The Debbie Nigro Show

Stephanie Stuckey a lawyer by trade, who spent 14 years in the Georgia House of Representatives and was also appointed along the way by the mayor of Atlanta as Atlanta's 'Chief Resilience Officer', is sure showing how resilient she is. And how resilient her family business is! Stephanie is now on the road herself promoting Stuckey's Corporation - the iconic roadside stops famous for its pecan candies and souvenirs that her grandfather founded in 1937. She bought the company in 2019 for $500,000 and has been spearheading the brands big return. It's a big year for brand comebacks as evidenced by news that other companies like Crocs and Claire's have made significant comebacks in recent years after hitting a low point financially and culturally in the late 2010s . According to Retail Brew the top executives of both those companies pointed to strategic shifts that emphasized allowing customer feedback to guide decisions." Stephanie Stuckey, the 3rd generation CEO of the family business, is creating a great business comeback story too. She's making Stuckey's both profitable and a household name again! And doing a great grassroots job of it. When Stephanie bought Stuckey's, the company was operating at a deficit and had only 13 original free-standing stores in 10 states that still had the signature original teal roofs in addition to around 65 licensed Stuckey's Express store-within- a -store locations. In 6 months, she restored Stuckey's to profitability, by shifting the focus from licensed Stuckey's store locations to the company's classic line of candies. She also expanded the brand back into manufacturing when she bought a pecan shelling and candy plant in Wrens, Georgia in 2021. Candy and nut sales have since increased to almost 50% of the company's revenue as the brand expands to more national retail locations. Stephanie is now taking road trips to promote pecans and the "great American road trip' both a big part of Stuckey's Corporation growth. "I'm all over the country and here's why I'm traveling. I am giving speeches, and I am attending trade shows. So, it's not checking on stores per se because we don't own or operate the original Stuckey's that were still standing. We have the rights to those stores and to our name so they can they pay us a licensing fee, but we don't own those stores. So really my trips are about I give speeches and I love talking to groups and sharing the Stuckey's story. So, I speak at a lot of conferences, mostly corporate and associations and then I attend trade shows to get more retailers to sell our product and then wherever I go, part of the deal is usually my travels covered by the host of the event. My travel includes that I get a rental car so I will carve out an extra day. I'll ask for that's where I take a lot of road trips." "And then I'll pull over and I'll find out from our team where is there a store in the area that carries Stuckey's products. So, there could be a little local ice cream shop that sells our candy, or we could reach off the chain so we're in Hobby Lobby and at home. So I like to also stop at retailers that don't carry our product and take photos and I evaluate what their back set looks like and then I'll reach out to them and say I love your store by the way I was here here's a photo of me at your store I would love to see you carry our product that's what's missing on your shelf and I've picked out a lot of accounts that way." "I'm road tripping, but I'm also hustling. We're always hustling if we're entrepreneurs." Stephanie Stuckey hopes to eventually own a handful of Stuckey's interstate stores to revive the original premise behind the company as a "roadside oasis" while continuing to build up the pecan side of the business to secure its future for another 85 years. Speaking of pecans Stephanie shared a little a secret her grandfather taught her about how to open pecans. "You get two pecans in your hand, and you squeeze them together and it will crack them." I'm really enjoying watching this female entrepreneur bring her family brand back to life from the days when her grandpa started this as a roadside stand. Stephanie has a new book out called "UNSTUCK" which is available on her website as well as Amazon for the same price, but if you buy it on the Stuckey's website it's autographed. "The entrepreneurial journey is so much more fun if you bring others along for the ride" she said. I'm along for her ride! And she did invite me along for the ride because I too am a lover of road trips. Told her you bring the pecans, and I'll bring some meatballs. Makes sense I think for a Georgia gal traveling with a NY gal. LOL Speaking of NY, Stephanie hasn't been here in 4 years and would love to do some 'speaking and Stuckey's business' in NY. I love her story and her entrepreneurial spirit. Meet Stephanie Stuckey in this podcast of our live conversation on The Debbie Nigro Show. The Debbie Nigro Show on WGCH Radio. If you want to catch the show it airs Weekdays

Seven Million People Are Living with Alzheimer's Disease in the US. 80,000 in CT alone & twice as many unpaid family members and friends are providing their care. But the money being raised is making a difference. Nobody signs up for a brain disorder that gets worse over time. Alzheimer's is a gradual decline in memory, thinking, behavior and social skills. These changes completely affect somebody's ability to function. The bad news is the number of people with Alzheimer's is increasing, but the good news is there are real advancements in treatment. These advancements are being made possible by the continued donations to this cause. There's a big gala benefit coming up in April in Greenwich CT (where I do my live show from) that hopes to help families in this dementia journey. I invited Tim & Kelly Helstein the Chairs of The Alzheimer's Association upcoming 'Celebrating Hope Gala' being held April 26th at the Delamar Greenwich Harbor in in Greenwich CT, to explain where the money raised goes to. They've been caregivers and know how hard it is. Tim whose mom passed from Alzheimer's shared; "My mother's life ended way too soon and no sot only is it something that Kelly and I are doing to honor my mother through this but also to help educate and care and prevent the future generations from having to go through what my family, what my father, what Kelly and I have had to go through. You know, we spend our days telling stories to our kids who love it. In the morning, they always say, you know, tell us a new story about Nanny. Tell us a story that was really funny." "It's because she can't share it herself. So really what Celebrating Hope is about is not only bringing awareness and celebrating all those who have moved on because of Alzheimer's, but also celebrating the hope that we can change this, that tomorrow is a new day, that tomorrow the sun rises and there will be what we call a white flower, the first person who has overcome and has been cured from Alzheimer's. And science has been doing so much and the doctors and the FDA, and so we're excited to see what tomorrow does hold but it's going to be a gathering for all of us to really celebrate that hope." Kelly Helstein, Tim's wife shared; "Like Tim said you know we have three young kids and they are missing their grandmother so much and that's a good background story about why we're involved, but also I want to point out that it's just a great way to honor those who are struggling with the disease. You know, that's the first reason we stepped into this role, but also it's giving us a platform to raise awareness and funds to support research and almost just empower others who are going through the same experience just to link arm in arm and say, us too, and just share our story with them and they share it with others and just create awareness all around." The Alzheimer's Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer's care, support and research. Kristen Cusato, the Director of Communication for the Alzheimer's Association Connecticut Chapter & New England Research Champion also joined the show. She discussed the risk factors associated with Alzheimer's disease and emphasized the importance of lifestyle interventions to reduce the risk. Kristin also shared there are real advancements in treatment and that the availability of these treatments can change the course of the disease. The powerful CT chapter offers 24/7 support for the public, healthcare professionals and caregivers. This chapter has influenced public policy changes and provided support to Alzheimer's and dementia research in the hope of finding a cure. There are many fundraising events held around the country to support Alzheimer's research and awareness. And the money is really making a difference. I encourage you to participate and support Alzheimer's research and awareness efforts. The 11th Annual 'Celebrating Hope Gala' is being held in Greenwich, CT April 26th. Enjoy this podcast of our live conversation on The Debbie Nigro Show. The Debbie Nigro Show on WGCH Radio. If you want to catch the show it airs Weekdays 11-12noon ET in the NY/CT area on 1490 on the dial. But you can listen from anywhere, just hit the 'Listen Live' button on WGCH.com. Catch the podcasts of interviews after on DebbieNigro.com

Have you heard about the AMAZING Prospector Theater in Ridgefield CT? The Prospector Theater is a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to providing competitive and inclusive employment to people with disabilities through the operation of a premium, first-run movie theater. Employees of the Prospector, referred to as Prospects, are encouraged to sparkle, shine, and transform their passions into professions. The Prospect Productions team creates high quality digital content for the Prospector Theater. Prospects working on the Production team learn in-demand trade skills such as storyboarding, filming, editing, sound & lighting design, post-production, audio engineering, photography, graphic design, animation, visual effects, and much more! Video productions are used for pre-show content, educational experiences, PSAs, operating procedures, and entertainment! Over the last four years, Prospects have created over 1060 videos, garnering more than 17,000,000 views worldwide. The Prospector Theater was founded by Valerie Jensen whose lifelong work started when her sister, Hope, was born in 1979 with Down syndrome. Valerie Jensen and 'Prospect' Gabe Kavookijan joined me on the air to celebrated World Down Syndrome Day (March 21st). Meet them both on this podcast of our live conversation on The Debbie Nigro Show and hear all about the cool things they're doing at The Prospector Theater in Ridgefield CT and …hear all about their new 'Down To Sparkle' Flavor of Popcorn! They have many flavors and buying popcorn

There are surely a lot of real estate people in the country, but Tiffany McQuaid figured out a way to really stand out. Her real estate agency in Jupiter Florida has been called the most innovative agency in the country. What makes her stand out above all others in the space? She said all her efforts have 'caring at the core'. Tiffany does 'little things' in her business that bring people joy. It's something she's been doing since she was a little girl. She decided to write a book about what works so well for her, to share with others Her book just out is called "The Nth Degree" How To Stand Out By Going All In" by Tiffany McQuaid with Bruce Littlefield. In our live radio conversation Tiffany shared the difficult story about how she came to realize how much 'little' things matter to people. On Christmas Day when Tiffany was 10, her Dad took his life leaving her Mom alone to raise her and her sister. Her Mom was obviously struggling badly, but Tiffany would try and do little things to make her smile. She noticed those little things mattered a lot. When Tiffany speaks of her success and how all her efforts have 'caring at the core', it's those little things she does for others and clients that she is referring to. She says it's the key to what unlocked her real estate success and what will unlock your success. "Well, I think without a doubt, I would say like this little creative flair that allows you the opportunity to not just be a black and white broker, just looking at things as they're presented, but instead kind of pulling back and looking at ways to fill voids and be different and unique and create what I'd like to call delightful or surprise and delight. I love to do that, which ultimately creates memorable experiences. And in doing that, it's just not status quo. I think so many people, and whether it's companies or individuals, we tend to go through life sometimes just maintaining, you know, we're just maintaining our day, we're staying in our comfort zone, we're, you know, doing what's expected of us and not really pushing ourselves sometimes to really find a way to be different and get out of that comfort zone and be uncomfortable. What's the significance of 'INth' in the INth Degree? And what do they have to do with showing people how to recognize opportunities for themselves? Tiffany says "The book breaks down into seven keys and all of the keys start with the word "IN'. So everything from INtrepidness, which kind of goes through all of my life bumps and failures and bruises, you know that I think everyone can relate to those stories and kind of guide you through some opportunities and there's even what's kind of cool and what I felt was so important when we were putting this together was INteractiveness." "Throughout the book there's what we call INquiries. So you know as I'm talking about different things that I've gone through an INquiry will pop up to kind of get you thinking. So from INtrepidness to INvigoration, and INtention, INspiration, INgenuity, INcentive, INfluence, every single one of those all touch base and you will walk away with something I am confident. You will walk away with something from at the very least each key, if not multiples from each key. They're very easy to employ into your life and they all work for me." Enjoy this podcast of my live conversation with Tiffany McQuaid on The Debbie Nigro Show.

Pinky Cole aka Slutty Vegan is WOW. There are a thousand reasons why. She's a very innovative gal, entrepreneur, and really good human. Pinky Cole owns and operates the celebrity backed restaurant chain 'Slutty Vegan' with 11 locations and counting including Atlanta, Birmingham, Baltimore, Dallas, and NY. She's opening a new location in NYC this weekend on Bleecker Street making that 3 spots now in NY with the others in Harlem and Brooklyn. "When you walk into Slutty Vegan, you will see yourself ", said Pinky. "It doesn't matter if you are white, black, blue, yellow, gay, straight, you belong here, and this is a safe space for you and I want my business to continue to speak for that. So Bleeker will speak to all those things and I'm excited about it and I'm excited about our expansion. " "You know, and this is my first time announcing this, Bleeker Street is an ode to the LGBTQ community and the movement, right, and LGBTQ rights. So, a lot of the decor and the aesthetics will speak to that. And I'm very intentional on my approach and how I decorate my stores because I want everybody to see themselves, right?" Last year Time Magazine named Pink Cole to their '100 Next List" Pinky Cole has also won the 'Compassionate Chef Award', has her own foundation to empower generations of color to break the cycle of poverty, and a new book "I Hope You Fail" to show by example how failures and setbacks are steppingstones in disguise. Famed restauranteur Danny Meyer, wrote that her fans adore her sassy, sexy attitude and that she not only reinvented the way people think about a vegan restaurant, but she's also turned classic roadside burger fair into a rollicking party. It's worth mentioning that according to the latest statistics only like 5% of Americans identify as vegan or vegetarian, but most people want to eat healthier these days and so many who don't call themselves vegans or vegetarians are drawn to the food Pinky makes and creates because Pinky makes it fun. Pinky Cole's Mission is Powerful Pinky Cole does everything with intention. She wanted to create food that was accessible to people who are in underserved communities and residents of food deserts that was healthy and comforting and fun, and boy did she nail it. Aisha Pinky Cole, American restaurateur, operator, and owner of Slutty Vegan, was born and raised in Baltimore. Her parents were Jamaican immigrants and Rastafarians, and her mother was a musician in a reggae group, I probably would have partied with. I love reggae music. Pinky grew up following a traditional Rastafarian vegetarian diet, eating rice and peas and legumes and beans which is how it all began. The SLUTTY VEGAN Name After reading all about her I thought I love this girl. But am I really gonna promote a slutty vegan on my show? LOL. Well, everybody else did so sure! Nobody knows better than me that in order to get attention in this world, the words you choose matter. But Pinky knew that. "That name helped me to build a $100 million brand. All righty, all righty, all righty. OK, so I'll start there. Was it easy? Yes and no. The yes part of it being easy was the fact that I'm trained as a television producer, so I know what's going to make people pay attention. I know what's going to make them say, oh, damn, I've got to pay attention to this, right? But then on the flip side, there are a lot of people, conservative people who live in our country, right, who haven't adapted to the idea that you can re-engineer words, right? You can put your own meaning to words. And that's exactly what I did. When I came up with slutty vegan, I knew that I had to be in your face, racy and raunchy in order for you to think about vegan food, because if I would have named it Pinky's Vegan, you wouldn't come to get it. You wouldn't want to eat it. " The Pinky Cole Foundation is like Urgent Care Pinky started a foundation to formalize a way to give her money to people who need help because she just loves helping people. "I found that there's a generational wealth gap, a big one", she said. "And I wanted to help bridge that generational wealth gap by providing opportunities for entrepreneurs and creatives. " "So my foundation is not like the average foundation. You know how some foundations have all these thrusts and all of these programmatic things? This ain't that." "What this is, we are like urgent care. If there is an immediate need, we solve an immediate problem. So we paid the rents for local businesses. We provided fruits and vegetables for people in the community. I've given out 800 LLCs to a graduating class of seniors so that they could be able to jumpstart their pathway to entrepreneurship. We've partnered with the Department of Juvenile Justice to provide second chance opportunities to ex-offenders. We've paid for lights. We provide life insurance in partnership with Prudential to black men who make $30,000 or less in Atlanta." "So, when you talk about doing the work, I've been doing the work for a long

I've had some very interesting experiences with psychics and psychic mediums throughout my life. I'm always open-minded and do believe that some on this planet can see farther than the eye can see. On more than one occasion, I've had a psychic contact me out of the blue for one reason or another. (vs me asking them to contact someone. LOL) I probably haven't seen Francine Tesler in over 20 years. She's a psychic medium and medical intuitive, best known as the psychic, for people who don't usually go to psychics. She's been making psychic predictions since she was 6 years old. She would see those that had passed on and shock everyone with her accuracy. Something recently came into her head to call ME. So naturally she got in touch. I was happy to hear from her as I remember having great affection for her. I Invited her to stop by the radio show to speak to a story I just read on Medium.com (which is not a site for Mediums rather a medium for writers to share their work with 100 million readers). The story "Predictions for 2024 By Celebrity Psychics" said…" The year 2024 will be a time of awakening and alignment as more people will tune into their intuition and follow their soul's purpose. This will create a positive ripple effect in the world, as people will be more authentic, compassionate, and creative." I'm all for anything positive on this planet and I have in fact noticed more people lately trying to find their true purpose. So Francine came to the studio and I asked her one of my signature questions I often ask guests on my show. "How Does Your Head Work Inside?". Francine said, "I'm originally an artist by trade and I get images that like a slideshow and fragments and I hear things in my head. Yeah, but this week, my hair stands up on my arms. And it was like, you have to call Debbie. And I'm like, you know, reach out to her and I didn't have your number. And that's why I sent you the email and blah, blah, blah." "Why do you think you thought of me?", I asked her. "I think we're meant to be connected again". I myself have been noticing a trend picking up since Covid, where people are now wanting to reconnect more. Are you seeing a trend in that I asked her? "Yes. More happening with each month that passes this year". "More spirituality. People are starting to listen. I'm teaching. When I do my readings or when I do my message circles or my open galleries, I do teach and explain to people that they have to listen to their voice because everyone is psychic to some point." Being a psychic ain't easy... "You know I actually didn't know I was a medium until I had already been doing this probably for at least 10 years because I didn't know the word for it all those years ago. I've been doing this now full-time 40 years. When I first started, it wasn't acceptable and people used to call me Madame Zaza or Grandma Strega, you know, Grandma Witch, and it was a really difficult time." "But you know what? I'm an artist. I found my own thing and I knew that I was getting these images and hearing things and seeing things and there was a reason. So I always gave people the messages. Now as I'm older, I deliver them a little bit more tactfully and make them more edible because I have a good sense of humor." "Everyone calls it the psychic Tourette's. I go into the grocery store and I will walk over to people and say, look, I don't want to bother you. I'm a psychic medium, blah, blah, blah. I got an impression. I'm told to tell you this. And then they look around for cameras. But I try to help people and give a message." I've always noticed people are a little weird when they're around psychics. All they want to know is, what a psychic knows about them? They always want to talk about it. But most people don't want to hear any bad stuff. I wondered how that has affected Francine's personal life. "Do you have a personal life?", I asked her. "Not really. As far as my personal life goes, most guys are scared of it. They don't even want to shake my hands believe it or not and you know either they come in and they try to challenge me to see what I know. You know I'm saying. but it's hard when it comes to yourself. It's hard to be objective. You know you know it is what it is." BUT, professionally men aren't scared of Francine at all. She has a lot of male clients that come to her for business consultations. Mostly by phone and Zoom. "Are you a business psychic?" I asked her, because I often joke that I'm a business psychic. LOL. I'm just highly intuitive when it comes to business. I know where the matches are. I know what people should do. I'm like, what do you mean you haven't thought of that? I see opportunities for people, and I have some fun with that skill as a consultant. Yes, Francine does help many businesses with her skills as a psychic. She's also a medium, and a medical intuitive. She's currently re-branding herself and her website. It's probably why she thought of me. She knows I love helping people re-think new

I need to shine a light on Saratoga NY one of the kindest places in America. That's where the idea for a viral event that took place across the country this year called "Leap of Kindness Day' emanated from. It was held on …you guessed it…Leap Day! I love Saratoga. Been there enough times to know I could live there. I invited Todd Shimkus the President of The Saratoga Chamber of Commerce, and originator of the kindness idea, to join me on The Debbie Nigro Show to talk about 'The Kindness Movement' they started in 2016. Leap of Kindness was such a great idea, that 250 other Chambers of Commerce in the US and Canada joined in the movement this year to encourage the spread of meaningful kindness vibes and deeds. It's always worth my time to showcase people on this planet doing beautiful things because most people are good, and I know we sometimes forget that because the world we live in is tough. Speaking of good things, Todd shared all the cool stuff coming up in Saratoga, NY this year. "Oh my God, we have so much going on in our community, especially as we head into this summer. You know, the New York City Ballet is coming back to SPAC, the Philadelphia Orchestra, we are their summer home. They've got some extraordinary performances there. We've got the Universal Preservation Hall, which is new coming out of COVID. It's a fully restored church that was acoustically designed to allow people to perform and the sound to be just amazing for musical events. Cafe Lina, which is one of the oldest venues you'll find for music as well is here. And then of course the Saratoga Racecourse, and our casino. We are hosting the Belmont Stakes Saratoga on June 8th for the first time ever. And it's sold out for Saturday, June 8th."50,000 people will be at the racecourse that day. There's still tickets available for Thursday and Friday and Sunday around that. And we expect a week-long celebration of that just amazing event, especially if there's a Triple Crown potential for one of the horses." That Saratoga Racecourse is special. Sports Illustrated named it one of the world's greatest sporting venues. As I kid I remember that every Summer for years and years, my parents and all my aunts, uncles and their friends would go to Saratoga in August and always stayed at place called The Gideon Putnam, and always left all us kids home. It was decades later that I finally went there myself and got to see what all the fuss was about. It's an incredible place. I was so annoyed they never took us kids all those years! LOL Saratoga Racecourse is a Thoroughbred horse racing opened in 1863 and is considered to be the oldest major sporting venue of any kind in the country but is actually the fourth oldest racetrack in the U.S. according to Wikipedia. You will feel the nostalgia there and you get to see all the beautiful horses up close. There's a lot more too in Saratoga that captured my soul and I've gone back a few times to enjoy the food, the music, and the beauty of this charming place. And Saratoga has active mineral springs. I just learned there are currently 21 public mineral springs in various locations throughout Saratoga. Most of the springs are naturally carbonated and no two springs taste exactly alike. That's because each spring has its own distinct mineral makeup and flavor profile. There are supposed health benefits from clearing skin, to helping digestion, and even strengthening blood! You can even Design Your Own Mineral Springs Private Tasting Tour. I should also mention it's supposedly the home of the original potato chip. That alone is worth a tasting trip to see about that! Enjoy this podcast of my live conversation with Todd Shimkus the President of The Saratoga Chamber of Commerce on The Debbie Nigro Show.

When it comes to politics these days you can be sure there are LOTS of divisive conversations going on. It's not expected that we'll all agree on the important topics, but come on everybody - can't we at least learn how to respectfully disagree? Before you argue with, block, curse out or cut off individuals due to their political views, learn how to respectfully disagree and build bridges instead of barriers. We need to challenge our own perspective because we all think that we're right, I guess, until we realize maybe we're not 100%, right. That's the message Justin Jones-Fosu is shouting from the rooftops in his upcoming book "I Respectfully Disagree: How to Have Difficult Conversations in a Divided World". Justin is international speaker and the founder of Work. Meaningful. He shares some great advice on how to handle extreme political conversations. We had a much-needed conversation about this topic live on my radio show and Justin pointed out, "It's been bad for a long time, but it's with the rise of media and everybody having a voice and platform that It's gotten really bad. Even in workplaces, three out of four people say that their management can handle, should handle conflict better." "But just think about anecdotally, as we see online, as people talk to each other, there's these two things that are happening." "One of, we see a respectful disagreement, disrespectful disagreement. But Debbie, there's also an interesting phenomenon we found in our studies, is this other thing called 'disrespectful agreement'. "And I see it in a lot of the audiences and corporations I go in, is that people are in front of your face, they're like, oh Debbie, I think that music was amazing. And then behind the scenes, they're talking to the producer, like, why would you even play that?"" "And that's one of the things that's also causing disrespectful discriminates as well, is because people are passively, or what the new generation is calling gaslighting others." I couldn't agree more with Justin that people need to try harder to build bridges to people rather than barriers from them. He shares some good suggestions about how we all can start to go about doing that better. "I think the foundation for us lies in the statement I've been making for about the last decade is that we can vehemently disagree with someone's ideology and yet still passionately pursue their humanity. That's the starting point. Because oftentimes we consistently attach ideology with identity. And so I'll start with challenging perspective because I think that speaks to what we do. I mean, it starts before any disagreement happens. It's the posture, the position that we put ourselves in. " Justin Shared a Practical Example: "One of the things I started to challenge myself to do is this thing called Circles of Grace, where it's the thing that my mom taught me. My mom took us to events that we didn't know a lot about and that we also disagreed with. And so when you constantly are putting yourself in positions of learning and hearing other people's perspectives, so every six months I go to events, experiences, or I engage with people that I either don't know a lot about or that I disagree with. And that's helped me to consistently challenge my perspective and learn." I'm glad I took the time to chat with Justin. Besides being an author Justin Jones- Fosu is also a full-time dad-e, and social entrepreneur. He speaks 50-60 times a year for professionals, corporations, organizations, and associations. His clients include some of the biggest names in The Fortune 500 to the best spelled names in Fourth Grades across the country he says. LOL I also really like that he's fun. Like me, he often uses humor to get a serious message across. I think it would be meaningful for you to take a few minutes to listen to this podcast of our live conversation from The Debbie Nigro Show. Might save some of your relationships!