CREATE VIRGINIA

This episode is with George Garrett, who is a furniture maker. He does extremely beautiful work and you should check him out at georgegarrett.com. This conversation is pretty wide ranging. We talk about his time as a musician with the Burnt Taters and about running sound at Ashland Coffee and Tea. And, as always, we dig into what led him into his current profession of making furniture. I had a great time hanging out with George at his shop in Hanover County. I hope it comes through in this show. We talk about the 2015 Craft + Design Show (http://visarts.org/special-events-facilities/craft-design-show/2015-craft-design-artists/). I had hoped to get this episode up before the show actually happened, but I've been behind. I have several more shows in the bank, so look for more episodes over the coming weeks and months.

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 5 or so years, you have probably heard of the show, Hoarders.  Our guest this episode is Matt Paxton, who serves as an "extreme cleaning specialist" on Hoarders.  In addition to being a regular on Hoarders, Matt has written a book on Hoarding, run his own podcast (5 Decisions Away - iTunes or off his blog), and been interviewed countless times.  He's been on Good Morning America, The Howard Stern Show, and Mohr Stories (Jay Mohr's podcast) to name a few. In this conversation, we talk about our history together.  We've known each other since college.  How he got started on Hoarders, and what he was up to when we lived together.  We also go into a lot of other topics.  We talk about his mentors, the huge impact his dad and grandfather had on his life and the way he looks at things.  We also talk about our shared tastes in music.  And we also touch on a hero he once had, and how working with hoarders changed his opinion of a man he wanted to emulate. I hope you love this episode, I know I do.

This episode has been a long time coming.  I've wanted Kay Landry on the show for a long time, plus, I haven't been publishing shows recently. Kay is in charge of booking and production at Ashland Coffee and Tea.  She is also the former owner, so she gives a great lesson on the history of music at Ashland Coffee and Tea.  She talks about how she learned the process of booking acts and later how to even run the sound for the shows. I had a great time getting to know Kay, and I'm happy that her love of what she's done and her warm personality shines through here.  I hope you enjoy!

In episode 18, we visit with Eric Martin of 80amps.  This is a very overdue episode, as we recorded this way back in the Spring.  That speaks more to how busy I've been more than the quality of the episode.  This was a great conversation, that I really enjoyed at the time and I had a great time revisiting it this week. During this conversation, Eric and I focus mostly on the origin of 80amps and its relationship to the Martin Agency.  80amps is using its experience with startup projects to create 80amps for Enterprise, where they are consulting with larger corporations to coach them through disrupting their own industries (or even how to guard against themselves being disrupted).  Their value proposition is that they can be a catalyst for thinking about problems differently. We talk about 80amps' current portfolio of companies and their different levels of maturity.  We also talk about how 80amps does not fit in to the definition of an incubator or accelerator, and how it is more modeled after Idea Labs (http://www.idealab.com/). I had a great time talking to Eric, and really enjoyed hanging out at the 80amps new office in the Manchester District.

I've been wanting to do this interview since we've started CreateVirginia.  I've been friends with Jeff and his partner Sean Harrington for a long time (note: Sean was one of my college roommates and cross country teammates).  Jeff and I sit down to talk about their experiences of creating a company called Easy Software Solutions and their product, TimeSheasy.  Jeff gives an honest look at what it took for them to get started, to grow, to fight through adversity, and to ultimately sell the company to a larger player in their industry. There is a lot of romanticism around having a software startup.  Although Jeff becomes successful, his story shows that it did not come with a huge amount of work and risk.  I think anyone interested in starting a software startup should listen to this interview.  Jeff and Sean started a partnership thinking that they would start a staffing company.  Along the way, they found a great opportunity in a market that they understood very well.  From there, they completely shifted focus into becoming a software company. The story of the software company is a bit of a roller-coaster.  They found something that people wanted, but there were plenty of issues with the development of the product and funding of the company.  On the flip side, they are really fun guys with great stories of going to trade shows and partnering up with other companies in the industry. We end the conversation with what is coming next in Jeff's future, as he has his sights on another opportunity to uniquely serve a market he understands.

Episode 16 is a fun conversation with Kim Mahan of Maxx Potential.  Kim has a lot going on.  We talk in detail about Maxx Potential, which has an interesting value proposition for both customers and employees.  We also talk about GLASSFIT, another venture of hers.  This one involves Google Glass, so we got to talk about how she was able to get into Google's Glass Explorer Program.  We also talk about her involvement with RVA Techsters, which is a great after school program for getting middle school aged girls involved in technology. Kim's background story is very interesting.  She taught herself web programming and put herself through school.  This led into her career at GE and Genworth, but it also ties in directly with what she does today at Maxx Potential.  Thanks again to Kim for coming on the show and sharing her story.

For episode 15, we visit with Doug Orleski of RVA Coffee Stain.  RVA Coffee Stain is a cartoon blog that celebrates life in Richmond.  We talk about what inspires him to create his work, as well as his process of developing ideas and how he turns them into cartoons.  We also talk about the history and evolution of his artwork and blog.  Doug talks about his favorite and least favorite cartoons that made it through the publishing process.  Another cool thing Doug does related to his art is Art Abandonments, where he leaves artwork around the city (you can see more details on his site). Doug was really fun and engaging, and I had a lot of fun talking to him.  I hope you enjoy.

The first episode of 2014 is with Brian Lopez of Glide Skateboards.  We visit with Brian in his shop in Jackson Ward.  There we discuss his shop, the philosophy of his work, the evolution of his business, and the influence of surfing on his designs.  He has good stories about how he got into building boards, how he sources a lot of his material, and how he has gotten his boards in front of a lot of people.  Don't just listen to us talk about it, please check out his facebook page and his site.  Also, check out this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grjqdcn5HT0

Episode 13 has us visiting John and Sherry Petersik of the Young House Love blog.  John and Sherry have a great story to tell.  They started the blog as a way to show family and friends progress on a home project.  From there, it has grown way beyond their expectations.  They have been able to quit their jobs and run the blog as their primary business.  It also led them to write a New York Times best selling book.  They have received a lot of press and exposure, including being featured on the Oprah Winfrey Network's Super Soul Sunday. In this conversation, we talk a lot about their story.  We also talk about where they draw the line for privacy, what it is like to work with your spouse, what the neighbors (and previous homeowners) think of their projects.  We also go into how they prioritize their projects, how they decide when they should hire a contractor, and what they look for in a home before they buy it. This felt like the perfect episode to end 2013 going into the holidays.  This was a lot of fun to visit with them where they are just beginning to renovate their third home.  Hope you enjoy!

We visited with Andy Stefanovich for a lively conversation at his home on Halloween.  Andy has his hand in a lot of things: Chief Curator and Provocateur at Prophet (a strategic marketing and branding consultancy),  author of Look at More, Curator of TEDxRVA, a partner with New Richmond Ventures, among many other things.  For more details on each, please follow the links.  This was a fast paced and fun conversation.  Between Andy's high level of energy, the fact that we had a tight timeline for recording, and we had a lot of ground to cover. On top of the above mentioned hats Andy wears, we talk about his founding of Play and his later sale of it.  We also talk about what motivates him today, how he fell in love with Richmond, and some of the things to come in the future.