Anything But Typical

“So much of what I gain is from helping people in bad situations. Our clients, 95% of them are going through the worst time in their life.” – Jan Barefoot It isn’t unusual to hear firefighters or police officers talk about serving others on their worst days. Still, Jan Barefoot doesn’t wear a uniform or jump into action following a 911 call. She isn’t a first responder at all. But she just might b...

“I love life. I love to make people smile.” –  Wilton Rogers III Growing up on a farm, Wilton got his very first taste of entrepreneurship: selling eggs to his mother’s friends at church. But it wasn’t the money that made his heart soar ($2 was his weekly profit!). It was the happiness he felt providing something people needed. That joy became his greatest form of payment. Multiple business opport...

“When you don’t have a choice…the one thing you do get to choose is who you get to do it with, so don’t do it alone.”  Robert F Williams In the 1990s, when financial deals & payouts came easy, Bob’s life looked like a page from a storybook: beautiful family, a booming investment business, and thousands of successful deals. But his story, like any good one, contained a plot twist: Struggling wi...

“People follow me for advice, but when I get feedback, it’s more about something business unrelated.” – Damon Burton If you don’t know Damon, you may be wondering why over 32,000 people follow him for advice on LinkedIn or flock to read his book, “Outrank.” If you do know him, you’ll know why seeking his advice is a no-brainer. This SEO expert has beat million-dollar companies at their own game &a...

It’s easy to look at Renee & think that the comforts of Easy Street & a golden parachute allowed her to build the 13th largest woman-owned business in the Charlotte area & the only woman-owned industrial business in Union County (not to mention authoring a book & forming a foundation), but nothing could be further from the truth. A small-town girl introduced first to banking &...

A quick message first: We had audio issues for the first 16 minutes of the show. We cleaned it up as much as possible, but you'll notice a difference. Apologies for that! "It's really about fit & relationship." — Brad Batten When Johannes Zwick & Bradley Batten first met at Davidson College, neither imagined a future as partners in private equity. But these fraternity brothers turned frien...

“I would love for people to one day, potentially, say that Mike put a piece of God in them… This is the goal of my life.” —  Michael Metcalf Jr.  

Mike doesn’t mince words when it comes to his perspective on life. Maybe it’s because he witnessed the unthinkable as a young child or faced physical adversity on the football field at App State. Maybe his grandmother, “the smartest person I ever met”,...

Ty Harmon, Founder and President at Harmon Construction, overcame hardship and instability growing up. His mother was never able to own a home. Ty went onto the construction management industry. When he was ready to step out on his own, Ty made sure to never forget his childhood. Ty's company is focused on giving clients "the exceptional construction experience." In addition to commercial and reta...

“It’s OK if I have a day where I work for 15 min.” –  Chris Claflin . That’s a mind-blowing statement coming from a successful entrepreneur in property management, where words like “hustle” & “growth” flow with ease, but that’s the heart of Chris Claflin. It wasn’t always. One of 7 children born to a blue-collar household, Chris was schooled in the virtues of hard work & company loyalty. H...

This is a special episode of the Anything But Typical Show. Our own Gary Frey has published a book titled: Silence The Imposter Syndrome- 7 Weapons To Silence Imposter Syndrome. In this episode, Gary takes us behind the scenes of what it takes to get a book published. We talk about the options to publish such as self publishing, an independent publisher, and a large publisher. We go into what Gary...

Devan overcame childhood struggles with the help of baseball being a driving and motivating force in his life. It helped him stay out of trouble, strive for freedom early in life, and get to college. When Devan made the pros, everything was on track. So when he got released, Kline needed to figure out what was next. With no money and no ability to get a lease, Devan began holding boot camp workout...

“Have the courage to suck.” –  Brian K. Anders That’s uncommon advice coming from an engineer, but not every engineer has a heart like Brian. Nor do they have his experience. Brian gained his grit loading trucks at night to pay for school & his passion for client service watching his wife change lives as a private investigator. He rejected corporate life to relentlessly pursue his dream job in...

In this episode, co-hosts Ben McDonald and Gary Frey discuss imposter syndrome in business and in life. Gary has written a book titled Silence The Imposter Syndrome, coming out October 2023. We talk about how imposter syndrome has been present in each of our lives. Ben shares what it was like being a 22 year old athletic director surrounded by 60 year old career academic leaders. Gary shares a fre...

This is a special Anything But Typical episode! Entrepreneurship runs in the family, as we interview co-host Gary Frey's son, Zach Frey. As a child, Zach would constantly be drawing. He had a fascination with drawing and designing shoes. This hobby turned into a career, with Frey working at brands such as Reebok, Puma, and Wolf & Shepherd. But the vision of creating a better shoe was too stron...

On the surface, Jeff Conway looks like a typical successful restauranteur: passionate about food, pursuing growth, dedicated to his family and community, but certainly living on “Easy Street”. What lies beneath, though, in an unbelievable tale: wild success followed by a false accusation & 13 months federal prison time, reflection, redemption, & ultimately rebuilding with the unwavering su...

“Just because you live in that environment doesn’t mean the environment has to live in you.”  That perspective has served this week's guest, Emilio Guevara, well. Born to immigrant parents & growing up in one of the toughest & most devastated neighborhoods of the Bronx, Emilio’s path to success wasn’t handed to him. Seven children, the youngest four in a one-bedroom apartment, a blind and...

David Zerfoss' first lessons came from a farm in Western Pennsylvania. When Zerfoss was tasked with being the President of Husqvarna Professional Products North America, those lessons came in handy. He built a culture of leadership, focus, and purpose. "People want to be a part of something bigger than themselves that they can be a part of." His leadership helped pave the way to a 1700% growth in...

Alignment and Priorities. That is how Chris Torchia wants to be known. That may explain how Chris has changed from his microbiology background to tech CEO with experiences running companies in different countries. This wide ranging conversation goes into how Torchia had his cryptocurrency mining equipment seized in Russia due to U.S. sanctions. He shares stories and lessons from his business exper...

Kara Taddeo is not one to shy away from a challenge. In 2002, she became the General Manager of Hotel Belleclaire in New York City. To say this was a turnaround would be quite the understatement. What Kara could best describe as a "crack hotel", she turned into a 4 star hotel in uptown Manhattan. Her story of de-roaching the hotel and getting rid of squatters shows unbelievable tenacity and persev...

Most entrepreneurs dream about growing their businesses, having a successful exit, taking a company public, and much more. Today's guest, Roger Braswell, has done it all. Roger was the Founder & CEO of Compact Power Equipment. In this episode, we talk about how Roger created and grew the business. He discusses the obstacles faced along the way and how that ultimately led to even greater success. R...

One episode was not enough to cover Reebok Founder Joe Foster's story. So here we are with Part 2. In this episode, Joe shares about Reebok's expansion from women's aerobic shoes to other sports and lines. He talks about how they had to be strategic with their expansions. Joe also shares one of his biggest business regrets. We discuss Reebok going public and Joe's transition out of the operations...

As a grandson of the legendary J.W. Foster growing up in Bolton, England, running seemed to be in  Joe Foster ’s blood. Little did Joe know that winning an American “Webster’s New School & Office Dictionary” in a race at age seven would make a South African antelope synonymous with a multi-billion-dollar international shoe brand –  Reebok . Joe proved that while he may not have been blessed with t...

As a Blackhawk helicopter pilot stationed in South Korea in the late ‘90s,  Chris Videau  took off for an R&R weekend with his buddies in search of a little fun and relaxation. What he found turned out to be his life’s calling. Instead of white sands and glistening water, the Army veteran instead found a horribly polluted beach, littered with plastic waste that had been discarded in the China Sea....

Manny Ohonme never wore a pair of shoes for the first 9 years of his life. When missionaries visited his village in Nigeria, they held a basketball shooting contest. The winner would receive a pair of sneakers. Manny won that competition, becoming the first person in his village to own a pair of shoes. More importantly, he was set on a path that would impact millions of lives. Ohonme was offered 5...

Author of 50 Marketing Secrets of Growth Companies in Down Economic Times, and Me, Myself, & Inc., Sherre' DeMao has a plethora of writing experience. In between, Sherre' fixes businesses with her free time. DeMao is the Founder and CEO of BizGrowth. She has also been a fractional COO and CMO for multiple businesses. In this episode, Sherre' gets very tactical for us around creating strategies for...