AVL Biz Weekly — June 16–22: Anti-Networking Coffee, Juneteenth on Pack Square & Lawn Games at The Mule

Welcome to AVL BIZ Weekly—your local cheat sheet for what’s happening in Asheville’s small business + creative scenes.

Each week: hand-picked events, marketing ideas that actually work, and a little local flavor to keep things fun.

My name's Jason and I'm writing this (connect with me here).

Hey friends,

I'm co-hosting an Anti-Networking Coffee Meetup in Fletcher Wednesday morning — business owners, creatives, and doers who want to meet people without performing LinkedIn in public. No pitch circle. No forced card swap. Just coffee.

There's also an AI confidence session at Toastmasters Thursday, Leadership on Tap at Hatch Wednesday evening, a fermentation workshop at Wicked Weed Funkatorium, and a MedVet open house for anyone curious what happens behind the scenes when your pet chooses violence.

Outside the business lane: Pride Drag Brunch, rooftop comedy, three back-to-back workshops at the Arboretum on Thursday, outdoor Shakespeare at Hazel Robinson Friday, a lawn games tournament at The Mule, and kayaking at Lake Julian.

Let's get into it.

📋 On Deck

• Business Events: Anti-networking coffee in Fletcher, Leadership on Tap at Hatch, AI confidence at Toastmasters, fermentation education at Wicked Weed, MedVet open house, and GrowthCLUB 90-day planning (June 23 — register now).

• Marketing Quickies: How follow-up automation keeps leads from dying while you're on a job, driving, or on another call.

• Fun Stuff: Pride Drag Brunch, rooftop comedy, garden photography, block printing, nature journaling, lawn games, Othello outdoors, and kayaking at Lake Julian.

• Bands & Shows: Downtown After 5 Juneteenth with Kanika Moore, LAZR LUVR, Squirrel Nut Zippers at 30, Big Something, Robyn Hitchcock, and more.

🙋 Want your biz featured in front of a few really smart AVL business owners? Email me for details

🗓️ Business Events

• 🗓️ Leadership on Tap — Wednesday, June 17 · 6:00–8:00 PM (Hatch Coworking Asheville, South French Broad Ave #170, Asheville, NC)

  Leadership on Tap looks at nervous system patterns, decision-making, and how to get back into alignment when work starts turning your brain into scrambled eggs. Good for founders, nonprofit leaders, managers, community-builders, and anyone who has ever confused "busy" with "effective."

• 🗓️ Spotlight on AI — Use AI with Confidence — Thursday, June 18 · 12:00–1:00 PM (Center For Spiritual Living, 2 Science Of Mind Way, Asheville, NC)

  New Dimensions Toastmasters hosts a special AI session with a short presentation, interactive Q&A, and no requirement to suddenly become the most confident speaker in the room. Good for professionals, business owners, and AI-curious people who want plain-language guidance without the tech-bro fog machine.

• 🗓️ Fermentis Academy-Home Asheville — Thursday, June 18 · 9:00 AM (Wicked Weed Funkatorium, 147 Coxe Ave, Asheville, NC)

  Fermentis brings its homebrewing education series to Asheville with a workshop at Wicked Weed Funkatorium. Good for brewers, beverage folks, fermentation nerds, and anyone whose "hobby" has started requiring temperature control and suspiciously expensive equipment.

• 🗓️ MedVet Asheville Open House — Friday, June 19 · 3:00–7:00 PM (MedVet Asheville, 677 Brevard Rd, Asheville, NC)

  MedVet opens its Asheville hospital for tours, meet-the-team time, kid activities, raffles, giveaways, and a look behind the scenes at specialty and emergency veterinary care. Good for pet parents, animal-care professionals, and anyone whose dog has ever turned a normal Tuesday into a financial event.

• 🗓️ Entrepreneur GrowthCLUB and 90 Day Planning Session — Asheville, NC — Tuesday, June 23 · 8:30 AM (Hilltop Event Center, 21 Restaurant Court, Asheville, NC)

  ActionCOACH's GrowthCLUB is a planning session built to help entrepreneurs map the next 90 days instead of running the whole business from vibes and emergencies. Register now — this one fills up and June 23 is coming fast.

Hosting something cool?

📬 Hit reply and tell me what you think. Or share an event!

💡 Marketing Quickies

Your follow-up should not depend on you noticing the lead in time.

Most contractors and professional service businesses don't lose leads because they're bad at the work.

They lose leads because someone called while they were on a ladder, submitted a form while they were driving, or asked for a quote right when the day turned into a flaming group text.

That is not a character flaw. That is a system problem.

This week's Show Up and Follow Up move: automate the first response so the lead gets acknowledged before they wander off to the next company on Google.

1. Send the 9-word re-engagement text to old leads.

Pick five people who inquired in the last 90 days and never booked.

Send this exact message: "Are you still looking to get [service] done?"

Nine words. No pitch. No apology for not following up.

That text converts at a surprisingly high rate because most people don't ghost — they just got busy and needed one nudge.

2. Send an instant confirmation after every form submission.

If your website form just says "Thanks, we'll be in touch," that is technically a response. Barely.

A better version sends an automatic SMS or email that tells the lead what happens next: "Thanks for reaching out. We got your request. We'll follow up with next steps shortly."

Now the customer knows the request went through. You also start the conversation before your competitor does.

3. Put old leads into a nurture sequence instead of a spreadsheet cemetery.

Not every lead books today. Some people are comparing quotes. Some are waiting for a paycheck. Some are "thinking about it," which is customer language for "please remind me later."

Set up a simple follow-up sequence: Day 1 confirm, Day 3 answer a common question, Day 7 share a review, Day 30 check in, then quarterly for the year.

That is how you keep showing up without personally chasing every lead like a caffeinated golden retriever.

Local Business Spotlight

Amplified Media — He Finds the Signal Before He Turns a Camera On

Jared Kay's first question for any new client has nothing to do with cameras or deadlines. "A lot of us want to find a megaphone and project our message," he says, "but if you don't know who you're projecting it to, or why, you're just making noise. I like to help them find the signal." That framing has anchored Amplified Media for 21 years, making it one of the more established commercial film and photography firms in Asheville.

Discovery calls come before cameras do. Pre-production follows, then location scouting for spaces that feel like they belong in the story. The real work happens in the edit, where three or four 15-minute interviews get distilled into something four minutes long. He compares it to buying a car: most people never pop the hood. They trust it because it feels right. Same with a finished film. If the audio is off or a shot is overexposed, you notice it immediately. If everything is working, you notice nothing. You are watching the story.

His favorite project was Mountain Area Careers, a campaign built from the ground up with more than 100 interviews across WNC in manufacturing, healthcare, construction, IT, and tourism, putting faces on the people who chose to build a life here. After 21 years, two things have become clear to him, and they are connected: the moment you set up a hierarchy between interviewer and subject, you lose the interview, and the moment you chase a paycheck instead of the right fit, you lose the client. He still leads with yes. But he is asking what the opportunity looks like in a year, not what the invoice looks like today.

Day in the Life

1. Favorite coffee or breakfast spot? Rotates between ButterPunk and Penny Cup Coffee Co. depending on the day. ButterPunk is closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Can't beat the biscuits.

2. Fitness routine? Runs five miles most days, two on and one off. Goes straight from school drop-off most mornings, keeps shoes in his car and at work to find pockets of time wherever a project takes him.

3. First-time visitor? Biltmore is the obvious pick. The hop-on hop-off trolley is underrated: stop at Grove Park, spend an hour, and catch the next one. They give you a history tour along the way.

4. Nonprofits you support? The YWCA — his son went to preschool there for four years.

Want to work with them?

Visit amplified-media.com or find them on Instagram.

🎉 Fun Stuff Around AVL

• 🗓️ Rooftop Comedy Featuring Dan Frigolette — Thursday, June 18 · 8:00 PM (Antidote Cocktail Lounge at Chemist, 151 Coxe Ave, Asheville, NC)

  Modelface Comedy brings Dan Frigolette to a rooftop stage downtown. Good option if your week needs fewer calendar invites and more laughing at someone who professionally complains into a microphone.

• 🗓️ Lawn Games Tournament — Thursday, June 18 · 6:00–9:00 PM (The Mule, 131 Sweeten Creek Rd. Ste 10, Asheville, NC)

  Artemis Adventure Club turns classic lawn games into full tournament mode with cornhole, bocce, field pong, surprise games, prizes, and adult summer-camp energy. Good for people who want to be social without pretending small talk is a personality.

• 🗓️ Garden Photography Workshop — Thursday, June 18 · 10:00 AM–1:00 PM (The North Carolina Arboretum, 20 Frederick Law Olmsted Way, Asheville, NC)

  A hands-on workshop for learning how to photograph gardens, plants, and natural details without making everything look like a blurry evidence photo. Good for plant people, hobby photographers, and anyone whose camera roll is already 63% flowers.

• 🗓️ Block Printing on Fabric — Thursday, June 18 · 1:00–3:00 PM (The North Carolina Arboretum, 20 Frederick Law Olmsted Way, Asheville, NC)

  A creative workshop using carved blocks and fabric to make something you can actually take home. Good for crafty folks, design people, and anyone who needs a sanctioned reason to get ink on their hands.

• 🗓️ Intro to Nature Journaling — Friday, June 19 · 10:00 AM–12:00 PM (The North Carolina Arboretum, 20 Frederick Law Olmsted Way, Asheville, NC)

  A beginner-friendly class on observing and documenting the natural world with words, sketches, and notes. Basically journaling, but with fewer feelings and more leaves.

• 🗓️ Othello by Montford Park Players — Friday, June 19 · 7:00–11:00 PM (Hazel Robinson Amphitheater, 04 Pearson Drive, Asheville, NC)

  Montford Park Players brings Shakespeare outdoors with love, jealousy, betrayal, and enough dramatic decision-making to make your group chat look healthy. Bring a blanket, a chair, and your tolerance for people making terrible choices beautifully.

• 🗓️ The Misfit Improv Comedy Show — Friday, June 19 · 7:30–9:30 PM (NC Stage Company, 15 Stage Lane, Asheville, NC)

  Asheville improvisers build a fast-paced comedy show from audience suggestions, then somehow decide a fully improvised musical is a reasonable second half. Strong pick if you like your Friday night comedy with a little danger.

• 🗓️ Pride Drag Brunch Fundraiser for Blue Ridge Pride — Saturday, June 20 · 11:00 AM–1:00 PM (Banks Ave Bar, 32 Banks Ave, Asheville, NC)

  Asheville Drag Brunch takes over Banks Ave Bar with food, performances, and fundraising for Blue Ridge Pride. Brunch, drag, and a good cause is a pretty efficient use of a Saturday.

• 🗓️ Kayaking Lake Julian — Sunday, June 21 · 10:00 AM–2:00 PM (Lake Julian Park, 37 Lake Julian Rd, Arden, NC)

  A Sunday paddle at Lake Julian with kayaks, paddle boards, and a stop for food and drinks after some time on the water. Good for people who want their weekend reset to involve actual sunlight and mild upper-body accountability.

🎧 Bands on the Horizon

• Golden Folk Sessions — Wed, Jun 17 · 7 PM @ The Grey Eagle

• Matt Smith's Well-Crafted Music Series w/ Melissa McKinney — Wed, Jun 17 · 6 PM @ Highland Brewing Meadow

• Connor Koz' Grass Underground — Wed, Jun 17 · 8 PM @ One World Brewing

• The HeadTones — Thu, Jun 18 · 10 PM @ The One Stop

• Jerry's Dead Thursdays — Thu, Jun 18 · 6 PM @ French Broad River Brewery

• Golden Hour: Thursdays at The Mule — Thu, Jun 18 · 6 PM @ Devil's Foot Beverage Co.

• Downtown After 5 Juneteenth Celebration w/ Kanika Moore + Reggie Headen and the Nite Time Noon — Fri, Jun 19 · 5 PM @ Pack Square Park

• LAZR LUVR — Fri, Jun 19 · 8 PM @ The Orange Peel

• Squirrel Nut Zippers: Celebrating 30 Years of Hot — Fri, Jun 19 · 8 PM @ The Grey Eagle

• Monsters of Yacht — Fri, Jun 19 · 9 PM @ Asheville Music Hall

• An Evening with Isaac Hadden — Fri, Jun 19 · 8 PM @ Pisgah Brewing Taproom Stage

• Big Something w/ The Snozzberries — Sat, Jun 20 · 7 PM @ Pisgah Brewing Outdoor Stage

• Robyn Hitchcock — Sat, Jun 20 · 8 PM @ The Grey Eagle

• Mistress of Puppets — Sat, Jun 20 · 9 PM @ Asheville Music Hall

• Funkwondo — Sat, Jun 20 · 10 PM @ The One Stop

• Jazz Jam Sundays — Sun, Jun 21 · 2:30 PM @ Ginger's Revenge

• Reggae Sunday w/ Chalwa Roots — Sun, Jun 21 · 3 PM @ French Broad River Brewery

• Matt Heckler — Mon, Jun 22 · 8 PM @ The Grey Eagle

• Alex Bazemore and Friends — Mon, Jun 22 · 6 PM @ French Broad River Brewery

That's the week.

And if you know someone who should be reading this, forward them the email.

See you around town,

Jason De Los Santos
Pixelated Stories Digital Marketing
(828) 585-4293