AVL Biz Weekly — Mar 25–31: Orchids, Light Shows & Songs That Haven't Been Performed Yet

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,

You want to talk about a week that feels like spring finally committing? This is it.

Biltmore debuts Luminere on Thursday night — a full outdoor light, sound, and projection experience on the estate's grounds. I got an early preview of the light + story show and it was incredible.

For you business nerds: Thursday is stacked. The NCEDA regional luncheon is the room where you find out what's actually coming to WNC before it makes the news. Across town, Thrivent is running a free workshop on protecting your business and family financially (no pitch, no products). And UNC Asheville is hosting a public talk on AI and the future of work from a Johns Hopkins professor — free, open to everyone, worth showing up for. Then Tuesday, Silicon Dojo Asheville is running a hands-on OpenAI API session at the library. Good week to be curious and connected.

Oh, and one more thing… scroll down for the first-ever AVL Biz Local Business Spotlight. We're kicking it off with someone worth knowing.

Let's get into it.

📋 On Deck

• 🌟 Luminere opens at Biltmore — Thursday, March 26

• 🌸 Asheville Orchid Festival — Friday–Sunday at the NC Arboretum

• 🤝 NCEDA Western NC Regional Networking Luncheon — Thursday, Asheville

• 🎸 Four nights of live music at The Grey Eagle: Mar 26–29

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

🗓️ Business Events

• 🗓️ Clarity Creates Confidence — Wed, Mar 25 · 5:30–8pm (Muse Art Bar, 120 Coxe Ave, Asheville) A workshop for business owners and professionals on understanding your numbers — the kind of financial clarity that actually changes how you run your business. Hosted by Ladies Lifestyle Network AVL. $13.

• 🗓️ NCEDA Western NC Regional Networking Luncheon — Thu, Mar 26 · Noon–2pm (Asheville, venue TBD) The NC Economic Development Association brings together economic development professionals, regional planners, and business leaders from across Western NC. If you want to know what projects and investments are moving in this region before they make the paper — this is the room.

• 🗓️ Small Business Solutions — Thu, Mar 26 · 5:30–7:30pm (1316 Patton Ave Suite B, Asheville) Hosted by Thrivent, this workshop covers how to protect your business, your family, and your employees — financial structures most small business owners don't have in place. Free, and they're not selling anything.

• 🗓️ Author Talk: Connection, Meaning, and the Future of Work in the AI Century — Thu, Mar 26 · 6pm (Blue Ridge Room, Highsmith Student Union, UNC Asheville) Johns Hopkins sociology professor and bestselling author Allison Pugh talks about how AI is reshaping human connection at work. Free, public event from UNC Asheville — this one will make you think.

• 🗓️ Intro to OpenAI API for AI in Python — Tue, Mar 31 · 6pm (Skyland/South Buncombe Library, 260 Overlook Rd, Asheville) Silicon Dojo Asheville walks through how to build with the OpenAI API — text, images, voice, and vision — hands-on coding session. If you've been curious about going deeper than ChatGPT, this is the room. Free.

Hosting something cool?

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

Local Business Spotlight (NEW)

This is the first one. Starting this week, we're spotlighting a local business owner worth knowing. No, they did not pay me in Bitcoin or AI tokens. Just someone doing real work in town.

If you run a local business and want to be featured, reply to this email. I'm building the list.

ActionCoach -- The business coach who turns $800K companies into $10M operations

Bill Gilliland didn't set out to be a business coach. Nineteen years ago, he was running a couple of small businesses -- an automation company and a water treatment company -- when he sold the automation business to an employee who was already doing most of the work anyway. That left him with nothing to do and a resume floating around looking for his next move. Then he got a call with a question: "Have you ever thought about being in business for yourself, but not by yourself?"

That call introduced him to ActionCoach, a 33-year-old franchise system with about 1,000 coaches across 80 countries. Instead of spending six or seven years reinventing business coaching systems from scratch, Bill bought into a proven model. Now he works with small and medium-sized businesses -- typically those doing $750,000 to $3 million in revenue -- who want to grow into something bigger.

His favorite success story involves a grading contractor who started with eight employees and $800,000 in annual revenue. The guy had three goals: grow the business to $2 million, take three months off each year for mission work, and give away $100,000 annually to people in need. A few years later, when Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamas, that same client took his family there for three months to coordinate cleanup groups -- while his business ran without him. He now employs 50 people, the company will hit around $20 million this year, and he's given away far more than his original $100,000 goal. "Most people have no idea what business coaching is," Bill says. "It's not a business hospital, it's more like a business gymnasium."

Day in the Life

1. Favorite coffee or breakfast spot? Usually eats breakfast at home after working out, but likes The Mediterranean downtown when he goes out.

2. Fitness routine? Three days a week with a small group whose trainer is retiring in four weeks, then they'll keep meeting as friends. Other days he works out at home.

3. New local spot you'd recommend? Rowan Coffee in West Asheville -- just discovered it yesterday.

4. Visiting WNC for the first time? Hiking. Lives in Montreat and says Lookout Mountain is the best bang for your buck -- shortest hike, best views.

Want to work with them? Reach out to Bill at [email protected]

💡 Marketing Quickies

Spring is here and your Google Business Profile is either working for you or it's sitting there collecting digital dust. This week: Show Up on search before the busy season hits.

1. "Near Me" Searches Are Won Before Anyone Calls You When a homeowner types "roof repair near me" or "plumber Asheville," Google serves results based on proximity, relevance, and your GBP completeness. If your categories are wrong, your service area is blank, or your photos are from 2019 — you're losing those searches to someone who updated theirs last week. The Show Up system starts with your Google Business Profile. Fix it once, benefit from it for years.

2. The 5-Second Mobile Test Pull up your website on your phone right now. Does the phone number tap-to-call? Does a form appear above the scroll? Does it load in under 3 seconds? If not, you're losing mobile leads at the exact moment they're ready to act. Most home service leads come from mobile — your site either closes them or pushes them to a competitor. Your website should work like a salesperson, not a brochure.

3. Fresh Photos = Google Signal Google weighs the recency and engagement of your GBP photos as a ranking factor. New photos uploaded regularly — job site shots, before/afters, your truck, your crew — signal that your business is active. Takes five minutes and costs nothing. This is the lowest-effort thing you can do this week to improve your visibility.

4. Reviews Don't Stop Working Every five-star review is a sales rep that works for free, forever. Most businesses get a review when they remember to ask — which means most of the time they forget. An automated review request that goes out 24 hours after a completed job, follows up once more if no response, and makes it one tap to leave the review — that's a machine, not a chore. The Follow Up system runs this so you don't have to remember.

5. If You Repeat It Twice, It Deserves a System If you're manually texting every new lead, following up on every estimate, and asking every customer for a review by hand — those are three systems you don't have yet. Spring rush is about to hit. Build these before you're buried.

🎉 Fun Stuff Around AVL

• 🗓️ Luminere at Biltmore Estate — Thu, Mar 26 and select evenings through Oct 18 · Varies by Sunset (Biltmore Estate, 1 Lodge St, Asheville) Biltmore debuts its first-ever outdoor evening experience: projection mapping on the facade of Biltmore House, original music by the Asheville Symphony, and a self-guided walk through the Italian Garden, Walled Garden, and Conservatory as they transform after dark. Created with experiential design studio Klip Collective; runs through October. Tickets required; advance reservations strongly recommended. This is the kind of thing you take out-of-town friends to.

• 🗓️ 25th Asheville Orchid Festival "Orchid Kingdom" — Fri, Mar 27 · Sneak Preview 4–7:30pm · Sat–Sun, Mar 28–29 · 9am–5pm (The North Carolina Arboretum, 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way, Asheville) One of the largest orchid shows in the Southeast fills the Arboretum's Education Center with hundreds of display orchids and thousands for sale, including vendors from Ecuador, Florida, and South Carolina. Guided tours by the Biltmore Conservatory's curator, repotting clinics, and American Orchid Society judging throughout. $5 admission (under 12 free). Parking $20; arboretum members free.

• 🗓️ Songwriters Roller Derby Showcase at The Grey Eagle — Tue, Mar 31 · Doors 6pm · Show 7pm (Grey Eagle Music Hall, 185 Clingman Ave, Asheville) Four songwriters from the Asheville Songwriters Association perform finished songs — and then share brand new songs that have never been performed on stage, with live audience feedback. Think of it as watching the creative process in real time. Hosted by Thomas Kozak and Jodi John Pippin. All ages, $13.80.

• 🗓️ Spring Into the Arb — March Programming — Through March · Various Times (The North Carolina Arboretum, Asheville) Beyond the Orchid Festival, the Arboretum has a full spring program running through June — nature walks, plein air artist events, bonsai demos, and live music in the gardens. Good excuse to get out of the office and into the mountains while things are blooming. Free with parking ($20 for vehicles).

• 🗓️ 12 Bones Brewing Free S'mores Night — Most Fridays · 5:30pm (12 Bones Brewing, Asheville) 12 Bones runs free s'mores nights most Fridays on their patio — fire pit, marshmallows, and cold beer. Low-key, genuinely fun, and a great spot to land after a long week. Confirm on their social before heading over.

• 🗓️ Carl Powell: 50 Years of Glass & Photography at Grovewood Gallery — Through Apr 5 · Mon–Sat 10am–5pm, Sun 11am–5pm (Grovewood Gallery, 111 Grovewood Rd, Asheville) Asheville artist Carl Powell's retrospective pairs evocative landscape photography with innovative glass sculpture across a 50-year career. Free to visit, walking distance from the Omni Grove Park Inn. Worth the trip up the hill.

🎧 Bands on the Horizon

• Anna Tivel w/ Alexa Rose — Thu, Mar 26 · 8pm @ Grey Eagle Music Hall (all ages, seated show)

• Jordana — Fri, Mar 27 · 8pm @ Grey Eagle Music Hall

• Lowdown Brass Band w/ Rebekah Todd — Sat, Mar 28 · 8pm @ Grey Eagle Music Hall

• Yagódy (roots music from Ukraine) — Sun, Mar 29 · 8pm @ Grey Eagle Music Hall

• Songwriters Roller Derby Showcase — Tue, Mar 31 · 7pm @ Grey Eagle Music Hall (Special Events) ($13.80)

• Alex Bazemore and Friends (bluegrass/jamgrass) — Mon, Mar 30 · 6pm @ French Broad River Brewery (free)

• Free Jazz Monday — weekly — Mon, Mar 30 · 7pm @ Little Jumbo

• Asheville Monday Night Contra Dance — Mon, Mar 30 · 7pm @ The Ivy Building at AB Tech (free–$50)

• Monday Open Mic — Musicians in the Round — Mon, Mar 30 · 6pm @ Urban Orchard South Slope (free)

• Old Time Jam — Mon, Mar 30 · 5:30pm @ Dirty Jack's (free)

• Jazz/Blues Jam with Paul Helou — Mon, Mar 30 · 6pm @ Zillicoah Beer Company

• Seán Johnson & The Wild Lotus Band w/ Samara Jade — Sat, Mar 28 · 6pm @ AyurPrana Listening Room

• Dogs in a Pile — Grey Eagle, confirm date (check thegreyeagle.com — potential late-March add)

• Jonathan Richman ft. Tommy Larkins — Sat, Mar 28 · 8pm @ Grey Eagle (VERIFY — may be Mar 21 show)

• Pisgah Tuesday Bluegrass Jam — Tue, Mar 31 · 6pm @ Pisgah Brewing Company, Black Mountain (free)

• White Horse weekly programming — Thu–Sun @ White Horse at The Monte Vista, Black Mountain (check whitehorsebm.com)

Want your biz in front of smart AVL owners & creators? Reply with what you’re up to and we’ll see if it’s a fit.

Until next week,

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