The Claw (business)

From “saloon to salon,” BRÖÖ Haircare has taken the home-brewed remedy of the “beer hair” rinse, and raised the bar by creating a line of ultra-performing natural shampoos and conditioners, crafted from the “beauty in beer”.  With microbrewed beer as the #1 ingredient, BRÖÖ “pops the top” on the natural beauty industry.

Frustrated by the performance of the natural hair care products they were using, Brad and Sarah Pearsall were inspired to turn the natural hair care industry on its head, by the two things that surround them in Asheville, North Carolina, craft beer and the natural beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Taking a cue from their mothers (who had rinsed their hair with beer back in college for body and shine), Brad and Sarah set out on a journey to discover the natural beauty in beer.  Along the way, they succeeded in creating BRÖÖ, a line of ultra-performing, natural shampoos and conditioners that tap into the B vitamins, proteins, and minerals in microbrewed beer from Asheville.

Just voted “Breakthrough Company of 2013” in Delicious Living Magazine’s 2013 Beauty & Body Awards, BRÖÖ is now sold in the natural channel across most of the country, and Brad and Sarah have started spreading the “beer beauty” message into mainstream channels, as well.  Take a “sip” of BRÖÖ at broo.com, and learn why beer really does make you better looking!

Although they've only been on store shelves a little over a year, they just won the prestigious "Breakthrough Company of 2013 Award" in Delicious Living Magazine's 2013 Beauty & Body Awards.  Delicious Living, the leading consumer magazine in the natural products industry, with more than one million readers each month, picked BRÖÖ from hundreds of natural beauty products and brands to feature the industry’s most innovative and effective nontoxic products: http://deliciousliving.com/2013beautyawards.   They are so excited to be a part of Asheville's natural products sector, and are proud that Delicious Living magazine recognized an Asheville natural products company with this award.

Direct download: 5-27-2013_The_Better_You_Project_Brad_Pearsall_podcast.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Ann Hite’s debut novel, Ghost On Black Mountain, not only became a Townsend Prize Finalist but won Georgia Author of the Year in 2012.

Her personal essays and short stories have been published in numerous national anthologies. The Storycatcher, her second Black Mountain novel, will be released by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster on September 10th.  Lowcountry Spirit, an eBook novella, will be available from Pocket Star, also an imprint of Simon & Schuster, on August 13th.

Ann is an admitted book junkie with a library of over a thousand books. She lives in Smyrna, Georgia with her husband and daughter, where she allows her Appalachian characters to dictate their stories.

Direct download: 5-27-2013_The_Better_You_Network_Ann_Hite_podcast.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Roger Stix is the owner and Executive Producer of Atlanta Business Video.

Before founding Atlanta Business Video in 2008, Roger had been hard at work as an executive in the banking, electronics, and finance world for over 35 years. His foresight into the world of business and passion for video inspired the revelation that affordable web video was going to be an emerging need in the upcoming years.

Direct download: 5-27-2013_The_Better_You_Network_Roger_Stix_podcast.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Jeannie Dunn, herbalist and NC native, serves as director and owner of Red Moon Herbs. After 20 years, extracts are still made in the wise woman tradition using prolific, local plants harvested and processed fresh at the peak of their season.

Red Moon Herbs is a woman-owned herbal extracts company that focuses on prolific plants harvested at the peak of their season. Red Moon Herbs was founded by Corinna Wood, director of SE Women's Herbal Conference, and Jessica Godino, acupuncturist at Four Flames Healing. Studying under Susun Weed, renowned herbalist and author, Red Moon Herbs bases its principles and foundation on the Wise Woman Tradition. Now in business 20 years, Red Moon Herbs still makes herbal medicine in this method using fresh plants from local sources in small batches. Redmoonherbs.com

www.facebook.com/redmoonherbs
jeannie@redmoonherbs.com
www.redmoonherbs.com
888-929-0777

 

Direct download: 5-27-2013_The_Better_You_Project_Jeannie_Dunn_podcast.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Chuck Blethen is President and COB of NCNPA – www.NCNaturalProducts.org. He is owner of Jewel of the Blue Ridge Vineyard in Marshall NC where he specializes in propagating and growing the cold-hardy Katuah Muscadine for sale to the nutraceutical industry – www.JeweloftheBlueRidge.com. Chuck is also VP Public Relations for the French Broad Vignerons LLC, an organization that promotes viticulture as a tool for economic development in the mountain counties of western North Carolina by providing education to the public about growing grapes, making wine, and all of the 150+ value added products that can come from using grapes as a raw material – www.FrenchBroadVignerons.org.

Sarah Oram has spent the past 30 years building and expanding various non-profit organizations around Asheville and beyond.  She sees great economic potential for Western North Carolina if the Blue Ridge Naturally seal can be successfully launched and hopes her experience in marketing great ideas will carry through.

The North Carolina Natural Products Association (NCNPA) was formed over 11 years ago as a 501c(3) non-profit organization dedicated to promotion of conserving, cultivating, sustainably harvesting, and processing North Carolina grown medicinal plants. NCNPA's mission is to establish North Carolina as a key global supplier of premium-quality raw materials and plant-based value added products such as natural medicines, organic products, functional foods, and personal care products.

The Blue Ridge Naturally seal program is designed to bring international and national attention to Western North Carolina’s emerging natural products industry.  The Blue Ridge Naturally seal on products emphasizes Western North Carolina’s superior quality in locally grown ingredients and finished natural products . It announces to potential customers an assured level of product safety, tested quality in addition to affiliation with Western North Carolina, a region of distinction in the natural products industry.
I am a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania MBA program.

Direct download: 5-20-2013_The_Better_You_Project_Chuck_Blethem__Sarah_Oram_podcast.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

In 1993, Randy and Cindi Beavers realized they would one day inherit her Grandfather’s farm forcing them to choose between selling the farm to land developers or moving there and attempting to make a living. Cindi’s Grandfather had purchased the farm in 1932 and paid for it with a bale of cotton per year so the couple felt they couldn’t place a monetary value on his dedication. There was only one option, move to the farm. Little did they know how that decision would shape their lives.

Twenty years later and after a series of eight Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards from USDA and NIH/NCCAM focused on development of sustainable production and processing techniques for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species Appendix II listed plant Hydrastis canadensis, aka goldenseal, Randy is considered an authority on the plant and is at the forefront of raising the bar of goldenseal product quality and reliability.

Steve Henson is a marketing professor at Western Carolina University and the Chief Marketing Officer at BotaniPharm.  He began his career working for about five years with GE Capital, then moved to a subsidiary of Ciba-Geigy, now Novartis.  Mid-career, he decided to make the switch to academics and earned his Ph.D. in Marketing from Georgia State University at the ripe young age of 40.  He is a native Appalachian and had a chance to return to the mountains at Western and jumped at it.

BotaniPharm, LLC is the only known 100% grower owned botanical product company in the US. The company specializes in United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Organic Program certified production and processing of high value, forest grown medicinal plants particularly  endangered/threatened species such as Hydrastis canadensis, aka goldenseal.

The company’s leadership in the area of development of sustainable production and processing methods for endangered/threatened medicinal plants has been recognized by the USDA and the National Institutes of Health National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NIH/NCCAM) through a series of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards totaling more than $2 million.

Through this work the Company’s Founder developed a paradigm changing method of standardizing goldenseal products to specific levels of biological activity thus assuring repeatable potency regardless of year to year and location to location variability and opening the door to controlled clinical studies using goldenseal for the first time.

The Company currently produces research grade goldenseal products for use in NIH funded human clinical studies and markets a consumer line of dietary supplements, Goldenseal Advanced™, based on the same standardization process through their website, www.botanipharm.com.

BotaniPharm’s mission is to enhance profitability for its small farm members through pooled production, cooperative processing, and marketing under a common brand name, create safer, more reliable products for consumers, and produce a desirable environmental benefit through reduction in the need for wild collected medicinal plants to meet market demand, true “triple bottom line benefits”.

Direct download: 5-20-2013_The_Better_You_Project_Randy_Beavers__Steve_Henson_podcast.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Southern Fried Strings was started by three great friends who simply LOVE Lacrosse. Brothers, Zach and Sam, along with their best friend Matt began their business with a mission to offer superior lacrosse head stringing services and supplies at affordable prices. They also created a unique wax coated mesh which allows the mesh to be water resistant greatly increasing consistency and control during bad weather, a quicker "break in" period for the mesh pocket and gives more hold to the ball.

Zach specializes in stringing traditional pockets closely resembling the Native American Style.

Sam specializes in stringing goalie heads.

Matt specializes in stringing modern mesh pockets that are most commonly used today.

Check out their videos on YouTube at Southernfried Strings, or email them at southernfriedstrings@aol.com

Direct download: 5-13-2013_The_Better_You_Network_Southern_Fried_Strings_podcast.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

While working at a UPS store while studying video production in college, Marisa decided that she wanted to do something "more stable" with her life.  It was then that she decided to become a small business owner.

Melissa and her father, Chuck, purchased the store at at 3162 Johnson Ferry Road in East Cobb in June, 2011.

Their UPS store offers not only shipping and packaging, but also can do all sorts of printing such as business cards, brochures, flyers, large format printing such as yard signs, banners, canvases, promotional items – hats, shirts, pens, etc.

Direct download: 5-13-2013_The_Better_You_Network_Marisa_Maire_podcast.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Ken Robbins is a recognized expert in the fields of direct marketing and marketing strategy.

He is a frequent speaker to CEO groups and  conferences on the subject of marketing strategy, and how to identify the leverage points in your marketing and sales system that turn accelerate growth. He can be seen at KenRobbinsBlog.com or contacted through ResponseMine.com

Response Mine works with mid-size and large companies to help them get a lot more new customers and revenues through internet marketing. They work with national retailers, large home service providers, and healthcare organizations to generate online sales, and online leads.

Direct download: 5-13-2013_The_Better_You_Network_Ken_Robbins_podcast.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

NODE is the worlds smartest wireless sensor platform. It makes your smartphone into a tool to measure anything, from temperature to color to carbon monoxide!

Dr. George Yu is a Georgia Tech alumni and has worked for NASA and DHS on wireless technology.

He invented the NODE platform and successfully raised money on kick starter to have the first Node’s produced. You can buy the NODE right now on NodeSensors.com

Direct download: 5-13-2013_The_Better_You_Project_George_Yu_podcast.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT