LaNaria is the Director of Finance over at Love146, a nonprofit that is fighting to end child trafficking across the world. It's incredibly important work, and as the keeper of finances in the organization, LaNaria's role is crucial. "I'm at this point in my career where whatever I do, I want it to mean something," she says. "When I reconcile a bank account, I'm able to save a child, maybe not directly, but indirectly."
LaNaria is a numbers girl at heart - she's always loved them. She even loves excel... which is a thing pretty much everyone hates. She's always worked in accounting, but she says she's found something special with Love146 because it allows her to do meaningful work. This week on the Zero to Ten podcast, host Mary Johnson asked her about chicken salad, what she'd have as her last meal on death row, what child trafficking looks like in Charlotte, how running the finances for a nonprofit is different than a for profit business... a little of everything. You can listen in to the full, fun convo below.
Sales lead by day, farmer by night (and morning). World, meet Jacob Felts, a member of the #hyggefam who works remotely for Safewood Designs at our hygge jay street location. He does some pretty cool stuff at work, don't get us wrong, but we had him on the Zero to Ten podcast this week to talk about something different. A few months ago, Jacob and his wife decided to fulfill a dream that started out as a joke: buy a farm, homestead the land and grow/raise their own food. Totally cool, right?
That means Jacob starts his day out early with his farm chores, which include walking the goats to the pasture, feeding the laying chickens they have, taking care of the barn cats, feeding the rabbits and so much more, all before heading in to the office for a full day. Then, at the end of the day, he's back outside and doing more work, like fixing up the barn, clearing his acres of land, chainsawing trees... the list never ends. His story is cool as hell, though, especially because they've learned how to do every bit of it through YouTube. Head to the link in our bio to give it a listen and learn all about what goes into running a huge farm part time, and follow along with their progress at The Felts Farm.
Does anyone really know what they want to do when they grow up? Michael Trivette is on this week's Zero to Ten podcast with host Mary Johnson to talk a little bit about everything... what he wanted to do when he grew up and what he's doing now with College Transitions, the company he founded to help students through the college admissions process, the book he has coming out later this year, traveling, and so much more. There's a little bit of everything in this week's episode, so check it out.
"To be honest, I've never believed in something like I do us, myself and my brothers and our ability to make it happen." World, meet brothers Khaleel and Maleek Loyd, two of the three dynamic guys behind Loyd Visuals. The pair founded their company with their third brother, Najm a few years ago. If ya ask us, running a business with family would be tough, but not for these guys. The trio perfectly compliments each other to create incredible videos and run a successful gig. This week on Zero to Ten they're talking with host Mary Johnson about what it's like to be in business with your brother and what they're up to around the Queen City.
This week on Zero to Ten, meet Jared McKiernan, an SEO expert and an avid table tennis player. He started out playing regular tennis when he was 6 and even went to @davidsoncollege to play on their tennis team. Then, when a friend told him about the local table tennis league and the rest is history. He's even played against some of the toughest table tennis players in the country right here in Charlotte. This week on the podcast he and Mary Johnson talk all about the intricacies of table tennis, what it's like to play against a guy who's won the U.S. title four times, and his table tennis nemeses. Give it a listen. 🎧
This is David Jessup, a major mover and shaker here in Charlotte. Four years ago he founded Digi-Bridge with the goal of bridging divides by fostering optimal use of tech in education. With the future relying more and more on digital advances and technology, the organization has done incredible work to get kids today interested in STEAM to help make a difference tomorrow. But a few weeks ago, David announced he's leaving Digi-Bridge to return to school.
It got us wondering - how do you make the decision to leave an organization you founded? How did Digi-Bridge come about, and what's next for David? Mary Johnson had him on the Zero to Ten podcast to talk about allllll of it.
For Zero to Ten this week Mary Johnson talked with Hannah Beavers about her transition into motherhood and her search for a new calling after having a child.
Have you ever been walking at a convenience store and wonder what playlist is playing? This is Steven Pilker. At the hygge 3rd ward location, he and his colleagues have a sticky note on the door saying they're working on a secret project, but today, we're not going to talk about that. Instead, on this week's Zero to Ten we're talking about how Stephen used to create music playlists for national brands. Basically, he'd develop playlists for everything from stores to campaigns. It helped him learn that there's good music in every single genre and figure out the best ways to find new music. Even now, he still goes to record stores like @tiptopmarketnc on bad days to check out new music and de-stress. It sounds like a damn cool job.
This week on Zero to Ten, we're hearing from Amy Jacobs with Share Charlotte who's talking all about nonprofits in Charlotte with Mary Johnson. You'll hear everything from how to choose what nonprofit is right for you to some of the more unexpected things a nonprofit might need.
Our girl Raven Solomon is a self-diagnosed workaholic. We introduced you to her before, but let's recap: she's a badass keynote speaker, president of her own company, an expert in millennial and gen z leadership and a brand new author. All around she's crushing the game, and we were honored to have her on this week's Zero to Ten episode talking about what it's like to have to change her work process due to her epileptic seizures, her writing process and road blocks she faced during the marathon of writing and self-publishing her book Leading Your Parents: 25 Rules to Effective Multigenerational Leadership for Millennials and Gen Z.
On this week's episode of From Zero to Ten, Mary catches up with #hyggefam Hannah Beasley about what it's like to be one of the only female leaders at a tech company and then to become a mom who needs to take a maternity leave. Working at a small startup allowed Hannah the opportunity to really shape her maternity leave as one of the first women in the company to need it. Head to the link in our bio to give it a listen
It's fitting our first ever episode is about photographer extraordinaire Julia Murray - the person behind pretty much every hygge picture you see + the creator of the hygge jingle you'll hear at the beginning of every podcast. She sat down with our host, Mary about her singing (that's right, she used to do it professionally!) + talking about how narrowed her business to focus on what she wants to photograph vs. just saying yes to every opportunity. Basically, it's some good shit.