Looking back: Christopher Gaston

Looking back as usual as I always do, the interview with Christopher Gaston had a higher degree of difficulty than most. It was one of the few interviews where I have self imposed restrictions on the interview.

Given his profession I was careful to avoid anything that sounded like legal advice. I also wanted to stay away from any extensive personal views on the immigration issues. 

So in the end I was left with life as a immigration attorney with a little bit of his background thrown in. I did find his background interesting and I could not help but think that his background gave him the perfect stage to be an immigration attorney.

I actually learned a lot from this interview that I hope to integrate into future shows. 

Click here to listen to interview. 

Looking back: Annilu - Ann Smith and Lucienne Morisson

Annilu. This interview came about in quite interesting circumstances. I became aware of this company and its product purely out of necessity. It was Christmas time and I needed to have some traditional Jamaican cake and did not have a mind to make it from scratch. I didn't even know that products existed that would allow for the preparation of the Jamaican fruit cake off the shelf. So while at the grocery store I came across the red box that would put me on the way to the interview.

This interview is one of the few that I go back and listen to purely for no reason. Usually I don't go back and listen to my interviews unless I need to review or remind myself of something. But this one was relaxing. I found it quite amusing that I was greeted with "Hello Mushtaq from sunny Jamaica." Interestingly that interview was done when it was rather cold here in Florida so I had to try not to bust out laughing.

I would file this interview under entertaining. While I was educated on the product and background of the company, I liked the tone of this discussion. It was light. The most memorable thing about that interview was that Lucienne and Ann Marie were turned away by a local company when they made their pitch initially. So it is nice to see that their products are now on the shelf not only in Jamaica but various cities across the United States.

Can't wait for them to expand thier product line. Hopefully they are willing to come back and talk about future product launches.

Click here to listen. 

Looking Back - The Red Panty Club with Fran Asaro

Well, it is not totally wrong to say this interview was not what I thought it was going to be about! There was an interesting “first” with this interview: it is the only one that I had a do-over. In fact, the end product was actually the third attempt. Of all the interviews, this is the one that gets a do-over!

This interview actually has a story behind it (as all my interviews do) I met Fran in the summer of 2013 and we spoke by phone. We were introduced by a mutual friend Yvonne Jones, and for two people who had never met before we spoke for well over 40 minutes. After hanging up I decided I would have her on the show at some point. As 2013 drew to a close, I wanted to have a show that was outside the usual…ermm…. lines and she came to mind. 

As far as I knew, she isn’t Caribbean American (well she is now, I am claiming her!) and I would have her come on to talk about Thrive Any Way. I figured we would have fun introducing her to the target demographic and that should be enough of a twist (seriously I am not doing this on purpose).

So the conversation mid December went like:

Me: Hi Fran 

Fran: Hi Mushtaq

(Usual pleasantries ensue, blah blah blah)

Me: How about being a guest on the show?

Fran: Great. Interestingly I have a new project we could talk about.

Me: Awesome. Tell me about it.

Fran: It is called The Red Panty Club and….

Me: Sold! 

Fran: What you didn’t hear all about the…..

Me: Yeah Yeah Yeah! I’m in!

Listen to the interview at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/caribbeanbusinessdigestradio/2014/01/15/the-red-panty-club-with-fran-asaro