Neil A. Carousso produces NewsNation original “Kurt’s Country” – a celebration of country music and a slice of Americana with host Kurt Bardella.
-
Show Me the Money! Acclaimed Actor’s Advice for Making Better Business Presentations
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — There are clear parallels between business presentations and acting on the big screen and that starts with knowing your audience.
“Acting and improvisation and storytelling are really great platforms for helping people in lots of businesses and lots of situations. And one of the ways that principally helps people is by making the activity of selling or presenting a human activity, which is what performance really is all about,” said award-winning Broadway and television actor Adam Grupper on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank.
The “Law & Order” and “Homeland” actor said, too often, people make the mistake of reciting a speech without taking cues from the audience.
“We forget that it’s a two-way street that we want to connect with our partners, we want to connect with the people that we’re talking with, which means that we have to be receptive to what’s coming from them,” said Grupper.
Outside of show business, he works with corporate clients to help them improve their performances in the boardroom and overcome anxiety when delivering a presentation or sales pitch.
“Nervousness and stage fright has to do with when your focus is directed internally, you start thinking, ‘what am I doing?’ And when you start doing that, then your internal voice that starts to be self-critical kicks into gear,” said Grupper. “The trick to getting out of stage fright is always to push your energy outward. It means that you have to be attentive to your partner – ‘What are they doing?’ not ‘what am I doing?'”
The “Two Weeks Notice” lawyer told WCBS 880 that the most common question he’s asked by presenters is “What do I do with my hands?” Grupper advises businesspeople to not be preoccupied with their own body language. Rather, he said, they should focus on the information that they are conveying.
“Remember that what you have to convey is important, that what you have to convey is something that will be a benefit to your audience. It’s not just a self-serving thing. What you’re doing is for your mutual benefit and it’ll be even more to your mutual benefit, if you are prepared to take what somebody gives you and then incorporate that,” Grupper said.
He noted sometimes presenters need to be prepared to go off-script and improvise to connect with their audiences.
Grupper, who recently played “The Wizard” in “Wicked” on Broadway, recommends professionals be able to succinctly explain what they do and why it’s important. Additionally, he said they need to be prepared to make professional connections in any situation, not just networking events.
See how to make a great sales presentation and connect with an audience on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight video above.
-
Trailblazing Home Inspector Explains What to Look Out for When Buying a House in Red-Hot Real Estate Market
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Home inspections are one of the most important steps in buying a house.
Jacqueline Gathers familiarized herself with common plumbing and heating issues in her 30 years working for the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). When her husband died of cancer in 2017, she took over the franchise for Pillar to Post, which he had purchased a year earlier.
“I was very, very nervous because the home inspection industry is a white male-dominated industry. So, I had concerns about how I would get business,” she said on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank.
Gathers became the city’s first licensed Black female home inspector.
“Once I started and I kept at it and I’m really good at what I do, I know what I’m talking about, people just kind of disregarded the fact that I was a female and an African American, and they started to give me business based on my expertise,” said Gathers.
She began pitching her services to realtors by going door-to-door to introduce herself and offering free inspections.
“I know all the realtors had a guy that they used, but I just wanted them to give me an opportunity to do business with me.”
Gathers would produce home inspection reports within the same day, which she called a “game changer” for her business.
She told WCBS 880 she and her three full-time home inspectors are busy, sometimes, with multiple inspections per client because cash buyers are gobbling up homes so quickly. She says people are eager to buy in New York City and stresses the value of home inspections for co-ops and condos even in new buildings.
“What we look for in co-ops and condos is moisture in places that’s not visible to the eye,” said Gathers. “We check the outlets, particularly the kitchen and bathrooms, to make sure they’re properly GFI so if water gets in them, it won’t spark and cause a fire.”
Foundation issues are the primary reason why clients may walk away from a deal, but Gathers said that only happens in about one percent of cases at Pillar to Post.
“When we look at houses, we always like to let our buyers know that the cosmetic stuff we’re not concerned about. It’s the main arteries of the house like the roof, the foundation, the electrical, the plumbing, the heating and cooling systems – those are issues that will cost you money down the road and that’s what we really kind of focus on.”
See more home buying tips on the Small Business Spotlight video above.
-
Tracy McGrady Launches Ones Basketball League in Brooklyn
Executive Produced by Carousso Enterprises, LLC.
Brooklyn, NY — NBA Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady debuted his Ones Basketball League (OBL) at Major R. Owens Community Center in Brooklyn where athletes ages 18 and over competed in a one-on-one hoops competition for $10,000.
Aliyah Funschelle and Tyler Tierno cover for NY2C’s On The Call, executive produced by Carousso Enterprises.
-
Former ABC President Launches MOJO Sports App to Return Fun to Youth Athletics
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — MOJO Sports is on a mission to keep youth sports fun.
The company was founded by Ben Sherwood, former Disney-ABC Television Group and ABC News president, who witnessed first-hand how youth sports can be stressful for both kids and parents. For 14 years, he was the soccer coach for his two sons. He often took calls on the practice field from then-Disney CEO Bob Iger while trying to organize drills.
“I had a PDF from 1994 for a soccer team and a book called ‘Soccer for Dummies’ that I bought at Barnes & Noble – when there used to be these bookstores where you could buy a book – and I did the best I could. And Lord knows I probably messed up a bunch of soccer careers, because I really didn’t have any idea what I was doing,” said Sherwood on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank.
He started MOJO Sports to put the fun back in youth sports, citing research that roughly 70 percent of kids dropout of organized athletics by the age of 13 because it wasn’t enjoyable anymore.
“We set out with MOJO to make sports more fun for kids, easier for coaches and stress-free for parents,” said Sherwood. “And so if you can take the stress and the pressure of all that out of the equation, you have more chance(s) of families participating and kids considering the play.”
He told WCBS 880 the app already has 100,000 monthly active users since its launch in February 2021. It provides training resources and short videos of practice drills.
“Our machine generates a practice for you that fits the exact amount of time you’ve got, it tells you exactly the equipment you’re going to need, and then, gives you high-quality videos that are about a minute to a minute and a half long that show you the activities that you’re going to do in the order you’re going to do them with coaching tips and coaching points,” he said.
“All of these activities are age appropriate, developmentally appropriate for your team, and they’ve been vetted and approved by the best organizations in sports.”
MOJO Sports has partnered with Major League Baseball, NFL Flag Football and Jr. NBA to develop the curriculum. Sherwood told the WCBS Small Business Spotlight that the professional sports leagues recognize the connection between fandom and playing the sport growing up. It is also their talent pipeline.
The MOJO Sports app, available on iOS and Android, is free for coaches and youth sports teams, but parents can buy additional resources with a subscription.
“There’s additional content that families can purchase for a subscription fee of about five bucks a month or about 60 bucks a year,” said Sherwood, continuing, “With that additional subscription fee, you get access to additional content that you can work on at home with your kids if you want to give your kids additional benefits and additional video and additional content to help them get better at sports.”
See how the MOJO Sports app works to keep kids engaged and take the pressure off parent coaches on the Small Business Spotlight video above.
-
LI Kosher Meat Business Tames Inflation with Made in USA Products
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
GREAT NECK, N.Y. (WCBS 880) — Food prices, including meat, have skyrocketed in recent months due to global supply chain disruptions and increased labor costs. A Great Neck-based kosher meat company has been able to keep food prices at bay with a unique direct-to-consumer business that sources its prime cuts in the United States.
“In our clientele, the main thing they care about is having the supply at that consistent level,” said Elliot Moscowitz of Prairie Street Prime, which caters to the luxury kosher meat market.
“We have a USDA Prime program, which is graded. We have lamb, we have veal, we have dry age and fish,” said Moscowitz on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank.
When inflation started to spike earlier this year, Prairie Street Prime began to flash freeze their meats at 20 degrees below zero to ramp up supply. That decision in anticipation of rising food prices paid dividends for the Long Island company.
“A kosher market is a very small market compared to the non-kosher and we’re working in only the highest-end of those kosher markets. So, one of the ways to accomplish that is to make sure that you have adequate inventory in all the product groups,” Moscowitz said.
Prairie Street Prime has warehouses throughout the United States that enables them to offer next-day delivery.
Moscowitz wasn’t always in the kosher meat business. He had a long and successful career on Wall Street as a commodities and foreign exchange trader.
He started Prairie Street Prime first as a club in Brussels where he lived for a time while his wife was on assignment for the United Nations assisting with the Syrian refugee crisis. He imported kosher meats monthly from France and quickly realized there were few direct-to-consumer options for the top 5 percent of the market.
“I didn’t want to be one of those people that spent their whole time thinking about something and never doing it and regretting it later,” said Moscowitz. “So, I’ve spent three years devoting my life to understanding this and building this platform.”
Prairie Street Prime has invested heavily in video production. Their digital library of cooking videos introduces new customers to the brand.
“We’re not only disrupting the kosher e-commerce platform space, but we’re also disrupting the kosher education space. And, I didn’t believe it would be a direct correlation to necessarily providing videos to sales, but we’re building a community, a global community.”
The company uploads new educational videos on kosher lifestyle every Sunday. It is also exploring a B2B model by collaborating with private chefs to showcase their talents on video.
Watch the Small Business Spotlight video above for more on this story.
