This is Oklahoma

This is Ashton Owens

On this episode I sit down with founder, entrepreneur, designer, husband, father Mr Ashton Owens. Ashton was born near Branson Missouri into a big family. Although growing up was different for him compared to his older siblings Ashton saw his father own multiple businesses, love his mother and take the family on many trips around the world. His father instilled good business practices in him and his siblings, from a young age making them have jobs and reading The Richest Man in Babylon.

After his father tragic passing, at the age of 17 Ashton naturally needed some time to soul search and figure out what he wanted to do with his life. Through the guidance of his then girlfriend and soon to be wife, they moved out of town to Joplin in and shortly after were hit by the tornado that devastated the community. They reached a crossroads. With nothing to keep them in Joplin, an opportunity presented itself in OKC so they made the move in 2011. 

A love of basketball from a young age definitely helped them move to OKC, although at the time OKC was in the very early stages of its growth. Ashton sensed a great feeling from the community here after working at a non-profit his design work which he'd been doing on the side took off. Ultimately leading to him closing to dive in full time. I won't spoil the story for you anymore, listen in as Ashton how he put a huge emphasis on networking his entire career, by always doing his best for no matter what the outcome is. Seeing this all leading to where he and his team are at now and the incredible people he's met and worked with along his journey. 

This is just the beginning for Studio Flight (most known around town for their involvement with the OKC Thunder and Eote Coffee) I hope this helps you understand the brand and Ashton a little more. I have huge respect for the adversity he's overcome and he is proof that with hard work and determination. You don't need a college degree to get to where you want to be. 

Enjoy the episode, as always leave a review and subscribe for many more stories to come.

Follow Ashton here @amowens23 and @studio_flight or see their work www.studioflight.com

Do yourself a favor and start whatever it is you want to do. Prioritize your friendships, build new ones, sent emails, messages, letters. Connect with whoever you have to connect with and turn your idea into life.

Thanks for listening, 

Mike

#thisisoklahoma 

 

 

 

 

This is Angel Heart Boutique with Felipe Resende & Schay Silva

On today's podcast we share possibly the best story we've ever had the opportunity to share. Felipe & Schay both grew up in Brazil and moved to OKC. They met when Felipe interviewed Schay for a position at his work.  Although things didn't workout at Schays new job and she started a new position at an oil and gas company in downtown OKC.

Schay worked extremely hard (90hour weeks) found herself bringing work home and making a huge difference in the company she worked for. However, when her manager got the recognition for all his (her) hard work. She decided enough was enough. This was the day Felipe & Schay started to dive into what we call today as the "flip game" buying items at garage sales, thrift stores and estate sales and selling them on Facebook, eBay and now their website and business Angel Heart Boutique. 

The first item they flipped was a Barbie set, bought for $4 and sold for $80, they were hooked! 

Today they have a multi million dollar business, inc 500, metro 50 winners (fastest growing company in OKC 2018 & 2019) with a growth of over 900% in three years. 

Listen in as they share their story, how they quit both their day jobs and now have the life they dreamed of. 

Follow them here: @angelheartboutique @schaysilva @felipe.resende 

Thanks for listening and as always leave a review and comment on who you think should be our next interview. 

#thisisoklahoma

This is Scott Lewis Jr

Scott Lewis Jr, a self made successful entrepreneur shares his story on today's podcast. Scott grew up in Edmond is the eldest of three kids. His younger brother who he would eventually go into business with and his younger sister. Scott was raised in an entrepreneurial family, his father a loving pastor had many side jobs, which turned into larger national businesses. He always taught his sons to be entrepreneurial, to sell anything they could to make money for the things they wanted to do. 

Scott shares his stories from those days walking door to door on the streets of Edmond. How these practices at a young age molded him into the salesman and entrepreneur he is today. Scott has seen his fair share of adversities over his time and talks about how he's overcome those adversities, how he plans to use what he's learned to change lives today and how motivation has been a great way for him to give back to over 600,000 people on his social media platform @millionaire_motivator

Follow Scott here @scottlewisjr 

Thanks for listening, as always please rate and leave a review on the podcast. #thisisoklahoma

Cheers 

Mike

@thisisoklahoma 

This is Major Ed Pulido - Warrior for Freedom

On this episode I sit down with Major Ed Pulido. Major Ed Pulido, U.S. Army (Ret.) is the Sr. VP of the Folds of Honor Foundation a Veteran’s charity which provides the spouses and children of the fallen and wounded educational scholarships. Additionally, he is a Founding member of Warriors for Freedom Foundation a leadership institute focused on the mental, physical and wellness support of our wounded Veterans and their families. He is the spokesperson for AROGA Health. Finally, Major Ed is the Founder of Warrior Nation, a movement focused on the rights of liberty, freedom and patriotism with an autobiography entitled Warrior for Freedom: Challenge, Triumph and Change, the Major Ed Pulido Story.

On the 17th of August, 2004, Major Pulido hit an Improvised Explosive Device (I.E.D) or roadside bomb while serving with the Coalition Military Assistance Training Team under the command of General David Petraeus. Due to the extensive injuries to his left knee, doctors had to amputate his left leg on October 1, 2004. For his heroism and valor on that August day, the President of the United States along with General David Petraeus awarded him the Bronze Star with Valor, Purple Heart, Meritorious Service Medal, and Joint Service Commendation and Achievement Medals.

Today Major Ed spends is time traveling the country talking to businesses, charities etc spreading the word of his experience and how he has overcome adversity. 

You can follow him here @majoredpulido on his website here at

www.majored.org 

www.warriorsforfreedom.org

www.foldsofhonor.org

Us here @thisisoklahoma 

Thanks for listening and as always rate and review this podcast. 

Mike

This is Jonathon Stranger ( w/ co-host Logan Holden from Edible Excellence )

On this episode myself and local food blogger Logan from @edibleexcellenceokc sat down with Jonathon Stranger to talk about his concepts and newest concept Bar Cicchetti. 

Jonathon Stranger's family of restaurants are among the most popular in Oklahoma City. Today we talked about his career in the hospitality industry, the acquisition of Prairie Wolf Distillery, the partnership with acclaimed restauranteur Fabio Viviani and some exciting future projects. 

It was an absolute pleasure to sit down with Logan and Jonathon for this episode, really excited to hear all your reviews on his new concept.

Thanks for listening,

Follow us here: @thisisoklahoma @edibleexcellenceokc @jonathan.stranger

#thisisoklahoma

This is Soccer Allies - Michael Thomas & Coady Andrews

On this episode I sat down with the first ever signing for Energy FC Michael Thomas and fellow team mate Coady Andrews. Both players grew up in Kansas and shared many stories about their childhood. 

The Energy FC are in a pivotal time with MAPS 4 coming to light and the hope of a new downtown soccer stadium in the plans. This would be huge for the city and the Energy FC community. Soccer is a huge sport and has grown every year since coming to OKC in 2014. 

Both Michael and Coady share many stories from their time at the Energy as well as what they do for a living now which is Soccer Allies. 

Soccer Allies found here online soccerallies.com is a facility where they provide the best option for recreational and academy youth soccer players outside of team practices to develop a better understanding of when, why, and how to use deceptive touches or skills. Using a challenging but enjoyable program, players are given opportunities to fall in love with the game at a young age. 

Listen in as both Energy vets tell us all about youth soccer and how your kids can benefit from their amazing program here in OKC. 

Thanks for listening and as always please rate and review the podcast. #thisisoklahoma

Mike

This is Stars & Stripes Co with Noah Elias

On todays podcast episode I sat down with Noah Elias founder of Stars & Stripes Company. Noah works his ass off to provide for his wife and young daughter. He's worked hard from a young age. One day working for his uncle he decided to make an American flag out of wood to hang above the barn doors. 

Noah took great pride in his work and produced a flag that he was proud of. Many orders came in from his uncles friends and the business was born. 

Working two sometimes three jobs at a time, bodybuilding and working in medical sales. Noah kept his flag business going, hand carving flags for friends, family and others. The orders kept coming in. 

At this point in time Noah has put his flags in the hands of many famous people. As you'll hear in the interview, thats not what keeps him going. What keeps him going is the American man who's paid for this flag with his hard earned cash. The man who works hard, supports his country and will do anything to provide for his family. The men overseas protecting this nation we all live in. The American man and woman that is untied under these stars and stripes. 

Its an exciting time for Noah and his business and it was an absolute pleasure to sit and share his story. Follow him here @starsandstripesco and www.starsandstripesco.com #thisisoklahoma

Thanks for listening and as always follow our guest and leave a review. #thisisoklahoma 

This is Timmy Riggs

Not Just A College Pastor — Timmy Riggs

College friend Timmy Riggs had no idea what he wanted to do in college. He changed his major 5 times, didn’t value school, his grades and loved Netflix. Move on 8 years and he’s a college pastor at one of the biggest churches in the Nazarene denomination and multiple business owner. 

I met Timmy at SNU and i’ll be honest he was kind of a pain in the ass. What non Americans call a “typical American” loud, cocky and walking on clouds in a world of his own. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Over the past year i’ve gotten to know Timmy more and more. He’s developed the ability to command an audience on stage, has more passion for his job and others that rivals Danny Thomason and is truly a great human. 

We finally sat down to record a podcast to share some of his story and how he’s ended up at BFC is quite remarkable. Timmy came to SNU, walked on the football team as a QB. Quickly realizing QB1 wasn’t going to be happen, he did what he said he’d been doing since highschool and that was just enough to be on the team. If you know Timmy, its definfiley his humor that kept him around. To be fair to him, he’s pretty funny. 

After ending his first semester with 0.6 GPA he knew something had to change. But what, he didn't know. Teaching, ministry, business he tried them all. Growing up as a pastors kid, the ministry scene was normal. Seeing his Dad up there every Wednesday / Sunday fully living the life he preached about. A great role model. At the end of 5 years Timmy was offfered a positon in Arizona as a youth pastor. After a year there BFC called and this is where he had to put some trust in them and believe that this was a good move. BFC didn't really have a full time position available, but he knew he would grow more of he made the move. So he packed up the car and drove back to OKC. 

This was the first time I’d seen Timmy since college, the real Timmy not the loud cocky American i’d always thought he was. I remember the first time I heard him speak to the college group. Even though he’ll tell you he works extremely hard at looking like a natural up there. He just had this ability to capture you, take you away from your phone and make you want to listen to what he had to say. ( NOT EASY IN TODAYS WORLD )

Timmy moved into the full time role of being BFC’s college pastor last year and blew it out of the water. Every Wednesday college kids come to hangout, hear him preach, connect with friends, eat great food and get away from college stress for a few hours. 

In November of that first semester, Timmy started a window cleaning business https://www.facebook.com/streakerswindow/ with buddy Bryton. Timmy’s Dad told him from a young age, you dont get into ministry to make money so start a side business to supplement your income. The side business was born, but its November who wants clean windows in November? How do they get the word out. Bryton came up with the idea of Christmas Lights. They made a video and within a few days they had 31 houses on the schedule. From that money they bought all the equioment they needed for Streakers to become a thing. Jan 1 they were off. After almost a year they have 4 employees multiple business accounts, get up at 4.30am to clean windows before school and work. Nothing will stop them making this a successful business. 

Another business Timmy has wanted to be involved in is real estate. Every business book he’s read points to real estate more specifically owning it. Timmy calls me one day and says, "we want to buy a duplex” baring in mind Emma and Timmy live in an apartment right now and don’t have their own home. (Not your normal first property purchase, but one that makes total sense)

We searched high and low for the perfect duplex and came across this history property near downtown OKC. Perfect. They have remodeled it and currently in the process of moving tenants in. 

One of my favortie quotes from our interview together, Timmy was explaining how Emma is level all the time. Compared to him where he’s 100mph then 10mph then back to 100. He’s got more ideas than he knows what to do with so he says. “i’m going to do them all until Ican’t do them anymore” 

It hit me after hearing it again while editing the podcast. Most people just punch in punch out, go home watch tv and repeat. They don’t realize that this is the life we have and its only once we get to live it. ( as far as we know ) 

Timmy lives life to the full, doesn’t waste any seconds of the day and absolutly loves doing it. Whatever it is that you enjoy doing, do that. Don’t put it off until you have time. You have time you just choose not to use it the way you should. 

Anyway enough bragging about my mate Timmy Riggs. Come to Wednesday nights at BFC from 9pm til 10.30 and you’ll see what I'm talking about. 

And go follow STREAKERS WINDOW CLEANING! 

Thanks for listening, as always leave a review and any recommendations to who I can interview next!

Cheers

Mike

@thisisoklahoma 

This is The OKC TEE SHOP with Kerry Egeler - From Fired to Successful Online Business in 3 Months

From Fired to Successful Online Business 3 in Months 

Kerry Egeler from Broken Arrow Oklahoma, founder and owner of The OKC TEE SHOP. Kerry’s background. 

Kerry was fired from his job just a few years ago and finally his brother in law ( an online marketing, business building coach ) said, “ now will you trust me and let me help you build your online business?”

Kerry took the jump with a young child and one on the way he dove into building his online t-shirt business. Within a few months of OKC Thunder basketball his busienss was profitable. Kerry built his business with the help of his brother in-law with zero start up money. All online, all drop shipped product, no inventory. Just a website, social media accounts and his creativity designing Thunder themed t-shirts. 

Kerry’s biggest advantage over his competition is speed. If something happens at a Thunder game, someone tweets a quote, gets in the media whatever it is. Kerry can turn that into a t-shirt design and its live on the website within hours. For example the recent Baker Mayfield chugging a beer at that baseball game was on a t-shirt and online within hours. 

With the help of social media marketing, these t-shirts are on the market. Unlike his competition who have to print these designs, and have inventory at their store and online which takes weeks. Speed is the key. Today we thrive on speed, instant gratification is our drug. From Amazon Prime delivery in hours, ordering food, buying concert tickets. Speed is our favorite drug, we HATE waiting for more than we need to, when wifi is slow its the worst thing in the world! Right?

After a few years Kerry as his online business down to a tee. (pun totally intended) He’s working on building online courses to show others how this can be done, how you can start your online business with zero start up money and have sales within hours. 

Great news for This is Oklahoma fans, our t-shirts will be up on the website www.okcteeshop.com available for purchase. 

If you want to learn more about Kerry’s business send him a message on Instagram @okcteeshop.  

Thanks for listening and as always, please leave a review 5* preferred. #thisisoklahoma

Mike

This is The Integris Foundation

Not Just A Hospital — Healthcare Philanthropy — The Integris Foundation 

A very emotional podcast with Jon and Anne at the Integris Foundation. For this interview I sat down with Jonathon McCoy and Anne Clouse to talk about healthcare philanthropy.

A lot of people see the Integris centers across the metro and think it’s just a hospital. Personally I hate hospitals, the smell and the color of the décor. For me hospitals are a bad place, or I thought they were. To clarify, this is from my experience back in the UK. Jon and Anne came on the podcast to share their personal stories about how Integris has played a huge part of their lives and how they through their work at the foundation help those who need it.

There are many inspirational stories from this podcast but I’ll just touch on a couple of them. Integris is the largest Oklahoma governed health institution and it’s a non-profit. All the money is reinvested in the business and caring for those in need through the foundations.

Jon has two sets of twins. How awesome is that! Both his twins had care at Integris and seeing that his gift back to fertility helped pay for the equipment that they used to care for his wife and then his twins once they were born.

I asked Jon and Anne what they think of when they hear their mission statement

“ Your passion changes lives” Both shared the story of Sarah Brumley who was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer with a 6% chance of living more than 5 years. Sarah worked with the Integris cancer institute and the integrated medicine program, which is a holistic way to help patients through their diagnosis. This is not covered by insurance. So Sarah and the Integris Foundation challenged everyone at the Integris Gala to raise money for her project to help others without the ability to pay for this program.

At the Gala Sarah’s goal was to raise $5000. At the end of the night 700 guests raised $189,000. Sarah’s passion for helping others from her diagnosis is now a fully funded program in the Integris Foundation. Sarah survived 4 years and sadly passed but she’s left this legacy behind and cared for hundreds of others.

If you’ve ever given anything to charity and had a personal connection to that person or the lives you have impacted the high is hard to explain. Anne mentions that high is almost a selfish feeling to helping people because the high she gets from changing someone’s life is so good, she wants to keep doing it.

I asked Jon and Anne how working here at the Foundation and in healthcare philanthropy impacted how you see the world. How it impacts your day-to-day life. They both mentioned perspective, how raising 35Million for their Arcadia Trails project seems like too big of a task. But after hard work they received multiple seven figure donations. Seeing who is giving and the way they are giving is comforting regardless of how much it is, they want to give is.

Events coming up, the foundation has a golf tournament on October 22ndat Jimmie Austin GC in Norman. This is going to be one of the best events you have ever played in. If you would like to donate reach out to integrisgolf.org If you are a food vendor and want to donate or be a part of the event also reach out to the website above.

Thanks for reading I hope this gives you a better incite into The Integris Foundation. Follow them on social media Integris Foundation. Integrisgiving.org and sign up to their monthly newsletter to see the difference that’s being made.

Mike @thisisoklahoma