Business

The best designs are difficult to forget if they tap into the viewer's imagination.

On this episode of Downtown Depot, host Austin Meek is joined by Kelly Harp, co-owner and designer of Harp Design Co. Kelly lays out the long road that brought her and her husband Clint back to Waco, the beginnings of their partnership with Chip and Joanna Gaines, and how she deals with managing her burgeoning public persona. Meek also shines the Small Business Spotlight on Danea Anderson of Waco Haunted Houses. 

Social media has become the most important way for consumers to solicit and receive customer service from a brand. It can either make or break a business.

SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOW THE NUMBER ONE WAY CONSUMERS REACH OUT FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE.  SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIST NICOLLE SOTO (SOH-toh) SPECIALIZES IN HELPING SMALL BUSINESSES ENGAGE WITH CONSUMERS ONLINE.

Social media engagement is important because it gives you direct insight into what your audience

There's one question you should be asking yourself each day. In this episode of Business Review, Tom Corley, speaker and author of Rich Habits, explains what this question is and how it drives success. 

THERE’S AN IMPORTANT, DRIVING QUESTION YOU SHOULD BE ASKING YOURSELF. AUTHORITY ON HABITS AND WEALTH CREATION, TOM CORELY, EXPLAINS WHAT THIS QUESTION IS, AND WHY IT WILL STEER YOU TOWARD SUCCESS.

Most successful people, especially entrepreneurs, they have a vision of their future selves and their future lives. A vision actually gives you a clear idea of where you want to go and who you want to be. Your vision, 

Matt Quade, Assistant Professor of Management, explinas that ethical leadership compounded by supervisor-induced stress can lead to employee deviance and turnover.

On its face or alone, ethical leadership, we would not say would have detrimental impact on things like deviance of employees or whether or not they'd want to leave. However, when paired with stress, specifically stress that's coming from that same leader, then it can kind of have a mitigating effect on those outcomes.

QUADE'S RESEARCH SHOWED THAT EMPLOYEE'S WHO RECEIVED CONFLICTING INFORMATION FROM A SUPERVISOR, WHO HAD TO GO THROUGH A LOT OF RED TAPE TO PERFORM THEIR JOB, OR OTHER ETHICAL QUANDRIES DON'T FEEL SUPPORTED AND ARE MORE LIKELY TO 

Does customer satisfaction really influence firm performance? Dr. Ashley Otto, Assistant Professor of Marketing, analyzed over a quarter centrury of data, and the results were surprising.

Focusing on satisfied customers is something that is really critical and valuable for a firm. This meta analysis found that there is a positive relationship between customer satisfaction and firm performance and that more satisfied customers are going to lead to more advanced superior marketplace performance.

From a business perspective, this is good news. You have satisfied customers, it's going to be likely to lead to  

This week on Downtown Depot, host Austin Meek is joined by real estate agent Gregg Glime to talk about his Waco history. He also shines the Small Business Spotlight on Massimo Di Campli of Di Campli's Italian Ristorante. 

More and more companies are asking employees to take an active role in Information Security.  Doctor A.J. Burns, Assistant Professor of Information Systems discusses the role of our emotions and what companies can do to boost engagement in security.

MORE AND MORE COMPANIES ARE ASKING EMPLOYEES TO TAKE AN ACTIVE ROLE IN INFORMATION SECURITY. DOCTOR A.J. BURNS, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS. DISCUSSES THE ROLE OF OUR EMOTIONS AND WHAT COMPANIES CAN DO TO BOOST ENGAGEMENT IN SECURITY. 

Emotions are these really amazing behavioral intermediaries, meaning that behaviors flow through 

Scotty Watson talks about how Improvisational theatre helps him understand how his customers are wired.

(New installments of the Business Review are on hold due to Covid-19.  This is a repeat of a previously aired segment.)

By day, Scotty Watson is Chief Marketing Officer at the Provident Loan Society of New York… a not-for-profit organization of pawn shops in New York City offering short-term cash advances.  By night, he teaches improvisational theatre…  as a veteran of Chicago’s renowned second city troupe, Watson says the skill works well in increasing his marketing business.  He’s found improv helps him connect better with 

In Episode 89 of Downtown Depot, show host Austin Meek interviews Dr. Tyrha Lindsey-Warren, a Professor of Marketing at Baylor University. Dr. Tyrha discusses the hollowness of “virtue signaling” by corporate brands, her work with the Waco Family & Faith International Film Festival, and how the city can be more racially inclusive. Before that interview, Austin learns about the pop-up vendor fair East Side Market from one of its founders, Andreas Zaloumis.

Greg Leman discusses a program that helps businesses fine tune their product ideas.

(New installments of the Business Review are on hold due to Covid-19.  This is a repeat of a previously aired segment.)

Product research and development can take years - but what if the timeline could be accelerated?  According to Dr. Greg Leman, accelerated commercialization can save small businesses a lot of time and money.

“It’s very predictable what kinds of things could derail you. There’s technology risk, you know, your contraption might not work. You have market risk. You could misgauge the size or the urgency or the   

Ben Goldberg talks about running a family business.

(New installments of the Business Review are on hold due to Covid-19.  This is a repeat of a previously aired segment.) 

“When you run a family business there’s a lot that goes into that, you deal with both the business side, the employee side, the family side, and then the individual relationship side. I had to make that migration of knowing when to call my dad “Dad” and when to call him by his first name, “Joel.””

Ben Goldberg, CEO of Aurico, says the family business started in an upstairs bedroom of their home. His father saw an opportunity to combine his naval intelligence experience during the Vietnam era with his 

Craig Ceccanti credits their success to the intimate partnership the company has with their franchisees. 

(New installments of the Business Review are on hold due to Covid-19.  This is a repeat of a previously aired segment.)

Social art pioneer Pinot’s Palette is the pinnacle of the popular paint-and-sip industry. Co-founder Craig Ceccanti credits their success to the intimate partnership the company has with their franchisees. He says combining new technology with owner and customer feedback gives them the edge over their competition.”

“Speed is absolutely critical in innovation, so as these ideas come in from the field, you have to have a team that’s prepared to absorb that and bounce it off of the other lessons learned we’ve had nationwide,

Award-winning chef Craig Hartman shares in this episode of the Business Review a lesson he learned the hard way — you can’t do it all yourself. 

(New installments of the Business Review are on hold due to Covid-19.  This is a repeat of a previously aired segment.)

Known as one of the country’s top chefs, Craig Hartman used to pride himself on providing the most intricate and artistic culinary creations around. But he realized that success was dependent entirely on his own efforts. To gain freedom from nearly four decades of high-adrenaline, 80-hour workweeks, 

In episode 87 of Downtown Depot, show host Austin Meek interviews Michele Brown, Department Lead of the Culinary Arts program at TSTC Waco. Michele predicts how dining will look in a post-pandemic world, and dishes on the types of cuisine Central Texans are hungry for. Before that interview, Austin hears from David Laws of the Better Business Bureau who details the organizations effort to create an ethical marketplace for the Heart of Texas.