A VERY SMARK PODCAST: Recent Episodes
SMARK
A Very SMARK Podcast powered by SMARK is dedicated to small business education, growth and sustainability. Hosted by SMARK Certified Consultants Lauren Pace and Marlon Balana, each episode talks to consultants, small business owners and authors about the hurdles of small business and ways to overcome, enhance their knowledge and gain insights and tips to maneuver the everyday needs of entrepreneurship, all while having some fun. New Episodes Weekly!
Last episode, we spoke to Mac Conwell about the fundamentals of Venture Capital and what it means to be a start up, this episode we sit down with Attorney Bernard H Coleman to talk about the legal side of your startup and best practices when giving out equity and best trademarks and structuring for your business.
A cum laude **graduate of Harvard College and a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, Attorney Bernard H. Coleman, Jr. has practiced law for 25 years in Atlanta, GA. He spent the first 17 years of his practice with some of Atlanta’s top law firms, including as a Partner in the Corporate and Securities Practice Group of Morris, Manning & Martin where he led complex corporate finance and merger & acquisition transactions totaling over $1 Billion Dollars. Throughout his career, Attorney Coleman has served as legal counsel to entrepreneurs and fast-growth companies in a variety of industries including, manufacturing and distribution, technology, franchising, personal care, staffing, hospitality, and entertainment.
In 2013, Attorney Coleman decided to leave Big Law to create The Coleman Law Firm so that he could better serve diverse entrepreneurs to advise them through every aspect of organizing, financing, growing, acquiring and selling their businesses. He also works with the law firm Townsend & Lockett as Special Counsel, where he collaborates with other Black attorneys who also practice in the areas of business law, intellectual property law, real estate law and litigation. Attorney Coleman has a special interest in helping diverse entrepreneurs with understanding the capital raising process (including, crowdfunding, venture capital and debt financing) and navigating complex state and federal regulatory issues relating to securities laws and corporate governance matters.**
Attorney Coleman can be contacted at bcoleman@tclfirm.com or 404-419-6571. You can also learn more about Attorney Coleman and The Coleman Law Firm at https://tclfirm.com.
On this episode, we have one of our own SMARK Certified Consultants, all the way from Paris, France - Stephen Blackman speaking to us today about “inbound Marketing and A.I.”
Stephen Blackman is a professor in the INSEEC group, Paris who has created and delivers the only course specialized in blockchain and marketing for product management in France with a focus on advanced digital marketing.
Passionate about education he has combined his MBA in marketing and brand management with executive studies in digital learning with the Commonwealth of Learning (COL). As a result, he advises institutions on how to give technically enhanced courses.
Additionally, in his role as a consultant and executive coach, he advises Chinese bank managers on fintech and the evolution of customer relationships. His consultancy work also extends to projects under the United Nations and the African Union where he works in digital PR and the development of digital platforms respectively.
An entrepreneur at heart he has been a founding member of three start up projects in Barbados: a marketing and website development company; a sports fashion brand; and a tourism NGO. In Paris his start up is using artificial intelligence to make art events more interactive. Through this venture he won the Face Entrepreneurship Award, an international prize, in 2015. Today he helps fellow entrepreneurs and small business owners to develop websites and marketing strategies.
Stephen Blackman is a strong believer in data driven decisions and innovation. He stays in touch with programming by working on development projects and data science. Drawing on his experience in the area of coding and managing developers in Europe and Asia he teaches future developers at the IT school Epitech.
On this episode, we are sitting down with Mac Conwell, to talk about a pretty hot topic right now. Startups and Funding. With an influx in people starting businesses and needing funding, we want to dissect the fundamentals of finding funding, from traditional to non traditional ways.
"McKeever “Mac” Conwell II is a software engineer by trade and was a former DOD contractor with a top-secret clearance. He was a two-time founder with an exit and a failure. Next Mac moved on to the venture capital world via the Maryland Technology Development Corporation as part of their Seed Investment Team.During his four years there, Mac amassed experience leading an initiative to create the Minority Business Pre-seed Fund, the first and only, at the time, state-backed pre-seed fund for women and minorities in the country. The program institutionalized the friends and family round for black-, women-, and minority-led startups and was subsequently funded long-term by the state of Maryland. In September 2020, Mac founded RareBreed VC, a pre-seed fund that invests in exceptional founders outside of large tech ecosystems."
On this part 2 of sitting down with Amy Reczek from www.salesandpresence.com ; we discuss non verbal communications and how it aligns with how we sell and present to others. Amy gives best practices, tools and tips to increase engagement and gain better buy in from the people you deal network with.
On this Episode, we talk all things sales. And how, no matter what you do or how large your organization, selling is what is going to get you to solid, sustainable revenue goals.
Our special guest for this Episode is Amy Reczek.
Amy founded Sales and Presence after 17 years as a respected high-level Senior Sales Executive in corporate sales. She earned countless awards and was ranked within the top ten in the company. She holds her bachelor’s degree in Psychology, has extensive business and sales training, and is certified in nonverbal communications. Amy is a certified virtual training, a member of NSA, speaks at national conferences, and is the author of "So You're in Sales".
She helps her clients forge solid relationships with strategic partners across all organizational levels to create lifelong customers.
On this episode, Hosts, Lauren Pace and Marlon Balana; talk specifically about the state of small business going into 2022 and what’s trending in sales and marketing. Amber Payden, our founder and GM will be leading the discussion with our special guest Google Executive Scott Harris.
Scott Harris is currently a Sales Operations Manager for Google and also is working to develop a Venture Capital firm, that focuses on investing in minority brands.
Scott did his undergraduate degree at Morehouse in Atlanta, and received is MBA in Business Management from Harvard Business School.
On this Episode, Lauren Pace and Marlon Balana sit down with Anna Lloyd, Dustin Goldstein and Mike Roberts of the The Young Team Real Greater Metropolitan Area to talk about personal branding, real estate and how everything has shifted for the good and bad during these current COVID times. Specifically talking about “Branding and Scaling” and how to do it with cost in mind.,
Some career highlights, Mike Roberts has $50 million dollars in volume sold year to date, with over 7 years of real estate experience. Anna Lloyd currently manages around 50 rental units, and sells an average recurring revenue annually of $8-10MIL in volume. Collectively the team has generated over $80 MIL in total annual sales., and currently services the Northeast, OH region.
On this Episode of a Very SMARK Podcast. Our hosts Lauren Pace and Marlon Balana have 2 special guest, Joe and Robin Ham, speaking to us about “Sustaining a Solopreneur Career”, not only have they both had individual entrepreneurial careers - they also have been married for over 25 years and lived together in the New York City Area.
Joe Ham, Grammy Award Winning Composer, Producer and Drummer based out of New York City, and has been in the music industry for over 30 years, Joe’s work has been featured on shows such as NBC - “THE COSBY SHOW” ,“A DIFFERENT WORLD” ,“LIVING SINGLES” and NICKELODEON’s - “LITTLE BILL”. Joe has been sustained a successful production company called HAMIT UP Productions for the last 25 years and currently lives in New York City with his wife Robin Ham, who we have on the show also!
Robin L. Ham (broker/owner of a successful boutique real estate firm for 21 yrs.), RGH Realty #1, Inc. as well as owner of RLH Design Consultants, Inc. based in New York (10 yrs.). Her background is in fashion design from the Paris Fashion Institute in Paris, France and fashion manufacturing and marketing from The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.
Both Robin and Joe have seen all types of trends in entrepreneurship and have decided to share some of their tips and best practices for sustaining a career as a gig economist or solopreneur.
Many companies small to large struggle with developing a clear business strategy, this is an obvious issue - but what we rarely talk about in our culture is how flexibility in your business or brand is extremely important to creating a sustainable business model. On this Episode, we speak to Craig Dillon about how to "Build a Flexible Enterprise", how a business can be smart about their next steps, and ways to pivot in an ever changing economy.
Trained to be a Math teacher, Craig taught for a few years, before he left to be a consultant. With Arthur Andersen, Craig consulted in many areas – Quality Control, Product Improvement, Systems Development & Integration, Process Improvement, Business Strategy, Supply Chain Management, Business Development, and Change Management. Although performing in Banking and Insurance, he did most of his work in Manufacturing & Distribution.
Craig received his MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and CIRM (Certified Integrated Resource Management) certification from APICS (American Production & Inventory Control Society).
After 25 years consulting domestically and in Europe, Craig started a building contracting company, focusing on home remodeling, and rebuilding Chicago back porches.
After the crash of the building industry in 2009, Craig sold customer financing products to small businesses. He has recently joined SMARK to focus on market development and sales and sits on the board of advisors for SMARK.
On this episode we are talking to Amber Payden, Founder and GM for SMARK, to discuss who and what SMARK **is, and what current offerings they have in their marketplace.
In this role, her focus is guiding entrepreneurs and helping them identify and solve complex challenges. She has built and implemented a fully integrated, customizable small business platform, having created solutions across all functional disciplines.
With over 15 years of experience in sales, marketing, and partnerships, Amber has worked in National Accounts for companies such as AT&T and James Hardie Building Products. Managing corporate and retail relationships with companies such as Apple, LG, HTC, Home Depot, Lowes, and Best Buy. Finishing her career in corporate heading up the Technology Segment for North America**and managed the CDW relationships for Safeware Insurance. Amber has consulted and taught small business workshops, lead discussion and spoken on entrepreneurship and small business strategies all over the world.