AmiSights: Financing the Future For Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

On this episode, Ami Kassar interviews Noah Rosenfarb, Financial Advisor to the Half Percent at Freedom Family Office, about how entrepreneurs think about risk.

Noah is a 3rd generation CPA that built Freedom Family Office to help entrepreneurs produce predictable income, create their ideal life and build their legacy. He has written four books, took a company he founded public, sold eight companies, and completed over 45 real estate investments.

Noah openly shares the tools, resources and strategies he’s used to become “Rich Beyond Money” – a mantra he encourages others to practice.  He shares original and curated content on Facebook and LinkedIn related to wealth, taxes, investing, real estate, and lifestyle.

As a lifelong learner, Noah is an active member of EO South Florida, YPO Global One, Strategic Coach, and Long Angle.

Noah lives in Parkland, Florida with his wife, Amanda and their two kids. He’s passionate about travel and is fortunate to have visited 70 countries on 5 continents.

Recorded 10/28/2022.

On this episode, Ami Kassar interviews Dr. Troy Hall on talent retention and tips to keep employees in today's world.

Featured on the Today Show, ABC, Beyond the Business Radio Show, and CEO World, Dr. Troy Hall is an award-winning culture strategist, radio show host, speaker, author, and talent retention expert.

As the author of the Best Selling Title, Cohesion Culture: Proven Principles to Retain Your Top Talent, and co-author of a Best New Book Release, Mission Matters: World’s Leading Entrepreneurs Reveal Their Top Tips for Success, Dr. Troy was once told he did not have the talent to write. His mom, Fanny, reminded him, “It’s not the successes or failures that shape your life, it’s how you handle them.”

His doctorate in Global Leadership and Entrepreneurship has sent him across the globe to help leaders create cultures of cohesion and retain top talent in their organizations.

With more than 40 years of practical leadership experience and a Ph.D. in Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship, Dr. Troy's passion is helping others succeed. His consulting and executive coaching sessions have positively impacted organizational leaders around the globe on how to create cultures of cohesion to retain their top talent.

From the U.S. to Canada and the United Kingdom, from the Middle East to Africa, Asia, and Australia, Dr. Troy has spoken at global conferences as a subject matter expert on the topics of culture & leadership, strategy, and change.

Dr. Troy  is distinguished as an International Development Educator and recipient of the South Carolina State House Resolution for his Global Leadership Exchange program, an international mentoring program.

Dr. Troy developed the industry-recognized mentoring program for the Carolinas Credit Union League Protégé program. Using his executive performance coaching skills, he mentors emerging leaders through the College of Charleston's International MBA program where he also serves as a consulting advisor.

Dr. Troy has served on the boards of the School of Business for Charleston Southern University and Lowcountry Orphan Relief and is an advocate voice for raising funds and awareness for the South Carolina Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.

For insights into his award-winning approach of developing a Cohesion Culture™, connect with Dr. Troy. Be sure to take the “quiz” to determine if your organization is on the right path. Ask Dr. Troy about culture and leadership advice by connecting with him on all social media platforms @DrTroyHall.

"You don’t have to know everything, you just need to be teachable." - Dr. Troy

Recorded 10/11/2022. 

On this episode, Ami Kassar interviews Bill Flynn, CEO of Catalyst Growth Advisors, on how to take the guesswork out of growth. 

Bill has accomplished much, failed often, and learned many useful lessons from thirty years of studying the science of success. He is best described as a pragmatic Simon Sinek; an optimist and an operator. Bill embodies his core purpose - simplified servanthood - by spending each working moment to help create a compassionately productive society by enabling enlightened leaders to focus on the few things that truly matter to their teams and key stakeholders.

He has worked for and advised hundreds of companies, including startups, where he has a long track record of success spanning multiple industries. Bill has been a VP of Sales eight times, twice a CMO, and once a GM of a division of a $100MM IT services company before he pivoted to becoming a business growth coach in 2015. Prior to that, he had five successful outcomes, two IPOs, and seven acquisitions, including a turnaround during the 2008 financial crisis.

As a coach, in addition to being connected with MG 100, Women’s Business Collaborative, MassMEP, Small Giants, and EforAll, Bill has earned certifications from ScalingUp, Gravitas Impact, Metronome United, Predictive Index, and The Neuroleadership Institute.

Recorded 10/07/2022. 

On this episode, Ami Kassar interviews Verne Harnish, Owner and CEO of Scaling Up, on the biggest challenges businesses face today in this post pandemic world and how he and his coaches are helping their clients through them.

Verne is a world-leading expert, speaker, author, and entrepreneur in the field of business growth. He has spent more than 30 years educating entrepreneurial teams. As part of his personal mission to support entrepreneurs, he co-founded Growth Institute, a premier online training company that has helped mid-market companies in over 50 countries learn and implement the latest business methodologies.

He also founded the world-renowned Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) and chaired for 15 years EO's premier CEO program, the "Birthing of Giants", held at MIT. Verne is also the Founder and CEO of Scaling Up, a global executive education and coaching company with over 180 partners on six continents.

Known as the "Growth Guy" syndicated columnist, Verne is also a regular columnist for Fortune magazine. He's the author of Scaling Up, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits and, along with the editors of Fortune, authored The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time, for which Jim Collins wrote the foreword.

With his expertise in high demand, Verne chairs annual Growth Summits in North America, Europe, and Asia and continues to teach in the MIT-based executive program he founded. He is also a private investor in many scaleups.

Verne is a father of four who enjoys piano, tennis, and magic as a card-carrying member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.

Recorded 09/12/2022.

On this week's episode, Ami Kassar interviews Jeff Bruno, founder and CEO of B.Modelr, on how businesses manage performance.

Jeff has over twenty years of experience in financial and operating strategy. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from George Washington University and a Master’s Degree in International Business Administration from the Fox School of Business at Temple University.

Jeff started his career in the retail brokerage world at Prudential Securities before several stints in the start-up or small business space before his current role as CEO. Over the past 18 months, Jeff describes his journey of rebranding from Your Outsourced CFO to B.Modelr - or Business Modeler. “We are business model specialists who use modeling, measurement, and analysis to glean insight, illustrate logic, gauge [business] performance, and inform decision making.”

B.Modelr is based out of Philadelphia and works with companies nationwide. Jeff and his team help companies find clarity on their business concept, focus on the highest value areas, and decision making is supported by quantitative analysis.

Jeff has a great family with a beautiful wife and three amazing kids. While not focusing on growing his business, Jeff loves dinner out with his wife, board games with his son, and drawing contests with his two younger daughters.

Recorded 09/09/2022.

On this episode, Ami Kassar interviews Eric Griffin (better known as Griff), co-founder of Mobile Outfitters, on the biggest lessons learned during his entrepreneurial journey. 

Griff co-founded Mobile Outfitters, a 5x Inc. 5000 company, which is a U.S. manufacturer, innovator, and consumer brand of mobile accessories, with 900 retail locations spanning 55 countries. Mobile Outfitters is best known for its award-winning RapidCut system, an all-in-one solution for on-demand manufacturing of mobile screen protection and 360° full body skins directly in retail stores, completely eliminating the need for inventory.

Griff is passionate about business strategy, vision, startups, sales development, product design, and marketing. Finding an opportunity, bringing it to life from napkin sketch to reality, and creating a game plan that turns potential opportunity into a brand that employees and customers are enthusiastic about is his favorite thing to do. Talking with people who are interested in (or are already) building sustainable, responsible, growing companies is a close second.

Griff is also a board member of the Philadelphia chapter of Entrepreneurs’ Organization, a non-profit network exclusively for entrepreneurs, chairman of the board at Back on my Feet Philly, a non-profit combatting homelessness through the power of running, co-founder of GSW Apartments, a 33 unit real estate development and property management company, and co-founder of PAW5, a consumer brand of puzzle feeders and enrichment products for dogs. In his spare time, he enjoys helping Philly not-for-profits, running, gardening, woodworking, cooking, and coffee.

Recorded 08/30/2022. 

On this episode, Ami Kassar interviews Elisabeth Garson, Executive Creative Director of Steel Owl, about her creative journey, her favorite projects, and what she is working on now.

Elisabeth is an Executive Creative Director and an Experience Producer that builds interactive brand experiences, and develops gamification for corporate training (learn as you play). She’s given dozens of lectures on experiential design, advertising, escape rooms and more. She authored two industry books and is the owner of Steel Owl Productions, with the award-winning game room, Escape The 1980s.

Her current work blends interactive, off-screen experiences with advertising and learning. In 2015, she founded Steel Owl Productions, a company that works with brands looking to promote or train via real-life experiences. She's developed interactive experiences for the museum industry, training industry and Fortune 500 companies.

Prior to Steel Owl Productions, Garson worked in Advertising for 20 years as a Creative Director. Her clients included large companies (Comcast, Advanta, The Franklin Mint), medium sized businesses and start-ups. From craft beer…to cable TV — her creative work explored consumer experience, from the perspective of targeted audience research. This knowledge acted as the primary building block for the Steel Owl business model, including game development, company branding, and puzzles to create player engagement.

In addition, she created several Philadelphia events including the sold-out “Dating Game Live” (set up like the 1980s show) and a sold out “Happening Event” where participants purchased tickets to something that was happening (but they didn’t know what it was). She was the co-creator of an independent short film that created outlandish experiences for unsuspecting deliverymen. She also the developed The Philadelphia Arts Market concept for the City of Philadelphia, which is still in process of development, and on-hold for the moment.

Over the years, Garson’s endeavors have attracted press from The Philadelphia Inquirer, CBS 3, NBC 10, ABC 6, KYW News Radio, Time Magazine and dozens of others.

Recorded 08/26/2022.

On this episode, Ami Kassar interviews Dave Mastovich, founder & CEO of MASSolutions, on how to eliminate BS marketing tactics and replace them with proven growth strategies.

Dave has helped companies achieve top and bottom line growth through marketing and storytelling for decades. He helped grow the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center into a multibillion dollar healthcare system and drove record breaking  recruitment in both size and academic talent for Duquesne University  as a senior executive leader before starting MASSolutions, the world’s only No BULL$H!# Marketing Consultancy.

He started MASSolutions because he wanted any company, regardless of size or industry, to be able to leverage real marketing through his No BS Go To Market System. He and his team help companies achieve massive growth through strategic marketing, customer experience solutions and top and bottom line storytelling.

Dave has been quoted or published in Entrepreneur, Inc, Fortune, ABC News and many other outlets on Marketing, Branding and Crisis Communications.

He’s author of the book Get Where You Want to Go Through Marketing, Selling and Story Telling and host of the No BS Marketing Show podcast with nearly 500 episodes over 7 years. His blog has  been featured in over 50 media outlets with readership of more than 1 million. Dave is also a nationally-recognized speaker.

Recorded 08/17/2022.

On this episode, Ami Kassar interviews David Friedman, CEO of High Performing Culture, on the new rules about corporate culture in the post-pandemic world. 

David is an author, speaker, CEO, and the developer of the CultureWise® operating system. His company helps organizations to create, drive, and maintain high-performing cultures, with a proven system that’s straightforward, practical, and easy to use. The principles that David teaches are based on the process he developed while serving as the President of RSI, an employee benefits consulting firm headquartered in Mt. Laurel, NJ.

Under his leadership and direction, RSI grew from 2 employees to a staff of more than 100 professionals and annual revenues in excess of $16 million. The firm won numerous awards including being named one of the Best Places to Work in the Philadelphia region 3 times and one of the Best Places to Work in NJ 4 times. In 2006, RSI earned the NJ Governor’s Award for Performance Excellence – Gold Level, the highest award for total quality available in the state.  In 2008, RSI became a division of Arthur J. Gallagher & Associates (AJG), one of the largest insurance brokers in the world. David served as the Area President for Gallagher until his retirement in July of 2010.

In 2011, David published his first book, Fundamentally Different, based on the insights he learned and taught during his leadership career. His second book, Culture by Design, was published in 2018 and has already been called “the most useful book ever written on organizational culture.” In 2021, David published the 2nd edition of Culture by Design, which includes insights and strategies for managing culture in the new remote/hybrid work environment.  Today, in addition to leading CultureWise, he’s a frequent guest speaker and seminar leader on leadership, organizational culture, and building high-performance teams. In the last 7 years alone, he’s led more than 500 workshops for more than 5,000 CEOs. In 2021, David was recognized by Vistage International as their Speaker of the Year. He also serves as a consultant to scores of companies around the country. David is a 1983 graduate of the College of William & Mary with a degree in philosophy.

Recorded 08/15/2022.

On this week’s episode, Ami Kassar interviews John Arensmeyer, Founder & CEO of Small Business Majority, on the toughest issues facing the small business community today, and how his organization is helping.

John has used his long experience as a small business owner to build Small Business Majority into a nationally recognized organization focused on empowering America's entrepreneurs to build a thriving and inclusive economy. Small Business Majority is the leading advocate for critical public policy issues facing America’s small businesses—particularly access to capital, healthcare, taxes, retirement/asset building and numerous workforce issues. In the past few years John has spearheaded the growth of Small Business Majority’s Venturize.org portal, providing critical practical resources to our nation’s 30 million small businesses and independent self-employed entrepreneurs.

Prior to launching Small Business Majority 16 years ago, John was the founder and CEO of ACI Interactive, an award-winning international interactive communications company. Information Week named ACI's signature product one of the nation's top 100 e-business innovations, and the company was cited by the San Francisco Business Times as one of the top 100 fastest growing private companies in the Bay Area. Earlier, John was the chief operating officer of a pioneering multimedia business, an attorney in New York, an aide to the mayor of Philadelphia and a staff member on Capitol Hill.

John is a frequent speaker on small business policy issues and a regular guest on TV and radio, including MSNBC's Your Business, PBS NewsHour, Fox News, Bloomberg TV, NPR's Marketplace and the CBS Evening News. In 2009 he was an active participant at the White House summit on healthcare reform. He testifies regularly before congressional committees, and has briefed White House officials and congressional leadership on small business policy issues. He serves on the Advisory Board for the Access to Markets initiative, and he recently served as Board Chair of California's Insure the Uninsured Project. He has led a study group at Harvard's Kennedy School of Politics, and has served on the Association for Enterprise Opportunity's Economic Impact Council and Micro Capital Task Force. John is conversational in Spanish.

Recorded 08/11/2022.