Stay ConnectedCommunity Voice is the official podcast of Consult Your Community, a student-run nonprofit that mobilizes and trains undergraduates to provide pro bono consulting services to low-income and minority-owned small businesses in college communities across America.
Consider donating to our cause by Venmo’ing whatever you can to @consultyourcommunity or going to consultyourcommunity.org/donate
Walking through a forest in the Bay Area, Jeff Kirschner and his kids saw trash near a stream. His daughter pointed out that it did not belong there. Since then, Jeff and his team developed Litterati (an app dedicated to making a litter-free world) and, more significantly, an international community dedicated to cleaning the planet. In this podcast, Jeff discusses his background and Litterati's evolution. He delves into how the company uses the data and information they gather to enable both the public and the private sector to make more informed decisions and choices.
Bob Gallagher is the co-founder of consulting firm Carlisle & Gallagher. In this podcast, Bob walks through his career, going from Michigan to Charlotte and working his way through the ranks of several different firms. He discusses how he was able to build relationships and a network that enabled him to found Carlisle & Gallagher and discusses the key determinants of success for consultants. Finally, Bob offers advice for college students looking to embark on careers in consulting and other fields.
Arthur O'Connor started his career in the wine business in Australia. His journey took him across the world, traversing South America, Spain, and now northern California. In this podcast, Arthur discusses managing vineyards and lessons that he has learned throughout his career. He talks about how important mentorship has been throughout his life. Finally, Arthur provides his perspective on how the fight for gender equality makes both moral and business sense.
Tara Jasper is the founder of Sipsong Spirits, a company she founded in April 2018 based out of Healdsburg in Sonoma County, California. She decided to start Sipsong after a culmination of experiences and interests throughout her life aligned. Interested in gastronomy, taste, chemistry, and the environment, Tara ventured into gin despite living in an area known for wineries and vineyards. Although Sipsong is little more than half a year old, she covers a myriad of topics, from producing the right flavor to the broad environmental shifts influencing her community and business.
JP Hernandez is the founder and CEO of American Dream Clean, a company in Connecticut which provides employees with innovative compensation structures. Redefining "bringing home the bacon," American Dream Clean provides employees' children with educational resources and tutoring services to ensure a brighter future. This podcast covers JP's background (from Bowdoin to to the world's largest hedge fund) and what led him to start his company. The episode offers listeners a chance to follow and learn from a founder who tackles challenges head on, both personal and more broadly in his society.
Nathan Hirsch is a 28 year old serial entrepreneur who is an expert in hiring online and building eCommerce businesses. He co-founded his first eCommerce company out of his dorm room in 2009 drop shipping products on Amazon.com and built it to sell over $25 million worth of product over 5 years. While scaling, Nathan discovered the power of outsourcing and ended up building a remote army of freelancers. In 2015, Nathan co-founded and became the CEO of FreeeUp, an online hiring marketplace that allows business owners fast access to a hand-picked network of top talent freelancers in eCommerce, digital marketing, web development, and much more who have already been vetted for skill, attitude, and communication. In this episode, Nathan discusses his journey to starting FreeeUp and answers crucial questions about the new gig economy.
Liz Martin worked at Bayer Pharmaceuticals when her father, when his health was failing, asked her to take over the family wine and spirits business. Confronted with her family legacy, she took over a company in an industry that she knew nothing about. This episode covers Liz's story and walks through what it's like to run a small business in a recently disrupted industry and in one of the toughest business environments, Manhattan.
What is productivity and how important is it? In this episode, Matt Plummer explains how productivity is the most important component of a sustainable life. Matt is the founder of Zarvana, a company that delivers digital performance enhancement programs to help individuals and employees maximize output in less time at a higher quality. A social entrepreneur with roots in strategy and management consulting for 6 years at the prestigious nonprofit consulting company Bridgespan, and an experienced manager passionate about human development, Matt is building a company that gives us back our most valuable resource: time. In this episode, Matt shares his personal experience and tells the story of Zarvana, leading to the development of a four-part model which combines Interactive Lessons, Daily Tracking, Peer groups, and One-on-One coaching. He also opens up about why he avoided Silicon Valley or New York City for his start-up, choosing a lesser-known town instead.
Anmol is an engineer who wanted to learn more about design. After hitting a wall with Masters programs, she did what any self-respecting engineer would do: tunneled under it. Anmol built a fellowship program (read "15-minute website") and waited for applicants. She found Chris. The pair went to India for a year and founded Stepwell, a design studio that challenges global issues by focusing on the humans that face them.
Often times, small businesses struggle to compete with chain stores that seem to rise quickly in a community. Nick, Ankit, and Fiona from CYC's University of Maryland chapter worked with a bike shop in College Park that combats gentrification, in a community experiencing a lot of development, by creating an customer experience that is much more than a transaction. Listen in to hear student business analysts talk about how Proteus Bicycles creates a relationship with their customers "after hours," through potlucks and destination rides in D.C. and how their work explored the value in challenging one's business to connect with customers that are making a one-time, luxury purchase like a bike.
Wendy Gates Corbett left a 20-year career as a training executive to start a public speaking business that makes presenting well no longer a well-kept secret. Her clientele ranges from professional athletes to college students. In this episode, Wendy shares her life hacks for presenting, ways to reclaim our power of belonging, and how to avoid "energy leakage" when presenting. Listen in to see how Wendy's NC State CYC student engagement team helped her understand the public speaking market so she could build a business that would help more people feel stronger and more confident on a stage.
Meet Hunter Davis. He is the founder of N.C. State University's Consult Your Community chapter, the valedictorian of the graduating class of 2017, and a whiteboard enthusiast. In this month's episode, listen to Hunter talk about his journey founding the chapter, defining his "why", and discovering the passion that brought him to Teach for America this fall.
Can you break down the human process of getting to know someone with statistics? Two students from Wesleyan University think you can, and they put their “talent analytics project” into practice with the founder of American Dream Clean. American Dream Clean is a private company that provides janitorial services with the public goal of lowering the achievement gap. By reinvesting profits into educational services for the children of his employees, American Dream Clean’s founder J.T. Hernandez has reimagined a high turnover service industry into a high retention opportunity. Listen in to hear how Jessie and Tiger, from CYC’s Wesleyan University chapter, used a promotion video and regression models to help Hernandez streamline his hiring process, and identify and attract candidates that best reflect American Dream Clean's brand message.
This episode follows our Emory team as they worked with SheWill (who had been featured on episode 3) to promote a brand new curriculum which serves young women in the Atlanta area after school. The team delves into both strategy and tactics on how to best market SheWill's new offerings and expand them to a wider customer base.
Episode 4 covers the Georgia Tech team who consulted the Deljou Art Group, which makes frames for luxury art pieces in the greater Atlanta area. The episode shows the estuary of quantitative and qualitative analysis.
SheWill teaches young women (from middle school to high school) about financial literacy and entrepreneurship, empowering them with tools to secure their futures. The Emory team helped develop the curriculum to encompass a more holistic approach and a longer course.
This episode features a conversation with the MycroChange team from the Boston College chapter of Consult Your Community. Founded by a group of BC and UChicago student, MycroChange is a micro-finance startup looking to connect capital with entrepreneurs.
This episode features a conversation with the Little Loving Hands (LLH) team from the Maryland chapter of Consult Your Community. Founded by Lily Yeh, LLH introduces children to empathy and kindness through fun and creativity.
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