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Coffee, Chaos, & Cashflow

☕️ Coffee, Chaos & Cashflow 🎙️
Business is anything but linear. We discuss all aspects of it...sometimes seriously, other times with irreverent humor. Join Aram Street, Yemi Ogunbase, & Gabbi McErlean as they share wins, missteps, and candid advice on addressing the chaos while moving into cashflow. Real stories, real lessons—entrepreneurship, unfiltered. 🎧

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S5 · E74
Thursday · 39 min
#74 Loud Isn’t a Priority: Boundaries, Busy Clients, and Showing Up Anyway
Send us Fan Mail Aram’s out this week, so Yemi and Gabbi take the mic for a freeform conversation about something every business owner wrestles with: deciding which clients, and which tasks, get your best energy. They start with sports, where owners’ decisions play out on national TV. Then they bring it home: when every client thinks their request is the most urgent, how do you decide what actually comes first? 🏈 Gabbi shares what it’s like running the whole agency while her boss is out. She uses schedule send for late-afternoon emails, keeps clients updated before they have to ask, and reminds them of the results they’re getting, because “ten percent is doing the job, the other ninety is making sure people know you’re doing it.” Yemi explains how answering emails at 11:30 at night trained clients to expect it, and why setting boundaries early protects the relationship. They also get honest about how age, seniority and gender shape the way boundaries are received. Their systems are practical. Batch the work, make templates for contracts and invoices, and write down the five things that have to happen tomorrow before you go to bed. They debate “underpromise, overdeliver” (smart time management, or a little slimy?) and agree on the bigger point: be honest, skip the BS, and keep showing up. Clients who are loud aren’t automatically clients who are a priority. ☕ In this episode: What sports ownership groups teach about leadership and putting the team first Prioritizing clients by spend, by relationship, and by who keeps checking in Why staying in touch with clients takes up most of the job Setting boundaries so clients don’t learn to expect after-hours replies Getting clients to deliver what you need: “It’s not off your plate until it’s on mine” Batching, templates, and the nightly five-things list Selling honestly: admitting you’re there to sell, and saying “I don’t know, but I’ll find out” Underpromise and overdeliver, or give yourself room and grace? Consistency: half the victory is just showing up Keywords: client prioritization, setting boundaries with clients, small business time management, managing client expectations, agency life, client communication, batching and templates, daily planning, honest selling, underpromise overdeliver, consistency in business, entrepreneurship, Lexington Kentucky business podcast Hashtags: #CoffeeChaosCashflow #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #ClientManagement #Boundaries #TimeManagement #AgencyLife #SalesTips #LexingtonKY #BusinessPodcast Support the show
S5 · E73
October 22 · 47 min
#73 Bringing Bourbon Back to Bourbon County: Jeremy Buchanan of Hartfield & Co.
Send us Fan Mail This week Aram and Yemi sit down with Jeremy Buchanan of Hartfield & Co., the Paris, Kentucky distillery that brought bourbon-making back to Bourbon County for the first time since Prohibition. Jeremy opens with a history lesson you won’t get from a Google search 🥃. Bourbon County predates Kentucky itself, its whiskey traveled out along the river and the frontier highway until “whiskey from Bourbon County” became simply bourbon, and when Prohibition hit, the county’s 26 distilleries closed and never came back. Decades later, Jeremy grew up in the county without anyone mentioning that connection, until he and his brother Andrew decided to bring it back. Then, after a cease-and-desist forced a name change, an aunt’s genealogy research turned up a surprise: their ancestors Isaac and Leopold Hartfield had run their own Kentucky distillery in 1865. From there it’s a candid look at building a tiny distillery in a giant’s industry. Jeremy says Hartfield was “chronically underfunded” at the start and paid the bills by selling T-shirts and clear spirits while the first bourbon aged. He explains the pre-Prohibition style they pioneered: a high-malt mash bill, a single pass through a batch still, and six-gallon barrels, an idea that came from a staircase too narrow for anything bigger. The result matures in 18 to 24 months. He also takes on the age-statement crowd and the “hazmat” proof craze, and points out the scale gap: Hartfield fills roughly one barrel a day, while some of the big houses fill 10,000 🛢️. Then the bust. Jeremy gives a clear-eyed read on the downturn: the COVID drinking surge, the overbuilt contract distilleries, a generation that never started drinking, and tariffs that shut Hartfield out of Canada and raised the price of its French glass and Portuguese cork. There’s an upside, though. Investors are dumping barrels, and Hartfield is buying them up at prices he calls unheard of in a hundred years. He breaks down Kentucky’s barrel tax, explains why tours and tastings bring in about a quarter of revenue at the best margins, and shares plans for a satellite tasting room in 2027. His answer to what the little guy has going for him is short: “Staying nimble.” 🥃 Come tour Hartfield & Co. with us! The Coffee, Chaos, & Cashflow crew is heading to Hartfield & Co. in Paris on Saturday, November 7 at 3 p.m. Grab a spot and join us: https://www.hartfieldandcompany.com/hartfield-tours#id=hartfield-tour In this episode: How Bourbon County gave bourbon its name, and why it went 95 years without a distillery Discovering the family’s 1865 Hartfield distillery after a cease-and-desist Why starting a distillery is a cash-intensive grind, not a get-rich-quick scheme The pre-Prohibition style: high malt, a single pass, and six-gallon barrels Age statements, the “hazmat” proof craze, and selling a two-year bourbon Distilling beyond bourbon: rum, agave, and the joy of the craft The bourbon bust: COVID’s hangover, overbuilding, and tariffs Why collapsing barrel prices are an opportunity for a nimble buyer Kentucky’s barrel tax and how it hits a small distiller Tours as a profit center, and a satellite tasting room coming in 2027 Hyper-premiumization and the launch of the Hartfield Family Reserve line Find Hartfield & Co.: Website: hartfieldandcompany.com Tours & tastings: https://www.hartfieldandcompany.com/hartfield-tours#id=hartfield-tour Downtown Paris, KY, about 20 minutes from Lexington via Paris Pike (Jeremy says it’s the best drive in the area) Keywords: bourbon, Kentucky bourbon, craft distillery, Bourbon County, Paris Kentucky, Hartfield & Co., pre-Prohibition bourbon, small barrel aging, Bourbon Trail, bourbon tariffs, barrel tax, distillery tours, family business, entrepreneurship, small business, Kentucky history, Lexington Kentucky #Bourbon #KentuckyBourbon #CraftDistillery #BourbonCounty #HartfieldAndCo #BourbonTrail #PreProhibition #ParisKY #SmallBusiness #FamilyBusiness #Entrepreneurship #CoffeeChaosAndCashflow #Podcast #OneHundredPercent Support the show
S5 · E72
October 1 · 34 min
#72 Know Thy Enemy: Trent Mobley of Berner Pest Solutions
Send us Fan Mail This week Aram and Gabbi sit down with Trent Mobley — Associate Certified Entomologist, 14 years in the bug business, and founder of Berner Pest Solutions, a three-time Best of Lexington Gold winner in just three and a half years. First, the mystery everyone asks about: the company is named after Frank, the Bernese Mountain Dog Trent's wife had wanted for years and they finally brought home from a Bell Buckle, Tennessee farm shortly after moving to Kentucky 🐕. During his months as a "stay-at-home dog dad" drafting the business plan, one of Trent's photos of Frank became the logo — and Frank now holds the title of Chief Barketing Officer. Trent shares how an OB recruiter's pitch for a job in rural Minnesota turned into a move from Orlando to Kentucky instead, and how a decade at one Florida pest company (starting as a 22-year-old tech in 2012) left him ready to build his own thing. His secret shopping of local competitors revealed his opening: many still spray baseboards on the first visit, so Berner went targeted and pet- and kid-friendly — treating behind outlet face plates and inside walls where curious dogs and crawling toddlers can't reach. Along the way there's a great story about meeting Kentucky's house centipedes for the first time on his state exam 😱, a quick crash course on the Norway rats giving Lexington trouble lately, and a firm "don't DIY bed bugs." Then the business side, which is surprisingly candid. Trent explains why pest control is "a process, not an event," why he wants Berner to be the Netflix of pest control (no long-term contracts, easy to pause or cancel), and why he publishes prices on his website when almost no one else in the industry does — confident enough with 155+ five-star Google reviews to lead with it. He also opens the books on lead costs: Google Local Services Ads run about $70–75 per call, worth it given how long customers stay — but after a July website overhaul he did himself (with some help from Claude), he turned off paid ads on September 1 and organic leads have kept flowing. He closes with a free tip for every Kentucky homeowner: deal with moisture early — check the crawl space once a year and keep gutters clear — or you'll be calling him this time next year. In this episode: Why the company is named after a Bernese Mountain Dog From Orlando to Lexington (by way of a Minnesota job offer) What an Associate Certified Entomologist brings to the job The pet- and kid-friendly angle that set Berner apart Meeting Kentucky's house centipedes for the first time "A process, not an event": prevention vs. calling when it's bad Why no long-term contracts, and being the Netflix of pest control Publishing prices when almost no one else does Real numbers on paid leads, and going organic after a DIY website overhaul Norway rats, bed bugs, and whether the bugs are winning The one free tip: tackle moisture before it invites pests in Creating four local jobs in three years Find Berner Pest Solutions: Website: https://bernerpest.com/ — call, text, or reach out through the site Serves Lexington and surrounding communities within about 25–30 miles Residential and commercial: general pest, termite, mosquito, rodent, and bed bugs Keywords: pest control, entomology, Associate Certified Entomologist, small business, home services, local business, Lexington Kentucky, pet-friendly pest control, preventative pest control, subscription model, transparent pricing, Google Local Services Ads, SEO, customer acquisition cost, customer lifetime value, Best of Lexington, entrepreneurship, Bernese Mountain Dog #PestControl #Entomology #SmallBusiness #HomeServices #LexingtonKY #PetFriendly #TransparentPricing #SEO #LocalBusiness #Entrepreneurship #BernerPest #ChiefBarketingOfficer #CoffeeChaosAndCashflow #Podcast Support the show
S5 · E71
September 24 · 32 min
#71 The Hats that Founders Wear (and When to Take One Off)
Send us Fan Mail Too Many Hats: When the Founder Becomes the Bottleneck For the first time, it's just the three of us — no guest, Yemi, Aram, and Gabbi riffing on the many hats you end up wearing as a business owner, and the ones you're still wearing that you probably shouldn't be 🎩. Everybody opens up their current hat rack: Aram has climbed back onto the sales front himself after a part-time sales team wound down (and makes the case that the structure, not the people, was the flaw); Yemi is juggling a class he's facilitating and a possible AI agency he's spinning up; and Gabbi is drowning in the ops and invoicing she's desperate to hand off — including the very real problem of how much money a marketing shop "floats" when ten-year clients take months to settle up. Underneath the jokes is a serious idea: the founder as the ceiling. Aram pulls in The E-Myth Revisited — the business owners who never stop doing everything, grind out ninety-hour weeks, and stall the company because they became the bottleneck. From there the crew gets into why so many businesses (cleaning and plenty of adjacent industries) still run on paper and manual text reminders even now, a friendly debate about AI can and can't actually do, and how the hats you wear change completely as a business moves from year one to year five. Then the hardest part: letting go and trusting people with it. Yemi is refreshingly honest about the trust problem — complete with a basketball ball-hog analogy 🏀 — why founders pile on hats purely out of survival, and a candid story of a venture that crashed and burned partly because he didn't lean on his wife's competence or build in any accountability. Aram offers up the entrepreneur's real gift: a thin folder of good ideas and a very thick folder of what not to do. Plus the birth of a running gag (courtesy of BJ Novak's Vengeance), a swiftly rejected "fireside chats" rebrand, and a whole lot of "one hundred percent" 💯. In this episode: Everybody's current "hat rack" — and the hats they haven't let go of Why Aram took the sales hat back himself Gabbi's ops-and-invoicing crunch, and the money you "float" with long-term clients The E-Myth trap: when the founder becomes the company's ceiling Why so many businesses still run on paper (and a friendly AI debate) How the hats change from year one to year five The real bottleneck isn't time or money — it's trust and letting go Yemi's honest "crashed and burned" story and the case for accountability Learning the hard way vs. borrowing someone else's folder of mistakes Mentioned in this episode: The E-Myth Revisited (Michael Gerber) · The Science of Getting Rich (Wallace D. Wattles) · Vengeance (BJ Novak) Keywords: small business, entrepreneurship, wearing multiple hats, delegation, operations, founder bottleneck, E-Myth, burnout, hiring, letting go, trust, business systems, invoicing, cash flow, scaling, AI in business, business partners, solopreneur, Lexington Kentucky, BJ Novak #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #WearingManyHats #Delegation #FounderBottleneck #EMyth #Operations #Burnout #Scaling #BusinessSystems #CoffeeChaosAndCashflow #Podcast #HostsOnly #OneHundredPercent #BJNovak Support the show
S5 · E70
September 17 · 36 min
#70 Winning the Fourth Quarter: Exiting a Business Well with Tim Brown
Send us Fan Mail How to Build a Business You Can Walk Away From — Tim Brown Returns Tim Brown is back for round two — founder of Four Quarters Capital, two decades in finance, a philosophy background, and a former women's basketball coach. Last time he made the case for winning your financial "fourth quarter"; this time he applies that same idea to business owners and the exit . The counterintuitive heart of it: the goal is a business that runs without you, and the very first question isn't financial — it's personal. What do you actually want to do next? For a lot of owners the business is their baby and their identity, so Tim starts by making them picture life on the other side of it. From there he gets concrete. Choosing your buyer is one of the biggest decisions — private equity might pay top dollar but strip the company for parts, versus handing it to family or selling to your own employees — and that choice tells you how much of the business is about legacy versus maximum cash. He walks through making yourself replaceable (getting what's only in your head onto paper, building a team, sequencing which responsibilities to release first), and why a company that doesn't depend on you also isn't living or dying by your health. On valuation, his CFA work boils it down to discounted cash flows — and the underrated move of getting intangibles like 500 five-star reviews represented as real, sellable value. He also flags the deal terms that blindside owners: mandatory stay-on periods, and the difference between a broad non-compete and a narrower non-solicit. Then the part almost nobody plans for: life after the check clears 💰. Tim covers what people get wrong in year one (again, mostly not knowing what's next), why you often don't want the money all at once — structuring a buyout over five to ten years to soften the tax hit and preserve liquidity instead of locking it into an annuity and getting bored — and the identity whiplash of the Monday after you're no longer the boss, illustrated by a real story of a father who sold to his kids but couldn't stop acting like he ran the place. It wraps with his "the office is closed today — what would you do?" thought exercise, a callback to "don't lift the hood on the smoker," and, fittingly for Tim, a little barbecue 🍖. In this episode: Why exit planning starts with a personal question, not a financial one Building a business that runs without you — "the fourth quarter already won" Choosing your buyer: private equity vs. family vs. your own employees What actually drives valuation — and putting intangibles like reviews on paper Handing off to family when the kids don't cooperate The deal clauses that surprise owners: stay-on periods, non-competes, non-solicits Life after the liquidity event: taxes, preserving liquidity, and not getting bored The identity hit of the Monday after you're no longer the boss When it's "too early" to sell — and why it's never too early to plan The "water main burst" exercise for picturing life beyond your business Find Tim & Four Quarters Capital: Website: https://www.4quarterscapital.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothyhbrownky/ He offers a free 15-minute call to answer questions Keywords: exit planning, selling a business, business valuation, succession planning, private equity, mergers and acquisitions, liquidity event, financial planning, discounted cash flow, non-compete, family business, retirement, wealth management, entrepreneurship, small business owner, CFA, Four Quarters Capital, Lexington Kentucky #ExitPlanning #SellingYourBusiness #BusinessValuation #SuccessionPlanning #PrivateEquity #FinancialPlanning #Entrepreneurship #SmallBusiness #MergersAndAcquisitions #FourQuartersCapital #CoffeeChaosAndCashflow #Podcast #BuildToSell Support the show
S5 · E69
September 10 · 34 min
#69 Brian Raney: How to Build a Team For Profit and For Purpose
Send us Fan Mail Brian Raney is back for round two — this time for a themed deep dive on building a team, which he happens to do two very different ways at once: as CEO of APAX Software (for-profit) and Awesome Inc (the nonprofit startup community), under one roof. The contrast drives the whole episode. Regardless of which org, Brian's still hiring for the same culture and core-value fit — but Awesome Inc openly doesn't compete on compensation ("if salary's your top priority, this isn't the fit"), while APAX can match or beat market rates. He's candid that he can't outbid a coastal software company for a remote developer living in San Francisco, but flips it into an advantage: APAX competes hard on value and price when winning those same clients, and most of its remote team actually started in-person in Lexington, absorbed the culture, and earned the flexibility later. The meat is his hiring bar — three non-negotiables, each tied to an Awesome Inc core value. First, 100% trust (Be Good): you're getting the passwords and the keys, so it's all-or-nothing. Second, "FIO — Figure It Out" (Be Excellent): every candidate, intern to director, faces a real figure-it-out task with two rules — hit the deadline, and ask no questions. And third, the road trip test (Be a Friend): could he sit in a car with you for four-plus hours and survive it? 🚗 From there he gets into how a strong culture polices itself, why it's easiest to set culture when you're tiny (your first two or three hires are the people you're "essentially marrying for the life of the business"), and why culture is maintenance, not a set of posters you hang in year one. Then the hindsight. Brian's team read The Five Dysfunctions of a Team together and he realized accountability was the gap in their first decade — and that, counterintuitively, good people crave being held accountable, because "being clear is being kind." His single piece of advice for anyone building a first team is to think first: he took a one-month sabbatical built around a workout, a surf, and an hour of quiet thinking a day 🏄, and came back a believer, because — as he quotes Andy Stanley — people plan toward what's good and drift toward what's bad. Define your culture on purpose, or it'll get defined for you. In this episode: Building a team two ways: for-profit payroll vs. nonprofit mission Why Awesome Inc doesn't compete on salary — and why that's fine Recruiting developers against coastal pay, and winning clients on value instead The three non-negotiables: trust, "Figure It Out," and the road trip test How a strong culture polices itself Why culture is easiest to set when small — and must be maintained as you grow The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and the accountability gap Why good people crave accountability, and "being clear is being kind" The one move for a first-time team-builder: go sit in a quiet room and think Find Brian, Awesome Inc & APAX: Awesome Inc: awesomeinc.org Email: brian@awesomeinc.org In person: Awesome Inc, 348 East Main Street, Lexington — and at Lexington entrepreneurial and networking events APAX Software https://www.apaxsoftware.com Mentioned in this episode: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Patrick Lencioni) · Crucial Conversations Keywords: building a team, hiring, company culture, core values, leadership, nonprofit, for-profit, startup incubator, entrepreneurship, remote work, talent acquisition, accountability, EOS, team building, small business, Awesome Inc, APAX Software, Lexington Kentucky, startup community #BuildingATeam #CompanyCulture #Leadership #Hiring #CoreValues #Startups #Entrepreneurship #Accountability #RemoteWork #AwesomeInc #LexingtonKY #CoffeeChaosAndCashflow #Podcast #TeamBuilding Support the show
S5 · E68
September 3 · 40 min
#68 Greg & Hannah Holden: Building Clarity Interpreting While Building a Marriage
Send us Fan Mail The show's first-ever duo: Greg and Hannah Holden, married, in business together at Clarity Interpreting — now 50-plus interpreters statewide — and raising five kids while they're at it. Everyone says never go into business with family, and definitely never with your spouse; the Holdens have done exactly that for almost twenty years 💍. They come from nearly opposite worlds — Greg from an Eastern Kentucky preacher's home (where his pastor dad ran side hustles like "Holden House Breads," the kids doing the selling), Hannah from a missionary childhood in Honduras — and their two paths crossed at the University of Kentucky. The business was born out of Greg's first career as a state child-abuse investigator: a Spanish-speaking case with no good language options pushed him to talk Hannah into getting certified, and she became one of the first state-certified interpreters in Kentucky. Then came the 2008 crash, a fresh MBA that employers wouldn't touch next to a social-work résumé, and Greg driving a yellow cab through the night — bar runs, jail pickups, and Hannah calling every couple hours to make sure he was alive 🚕. That pressure was the push. They started Clarity in 2009 on about $9,000 and the public library's Wi-Fi (a librarian once shushed Greg mid phone-interview), and grew it into a 24/7 operation where Greg literally slept with the phone. But the heart of the episode is what it actually takes to run a company with the person you married. Type-A, detail-driven Hannah and big-picture, jump-off-the-plane Greg needed about four years to find their balance — "grace, lots of grace," relationship before Clarity, and learning to hand off and stop being half-present in two worlds while five kids grew up answering the business line. It's a real business story too: Hannah is the majority owner, complete with a certification-class saga where the women business owners grilled Greg for showing up; a rival's abrupt shutdown that helped double their revenue in three years; and a clear-eyed take on why AI has interpreting "in the crosshairs" yet can't touch their high-stakes, in-person niche 🌐 — punctuated by the florería-mistaken-for-"Florida" story that nearly cost a single mom her kids. In this episode: "Never go into business with your spouse" — and doing it anyway for 20 years Two different worlds: a preacher's kid and a missionary's daughter How a child-welfare case accidentally became an interpreting company The 2008 crash, an unusable MBA, and driving a yellow cab Starting Clarity on $9k and the library's internet Type A meets big-picture: dividing the labor without dividing the marriage Building a 24/7 business while raising five kids Hannah as majority owner and the woman-owned certification class A competitor's collapse that helped double their revenue Why AI has interpreting in its crosshairs — and why their niche is safe The mistranslation that nearly removed kids from their mom Find Clarity Interpreting: Website: clarityinterpreting.com Email: office@clarityinterpreting.com ~20 of the most common languages in central Kentucky and statewide — built for HR, compliance, medical, and legal needs, not everyday consumer use #MarriedInBusiness #FamilyBusiness #Interpreting #LanguageAccess #Entrepreneurship #SmallBusiness #WomanOwnedBusiness #ClarityInterpreting #LexingtonKY #AIandWork #CoffeeChaosAndCashflow #Podcast #FoundersStory Support the show
S5 · E67
August 27 · 43 min
#67 Rachel Edenfield of Swell: Care Before the Crisis
Send us Fan Mail This week we sit down with Rachel Edenfield, founder and CEO of Swell — a preventative mental and relational health platform built to make care radically more accessible. A former social worker turned product builder who's raised $1.7M and started by serving warfighters and their families 🎖️, Rachel reframes the whole category: the question isn't "is there an app for mental health," it's whether you can build help for the people least likely to ask for it — and reach them before the crisis, not after. The insight underneath Swell is that most people who need help don't identify as needing it, so the app meets them at the early signals instead — a fight with your partner, "I want to perform at work but can't get motivated" — and quietly applies the kind of clinical interventions you'd get in therapy years earlier. Rachel walks through the mechanics: a proprietary 63-trait archetyping engine, and a "Connections" feature that can predict relationship dynamics (like the pursue-withdraw loop couples fall into) and coach you through them 🧠. She's clear it's not a therapy replacement — even if therapy were free tomorrow, there are only enough U.S. therapists for about 12% of the people who request a session — so Swell works as the tier before a therapist, softening resistance, freeing up clinicians, and escalating to real help when its risk detection flags someone. Then the founder story, which is a saga of its own: a still-active musician raised by a single mom, briefly homeless as a kid, who hustled custom MySpace layouts and once started a Robin-Hood credit-card-processing company to undo her own sales job's markups — before web design, a stint at Lyft through its IPO, and product roles in epidemiology and defense tech. She's refreshingly blunt about the money: 330-plus investors, genuinely terrible timing (SVB's collapse, rising rates, a mental-health VC hangover), landing a TRICARE contract by spotting a C-SPAN hearing and cold-calling a senator's office, and the hard-won conviction that revenue is the only thing that matters — and that founders, not VCs, are the ones creating the value 💸. In this episode: The real question: building help for the people least likely to ask Why "preventative" — catching patterns years before therapy How Swell works: the 63-trait archetyping engine and "Connections" Why software can't (and shouldn't) replace therapy — the 12% shortage Why she started with the military community From social worker to product builder — via MySpace layouts and Lyft The $1.7M raise: 330 investors, brutal timing, and refusing to die Landing a TRICARE contract through a C-SPAN clip and a cold call Fundraising truths: revenue is king, and who really holds the power Building a startup in Louisville instead of on the coasts Find Rachel & Swell: App: Swell in the App Store · getswell.app LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/redenfield/ She writes for the startup newsletter The Distill: https://kycombinator.beehiiv.com/ Support the show
S5 · E66
August 20 · 37 min
#66 Meet Gabbi McErlean: Horses, Hustle & the Third Chair
Send us Fan Mail New season, new voice. For four seasons the third chair belonged to Eric — this season it's Gabbi McErlean, and today Aram and Yemi flip her into the guest seat so you can finally meet the woman, myth, and legend (aka G Funk 🎙️). She even runs her own intro! Gabbi walks us down what she calls her windy road. She grew up in California wanting to be a vet — mostly because it looked like her only way to work with horses. When chem, microbio, and calc made the case for "mercy," she swapped the vet track for a marketing degree, having realized her real gift is rapport and that, in her words, marketing is sales. She moved to Kentucky at twenty for a horse-training job, paid her dues mucking a twenty-stall barn, and ran headfirst into the horse world's brutal price of entry — so she built a marketing career to fund the horse life instead of chasing the horse life broke 🐎. Then come the turning points: an equestrian-apparel marketing gig that folded in February 2020, a jobless stretch of the shutdown (Google Ads certs, Bojack Horseman, and cooking Matt dinner two feet from his work-from-home desk), and a landing at Fleet Feet where the franchise model and life as "number two" lit the entrepreneurial fuse — you can propose all the changes you want, but you don't get teeth without owning it. Now she's an agency marketer living in paid media, websites, and CRM, breeding sport horses on the side because "they're a business now," and she says yes to a business podcast for the same reason she says yes to everything: the hunger to keep learning outside her own lane. In this episode: The windy road: wanting to be a vet, but really just wanting horses Leaving the vet track for marketing, and why "marketing is sales" Paying dues in the horse world and its brutal price of entry Getting laid off in Feb 2020 and riding out the shutdown Fleet Feet, the franchise model, and the itch to own something Breeding sport horses as an actual business (write-offs and all) Lightning round: the coffee order, the cruise she'd never take, and her most-Kentucky confession Find Gabbi: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriellafunk/ Marketing: https://www.spottysquadmarketing.com/ Horses: https://www.spottysquadwarmbloods.com/ Support the show
S5 · E65
August 13 · 29 min
#65 Edd MacKey on Building a Future for a 140-Year-Old Opera House
Send us Fan Mail A building that was very nearly a parking lot is now one of the most storied stages in Kentucky. This week Aram and Gabbi sit down with Edd MacKey — from Mt. Sterling by way of the Bahamas, a former LFUCG engineering technician who helped design the trails Lexington walks and bikes on, and now the man running the Lexington Opera House 🎭. (The friendship started, as Aram recalls it, in a Kroger checkout line.) Edd makes a case that engineering and the arts aren't nearly as far apart as they look — everything from the sciences to the cosmos is design, he says, and the performing arts are just a more flamboyant sphere of it. From there the history pours out: the Opera House's original site at Broadway and Main, where the Hilton now stands and where Kentucky's first governor was inaugurated; how talking pictures gutted theaters nationwide and turned this one into a movie house before it shuttered entirely; and how absentee owners with no stake in the community left it slated for demolition in the 1970s. It was saved by locals who were invested — W.T. Young, Jim Host, and George and Linda Carey, with Linda spearheading the effort — at the same moment the city was spending $40 million on Rupp Arena. Gabbi asks the important question about ghosts. Edd can neither confirm nor deny 👻. The rescue came with foresight that still defines the building: the Opera House Fund, which in fifty-plus years has put more than $13 million toward helping local performing arts groups afford a stage that would otherwise be out of reach. Edd explains the two halves of his job — managing thirteen local companies that each use the stage two to three times a year, plus the Broadway Live touring series now marking fifty years in Lexington — and how the calendar actually gets built, with Broadway dates locked first (touring routes wait for no one), then local groups slotting into their three optimum dates each. He also walks through Broadway Buddies, the thirteen-year-old outreach program started by Linda Carey and his predecessor Luann Franklin, which brings roughly 250 underserved kids a season in for a tour, theater etiquette, and a session with the technical crew on how spotlights, fog, and flying scenery actually work — then brings them back to watch a real Broadway show, paid for by donors 🎟️. Then the conversation widens to the whole ecosystem Edd sits at the center of: the Fayette County Public Arts Commission, which evolved from an approval body into a funded one that backs murals, sculptures, and gardens across the county; and the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington, now led by Grammy-winning artistic director and Lexington native Zach Brock. He shares a surprising thread between his birthplace and his adopted city — discovering E.P. Taylor's monument at Thoroughbred Park, a Kentucky horseman who developed property in Nassau and was tied to a Bahamian racetrack dating to the 1700s 🐎. And he closes with what still happens inside those walls: one of the country's first integrated stage productions in the early 1920s, Josephine Baker, three Netflix comedy specials, a UK Opera broadcast seen by millions on KET, and The Lexington Theatre Company's Les Misérables, the highest-grossing production in their history. In this episode: Why an engineer ended up running an opera house The original Broadway and Main site, and Kentucky's first gubernatorial inauguration How talking pictures killed America's theaters, and how this one nearly became a parking lot The locals who saved it, and why absentee ownership abandons a community The Opera House Fund: $13M+ over fifty years for local performing arts Two jobs in one — thirteen local companies plus fifty years of Broadway Live How the season calendar actually gets built Broadway Buddies: ~250 kids a season, and what changes when they know how the fog works Becoming "comedy central for Central Kentucky," Netflix specials and all The Public Arts Commission, murals, and funding neighborhood art Chamber Music Festival of Lexington and Grammy winner Zach Brock A Bahamas-to-Bluegrass connection hiding in Thoroughbred Park Basketball, bourbon, and horses — and why Lexington's mix is its strength Find the Lexington Opera House: Website: https://www.lexingtonoperahouse.com Broadway Live & Variety Live lineup: https://www.centralbankcenter.com/lexington-opera-house/broadway-live-variety-live Support the show
S5 · E64
August 6 · 38 min
#64 Built to Outlast You: Craft, Legacy, and the Long Way Around feat. Pat Martelli
Send us Fan Mail What does it take to build something still standing in a hundred years? This week Aram, Yemi, and Gabbi sit down with Pat Martelli — master carpenter, former high school history teacher, and founder of Boone Creek Construction — for his first-ever podcast appearance 🎙️. The conversation is about the tension at the heart of modern building: an industry that rewards speed and efficiency, and a builder stubbornly convinced the techniques that have stood the test of time are still the ones worth using. Pat opens on what actually separates a builder from the guy with "quality craftsmanship" painted on his trailer over the cheapest house wrap money can buy. He talks sourcing premier suppliers from out of state — including the airtight Arizona-built Western Windows going into a winery project, the first building in Kentucky to have them — and why he refuses to mark up materials, adding only his builder's fee to whatever crosses his desk. It's a practice other builders call crazy, but Pat's math is long-term: spend fifteen or twenty grand up front, or watch the client pay forty to fix it in a year. As Aram's dad used to put it, you can do it right the first time or right the sixth time, but eventually someone will have to do it right 🔨. From there it gets personal. Pat grew up on his father's job sites, started digging ditches as an eighth-grade summer laborer, and worked his way up through framing and trim carpentry. Then he spent five years teaching high school history and coaching swim — a passion job he says he'd return to tomorrow if he won the lottery — until he did the math on a sub-$40K salary and realized his summer trim-carpentry side business was earning half that in two months. He shares the story of a student on the run from police who turned up hiding in his classroom, and how that same instinct now goes into mentoring blue-collar guys in their twenties who are being told by influencers they're on the wrong track. The crew also gets into the tech that's helped and hurt: 4G walkie-talkies (a deliberate step backward Pat loves, and a moment of silence for Nextel), construction management software, Pinterest boards that quietly torch budgets, and AI renderings that finally let clients show a builder what's actually in their head. Then the legacy question — and Pat's answer isn't only buildings. It's the block mason's job site with four living generations on it, a ninety-year-old still packing mud, and a check that feeds all of them. When Gabbi asks what someone tearing into his work a century from now should find, Pat deadpans that he leaves a Boone Creek token in every house, immediately admits he doesn't, and Aram is fairly sure he's going to start 😄. In this episode: What actually separates a quality builder from the marketing on the trailer Sourcing premium materials, and the first Western Windows install in Kentucky No material markup: why Pat's "unusual" pricing is a long-game referral strategy Spend it now or spend double later — the real cost of cutting corners From eighth-grade laborer to master carpenter to business owner Five years teaching history, and why he left (and would go back) Mentorship, strong role models, and the pipeline into the trades 4G walkie-talkies, jobsite communication, and the Nextel we lost Pinterest budget blowups and how AI renderings are changing client conversations Building a company that runs without him — systems, foremen, and being a present father Legacy as buildings and relationships: four generations on one job site Boone Creek Millwork: bourbon barrel goods, and a third business on the way Find Boone Creek: Boone Creek Construction: https://boonecreekconstruction.com/ Boone Creek Millwork: https://boonecreekmillwork.com/ — bourbon barrel coasters, muddlers, cigar rests and more 🥃 Support the show
S5 · E63
July 30 · 34 min
#63 Alex Smith on Selling the Invisible: The Business of First Impressions
Send us Fan Mail What do you sell when your best work is invisible? This week Aram, Yemi, and Gabbi sit down with Alex Smith, who spent five years in digital marketing before becoming business developer at Green Solutions Land Care, a veteran-owned commercial landscaping and site-work company in Lexington. His big idea: curb appeal isn't lawn care, it's a first-impressions business — the kind people only notice when something's gone wrong. Alex breaks down the "three-ring binder" a client once taught him — the landscape, the front office, and (yes) the bathroom — and how nailing all three wins people every time. He gets into the hidden costs owners miss until they're expensive (those 12:30 a.m. sprinklers quietly wrecking your turf and your water bill), and the fleet of 52-inch all-electric autonomous mowers that turned a four-man, ten-hour Danville property into a four-hour cycle — roughly 15% labor savings on year one 🤖. Then the conversation widens: the military precision behind a veteran-owned crew, the seasonal whiplash of a job that changes four times a year (mowing to snow-and-ice, with dormant-season cutbacks keeping local crews working through winter ❄️), and the private-equity roll-up wave reshaping the industry — why Alex bets that staying local, accessible, and relationship-driven is the real moat when the competition's billing you from an office in Dallas. He closes with where the industry's headed (electric equipment, AI-assisted irrigation) and one thing every property manager should check today: the trip-hazard trench between the sidewalk and the turf. In this episode: Why curb appeal is really a first-impressions business — and the "three-ring binder" that wins clients What translated from digital marketing to landscaping (and what didn't) Autonomous electric mowers: real labor savings, and a local thought-leadership play Reading the customer — industrial vs. retail vs. multifamily first impressions Veteran-owned culture, crew buy-in, and military-grade logistics Running a business whose job description changes every season The private-equity roll-up wave and the case for staying local Where the industry's going: electric equipment and AI in irrigation Find Green Solutions Land Care: Website: https://greensolutionslandcare.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/green_solutions_landcare/ Connect with Alex: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexsmith02/ Support the show
S5 · E62
July 23 · 47 min
#62 Brisket, Bitcoin & Solar Panels — The Serial Builder feat. Michael B. Stevenson II
Send us Fan Mail What do utility-scale solar, Bitcoin mining, hotshot trucking, and Texas barbecue have in common? Michael B. Stevenson II has built in all four. This week Aram and Yemi are joined by guest host Gabbi McErlean to talk with Yemi's brother Michael — a builder who turned a 12-year solar career into a launchpad for venture after venture, and is now betting it all on brisket. 🤠 Michael takes us from graduating into solar and building Sunscreen, a QA/QC app born out of eight-inch paper binders, to Mine2Hodl — the garage Ethereum rig (once running out of a hotel room 😅) that grew into a ~3-megawatt Bitcoin self-mining and hosting operation. He breaks down why hosting beats self-mining for steady cashflow, how a 401(k) rollover (ROBS) funded his second mining company Hash Hive, and the July 4th phone call that ended his trucking company Open Air Logistics overnight. 💥 Then the heart of it: That Good Smoke — the New Age Tex-Mex concept he co-founded with his fiancée (an Army-vet cook 🎖️), run as a five-kid family business. Pecan-wood, 18-hour smoked brisket, everything from scratch, signature sauces heading to retail shelves, and a plan to go from food truck to brick-and-mortar. Michael's leaving his project-management career at the end of August to chase it full-time — and his advice for anyone scared to leap? Just go for it. 🙌 In this episode: 12 years in solar & building the Sunscreen app (and the equity lesson he learned the hard way) Mine2Hodl: from a $5K hobby rig to a 3MW operation — hosting vs. self-mining explained Using a ROBS 401(k) rollover to launch Hash Hive Open Air Logistics and knowing when to walk away That Good Smoke: family business, from-scratch Tex-Mex, and sauces going retail Legacy, calculated risk, and betting on yourself 🔗 Find That Good Smoke: Website: https://www.thatgoodsmoke.com Support the show
S5 · E61
July 16 · 41 min
#61 Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught? Feat. David Hasler
Send us Fan Mail Can entrepreneurship actually be taught — or do you just have to go get punched in the mouth? It's an old jab: those who can't do, teach. David Hasler is the awkward counterexample. He spent fifteen years in finance leadership, running the org for Walmart's $125B U.S. grocery business (and later Health & Wellness), led a treasury project that saved store operations over $1B — and then chose to go teach founders how to raise fifty grand. 🎓 He's now Kentucky's 2022 Startup Coach of the Year, 2023 Startup Mentor of the Year, a lecturer in entrepreneurship, and the guy who built the Startup Ecosystem Roadmap that maps the founder's journey from "is there a there-there?" all the way to IPO. In this conversation, David makes the case that education doesn't replace the arena — it reduces uncertainty before you walk into it. 🗺️ What we get into: 🔥 Whether entrepreneurship education is ever just snake oil — and how to spot real content vs. feel-good platitudes 📈 What actually transfers from Fortune 1 finance to a pre-seed startup, and what he had to unlearn 🧭 The Startup Ecosystem Map and the Three Key Questions that keep new founders from drowning in information overload 🤝 "Finding your Jeff" — why the visionary needs the integrator, and what Henry Ford owed James Couzens 💸 Why founders are chronically financially illiterate, and how a simple model beats a beautiful pitch deck 🌎 Kentucky vs. the coasts vs. Denmark — how regional risk profiles and collaboration models change what's possible 🏗️ Building culture on purpose in the early days, before it builds itself 🤖 How AI is compressing the entrepreneurship classroom — and why case studies should be dissected, not admired 🏘️ Collaboration over competition, and how regions stop exporting their own "economic refugees" Whether you're building something, teaching someone who is, or trying to grow the ecosystem around you — this one's for you. ⚡ Connect with David: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhasler/ Reach out for a copy of the Startup Ecosystem Map: coffeechaoscashflow@gmail.com Coffee, Chaos, & Cashflow. Season 5. Support the show
S4 · E60
May 14 · 44 min
#60 Leaving a Winning Hand: How Zack Wallace Built ABRI on a Foundation of Real Expertise
Send us Fan Mail Most entrepreneurs are told to “fail fast” and move quickly. Zack Wallace did the opposite. After becoming the nation’s top advisor at a Fortune 100 firm at an early age, he walked away from a winning hand to build something better: ABRI, a company built on true all-in-one advice across tax, legal, investment, and insurance. In this episode, Zack shares why mastering an established role first made him a better founder, what most inexperienced financial entrepreneurs get wrong, and how his hard-won expertise shaped ABRI’s culture, team, and client experience. If you’ve ever considered leaving a successful career to start your own thing – or simply want to know what real financial integration looks like – this conversation is for you. Check out ABRI: https://abri.io/ Connect with Zack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zack-wallace-cfp%C2%AE-clu%C2%AE-ricp%C2%AE-197aa521/ Support the show
S4 · E59
May 7 · 46 min
#59 Building Trust in Public Sector Leadership: Insights from Dr. Asa James Swan
Send us Fan Mail What does it take to lead when the roads, bridges, and winter storms don’t wait for a perfect plan? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Asa James Swan—founder and CEO of GREAT Leaders, former Chief of Staff and Legislative Liaison for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC), and the nation’s first-ever Chief Leadership Officer for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Before Asa helped shape leadership training across the state, he was in the trenches of one of government’s most demanding agencies: the Cabinet responsible for Kentucky’s entire transportation infrastructure. We explore how he applied the five pillars of GREAT leadership (Gritty, Relational, Equipped, Authentic, Transformational) to navigate bureaucracy, lead legacy employees, manage crises, and build trust in a high-stakes public safety environment. Whether you lead a team of two or two thousand, this conversation is packed with real-world lessons on how to stay authentic, equip your people, and drive change when the pressure is on. Connect with Asa: https://great-leaders.org/begin-the-conversation/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/asa-james-swan/ Support the show
S4 · E58
April 30 · 30 min
#58 How Flip Phones and Core Values Shape a Unique Hospitality Business with the Warford Bros
Send us Fan Mail What happens when two brothers decide to run a modern short-term rental company… without a single smartphone between them? Meet Allen and Luke Warford, the co-founders of Inndoorsy—a hospitality business built on honor, excellence, beauty, and an intentionally slow, faith-driven life. In this episode, we sit down with these self-described "old souls" to talk about how they manage property design, guest relations, and daily operations Plus, Allen and Luke share the one rule that keeps their brotherhood intact, and why a non-hurried life might be the ultimate competitive advantage in hospitality. If you've ever dreamed of starting an STR business without losing your soul, your family time, or your peace—this one's for you. P.S. Unbeknownst to us, Luke's recording had stopped about halfway through the episode. So if you're wondering why it's just Aram and Allen talking through the second half, it's because technology doesn't always cooperate. Check out Inndoorsy and book a stay: https://www.inndoorsy.com/ Connect with the guys: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allen-warford-9751b51a2/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-warford-01b5b7256/ Support the show
S4 · E57
April 23 · 45 min
#57 Ieasha Allen on The Art of the Slow Build: Why Some Ideas Need a Decade to Bloom
Send us Fan Mail In this engaging interview, Ieasha Allen shares the inspiring journey of transforming a historic building into The Melroy, a vibrant social club in downtown Lexington. Discover the decade-long process, strategic decisions, and community-focused vision behind this unique project that blends culture, entrepreneurship, and community development. Follow The Melroy: https://www.instagram.com/themelroylex/ Connect with Ieasha: contact@themelroy.com Support the show
S4 · E56
April 16 · 39 min
#56 Rob Perez on The Case for Hiring in Recovery
Send us Fan Mail Rob Perez, a seasoned restaurant veteran, shares his journey from Hard Rock Cafes to founding DV8 Kitchen, a social enterprise employing people in recovery. Discover how his innovative approach is transforming the restaurant industry and creating sustainable employment opportunities for those overcoming addiction. https://dv8kitchen.com/ Connect with Rob: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robperez64/ rob@dv8kitchen.com Support the show
S4 · E55
April 9 · 34 min
#55 Beyond the Spreadsheet: A Finance Leader’s Journey to Mentor of the Year with David Hasler
Send us Fan Mail David Hasler has led finance and strategy for some of the biggest names in business—Walmart ($125B grocery division), Procter & Gamble, Bath & Body Works, and The Body Shop. He's sat in the CFO chair and navigated private-equity pressure. But his most interesting chapter might be the one he's writing now: as a one-person consulting firm founder, Kentucky's Startup Mentor of the Year, and a guy who bootstrapped his way to over $1M in revenue using "free credit from Facebook." In this episode, David pulls back the curtain on the moments that shaped him—saving a plant from shutdown, creating P&G's first brand divestiture playbook, pitching "intrapreneurial" ideas inside Walmart that saved over $1B, and yes, the hard lessons that he calls "failures of sorts." You'll hear what it's really like to go from the C-suite to solo consulting, and how "being present" became his most effective marketing strategy. Whether you're a startup founder, a corporate finance veteran, or just someone who loves a good story about reinvention, this conversation is packed with practical wisdom, hard-earned humility, and a surprising amount of heart. Connect with David: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhasler/ Support the show

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