The IBJ Podcast

Indianapolis Business Journal
  • 4.6 (48)
  • BUSINESS NEWS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY
The IBJ Podcast

A weekly take on business news in central Indiana. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

  1. 5 DAYS AGO

    Mission of Indy furniture maker ‘is about building other people up’

    Indy-based Furniture maker Purposeful Design LLC—which lives under the umbrella of the nonprofit Sagamore Institute—works with local relief organizations to recruit people who have struggled with addiction, homelessness, incarceration and other obstacles to self-sufficiency. As apprentices and craftspeople, the workers learn skills that can help them find employment, as well as workplace habits that will help them keep their jobs and advance. The numbers indicate Purposeful Design is working. Officials expect revenue of $2.7 million in 2024, and its sales typically cover 85% of the cost of doing business. The rest comes from grants and charitable gifts that are used to invest in machinery or other needs that make the operation more efficient. Over 11 years, more than 240 people have been employed and trained by Purposeful Design. Some sign on for six-month apprenticeships and move on to other jobs; some stay longer. For this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, host Mason King first interviews Dewey Titus, a former addict who has been with Purposeful Design for five years and now is the supervisor of its metal shop. The impact has been profound: "I went from being alone and homeless and then in five years having my family come together," Titus said. Then we hear from Brady Roberts, vice president of sales and marketing, about the organization’s origin story and mission. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

    37 min
  2. Josef Newgarden, Indy 500 champ and avid investor, also races against S&P 500

    DEC 9

    Josef Newgarden, Indy 500 champ and avid investor, also races against S&P 500

    IndyCar and Indy 500 champion Josef Newgarden doesn’t take his hands off the steering wheel when he leaves the cockpit of his No. 2 Chevy. He enjoys being a very hands-on caretaker of his career, business interests and financial life. As he says in his IBJ Podcast interview this week, “Maybe I’m just too type-A, but I want to know where every dollar is.”That includes tracking his philanthropic efforts, sourcing new merchandise and, as we’re going to cover in great detail this week, managing his investment portfolio. He says that if he weren't a racer, "I think I'd be an equity trader or some kind of strategist." After Newgarden had a bad experience with an investment adviser early in career, he dedicated himself to mastering investment strategy for diversified growth holdings. He does his own research, handles his own trades, and, according to Newgarden, performs quite well when he pits himself against the S&P 500, so IBJ Podcast host Mason King wanted to pick his brain about his approach. They also chat about his plans to create a nonprofit for his philanthropy next year, as well as introduce a new line of merch. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

    33 min
  3. Why size matters when it comes to concert venues in Indy

    NOV 25

    Why size matters when it comes to concert venues in Indy

    Indianapolis-based concert company MOKB Presents recently announced plans to open a 1,200-capacity venue in early 2026 at the former site of Well Done Marketing in Fountain Square’s Murphy Arts Building. The plans for a new indoor venue means outdoor concerts at shows at the Hi-Fi Annex — located in the parking lot outside the Murphy building — will end next fall. Hi-Fi Annex debuted in June 2020 as a temporary place for MOKB Presents to stage shows while the pandemic limited the company’s indoor options. But the popular concerts continued long after. The new venue will be MOKB’s third concert space in the Murphy building — and each will accommodate a different sized crowds. In this week's episode, IBJ arts and entertainment reporter Dave Lindquist talks with MOKB Presents partners Josh Baker and Dan Kemer about why musicians and their management care about venues of different sizes and why shows open to all ages can help a music community grow. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

    42 min
  4. Inside jeweler’s decision to close one of downtown’s oldest businesses

    NOV 18

    Inside jeweler’s decision to close one of downtown’s oldest businesses

    Windsor Jewelry has operated within a stone’s throw of Monument Circle since the year 1919. Some of its client relationships go back five generations. It has been owned by only three people: its founder, Sig Asher; then Asher’s son-in-law, Herman Logan; and then Greg Bires, an employee who bought the business from Logan in 1998. It has survived the Great Depression, the economic hardships of World War II, the Great Recession and, most recently, the one-two punch of the pandemic and rioters who broke into the store twice in mid-2020. Last week, Windsor’s dedicated customers and passersby on Meridian Street learned that everything must go. Bires has decided to retire and is selling the store’s inventory at deep discounts with plans to close up shop early next year. Business has been good, he says. In fact, he’s been making inroads with a new generation of customers. And it’s possible the Windsor Jewelry name might live on, if Bires could be persuaded by some prospective buyer to sell the store’s intellectual property. But it appears that Windsor Jewelry as we know it will end its run at about 105 years old and just after Bires hits his 70th birthday in December. Bires is our guest this week for a wide-ranging conversation about how he came to the decision to retire after about 55 years in the jewelry business—a career that started in his early teens. He also explains how the shop was able to persevere through the pandemic era and then take advantage of the way downtown is morphing into more of a residential center. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

    37 min

  5. NOV 11

    Pete the Planner on Trump’s potential impact on investors, taxes, inflation and the auto industry

    Donald Trump is headed for a second term in the White House. The pundits have had ample opportunity to dissect the political implications of his victory. For this week’s podcast, we wanted to explore the potential financial repercussions of a new Trump administration.There’s no mystery about his fondness toward tariffs—the taxes applied by the government for imported or exported goods as a way to influence foreign trade. Trump has enthusiastically proposed a 10% to 20% tax on most foreign products, and a 60% tariff on goods from China. On the American front, he wants to lower corporate taxes and extend the tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that are set to expire soon. His administration is widely expected to loosen corporate regulations and otherwise defang watchdog agencies. He is seen as devoted friend of the financial, defense and crypto sectors. Wall Street was thrilled with his election victory: The stock market almost literally jumped for joy on Nov. 6, posting some of the biggest gains seen in many months. Trump’s policies will affect street-level consumers and investors in direct and indirect ways—some intentional and perhaps some unintentional. IBJ financial columnist Peter Dunn, aka Pete the Planner, is our guest this week to help us make sense of what could be in store for us, the stock market, the federal debt, the economy and inflation over the next four years. The tariffs in particular could be problematic for some American industries, including the automobile sector, and could have the effect of boosting inflation. Pete also suspects that the pharmaceutical industry could have a tough time, which might affect Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

    34 min

  6. NOV 4

    Inside the plan to extend life expectancy for residents of five Indy neighborhoods

    One way you can gauge the health of a city is the number of cranes on its skyline. One of the biggest contributors of cranes over downtown in the last two years has been the $4.3 billion IU Health hospital campus under construction just south of Methodist Hospital. It’s a generational development for that side of downtown, but IU Health officials want to make sure it doesn’t overshadow the many needs of historic neighborhoods to the north and to the west. For several years the hospital system has been planning an initiative and nonprofit organization known as Indy Health District. It focuses on five neighborhoods with a total of about 9,000 residents who, due to a number of socioeconomic factors, have a much lower life expectancy than folks who live in other parts of the Indy metropolitan area. The district’s leaders want to find solutions for most, if not all, of the issues weighing on these neighbors, including housing, transportation, land use, safety and food deserts. It’s an incredibly ambitious undertaking that’s a bit difficult to wrap your brain around. It also prompts a healthy amount of skepticism. So we’ve invited Jamal Smith to lay out the plans for us. He’s executive director of Indy Health District and executive director of government affairs and strategic partnerships for IU Health. And he grew up with some of the impediments to success and good health that the residents of the district face. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

    38 min

  7. OCT 28

    What Indy tourism guru Chris Gahl learned from his father’s murder, surviving cancer

    Last week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast featured Chris Gahl, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Visit Indy, unpacking the strategy for promoting Indianapolis to a worldwide audience during Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. As promised, we have a follow-up interview with Gahl this week that is so different from last week’s that we needed to carve out a separate space for it. Gahl is one of the most recognizable figures among those who promote Indianapolis—and one of the most important voices for the city’s brand of Midwestern hospitality and inclusive values. He’s known for his sunny disposition and easy way for expressing enthusiasm for almost any topic. But his adult life was shaped by childhood tragedy—the murder of his father. Thomas E. Gahl, a U.S. probation officer for the Southern District of Indiana, was killed in 1986 by a parolee in Fountain Square. It of course was a catastrophic event for Gahl, his mother and his younger brother, Nick. Even today, he’s sorting through the repercussions of the loss of his father. The tragedy reverberated in a different way in 2018 when Gahl was diagnosed with cancer. A father of two boys himself, Chris couldn’t help but see the potential for his sons to suffer a similar loss. Under the care of a legend in the Indianapolis medical community, he got a clean bill of health last year. And he generously agreed to talk about the lessons from his cancer journey and his father’s death for this week’s edition of the podcast. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

    43 min
  8. How Taylor Swift will give Indy a massive platform to promote itself

    OCT 21

    How Taylor Swift will give Indy a massive platform to promote itself

    Does anyone need reminding that Indianapolis is less than two weeks away from hosting Taylor Swift and the last U.S. dates for the Eras Tour? There of course are three shows scheduled Nov. 1, 2 and 3 in Lucas Oil Stadium, and more than 50 related events planned across the city to entertain fans over what essentially will be a major holiday downtown. About 200,000 people are expected to come downtown that weekend to either attend or simply celebrate the concerts. About 195,000 tickets have been sold, and about 80% of the ticket holders will come from outside Indiana. This is an immense marketing opportunity for Visit Indy, the agency in charge of promoting Indianapolis for conventions, entertainment and other tourism. Not only will the eyes of the world be trained on Indianapolis for an entire weekend, giving Visit Indy an unbeatable hook for hyping the city in its best light, but it will have days to make a lasting impression on tens of thousands of people just getting to know the city. The Eras Tour also will bring an untold number of corporate leaders and celebrities to the city, each with the potential to make a measurable impact on Indianapolis.In this week’s episode of the IBJ Podcast, host Mason King talks strategy with Chris Gahl, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Visit Indy. He explains how Visit Indy plans to leverage this nearly unprecedented opportunity with a campaign that incorporates social media, geofencing, Indianapolis International Airport, hotel managers, an army of volunteers, curated tours for corporate and celebrity VIPs, the Visit Indy suite at Lucas Oil Stadium and even outreach to Lyft and Uber drivers. Photo by Paolo Villanueva (@itspaolopv) via Flickr   The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

    38 min
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4.6
out of 5
48 Ratings

About

A weekly take on business news in central Indiana. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Information

  • Creator
    Indianapolis Business Journal
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2024
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2018 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    The IBJ Podcast

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