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Celebrating Powerhouse Women

Lucy Mejia, Owner of The Junkluggers of Atlanta Metro East

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Celebrating Powerhouse Women salutes and recognizes women who are making an impact, whether it’s in business, philanthropy, public service, or elsewhere.

Lucy Mejia/The Junkluggers of Atlanta Metro East

Lucy Mejia is a dedicated wife and mother of two small children, an Atlanta native, and a proud alumna of Georgia State University. She holds an undergraduate degree in Environmental Geology and a graduate degree in Environmental Geosciences. Before starting her business, Lucy gained valuable experience working with gas and water utility companies in GIS (Geographical Information Systems).

As the owner of The Junkluggers of Atlanta Metro East, Lucy leads a community-driven, eco-friendly, minority-owned business committed to making a positive impact. Certified as a Minority Owned Enterprise by the Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council, her business takes pride in its diverse and inclusive approach. Connecting resources through recycling, donating to local non-profits, and supporting other small businesses is a passion of Lucy’s driving the businesses mission to create a more sustainable and connected community. At The Junkluggers of Atlanta Metro East, the team believes in the power of small actions to create meaningful change. With Lucy’s leadership and commitment to responsible disposal, they strive to declutter spaces while uplifting communities, ensuring that every piece of junk tells a story of positive impact and sustainability.

Beyond her business, Lucy is deeply engaged in her community. She serves as an ambassador for the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, where she was awarded Ambassador of the Year for 2023-2024, sits on the Board of Directors for Dekalb Senior Provider Network, and is an active member of the Peachtree Corners Business Association and various other organizations. Through her various roles, Lucy works tirelessly towards a more connected and thriving Atlanta Metro East. In her free time, Lucy enjoys spending time with friends and family, cooking, camping, traveling, and reading.

Celebrating Powerhouse Women is presented by

Hosted by Amanda Pearch

Produced by Dan Braverman

Phoenix Business Radio

Authentic Family - Highlighting Muscular Moving Men and Petsmart E3

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Authentic Family – Highlighting Muscular Moving Men and Petsmart E3

This was definitely a full house, but a fun show highlighting Muscular Moving Men & Storage, M3 Commercial Moving & Logistic, and PetSmart. This conversation highlights very different revenue generating companies that have one common focus- growing companies with a strong culture.

Whether founded in 1986 like Petsmart or 2008 like Muscular Moving Men, growing a company with a great internal culture can be imperative in company growth. The culture of these two companies helped them both succeed and continue to grow through the pandemic as well.

We wish the listeners could see the guests picking up their dogs to share with the camera, but the conversation (even without the dogs) is worth listening. Although puppies and kittens are of course a perk of Petsmart, there are other parts of the culture that Dani and Lauren discuss. Petsmart has continued to progress through the pandemic, support their staff through working from home, and continuing to have passion for people and pets.

Jennifer and Justin gave insight into the culture of Muscular Moving Men from the beginning and through the pandemic. They have been able to keep a strong family culture, continuing to support the staff through motivation, while keeping the customers accountable and safe as well. Both companies have growth plans for the future that also include doing good for the community as well.

Founders Josh Jurhill and Justin Hodge started Muscular Moving Men to be leaders in the moving industry. Arizona natives, initially just local moving company, MMM added long distance moves, storage, commercial moving & storage and this year Junk Removal.

Over the last 12 years Muscular Moving Men & Storage has expanded and seen tremendous growth focusing on amazing company culture and advancement. The staff at MMM has grown with the company with most office members initially starting in the field. According to Justin Hodge Co-Founder, “Its important that our entire staff understand how a move works and how important it is we take care of our customers on moving day.”.

Fast forward to 2020 MMM has expanded into a 20,000sf warehouse, 20 trucks, a commercial & junk removal division and a staff of around 70 hard working and very talented individuals. The core values of the company have and always will be “Outstanding Service, competitive rates, Muscles for a Move Made Easy!”

Justin Hodge is a 2018 Phoenix Business Journal 40 Under 40 Inductee and graduate of the Walter Cronkite School at Arizona State University. He is an Arizona native and Co-Founder of Muscular Moving Men & Storage which opened their doors in 2008.

With sights set on nationwide expansion, Justin and his leadership team work to change the culture of the moving industry and stay in touch with the small business feel that made the company successful out of the gate. Justin is a Husband to an amazing wife and father of two beautiful kids.

Jennifer Villalobos is a first generation Latina who graduated graduated from the University of Arizona & received her MBA from the University of Phoenix.

Today, as an industry executive, Phoenix Business Journal 40 Under 40 recipient & board member of multiple non profits, and now VP of Marketing for Muscular Moving Men & Storage, Jennifer inspires others to achieve beyond boundaries, never forgetting to return gratitude to those who helped lay the foundation and being a role model to her community.

Follow Muscular Moving Men on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Founded in 1986, PetSmart, Inc. is the largest specialty pet retailer of services and solutions for the lifetime needs of pets. At PetSmart, we love pets, and we believe pets make us better people. Every day with every connection, PetSmart’s passionate associates help bring pet parents closer to their pets so they can live more fulfilled lives.

This vision impacts everything we do for our customers, the way we support our associates, and how we give back to our communities.
We operate approximately 1,650 pet stores in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico as well as more than 200 in-store PetSmart PetsHotel dog and cat boarding facilities. PetSmart provides a broad range of competitively priced pet food and products and offers unique pet services including training, pet grooming, boarding, PetSmart Doggie Day Camp and in-store pet adoptions.

Expert veterinarian care is available in many of our stores, where Banfield Pet Hospital®, operates full-service pet hospitals. These in-store pet hospitals operate independently of PetSmart and employ veterinarians who provide a full range of health care and emergency services.

PetSmart, together with non-profits PetSmart Charities and PetSmart Charities of Canada, partners with nearly 4,000 animal welfare organizations to bring adoptable pets into stores so they have the best chance possible of finding a forever home. Through this in-store adoption program and other signature events, PetSmart has facilitated more than 9 million adoptions – more than any other brick-and-mortar organization.

Lauren Givens is the Manager of Emerging Talent at PetSmart. Lauren has more than 9 years of progressive and strategic experience in learning, leadership and talent development, and talent acquisition. Lauren attended the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee where she received both her BA and MA in Communication.

Lauren has worked for both for profit and not for profit retailers before she found herself at PetSmart. She is responsible for the end-to-end early career talent recruitment process that begins with development of the recruitment strategy, design and development of program content, execution of non-traditional recruitment strategies and new hire onboarding for early career talent. She is passionate about helping others see their potential and developing internal and external talent.

Dani Kaufman has been with PetSmart for 5 years and currently leads the employment brand and recruitment marketing team. She is passionate about PetSmart and loves to give others a peek into #lifeatpetsmart. She also loves being a dog mom to Ace and Gizmo.

Follow PetSmart on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

About Culture Crush

Culture Crush is officially relaunched! We are thankful to Debra Caron who launched and hosted the show originally. Culture Crush is back with a new host but the same focus- highlighting what makes a great company culture and how it affects the overall success of a company.

Culture is not just a tag word to be thrown around. It is not something you throw in job descriptions to draw people to applying for jobs within a company.

According to Marcus Buckingham and Ashely Goodall in their book Nine Lies About Work, “Culture is the tenants of how we behave. It’s like a family creed. This is how we operate and treat each other in the family.”

On this long form podcast we will highlight companies local to Arizona and beyond that are crushing it with great culture!

We will talk with company leaders to learn about real-life experiences, tips, and best practices for creating a healthy work environment where employees are finding joy and satisfaction in their work while also striving and growing within the company.

About the Host

Kindra Maples is your new host taking the lead on the relaunch of Culture Crush! She is spartan racer, past animal trainer, previous magician’s assistant, and has a weakness for Oreo cookie shakes. Her journey working with people actually started working with animals as a teenager (don’t worry we won’t go that far back for her bio).

She worked for over 15 years in the zoo industry working with animals and the public. Her passion of working with animals shifted into working with people in education, operations and leadership roles. From there her passion of leadership and helping people develop has continued to grow.

Then came the opportunity for relaunching the Culture Crush Podcast and she jumped on it. Leadership, growth, and strong company cultures are all areas that Kindra is interested in diving into further.

Shout Outs

We want to thank a few people for their behind the scenes effort in helping this relaunch to come to life. James Johnson with Tailored Penguin Media Company LLC.– It is a small, but powerful video production company with a goal to deliver the very best by articulating the vision of your brand in a visually creative way. Gordon Murray with Flash PhotoVideo, LLC. -Flash Gordon has been photographing since high school and evolving since then with new products that will equip, encourage, engage, and enable. Renee Blundon with Renee Blundon Design – She is not only one of the best free divers (that’s not how she helped with the podcast) but she is great with graphics design and taking the direction for the vision that you have while also adding creative ideas to bring to your vision to life.

These are just a few of the folks that supported the relaunch of the podcast. If you would like to be part of the Culture Crush team or would like to support underwriting the show- please reach out: culturecrushpodcast@gmail.com