Uncorking a Story

Patricia Fuqua is the founder of Dating Diamonds, a service that empowers women to meet the right man the second time around and is the creator of the 1st Date to Soulmate Program. Since 2008, she’s helped over 500 women meet the right man by designing a personalized plan that she helps them implement. She’s polished the art of relationship in her 40-year marriage to her soulmate husband. Her clie...

Linwood Barclay is a former columnist for The Toronto Star and the author of several critically acclaimed novels including Too Close to Home and No Time for Goodbye, a #1 Sunday Times (UK) bestseller. He lives near Toronto with his wife. Listen up as Linwood and I talk about his early influences as a writer, how living in a trailer park and the loss of his father at sixteen has impacted his writin...

Christopher Ryan has always been a storyteller. Whether "ranking" on friends as a teen, covering street crime and dirty politics in The Bronx as an award-winning reporter, or teaching High School English, he serves the story above all else.   I recently chatted with Chris about his time as a journalist during New York City’s violent crack epidemic, his desire to become a police officer, and the de...

Hunter Shea is the product of a misspent childhood watching scary movies, reading forbidden books and wishing Bigfoot would walk past his house. He doesn’t just write about the paranormal – he actively seeks out the things that scare the hell out of people and experiences them for himself. Hunter’s novels can even be found on display at the International Cryptozoology Museum. His video podcast, Mo...

“They don’t hire girls into the FBI,” these were the words Tess Gerritsen heard from her guidance counselor after expressing an interest in the Federal Bureau of investigation. While that sentiment feels like a dark cloud that hovered over our culture during the time of Tess’ high school days, it’s one that has a silver lining considering she eventually went on to become an internationally acclaim...

Brian is a founding Partner of Anderson Porter Design and has developed a proven process of project delivery in the Cannabis Industry. To date, he has designed facilities for cultivation totaling over 150,000sf as well as 14 retail dispensaries. His path to this space, though, wasn’t what you might call linear. He grew up on a Christmas Tree farm in rural Connecticut, so I guess you could say that...

Psychologist Gay Hendricks is counselor, writer, and teacher in the field of personal growth, relationships, and body intelligence. He’s best known for his work in relationship enhancement and is the founder of The Hendricks Institute, where he and his wife Katie conduct workshops focusing on what they call conscious loving. Together, they have written close to 40 books, trained thousands of coach...

Dr. Warren Farrell is the author of the just-published The Boy Crisis (with co-author John Gray). It exposes the boy crisis worldwide, as well as the causes and solutions that can be implemented by parents, schools and policy makers.  Dr. Farrell has been chosen by the Financial Times as one of the world’s top 100 thought leaders. His books are published in over 50 countries, and in 19 languages....

Erin Boardman Wathen is a graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) and a Food Addiction Counselor (INFACT). She’s a Certified Spinning® Instructor (STAR 3), Vinyasa Yoga instructor (200 Hour) and Classical Pilates instructor. She’s also the author of Why Can’t I Stick to my Diet, a book that uses an addiction based model to help readers understand why diets are so hard to stick to...

Laurie Handlers is a Sex and Happiness Coach and the author of the Amazon #1 International Bestseller Sex & Happiness: The Tantric Laws of Intimacy. Through her company Butterfly Workshops, she offers sexual health and awareness courses plus leadership courses for corporations and individuals throughout the world. For over a decade, she’s hosted the weekly radio show Sex and Happiness where she di...

Lou Aronica didn’t intend to be a writer; born on Elvis Presley’s birthday, Lou felt it was his destiny to be a rock star, but that all changed after a teacher encouraged him to develop an evident talent for writing. After graduating college with a degree in English, Lou planned on becoming a teacher, though a bad economy and a flood of talent competing for teaching jobs that simply weren’t there...

  Today is a big day for Uncorking a story because I get to share with you my conversation with Bruce Miller, the creator of Smart Alex - a new, better for you, snack food. I love talking to entrepreneurs because I’m always left feeling inspired by their stories; the drive and ability to put thought into action is a skill that few people have and I think it’s worth uncorking the stories of those w...

Karen Rands is the founder and CEO of Kugarand Capital Holdings. She’s also the author of Inside Secrets to Angel Investing. Having my career in the mid 1990s during the dot com tech boom, I heard the term Angel Investing daily at least four times before lunch. Karen’s new book is geared towards teaching potential angel investors the ins and outs of growing their wealth through what she calls Comp...

Imagine going through basic training for the US Army as you approach the age of 40. It's a pretty hard thing to do at 18, but at 40 - come on it takes a special kind of person to raise his or her hand and say, "Bring it on," but that is just what Captain James P. Carlon of the US Army Reserve did just a few years ago. If that last name sounds familiar, it should - because it's my last name as well...

John Seigel Boettner is a social studies teacher at Santa Barbara Middle School, but he’s not like one I ever had. It’s a special kind of person who can take middle school kids on a cross country bicycle trip across the United States and an even more special person who can do that through the Republic of Rwanda in central eastern Africa (Yes, that Rwanda). You see, John uses cycling and life exper...

I’ll admit it, I love a good story where the good guys win and Steve August is a good guy. I know this interview may be a bit “Inside Research” for you, but if you are looking to be inspired by the story of a guy who identified a need, built a technology to meet that need, and then sold his company to someone who saw the value in it then listen up! Steve is the founder of Revelation, a research te...

Wayne Lavender is the Executive Director of The Foundation 4 Orphans (F4O); an international organization dedicated to supporting the emotional, educational, physical and spiritual needs of orphans in some of the world’s most poor and war torn places. Listen in to hear Wayne discuss how reading books such as Death of a Salesman encouraged him to reflect on the kind of impact he wanted his own life...

Shortly before her daughter was to begin kindergarten, Allison heard the words that no parent wants to hear – your daughter has cancer.  As treatments progressed, and hair was lost, her daughter Meredith was eager to find some item of clothing that would help her blend in with her peers; scarves called too much attention to her and hats didn’t do the trick. Enter the hoodie. Meredith found that we...

In the course of my job, I have had the opportunity to meet some wonderful people who have shared their stories with me (and my clients) over the past 20 years. Of course it is fair to say that some of these stories stand out more than others. About seven years ago, I found myself in Arizona interviewing professional athletes including Brian Roberts who played for the Baltimore Orioles and Dhani J...

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Dave Mezzapelle, a serial entrepreneur who founded the Contagious Optimism movement (www.contagiousoptimism.com).  He truly believes that we all have the capacity to make optimism contagious just by sharing our life’s adventures. That belief, along with a push from his Alma Mater Fairfield University, fueled Dave’s desire to write and publish a bests...

How important is curiosity in business? Andy Greenfield has a point of view.  In 1996 I was a 22-year-old kid working in the new field of digital marketing while Andy was pioneering new ways of conducting business online.  By that point in time, he was already a successful entrepreneur although he would never use that term to describe himself back then. In his words, he was simply a guy who had th...

Should qualitative researchers be thinking about adding mobile to their qualitative toolbox? Richard Owen, founder and CEO of Crowdlab says, without hesitation, yes! Who is Richard Owen? Well, Richard has been in the market research business for over twenty years and has worked at prestigious firms such as Millward Brown, Copernicus, and Hall &  Partners.  Frustrated by the pace of change (or lack...

Jim Bryson is the founder and CEO of 2020 Research; a Nashville based qualitative research firm with facilities in Nashville, Charlotte, and Miami. In addition to traditional facilities, 2020 is a leading provider of online qualitative solutions including both asynchronous and real-time interviewing solutions.   In this interview, Jim talks about the irony of hating his research classes while in c...

When I was 21 years old I thought I knew it all and that my parents knew absolutely nothing. By the time I turned 22 and was working in my first job with real bills to pay, I was amazed at how much my parents learned in just 12 short months.  Since becoming an adult and starting a family, my appreciation for the sacrifices they made for me has only grown. One such sacrifice was giving me a Catholi...

In 1996 I was barely 22 years old when I started my career in advertising.  I worked for a company called FCB direct, which was owned by a holding company known as True North Communications.  No offense to Brian Rafferty, my boss at the time, but the job kind of sucked.  I was estimating call volume for a large telecommunications client who was using long format commercials to advertise their One...