Entrepreneurs Exposed

Dr. Stacey Gonzales is a teacher, advisor, coach, and consultant. For two decades, Stacey served as an award-winning executive leader in some of the largest school districts in Illinois. Now, Stacey is the founder of SG Creative Connections, where she guides leaders to clarify their expertise, craft an influential brand, and connect with new opportunities. In this EP, we discuss Stacey’s late foray into entrepreneurship, strategies and tactics she’s used to grow her business on Linkedin, her personal story including how she married the same man twice, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andy Guttormsen is the Co-Founder and CRO at Circle. He was on the founding team at Teachable, and subsequently, has gone on to co-found Circle which kicked off back in 2020. Circle is now the world’s leading community platform for creators and businesses with customers like Adobe, Webflow, and ~10,000 others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today is my chat with Arlan Hamilton, which first aired just a few days ago on Shopify Masters. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a fund that invests in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or LGBT. Starting from scratch in 2015, Backstage has now raised more than $30 million and has invested in over 180 startups. Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Evan Marks is a seasoned mental performance coach. With a professional journey spanning 25 years on Wall Street, Evan’s diverse experiences include navigating volatile markets, excelling as a trader, and becoming an equity partner at a leading hedge fund. His background allows him to offer a unique perspective, not only as a financial expert but also as a seasoned coach and consultant now at the helm of his own practice, M1 Performance Group. In this EP we dive into Evan’s coaching experience, including his time with NASCAR teams, professional athletes and more; his 25 years on Wall St, including what working in that lion’s den is really like; Evan’s childhood, his time as a college pro athlete, and the lessons learned along the way; and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, I’m speaking with Brett Baughman. Brett is an award winning business and life coach and spends his time working with executives, business leaders and high performing individuals to advance to the next level in each area of life. He is also a best selling author and was voted the Top Coach to work with by Apple News. In this one, we dive into Brett’s journey from actor, musician, and salesperson to entrepreneur and coach. The power of place, and how one’s environment and city has a big impact on performance; habits, passions, purpose, mindset shifts, and what’s necessary to achieve outstanding results; and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Darren Mass is a serial entrepreneur. After starting, scaling and exiting Mass Communications, Darren has gone onto more personal endeavours. His podcast called “I took a hike”, features meaningful and deep conversations with the world’s leading entrepreneurs, innovators & thought leaders - all which happen over the course of many hours out in nature. In this EP, we dive into Darren’s experience as a founder; lessons learned from family and business; Darren’s personal experience with ADHD, depression, and what he calls “dark years”; LinkedIn as the platform for building one’s personal brand; and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cody Wittick is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Kynship, a performance marketing agency that has visibility into $400M in ad spend, and has sourced 350k+ influencers for its brands. Prior to co-founding Kynship, Cody began his journey at QALO, the brand that created the silicone wedding ring. Throughout his time there, he built out a robust influencer program contracting thousands of micro-influencers in a variety of industries while also working with household names such as Lebron James, Jason Aldean, Mike Trout, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. In this episode, we get into all things influencer marketing, tactics such as seeding influencers with product, scaling ad spend and more; we also dive into what makes an influencer worthy of being paid for posts; how to assess the quality of “an influencer”, in terms of follower counts; Cody’s journey as a founder, his struggles, and his very personally story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Caleb Avery is revolutionizing the payments landscape landscape. In 2019, he founded Tilled after spending nearly a decade advising merchants and enterprise software businesses on how to optimize their payment processing solutions. Prior to founding Tilled, Caleb also co-founded a credit card processing ISO while in college, which has expanded nationwide to offer processing services for merchants and software businesses. In this episode, we get into the nuts and bolts of Payfac-as-a-service and how Tilled has carved out this unique niche; the importance of determining what you are “uniquely good at” as a founder; the challenges related to being a solopreneur at the helm of a hyper-growth company and more. Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cole Shephard is the Founding Partner of Legacy Group, a leading alternative investment firm. his company focuses on profitable investment opportunities with high social and environmental impact in the US and Latin America. The flagship portfolio company, Green Coffee Company (GCC), is Colombia’s #1 largest coffee producer, with 10M+ coffee trees planted across 7000 acres. Before forming Legacy Group, Cole spent close to a decade at PWC working in accounting, advisory, M&A, and consulting across the United States, Bermuda, Hong Kong, and Beijing. He is an expert in emerging markets and is currently based in Medellin, Colombia. In this episode, we dive into Cole’s move to Columbia, and the cultural adjustments along the way; why he is bullish on Latin America as a market worthy of startup investment; the origin story of Green Coffee Company, and the threats that macro risks such as climate change and labour play into the future of coffee as an industry, and more. Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today is my chat with Jacob Sappington, which first aired just a few weeks ago on Shopify Masters. He is the director of email strategy at Homestead, a growth agency based in Wisconsin. He has worked alongside of some giant D2C brands including: Hexclad, Caseify, Brightland, and more. And with Black Friday, Cyber Monday on our doorstep, Jacob is the "go to" for amplifying customer excitement, for your eCommerce business. In this EP, we talk about opting into marketing communication; what strategies he’s recommending to his clients for the holidays and beyond; how to leverage email, SMS for boosting conversion metrics; what systems and tools his best in class eComm merchants are using, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices