Mayoral candidate Barbara Bry stopped by to discuss the mayoral race with Richard. They talked about her stance on key issues facing San Diego from scooters and short term vacation rentals to housing, homelessness, and human trafficking. She shares her vision of economic, environmental and social justice equity and her desire to keep local control of land use.

In January Barabara Bry was the first major candidate to formally announce a mayoral run in San Diego’s 2020 mayoral race.

In January Barabara Bry was the first major candidate to formally announce a mayoral run in San Diego’s 2020 mayoral race. Bry ran for City Council in 2016 and represents City Council District 1. She has served as the council’s president pro tem since 2017 and was one of the first elected officials in the city to endorse the SDSU West plan to redevelop SDCCU Stadium in Mission Valley.

Bry is a former journalist and high-tech entrepreneur. After leaving journalism, Bry founded companies such as ProFlowers.com and Athena San Diego, which helps women in STEM industries, as well as Run Women Run, which supports and encourages pro-choice women to run for elected office.

To learn more about Barbara Bry’s stance on issues important to San Diego listen to the show (below) and visit her website: barbarabry.com.

Richard welcomes Michael Smallwood, CEO of a San Diego based fintech startup Bitmo. Often described as the ‘Venmo for gift cards,’ Bitmo is a mobile platform that allows consumers to gift easily and securely right from their mobile wallet. Michael explains how, unlike plastic gift cards, Bitmo is highly flexible and allows users the ability to exchange gift cards from one brand to another and even split the value between multiple brands for free. Their unique mobile gifting platform it transforming the $160 billion gift card industry.

Have you ever received a gift card you didn’t want? Ever not fully redeemed the amount? Or even our lost it? Bitmo’s goal is to make this never happen again. Better than a gift card, every Bitmo gift is backed by real money. Due to their technology platform and banking innovation, they are able to scale at no fee to consumer, while diving traffic directly to the point of the sale using existing infrastructure.

Unlike prepaid cards, the Bitmo solution fully understands the customer and brings a level of engagement to each transaction – from transaction history, customer profile, and even social networking to bring customers to the store to use the card enabling the store to engage them and retain their business.

Bitmo was recently honored as a “Cool Company” in 2019 by the San Diego Venture Group.

To learn more about aging and health listen to the show (below) and visit their website: Bitmo.com.

Joe Vecchio filled in for Richard this week and interviewed Peggy Pico and Dr. John Bellettiere about aging and health. Both are working on initiatives and research on our growing older population.

Age-Friendly Initiatives: If it’s great for an 80-year-old it’s great for an eight-year-old.

Peggy Pico leads development and implementation of The San Diego Foundation Age-Friendly Communities (AFC) program, a World Health Organization initiative. She works with AARP, local businesses, donors, nonprofits and government partners for municipal adoption of an Age-Friendly Action Plan for all cities in our region.

Previously, Peggy worked as an Emmy Award-winning journalist – most recently at KPBS and NBC San Diego. Her first career as a Registered Nurse continues to inspire and enhance her work with local nonprofits, government leaders and community influencers. Peggy is a recipient of the USC Health Journalism Fellowship and the Loyola Law School Journalist Fellowship and holds a bachelor’s degree in science from Biola University.

Does sitting for long periods of time have an impact on cardiometabolic health?

John Bellettiere is a postdoctoral research fellow at UC San Diego in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health. With advanced training in economics, behavioral science, and epidemiology, he researches healthy aging, with a particular focus on the prevention of diabetes and cardiovascular disease and the preservation of mobility and functional independence. Dr. Bellettiere specializes in the measurement of physical behavior, which includes physical activity, exercise, sitting, and sleep, and is studying the minimum and the optimal amount of daily movement needed to prolong and enhance the healthspan.

John is a recent recipient of the National Science Foundation Smart and Connected Health Mentoring and Travel Grant, the Susan and Stephen Weber Endowed Scholarship, the John and Mary Anderson Memorial Endowed Scholarship in Public Health, and the Transdisciplinary Research in Energetics and Cancer (TREC) Scholarship.

To learn more about aging and health listen to the show (below).

Filling in for Richard, Joe Vecchio interviews Brad Ross and Jonathan Rosenberg, co-writers of 33 1/3 – House of Dreams playing at the San Diego Repertory Theater’s Lyceum Stage from August 1 through the 25th. They reveal the interesting of details of the studio’s operation when some of the most influential artists of the era created their new and innovative sounds, as well as the work, require to bring such a complex production to the stage.

The creation of 33 1/3 – House of Dreams is the culmination of efforts to share the story of what happened within the walls of Gold Star Recording Studios

Brad Ross’s father, Stan Ross, was lead engineer and co-founder of the legendary Gold Star Recording Studios. In Hollywood for 33 1/3 years, Gold Star was the birthplace of some of the greatest pop and rock hits of all time. Phil Spector and his Wall of Sound, The Beach Boys, Sonny and Cher, Tina Turner, The Righteous Brothers, Ritchie Valens, Herb Alpert, Joan Jett, The Ramones — and many more — recorded at Gold Star.

33 1/3 – House of Dreams will run August 1 – 25, 2019, at the San Diego Repertory Theater’s Lyceum Stage and tells the story of the legendary Gold Star Recording Studios. Written by local San Diegans Jonathan Rosenberg and Brad Ross, with additional contributions by Steve Gunderson and Javier Velasco, the debut production chronicles the success of Gold Star Recording Studios through the history of rock ‘n’ roll. You won’t believe the 30-song playlist, which includes rock n’ roll classics such as “Summertime Blues,” “La Bamba,” “Good Vibrations,” “Be My Baby,” “Unchained Melody,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and, yes, even “In A Gadda Da Vida.” It was difficult to limit the show to only 30 songs given that Gold Star Studios recorded 120 top 40 hits.

Jonathan Rosenberg, Brad Ross and Joe Vecchio

Richard is joined by show sponsors Joel Gruskin and Curt Gautreau of Cost Segregation Initiatives (CSI) to discuss what cost segregation is and how new changes in the tax code have made it beneficial to real estate investors, especially investors in used properties.

Joel Grushkin, the San Diego Regional Director of Cost Segregation Initiatives (CSI), and Company President, Curt Gautreau. Cost segregation is an IRS sanctioned procedure of re-classifying the improvements and components of commercial buildings in order to increase cash flow and reduce income tax liability. Put simply cost segregation breaks down the groups of elements in a building to depreciate them at an accelerated to rate to increase the cash flow for property owners and maximize cash from real estate investments. CSI performs this service for owners of several different types of commercial properties such as, but not limited to, medical facilities, shopping centers, hotels, and automotive dealerships.

New changes in the tax code have changed the rules to the benefit of real estate investors. CSI can help real estate investors take advantage of these new changes in the code which their CPAs may not be aware of.

Curt Gautreau, as Chair of the Technical Standards Committee of the American Society of Cost Segregation Professionals, works with the IRS to ensure that their recommendation falls into the IRS rules.

Andrew Lee joined Richard to discuss sustainable impact investing. As Head of Sustainable and Impact Investing at USB, Lee supports clients with investment advice, strategy and thought leadership in these areas. Sustainable investing, which uses environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in securities analysis may be “the future of investing,” but even Lee admits the industry has its work cut out if it intends to go mainstream. Adoption is slow, with just 12% of U.S. investors owning sustainable investments. But the good news is a sharp growth may lie ahead. UBS expects adoption to increase by 58% within five years.

Richard and Andrew discuss what sustainable investing is and how it differs from exclusionary investing. They also discuss the changing demographics of the ESG investor and how ESG investing relates to the concept of a continuing family legacy.

A recent report from UBS on the Food Revolution outlines the challenges we face in the coming years and how sustainable impact investing can affect those goals.


UBS has joined forces with BOTTLETOP on the #TOGETHERBAND campaign. At the heart of the campaign are 17 different colored bands made from Ocean Plastic, each of which represents a different Global Goal.You can take an interactive quiz to see which one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals you identify with.

Joseph ‘Joe’ Driscoll has been leading people from all walks of life (including military and civilian) toward achieving financial independence. He is not an investment manager, but helps people with debt management, budgeting and getting a plan for life and achieve financial freedom. Joe is a family man, so he understands the responsibilities and pressures that can bring. He and his wife have walked in your shoes! The Driscolls were able to pay off $52,000 dollars of debt in two years and have been living a debt-free life since 2015.

Joe’s company, Average Joe’s Financial Independence, can help you with things like budgeting, snowballing debt, setting up your emergency fund, and much more. You can contact Joe through his website or by phone at 805-419-9777 and take your first steps toward financial independence.

Demi Muscio joins Richard to talk about Reiki healing. Reiki is an ancient laying-on of hands healing technique that uses the life force energy to heal, balancing the subtle energies within our bodies. Reiki addresses physical, emotional, mental and spiritual imbalances. This healing art is an effective delivery system. The Reiki practitioner serves as a vessel that supplies healing energies where they are most needed by the recipient. Reiki’s ki-energies flow out of the practitioner’s body through the palms of the hands while they are touching the recipient’s body.

Demi’s experience with Reiki healing started at an early age. She was first certified as a Reiki healer at 16 by Marisa Moris, a previous guest on iybusiness. Since then she has achieved a degree in Behavioral Sciences from San Jose State University where she used her Reiki skill to help classmates alleviate stress. She is now a Reiki Master Healer practicing helping people achieve balance and healing at Intuition in Encinitas.

Richard discusses outsourcing of accounting services with Dev Purkayastha.

Dev Purkayastha, founded Indevia Accounting after he had difficulty finding a reliable, high-quality accounting firm to handle his family entities. Indevia™ Accounting provides bookkeeping services for franchisees and also offers preferred vendor programs for franchisors specific to the restaurant industry. Indevia serves hundreds of clients including QSR, fast-casual, unique concepts, and emerging chains. Some of Indevia’s clients include Subway, Jersey Mike’s, Jamba Juice, Tropical Smoothie Cafe, Marco’s Pizza, Which Wich, and Ben’s Pretzels.

Indevia uses “Lean” principles to improve productivity and boost quality. The goal of “Lean” is to simplify processes in order to focus on the activities that best serve the client and eliminate wasteful activities.

Dev is a Chartered Accountant trained at Price Waterhouse, a successful venture capital investor, and a former member of a retail store franchisor’s Board of Directors. He also has an MBA from Harvard Business School.