Episode #9: Ron Brumbarger, HomeGrown Apprenticeships

In this episode, hosts Adam Hayes and Bob Paden sit down with the multifaceted entrepreneur, educator, and innovator, Ron Brumbarger. Ron opens up about his journey from early entrepreneurial sparks in the '90s—after a few too many goodbyes from traditional employers—to becoming a catalyst for creative problem-solving and design thinking in Indiana's business community. Discover how Ron's passion for entrepreneurship transformed into not only launching successful ventures—including Bitwise and Apprentice University—but also mentoring the next generation as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Taylor University. He shares how his advocacy for design thinking grew out of real-world need, starting from an MBA course at Ball State and evolving into the backbone of his own companies and curricula. The conversation dives into Ron's latest project with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD), where he and his team are leveraging state-of-the-art artificial intelligence tools for cold case investigations, building social network analyses, and even envisioning future conversations with virtual avatars—all aimed at uncovering new insights that solve crimes. Listeners will appreciate Ron's candid thoughts on keeping innovation practical, why student-focused learning models matter, and how he avoids the "alphabet soup" of red tape in education and business. This episode is full of wisdom on embracing who you are, the real story behind entrepreneurship, and the human impact of creative, focused problem-solving.