This week we have Scott Finn, President and CEO of VPR and Vermont PBS. With the recent merger of Vermont Public Radio and Vermont PBS, Scott is now leading the green mountain state’s largest media organization with a reach of over a million people each month and the goal of expanding to a broader and more diverse audience. Modern public media is more than just TV and Radio. Scott is looking to democratize media, with outreach through Youtube, podcasts, and more online content with shows like “Brave Little State,” “The Frequency” and the children’s educational show “But Why?“. We’re excited to see VPR and Vermont PBS support independent podcast shows like ours. Learn more at https://www.vpr.org and https://www.vermontpbs.org

Learning Life with Jon Tota

#146: Democratizing Public Media with Scott Finn of VPR and VT PBS

This week we have Matt Murray, founder and CEO of Widewail. A Vermont native and Navy veteran, Matt has worked through numerous tech and automotive companies before starting his company to help businesses with their online reputation. Widewail provides a suite of management tools for online product and service reviews, helping businesses invite their customers to review and engage with reviewers. Learn more at https://www.widewail.com/

#145: Redefine Your Reputation with Matt Murray

This week’s entrepreneur story goes back more than 100 years! We are excited to have Sarah Morris, a fifth generation host and concierge at Basin Harbor, the historic 700-acre resort in Vergennes, Vermont. Basin Harbor began as a working farm back in the 1800s, and in the 1920s, Sarah’s great-grandfather was inspired by the tourism boom in Miami and began to build out cottages on the beautiful Lake Champlain waterfront. Today, the resort features over 77 cottages, dining, golf, and tons of maritime activities. Learn more at https://www.basinharbor.com/

#144: Hosting Generations at Basin Harbor with Sarah Morris

This week we have Peter Miller, owner of Mini Golf on the Go and a student at the Stiller School of Business at Champlain College. Peter is another great Vermont entrepreneur story with a miniature twist - his company designs and rents mini golf courses at any event, indoor and outdoor, complete with clubs and balls. Peter puts his Vermont-grown woodworking skills to the test building each hole of a course on a unique 2-by-8 foot board that's easy for his team to transport and setup anywhere. Learn more at https://www.minigolfonthegovt.com/

#143: Swing into Success with Peter Miller

This week we have Ryan McDevitt, co-founder and CEO of Benchmark Space Systems. Based right here in Burlington at HULA Lakeside, Ryan is looking to go from Vermont to space with micro-satellites that will change space systems as we know it. After working at Pratt and Whitney as a jet engineer, Ryan returned to Vermont with his wife and he began working on propulsion systems at UVM. With a spark grant from the university, Ryan began to build out Benchmark. Listen to Ryan's vision of the future where earth jumps from a few thousand to 70,000 satellites in orbit; making up a complex system of imaging, communications, and "space-station" type satellites with refueling and clean-up crews for orbital debris. Learn more at https://www.benchmarkspacesystems.com/

#142: From Vermont to Space with Ryan McDevitt

This week we have Dawn and Sarah Lancaster, mother and daughter co-founders of Pure Energy Apothecary, focused on healthy and accessible skincare and home fragrance products. A graduate of Champlain College, Dawn is acting CEO and owner, while Sarah is a current student at Champlain and a fellow at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, headed up by our previous guest Dr. Kylie King. After the passing of Dawn's mother, the Lancasters were inspired to find healthier solutions to the skincare products people use every day. Now, the pair, along with their cousin Michaela are expanding the brand nationally while Sarah focuses on e-commerce and getting Pure Energy certified as a B Corp, a corporation with verified high social and environmental performance. Learn more at https://pureenergyvt.com/

#141: A Pure Family Story with Dawn and Sarah Lancaster

This week we have Benny Boas, CEO of Burlington Code Academy and Upright Education. Benny began teaching coding and software development with online courses and bootcamps through BCA right here in Vermont. Now, he's going national. Upright Education partners with colleges and universities to prepare adults for software-based work with rapid re-skilling courses, teaching a wide range of skills from Javascript to UX/UI design. Learn more at https://www.uprighted.com/

#140: Upskill for the Future with Benny Boas

This week we are excited to have Dr. Kylie King, Academic Director of the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Assistant Professor of entrepreneurship and analytics at Champlain College. Jon and Kylie sit down to discuss the connection between Champlain College and the Burlington community, fostering entrepreneurship in students and young adults, and looking ahead to Champlain in 2030. Learn more at https://www.champlain.edu/centers-of-experience/center-for-innovation-and-entrepreneurship

#139: Act on Opportunity with Kylie King, Ph.D.

"That is a big rallying cry for us–– how do we engage more entities, businesses, and people in seeing how, and feeling clear about how they can give to the environment broadly defined to drive positive change." This week we have Kate Williams, CEO of 1% for the Planet. 1% for the Planet is a global network of businesses, individuals and nonprofit organizations tackling our planet's most pressing environmental issues, headquartered right here in Burlington VT. 1% operates through memberships, where businesses and people can commit to giving 1% of their sales or revenues to environmental causes, in exchange for certification. 1% creates pressure for big businesses to truly pay the cost of doing business- cleaning up the earth in the wake of human pollution, and has given over $295 million to date. Jon and Kate sit down to discuss management structure, remote and hybrid work, and giving back to the community. Learn more about 1% by visiting https://www.onepercentfortheplanet.org/

#138: Paying for our Planet with Kate Williams

This week we have Vermont entrepreneurial success story, Rich Tarrant. Tarrant founded what would become IDX Systems Corporation back in 1969, later acquired by GE Healthcare. His latest company is Marathon Health, based right off the Winooski Circle. Tarrant sits down with Jon to discuss his basketball career at St. Mikes, and how it led to being a pioneer in healthcare technology. Tarrant also talks about the function of health insurance in modern healthcare and his educational philanthropy. Learn more about Marathon Health by visiting https://www.marathon-health.com/

#137: Healthcare Decoded with Rich Tarrant

This week we have Vermont serial entrepreneur Sas Stewart. You may know Sas as the co-founder of Stonecutter Spirits and creator of the sought-after popup Adventure Dinner events. Sas sits down with Jon to discuss making things special - from food and drink to experiences for customers and employees alike. Sas has been running Adventure Dinners since 2014, providing a bespoke experience of locally-sourced food and wine, and one-of-a-kind surprise adventures around the beautiful state of Vermont, including secret island getaways and a Shelburne Vineyards residency. During the COVID Crisis, Sas helped co-found On The Fly, a grassroots collective of business, finance, and marketing experts assisting hospitality businesses through the pandemic. In 2020, On The Fly helped over 50 businesses, totaling about $40 million in economic activity and 640 full time employees. Learn more about On The Fly by visiting https://www.ontheflyvermont.com/ Book your adventure dinner today at https://www.adventuredinner.com/

#136: Adventures in Business with Sas Stewart

"So the goal with peak flow is to figure out how to coach humans in multiple breathwork modalities and to become aware of how you can change your breathing and change your life moment. By moment, it's the most fundamentalist, the most elemental thing we do is to breathe." In this live episode, we have Vermont serial entrepreneur, Professor, and friend of the show Dr. Rob Williams. Whether you know him from the Yak it to Me Burger stand, teaching at University of Vermont and Champlain College, or as a major voice on Vermont Independent Radio, Dr. Rob always shares something new and interesting. This week, Rob sits down with Jon to discuss Peak Flow, a course to teach the Wim Hof Method, a breathing, cold exposure, and focus technique designed to help you live a better life. You can join an exclusive Peak Flow course in Burlington on Friday, July 30th at 1:30pm at the Burlington Surf club. Book now to experience a life-changing practice at www.wimhofmethod.com/

Episode 135: Just Breathe with Dr. Rob Williams

"I guess I've always had a sense of wanting to involve everybody into the brewery from the very beginning. I was kind of well-known in the early days, when I was out on the floor working right next to everybody and if anyone asked, "why are we doing this?" they learned to maybe not ask those kinds of questions because they'd get about a half hour a conversation with me explaining that particular ingredient or that particular temperature on the mash profile for the beer." What makes Switchback Brewing Co special? From the classic Ale to the Karsten Lager, Citra-Pils and the IPA, and now their first Double IPA and Smoked Beers, it's not just the hops, it's the process, and more importantly, the people. This week Jon sits down with Bill Cherry and Craig Wilkinson, the president and production manager of Switchback, to talk about the Flynn Ave-based brewer's 100% employee ownership setup, running for five years now, via an Employee Stock Ownership Plan.  Listen to learn how a passion for beer and a passion for people has guided this local business through it's nearly 20-year history.

Episode 134: Business Brewed Right with Switchback's Bill and Craig

This week we have special guests David Bradbury and Sam Roach-Gerber, fellow podcast hosts and President/Vice-President of VCET, the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies. VCET offers programs, capital, and business mentoring for Vermont entrepreneurs. Through VCET, David and Sam co-host the Start Here podcast, showcasing business success stories across the state and the Vermont Startup Collective, a community of entrepreneurs to help start conversations and build better businesses together.    Learn more at https://vcet.co/ Join the Vermont Startup Collective: https://www.vermontstartupcollective.com/ Listen to the Podcast: https://vcet.co/start-here-podcast/  

Episode 133: Start Up and Start Here with VCET

Based in Burlington Vermont, Ben Krueger is the founder and CEO of Cashflow Podcasting, where he helps industry advocates reach more people, change more lives and move entire industries forward. Having collaborated on hundreds of podcasts since 2012, he has developed 8 Podcast Principles that when applied, lead to highly effective business podcasts. Built on these principles, they've developed a proven system for leaders to host their own world-class podcast in a fraction of the time. In this episode, Ben and Jon discuss how to make a truly great podcast and engage your audience. Learn more at https://cashflowpodcasting.com/ Follow Ben Krueger on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/benkrueger1544/

Episode 132: The Principles of Podcasting with Ben Krueger

Connecting the best experts with the newest ideas to corporate educators looking for content to take their teams skills to the next level. We have the experts -- you have the students. Learning is as easy as tuning in. Knowledgelink is a company of talented and driven individuals, passionate about delivering digital knowledge to professionals and building the coolest online tools to do it. We believe every Knowledge Expert, Customer Success Team, and Corporate Learning Department should have the ability to easily digitize their ideas and deliver them online to educate and inspire. If you have knowledge to share and an audience who wants it, Knowledgelink has the platform and services to deliver your ideas and expertise.

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Learning Life with Jon Tota

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