The Best of LKN

Nick Sulak runs a whole family of businesses out of Cornelius under one name: One Chaptr. There’s a custom apparel company, a website and CRM platform with built-in AI, and a photo and video studio. Nick also helped launch the Best of LKN Business Network, and he still keeps a corporate job on top of it all. Nick explains why there’s no “E” in Chaptr and how the brand’s nine letters stand for the...

Marc Wulf got hooked on investing in a sixth-grade stock market game, grew up going to Berkshire Hathaway meetings in Omaha, and spent 16 years as a NASCAR pit crew fueler. That includes a 2014 championship with Kevin Harvick. Today he's a "financial mechanic" at Castle Wealth Group in Mooresville, where he looks under the hood of people's finances and helps them plan for the r...

Jeremie Evans is back on The Best of LKN, this time with a new venture. Jeremie has a background in product strategy and financial analysis. He launched StratBuild this year to help small business owners build real AI systems. His point is simple: AI won't run your business for you, but it can be the assistant that lets one person do the work of three. Jeremie and Jeff talk about why so many...

Austin Quick spent years engineering suspensions for Stewart-Haas Racing before trading race weekends for family dinners and a real estate career. He's a third-generation Realtor with Ivester Jackson Christie's International Real Estate. His grandmother started the family business in Flagstaff in the '70s, and he grew up cleaning rental houses on weekends. Austin and Jeff talk about...

Through his company, Holliday Homes, Bill Worsley builds luxury custom homes throughout the Lake Norman area and in the heart of Davidson. He joins Jeff alongside returning guest Mike Feehley to talk about two of the most anticipated projects around the lake: the Estate at Davidson Farms and Summit Farms. Bill explains why he rebuilt his career around "building in his own backyard," and...

After forty years in Louisiana and twenty in Colorado — including a stint breeding Clydesdales on the back side of Pikes Peak — artist Pamela Quarles Adams landed on Lake Norman five years ago and fell for downtown Davidson the very first time she saw it. What started as a studio above Good Drip Coffee became a full Main Street gallery representing eight other artists, an adult class waitlist over...

Dr. Ryan Whalen came to Lake Norman in 2007 planning to chase a career as a professional golfer, with dentistry as the side gig. The golf plan didn't last, but the practice he opened on Catawba Avenue in Cornelius — from scratch, at the bottom of the 2008 recession — is still going strong nearly two decades later. Ryan talks with Jeff about why starting a business at zero during a downturn wa...

When Megan's son Luke was diagnosed with cancer at three years old, she couldn't find a single book written for a kid that young — so after he rang the bell in 2024, she wrote one. Luke and the Lost Bell has since put more than 500 free copies into the hands of hospitals, clinics, and families across the country and into Canada, with Spanish, Philippine, and French editions in the works....

Mike Feehley of Ivester Jackson Christie's International Real Estate is back to break down what's actually happening on the west side of Lake Norman. His read on Q2: this isn't a crash or a stall, it's a return to normal — roughly three to three and a half months of inventory, buyers taking their time, and sellers still chasing 2022 prices finding out the hard way that the mark...

There are 96 islands on Lake Norman, and Paul Chickene will be the first to tell you that number is shrinking. Paul is VP of Communications and Volunteer Engagement for the Lake Norman Wildlife Conservationists, a volunteer nonprofit working to protect, conserve, and restore wildlife habitat in and around the lake – and he found his way into it the same way a lot of people do: he tagged along on a...

Paras Gore's three nephews used to sit through family birthdays and holidays with two or three Oreos each – the only thing on the table that wouldn't send them to the emergency room. So she put her organic chemistry background to work and started rebuilding dessert from the ground up. Today, Atelier Doux is an allergy-friendly bakery serving the Lake Norman and Charlotte area, and those...

Dustin Johnson walked away from a career at Hendrick Automotive Group, bought a piece of land in Mooresville, permitted it himself, and spent 22 months building a dog boarding and daycare. Eight years later, Club Pups Lake Norman is a multi-time Normies winner - and Dustin is opening three more locations and franchising the whole thing. Dustin walks Jeff through what makes the Club Pups model diff...

For twenty-five years, getting found online meant chasing blue links on Google. That era is ending fast - and TJ Todd of Studio 490 is back on the show to explain what's replacing it. Jeff opens with a telling stat from his own experience: at a broker luncheon, five or six hands went up when he asked who'd gotten a lead from AI search in 2025. Zero went up for 2024. TJ breaks down what a...

Most small business owners don't realize they've built a job instead of a business – and they find out the hard way when it's time to sell. Lynn Bowser and Drew Webster of Elevate Strategy and Consulting join Jeff to explain why a company doing $10 million in revenue can be worth $1.5 million, while a $1.5 million company can be worth far more. Lynn and Drew get into what they call...

Drew Chalfant and his wife brought HAWKs – Hiking Adventures With Kids – to Lake Norman, planting the national brand's first East Coast flag right here in our backyard. A recovering franchise attorney (and former emo-band touring musician) turned hands-on owner-operator, Drew makes a compelling case that the "kick out the front door, come home when the streetlights come on" childhoo...

For twenty-plus years, Brian Park worked title abstracting in law firms – tattoos, white glasses, and all – while a lifelong love of music sat on the back burner. He started DJing on the side in 2016, booked his first wedding in November 2019 (yes, right before COVID), and finally walked away from the corporate world this past February to run Park Place Entertainment full time. Brian and Jeff get...

Lake Norman residents Lisa Schnurr and Kevin Anderson took one bright red school bus, a live comedian, and a whole lot of "well, crap, I guess we're doing this," and turned it into Funny Bus – a 90-minute BYOB comedy tour of Charlotte that's now carried more than 260,000 riders across three cities. This week, Jeff reconnects with the husband-and-wife team to hear how a converte...

Jaime Lane is Lake Norman through and through — she's been coming to the lake since 1983 and has called Huntersville home for more than two decades. On this episode, she sits down with Jeff to trace her path from interior designer and nonprofit founder to workforce and cultural strategist, including her formative years at the Lake Norman Economic Development Corporation. When the EDC closed i...

In this episode, Jeff sits down with Krystal Bajkor, founder of Bee Organized Lake Norman, a professional organizing service that helps busy families and professionals reclaim their homes. Krystal shares her path from a career in corporate banking at Citibank to an eight-month, 17-country "mini retirement" that ended with her family settling in the Lake Norman area. She explains why moth...

Andrea Sharp returns for her fourth appearance to talk about a dream years in the making: her own brick-and-mortar gym. She walks Jeff through the Good Gaines Fitness journey – from training clients in her garage, to renting space at a baseball facility, to finally opening a place that's all her own on the corner of Bailey and Old Statesville. Along the way she gets honest about the entrepren...

If you've ever stepped into a backyard and thought, this is the best room in the house, you already understand what Wes Priddy is going for. Wes is the owner of Higher Ground Outdoor Living and a founding member of our Best of LKN Business Network, and he took a winding road to get here – from a plumbing, heating, and electrical background up in Boone, to HVAC and interior remodeling around C...

In this episode, recorded on the veranda at Safe Harbor Peninsula Yacht Club, Jeff sits down with interior designer Sara Brennan of Sara Lynn Brennan Interiors and builder Connor Ruckman of CTR Custom Homes to talk about a spectacular new construction home on Tinker Place in Troutman.  Connor shares CTR's story, from its 2015 father-and-son start in Grand Junction, Colorado to its move to Lak...

John Finney joins the podcast to talk about the Lake Norman Fondo, now heading into its eighth year. What started as a community ride of fewer than 100 cyclists on the Town Green in Davidson has grown into a 500-plus rider event drawing participants from 14 - 15 states and ranging in age from 12 to 80-something. John shares the history behind the fondo, why all proceeds go back to local charities...

In this episode, Jeff sits down with Jessica, a sales manager at Classica Homes, at the Napa model in Stevens Farm, Huntersville. They talk about what sets Classica apart as a locally owned, design-based builder: a custom-home experience and quality without the typical custom-home drama or cost. With 850 homes built to date but only around 40 a year, the small team gives each home and each buyer a...

Elisa Gillespie returns to the Best of LKN for the first time since November 2022 — and a lot has changed. After years operating as Gillespie Physical Therapy and then Movement Matters, Elisa launched Proactive Motion Physical Therapy in July 2025. With 17 years as a board-certified orthopedic physical therapist and 11 years of dry needling experience, she's built a practice focused on catchi...