Listen Now!

Business Talk 24-7

Curated Collection Of The Best Interviews From Across The Network





Derryll Wristpus of Real Soul Living Inc.

IMG_3241

Derryll Wristpus is a passionate human being who has always seemed to find himself encouraging, giving advice, or simply listening to others. When he was asked, “Why do you always let people ‘dump’ on you?” He later realized and came to always answer, “I guess it’s because I don’t feel like they’re ‘dumping’ on me.”

Coming from a heavily involved church-going family, he was the youngest of three children. With an absentee alcoholic father, Derryll was raised in a very strict single parent home in northeast Indiana, where there wasn’t much value put on the life of a young black male. This message became abundantly clear, when at the age of eleven, he was present when his 22-year-old brother lost his life in the alley behind their house, at the hands of the police. In spite of it all, he always felt in his spirit that there was something different in store for him.

Just after turning seventeen and suddenly finding himself homeless, he began experimenting with alcohol and drug use, in order to numb the pain. Derryll ultimately made a key decision about his life when he witnessed the birth of his son. He got off the streets, promising himself that he would not allow his son to have the same history of seeing his life go down the same road of his own father, or end like his brothers. He began embracing a variety of teachings such as Les Brown, Stephen R. Covey, Anthony Robbins, Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, and others with the intentions of understanding who he is as an individual, and finding his spiritual path on his terms, and in God’s grace.

Derryll spent ten years working in the school system with kids that were having learning difficulties, and nine years as a director for the YMCA developing and running two Before/After School Programs. He also worked as a youth counselor at his church. This gave him a tremendous amount of experience working with children, adolescents and teens.

After a fall out at the church and a failed marriage, he found himself at a crossroads in his life. However, no matter what happened, there was always a part of him that refused to believe that his life would be all about disappointments, failures and tragedy. He quit his job, gave everything away, and with his last check of seven hundred dollars in his pocket, moved to Baltimore, where he didn’t know anyone. Shortly thereafter, he began working for Johns Hopkins Hospital.

After spending three years in Baltimore, he moved to Atlanta where he released his first book, When Souls Speak “I Live,” a book of poetry and short stories. Derryll then began an extensive training program by Anthony Robbins and Chloe Madanes, two leaders in human needs psychology, and founders of Strategic Intervention. This was an opportunity to finally put the gift of making others feel comfortable enough to open up and share things that they would otherwise keep within, with the principles of SI, Marriage Preparation and Education training. Finally he’s doing what he truly believes he was put here to do; help and serve others. Today, Derryll still lives in Atlanta and is now a Life and Relationship Breakthrough Strategist, Speaker and Consultant. “Life is truly a journey, and the things we experience are simply life’s lessons and blessings… if we decide to give them empowering meanings that serves us.”

Liz Thomas, Business Development Manager of ETS Solutions

IMG_3220

Liz Thomas is the Business Development Manager at ETS Solutions. She has been with the company for about a year and fulfills the business development role.  In addition, she is in charge of all marketing and public relations for ETS. On a daily basis, Liz is involved in the Atlanta Business Alliance, the Metro Atlanta Chamber, and many other business associations. She attends networking events all over the city and helps bring in new business. Liz graduated from Georgia State University in 2010 with a B.B.A. in Marketing.

Based in Kennesaw, Georgia, ETS Solutions is technology consulting firm in the areas of voice, data, and cloud. Founded in 2002, ETS has been helping businesses save money on their telecom expenses as well as develop IT strategies for over 13 years. We believe in taking a holistic approach to understanding a company’s technology infrastructure in order to develop and offer an integrated solution that creates business value for our clients. At absolutely no cost, we conduct a technology assessment where we review current phone and internet bills to identify
needs and/or pain points. After the assessment, we provide consultation to the business owner on technology as it relates to phone systems, VoIP platforms, data circuits, and backup circuits, and cloud solutions like disaster recovery or Office 365.

ETS then delivers a solution based upon offerings from our carriers and IT partnerships. We represent dozens of service providers. We provide objective options that will arm clients with knowledge so they can make an informed business decision. Once a decision is made, ETS assists with the implementation of the solution by managing the install process and staying on for the length of service to provide 24/7 customer support.. ETS Solutions takes on the details of clients’ telecom and cloud solutions so they can focus on growing their business.

It’s Technology Made Easy ®.

Wil Johnson of Sports Youth Fitness Training and Rico Lowe of Little Sports

IMG_2652

Wil Johnson is Owner and Operating partner of AllSports Youth Fitness Training, LLC, a youth fitness company whose mission is to impact the quality of life and health of youth through the innovative  effective youth fitness sports training.  These tools are needed to become healthier, physically stronger,  to motivate others to live well, and challenge others in creative ways to live with wholeness, balance, and healthier lives.  His goal is to combat childhood obesity, help the youth with fundamental functional  movement and invoke long-lasting change that will positively impact our community.  Wil has been serving the Metro Atlanta for over 15 + years, with compassion that breaks all boundaries, and limits.

Wil Johnson is also Co-Founder and COO of AllSports Select, LLC, a web base multi sports profile company that connects student athletes with college communities nationally and abroad.  They build partnerships with student athletes, parents, colleges and universities, through advance proprietary electronic media.  Wil is known for his dynamic leadership, and sports training marketing, and sales strategies that improved revenue streams, enhance corporate image and increase customer loyalty. He also brings that creativity and leadership in his work with youth through sports and agility training.

As a seasoned sales and marketing leader Wil has utilized his creativity to capture and expand market share, develop best practice business models, launch innovative new products and build high performance teams. His strength in effectively collaborating with all segments of a business allows him to execute campaigns that have taken organizations to peak levels of performance.

Prior to joining Allsports Select, Inc., Wil was an IBM Sales Specialist who was credited with identifying and acquiring over 200 opportunities for over $100 million in  new business, leading to the highest growth rate on  his team. He developed protocol for procedures to retain and improve account relationships resulting in an increase of 65% in add-on sales, coached and mentored employees to increase individual productivity and performance levels, and developed and presented product marketing strategies and sales tactics for account teams.  In that same position, Wil also generated a 30% close rate and over $53 million in sales revenue, Enterprise and SMB.

As an IBM Complex Bid Manager, Wil coached, mentored and supervised proposal team members and contractors, identified and resolved issues and conflicts within proposal teams and provided company historical and financial data while brining proposals to successful completion ensuring quality and on-time delivery.  His  greatest asset is that of providing leadership and creating the proper atmosphere that encourages collaboration within teams, quality, timeliness, decisiveness, open communications and speed of execution – all of which are key traits for working with youth who seek quality education and athletic opportunities as students and as graduates.

Wil attended Wilmington College (OH), holds certification in Youth Fitness, CPR, AED, Youth Coaching,Concussion Safety, QBS, Signature Selling, IIRC Training, NLP Studies, LDP, STG Top Gun,  and STG ; He received 13 awards during his time with IBM, and also recognition by United States Executive Branch for volunteer contributions.  Wil is a coach, mentor, teacher, and motivational speaker to youth both in business and in service to his community.

 

IMG_2651

Sally Macaulay, Executive Director of Marietta Cobb Museum of Art

IMG_2776

Sally Macaulay is the Executive Director for the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art. Sally earned a Bachelor of Arts from Florida State University and is very active in the community. She sits on several local Boards of Trustees and is a member of North Metro Church. Sally is actively involved in Kiwanis Club of Marietta where she has served chairing numerous committees and has served on the Kiwanis Board of Trustees. Sally is also the President of the United Arts of Cobb, and has been inducted into Women of Achievement for the YWCA. She is a 2011 graduate from Arts Leaders of Atlanta, 2013 graduate of Leadership Cobb and a 2015 graduate of Honorary Commanders.

She currently resides in Kennesaw with husband, Hugh and their 3 children – Katie (21) Claire (20) and Hugh (17).