Peri talks with Angela Merkert, the Executive Director of Alliance for Local Economic Prosperity, about her organization’s efforts to create a public bank owned by the State of New Mexico and how it could support more equitable access to capital in the state. Peri also shares updates from her self-employed life, including the story behind a new organization she co-founded, SEED NM . Tweener music: "Unabanker" by The Directory . Photo by Peri Pakroo . Theme song: "You Do You" by Sam Miller . Than...
Nov 21, 2022•38 min•Ep 57•Transcript available on Metacast Host Peri Pakroo talks with Monique Salhab and Kendra Toth about their firm, RACED, which helps clients build equitable and inclusive workplaces and organizations. By embracing their own identities and their strengths in holding space for uncomfortable conversations, Monique and Kendra are developing a powerful partnership that helps build capacity within other organizations to continue the important, ongoing work of dismantling white supremacy. Peri also shares a few announcements from Pyragrap...
Mar 06, 2020•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast 'Tis the season...of badass women stealing the show in the House impeachment hearings. ;) In this episode, host Peri Pakroo invites leadership coach, founder of Family Friendly New Mexico, and Producer/Host of The Well Woman Show Giovanna Rossi to talk about how women in leadership can maximize their effectiveness while staying physically and mentally well. With the holidaze looming, these tips are especially timely. Peri also talks with Coffee + Creatives co-founder Ruth Dove about what leaders...
Dec 09, 2019•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Holiday market season is upon us! Host Peri Pakroo invites woodworker and maker of useful recycled wood items Allegra Howell into the studio to talk shop, craft markets and more. Allegra shares how she got into the biz of recycled wood handicraft, what makes a good market, and how she works on scaling her business while being a mom to a pre-schooler. Peri also talks with A/V whisperer Stue Trory who shares recording tips in a new segment, "Checking Signal." Photo by Peri. Theme song: "You Do You...
Nov 15, 2019•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast What a week! The second annual Unconference just wrapped, and podcast host Peri Pakroo exhales and recaps the highlights with Ruth Dove from Coffee + Creatives , the organizer of the event. This conference of educational and networking events serving Albuquerque's creative workers is growing into a powerful model for how to engage, serve and support a robust creative community. Photo by Jason Collin . Theme song: "You Do You" by Sam Miller . Thanks to our sponsors Pyragraph and Coffee + Creative...
Nov 01, 2019•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Host Peri Pakroo chats with Pilar Westell, owner of Zendo Coffee , a coffeehouse and art gallery in south downtown Albuquerque. We talked about the intersection between art and coffee, and the ins and outs of building and running a community space. Peri also chats with Ruth Dove from Coffee + Creatives about the upcoming Unconference week in Albuquerque, and the varied mix of venues that will host the week's events. Many thanks to Marty Adamsmith and Stue Trory for audio and production assistanc...
Oct 17, 2019•30 min•Ep 52•Transcript available on Metacast Around ten years ago, Kei Tsuzuki and Molly Luethi wanted to create a social enterprise that would enable them to create quality jobs for refugees and immigrants. Today, Kei & Molly Textiles has made good on that mission, and has grown into a vibrant artisan manufacturing business that employs about eight full-time workers, and sells its screenprinted textiles at nearly 400 stores around the country. Host Peri Pakroo talks with Kei and Molly about the origins of their idea and how their values d...
Oct 10, 2019•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast I had the distinct pleasure of welcoming John Fugelsang to the studio to talk about comedy, politics, religion, and how he’s woven all those elements and more into his unique creative career. John is the host of the "Tell Me Everything" series on Sirius XM Insight (channel 121) and a frequent commentator and panelist. I chatted with him about how he got started in theater and comedy, and how he evolved into a funny-yet-incisive political commentator and broadcaster after a childhood suffused wit...
Oct 02, 2019•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast When Danielle Vincent left her job at Oprah to start a soap-making business with her new husband, more than a few folks thought she was, well, crazy. Six years later, Outlaw Soaps is a success, propelled largely by Danielle's high-level marketing chops and time management skills. She has just written a new book, " You-Nicorn : 30 Days to Find Your Inner Unicorn and Live the Life You Love." Peri talks with Danielle about forging her own path and her passion for targeted, data-driven marketing. Th...
Mar 14, 2018•36 min•Ep 49•Transcript available on Metacast It's a hairy world out there, and Kyle Malone has a comb for it. Kyle had been running his branding firm Kinfolk Branding when he had the idea for an heirloom-quality beard comb, and he ran with the idea. Peri and Eph Sharpe talk with Kyle about launching Big Wood Beard Co , learning about his audience, and where the beard trend is going. Theme song: "You Know Who You Are" by Sam Miller . Thanks to our sponsors Pyragraph and The Octopus and the Fox . Be sure to Like our Facebook page !...
Mar 07, 2018•30 min•Ep 48•Transcript available on Metacast Building a business takes resourcefulness, resilience and often a lucky accident or two. No one knows this more than Sheri Crider , who has built a life as an artist and founder of visual art centers (currently, the Sanitary Tortilla Factory in downtown ABQ), despite challenges of addiction and incarceration in her early life. Peri and Eph Sharpe chat with Sheri about the intersection of "businessperson" and "artist" and how she built upon skills in drawing and construction to create a rewarding...
Feb 28, 2018•36 min•Ep 47•Transcript available on Metacast Today on Self-Employed Happy Hour we get our activism on and talk with Maggie Byers and Emilie De Angelis of Moms Demand Action NM , a bi-partisan grassroots organization fighting the epidemic of gun violence in the US. Peri and Eph Sharpe chat with Maggie and Emilie about the group's advocacy for common sense gun control legislation and how regular folks can get involved. Theme song: "You Know Who You Are" by Sam Miller . Thanks to our sponsors Pyragraph and The Octopus and the Fox . Be sure to...
Feb 21, 2018•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today on Self-Employed Happy Hour we talk wellness with coach, educator, bass player and grateful human Antonia Montoya . Peri and Eph Sharpe chat with Antonia about how to carve out time and intention for self-care within a busy self-employed life. Peri also shares a slice of her self-employed juggle this winter, from her frosty living room studio. Segment music by Eph Sharpe. Theme song: "You Know Who You Are" by Sam Miller . Thanks to our sponsors Pyragraph and The Octopus and the Fox . Be su...
Feb 14, 2018•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast We're back with our second episode of 2018, featuring a fantastic conversation with Burque Noir founder Ebony Isis Booth ! Peri and Eph Sharpe chat with Ebony about how she created a showcase for Black performers in Albuquerque, and how she balances the many different identities — poet, organizer, marketing pro, auntie-mom, holder of the mic — that make her who she is. Audio clip courtesy of Ebony Booth. Segment music by Eph Sharpe. Theme song: "You Know Who You Are" by Sam Miller . Thanks to ou...
Feb 07, 2018•35 min•Ep 44•Transcript available on Metacast The mimosas are cold, the burritos hot, and Self-Employed Happy Hour is back! In this episode Peri welcomes a new co-host, artist and emcee Eph Sharpe , plus talks with Keif Henley, the owner of The Guild Cinema , Albuquerque's last indie cinema, about how to stay indie in a megaplex world. AND, Snap Judgment storyteller James Judd shares a story about being haunted by voices telling him he's not "really" working. Thanks to our sponsors Pyragraph and The Octopus and the Fox . Story underscore by...
Jan 31, 2018•34 min•Ep 43•Transcript available on Metacast Host Peri Pakroo is back at the podcast mic, processing the 2016 election and figuring out how to fit political organizing into her self-employed life. In this episode she interviews Eric Griego, longtime progressive politician and organizer who has served on Albuquerque's City Council and the New Mexico State Legislature, and is currently the State Director of the New Mexico Working Families Party . Eric and Peri talk about moving past grief and blamestorming after the election, and how progres...
Dec 05, 2016•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Host Peri Pakroo is back at the mic with more tales from the self-employed front. She interviews Collin Troy, a.k.a. Eph Sharpe , known to hip hop fans for his work with 2bers , but who also has a crap-ton of other creative ventures on his plate, including a new solo music project called Factory on Fire. Collin's also a graphic designer, visual artist, event organizer and all-around maker of creative things. Collin and Peri talk about how he fell into graphic design and entrepreneurship in order...
Oct 27, 2016•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Business author and Pyragraph Publisher/Editor Peri Pakroo takes a break from her crash course in landlording to share more tales from the self-employed front. She interviews glitter-dusted musician and practicing Buddhist Little Bobby Tucker about this particularly surreal and scary political season, and talks with conceptual artist Jessamyn Lovell about her new work in progress, The P.I. Project, in which she is documenting the process of obtaining a private investigator license. Special thank...
Aug 03, 2016•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Peri Pakroo returns to the dining room podcasting studio with more tales from the self-employed front, including an interview with social media strategist Roxanne Blair, and gallery owner Nancy Zastudil . Peri shares the latest news from her creative career magazine, Pyragraph , including their launch of coaching services and membership packages to support artists and creatives on a budget. Theme song "Brainless Job" by Grand Canyon, other music by Peri ....
Jul 17, 2016•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast For the past year and a half, Albuquerque's beloved dance studio Keshet has been running a new arm of operations: the Keshet Ideas and Innovation Center (KIIC) , a nonprofit arts incubator providing education, mentorship and rental space opportunities to local artists. KIIC's Program Coordinator Emily Dunkin and its Communications Director Carolyn Tobias joined us in the Pyragraph studio to talk about the resources they offer to creatives of all kinds—not just dancers—simultaneously benefiting b...
Oct 14, 2015•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Roberto Appicciafoco turned his love for film into a career as a film festival organizer and curator, most notably as the Founder and Festival Director of the Southwest Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (SWGLFF). On the eve of the 13th annual fest, running Oct. 9 to 18 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Roberto joins us in the Pyragraph Studio for our first Self-Employed Happy Hour of the Fall 2015 season! We chat about how he got started in film festivals, the joys of dealing with taxes when you're self-e...
Oct 08, 2015•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Just in time for summer vacay, we wrap our second season of Self-Employed Happy Hour by inviting all our guests from this season (plus a few more) and popping open the bubbly for a Season Finale & Awkward Office Party. We're joined by Ashlee Renz-Hotz , Roxanne Blair , Jared Tarbell , Erin Phillips , Jesse Littlebird , Clarke Conde and comedian Rusty Rutherford . We chat about the latest developments with Creative Mornings in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, the Albuquerque Game Developers Guild , Tric...
May 21, 2015•1 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sisters Antonia and Cherie Montoya are like a microcosm of creative self-employment. Antonia is the founder of Our Gratitude Collective , runs a wellness and gratitude coaching business , and has played music both solo and in various band projects for many years. Cherie is the owner of Farm & Table , a restaurant and farm in Albuquerque's bucolic North Valley that also serves as an unofficial center for a community passionate about locally grown food and artisan food-makers. Both Antonia and Che...
Apr 30, 2015•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably noticed there's an awful lot of buzz around creative industries and entrepreneurship. As Director of Programs for the business accelerator Creative Startups , Roxanne Blair is squarely in the middle of this phenomenon. She joins us in the Pyragraph studio to talk about the best strategies for building creative industries, what kind of support artists need to build their ventures, and what Creative Startups offers growth-oriented creative fi...
Apr 27, 2015•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Comedy lovers in Albuquerque may know him as their favorite and funniest baby in diapers, but Rusty Rutherford has a few other acts up his sleeve. Besides doing stand-up comedy and organizing/hosting events like the Third Thursday Comedy Contest at Tractor Brewing , Rusty also recently founded Duke City Dream Lab , a photo, video, and recording studio created to help teens and artists of all ages channel their creative energies and learn new media skills. We had a swell time chatting with Rusty ...
Apr 20, 2015•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast As a freelance graphic designer and principal of Design5sixty4 , Lori Patton knows her way around design. In addition she is President of AIGA New Mexico , the professional association for designers in the state, so Lori has excellent insight into what it takes to make it in the saturated design industry. She joins us in the Pyragraph studio to talk about getting started in graphic design, getting and keeping clients, dealing with software and technology, the burgeoning creative economy in New M...
Apr 09, 2015•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast This week's podcast is a little different. Pyragraph Publisher and Editor Peri Pakroo was deep in No Rooz mode, getting ready for Persian New Year—which is today, March 20 at 4:45pm MT. (Happy new year everyone!) So Peri turned hosting duties over to Contributing Editors Jeremy Kinter and Josh Stuyvesant who did a late-night, after-hours special edition. Starting at 1:19am, full of gin and Tractor beer, Josh and Jeremy talked about things they always talk about and called it Self-Employed Happy ...
Mar 20, 2015•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast "When most people are growing up, they don't say to themselves, 'I'm going to work in a brewery some day!'" This observation from Skye Devore (who clearly didn't watch "Laverne and Shirley" as a wee lass) was true for herself, yet by various twists and turns she is now the co-owner of Tractor Brewing Company , one of New Mexico's most beloved craft brewing operations. Skye joins us to share how she fell into the brewing industry, how Tractor plays an active part in supporting arts and culture in...
Mar 13, 2015•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast During the month of March 2015, more than 70 events will take place in Albuquerque and Santa Fe as part of the 10th annual Women & Creativity , an event celebrating creative women across the spectrum. The event was founded by arts consultant Shelle Sanchez and is co-coordinated by Valerie Martinez of Little Globe , and Julia Mandeville of Harwood Art Center , who all joined us in the Pyragraph studio to share details of the month's events and activities. Kristi Welton-Kidder also joined us to ta...
Mar 05, 2015•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Freshly home from Japan, photographer Wes Naman joins us with his assistant photographer Joy Godfrey to help us kick off Thursday morning with mimosas aplenty and the backstories behind some of their most excellent photographic adventures and projects. Besides sharing the insanity of their recent TV appearance in Tokyo, Wes and Joy chat about their 505 Faces project, going viral with his invisible tape series, and what it means to pay your dues as a freelancer. Host Peri Pakroo is joined by Pyra...
Feb 27, 2015•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
