The Best of The Success Connection with Joe Vagnone – Special Guest: Jim Engel – Founder and Former CEO of Aquesta Bank

About This Episode

In this engaging episode, host Joe Vagnone and guest co-host Senator Jeff Tarte sit down with Jim Engel to explore the reality of launching, growing, and sustaining a business from the ground up.

Jim Engel is an entrepreneur, financial industry veteran, and the founder and former CEO of Aquesta Bank, headquartered right in the Lake Norman area. After spending 21 years building a career at KPMG, Jim took a bold leap at age 47 to build a local community bank from scratch, steering it through startup challenges and regulatory hurdles into a thriving financial institution.

Jim shares the candid story behind leaving corporate security to create long-term equity and legacy for his family. Alongside Joe and Jeff, Jim unpacks the core hurdles of business creation: weathering the early unprofitable years, raising essential startup capital, pitching investors on tangible return on investment (ROI) rather than just vision, and navigating the critical transition from being a solo operator to empowering a capable team.

One crucial lesson from Jim’s journey is that sustainable business growth depends entirely on the people you surround yourself with. Founders cannot scale alone without facing burnout; they must learn to delegate and mentor. When building that team, Jim emphasizes hiring for attitude above all else. Technical tasks and industry knowledge can always be taught, but a positive, people-first mindset cannot.

About The Success Connection: Rewind

Over the years, Joe Vagnone has interviewed entrepreneurs, business owners, industry leaders and innovators at important moments in their professional journeys. They shared how they got started, the challenges they faced and the decisions that helped move them forward.

The Best of The Success Connection: Rewind  brings Joe’s most memorable interviews back into the spotlight—but the story doesn’t end with the original conversation.

Each featured episode offers a fascinating “then-and-now” look at success. Viewers can revisit where the guest was when the interview was recorded and learn how that person, business or idea has grown and evolved since then.

Where are they today? Which goals did they achieve? What changed along the way? And what can we learn from the next chapter of their success story?

Selected personally by Joe as his “Best of the Best,” these conversations combine timeless business lessons with a fresh perspective on the progress that followed. It’s an opportunity to see that success is not a single moment—it is a continuing journey.

About Joe Vagnone

Joe Vagnone is an award-winning small business broker, entrepreneur, and advisor with more than 27 years of experience helping business owners buy, sell, and grow their companies. Through Saturday Success Stories with Joe Vagnone on LKNConnect, he shares the stories, lessons, and insights of entrepreneurs who are making a difference in the Lake Norman

See All Of Joe’s Best Of The Best Series Of The Success Connection: Rewind