Don Flow

CEO of Flow Automotive Companies

Don Flow is owner and CEO of Flow Automotive Companies, including 30 dealerships and more than 800 employees. Dealerships go across many brands from MINI and Saturn to Cadillac, HUMMER, and BMW and are located in Winston-Salem, Fayetteville, and Greensboro, North Carolina, and Charlottesville, Virginia.

Don received a Bachelor of Science in Commerce from University of Virginia, a diploma in Christian studies from Regent College, Vancouver, B.C., and an M.B.A. from Wake Forest University, graduating with highest honors. He has worked most of the jobs in an auto dealership including technician, services, sales, back office and various management positions leading to his present position.

Don is very active with auto manufacturers in leadership and marketing councils. His long list of community involvement includes: Chairman of the Board of Visitors, Wake Forest University Graduate School; Board of Trustees, Winston-Salem Piedmont Triad Symphony; Board of Directors, Forsyth Medical Center Foundation; and Elder, First Presbyterian Church.

He is an avid tennis player, skier, and reader, has been married twenty-five years, and has three children.

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Episode 71 - Letting Trust Drive Business with Don Flow of Flow Automotive


Episode 71 – Letting Trust Drive Business with Don Flow of Flow Automotive


Today’s show takes us to North Carolina to hear from Don Flow, the visionary business leader of Flow Automotive, which has over 30 dealerships and 1,500 employees. He’s been widely recognized in the Faith Driven Entrepreneur community as an entrepreneur who thinks deeply about the redemptive opportunities for every part of the business—and our conversation only confirmed this reputation! We could go on and on about the things we loved from this conversation, but we think it’s best you listen for yourself. Enjoy!


Drayton McLane

chairman of Texas Central Partners

After receiving degrees from Baylor University and Michigan State University, Drayton McLane began working in the family business, which was opened in 1894 by his grandfather and sustained by the leadership of his father in 1921. McLane Company needed innovative ideas in order to remain competitive when Drayton joined the ranks in 1959. Under his leadership, the grocery distribution center grew into an international firm. 

Following the McLane Company’s merger with Wal-Mart Inc. in 1990, Mr. McLane became vice president of Wal-Mart while maintaining his position with the McLane Company. After playing key roles in each of these companies’ growth and productivity, he resigned in order to devote more time to the McLane Group. McLane Group is a parent company consisting of family-owned companies operating throughout the world, which until November 2011 included the Houston Astros, for which he served as chairman and CEO. 

Mr. McLane currently serves as chairman of Texas Central Partners, building the first high-speed rail in the United States between Houston and Dallas.  He also serves on several boards, including Baylor Scott & White Healthcare, the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation, Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research, Baylor College of Medicine, M.D. Anderson University Cancer Foundation, Heart of Texas Defense Alliance, Advisory Board for the Bush School of Government and Public Service, and a Director of Happy State Bank.

He and his wife, Elizabeth, reside in Temple, Texas. They have two sons and five grandsons. They are active members of First Baptist Church of Belton, where he is a deacon.

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Charlie Paparelli

Angel Investor and Entrepreneur

For over 20 years, I’ve been an professional angel investor and entrepreneur. My mission is to help you take the next steps in business and life.

10 facts about Charlie

1. Professional angel investor and co-founder of 12 startups.
2. Invested in 23 startups in the last 23 years.
3. Since 1992 focused on helping entrepreneurs start and build their company.
4. Mentors 10 startup founders and advise many more on a daily basis.
5. Offices at the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) at Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA.
6. Founder and director of Angel Lounge in Atlanta.
7. Had five exits which netted an 50% IRR (internal return rate).
8. Continually thinks about helping entrepreneurs build the company of their dreams and great value for investors.
9. A recovering alcoholic who, thanks to the recovery process, entered into a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
10. Has a God given passion for entrepreneurs, to love and serve them.

I have 3 beliefs…

1. There is a reason God puts each entrepreneur in my life. I need to discover the reason and help with next steps for the entrepreneur.
2. Every day I must intercede in prayer, asking God to share his mercy, blessing and protection for every entrepreneur who shares their story with me.
3. My investment and mentoring relationships tie my destiny to God’s destiny for the entrepreneur. It is always a wild ride.

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8 Must-Have Traits for Every Startup Board

8 Must-Have Traits for Every Startup Board

Startups have a short time to achieve sustainability or else die. You must have the best founding executive team and the best founding board. Be selective.


When Should an Entrepreneur Quit?

When Should an Entrepreneur Quit?

Can an Entrepreneur’s Perseverance Be Bad?

“I actually think he has too much perseverance,” my friend Mark, a fellow angel investor, commented.


Have you outgrown your investors?

Have you outgrown your investors?

You know you’ll be an entrepreneur sometime in middle school to early high school. I hear this in every entrepreneur’s story.


The Entrepreneur’s Hidden Value (That’s Often Overlooked)

The Entrepreneur’s Hidden Value (That’s Often Overlooked)

I was in church listening to a sermon when I realized why entrepreneurs are so important to our society. They see the same problems we see, but they do something about it


You Need a Salary Cap, Just Like the NFL

You Need a Salary Cap, Just Like the NFL

These are unprecedented times for all of us in business. It doesn’t matter if you are an employer or employee. The result of this whiplash is to cut expenses and to cut them fast. The biggest expense item is payroll. Cut people. The hardest thing you’ll ever do in business.


Responding in Unprecedented Times

Responding in Unprecedented Times

None of us, including experienced business people, have led a company in such a time as this. For over 20 years, Charlie Paparelli has been an professional angel investor and entrepreneur, co-founding 12 startups and investing in twenty-three. Read his take on where we go from here…


5 Steps to be a Christian Business Person Right Now

5 Steps to be a Christian Business Person Right Now

For over 20 years, Charlie Paparelli has been an professional angel investor and entrepreneur, co-founding 12 startups and investing in twenty-three. On a daily basis, he mentors 10 startup founders and advises many more. Read more about his practical tips to be Christian business person during the Covid-19 pandemic.


11 Thoughts on Failure for Entrepreneurs

11 Thoughts on Failure for Entrepreneurs

For over 20 years, Charlie Paparelli has been an professional angel investor and entrepreneur, co-founding 12 startups and investing in 23. On a daily basis, he mentors 10 startup founders and advises many more. Read more about his 11 thoughts on how to see failure as an entrepreneur.a


Do You Have a 10,000 Year Perspective?

Do You Have a 10,000 Year Perspective?

“What are you doing that will matter in 10,000 years?” It was the kind of question that stops you in your tracks–a truth bomb. And the kind of question rarely asked. Matt McConnell invites us to really think that question through.

Craig Hill

Founder | Family Foundations International

Craig Hill is the founder of Family Foundations International (FFI), a Christian ministry dedicated to helping individuals, couples, and families become people of influence and build a godly heritage for multiple generations by restoring biblical foundations of marriage, family, and finance. Having become a leading expert on the biblical topics of covenant in marriage, generational blessing, Christian rites of passage, and personal wealth management, Craig has now trained permanent FFI ministry teams in more than 50 nations around the world, conducting over 2500 marriage and family blessing weekend experiences each year.

 

As an inspiring leader and an in-demand international conference speaker, trainer, and coach, Craig has several times been a featured speaker at the annual International Marriage Conference hosted by the National Association of Marriage Enhancement, and has appeared as a featured guest on Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural TV broadcast. As an accomplished author, Craig has written 15 books, including the best sellers, The Power of a Parent’s Blessing and Five Wealth Secrets 96% of Us Don’t Know.

Craig and his wife Jan have been married over 42 years and have two married sons and three grandchildren.

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Toward Creating a Prototype for City Transformation

Toward Creating a Prototype for City Transformation

The practical outworking of this one Brazilian entrepreneurial business family working together with a North American Christian ministry to create a culture of blessing, first in their own family and then in the community, is now resulting in a transformational prototype in which all 7 spheres of society are being positively impacted within the ecosystem of the city.


Three Principles I Learned From My Dad as a Kingdom Entrepreneur

Three Principles I Learned From My Dad as a Kingdom Entrepreneur

This article was from a collection of White Papers compiled for attendees of the CEF’s 2019 Global Event. Today, we share Craig Hill’s White Paper — “I have found throughout my life that if I would accept my role as a Kingdom ambassador in business, there are many more opportunities to minister to unbelievers than I have ever had in church or ministry settings.”

Dan Lewis

Executive Director | The River Foundation

Dan Lewis is the Executive Director of The River Foundation, the giving arm of First Southern Family of Companies. The River Foundation specifically invests in ministries orbiting around three movements: God and Money, God and Culture and God and Life. Dan has connected deeply with pro-life ministries within the Commonwealth of Kentucky and nationally.

Dan has a BS in Economics and Business Administration from Ursinus College, a Masters of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary, and a Doctorate of Missiology with a focus on Emerging Missional Leadership Development from Asbury Theological Seminary. Prior to joining the River Foundation in 2008, Dan had a 21-year career with Young Life in NJ, FL and KY.

Dan is also a lecturing professor at Asbury University at the Howard Dayton School of Business and an affiliate professor at Asbury Seminary in the Christian Leadership Department. He spends a lot of his free time coaching young missional leaders throughout central Kentucky and resourcing them through his website www.nexttolead.com. 

Dan hails from South Jersey but is a Kentucky Colonel having lived in the commonwealth for 18 years. He and Mary, an RN at the University of Kentucky Hospital, have been married for 28 years, live in Wilmore, KY, and have two adult children, Bonnie and James.

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HK VLOG on ZOOM calls with college classrooms

Henry Kaestner’s VLOG series continues. In this edition, you can catch a quick behind the scenes look at how Henry is collaborating with Professor Dan Lewis from Asbury College to share with his students the lessons that God has taught him at Bandwidth and Sovereign’s Capital.

Darin Owen

entrepreneur

Darin Leroy Owen was born on July 15, 1961 in Durban. He has been an entrepreneur for most of his life, covering a diverse range of companies and industries.

His business interests range from import/ export, clothing manufacturing and distribution, IT, homeware, property investment and development and labour brokering.

He thrives on his international relationships and finds himself challenged,rebuked and encouraged from other like-minded people around the world with the same kingdom principles, to meet and share ideas and strategies.

Darin’s heart is for Orphans and the uplifting of people in general. He sits on the board of Summerhill House and JAB Network. Both of these organisations are based in the North Coast and are registered NPOs, PBOs and Section 21 companies. Summerhill and JAB have been running successfully for 7 years and have been a great source of joy as he has witnessed the uplifting and enrichment of others.

Darin lives in Durban, South Africa on the coast with his wonderful wife Paula and 3 magnificent children, namely Savannah, Joshua and Kristin.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO FAITH DRIVEN ENTREPRENEUR

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Yes, a Faithful God

Yes, a Faithful God

This article was from a collection of whitepapers compiled for attendees of the CEF’s 2018 Global Event. We share Darin’s whitepaper in anticipation of 2019 CEF whitepapers launching soon! Read Darin Owen’s view on how to start, build, and grow prosperous companies.