Advertise on podcast: The Iowa Business Podcast

What do you reach for if you want to wind down with a delicious cocktail, but don't want alcohol or THC? Your options are fruit juice or sparkling water. Taylor Grasso, co-founder of Pesche and a certified nutritionist, says that gap is an opportunity to create a new beverage product focused around positive health "moments." Pesche's husband and co-founder was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in his twenties, which threw fuel on their inspirational fire to create a delicious, yet nutritious beverage using mushrooms, herbs, and minerals. Could they create a beverage that not only tasted good, but also aided calm, focus, or sleep? 💡 Find this show on your favorite player: https://iowapodcast.com/taylor-grasso-pesche/ ⚖️ Get guidance from Dentons Davis Brown: https://www.dentons.com/en/dentons-davis-brown 🐖 Get a free $30 gift card from Jethro's BBQ: https://iowapodcast.com/jethrosbbq

Libertarian candidate for US Congress, Rick Stewart defends Universal Basic Income from a Libertarian viewpoint, abolishing income tax, legalization of drugs, erased portions of his call with HHS Secretary Bobby Kennedy, and in a bonus wrap-up chat, how he never collected signatures to get on the ballot. Stewart has run for U.S. Senate, Linn County Sheriff, Secretary of Agriculture, Governor, and now the US House of Representatives. He addresses the Libertarian Party losing popularity, despite more voters claiming to be independent, explains how the party was hijacked, why he believes they've finally righted the ship. 💡 Find this show on your favorite player: https://iowapodcast.com/rick-stewart/ ⚖️ Hurt at work? Talk to Nate Boulton for free: https://workerslawyers.com 🐖 Get a free $30 gift card from Jethro's BBQ: https://iowapodcast.com/jethrosbbq

Organic Iowa wheat farmer, Jeff Hafner was a bit confused earlier this year when Iowans started grinding their own flour at home using their own countertop flour mills. The stories all started sounding familiar, people who thought they were gluten sensitive, were eating their own homemade bread just fine. Hafner says he's no scientist. He's a farmer. But his customers stories have surprised him. He discusses the tough work of making organic wheat in Iowa, their stone-ground process, and why many farmers are struggling with USDA Organic paperwork. 💡 Find this show on your favorite player: https://iowapodcast.com/jeff-hafner-organic-flour/ ⚖️ Get guidance from Dentons Davis Brown: https://www.dentons.com/en/dentons-davis-brown| 🐖 Get a free $30 gift card from Jethro's BBQ: https://iowapodcast.com/jethrosbbq

Long distance runners need to strike a delicate balance to win. If they go to slow, they fall behind. If they go to fast, they lose precious energy. Nicholas Gorsich, co-founder of Stridelane explains how their high tech LED pacing lights solves the problem and how their first version was made of hacked carnival lights! Gorsich says they bootstrapped the company taking no loans. How? He says they purchased carnival lights off Alibaba and re-engineered them to work with their own custom software. The system was acceptable enough to close early deals and get income. Combined with winning a few Iowa pitch competitions, they have just developed their first commercial product that ships to its first customer next week. 💡 Find this show on your favorite player: https://iowapodcast.com/nicholas-gorsich-stridelane/ ⚖️ Get guidance from Dentons Davis Brown: https://www.dentons.com/en/dentons-davis-brown 🐖 Get a free $30 gift card from Jethro's BBQ: https://iowapodcast.com/jethrosbbq

Dave Dawson is running for a Seat in the US House of Representatives in Iowa's very red 4th Congressional district. The last Democrat Congressman from the region was Berkley Bedell of Spirit Lake in 1986, and he makes his case explaining how he can break the trend. As a prosecutor who won a case to safeguard kids, Dawson explains his views on gender, specifically is gender surgery or hormone therapy for children vital healthcare or child abuse? He also explains why he thinks it's time to apply ethics rules to the Supreme Court and how he believes those rules should be enforced. 💡 Find this show on your favorite player: https://iowapodcast.com/dave-dawson/ 🐖 Get a free $30 gift card from Jethro's BBQ: https://iowapodcast.com/jethrosbbq

You'd think Tom Lutz, founder of Repour Wine Saver would be shaking in his boots with restaurant traffic down and the NA movement driving down the consumption of alcohol, but you'd be wrong. In a counterintuitive local-Iowa victory story, lower alcohol sales are big business. 💡 Find this show on your favorite player: https://iowapodcast.com/repour-wine-savery-tom-lutz ⚖️ Get guidance from Dentons Davis Brown: https://www.dentons.com/en/dentons-davis-brown 🐖 Get a free $30 gift card from Jethro's BBQ: https://iowapodcast.com/jethrosbbq Lutz's technological breakthrough "eats" oxygen from the bottle keeping it fresh for longer. As consumers purchase less wine, they're becoming more selective, turning to more expensive bottles. And because they drink less per sitting, they're choosing to save that nice bottle and stretch it. The same story rings true for restaurants, and that's where Repour has found big business.

Iowa-based Plas-Tech has been named one of five national finalists out of 1,182 applicants) to pitch in the SBA Freedom 250 Patriot Pitch competition and CEO Dean Sonquist joins us in studio to discuss. $1 Million in total prizes is available to finalists Sonquist heads to Washington DC September 18th! 💡 Find this show on your favorite player: https://iowapodcast.com/dean-sonquist-plas-tech/ ⚖️ Get guidance from Dentons Davis Brown: https://www.dentons.com/en/dentons-davis-brown 🐖 Get a free $30 gift card from Jethro's BBQ: https://iowapodcast.com/jethrosbbq Sonquist explains the increase they've been seeing as companies bring manufacturing back home to the USA from countries like China. He also notes how new companies and smaller startups are beginning to build new products at smaller volume, and how Plas-Tech is meeting those growing midwest needs.

Want a boutique, Iowa-made putter? Jared Doerfler of Hanna Golf says even though their premium golf gear is shipped all over the world, but surprisingly, 30% of his business still comes from within the state. Doerfler explains how they maintain their boutique quality, why their limited drops sell out in minutes, and how he taught himself CNC and CAD by watching YouTube videos. Golf has grown 41% since 2019, but a great product doesn't make a great business. Doerfler explains how he built a massive social media presence, which ended up being his primary sales channel. He also explains Hanna Golf. 💡 Find this show on your favorite player: https://iowapodcast.com/jared-doerfler-hannah-golf/ ⚖️ Get guidance from Dentons Davis Brown: https://www.dentons.com/en/dentons-davis-brown 🐖 Get a free $30 gift card from Jethro's BBQ: https://iowapodcast.com/jethrosbbq

The pork industry's facing major challenges, but therein lie some new opportunities. Jeff Caldwell fills in for Justin Brady in his discussion with Dr. Steve Larsen of R3 Consulting. New business models help, but it takes a concerted effort to understand what's behind those challenges and the ways the industry's best poised to overcome them. 💡 Find this show on your favorite player: https://iowapodcast.com/steve-larson/ ⚖️ Get guidance from Dentons Davis Brown: https://www.dentons.com/en/dentons-davis-brown 🐖 Get a free $30 gift card from Jethro's BBQ: https://iowapodcast.com/jethrosbbq

Ai is allowing farmers to scale and cover more ground, but new Ai systems can be insanely expensive, costing nearly one million dollars. Craig Rupp of Sabanto Ag sees a more efficient path. His approach retrofits existing, older farm equipment with Ai packages, making old "dumb" farm equipment completely autonomous. Rupp says many of his customers don't even know how to drive a tractor at all. Instead, they install his kit and the equipment drives itself. One customer of his from Ankeny, Iowa cleared nearly 300k acres and has never driven a tractor. Rupp explains the future of autonomy in agriculture. 💡 Find this show on your favorite player: https://iowapodcast.com/sabanto-ag-craig-rupp/ ⚖️ Get guidance from Dentons Davis Brown: https://www.dentons.com/en/dentons-davis-brown 🐖 Get a free $30 gift card from Jethro's BBQ: https://iowapodcast.com/jethrosbbq

One common complaint from recruiters, HR professionals, and skilled trades organizations, is Iowa's talent shortage. But are we ignoring a massive hidden talent pool in our own backyard? Joseph Johnson, CEO of Change Course talks about a specific group of people who can fill roles including felons and those transitioning off government assistance. Johnson says there's a lot of fear hiring certain groups—most of it completely unfounded. He explains why his unconventional talent pool actually exceeds expectations and defies expectations. As an ex-con himself, he also shares where companies go wrong hiring ex-cons, and what lessons he learned to get their success rate to 100%. 💡 Show notes: https://iowapodcast.com/joseph-johnson-change-course/ ⚖️ Get guidance from Dentons Davis Brown: https://www.dentons.com/en/dentons-davis-brown 🐖 Get a free $30 gift card from Jethro's BBQ: https://iowapodcast.com/jethrosbbq

If you're an agriculture startup founder in Iowa, where do you get funding? Mikayla Mooney of Ag Startup Engine joins us to discuss why Iowa is leading in ag, but still catching up when it comes to investment for ag-focused startups and companies. Iowa has some of the best soil in the world and we see farming and regenerative organic food lead the national headlines, but are we truly grasping the opportunity? Mooney explains how startups are using food trends as tail winds, but haven't quite changed to adopt the trend yet. Are we behind and how do we get ahead? 💡 Find this show on your favorite player: https://iowapodcast.com/ag-startup-funding/ ⚖️ Get guidance from Dentons Davis Brown: https://www.dentons.com/en/dentons-davis-brown 🐖 Get a free $30 gift card from Jethro's BBQ: https://iowapodcast.com/jethrosbbq

Employees aren't quitting jobs, they're quitting bad managers says Mike Wagner of White Rabbit Group. Joining fill-in host Jason Kiesau he explains how great leaders build connection, and outlines practices that develop positive direct reports, regular one-on-ones, better questions, feedback, skill development, and delegation. Wagner unpacks the "space between" leaders and direct reports, citing research that many employees would forgo a raise in exchange for their boss being fired. He emphasized that intentional, scheduled conversations are irreplaceable. He contrasts task-oriented and relationship-oriented leaders, describes connection as feeling heard, understood, and safe, and explains building "relationship capital" to make feedback easier. Wagner details the "technician trap" of promoting experts who rescue problems ("white horse") instead of reproducing skills, and outlines a simple, experiential four-process training approach, including peer learning and handling cynicism over time. 💡 Find this show on your favorite player: https://iowapodcast.com/mike-wagner-iowa/ ⚖️ Get guidance from Dentons Davis Brown: https://www.dentons.com/en/dentons-davis-brown 🐖 Get a free $30 gift card from Jethro's BBQ: https://iowapodcast.com/jethrosbbq

Guest host Jason Kiesau talks to Mike Barratt, a certified exit planning advisor with Choreo about the Iowa impacts of the "Silver tsunami." With 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 every single day, the landscape of business ownership is about to experience a massive shift. 💡 Find this show on your favorite player: https://iowapodcast.com/colin-hurd-mach ⚖️ Get guidance from Dentons Davis Brown: https://www.dentons.com/en/dentons-davis-brown 🐖 Get a free $30 gift card from Jethro's BBQ: https://iowapodcast.com/jethrosbbq A staggering 75% of business owners regret their decision to sell just 12 months after the transaction. Barratt explains why preparation is the ultimate key to avoiding this post-sale regret, maximizing your company's value, and leaving a lasting legacy.

The coasts may get the headlines, but the midwest holds the crown for real-world autonomous vehicles. In fact, Ai-driven vehicles have been operating in Iowa for 10 years already. Colin Hurd, CEO of MACH recounts past Iowa successes, and why future of "off road autonomy" is thousands of different robots for niche uses cases. 💡 Find this show on your favorite player: https://iowapodcast.com/colin-hurd-mach ⚖️ Get guidance from Dentons Davis Brown: https://www.dentons.com/en/dentons-davis-brown 🐖 Get a free $30 gift card from Jethro's BBQ: https://iowapodcast.com/jethrosbbq Hurd details real-world examples in not just Ai applications, but other industries as well. He explains how removing the human operator, actually opens up unlimited possibilities, solving problems like soil compaction, bulk, and weight barriers. Will Iowa fields, and manufacturing have hundreds of various robot shapes and sizes soon? It looks that way.