• The Intersection of Creativity and Technology: Nikki Lee's Story
    Dec 2 2025
    In this episode of the AG45 Soul Aligned Strategy Podcast, host Katherine Breuss, CEO, and founder of AG45, welcomes guest Nikki Lee, Co-founder and president of Genhead, an AI growth agency. Nikki shares her journey from her southern roots in Charlotte to her current life in Los Angeles, discussing the challenges and pivotal moments that led her to combine her passion for storytelling with a career in marketing and AI. She highlights the importance of intuition, adaptability, and aligning one’s work with personal values. Nikki also elaborates on how Genhead uses AI to help businesses optimize their operations and save time. The conversation delves into the significance of trusting one’s gut and making intentional decisions that align with personal and business goals. Contact Nikki – https://www.linkedin.com/in/genhead-nikkilee/ Song: The Way To You - Composer: Sapajou Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl7q5R_ITPYFttJn7PyHzmw License: Free To Use YouTube license youtube-free Music powered by BreakingCopyright: https://breakingcopyright.com Welcome to the AG45 Soul Aligned Strategy podcast. We have a really special guest here, Nikki Lee from Genhead. Love that Nikki is on. We collaborate on a few things. So it's amazing to have her here and what she's doing is really cool. But I am gonna actually pass it over to Nikki. 'cause Nikki, I want you to share with the audience, who you are as a human, and then tell us about Genhead. Nikki Lee: Okay. Wow. So much to share. So my name, like you said is Nikki Lee. I am the co-founder and now president of Genhead. We are a thank you so much. We are an AI growth agency that focuses on helping particularly small businesses implement the systems that they need to scale without the chaos. And then we come in and help fill in gaps where is needed. So whether that's helping with things like branding, or other marketing services, you know, I have an amazing, amazing network of artists and collaborators who I'm able to and fortunate enough to bring in and share with these amazing innovators and visionaries. So it's a really fun time for me. Katherine Breuss: I love it. And can you share, and, and by the way, I wanna say that I have been working with Genhead for almost a year now in the CRM and now the marketing space and, um, the whole organizing your life, you know, I love that you said chaos. Um, you know, we all have chaos in different ways. And having a system is really important. So, you know, hats off because, um, love the system. And. In terms of, I wanna hear about you though, 'cause I know you've got a really interesting life. You've shared pieces of it, and I'd love for you to share a bit more about who you are to with the audience. Okay. Nikki Lee: I see you. The elevator pitch was not enough. I, I got it. Um, no. No. So, uh, I was born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina. Um. So at my heart, I'm definitely a southern girl. Um, are you a Tar Heel fan? Um, oh, okay. So this is, so you put me on the spot because I definitely have friends that went to UNC that if I said I was not a Tar Heel fan, I would definitely be like, uh, uh, they would never speak to me again. Um, but uh, I am in my heart and soul, I bleed garnet and gold 'cause I'm an FSU girly. So when it comes to the ACC, I definitely am a Seminole. Um, but I have a lot of love and respect for the Heels. Um, and who doesn't love that Carolina Blue? So, well, my sister, my sister and brother-in-law, they went to UNC. Oh, really? Well, so my mom and my sister went to NC State, so there's a little bit of a rivalry there. Not as much as being, you know, um, a Duke fan. What is it? Duke Devils, sorry, sorry, sorry. Duke fans. Uh, but yes, so, uh, I know that there's more of a rivalry there. I just usually go like Florida girly over here. Like, sorry. Uh, so, Katherine Breuss: And you've lost that. You don't have the southern accent. Nikki Lee: I, yeah. So my parents are from, um, born and raised in Virginia, outside of DC. So they moved to Charlotte, um, right after they got married, right before they had me. Um, and Charlotte's just sort of this really weird melting pot because it is this sort of like weird in-between city between Atlanta and DC. So you get, I feel like very rarely was I ever meeting people that were actually from Charlotte. So I think because of that I was spared from, from the, the crazy southern draw. But you know, I am not afraid to throw in a y'all every once in a Katherine Breuss: y'all. I think y'all is one of the best words ever. 'cause I lived in Nashville for many, many, many years, and so y'all is like, I think it's easy, it's quick. It's like, Hey y'all, Nikki Lee: I am all about efficiency. So anytime that I can combine a bunch of words into one. I am all for it. Yeah. So, yeah. Y'all is great. I, I'm not afraid to throw in a bless your heart if you really, if you really get me going. Katherine Breuss: Uh oh. I forgot about that. Oh yeah. ...
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 4 mins
  • Soul Aligned Strategy with Pat Miller: Building Businesses and Legacies
    Nov 25 2025
    The AG45 Soul Aligned Strategy Podcast, hosted by Katherine Breuss, explores how business owners can build a meaningful and enjoyable business. In this episode, Katherine interviews Pat Miller, founder of the Small Business Owners Community (SBOC). Pat shares his journey from radio to supporting his wife's photography business and establishing SBOC to combat entrepreneurial loneliness. They discuss the importance of aligning one's soul with business, the challenges small business owners face, such as managing lifestyle and pricing strategies, and the necessity of being comfortable with selling. Pat also emphasizes the value of leveraging AI and global contractors for smarter business operations. Katherine and Pat agree on the importance of redefining success to include time and financial freedom. They conclude with reflections on past business mistakes and the ongoing journey of personal and professional growth. Contact Pat - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpatmiller/ #BusinessAlignment #podcast #personalpurpose #soulalignment #Personalwealth #Enjoyment #entrepreneurjourney #entrepreneur #entrepreneurlife #entrepreneurstruggles #authenticityispower #Authenticity #authenticityjourney #ExitStrategy Song: The Way To You - Composer: Sapajou Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl7q5R_ITPYFttJn7PyHzmw License: Free To Use YouTube license youtube-free Music powered by BreakingCopyright: https://breakingcopyright.com Katherine Breuss: Welcome Pat Miller to the AG45 Soul Aligned Strategy Podcast. I wanna introduce Pat. He is founder of the SBOC. And I'm just gonna let Pat roll with it and tell us a little bit about him himself as a human, but also about his business. Pat, go for it. Pat Miller: Well, thanks for having me, Katherine. I appreciate it. It's really fun to get a chance just to talk shop with you and talk about what it takes to build a business worth owning and a life worth living. And that's something that I'm really focused on right now and that's why I lead the SBOC, which is the small business owners community. It's an online group that we founded in the heart of the pandemic, and we bring people together to solve problems and capture opportunities so they can end entrepreneurial loneliness and make their small business dreams come true. So who am I and how do we do it? Well, I'm a dad and I'm a husband, and I'm the spouse of a small business owner. That turned to me 14 years ago when the kids were going to school saying, now what am I gonna do? And she was gonna be an author and she's like, you know what? Maybe I should be a photographer. So my wife Abby, opened her photography studio. So after 22 years of being in radio and helping small businesses. I'm now the spouse of someone that's going to build their small business. And there was a moment about, I don't know, six months into her running her business where she went out to a local networking organization and some older gentlemen said, "Quit. You'll never make it." Oh. There's just something that's snapped inside of me. I'm like, "Oh, no, no, no, no. That can't stand." So together, behind the scenes, I was helping her with her business and she's still open doing great stories. Frame photography, go Abby. She's doing awesome, but she's my hero. She took an idea, turned it into a business, and now she's supported the family with it. So when I decided to leave the radio industry and go build something for myself, she was my inspiration. That moment that she had along with a bunch of other moments are what fuel me to help small business owners win. And I'm fortunate enough to get to do that every day. I love it. Katherine Breuss: I love it. I love that that inspired you when, like the no, no, no, no. Oh, no, no. Very cool. And I did, I did see radio. I am, I'm just curious about that. Do you mind sharing just your experience there for a moment? Because that in my mind has always been, a bit of a dream radio. And 'cause when I was young. And lived in Milwaukee. We would drive to Chicago because my family's from Chicago. And on Sunday night when we'd drive back to Milwaukee from Chicago, I don't know, it was like nine o'clock or something. There was this radio show and it was all, it was scary. Why? I always thought it was scary and it was just like, what? It just, the imagination. It created. You know, I'm actually a bit sad that there isn't more of that this day and age, so I'd love to just hear just for a bit your experience in radio. Pat Miller: That was act one. I was on the high school speech team and the speech coach said, "You're gonna do radio speaking" and you had to read a five-minute newscast and I loved it. And he said, "You should make this your career." So I went to Illinois State University where they have an incredible college radio program. I spent every day of my entire college career in the studio. On campus on the air. Got my first professional job full-time before I graduated. Became the boss of that ...
    Show More Show Less
    41 mins
  • Nature Meets Nurture: A Journey into Soul-Aligned Business
    Nov 18 2025
    In the AG45 Soul Aligned Strategy Podcast hosted by Katherine Breuss, Patti Beres of Be Green Pro shares her entrepreneurial journey. Motivated by her children and a passion for nature, Patty discusses creating a sustainable lawn care business focused on reconnecting people with nature. Emphasizing the value of self-care, soul alignment, and understanding one's 'why', she recounts overcoming business challenges by raising prices and valuing her work. The episode highlights the importance of joy, efficient time management, and sustainable practices in business. Song: The Way To You - Composer: Sapajou Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl7q5R_ITPYFttJn7PyHzmw License: Free To Use YouTube license youtube-free Music powered by BreakingCopyright: https://breakingcopyright.com Katherine Breuss: Welcome everyone to the AG45 Soul Aligned Strategy podcast. I have Patti Beres here with us from Be Green Pro. So I'm gonna hand it over to Patti. I'm gonna let Patti introduce herself and tell us about who Patti is as a human and then also we'd love to hear about your business. So take it away Patti. Patti Beres: All right. Thank you. I'm so glad to be here today. So I have always just been a lover of nature and so that has really sparked the passion to start my business. But really the inspiration to start my business started with my children and just having a little bit of knowledge about something that I had a great passion to learn more about and Be Green Pro is a business that really strives to bring people together through nature. So we do lawn and landscaping with the idea of being sustainable, but also just reconnecting people with nature, reconnecting people with themselves, with their pets, with their family, through being able to spend more time outdoors and do it safely, healthy, and enjoyably. So I've been in business now for 15 years, and again, I said my children really were the inspiration. And it happened to be, about a February day, 15 years ago, and we were walking through the neighborhood after school. So the dogs, the kids, me walking through the neighborhood in February, late February afternoon, and the ground is still frozen outside and I see a lawn care company performing lawn services and there's that moment in time you might think this is something you only see on TV, but there's a moment in time where time stops for a second. And you realize that life is still going on around you, but for you it's a second that just stops. And you have to really think and evaluate which decision are you gonna make. And my son, I saw this lawn care company doing services and I said, "You know, if we had a lawn care company, we would do things so much better." And my oldest son said to me, "Well, mom, then why don't we?" And that moment when time stopped, I had to evaluate, well, if I do nothing right now, I teach my kids that we spout off our mouths and we create more of a problem. Or we can take the knowledge that we have and the abilities that we have and we can make a difference. We can do something about it. And so that kind of wraps up the story of why the business started and I guess who I am as a person. So I really do take to heart, you know, the little things that we can do in life to make a big difference. It's not the huge impact that one person makes, but the little drops of water that you do to fill a cup. The cup feels a lot faster when a lot of people put each single drop in. And that's kind of how I run my life and run my business and how it all started. Katherine Breuss: I love it. I do remember the story when you and I were speaking in the coffee shop, and I really love that. And not only what it says about you and how you show up as a business owner, but also as a person. And a parent and just like that lesson or that teaching, not just through saying it, but by you actually doing it. How you showed your child and your entire family how to be in the world. Like I just think that is so super cool. Patti Beres: Thank you. I am a really big believer that you just have to try it. You know, there wouldn't be any inventions if we all waited for someone else to learn how to do it. So you don't have to know how to do everything. You just have to have a will and a passion to take one step forward and to get help. I really believe that my success really depends on the people that are around me that help me do things better than I know how to do them. So it's a combination of just being willing to try it and then seeking information from people that might have better knowledge than you do. Katherine Breuss: Well, it's so clearly, also, you took a bet on yourself. So clearly. There's like this entrepreneurial spirit that's within you because not everybody would, you know, have that conversation with their child or anyone and then be like, "Huh. You know, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna actually like, not only take betting on yourself, but taking a risk." I mean, there's risk ...
    Show More Show Less
    30 mins
  • Betting on Yourself: Tony King's Entrepreneurial Journey
    Nov 11 2025
    In this episode of the AG45 Soul Aligned Strategy Podcast, host Katherine Breuss interviews Tony King, an experienced business owner who shares his journey from corporate life to owning a business. Tony discusses his background, the challenges he faced, and the importance of soul alignment in business. He emphasizes the necessity of resilience, hard work, and betting on oneself. Tony provides practical advice on avoiding pitfalls with marketing firms and highlights the significance of having a strong work ethic. The conversation sheds light on the realities of business ownership, offering invaluable insights for aspiring entrepreneurs and current business owners alike. Contact Tony – LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonyking7/ #BusinessAlignment #podcast #personalpurpose #soulalignment #Personalwealth #Enjoyment #entrepreneurjourney #entrepreneur #entrepreneurlife #entrepreneurstruggles #authenticityispower #Authenticity #authenticityjourney #ExitStrategy Song: The Way To You - Composer: Sapajou Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl7q5R_ITPYFttJn7PyHzmw License: Free To Use YouTube license youtube-free Music powered by BreakingCopyright: https://breakingcopyright.com Katherine Breuss: I wanna welcome Tony King to the AG45 Soul Aligned Strategy podcast. Tony, welcome and I'd love for you to introduce to the audience. Who you are as a human. Like tell us about you as a person, but also really wanna hear about your business. Tony King: Boy, this is kind of the—there's a comedic line here that I'll skip, but yeah, I am father of four grown children, grandfather of three and a fourth on the way. They're all my pride and joy. Been married to the same woman for 40 years. Grew up on a farm so relatively straightforward, you know, kind of how you communicate with others growing up, and you knew everybody and you behaved in such a way that you were probably gonna encounter them some other time in your life. So, yeah, I was the youngest of five on the farm. There wasn't a lot of extra cash around. And then I spent over 20 years in the flexible packaging world. If that means nothing to you, it's food contact packaging, what the world calls plastics. It was a great run and met some wonderful people, but pretty early on in my corporate life, it just felt like a hair shirt. I love the people I worked with, but the things that were done that were so non-value added, and you're making a living and you're raising a family, so you kind of shut up and keep going. Katherine Breuss: Mm-hmm. And it never quite felt right. I started dabbling after I left the corporate world in my own business. And I will emphasize the word dabbling until I really had skin in the game that it really became a business. I was still in this packaging world running a small, what we call packaging brokerage company, but it was okay, but it needed more tender loving care. Tony King: Then I was willing or able, so I started looking for a company to buy that was in place, that had an infrastructure. I wanted an e-commerce business. The old, "Hey, you can make money while you're sleeping" kind of thing. And I got into the FedEx industry up in Libertyville, Illinois. And it's been an education that I league can't provide. I didn't go to league to an Ivy League school. But, you know, you think in the corporate world you kind of have a huge staff of people. You fly around the world and you buy this little company and you own it and all of a sudden you're kind of watching the bank account because you got payroll to make. And nobody cares about all that other stuff that was, all the white noise that was going on in your world, it becomes real very quickly. And we've done a lot of things in the last two years. The previous owner, who's a friend of mine, he was an IT guy, never wanted to spend any money on the commercial side in sales or marketing by his own admission. So that's where our focus has been. We're fairly small. We've got three or four different initiatives we're working on right now. So that's kind of it in a nutshell, Katherine. I loved our pre-conversation, and I'll get to that, you know, in a minute, about how corporate, maybe corporate life wasn't necessarily meant for you, but you stayed in it for 25 years. Katherine Breuss: It was very good to me, well, you know what, and it can be, it absolutely can be, you know, corporate life. But I have a question that leads into the soul alignment piece. And we are, we're all about at AG45, soul Aligned Strategy. And, how, like I explained it and listeners, if they've been listening, will have heard me say it before, is that, you know, it's about really knowing who you are, knowing what you want, and then aligning that to your life. And because we talk about business, it's aligning it to your business. So for you, Tony, what does soul alignment mean and what has been the impact in your life and or business when you have been soul aligned versus when you ...
    Show More Show Less
    40 mins
  • Jewelry, Journeys, and Joy: Mitch Prejbeanu's Path to Success
    Nov 4 2025
    In this episode of the AG45 Soul Aligned Strategy Podcast, host Katherine Breuss interviews Mitch Prejbeanu, a Romanian immigrant and owner of Paul's Jewelers. Mitch shares his journey from Romania to the U.S., detailing his various business ventures, including his current successful jewelry shop. He discusses the importance of hospitality in business, his plans for creating a unique customer experience by incorporating a cafe in his store, and the value of tailoring services to a focused market. Mitch candidly shares lessons from his past businesses, including the challenges of running a cafe and the realization that specializing is key to success. The episode emphasizes the significance of aligning one's passion with business to create value and impact. Contact Mitch – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mprejbeanu/ #BusinessAlignment #podcast #personalpurpose #soulalignment #Personalwealth #Enjoyment #entrepreneurjourney #entrepreneur #entrepreneurlife #entrepreneurstruggles #authenticityispower #Authenticity #authenticityjourney #ExitStrategy Song: The Way To You - Composer: Sapajou Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl7q5R_ITPYFttJn7PyHzmw License: Free To Use YouTube license youtube-free Music powered by BreakingCopyright: https://breakingcopyright.com Katherine Breuss: Welcome everyone to the AG45 Soul Aligned Strategy podcast. I have with us here today, Mitch Prejbeanu. I am so horrible with remembering names and this is why I was horrible at remembering a second language. Apologies on that. Prejbeanu. Beautiful. Beautiful. So I really wanna welcome Mitch to the show and I am going to pass it over to him. And Mitch, can you just let everybody know about you as well as your business because he has got a fine jewelry store called Paul's Jewelers. So would love, I'm gonna pass it over to you and would love to hear about it. Mitch Prejbeanu: Sure, sure. So my name is Mitch Prejbeanu. I'm originally from Romania. I moved here when I was 18. So a friend of mine used to say that I'm more American than he is. And he's probably, because he lives in Romania, he's probably more Romanian than I am. So two-thirds of my life has been spent here in the United States. So I ended up owning a jewelry store first, a repair and manufacturing facility. That's just downstairs from here. And then the jewelry store that's on the first level at High 100 International in West Dallas. I have 15 employees. And we work directly with the public and with other jewelry stores around town, around the state, and around the country now. So that's what we do. We don't import any jewelry. We make most of everything that we sell. We make them here in-house. Katherine Breuss: Wow. Okay. Yeah, I was gonna actually ask you that. So it's okay, interesting. Because a lot of jewelry, my understanding, a lot of it is imported. Mitch Prejbeanu: Yes. All the stores in a mall—Kays, Jared's, Diamonds Direct—they're actually all the same corporation and they own like 20% of the US market and everything they do is imported. And then they manufacture overseas and they're basically a finance company. We're an actual shop, so I invite you all to come and visit us. I'll give you a tour of the shop. Katherine Breuss: Very cool. I love, actually, I really love hearing stories in particularly when it is homegrown. When things are made here. Not that, I've lived international, I think we should still be international. I have no issues with that, but I do love when it's, I hear the manufacturing's here and it's made here because it is so rare this day and age. Mitch Prejbeanu: Yep. Katherine Breuss: So I am—okay. So Mitch, I'm really curious, why jewelry? What got you into this business? Mitch Prejbeanu: So I kind of stumbled into it. I went to school for Economics and International Relations. I never really went into that area. I moved to Florida to get an MBA. I started working in a really nice restaurant and I never got my MBA. I moved back here in '98 to take care of my parents, and I started doing credit card processing. I also worked in some other restaurants here locally. I sold CNC parts for machinery. I opened a cafe and opened and closed pretty quickly. And so in 2016, one of my friends worked for the repair and manufacturing shop, and the owner was looking to retire and he wanted him to take over, but he didn't have any business experience. I did, the limited business experience I had with the cafe. So we partnered and we took over the business. So that's how I became part of the jewelry business. But I don't do any of the work myself. I always say I hire people that are very talented, local artists. And Paul's Jewelers was one of our customers and she approached me four years ago now, and asked me if I wanna buy the store and the building. And at first I said, "No, why would I want to do retail jewelry?" That's, the industry has been in decline for like 40 years now, but the custom and repair parts of it ...
    Show More Show Less
    37 mins
  • Balancing Intuition and Strategy for Business Success with Ann Marie Arvoy
    Oct 28 2025
    The AG45 Soul Aligned Strategy Podcast, hosted by Katherine Breuss, features Ann Marie Arvoy, a seasoned therapist and business owner of Mosaic Counseling. Together, they discuss the importance of aligning personal intuition with business strategy to achieve success and fulfillment. Ann Marie shares her journey from living in various states to establishing a successful mental health practice, emphasizing the need for self-care and boundary-setting. They also explore the concept of soul alignment, the challenges of balancing profitability with purpose, and the critical role of intuition in making business decisions. The conversation includes practical insights on mindfulness, ADHD diagnosis, and mental health education, aiming to empower business owners to build value-driven, purpose-aligned enterprises. Contact Ann Marie - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-marie-arvoy-88aab226/ Song: The Way To You - Composer: Sapajou Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl7q5R_ITPYFttJn7PyHzmw License: Free To Use YouTube license youtube-free Music powered by BreakingCopyright: https://breakingcopyright.com Katherine Breuss: Welcome everyone to the AG45 Soul Aligned Strategy Podcast. I want to welcome Ann Marie Arvoy to our episode today. I'm really excited to have Ann Marie on and, like usual, I'm gonna let Ann Marie introduce herself because she's gonna do a much better job at it than I will. So Ann Marie, if you could just share with everyone about you, you as a human, and then also about your business, I'm gonna pass it to you. Ann Marie Arvoy: Sure. So me as a human, I'm married and I have two boys, and that's a big part of my life. I grew up in New York. I lived in Colorado for a while, and now I'm in Wisconsin. And a lot of times people will say to me, "You're one of those New Yorkers." Yeah, New Yorker. Except I'm from upstate, so people are like, "What's that?" And I'm like, "Anything other than the city." People get excited when I say I'm from New York and then I'm like, "No, the upper part." "Oh, that's boring." So, yeah, I've lived in a couple different places. I don't know what else about myself. I've been into mindfulness since I was in my early twenties. I found that because of a period of depression I went through, and that led me to become a therapist. Katherine Breuss: Nice. Okay. So tell us about your business. Ann Marie Arvoy: Sure. So Mosaic Counseling is the business that I currently have. I have owned, let's see, four businesses in my life so far. Mosaic Counseling has been the most successful to date. And what we do is we provide mental health treatment for teens, adults, couples, families—all anxiety, depression, PTSD, grief, all of that kind of stuff. ADHD. So I have been a counselor for 25 years. I went to a school called Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, which is kind of a unique school. It was inspired by this Buddhist monk who came from Tibet. And he created all of these Shambhala centers that are all over the country. He really was one of the main people that brought Buddhism to the United States, and he created this school, Naropa University. So I got my degree in 2000 and I liked going to that school because—in the soul alignment that we're talking about today—one of the things that has been helpful for me in all of my life is listening to my intuition. And when I went to a very just traditional undergraduate school in upstate New York, Cortland, New York, which was fine, it was great, but I craved something different. And when I started looking around, I was really drawn to these non-traditional schools. So I almost went to a place in California. I ended up going to Naropa in Colorado and it felt like my gut was telling me to do that. It was my intuition because I almost didn't make it. I was accepted into this place in California and I put in my deposit, I accepted it, I'm doing it. And the very last day that I was living in this apartment with a phone, because I was gonna be camping for the summer, I got the call from Naropa that I got accepted there. That's really where I wanted to go and so I ended up going there and it was a great experience because it wasn't just learning about how to help people, it was also a program that helped everyone transform themselves. So they said, the first day they said, "What we're gonna do is we're gonna break you down and build you back up." Which some people might think that's a cult, but not in this way. It was actually very helpful and healthy. Katherine Breuss: You know, it's funny, I was just sitting there thinking, "Oh, right on. That's great." But you're right. I didn't think about cult, but I can see maybe, I don't know. Ann Marie Arvoy: Yeah, it was—I mean, my parents were a little afraid it was a cult, but it was really helpful for me because I had grown up in this very traditional, mainstream, kind of protected life. And I didn't have a lot of worldly knowledge or exposure to a lot of different ...
    Show More Show Less
    37 mins
  • Manufacturing Meets IT: Brett Surinak on Bridging the Gap
    Oct 21 2025
    This episode of the AG45 Soul Aligned Strategy Podcast, hosted by Katherine Breuss, features Brett Surinak, founder of Tech-Tastic. Brett shares his journey from growing up in a family manufacturing business to establishing an IT and cybersecurity company for manufacturers. He discusses how his experience and passion for manufacturing align with his business, his pivot from mechanical engineering to IT, and his commitment to being a supportive, non-sleazy salesperson. Brett also emphasizes the importance of understanding sales and marketing in business, the need to avoid thinking like an employee, and the significance of failing fast and strategically pivoting. Additionally, he shares personal insights about his commitment to scouting, community service, and aligning his work with his talents and values. Contact Brett - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettsurinak/ Song: The Way To You - Composer: Sapajou Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl7q5R_ITPYFttJn7PyHzmw License: Free To Use YouTube license youtube-free Music powered by BreakingCopyright: https://breakingcopyright.com Katherine Breuss: [00:01:00] Well, welcome to the AG45 Soul Aligned Strategy Podcast. I want to introduce Brett Surinak to the show. We are really excited to have you. Brett, I would love it if you could introduce yourself, tell the audience something about you that you want them to know about you as a human, and then also your business. Brett Surinak: Okay. Well, we'll start with the professional side because that's always usually the easiest one that everyone practices, right? So I am the founder of Tech-Tastic and what we do is we provide IT services and cybersecurity for manufacturers. That's it in a nutshell. We're a little bit different. I've been in IT for [00:02:00] gosh, 25 years, and over the years I found out that whenever we had a manufacturing client, the office was being taken care of really well. But all the equipment out on the shop floor—which nowadays has a lot of networking to it, a lot of analytics coming out of it—was really not being supported in the way that it should, or even protected from cyber attacks. We're starting to see more and more things like CNC machines get locked down. Some of the attacks are even stopping emergency stop buttons, so now we run into safety issues from not being protected. And that really bothered me because, going back to my history, my grandfather was a tool and die maker—or owned a tool and die shop—and my father owns a stamping manufacturing plant. I grew up in those shops, [00:03:00] in that shop that they had. At a very early age, you know, this is a small family business, so you can start your kid at a very early age—like eight—in there. And so I really started to understand what the different processes were. I did it all. I started obviously at eight doing menial duties, but I worked my way up through high school, working summers, weekends, all of that stuff. I got to be like a CNC operator and even went to school for a year to see, "Hey, do I want to go into mechanical engineering? Do I want to do CNC programming?" I decided it wasn't exactly for me and went into the IT world. And that's really where I saw this gap happening whenever manufacturers were being serviced by an IT company. [00:04:00] They're only taking care of part of the business. They're not looking at the big holistic view into the plant as to how this stuff works. Because if you can't produce, you can't ship. If you can't ship, you can't invoice. If you can't invoice, you're not getting paid. And just how that kind of snowballs. Anytime one of those machines would go down, I saw exactly—being the owner's son—these are dollars flying out the door every minute this thing is down. So when I went into IT and was working for other IT companies that were consultants, I just saw this big gap there. I thought, "Hey, you know, [00:05:00] there are ways we can help them get better analytics to see when a machine is going to fail, or can we protect it?" When the machine goes down, maybe it's not a cyber attack, maybe it's just a failure on the machine altogether. How can we get the programming for that backed up as quickly as possible and help that production line and production team out from an IT standpoint? So that's my professional thing in a nutshell. Digging a little deeper into me personally, I do a lot. If anyone knows me, I can talk for hours and hours about scouting. I'm a big Scouter, Eagle Scout. I have four kids all in scouting. I've been a Cub Master for 10 years. [00:06:00] Really big there. What I really enjoy about that the most is actually seeing how it's helping kids become servant leaders for tomorrow—ways that not only can they be self-sufficient, but how they can give back to their communities and how they can be those servant leaders. You know, servant leader is kind of a buzzword probably for the last five, ten years. But if you look back at it, ...
    Show More Show Less
    30 mins
  • From Legal to Soulful: Sandra Dempsey's Path to Purpose
    Oct 14 2025
    The Ag 45 Soul Aligned Strategy Podcast, hosted by Katherine Breuss, features a conversation with Sandra Dempsey, the founder of Source 10, a video production agency. Sandra shares her journey from being a lawyer in Mexico to becoming a media professional in the United States. She discusses the importance of soul alignment in her career transition, building a business driven by purpose, and navigating challenges. The conversation highlights the balance between soul alignment and practical business strategies for sustained success. Sandra offers insights about perseverance, the significance of showing up, and the value of clarity and alignment in business. Contact Sandra - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandradempsey7/ #BusinessAlignment #podcast #personalpurpose #soulalignment #Personalwealth #Enjoyment #entrepreneurjourney #entrepreneur #entrepreneurlife #entrepreneurstruggles #authenticityispower #Authenticity #authenticityjourney #ExitStrategy Song: The Way To You - Composer: Sapajou Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl7q5R_ITPYFttJn7PyHzmw License: Free To Use YouTube license youtube-free Music powered by BreakingCopyright: https://breakingcopyright.com Katherine Breuss: Sandra, welcome to the AG 45 Soul Line Strategy podcast. It [00:01:00] is, uh, a real pleasure to have you here, and I wanna introduce to the audience listening. This is Sandra Dempsey. She has a business called Source 10, but I'm gonna pass it over to her too. Uh, tell us about who she is and also her business before we get into, uh, the conversation. So Sandra, I'm gonna pass it over to you to just tell us who you are and tell us about your business. Thank you so much, Katherine, and well, we're a, we're a privilege to be part of your space and um, you know, I was even thinking when you're in the world, soul into the business world, that's already a game changer. Sandra Dempsey: So thank you so much for doing this and for allowing the space, uh, to entrepreneurs and women like me to come and, um, talk to you. So. Uh, well, I'm originally from Mexico and I moved to the United States in 2002 as I married an American that I met at the beach in Mexico. So it's like a love story. Uh, we're here together still now. We have three kids, uh, 21, 18, [00:02:00] and uh, 15. And, um, even though my background in Mexico is being an attorney that's gonna, that, that's the degree I got when I moved to United States. Your law degree is not, does, is not. So you had to pretty much, uh, either reinvent yourself or start something new. And I invented myself, uh, joining the media communications world, which I always loved and adore. And it was interesting because I, I just, you know, it kind of came to me. Uh, by accident. And I think that has to do with the alignment of the soul, right? I mean, when you want something so deeply, it comes to you. And I feel like that was the beginning of, uh, the journey we're in right now, which is, uh, a video production agency. We focus on storytelling and cinematic video content, and we help companies and organizations to tell their message with heart and love and, um, creating really beautiful content for them to be able to leverage, uh, the work that they do through video content. I love it. I love that you said, you know, [00:03:00] when you connect with the soul, it just becomes easy, you know? Katherine Breuss: Yeah. And that's what I cannot even imagine. Well, actually I can, 'cause I kind of had to reinvent myself a bit. Mm-hmm. But just start all over, uh, coming from Mexico and you have a law degree and then having to start all over and, and start again. That I would imagine took a lot of, um. Really actually being aligned with your soul to even get through something like that. Sandra Dempsey: Yeah, I think, um, you know, when you had to start from scratch, and we know professionally you don't, right? Because you have acquired a lot of knowledge through your college degree, and I used to have a law firm back in Mexico, so I had some of that, but at the end of the day. Um, your network is everything, right? So when you come to a new country and you don't know anybody, and you have to start creating new relationships, uh, you know, new friendships, so at least you kind of like understand the culture to begin with, right? I mean, you come, it's a new place. Uh, you don't [00:04:00] even know how businesses on here, and I mean, you can assume, right? But. Deeply, deeply. You just don't know. So I will say part of the great success that we have had at Source 10, um, and professional, is the fact that I was able to build a really strong network. Uh, once I get out of the house and I start meeting people and, you know, people in Milwaukee are very friendly and, you know, very nice. So that was, uh. That has been a very nice, um, journey of just meeting people and now being able to build what we have. Thank you to the opportunities that, that we have received, right from the people that we...
    Show More Show Less
    39 mins