095 – Ashton Zager of Ashton Zager Fiber Arts

In this episode, we interview Ashton Zager of Ashton Zager Fiber Arts.  The local Ashevillian shares her story of success, curiosity, and persistence.

Here’s What You’ll Learn in this Episode:

  • Believing in “The AND” and what this means to Tony and Ashton
  • The importance of persistence in Ashton’s life and of “showing up” during highs and lows
  • How tragedy impacted her business and her overall tone on social media
  • Scaling up with an online presence with passive income
  • The importance of being seen as a human

Enjoyed this interview? We think you might also dig this episode with Anneleisse Gormely of Spoon + Hook.

Show Notes

About Ashton Zager

Ashton Zager is a self-taught fiber artist based out of her home studio in Asheville, NC. Along with making her own original art, she and her husband Casey produce and distribute weaving kits all over the world to help introduce others to a love of weaving.

 

To learn more about AZ Fiber Arts and purchase your own fiber art kits (these color and fiber combos are gorgeous btw), ebook and more, check out the links below:

Ashton Zager Website

Ashton Zager Fiber Arts Instagram

People

  • Claire of Moonlight Makers – Ashton met Claire at an event and Claire offered such kindness to her during an extremely trying time

Places

 

Music by Commonwealth Choir

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094 – Meghan Mciver & Lindsay Riley of Palm + Pine

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In this episode, we interview Meghan Mciver & Lindsey Riley. The owners and all-around vibe curators of the plant disco and store, Palm + Pine in Asheville, NC.

“We want to create a bubble for you to walk into and have a really vibed experience, a really nice time. That’s the goal” – Lindsay and Meghan

Here’s What You’ll Learn in this Episode:

  • Different strategies for managing pressure as business owners and most importantly, human beings
  • Expectations vs Agreements- Creating realistic timelines for a project and the importance of giving yourself enough lead way
  • The challenges of stocking a retail space within the living (plant) industry 
  • How the pandemic forced Meghan and Lindsay to crawl instead of run at the start of their business
  • How capital and having a business has allowed them to better address the socioeconomic issues that exist with AVL 
  • Making plants accessible and nonjudgmental

 

Enjoyed this interview? We think you might also dig this episode with local aesthetic genius and photographer, Nicole McConville.

Show Notes

About Meghan and Lindsay

Originally from the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Meghan McIver has lived in Asheville since 2008. She graduated from UNCA in 2012 with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and a concentration in Human Rights Policy. Her work with plants began in 2013, with an organic farming work-trade and later, a local agricultural non-profit internship. Her interest in tropical plants and environmental design was initiated in 2015 with a heightened intrigue for creating accessible, functional, and inspirational indoor green spaces. Merging her love for tropical plants, design, art, and community, Palm + Pine was created in an effort to offer a safe, welcoming, fun, and vibrant space for the people who live and work in Asheville.

With a background in performance and installation art, Lindsay Riley moved to Asheville in 2017 from Austin, Texas.
Riley’s skills span from illustration to graphic design to fiber arts and fashion design. Her work as a massage therapist for the past 10+ years offered Riley more insight into her artistic practices and vision, eventually leading her to merge a love for visual arts with holistic healing arts. Riley’s current artistic approach lands on creating environments that highlight the relationship between the human body and its immediate surroundings, intending to create safe spaces that promote healing and inspiration.

To learn more about Palm + Pine, check out the links below:

Instagram, where Meghan champions the IG game

palm + pine website

 

People

  • Audrey is their first employee and good friend who works at p+p, shoutout to Audrey.
  • Karie and Rob of Shelter Collective are neighbors to P+P. They initially told them about the space opening up next door. (It’s a big deal to find real estate in AVL)
  • Honey of DIFFERENT WRLD and Neng Jr’s are two businesses opening soon that M&L are excited for. In the interview, Meghan and Lindsay mention that they appreciate the role they are playing in the community.

Places

  • Crocodile Wine is where Lindsay and Meghan had their last pop-up shop before opening their retail location.
  • Fifth Season Gardening Co. is P+P’s trusted store that takes gardening to the next level.

 

Music by Commonwealth Choir

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093 – Anuj Patel of Tech House

In this episode, we interview Anuj Patel, Tech Support aficionado, and 1/2 of the founders of Tech House in Asheville, NC.

Here’s What You’ll Learn in this Episode:

  • How Anuj and Early’s relationship allows them to thrive, communicate and grow
  • How TH is finding success by stepping back from the niche market (think Apple store) and allowing TH to be approachable by having the ability to let people come in and learn and use technology as a tool
  • How Tech House shows up and is accessible to their customers in many ways/platforms
  • How watching his father and family’s entrepreneurship background and experience shaped much of Anuj’s success
  • Franchise vs owning your own business and how TH created a system that uses techniques from both
  • Navigating supply and demand as a small business

Enjoyed this interview? We think you might also dig this episode about entrepreneurship with Jeff Kaplan, of Venture Asheville.

Show Notes

About Anuj and Tech House

 

Anuj Patel is an Indian-American entrepreneur, tech professional, and music producer. Born in India, he moved to the US with his family in 1993. Growing up in Raleigh, NC, some of his fondest childhood memories are playing Tetris with his family and spending hours on Microsoft Paint. These experiences quickly morphed into spending time tinkering with and taking apart computers. Anuj then became enthralled with the knowledge and toolset working with computers could provide. This idea paved the way for his future.

Grateful to be raised in an entrepreneurial family, Anuj was able to develop creative problem-solving skills, and have the support needed to confidently become an entrepreneur himself. He moved to Asheville 7 years ago, with dreams of using his creativity to build a path towards an independent and self-sustained lifestyle. Taking from his early career as a filmmaker, and from over 12 years of experience in consumer electronics sales and support, it was clear to him that having a place for people to bridge the gap between themselves and their technology was essential, especially in Asheville. As Anuj says, “It’s all about having the right set of tools and knowing how to use them.” And that is what led him and co-founder, Early Gima, to embark on the journey to build Tech House.

When Anuj is not working on your precious technology, he loves to ride his motorcycle through the mountains of Western North Carolina, make music, and play his favorite sport, Ping-Pong.

To learn more about Tech House, check out the links below:

TH Website

Instagram

People

  • Early is Anuj’s brilliant business partner and the PC wizard of TH (that’s rare to find, friends)
  • Jazmin Rogers is the owner of the new yoga studio, Asheville Iridescence Yoga. She is a friend and the person behind many of the social media posts at TH.

Tech

  • Lightspeed and Ikiono are the plugins Anuj and Early use to tie everything together on the backend and allows for texting. Anuj tells us these programs “totally leveled up business”.

Books/Movies

 

Music by Commonwealth Choir

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092 – Brook Bolen of AVL Today

In this episode, we interview Brook Bolen, one of the editors behind the beloved AVL Today, whose reach is up to 45,000+subcribers per day. Brook has acted as a much-needed internet friend for Ashevillians, especially throughout the pandemic and the community is grateful. We are excited to finally meet the person behind the text and put simply, she’s awesome.

Here’s What You’ll Learn in this Episode:

  • Acting as a resource and writing through a pandemic
  • The burden of being a news outlet
  • Finding your voice in writing
  • How Brook’s Grandfather couldn’t read and now she writes to 45k + people and how truly impactful this is to her (and us listening)
  • Tips for getting out of your way when you’re writing

Enjoyed this interview? We think you might also dig this episode with Oby Morgan, founder of Capital At Play.

Show Notes

About Brook Bolen

One generation removed from dirt floors, Brook Bolen is WNC born and bred, and one-half of the AVLtoday team. In addition to her work there, her pieces have appeared in publications including Salon, The Guardian, VICE, Jezebel, Reader’s Digest, Thrillist, and more. She loves rescue dogs, her family, newborn baby-sized burritos, and Waylon Jennings, and the Wu-Tang Clan in equal measure. Brook is constantly creating community and meaning through writing/reading and sharing with others.

To learn more about AVL Today and stay up to date directly in your inbox, check out the links below:

AVL Today IG

AVL Today Website

People

Management Tools and Writing Apps

Books & Authors

 

Music by Commonwealth Choir

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091 – Tarleton Walmsley & Seth Connelly of Garden Party

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In this episode, we interview Tarleton Walmsley & Seth Connelly, partners and founders of Garden Party.

*Listeners of today’s podcast with Garden Party receive a special discount code. Apply MAKINGIT15 at checkout.*

Here’s What You’ll Learn in this Episode:

  • The importance of imagery in creating a captivating website to bring in vibes and sales
  • Knowing when to step away from a career and trust in yourself enough to dive in completely into something new
  • Why it’s important to communicate who you are through your brand
  • Why Tarleton and Seth use intimacy and communicating as their way of advertising when traditional methods can’t be used (due to the stigma around their industry)
  • How Garden Party is committed to equity initiatives and the problematic nature of white supremacy in the cannabis industry
  • How Tarleton’s personal experience with cannabis and hemp has enabled her to communicate with and help customers

Enjoyed this interview? We think you might also dig this episode with the owner of Sauna House and advocate of preventative health, Andrew Nehlig.

Show Notes

About Tarleton and Seth

Garden Party is an aesthetically minded lifestyle brand and retail experience that supports well-being promotes creativity and cultivates meaningful connection through the advocacy and normalization of cannabis. Co-Founders Tarleton Walmsley and Seth Connelly opened Garden Party in the summer of 2018, and bring with them their own unique backgrounds and expertise.

Tarleton grew up in Virginia and moved to Asheville from Atlanta back in 2009. Before launching Garden Party, Tarleton spent the last several years working in B2B sales and operations, but always knew she wanted to open her own shop one day. Tarleton’s role at Garden Party includes marketing and content creation, as well as overall brand management. Seth grew up in the Ozarks of Arkansas and Key West, Florida. While living in Asheville for the past 16 years, Seth’s professional background has included wilderness therapy, business development, and before working full time at Garden Party, he was the COO of a hemp company. Seth is the glue that keeps Garden Party together–he handles all of the operations and financial aspects of the business, as well as product development. When they aren’t Garden Partying, you can find T&S hanging out with their son Finn, taking their canoe out for a ride, or hanging at home with their two cats.

 

“Community is a verb.”– Seth Connelly

To learn more about Garden Party and see what they’re up to in real-time, check out the links below:

Shopgardenparty.com is where you can see the best deals and sign up for email and texts
Gardenpartyavl is where you can see Tarleton’s superpower of awesome content creation and branding
For the young folx, you can even find them on Tik Tok at gardenparty.shop

People

  • Wyatt Grant designed Garden Party’s logo
  • Carrie and Rob at Shelter Collective are the architects and designers that helped build the beautiful, California-inspired space at 315 Haywood Rd.
  • Ryan at Mountain Bizworks (who has since left) started his own business was a huge support to T&S
  • Jason James is a local photographer who takes product photos for Garden Party

Garden Party Food and Drink Neighbors in East-West Asheville

Tools 

  • Norby is a new, intimate, and personalized way to reach and connect with people and meeting them where they’re at.

 

Music by Commonwealth Choir

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090 – Matt Parris of Roots Hummus

In this episode, we interview Matt Parris, the CEO and founder of Roots Hummus and the Roots Foundation.

Here’s What You’ll Learn in this Episode:

  • Why finding the right partners can determine your success when upscaling a business (and how Roots scaled their production capacity 100x)
  • The power of creating a financial engine to help support true passion and vision
  • How Matt and his team are using food as a vehicle for critical global change
  • How sales are about more than whether a product is good or not
  • Why the dream of early retirement is broken

Enjoyed this interview? We think you might also dig this episode with a fellow board member of the foundation and previous guest, Josh Dorfman.

Show Notes

About Matt Parris

Born and raised in the South, Matt studied to be a teacher at Western Carolina University before finding out he was unteachable and unemployable, which, along with early fatherhood, led him into the exciting world of entrepreneurship. In 2006, with little more than naïveté and determination, he started a cafe and prepared food business out of a storage room in the back of the West Asheville Coop. Rather quickly it became financially viable, prompting the Coop to raise his rent 10x over 18 months. Which forced him to the river district; at the time one of the low rent areas of town. Several years of struggle honed the cafe and wholesale business into its current form of producing artisan, packaged dips, and spreads. Today, Roots occupies a 40,000 square foot production facility and sells 14 flavors of deliciousness to over 4000 stores nationwide. Matt is a father, musician, foodie, and philanthropist.

 

“Kids learn better in nature, food connects people, I just want this to be useful for our world in a positive way”– Matt Parris

To learn more about Roots, schedule a tour, and/or see ways to support the Roots Foundation check out the links below:

Rootshummus.com

Rootsfound.org

People

  • Michael Porterfield – Former partner 
  • Lowell Parris – COO of Roots Hummus
  • Jason Pizarro – the project manager whose engineering was instrumental in making the huge Roots facility a reality
  • Randy Talley – connected Matt with EarthFare. Matt used the EarthFare kitchen at the start of his hummus journey

Places

  • Highland Brewing – Root’s HQ is in the same facility as Highland Brewing
  • Earthfare – where Matt first started his hummus journey making 25 different salads and dips

Books 

 

Music by Commonwealth Choir

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089 – Meherwan Irani of Chai Pani Restaurant Group

In this episode, we interview Meherwan Irani, the CEO, Executive Chef, and Founder of the Chai Pani Restaurant Group.

Here’s What You’ll Learn in this Episode:

  • Chai Pani is a context-based business model that focuses on why instead of the how
  • Why it’s important to just let your team come up with better ideas
  • Who Meherwan considers “carriers,” and why they are pivotal in allowing a business to grow and expand
  • The origins of the name Chai Pani
  • How and why the team at Chai Pani focuses on the little thing

Enjoyed this interview? We think you might also dig this episode with local chef and restauranteur, John Fleer.

Show Notes

About Meherwan Irani

Meherwan Irani is a chef and restaurateur changing the perception of Indian food in America through his growing restaurant and spice empire in the South’s most essential culinary cities. He is a leading voice in the industry’s conversation around diversity and cultural exchange. Meherwan was named by TIME Magazine as one of the “31 People Changing The South” and is a five-time James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: Southeast.

Meherwan leads a team of more than 300 as Founder, Chef, and CEO of Chai Pani Restaurant Group that includes Chai Pani Asheville, Chai Pani Decatur, Botiwalla Ponce City Market, Botiwalla Charlotte, Buxton Hall Barbecue, Nani’s Rotisserie Chicken, and Spicewalla.

Meherwan grew up in Ahmednagar, in the midwestern state of Maharashtra in India, and he came to the U.S. at age 20. In 2009, he and his wife and business partner, Molly, introduced Asheville, North Carolina, to the colors, flavors, and faces of India with Chai Pani.

 

“We started growing by design, the more amazing people we have, the more opportunities we have for growth” – Meherwan

To learn more about Jawbreaking, check out the links below:

Chef Merherwan’s IG

Spicwalla IG

Chai Pani IG

Buxton Hall Barbecue 

Nani’s Rotisserie Chicken

People

  • Elliot Moss is Merherwan’s business partner and dad at the delicious, Buxton Hall Barbecue.

Books and Media that Inspire

 

Music by Commonwealth Choir

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088 – Season 6 Finale

In this episode, we take a moment to share some updates from the team at Making It in Asheville.

Here’s What You’ll Learn in this Episode: 

  • What to expect next from Making It in Asheville
  • Where Sarah has been hiding
  • Who else is involved in the production of this show
  • About Sarah’s new business QBCucina.com
  • And more…

 

Show Notes

The two-year anniversary of our first episode is April 24th, 2021.

We have some incredible guests lined up for Season 7 and some exciting new projects ahead. We want to tell more stories from our community and we’re going to be leaning into video. Stay tuned to the website and to our YouTube channel.

We used to say that the Making It In Asheville podcast was brought to you by Making It Creative (our marketing agency) but we’ve recently reallocated the majority of our attention to other projects.

Sarah launched QB Cucina (qbcucina.com) in September and has been doing an incredible job growing that business. QB Cucina is your destination for all things Italian food, cooking, and culture. If you want to know try an Italian pasta recipe, buy the tools to make it, and take a class to perfect it, QB Cucina is where you want to go.

And Tony took over a nearly 20-year-old technology company called 1Source International (1sourceinternational.com). 1Source is your single source for workplace solutions ranging from Conferencing and Call Center to Video and Virtual Event Solutions and more. Before you invest in new technologies for your business, no matter what they are, consider having a conversation with the team at 1Source.

People

 

 

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087 – Coco Villa of Casa De Coco

In this episode, we interview Coco Villa, an exceptional multidisciplinary artist residing in Asheville, NC. Coco is constantly creating and during our conversation we fondly termed her a “slash creator.” She is a clothing designer/self-portrait artist/filmmaker/dancer/model/creative director and the list doesn’t stop there. She teaches us what it looks like to fluidly move (literally and mentally) through creative projects and how she is able to honor each step of the process.

Here’s What You’ll Learn in this Episode: 

  • How the “flywheel” of creating allows Coco to always have a steady stream of new projects
  • What having a healthy relationship and emotional connection to putting art and creative content out to the world looks like
  • Navigating the economics of an artist
  • How to transform negative thoughts artfully and stay in the present
  • How we can all benefit from using the Spoon Theory

Enjoyed this interview? We think you might also dig this episode with local woodworker and resin artist, Anneliesse Gormley.

Show Notes

About Coco Villa

Coco Villa is an Afro-Colombian photographer and interdisciplinary artist residing in Asheville, NC. Villa was born in New York and raised throughout the United States, South America, and the Caribbean. They grew up dancing salsa, merengue, and cumbia and started sewing as a child under the influence of their grandmother, a wedding dress designer at the time, and their mother, who worked in upholstery and furniture design. In their late teens, they began to explore modern dance and performance art and experimenting with analog photography and self-portraiture.

Coco Villa attended The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University in 2012 and continued their multimedia studies through apprenticeships, residencies, and fellowships in New York, Colombia, Spain, and Germany. Coco Villa’s work integrates their exploration of identity + culture, familial history, and the pursuit of pleasure through sustainable fashion design, photography, film, and dance, often using themselves as the subject. Their works have been included in numerous exhibitions both nationally and internationally.

To learn more about Coco and all that she is doing, check out the links below:

Casa de Coco Website

Coco’s Instagram

People

Music by Commonwealth Choir

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086 – Eric Scheffer of Vinnies & Jettie Rae’s Puts People First in Business

In this episode, we interview Eric Scheffer. With 21 years of hospitality experience including Asheville gems such as Vinnies and Jettie Rae’s and the former Savoy, Scheffer explains how caring about your people is one of the most important strategies to success.

 

“We’re given gifts every single day, be present and be in the moment for the people talking to you, don’t try to think ten steps ahead, be very present and the most genuine person you can be”

 

Here’s What You’ll Learn in this Episode:

  • How the Senegalese term Teranga can make everyone a better person
  • How employers can try to help with recovery and the pervasive link between Alcohol/Drug use and the restaurant industry
  • Why valuing and communicating with your employees leads to success in business and life
  • How deciding if try a new career (even if you’re experiencing success in another) is a good idea
  • Why Eric was given the nickname “Hollywood” 

Enjoyed this interview? We think you might also dig this episode with Emily Peele from High Five Coffee.

Show Notes

About Eric Scheffer

Eric Scheffer is a business owner, brand consultant, and entrepreneur that has been in the hospitality industry for 21 years. After acting as the Executive Producer for one of the world’s largest TV Commercial production companies, Harmony Pictures, Scheffer decided to switch his career path to the hospitality-food-and-wine industry. Eric relocated to Asheville, NC in the late 1990’s with his wife and daughter after they felt “a pull” looking over the Blue Ridge Parkway on a trip. (We can absolutely relate to that feeling, Eric).

With his background in advertising, Scheffer approaches and makes sure his restaurants “wrap brand and culture around the execution of product”, understanding the importance of the people and all the moving parts that lead to long-term success. Some of Scheffer’s restaurants include Vinnie’s (2nd location coming soon) and Jettie Rae’s Oyster House, which opened amidst the pandemic and were met with great success. As an entrepreneur, Eric has his feet in many puddles and is set to launch the Scheffer Group this year  –  a company that will manage all of his brands, act as a consultancy company for the Hospitality Industry, and an incubator for new brands and to create and promote new talent. Eric’s dedication to public service and philanthropy are central to his public life.

To learn more about Jettie Rae’s Oyster House, Vinnie’s Neighborhood Italian, and more, check out the links below:

Jettie Rae’s:

Website

Instagram

Vinnie’s:

Website

Instagram

People

Asheville Organizations

Books & Media

  • “Setting the Table” – by Danny Meyers
  •  Pier Tim- Senegalize chef who Eric heard on NPR show Lynne Rosetta Kasper, The Splendid Table. Eric notes that the conversation changed his life. Pier Tim discussed the concept called “Teranga” which is all about hospitality- bringing all people in your home and give of yourself, bring joy and sustenance.

 

Music by Commonwealth Choir

 

 

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