Publishing local stories of leadership at I95

We’ve always mingled with the same executive leaders who make Baltimore and our region grow and go, so it was a pleasure to hear more about the I95 story from founder Vicki Franz, who shares her story of publishing and local business connection for C-level professionals and business owners throughout the area.

Nestor Aparicio discusses his radio show’s schedule and recent activities, including charity work and networking events. He highlights Vicki Franz’s 15-year journey with I-95 Business, emphasizing her focus on profiling people behind businesses and community impact. Vicki explains her publication’s unique approach, combining earned media and content engagement, and its success in reaching 50,000 readers bi-monthly. They touch on the importance of supporting local media and businesses, the challenges of the newspaper industry, and the upcoming Women of Influence event on April 29, celebrating successful women in business.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Visit and broadcast live from the Blackwater Motif, Boardwalk in Ocean City, and the Bay Bridge during August as part of the summer schedule.
• [ ] Plan and publish a feature story on the Pikesville Armory development project, following up on the invitation to cover what is happening there.

Nestor Aparicio’s Introduction and Upcoming Events

• Nestor Aparicio introduces the show, mentioning various locations and events, including Koco’s, Pizza John’s, Planet Fitness, and Fayette Lee’s.
• He discusses his busy schedule, including running around South America and dealing with coaching changes and Super Bowl events.
• Nestor mentions his charity work and the guests he has lined up for the spring.
• He introduces Vicki Franz, a long-time friend and colleague in the networking and business space.

Vicki Franz’s Background and I-95 Business

• Nestor and Vicki discuss her 15-year journey with I-95 Business, starting in 2007.
• Vicki explains her focus on telling stories about the people behind businesses rather than just the businesses themselves.
• She highlights the importance of community and workforce development in her magazine.
• Vicki differentiates her publication from other business publications by focusing on features rather than news.

Challenges and Opportunities in Local Business Media

• Nestor and Vicki discuss the challenges faced by local business media, including the decline of traditional newspapers.
• Vicki shares her background, including her time in New York City and her career path in the newspaper service business.
• They talk about the importance of supporting local media and the impact of subscription models on accessing content.
• Vicki emphasizes the need for local businesses to support media to ensure the sustainability of local journalism.

Vicki Franz’s Personal Background and Business Philosophy

• Nestor discovers Vicki’s southern roots and they share stories about their experiences in Kentucky.
• Vicki talks about her career transition from New York to Baltimore and her work with I-95 Business.
• They discuss the importance of storytelling in business and the role of media in promoting local businesses.
• Vicki shares her philosophy of focusing on the people behind businesses and the impact they have on the community.

I-95 Business’s Unique Approach and Impact

• Vicki explains how I-95 Business combines earned media and content engagement to tell stories about successful businesses.
• She shares examples of how her magazine has helped businesses gain visibility and attract investors.
• Nestor and Vicki discuss the importance of community and the role of media in fostering connections and support.
• Vicki highlights the success of her magazine in reaching a wide audience and making a positive impact on local businesses.

Upcoming Events and Community Engagement

• Vicki announces the upcoming Women of Influence event, which will honor 35 women in business.
• She explains the significance of the event and the importance of celebrating the achievements of women in business.
• Nestor and Vicki discuss the fun and engaging nature of the event, including the “fancy footwear” competition.
• Vicki shares her excitement about the event and the positive impact it has on the community.

Nestor Aparicio’s Reflections and Final Thoughts

• Nestor reflects on his long-standing relationship with Vicki and the importance of community and business connections.
• He shares his personal experiences and the impact of local businesses on his career and life.
• Nestor emphasizes the importance of supporting local media and the role of business in solving community problems.
• He concludes the conversation by expressing his gratitude for Vicki’s contributions to the community and the media landscape.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

I-95 Business, local business, networking events, business stories, community impact, workforce development, media landscape, Women of Influence, business profiles, advertising, community support, business challenges, media subscriptions, event planning, business features.

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SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Vicki Franz

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T am 1570 taci, Baltimore. We’re Baltimore, positive, positively out here at Costas Inn and Timonium. I wouldn’t say never Dundalk, just not now. I’ll be back in Dundalk in about two months. We’re out here. Whatever you do, don’t come here looking for the crabs or go there and try to get your takeout from Timonium. We’re Timonium, but the racetrack here, it’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery. I have the Maryland treasures, and I had the horses here, but this isn’t like acid tea courses, not the regular thoroughbred horses that they have out here, but I have the new collection. We’ll be at Koco’s on the 23rd we’re going to be at Pizza John’s and Essex on the first we will be on the seventh, across the street from here, at Planet Fitness, where I’m going to get a workout in as well. And then on the 13th, back down at Fayette Lee’s in Lexington market, I’ve been having friends out. And I’ll be honest, I didn’t do a lot of radio in March because I was running around South America. And then, you know, January, we had the coaching changes. We had Super Bowl stuff. I did a cup of Super Bowl. I did a lot of charity stuff. And there are some guests that I’ve been meaning to have on, and I’ve sort of slotted them all into the spring. And I’m glad I’ve done that, because I get my pink shirt on it’s 100 degrees and we’re not freezing our butts off. Vicki, France has been a friend, somebody I’ve known in the networking and the business space for a long time, first with a magazine, now out on the web and doing that Vic. I don’t know how long you’ve been doing this, but it feels like if I say 15 years, Am I Am I close? Am I right? That’s the number. It is fifth. I’m right. I’m not only guessing. I didn’t know that. Yeah, 15, it feels like so I went to.net in 2000 789, Brian Billick became my partner nine, and I was really webbed up at that point and doing smart CEO accelerant before the connects events came around, I did my own networking events with Joe Enoch, with Ed Enoch business. I’ve always moved in and around the same people that you are around, selling advertising. But more than that, selling like community and business like at the heart of all this, I thought I was doing sports radio. All these years, I was selling cars and beer and pizza and crab cakes, and at the end of the day, business has to thrive and it needs to be promoted, and it needs its story told. And that’s the thing I think. I went from telling 32nd ads talking about how cool pizza John’s pizza was 25 years ago, to now like sitting in the middle of it and eating it on video and on the web and on social and reels and all of that. Business hasn’t changed, though. We’re still selling crab cakes and Timonium, right? And people still need their stories told. And you were one of the, really the forerunners, along with the Baltimore Business Journal daily record telling a business story, but yours was more like, no, no, it’s not about business. It’s about the people that make

Vicki Franz  02:44

up business. That’s true. It’s it’s about the people who run the business. So when you want to tell stories about businesses, you don’t really want to talk about buildings. You want to talk about the people in the buildings, and what it is they do and how they contribute to the community, how they’re creating workforce development opportunities, how they’re serving other businesses and their impact on the general community at large. And we have a lot of really great businesses to profile, so we are a features magazine as opposed to a newspaper, and that’s the differentiator between us and some of the other business publications in the market. Well, I would

Nestor Aparicio  03:33

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see you added. What inspired you to do this? I don’t even know your core, primary thing you did prior to i 95 business, because I only know you through i 95 business I don’t know what your core competency was, what you were doing when you were 25 you know? Oh well,

Vicki Franz  03:46

it’s been a long time. I’m more than 25 I know that, but I started this at a time when we were coming out of the recession, and the business news in the local community, in the local community, was really hard to find the Baltimore Sun shrinking at that point. They were shrinking fast. They eliminated their business editor, then they eliminated their business section, and basically rolled all their business reporters into the general desk. Of course, we didn’t have other newspapers at the time, and so there was a void in how to find out about

Nestor Aparicio  04:25

where people were going. I never knew you were southern until I’ve sat and talked to you for like, five minutes now. Yeah, you’re southern. I never knew that about you. I know that even I don’t know but, like, I’m hearing it in your act and your accent that I’ve never these damn networking things are loud. Yeah, you’re like, I can’t even hear. Well, sometimes when I go to them, you know, it’s the AdWords, it’s, all right, I mean, but I didn’t know you, like, So, where are you from, Kentucky? All right, and How’d you get here?

Vicki Franz  04:51

I rode a horse. All right.

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Nestor Aparicio  04:52

Well, I get, you know what I’m gonna give you, the acid you get the acid cheek horses and the lottery tickets. For me, you

Vicki Franz  04:59

know, how does anybody. Around in Kentucky. So you’ve

Nestor Aparicio  05:01

been Derby and yeah, of course, are you

Vicki Franz  05:02

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from Lexington or Louisville? I’m both. I grew up in Louisville and lived in Lexington for college and after

Nestor Aparicio  05:09

and then I have the distinction of hitting every bar on Bardstown road 1998 for the derby. That that,

Vicki Franz  05:15

that is a very tall order.

Nestor Aparicio  05:17

That is a tall I closed Phoenix hill at 5am on Derby Day. Went right to the track. They gathered. I was a young

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Vicki Franz  05:22

man at one started that owned Phoenix Hill, graduated from high school with me.

Nestor Aparicio  05:27

I saw some things in Phoenix Hill to put some people in jail. I’m not gonna lie to you,

Vicki Franz  05:31

you know, yeah, it’s a good bra

Nestor Aparicio  05:33

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fan, you know. You know. Fine, yeah, you know. You’re not gonna get me to say anything negative about the derby two weeks before the derby. So I just didn’t know you were from Kentucky, you know? Yeah, I’ve been talking about, what’s a derby? Derby, Derby, brown, brown, foreman, Brown. What’s the thing? Brown, Brown, not the string. Now that the mud pie, right? Is a mud pie, is that? What it’s called the mud the Derby, Derby pie.

Vicki Franz  05:59

It’s just Derby pie. It’s not a mud pie. And there’s something brown that you eat that’s a hot

Nestor Aparicio  06:05

brown. Hot Brown.

Vicki Franz  06:06

That’s not a pie. That is a mean dish meal, right? Yeah, hot

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Nestor Aparicio  06:11

I’m just trying to get my Kentucky out. That’s not Colonel scatters out on the freeway.

Vicki Franz  06:15

Hot brown. You know what’s in a hot brown. No Turkey. It was created at the seal back hotel, and

Nestor Aparicio  06:24

I knew she know their history. They gave

Vicki Franz  06:26

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it a name, and it’s toast, and it has Turkey, sliced Turkey on it, and it has a bechamel sauce. I was

Nestor Aparicio  06:35

gonna say it’s sort of like poutine without the potatoes, no potatoes, and then

Vicki Franz  06:39

it has a nice, like a cheesy sauce on top, and it’s, you know, cooked in the oven and hit

Nestor Aparicio  06:46

with the broil, like a croque madame with Turkey or something. It is

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Vicki Franz  06:51

like a big ball of starch that goes into the pit of your stomach you don’t want to you can have a problem that you don’t want to be drinking after.

Nestor Aparicio  07:01

So when I, when I did the derby every year, I would, I would read off of this thing. Is before the websites even existed, I found this recipe that had this southern gentility about the proper way to make a mint julep, and it had all of this love and care involved in it. But I’ve been like 10 Derby, so I mean, I’m Kentucky. I’m down with the Kentucky. So how’d you wind up here?

Vicki Franz  07:27

I took a career path through New York City, okay, and then I was working for a company that sold services to newspapers.

Nestor Aparicio  07:39

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Oh, okay, so you were in the newspaper service business, okay, publishing? Yes, okay, so as reporter at the Sun back we had hot metal type back in the 80s, you know,

Vicki Franz  07:49

yeah, you’re really old. I’m old,

Nestor Aparicio  07:51

there’s no question about it. But, and this would speak to me, being a journalist, all the years that I worked for the sun, I know I always saw the ads as being the enemy, because they took the space away from my, you know, editorial ship. So when they would say you got to get that in 10 inches, not 14, I’d be like, What are you running an ad? And I’m like, and nobody ever said to me, do you want to be paid on Friday? I didn’t understand that till I wasn’t a journalist anymore. So part of the publishing part and part of sponsorships, and part of, I think your concept at i 95 business was not infomercial, not advertorial, somewhere between PR telling your story and getting your story out in a business way that the Baltimore Business Journal wasn’t doing, or channel two wasn’t doing, or television wasn’t doing, or even the internet wasn’t doing 15 years ago, right? I mean, you really, this was a, this is an interesting space to me. It always has been. Well, there was barely

Vicki Franz  08:45

internet, right, right, sure, the the main thing is having stories that can be found. And so, you know, if you, if you want to go to some of the other media sources, you have to be a subscriber to read their content, and so I

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Nestor Aparicio  09:06

do that every day. That’s the death of the newspaper.

Vicki Franz  09:08

Well, that’s, that’s one of you show me a

Nestor Aparicio  09:10

link to something I have to pay $1 to read. It’s, that’s the problem with the industry really.

Vicki Franz  09:15

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Well, no, the problem with the industry is that local support needs to support

Nestor Aparicio  09:21

the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that just got bought by the banner, right?

Vicki Franz  09:25

People need to support local media period. Supporting it

Nestor Aparicio  09:29

is paying $1 to read it. No one

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Vicki Franz  09:30

wants to do that. Be a subscriber. What’s it cost you? What’s it going to cost you? The loss of not being able to access media stories is your loss, because it’s they’re the ones with the infrastructure that have to pay for all that. So when people want everything for free, there’s a cost, and that is either to you that you won’t, you know, pony up $35 a year. To be a subscriber. I mean, I don’t know what the numbers are exactly, but you got

Nestor Aparicio  10:05

us going through that. Now, if you’re going to be an Oriole fan, you’re going to pay us for the app, right? I mean, that we’re moving into a new space, and you still publish, though you’re still hard, hard publishing, right?

Vicki Franz  10:17

Well, I was at an event the other night, and Cal was there and and his message was, you it’s your civic duty to support the Orioles and become a season ticket holder. They have lots of packages and all kinds of entry points. But again, it’s the same message. If you want to support local business, then you need to support the media too. That’s one of them. It’s not just go support your local restaurant who has information that you want and need.

Nestor Aparicio  10:49

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Is this your most recent April? Is this? Yes, this just came well, I mean, I see Max on the cover, and you know how much I love Max and Women of Influence powering the media landscape. I 95 business. Vicki France is my guest. I’ve known her a long, long time. We see each other at events all the time. I invited her on a number of months ago, and it’s a pleasure to have her on so when Audrey Cooper from the banner, Tony Draper from Afro news, Danielle Irby from Baltimore Public Media, Nicole buckle award from TBC. Max Weis from Baltimore magazine, Aaron lamb from Gateway, Kelly Levin from intelli, it tell a Genesis, I’ll get that right. And Ellen Fisher, Atlantic Union Bank. I’ve met a few of these people around town, and obviously Max comes on the show all the time. This is a fascinating concept, because we’re talking media within Media. It’s a little

Vicki Franz  11:35

hot with me right now. Well, I mean,

Nestor Aparicio  11:37

I know title bomb left ballroom magazine too, and I’ve invited him on. I’m chasing him down. He’s at in LA doing music with his kid and all the kid and all that stuff. I’ve never done anything else in my life. This has been my life story, other than working at sound waves mall at East Point mall in 1984 all I’ve ever made money on is writing for a newspaper, media and subscription or this crazy radio station, a radio show for 35 years now, where I’ve sold ads to people like Costa sin that put me in their place, to allow me to continue to do what I do. So the gratitude I have for local business. Without that, and as that shrunk, my business would shrink, and I feel the same way about Hearst at 98 rock or the fan and saying they’re whoever the hell owns them. Odyssey, whatever that is, that ain’t Dundalk. That’s not local. You know what I mean? And then the Baltimore Sun’s local now, but it’s it’s not a newspaper anymore. It’s a, it’s a it’s a political machine. The notion that we’re still going to sell advertising, stories and community to local business, there is this thing where I’m not going to support you because you’re Trump, or you’re not Trump, or you’re Democrat, or you’re Republican, or you’re with ice, or you’re not like all of that. We all live and work amongst all of this. And I learned this during covid, which changed my life, my favorite crab cakes and my favorite place to eat. They needed to survive covid. And I think that changed me dramatically. And I think it changed every business that does business with local people, because we were all in peril at that time.

Vicki Franz  13:07

Everybody well, and we need that support as well. I mean, I can’t do what I do because I don’t have a pay wall and I don’t have paid subscribers. I’m getting my revenue from businesses that want to access our distribution. So we reach 50,000 people over the course of a two month cycle. You Reach Me because we’re every other month and so and we reach people where they are. So we’re reaching them in their office, in our with our print. We’re reaching them on our through our website. We communicate with 10,000 email subscribers, and we push it out on social media. So you combine all those things, and you can, you can see the sharing and the linking back, and it’s really the power of the of the brand is that we’re sharing our content across multiple platforms, and that’s why companies like to use us, because they

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Nestor Aparicio  14:05

get results. Well, I think the other part, and that’s that’s on the sales side, but I think on the consumer side of reading it, wanting to learn more about, like, I mean, all these ladies just on your cover alone. I’ve had max on the show, and Max and I are like, friends and go to movies and this and laugh about things, but I get more of her background the same way I learned that you’re from Kentucky by just sitting and talking to you. Because I don’t learning about your business, to me, would be about learning about who you are. So do you know what

Vicki Franz  14:33

her hobby is, her diversion? I know she plays

Nestor Aparicio  14:38

the cello. Yes, she’s cellist. It’s not a this, it’s this. It’s a cello. She plays

Vicki Franz  14:43

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the thing, the thing. So that’s one of the things we’ve added to our feature stories. Our content is, is a combination

Nestor Aparicio  14:51

pissed at me now, and I call it the thing. What do you mean the thing? You can’t call it the thing. Sorry, Max.

Vicki Franz  14:56

So we have a combination of earned media. Yeah. So we’re using our relationships, the people we know, the people we read about, that we want to highlight and talk about them and their success in business.

Nestor Aparicio  15:11

When you do Hispanic journalist of influence, I’ll be the

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Vicki Franz  15:14

coffee will be right there. Yeah. Are you there before you and then we also do content engagement, where we will work with a company that wants to have access to our distribution to help them tell their story and get their name out there, so that they get the visibility. And like you said at the beginning, it’s sort of a PR move, and we handle everything for them. They don’t have to do anything. They don’t have to post it on social media. We’re gonna post it, but

Nestor Aparicio  15:43

they’re gonna share it too, hopefully.

Vicki Franz  15:44

Well, we Yeah, yeah, of course, I had a guy on the cover in December. This guy here,

Nestor Aparicio  15:50

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and Harley flag,

Vicki Franz  15:52

yeah, and Harley went to New York to meet with some investors, because his business is exploding, and he needs investors, because he needs to be able to support the contracts that he has lined up for this year, to hire more equipment, more people, and so forth. And so he went to New York for this meeting with a bunch of big hooya investors, and walks in the room, and you know what they said? That was a great story we saw in i 95 business Great. Now, how did they see that in New York? And then the same thing happened when he went down to Nova to for a separate investor meeting. So the thing is that it has legs, and it goes places where you can’t make it go, and it’s shared and gets out to people that can have an impact on your business. Vicki France

Nestor Aparicio  16:44

is my guest. I 95 business is her publication. You find it online as well. If you do own a local business, you probably have met Vicki out in various places. You and I run at each other five or six times a year, no matter what I did, the bots event with Ed Mullen last night out here in beautiful the Wonder fly arena, about a mile up here, right off of Greenspring, and it is a small community of people, right? And when I go to these events, whether they’re eight in the morning, accelerate or connects event or evening networking event that out you do these kinds of events all the time. I always try to like for my radio show, just even having you on to say, all right, thermometer, what’s the temperature? What are people talking about? Like, I had Carson cabinets here running for office over the Pikesville here, talking about people driving too fast. Just, you know, a simple thing a politician would hear, or potholes. Or I like Wes Moore. I don’t like Wes Moore. I like Brandon Scott. Or I don’t, or I’m gonna vote for a Republican or Democrat, but, but you don’t want it.

Vicki Franz  17:45

We don’t get into politics, but, but what, what he mentioned to me when, when he was leaving, is, you know, you should come to Pikesville and see what’s going on. And I said, Yeah, we’re doing a story on the Pikesville Armory in in next I had Barry weaves on over. And, you know, it’s a very important project. It’s a huge build out 100 million dollars. And these are the kind of hidden stories that you know you might not hear about. Because the other thing is, you know, when you see something in a news feed, it’s here today and gone tomorrow. And so it’s really hard to find stories that you might have wanted to read, but you didn’t have time at that moment.

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Nestor Aparicio  18:25

And so it’s a news story. It’s just who, what, where, why, when it’s not, the deeper into who they are and what the real goals are,

Vicki Franz  18:33

yeah, well, that’s what we just describe ourselves as a features oriented magazine so that we can talk about those kind of things, as opposed to, we’re not driven by a press release. But more than that, I think

Nestor Aparicio  18:45

when you start to talk about people on the political side, they’re all trying to solve a problem of some kind, right? They’re all trying to to position themselves to help people in some way. It’s how people get business well, or maybe just make them happy in some way, but, but I do think the collective of the community is discussing, hey, there’s a problem, let’s solve it. Yeah, and that that’s not Baltimore positive when you say there’s a problem, but that’s what business does. Business solves problems.

Vicki Franz  19:11

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That’s true, and we work very closely with some of the large enterprise organizations that are dealing with those problems, things you know, like the Maryland chamber, they just finished up at the legislature, and they they were able to impact a lot of legislation that’s positive for business, as opposed to pushing through everything that the legislators had on their plate. And so you do have to be aware of that, and you have to make people aware of it. And so we are a voice for the chamber and help people understand what’s at stake and promote the kinds of issues and how to react to those who to call that’s about as political as we get.

Nestor Aparicio  19:50

Well, if you are in local business, you probably know about Vicki France. I 95 business. I’m gonna hold the new one up because it’s got max on the cover here and the ladies as well. No offense to you. Harley. But this is the fresh year she published every two months. Give everybody the website how to find you. I know you participate in various networking things, and you hold events from time to time. I want to give you some oxygen to talk about what you got going on the spring and summer. Well, it’s easy

Vicki Franz  20:12

to find us. We’re on 95 business calm, and our website is full of content. Our next event is the Women of Influence event, and we’ll have all these ladies together on a panel to come. I’m not a woman of

Nestor Aparicio  20:27

influence, of course. I’m barely a man, of course.

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Vicki Franz  20:29

All right, yeah. And we share, we have a we have a fun thing that we do, which is, we call it fancy footwear, and we celebrate Shoes, shoes. And so we give prizes for different types of shoes, like snacks.

Nestor Aparicio  20:45

Give me story wife. So we fight

Vicki Franz  20:49

sexy sandals, all those kind

Nestor Aparicio  20:51

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of do you order shoes online? No, hell no, I gotta put my foot in. I mean, I don’t. I listen the Zappos and you do about solving a problem. And if you would have came to really need the Marco’s like, if somebody would have come to me 25 years ago and said, there’s going to be this thing called the internet, and it’s going to be like a catalog from Sears, and you’re going to be able to pick things out and order it, and I want you to invest all of the 10 cents you have in Dundalk, in a company that’s going to sell shoes out of a catalog, I would say you go to Tom McCann, or Hess or, you know, you don’t, and you put the shoe on, there’s a reason you walk in. It very old fashion. The person

Vicki Franz  21:34

looks at you. It’s very cute. It’s that’s old fashioned.

Nestor Aparicio  21:38

I’ve had uncomfortable shoes, and you do not want to be out, I have walked in uncomfortable shoes. Well, I

Vicki Franz  21:45

doesn’t charge. They did.

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Nestor Aparicio  21:46

Okay, that’s what she says. I’m like, who’s got time to send shoes back? It’s easy. That’s what she said. All right. All right, keep going. I’m not gonna argue with any woman. My wife’s been out of town for two weeks about shoes, but this is an eternal thing, like, how do you order clothing online? So where’d you get that shirt? I bought it off the racket Robert Graham in Philadelphia, at the outlets up in Pottstown. There you go, because I could put it on. There you go, and I’d feel it. It’s nice. Not every shirt feels nice. Oh yeah, I need to be able to feel it. Yeah. That’s nice. I buy that. So when I listen, when I go into, like, a TJ Maxx, or, you know, the high end shopping that I do, Marshalls, that kind of thing, and the clearance outlet that I do, I literally, like, this is pretty and I like, I like, pretty. Obviously I’d wear it, but if I touched it and it felt like wool, I wouldn’t buy it. I got to touch it. I got to feel I got to put it on. I don’t understand how online shopping works. So this is for people above my pay grade, I think, well,

Vicki Franz  22:42

you’re lucky. You don’t have to, all right. All right, yeah, it’s all good.

Nestor Aparicio  22:47

All right. What’s your event? When’s your big

Vicki Franz  22:48

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Okay, the big event is the shoes, April 29 and it’s we celebrate all the Women of Influence. We have a cohort of about 35 women that we’re honoring this year. That’s a whole bunch of people. And what we do is we honor all the women we’ve written about during the prior year. So we don’t just

Nestor Aparicio  23:08

write this is like a Super Bowl. This is like a big thing.

Vicki Franz  23:11

We don’t write about women once a year. We write about them in every issue. It’s really part of my basic business model is to bring you know, attention to successful women in business, and then we bring them together once a year at this event, April 29

Nestor Aparicio  23:29

Yep, fancy. I like citron. He’s got a crab cake over there. I know. Yeah, I’ve talked to him before. We’re upping up,

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Vicki Franz  23:37

and our game with going to citron.

Nestor Aparicio  23:39

You know how the Nancy Grasmick Leadership Institute. I know Aaron and everybody over there as well. That’s a real great incubator. I mean, I was there the day that they that they dedicated that Nancy and her husband were friends of mine for 40 years. So, yeah, there’s a lot of good stuff. I love that you’re spotlighting the women here. All right, that’s good. All right, women in business. There you go. I 95 Well, actually, Women of Influence powering media in business. April 29 is a big date, and people just buy tickets for that, right? Absolutely. All right,

Vicki Franz  24:06

yep, we’re still selling tickets till the end of next week, and we have a few left. We’re getting close to a sellout.

Nestor Aparicio  24:13

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Connect, celebrate. Be inspired. Be in the room. Be in the room. I know food’s gonna be good because it’s Citron, yeah.

Vicki Franz  24:21

Oh, but we also have a lot of men come, and we have a special, special prize for men in the shoe department. They can win as well.

Nestor Aparicio  24:29

I’m wearing sneakers. I ain’t gonna win it. It’s a Wednesday, all right, what’s the afternoon?

Vicki Franz  24:32

And it’s in the evening, 430 but we give a prize. And you know who started it was Mick Arnold, I don’t know. Mick. Mick, you don’t know. Mick Arnold, no, okay, well, Mick Arnold, came to support his wife, Britt tegler. Arnold, okay, and she was our keynote speaker, and we were our we already were doing this fancy footwear thing, but we. Tech wore blue suede shoes Elvis. And so I said, Okay, next year we’re gonna have a prize for best shoes on men.

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Nestor Aparicio  25:09

And so we I have books adrenaline, 24 man and I walk 15 miles a day through South America. I just bought a $99 pair online black wait

Vicki Franz  25:22

each you bought them online. I know exactly what I’m getting. You said you don’t buy online. You just contradicted yourself.

Nestor Aparicio  25:29

No, but, but I know what I’m getting. It’s 85 it’s half I would not buy a Nike nine in some other name, okay, whatever. I wouldn’t buy the shirt online because I can’t feel it. I wouldn’t be able

Vicki Franz  25:40

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to touch it. Okay, we’ve covered that. Okay, so, yeah, come to Women

Nestor Aparicio  25:44

of Influence. I’m not buying Jimmy shoes online, although I have looked at play. Well, my wife goes to New York. She won’t buy $800 shoes, but she’ll look at

Vicki Franz  25:52

them all day. Absolutely. Yep. The girls, the girls step out. We’ve got a lot of we have some really fun shoes. That’s a great way to start it. Just wanted

Nestor Aparicio  26:01

to be comfortable for the ladies, that’s all I want

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Vicki Franz  26:03

well, and that’s the thing they I want them to be comfortable in whatever they’re comfortable wearing. And so it’s but it’s a great conversation starter when somebody has on some

Nestor Aparicio  26:12

really sexy shoe is a comfortable shoe. And I say that on the eve of Preakness as well, because I’ve worn the wrong shoes. The Preakness Vicki France is here. She’s i 95 business, the magazine, the website. My thanks to you. It’s always great to visit with you. And I have, you know, I’ve never talked to her long enough to hear the southern accent, but it took me two minutes. I did sports radio nationally for three and a half years back at tournament century, and I took calls from everywhere, and I got really, really good addiction, and yeah, like hearing people and knowing right away that’s that’s Southern, but that’s Texas. That’s not North Carolina. And, yeah, my mom was from South Carolina and Georgia so and like before you drew van landing from Arkansas. Different, different. I heard your Southern and I thought it was more Virginia, like Tennessee, but I’ll give you Kentucky on that. That’s good, that’s good, but you hide it the way my wife hides her New Hampshire, like it wasn’t. I’m not had. I’ve known you like 10 years, and I never knew that you am not high. You would have led with that 10 years ago. I’d have been like, you’re southern now I know. See, you have people on the show. You learn a little bit about it. My thanks to Vicki, France. We’re here at Costa city. We’re here. I already gave you. I picked you. I already gave you one. I gave you the pony. All right, that leaves me the Blackwater motif. That leaves me the boardwalk in Ocean City, where I’ll be broadcasting from Mako in August. And that leaves me the Bay Bridge, and I’ll be going over in August, but hopefully before then, because we all need to get over to the eastern shore before the the end of spring, I am Nestor. We’re back for more. It cost us in we have political candidates. Pat Dyer’s coming by. He’s apparently Republican. I’m a Democrat. This will be interesting. Back for more right after this, you.