unit that you produce and sell for, it stands for thousand cubic feet, and I needed $3 to make that make sense, right? And now it's at a dollar and a half. So I went from really cash flow positive to a hundred percent cash flow negative and just a matter of months. And on top of that, when you own a bunch of quarries, nobody's buying any materials, and so I look up and literally everything I'm involved in just all of a sudden is collapsing and I don't have the payroll to make payroll for this massive bunch of employees. We had several offices in different parts across the country. And surely it was excruciatingly painful fast. Everything had to close, and so here's, here's the reality. I'm at home depressed out of my mind. I've just had to lay everyone off. I've had to shut in all these gas wells. I've had to lock the gates on all these quarries and nobody wants to talk about anything, everybody's going broke and my wife comes to me and she says, you've got to do something. We have kids we have to feed, we have bills we have to pay. You cannot sit here and be depressed, and I had seen somewhere I think it was in a mall. A friend of mine had built a TV screen, turned sideways, and it had Adobe Flash player on it, and it was playing some animated motion graphics that he controlled on a desktop PC inside this big kiosk and I thought I could do something similar to that, and so I literally grabbed a 32 inch Vizio TV out of my living room. My wife goes, where are you going with my TV? I said, I'll bring it back to you. I'll see you in a week, and she goes, you are leaving with the TV for a week? I said, yeah, and you'll get a bigger one, I promise, and I grabbed the Toshiba laptop that my field hands that would go around, they had to log what parts they use and how long they were on job sites and stuff, and I grabbed one of these old stinky laptops that smells like crude oil and hung it in a friend of mine's restaurant in Clarkson, Kentucky. It was called K's cafe and it was political season, and so I'm going to tell a story about myself here, Dave, and so I go around and build these very animated PowerPoints and I'm changing the files out via LogMeIn at the time. I didn't even have any software, digital signage software. I didn't even know about the digital signage thing. And so I'm like, I gotta sell ads on this thing, so I go to this guy that's running for sheriff, and I told a little white lie. I was like, Hey man, the other guy that's running for sheriff, he's buying in on my screens. It's in the most high traffic restaurant, and apparently legally, I've got to offer you the same opportunity at the same price. He goes, why what's he paying? And I told him, he goes, I'll take it, and so then I went to the guy that I just told a white lie and said, this other guy is buying. It was, which was actually true the second time. That's how I got started, I had to feed my kids. I had a 32-inch Vizio TV and a busted up laptop and I sold some people aspiring to be politicians, some ads and some real estate agents, and it just grew from there. I look up and I'm in hundreds of restaurants and fitness centers with the DOH network and six months later, a friend of mine says, Hey, can you use one of those silly ad TVs and make a menu on it because the price of salmon keeps fluctuating so much. I got to put these mailbox letters, and so we made, which was one of the early digital menus. I think we'd both agree, 2009-2009 was not the dawning moment of digital menus. It wasn't the precipice of it. That was very early. And so we started using those and saw opportunities to replace those little black felt directories with the letters you run out of the M, and so you flip the W upside down, it's all bow legged looking, on the little felt boards. We started making digital directories integrated with Google sheets, so you could change it easily and the rest was history, man. I dove in and needless to say, the kids are fed now. The wife is happy. She got a bigger TV. I think it's 70 inch now. So everyone's cool.  That's a hell of a pivot.  Jeremy Jacobs: Yeah, buddy. Necessity is the mother of invention.  All right. This was terrific. I really enjoyed our conversation. Jeremy Jacobs: Yeah, man. I was going to start off this morning saying longtime listener, first time caller. I've been watching your website, your blog, your podcast for as long as I can remember. So it's been an honor to finally get to be a part of it, and I really appreciate it.  Thank you for taking the time with me. Jeremy Jacobs: I thank you, Dave.

What does it mean to scale or partner with people continuously growing on a more significant level? Live from the Inside Self-Storage (ISS) World Expo 2022 in Las Vegas, Herby Bowman joins us in our booth to briefly talk about Store Space's journey and success stories. Scalability is the theme, and we got you covered.WHAT TO LISTEN FORNon-traditional ways of structuring dealsStore Space's value proposition in the marketThe entrepreneurial side of self-storageNext-level play, geography wise The importance of delegation and focusing on one's strengthsRESOURCES/LINKS MENTIONEDChis Harris https://www.linkedin.com/in/harrisstorespace/Rob Consalvo https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-consalvo-16a7474/iStorage https://www.istorage.com/ABOUT HERBY BOWMANHerby has been successfully growing brands for decades. In the mid-'90s working with hospitality brands like Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Ramada, and more recently with Choice Hotels' brands. He has had success in many areas. He has closed well over 100 hotel deals with brands like Comfort Inn & Suites, Days Inn, Sleep Inn, MainStay Suites, and Suburban Extended Stay Hotels and has helped these systems grow into the ubiquitous names they are today. June 2019 brought new challenges in the self-storage sector, promoting Public Storage's newly created Third Party Management Platform. In late 2021, he joined Store Space Self Storage to guide their growth and development efforts.  Since graduating from the University of Tulsa in 1991, he has flourished in brand development and product promotion. Beginning his career at Sysco Foods, he quickly moved into hospitality product sales, working for Guest Supply. While at Guest Supply, he led the charge to build the amenity program for Guest House International. After a stint in Franchise Development with HFS (now Wyndham), the world of pharmaceuticals beckoned. He spent several years promoting brands for Johnson & Johnson, Bayer, and Roche. Before returning to Franchise Development, he earned the coveted “CMR,”  Missing the art of the large deal, he then transitioned back into the realm of Hospitality Franchise Development. Working with Choice Hotels International since late in 2007, I earned six consecutive President's Club Trophies and was awarded two prestigious “Deal of the Year” awards. Currently, he is Store Space Self Storage's Vice President of Strategic Partnerships.CONNECT WITH HERBYWebsite: https://www.storespace.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/herbebowmanjr/Email: hbowman@storespace.com CONNECT WITH USWebsite: https://www.selfstorageinvesting.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/selfstorageinvestingTwitter: https://twitter.com/SelfStorageGuyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottameyers/Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/SelfStorageInvestingInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/self_storage_investing/

Chef Ojan Bagher from Houston, Texas shares with us some of his favorite things and what drives him as the Culinary Specialist for Sysco Foods.  How does an Iranian background influence Chef Ojan's culinary passion?  Lastly, is Chef Ojan's Jeep better than the one I used to own?

North America?s largest wholesale food distributor, Sysco Foods, recently had to stop delivering food to some of its customers because it did not have enough workers. That this giant of food could not deliver leads us to ask:

Understanding today's job market can be challenging. In this interview, Anu Aduvala gives us insight into what you need to do to succeed. Anu is a Senior People Leader and has held leadership positions in sales, operations, training and contact centre management at various organizations, including Toronto Parking Authority, Sysco Foods, Cooperators Insurance, WIND Mobile.   In this episode, Anu shares her insights on: What's changed in today's job market What leaders are looking for in a remote employee Why being a good communicator is a must To learn about Anu Aduvala, visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/anu-aduvala/ Want to get more responses to your online job applications? Register for our free 1-hour online training below to create a master resumé that converts job applications to job interviews?  https://bit.ly/cjspwebinar If this episode resonates with you, then remember... SUBSCRIBE • COMMENT • SHARE this Podcast!! 

How to Avoid Social Media Overload

Bio: Greg Wells is a performance physiologist, a scientist, an athlete and an author. He is the CEO and founder of Wells Performance, a global consulting firm on a mission to elevate how we live our lives at work and in life.  He has worked with some of the highest-performing individuals on the planet, including Olympic and world champions and elite organizations including General Electric, BMO, Deloitte, KPMG, BMW, Audi, Sysco Foods, YPO and Air Canada.Topics covered in this episode:Life changing morning routinesHow to stare down a rhinoWhat's happening in the brain of high performersTips and tools for a healthier lifeThe science of 'walking in nature'Gregg's Website:https://drgregwells.com/ 

Sharon Holand Gelfand, CN, FDN-P, is a functional, holistic nutritionist, speaker and author. She has worked with a wide variety of clientele, ranging from speaking at Fortune 500 companies including Priceline and Sysco Foods, to female entrepreneurs who feel like their bodies are betraying them, and are tired and frustrated, and are searching for answers. Sharon helps her clients get to the root of their most common health complaints with at home testing and flexible food choices so they have more energy, less stress and feel great again. When Sharon’s son was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, it was a wake-up call: everything she thought she knew about food and health was wrong. She was motivated to change careers and received a masters in clinical nutrition and recently published her book: “The G.U.T. Method ®: Secrets Beyond Your Plate For A Healthier, More Energetic Life.”Sharon is a member of the American College of Nutrition and is a Board Certified Holistic Health Practitioner.

For Dr. Greg Wells, health and performance, particularly under extreme conditions, are personal and professional obsessions. As a scientist and physiologist, he has dedicated his career to making the science of human limits understandable and actionable. For over 25 years, Greg has worked with some of the highest-performing individuals on the planet, including Olympic and World champions, and with organizations ranging from General Electric to BMO, Deloitte, KPMG, BMW, Audi, Sysco Foods, YPO and Air Canada. He is also committed to inspiring children and young adults through his close working relationship with several school boards and independent schools.With a Ph.D. in Physiology, Greg continues to serve as a Senior Scientist in Translational Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He is the CEO and founder of Wells Performance, a global consulting firm committed to achieving the moonshot of helping teams, schools and businesses become places where people get healthy, perform optimally and reach their potential, and is author of four best-selling books, including the recently published Rest, Refocus, Recharge. https://drgregwells.com/ Check out the new app: https://viiv.ioGet the latest issue of BrainFirst Applied Neuroscience Magazine https://www.mybrainfirst.com/brainfirstmagazineInstagram for quotes & tips: https://www.instagram.com/mybrainfirstFacebook for insights and strategies: https://www.facebook.com/brainfirstConnect with me:https://www.instagram.com/ramondavidneuroBrainFirst Training Institute. Accredited neuroscience and brain-based training programs for Coaches, Helping Professionals, Leaders, Educators and Trainers. https://www.brainfirsttraininginstitute.com

For Dr. Greg Wells, health and performance, particularly under extreme conditions, are personal and professional obsessions. As a scientist and physiologist, he has dedicated his career to making the science of human limits understandable and actionable. For over 25 years, Greg has worked with some of the highest-performing individuals on the planet, including Olympic and World champions, and with organizations ranging from General Electric to BMO, Deloitte, KPMG, BMW, Audi, Sysco Foods, YPO and Air Canada. He is also committed to inspiring children and young adults through his close working relationship with several school boards and independent schools.With a Ph.D. in Physiology, Greg continues to serve as a Senior Scientist in Translational Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He is the CEO and founder of Wells Performance, a global consulting firm committed to achieving the moonshot of helping teams, schools and businesses become places where people get healthy, perform optimally and reach their potential, and is author of four best-selling books, including the recently published Rest, Refocus, Recharge. https://drgregwells.com/ Check out the new app: https://viiv.ioGet the latest issue of BrainFirst Applied Neuroscience Magazine https://www.mybrainfirst.com/brainfirstmagazineInstagram for quotes & tips: https://www.instagram.com/mybrainfirstFacebook for insights and strategies: https://www.facebook.com/brainfirstConnect with me:https://www.instagram.com/ramondavidneuroBrainFirst Training Institute. Accredited neuroscience and brain-based training programs for Coaches, Helping Professionals, Leaders, Educators and Trainers. https://www.brainfirsttraininginstitute.com

For Dr. Greg Wells, health and performance, particularly under extreme conditions, are personal and professional obsessions. For over 25 years, Dr. Wells has worked with some of the highest-performing individuals on the planet, including Olympic and World champions, and with organizations ranging from General Electric to BMO, Deloitte, KPMG, BMW, Audi, Sysco Foods, YPO and Air Canada.   He is also committed to inspiring children and young adults through his close working relationship with several school boards and independent schools. A veteran endurance athlete, Dr. Wells has participated in the grueling Nanisivik Marathon 600 miles north of the Arctic Circle, Ironman Canada and the Tour D'Afrique, an 11,000 km cycling race that is the longest in the world.   Dr. Wells has a Ph.D. in Physiology, and continues to serve as a Senior Scientist in Translational Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

As a scientist and performance physiologist, Greg has dedicated his career to exploring and researching human limits and making that science understandable and actionable. He served as a tenured Associate Professor of Kinesiology at the University of Toronto. He is currently a scientist in Translational Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children, where his research is focused on improving outcomes in children with chronic diseases via physical activity. As part of his academic life, he's published over 60 papers in scientific journals and raised over $1 million for research. He has worked as the Director of Sport Science for the Canadian Sport Centre where he acted as a physiologist for more than 200 international level athletes. As much as knowledge creation has been a big part of his life, making science actionable is equally important for him. He has written 3 bestselling books - Superbodies, The Ripple Effect, and The Focus Effect. He loves public speaking and has presented to audiences all over the world at events such as TEDx and The Titan Summit, sharing the stage with Richard Branson, Steve Wozniak and Deepak Chopra. Perhaps the most fun he's ever had professionally was as the sports science analyst and host of the Gemini Award-winning Superbodies series for CTV at the 2010 and 2012 Olympics. Greg Wells is also the CEO and founder of Wells Performance, a global consulting firm on a mission to elevate how we live our lives at work and in life. He has worked with some of the highest-performing individuals on the planet, including Olympic and world champions and elite organizations including General Electric, BMO, Deloitte, KPMG, BMW, Audi, Sysco Foods, YPO and Air Canada. In addition, he is also committed to inspiring children and young adults, working with school boards and independent schools around the world. www.samdemma.com

For Dr. Greg Wells, health and performance, particularly under extreme conditions, are personal and professional obsessions. As a scientist and physiologist, he has dedicated his career to making the science of human limits understandable and actionable.On September 25th, our CEO, Leon Goren spoke to Dr. Wells who offers dozens of insights about what it takes to perform at a high level in very challenging circumstances. He translates complex science into actionable insights and tactics you can use to optimize mental health and navigate the COVID19 environment. Dr. Wells teaches our audience how to leverage proven techniques and technologies to achieve peak performance and optimal health. This in-depth presentation covers topics ranging from mental and physical activation to optimizing brain function. It's a session you won't want to miss as we explore the following:What it takes to be ultra healthy and perform in the 1%How to rise above mental and emotional exertion What athletes do in high stakes, high pressure situations, when the end is no where in sight, and translate that to what CEOs and business leaders should be doing to achieve a similar level of mental toughnessOUR KEYNOTE SPEAKER:Dr. Greg Wells, CEO & founder of Wells PerformanceFor over 25 years, Dr. Wells has worked with some of the highest-performing individuals on the planet, including Olympic and World champions, and with organizations ranging from General Electric to BMO, Deloitte, KPMG, BMW, Audi, Sysco Foods, YPO and Air Canada. He is also committed to inspiring children and young adults through his close working relationship with several school boards and independent schools.A veteran endurance athlete, Dr. Wells has participated in the grueling Nanisivik Marathon 600 miles north of the Arctic Circle, Ironman Canada and the Tour D'Afrique, an 11,000 km cycling race that is the longest in the world. He is also a travel and expedition adventurer who has journeyed through every imaginable terrain and conditions in over 50 countries around the world.Dr. Wells is author of four best-selling books – Superbodies, The Ripple Effect, The Focus Effect and Rest, Refocus, Recharge. He also hosted the Gemini award-winning Superbodies series, which aired on Olympic broadcasts worldwide in 2010 and 2012.Dr. Wells has a Ph.D. in Physiology, and continues to serve as a Senior Scientist in Translational Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.He is the CEO and founder of Wells Performance, a global consulting firm committed to achieving the moonshot of helping teams, schools and businesses become places where people get healthy, perform optimally and reach their potential.

In this episode we discover some secret sauce in logistics.  Ron Wittebort, VP of Operations at Alphabroder shares his insights regarding managing logistics and building solid carrier partnerships.   We also talk about Sysco Foods and share experiences when Ron managed carrier relationships for a $50B company.  That's some spend!  It wasn't easy and there were challenges.  He learned a great deal and was kind enough to share his business insights into some supply chain secret sauce. About Us: http://www.supplychainsecretsauce.com• Subscription Based Supply Chain Consulting • We are Supply Chain Rapid-Scale Experts! We repair, strengthen and bulletproof supply chains for companies growing at an exponential pace 2x+• Small to midsize companies: $1M to $1B in sales, we augment your Supply Chain needs. Supply Chains... ”The Secret Sauce" to business PodcastThe goal of the show is to help new leaders of supply chains by sharing practical experience from seasoned leaders in supply chain.   From Startups to leadership skills, to practical solutions to everyday problems... we focus on real issues & interesting stories.Wade Wickus is a professional speaker and is available to speak with your team, your company or event.  PLEASE SUBSCRIBE.  Share this with people who may have interest in supply chain and if you are interested in being on the show, please reach out to me at:  info@supplychainsecretsauce.comWEBSITE: https://www.supplychainsecretsauce.com/pages/podcastDonations: If you like this show and you feel grateful, please consider making a contribution by clicking on * SUPPORT THE SHOW  * below.  website: https://www.supplychainsecretsauce.com/pages/podcastSupport the show (https://paypal.me/WadeWickus)

For Dr. Greg Wells, health and performance, particularly under extreme conditions, are personal and professional obsessions. As a scientist and physiologist, he has dedicated his career to making the science of human limits understandable and actionable. For over 25 years, Greg has worked with some of the highest-performing individuals on the planet, including Olympic and World champions, and with organizations ranging from General Electric to BMO, Deloitte, KPMG, BMW, Audi, Sysco Foods, YPO and Air Canada. He is also committed to inspiring children and young adults through his close working relationship with several school boards and independent schools.With a Ph.D. in Physiology, Greg continues to serve as a Senior Scientist in Translational Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He is the CEO and founder of Wells Performance, a global consulting firm committed to achieving the moonshot of helping teams, schools and businesses become places where people get healthy, perform optimally and reach their potential, and is author of four best-selling books, including the recently published Rest, Refocus, Recharge. https://drgregwells.com/Get the latest issue of BrainFirst Applied Neuroscience Magazine https://www.mybrainfirst.com/brainfirstmagazineInstagram for quotes & tips: https://www.instagram.com/mybrainfirstFacebook for insights and strategies: https://www.facebook.com/brainfirstConnect with me:https://www.instagram.com/ramondavidneuroBrainFirst Training Institute. Accredited neuroscience and brain-based training programs for Coaches, Helping Professionals, Leaders, Educators and Trainers. https://www.brainfirsttraininginstitute.com

For Dr. Greg Wells, health and performance, particularly under extreme conditions, are personal and professional obsessions. As a scientist and physiologist, he has dedicated his career to making the science of human limits understandable and actionable. For over 25 years, Greg has worked with some of the highest-performing individuals on the planet, including Olympic and World champions, and with organizations ranging from General Electric to BMO, Deloitte, KPMG, BMW, Audi, Sysco Foods, YPO and Air Canada. He is also committed to inspiring children and young adults through his close working relationship with several school boards and independent schools.With a Ph.D. in Physiology, Greg continues to serve as a Senior Scientist in Translational Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He is the CEO and founder of Wells Performance, a global consulting firm committed to achieving the moonshot of helping teams, schools and businesses become places where people get healthy, perform optimally and reach their potential, and is author of four best-selling books, including the recently published Rest, Refocus, Recharge. https://drgregwells.com/Get the latest issue of BrainFirst Applied Neuroscience Magazine https://www.mybrainfirst.com/brainfirstmagazineInstagram for quotes & tips: https://www.instagram.com/mybrainfirstFacebook for insights and strategies: https://www.facebook.com/brainfirstConnect with me:https://www.instagram.com/ramondavidneuroBrainFirst Training Institute. Accredited neuroscience and brain-based training programs for Coaches, Helping Professionals, Leaders, Educators and Trainers. https://www.brainfirsttraininginstitute.com

As a scientist and performance physiologist, Dr. Greg Wells has dedicated his career to exploring and researching human limits and making that science understandable and actionable. He has a PhD in respiratory physiology and is currently a scientist in Translational Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children, where his research is focused on improving outcomes in children with chronic diseases via physical activity. Greg has written 4 bestselling books: Superbodies, The Ripple Effect, The Focus Effect and his latest- Rest, Refocus, Recharge. He loves public speaking and has presented to audiences all over the world at events such as TEDx and The Titan Summit, sharing the stage with Richard Branson, Steve Wozniak and Deepak Chopra. Greg is also the CEO and founder of Wells Performance, a global consulting firm on a mission to elevate how we live our lives. He has worked with some of the highest-performing individuals on the planet, including Olympic and world champions and elite organizations including General Electric, BMO, Deloitte, KPMG, BMW, Audi, Sysco Foods, YPO and Air Canada. In this episode, Greg and I discuss: * Why rest and recovery are key for high performance * How COVID-19 is gifting us the chance to slow down * The de-load phase * The positive sides of self-isolation * Different brain wave states * Being busy vs. being productive * Asking yourself “what do you want?” * Defending yourself and your time relentlessly * Metacognition for awareness of how we think * Why, what and how * Taking unplugged vacations * Cultivating creativity * Why nature sparks ideation * Using our devices intentionally * Attention as the currency of our era * How Greg uses social media * Epic adventures Learn more about Greg and Wells Performance: drgregwells.com Find Dr. Greg Wells on Instagram: @drgregwells Find him on Twitter: @drgregwells Check out his latest book: Rest, Refocus, Recharge

Due to the government shutdown of restaurants and bars, we’d like to use our platform to bring our industry together for the purposes of solutions, shared ideas and community.  In a virtual town-hall format, we speak with about 10-15 leaders in the community such as: Lynn Minges of the NCRLA, to Chefs Teddy Diggs, Beth Littlejohn, Jake Wood, as well as Russell Solovay and Brian Hudson of Sysco Foods, Melissa Katrincic of Durham Distillery, Kevin Barrett of Dram & Draught, Chris Roche of Triangle Wine Company, Candice Herriott of Something ELSE About Food, Forrest Mason, Kristin Baughman Taber of Tabletop Media and David Shaner of Offline Media, Trish Wytek and the Professor and Mary-Ann... here on the NC F&B Podcast! ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Follow the show and hosts at & Support our Sponsors: ! https://www.folksfoundation.org Our newest sponsor ! Join up with their services and receive a free 60 day grace period and only 1.9% of sales after that! https://proofalcoholicecream.com Triangle Wine Company Use promo code 'NCFB' at checkout! The NC F&B Podcast is Produced and Engineered by Max Trujillo of Trujillo Media For booking or questions about the show, contact: max@ncfbpodcast.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hospitality industry veterans, Max Trujillo and Matthew Weiss, get behind the scenes of North Carolina's burgeoning food and beverage culture. Hear from local chefs, sommelier's, distillers, farmers, brewers and the whole lot of them in the NC F&Bpodcast. Max is a front-of-house veteran/sommelier that moved from Los Angeles to North Carolina in 2013. Since moving to North Carolina, he's run restaurants, designed wine programs and builds craft cocktail menus and now produces multiple podcasts. Matthew is a certified sommelier from New York. His experience ranges from restaurant/bar to importing some of the finest wines in the world. He moved his family to North Carolina four years ago and works as a wine distributor. For questions, comments and booking, contact us at Eat & Drink Merrily!

This week on the podcast, our guest is Dr. Greg Wells!

Dr. Wells is a health and performance expert, scientist and physiologist. He has dedicated his career to making the science of human limits understandable and actionable. For over 25 years, Dr. Wells has worked with some of the highest-performing individuals on the planet, including Olympic and World champions, and with organizations ranging from General Electric to BMO, Deloitte, KPMG, BMW, Audi, Sysco Foods, YPO and Air Canada. A veteran endurance athlete, Dr. Wells has participated in the grueling Nanisivik Marathon 600 miles north of the Arctic Circle, Ironman Canada and the Tour D’Afrique, an 11,000 km cycling race that is the longest in the world.  Dr. Wells is author of three best-selling books: Superbodies (Get it here: https://amzn.to/2Ss7xZr) The Ripple Effect (Get it here: https://amzn.to/2YkSKF7 Focus Effect (Get it here: https://amzn.to/2St9PHy) In this episode, we talk to Dr. Wells about his advice on how to level up our lives. He gave many great insights! Don’t miss them.    

Corey Perlman is a speaker, consultant, and nationally-recognized social media expert. His latest book, Social Media Overload!, ranked #1 on Amazon.com in every major business category.  Corey’s spoken for brands such as General Motors, The PGA Tour and Sysco Foods on how to drive business results through social media. His company, Impact Social, Inc., employs a team of highly-skilled digital specialists that manage the social media accounts for over 40 businesses. When not working, Corey loves singing Jimmy Buffett lullabies to his young son and trying to overtake his adolescent daughter for the most Instagram followers.        In this episode, Karen and Corey discuss:  Success Story of Corey  Commit to Get Leads  Make your website match the search words on Google. Focus on terms, words, and phrases that people are actually searching on Google.  Consult to Sell  Do a digital audit of your business. Navigate yourself around the web and see if there are holes in your game.  Connect to Build and Grow  Before you decide where to plant your social media flag, narrow down who your customer is, and try to meet them where they are spending the most time.  Success Thinking, Activities and Vision  When you post to social, ask yourself, “what would be of value to my community”.   Sweet Spot of Success        "You don’t want to be a Google ghost town for your own name. That starts to poke holes in your credibility."- Corey Perlman        *5 Minute Success - Listener Giveaway*   Want his presentation slides for Avoiding Social Media Overload? Simply email Corey (corey@impactsocialmedia.com) and he'll email you a link with the slide deck. It will have strategies and best practices for seeing real results from your social media marketing. A gift from Corey to you for listening to the 5 Minute Success Podcast!            Connect with Corey Perlman:      Twitter: @coreyperlman  Website: ImpactSocialMedia.com  Email: Corey@ImpactSocialMedia.com  Book: Social Media Overload! Simple Social Media Strategies for Overwhelmed and Time Deprived Businesses  LinkedIn: Corey Perlman  Instagram: @cperlman        About the Podcast     Join host Karen Briscoe each week to learn how you can achieve success at a higher level by investing just 5 minutes a day! Tune in to hear powerful, inspirational success stories and expert insights from entrepreneurs, business owners, industry leaders, and real estate agents that will transform your business and life. Karen shares a-ha moments that have shaped her career and discusses key concepts from her book Real Estate Success in 5 Minutes a Day: Secrets of a Top Agent Revealed.      Here’s to your success in business and in life!        Connect with Karen Briscoe:     Twitter: @5MinuteSuccess  Facebook: 5MinuteSuccess  Website: 5MinuteSuccess.com  Email: Karen@5MinuteSuccess.com     5 Minute Success Links     Learn more about Karen’s book, Real Estate Success in 5 Minutes a Day     Karen also recommends Moira Lethbridge's book "Savvy Woman in 5 Minutes a Day"     Subscribe to 5 Minute Success Podcast     Spread the love and share the secrets of 5 Minute Success with your friends and colleagues!       Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.   

This CX Mini Masterclass explains the role of change management in customer-centric business transformation, and why CX practitioners need to hone their skills in this competency. Special guest and CX thought leader Diane Magers provides an overview of change management and some of the most popular frameworks. Julia shares her plans for future topics and more guest experts.       Insights from a special guest Diane has been part of the CX movement since the get-go. She was one of the founding members of the CXPA, and served for 3 years as the association’s interim CEO. After guiding the association through a critical time in its evolution, she announced that the would be moving on to focus on her CX advisory practice, Experience Catalysts. Leveraging expertise gained through holding senior CX roles at blue chip organizations such at AT&T and Sysco Foods, she helps organizations realize customer-centric transformation. To learn more about Diane's work as an expert business advisor, speaker and facilitator, connect with her via LinkedIn.   Diane Magers CCXP   CX is change management Organizations are ill equipped and unprepared to make the changes needed for customer-centric transformation to be successful. For established businesses, the scale of change is massive. Diane speaks about this as a "level 3" change, which is more akin to transformation than a simple process change (aka "level 1"). CX professionals need to be thinking about the intention and planning of CX initiatives, as well as the bigger picture of sustaining change to core structures within the operating model. Within this context, CX professional must become adept at change management, but this is a new discipline for many. The good news is that change management is an established field of work and there are many models that CX professionals can call on. Diane shared a few of these change management models with listeners: Kurt Lewin's model - This approach suggests change through specific phases involving, "unfreezing", changing and then "re-freezing" John Kotter's model - This popular approach involves 8 steps to change, starting with creating a sense of urgency and ending with instituting change Prosci's ADKAR model - This approach includes 5 steps for facilitating change: awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' model - Best known for her work on death and dying, Kuber-Ross' approach can also be applied to how we understand the emotional response to change Diane stresses that regardless of which model you chose to use, just be sure to have a plan. Focus on the "why" and accept that change needs to be intentionally managed or it won't stick. Change plans should be living. As organizations evolve, the change plans should also adapt.   Want to keep learning about CX? If you’d like to checkout more of these CX Mini Masterclasses or listen to my longer format CX expert interviews, check out the full listing of episodes for this CX podcast. And if you are looking to super-charge your CX skills and continue learning, be sure to check out CX University. They have a great array of CXPA accredited training resources available on a flexible monthly subscription plan. Use the code PODCAST10 to get 10% off your first month’s subscription and support this podcast. Decoding the Customer is a series of customer experience podcasts created and produced by Julia Ahlfeldt, CCXP. Julia is a customer experience strategist, speaker and business advisor. She is a Certified Customer Experience Professional and one of the top experts in customer experience management. To find out more about how Julia can help your business achieve its CX goals, check out her customer experience advisory consulting services (including customer insights, CX measurement, leadership alignment and CX change implementation) or get in touch via email.   

Join the gang as they announce next week's movie as well as try to discover why Dave hates Sysco Foods so much

047: Authentically Social Media with Corey Perlman   As the owner of Impact Social Media, Corey Perlman is at the forefront of digital marketing for over 10 years. He started his career with the eCommerce Division of General Motors, before launching his consulting and speaking business in 2009. Since then, he's worked with such notable brands as Sysco Foods, The American Healthcare Association, Dale Carnegie Training and The PGA Tour.   Aside from goofing off, Corey and David discuss having an authentic social media presence, his new book in the works, and going from running workshops to keynotes and managing an agency.   In This Episode, You'll Learn…   Potential directions for Corey's new book Publishing his first two books Strategies to getting butts in seats for workshops Your champion customers = Your salesforce Value of training workshops Transition to keynote speaking Benefits of creating a relevant secondary revenue source Changing the company name Becoming a team manager and valuing your team Utilizing Upwork and Fiveer for your business Personalizing your social media presence   Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode   Corey's Website Impact Social Media Corey on Facebook Corey on LinkedIn Upwork Fiverr Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative

With an increasingly software-based value chain, Sysco Foods has been aggressively moving its infrastructure to AWS in a bid to maintain competitive position against digitally native rivals. Critical to this transition has been a holistic agile and DevOps transformation, which has accelerated cloud adoption through an IT product, platform, and service team structure specifically designed to automate and consume AWS services. In this session, we share the key lessons learned on how agile transformation can accelerate AWS migrations, and the implications of cloud enablement on IT organizations, talent, and culture. This session is brought to you by AWS partner, Deloitte Consulting LLP.

Philip VanDusen is sharing his years of brand design experience on YouTube, and doing so with much success. He has served as VP of Design at Pepsico and Old Navy and Executive Creative Director the global branding agencies Landor Associates and Anthem Worldwide. He’s helped Fortune 100 companies create and revitalize brands, identities, websites, e-commerce platforms and launch new products and businesses. Among his past clients are Procter & Gamble, Gap, Inc., Kraft Foods, Merck, Sysco Foods, GE Honda Aero Engines, Petsmart, National Geographic, Safeway, Chevron, Avery Dennison, and Levis Strauss & Co. In this 2nd appearance on the podcast, Philip shares insights, tips and advice on building a YouTube channel. He also shares examples of how others are using YouTube to make shifts (aka pivots) in their personal brands. To date Philip has 130K YouTube subscribers, and it seems he’s just getting warmed up. You may want to take notes. SHOW NOTES PhilipVanDusen.com Youpreneur Philip VanDusen’s YouTube Channel Philip’s brand • muse Newsletter Website Copy That Converts – How to Create a Customer Journey Brand•muse Interview w/Lee Jackson Philip Interviews Amy Landino Chris Ducker Libsyn John Lee Dumas TubeBuddy Lee Jackson, Agency Trailblazers Vlog Like a Boss by Amy Schmittauer Related Episode – How Philip VanDusen Got His First 10k Email Subscribers RESOURCES DIY Referral Group Email Course (FREE) ConvertKit Email Marketing Software Web Hosting by Dreamhost

Entrepreneur, author and nationally recognized digital marketing expert. Owner of eBoot Camp, Inc., a team of highly-skilled digital marketing specialists who manage the social media accounts for over 40 companies. Social Media Overload, his latest book, is an Amazon.com bestseller in every major business category. Top-rated keynote speaker for companies big and small, including Sysco Foods, Dale Carnegie, KTM Motorcycles, Medical Solutions and more. Proud member of the National Speaker’s Association (NSA) and a Dale Carnegie High Impact Presentations Graduate. A native Floridian, fan of small batch bourbons and father of two small children he is desperately trying to keep off of Instagram and Snapchat.

In this session, we detail Sysco's journey from a company focused on hindsight-based reporting to one focused on insights and foresight. For this shift, Sysco moved from multiple data warehouses to an AWS ecosystem, including Amazon Redshift, Amazon EMR, AWS Data Pipeline, and more. As the team at Sysco worked with Tableau, they gained agile insight across their business. Learn how Sysco decided to use AWS, how they scaled, and how they became more strategic with the AWS ecosystem and Tableau. Session sponsored by Tableau

I met Scott when I first moved to Nantucket. I was managing the Nantucket Ice Cream/Juice Guys shop on the Straight wharf. He was my Sysco Foods delivery guy. I was always blown away by how intense his job was. I finally had the chance to tell a little of Scott's story. Enjoy, I did!

Paul Cross is the founder and head grower of Charybda Farms in Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico. He grows organic heirloom hothouse tomatoes, microgreens, flowers, and herb and vegetable transplants, irrigated from rain catchment in a region with an average of 12″ annual precipitation, an 87 day growing season, at an elevation of 7,300 feet. His work in innovative sustainable agricultural techniques has been recognized in American Vegetable Grower, New Mexico Magazine, Edible Santa Fe, and many other publications. His products, marketed under the brand name of Chef’s Edition, are distributed by Sysco Foods, Whole Foods Market, and many smaller retailers. This episode has been brought to you by Hearst Ranch. “When I built the first greenhouse [on Charydba Farms], I designed a system that would catch all of the rainwater off the residential house, as well as the greenhouse. So in an area where we only get twelve inches of rain, we can capture 45,000 gallons in an average year.” — Paul Cross on Greenhorn Radio