Vinnie Bagwell Is a BIG Deal
The Debbie Nigro Show
Sculptor Vinnie Bagwell Is A Winner and a BIG deal. The City of Niagara Falls just chose to commission her vision of Harriet Tubman, to be installed in front of the Underground Railroad Museum in Niagara Falls, NY. Public artworks of Harriet Tubman traditionally portray her as an old woman, but she was only 29 when she escaped from slavery and returned to Maryland as an Underground Railroad “conductor" and Vinnie chose to portray her young. Below is a photo of the small version of “Harriet Tubman on the Road to Freedom!” but Vinnie can't wait to make her BIG! Because BIG is what...
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Staying In The Game! Age Has No Limit
The Debbie Nigro Show
Former Rock N Roll Publicist Carol Klenfner ( Rolling Stones, Elton John, The Who, and more) is a table tennis champion now rocking the table tennis circuit. She's got stories up the wazoo about all 50+ great rock n roll acts she traveled with and repped back when, but her own latest act is a pretty darn good story too. Carol was a gritty NY gal who worked her way up through the Rock N Roll PR world and worked as a top executive for 4 decades at a prestigious firm in NYC. She married, had two daughters, and a solid career. But in 2009, when she was 64, her life started to fall apart....
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50+ Athletes Hitting Ft. Lauderdale
The Debbie Nigro Show
The Over 50 Crowd is bringing the ACTION to Ft. Lauderdale next week! 14,000 are set to compete in every sport you can imagine in the 2022 National Senior Games presented by Humana. It's all happening May 10-23rd in and arounf Ft. Lauderdale Fla. Del Moon, The Director of Communications & Media for NSGA is excited the games are returning after 2 years off due to the pandemic. He's got a good story about how an 85 year old participant scared the heck out of him into participating himself. LOL. Check out some of the photos from prior years and you will see 'age has no limit' when it comes...
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Exclusive Coffee Club For Entrepreneurs.
The Debbie Nigro Show
Coffee entrepreneur Travis 'The Coffee Man’ Estes, wants his fellow coffee loving entrepreneurs to have their own digital barista in their home. Travis, is the Founder of REVIVE Coffee. He’s an expert in beans, machines and coffee recipes. He and his team designed and manufactured the 'Dolce Vita’ digital barista coffee machine and created an exclusive coffee subscription club as an answer to his commercial coffee company going silent for awhile during the pandemic. Travis started a company in 2014 called Busy Bean which manufactures and supplies specialty coffee and coffee machines to...
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Food Swaps To Clean Up Your Act
The Debbie Nigro Show
Dieticians on Tik Tok Are Begging People To Stop Dieting. According to CNN health, the anti-diet dieticians want to steer people away from what they call "diet culture," which they say prioritizes smaller sizes over health and drastic restriction over lifestyle changes. Which brings me to todays' podcast segment about healthy food swaps. Simple ways you can swap some snacks and drinks and nut butters you may be having regulalrly, for some other versions that are healthier and less processed. I asked Jess Caruso, Personal Trainer & Instructor at HealthyFit for Women in Mamaroneck, NY to come up...
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Gapsquare Makes Pay Equity Easy
The Debbie Nigro Show
Know Anybody Who Doesn't Want To Get Paid Fairly For Their Work? Me Neither. According to 322 employers who responded to XpertHR’s 2022 Survey on Pay Equity, senior management is one root cause of the existence of pay inequities at companies. But now theres a new platform that companies can use that provides data analytics to take the complexity out of pay equity and wage gaps. It’s called Gapsquare and their CEO/Co-Founder Zara Nanu joined me to talk about the survey results and how Gapsquare helps companies build fair pay infrastructure through analytics and expertise. Dr. Zara Nanu is a...
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The Happiness Series
The Debbie Nigro Show
This Podcast Was Produced In Support of Happiness! Jeffrey Gurian is fascinated by people who don't let things get the best of them! A former Cosmetic Dentist and Clinical Professor at NYU, he's one of the few doctors with a long-standing career in comedy. He's a comedy writer, performer, director, author, producer, motivational speaker, and radio personality with 8 books under his belt. The first book in what he refers to as the "The Happiness Series" was written during the Covid lockdown and is called "Healing Your Heart, By Changing Your Mind – A Spiritual and Humorous...
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Armed For Warm Weather 1 Min Video
The Debbie Nigro Show
This one's for the girls! Theres one thing I know for sure. As soon as warm weather hits the parts of the country where womens bodies long hidden under winter clothes will soon be exposed again, a LOT of women try and hustle to tone themselves up! Admittedly, I am one of those women. I hate being hot and love going sleeveless and surely feel better about myself when my upper arms are stronger and in better shape. Loose upper arms do not make women happy. (Guys have no clue what a pain in the ass they are or what it feels like to try and find a dress that hide your arms. As for the women who do...
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Swim Across America Making Waves Fighting Cancer
The Debbie Nigro Show
Matt Vossler Co-Founder 'Swim Across America' joins me to celebrate 35 years of making waves fighting cancer. And we're talkin big kahuna waves! This year there will be 24 events across the country expected to raise 10M which will bring the total dollars raised by this charity for cancer research rockstars close to 120M! Matt says, it's been incredibly impactful and effective fund raising. Swim Across America is a national organization with 24 open water swims from Boston Harbor to under the Golden Gate Bridge, and more than 100 pool swim fundraisers across the country. It's roots...
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2 Gals Disrupt The Fragrance Business
The Debbie Nigro Show
It's A Pretty Big Deal When Walmart Says "Yes, We'll Carry YOUR New Product"! Entrepreneurs Abby Wallach & Caroline Fabrigas couldn't be more excited. Their idea to risk disrupting the fragrance category worked! Walmart is putting their new perfume brand 'Sparti Scents' into almost 1800 Walmart stores nationwide. As part of Walmart's fragrance innovation strategy, 'Sparti Scents' is filling the beauty aisles with it's new mini-stick powered by Scentinvent Technologies, LLC. It's portable, clean, playful, accessibly priced, alcohol free and fun to show off. The brand is powering up social media...
info_outlineThere are 5.5 Million 'Family Businesses' in America That Employ About 98 Million People.
Family Business is a very tricky dynamic says Joe Armentano, CEO of Paraco Gas Corporation, one of the most highly recognizable brands in the propane industry. Joe is about to release his first book, detailing the incredible entrepreneurial journey of Paraco Gas that started with his Dad Pat back in 1968 in Mt Vernon, N.Y.
“A Helluva Ride" includes the inside stories of his family-owned and operated company which he has overseen over the last 40 years and shares some important lessons learned in business and in life.
With more than 425 employees, 28 locations, and $150 million in annual revenue, Paraco is the largest independent propane marketer in the Northeast. Over the last 40 years, Joe has overseen Paraco’s tremendous growth, acquiring 53 companies primarily independent propane companies and family businesses. Today, Paraco services over 110,000 residential and commercial customers. Through its barbecue exchange program, Paraco’s cylinders are found in the homes of over one million consumers.
In our candid and warm conversation Joe Armentano and I discuss growing up in family business, passing the torch to the next generation and about employees who work for family businesses. We also discuss candidly the often painful internal struggles of family business dynamics, like the hard decision about 'who' of the family members should be next in charge to run with that business.
In this podcast of our entire live radio show we hit on topics like 'are you born an entrepreneur or do you become one?' (hmmm), and we run through Joe's 'Top Ten Family Business Lessons'. A very 'real' been there, done that, list - that will surely benefit anyone involved in a 'Family Business.'
By the way, Joe Armentano doesn’t consider himself an entrepreneur because he didn’t start the business from scratch, his father did. More of a Professional CEO/ Manager than entrepreneur, Joe admits he didn't originally intend to go into the family business. He'd made a commitment to self development and went off to NY's Fordham University (with the intent to be a lawyer) then to NY's Iona College for an MBA in Finance when he was 30.
Joe feels it's critical for family business members to get work experience outside the company.
His own job is to make himself 'replaceable' knowing if something should happen to him the business could and would carry on.
Enjoy our conversation.