In this episode I sit down with Gary Borglund, who does something you do not hear about often: he works across land development, agriculture, and food access all at once, and ties them together into one mission.

Gary is Executive Director of Generous Harvest Wisconsin, where he partners with growers to secure food at reduced cost for the organizations and communities that rely on it, and he is helping lead a new initiative to build a dedicated growing facility to produce and distribute food at greater scale. Through his own firm, Land and Ag Solutions, he advises on complex projects involving land, agriculture, and redevelopment, including historic and complicated properties, land use and redevelopment planning, grant aligned positioning, and agricultural and nonprofit partnerships.

We talk about how land and food connect in his work, what it takes to reposition an underused or difficult property into something valuable again, and why the projects worth doing are usually the slow, complicated ones that require patience and a lot of people rowing in the same direction.

In this episode:

• Leading Generous Harvest Wisconsin and getting food to the people who need it
• The new growing facility and what it makes possible
• Turning underused and complex properties into long term value
• How the land side and the food side of his work connect
• Advising on historic and complex projects through Land and Ag Solutions

East Side Enterprise is hosted by Sam McKinney and produced locally by McKinney Creative Ventures. Know a business owner whose story should be told? Reach out and tell me who I should talk to next.

This episode features Henry Schneider, founder and owner of Open Window Productions, a video production company based in Oakdale.

Henry helps businesses and organizations tell their stories through video, from the first idea to the finished piece. We talk about what it takes to build a creative business locally, how he approaches a project, and why the story underneath the footage matters more than any piece of equipment.

If you have ever wondered what actually goes into good video, or thought about using it to market your own business, this is a look behind the lens with someone who does it for a living right here in the East Metro.

In this episode:

• Founding and growing Open Window Productions in Oakdale
• How Henry approaches a video project from idea to final cut
• Why story matters more than production value
• Building a creative business in the East Metro

East Side Enterprise is hosted by Sam McKinney and produced locally by McKinney Creative Ventures.

In this episode I talk with Tim Voit, an independent representative for LegalShield and IDShield, about the idea that legal help and identity protection should not be things you only reach for in a crisis.

LegalShield gives members access to legal services through a network of provider law firms for a flat monthly cost, and IDShield adds identity theft monitoring and restoration. Tim works locally to help families and small business owners understand what that protection looks like and how it fits their lives and their businesses.

Tim is also a contributing author of the Amazon bestseller "What the Frak: Inside the Fractional Revolution Reshaping How Modern Businesses Grow," so we get into the bigger picture of independent, flexible careers and what it really takes to bet on yourself.

In this episode:

• What LegalShield and IDShield actually are, and who they are for
• Why affordable, everyday legal and identity protection matters for families and small businesses
• Contributing to the bestseller "What the Frak" and the rise of fractional work
• Tim's take on building an independent career and betting on yourself

East Side Enterprise is hosted by Sam McKinney and produced locally by McKinney Creative Ventures.

For the very first episode of East Side Enterprise, I sit down with Steve Grohn, owner of AJ Alberts Plumbing and Water Conditioning in Woodbury, for a wide-ranging, honest conversation that turned out to be far more about the man than the pipes.

Steve's path was anything but straight. He grew up with dairy-farm roots and a father whose relentless work ethic, a D-minus high school student who later graduated college with a 4.0 in three years, shaped how Steve approaches everything. From there it was a winding career: managing at UPS, selling at Gateway Computers, a run through the dot-com era, sales and marketing leadership at a heating and air company, a decade at a plumbing outfit, and a stint in commercial mechanical. Eventually he bought his way into ownership, first a waterproofing and radon company, then AJ Alberts, after Jim Alberts called him out of the blue.

We talk about the culture he protects at AJ Alberts (why he cuts anyone who is not a fit, and why repeat and referral business is the only path he trusts), his very natural take on consultative, educational selling, and the problem-solving obsession that really drives him. He riffs on Simon Sinek's "start with why," the British cycling team's one-percent marginal-gains philosophy, and hunting the small efficiencies that compound like a treasure hunt.

It gets personal, too. Steve reflects on recently losing his mother, on watching a friend face ALS with grace, and on the advice he would give any new business owner: there is no substitute for hard work, but you have to be working on the right things, and you have to surround yourself with people who add energy rather than drain it. We close on an unexpected note, a recent hot air balloon ride with a local pilot, and the surprisingly charming reason every balloonist still carries champagne.

In this episode:

• Dairy farms, UPS, Gateway, and the dot-coms: the winding road to owning AJ Alberts
• Buying the business, and the culture of care Steve refuses to compromise
• Selling by educating, not pushing (the restaurant-server approach)
• Getting one percent better: Simon Sinek, marginal gains, and problem-solving as a treasure hunt
• Grief, perspective, and the best advice for a new entrepreneur
• Water quality in Woodbury, free water testing, and PFAS

Learn more or get free water testing at ajalberts.com.

East Side Enterprise is hosted by Sam McKinney and produced locally by McKinney Creative Ventures. Know a business owner whose story should be told? Reach out and tell me who I should talk to next.