Conquering Columbus Podcast

Summary: The CEO and Founder of the Columbus Idea Foundry, a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Lehigh University, and an all around passionate about knowledge and life individual, Alex Bandar joins us on this episode of Conquering Columbus – Alex talks with us about his childhood and learning to be curious about the …

Summary: Cameron Mitchell is a household name in Columbus, Ohio for delivering some of the finest dining experiences the city has to offer. Not to mention, he’s the epitome of going from the bottom to the top, building a nationwide restaurant empire that does more than $100 million in sales annually and a few billion …

Summary: On this episode of Conquering Columbus we sat down with Zachary Traxler, CEO and Founder of Traxler Printing LLC. Zach walks us through his journey, from his upbringing in Athens, Ohio, to struggling with addiction in High School, and wrapping up with how he built Traxler Printing on the mantra of Buy Local Buy …

Summary: Chet Scott and his team at Built to Lead are leadership and development coaches for some of the most influential leaders across the city of Columbus and abroad. In this episode, Chet takes us through his path to creating Built to Lead, which involved a long stint at Columbus founded CompuServe, how to find …

Summary: Ever wonder what it’s like to take over a family business with no business experience? Have you ever been curious about the path that the peanuts in your peanut butter take before they make it into your kitchen? (hint: it’s way more technical than you’ll ever guess) What about what it’s like running a …

Summary: Mike Lanese is a former Ohio State football player under direct coaching of Jim Tressel, a graduate from the University of Oxford, a Navy Veteran, a member of the Army Reserves, and a serial tech-entrepreneur here in Columbus, Ohio. In this episode we cover it all with Mike, with a heavy focus on his …

Summary: Joe Anstine is the Co-Founder & CEO of PriorAuthNow, a company dedicated to changing the fragmented and broken process of prior authorizations in the personal healthcare space (and single-handedly putting the fax machine industry out of business). With no previous experience or background in healthcare, Joe has grown himself into an expert in the …

Summary: On this episode we sit down with Dr. Steve Smith of Smith Facial Plastics. Dr. Smith is a graduate of the prestigious University of Pennsylvania, where he was a member of the Men’s Varsity Wrestling team. He then went onto attend medical school at The Ohio State University, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. …

Summary: Raised by a father who’s an executive of the 2nd largest insurance company in the world, Andrew took his own stab at the corporate world after graduating law school. He climbed the ranks quickly, but it didn’t take long for him to realize it wouldn’t be his place forever, and when 2008 struck Andrew …

Summary: Kip Morse, President of the Better Business Bureau of Central Ohio, sits down with us to tell us his personal story & path to the BBB of Central Ohio, what exactly the BBB does, who it does it for, why it does what it does, and everything in between! Mile Markers: (00:00:00) Kip Morse …

Summary Andy Barth is a graduate of Columbia University, Summa Cum Laude while being a contributing & well-accomplished member of the Men’s Varsity Wrestling Team. Andy also received his MBA from Columbia, and he is now the President of one of largest Investment Management companies in the world. These days he splits his time between …

Summary: We sit down with Senior Vice President of The Ohio State University, Gene Smith, to talk about his background and childhood, his experiences playing college football, his path to a career in athletic administration, how he excelled in his career through simple practices like sticking to his values / constantly differentiating himself / and …

Summary: President Drake sits down with Conquering Columbus to discuss his path from Chancellor at UC Irvine to becoming president at the Ohio State University. The president tells us about his early career as a doctor and clinic chief, as well as shares the story of what it was like to be at the festival …

Summary: The Columbus Marathon is one of the most well-run marathons in the mid-west, and that world-class experience is orchestrated by a world-class team, backed by Mr. Darris Blackford. On this episode, we sit down with Darris as he takes us through his childhood, experiences as a reporter for the Columbus Dispatch and traveling the …

Summary: Coyte Cooper is an expert on many things, but in the grand scheme of things he just flat out understands people, inside-and-out. In this episode Coyte talks with us briefly about his life and path to reaching an elite level in a D1 NCAA sports program, achieving his Ph. D, how to properly set and achieve your goals, …

Summary: Heather Whaling was just awarded the 2016 Ohio Valley EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award, falling right behind MailChimp for her respected category, and she’s the President & Founder of Geben Communication. In this episode we talk with Heather about her background, path leading up to starting her first company, Geben Communication, what the …

Summary: With a focus on “average is just not that interesting” and “what you put into business and life you get out”, Lisa Stein and Pam Springer are two of the most elite entrepreneurs in the city of Columbus, and they’ve recently combined their talents to build & grow Oris Intelligence, LLC. In this episode …

Summary: In this episode we sit down with current President & CEO of Wolfe Insurance Group to talk about his path from playing college basketball at Capital University, to eventually completely buying out his dad from the company he built from scratch and recently acquiring one of the most historic homes in Ohio. Wes takes …

Summary: A nice little chat with Rise Brands (16-Bit Bar & Arcade and Pins Mechanical) Founder, Troy Allen – Troy tells us about his path from designing highly flammable, and possibly explosive, snow globes to creating several successful companies like Elevate Thinking & Rise Brands. Troy is a very creative mind, who thinks about things …

Summary: We talk with Chris Warner, one of the world’s most accomplished mountain climbers, CEO of a company that serves over 1 millions customers a year, and an Emmy nominated filmmaker. Chris has climbed nearly all of the world’s tallest peaks, and is one of less than 400 humans to have made the summit of …

Summary: We sit down with the CEO of the Columbus, Ohio based company, Air Force One. Air Force One has hundreds of employees, has been around since 1984, and is known for delivering superior service & quality to all of their customers in the facilities services space. Greg’s father, Bill, founded the company here in …

Summary: President of Fast Switch, one of the fastest growing, privately-held, IT staffing companies in the nation, sits down with us to to talk about his childhood, high school with experience with classmate Brad Pitt, path to an MBA at the University of Michigan, growing his current company, Fast Switch, from $5-million/year in revenue to …

Summary: Interim Director at Connects Columbus, Founder of the Small Business Beanstalk, Partner at Atlas Community Partners, and proclaimed (by former guest Steve Weaver) “Connector of Everyone” (Timothy) Wolf Starr sits down with us to talk about his path from dropping out of college to establishing himself as a high-level leader in several businesses before …

Summary: Former Ohio State NCAA & Big Ten Champion in Men’s Gymnastics, 3x World Team Member, World Medalist, Certified Personal Trainer, and Fitness Cover Model, Brandon Wynn, sits down with us to talk about this path to finding the sport of gymnastics, reaching the pinnacle of the sport, and what his goals are for the …

Summary: Dr. Gayle Gordillo, MD sits down to talk with us about her path to becoming one of the country’s premier researchers and practitioners in the field of plastic surgery. From her start at Stanford to her path to Columbus, we cover Dr. Gordillo’s childhood, what helped drive her through some of the most grueling academic …