Building While Flying

Danielle and Jelani Jackson are owners and operators of Richie's Chicken & Soul, a fast-casual soul-food restaurant based in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area. Danielle's family originally started Richie's in 1986, and she and Jelani joined the business in 2015 to understand the ropes of owning and growing a restaurant.   In their conversation with Joe Quattrone, Jelani and Danielle share how they've evo...

Simmone Taitt is the Founder and CEO of Poppy Seed Health, an on-demand telehealth platform offering support with doulas, midwives, and nurses for pregnant and postpartum birthing people. After cutting her teeth in retail and working for startups for over a decade, Simmone founded Poppy Seed Health in 2019 after her own experiences with pregnancy loss and lack of support afterward. In a year and a...

Michael Sharon and Kal Freese are co-founders of Taika, a new-wave beverage company that's creating better coffee drinks that are better for you. Their goal with Taika products is to fuel creativity and reinvent the experience of drinking coffee. They met four years ago after long careers in other industries, and Taika was born shortly thereafter.    In their conversation with Joe Quattrone, Micha...

Gesche Haas is the Founder and CEO of Dreamers & Doers, a community and agile PR team amplifying extraordinary entrepreneurial women. As of this episode's recording, Dreamers & Doers boasts a carefully curated membership of 35,000 entrepreneurial women globally.    In her conversation with Maribel Lara, Gesche shares how her childhood and upbringing shaped her into the human and entrepreneur she i...

Alison Cayne is the founder and CEO of Haven's Kitchen, a CPG brand that's making home cooking more accessible and enjoyable. Haven's Kitchen started as an in-person cooking school, and now includes a line of packaged sauces, tools, and apparel for home cooks. Over the last several years, Haven's Kitchen has evolved based on customers' needs and in response to the world at large.   In her conversa...

Isabelle Steichen is the CEO and co-founder of Lupii, a plant-based, sustainable food brand known for its protein bars and newly launched pastas. Lupii uses the lupini bean as its main ingredient and source of plant-based protein, and to create simple, sustainable, and delicious food to keep you going. After becoming "obsessed" with lupini beans and in-depth research, it became Isabelle's mission...

Kara Hill is the founder and CEO of My Recruiting Solutions, the nation's leading expert in recruiting for girls' volleyball. Kara offers recruiting services and consulting for athletes and their families to help them better navigate the college recruiting process. She also runs VBallRecruiter, a website full of resources for prospects, coaches, and scouts.    In her conversation with Mickey Cloud...

Sarah Apgar is the Founder and CEO of FitFighter, a global fitness brand and transformative strength training system that's accessible, unintimidating, and good for everyone of all fitness levels. It's rooted in the training firefighters go through and Sarah's own innovation of a steel hose at its core. Before starting FitFighter, Sarah served in the Iraq War, spent five years at Warby Parker, and...

This week we are absolutely privileged to share an episode from the Business For Builders podcast featuring our own Joe Quattrone, SVP, Head of Education at The Sasha Group. The Business for Builders podcast provides business-building information and insight for general contractors looking to remove deficiencies and vulnerabilities in their businesses.   Joe and host Max Peterson cover a wide rang...

Antonio Ramirez is the founder of Pixel506, a boutique digital innovation agency offering nearshore creative and digital solutions and technology services. Its combination of services and locations in Brooklyn, Peru, and Costa Rica offers a unique perspective to Pixel506's clients and partners. Antonio is a client of The Sasha Group's Mentors program, a 3-year partnership aimed at helping small bu...

Rachel Connors is the Co-Founder and CEO (Chief Enthusiasm Officer) of Yellow Leaf Hammocks, a social enterprise dedicated to defeating global poverty through sustainable artisan job creation. Yellow Leaf was born after Rachel's husband met a group of women in a small village in Thailand making what he dubbed the world's most comfortable hammocks. It then became their mission to share those hammoc...

Kari Warberg Block is the Founder and CEO of EarthKind, an eco-friendly pest control product that keeps bugs and critters at bay without harming or killing them. She started EarthKind with just some seeds and a powerful vision for a kinder world—for people and critters.    In this episode of the Building While Flying podcast, Kari shares her founder's story: from growing up poor to a near-death ac...

Gracie Poulson is the Co-Founder of Grace Rose Farm, one of the biggest suppliers of fresh, garden-grown roses in the United States. They're committed to ethically growing and harvesting more than 90 varieties of roses. Grace Rose Farm started as a flower farm and supplier to florists around the country, born purely out of Gracie's love for growing roses. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, they f...

We love taking questions from our listeners and answering them in our episodes. In this episode of Building While Flying, Joe Quattrone, SVP at The Sasha Group, is back to answer some of YOUR questions!   Topics in this Q&A include: When to add staff at your agency When to start your own company Increasing engagement on your content KPIs for evaluating creative effectiveness  Business vs personal...

Miguel Leal says he was "destined" to work in the food industry. He's an industry veteran who's served as CMO and executive vice president with brands like Cholula, Kind Snacks, Diamond Foods, and more. He and his co-founders started SOMOS Foods with the mission to "share the best of Mexico with the world." Somos products are plant-based, nutritionally dense, gluten-free, and can be used to create...

Max Greb, also known as Max the Meat Guy, has a passion for meat and grilling, and shares his passion with more than 8 million followers across various social channels. After spending the last 10 years in China, Max returned to the U.S. in 2020 and has spent the last few years growing his personal brand and sharing his passion for grilling good food.    In this episode of the Building While Flying...

Jess Flack is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ubiquitous, an influencer-managed marketplace that specializes in matching influencers and brands on TikTok. Her previous job at a moving startup helped her realize the power of TikTok and creators as a new marketing channel for brands. Now, she and her team at Ubiquitous help brands run their best influencer campaigns, instill the importance of opportunitie...

Sehreen Noor Ali is the Co-Founder and CEO of Sleuth, a search engine for parents to help with their children's health and development. Sleuth originally began as a solution for her own family's needs, and Sehreen quickly realized it would help more than her own family. After meeting her co-founder Alex in an incubator, they got to work building Sleuth into what it is today.   In this episode of t...

Ashley Thompson is the Co-Founder and CEO of MUSH, healthy, ready-to-eat cold oats that are plant-based, gluten-free, dairy-free, wholesome and delicious. Ashley and her co-founder launched MUSH in 2015, with the conviction that easy, delicious, nutritious food can elevate the world in powerful ways. MUSH products are sold in stores around the country, and directly through their website.    In her...

Rajesh Sinha is the Chairman and Founder of Fulcrum Digital, a business platform and solution engineering company that helps with rapid digital acceleration and scaling. He started Fulcrum at 27 years old, with the goal of making the world a better place to live and work, through smarter digital platforms. Rajesh is also the author of the book Digital Operating Model: The Future of Business, which...

Joel McCauley is the owner and founder of Freedom Fit Gym, a fitness and training gym in Ashland, Virginia (outside of Richmond). They serve working professionals, athletes, and anyone looking to make a change in their fitness and health. Joel opened Freedom Fit Gym in 2015 in an old warehouse, and has grown it through two expansions, more services, more staff, and many happy clients.  Joel joins...

Edgar Carreon is the Founder and CEO of dree, a peer-to-peer laundry marketplace based in Salt Lake City, Utah. His family immigrated to the United States when he was young. He shares some of the challenges his family faced when moving to the U.S., and that his mother is a large reason and inspiration behind why he started dree. In this week's episode of Building While Flying, Edgar joins Maribel...

Modernizing an Old Industry  Jessica Warch is CEO and Co-Founder of Kimai, a sustainably made, respectfully sourced lab diamond company. Kimai uses 100% recycled gold and lab-grown diamonds that are chemically and physically identical to their mined equivalents, without the environmental consequences. Jessica and her partner Sidney started Kimai after growing up around the diamond trade in Antwerp...

It all started when he got fired. David has amassed over 2.5 million followers combined through his social media channels where he offers career tips, resources, and job search help. While experimenting with a bunch of different ideas, David decided to make a TikTok account to share his perspective on navigating careers and what worked for him to land jobs. Turns out, that it worked for others too...

We Answered Your Questions Our Building While Flying Q&A is back! In part 2, Joe Quattrone, SVP, Head of Education, answers more questions submitted by our listeners across our social channels. Topics include: Creative thinking for big brand activations Book recommendations for business owners Creating relevant organic content When to use paid media Usable audio on TikTok Like what you heard? Want...