On this week’s episode presented by Busey Bank, Josh sits down with Justin Kraudel of Monta Watches, a luxury swiss-built brand based in St. Louis. In 2016, Justin walked away from a 12-year career in the wealth management industry to follow his passion for horology (watches). Monta designs and manufactures luxury sport watches with impeccable finishing and attention to detail. In a short period of time – relative to some of the decades old legacy brands – Monta has created a brand with a solid reputation for beautiful timepieces and terrific customer service. Most of their business has been built direct to consumer online, but they’re beginning to grow their business through local and regional jewelry stores. Josh and Justin talk about the state of the American watch market, the challenges of establishing a brand in an industry with so many legacy players and the supply chain obstacles of convincing Swiss craftsmen to come on board with a new start up brand. Super fun to chat with a self-admitted watch nerd. Let’s go…

#luxury #watches #innovator #design #swisstime

On this week’s episode presented by Busey Bank, Josh is celebrating episode 50! He’s joined by good friend, collaborator and podcast producer extraordinaire, JB Anderson of Gaslight Studios. They dive deep into the story arc from Josh’s 2021 TEDx St. Louis talk to the ideation of the podcast. And they touch on many of the highlights from the first year of episodes, lessons learned, the role of the City of St. Louis and the ultimate guest wishlist. Please remember that the best way to support the show and keep the stories coming is simply to follow Baked-In on your favorite podcast player and leave a review. Let’s go…

On this week’s episode presented by Busey Bank, Josh is talking with Mike Konzen of PGAV. Headquartered in downtown St. Louis, PGAV is behind some of the most recognizable destinations locally and around the world. The global firm of designers, architects and planners is responsible for the design of places close to home such as the St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame & Museum in addition to experiences at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta and SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, which opened last year. Their projects attract 120+ million visitors per year on 5 continents.

Josh and Mike discuss the recently opened World’s Fair exhibit at the Missouri History Museum in which PGAV played a big role, how he recruits and retains a talented team in St. Louis and beyond, empathy and its role in business and leadership, and their shared appreciation for mid-1970 Oldsmobile Cutlasses. It’s so cool to know that this type of immensely creative work is being done here in St. Louis. Let’s go…