Category: Featured Content

On The Job – Susan Terzakis

Susan Terzakis

Founder and CEO, Terzakis & Associates

Susan Terzakis is a professional certified business coach and founder and CEO of Terzakis & Associates, a team of small business advisors based in Bedford.

Explain your job and what it entails.

We work with small businesses, exclusively [ones with] under $10 million in annual sales volume … referred to as microbusinesses. We support, nurture and guide their leadership with two key programs: ‘Seed’ and ‘Growth.’ Seed … is for folks in the concept and idea stage. We help them [with] vetting and proving the idea, making sure there’s an appetite for it in the community and creating a market. … ‘Growth’ is where we put the pedal to the metal; they’ve proven the concept, and now they need to [develop] systems and processes, build out their team and delegate.

How long have you had this job?

Since 2014.

What led you to this career field and your current job?

I was a business banking director … and then a staffer for Sen. [Kelly] Ayotte’s office, [assisting with] the senator’s efforts on small business, treasury and HUD issues within the state. … Then, I had a health event … and had to slow down a bit. … There was an opportunity for me to assist at the Center for Women’s Business Advancement at SNHU. It was a perfect transition … but it was only a year-long gig. After that contract ended, I was consistently [hearing] from clients I had worked with at that center, and what started as ‘Sure, I’ll meet you for coffee and help you with your strategy’ eventually turned into my realizing, ‘Hey, I think this might be an enjoyable business.’

What kind of education or training did you need?

I grew up in a family-owned business, so I got to witness and be part of a growing business … and in banking, I got to learn the financial [aspects] of business … but I felt that, to round out the experiential portion of my resume, I should get some technical knowledge, so I went and got my Professional Coaching Certificate at the UNH business school. That took two years.

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

I’d say, pre-Covid, business-casual, and during Covid, casual-business. If I have [an important] meeting, then I’ll break out the full suit, so it really depends on what I’m doing.

How has your job changed over the last year?

The first three months, everything was really confusing and overwhelming [for small businesses]. Once we got into May and June, the energy started to move from panic to ‘OK, let’s figure this out. How do we keep this business afloat?’

What do you wish you’d known at the beginning of your career?

Patience. Patience is a virtue, but we entrepreneurs are a rather impatient group, so that’s something I had to learn.

What do you wish other people knew about your job?

You’re constantly going back and forth between the personal — [the business owner is] scared, overwhelmed, freaked out or lacking confidence — and the professional, where things are more technical. You have to have the ability to guide and support business owners in both [of those ways], and that’s one of the greatest joys of my job.

What was the first job you ever had?

At our family-owned restaurant in Salem, Massachusetts, I had the true joy of being the busser and honorary potato peeler.

What’s the best piece of work-related advice you’ve ever received?

Your word is your bond. Nobody can take your name away from you, so guard it preciously.

Five favorites
Favorite book: The Bible
Favorite movie: The Godfather trilogy
Favorite type of music or musician: Elton John and AC/DC
Favorite food: I love all of it. Food is my love language. Except for mayonnaise. I really hate mayonnaise.
Favorite thing about NH: The variety. The coast, the mountains, the suburbs, some cities — we have it all here.

Featured photo: Susan Terzakis

News & Notes 21/04/15

Covid-19 updateAs of April 5As of April 12
Total cases statewide86,12589,229
Total current infections statewide3,2873,384
Total deaths statewide1,2491,257
New cases2,785 (March 30 to April 5)3,104 (April 6 to April 12)
Current infections: Hillsborough County1,0831,002
Current infections: Merrimack County320297
Current infections: Rockingham County826846
Information from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services

Covid-19 news

During the state’s weekly public health update on April 8, state epidemiologist Dr. Benjamin Chan reported that the test-positivity rates and numbers of new infections and hospitalizations statewide have all been on a slow increase over the past weeks. About 450 new infections per day have been reported on average, WMUR reported on April 12, with the increase being more pronounced in younger people, according to Dr. Beth Daly, Chief of the Bureau of Infectious Disease Control of the New Hampshire Department of Health & Human Services.

Gov. Chris Sununu announced during the April 8 press conference that, starting April 19, Covid-19 vaccine eligibility will expand to all individuals ages 16 and older regardless of their state residency. “We’re going to have a lot of vaccine [doses] here … so we want to get it out to anyone who might actually be here in the state,” Sununu said. As of April 8, roughly 20 percent of the state’s population (about 276,000 people) has been fully vaccinated, Daly said during the conference.

Thousands more, including both Sununu and DHHS Commissioner Lori Shibinette, received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine during the state’s third mass vaccination site at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, which was held the weekend of April 10 and April 11.

On Tuesday, April 13, the state announced that it has paused the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, based on the recommendation of the federal government after reports that six people in the country have developed a rare blood clot disorder within about two weeks after vaccination. “While the federal government has directed a brief pause in the J&J vaccine, the state is already working with our partners to ensure that they have an alternative supply of Pfizer or Moderna,” Sununu said in a press release.

According to the April 12 report from WMUR, three New Hampshire residents have contracted Covid-19 despite being at least two weeks past their second shots. “We know that these vaccines aren’t 100 percent effective,” Daly said, according to the WMUR report. “We are going to have what we call breakthrough disease, which is when someone acquires Covid-19 even though they’re fully vaccinated. For the most part, though, especially the vaccines that are currently in use right now, they’re very effective at preventing Covid-19.”

Waiver approved

The Manchester School District will resume in-person learning five days a week starting May 3, after state officials approved a request for a waiver to Gov. Chris Sununu’s mandate that all schools must start full-time in-person learning on April 19. According to a press release, the District requested the waiver April 6 due to concerns over staffing levels, and in consideration of the fact that the week of April 26 is school vacation. Several staff members plan to work remotely until they are fully vaccinated, according to the release, leaving the schools understaffed until May 3. According to an April 12 Union Leader report, Manchester Superintendent John Goldhardt said the waiver had been approved by state education officials, who are now requiring the District to eliminate Wednesday remote learning days altogether in order to reach the 180 days of school required by state law.

Affordable housing

Last week, Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig released the report from the Mayor’s Affordable Housing Taskforce, the first city housing initiative since the 2008 Affordable Housing Task Force created by then-Mayor Frank Guinta. According to a press release, the task force began its work in the fall of 2020, looking at funding and incentives, zoning, regulations, and land use and support services. There are 14 recommendations in the report, including updating zoning regulations, streamlining the permitting process for developers, compiling a comprehensive audit of all city-owned properties, and creating a housing-resource portal on the city website. The Taskforce also recommends creating a city Housing Commission. Rent prices in Manchester for a two-bedroom apartment increased 25 percent in the past decade, including a nearly 10-percent increase from 2020 to 2021, the release said.

Four New Hampshire schools have each been awarded $50,000 for Career and Technical Education students to build electric vehicles, according to a press release from the state Department of Education. The schools are Dover Regional Career and Technical Center in Dover, Nashua Technology Center in Nashua, Region 14 Applied Technology Center in Peterborough and Mt. Washington Valley Career and Technical Center in Conway.

Victoria Sullivan announced Monday that she will run for mayor of Manchester this year. According to a press release, Sullivan is a former New Hampshire state representative and assistant majority leader who served two terms on the House Education Committee.

Beaver Brook Association in Hollis is participating in a statewide backyard composting bin sale, offering a bin for $62 or a pail for composting kitchen organics for $12, according to a press release. Composters will be available for pickup in mid-May. Call 465-7787 to order.

As of April 12, the Nashua vaccination clinic at the Nashua High School South has relocated to the Pheasant Lane Mall, according to a press release. All appointments that were scheduled for the high school location will be honored at the new location for the same date and time.

Envisioning our future

Over my nine years working at Leadership NH, we often asked the participants: “What kind of state do we have and what kind of state do we want?” I am disheartened when I see legislation like HB 266, HB 434, and, of course, HB 544 in this year’s session. All of them work to undermine the kind of state that I want by working to impose anti-immigration efforts that law enforcement across the state oppose (HB 266), and attack reproductive health (HB 434), and remove conversations about one’s race and sex in all of our public spaces (HB 544). 

While many of our lawmakers are working to outlaw our existing inclusive practices, they are also upholding and expanding laws that put some of our most vulnerable populations at risk. 

Earlier in the year, the House tabled HB 238, a bill that would prohibit a defendant in a manslaughter case from using the alleged victim’s sexuality or gender identity as a defense for why the defendant was provoked into action as well as any actual or perceived romantic advances made by the victim.   

Our state made national headlines when the House voted to expand “stand your ground” laws. Under current law, someone can use deadly force to protect themselves and their family during the commission of a felony inside their homes. The bill sent to the Senate would expand that self-defense law to cases in which a felony is committed against a person in a vehicle. 

Fear is clearly the motive behind so many of these bills, and this is only a small sampling of what our legislators are debating in this legislative year. When fright is at the core of the work, it limits what we and our state can accomplish and become into the future.

What decision have you made out of distress that resulted in happiness? I have a hard time remembering any of my anxiety-based decisions resulting in true contentment, and I imagine I’m not alone in that struggle. 

If you, like me, want New Hampshire to foster a culture that centers on humanity and potential then we must act to stop these bills from becoming law. Reach out to your elected officials, neighbors, friends and colleagues, and encourage them to act against these efforts. There is promise on the horizon but we cannot favor complacency in getting there. Otherwise the state we have may no longer be the state we want.  

Ragged but right

Bradley Copper Kettle hits the sweet spot

Bradley Copper Kettle & Friends is four longtime high school pals and an older keyboard player from the next town over they call “Uncle.” They play roots Americana with gusto; their sets feature well-crafted originals, along with selections from the hymn book of rock. The Band, Neil Young, Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall” are all in there — the latter done with a funky bottom that sounds like a good ragout tastes.

There’s a guitarist named Brad who plays, sings and writes many of their songs, but this isn’t his band. Rather, it’s no one and everyone’s. On any night, a member of the quintet might step up to the microphone and claim to be the man behind the moniker.

“That’s us speaking to Bradley Copper Kettle as an ideology,” drummer Justin Harradon said in a Zoom group interview recently.

Bass player Andrew Desharnais called the name, beerily coined one night at Cappy’s Copper Kettle in Lowell, “an enigma” — but Brad Swenson, who endured being called Bradley Cooper to the point of annoyance, offered a more succinct defense.

“We’re probably just as confused as our fans are with our name,” he said. “But we love it, so we stick with it.”

BCK&F began in 2014 as a trio — Desharnais, Harradon and guitar player Corey Zwart; Swenson joined soon after. The newest member, keyboard player Leeroy Brown, came on board in December 2018. As a band, they have a knack for sliding into the sublime, pulling a perfect harmony or a gumbo-like jam seemingly from nowhere.

The first awareness that they’d found a special musical connection came on a trip to Martha’s Vineyard.

“Brad was doing some work down there several years back and we just were busking by the port,” Desharnais said. “That’s really where we realized that we sound good together and we should keep doing this.”

The band made Barn, a four-song EP, in 2018. Highlights include Swenson’s reedy tenor on the mournful “Move Along,” and the harmony showcase “Holding Water.” Several other originals turn up in their sets. “Country Mile” is the best of the lot, proving that frequent comparisons to CSN&Y are justified, right down to Zwart’s Neil Young-like harmonica soloing, and lusty layered vocals.

Influences range across the spectrum, from obvious ones like Wilco, Dawes and the Dead to the singer-songwriter canon and more eclectic. There’s even a cover of Herbie Hancock’s “Chameleon” in their setlist. Swenson likes anything with a potential to meld into the band’s special mojo.

“Any song when we can get a three- or four-part harmony, or even Justin to five on there,” he said, “is heavenly at some points.”

Desharnais called what they do “music for the common man,” adding, “none of us are trained vocalists, we’re all just regular guys, but when we sing together and harmonize that’s when it’s magical.”

A show at Nashua’s Millyard Brewery on April 17 will be their first since mid-autumn. Like most performers, they were challenged by quarantine. Swenson lives in Maine, Zwart is in Nashua and the other three remain in the Chelmsford area. Harradon believes time and distance will disappear when they resume playing, however.

“It’s kind of difficult for us all to get together, so we may not even get a full band rehearsal before our show,” he said. “But we’ve all been jamming together since 2014-2015. We’re really confident that once we get back on stage, we’re just going to click and get right back to it. Like we weren’t away at all.”

Bradley Copper Kettle
When: Saturday, April 17, 4 p.m.
Where: Millyard Brewery, 25 E. Otterson St., Nashua
More: millyardbrewery.com
Also at Millyard Brewery Fifth Anniversary Celebration with Charlie Chronopoulos Saturday, April 10, 4 p.m.

Featured photo: Bradley Copper Kettle & Friends. Courtesy photo.

Another Obama victory?

A look at the movies vying for Best Documentary Feature at this year’s Oscars

I would have thought the Best Documentary Feature category in this year’s Oscars was all sewn up.

My pick in this category would be Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution, another solid entry from Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions (which won last year’s documentary Oscar with the excellent American Factory).

Crip Camp, which hit Netflix about a year ago, is an absolute winner that is both the story of an upstate New York summer camp in the 1960s and 1970s that served campers with disabilities and the story of the civil rights activism by those campers that led eventually to the Americans with Disabilities Act and the access it granted. Many of the counselors were former Camp Jened attendees; the camp was a place where they could be themselves, enjoy the same cultural swirl of music, politics and big ideas (and teen romance) that the rest of their generation was immersed in and be free of well-meaning but often overprotective parents. One of the attendees turned counselors turned activists, Judith Huemann, eventually becomes the movie’s focal point and feels like one of those giants of American history that I was shocked to just be learning about. The movie is still available on Netflix.

A look at the various Oscar prediction websites suggests that my favorite isn’t a runaway sure thing and each of the other nominees have a fair amount of support.

Collective, which is also nominated in the International Feature Film category, would be my second-place pick and is a worthy competitor. This documentary tells the story of the aftermath of a music venue fire in Romania. Not only does the fire expose the scandal that led to unsafe conditions at the club but the subsequent deaths of people wounded in the fire helps to expose the problems in the state’s health system that makes hospitals seem like germ incubators. The documentary focuses both on the Sports Gazette, a sports-focused newspaper that helps to uncover the scandal, and on the new minister of health battling deeply rooted problems in the bureaucracy in his attempts to make amends and provide better care for the people of the country. The movie makes the case for old-school, follow-the-facts journalism. It is available for rent (including via Red River Theatres’ virtual cinema) and on Hulu.

Amazon Prime’s Time is a more intimate movie than the previous two (though it has plenty of big issues attached) but it is a solid piece of storytelling. The movie tells the story of Sybil Fox Richardson, and her children as they deal with the decades-long incarceration of her husband and their father, Rob. Rob and Fox have six sons, who Fox had to raise on her own after Rob was sent to jail for 60 years for a bank robbery (for which she also spent a few years in jail). The movie features her own home movies of those years, through which we can see her boys grow up and Fox become a force of prison reform activism while also building a career, taking care of the boys and working to bring Rob home. Fox is a compelling personality and the moments when her rage at the system breaks through her perfect composure are more insightful than a dozen think pieces on prison reform.

The Mole Agent, available on Hulu, doesn’t have the heft of those movies but this tale of elderly residents of a Chilean nursing home has moments when it transcends its sweet comedy. Here, 90-something Sergio agrees to work for a private investigator as a spy. He checks into a nursing home to find out if the client’s mother is being mistreated and stolen from and what he discovers is a community of people — mostly women — who have been sort of forgotten. The movie has funny moments — Sergio doesn’t always have a handle on the technology he’s given to make his reports but he is a huge hit among the lady residents, with one woman planning their wedding — and the charm helps to soften the blow of the vein of sadness throughout.

My Octopus Teacher, a Netflix documentary, is probably the lightest-weight of the nominees. I heard somebody on a movie podcast describe it as basically a nature documentary and I agree that its photography of life in what the narrator calls an underwater “forest” off the coast of South Africa is its strongest element. The narrative structure comes from the “friendship” between Craig Foster, a filmmaker suffering from burnout, and an octopus he encounters. He follows her, studying her progress during her roughly year of life, with bits of Foster’s life and his relationship with his son sprinkled in. Personally, I feel like an even shorter movie that was more tightly focused on just the octopus would have been even more lively, but the visuals are lovely.

Oscar movie viewing update
If you’re not quite ready to venture back to the movie theaters, you can add Judas and the Black Messiah to the list of Oscar nominees available from your house. The movie, which had a month-long run on HBO Max when first released, is now available for rent for $19.99.

For other movies, Oscar completists can turn to Red River Theatres (redrivertheatres.org) to view some of the harder to find nominees. In addition to Minari, The Father and Collective, Red River’s virtual cinema is screening the Oscar shorts ($12 per category or $30 for all three categories, 15 nominated shorts plus some extras) and, this Friday, is scheduled to start screening International Feature Film nominee The Man Who Sold His Skin.

Featured photo: Crip Camp

Godzilla vs. Kong (PG-13)

Godzilla fights King Kong in Godzilla vs. Kong — what, you wanted me to be all “visually stunning allegory about humanity’s bravado in its relationship with the natural world”?

I mean, sure, I guess that’s in there (the allegory, sorta; the visuals have their moments even if they’re never quite as awe-inspiring as, for example, that parachute jump in the 2014 Godzilla). You can find the deeper meaning if you try really hard to pick it out, like you’re digging out the mushrooms from a steak and cheese sandwich, but why bother? Either you’re watching this “monsters fight!” movie at a movie theater on one of your extremely rare trips to a theater in this past year or you’re watching it for a fun movie night at home (the movie is on HBO Max until the end of April). Why muddy either of those all-cheese-no-broccoli experiences with, like, “deeper meaning” or “multi-dimensional characters” or “consistently engaging story-telling”?

There are, to some extent, two movies with two sets of characters happening here. In the Kong movie, Hollow Earth explorer Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgard) gets Kong scientist Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) and her adopted daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle) to bring Kong from his Truman Show-like Kong habitat on Skull Island to the entrance of a tunnel that will take the explorers into the land-before-time-ish world that exists inside the Hollow Earth (which is where everyone assumes the Titans, as all the giant monsters are called, came from at some point). Apex, a bad-guy corporate entity, has hired Nathan to find the power source that serves as this inner world’s sun so they can power a Godzilla-fighting weapon, which I don’t think was spoiled in the trailers, so I won’t spoil it here except to say it turns out to be pretty fun. Nathan uses Kong as a guide to the Hollow Earth power source because homing pigeons something something and Ilene and Jia come too in part because Jia and Kong are friends and can communicate via sign language — and I feel like the “King Kong speaks sign language” element of this story isn’t developed nearly enough. I feel like being able to talk directly to a Titan and find out what it wants would be a bigger deal.

Meanwhile, teen Madison (Millie Bobby Brown), who was in the last Godzilla movie, and her buddy Josh (Julian Dennison) track down Titan-conspiracy podcaster Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry). He has been covertly reporting on Apex, and Madison agrees with him that they must be doing something shady if Godzilla attacked an Apex facility after years of peaceful coexistence with humanity. This is the quippier of the two halves of this movie.

Godzilla and Kong get two big battles against each other, Kong gets to romp through Hollow Earth and both creatures get to fight other stuff. The monsters are fun, the humans are silly and the movie seems aware of this — never requiring us to take the humans too seriously or forgetting that the only characters we really care about are the giant gorilla and the giant lizard.

I think there are two ways to approach this movie. One is to spend time wondering which characters you’re supposed to remember from previous Kong and Godzilla movies and how this fits in to the overall cinematic universe (Legendary Entertainment’s MonsterVerse, apparently, according to a Wikipedia article and I think reading the Wikipedia entry about the MonsterVerse when one of these films is released is the only time I ever read or hear any MonsterVerse discussion). I was maybe trying to do this for the first 20 or so minutes but quickly gave up. The other, more fulfilling way to view this movie is to passively enjoy the scenes that aren’t Godzilla fighting Kong and then turn up the TV and pay close attention for the scenes that are about Godzilla fighting King Kong. Or Godzilla or Kong whomping other things. Big monsters fighting, that’s what I’m here for, and on that this movie basically delivers. Think of the rest of the movie as an opportunity to get more snacks, chat with your movie-watching companions or look up stuff about the MonsterVerse. This movie is a solid B during monster fights, an indifferent C otherwise, so — let’s call it a relaxed, good-time B-.

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of creature violence/destruction and brief language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Adam Wingard with a screenplay by Eric Pearson and Max Borenstein, Godzilla vs. Kong is an hour and 53 minutes long and distributed by Warner Bros. It is in theaters and streaming until April 30 on HBO Max.

Featured photo: Godzilla vs. Kong

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