Jaden Flynn moved to Cookeville as a toddler and started his entrepreneurial journey shortly thereafter. A natural salesman and born leader, Jaden thrives in a entrepreneur's environment. He started his meal prep business, The Iron Kitchen, in his mother's house, and is now in his second commercial kitchen. As a millennial business owner, he credits his business success to social media exposure and the daily grind. In this podcast, he shares some of his tips for marketing, the value of learning how to fail, and how he pushed through the first year. This episode is full of raw and vulnerable truth about the trenches of business ownership and the value of being your authentic self.

Michael McDearman first discovered his love for cooking when the sweet smell of a grilled steak captured his attention while delivering newspapers as a young boy in Cookeville. Like many of us in the South, Michael was raised around good cooks and great food. That developed into a passion that opened doors for him to pursue a career in the food industry. After travelling all over the world, fit Griller Michael McDearman returned home to his roots to share his love of cooking with his local community. In this episode, he shares what he enjoys about teaching all things food, his favorite failure, the joys of doing what you love ("follow your love, and the money will come"), and Cookeville connections that have been woven through his adventures around the world.