Host Dave Fiore talks with Tallahassee-area leaders, business owners and neighbors about their personal stories – all the challenges, opportunities and influences that led them to where they are today. Emotional, inspirational and almost always surprising, How I Got Here gives listeners real insight into the lives of our area’s most interesting people.
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We share stories and techniques about all things to do with the mind. Mental health, mindset, overcoming adversity and personal development.
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On this mini-episode of How I Got Here: 5 Years Later, host Dave Fiore catches up with Episode 15 Guest Rachel Pienta. At the end of each original episode, Dave asks his guests the same question: Where do you think “here” will be for you in three to five years? Rachel and Dave listen to her answer from 2020, and she thoughtfully shares how her pred…
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Host Dave Fiore returned to Access Tallahassee’s Young Professionals Summit for a live recording of the podcast featuring three successful women entrepreneurs representing the local brewing scene. Dave spoke with: Shannon Smith from Ground Ops Roastery and Bakehouse; Michaela Teasley from Tally Kombucha; and Alison Denny from Amicus Brewing Venture…
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On this mini-episode of How I Got Here: 5 Years Later, host Dave Fiore catches up with Episode 13 Guest Keith Bowers. At the end of each original episode, Dave asks his guests the same question: Where do you think “here” will be for you in three to five years? Keith and Dave listen to his answer from 2020, and he thoughtfully shares how his predict…
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Host Dave Fiore speaks with Darius (Doc D) Baker, music producer and founder of Tallahassee Nights Live. Doc has been launching music careers since middle school, producing up-and-coming artists and creating a platform for local entertainers of all experience levels to hone their craft in front of grateful and enthusiastic audiences around the worl…
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On this mini-episode of How I Got Here: 5 Years Later, host Dave Fiore catches up with Episode 12 Guest Elizabeth Emmanuel. At the end of each original episode, Dave asks his guests the same question: Where do you think “here” will be for you in three to five years? Elizabeth and Dave listen to her answer from 2020, and she thoughtfully shares how …
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Host Dave Fiore speaks with Carrie Zimmerman, co-founder and former CEO of The Zimmerman Agency. Carrie is a native Tallahassean whose family has been in the Capital City for more than 100 years. She grew up in a competitive, sports-oriented environment, but it was rolling on the mats of the Tallahassee Tumbling Tots that sparked a passion that wou…
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On this mini-episode of How I Got Here: 5 Years Later, host Dave Fiore catches up with Episode 9 guest Danny Shrine. At the end of each original episode, Dave asks his guests the same question: Where do you think “here” will be for you in three to five years? Danny and Dave listen to his answer from 2019, and he thoughtfully shares how his predicti…
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Host Dave Fiore speaks with Emily Saras, CEO and data scientist with Knowli Data Science. The self-described overachiever with a nerd persona loved field hockey in high school and was her class valedictorian in her hometown of Hopedale, Massachusetts. Emily entered prestigious Wellesley College with plans to be a doctor, only to make a significant …
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On this mini-episode of How I Got Here: 5 Years Later, host Dave Fiore catches up with Episode 8 Guest Jami Coleman. At the end of each original episode, Dave asks his guests the same question: Where do you think “here” will be for you in three to five years? Jami and Dave listen to her answer from 2019, and she thoughtfully shares how her predicti…
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Host Dave Fiore speaks with Brad Buckenheimer, co-founder and CEO of Canopy Road Cafe. The Tampa native got his first taste of the hospitality industry as a country club cabana boy at age 14 and says he always had a job. His path to entrepreneurship, which includes owning 13 Canopy Road locations and being a partner in several other concepts includ…
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On this mini-episode of How I Got Here: 5 Years Later, host Dave Fiore catches up with Episode 7 Guest Bill Kelly. At the end of each original episode, Dave asks his guests the same question: Where do you think “here” will be for you in three to five years? Bill and Dave listen to his answer from 2019, and he thoughtfully shares how his predictions…
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Host Dave Fiore speaks with Ricardo Schneider, executive advisor and recently retired president and CEO of Danfoss Turbocor. The Tallahassee-based company produces high efficiency, oil-free compressors for commercial air conditioning systems around the world. Ricardo’s lifelong passion for improving the world through better refrigeration and air co…
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On this mini-episode of How I Got Here: 5 Years Later, host Dave Fiore catches up with Episode 6 podcast guest Drew McLeod. At the end of each original episode, Dave asks his guests the same question: Where do you think “here” will be for you in three to five years? Drew and Dave listen to his answer from 2019, and he thoughtfully shares how his pr…
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Host Dave Fiore speaks with Susie Busch-Transou, founder and owner of Hearth and Soul and vice president/co-owner of Tri-Eagle Sales. Susie is the great-great-great-granddaughter of Adolphus Busch and Lilly Anheuser, and the daughter of August Busch III, who ran the iconic brewing company until 2002. She got her first tiny taste of Budweiser at the…
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Host Dave Fiore speaks with Katrina Rolle, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of North Florida. From her days as a varsity cheerleader and student government president at Miami Carol City High School to continuing her family legacy at Tuskegee University and working her way through the University of Florida Law School, even though it was…
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On this mini-episode of How I Got Here: 5 Years Later, host Dave Fiore catches up with Episode 4 guest Mickey Moore. At the end of each original episode, Dave asks his guests the same question: Where do you think “here” will be for you in three to five years? Mickey and Dave listen to his answer from 2019, and he thoughtfully shares how his predict…
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Host Dave Fiore speaks with legendary FSU quarterback and community leader Charlie Ward. Charlie's resume also includes 1993 Heisman Trophy winner, 11-year NBA veteran, longtime high school coach and public speaker. But to the Thomasville, Ga., native, the roles of mentor, husband and father have always been most important. Charlie and his wife, To…
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On this mini-episode of How I Got Here: 5 Years Later, host Dave Fiore catches up with Episode 2 guest Terrance L. Barber. At the end of each original episode, Dave asks his guests the same question: Where do you think “here” will be for you in three to five years? Terrance and Dave listen to his answer from 2019, and he thoughtfully shares how his…
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On this mini-episode of How I Got Here: 5 Years Later, host Dave Fiore catches up with Episode 1 Guest Kristine Dobosenski. At the end of each original episode, Dave asks his guests the same question: Where do you think “here” will be for you in three to five years? Kristine and Dave listen to her answer from 2019, and she thoughtfully shares how h…
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Host Dave Fiore speaks with Mike McCall, chief meteorologist at WCTV, a position he has held for more than 30 years. Mike caught the weather bug in 1977 at age 12 when a legitimate snow blanketed his hometown of Tampa, and he says everyone lost their minds. To encourage his interest, his mom arranged a trip to a local TV station where Mike met the …
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Host Dave Fiore speaks with Kim Price, the general manager of TLH2, Tallahassee’s Amazon Robotics Sortable Fulfillment Center. The graduate of Wakulla High School and former Miss Wakulla County is a wife, mom to three boys and talented musician who plays multiple instruments and has performed in Nashville. After earning an MBA from Florida State, K…
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Host Dave Fiore speaks with Ashlee Fontes, the owner and CEO of Tallahassee Reckoning, the region’s first pre-professional women’s soccer team. This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the second annual Access Tallahassee YP Summit at the FSU Conference Center. Ashlee is a former Florida State soccer player, professional player and …
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Host Dave Fiore speaks with Alan Hanstein, the executive director of the Challenger Learning Center in downtown Tallahassee. Alan grew up in Rockland County, New York, a short drive from Manhattan that provided for fun and relatively safe teenage exploration – at least during the day. His life took a dramatic turn while headed home on winter break …
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Host Dave Fiore speaks with Anita Bushnyakova, chief financial officer at Kids Incorporated of the Big Bend. Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, Anita experienced very different sets of challenges as a child. First, it was enduring the turbulent years of the Eastern European country’s shift from communist rule to fledgling democracy and then assimilation into…
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Host Dave Fiore speaks with Charlie Strickland, CEO and co-owner of Talon Training Group. A native of nearby Marianna, Charlie shares his journey from the FSU Police Department and working on the family farm to building a reputation as the MacGyver of the Leon County Sheriff’s Office. While climbing the ranks at LCSO, he earned an MBA from Florida …
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Host Dave Fiore speaks with Chef Leon Brunson, owner of Leon’s at Lake Ella. His journey to owning a restaurant has included working the line at his hometown Waffle House in Panama City, refining his skills at fine dining restaurants, being a private chef, and time at Kool Beanz Café, where he says he really learned to cook. He describes himself as…
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Host Dave Fiore speaks with Gloria Pugh, the president and CEO of AMWAT Moving, Warehousing and Storage. Gloria was born in New York City and spent time in Colombia as an infant before moving to Miami with her mother and siblings at age 8. She soon became an entrepreneur, sewing Barbie clothes from leftover fabric and selling them to her friends fo…
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Host Dave Fiore speaks with Jeri Desloge, the owner of Jeri’s Midtown Café (now Jeri's Eventful Kitchen), Jeri’s Love on a Plate and Simply Entertaining by Jeri. And while that may seem like a lot for the popular restaurateur to keep up with, Jeri has spent a lifetime working hard, going the extra mile and doing whatever it takes to make people hap…
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Host Dave Fiore speaks with Warren Cave, the founder of The Clean Start Initiative, a non-profit ministry to help those previously incarcerated and their families. Warren grew up in Coral Gables as one of 13 children and was an outstanding student and basketball player, despite the fact he would often be drunk and high before the first school bell …
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Host Dave Fiore speaks with Jeff Culhane, the director of broadcasting for Learfield’s Seminole Sports Properties and the voice for Florida State football and men’s basketball. Jeff brings 20 years of multimedia experience to the Seminoles, including broadcasting duties for Nebraska, West Virginia and North Dakota State. As part of his duties, he c…
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This special episode of the How I Got Here podcast was recorded in front of a live audience at the 2023 Tallahassee Chamber Annual Community Conference in Amelia Island. The breakout session focused on women entrepreneurs and featured guests Kristi Kreitlow, founder and president of Quick and Clean; and Marina Lickson, Tallahassee programs manager …
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In this episode, host Dave Fiore is at the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours event at the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship in downtown Tallahassee. JMI Tallahassee Program Manager Marina Lickson invited past participants of JMI programs to showcase their business or organization, and as a graduate of the Sm…
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Host Dave Fiore speaks with Chris Petley, founder and president of the Tallahassee Soccer Club and communications manager at Leon County Schools. Chris was born and raised in South Florida where he attended a technology magnet program and was captain of his high school soccer team. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Flor…
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In this episode, host Dave Fiore speaks with Michelle Dean, the executive director of the Popes Museum and Farm in Cairo, Georgia. Born and raised in Flint, Michigan, Michelle survived a childhood of abuse, poverty and instability saved by the generosity of strangers and a strong faith in God. She worked her way through college, sometimes sleeping …
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This special episode of the How I Got Here podcast was recorded in front of a live audience at the inaugural Access Tallahassee YP Summit held at the FSU Conference Center in April. In the opening session, Doug Ramos (aka Junk Man Doug), founder of Picked, and Bryce Brown, founder of Tribe Vintage, shared their personal stories, their business jour…
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Epilepsy and Cerebral Palsy with Charlie Fioré
1:06:51
1:06:51
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1:06:51When I asked Charlie Fioré to join me on the podcast I thought all we would be talking about was epilepsy, then around 3 questions in I discover that Charlie also has cerbral palsy and he was kind enough to delve into both conditions for the rest of the episode. This is an extremely insighftul look into the life of someone living with epilepsy and …
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I'm a public speaker, who is very afraid of talking to strangers... How does THAT WORK? Well I'm excellent at being on stage or on camera, but put me in a networking meeting or a wedding where I know none of the other guests (or even sometimes social situations with some of my closest friends) and I'm an absolute WRECK. I'm also someone who challen…
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Apart from having possibly one of ther coolest names on the plante, RJ Zimmerman is a pretty awesome individual. Currently 9 years sober RJ turned around a life of alcoholism, initially to start a family, but ultimately found a freedom in it that he never found at the bottom of any bottle. In the past 18 months, RJ has increasingly seen that his ex…
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In this episode, host Dave Fiore speaks with Ryan Sprague, area director for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, whose life was eternally changed playing for legendary coach Bobby Bowden at Florida State University. The father of six is a former youth pastor and was previously executive director of the PHI Center, which provides services and coun…
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Cultish Behaviour In Church, Abusive Exes and Setting Up A Safehouse with Rachel McDerby
1:30:28
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1:30:28"I had to get out of a church that was like a cult" this sentence spoken very matter-of-factly was the start of a very interesting and bizarre conversation when I first met Rachel McDerby face to face. She gave me the cliff notes, invovling cultish behaviour in a church, running rehab centers with questionable ethics, an abusive ex and setting up a…
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Is mental illness a diability? Well the short answer is YES! But it took me a LONG way to get to that short answer when answering for myself. If anyone else was to ask me if mental illness is a disability I would say "of course". But if they were to say "is YOUR mental illness a disability" then I would most likely have said no. There's many reason…
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Normalising Having Open and Honest Mental Health Conversations - Tom Davies - Proper Mental Podcast
1:03:46
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1:03:46A mental health podcaster talking to another mental health podcaster? What ever will they think of next. Tom Davies is the host of the Proper Mental Podcast, which is one of (if not the) highest ranking independent UK mental health podcast. Having lived with his own mental health struggles he found that talking about it with other people was part o…
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Getting More Disabled People Access to Gaming - With Paige from Special Effect
57:54
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57:54Accessibility in gaming is something many developers are keen to include (nowadays). This is often done by giving accessibility options within the game itself. Whether this be subtitles, audio description or high contrast visual modes or maybe by simplifying controls or offering a series of difficulty level modifiers. But what about where these adj…
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Raynauds Syndrome with Chelsea Lea MacColl
1:05:58
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1:05:58Raynaud's syndrome is more common than you may think, which was a surprise t me because I first heard about it when I met Chelsea Lea MacColl around 5 years ago. Raynaud's is a condition where the person feels the cold in an intense manor. As we talked through it in this interview it became clear that there aren't many ways to explain the differenc…
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In this episode, host Dave Fiore speaks with Dr. Judy Mandrell – pastor, community builder and popular radio host. Raised in Ft. Lauderdale, Judy has been on a lifelong mission to use every available resource to impact those around her. Examples include organizing a student walkout to protest unfair treatment at her recently desegregated high schoo…
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Emotional Intelligence, Fears and Needs with Will Hawkins
1:06:26
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1:06:26Will Hawkins is a coach and a therapist. Coming from a background of physical training, he was interested in what's going on behind the scenes more. Undestanding a person's fears, their needs, their identity and their values. In this episode we talk a lot about emotional intelligence. Why it is important and what people can do to cultivate it. We d…
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Mental Health, Fashion and Dark Humour - Lisa Jayne
1:05:45
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1:05:45Life, just filterless. This is the motto of Lisa Jayne and the name of her business. Having struggled for many year with her own mental health one of the areas she found comfort was in her dark sense of humour. Then when looking for clothing that reflected this she couldn't find what she was looking for, so she decided to make it! She now runs the …
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Are We Programmed To Be Unhappy? From the Hedonic Treadmill to Andrew Huberman
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15:10It's a big question, but I want to tackle it... are we programmed to be unhappy? The research in this one spans almost 300 years, staring with Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the hedonic treadmill, then heading to modern research by the likes of Anna Lembke and Andrew Huberman; all via the Tocqueville Paradox. Each of these pices of research presents a s…
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In this episode, host Dave Fiore speaks with Dr. Jim Murdaugh, president of Tallahassee Community College. Dr. Murdaugh grew up in Orlando and followed a girlfriend to Tallahassee where he joined the Air Force ROTC at Florida State University and earned undergraduate and master’s degrees in criminology. He soon began a long career in law enforcemen…
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Growing Up In A Cult - Vennie Kocsis
1:12:30
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1:12:30Vennie Kocsis spent her life from 3 until 14 living in a compound as a member of a cult. Struggling with segregation from the rest of the world on the outside, but also separation from her family on the inside; she lived a life that was always filtered through fear. You wouldn't think so listening to her today but she didn't learn about normal rela…
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