McKenzie Bauer is one half of the married duo founder team at Utah icon Thread Wallets. With classic startup beginnings – picture them sewing in the parent’s basement, McKenzie is anything but your typical founder. Join us for one of the most authentic and refreshing Influence podcasts yet. McKenzie gets real about everything from mental health to thoughts on the future. For Thread, this is a time of great excitement as they’ve just close on their first large commercial building and have embarked on the monumental task of renovating it. McKenzie and her husband, co-founder Colby Bauer are deeply committed to their Provo roots and infusing Thread with purpose and meaning – think indoor skate park and their foundation “Carry On!” Join us to hear McKenzie’s inspirational journey and perspective.
Allison Roberts embodies the drive and intensity so often associated with successful entrepreneurs. Leveraging out of the industry learnings (when you shiver you burn calories) and applying it cross industry, she’s created an easy path for anyone to engage in regular exercise. Fastercise is a disruptive approach in the crowded genre of app-based exercise focusing on quick bursts of movement. Unlike HIIT style training, Fastercise is accessible to all ages and ability levels. Join us to hear about Allison’s passion and gritty founder journey to bring this unique and powerful product to market.
Misty Frost has emerged as a voice for authentic leadership. She’s an a-typical Utah native with an East Coast vibe and dry wit that kept us laughing. Her experience runs deep and wide as a marketing and leader for several successful companies. As the SVP of Global Marketing on the Instructure rocket ship she helped navigate a successful IPO. She currently serves as CEO for Penn Foster post the Carrus acquisition. Misty also serves as an advisor and board member to several tech companies here in Silicon Slopes. She was named to Utah Business Magazine’s 2021 list of Women to Watch. We will be watching and, in this case, listening to Misty’s unique perspective and treasure trove of expertise!
By Karey Barker’s estimation, she’s only had one job in her entire career. When you found and lead a successful venture firm, you need not apply elsewhere! Garrett sat down with the Cross Creek founder and Managing Director in her Research Park office for a fun and fascinating look at her 25-year journey. Tune in to hear how she got her start, how she navigates the intense world of venture investing and who’s influenced her success. She also shares her wisdom and philosophies on all things venture, her risk appetite and investing philosophies. We are thrilled to showcase Karey's unique perspective.
A HUMBLE VISIONARY: OUR TALK WITH DAVID WRIGHT, CEO OF PATTERN
In this Influence Podcast, we have the pleasure of talking with David Wright, the Co-founder & CEO of Pattern. Pattern was a small startup in 2013 but is now recognized as the leader in “growth intelligence” that is helping leading e-commerce brands dramatically increase their online sales.
David Wright and Melanie Alder started Pattern in Melanie’s living room. And as we listened to David describe those humble early years as well as the growth and success that Pattern now enjoys, we had the sense that they never really cared about following the crowd.
Pattern is the world's leading company for e-commerce clients that want intelligent strategies that create explosive growth. It’s also a company attracts smart people who are, like David and Melanie, confident in a humble kind of way. The culture and vibe at Pattern is noticeably understated and refreshingly different.
This is the story of two ingenious founders who had the discipline to rely on data and analytics to build an e-commerce platform that brands like Nestle, Panasonic, Sylvania, TUMI, Skullcandy, and Clorox now rely on. We hope you enjoy the unique insights that make David Wright a humble visionary in the sophisticated ecosystem known simply as “e-commerce!”
“FOR EVERYONE’S PITS & STINKY BITS” – A PODCAST WITH LUME
In this Influence Podcast, we get to peer into the creative world of Dr. Shannon Klingman, a highly regarded obstetrician and gynecologist, and Jennifer Gibson, her CAO, sister, and earliest supporter. Shannon Klingman is the visionary entrepreneur who created a whole new category in the multi-billion-dollar personal hygiene sector.
It all started when Shannon was doing her residency and read a study that supported her early suspicions that gynecologists misdiagnosed basic odors and itches as bacterial infections. The study findings concluded that 60% to 70% of the time the OB/GYN community was wrong. In Shannon’s words, “It felt wrong.”
Crazy smart and obsessively determined, Shannon began experimenting with natural ingredients, free of aluminum and baking soda. A self-described “kitchen scientist,” she developed what she would call Lume (pronounced loo-mee). Version 1.0 of the most innovative natural deodorant ever created was created in Shannon Klingman’s kitchen!
Sweat by itself isn’t stinky. But when you add sweat to the bacteria that live on our skin, it stinks. Far from just hiding the smell, Lume stops that chemical reaction from happening. Twelve years ago, Shannon filed her first patent for her one-of-a-kind formula. It was rejected numerous times, but she kept going until it was accepted!
This episode is the fun and inspiring story of Dr. Shannon Klingman, a visionary who “became obsessed with changing the narrative on human hygiene.”
SALES FREAK, CEO, ADDICT & AUTHOR: A TALK WITH MICHAEL DASH
Michael Dash is a sales freak. While attending University of Maryland, Michael sold home improvement services door-to-door on the mean streets of Baltimore and Washington D.C. He is a successful entrepreneur/CEO who moved to Utah where he knew only one person and started Parallel HR Solutions, a company that “pairs individuals and companies that together produce prosperous relationships” that he sold in 2018. Michael sold his thriving company because he believed in F.A.T.E. (“From Addict to Entrepreneur”) more. Now his life mission is to inspire others to see new opportunities and make the world a better place! (see thriveglobal.com) We hope you enjoy this Influence podcast!
“The truth is, we almost didn’t make it.” – Podcast insights from Aaron Suzuki, Founder & CEO of Prowess Consulting and SmartDeploy
At the age of 26, Aaron Suzuki found himself growing a regional Internet application development firm in Utah in the ashes of the dotcom bubble. By 2003, Aaron had moved to Seattle and co-founded Prowess Consulting, a dynamic moshpit of software engineers, web developers, writers and graphic designers that help major tech companies sell more. But Aaron wanted more.
He started a second company “from scratch”, SmartDeploy, in 2009 because he wanted to build the only product that could easily deploy thousands of Windows-compatible devices from the cloud. Now Prowess is growing rapidly. And SmartDeploy has thousands of customers and millions of endpoints around the world.
Both companies were started without the help of venture capitalists or private equity firms. But things didn’t always go so well. They got cocky. Things got hard. They weren’t making enough money to keep going. And they had small teams trying to do big things. But they held on, listened to their customers, and learned so much. We hope you enjoy this podcast and Aaron’s passion to “deliver exactly what our clients want!”
Blake Modersitski has an exceptional track record as a software-focused investor that backs great entrepreneurs then helps them achieve extraordinary results. He is also a great human being!
Over his 17 years at Pelion Venture Partners, Blake has had a string of top-20 venture hits with remarkable companies: Redhat, Riverbed, Fusion.io, Integral Ad Science, DOMO, enCommerce, Soasta, Metacloud, and others.
Q: How can that many great companies that are being chased by so many VC’s, chose to work with Blake?
A: It’s rare to find someone so successful yet humble, so analytical yet thoughtfully tuned-in! Great software entrepreneurs want to have Blake’s one-of-a-kind perspective as a VC, software guru, sales & marketing expert, and trusted friend and mentor!
I have had my own brief moments of awe and appreciation with Blake Modersitski. I hope you enjoy this podcast!
JD Machine’s Pleasant View office looks like an upscale engineering or architectural firm. It also looks and feels like a one of the most progressive and automated machine shops in the United States. It’s very clean, very cutting edge and enjoys rave reviews from employees on Glassdoor (4.7 out of 5).
In 1979 a master machinist named Don Wardle moved to back to Utah from California and settled in Ogden with his growing family. He was 50 years old and couldn’t find a job, so he started his own company, JD Machine. In 1992 the company employed a dozen employees when Don’s son, Matt Wardle, became the President and CEO.
This Influence podcast with Matt Wardle is both subtle and powerful. It’s subtle because Matt Wardle is an understated man who is quick to recognize his employees for the successes enjoyed at JD Machine. It’s powerful because Matt is responsible for JD Machine’s explosive growth, now 200 employees, and exceptional clients that are household names: Boeing, Parker Hannifin Corporation, and Northrop Grumman.
For nearly 25 years, Matt has transformed a very traditional company into a nationally recognized market leader. He finds real meaning from providing hundreds of paid internships, “removing gender barriers”, and providing six-figure incomes without sacrificing JD Machine’s unique “family vibe.” We hope you enjoy our podcast with Matt Wardle, a truly exceptional leader!
Our most recent Influence interview with Rob Jeppsen and Gary Rhoads, the co-founders of Xvoyant, made me think of the lyrics of David Byrne…
Rob Jeppsen is a sales and marketing genius who starts and grows companies like Allegiance Technologies and Xvoyant. And he’s a card-carrying expert at helping big companies like Valvoline, Waste Management, and Adobe win more clients. In short, Rob collects national sales awards—15 Stevie Awards, SAMY Awards, etc.—like Boy Scouts collect merit badges.
Gary Rhoads is the revered and highly decorated Steven Mack Covey Professor of Marketing & Entrepreneurship at Brigham Young University. Far from being a typical marketing professor, Gary is one of only two or three marketing PhD’s in the U.S. who wrote his dissertation (Texas Tech University) on sales, not marketing. In his spare time, Gary likes to start and grow cool companies like Allegiance and Xvoyant, then sell them to huge corporations like Computer Science Corporation and Maritz Holdings.
This is an amazing conversation with Rob Jeppsen and Gary Rhoads. “This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco, this ain’t no fooling around." We hope you enjoy it!
Kory Stevens, the founder and CEO of Taft Clothing, always leads with his heart! It’s the first thing we noticed when we interviewed him and one of many things everyone he meets quickly appreciates. So, when Kory had a dream of starting his own company with his wife, Mallory, it became an obsession. They named their company “Taft” after their son and their shoes after Taft’s friends.
Taft began in the living room of their small apartment with a successful Kickstarter Campaign for “no-show socks.” It wasn’t long before Kory was designing and selling high-end men’s shoes, exclusively handcrafted in Spain and Portugal. Small investments from friends and family soon followed. Taft started to grow fast!
Kory takes the time to have heartfelt two-way interactions that make Taft’s followers feel special. He works 70-hour weeks as one of the best designers of shoes in the world. Kory and his team are obsessed with design and quality and running Taft with a personal touch. He finds true meaning in his family, his personal connections to Taft’s customers, and designing shoes and boots millions of men want to wear.
Taft now has thousands of Facebook Likes and multitudes of Twitter followers. And venture capital firms continue to line up. But other than Kickstart Seed Fund, a relationship Kory describes as “a group of friends,” they still haven’t taken any outside funding.
Now Taft is a multi-million dollar company with a culture and reputation that is priceless. It’s an inspiring company with a soul, led by Taft's CEO, Korey Stevens, who leads with his heart!
Jonathan Johnson very modestly describes himself as “a recovering lawyer.” A lawyer by training, Jonathan was Overstock.com’s general counsel before becoming president. Jonathan and Patrick Byrne, Overstock.com’s founder and CEO, took Overstock from a private startup to a publicly traded company with over $2 billion in sales and 2,000 employees. They have been good at seeing new opportunities.
Overstock.com has never been afraid of making moves. In 2014 they were the first major online retailer to accept bitcoin as a payment, and in the first 22 hours, they received over 800 orders worth $126,000 in bitcoin. Jonathan Johnson (and Patrick Byrne) jumped into the blockchain mosh pit four years ago because they saw big potential in applying the blockchain to financial systems. Jonathan became the president of a new Overstock subsidiary that was created to manage and oversee company investments in innovative companies building blockchain solutions.
They called the new company Medici Ventures, named after Medici Bank of Florence, the most successful European bank in the 15th century. Medici Bank was an early disruptor in 15th-century Europe that invented, among other things, the double entry system of tracking debits and credits, deposits and withdrawals. The name seemed appropriate and Medici Ventures was born!
Under Jonathan’s leadership. Medici Ventures has made big investments in companies with innovative blockchain solutions. Jonathan, along with his friend and mentor, Patrick Byrne, believes that “blockchain is going to change the world more than the internet has.” We think you’ll enjoy our interview with Jonathan Johnson, a bright, articulate “recovering lawyer” who is making bold moves in an uncertain world!
Shawn Moon is fully present and fully engaged. He’s not a multitasker. And when you meet him, you quickly sense that you are talking to a very disciplined, very different kind of leader. Part psychologist, part strategist, part Zen Ninja, Shawn is the author of several respected books on leadership, among them The Ultimate Competitive Advantage and Talent Unleashed.
He spent most of his career helping Fortune 500 executives get better results. And, before that, Shawn was a Principal with Mellon Financial Corporation, one of the world’s largest money management firms. He now leads a once-obscure carpet cleaning company called Zerorez, perhaps the most innovative, high-growth carpet cleaning company in the world.
Zerorez is not a glamorous company. But then Shawn Moon is a different kind of CEO. His franchise partners are fiercely loyal and are willing to follow a new formula for success as they disrupt the home restoration and carpet cleaning industry. They want to be successful, and many of them are becoming millionaires as they reinvent Zerorez and themselves. We hope you enjoy this Influence podcast!
Todd Davis, the Chief People Officer of Franklin Covey, believes “feedback is the breakfast of champions!” More than just a good quote, you can tell he really believes in feedback, feels it in his bones and eats it for breakfast every day. He sets a high personal bar and asks questions out loud that most people seldom dare to think about. “How extraordinary am I in my key roles?” “What are my most important roles?” “Family member, friend, colleague?”
One can’t listen to Todd without sensing a genuine humility. His book, GET BETTER - 15 PROVEN PRACTICES TO BUILD EFFECTIVE RELATIONSHIPS AT WORK is a national best seller, yet he is refreshingly modest and compelling. It’s obvious that Todd is not a poser or a pushover. He lives what he teaches and gently encourages us to change the way we see the world so we can live better lives. We hope you enjoy this podcast, where Todd encourages us to “start with humility and intent” and to “carefully calibrate our weeks” so we can live happier lives and find new success is helping others. “Greatness lies within each of us!”
Bjorn Espenes and Eric Maas met in Park City in 1999. After working together for 10 years to build a successful SaaS eCommerce company, they were frustrated that no one had the ability to provide consistent paid search solutions for their customers. And they began to believe they could somehow build a platform that could predict the profit of any “click” before a customer bought it. They decided they didn’t want any investors and boldly named their little company “Finch” in honor of the small birds that, as Charles Darwin discovered, proved to be the most adaptive species in the world.
In little more than a decade, Finch has become one of the fastest growing private companies in the United States. Their customers include the Fortune 500 and high-growth middle market companies that found Finch while searching for the most profitable paid search advertising solutions they could find. Finch is now a global company but has only one KPI, a company that attracts the best people, has virtually no employee turnover, and “doesn’t care about haircuts”. We hope you enjoy this fascinating interview with Bjorn Espenes!
We recently had the pleasure of interviewing Ragula Bhaskar (“Bhaskar”) the visionary co-founder and CEO of FatPipe Networks. Over twenty-five years ago when networks as we know them were just beginning, Bhaskar and his wife, Sanch Datta (co-founder, President and CTO of FatPipe) had the determined vision to start a company that is now widely regarded by Gartner and other industry experts as the market leader for software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN). Simply put, Bhaskar and Sanch built FatPipe from the ground up to become the most reliable and secure software platform for many of the largest networks in the world.
We live in a time when tech CEO’s are treated like rock stars and have huge egos and expensive penthouse offices. Bhaskar and Sanch represent so much more. They saw an opportunity no one else saw in the late 90’s, then worked for many years to build a mission critical enterprise platform that is now acknowledged as the very best. We need more determined visionaries like Bhaskar and Sanch!
You may not expect a pest control company to have a full-sized NCAA basketball court and a golf simulator inside their headquarters—but then, you may not expect a lot of things about Aptive Environmental’s unique culture and amazing vibe. Modeled after the slick beauty of leading tech companies, Aptive has been a disruptor in the pest control industry by offering the best technology and solutions to a stable and professional sales team and introducing an element of fun. At the helm of this juggernaut company’s beginning is David Royce, Founder and Chairman, and Vess Pearson, CEO. David describes himself as a “serial entrepreneur,” and is always looking to make the world a better place with each business he starts or influences. He has been featured in several articles by Forbes magazine and other national publications and continues to dazzle the world with his intense curiosity and tenacious creativity. Vess brings his passion, drive, and energy for building successful sales teams and creating a fun culture. Vess continues to propel Aptive forward as the CEO, as David has transitioned to a less hands-on role. With a clear aptitude for connecting with people, Vess’ energy in moving a group towards a goal compels those around him to join in and become invested.
David and Vess are committed to the healthy culture and sustained growth of their company, and the sincerity of their intentions towards employees and clients is absolutely apparent in all that they do. New sales reps hired at Aptive see a 60% average increase in their sales. When we asked about this, David attributed that success to “a lot of simple stuff done extraordinarily well.” This notion permeates every idea they talked about with us, every plan and structure they have put in play: the small things add up.
Aptive’s successes continue to add up and achieve new heights with every passing year, with Vess and David continually contemplating new approaches. We are grateful for the time they spent with us in our office, and are excited to see what milestones they reach in the coming years!
Anyone who has had the pleasure of meeting Theresa Foxley, quickly recognizes her as someone people want to listen to and immediately like. She humbly describes herself as “the unabashed cheerleader for the State of Utah”, but Theresa is also very strategic, intelligent, and people smart!
After her many successes as Deputy Director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED), in January Theresa became the president and CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah (EDCUtah). It seemed so appropriate for us to interview Theresa in EDCU’s conference room with breathtaking views of Salt Lake City, the University of Utah, our Wasatch Mountains, and the “Silicon Slopes” that flow southward into Utah County. Trained as an attorney, Theresa is a passionate leader with a bold, sweeping vision for Utah’s future. Her goals go beyond Salt Lake and Utah Counties and into rural Utah, and her unique accomplishments include convincing numerous companies like Procter & Gamble, eBay, and Adobe to relocate or expand their presence all along the Wasatch Front! Theresa has vision and gets things done.
We hope you enjoy this podcast with this gifted strategist, corporate influencer, and powerful leader!
“Successful entrepreneurs do not wait until the Muse kisses them and gives them a bright idea; they go to work!” – Peter Drucker
Our recent interview with Brad Ouderkirk reminded us that the founders of high-growth companies don’t take no for an answer. In the words of the late Peter Drucker, “they go to work!” Five years ago, Brad was a successful general contractor who hated the leaky gas cans he often had on his job sites. So he began building lots of wooden prototypes of spill-proof gas cans that would be safer and easier to use. After five years of innovation, Brad launched “SureCan.” He has never looked back!
Over the past two years Brad’s spill-proof SureCan has won numerous awards, including the “Most Innovative New Product Award” at the National Hardware and the Retailers Choice Award. He has national distribution in thousands of stores like Lowes, Ace Hardware, TruValue, and 300 stores in Utah. His advice to other entrepreneurs is to “keep swimming and ask your self is this impossible or just hard?” We hope you enjoy this interview with Brad Ouderkirk, a successful entrepreneur that had a bright idea and went to work!
We were inspired by the creative mojo we felt during our recent visit with Troy D’Ambrosio and Garrett Holm of the Lassonde Studios. Troy is the inspired Executive Director who worked with one of the University of Utah’s biggest benefactors, Pierre Lassonde, to create a special place where students, researchers, engineers and professors could come together to create new companies. Garrett is the young, determined undergrad that serves as Lassonde’s Company Launch Director.
Pierre Lassonde graduated with an MBA from the University of Utah in the early 70’s and became one of the most successful entrepreneurial leaders in the history of mining. He wanted to create an ecosystem for creative thinkers, a place where calculated risks would be celebrated and students pushed themselves to go beyond the obligation of earning great grades and degrees. Troy D’Ambrosio and the students at the U answered the call!
This interview with Troy and Garrett is inspiring on multiple levels. It’s obvious that Troy D’Ambrosio loves what he does and has built a place and a culture to do it well! As we listened to Troy, a successful entrepreneur, and Garrett, a spirited up and comer, it was obvious that everyone is respected and equal. There is no hierarchy at Lassonde, and everyone feels they can achieve anything if they want it bad enough!
Ten years ago, Rhonda Nicoloff became the president of A&K Railroad Materials, the leading supplier of new and used track materials in the United States. But Rhonda’s path to the top of A&K Railroad began in 1991 when she began her career at A&K as an entry level sales professional. She has never looked back!
A graduate of Indiana University, Rhonda has always had her feet firmly planted on the ground. She is quick to credit her success to her parents and the recruited mentors in her life. Yes, Rhonda is the president of a big company in a male dominated field. Yes, before that she was, perhaps, the most successful Vice President of Sales in the railroad supply industry. Yes, she even made time to raise a family and earn her MBA at Harvard.
Rhonda draws from a deep well, and her personal standards are very high. She is very intuitive and very determined. She is a humble, persuasive business leader who knows how to move others to take action. We hope you enjoy Rhonda’s unique story of success in an unlikely industry.
Sometimes you find innovation and inspiration in the most unexpected places. In this week’s Influence Podcast we experienced both as we had the pleasure of meeting with Jeff Miller the Co-owner and General Manager of both Mark Miller Subaru Dealerships and JCO Financial. Jeff and Mark are counterintuitive disruptors in the automotive industry. Their flagship stores, one located in a dealership that Larry Miller closed in 2009, look and feel and smell like a hot technology company. That’s the vibe!
Sixteen years ago, Jeff Miller graduated from USC and with his father, Mark, and his wife, Tatiana, began refining their unique culture and reinventing the entire experience of buying a car. They have created a loyal, nurturing, honest environment that brings out the best in every member of their team. “What makes us successful is that we take care of our people, and because we take care of them, they take care of our valued customers.”
They have won every national award in their industry–the Subaru Stellar Award for excellence in customer-focused performance, as well as the only Edmunds.com Five Star Dealer rating in Utah for any brand, etc.–but find the most meaning in their “do good, feel good” culture. They love giving their time, along with very generous donations to the Ronald McDonald House, the Boys and Girls Club, or plant trees for TreeUtah, serve the homeless, or sponsor a community mural.
Please enjoy this inspiring podcast that celebrates the road less traveled!
We recently had the pleasure of interviewing Ryan Westwood, the founder and CEO of Simplus, a young, determined SaaS company that is the recognized leader for “quote to cash” solutions. Ryan is the founder of several successful companies, the author of a recent national bestseller, and an angel who helps young companies succeed. He is frequently featured in the Wall Street Journal and Huffington Post but is also a humble, positive giver who goes all out to help others.
The Simplus lobby features two life-sized “underdogs” that are symbolic of Ryan’s commitment to push hard for the things he believes in. Ryan has had to work hard and fight for everything, and tenaciously protects the culture that makes Simplus a winning company. Even the most impressive candidates are not hired unless they have an underdog’s history of overcoming significant obstacles. You basically have to be an intelligent and caring “junkyard dog” to join this team of 120 determined people in six offices!
Enjoy this inspiring interview with Ryan Westwood, a savvy entrepreneur who works hard to stay ahead of the game!