The GoGedders Podcast

Former Packers Quarterback Craig Nall and Former Sun Bowl and Hoan Classic Champion  Sean Cullen of JP Cullen, join myself (Richie) as well as co-hosts Pat Lubar of Ixonia Bank and Joe Stanton of Three Leaf Development for this episode to discuss, as the title says, “Football, business, drinkin' and sippin.” 

Today I'm joined by JoAnne Anton and DeVona Wright Cottrell. This episode was a previously recorded on the “Keeping It Local” Podcast powered by First Federal Bank.

Although women have made great strides in the workplace, they’re still often under-represented — especially women of color. Women only hold 20% of board seats, make up 8% of Fortune 500 CEOs, and receive 3% of all venture capital funding, all while being two times more at-risk when it comes to losing their jobs. 

Yes, those are staggering statistics — but things are trending up. There are now two times the amount of women entrepreneurs than there were in the 2000s, and there has been a 500% increase in the number of black women in business over the last two decades. And, although women only hold 20% of board seats in the US, that number is up 6% over the last few years.

Today, we’re joined by DeVona Wright Cottrell (Chief Legal Officer/General Counsel, GMR Marketing) and JoAnne Anton (Director of Giving, Herb Kohl Philanthropies), two brilliant female leaders in Wisconsin.

Women like today’s guests are a big part of the reason why things are changing for the better. Over the course of this episode, we’ll talk with these two leaders about why diversity is something so critical to the business world, and why it’s so key to have women in leadership positions everywhere. We’ll also discuss how they personally embrace the idea of being a servant leader in the Milwaukee community, and how that mindset has guided them to where they are today.

Pat Miller has been bringing small business owners clarity for years now. As an Idea Coach and founder of The Idea Collective, he’s helped over 100 small business owners and seen a little bit of everything along the way. 

In today’s episode, we tap into that wisdom to provide some key insights for our entrepreneurial-minded listeners. We’ll cover a lot of ground, like finding your market, how to set your pricing, and how to deal with burnout — especially if you’re a solopreneur. 

Learn more about the Idea Collective Retreat on November 5-7 at smallbizretreat.com 

When it comes time to open up a bank account, most of us have a pretty standard checklist: no fees, good insurance, decent interest rate, and so on. And once our account is up and running, we don’t really give it much thought — we set up direct deposit, hook it up to PayPal and Venmo, maybe a few autopays, and that’s about it.

But when you look at where your money is going, the stats couldn’t be more frightening. Of the $17 trillion we give to banks, 40% is invested in non-values-aligned assets. That means it’s going to companies that don’t support equity, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace.

Then there’s the issue of access —55 million Americans are either unbanked or underbanked, and in today’s world, that access is an inalienable human right, something that’s absolutely essential to breaking the cycle of poverty.

ESG Financial, a fintech company founded by absolute superwoman Geeta Sankappanavar, recently partnered with the Milwaukee Rotary Club to bring these life-changing services to the Milwaukee area. Tune in to this week’s episode to hear Geeta discuss ESG’s story, mission, and how your dollar can be put to work for the greater good.

Learning from your own mistakes is a tough but necessary part of personal growth. Whether it’s in business or your personal life, recognizing when you've made a mistake and course-correcting for next time a situation arises is a critical part of continuous improvement.

But how do we apply that principle broadly to learn as a community? How can we apply this at the leadership level to make sure the next generation doesn’t make the same mistakes as the previous one? Forward 48 is here to help us do just that.

On this episode, Richie sits down with Ian Abston, Thelma Sias, and Fiesha Lynn Bell to talk all things Forward 48.

​​In addition to telling the story of how Forward 48 came about, they’ll cover how Milwaukee can better retain top talent, develop its young leaders, and grow as a city from a social, cultural, and economic standpoint.

They also discuss the importance of inclusion when it comes to leadership, and how Forward 48 is cultivating the next generation of leaders from a variety of ages, genders, ethnic backgrounds, and perspectives.

On this episode of The GoGedders, our host Richie was joined by Rich Ballenger (President) and Richaad Reed (National Account Manager) of Lucas Millhapt. 

When the George Floyd tragedy happened and BLM kicked into gear, businesses everywhere were quick to make posts to support the movement, condemn racial injustice, and inspire change. 

​​As the leader of the company, Rich wanted to do what was right, but wanted to do so in a way that was genuine. He didn’t just want to just put out a statement to go along with what everyone else was doing. 

So, he did something that’s arguably harder than going with the flow. He reached out to his employees during an all-employee communications meeting and said, “What should I do? What should we do? I’m all ears, and here to support however you need me to.”

Rishaad responded, and the result was an Employee Resource Group that sparked a paradigm shift in the company’s culture. Tune into this week’s episode to hear the story – we promise, no matter what industry you’re in or what role you play, there’s something you can take away from this one.

Green Day, Fall Out Boy, Weezer, Chance the Rapper, Twenty One Pilots, Megan Thee Stallion, Dave Chappelle, Dave Matthews, Run the Jewels, Kesha, Ludacris, ZZ Top, Fitz and the Tantrums, Rise Against, DJ Diesel (Shaq) — AH! 

Despite all the weirdness this year (and last), Summerfest 2021 is set to be a BANGER. The World’s Largest Music Festival has been pulling big talent to our rad venue on the lake for quite some time now, but it hasn’t always been a cake walk, with the facilities being a limiting factor because of the festival’s growth and popularity.

On this episode of The GoGedders Podcast, host Richie Burke sits down with Summerfest royalty Bob Babisch (Entertainment Director) and Jason Stuewe (Vice President of Planning and Development) to talk all about the Big Gig’s latest passion project, The American Family Insurance Amphitheater.

The venue has a massive $51.3M in upgrades (what?!) that will improve just about every single part of the guest experience.

Richie and our guests will also cover what folks can expect from other upgrades around the venue, what planning during a pandemic was like for their team, Summerfest’s economic impact on Milwaukee, and much more.

If you’re a fan of Milwaukee food, you might’ve heard the name Adam Pawlak once or twice as of late, and not without good reason.

This Bay View-born bearded wonder has been all over the city after his first solo concept, Egg and Flour Pasta Bar, was a hit in North Avenue’s Crossroads Collective. 

Today, we’re joined by Adam Pawlak himself, Alex Anderson, and the legendary David Caruso to talk about Adam’s journey, and what it takes to succeed when setting out to chase your passion. We also talk about the Bucks, because like — how are we supposed to not talk about the Bucks?

Tune into this week’s episode, and you’ll also hear how much Adam, Alex, and David truly love our dear city of Milwaukee, and how much it means to them to be doing their thing and chasing their passion in the city they’ve always called home. 

I’m still in shock that the Milwaukee Bucks won the NBA title. The odds are stacked so far against a small market team from the Midwest to win a title, especially in the era of superteams and star player mobility. 

As a lifelong fan, I’m so happy for the city and the Bucks organization — that was amazing to watch from a basketball standpoint. But what about from a life and business perspective? 

Chris Luecke (Host of the Manufacturing Happy Hour podcast) and I decided to come together and talk about the top leadership, marketing, and life lessons we took away from the Bucks championship run. Listen in as we take a deep dive and unpack what we've learned.

Josh Delaney has made local and national news lately by selling 80% of his company, FAB Nutrition to High Tide Inc for $20.6M. Josh started FAB Nutrition only three years ago and the fact that he just cashed out for over $20M at age 35 is rare. It’s the largest exit I personally know of by a young(ish) Milwaukee entrepreneur. That said it is far from an overnight success story. 

Pete’s Pops has been all over the news (and streets of the Milwaukee area) this year. With the announcement of “Sneaky Pete’s” recently opening at the Milwaukee Public Market, their four brick-and-mortar locations, fifteen pop carts roaming around the area, and their expansion last year to St. Louis (Pete’s hometown) last year, it’s clear that business has never been hotter – erm — chillier — for this Milwaukee-favorite pop shop. All that said, Pete’s Pops is far from an overnight success story. 

Believe it or not, I was one of the first to try these legendary pops. Pete Cooney served me one of the original Pete’s Pops out of a dixie cup in the kitchen of his East Side apartment about eight years ago, back when he was a full-time corporate accountant. Pete’s Pops was a side hustle for Pete until the start of 2021, his last job being the Controller for the Pabst Group.  

Although Pete’s Pops has grown significantly since Pete started making Pops, his passion and excitement for the business haven’t gone away: 

“Something about this concept resonated with me; it made me excited, it made me happy… Our business is happiness and positivity, it’s just a really great business, and I’m thankful it’s what I chose,” Pete said fondly on this episode of The GoGedders.

For the company’s future, Pete predicts an expansion of the current business model and a potential consumer packaged goods (CPG) play down the road.

For more on Pete’s story and what it took to get the business to where it is today, listen in to the full episode.

In this Q&A episode I cover work/life balance (can it actually exist?), how to market when starting out and tell the story of my illustrious and rare double eagle in the Ray Fischer tournament last weekend. 

Like clockwork every Wednesday morning through chemo and during his three-week hospital stay where he underwent CAR T Cell therapy, he fired off a group text that I was fortunate enough to be a part of. It featured a message from Rich as well as a song of the day. On April 14th at 6:37am, on his 13th day in the hospital, he sent off the following message: 

“I look out my window and see Children’s Hospital and two flight for life helipads. I wonder about everyone’s stories and the randomness of it all. We all have a clock, but it’s not until you experience a life changing event that you become more acutely aware of how you spend your time. My hope for everyone is that we all take time to appreciate that each day is a gift and we make the most of life, because none of us truly know how much time is left on our clock.” 

On the podcast, I asked him to elaborate on this message and how he has chosen to remain positive through his journey with cancer, while the rest of us continue to get stressed out and anxious about minute details and events of day-to-day life that really have no meaningful impact. He responded to my question by saying, “I’m thankful. Not that I got the disease, but that I’ve got time. It changes the way you react to certain things. Something changes where you appreciate everything, and you appreciate the little things more. I feel fortunate, I don’t know how much time I have, but I do have time. Some people get (life) taken away from them in an instant or in a few months. None of us know when it’s going to be over, so we should really all have that attitude. Sometimes you look at life, and you’re like ‘where did that time go’ most of the time, we just go through the day and don’t appreciate the day.”

Luckily for Rich, along with his positive attitude, he is in great hands with Dr. Parmeswarn Hari at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Hari is rated one of the top doctors in America and started the Celgene bb2121 Car T Cell Clinical Trial right here in Milwaukee. Rich is only the sixth person in the world to get it. Essentially the treatment takes patient’s T cells that are ineffective to treat myeloma and reprograms them genetically to convert the cells into supercharged, highly efficient T cells that can target and destroy every last myeloma cell. Approximately 450M cells were pumped into Rich’s body. It’s living cell therapy, and Dr. Hari is optimistic that many cancers will be cured this way in the next 20-25 years; right now, only three cancers can get treated like this. 

Dr. Hari and Rich both advise that if you think something is wrong with you, see a doctor as soon as possible as many of us procrastinate and wait until later stages to get looked at, and our health is the most important thing we have. 

The majority of us desire a viable third party and aren’t satisfied with the candidates we have to choose from in election cycles. Why is this and what can be done about it? 
Katherine Gehl breaks down how the “Politics Industry” really works behind the scenes and how she is working hard and making incredible progress to change our country for the better! 
This episode is live from the Milwaukee Rotary Club! 

Milwaukee as a city got hit hard by the pandemic and arguably no one knows this better than Marcus Corporation's third generation CEO, Greg Marcus, who has recently been helping the city get vaccinated as well as bringing the city and his businesses back to life. 
Marcus Corporation was founded in Ripon, WI in 1935 with a single movie theater and now operates 91 theaters and 18 hotels across 17 states.  
Make sure to tune into today's episode to learn more about Greg's unconventional path to become the CEO of Marcus Corp, the importance of community, how he is helping the city get vaccinated and what it's been like running a hospitality business during the pandemic and how he sees the future of the company. 

Is the Pfister really haunted? What's the best seat to watch a movie in all of Milwaukee? The Hilarious story of how Greg met his wife, how to deal with hair loss,  has Chris Stegman been kicked out of Mason Street Grill? What is Greg's best single piece of advice to young professionals? 
Greg answers all of these as well as several more hard hitting questions in our lightning round. 

Should you invest in Crypto? Does it have any real value? Why has it taken off? What is blockchain? NFTs? etc….. 
Erin Magennis, Christopher Perceptions and Alec Shaw join the podcast to discuss the current state of block chain, cryptocurrency and how to navigate the space. 
We also answer a lot of user submitted questions.