Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy

Raeann Wilson was born in Cabot, AR. As a breast cancer survivor, IV therapy was an integral part of Raeann’s recovery, and she became passionate about giving the same level of care to other post-operation patients. As the surgical coordinator at Shewmake Plastic Surgery, Raeann has extensive knowledge in surgical processes and patient care. This all gave her the skill and inspiration to create Zen Infusion, offering mobile, on-demand IV infusion therapy that serves a number of needs for the people of Central Arkansas. Kris Shewmake, M.D., FACS was born in Pine Bluff, AR. He earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from Hendrix College in Conway and a master’s degree in natural science from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He received his medical degree from UAMS, where he also completed a residency in general surgery. He was president of his class and elected into the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society (top 10% of the class). His eight years of surgical training after medical school included a General Surgery residency at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Medical Center and a Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery residency in Dallas at the University of Texas-Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Shewmake entered private practice in 1996 and was named Best Plastic Surgeon in Arkansas by his colleagues in 1999 and 2009.

Since starting Cooking in Bloom back in 2018, Denise Albert has given thousands of children hands-on cooking experience and nutritional education, imparting life skills contribute to their ongoing health and well-being throughout their lives. Even back in her days working in cardiac rehab, Denise knew that food is a powerful tool for learning. She started a nutrition education program that involved cooking meals with her patients, engaging taste, smell, and touch to great effect. When she and her family moved to Little Rock, she brought her pedagogy with her, founding Cooking in Bloom when she realized school curricula had gaps with regards to nutrition and sustainability. Denise's multi-sensory approach has since been put to use immersing pre-K through 12th-grade students in learning, using cooking to connect to many academic subjects like math, art, science, and history. The pandemic hit Denise's family-oriented business as hard as any, but she rallied and restructured to a mobile model, connecting through Zoom classrooms, allowing her to teach students in their own kitchens! Introducing people to thrilling new foods is the highlight of her job. When not in the classroom (virtual or otherwise), Denise likes to do outdoor activities with her family, such as gardening, biking, and taking their dogs to the park. Denise has an undergraduate degree in dietetics and a master's degree in public health.

Chelsea Wakefield, Ph.D., LCSW is a Jungian-oriented psychotherapist, couples therapist, dream worker, and workshop/retreat leader who works with individuals, couples and groups. For over twenty years, she has helped people move beyond the wounds of the past, access their archetypal potential, and live more vibrant and meaningful lives. Chelsea draws from a depth of training in clinical and transpersonal methods, helping people to integrate the insights of inner work into daily living. She has a passion for supporting women in developing their luminous potential.

Bemis Family Farms is a family-owned and operated holding company for three Bemis Family businesses. In 1992, Tracey and Donna Bemis purchased a tree farm and established Bemis Tree Farm with their two sons, Nathan and Jeremy The tree farm specializes in a variety of residential and commercial shade trees, evergreen trees, ornamental trees and shrubs. In 2012, the family business expanded into professional stump removal with the purchase of Stump Busters which then became known as Bemis Stump Busters. What started as five hives and a means to pollinate their family's existing commercial tree farm, Jeremy and his wife Emily quickly realized there were no beekeeping suppliers in their area and very little sources for information. Not wanting other new beekeepers to have the same difficult experience in getting started, Jeremy and his wife established the Bemis Honey Bee Farm in 2013. As the bee farm’s number of colonies began to grow, so did their business and the demand for more education. Bemis Honey Bee Farm now provides honey bees and offers a wide variety of beekeeping supplies, resources and educational classes. The informative classes are offered year round and range from beginner to queen rearing. The classes are hands-on and taught by qualified and experienced instructors. Two admission free events are held at Bemis Honey Bee Farm each year that are geared to be educational and entertaining for all. Bee Day is held in the spring and focuses on teaching and bettering beekeeping practices. This is also the day that packaged bees are picked up. The day is filled with food, fun and information for all ages. The number of people attending the event has doubled each year. The Arkansas Honey Festival is held in the fall and focuses on products from the hive, as well as honey production. A honey contest is held and tastings are open to the public. Free classes and activities are offered along with food and information. Both events feature many live demonstrations in the bee yard. With three generations of farmers and entrepreneurs, Bemis Family Farms looks forward to providing Arkansans with quality products, quality supplies and exceptional services. All three companies are run with the help of friendly and invaluable employees, family members and friends. We invite you to take a drive through the tree farm, visit the Bee Store to pick up a few supplies, and meet new friends in the tree and beekeeping industries.

This week, Kerry sits down for an interview with Nate Coulter, the Executive Director of Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) to find out all about the public library system, and what makes it such a pillar to the central Arkansas community!

Hank Kelley grew up in Heber Springs, AR. He received his Bachelors of Business Administration from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville where he graduated with honors. In the late 1970s he went to work in the northwest Arkansas real estate market and during that time met and married former Little Rock Mayor Jim Dailey’s sister, Stephanie Dailey. In 1980 they moved to central Arkansas and Kelley got his MBA in Finance and a Commercial Real Estate Brokerage License. He has instructed Real Estate courses at University of Arkansas at Little Rock and created the Endowed Scholarship to enable students to attend the U of A. Kelley is the CEO of Flake and Kelley Commercial Real Estate firm and over the past 35 years has represented clients that include AT&T, Panera Bread, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Acxiom, City of Little Rock Parks & Recreation and the Pulaski County School District.

Born in a small delta town in Mississippi, Percy Malone has lived and understands the problems of the poor; those often overlooked and forgotten. That is why, while serving in both Arkansas houses (first as a representative and later as a senator) Malone sponsored no less than 50 bills with a focus on protecting children, caring for the sick or incapacitated, and helping those living below the poverty line. He is a successful businessman who in 1975, founded the first AllCare Pharmacy in Arkadelphia, AR with a #2 pencil, ledger book, and a typewriter. Today he has over 17 community pharmacy locations across Arkansas. At a time when monopolies and big business are bankrupting smaller companies, Percy has stayed true to himself. Over the last 5 decades he has seen radical change in the pharmaceutical industry: From mom-and-pop drug stores with soda shops in the back to "big pharma"; from pencil and paper accounting to computer pharmacy tracking systems. Percy Malone has successfully led his company, AllCare Pharmacy, through the ever-changing complexities of business and consumerism in the 21st century.

Paul Allen Smith Jr is the oldest of four children, was born on March 12, 1960, in Little Rock, Arkansas. He grew up in McMinnville, Tennessee, in the Cumberland Mountains, where his father’s family had farmed for several generations and also operated an ornamental plant business. Smith calls himself a fourth-generation nurseryman and horticulturist. The family moved back to Little Rock when Smith was twelve due to a career opportunity for his father, who unexpectedly died just three months later. To cope with his grief, Smith planted a small garden in the backyard and began raising chickens. After graduating from Little Rock’s McClellan High School in 1979, he attended Hendrix College in Conway to major in biology, with plans of becoming a veterinarian. After graduation in 1983, he earned a Rotary International scholarship to study ornamental horticulture, garden design, and history during an eighteen-month stay at the University of Manchester in England. After returning home to Little Rock, Smith entered the nursery and garden design business with his family. He also became a private tour guide to European gardens and began teaching gardening workshops at the nursery. Regular appearances on local radio led to a weekly gardening segment on Little Rock television station KATV’s Daybreak show in 1989. It soon led to a syndicated program starting in 2000, P. Allen Smith’s Gardens, which was largely shot at Smith’s historic home in Little Rock’s Quapaw Quarter. The original Garden Home is a 1904 Colonial Revival cottage surrounded by a series of garden rooms designed by Smith. He purchased the house for one dollar and relocated it to a 15,000-square-foot vacant lot. Smith divides his time between that home and his 650-acre Garden Home Retreat at Moss Mountain Farm in Roland, Arkansas, which overlooks the Arkansas River Valley. At Moss Mountain Farm, Smith promotes the local-food movement, organic gardening, and the preservation of heritage poultry breeds. Smith founded the Heritage Poultry Conservancy in 2009. Smith is a Certified Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society and a board member of the Royal Oak Foundation, the U.S. affiliate of the National Trust of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. His awards and recognitions include the 2009 Arkansas Cultural Enrichment Award from the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, the 2011 4-H Celebration of Excellence Award, the Medal of Honor from the Garden Club of America, Garden Communicator Award from the American Nursery and Landscape Association (ANLA), Horticultural Communicator Award from the American Horticultural Society (AHS), and the Odyssey Award from the Hendrix College Board of Trustees honoring the achievements of Hendrix College alumni.

This week Kerry sits down for an interview with Mr. Tommy Foltz, editorial writer for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Tune in to hear about the big business of natural gas, Tom's pivot from sports to politics to writing, and about the rocky journey of recovering from personal tragedy.

Today on Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy I sit down for a conversation with a power couple that has deep roots in Arkansas: the 2019 Farm Family of the Year, Jamie Anderson and his wife Elizabeth Burns Anderson. There are not many businesses that last past the second generation, and certainly not the third. But Anderson Farms, a fish hatchery, and Farmers Bank and Trust in Magnolia are the exception. Founded in 1949 by his great grandfather, Jamie Anderson became the fourth generation to run their fish farm, made up of 3,300 acres of water with an 11,000 square foot fish hatchery. This makes them the largest producer of bait fish in the world. Elizabeth Burns Anderson is the fifth generation to run her family business, Farmers Bank and Trust, founded over 100 years ago by her great, great grandfathers. Listen for some fish and finance talk. Learn farm folklore: about how the Anderson Fish Farm began from fish caught in the Bayou Meto, the different types of bait fish available, and a debate over farm raised vs wild caught salmon.

In 2015, before Dr. Sybil Hampton’s mother died, she said to Sybil, “Your whole life has been being in these places that people don’t expect you to be.” Never truer words spoken about my guest Dr. Sybil Hampton, whose first unexpected claim to fame (and she has many) is being among the second group of African American students to integrate Central High School, on the heels of the Little Rock Nine. You would think such a traumatic experience at such a young age would have soured Ms. Hampton on any type of organized schooling. But No! Ms. Hampton has scores of higher learning degrees and has dedicated her life work to the field of education. Hearing glass ceiling breaker Sybil’s firsthand accounts will inspire you, broaden you, and forever change you for the better. Listen as we celebrate black history month and get a history lesson from this educator along with stories of hope from a woman with profound experiences.

This week, listen to Kerry’s conversation with Dr. David Montague, professor of criminology at UALR. Tune in as they dive into some of the most fascinating parts of his life and career, including the legacy of his mother, Raye Montague, his work busting white-collar drug crimes, and, perhaps most interestingly, his time on the JFK Assassination Records Review Board, when Kerry asks what we’re all thinking: Who killed JFK?

Originally Aired 6/24/2022 This week on Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy, we interview Mr. Arlo Washington, president of PEOPLE Trust Loan Fund, a financial institution offering small loans to neighbors in need. Arlo is a self-made man with a Cinderella story. He is the epitome of a hardworking, creative entrepreneur, who sees opportunities and listens to where life leads him, all with the heart of a teacher. Learn what the term “unbanked” means and how Arlo turned his barber’s chair into a barber school (Washington Barber School), and his school into a financial institution, eventually founding the PEOPLE Trust Loan Fund, a non-profit financial institution serving low-income communities.

Randy Hankins was born in 1950, growing up in Warren, AR. Going by his stage name, Craig O'Neill has spent 50 years in the broadcast business, with the last 24 of those being at Little Rock, Arkansas’s THV11. O’Neill officially signed off for the last time as news anchor on December 29, 2023. Before TV, Craig had a successful radio career on KKYK and then B98.5, where he was famous for his prank phone calls. Eventually, O'Neill made the transition from fun-loving radio personality to respected TV news anchor. Craig has since interviewed Presidents and music icon Dolly Parton alike. He has danced on the Ellen DeGeneres show, announced Razorback football games, emceed more than 9,000 charity events helping raise over $40 million dollars in Arkansas. His passion project, and probably his retirement career, is reading to grade school children through AR Kids Read. Using his acting skills, infectious personality, and unforgettable voice he hopes to ignite some lifetime readers. He also works with Hearts and Hooves — an organization that teaches children and adults with disabilities to ride and handle horses.

Born in landlocked Little Rock, AR, Olivia Wyatt moved to Rockaway Beach in New York after college and fell deeply in love with sailing. Today, she's captain to Juniper, a 34-ft haunted sailboat moored in the Soloman Islands of the Pacific Ocean, in addition to being an award-winning filmmaker, TV producer, and writer. Olivia has worked on racing boats, boat deliveries, and international charter voyages, with over 11,000 nautical miles to her credit. Along with her passion for the sea is her calling to meet and bring awareness of endangered, indigenous people through her sailing adventures, storytelling, and filmmaking. Her 2015 feature-length documentary Sailing the Sinking Sea is candy for the senses. You swim underwater, sail on turquoise seas, learn sea gods’ mythology and watch Moken couples fall in love. Today Olivia has set her sights on the 2026 Golden Globe race. Some of the rules are: Sailors must sail alone, non-stop, in retrofitted sailboats using 1968 technology. The race starts in France and sails from West to East around the Great Capes. Interestingly, more people have been to space than have rounded the Capes, and Olivia will be the first American woman to do so solo. Tune in to hear firsthand from the brilliant, brave, beautiful, ambitious, award-winning ethnographic filmmaker and sailor, Captain Oliva O Wyatt.

Today on Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy I’ll be talking with a fellow North Little Rock, Ridge Road Junior High graduate, Mr. Val Hansen. If you grew up in North Little Rock, then you’ve eaten at what was once perhaps the only hamburger joint in town and Val’s family business, Hansen Hamburgers. Today, mom and pop burger joints have been replaced by corporate fast food chains and Val has moved from working the grill to a very successful real estate business, Val Hansen ReMax Properties, in the Capital City of Arkansas. Listen to Val and I talk about how he started and grew his successful business, the current real estate market, and what happened to Hansen Hamburger.

Today on Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy we're looking back on my interview with Charles Morgan, the founder, chairman and CEO, from 1972 – 2008, of Acxiom, the pioneering and leading data base company headquartered in Central Arkansas. An extraordinary entrepreneur and visionary, he is also really fun, outspoken, and a racecar driver. While many of his colleagues have retired, he is going strong with his newest company, First Orion, a consumer protection app for phone privacy. If you have a T-Mobil device, than you are using his technology. These days, Charles serves on the board of INUVO, a publicly traded, technology company for internet advertisers, and more recently released his second book Now What which follows his tell-all-book, Matters of Life and Data. Listen to find out how this IBM engineer turned his company from a 25 employee start-up to a publicly-traded, billion-dollar tech giant in just 30 years, and managed to become an author, race car driver and so much more along the way.

My guest today on Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy is the renowned trumpeter, musician and performer, Mr. Rodney Block. If you live in Little Rock, or close by, then chances are you may have had the pleasure of hearing this gifted musician blow his horn, all while slipping in some of his encouraging and uplifting words about humanity and compassion for all peoples. This Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas, Arkansas has performed pop, jazz, hip hop, Latin, and even country music with legends like Earth, Wind and Fire, Bobby Brown, the Jazz royalty Ellis Marsalis, soul singer Lalah Hathaway, and the great R&B artists Johnny Gill, Eric Benet and Joe. And Rodney often plays with legendary hip-hop artist Doug E. Fresh. Listen to learn about the business of music, how Rodney has made a living in the music industry, how he came to perform on national and international stages, and why his greatest role models are still his mom and dad.

Chelsea Wakefield, PhD, LCSW is a Jungian oriented psychotherapist, couples therapist, dream worker, workshop and retreat leader who works with individuals, couples and groups. She has spent twenty five years facilitating people in moving beyond the wounds of the past, accessing their archetypal potential and living more vibrant and meaningful lives. Chelsea draws from a depth of training in clinical and transpersonal methods, helping people to integrate the insights of inner work into daily living. She has published two books, which are valued by both clinical professionals and educated lay audiences, Negotiating the Inner Peace Treaty and In Search of Aphrodite: Women, Archetypes and Sex Therapy.

This week Kerry talks with Jim Keet, and his son Jake, about their string of successful restaurant ventures from Wendy's, to Taziki's, to Cypress Social, and more! Learn what it takes to operate a franchise and hear their prediction about the future of fast food.