Entrepreneurship Speaker Series Fall 2022

While at SUU, Matthew and Shad were instrumental in creating the Hope Corps Program, a marketing branch of the Entrepreneurship Center that assisted local businesses with establishing an online presence during the onset of COVID-19. Together, they lead their team in successfully helping over 15 businesses improve their digital marketing, advertising, and brand presence.

After helping these local start-ups and businesses, Matthew and Shad were driven to create their own company by the end of their senior year. After lots of pizza brainstorming sessions, Crypto Games LLC was founded. Crypto Games is bringing to market the first crypto-themed card game that introduces players to the basics of cryptocurrency through an addictively fun gameplay.

Co-owner of Sisterly Market

Mikey Heward is the co-owner of Sisterly Market. Sisterly Market operates The Lovin Sisters and Threads Lovin under its umbrella. Mikey has previously started businesses in home décor, apparel and accessories and has a strong background in social media marketing. Mikey resides in Santa Clara with her husband, Chad and has three beautiful girls.

Liz and Ryan Reeves met as BYU students back in 2014. Liz graduated as an undergrad in American Studies and Ryan in Applied Statistics. Over their 7 years of marriage, Liz has worked at Goldman Sachs, owned a home bakery, and did social media marketing for various companies while staying home with their now three kids. Ryan has a tech background, working at Qualtrics and then Podium for over 5 years as a Product Manager.

With their three kids ages six, four, and one, Liz and Ryan were struggling to manage all of the demands and challenges of a busy young family. Back in August 2021, they were trying to get into the swing of a new school year and they felt overwhelmed with everything that goes into managing a family. Just a few weeks later, Liz and Ryan decided to tackle the problem and created Pixie.

Pixie is a family management platform designed to house all of your family information in one place - all to be shared with a partner. Using familiar Pinterest-like boards, Pixie allows users to store and share a variety of household information such as recipes, babysitter info, medical info, shopping lists, children’s school info, and more. The platform’s goal is to simplify and improve family life by making the mental load manageable and organized in a familiar way.

The Pixie app launched its MVP on February 15, 2022. Besides a small family and friends round, Pixie is bootstrapped. The Pixie team consists of Ryan and Liz, their technical co-founder, Jake, and a handful of contracted team members. They've been heads down adding more features to the app since its launch and have big plans to make Pixie the go-to app for all families.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svLAtzAGjkI

Owner EZfeed

Austin Spencer is the owner of EZfeed. EZfeed was started 4 years ago while attending SUU. Austin graduated with a bachelors in Marketing and Management from SUU. He is a native of Orderville Utah, which is where the business is currently located.

The One Utah Summit brings together the state’s best and brightest government, business, community, and nonprofit leaders twice a year to discuss Utah’s economic topics and trends. Consistent with Gov. Cox’s “One Utah Roadmap” initiative, Summit programming focuses on the roadmap’s six strategic priorities:

• • Economic Advancement
  • Education
  • Rural Matters
  • Health Security
  • Equality and Opportunity and
  • Streamlining State Government

We will not have a speaker for this day, however, students are encouraged to come Wednesday, October 12th at 1:00 to watch SUU Students and community members participate in the State Bank Business Challenge! $25,000 in Cash and Prizes will be awarded! This event will take place in conjunction with the One Utah Summit and will be held in the Randall Jones Theatre over by SUMA. Contact kristinamaine@suu.edu with any questions.

Founder & COO Rapid Financial Solutions, LTD

Brad Labrum is the founder and COO of Rapid Financial Solutions, LTD. Which provides frictionless payment, access, and identifications solutions through technology innovation. He also continues to operate and grow several other businesses. He graduated with his MBA from SUU and a Doctorate in Business Administration and Entrepreneurship from the University of Florida.

Success Coach

Mindie Kniss, MFA, PhD, is an entrepreneur, professional coach, writer, speaker, and award-winning humanitarian. She left a cushy Fortune100 career for the adventure of entrepreneurship, but the "adventure" almost ended soon after she started her business in 2007. Mindie hit rock bottom financially and was living out of her office after facing eviction, foreclosure, and bankruptcy.

Fast forward to today, Mindie is CEO and Founder of Lucra®, a coaching firm devoted to helping entrepreneurs create wealth in all areas of life. She is the creator of the annual HeartPath™ retreat, along with multiple online training programs for entrepreneurs, coaches, and speakers.

Mindie was the recipient of the prestigious Global Health Fellowship based on her work with women and children in developing countries. She lived in East Africa and worked on HIV/AIDS prevention initiatives.

She is the host of The Lucrative Society,™ a podcast which debuted in the Top 20 Entrepreneurship podcasts on iTunes. Mindie is the author of the bestselling book The Heart of Consciousness. Her second book will be available in late 2020.

Mindie appeared in the movies The Abundance Factor (2015) and Impact (post-production).

For more information about Mindie's works, please visit Lucra.com.

Executive Vice President PPC Flexible Packaging

Lynn Abplanalp is the Executive Vice President at PPC Flexible Packaging, which provides comprehensive packaging and merchandising solutions for a wide variety of companies. He has been highly instrumental in making Temkin massively successful. He received a Master's degree in Accounting and Business Management from the University of Utah.

Founder & Wealth Strategist, Big Life Financial

Derick Van Ness is a Wealth Strategist who is passionate about helping people reach their full potential. His company, Big Life Financial is focused on removing the mystery and misinformation surrounding money and financial strategy so people can live their BIGGEST LIFE! Derick believes that each person has something unique and valuable to contribute to the world, but that most people are never able to express that gift due to fear, doubt, or worry related to money. His mission is to eradicate that fear and fundamentally change the way that people think about and utilize money within the next generation. Derick’s company can help anyone but is specifically focused on small business owners, and has already helped 1000’s of them to create financial certainty and confidence. He is a straight shooter and has an uncanny ability to explain complex concepts in a simple way that allows clients to see massive results! In his free time, Derick enjoys racing sailboats, creating art, and competing in West Coast Swing dancing. He currently lives in his hometown of Draper, Utah after spending 20 years away living all over the US including: Washington DC, Brooklyn, Texas, and Southern California.

Steven & Ginger Hitz describe themselves as a Baby Boomers with Millennial hearts. They study, think like, celebrate, and mentor the rising generations. As serial entrepreneurs they have founded several businesses and have employed more than 10,000 young adults.

They are founding members of Launching Leaders Worldwide Inc., a 501C3 charitable organization which teaches personal leadership principles that empower and transform. Launching Leaders is facilitated in over sixty nine countries around the world with over 5000 enrolled students. Steve is the author of the curriculum books “Launching Leaders: An Empowering Journey for a New Generation”, and “Entrepreneurial Foundations for Twenty and Thirty Somethings”, both available on Amazon.

In 2018, Steve was honored with a Global Business & Interfaith Peace Medal from the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation in collaboration with the United Nations Global Compact Business for Peace, Global Compact Network Korea, and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations.

Together, their entrepreneurial ventures have included insurance, banking, farming and cattle, appraisal management, real estate and numerous franchise operations. They love to spend time with family, travel, sail, and enjoy nature.

They have devoted their lives to coming along-side the rising generations.

They have five children and twelve grandchildren and reside in Cedar City Utah.

Dean of the Dixie L. Leavitt School of Business

Mary Pearson is the Dean of the Dixie L. Leavitt School of Business, and Associate Professor of Accounting at Southern Utah University. Additionally, she is a Certified Public Accountant with her own financial firm in Cedar City, Utah. Her recent experience includes serving on the Board of Directors for State Bank of Southern Utah, Chair of the Cedar City Planning and Zoning Commission, Interim Dean and Associate Dean, Digital Faculty Consultant for McGraw Hill, and Specialty Boards for the UACPA, Iron County School District, Beaver County School District, Cedar City Corporation, AACSB, and Cedar City Business Innovation Center.