Arizona Originals
Arizona Originals, hosted by Jason Isaak, brings you the stories, leadership lessons, and life lessons of the people who make Arizona a great place to live and work.
Episodes
Our guest this week is Tom Van Dyke. He lives with his wife, Mary, on their ranch in the foothills of Tonto National Forest, Cave Creek, Arizona. He is the author of "A Cowboy Christmas: An American Tale" which received high praise from Elmore Leonard, Michael Blake, Don Collier, Marshall Trimble, Ken Rotcop, and so many others.
Tom created and wrote the American Bicentennial television public service announcements, "Stand Up and ...
Our guest this week is Tom Smith, President of Wrap Technologies in Tempe, Arizona.
A graduate from both the University of Arizona (B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) and Northern Arizona University (Masters of Business Administration), Tom co-founded TASER International (now Axon Enterprise, Inc.) in 1993, and served as President of TASER until October 2006. He served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of TASER from Octo...
Our guest this week is George Weisz, the President of Weisz Ventures and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Scottsdale Community Bank. A man of many interests and talents, George is a co-owner of two minor league baseball teams (proud affiliates of the Arizona Diamondbacks) and a partner in Majerle’s Sports Grill with former Phoenix Suns All-Star Dan Majerle. George is also a partner in a start-up technology firm dealing with su...
Our guest this week is Phil Boas, the editor of the editorial pages of The Arizona Republic. Before that, he was editor of The Republic’s Sunday Viewpoints section and editor of its Community editorial pages. He joined The Republic in 1999. Before that, he was metro editor at The East Valley Tribune and a reporter at the Los Angeles Daily News. He is a graduate of Brigham Young University and is married with four children. He and h...
Our guest this week is Chris Ronzio, the founder and CEO of Trainual, a leading SaaS company that helps fast-growing businesses automate their onboarding and training by documenting every process, policy, and procedure in one simple, searchable, teachable system.
After helping hundreds of entrepreneurs create scalable systems and processes with his consulting firm that he started in 2013, called Organize Chaos, Chris developed a pa...
Rachel Mertensmeyer has long been captivated by understanding the consumer mindset and making people’s lives better with product innovation. She has a decade of marketing management experience in Fortune 100 companies including Unilever and Avon in New York and BBDO and WPP in Shanghai. Rachel’s first professional opportunity supported her entrepreneurial nature as she was tasked with the ground floor development of sales distribut...
Our guest this week is Jamie Baxter, the co-founder and CEO of Qwick. He began learning computer programming in the second grade, and by the time he was 16, he started his first company. With the sale of two companies he started under his belt, along with 18 years in major roles with Willis Towers Watson, Jamie has begun his latest entrepreneurial venture here in Arizona.
Qwick connects food & beverage professionals who want on-dem...
Our guest this week is Rick Smith - the founder of Axon, the company formerly known as TASER International. We have a broad ranging conversation where Rick shares his thoughts about everything from being a reluctant Harvard student to the differences between being a founder and a CEO to his new book, The End of Killing.
This week our guest is Dr. Jeff Johnston who serves as the Chief Medical Examiner for the Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner; a position he has held since 2013. He oversees the Office which provides all statutory forensic medical death investigations for the 4th-most populous and fastest growing county in the the United States.
Dr. Johnston holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from the University of Virginia and a Medic...
Our guest this week is Brig. Gen. Todd D. Canterbury - the Commander, 56th Fighter Wing, Luke Air Force Base, Arizona. A true "Arizona Original", General Canterbury spent many of his formative years at Luke AFB where his fatheralso served as the commander.
General Canterbury entered the Air Force in May 1993 after graduating from Arizona State University ROTC in 1992 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering Tec...
This week our guest is Brian Steele, CEO and Executive Director of City Help - also known as the Phoenix Dream Center - a nonprofit organization serving several populations we’ll discuss in the show, including victims of human trafficking. Brian has been with the Dream Center since its start in 2007 and oversees campuses across the state which house 800 people every night.
We appreciate Brian’s willingness to share his story - b...
Our guest this week is Tom Espinoza, President and CEO of Raza Development Fund (RDF). Tom has over 45 years of experience that span the breadth of the public, private sector, and nonprofit spectrum. In 1998, he co-founded RDF; and is responsible for the overall strategy, performance, and management of the fund, which has grown into the largest Latino CDFI in the country.
Prior to founding RDF, Tom worked at UnidosUS (formally the...
This week we're joined by Ellen Pallestrant, South African-born writer and artist and filmmaker. She was educated in South Africa and Britain and immigrated with her family to the USA in 1987. Palestrant has been a writer, artist, creativity expert, game inventor, hydroponic farmer, special education teacher, television scriptwriter (adult documentary and children's animation), film producer, college instructor (English, Humanities...
This week our guest is Brian Mohr. He was a founding member of Jobing.com and later became director of talent strategy & acquisition for P.F. Chang’s China Bistro and Pei Wei Asian Diner restaurants until he joined forces with co-founder, Max Hansen, to create the first purpose-based leadership search firm, Y Scouts, in March of 2012.
In the summer of 2018, Brian joined the Arizona Chapter of Conscious Capitalism as its first Presi...
This week our guest is Dr. Warren H. Stewart, Sr., a native of Coffeyville, Kansas. Today he serves as the Senior Pastor of the First Institutional Baptist Church of Phoenix, Arizona and has served there since July 1, 1977.
Dr. Stewart served as the first General Chairperson for ARIZONANS FOR A MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. STATE HOLIDAY which contributed significantly to the legislative passa...
This week is our final episode of Season 3 - thanks for being part of this fantastic community! Stay tuned for Season 4 which should launch in early 2019!
In Season 2 Episode 12, we spoke with David Kolbe, the CEO of Kolbe Corp. If you haven’t already listened to that episode, I encourage you to do so.
David was kind enough to share his thoughts on a variety of topics in short, topical episodes which we share intermittently. ...
In Season 2 Episode 12, we spoke with David Kolbe, the CEO of Kolbe Corp. If you haven’t already listened to that episode, I encourage you to do so.
David was kind enough to share his thoughts on a variety of topics in short, topical episodes which we share intermittently. This week we spend a few moments with David on the topic of preventing organizational paralysis, including how success can paralyze an organization.
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