Abby Walters is back. 12 years of Forever Friends Nashville, dog rescue with RARE, and Sunday nights with the Walters Band at Union Hill. Abby sits down with Trent six years after her first episode and goes back to the start. She grew up in Indiana, graduated high school at 17, and was teaching kindergarten at 21, walking out of her classroom on day one bawling to the teacher next door.

She moved to Nashville in 2010 right after the flood to sing, landed her first job at Farrago where she met Trent, and 12 years ago started Forever Friends Nashville, teaching herself to sew dog toys, leashes, and bandanas. By year ten it was a grind that didn't really make money, and she told herself something had to switch. The next day, waiting on the Biscuit Love family at table C10, a woman told her she'd emailed that week about carrying her products. A month later, wearing her Forever Friends shirt on the way to meet her newborn nephew, the woman at the airport shop counter said they'd been looking for a dog product business.

Then it gets into the dogs. The Dino's and Dogs calendar is heading into year eight, and the first year was pure chaos, the same vibe as her first day teaching. Now they dress the dogs, pick a rescue every year, donate 100% of the proceeds, and have raised almost 20 grand. That's how she found RARE Rescue, a foster-based rescue with no building, and why she's fostering Carolina, a sweet hyper pup she pulled from a concrete building on a 105 degree day. And when she's not sewing or rescuing, she's at Union Hill Trading Post, home of chicken bingo and a Sunday open mic that turned into the six-piece Walters Band. Her stepdad came for her birthday and said it best: you're right, you can't explain this.

1.Who is Abby Walters?

A Nashville singer-songwriter, bartender, and dog advocate who founded Forever Friends Nashville 12 years ago.

2. What is Forever Friends Nashville?

Abby's handmade dog product company making toys, leashes, and bandanas, now carried at Biscuit Love, the Nashville airport, Bates Nursery, and Carter Vintage Guitars.

3.What is the Dino's and Dogs calendar?

A yearly dog calendar shot at Dino's Bar and Grill in East Nashville that donates 100% of proceeds to a rescue and has raised almost $20K.

4.How can you help RARE Rescue?

Follow them on Instagram, volunteer at events, foster, or join the Good Humans Club for $5 to $1,000 a month, and help raise $2,000 to unlock another $1,000 for their spay and neuter grant.

5.Where can you hear Abby sing?

Sunday nights at Union Hill Trading Post with the Walters Band, which she calls the every single week tour.

Where to find Abby Walters

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abbywalters1/?hl=en

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5yTqhT4uBRadtQlJFZkJGr

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/abby-walters/1440331613

Where to find Furever Friends:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fureverfriendsnashville/

Website: https://www.fureverfriendsnashville.com/

Where to find Spread The Positive:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spreadthepositive.net

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spreadthepositive/

Website: https://www.spreadthepositive.net/

Laura Dunnigan, the Riding Realtor, is biking Murfreesboro with a QR code on her back for 21 local nonprofits. Laura sits down with Trent to go back to Monongahela, Pennsylvania, a town of about 4,000 where her family did not have a car, so she walked and biked everywhere.

She wanted to be an artist, but her dad warned her about the starving artist thing, so she ended up in insurance for about 15 years, a lot of it working with Andy Weymouth. After selling her house in Tullahoma in 2020, she was sitting in Andy's office when it came over her: if not now, when? She jumped into real estate in July 2022, right as rates spiked, and started her design business at the same time.

She calls what she does staging on steroids, because people's first impression of a house is online now. Then it gets to the ride. Last year her friend Antoine challenged her to the Great Cycle Challenge for childhood cancer, and someone told her she was basically a rolling billboard. This year, riding around the square, she decided to bring it home. She asked the community to nominate their favorite nonprofits, and 18 people nominated 21 of them, starting with Interfaith Dental, which began in a broom closet in Nashville and now has a location in Murfreesboro.

She will ride with a big QR code on her back that goes straight to each organization, no money comes to her, and she did the math on what it would look like if the whole city pitched in.

1. Who is Laura Dunnigan?

A Murfreesboro realtor with Compass Real Estate, known as the Riding Realtor, who also runs Dunnigan Design.

2. What is Miles for Good? Laura's initiative where she bikes around Murfreesboro with a QR code on her back that links directly to 21 community-nominated nonprofits.

3. Does the money go to Laura? No, every QR code donation goes straight to the nonprofit organization.

4. Which nonprofits are included? Among the 21 are Interfaith Dental, Greenhouse Ministries, Middle Tennessee Boxer Rescue, the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Center, and the Center for the Arts.

5. How can you help? Scan the QR code safely (have your passenger do it if you are driving), share the posts on social media, or ride along with her.

Where to find Laura Dunnigan

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyitslauradunnigan/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurandunnigan

Website: https://www.compass.com/agents/laura-dunnigan/

Where to find Spread The Positive?

Socials

https://www.facebook.com/spreadthepositive.net

https://www.instagram.com/spreadthepositive/

Website: https://www.spreadthepositive.net/

Robert Vaughn bootstrapped a pottery brand out of a 1950s garage to 1,000 retailers, then sold it. Here are his 13 optimistic notes. Robert came in with thirteen written notes, and his reason for writing them is the episode's point.

Most business podcast guests work at large, impressive companies, and if you are a small business owner or an employee, a lot of those lessons are not relevant to you. So he started at 11 and 12 years old, buying and selling on eBay before he had a debit card, handing cash to his 18-year-old football coach so the coach could run it through PayPal. He talks about bobblehead night at Angel Stadium, walking the concourse picking up the ones people left on counters, then standing near the exit offering $5 for a bobblehead he knew he could sell for 30. Adults kept showing up to Craigslist meetups asking for Robert Vaughn, expecting a 40-year-old. Then it gets into the businesses. Signing up as a dog walker on Rover for $15 a walk on his lunch break. Buying two rental properties in Bakersfield with a friend because the agent told them straight up, you guys are going to be slumlords. Starting a pottery company with his now wife with $1,000, a $250 Chromebook that couldn't run Excel, and a garage built in the 1950s that became their office and their warehouse. Their first sale arrived, in the customer's words, blown to smithereens, and that kept happening for six months until they got the damage rate under half a percent. That business ended with 17 employees and over 1,000 independent retailers, and they sold it in two pieces. He is honest about the year it closed: his dad died, his son was born four months later, and they accepted the offer the week after that.

1. Who is Robert Vaughn?

He is the founder of a home decor brand and of Brand Launchpad, a boutique management consulting firm, and he has worked at six startups and six other small to mid-sized businesses with two exits.

2. What business did he build and sell?

A pottery and home decor company he started with his wife in February 2018 out of a one-bedroom apartment garage, which grew to 17 employees and over 1,000 independent retailers before selling in two pieces at the end of 2021 and mid 2022.

3. What are his 13 optimistic notes?

They are the notes he wrote for this episode, covering genuine interest, humble beginnings, being a first timer, learning from others, the rewards of ownership, endless opportunities, selling great products, working with people you like, headwinds and tailwinds, business agency, presentation and perception, relationships, owning your success, and building a dream life.

4. What does Brand Launchpad do?

It is his consulting firm, founded in early 2023, that works with startups through mid-sized companies at four inflection points: starting up, aggressive growth, turnarounds, and buying or selling a business.

5. How do you get in touch with Robert?

He gives his email in the episode, robert@brandlp.com and his website is brandlp.com.

Where to find Robert Vaughn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertvaughn2/

Where to find Spread The Positive?

Socials

https://www.facebook.com/spreadthepositive.net

https://www.instagram.com/spreadthepositive/

Website:

https://www.spreadthepositive.net/