Business
At the height of the economic recession in 2009, Michael Brody-Waite quit his job at a Fortune 50 company to become an aspiring entrepreneur. Looking back now, he humbly admits, he had no idea what he was doing. "I know it says I'm CEO, but I had no idea how to be a CEO, how to run the business … We were creating an industry that had never been done before without any investors or advisors." But 16 years of sobriety and three powerful words - experience, strength and hope - gave Brody-Waite the unwavering will to push on. "For me, getting clean was the hardest thing that I ever did, and so I started saying, well, how did I do that? And I went back to those words. I needed to find experience, strength and hope as an entrepreneur." Six years later, his startup was bought by a publicly traded company. Brody-Waite is now the CEO of the Nashville EC, giving back to the very organization that helped him years ago. Only this time, he is offering his personal experiences as a mentor, his strengths navigating the often confusing community waters and a hope to better connect the local entrepreneur ecosystem. "In recovery, I was always taught you can't keep anything unless you give it away." Included in this episode are stories and perspectives from local entrepreneurs: LeShane Greenhill (Founder and CEO of Sagents and Sales Cocktail), Julia Polk (Chief Strategy Officer and CFO of IQuity) and Shawn Glinter (Founder and CEO of Pendant Biosciences). All three attribute their success to the mentorship they received, and today each pay it forward serving in a variety of mentor roles.