Join us for our next Engage@Work Forum:

A Discussion on Creative Business Strategies for Social and Kingdom Impact

Co-sponsored by Sojourn International

Registration: $5 online by December 5. Register Here

Six panelists with entrepreneurial experience in many different fields will discuss what it means to create gospel-fueled business ventures. Don’t miss out on the amazing opportunity to learn from their experience. A short Q&A time will follow for those interested in pursuing their own entrepreneurial ventures.

The Panelists:

Aaron Marshall (Social Media Explorer, Potluck)

Aaron Marshall is digital strategist, social media coach and chief executive hand-holder. Having managed multiple web companies, developed web applications and coached prominent leaders, he has a broad foundation of experience, and is regularly invited to speak on the mechanics of social media and digital marketing. As Social Media Explorer’s Chief Product Officer, Marshall serves national, regional and niche brands such as Southern Seminary, Wake Forest University, New West Advertising and Maker’s Mark. He is also the CEO & Co-Founder of Potluck, a software company that provides user-friendly mobile applications that make businesses & people happier, healthier and more profitable.

Laura Carr (Green Clean LLC)

Laura Carr graduated from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University with an HR Management degree and moved to Louisville in 2002.  After 8 years in the corporate world, she became disappointed and wanted to find a career that more closely suited her personality and passions. She soon began experimenting with making her own cleaning products and realized how effective they were. When she connected this with the local need for an all-natural cleaning company that would only used locally-made green products, Green Clean LLC, was born in August 2009. Her business is aimed at deep cleaning and organizing homes using sustainable products and practices, all based on strong relationships with each client. What began as a crew of two people cleaning ten houses is now expanded to six workers cleaning 35 houses and three businesses regularly. As Carr puts it, “Green Clean is not the ‘average’ maid service.  In fact, we do not distinguish ourselves as maids and do not treat what we do as just cleaning houses.  Green Clean provides professional cleaning using 100% natural products made in Louisville, KY.  We take great pride in what we do and treat our cleaning process as an art.”

Raymond Lowdermilk (Turning Wrenches LLC)

Just over three years ago Raymond Lowdermilk left Alaska with three tool boxes and moved to Louisville to attend The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Shortly after arriving here, he put his mechanical skill to work serving his community with car repairs in his spare time.  In two years Raymond’s business, Turning Wrenches LLC, has grown from a mobile auto repair unit to a much larger operation in a three-bay garage on Lexington Road.  The philosophy of business behind Lowdermilk’s company is rooted in the need to apply Biblical Theology to the grit of everyday life. Through his hands-on labor, he seeks to live out the biblical call brotherly love and sacrifice, stewardship, contributing to and equipping the saints, and bearing one another’s burdens, all while operating in the reality of a broken and fallen world in need of repair.  When not mending vehicles, Lowdermilk is a husband and father, a seminary student, and a member of the Alaska Army National Guard.

“Almost an M” (Skybridge Community, The Upstream Collective, IMB)

Experienced in a range of small business ventures with varying degrees of mission initiative, almost an M (his name is concealed on the web in order to protect him, his family and his work overseas) has lived and worked in Eastern Europe for 10 years. He has worked in the U.S. and overseas in a range of positions including entrepreneur, director of sales, regional manager and managing director. Simultaneously he has–at times with and without title–functioned as missionary and church-planter. Currently he works with The Upstream Collective, Skybridge Community and the International Missions Board as a strategist, networker and missiologist. He is committed to helping churches, organizations and businesses to think and act like missionaries through writing, speaking, training and coaching.

Heath Gross (Sedulo Group, VaxTrac, Biometrac)

Heath Gross, a graduate of the University of Louisville, has founded numerous companies in the field of Military Intelligence. As founder and Managing Partner of Sedulo Group, Gross has built the company into a world-class provider of competitive intelligence and strategy consulting services. A seasoned competitive intelligence professional with over ten years of experience in primary research and strategy consulting, he has managed projects across the industry spectrum, including life science, healthcare, professional services, information technology, and manufacturing. Additionally, Gross is the founder and Chairman of the Board of VaxTrac, a non-profit focused on providing developing countries with the technologies and services needed to maximize the effectiveness of childhood vaccination programs. In addition to Sedulo and VaxTrac, he has started and manages a number of other companies including:  Biometrac, Intellent, PharmaPeek, PharmaForceWorldwide, BestIndustryResearch and KnowledgeBrokers. Prior to his civil career in competitive intelligence, Gross served as a Counter-Intelligence Agent with the US Government and as a Special Projects Officer for the Kuwait Residence Office Counter-Terrorism Unit. 

Nathan Quillo (Quills Coffee)

Nathan Quillo is one of the masterminds behind local favorite spot, Quills Coffee. After a stint coming out of college into youth and student ministry, Quillo found himself drawn more into the world of business, particularly management and marketing, and soon realized he might be better suited for vocation outside of full-time work in the local church. He moved into a management working with neglected teenagers in a social service organization, but during this time began moonlighting at an art gallery, record label and coffee shop, to learn the ins-and-outs of small business.  By 2006, a vision for a premium grade coffee shop and roastery had grown, and he began developing the business plan.  WIth the help of two business partners, Quillo opened Quills Coffee in 2007. The shop has earned itself a place among local favorites, and since begun roasting its own coffee. Quillo and his partners are currently in the process of opening their second and third locations.