Mike Smith is anything but the traditional startup entrepreneur. He's the founder of The Bay, an indoor skate park and creative haven for teenagers in Lincoln, Nebraska. He's also a must-see speaker, consultant, ambassador, author, and founder

046: Brester Construction - The wins and challenges of growing a family business

Apr 30th, 2019 35m 59s

Chris Brester is the CEO of Brester Construction, a second generation, family-owned company. Brester Construction is a general contracting and construction management firm based out of Lincoln, Nebraska. They’ve built their reputation by provid

046: How a construction entrepreneur took his family business from local success to regional powerhouse

Apr 30th, 2019 35m 59s

045: What it's like to run a music festival business

Jun 13th, 2018 32m 57s

Spencer Munson's short stint working in a record store ignited his love of music that led to his full-time career as a music festival organizer and promoter of the arts. He's responsible for bringing 100 bands to Lincoln each year through Linco

044: FanWord - Connecting college sports fans and brands through stories

Jun 5th, 2018 23m 21s

Christopher Aumueller first came up with the idea for FanWord while playing tennis in college. Using his design skills, he mocked up an early prototype. With a small loan from his family, he paid a developer to bring that prototype to life. He'

043: Making Influencer Marketing Work for Your Business

May 29th, 2018 24m 30s

Dennis Doerfl and his cofounder first developed the idea for Fourstarzz Media while they were working for Groupon in Europe, recognizing the need for an influencer marketing "search engine" to make it easier in deploying influencer marketing as

042: A Lesson in Improv and Selling People What They Want

May 10th, 2018 37m 14s

If you've ever watched Saturday Night Live or attended a show at Second City in Chicago, you're familiar with the concept of Improv -- at least as an observer. But Gina Trimarco believes improv training can be beneficial for executives, sales p

041: Healthy food, the right people, and creating systems that scale

Apr 18th, 2018 29m 56s

source. eat fit was founded in 2014 by Dawn Steffen and her brother to remedy the frustration of being able to eat clean and fit on the go. They make fresh, healthy meals daily that are ready to eat that last up to 7 days. But with this comes m

040: Lessons learned in starting, growing, and selling a tech company

Apr 12th, 2018 32m 26s

Matt Motsick is the CEO of SWIVEL Software, and the founder of Catapult (he has since sold and exited the company). SWIVEL Software empowers digital logistics for freight forwarders and importers/exporters. The company boasts a mix of customer

039: Levrack - Keeping up with customer demand and landing reality TV promotion

Apr 8th, 2018 30m 37s

Levrack triples your storage space by combining the best of pallet racking and mobile-aisle shelving. A company that's only a few years old, the concept was birthed out of an agricultural operation that saw an opportunity to better utilize spac

038: The Buzz about Blockchain and the Midwest Block-a-thon

Mar 27th, 2018 31m 29s

The newest idea on the street is blockchain technology. While it's not new by any stretch, it's rapidly gaining popularity as the go-to technology to build and develop. In both private spaces and corporate board rooms, people are having convers

037: Kiss & Makeup - Building Business as a Social Media Influencer

Mar 22nd, 2018 25m 46s

Casey Donner is the founder of Kiss and Makeup, a Beauty Boutique. But she is also a local social media influencer in her city, leveraging her accounts to connect with followers and brands in her area about beauty, makeup, and more. In this epi

036: What Closing a Business Teaches You About Failure

Mar 13th, 2018 43m 45s

Tyler Sprunk started his first business when he was still in college. Excited by the opportunity to put his marketing and advertising skills to work, he and his business partners owned and operated Forgelight Creative for nearly 3 years before

035: Big Top Performance - The story of Nebraska's first circus gym

Mar 5th, 2018 26m 48s

Ciara Searight is the founder of the first circus gym in Nebraska and the epitome of starting a business on a bar napkin, with the vision for her first business starting on a napkin at Yia Yia’s pizza. Ciara is also the owner of Tangerine Salon

034: Can an MLM rep be an entrepreneur or vice versa?

Feb 15th, 2018 42m 58s

Courtney Lockridge started a business in college called Nebraska Wedding Day. She grew that magazine and media platform to a regional leader and later sold the business in order to focus on her family. She says she's still an entrepreneur at he

033: The Mill Coffee - People, Experiences, and Battling the Big Brands

Feb 7th, 2018 26m 55s

Dan Sloan is one of the owners of The Mill Coffee & Tea. A self-professed recovering accountant, he's been running his business for decades - long before the emergence of Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, or even McCafe Coffee. Despite the prevalence

032: Super Bowl Week - The story of Opendorse

Feb 2nd, 2018 55m 2s

opendorse is the athlete marketing platform that helps the biggest brands in sports share content on social. Started as an idea while founders Adi and Blake were running a social media agency, they've now secured millions in funding and work wi

031: Honest Abes - An accidental success that started with a food truck

Jan 29th, 2018 32m 54s

Erik Hustad is best known as the co-founder of a Midwest foodie favorite - Honest Abe's restaurant. From food truck to a brick and mortar food and beverage business, Erik's learned a thing or two about building an experience that customers want

030: Becoming a co-owner of a business and turning lemons into lemonade

Jan 22nd, 2018 39m 13s

Jeff "Leffy" Gaston has always had an interest in discovering new things. When life handed him a string of hardships, including health issues, unfortunate relationship perils and more, he decided to chart his own path. From owning a DJ company

029: Balancing the ups and downs of the restaurant business

Jan 12th, 2018 47m 12s

Brandon Akert was a college student when he pitched the idea for Gate 25 Restaurant. After approaching dozens of people and getting shot down, he eventually found a believer to invest in his idea - and that started him down the path of entrepre

028: Mastering your online reputation with tips from an elite yelp reviewer

Jan 4th, 2018 42m 12s

Today's world is driven by word of mouth online - and that word of mouth often comes in the form of online reviews. Whether you like it or not, your business is just as susceptible to a bad review as it is a good review. Jessica Sodeke has bee

027: Social Assurance - Why challenges are required to build trust

Dec 28th, 2017 32m 41s

Ben Pankonin is the CEO and Cofounder of Social Assurance, a marketing and software company that helps financial brands market with confidence. In this interview with Ben, we dig into the concept of trust - and why it takes admitting that you'

026: Code Beer - Can we have too many breweries?

Dec 20th, 2017 22m 2s

Adam Holmberg and Matt Gohring are the owners of Code Beer in Lincoln, Nebraska. In this interview, we talk with Adam about his experience starting the brewery while still keeping his full time job and the challenge of growing a brewery followi

025: Infogressive - Managing risk and lessons learned the hard way

Dec 12th, 2017 24m 29s

Infogressive, a fast-growing company that provides around-the-clock cybersecurity services with custom and personalized support to keep your organization safe and protected. In this interview with Founder and CEO, Justin Kallhoff, we dive into

ScoutSheet: Why cold calls are dead and the new age of list building

Dec 7th, 2017 26m 29s

Devon Seacrest has tried his hand at a number of entrepreneurial pursuits. Starting first with hand sewing clothes for beannie babies, he now focuses his efforts on ScoutSheet -- a high growth software company helping businesses transform the o