WNY Entrepreneur

Drew Cerza is affectionately known as the Wing King locally and nationally as the Founder of the National Buffalo Wing Festival. As a serial entrepreneur, Drew has been a real estate investor for over 25 years. For ten years Drew founding and ran RMI Promotions Group, a national food promotion company that raised money for local charities. Drew has served on over 15 local non-profit boards as he always believes in giving back to the community. Many accolades including,Buffalo Citizen of the Year, Italian man of the year and Tourism executive of the year has been honored upon Drew in recognition off his work in the community.

Jeremy Ballsmith is a self-made real estate broker and owner of a local property management, sales firm and construction company servicing over 200 owners around the world and assisting them with their local WNY and Rochester real estate needs. With a focus on real estate, his engagements go far beyond. With interests in aviation aircraft leaseback and management, real estate holdings and a new upcoming restaurant venture due to open late 2023 its safe to say he has embraced his ADHD personality and likes to keep moving about.

Our guest today is the Founder of Social Chameleon, a podcast production, distribution, and content company. They specialize in creating audio & video podcasts for entrepreneurs, as well as organizations. He is also the host of MIKE’D UP!, a podcast that showcases inspiring guests and other talented individuals who deliver their personal stories and insights to provide the ammo needed to LEVEL UP and achieve your greatest dreams. Welcome to the show, Mike DiCioccio (Dee-Choh-Choh).

Ginine Capozzi is the Founder and President of KnowledgeForce Consulting, LLC.

She is a strategic, dynamic, and pragmatic Learning and Development professional known for her deep business insights and the ability to create learning experiences grounded in the best practices of adult learning theory and cognitive/behavioral research.

Ginine has earned a Bachelor of Science from Rochester Institute of Technology, and a Master of Science in Education with a focus on Adult Learning from Buffalo State College, in addition to certifications in Articulate Storyline, HBDI®, Whole Brain® Thinking, and Hogan Assessments.

She has held various roles in education and training throughout her career, including high school teacher, college professor, training facilitator, instructional designer, and learning solutions architect.

In 2012 Ginine founded KnowledgeForce Consulting to support businesses seeking an employee training and development program that goes beyond skill building alone and provides lasting value to learners and organizations. She specializes in helping organizations address change, increase performance and productivity, develop leadership, increase motivation and engagement, and accelerate the pace of learning in the workplace.

Her “Putting the S in L&D: Strategy, Scalability, and Sustainability” model is designed to empower learning that measurably impacts organizations and is the foundation of her approach to “Training Reimagined.”

In addition to her professional experience, Ginine is also a board member of the Association of Talent Development (Buffalo Chapter) and is a founding organizer of DisruptHR Buffalo. In June of 2022, Ginine marked the 10th anniversary of KnowledgeForce Consulting with the launch of Invest in Your Community, a charitable initiative aimed at elevating the work of local non-profit organizations.

Josh Briner is a short-term rental investor, teacher, and entrepreneur.  He and his business partner own short-term rentals throughout Upstate New York and the midwest.  They also own Vibe Short-Term Rental Management, which seeks to provide quality short-term rental management services to owners throughout Upstate New York.  Josh also founded the Facebook group Upstate New York Airbnb Investors which acts as a social networking hub for short-term rental investors in the region.

Wendy is the Founder and Director of the Creative Relationship Center with a background in Relationship and Communication Skills and an Expertise in Enneagram Relationships and better marriages. Having struggled through her own relationship struggles and losses, she looks at the starts and stops of life as an opportunity to integrate your past to heal and accept life in a more positive way. She believes that learning to ‘unstick’ our selves from past destructive relationship styles and relate more honestly and clearly gives us the tools for a successful future. Wendy is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Divorce  and Family Business Mediator and an Enneagram Couples/Marriage Coach. She has served as a Human Resource Director, a Crisis Counselor to high level tragedies and is often called upon by WBEN as the “Relationship Expert” and has been a phenomenal force of transformation for many of her clients. A producer and host of the WKBW show "ALL About Love", Wendy has helped couples to understand the complexities and successes of relationships. She believes developing quality Communication Skills, Emotional Intelligence and Financial Stability are the keys to every successful relationship!

For twenty years I have created companies devoted to elevating construction standards with employees and clients while creating beautiful environments.  I'm perpetually motivated by growth and improvement.

From humble beginnings on Sean’s apartment porch in 2009, The Mac Groups’ award-winning team has grown organically for a decade, evolving to become the Nickel City’s certified Premier Google Partner.

As WNY’s 1st Social Media Agency, The Mac Groups has launched over 200 successful, revenue-generating campaigns – TMG’s expertise recognized through hand-selected invites to Googleplex California, LinkedIn corporate headquarters as well as 1 Hacker Way – Facebook’s main campus. Sean has been the Director of Digital Marketing for Actor/Celebrity Mark Wahlberg for the last 9 years, he has won several awards and continues to share his creative digital experiences with those who need help.

He’s a hyper-responsive leader that can jump into action at a moment’s notice. He answers the phone, responds to email, and he doesn’t let busy days get in the way of our client’s needs.

Most importantly, Sean believes work should be fun. Whether it’s through the super creative concepts he can come up or the engaging campaigns we launch and promote on social media, we know how to take our fun, enthusiastic attitudes and translate them into amazing work for our clients.

Jim Roberts is a true leader. WNY Metro Roberts Realty will do over 400 million dollars in sales and over 2000 sides while paying out over 7 million dollars at 100% commission. Jim Roberts is changing lives.
He also owns:
Jim Roberts Realty and Appraisal
Metro Property Preservation
MRR Property Solutions
MRR Private Lender
WNY Digital Solutions

Tom left a six-figure sales job in insurance to start his own agency from scratch. With only have 1 insurance company to represent, he went on to get contracts with 18 insurance companies. He also started a “cluster” of agencies in Buffalo & Rochester – 8 agency strong now, to have more clout with all those insurance companies.

Stephen is a military officer who brings ten years of experience in operations, recruiting and marketing. Stephen lives the values of servant leadership and believes that this world could benefit from more kindness. Stephen believes in providing autonomy to his employees and provides opportunities to those who lead values-driven lives. Stephen also serves on numerous non-profit boards and believes that "to whom much is given, much is expected". He is a devoted husband to his wife Madeline and is a resident of East Aurora, NY.

Jeff is a guy who understands software tech but talks about why it is important, and how to use it effectively in real life. He is the leader of Creative Data Insights, a team of professionals focused on digital marketing and helping software entrepreneurs tell their stories. They use Product Management best practices and Agile continuous learning to measure and summarize behavior to guide an impactful roadmap.

Matt Riley is a social media marketer, content creator, ultra-runner, and guitarist. He got his start with social media marketing at a young age growing Facebook pages to thousands of followers. In high school, he grew a guitar-related page to over 65 thousand followers. From there he transitioned into freelance social media work and now runs social media accounts full-time.

Mario Rodriguez is President & CEO of Forseti Protection Group, one of the nation’s leading Minority Owned security risk management firms, with offices in Boston, Massachusetts and Buffalo, New York. Recognized as a security and law enforcement expert with over 20 years of experience. Mario is also an adjunct professor of criminal justice at a local college in Buffalo, New York and a recent 40 under 40 Honoree. Mario is passionate about keeping the community safe and making an exponential impact.

Feeling Secure in Business - Mario Rodriguez- Founder of Forsetti Group

Lindsay Amico is a certified Mindset Coach and motivational speaker in Buffalo NY. Her business, Picture Perfect Mind LLC, focuses specifically on helping professionals to feel better on a daily basis with mindfulness, thought management, and neuroscience. With an approach that goes beyond stress reduction, Lindsay provides her clients with the power to release limiting beliefs and align with the life they desire. She's worked with organizations such as JW Danforth, Cannon Design, Leadership Buffalo, Roswell Park, and National Fuel and is currently completing her career coaching certification.

To contact Lindsay email her at lindsay.amico@gmail.com

For nearly 25 years, Mike has been providing product, sales and marketing support for some of the largest organizations in healthcare, sports, and entertainment – businesses like Pfizer, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Atlantic Records, UFC, the NFL, and the NHL. Through these experiences, Mike has developed an inventive perspective to exceed the demands of Incept’s clients, both large and small.

John Pusateri started business ownership as a carpet cleaner and started getting the itch for mold removal. Literally as we discuss why in this podcast episode. What escalated next, not even John couldn't guess where entrepreneurship would take him next. John is great at understanding where needs are and how he can solve them with his business. Here we talk about that evolution and how he keeps evolving as the years go on. 

Dana Marie Goodemote is the  proud owner and photographer of ADORE Studio. As a fellow business owner and professional she knows how important it is to show up confidently in your brand. After receiving a college degree in photography, she started her business full time at age 23. This was a giant leap of faith, a lot of hard work and a ton of sacrifice. Year to date she has been in business for over 15 years. "I am so glad I made the decision to believe in myself". Over the  course of her career she has made it her mission to help others achieve their professional dreams and to believe in themselves. Having a professional photograph may not seem like a life changing event, but she promises once you start utilizing your photographs in your brand your life will change. You will feel more confident, book more clients and generate more leads. She has created a studio model that specializes in personal branding and headshots, countless hours training and putting together the right team, she is confident that she is offering her clients the best experience and images that they have ever had.

Should your business hire a debt collection company for your past due invoices?

When is the right time? When is the wrong time? What are the fees normally associated with this service?

How do you know if you hired the right collection agency? 

We talk about all this in this podcast episode. 

A little background about the founder, Katie...

Katie began her career as a pediatric nurse. She spent 18 years in healthcare with roles in instructional design, technology training, and IT project management. Beyond Green Solutions applies the principles Katie learned in health care, infuses top notch technology, and helps solve outstanding accounts receivables. She and her team use empathy, critical thinking, and patience to moderate between companies and their customers to find resolutions to past-due payments.

In this podcast episode, we talk with Natale Builders owner, Angelo Natale. We talk about scaling and layering your business as you grow your business. We dive in how he got his start in this business, what he has learned along the way as a business owner and how/why he has diversified his portfolio in the business world.

Natale builders has grown from 8 to 10 homes a year to the most diversified building/developing companies in Western New York. Currently building 60 to 70 homes per year(Both neighborhood and Custom homes), developing land for commercial and residential development, owning and operating 15 office buildings and owning and operating over 300 apartment units.

How is the first 90 days of 2022 going for you and your business? 

If you think the last ninety days went fast, imagine the next 3 months. 

Often, we set yearly goals for the year and then kind of forget about them after a few months. 

In this podcast we talk about recalibrating your 2022 goals and everything in-between. 

Take a listen and don't forget to subscribe.

Dan is the President of Tresca Design, an engineering firm providing end-to-end engineering service for products, components, and machines, with capabilities spanning the entire product lifecycle. Here we talk about what local businesses miss or misunderstand when it comes to engineering of products and software, what questions they should be asking and what he's learned over the years scaling his business and working with great local clients.

His background has always been in engineering, holding his Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University at Buffalo. He is passionate about bringing sensible solutions to complex technical problems. Dan has a strong focus on giving back to the community in Western New York that has given him so much in my career, and he currently sits on the boards of two local 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations: the Western New York Invention Convention, and the WNY Prosperity Fellowship Inc.

Want to know more about Crypto? This is the podcast episode for you. We interview Michael Colyer, a local Buffalo Native who is the Founding CEO of The Digital Foundry in Rochester NY! They have over 85 Employees and are purchasing a building in Buffalo to build their next mining operation right in our backyard. This is thee local guy to talk to about Crypto. We talk about it all. 

A little bit more information about Michael: Mike joined Foundry as its founding CEO in October 2019. Previously, Mike led business development at Core Scientific, which, during his tenure, grew into North America’s largest cryptocurrency hosting company. He was the President and COO of Savage IO, a small, Western NY-based 3MW mining company, where he continues to serve as a Board member. Mike has spent the last 4+ years navigating the large-scale mining space, building strong relationships with key industry participants. Before his pivot into the crypto industry, Mike was an operational and commercial executive for manufacturing and distribution firms for more than two decades, often serving at the behest of private-equity backers. Mike started his career at GE. In 2007, Mike and his wife, Lisa, co-founded the Clairebear Foundation, a non-profit that supports families with sick children. Mike graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and an MBA in Corporate Finance.

Eric Worral is an affiliate marketer on YouTube with a diverse background of digital, traditional, and event marketing experience. He likes to create and gets bored too easily. 

Here we talked about: 

- What he would do to brand/market any business if he only had $1000 to do so. 

- His tips and journey about making a full time income doing youtube. 

At one point, one way or another; A business needs legal help with something. Whether it be drawing up contracts, becoming an LLC, partnership legality's, and the list goes on. But how do we get the best bang for our buck? What questions do we ask? How do we know if we found the right lawyer for the job? 

These are all questions we ask local Western New York Attorney, Andrea Tashus. Andrea, like a lot of us; started her business/practice from scratch. She did it an unusual way and has learned a lot along the way which we talk about in this podcast episode. 

Andrea provides efficient, accessible, and fair legal services to businesses, business owners, and entrepreneurs through her law practice, Tarshus Law Firm. Clients routinely use her legal services to form new businesses, file legal entity paperwork, draft and execute contracts, negotiate favorable deals, create internal partnership and operating agreements, file trademarks, handle employee issues, assist with compliance with NYS and federal regulations, and resolve legal disputes.

She also has a background in business and operations, and enjoys working with business owners, C-suite executives, and company managers to create a comprehensive legal and business framework that supports operational efficiencies and strategies for growth.

Thought about changing careers or businesses? Wonder why employees really quit? Cathy would know since she is paid  to talk to them about changing careers which means they are leaving their job or business. Want to know if a middle aged single woman TRULY can start a business after a bunch of successful careers?

Cathy is CEO of Inspire Careers, a full-service career marketing firm based in Buffalo and serving job seekers across the country. Inspire Careers specializes in career launches for new college graduates and career marketing strategies for executives and career-minded professionals. Inspire Careers is the home of the Inspire Careers Student Professional Launch Program™, the only new graduate success program in the country, taking recent college grads on the journey from college student to rising professional, landing jobs they have been dreaming of and working toward. A three-time career changer with 15 years of experience in human resources, Cathy provides insights and strategies that help her clients land jobs and create careers they love.

Have You Ever Thought About Writing a Book?

If you are like most entrepreneurs, you've thought about telling your story or writing book. Most don't do it. Why? We talk about that and how Gary's journey started from a thought to actually writing 3 books! Gary Friedman has traveled a long road, interacting with people every step of the way. Gary makes contributions to the betterment of the world every day. Whether in his role as a non-profit volunteer, business owner, coach, counselor, federal employee, or author, it has always been important to Gary to leave the community a better place than when he found it. His home in Western New York has been the backdrop for most of the poignant work he has accomplished so far.

In each of his careers, Gary has made people a priority by observing, listening, and reaching out to those in need and those who need direction. He has authored a series of three inspirational novels, The Shepherd Chronicles, asserting that one man can make a difference, and frequently speaks to audiences promoting that message. Gary’s new novel, Stones and Glass Houses, demonstrates his intrigue with how humanity functions and interacts. His goal is to shake up the reader’s perspective and invoke curiosity and this book does not disappoint.

Enjoying his retirement from the Federal government, Gary spends his days enjoying time with family and friends, traveling and writing.friends, traveling and writing.

Amanda and Deleon Alford, are working hard to build "The Alford Empire." Starting at such a young age, they now own and operate two businesses, "Alford's Angels" and "Nickel City Pet Pantry." Both with differences in experiences and expertise, they formed the perfect business relationship for growth, while raising their 3 children (8years, 5years, 3months). This is inspired by their passion for building Generational Wealth via "The Alford Empire". Deleon Alford is a Changemakers 30 under 30 nominee for 2017. 

Does how we brand our business... really matter?

Absolutely, but how and where do we do this? In this podcast episode, we interview a branding expert, Brandon Wilson.

Mixing a background in Fine Arts and Web Design, Brandon Wilson is a designer who stands out from his counterparts. Using the fundamentals of what makes a good design and merging them with the modern practice of UX Design, his work helps businesses connect with their target audience. His approach to design respects the internal processes of a business without sacrificing the “wow” factor. Brandon Wilson excels at making brands stand out in the market while improving scalability.

Here he shares some of his secrets, where businesses go wrong and right locally here in Western New York.

Greg has started or been a partner in an almost laundry list of companies here in WNY. In 2013 Greg started his entrepreneurship route with the first real estate company he was a partner of.

 *In 2014 with another partnership Greg formed Redline rentals of buffalo and exotic car rental company. 

*In 2016 he started his own accounting firm to look after the main companies. 

*In 2018 he also started a small marketing company to help all his companies. 

*In 2019 with his car business partner they purchased a auto mechanic business and building to house our growing car business but also expand into a related business model.  In the same year Greg bought into a minority share of a restaurant and that didn't go well with Covid. He learned a lot though.

Here we talk about partnerships, real estate, investing in real estate and everything that has shaped his journey as an entrepreneur so far.

Louis Mulone, owner of Two Wine & Liquor stores in Buffalo NY. He never thought he would ever move to NY, let alone Buffalo NY but fate brought him here because of a job. As told in the podcast, he ended up making a whole new reason to stay here and opened up 2 different businesses that he never owned and or operated before. Check out why Louis believes WNY is so special and how he made it work despite a lot of difficulty. We also talked about delegating and how to find and keep good workers in todays tough market where so many businesses can't find employees. 

What makes some of the best companies in the world, the best? They know how to create a raving fan base and take care of their current customers/clients. While most worry about gaining more, the best figure out how to treat their current ones like gold to create raving fans. In this episode we talk about how and why we are doing the same thing with The WNY Entrepreneur and how you can do the same thing with your business.  

Stewart Fonville is mission driven entrepreneur focused on making a difference and leaving a legacy. In his early twenties he took a bet on himself and started a mobile auto detailing business that allowed him to leave his job in corporate America and begin his journey into entrepreneurship. As a speaker he has been tasked with motivating and inspiring  college students, young adults and business owners throughout Western new york. He is a faith driven entrepreneur that is motivated by his family and serving the community.