Latest Episodes
All Episode Summaries
Episode 69: Competing with Beverage Goliaths Through Family Power with Matt McLean
Episode 69. In this episode of the Lifetime at Work podcast, host Greg Martin interviews Matt McLean, founder of Uncle Matt's Organics. Celebrating its 25th year, Uncle Matt's is America's leading organic juice brand.
Matt shares his family's deep roots in Florida's citrus farming, transitioning from conventional to organic agriculture, and the journey of building a national brand. The conversation explores topics such as selling the business to Dean Foods, buying it back after their bankruptcy, competing against industry giants like Coke and Pepsi, and advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Matt emphasizes the importance of leadership, sales skills, and financial literacy in building a successful business.
Episode 65: Selling Well and an 80 Location Cookie Franchise with Bennett Maxwell
Episode 65. In this Lifetime at Work podcast episode, Greg Martin interviews Bennett Maxwell, the founder and chairman of Dirty Dough, a booming gourmet cookie franchise.
Bennett recounts his transformative journey from being a Mormon missionary in Mexico to excelling in door-to-door solar energy sales, eventually leading to the creation and rapid expansion of Dirty Dough.
Listeners will gain insights into Bennett’s philosophies on living well, financial success, brand creation, and the profound impact of effective sales techniques. The discussion delves into the challenges and triumphs of building a scalable business in the food industry, raising substantial capital, and working with seasoned industry leaders.
It highlights Bennett's strategic approaches to franchising, the importance of organizational structure, and the emotional and financial ramifications of success. The episode also provides practical advice on connecting with advisors and emphasizes the pursuit of joy and fulfillment in business and life, over merely chasing financial goals.
Episode 64: Making Public Relations Work with Zachary Bernard
Episode 64. How do you get your message into the press? Well, there’s a whole engine of people working hard to help, forming the public relations industry.
This episode features guest Zachary Bernard, the Founder and CEO of We Feature You. His company is a PR firm focused on building industry professionals as leaders and authorities in their space.
There’s something a lot of people don’t realize about public relations: It’s less about gaining exposure and more about what you do with the exposure you get. This episode covers the modern media and public relations world and how all of us can thrive and understand the industry for the better.
Episode 61: How She Built a Food Business to Do Good with Richa Gupta
Episode 61. How do you know you should start a business, and how do you put the pieces of your life together to do it and be successful?
Richa Gupta is a food entrepreneur who founded Good Food for Good, a fantastic lineup of sauces, condiments and related food products sold in grocery stores across North America. Richa’s experience in becoming a mom combined with her desire to do something meaningful influenced her journey in bringing Good Food for Good into the world. In this episode, she shares the story of her journey into entrepreneurship and shares her tips for other people who are looking to build a meaningful career for themselves too.
On top of all that, Richa has now transitioned into an advising role for similar businesses and is the Vice President of Partnerships and Development at the Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN) and discusses how this next step will help her make an even bigger impact.
Episode 58: How to Help Everyone Enjoy Their Job More with Chris Dyer
Episode 58. We all complain about our jobs sometimes, its a part of the world of work. But much of our enjoyment comes from the culture within the organization we work for and can make a huge different in our personal job happiness and satisfaction.
This episode guest is Chris Dyer, an entrepreneur who started his business and found himself leading a culture that wasn’t perfect. After selling his business he realized that many of the things that make a great company is a great culture and he was determined to understand the ingredients for this success. Chris took everything he learned and put it in his book “The Power of Company Culture: How Any Business Can Build a Culture that Improves Productivity, Performance and Profits.”
He uses his knowledge to teach the fundamental things companies can do to improve their company culture to not only impact their bottom line, but to also become a business where people are happy to work.
Episode 52: The HR Ladder and When You Know You Need a Completely Different Career with Nick Goblirsch
Episode 52. Nick Goblirsch started his career in the HR (Human Resources) industry. He was in charge of hiring people and building organizations. Over time he became more successful by doing the jobs other people didn’t want to do, like driving efficiencies and layoffs. Then one day he decided he needed to do something completely different and quit.
Today Nick is the owner of I Heart Painting LLC, a house painting company. If that sounds like a big switch, well it is, and the full story is even better. Today, Nick inspires others as a speaker and coach of change, guiding others towards happiness and fulfillment through career transformation. Nick emphasizes that changing careers isn’t always easy, but it’s worth it to find your purpose and become happier in your everyday life.
Episode 46: Beware and Avoid Getting “Trapped” in a Career with Karthik Suresh
Episode 46. We all get stuck in our careers and in our jobs sometimes. Part of getting through it is attitude, another part is awareness, and another part is just making decisions that match with your age and experience.
In this episode, host Greg Martin discusses career paths across Wall Street, Silicon Valley and everything in between with Karthik Suresh. Karthik is the Co-Founder & CPTO of Ignition, an AI-powered platform for end-to-end planning, execution, and measurement for marketing and sales teams. He has had quite the career journey which included witnessing his company lose $400 million in 30 minutes on the trading floor, working as a PM at Facebook and of course the life of a career in tech.
Karthik shares the details of his experiences leading up to starting his own business, including his time working in finance in New York and through the startup ecosystem. He also highlights how these experiences helped him build skills that came together to help him be successful in his business today along with lots of takeaways for young people with aspiring career ambitions.
Episode 45: The World of Technology Leadership with Benjamin Johnson
Episode 45. What does it take to build the technology behind the leading software companies of today? The simple answer is a good CTO (Chief Technology Officer), which is the expertise and experience of Benjamin Johnson.
Ben is the CEO and Founder of Particle41, a global software consultancy that offers end-to-end product development services. If you’re a business looking to develop technology, they are the engine behind it, whether that be across software/app development or building the tech stack for your operation.
Ben is skilled at taking complicated technology and simplifying it for people who aren’t as well-versed in the nuances of software. Not only does he know the industry well, but he’s also connected with some of the most talented individuals within it. This has allowed him to navigate and find success in the tech space by focusing on finding great matches first. In this conversation with host Greg Martin, they dive into the world of technology.
Episode 44: How Work Has Changed Over the Decades with Jose Palomino
Episode 44. The world of work has changed materially over the last several decades, morphed by everything from technology, to culture to big events like the pandemic. Jose Palomino is a veteran with lots of experience across the board in corporate worlds and in entreprenership.
In this episode Jose discusses with host Greg Martin all about his history through the working world and how he’s come to love and embrace the concept of process and systems in a business, to where he focuses on that today. As the Founder & CEO of Value Prop where he helps business owners get unstuck and start growing again by developing their strategy, plans, and processes to reach their full potentia
During the episode, Jose shares his mission and how it drives the work he does with business owners. He also talks about the way he’s seen the work environment change throughout his career, including the good and the bad, and reveals his top tips for people starting in the world of work and new business owners alike
Episode 41: Investment Banking, to Tech, to Community with Zachary Novak
Episode 41. It’s hard to know what you want to do in your career long-term. Often times you start somewhere and see where it takes you. If you ask Zachary Novak, he says you have to find your thing, and it just takes time.
With host Greg Martin, Zachary shares his beginnings in investment banking to how he discovered the idea of getting into the field of technology. Before jumping into the tech world, Zachary was hesitant to go into a field he wasn’t an expert in. That is, until he realized that you don’t need to understand technology on an expert level to understand what it does for people.
Today he runs an organization called Careers in Technology and Innovation which helps diverse professionals find and grow fulfilling careers in tech. The application of technology across various industries is disruptive and innovative, making it an exciting place to be for professionals today.
Episode 40: Traveling the Land of Startups with Sharekh Shaikh
Episode 40. Sharekh started his career studying computer engineer and living/working in the Middle East. But over time he realized he wasn’t a coder, and he didn’t want to work for someone else in the middle east anymore. So he came to North America and began the journey starting a company of his own.
He’s still in the middle of this journey, but has founded and built a great company called CleverX, an audience discovery platform designed to help research teams conduct online surveys and interviews with professionals in the workspace. He’s filled with advice on the differences between being a founder in Silicon Valley and one elsewhere in the world. He also has lots to say on building an expertise in the corporate world and translating that to becoming a founder, and then of course on building a company.
In this episode with host Greg Martin, he covers plenty on the world of work, the founder world and where he’s found his place in the corporate landscape.
Episode 39: Fear and Putting Yourself Out There with Ryan Hanley
Episode 39. It’s hard to be bold and stand out. There’s a part of us that wants to fit in, find your people and be accepted. But other times you need to stand out and put yourself out there.
In this episode Greg Martin interviews Ryan Hanley. Ryan is an insurance guy (not sexy as he admits), but he’s also a business owner, podcaster, and speaker who believes insurance is the best industry every created. He is the CEO and Founder of Rogue Risk, a national, digital commercial insurance agency.
Episode 38: Life Lessons from the TV Show Succession with Dan Scott
Episode 38. This episode is a special one, digging into the takeaways and lessons from the HBO hit Succession.
To reflect on the show through 4 seasons, Greg Martin interviews Dan Scott, who runs the firm Spotlight Advisory Group. He helps wealthy individuals and families find creative outlets, discover their purpose, and deal with succession (the real life kind).
The episode is all about purpose, greed, money, power and the good, bad and the ugly of what the show can teach us as Dan draws parallels—and plenty of contrast—between his clients and the wealthy family portrayed in the “Succession” TV show.
Episode 35: Taking the Leap to Start Your Own Business with William Buist
Episode 35. It’s an incredibly challenging step to leave a career or a well paying job to start your own business. The leap is huge. It’s risky. But many of us do it. Why start your own business? How do you get the most out of the experience? How do you be really good?
In this episode host Greg Martin joins William Buist to share stories about taking the leap and starting a business. Both Greg and William have done it themselves and work everyday with entrepreneurs who have times where they love and hate their choice.
Episode 34: The Insurance Business as a Gateway to Earning and Learning Fast with Stanislav Kojokin
Episode 34. What do you know about the insurance industry? Diving in quickly you learn that it can be a tremendous place to learn about the world of business and make money as someone new, young or old. The role of brokers is perhaps the most fun.
With guest Stanislav Kojokin, co-founder and CEO of KASE Insurance, he tells us all about his journey through the industry and co-founding the company and the great culture they have today. At over 2,000 clients on their roster, his team works alongside companies as they navigate what can be the complicated world of insurance, while offering his employees an invaluable opportunity to learn about insurance and the business world.