ANGLES PODCAST

In this episode of Angles with John Richmond, John sits down with Christopher Puckett, founding partner of Northeast Crash Dynamics and former New York State Trooper. Christopher brings decades of experience investigating serious motor vehicle crashes, crime scenes, and high‑stakes forensic cases. The conversation explores how crash reconstruction works, what vehicle “black box” data can reveal, and how physics, math, and human behavior intersect in serious accidents. Christopher also shares stories from his time with the New York State Police, including crime scene investigation, blood spatter analysis, and major manhunt operations, as well as his work with Team Adam supporting missing and exploited children cases.

Business/Organization: Northeast Crash Dynamics, LLC

In this episode of Angles with John Richmond, John sits down with Jesse Ciffa, owner of Chief’s Barber Parlor. Jesse shares his journey from learning barbering on YouTube and cutting hair in his grandmother’s basement to building one of Buffalo’s most respected modern barbershops.

The conversation explores entrepreneurship without a traditional business background, earning trust client by client, and why barbering creates a unique one‑on‑one connection that few other professions offer. Jesse also talks about hiring for personality, maintaining high standards, growing a team, and what it’s like cutting hair for professional athletes including members of the Buffalo Bills.

Business/Organization: Northeast Crash Dynamics, LLC

In this episode of Angles with John Richmond, John sits down with Alex Dispence better known as Sup Chef a Western New York native who turned a background in professional kitchens into a massive online food brand. Alex shares how he transitioned from working in high-end restaurants to becoming an early breakout creator on TikTok, building an audience of millions through authenticity, humor, and obsession with food.

The conversation explores what it takes to grow and sustain a digital brand, how viral moments create opportunity and pressure, and why most ideas fail before one finally works. Alex also talks about balancing family life with entrepreneurship, delegating creatively, and his newest venture bringing sports-inspired flavors and food products to market.

Business/Organization: Supchef Pizza Co.

In this episode of Angles with John Richmond, John sits down with legendary NHL goaltending coach Mitch Korn. Mitch’s career spans decades at the highest levels of hockey, including foundational years with the Buffalo Sabres, where he helped redefine the role of the modern goalie coach and played a pivotal role in the development of Dominik Hasek. The conversation is deeply personal, as Mitch was also John’s goalie coach growing up, creating a unique lens on mentorship, trust, and long-term impact. Mitch reflects on his journey from early goalie camps in Buffalo to a storied NHL career alongside Barry Trotz in Nashville, Washington, and New York. He discusses what it takes to build elite performers, the psychology of goaltending, and why relationships matter more than systems.

Business/Organization: Mitch Korn

In this episode of Angles with John Richmond, John sits down with Jim and Tami Fitzhenry. They are former corporate executives turned leadership coaches who now dedicate their time to helping leaders across Buffalo and Western New York grow with clarity, accountability, and authenticity.

After decades building their careers at a global company rising from sales and engineering roles to the C-suite Jim and Tami returned home to Buffalo with a mission: help leaders lead better. From digital transformation and global innovation to culture building and executive coaching, their experience spans industries, continents, and leadership levels.

This conversation dives deep into what actually makes a leader worth following. Jim and Tami unpack the evolution of leadership, the courage required to remove toxic high performers, the power of clear expectations, and why self-leadership is the foundation of everything. They discuss delegation, perfectionism, goal setting, accountability, tough conversations, and the reality that excellence not perfection is the standard.

Business/Organization: Vistage Worldwide, Inc.

In this episode of Angles with John Richmond, John sits down with Buffalo’s own Conway The Machine – internationally known recording artist, founder of Drumwork Music Group, and co-founder of Griselda Records. From recording on karaoke machines in his grandmother’s basement to signing with Shady Records and working with Roc Nation, Conway shares the unfiltered story behind his rise. He opens up about growing up in Buffalo, studying the greats, surviving being shot, and the mental toughness required to build a career from a city with no industry infrastructure.

This conversation goes far beyond music. Conway discusses resilience, rejection, independence, ownership, patience in the music business, artist development, the realities of the business side of rap, and why Buffalo shaped him into who he is today. He reflects on fatherhood, leadership, philanthropy through the Conway Cares Foundation, and the importance of staying grounded even while traveling the world.

Business/Organization: Drumwork Music Group

In this episode of Angles with John Richmond, John sits down with Rebecca Witter, licensed audiologist and founder of Acoustic Designs by Rebecca, a Buffalo-based acoustic consulting firm helping businesses, restaurants, offices, and residential spaces finally address the sound problem everyone notices but no one talks about. What began as a career rooted in patient care and a lifelong friendship with a deaf childhood friend evolved into a business born from Covid, motherhood, and a light bulb moment: if she could not fix the places her patients were struggling in, why not fix the places themselves?

Rebecca pulls back the curtain on hearing loss as a hidden health epidemic, explaining why the stigma around hearing aids keeps people suffering longer than they should, how untreated hearing loss is directly linked to cognitive decline, social isolation, and depression, and why the modern obsession with open, minimalist design is quietly making Buffalo a louder, more exhausting city. She breaks down the science of how sound damages the inner ear, what auditory fatigue actually is, and why the habits you form in your 20s and 30s will determine what your hearing looks like at 60.

Business/Organization: Acoustic Designs by Rebecca

In this episode of Angles with John Richmond, John sits down with Matt Keeler, founder of Just Dishin, the Buffalo-based hockey culture brand that is redefining what creative expression looks like in the sport. What started as three shirts made in high school and a dorm room operation at Saint John Fisher College has grown into one of the most authentic and innovative brands in hockey, with collaborations spanning NHL teams, star players, and iconic names like New ERA and Nike.

Matt takes John through the full origin story, from sketching ideas at his dad’s quarry in Albion, to winning a business plan competition at the New York State level, to the viral Jordan skate moment during Covid that put Dishin on the national map. He opens up about the creative philosophy behind everything they build: continuous experimentation, making things he personally loves, and the relentless pursuit of quality that meets the standards of the athletes they work with.

Business/Organization: Just Dishin

In this episode of Angles with John Richmond, John sits down with Aaron Mentkowski, chief meteorologist at WKBW Channel 7 in Buffalo. A Lockport native who has spent 26 years forecasting for Western New York, Aaron is one of the most recognizable and trusted faces in local media, and one of the few Certified Broadcast Meteorologists in the country. What started with watching cars disappear in the Blizzard of ’77 became a lifelong passion and a career built on precision, authenticity, and showing up every single day.

Aaron pulls back the curtain on what it actually takes to do his job, from waking up before 3 a.m. to rebuilding every graphic from scratch between live shots, to navigating the social media age where every missed forecast becomes a comment section. He breaks down how lake effect snow works, what it was like living at the station during the 2022 blizzard, and why Buffalo is one of the most challenging and rewarding places in the country to be a meteorologist.

Business/Organization: Meteorologist at WKBW Channel 7

In this episode of Angles with John Richmond, the man widely credited as the godfather of Bills Mafia. What started as a late-night tweet from a pizza pickup in Tonawanda in April 2011 has grown into one of the most recognized and beloved fan communities in all of professional sports. Del is as humble as they come, quick to spread the credit and even quicker to remind anyone listening that Bills Mafia was never about him. It belongs to every Bills fan who ever showed up.

Del walks John through the full origin story: how a Stevie Johnson dropped pass, an Adam Schefter retweet, and a hashtag born as a joke accidentally launched a movement. He talks about what it actually felt like to be thrust into a leadership role he never asked for, and how some of the Bills fans initially resisted the name. Along the way, he breaks down what makes Buffalo fans different from every other fan base in the country, and why that chip on the shoulder is generational, not circumstantial.

Business/Organization: Bills Mafia

In this episode of Angles with John Richmond, John sits down with Lexi Varecka, founder of Flex Yoga, a Buffalo-area yoga and wellness studio with locations in Clarence and Orchard Park. Lexi’s story starts in Washington, D.C., where a yoga teacher training she signed up for just to deepen her own practice turned into the seed of something much bigger. She took that passion to the West Coast, spent years teaching and absorbing everything she could about the wellness and event culture out there, and then made a deliberate decision to bring something new back to the community she grew up in.

Lexi breaks down what makes Flex different: beat-based sculpt, hot power fusion, and a community-first approach that goes well beyond the hour on the mat. She talks about the summer solstice event that drew nearly 80 people just three months after opening, the puppy yoga partnership that brought over 100 people together outdoors, and why she built Flex Friday into the studio’s DNA from day one. The conversation goes deep on what it actually takes to run a yoga studio: the certifications, the hiring auditions, the infrared heat panels, the chaos of a 30-minute class changeover, and the hard-won lesson that delegation is not optional if you want to survive.

Business/Organization: Flex Yoga

In this episode of Angles with John Richmond, John sits down with Dawne Hoeg, founder and executive director of Stitch Buffalo, a nonprofit that brings together refugee women through the craft of textiles. What started 12 years ago as a community workshop in a basement has grown into a full organization and a model that has made Stitch Buffalo a pillar of this city. She is also a three-time cancer survivor, and that experience is woven into everything that drives her.

The conversation covers how Stitch Buffalo works: the consignment model that puts money directly into the hands of the women, the resale arm that turned donated materials into a revenue stream, the open community classes, and the five-year arrangement with Rich Products. Dawne also talks candidly about leadership, delegation, and the current political climate and what it means for the women she works with, and the very difficult work of succession planning when you have built something from nothing and it is your life’s work.

Business/Organization: Stitch Buffalo