Erich Stauffer

Tag: Carmel

  • Grain Harvest? More like Great Harvest!

    I recently wrote about how I typically work and network in Indianapolis and while it started out as a way to discuss how to get the most out of little pieces of the city (what in my mind I call “hacking the day”), it ended up being more about networking and how I spend a typical day in the Carmel, Indiana area.

    After writing it I ended up telling my friend, Jason, about Jerry at the Great Harvest Bread Company in Carmel, Indiana. Jerry recently joined our BNI group in Carmel, and his business cards can be used to get a free loaf of bread.

    They are located next to the Stacked Pickle across from Meijer on Penn and Carmel Dr. They grind their grain each morning and only use natural ingredients.

    They want to do catering so Jerry is wanting to come give a groups a free catered lunch as a way to advertise their catering service. If you’re interested, contact:

    Great Harvest Bread Co.
    12505 Old Meridian, Suite 100
    Carmel, IN 46032
    317-575-8800

    I recently had lunch at Great Harvest Bread Company and I wanted to share a little bit about the experience. When I first walked in I got greeted by a fresh-baked slice of bread to try while I looked over the menu. Since I had just got back from Tom and Chee’s in Cincinnati, I was still craving a BLT so I ordered a BLT panini. Drinks were self-serve and coffee was available from a pump carafe in three flavors. After a short while, my sandwich was brought to me along with a wrapped pickle spear, which was delicious.

  • (Net)Working Indianapolis

    Every Thursday morning I attend a BNI networking group in Carmel. After the meeting I head over to the Subway next to Jason’s Deli and Office Depot. I get the $3 breakfast combo, which includes a 6-inch breakfast sandwich and a regular drink. I then sit down with my laptop and get online using the local Wi-Fi. LePeep, La Hacienda, and Jason’s Deli all have Wi-Fi so I encourage you to try any of those during lunch.

    If the seat by the outlet in Subway is taken, I head down the strip to Starbucks. This particular Starbucks is loaded with outlets and many coworkers, commuters, sales persons, and solopreneurs hang out here during the day. I believe this is primarily because of a) the size of the Starbucks – it’s unusually large for a Starbucks, b) the sheer amount of outlets to plug in your laptop or mobile phone, and c) it’s central location to Indianapolis and Carmel.

    After attending meetups and other networking events, I’ve started to know a lot of people around Carmel and Indianapolis. Usually, whenever I’m in a Starbucks I’ll run into someone I know and because of that, these cities have started to feel more like a community. I don’t know everybody, but my chances of running into someone I know are now greater than not running into someone I know. And although I check into Foursquare, it doesn’t ever seem to help me run into people, which is odd.

    As I am an Indianapolis web designer, my meetings are sporadic and sometimes far in between. I use these ‘holes’ in the day to work out of various locations such as Starbucks, Subway, or Panera Bread. After doing it a while, you start to learn what other business professionals have chose to use as their personal office. There is a dog walker and an oil salesman at the Starbucks at 96th and Meridian and of course there is my habitual use of the Starbucks at Meridian and Carmel Drive.

    The greater Indianapolis area is large in size, but it’s a small community. The people you actually want or need to talk to is relatively very small compared to the population of the whole city. For me, it’s business owners who can make a decision to buy from me direct, can be a referral partner, or can be a connector to someone I need to talk to. This is really what networking is all about because you also want to be those same characteristics to other people in your network. You want to be that power connector.

    Robby Slaughter, a business process consultant in Indianapolis, has made it his goal in 2012 to help 1000 people. Because Robby is a power connector, he’s able to help a lot of people and I actually took him up on it and Robby had a one to one with me over the phone. Robby is a fellow BNI member of another chapter and he helped me figure out what would be some good referral partners for me and how to tweak my 60-second asks, some of which I’ve implemented. Thanks, Robby!

    I’ve actually mentioned Robby Slaughter before as being one my local heroes. I ended up finally meeting Robby last August at Blog Indiana and then immediately saw him again when he spoke at Linking Indiana. Robby also wrote a guest blog post on my web design site entitled, Increasing Productivity In Website Maintenance, which was appropriate since he’s a productivity expert and I design websites around a CMS called WordPress. Thanks again, Robby.

  • Active Enzymes and Living Foods

    Whether you think you’re on a diet or not, most people are on the “The S.A.D. Diet”, which Brandy Mason says stands for Standard American Diet. Brandy is a living foods consultant and certified colon hydrotherapist in Carmel, Indiana who advises people on what foods to eat and how to keep yourself cleansed. She’s been helping people do just that since 2009.

    What is Living Food?

    I asked Brandy to define what living foods are and here’s what she said, “Three-fourths of one’s plate should consist of foods that have not been denatured by heat (anything cooked over 120-130 degrees) These are the foods that have all their active enzymes intact therefore considered ‘living foods’.”

    I asked Brandy how she got started in living foods consulting and she said, “I was overweight and had no energy. One day I was hanging out at the bookstore and somewhere between the self-help books and the cook books I found a book by Norman Walker called Become Younger.”

    Norman Walker, a pioneer with juicing raw fruits and vegetables, advocated cleansing your body by juicing and then following up with colon hyrdrotherapy so that’s exactly what Brandy did. “I dropped 50 pounds with no exercise and had tons of energy,” she said, “I was hooked and knew then that I wanted to help other people feel as great as I felt.”

    Brandy flew down to Puerto Rico to get certified at the Ann Wigmore Health Institute where she spent several days learning about eating raw foods and how to cleanse your body at the cellular level. When she got back, she purchased an Angel of Water, which allows you to relax in a reclining position while evacuating the contents of the colon, and she was in business.

    Her dream is to open her own institute where people can come to learn about the lifestyle that Norman Walker and Ann Wigmore taught her so much about. Brandy envisions people being able to come and learn about whole foods, raw foods, juicing, and cleansing while they rest and rejuvenate their body and soul. Brandy calls this process, “Self-sustaining training.”

    Brandy has been around the body for most of her career. Before doing living foods consulting and colon hydrotherapy in Carmel, Indiana, she was a registered radiology specialist. I asked Brandy what she likes doing when she’s not helping people learn how to take better care of their bodies and she said she enjoys playing with her two dogs and watching her kids play sports.

    You can find out more about Brandy at her website or by calling her at 317-690-0536.

  • Affiliate Marketing in Indianapolis

    I’ve written about my meetup experiences here in the past so those who read my website may know I’m a member of the Indianapolis Affiliate Meetup hosted by Affiliate Summit. In the last meeting, I spoke about how to get started in affiliate marketing, but I was feeling bad because my site about nook covers was not doing so hot. Now part of this because demand in general was down, but part of it was because of duplication of content, Google put me in the sandbox for three months. The good news is I’m out now and the site is performing better, which makes me feel better about being an Indianapolis web designer and Internet marketer.

    This morning I met a lady at the Carmel, Indiana BNI chapter who was interested in creating affiliate marketing relationships with local vendors so I invited her to the Indianapolis Affiliate Summit meeting. She didn’t know about it and was excited to come. The group has a good mix of seasoned affiliate marketers, those learning about it for the first time, and those with other related skill sets like copyrighting, authors, and web designers. There was also interest from a printing company out of Kokomo that has recently opened up an Indianapolis office in Fletcher Park near the old Indianapolis airport.

    The last Affiliate Summit meeting was about how to start an Internet marketing business where I went through the 6 steps to making money online, but I didn’t go into how to find a niche or keyword metrics for success.  The next meeting will be about the Internet tax looming in Indiana and what we can do to stop it. We’re meeting at Buca di Beppo in Castleton and although most meetups don’t require you to buy food, the arrangement we made with the restaurant requires each person to pay $12 for a meal. This is not the norm, but if you’re coming for the first time this month, know what to expect.

    Thanks to Affiliate Summit for the free pass to Affiliate Summit West 2012 in Las Vegas. I can’t wait to learn more about Affiliate Marketing, but in the mean time, I’m watching Affiliate Summit videos with Blake from Blaze Communications in Carmel, Indiana. Blake runs Blaze Communications as a creative marketing firm and BS&T as a business strategy and technology forum in Carmel. The BS&T forum has a sub-group of member who also attend the affiliate marketing group in Indianapolis, which is how I first met Blake. Thanks to Blake for sharing the DVDs he won from Affiliate Summit.

  • PillowTalk Lingerie Boutique

     

     

    PillowTalk is a lingerie boutique located in Carmel, Indiana which specializes in couture lingerie, candles, and custom jewelry. Find out more about PillowTalk for all of your lingerie, candles, and gift needs by visiting http://www.pillowtalkboutique.com.

  • PillowTalk Offers More than Lingerie in Carmel, Indiana

    PillowTalk, a Carmel, Indiana based lingerie retail outlet, is a unique lingerie boutique that sells couture lingerie and other fine accessories for women. PillowTalk came to Erich Stauffer with the desire to redesign their site in order to better represent their brand. Erich Stauffer helped them do this by picking a color scheme and font that better matched the stores look and feel. The result was a website that better reflected the core image and brand the business was trying to represent in downtown Carmel. How can Erich Stauffer help you do the same? Contact Erich Stauffer to find out.