Certified Virtual Expert™ Melissa St. Clair, is the owner of Paper Chaser, a virtual-based company established in 2006 providing a wide array of online office support services for small business owners. She made a beeline to entrepreneurship in order to thrive professionally alongside her active duty service member, and then made a seamless transition as a USMC retiree spouse. Melissa has been a featured speaker, has shared her small business expertise on multiple media platforms, and she was quoted in Julie Perrine’s book, Become a Procedures Pro™.
Michael Wang is Founder & CEO of Inspiren, an award winning healthcare technology company. He is a registered nurse and nurse practitioner with vast clinical experience in cardiothoracic surgery and direct patient care. In addition, he holds numerous patents on innovate technologies in both the healthcare and hospitality industry and has founded two successful companies prior to Inspiren. He received a bachelors degree from Emory University, majoring in Biology and Sociology. He attended graduate school at Columbia University, studying both business and nursing.
Michelle Mekky has more than 20 years of experience as a broadcast journalist and public relations executive, leading award-winning marketing and PR campaigns for some of the nation’s biggest and most diverse brands and businesses. After her years as a veteran journalist, Michelle launched her own company, Mekky Media Relations Inc., in 2016, to bring her brand of PR to the market and deliver powerful publicity. Michelle has led her company through a fast-paced launch and high-profile successes, including winning a prestigious 2018 Stevie Award for Women in Business, receiving a bronze medal in the Entrepreneur of the Year category. In 2020 Mekky Media won a Stevie Award for Public Relations Agency of the Year receiving a bronze medal and Bulldog Award for Best Not-for-Profit/ Association Campaign for Komen Chicago's Race for the Cure. Also in 2018, Michelle and Mekky Media were selected to be part of the Forbes Agency Council, a prestigious organization for owners and executives of PR, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. In 2019, Michelle was named a Crain’s Chicago Business Notable Entrepreneur, and Mekky Media was honored with two Publicity Club of Chicago Golden Trumpet Awards, in the categories of Advocacy (for its work with Komen Chicago) and Media Relations (for its work with Abt Electronics). The agency also was named a PR News Agency Elite Award Finalist for Media Relations in 2019.
Sean is a lifelong digital marketer who runs AlchemyLeads.com, a boutique search engine marketing agency based in Los Angeles, CA. He is a big believer in the motto, "people do business with people, not companies."
I am Ashley Patrick, personal finance expert, and founder of Budgets Made Easy. I help families eliminate debt using simple strategies so they can stress less and live the life they want. I was able to pay off $45,000 in just 17 months including $25,000 in student loans in just 10 months. I am a Ramsey Solutions Master Financial Coach and help people like you manage their budgets so they can live the life they want. I also have a bachelors degree in psychology and help you get to the root of your money problems. I have been featured on Fox Business, Yahoo! Finance, USA TODAY, MSN, CNBC, NerdWallet, and many others.
Gabby is a wellness professional and Harvard Graduate School of Education alum. As a former early childhood educator, Gabby seeks to answer the question, “How can we help teachers stay in the classroom and healthy?” The systemic problem of teacher burnout motivated Gabby to create spark by gabby, wellness space specifically for educators that combines mind-body, community, and social justice.
Kyler Johnson is not your typical Nebraskan. He’s an advertising and journalism student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the host of a comedy fiction podcast called “Nobody Asked,”, and iced coffee addict.
Bill Bice has always been an entrepreneur, starting his first company at age 14, putting on road races with corporate sponsors. At 18, he started ProLaw Software, which was so successful that it later sold to Thomson Reuters. Having built or invested in over 25 companies, he got so frustrated in trying to get great marketing for his companies that he decided to take on the problem himself. A programmer at heart, Bill founded Boomtime, tackling marketing as a technology problem. Bill can easily identify common business and marketing pitfalls, so his aim is to enable smaller businesses to more effectively compete with their larger competitors through effective marketing, primarily word of mouth.
Tom Kirkham, founder and CEO of IronTech Security provides cybersecurity defense systems and focuses on educating and encouraging organizations to establish a security-first environment with cybersecurity training programs for all workers to prevent successful attacks. Kirkham brings more than three decades of software design, network administration, computer security, and cybersecurity knowledge to organizations around the country.
Larry is a seasoned financial consultant disrupting the way companies get strategic financial advice. At the same time, he’s changing the way you view a guy (still working) in his 70’s. This "old guy" can certainly tell stories that will remind you of your favorite uncle, while at the same time teaching you how to increase profitability in your business. And in the process, make you hope you have that kind of energy when you are his age.
