Karen, Author at Business RadioX ® Page

Emmily Bowman and Alex Chapman with braidbabes

December 8, 2022 by Karen

Phoenix Business Radio

Emmily Bowman and Alex Chapman with braidbabes

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Emmily Bowman and Alex Chapman with braidbabes

braidbabes is a team of mobile braiders that come to you and give you the Pinterest hair of your dreams. braidbabes is a perfect fit for the busy millennial or mom who doesn’t have time to run to the salon.

They are currently braiding in Nashville, TN, Buffalo, NY, and just launched in Phoenix/Scottsdale, AZ! Add them to your next party, or book them for your next date-night or bridal hair.

Emmily Bowman is the CEO of braidbabes— a mobile braiding company established in 2019.

Since then, braidbabes has tripled their revenue year over year, launched in three cities, and grown to employ over 70 braiders.

Emmily plans to take braidbabes global, launch a custom app, and continue to grow into a multi-million dollar company.

While running braidbabes is always her top priority, Emmily finds the opportunity to enjoy the little things in life, and always strives to leave people better than she found them.

Alex Chapman also made the jump from a 9-5 corporate role to becoming the Corporate Trainer at braidbabes.

Alex joined braidbabes in 2020 after taking their virtual braiding bootcamp course from Emmily during the first COVID shut down.

Fast forward two years: Alex now trains every new braider, leads all virtual bootcamp sessions, and runs continued employee education.

She has even recently trained Emmily, and continues to improve braidbabes methods with her careful eye for detail and aptitude for teaching.

Connect with Emmily on LinkedIn and follow braidbabes on Facebook and Instagram.

Problem Solving E134

December 8, 2022 by Karen

Phoenix Business Radio

Problem Solving E134

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Problem Solving E134

Tyler Robertson joined Tycoons to share some great insight from lessons he’s learned as a small business owner. He started in his garage with only a thousand dollars and boot strapped his way upward. His vision started a solution to a problem and has grown to over $70 million in annual revenue.

Some of his key takeaways are about the importance of managing your cash flow and how to focus on the growth of the business. He had to stop doing the work in the business and hired people so he could focus on doing what was needed to grow. Tune in the full episode, it’s full of valuable knowledge learned from experience.

Diesel Laptops provides efficiency repair solutions for diesel powered equipment such as commercial trucks, agriculture & earth moving equipment. This is accomplished by providing computerized diagnostic tools, repair information, parts catalogs, diesel technician training classes, and a call center staffed with diesel technicians for remote support.

Tyler Robertson is the founder and CEO of Diesel Laptops. Founded in his garage 7 years ago, the company has been bootstrapped to now over 230 employees, 5 locations across the US and over $70 million in annual revenue.

Diesel Laptops has landed on the Inc 5000 list 4 times, along with placing in the Top 500.

Follow Diesel Laptops on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

About the Show

Tycoons of Small Biz spotlights the true backbone of the American economy, the true tycoons of business in America… the owners, founders and CEO’s of small businesses. Join hosts, Austin L Peterson, Landon Mance and the featured tycoons LIVE every Tuesday at 1 pm, right here on Business RadioX and your favorite podcast platform.

About Your Hosts

Austin Peterson is a Comprehensive Financial Planner and co-founder of Backbone Planning Partners in Scottsdale, AZ. Austin is a registered rep and investment advisor representative with Lincoln Financial Advisors. Prior to joining Lincoln Financial Advisors, Austin worked in a variety of roles in the financial services industry.

He began his career in financial services in the year 2000 as a personal financial advisor with Independent Capital Management in Santa Ana, CA. Austin then joined Pacific Life Insurance Company as an internal wholesaler for their variable annuity and mutual fund products. After Pacific Life, Austin formed his own financial planning company in Southern California that he built and ran for 6 years and eventually sold when he moved his family to Salt Lake City to pursue his MBA.

After he completed his MBA, Austin joined Crump Life Insurance where he filled a couple of different sales roles and eventually a management role throughout the five years he was with Crump. Most recently before joining Lincoln Financial Advisors in February 2015, Austin spent 2 years as a life insurance field wholesaler with Symetra Life Insurance Company. Austin is a Certified Financial Planner Professional and Chartered Life Underwriter. In 2021, Austin became a Certified Business Exit Consultant® (CBEC®) to help entrepreneurs plan to exit their businesses.

Austin and his wife of 23 years, Robin, have two children, AJ (21) and Ella (18) and they reside in Gilbert, Arizona. He is a graduate of California State University, Fullerton with a Bachelor of Arts in French and of Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management with a Master of Business Administration with an emphasis in sales and entrepreneurship.

Connect with Austin on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Landon Mance is a Financial Planner and co-founder of Backbone Planning Partners out of Las Vegas, Nevada. He rebranded his practice in 2020 to focus on serving small business owners after operating as Mance Wealth Management since 2015 when Landon broke off from a major bank and started his own “shop.”

Landon comes from a family of successful entrepreneurs and has a passion and excitement for serving the business community. This passion is what brought about the growth of Backbone Planning Partners to help business owners and their families. At Backbone Planning, we believe small business owners’ personal and business goals are intertwined, so we work with our clients to design a financial plan to support all aspects of their lives.

In 2019, Landon obtained the Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) designation through the Exit Planning Institute. With this certification, Backbone Planning Partners assists business owners through an ownership transition while focusing on a positive outcome for their employees and meeting the business owner’s goals. Landon is also a member of the Business Intelligence Institute (BII) which is a collaborative group that shares tools, resources and personnel, and offers advanced level training and technical support to specifically serve business owners. In 2021, Landon became a Certified Business Exit Consultant® (CBEC®) to help entrepreneurs plan to exit their businesses by counseling owners about exit options, estimating the value of the business, preparing the business for exit and tax considerations.

Landon enjoys spending time with his beautiful wife, stepson, and new baby twins. He grew up in sunny San Diego and loves visiting his family, playing a round of golf with friends, and many other outdoor activities. Landon tries to make a difference in the lives of children in Las Vegas as a part of the leadership team for a local non-profit. He regularly visits the children that we work with to remind himself of why it’s so important to, “be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

Landon received his B.S. from California State University Long Beach in business marketing and gets the rest of his education through the school of hard knocks via his business owner clients.

Connect with Landon on LinkedIn.

Selfcare is Table Stakes E9

December 8, 2022 by Karen

Phoenix Business Radio

Selfcare is Table Stakes E9

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Selfcare is Table Stakes E9

Where do we find the wherewithal to choose courage over comfort consistently? How do we help ourselves to stay open and curious?

Bernard Slowey, Vice President of Digital Customer Success at Salesforce, shares how it all starts with selfcare. Going for a run, spending time with his wife and five-year-old sun, meditating and finding other ways to take care of monkey mind helps him to stay grounded and confident as he works with his teams to serve customers well.

He also reflects on how connecting with the bravery of his ancestors helps him put things in perspective and find the strength to bring his best self to this moment. “Find what works for you…everybody is different, you may enjoy going out for a walk, spending time in nature. You have to find what gives you balance.”

Listen to this episode of Rooted & Unwavering to learn how to stay in balance, also with lots on our plates.

Salesforce is the world’s #1 customer relationship management (CRM) platform. They help companies’ marketing, sales, commerce, service and IT teams work as one from anywhere.

Bernard Slowey leads the Digital Customer Success organization at Salesforce, responsible for driving customer success at scale to empower their 150k+ customers to realize their business outcomes.

Before Salesforce, he lead the Digital Customer Success & Support org at GitHub leading its digital transformation.

Prior to that, he spent 14 years at Microsoft Customer Support, where he had a number of leadership roles including the leader for Digital Support and Head of Windows Global Support.

Connect with Bernard on LinkedIn.

About Rooted & Unwavering

Peace, Compassion, Wisdom, Purposefulness, Creativity and Strength come online in us when we deeply connect with the true, unwavering greatness that lives within ourselves and others.

In this podcast and radio show, Hylke Faber, seasoned transformational coach and author of the award-winning Taming Your Crocodiles series, engages in deep inquiry with leaders from all walks of life about courageously connecting with our true selves, others and the world at large.

How do we stay connected to our true selves and our greatness, especially when we are challenged? How do we rest in the heart, also when our mind keeps us restless? What becomes possible when we truly stay committed to our own and others’ best selves, also when we don’t feel it? How do we practice staying connected to our true selves, in the midst of our busy lives?

Join us and leave inspired to act on your heart’s greatness and that of the people around you.

About Our Host

For as long as he can remember Hylke Faber has been curious about what this life is about. His ongoing inquiry has become his work: helping people individually and collectively to discover what is possible in life and express that authentically and fearlessly.

Hylke started his work life with Towers Perrin as consultant and then as Partner with Strategic Decisions Group, serving a wide range of industries, including financial services, manufacturing, consumer electronics and life sciences companies. A major shift occurred during this critical phase of his life. He had become the typical, hard-charging, 16-hours-a-day strategy consultant, and was burning out at a rapid clip.

When he discovered meditation, everything changed. He was so taken by his new discoveries that he chose to bring to business what he was learning: that there is a way we can have it all – we can be fulfilled, do work we love, and create extraordinary results with others. He thinks of it as creating a sense of ease in business.

He learned how to coach and facilitate human transformation completing his coaching certification with Newfield Network and by working at Axialent, the culture and leadership company. After a few years, he founded Co-Creation Partners together with other leaders in the field of transformation and personal development. Then he formed Constancee to help people grow by creating the conditions where deep personal, interpersonal and organizational shifts happen routinely.

He leads Growth Leaders Network, the culture and team development consultancy. He has also taught coaching at Columbia Business School Executive Education and has contributed to Harvard Business Review. He is currently teaching a course on Climate Conscious Leadership at Arizona State University. His award-winning book, Taming Your Crocodiles: Unlearn Fear & Become a True Leader, was published by Dover in 2018.

His next book, Taming Your Crocodiles Practices for Leadership Depth, came out in 2020. Besides helping others grow, which he loves, he is a trained opera singer, enjoys hiking and writing, is an avid reader, in particular of biographies, and is always in the process of growing himself. He integrates all of what he learns in his work with executives.

Connect with Hylke on LinkedIn.

About Our Sponsor

Realizing Your Greatness

We are a team of experienced facilitators and coaches dedicated to helping individuals, teams and organizations thrive by helping them recognize their innate greatness and putting it to work.

- Executive Coaching: we work with clients individually to help them connect to their calling and use every challenge as an opportunity to help them grow more into what makes them great.
- Team Performance: we help teams evolve to their next level of excellence, connectedness and impact by working on the root drivers of team performance.
- Culture Development: we help organizations to evolve their culture by creating clarity about where they aspire to go, and by building role models, coaches and systems that catalyze people being energized to work the new way.

Key Notes: we deliver powerful speeches at conferences and other events that help audiences become energized, more connected to themselves and each other, more open to discovery and ready to commit to the next stage of learning in their career and life journeys.

Growth Leaders Network (GLN) serves Fortune 500 companies, smaller organizations and non-profits globally.

GLN clients report that we catalyze significant business transformational impact and profound shifts in people, team and organizations at the root cause level.

Learn more about the Growth Leaders network here.

What’s Going Down in Mesa Town E17

December 5, 2022 by Karen

Phoenix Business Radio

What's Going Down in Mesa Town E17

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What’s Going Down in Mesa Town E17

Although she dabbles in real estate all over Arizona, Carla is never quiet about how much she loves the city of Mesa! Fellow Mesa enthusiast and native Jenn Duff tells us her story of going from fashion to fishing and eventually on to city government as a councilwoman and Vice-Mayor.

Mesa is a wonderfully vibrant and diverse city. Councilwoman Duff fills us in on changes and all of the ways Mesa is adjusting to & welcoming growth.

With a population of more than 504,000 Mesa, Arizona is the 37th largest city in the United States and second largest in the Phoenix-Mesa metro area. Mesa encompasses 138 square miles inside a 21-city region that has a population of 4.9 million people and is projected to grow to 5.4 million by 2026.

Mesa is a favorite destination to thousands of visitors with more than 300 sun-filled days a year and average temperature of 72.6 degrees. The area’s economy is driven by four major industries healthcare, education, aerospace, and tourism. Mesa is home to two award-winning airports, Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport and Falcon Field Airport. For more information about the City of Mesa go to mesaaz.gov.

Elected to the Mesa City Council in November of 2018, Councilmember Jenn Duff began her first term representing District 4 in January of 2019. She was named Vice Mayor of Mesa on January 11, 2021. Her term on the Council runs until January of 2023.

A Mesa native with British family roots that go back to Falcon Field during World War II, Duff is very active in the Mesa community. She spent six years on the Board of Directors of the i.d.e.a. Museum. She has served on the City of Mesa Planning and Zoning Board and co-founded the Retail, Arts, Innovation and Livability (R.A.I.L) Community Development Corporation. In 2015 she was awarded the Mesa Community College Hall of Fame Alumni Achievement Award. In 2021 Duff received the LISC Phoenix Annual Exemplary Advocate Award for her work supporting the Downtown Mesa community.

Duff is the President and Owner of Jef International, Inc., an import/export trading business specializing in sport fishing tackle. She started the business in 1990, following six years as a Professional Bass Angler. She was recognized as the top woman pro bass angler in the Southwest and is the only American woman to ever compete professionally in Japan. Duff lived in Japan in 1989 competing and promoting the sport. Duff is also the former owner of Lobina Lures, which manufactured and distributed Rico brand topwater bass fishing lures since 1991. Prior to her career in sport fishing, Duff worked as a buyer for Goldwater’s department store for six years.

Duff is a graduate of Mesa High and earned her AA degree in Fashion Merchandising from Mesa Community College. She completed the Mesa Leadership Training and Development in 2012, Neighborhood Works Leadership Training in 2012, the Mesa Chamber Leadership Development Program in 2018 and the Mesa Fire and Medical Inaugural Citizen’s Academy in 2018. She recently completed the Smart Growth America Complete Streets Champions Institute program.

Connect with Jenn on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

About the Show

Smashing Through Walls is geared toward a guide through complex commercial real estate and finance topics while adding humor and anecdotes along the way. Discover what is going on in the valley and beyond with host Carla Magee, broker at MHG Commercial.

About Our Host

Carla Magee’s background is designed with the investor in mind. After obtaining her finance degree from the University of Washington in Seattle, she worked for large corporations like Boeing and Microsoft. With a critical eye and flair for analytics, she was able to shave millions in lost profits, managing cross-functional teams by utilizing her Green Belt in Six Sigma and Masters Certification in Project Management.

Ultimately she realized that she couldn’t be contained in an office environment working for the corporate world. Being an investor herself, she came into real estate as an investment & multifamily property specialist, effectively applying her education & skillset. Carla excels in helping investors make sound decisions for their financial goals, in real estate negotiations, and takes deep pride in educating homebuyers and sellers.

On a personal note, Carla is a busy wife & mother to two daughters. In addition to an ever growing career and podcast, she also enjoys volunteering and being active in the community. She has a deep love for Arizona and although she travels whenever possible, she always finds her way back to the beautiful Sonoran Desert.

Connect with Carla on LinkedIn.

About Our Sponsor

MHG Commercial emerged from the highly successful and innovative residential brokerage: My Home Group. MHG Commercial’s vetted and experienced advisors have a wide range of complementary professional expertise that span over 100 years of cumulative experience.

Encompassing every aspect of commercial real estate from office to industrial development, raw land to luxury commercial, and multifamily to subdivision development. We excel at out of the box thinking and transactions that require a more hands-on approach and ingenuity.

No matter the property type or service need, our commercial advisors are committed to your objectives. Combined with business finesse and unsurpassed market intelligence, MHG Commercial brokers help you determine and surpass your business goals.

Follow MHG Commercial on Facebook and Instagram.

Devin Burr with Onyx Investment Group

December 2, 2022 by Karen

Phoenix Business Radio

Devin Burr with Onyx Investment Group

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Devin Burr with Onyx Investment Group

Onyx Investment Group started in late 2019. At the start the business was doing wholesale real estate and flipping homes. The company transitioned more toward buy and hold using the BRRRR strategy.

Being that the founders last name is Burr he decided to make his branding MR. BRRRR. The company now has a large focus on teaching people the power of Infinite Banking. Showing people how they can use this powerful tool to become their own bank. Allowing people to take back control of their money from the traditional banks!

In 2016 Devin Burr was bankrupt on the verge of being homeless. As of today he has has several businesses and partnerships from Real Estate airbnbs, private lending, insurance residuals and affiliates.

He has built his businesses with zero marketing dollars. Everything he does is organic with his reach on social media.

He uses his platform to help people understand the truths about money and how anyone can mimic the ultra wealthy.

Connect with Devin on Facebook and Instagram.

A Story of Hustle E133

December 1, 2022 by Karen

Phoenix Business Radio

A Story of Hustle E133

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A Story of Hustle E133

Tiffany Stovall started out as a consultant with Kansas Manufacturing Solutions in 2010. Now as President and CEO, Tiffany is a vocal advocate for Kansas manufacturers. She has an intimate knowledge of the manufacturing world and the struggles it has seen in recent years.

Tune in to hear about how Tiffany became a voice in the Kansas manufacturing community and how the current social environment is affecting manufacturing.

Kansas Manufacturing Solutions helps Kansas manufacturers work smarter, compete, and prosper.
It’s why they exist. They do this by:

Delivering solutions to small and medium sized manufacturers in Kansas with value driven results
Connecting manufacturing enterprises with vetted and trusted resources
Advocating for critical local and global manufacturing issues that impact Kansas manufacturers.

Across the state of Kansas, there are approximately 2,700 manufacturers ranging in size from 1 employee to over 19,000, for a total of about 161,000 people working in the manufacturing sector.

And as the only federally supported Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program center in Kansas, Kansas Manufacturing Solutions is the ideal go-to-manufacturing partner to help manufacturing businesses compete and prosper.

As CEO, Tiffany Stovall leads a team of trusted advisors in their continued achievement of Kansas Manufacturing Solutions’s mission of creating measurable growth for Kansas manufacturers.

Tiffany is also looking to the future, ensuring that Kansas Manufacturing Solutions is focusing on the evolving needs of the Kansas manufacturing industry with additional concentration on workforce development, cybersecurity and continuous improvement to enhance domestic and global competitiveness.

Tiffany is a vocal advocate for Kansas manufacturers. She has developed partnership relationships with key local and state organizations with the goal of ensuring that manufacturers’ issues are heard at the level where decisions to support the industry can be made. She believes that Kansas manufacturers have a tremendous opportunity for growth.

Joining the Kansas Manufacturing Solutions team in 2010 as an energy management consultant, she helped companies drive growth and efficiency through energy efficiency and sustainability.

In her role as VP of Partnership Operations, Tiffany developed and strengthened partnerships with organizations across the state that have a shared interest in helping grow Kansas manufacturing and the ecosystem that supports these companies. Cu

Tiffany currently is on the Executive Committee of the Wyandotte Economic Development Board, is a member of the Kansas City Kansas Community College Workforce and Entrepreneurship Board, and is Treasurer of American Small Manufacturers Coalition.

A proud graduate of the University of Missouri, Tiffany still happily cheers for Kansas Colleges and Universities.

Connect with Tiffany on LinkedIn.

About the Show

About Your Hosts

Connect with Austin on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Landon received his B.S. from California State University Long Beach in business marketing and gets the rest of his education through the school of hard knocks via his business owner clients.

Connect with Landon on LinkedIn.

Jennifer Drago with Peak to Profit

November 29, 2022 by Karen

Phoenix Business Radio

Jennifer Drago with Peak to Profit

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Jennifer Drago with Peak to Profit

Peak to Profit serves corporations, small business owners, and entrepreneurs and helps these businesses amplify their impact, improve their effectiveness, and increase their profitability.

Through our signature PEAK framework, we target performance, execution, attraction, and key results strategies to help our clients get further faster.

Jennifer Drago is an award-winning strategist and business coach. She worked as a strategy and operations executive in the healthcare and senior living industries for 30 years, facilitating strategic plans and developing new programs and service lines.

She has developed more than 20 new businesses and service lines and has founded two nonprofit organizations.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance, a master’s degree in Business Administration and a master’s degree in Health Services Administration from Arizona State University.

She is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and is a trained Mastery Method coach.

Connect Jennifer on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

Reena Friedman Watts with Megawatts Productions E4

November 28, 2022 by Karen

Reena-Friedman-Watts-with-Megawatts-Productions-feature

Deep Impact Leadership

Reena Friedman Watts with Megawatts Productions E4

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Reena Friedman Watts with Megawatts Productions E4

MegaWatts Productions is a full service production house founded by television producer and content creator, Reena Watts. We help take a client’s vision from an idea, all the way into a full production for any platform.

We offer pre production, production and post production solutions that are fully customized. In addition to the completed product, we also market the production across all social media platforms, online and broadcast.

There’s not much Reena Friedman Watts hasn’t done in her professional life. She’s scoured the NPR newswire for stories. She’s combed through hundreds of small claims cases. She’s worked on reality TV shows such as The Jerry Springer Show, Court TV, and Nanny 911.

She’s worked in Radio. She’s planned mega-events for the telecom and finance industries. She’s secured sponsors and emceed. She’s booked sensational and hard-to-get guests such as Howard Schultz, Barbara Corcoran, Ken Coleman, and Derek Sivers on Cathy Heller’s Don’t Keep Your Day Job Podcast and boosted the downloads from 4M to nearly 15M.

Reena has a God-given talent for connecting people and building communities, and she bestows her magic on people in the most selfless and genuine way. Ideas for how people can achieve the fantastic flow out of her head as effortlessly as breath flows into her lungs.

Her diverse background and skill set allow her to seamlessly weave in and out of multiple markets and find her way through doors that don’t open for others. She coaches entrepreneurs on how to get unstuck and find their first clients, she gets blurbs from influencers for their best-selling books, and she even helps them grow communities of their own.

Reena is a questioner and a story junkie, and she’s scratching that itch on her highly anticipated podcast, Better Call Daddy. She’s telling the stories that haven’t been told and sprinkling them with wisdom from one of her most trusted advisors, her Dad.

Reena is a hustler, a change-maker, and a consummate connector. Imagine what she can do for you.

Connect with Reena on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

ABOUT Deep Impact Leadership The Art of the Connected Conversation

Negativity, sabotage, self doubt, and more are a part of cyclical thinking, leading to cyclical results. The National Science Foundation summarized a study on human thoughts per day. It is said that the average person has about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. Of those thousands of thoughts, 80% are negative, and 95% are the very same repetitive thoughts as the day before.

If our minds are prone to negative and cyclical thinking, how do we move beyond this mundane programming to achieve professional and organizational success and significance?

We must master our intrapersonal and interpersonal communication. Impactful leadership requires effective communication within ourselves and with others.

This radio show and podcast is dedicated to exploring the magic in “connected conversations”. Listen in as these pros share the tips, tricks, strategies and disciplines that keep them at the top of their game day-in and day-out serving their industries at the highest levels.

About Your Host

Success. It is like a puzzle. You must have the puzzle box lid to see the big picture and know what your life, influence, income, and reach should be.

No matter if we are talking about:

How to take your skillset and grow it into a multi-million dollar business.
How to take your business brilliance and build it into lifelong influence and buying customers.
How to overcome those moments of overwhelm and self-sabotage (all together or at least a heck of a lot faster), so you can hit those next levels of success sooner and stronger.

Karen Nowicki has you covered.

The ultimate problem solver and solution finder, Karen’s natural perspective is understanding what you want, need, and how to make it a reality.

With advanced training and certifications in several modalities and disciplinary specialization, including: Facilitative Leadership, Organizational Development, Strategic Planning, Trauma Integration & Shadow Integration, Karen knows the business of business as well as the business of people. She will nudge you, walk alongside you, and guide you along the way.

No matter if you are building your industry influence, client relationships, or working on how to grow, scale, or accelerate your business to the next level, Karen is dedicated to helping you build your success puzzle while showing you the hidden opportunities that await.

Connect with Karen on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

A Giving Community E38

November 28, 2022 by Karen

Phoenix Business Radio

A Giving Community E38

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A Giving Community E38

Tis’ the season of giving, shopping small, and supporting local businesses and nonprofits. On this episode of Collaborative Connections Radio Show and Podcast, host Kelly Lorenzen chatted about all of that and more with her guests.

Colin Diaz at the Tempe Chamber of Commerce, Danny Murphy with Arcadia Solar, and Meghan Murphy with The Arcadia Foundation joined Kelly on-air for a great conversation.

They talked about Tempe, family-owned businesses, renewable energy, community, philanthropy, advocacy, local happenings, sustainability and more.

If you want to hear inspiring stories, get great advice, or be in the know about happenings in Tempe, check out this great episode of Collaborative Connections sponsored by KLM Consulting, Marketing, and Management.

The Tempe Chamber of Commerce represents nearly 650 businesses with more than 70,000 employees. For more than a century, the Tempe Chamber has been dedicated to sustaining Tempe’s quality of life and keeping our community and economy vibrant.

Colin Diaz is no stranger to chamber of commerce work, as he assumed the role of President & CEO in Tempe with over five years of experience as the Chief Executive Officer/President of the Culver City Chamber of Commerce in Culver City, California. In addition to his chamber experience, Colin has over 20 years of management, marketing, sales, and community outreach experience.

He brings an impressive educational background with an MBA from Duke University and an MFA for Chapman University. As the leader in the Chamber Industry, Colin used a blend of his professional, personal, and educational experience to grow reach, elevate the chamber brand to others and protect the reputation of the Chamber.

His range of educational, professional, and practical experience allow him to be in-tune with current trends and technology, while still being rooted in the sound practices that have led businesses for decades. He is an industry influencer that currently sits on the W.A.C.E. Board of Directors as member of the Executive Committee. In addition to this regional appointment, Colin is the only Accredited Chamber Executive in the Valley.

Personally, Colin values spending time with his family. When he is not there or visiting their extended families, you may find him working out, reading the word, or plotting the future. He’s always been active and uses that energy and enthusiasm in both professional and personal endeavors.

Arcadia Solar is a family-owned Solar PV EPC Contractor founded in 2009 on a simple but revolutionary principle: solar energy should be available and affordable for everyone. This commitment to energizing lives has fueled their remarkable growth since then, making them the solar installation company of choice throughout the Southwest. Today, Their proud to be known as the first whole-home energy systems provider whose sole focus is to empower people.

They’re all about delivering next-level customer satisfaction. That’s why they provide dependable solar energy solutions without the high-pressure sales tactics, shoddy workmanship or general “shady business” associated with too many other providers. They also help their customers navigate convoluted utility regulations so that they can optimize the value they receive in return for their investment.

Danny Murphy is a Arizona State University graduate who studied Construction Management and Sustainability. After school, he spent 4 years working in the commercial construction industry for a major contractor in the Phoenix Valley.

As the fifth son of Arcadia Solar’s owner, he had worked for the company a few times in different capacities since it’s founding in 2009. In 2019, he joined the team again with the experience gained in the commercial industry, and now holds the position of Director of Construction for Arcadia Solar.

Follow Arcadia Solar on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

The Arcadia Foundation is a private family foundation started by the Murphy family in 2019. Our mission is to enrich and empower the communities we serve through collaboration, education and opportunity.

Meghan Murphy is an Arizona native and proud resident of Tempe.

She graduated from ASU with a major in Nonprofit Leadership & Management and has enjoyed working in various areas of the nonprofit sector for the past 7 years.

In her free time, Meghan enjoys exploring new places and events around the valley with her husband.

Follow The Arcadia Foundation on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

About Collaborative Connections

Kelly Lorenzen started the “Collaborative Connections” show to bring her clients and favorite charities together to meet each other, connect and collaborate in life and business.

She hopes to build a stronger community one show at a time.

About Our Sponsor

KLM is a one-stop support shop for small business owners who are starting, growing, or trying to sustain. Our purpose is to foster the growth and prosperity of small businesses in our community.

Entrepreneurs & small business owners come to KLM for support in all areas of business. KLM clients think of us as a concierge, business snuggy, another arm, or duplicate for the business owner; They call us when they need us. Business owners can continue to do what they love while having the support they need when they need it.

About Your Host

Kelly Lorenzen, CEO of KLM, is an award-winning entrepreneur with over 15 years of business-ownership experience. She is also a certified project management professional.