This episode is another recorded Fireside Chat that we have been doing live on third Thursdays at Blind Tiger in Ybor City. In this session, we sat down with Dennis Amadeus, local poet and entrepreneur to talk about creativity, and community. We heard about his heritage, and how it has influenced his life and craft, and maybe we all will walk away a little more community minded.
Monica was the very first guest in our Fireside Chat Series that we have been hosting on third Thursdays at Blind Tiger Cafe in Ybor City.
Monica Petrella is the Food Systems Coordinator for Homegrown Hillsborough and she was such an incredible guest to kick off the series. enjoy
THE FIRESIDE CHAT IS A SPEAKER SERIES INTERVIEWING LOCAL ENTREPRENEURS, CIVIC LEADERS, EDUCATORS, POLITICIANS, JOURNALISTS, AND ACTIVE CITIZENS — THROUGH THEIR LIFE’S JOURNEY TO SHARE VULNERABLE MOMENTS OF TRIUMPH, FAILURE, AND WISDOM. SPEAKERS ALSO OFFER UP PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR HOW TO ADDRESS PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL CHALLENGES.
This is a 101 Web3 intro session I did with the TB3 Frens Meetup crew. It covers some of the basic what's and whys and I hope you find it valuable.
Nick is a globally respected culture first community and economic strategist. He is a 4x entrepreneur (3 exits), venture capital investor, real estate developer, and ecosystem builder.
His work in startup ecosystems has been recognized by organizations like Google, Brookings, Milken Institute, and Bloomberg. He has been interviewed for Bloomberg West, BBC, USA Today, Entrepreneurship Magazine, and Fast Company.
He has developed national job strategies, award winning education/workforce training programs, and youth leadership development programs. Nick is a Milken Institute Young Leader and the founder/CEO of Innovation Collective. He has spent time in over 200 cities in the last decade working with government, education, industry, and in his words, most importantly the community as he focuses in on the reproducible art of community lead ecosystem development.
He is Puerto Rican-English, loves hiking deep in the woods of Idaho and can often be found camping in the woods with his two sons. Nick spends most of his time in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
FlourishingPledge.com
From youth hostels to the university and now large community centers, Mark Gesner has a long track record of fostering community engagement and working with others to make positive social and economic impact. This conversation explores his core values, his love for social enterprise, his thoughts on leadership, and some of the foundational lessons that he has carried with him throughout his life and integrated into all of his work.
Enjoy!
While many of you know that I work with an organization called WellBuilt Cities you might not know that I have been working with other city builders from around the nation with Hugh Halter and Taylor McCall. Hugh and Taylor have written a book called Brave Cities which is due to be released in just a few months. In the book they explore lots of questions about the changing landscape of faith, church, and life. They share countless stories and lessons from their experience cultivating Kingdom ecosystems. The Grey Pages Podcast is where Hugh, Taylor, Jon & friends explore and reflect on this journey together. There are a lot of publications out there known as White Papers that give an in-depth report or guide on a specific topic over which the author has deep knowledge and mastery. Grey Pages are not as much of a guide or a report as a shared journey of discovery. Things are not always as black and white as we might like, join us as we journey into the grey.
This first episode is now available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts. Please subscribe, rate, share and join the Brave Cities journey.
This is such a fun conversation! Eitan is a passionate marketing and tech innovator. He's a serial entrepreneur with several lifetimes worth of stories! He is a deep thinker with a real gift for simply stating the profound.
Nathan Bond, artist and educator, settled in NYC after graduating from The Rhode Island School of Design. Nathan accepted a teaching post at Parsons School of Design where he was a professor for over 16 years. During his tenure, Nathan passionately guided students in Drawing, Illustration Concepts, Advanced Painting and Senior Thesis.
Nathan’s work has been exhibited internationally from London to Japan to Spain, and all over the United States from New York City to Washington D.C. to Colorado. His work is included in several public and private collections - most recently, his work was added to the permanent collection at The New Britain Museum of American Art. Nathan has also launched an NFT collection called Sweet Baby Jebus and he’s also in the process of of launching Fair Share Publishing.
This was such an incredible conversation and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!
Ashley is amazing. Her story and her work have so much to offer. She has continued to evolve as new opportunities have presented themselves and her journey has taken her through the worlds of social media marketing, consulting, social entrepreneurship, and now tech. This episode is packed with wisdom and beauty. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!
Follow he on Instagram
Learn more at
The audio is hard to hear with some of the audience questions but most of it seemed decent enough. I was happy to find this old archive!
Sandye is a master transformational coach for organizational leaders and women entrepreneurs. Her mission is to help people fully actualize their gifts and talents to manifest their greatest impact without sacrificing their experience of personal fulfillment. Jon and Sandye's conversation meandered among some of the deepest questions from the start of their dialogue as Sandye took the intro prompt to introduce herself into the deepest of reflections on the question "who are you?" There really is something here for everyone as they dig into concepts of freedon, identity, sacrifice, struggle, and so much more. Please enjoy this conversation!
You can learn more about Sandy or connect with her at sandyebrown.com
Chico Lopez is a famour breeder of and advocate for the American Pit Bull Terrier. He has given his life to breeding the best of the best to preserve the original Pit DNA. His love and passion for his work is beautiful and listening to him talk about these dogs highlights so many of the virtues that this very show was designed to explore in human beings. We have a lot we can learn from the real American Pit Bull Terrier
Learn more at http://chicolopez.com/
Follow Chico at https://www.instagram.com/realchicolopez/
Dirk is the Director for the Center of Entrepreneurship and the University of South Florida's Muma College of Business. He is passionate about connecting students with both theorists and practitioners as they build their own solutions. This discussion offers a really great look into the ways that universities are building environments incubation and acceleration of the entrepreneurial spirit and enterprises.
Mauro Costa is the founder and CEO of Bulkitrade, a B2B international trade marketplace focused on connecting emerging brands with international retailers. This is an incredible conversation with Mauro and he shares about the many moves that have led him to where he is today. -enjoy
Mark E. Leib is, among other things, a playwright that has been producing plays that have been on stages throughout the nation since the 1980. Leib's plays and adaptations have been produced at the Players Theatre in Greenwich Village (Art People), the Manhattan Punch Line (Terry by Terry), the American Repertory Theatre (Terry by Terry and adaptations of The Marriage of Figaro, and Platonov) and at the Edinburgh and Singapore Theatre Festivals. His play The Return to Zion was chosen for a staged reading at the Southern New Plays Festival at New Orleans’ Southern Rep, and his play Tongue was a winner in the short play festival at Florida Studio Theatre. Leib was the first playwriting lecturer at the Institute for Advanced Theatre Study at Harvard University, and taught playwriting and various drama survey courses for Harvard Extension School from 1981-1990. He received his BA in Government magna cum laude from Harvard College, where he was president and poetry editor of the literary magazine The Harvard Advocate, and his MFA in Playwriting from the Yale School of Drama, where he won the CBS Foundation Prize in Playwriting. He now teaches playwriting, screenwriting, and fiction at the University of South Florida. Mark also worked as a theater critic for Creative Loafing in Tampa Bay and Sarasota for more than a decade beginning in 1998. His criticism won six awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, including two first-place statewide Sunshine State Awards for Critical Writing.
This year Mark has a new play and a novel both coming out. Jon and Mark discuss both the play and the novel, among so many other fascinating topics in this conversation. Please enjoy!
I was so excited to have David Dennis (the 2nd most listened to episode) back to siduss his new book, Gameness.
Gameness | Land on Your Feet, Not on Your Feelings
What's gameness? We often hear the cryptic question, “Got game?” But gameness isn’t just about sports . . . it’s about life. It’s a person’s ability to live beyond the inevitable problems and pains that threaten to derail us from our fullest potential. It’s realizing that God didn’t put us on earth merely to survive . . . but to take charge of our lives! Gameness means living each day with a never-quit mindset, resoluteness to a purpose, a fighting spirit, and the will required to act beyond our feelings. What is it about those who face life’s biggest heartaches and find a way to bounce back and turn setbacks into breakthroughs? They’ve found the secret of making life work, and in this book, David Dennis explains the secret to all of us. These aren’t academic concepts to David. He has lived them, refined them, and now, he’s imparting his wisdom to the rest of us. Buckle up, hold on tight, and be ready to be challenged like never before.
After minting his Jolly Roger, Will prompted this conversation to cover some basic questions that he felt would have made it easier for him to understand and feel comfortable getting started.
Here are some helpful links:
Mint Jolly Rogers at www.wellbuilt.city/jollyroger
This was a great conversation to kick of 2023! I had the opportunity to join Mark Gesner the President of Community Engagement & Communications at St Leo at his office on campus where he was hosting Isaac McCoy, who among many other things is Dean of Stillman College School of Business. Since Mark assured me that he would be willing to do another episode to dig into his own story and relationship to work, we focused this conversation of Isaac's and you are in for a treat! -Enjoy
We've discussed doing this for a long time and Ben and I finally got around to recording an episode where he steps in to interview me as a way to add my own story to the cannon of episodes on The Work Ethic Podcast!
Another show I did this year that I wanted to share with ya here. Enjoy