Maine Business Archives - The Grow Maine Show

Kai Adams of Sebago Brewing Company

June 26, 201806/26/18

Sebago Brewing Company is celebrating 20 years in business, a remarkable thing in any industry. But it didn’t happen by chance – the founding partners have relentlessly worked on their business and their partnership, finding ways to work together that have made them all successful.

And the impetus for Kai to become an entrepreneur gets even more interesting: diagnosed with lymphoma as a young man, Kai realized that it was now or never to pursue his dream. With 250 employees, six locations and as one of Maine’s leading breweries, I’d say it has worked out. What is holding you back from kicking it in?

My brother Owen, the family beer aficionado, met and recorded this interview with Kai at Sebago’s new destination brewery on Main Street in Gorham. This is a great spot to meet and I highly recommend it. You can get a free tour of the working brewery, taste some new beers (and fan favorites), and even grab some lunch or dinner.

And if you’d like to put an entrepreneur in Congress to represent you, please check out my campaign page at martygrohman.com!

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Business in MaineMaine Business, Maine Entrepreneur

Ben Sprague, Bangor City Councilor, Host of The Maine Show, and VP at The First

July 27, 201607/27/16

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I very much enjoyed my conversation with fellow podcaster Ben Sprague. In addition to hosting The Maine Show, a podcast which features entrepreneurs and thought leaders from around the State, Ben is a Bangor City Councilor and VP of Business Development at The First (a Bangor-based community bank).

Ben is a much admired city councilor with excellent perspective and an interesting background. His podcast is highly recommended. It was a great pleasure to have him on the show. Here’s the episode:

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Business in Maine, Business Startupdoing business in Maine, Maine Business

Ben Davis of True Course Yachting

February 13, 201502/13/15

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This is officially the first episode of The Grow Maine Show that has mentioned The Northwest Passage.

Ben Davis of True Course Yachting has combined an upbringing on the ocean, a natural understanding of his client’s needs, and Maine’s yachtbuilding and refitting industry into a fast-growing Portland-based business.

And you’ll never guess who his first customer was.

Links mentioned in the show include the Gorham Savings Bank Launchpad and Envision Maine breakfast with David Herring.

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Business Startup, Envision MaineMaine Business

#17: Key Insights from Pete Vigue of Cianbro

February 18, 201402/18/14

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I had a great interview with Pete and he was very generous with his time so I split it into two sections – this is the second half. We sat down at Cianbro HQ in Pittsfield, Maine. Here are some quick insights that I took away – what are some of yours?

-Maine people don’t want anything more than an opportunity. When I see the pain and suffering that exists in this state, I feel guilty for the success that I’ve had. I want to allow our people to be part of the success.

-We do some crazy stuff. When you work together and create the right environment, anything’s possible. We’ve been identified as the healthiest and safest company in the country. There is huge opportunity in the State, it just takes a little hard work.

-Say you’re in a situation where nobody can get enough welders to bid on a key job. You can complain about that. But if you train 250 welders, you’ll have 250 welders. The other guy won’t. The companies that have the people get the work.

-We can’t recreate the past. In Maine, we build things. If we look at the effect of the pulp and paper industry, 70-80% of our business was pulp and paper, now it’s 6%. We’ve had to reinvent ourselves. That’s how we can build components for oil fields in Brewer.

-There will be tremendous demand for well-educated and skilled people. This is a North American and European problem. It isn’t a Maine problem. We have good quality of life. We have good availability of people and resources. Our people can do anything you put in front of them. So we spend hugely in training, and we export our knowledge and our skill.

Lastly: Cianbro outfitted the leading search engine company’s oblong cargo vessel. Pete is not at liberty to talk about it. But do you wanna be invited to the party, when they finally let on what they’re doing with it? Like the show on Facebook – it’s as good of a chance as any.

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Business in Maine, Maine EntrepreneursCianbro, Maine Business, Maine Entrepreneurs, Pete Vigue

#14: Nancy Marshall of Nancy Marshall Communications

January 28, 201401/28/14

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Nancy Marshall is one of Maine’s most remarkable entrepreneurs. From her days handling public relations for Sugarloaf, to today as CEO of one of Maine’s most well-known, longest-tenured, and successful marketing firms, Nancy’s built a brand that is practically unmatched in Maine. In fact, a research study by the Portland firm Critical Insights found that Nancy Marshall Communications was the state’s most recognized public relations or advertising agency. Recently, the firm has developed the Marshall plan, a 65 step coordinated, measured, and metered marketing attack; the last step of which is apparently to have a big party on Maine’s biggest ski mountain.

If this is something that sounds right for you, Nancy’s offering a free one-hour personal or business branding assessment, which you can find at www.marshallpr.com/growmaine . Nancy and her team will contact you to set up a time to meet, and I guarantee you’ll come out of there with some omigosh moments.

Nancy Marshall is not afraid to be awesome! Don’t be afraid to be awesome! And as always, help me get the word out, wouldja? I went to Gould Academy, and our longtime board chair Al Ordway (dearly departed and much missed) used to say, shake two hands for Gould today. Can you send two tweets for #Maine today? And if you follow me @growmaine I will follow you back!

Also: while we’re mentioning alma maters, Nancy has an MBA degree from Thomas College (yay, Laurie Lachance!) and undergraduate degree from Colby College (yay, LEED-Silver Colby College Museum of Art!).

Shortlink to this episode (makes it easy to mention it to someone): www.growmaineshow.com/nancy

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Maine Women EntrepeneursGrow Maine, Maine Business, Martin Grohman, Marty Grohman, Nancy Marshall, Nancy Marshall Communications, The Grow Maine Show, The PR Maven

Mick Dunn of Shift Energy LLC

January 17, 201401/17/14

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Mick Dunn is one of Maine’s most remarkable entrepreneurs. OK, well, he’s one of Australia’s most remarkable entrepreneurs, but he’s here in Maine. (Don’t you just love these Maine businesses that are national and international leaders?).

Mick’s got a background in commercial construction, and a multimillion dollar renewable energy business in a niche I’m guessing you don’t even think is legit, solar air heating. But if it’s done right, solar air heating can easily heat a gymnasium, and that’s what Mick’s company Shift Energy does.

So listen in as we get to hear some good Australian business expressions like ‘even the keel out’, and international perspective on doing business in Maine, including that it can be an insular market, and why that’s a good thing; as well as an introduction to Mick’s podcast, Risking Failure.

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Maine EntrepreneursMaine Business, Marty Grohman, Mick Dunn, Shift Energy, Solar, Solar Hot Air

#12: Corky Ellis of Kepware speaks at Envision Maine

January 2, 201401/02/14

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I am pleased to have the opportunity to record the Envision Maine series of entrepreneur talks and post it to my podcast for those who missed it. This talk by Corky Ellis of Kepware Technologies was originally given on December 11. With nearly 75 employees(over half of whom are engineers), Kepware is a noted success in Maine’s software landscape. They are like the Cisco Systems of industrial automation—developing the software that gets industrial machinery communicating.

Corky has great perspective and experience, and is passionate about the opportunity for Maine to make our educational system a sustained advantage. I hope you enjoy his presentation as much as I did! Remember “Why Not Us?”

And don’t forget to register for David Stone of Cashstar at Envision Maine on Wednesday January 8 at the Clarion Hotel in Portland! Enter discount “Grow Maine” at checkout to receive 20% off registration.

: Corky Ellis of @kepware speaks at Envision Maine

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Envision Maine, Maine EntrepreneursCorky Ellis, Kepware Technologies, Maine Business, Maine Entrepreneurs

#11: Ry Russell of The Saco Drive In

December 17, 201312/17/13

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This week, we’re joined by Ry Russell of The Saco Drive In, another awesome entrepreneur making it in the worst state in the USA for business! Ry took over the Saco drive in two years ago, and turned it from dying to profitable in just one season by showing first run films. But then, movie studios issued an ultimatum: no more film, we’re going digital. So with 30 days to save the theater, Ry, a facebook branding expert, leveraged his more than 25,000 fans to win a national prize from Honda Motor Company to pay for the conversion.

Like they say about entrepreneurship, jump off the cliff and put the plane together on the way down. It was either Shut Down and Cry, or go all out. And plus, as you’ll see, when you’ve got a portable jump starter, you’ve going to create raving fans with your customer service.

Something new this week – we’re collecting a master list, an EPIC list of resources for Maine entrepreneurs. Of course we’ve got MTI, MCED, MITC, and MVF, but actually we’ve got more than 50 so far, and counting. But you’ve probably got a great resource for Maine entrepreneurs that I don’t know about, so tweet it to me @growmaine, and I’ll add it to my list, and when it’s done I’ll tweet it back out with a map and contact information.

And as you may have heard, I’ve been saying ‘Don’t Be Afraid to be Awesome’ on my casts for the last few episodes. So, I’m taking my own advice, and going to ONCE a WEEK in 2014. The cast has been great, but it’s a little harder to promote between episodes, so I’m going for it! Cheers! DBATBA!

And if you want to hire Ry to work his magic for YOU, click here.

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Maine EntrepreneursFacebook Branding, Maine Business, Marty Grohman, Ry Russell, Saco Drive In, The Grow Maine Show

#10: Kurt Badenhausen of Forbes Magazine

December 2, 201312/02/13

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You’ve probably heard that Maine has been ranked the worst state in the union for business, but you may not know much about what’s behind those rankings. This week we dig deeper into the topic, with Kurt Badenhausen, senior editor of Forbes magazine, developer of the best known ranking. Kurt’s been doing this ranking for many years, really dives deep into the analysis, and offers lots of valuable perspective.
Maine is not actually last in any category, and scores better than New Hampshire in business costs, something that may surprise you. And what really surprised me was that a low cost of living won’t get you high in the ranking; and that access to education, arts and culture are among the most important factors in scoring well.
But still, I don’t know about having a worse quality of life than New Jersey.

So, do you think Maine deserves to be 50th? Leave a comment below.

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Maine Business Talk50 Best States for Business, Forbes Magazine, Grow Maine Show, Kurt Badenhausen, Maine Business, Maine Entrepreneurs

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