Innovation City

“Stop selling, starting helping. What is it that you could do right at the beginning to help me [the user]?” — Mike Grehan   Today’s guest is Mike Grehan, CMO & Managing Director at Acronym. Acronym - Search Agency of the Year - is the largest independent global search engine marketing firm. Mike sits down with the team today to discuss how he got started with search engine optimization, the most important SEO tools, AI’s increasing connection with SEO, understanding the buyer journey, creating useful content instead of just creating content for the sake of it, and more!

“Grow 1% better every single day. That’s it. What is one new tip that I can try out or learn?” — Morgan Ingram   Today’s guest is Morgan Ingram, Director of Sales at JBarrows Sales Training. Morgan is one of the top 50 sales leaders to follow on LinkedIn and his work has been featured in Forbes, Sales Hacker, HubSpot Blog, and Harvard Business Review. JBarrows Sales Training is an online and in-person professional sales training and coaching company. Morgan sits down with the team to discuss the importance of personal branding, learning to effectively communicate with your audience, filling the sales education void on YouTube, the changing ways of selling and how to keep up with it, how to attract a good salesperson, and much more!

“When you get empowered, you get energized. So I say, grow everyone you do business with.” — Tim Sanders   Today’s guest is Tim Sanders, New York Times Best Selling Author & CEO of Deeper Media Inc.. Tim is the author of five books, including the New York Times bestseller, Love is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends. His publications have over one million copies in print. Deeper Media is a research and consultancy firm that serves leading global brands, government agencies, and trade associations. Tim sits down with the team to discuss how he started writing his first book, his advice to people wanting to write their own book, the importance of sharing your intangible assets and not becoming scripted in scarcity, and how to feed your favor economy.

“At the end of the day, you live and die by the value you create for your customers.” — Mark Young Today’s guest is Mark Young, CTO & Head of Product at The Climate Corporation. The Climate Corporation is focused on helping farmers get their data in one place, uncover valuable field insights, and optimize their inputs. Mark leads the development of a unified technical vision, architecture, and roadmap to help Climate deliver an industry-leading digital agriculture platform. Mark sits down with the team to discuss mixing his agriculture and technology backgrounds with Climate, the importance of identifying your customer’s pain points, how ag-tech companies are helping to create better crop yields, new ag-tech that Climate is working on, and much more!

“You need to figure out what are the core steps along your journey to helping you overcome the main challenge and make sure that what you do create really helps somebody.” — David Adkin Today’s guests are Ben Haefele & David Adkin, Co-founders at Foundry. Foundry is a platform that makes creating apps easy by making the building of software accessible to anyone. Ben and David created Foundry under the belief that anyone should be able to make an app, regardless of technical skill. In this episode of Innovation City, Ben and David sit down with the team to discuss the “Why” behind creating Foundry, the importance of figuring out the buyer journey, knowing when to edit yourself when it comes to user features, the questions to ask yourself before creating an app, and much more!

“We always wait for the perfect time to go do something. There is no perfect time. There is no magical amount of money to have saved in the bank and make sure everything aligns.” — Hajj Flemings Today’s guest is Hajj Flemings, Founder & CEO of Rebrand Cities. Rebrand Cities is a national civic design and brand project dedicated to helping 10,000 small business get into the digital marketplace. Hajj sits down with the team to discuss his goal of getting 10K small businesses online, the misconception that you have to have everything perfect before becoming an entrepreneur, his challenges in working with so many small businesses, his advice to small businesses for branding, and much more!

"A business without a community is a business of your own. A business with a community is a business for all." — Olamide Adeboye   Today’s guest is Olamide Adeboye, Founder & CEO of Wakava Food & Beverage. Wakava is an organic health conscious company that provides better-tasting, healthier food and herbal drink options by using herbs from Africa. Olamide joins the team to discuss creating Wakava to bring healthier food and drink options from Africa to St. Louis, his challenge of breaking into the St. Louis business community on his own, building a community before building your business, his entrepreneurial drive to always want to work for himself, and much more!

“Even if you love a product or love the idea of a product...you can always go to it later, but the business has to be viable and you have to have the foundation first.” — Elizabeth De Zulueta   Today’s guest is Elizabeth De Zulueta, CEO of Zulubots, Inc.. Zulubots is an engineering company that focuses on robotics and automation systems. Elizabeth grew up having two parents who were engineers. Watching them create new technologies and machines cultivated her own passion for creating something useful from nothing. Elizabeth sits down with the team to discuss how she became passionate about engineering and robotics, learning how to pivot your business in order to keep it viable, helping local businesses and communities, her experience being a part of an accelerator, and her focus to build and manufacture in Miami.

Being perfect is not the goal and it’s actually setting the bar pretty low for yourself. — Junior Lara   Today’s guest is Junior Lara, Host of Auténtico Podcast. Auténtico showcases bilingual Latinx professionals and small business owners through shared stories and lessons learned. Junior sits down with us to discuss starting the Auténtico podcast, creating connections within the Latinx community in St. Louis, the city’s changing view of the Latinx community, using the podcast to help Latino entrepreneurs scale their businesses, how to push through negativity to continue focusing on your goals, and more!

“Discover your own story, because you have one and you’re projecting it whether you think you are or not.” - Lee Broughton   Today’s guests are Allison Babka and Lee Broughton from the STLMade movement. STLMade is a movement that wants to help establish St. Louis’ narrative through storytelling and shining a light on the innovators, thinkers, doers, & makers in the St. Louis region. Allison is a St. Louis-based award winning journalist and copywriter. Lee has 20+ years in brand marketing. Together, Allison and Lee are sitting down with us to discuss what the STLMade movement is all about, using storytelling to demonstrate how individuals are torch bearers in the work they are doing, working towards establishing a discourse for how to project St. Louis’ perception, launching the movement on 314 Day, and much more!

“The only constant in growing an entrepreneurial venture is change. Change is the only constant in a growing business.” — Chad Bernstein   Today’s guest is Chad Bernstein, CEO & Co-Founder of Guitars Over Guns. Guitars Over Guns is a nonprofit that offers students from disadvantaged backgrounds a powerful combination of music education and mentorship with professional musicians. Chad is one of South Florida’s premier Latin, jazz, & funk artists with a doctorate degree in musical arts. Chad joins the team to discuss the limited access to music for students, using your unique skill set towards improving social impact, the value of mentorship and not being afraid to learn from others, music being able to address and bring inequalities in society to light, and much more!

I learned very young how to get creative with very limited resources … if you can channel that same creativity, you can have everything you need to start a business. — Felecia Hatcher-Pearson   Today’s guest is Felecia Hatcher-Pearson, Author & Co-Founder of Code Fever. Felecia is on a mission to rid communities across the globe of innovation deserts by working with community leaders and government officials to create inclusive and diverse tech/startup ecosystems. She is also a White House Award winning entrepreneur, bestselling author, and globally sought-after speaker amongst a plethora of other things. Felecia sits down with Innovation City to discuss how to get creative when you have limited resources, learning to market yourself for what you’re good at, starting Code Fever and Black Tech Week, Miami’s diversity and inclusion issues, and much more!

[The minority deficit] is not necessarily a matter of capacity or smarts...it’s access. And once you start to provide access to people that have had to be more resourceful … they can go to new heights. — Dominick Ard’is Today’s guest is Dominick Ard’is, Founder and CEO at ACT House, INC. ACT is a 12-month residential accelerator designed to provide entrepreneurs a leg up in team formation. As a self-described facilitator of human potential, Dominick has a passion for helping organizations and the people that empower them to grow. Dominick sits down with the team to discuss the ACT House and its mission, the importance of creating inclusive and diverse teams, the lack of resources minority groups are forced to combat, leaving the corporate world to get back into his community, and much more!

It doesn’t matter whether you’re an entrepreneur or small business owner, you need to know the latest in digital [marketing] and social media. — Perry Drake, PhD   Today’s guest is Perry Drake, PhD, Professor of Digital and Social Media Marketing at UMSL. University of Missouri St. Louis (UMSL) is the largest university in St. Louis, and the third largest in Missouri. Perry has been teaching marketing and digital media at the university level for over 20 years and is also the founder of MDMC, the Midwest Digital Marketing Conference. Perry sits down with the team to chat about the importance of staying up to date on the latest marketing news and trends, what it takes to put on the MDMC event, how A.I., A.R., and voice activation technology will soon take over, and personal data security and regulations in today’s age.

You have to be willing to trust yourself, gamble on yourself, try things, fail publicly and graciously, and then learn from that. — Rebecca Fishman Lipsey   Today’s guest is Rebecca Fishman Lipsey, Founder & CEO of Radical Partners. Radical Partners is an accelerator for social-impact ventures based in Miami, FL. Rebecca joins the Innovation City team to discuss why she started Radical Partners, how they are helping new ventures in Miami, starting projects to help ignite social change, the scarcity mindset in Miami, and how to think about what your business needs to look like to be successful.

Investors (most of the time) will forgive inefficiencies ... but you have to establish interest and you have to be more disciplined. — Allan Daisley   Today’s guest is Allan Daisley, Managing Director at Startupbootcamp Digital Health Miami. Startupbootcamp is a global entrepreneurial support organization that focuses on mentorship, seed investment, scale programs, & innovation programs. Allan sits down with us to talk about what Startupbootcamp does, how to find product-market fit, the crowded healthcare industry, new medical technologies, and Miami’s potential for elevating its prominent industries.

If you fail at something and have a transferable piece of knowledge out of it to take with you to your next gig...that’s a different type of failure- it’s a transferable failure. — David Karandish Today’s guest is David Karandish, Founder & CEO at Jane.ai. Jane.ai is a technology company that focuses on making all company intelligence accessible to employees. David has worked in the tech industry for over 17 years, but has always had a passion for creating things since his adolescence. Currently, David is on his 8th startup venture. David joins us today to discuss his entrepreneurial journey, his AI company, Jane.ai, helping students to learn about technology, working in the nonprofit sector, and much more!

Art doesn’t change lives, but great art does. — Olga Granda   Today’s guest is Olga Granda, Executive Director at Colony Theatre | Miami New Drama. Olga a is a multi-disciplinary cultural entrepreneur with deep roots to Miami and the art community. Miami New Drama is a non-profit organization that focuses on theatrical excellence and theater-making as a means of social engagement, cultural conversation and human interaction. Olga sits down with us to discuss Miami New Drama and their mission, the use of theater as a tool for storytelling about Miami’s history, working within the community to tell stories of local and national relevance, upcoming shows, and much more.

It’s important to help them [employees] understand the role they play in the company today and in the future. — Greg Hewitt   Today’s guest is Greg Hewitt, CEO at DHL Express (U.S.). Greg has over 25 years of experience in the corporate world and has been with DHL for 17 years. DHL is a leading international postal and logistics company with over 10,000 employees in the US. Greg sits down with the Innovation City team to discuss his involvement with entrepreneurship, using technology as an enabler to grow, finding joy in helping others, and creating a feedback culture.

There is something that causes you to get your butt out of bed and put your feet on the floor ... what is it that causes you to take that next step ... and do it day after day.  — Travis Sheridan   Today we are sitting down with President of CIC Venture Cafe Global Institute, Travis Sheridan, to take a look back at all of the amazing and unforgettable interviews from our Miami, FL shows in 2018. From CEOs, to startup entrepreneurs, educators, artists and more, the Innovation City team has been able showcase how people from all backgrounds come together through Venture Cafe.