Mitten Money

Did you know July is National Ice Cream month? In this episode, Will sits down with three ice cream connoisseurs of Michigan to discuss how they make their business as sweet as can be. Tim Mangan of Michigan Cream & Sugar Ice Cream Company in Bay City discusses moving from creating menus at Horizons Conference Center to managing their new ice cream shop in the midst of the pandemic. Cream &amp...

BSA Officer Cindy Holliday and Owner of Blue Thumb Kip Northrup walk us through their journey today of encountering check fraud. Kip had a first-hand experience with check fraud, as one of his checks was intercepted by a third party. He reached out to Cindy for the next steps on how to handle the interaction. With Cindy's help, they were able to stop the deposit of the check. Check fraud is one of...

Today we are joined with 1st State Bank's Executive Vice President & Chief Lending Officer, Todd Gregory, and Saginaw Bay Underwriter's President & CEO, Peter Ewend, to discuss the rise of check fraud. Fraud is back on the rise. Changing checks - whether it be tampering the dollar amount or duplicating a check - is becoming very common in the banking world. The level of information provide...

In this episode, Lizzi shares her personal story of returning to Michigan and seeking opportunities for work. Lizzi reached out to her alma mater, Saginaw Valley State University, and eventually found herself working in their Career Services office. The Career Services office at SVSU goes beyond providing support solely during the college years; they offer lifelong services to alumni. Lizzi explai...

On today’s episode, we sit down to chat with Wendy Groll and Dan Handley from Dale Carnegie Training of Mid-Northern Michigan. Wendy got her start in Dale Carnegie after emerging into a leadership role of her previous job, and Dan followed his family in the business after graduating college, working alongside his father. Dale Carnegie offers educational courses to enhance your leadership skills to...

Saginaw-native Mike Ball has been doing comedy for 11 years, yet he hadn’t seen live comedy until he was about 21 years old. He eventually started going to LA during his lawn business’s off season, and eventually interned for comedian Pauly Shore. Since then, Mike’s career has taken off with his own comedy show, “The Future of Comedy Show.” While comedy is ever-changing, Mike says the basics are s...

Right before the pandemic, Ali Huntoon decided she wanted to quit her corporate job to start her own HR consulting business, Allied HR Solutions. During the pandemic, Ali began scouring the internet for freelance jobs, but soon began working for people all over the country. Every engagement is different for Ali and the small businesses she works with. Her work involves anything from attending staf...

Dakota and Garret Porter started ActionGlow over 10 years ago. The idea began when they were snowboarding on a dark ski slope and had the idea to tink around with their gear to include LED lights. It originally didn’t start as a business venture until other boarders were interested in the product. The brothers built up inventory and sold out within 48 hours. Around this time is when Shark Tank pro...

This week’s episode, we sit down with some members of the Tri-Star team to discuss some financial mistakes we’ve experienced in our lives and have grown from the most. Sandy Worner delves into the repercussions of borrowing from your 401(k). For every dollar put in, it took about $1.30 to get back to where she was. Lee Reimann recalls not knowing what she really wanted before talking to an insuran...

Today, we sit down to talk to Kyle DeWees, Interim Executive Director of Valley Lutheran High School. Kyle was involved with the school’s biggest capital campaign, raising over $12 million in 5 years and reaching out to 1,700+ donors. DeWees originally never saw himself at Valley Lutheran – he started just 1.5 years before their biggest capital campaign. But as soon as he started on the staff, it...

This week’s guest is Arielle Patrick, Chief Communications Officer of Ariel Investments, who sits down with us to discuss a mini “master class” of crisis management, relationship building, and rebranding. A graduate of Princeton University, Arielle was first interested in journalism, which eventually led her into consulting, and eventually corporate strategy and finance. With crisis management com...

In this week’s episode, Michelle Burkhard, Owner of Grow by 1, LLC, sits down with us to discuss the ins and outs of life coaching. Michelle’s point of change happened about 15 years ago when she calculated how many people she affected as a teacher and wanted to go beyond that number.  Michelle delves into how people struggle with change not because the fear of failure, but the fear of succes...

In this week’s episode, Joe Ruth joins us to discuss how roles in healthcare has evolved into today’s standing from experience at the loading dock at Saginaw General Hospital to being the Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of Sparrow Health System. During their conversation, Joe goes into depth about how the healthcare industry as a whole has been operating since the pandemic. Joe touche...

In this week’s episode, we speak with Kip Northrup of Blue Thumb Water Features. The self-professed “Fish Geek” has turned his water feature installation company into a national wholesaler. Kip shares his tips on how mergers and acquisitions helped grow their small aquarium cleaning company to a network of dealers for water features throughout the U.S. Since 2005, Blue Thumb has been through multi...

Upwards of 2,000 cyberattacks happen per day to businesses, yet they may not know how to fix this problem as they don’t have an IT specialist to look over their programs on a day-to-day basis. On the podcast, Will Zank speaks with Chad Paalman, CEO of NuWave Technology Partners. Chad faced the unexpected early in life. In high school, he suffered an injury causing him not to be able to join the ai...

In this episode, Will Zank interviews Kim and Daniel Guest, the proud owners and hosts of the Little Yellow Cottages in Port Austin, Michigan. Kim and Daniel have worked in corporate America for many years now. They endlessly aim to be their own bosses and increase their financial freedom. What turned out as a hunt for their own house turned into purchasing a unit of 6 vacation rentals and turning...

This week we spoke with our very own Andy Bethune. Andy is a master networker, and this week he talks with Will Zank about the art of networking. A key to unlocking your potential is confidence.  No matter what you’re doing or where you are, networking is essential to any work or social environment. It is about working with those who will not only help with your work but also will help build...

The cost of living has become expensive lately. Inflation is driving up prices of everyday essentials like groceries, utilities, transportation, and now the housing market. You’re probably thinking, “tell us something we don’t already know.” On today’s episode, host William Zank speaks with Jeff Southcott, Senior Vice President at 1st State Bank. Jeff and Will talk specifically about the housing m...

On today's podcast, we spoke with Beth Thieme, President, and CEO of Amigo Mobility International, Inc. If you are looking for an episode that will recharge you with ideas for success and an entrepreneurial flair, look no further. Beth's energy, passion, and wisdom are fully displayed in this episode. This week we discussed how Amigo got started and the motivation behind why it began, and how the...

On today’s episode, we speak with Gene Pickelman, President and CEO of Tri-Star Trust, and Catherine Allen, Co-Founder and CEO of AO People Partners. This episode is about developing a conscious culture of learning and developing your employees. Gene and Catherine have a lively discussion about leadership. They have learned and recognized that having strong leadership at the core of your business...

Have you ever wondered what separates companies that perform well during bad times? It’s simple – they have the same quality that a castle has. It’s a moat. We got to speak with the President and CEO of Argus Research Group, John Eade. Based all the way out in NYC, it was a pleasure to get the chance to talk with him about how businesses can better prepare for a possible recession. With 75 total e...

Today we got the chance to speak with Bob Hagen of Hagen Ford, which was established in 1961 by Bob’s father. Bob and his brother are the current owners of Hagen Ford and are very active within the community and the Ford industry. He talks about the future and evolution of the car industry and how soon enough, everyone will have an electric vehicle in their garage in the near future.   Electr...

Her life was just progressing at Dow, and she decided that after eight years of commitment to them, she wanted to grow into something more and something bigger that would be able to help others the same way others had helped her. Please welcome Executive Director and Founder of Self Love Beauty, Lisa Thomson, this week on how she was inspired to grow her non-profit organization to inspire people a...

“Architecture is as much about understanding why a building needs to exist as it is the relationships of its forms. Creating graceful space that enhances life is part of a fundamental belief behind our work at WTA Architects.” This is what guest speaker Paul Haselhuhn, Architect, Partner, and President of WTA Architects, speaks on in this week’s podcast. Employers and people, in general, tend not...

Have you ever wished you could get unlimited paid time off? That’s precisely what today’s podcast guest, Mark McDaniel, the CEO of Cinnaire, talks about with host William Zank. Cinnaire is a nonprofit organization that gets involved within the community by offering services such as lending funds, finance development, and managing and building all components of a healthy community. Within this nonp...