ITEN WIRED RADIO- Ep2 2018 “The Program” and JETRO Coming to Pensacola

February 12, 2018 by Keith

ITEN Wired Radio

ITEN WIRED RADIO- Ep2 2018 "The Program" and JETRO Coming to Pensacola

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Jim Rhodes- Director ITEN WIRED

Keith Hoffert-eightfifty:media

Stan Harper – JETRO Influencer

ITEN WIRED is a conference hosted by IT Gulf Coast and Florida West Economic Development Alliance. The annual summit provides networking and learning opportunities for executives, entrepreneurs, technology professionals and academia to foster local economic development efforts surrounding innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship.

The ITEN WIRED planning team is composed of volunteers from IT Gulf Coast, Florida West Economic Development Alliance, and other members of our local IT community.

Jim has actively participated in the planning of the annual ITEN Wired Summit since 2012 and is in his 5th year serving as its director.

He is a native of Pensacola and a graduate of Tate High School and the University of West Florida, where he received his degree in finance. He moved to Charlotte, NC in 1997 with a goal of furthering his career in banking, but later developed a passion for information technology. Upon graduating ECPI College of Technology, he officially entered into the world of IT in 2001. After working several years as a network engineer, he and his family relocated back to Pensacola in 2007.

Jim has been employed by AppRiver since 2008 and currently manages the mobile solutions team which provides mobile device support for a global customer base of almost 300,000 users. He also serves as an advisor to the board of directors for IT Gulf Coast and as a board member for Innovation Coast.

He is married and has two sons. He enjoys golfing, kayaking, and fishing.

JETRO

DESCRIPTION

We hope you can join us for Japan-US Grass-Root Business Partnership Forum organized in collaboration with local authorities. This Forum will deepen the essential economic partnership between Japan and the U.S. To further that aim, the Forum will advocate the creation of new business through bi-directional Trade and investment, strengthening cooperative work between Japan and U.S. companies, as well as business expansion in other countries and regions.

By promoting Grass-Root Business partnerships, we hope to contribute to the economic prosperity of both countries and regions. The format of the Forum will be divided into two sessions, one focused upon the strategies Japanese companies have taken when expanding in the U.S. market, and the second session focusing on the opportunities that currently exist in the Japanese market as well as newly emerging ones, including advanced technology applications. We hope that you will save the date. An invitation will be issued shortly.

◆Program (tentative)

1) Opening remarks and Greeting: Hon. Ashton Hayward, Mayor of Pensacola

2) Keynote address: JETRO Atlanta Chief Executive Director, Norikazu Mori

3) JETRO function of Business Development with Japan

4) Session 1 Approaching Business in Japan (US Speakers)

Attractiveness of Japan as a Hub for business expansion in Asia
Challenges Encountered and Overcome Japan
Case Studies Key Factors for Company Success in Japan
Opinions for making Japan more investment-friendly to U.S. Companies

5) Session 2 Approaching Business in the U.S. (Japan Speakers)

Case Studies Key Factors for Company Success in the U.S.
Opportunities for Japanese and U.S companies alliances with advanced technology.
JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization)
Organizer of Japan-US Grass-Root Business Partnership Forum
About the Japan External Trade Organization
JETRO is a non-profit organization that connects businesses with the resources they need to successfully expand to Japan. Since 2003, JETRO has supported more than 15,000 business investment projects and helped over 1,500 companies successfully invest in Japan.
Originally established in 1958 to promote Japanese exports abroad, JETRO’s core focus has since shifted to promoting foreign direct investment (FDI) into Japan and helping small to medium-sized Japanese firms maximize their global export potential.
Through JETRO, clients can incorporate their business in Japan; receive visa, immigration, and HR support; find dedicated office space; identify local government subsidies; meet Japanese business partners; and more.
JETRO is organized and managed by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), a ministry of the Japanese government that focuses on economic and industrial development through innovation, technology, and foreign investment. JETRO currently maintains 74 offices overseas in 55 countries and 46 offices in Japan, including the Tokyo and Osaka headquarters.
JETRO in the United States
There are six JETRO offices in the United States. Each offers a full range of business support services to U.S. companies seeking to invest in Japan, as well as several industry-specific exhibits, seminars, and webinarsfor networking and partnership purposes.
In the last decade, JETRO has helped hundreds of U.S. businesses successfully enter or expand in the Japanese market. Companies supported include Amazon, Tesla, AdRoll, Johnson & Johnson, and more.
Business Investment Services
JETRO provides a wide range of free and subsidized business services to foreign businesses. Companies can work one-on-one with JETRO to learn more about business incorporation, visa applications, legal regulations, subsidy programs, and more.
ORGANIZERPROFILE CONTACT12

Pensacola Business Radio- Women In Leadership Series Brought to you by Powerful Women of the Gulf Coast Ep 3 2018

February 9, 2018 by Keith

Pensacola Business Radio

Pensacola Business Radio- Women In Leadership Series Brought to you by Powerful Women of the Gulf Coast Ep 3 2018

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Cheryl Weir, Executive Coach

Cheryl has been coaching individuals and teams in corporations committed to producing breakthrough results since 1992. Her client list includes: Pfizer/Wyeth, A Ernst and Young, World Bank, DuPont, Kimberly-Clark, Barclays Capital, IBM, Cisco, AT&T, Lucent Technologies, Novartis, J&J, Jefferson Wells, Hershey Foods, Temple University Health System, Hajoca Corporation, Acme-Hardesty, and Wharton, as well as many smaller organizations. She leads team and leadership workshops designed to produce results beyond what these leaders could imagine before working with Cheryl. Recently she has been working with several organizations to uncover what sets apart the “stars” and “leaders” from those who are not and has a process to quickly identify leadership competencies to coach and develop.

Cheryl conducts public and corporate workshops and programs. Several of the most popular are: Developing YOUR Unique Leadership Style, Retaining Talented Employees, and The Executive Leadership Program for identified “high potentials” in organizations. Her workshop for sales organizations, ROCKET Your RESULTS was featured in FORTUNE magazine, “So You’re a Player: Do You Need a Coach?” where she helped her client, “blow out the numbers.”

Cheryl worked for IBM for 13 years in sales, specializing in business solutions to improve the bottom line. As Finance Industry Sales Executive for IBM she helped her clients solve business problems with multi-million dollar solutions sold to top executives.

Cheryl is a certified graduate of CoachU (a three-year program) and certified “Teleclass” Leader (an 8-month process). She was a founding member of Corporate Coaches Committee of the International Coach Federation (ICF) as well as a Host for the Internal Corporate Coaching Group.

She is certified in Hay Group’s Emotional Intelligence 360 Degree Multi-rater assessment (ECI) that identifies leadership strengths and “opportunities for development” in 18 key leadership competencies. She is certified in delivering feedback and coaching around TTI’s DISC Style and Behavior assessment. The Needs and Values Program, she developed, identifies people’s top 5 needs and values so they see the source of their upsets and orient their lives around these values/strengths. Cheryl is trained to facilitate the TKI Conflict Management Workshop that identifies the conflict modes one uses most often and provides others choices to resolving conflict. And, she is currently a contributing editor for Executive Excellence and Personal Excellence magazines.

Cheryl is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Economics and is a Hall of Famer in swimming. She lives in Pensacola, FL with her husband of 35 years and has 3 children, Sawyer, Kristin and Collin. Her passions are golf, swimming, exercise classes, traveling, reading at the beach; and watching her children take on all the new challenges that independent life offers.

Pam Hatt has more than 28 years of experience in the financial industry with more than 21 years in marketing and communications. She currently is the Director of Marketing at Pen Air Federal Credit Union, managing all aspects of marketing and public relation operations of the mid-size credit union with assets of $1.4B, 19 branch locations, including three Student Run Credit Unions, and over 99,000 members throughout Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties in Florida and Baldwin and Mobile Counties in Alabama.

Kate Treick (Trike)

At heart, Kate is a storyteller. Since opening her photography studio in 2014, she primarily has told family stories through custom portraits. Specializing in photographing newborns, children, and families, Kate loves capturing the personality of each family she works with. She creates portraits on location at local beaches, parks, and family homes, and also at her studio at 2600 West Nine Mile Road.

Kolleen Edwards Chesley

Kolleen Edwards Chesley has 25 years of experience in the financial services industry and spent the majority of her career as a financial advisor. In that role, Kolleen was responsible for finding her own clients and quickly learned the value of networking, networking, and even more networking. It was in 2004 and during her sales career that she, along with two other professional business women met for lunch with the purpose of helping to motivate each other after Hurricane Ivan had blown through our area and changed not only the physical landscape of the area, but also impacted the business landscape as well. Out of that lunch was born what is now a thriving not-for-profit organization for business women.

Kolleen currently serves full-time as the Founding Director of what was originally called Women’s Business Lunch and is now known as Powerful Women of the Gulf Coast. The organization advocates a culture of confidence building, lifelong learning, collaboration, empowering others and a spirit of charitable giving.

The mission of Powerful Women of the Gulf Coast is to promote, advance and improve women in business and the organization accomplishes these in a number of different ways.

Monthly networking meetings in Pensacola and Gulf Breeze. These are open to all women and are free to attend. We run a structured meeting with open networking, an educational segment, a sponsor presentation, an opportunity to hear about the businesses of all attendees, and a whole lot of fun. We frequently hear from attendees that these meeting are chock full of value and a great way to build new relationships to help support their businesses. The Pensacola meetings include lunch paid for by our sponsors.
Powerful Women of the Gulf Coast Magazine. We have produced 4 editions of this print magazine. Each edition features interviewees of local successful leaders in business who share their honest thoughts on leadership, success, obstacles, and inspiration as it relates to women in business. We also include other articles on leadership, networking, and other skill development. It is geared for anyone in business or looking for business motivation and tips. Our goal is for this to be a quarterly publication, however the magazine is currently on hold as we explore graphic designers. Our latest edition can still be found on our website.
Annual Pursue Your Passion Women’s conference. To help celebrate National Business Women’s Week, we hold a full day conference during the third week of October along with several other events leading up to the conference. We feature a national keynote speaker, several local successful leaders in business, along with Speed Networking, an Experience Hall, structured and unstructured networking exercises and plenty of laughter, relationship building and excitement. Our attendees are not only motivated by the conference but they leave with tangible tips they can take back and implement in their businesses to lead them to success. For 2018, our conference will be held on Wednesday, October 17^th and Thursday, October 18^th, 2018 at Sanders Beach.
Power Up Challenge is a 12 week educational series where we hold classes once a week for two hours. Classes focused around four main areas of business: Networking, Marketing, Business Efficiency, and Sales Skills. Open to men and women and all classmates receive the full audio recording of each class along with class notes, expanded notes, and extra resources. Remote classes also available. Classes are affordable and attendees are elated with the amount and quality of the information that is shared.
Women in Leadership radio podcast show – sponsored by Pensacola Business Radio X. We hold monthly shows featuring local community leaders and other men and women in business. We engage our guests in conversational style in-depth interviews. They share their advice on topics such as mentoring, keys to success, time management tools, personal mantras and favorite inspirations, and what men can do to help support women in business.
Membership in Powerful Women of the Gulf Coast is also available.

Contact directors@powerfulwomengulfcoast.com for more information or visit our website at www.powerfulwomengulfcoast.com or Facebook at “Powerful Women of the Gulf Coast” for all of our meeting information.

Pensacola Business Radio- Spotlight Episode with Tim Martin and the Isaak Life Firm

February 1, 2018 by Keith

Pensacola Business Radio

Pensacola Business Radio- Spotlight Episode with Tim Martin and the Isaak Life Firm

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Dr. Tim Martin

Executive Director/Personal and Professional Coach/Motivational Speaker/Professor/Consultant

I must ask!! (No pun intended) What questions didn’t get asked in your personal or professional life and career or company in 2017 because, you or others feared what the answers may be?

Are you a situation focused leader or a solution focused leader? Situation focused leaders lean on this leadership lie. “If my situation or circumstances would change I, he, she; they, we, or it could change.” This is a limiting and disabling belief that will lead to desperate or debilitating leadership decisions. A belief, is simply a thought you have allowed to become a truth that you lean and lead on. Solution focused leaders engage the belief and act on a truth, which persuades their leadership mindset to focus on seeing any situation with many obstacles, as being a situation with more opportunities.

The conditions we find ourselves in and the positions others align with in certain situations don’t have to stand in the way of us moving and making something positive happen. Situational focused leaders are reactive and solution focused leaders are proactive. It’s the decisive difference between both leaders. The potential results can be dramatically different for one leader and the team he/she leads.

Solutions are seldom seen or found when only focusing on just what’s going on in the situation. Many solutions can become camouflaged in all the chaos that is causing or adding to the situation. Solutions are found inside people who find themselves inside the situation. A solution focused leader is willing to assess their role and responsibility inside the situation. They are not afraid to step back or away from the situation briefly, allowing time to examine things personally or professionally that may need to be challenged or changed at the time, to either help or keep from hurting the situation more. Leaders lead!! That’s a clue where to start.

The nouns (person, places or things) that surround the situation may not change but, that doesn’t have to limit what role or responsibility you take or response you make inside it. Even if things do not go your way, you can still be okay, because of the perspective, approach, action or solutions you were able bring to the situation. Will you set forth solutions to resolve some complicated situations and fail? Absolutely Yes!! However, you will discover that many mistakes are not setbacks, they are setups. You are being set up to fulfill your ultimate leadership potential, achieve a higher leadership purpose and become a more successful solution focused leader.

For any situations to be changed for the better, healthy solutions must be activated and directly applied. As you have figured out by now, this not only applies to leadership but, life as well. No matter what your situation or circumstances may be, always find the awesome inside you, live it and lead with it.

Pensacola Business Radio-Nicole Gislason from University of West Florida Sea3D Labs

January 26, 2018 by Keith

Pensacola Business Radio

Pensacola Business Radio-Nicole Gislason from University of West Florida Sea3D Labs

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Nicole Gislason from University of West Florida Sea3D Labs

The University of West Florida Sea3D lab provides valuable 3-D printing resources and fosters innovation and collaboration among students, faculty, staff, industry leaders and the Northwest Florida community.

Learn. Design. Invent

Launched as part of the Innovation Network, the facility serves as a hub for multidisciplinary research, invention and discovery in the high-demand field of additive manufacturing, providing a space for real-world problems to be transformed into creative solutions. It is located inside the UWF Historic Trust’s Museum of Commerce at 201 E. Zaragoza St.

The University of West Florida Innovation Network connects physical campus destinations along the Gulf Coast of Northwest Florida for innovation, collaboration, research and engaged learning to prepare students for the changing world and workforce of tomorrow.

ITEN WIRED Radio: 2018 Season is Kicking Off with Ben and Anthony from Coastware Technologies

January 24, 2018 by Keith

ITEN Wired Radio

ITEN WIRED Radio: 2018 Season is Kicking Off with Ben and Anthony from Coastware Technologies

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Ben Avellone and Anthony Gonzalez

Co-founders, Coastware Technologies

Coastware provides robust, business-class applications and professional IT managed services for small and medium businesses within the Gulf Coast communities.

Explore Our Services

Your software is custom built for your business. You have a direct line of communication with the decision maker, developer and designer of your software which lets you control every aspect of its operation and workflow.

We have experience integrating with other software platforms, both directly using APIs and indirectly by allowing data to be imported and exported from our systems. Let your software do the hard work for you!

Business requirements change over time and we make it easy to request additions and modifications to your software, even long after the project is built. We start small with a solid foundation and build on it until it meets your needs.

Combine Coastware’s technical expertise with your industry knowledge to create a valuable asset for your business.

We take your ideas and feedback and give you suggestions on how best to solve the problem at hand. You’ll be provided with a time-line and quote to allow you to make an informed decision.

With a plan in place, we start working on making your vision come alive. We send you regular progress updates to keep you in the loop and allow you to give instant feedback.

All changes to the software go through a QA process before ever reaching you. We use automated and manual testing to reduce the likelihood of any issues.

We value your feedback and welcome any comments or suggestions you may have. Any changes resulting from your feedback go through the same process as any other change to ensure the final result is always of the highest quality.

We understand the important role your custom software serves in the business. We use a combination of automated and manual testing to ensure there are no hiccups, gotchas or surprises in the operation of your software.

We stay up-to-date with the latest trends in software development and incorporate those which give us an edge when building software for our clients. As a result, we’re able to deliver updates at an accelerated pace which lets you see results sooner without compromising on quality.

Sometimes, you just can’t beat a face-to-face meeting. We love talking with our clients and helping them come up with solutions to their problems. No need to even leave the office!

Pensacola Business Radio-Morton Homes Spotlight Episode

January 24, 2018 by Keith

BRX National

Pensacola Business Radio-Morton Homes Spotlight Episode

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Brian Teague – Sales Morton Homes

When you build with Morton, you build something that lasts. A Morton stands the test of time – we’ve been at this for more than 110 years after all. What got us here is simple: our materials, our people and a warranty that beats all others.

In the construction industry, you get what you pay for, and cheaper is rarely better. With Morton, you get the most for your money. There’s a reason for that: Quality. This isn’t any building — it’s your building. We want your building to be one you are proud to show off and pass down to future generations.

HOME & CABIN

A Morton home offers clear-span construction that allows for maximum flexibility when designing floor plans and other features for your home. Morton also boasts an exclusive Energy Performer insulation package that delivers an efficient option in heating and cooling, as well as Hi-Rib steel for siding and roofing that requires virtually no maintenance.

Morton customers can choose their level of involvement during construction, whether it be single-source accountability for turnkey construction (not available in all areas) or customer-source accountability to provide a lower price and expanded finishing options.

Our process at a glance:

Secure Financing
Site Selection
Choose Level of Construction Involvement
Prepare Plans & Project Costs
Final Approval From Bank
Review Plans & Sign Contracts
Begin Construction

Pensacola Business Radio: Spotlight Episode, United Way, the 411 on the 211 with Naomi Kjer

January 22, 2018 by Keith

Pensacola Business Radio

Pensacola Business Radio: Spotlight Episode, United Way, the 411 on the 211 with Naomi Kjer

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Naomi Kjer

Marketing Manager

United Way of Escambia County

www.unitedwayescambia.org

FILE YOUR TAXES WITH UNITED WAY’S FREE TAX PROGRAMS

Pensacola, Fla. – January 17, 2018

Keep your money! If you or your household make $66,000 or less, United Way of Escambia County (UWEC) offers free tax preparation services. Maximize your money by filing quickly and securely online, or visit one of our conveniently located VITA sites for one-on-one help with an IRS-certified volunteer.

Online – File taxes anywhere, anytime at www.myfreetaxes.com. If you have questions, call the MyFreeTaxes Helpline at 1-855-698-9435.
In-person – Go to a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) site and have an IRS-certified volunteer prepare taxes. Dial 2-1-1 or visit www.unitedwayescambia.org/taxhelp for locations and hours of operation.

VITA sites open on January 30 with the help of partners at Pensacola State College and the Escambia County School District. United Way has also partnered with Impact America – Florida to grow VITA volunteer capacity at tax prep sites by engaging students and college graduates to address community needs. Additional program sponsors are Regions, Wells Fargo, and Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.

“United Way’s Tax Preparation programs are vital to our community. Instead of spending hundreds of dollars in preparation fees, these free programs help local citizens keep money in their pockets. In turn, money saved could then be used to create a savings account or emergency funds to put a family on the path to financial stability,” said Katrina Madden, UWEC Financial Stability Program Outreach Manager.

Last year, United Way’s Tax Preparation programs helped 3,683 individuals and families for a total impact of $6,634,123 in our community.

Be sure to have the following documents on-hand when filing your taxes: state or federal photo identification; Social Security cards for all members of the household; all W2s, 1095s, 1098s, 1099s; childcare provider’s information; investment statements and other tax forms; amounts of other income; bank account information for direct deposit; and last year’s tax return if available.

Marketing materials containing information about these two tax assistance programs are available for distribution. To request the free materials and for questions concerning VITA or MyFreeTaxes.com, contact Katrina Madden, UWEC Financial Stability Program Outreach Manager, at vita@unitedwayescambia.org or call 850-912-8245.

By living core values of serving the community with Integrity, Leadership, Inclusiveness, Volunteerism and Excellence (I LIVE), United Way of Escambia County is working to meet a mission of uniting our community and leveraging resources to improve lives.

Pensacola Business Radio-Women in Leadership Series brought to you by Powerful Women of the Gulf Coast Ep. 1-2018

January 22, 2018 by Keith

Pensacola Business Radio

Pensacola Business Radio-Women in Leadership Series brought to you by Powerful Women of the Gulf Coast Ep. 1-2018

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Madrina, Kolleen, Julie

Madrina Dawn Ciano-Community Volunteer

Julie Still-Rolin has been conducting professional development training since 2012. In September 2017, she published her first book, The End Game: A Training Guide for Sexual Harassment, and since then, she has seen the need for enhanced sexual harassment training increasing and made it her focus. Her book is on Amazon, and more information can be found on her website: www.sexualharassmentguru.com.

The mission of Powerful Women of the Gulf Coast is to promote, advance and improve women in business and the organization accomplishes these in a number of different ways.

Monthly networking meetings in Pensacola and Gulf Breeze. These are open to all women and are free to attend. We run a structured meeting with open networking, an educational segment, a sponsor presentation, an opportunity to hear about the businesses of all attendees, and a whole lot of fun. We frequently hear from attendees that these meeting are chock full of value and a great way to build new relationships to help support their businesses. The Pensacola meetings include lunch paid for by our sponsors.
Powerful Women of the Gulf Coast Magazine. We have produced 4 editions of this print magazine. Each edition features interviewees of local successful leaders in business who share their honest thoughts on leadership, success, obstacles, and inspiration as it relates to women in business. We also include other articles on leadership, networking, and other skill development. It is geared for anyone in business or looking for business motivation and tips. Our goal is for this to be a quarterly publication, however the magazine is currently on hold as we explore graphic designers. Our latest edition can still be found on our website.
Annual Pursue Your Passion Women’s conference. To help celebrate National Business Women’s Week, we hold a full day conference during the third week of October along with several other events leading up to the conference. We feature a national keynote speaker, several local successful leaders in business, along with Speed Networking, an Experience Hall, structured and unstructured networking exercises and plenty of laughter, relationship building and excitement. Our attendees are not only motivated by the conference but they leave with tangible tips they can take back and implement in their businesses to lead them to success. For 2018, our conference will be held on Wednesday, October 17^th and Thursday, October 18^th, 2018 at Sanders Beach.
Power Up Challenge is a 12 week educational series where we hold classes once a week for two hours. Classes focused around four main areas of business: Networking, Marketing, Business Efficiency, and Sales Skills. Open to men and women and all classmates receive the full audio recording of each class along with class notes, expanded notes, and extra resources. Remote classes also available. Classes are affordable and attendees are elated with the amount and quality of the information that is shared.

Women in Leadership radio podcast show – sponsored by Pensacola Business Radio X. We hold monthly shows featuring local community leaders and other men and women in business. We engage our guests in conversational style in-depth interviews. They share their advice on topics such as mentoring, keys to

Pensacola Business Radio-Special Guest, The Wide Open.

January 22, 2018 by Keith

Pensacola Business Radio

Pensacola Business Radio-Special Guest, The Wide Open.

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The Wide Open are not trying to fit into a mold anyone else has cast. Crisscrossing the country in their 32-foot Winnebago armed with their blues-drenched Americana, the duo has discovered their calling––and fans of honest music are grateful for it.

“I just want you to have all of me when I sing a song, so if it’s real to me then it will be real to you,” says singer-songwriter and award-winning harmonica player Allen Rayfield, who with fellow power vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter Season Ammons, forms duo The Wide Open. “I love the authenticity of Robert Johnson and all the old blues, folk, and roots music. I like to sit down with my guitar and write the song that needs to be written at the time,” says Rayfield. For Ammons, creating is deeply personal. “I love melodies and usually will form a melody around a phrase or hook,” she explains. “Then, I’ll pick up an instrument and hash out more music and phrasing to create a story based on some aspect in my life that is or once was true.”

The pair’s sophomore release Long Road Home pulses with the kind of raw immediacy Rayfield praises and craves. A tight collection of original songs driven by Ammons’ and Rayfield’s gritty chemistry, the anti

and Rayfield both traveled unique roads to get to one another. Dallas native Ammons cut her teeth on the Texas opry circuit before moving to Nashville to focus on songwriting. A warm reflection of the country, jazz, and blues vocalists she grew up loving, Ammons’ voice demanded attention. She was a regional finalist on talent-scouting machine Nashville Star and released a solo debut in 2011, a standout that garnered a Texas Music Awards nod, before moving to the Fort Walton Beach area in Florida the following year. Ammons’ second solo record turned heads and clinched nominations throughout Texas and Florida.

cipated record is the follow-up to 2015’s We’ll Get By, which netted the pair an Independent Music Award nod for Best Americana Album and was soon followed by an acclaimed appearance on Destin, Florida’s PBS affiliate.

Confident and often downright virtuosic, Long Road Home clearly benefits from the miles the road-dogging duo logs each year: at least 200 dates in roadhouses and listening rooms across the country. The Wide Open recorded the album on analog tape at Yellow Dog Studios in Wimberley, Texas, producer Dave Percefull’s Blanco-River lining vintage studio. “Dave was great in the studio and knew exactly how to capture the sound we wanted, as well as exactly how to get the performance he wanted,” Ammons says. “It was fun and intense and exciting.”

For fans of The Wide Open, such a triumphant record is cause for celebration but far from a surprise––a beautiful new chapter for two people who can’t help but inspire one another and just about everyone else who knows or merely hears them. After meeting on stage in Florida, the two began collaborating, not expecting anything more than great songs. “Neither one of us was looking for romance, but the love we shared on and off the stage became undeniable,” Rayfield says.

Ammons

Gig after gig, album after album, Ammons became well known and beloved on the Emerald Coast as a solid guitarist, magnetic performer, and gifted writer. Then she met Rayfield.

A St. Louis native, Rayfield was known as a songwriter and gifted harmonica player within the blues community––he’d later go on to win three consecutive Best Harmonica Player trophies at the annual Beachcomber awards not long after moving to Florida in 2013. He relocated with the intention of giving songwriting and performing a wholehearted effort after weathering devastating news: in 2007 at just 30 years old, he was diagnosed with Friedreich’s Ataxia, an incurable neurological disease that affects his muscles, coordination, and causes spasms. Not even a year later, he was in a wheelchair. “I decided to do something about it,” Rayfield says. He spent two months riding 1,486 miles from St. Louis to the East Coast on a hand-powered recumbent bicycle to raise awareness about the disease. When he arrived in Ocean City, Maryland, the mayor greeted him with a key to the city.

Rayfield has since experienceced a miraculous regression in the disease and regained his ability to walk. He attributes the process to his advocacy, alternative medicine, healthy diet, prayer and meditation, yoga, and staying passionate about life.

Ammons and Rayfield cut fierce figures––and more than music aficionados have noticed. New York Times bestselling author Paige Tyler based two characters in her book Wolf Unleashed: SWAT: Special Wolf Alpha Team on the couple.

Long Road Home’s title track is a perfect example why. Also the album’s lead single, the song gleefully incorporates sly banjo licks into a winking ode to doing things your own way. “It’s a fun song about taking chances and having fun––and possibly doing the wrong things for the right reasons,” Rayfield says. The pair’s muscly harmonies buoy the mood alongside playful strings.

“Feel Alright” blithely captures brash desire, while “Walton County Jail” is a bluesy masterpiece, fueled by Rayfield’s gravely lead vocals and meaty harmonica. Moody “Raining in Memphis” is a winsome stroll through regret and longing, while “Ol’ Missouri” nods to bluegrass in a sweet singalong. Haunting album standout “Rainy Day Serenade” is a hushed meditation revolving around Ammons’ stunning vocal delivery and perfect punctuations from Rayfield’s harmonica.

“I will obsess over the words and chords until I have a solid song working,” Rayfield says of his composing process. “I will usually finish it even if it takes hours because I struggle walking away from the moment I am having with the song.”

Ultimately, for both members of The Wide Open, the toiling through the years, miles, and heartbreak that had to unfold in order to create Long Road Home has been worth it. “Long Road Home captures an emotional roller coaster of real passion and truth,” Rayfield says. Ammon says “The pain and joy it took to follow our love for each other and our love of music was both transforming and overwhelming.” She pauses, then breathes deeply as she adds, “This album helped us both heal and grow in ways we never imagined.”