The Inspired Stories Podcast

🎧 From High School Dropout to 70+ Franchise Locations: Brian Shunia’s Wing Snob StoryBrian Shunia, co-founder and CEO of Wing Snob, built one of QSR’s fastest-growing wing brands starting from a shuttered 880-square-foot pizzeria in Lavonia, Michigan. What began as a single concept with a tiny menu and a $200 factory order has grown to 70+ open locations across multiple states, with hundreds more in the pipeline — driven by simplicity, culture, and relentless operations discipline.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:High school dropout to GED to first job at 14 as a baristaEarly career spanning restaurants, call centers, sales, and a marketing agencyFront Page Deli: from $50 days to $5,000 days through canvassing and factory cateringLessons from scaling the deli too fast without the right systemsReal estate pivot that led to meeting future Wing Snob co-founder Jack MaschiniChoosing wings for simplicity: fast to prep, fast to execute, infinite flavor optionsSelling the first location to fund three more and prove the franchise modelSnob Central: proprietary app centralizing training, auditing, ordering, and communicationSupply chain strategy: staying east of the Mississippi while filling geographic gapsAI deployment: automated review response and AI phone lines across locations🌟 Brian’s Key Mentors:His Brother: got him into the restaurant industry after high school; taught early ops fundamentalsJack Maschini (Co-Founder): business school background and franchise expertise that complemented Brian’s ops instinctsDallas Powerhouses: senior operators and VPs of thousand-unit chains who shaped Brian’s leadership approachMUFC Network: fellow franchise entrepreneurs met over four-plus years of industry showsHis Sister: pushed him to get his first job at 14 and instilled early work ethic👉 Don’t miss this raw and energetic conversation about grit, franchising from scratch, and why simplicity might be the most underrated strategy in the restaurant business.🔗 Connect with Brian Shunia:Website: wingsnob.com📤 Transcript Available: The Grit Behind Wing Snob: Brian Shunia on Detroit, Dropouts, and Building Something Real📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line Website: addbackbenefits.com

Elle Piper, Senior Director of Operations at 7 Leaves Cafe, came up through buffet-style multi-unit operations at Soup Plantation, watched the brand serve 1,600 customers a day and then go dark overnight during the pandemic, spent six months unemployed before landing at a Vietnamese coffee and tea brand she’d never heard of, and spent the next four years building the operational infrastructure that helped take it from a family-run concept to 43 locations across California, Nevada, Texas, Arizona, and Georgia.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Growing up one of four sisters and how a six-person family system translated directly to a volleyball court and then to multi-unit operationsWhat patience actually means when your four units are outperforming a nine-unit district in volumeThe anti-role model lesson that started at Panera and shaped how Elle leads todayWhat it felt like to communicate the end of Soup Plantation to a team of people for whom it was the only job they had ever knownJoining 7 Leaves six weeks into the pandemic and what the second wave on Christmas Day looked likeWhy every store manager at 7 Leaves used to think they were on their own — and the bi-weekly structure that changed thatWhat a culture crash is and why it happens before a new location opens its doorsHow the menu changes depending on the community — and why Brazilian lemonade is on its fourth limited time offer runUsing AI to build a coaching tool that teaches store managers how to have crucial conversations the Simon Sinek and Brené Brown wayAphantasia, and why Elle asks interview candidates what happens when she says spaghetti and meatballs🌟 Elle’s Key Mentors:John Haywood (CEO, Soup Plantation): Showed her what steady-state consistent leadership looks like at the top — not through direct interaction but through observationSimon Sinek (Author and Speaker): The mentor she’ll never meet whose work on collective commitment and purpose shapes how she leads every dayDr. Becky Kennedy (Parenting Expert): The framework that helped Elle break a cycle with her oldest son and teach herself to lead with curiosity instead of reactionGabór Maté (Physician and Author): The lens through which she learned to give herself permission for the past and to stop blaming the adults who did their bestSunny (7 Leaves CEO): The person who hired her when she was almost out of hope and whose mission of being the change you wish to see became the operating system for everything she does👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it actually looks like to build culture inside a brand at 40-plus locations, why the store manager is the most important person in the company, and how a volleyball player from Southern California ended up as the operational backbone of one of the most interesting beverage brands growing in the country right now.🔗 Connect with Elle Piper:Website: 7leavescafe.comLinkedIn: Elle Piper, 7 Leaves Cafe📤 Transcript Available: Team Is Everything: Elle Piper on Volleyball, Buffet Lines, and Building Culture at Forty-Three Locations📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency — Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎙️ From a Two-Bedroom Apartment to a Five-Times Industry Average Exit: John Ratliff’s Blueprint for Building and SellingJohn Ratliff built Apple Tree Answers, a 24-hour telephone answering service, from a two-bedroom apartment in 1995 to 24 locations and 650 employees before selling it in 2012 at roughly five times the industry average multiple. Along the way he almost quit at 4 a.m. and yanked the plug from the wall. He got turnover from 110% down to 18% through a program that granted employee dreams. And he learned — by being on both sides of the table — exactly how buyers think and where leverage really lives in an acquisition.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:How accidental Class A office space became the foundation of a culture shiftThe Dream On program: granting 250 employee dreams across 2008–2012 and what it did to turnoverThe 4 a.m. moment John almost quit — and the wrong number that changed everythingSeven of ten entrepreneurs struggle with clinical depression — and what the OODA loop has to do with getting through itThe E-Myth visioning exercise that predicted his business six years out almost word for wordWhy the entrepreneur most emotionally tied to their business gets the worst exit multipleHow an off-hand comment from a CFO instantly moved all the leverage in John’s favorSelling a $25M revenue company for $75M by finding two buyers who both had to have itWhy industry-specialist investment bankers may actually work against the sellerHolganics: 300% growth, Fast Company’s most innovative ag company, and a Super Bowl ad in the works🌟 John’s Key Mentors:Michael Gerber (E-Myth Author): Set John’s foundational belief that the business is separate from the entrepreneur — and should be built that way from day oneDoug (Canadian Competitor at the Bar): Asked one innocent question about turnover that sent John on the journey that transformed his cultureHis 23-Year-Old Friend: Wrote a $12,000 check when John couldn’t make payroll — the act of generosity that now defines why John worksBarrett Ersek (Holganics Founder): A 20-year relationship built on shared conviction that the hardest road is usually worth itMichael Singer (Untethered Soul Author): A book that produced a moment on a commercial flight John still describes as physically lifting a weight off him👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it actually takes to build a culture nobody else is willing to build, why buyers overshare when they have to have something, and how a wrong number at 4 a.m. might have saved a company.🔗 Connect with John Ratliff:Website: align5.com📎 Transcript Available: Master these Skills to Maximize the Wealth Creation Event with John Ratliff of align5📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📎 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

David Homan, founder and CEO of Orchestrated Connecting, was a classical composer with 225 works performed at Carnegie Hall when he found himself, at 26, running a multi-million dollar global arts nonprofit through a connection made at a Shabbat dinner. Then Bernie Madoff wiped out the endowment, a billionaire called to scream at him for losing money he never touched, and David had to rebuild an entire organization by throwing out everything he knew about fundraising and starting to simply ask people what they needed.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Growing up in Gainesville with a theater professor father who never connected the dots between his famous students and his son’s career in New YorkMeeting Vera Stern at a Shabbat dinner in 2003 and running AICF’s Carnegie Hall gala three weeks laterWhat Jewish geography is and why it stopped working the moment the endowment disappearedThe chain of introductions that ran from a Catholic friend in Ohio through Canada and Germany to a New York Times article to a $2.5 million gift from the Carnival Cruise Line familyWhy 85% of David’s fundraising work was making connections for people who were never asked for anythingHow Orchestrated Connecting works: 2,500 members across 47 countries, entry by recommendation only, and you have to ask for help to get inSOAR Connect: the relationship intelligence platform that tracks recency, frequency, and duration to surface who you actually trustThe five principles of the USA Today bestseller Orchestrating Connection: curiosity, vulnerability, diversity, generosity, and gratitudeWhat happened at a conference in March when David shared that it was his first public speaking event since losing his fatherThe two years David spent writing letters to his father signed as Tim from the Best Western in Cherry Hill, New Jersey🌟 David’s Key Mentors:Doris (Adopted Jewish Grandmother, Florida): The lifelong family friend who introduced David to Abby, who introduced him to Vera Stern, who changed everythingVera Stern (Widow of Isaac Stern, AICF): Took David under her wing at that first Shabbat dinner and gave him his first real platformBill Schwartz (AICF President): The second father figure who asked David to take over the entire organization at 26Beth (Journalist Friend from Ohio): The Catholic friend with no connection to the arts who heard him out and started the chain that saved the foundationHis Father, Sid Homan (Professor, Showman): Princeton and Harvard trained, 29 books, brilliant and gullible in equal measure — and the reason David gets on a stage the way he does👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it costs to rebuild something from nothing when everyone is blaming you for losing it, why asking for help is the most underused strategy in any room of powerful people, and the two years David spent writing letters to his father as Tim from the Best Western in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.🔗 Connect with David Homan:Website: davidhoman.comWebsite: soarconnect.ai📤 Transcript Available: David Homan on Why Vulnerability Is Not a Weakness and Curiosity Is Not a Tactic📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency — Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

Randy Long, JD, CFP, founder of Build Proof Sell and Long Family Office, walked into a Wall Street brokerage in Newport Beach with no appointment and described a job that had never existed — only to find that the branch manager had a sheet of paper on his desk listing exactly those nine points. Four decades later, he has guided dozens of business owners through exits ranging from $2 million to $160 million, written two books on exit planning, and built a consulting practice with his daughter that sees the business, the family, and the future in a way no single attorney or accountant ever could.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:The alligator in the bathtub and the baked goods empire that campus authorities shut downWalking into a Wall Street office unannounced and describing a job that didn’t exist yetWhy becoming a lawyer was the only way to earn credibility and cut through the silo problemWhat the macro view of business ownership actually means and why most professionals can’t offer itHow a $2.69 million blue-collar company sold for $14 million in under four yearsWhy the business owner is almost always the bottleneck and how to convince them of thatWhy Randy prefers strategic buyers over private equity and what that choice means for multiplesThe difference between Braveheart Exit and Bulletproof Your Exit and who each book is forWorking alongside his daughter for twelve years and what that brings to clients with family businessesA business partner dispute and his wife’s autonomic nervous system crisis hitting back to back🌟 Randy’s Key Mentors:His Grandfather: Entrepreneur with a paint contract at Disney World who modeled self-employment and brought home an alligator to bootHis Father (Pastor): Gave Randy the faith foundation that still anchors every major decision he makesGeorge Ball (President, Wall Street Firm): Took a chance on a 22-year-old who walked in off the street and put him at the center of a new concept called financial planningJohn Brown (BEI, Denver): The exit planning pioneer who mentored Randy for a decade and helped create the credential that formalized the fieldAlan Long (Daughter and Partner): The macro planner who became his partner and extended his reach across every client engagement👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it actually takes to see a business owner’s whole picture when everyone else only sees their piece, why the happiest people at closing aren’t always the ones with the biggest checks, and a story about a stranger at the door that Randy still can’t fully explain.🔗 Connect with Randy Long:Website: buildproofsell.comWebsite: longfamilyoffice.com📤 Transcript Available: Randy Long Built His Career Around One Idea: Someone Has to See the Whole Picture When Nobody Else Will📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency — Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

Meridith Picarelli-Khattar, General Manager and COO of Myers Park Country Club in Charlotte, went to college for physical therapy, stumbled into restaurant work to fund spring break, and found herself still there after graduation — until the restaurant closed without warning and forced her to figure out what came next. A resume sent to dozens of places landed on the desk of a GM at Round Hill Club in Greenwich, Connecticut, and the rest was a 20-year arc through private club management that nobody planned, two advanced credentials, an adjunct teaching career at NYU and Sacred Heart, and a seat at one of the most prestigious clubs in the Southeast.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Pulling into a private estate by mistake on the way to her first job interview at a country clubWhat her first GM did the night she moved in that set the template for her entire leadership philosophyWhy she pursued a master’s at NYU and two CMAA credentials in an industry she entered by accidentTeaching private club management at NYU, Norwalk Community College, and Sacred Heart UniversityThe heart-to-heart with her board president that stopped her cold and reshaped her first year at Myers ParkWhy a bus with no passengers isn’t leadership — it’s just someone driving aloneHow Myers Park members can use the club multiple times a day without it ever feeling like a destinationThe golf course renovation closing for 10 months and what the club is doing to keep members engagedWhat it took to build executive presence as a petite woman in a male-dominated industryThe quality over quantity framework she applies to the one hour a day she has with her four-year-old🌟 Meridith’s Key Mentors:Her First GM at Round Hill Club: Showed up with groceries the night she moved in, enrolled her in CMAA education, and taught her what it meant to welcome someone into a community rather than just give them a jobHer Board President at Myers Park: Delivered the honest feedback that she had pulled out of the station without her team — the most useful thing anyone said to her in her first yearHer Network of Female Club GMs in Charlotte: Three of four local club managers are women, two of them firsts in their clubs, and they collaborate openly on challenges no male counterpart has to think aboutThe Endurance Racing Community: Where her competitive instincts go so they don’t run her work life — and where she learned the difference between destination and process👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it actually looks like to lead a club people come to belong to rather than be impressed by, why slowing down was the hardest and most important thing she did in her first year, and what a card signed by a GM means to a part-time rackets employee who’d never met her.🔗 Connect with Meridith Picarelli-Khattar:Website: myersparkcc.comSocial Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meridith-picarelli-khattar-ccm-cce-5515241b/📤 Transcript Available: You Don't Have to Have the Whole Plan: How Meridith Picarelli-Khattar Built a Leadership Career She Never Saw Coming 📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency — Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎙️ From Getting Fired at 16 to Running Purchasing for the Midwest’s Leading Hispanic Supermarket ChainJohn Tsiones, Director of Purchasing at Cermak Fresh Market, spent 30 years building one of the most specialized careers in Hispanic grocery — from growing a zero-dollar Hispanic program to nearly $100 million at Dearborn wholesale, to 11 years at Fiesta Market, to transforming a 15-store chain of independent-minded locations into a unified regional powerhouse with double-digit growth. His story is one of relentless curiosity, gut-driven buying, and a refusal to get comfortable.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Built Hispanic grocery program from $0 to nearly $100M at Dearborn wholesale11 years at Fiesta Market overseeing all grocery categories plus radio marketingJoined Cermak with a written 3-month, 6-month, and 1-year presentation in handCentralized pricing across 15 stores previously operating as independentsTPR shelf talkers drove immediate, measurable sales lift at CermakDouble-digit growth achieved in year one of his tenureVendor open-buy policy every Tuesday and Wednesday — anyone can walk inDoorDash and UberEats agreements added to close distribution gapsParty for Life nonprofit raised nearly $1M total for St. Jude, $100K+ per galaTwo personal losses — father at 17, mother after 10-year cancer battle — shaped his work-through-it ethos🌟 John’s Key Mentors:Costa (Owner, Fiesta Market): Taught that vendors have to win too — everyone makes money or nobody doesAdolfo Vega (Owner, Labo Dega): Modeled aggressive, eyes-open leadership and relentless anti-complacencyHis Mother: Instilled the work ethic and toughness that carried him through every hardshipMaribel (Buyer, Cermak): Trusted partner who runs the open-buy program alongside himBob (Owner, Cermak): Gave him full authority to execute the vision and backed him through it👉 Don’t miss this candid conversation about what it takes to build something category-defining, why being all in beats being cheapest every time, and how a 30-year career in Hispanic grocery is, in John’s words, just getting started.🔗 Connect with John Tsiones:Website: cermakfreshmarket.comParty for Life: chicagopartyforlife.com📎 Transcript Available: John Tsiones Built a $100 Million Hispanic Grocery Program From Zero at Dearborn📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📎 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

Charlene Carter, Chief Development Officer and partner at the Carver Companies, grew up as the daughter of a domestic worker in Savannah’s public housing, learned to taste caviar at nine, and had her career trajectory changed by a movie director who told her he couldn’t see her completing a mouth. She spent eleven years mastering every level of hotel operations across IHG, Marriott, Hilton, Wyndham, and Hyatt before launching two consulting firms of her own, going through a bowel obstruction and COVID in consecutive months, and emerging as the revenue engine behind one of the fastest-growing hospitality staffing firms in the country.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:A six-year-old on a Savannah city bus and the driver’s words she still tells her childrenHow a movie director filming Swamp Thing in Savannah accidentally redirected her career from dentistry to hotelsThe VIP check-in she failed to prep and the front office manager who turned it into her most important leadership lessonHow Atlanta Hospitality Group landed 33 Country Inns and Suites properties on word of mouth aloneWhat task force consulting actually is and why hotels call it in when they’re already drowningWriting a business blueprint for her own competitors and why 90% of them come back asking for back-office helpThe bowel obstruction in December 2019, COVID in March 2020, and why Carver had one of its best years during the shutdownWhy Carver won’t put a consultant on a flight before 8 AM and pays expenses every weekThe Carver Healthcare expansion into locums and traveling nursesWhat it means to dull your lights so that someone else’s can brighten🌟 Charlene’s Key Mentors:Her Mother: A domestic worker who brought Charlene to cater private dinners at age seven and made her taste everything, teaching her that service was educationThe Bus Driver in Savannah: Told a six-year-old Charlene that her honesty earned her a ride and that no one should ever tell her who she isThe Front Office Manager at IHG: Responded to a VIP prep failure not with a reprimand but with belief — and introduced Charlene to the Velvet Standard without naming itJoel Carver: Her business partner who she had to convince to put his own name on the company, and whose touch she said turns everything to gold👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it takes to hold a high standard without making people feel small, why the consultants who leave Carver to start their own firms almost always come back, and how a woman from the projects in Savannah built one of the most trusted names in hospitality staffing.🔗 Connect with Charlene Carter:Website: thecarvercompanies.comBook: Task Force Ready (available on Amazon and Gumroad)📤 Transcript Available: Charlene Carter on the Velvet Standard: How to Hold People to a High Bar Without Making Them Feel Small📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency — Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎤 From 401k to 2,400% Growth: Jesse Vidrine’s Compounding Pharmacy BetJesse Vidrine, President of Vidrine Pharmaceutical Group, cashed out his 401k, put up his father’s farmland as collateral, and bought a failing 99-year-old Louisiana pharmacy two months before COVID. What followed was 2,400% growth, the launch of a telehealth hormone therapy company, and the construction of a transparent pharmacy benefits management firm — all built on the premise that patients deserve better access to personalized medicine than Big Pharma is willing to give them.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Financing a $1.6M acquisition with 401k savings and family farm collateralHow construction site scaling experience translated directly to pharmacy growthWhy retail pharmacy margins are designed to fail independent operators503A compounding pharmacy rules, safety standards, and FDA legal frameworkGLP-1 shortage as the catalyst that forced doctors to learn about compoundingPatients leaving their doctors for providers who would prescribe compounded medicationsBHRT and why women in menopause have been systematically underserved for 35 yearsIRVUE Telehealth’s saliva-testing and personalized hormone therapy modelPBM structure and how $462 billion flows through a system most employers don’t understandTrustScripts as a transparent, pass-through pharmacy benefit alternative for self-funded employers🌟 Jesse’s Key Mentors:His parents: put up their farm as collateral without blinking, grounding Jesse’s confidence in the leapHis wife Kylie: lead pharmacist and clinical backbone who held the pharmacy together during COVIDRobert and Jerry Boudreaux: second-generation owners whose compounding legacy became the foundation Jesse didn’t know he was buyingLake Charles industrial project leaders: modeled large-scale rapid scaling across multi-billion dollar construction sites👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what compounding pharmacies actually do, why the GLP-1 shortage changed American healthcare faster than any policy ever could, and how one couple in Louisiana is building a vertically integrated functional medicine company from the ground up.🔗 Connect with Jesse Vidrine:Website: bndsrx.com📤 Transcript Available: How Jesse Vidrine Turned a Dying Louisiana Pharmacy Into a 2,400% Business📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line Website: addbackbenefits.com

Bob Lang, president of Blue Moon Estate Sales USA, started his career assessing commercial loan risk at a hundred-and-fifty-million-dollar portfolio in Lima, Ohio, and spent the next 30 years discovering that the same skills that made him a good credit analyst — reading what drives a business, understanding where risk lives, knowing how to look at numbers and make them real — were exactly what franchise owners needed someone to do for them. Today he leads the largest estate sale franchise in the country: 156 locations across 30 states, more than 2,000 events a year, and a model built around some of the most emotional moments families ever face.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:What commercial lending at Bank One taught him about risk, capital structure, and what really drives a businessHow the Pearl Vision acquisition put him in front of franchisees who needed a credit analyst who could explain their numbers in plain EnglishWhy he started traveling with field coaches and what happened when the numbers became realThe franchise advisory council and what he learned about leading change instead of mandating itBuilding business intelligence from scratch at Bright Star Care: pricing, labor, and the two metrics that moved the needleWhy he laughed when the recruiter pitched Blue Moon and what changed his mind inside of one conversationHow Blue Moon transformed training from in-person sessions at the founder’s house to a scalable LMS with 3D walkthroughsWhat actually happens when a family calls Blue Moon and what the monetize process looks like from consultation to checkWhy anyone can sell franchise units and why that’s exactly the wrong thing to optimize forThe AI pricing tool Blue Moon just introduced and what it can and can’t do🌟 Bob’s Key Mentors:His Lender at the Savings and Loan: The person who told him directly he was a pain in the you-know-what — and gave him the feedback that reshaped how he leadsVP of Operations at Pearl Vision: Described Bob as the finance guy with a personality and moved him into the field, where everything changedShelley’s Son (Bright Star CEO): Hired Bob for the capital access challenge during the housing crisis and gave him the platform to build BI from scratchThe Best Life Brands Infrastructure: A private equity-backed operating philosophy that aligned with Bob’s belief that responsible growth requires building support before selling units👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it actually looks like to help a family through one of the hardest transitions they’ll ever face, why the franchise model lives or dies on whether you can bring people along rather than drag them, and the feedback that a young credit analyst received that he still credits as his best life lesson.🔗 Connect with Bob Lang:Website: https://bluemoonestatesales.comSocial Media: LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/boblang/ 📤 Transcript Available: Bob Lang on Growing a Franchise Responsibly When Anyone Can Sell Units📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency — Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

Morgan Bajardi, Director of Design Development at The Rug Company, has spent her career at the intersection of mathematics, ancient craft, and psychology. From programming Jacquard looms in binary at the California College of the Arts to studying engineered illusions at Central St. Martin’s to preserving hand-knotting traditions through one of the world’s most recognized luxury rug brands, her work is built on a single conviction: textiles are not background elements. They are carriers of memory, culture, and experience.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:How weave structures like four-end twills control flexibility, drape, and performance in everyday fabricsWhy Morgan designs in black and white first and introduces color only lastThe binary logic behind Jacquard loom programming and how a bad algorithm can snap a loomWhat Gestalt psychology taught her about designing for human perception and spaceWhy noble fibers like wool and silk outlast synthetic performance materials by centuriesThe three dimensions of rug design: 2D pattern, 3D construction, and the fourth dimension of timeHow she built a product design team and color infrastructure at The Rug Company from scratchThe Paul Smith collaboration and how she translated his brand evolution into construction and textureWhy she recommends filtering feedback through patterns of three before acting on itWhat it means to reframe rugs as architectural and emotional elements rather than decorative objects🌟 Morgan’s Key Mentors:Leah Cook (CCA Textile Department): Pioneer in digital weaving who introduced Morgan to Jacquard programming and took her under her wing early in her BFALisio Foundation, Florence: Where Morgan studied reverse engineering of historic textiles and learned how to read fabric at the thread levelCentral St. Martin’s Faculty: Pushed Morgan to defend every design decision with a clear who, what, where, when, and whyKelly Wearstler Studio: Fifty high-caliber designers across disciplines whose collaborative energy sharpened Morgan’s multi-medium thinking👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what is actually happening inside every piece of fabric you’ve ever touched, why ancient hand-knotting traditions are at risk, and how one designer is using math, psychology, and craft to change how the world thinks about rugs.🔗 Connect with Morgan Bajardi:Website: www.morganbajardi.comLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/morgan-bajardi-51169030/ 📤 Transcript Available: Morgan Bajardi: The Art and Science of Luxury Textiles 📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency — Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

Amanda Luebeck, founding broker at K&D Advisory, came to mergers and acquisitions not through investment banking but through watching a broker prioritize his commission over his clients’ best interests — and deciding she could do better. Her path ran through retail management, wealth management alongside her husband, and two years of training at a boutique firm before she launched her own practice in 2026, named after her two kids, dedicated to the business owners most larger brokerages won’t serve well.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:What managing a jewelry sales floor taught her about identifying what motivates peopleHow working at her husband’s wealth management firm led to her first M&A experience with dental practice clientsWhy she left Fidelis Advisors and what those two years taught her that no course couldWhy she never posts deals on BizBuySell and what she does insteadHow she thinks about the $500K to $1M EBITDA business owner who gets left behind by bigger brokeragesWhat networking capital is and why sellers routinely leave money on the table by ignoring itThe three components of every deal: price, terms, and allocationA current deal structure involving a trust, retained equity, and private equity that serves the owner’s growth goalsWhy she sees herself as a matchmaker and would pull a deal rather than close a bad oneHow being told she was bad at math almost stopped her from starting her firm🌟 Amanda’s Key Mentors:Kyle Luebeck (Husband and Wealth Advisor): Encouraged Amanda to bet on herself when every instinct said wait, and gave her the first look at M&A through his financial planning clientsMike (Fidelis Advisors): Took a chance on her, trained her for two years, and gave her a white-glove view of deal work she still draws onWomen Entrepreneur Community in Minneapolis: The happy hour she almost didn’t attend where she realized even multi-million dollar business builders share the same self-doubt👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it actually looks like to build a client-first M&A practice from scratch, why the math that almost scared her off turned out to be something she was already good at, and how naming a company after your kids changes the way you work.🔗 Connect with Amanda Luebeck:Website: kandadvisory.com📤 Transcript Available: Amanda Luebeck on Why Small Business Owners Deserve an Investment-Grade Experience and Rarely Get One📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency — Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎙️ From HR Manager to COO Three Weeks Before COVID: Debra JohnsonIn this episode, Debra Johnson, COO and Chief People Officer of Street Entertainment Group and founder of The Integrated Edge, traces her path from Jefferson County Public Schools to Zappos, Nasty Gal, Teespring, and Street. She opens up about being promoted to COO weeks before COVID, losing two siblings four days apart, and the moment at her son's wedding when she realized chronic stress had taken away her ability to feel joy.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:HR manager overseeing 3,500 employees at Jefferson County Public SchoolsLeft a role after refusing a legally questionable directiveHelped Zappos hire 1,200 people in a single weekBuilt HR infrastructure from scratch at Nasty Gal and TeespringPromoted to COO three weeks before COVID beganLost her brother and sister four days apart in JanuaryWorked the Cain Prime expo line during a 600-cover Friday nightFelt no joy at her son's wedding despite the celebrationDiscovered the neuroscience behind chronic stress and decision-makingFounded The Integrated Edge, a leadership capacity framework🌟 Debra's Key Mentors:Susan Walker: Zappos director who guided her through 1,200 hires in a weekLeslie Higgins: Executive coach at Teespring who introduced her to the EnneagramChris Heineman: Street CEO who first trusted her vision for the companyChef Bob: Cain Prime executive chef who showed her the intensity of restaurant operationsDr. Amy Arnsten (Yale): Neuroscientist whose research on stress and the brain shaped her framework👉 A candid look at what chronic stress costs a high performer, and what it takes to rebuild from the inside out.🔗 Connect with Debra Johnson:Website: mstreetnashville.comWebsite: theintegratededge.com📄 Transcript Available: Debra Johnson on Rebuilding Her Operating System After Years of Chronic Stress📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📄 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom lineWebsite: addbackbenefits.com

Matt Logan, founder of Rise North Capital, was broke, directionless, and doing tree removal and landscaping jobs for cash when he got a recruiting call from a MetLife sales manager in 2007. He had no background in finance, no career plan, and over $100,000 in student debt. What followed was nearly two decades of building skills, earning his CLU designation, and eventually launching his own firm just months before the pandemic shut everything down. Rather than fold, he went virtual, found the model that would let him scale, and built Rise North Capital into a nationwide organization now serving clients in all 50 states.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Why having no direction in 2007 turned out to be the exact starting point Rise North Capital neededHow hunger, discipline, and coachability drove Matt’s early success at MetLifeWhy COVID became the catalyst that forced Rise North to pivot from brick-and-mortar to a fully virtual modelHow going virtual unlocked the ability to recruit and serve clients across all 50 statesThe silver tsunami: why retiring advisors and growing demand create a massive career opportunityHow Rise North Capital compresses 36 months of advisor development into 12Why they call themselves a transformation company first and a financial services firm secondThe SP-Me versus the SP-500: why investing in yourself comes before investing in the marketWhat a term life insurance policy with living benefits did for a business owner who had a heart attack at 39What Matt looks for when recruiting and why resilience is the hardest quality to develop🌟 Matt’s Key Mentors:First Sales Manager at MetLife: Made the recruiting call that gave Matt his first compass and career direction at his lowest pointMetLife’s Training System: Provided the structure and licensing path that pulled Matt out of financial and mental rock bottomPersonal Development Programs and Coaches: The outside experts Rise North Capital invests in heavily to develop their advisors as whole people firstHis Three Sons: The daily reminder of why compounding growth in character matters as much as compounding growth in income👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it actually takes to build something when you’re starting with nothing, why the financial advice industry is facing a generational opportunity, and how one firm decided to put people development at the center of everything they do.🔗 Connect with Matt Logan:Website: https://www.risenorthcapital.com/ Join the Team: risenorthcapital.com/join-our-teamInstagram https://www.instagram.com/officialmattloganTikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@themattloganFacebook https://www.facebook.com/share/1CicaFpi7p/?mibextid=wwXIfrX https://x.com/mattloganrnc?s=21LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattrlogan?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios📤 Transcript Available: Matt Logan on What He Looks for When Recruiting Advisors and Why Hunger Cannot Be Taught📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency — Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎙️ Ricardo Baca: From Newsroom to Journalism-Minded Agency FounderIn this episode, Ricardo Baca, founder and CEO of Grasslands, shares how 24 years as a journalist — including a stint as the first cannabis editor at a major American newspaper — shaped a PR agency built on respect for the craft he came from. He opens up about walking away from journalism with just two clients, losing four accounts in one week to tariffs, and why he still says no to prospects who trash the press.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:24 years in journalism, 13 at the Denver PostNamed Denver Post's first cannabis editor in 2013Left journalism after securing two fractional clientsGrasslands built as a journalism-minded PR agencyServes B2B and consumer brands across nearly 10 countriesTurns down clients who disrespect journalismLost four major clients in one week to tariffsNavigated layoffs to keep the agency afloatExpanding into longevity, peptides, and biohackingAppointed to Colorado's Natural Medicine Advisory Board🌟 Ricardo's Key Mentors:EO (Entrepreneurs' Organization): Forum peers who understood his exact strugglesHis Wife: Steady support through the hardest business stretchDenver Post Editors and Colleagues: Shaped his news judgment and reporting standardsFirst Two Grasslands Clients: Took a chance on him and stayed a decadeJohn Sinai (Futurist): Workshop that spurred him to bigger business moves👉 A candid look at building a PR agency on journalism's own standards, and surviving when the business nearly didn't.🔗 Connect with Ricardo Baca:Website: mygrasslands.com📄 Transcript Available: From Denver Post Journalist to PR Agency Founder: Ricardo Baca’s Marketing Agencyr📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📄 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line

🎤 From a Crowded Baltimore Bar to 12,000 Taps Worldwide: Josh Goodman’s Pour My Bev StoryJosh Goodman, founder and CEO of PourMyBev, had an idea in a crowded Baltimore bar in 2009 that nobody asked for and nobody could explain. Fifteen years, two failed partnerships, a near-shutdown in 2014, and a COVID-delayed wire transfer later, Coca-Cola came calling. Today his company operates across 23 countries with over 12,000 taps installed — all built on the premise that waiting for a drink is a problem worth solving.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Cutco knife sales as the foundation for every sales skill he still usesIT staffing commissions stolen by corporate politics and what that unlockedThe Baltimore bar moment that sparked the self-pour conceptTwo failed technology partnerships and a near-total company collapse in 2014$100K wire transfer to Austrian engineers as the turning pointRebuilding trust with burned customers by installing the new product for freeToast integration that eliminated the line problem he accidentally createdCoca-Cola Euro Pacific Partners investing in exchange for a Burger King Spain rolloutPour Insights analytics platform now fed into AI for real-time operator intelligenceCountry clubs as the next high-growth vertical through property management integrations🌟 Josh’s Key Mentors:His Cutco district manager: taught him the full architecture of consultative selling before he knew what it wasHerman Rettle (Reddle Austria): second-generation engineering visionary who built the product that actually worked and became a long-term manufacturing partnerBranded Hospitality (Michael Schatzberg and Jimmy Frischling): first institutional investors who opened the Coca-Cola doorSports and middle school adversity: hardened his pain tolerance and wired him to treat setbacks as redirection rather than rejection👉 Don’t miss this conversation about why category creation is harder and slower than anyone warns you, what it actually looks like to nearly lose a company and build it back, and how a $45,000 install can outperform a fully staffed bar.🔗 Connect with Josh Goodman:Website: pourmybev.com📤 Transcript Available: PourMyBev Built a Category Nobody Believed In and Josh Goodman Still Isn't Done📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎙️ From McDonald's Griddle to Nobu: The Rise of Drew NieporentIn this episode, Drew Nieporent, founder of Myriad Restaurant Group, traces a path from a McDonald's grill at 17 to co-founding Nobu with Robert De Niro and Nobu Matsuhisa. He walks through opening Montrachet with a $16 menu that earned three stars, building six restaurants on one Tribeca block, and facing a stroke, kidney cancer, and leukemia within the same year.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Started at McDonald's at 17 as the quarter-pound grill manOpened Montrachet in 1985, three stars on a sixteen dollar menuRecruited by Robert De Niro to open Tribeca GrillNobu turned him down twice before saying yesNobu is now worth roughly $300 millionFirst restaurateur to put a chef's name on the menuRan the Madison Square Garden burger concession for 12 yearsWrote the memoir "I'm Not Trying to Be Difficult"Survived a stroke, kidney cancer, and is now battling leukemiaThree restaurants at one Tribeca address held three stars for decades🌟 Drew's Key Mentors:Robert De Niro: Recruited him for Tribeca Grill and backed Nobu from day oneWarner LeRoy: Employer at Maxwell's Plum and Tavern on the Green, modeled scale and spectacleGeorge Lang: Fellow restaurateur who pushed him toward treatment at the Mayo ClinicHis Father: State Liquor Authority official who exposed him to New York's best restaurants as a childNobu Matsuhisa: Creative partner in building one of the industry's most recognized brands👉 A candid look at four decades of restaurants, and what it means to keep showing up while your health keeps testing you.🔗 Connect with Drew Nieporent:Instagram: Drew Nieporent📄 Transcript Available: Forty Restaurants, One Neighborhood, and a Life Drew Nieporent Has No Regrets About📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📄 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom lineWebsite: addbackbenefits.com

From 31-Year Franchisee to Executive Coach: Kevin Harrison's Uncommon ReinventionKevin Harrison, founder of Uncommon Influence, spent three decades as a Chick-fil-A franchisee before walking away to build an executive coaching firm from scratch. Recognized by the Virginia General Assembly for people development, Kevin now coaches leaders across hospitality and beyond on how to grow capacity, reinvent themselves, and have life-changing influence on the people around them.Key Insights You'll Learn:31-year Chick-fil-A run ending when the vision stopped inspiring himiPad drive-through system: early pioneer growing throughput from 100 to 300+ cars per hourLeader intern program attracting recent grads through structured rotations and experiencesMarathon wellness program inside Chick-fil-A sending dozens of employees to Disney raceOrigin of Uncommon Influence: ninth-grade teacher mailing life goals back 11 years laterFive D's framework for overwhelmed leaders: do, delete, defer, delegate, decideCamino de Santiago reinvention experience: 95-mile trek sold out through 2026Coaching principle: you cannot want growth more than your client wants itDistinguishing statements from questions as tools for lasting changeAI as thought partner, not thought leader, for high-performing executivesKevin's Key Mentors:Roger Flinchum (Ninth Grade English Teacher): Mailed back life goals 11 years later; sparked the Uncommon Influence visionChick-fil-A Company President: Planted the question "How good do you want to be?" at a critical momentKevin's Wife: Named the moment his vision no longer inspired him and gave him permission to leaveKevin's Personal Coach: Facilitates annual and biannual strategic retreats; challenges his thinking regularlyMitch and Stacey Hartman (Scrimp Shack Founders): Trusted Kevin with scaling their brand after retirementDon't miss this conversation about what it looks like to rebuild at the top of your game and why the leaders who truly change are the ones who want it most.Connect with Kevin Harrison:Website: uncommoninfluence.comTranscript Available: Kevin Harrison on Why the Uncommon Influence Coaching Program Starts with a Question, Not an AnswerWatch on YouTube: Inspired Stories PodcastOur Website: The Inspired Stories PodcastSpecial Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

Josh Zolin is the CEO of Windy City Equipment, a commercial equipment service company operating across Arizona and Texas with 50 to 60 employees and between $10 and $12 million in annual revenue. He joined his father's one-man repair operation at 21 with no degree and no plan, after spending his early life in a stunt family and nearly 16 years doing stunt work across film and television. Along the way he co-founded Blue Is the New White, an academy teaching soft skills and practical leadership to blue collar professionals, and hosts the Everything They Don't Tell You podcast.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Born into a stunt family in Chatsworth, California, with his grandfather, mother, father, and three uncles all working in the industryFirst stunt appearance at age six in Matinee with John Goodman, rolling out of the way of an oncoming carTeaching at the family stunt school from age 14, training people from around the world in falling, fighting, and fire workMoving to Los Angeles and breaking onto film sets at all hours, knocking on stunt coordinators' trailers to find workThe studio apartment mirror moment in 2008 during the writer's strike that sent him toward his father's business in PhoenixJoining Windy City Equipment at 21, spending ten years in the field learning the trade before stepping into the CEO roleExpanding from kitchen equipment into HVAC and refrigeration, which drove revenue from $1M to $6-7M in four to five yearsAchieving Inc. 5000 recognition three times and expanding from Phoenix to Tucson to HoustonLaunching Blue Is the New White in 2019 as a book and advocacy platform, then building the academy eighteen months agoSister-in-law's sudden death on January 1, 2015 as the mindset shift that ended procrastination and anchored his daily urgency🌟 Josh's Key Mentors:His Grandfather: First memory of the stunt world, jumping from 50 feet into a pool, and the origin of everything that followedHis Mother and Father: Both stunt professionals who trained Josh from childhood, ran the stunt school, and modeled the work ethic he brought into businessHis Father (Windy City Founder): The mechanic who built the original business and made the call to get out of stunts to never miss a weekend with his son, setting Josh's path in motionJames and Terry (HVAC and Refrigeration): Master technicians who helped Josh launch the division that became Windy City's growth engineHis Wife: The steady presence through his sister's death and the person who helped him learn that sometimes being there is all that's needed👉 Don't miss Josh's account of staring down a 60-foot drop onto a bag the size of a pen cap, the studio apartment mirror moment that ended his stunt career, and why his sister-in-law's death at 26 became the most clarifying day of his life.🔗 Connect with Josh Zolin:Website: joshzolin.com📋 Transcript Available: From Stuntman to CEO: How Josh Zolin Built a Family Business into an Inc 5000 Enterprise📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📋 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

Joe Griebel, Director of Physical Product at Sunday, started his career helping fuse tissue with a laser in a deviated septum surgery and ended up redesigning a fertilizer box system that saved the company $2 million a year. In between, he held patents on orthopedic devices, published research on micro engines, worked at Philips Healthcare, and missed a full ride to architecture school by one ACT point — a moment he calls the best failure he ever had.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Tissue fusion lasers and bone tamp patents straight out of college at a startup called Mind RocketWhy the design process is identical whether the problem is a golf ball dispenser or a femoral artery deviceWhat design validation means in medical devices and why it takes years before anything reaches a patientHow a former colleague’s referral took Joe from Philips Healthcare to a Boulder lawn care startup backed by SequoiaSunday’s personalization model: soil sampling, GPS lawn mapping, 20+ SKUs, and region-specific plans from day oneThe Sunny AI agent and what it can and can’t do for a customer who just wants green grassWhy Sunday’s soil database is its most valuable asset and why no competitor has anything closeThe packaging problem that wasn’t about box size and the cell system that saved $2 millionWhat Sequoia Capital pressure actually felt like from the inside and why it never compromised the customerMissing architecture school by one ACT point and why junior year at UCCS was where the pivot finally made sense🌟 Joe’s Key Mentors:His Grad School Advisor (Mind Rocket Founder): Invited Joe to co-found the company after his thesis on laser tissue fusion — the first domino in the entire chainHis Colleague at Mind Rocket: Found him again a decade later and brought him to Sunday at exactly the right momentThe Orthopedic Surgeon on the Bone Tamp Project: Took Joe into eight surgeries a day to watch what he struggled with — modeled what it looks like to find a problem worth solvingHis Parents: Raised him without much but gave him enough — homemade popsicles included — to know how to create something from nothing👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it means to apply the same design process to wildly different problems, why the hardest packaging insight was realizing the box wasn’t the real problem, and how a 32 on the ACT eventually became the best thing that ever happened to Joe Griebel.🔗 Connect with Joe Griebel:Website: getsunday.comSocial Media: https://www.instagram.com/getsunday/https://www.facebook.com/getsunday/https://www.youtube.com/@getsunday📤 Transcript Available: From Laser Tissue Fusion to Lawn Care: Joe Griebel’s Design Arc at Sunday📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency — Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

Brandon McConnell, corporate executive at Delavan Lake Lawn Management, learned hospitality before he learned long division — garnishing plates at his mother’s diner at age six, stripping hotel beds in middle school, and eventually turning a TQM class on a Tuesday night into a professional philosophy that followed him through Disney, Grand Geneva, and now Lake Lawn Resort. He’s also finishing a 330-page book on AI psychosis through a Johns Hopkins research cohort.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Diner childhood: learning hospitality through food, family, and 4:45 AM wake-upsSkipping class to vocational school: how TQM lit up Brandon’s mind and redirected his careerDisney at scale: timing housekeepers with a stopwatch to save $40K per property annuallyGrand Geneva turnaround: diagnosing a four-diamond property in 30 days and moving the needle in 90Hire for aptitude first, attitude second, availability thirdLake Lawn Resort: Wisconsin’s oldest resort spanning golf, spa, marina, and residential real estateNight golf and short courses: where the sport is headed and what Lake Lawn is buildingImposter syndrome as a reminder of the journey rather than a reason for fearAI psychosis research: what LLMs are doing in suicide prevention that surprised even BrandonWhy the AI moment mirrors where social media was a decade ago🌟 Brandon’s Key Mentors:His Mother: Introduced him to hospitality through her diner and modeled hard work and human connectionTQM Instructor (Vocational School): Gave Brandon the process framework that redirected his entire professional lifeDisney Leadership Teams: Taught alignment, scale, and people-centric operations at an institutional levelCOO of Development (Former GM, Delavan): Hired Brandon twice and shaped his long-term trajectoryJohns Hopkins Research Cohort: Challenged Brandon to think rigorously about AI from a non-clinical standpoint👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what hospitality actually teaches you about people, why imposter syndrome belongs on the table not buried underneath it, and how a resort executive ended up writing one of the more unusual books on AI and human psychology.🔗 Connect with Brandon McConnell:Website: https://www.lakelawnresort.com/Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-m-mcconnell-1aba4240/ 📤 Transcript Available: Brandon McConnell on A People First Mentality in Hospitality + His Book on AI & Human Psychology📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency — Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎤 Richard Parker Bought 13 Businesses Before He Started Helping Others Sell TheirsRichard Parker, founder of Roy Street Advisors and author of How to Buy a Good Business at a Great Price, has personally bought and sold 13 businesses — not as a banker advising from the sidelines, but as the one signing the checks and losing sleep over payroll. That experience became the foundation for a boutique M&A firm that closes over 90% of its deals, and a program that has helped over 100,000 buyers across 80 countries navigate a process that most people get badly wrong.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Why blowing $60,000 in the stock market at age 29 launched a career in business ownershipThe case for buying a business over starting one — and the math that makes it workHow $100,000 down can get you into a million-dollar business with a real salary on day oneWhy 94% of people who search for businesses to buy never close a dealThe three questions Richard asks every client before taking them to marketWhy spotless books and records are the single highest-leverage pre-sale moveHow second-tier management transforms sellability and business value simultaneouslyWhy a 90% close rate starts with refusing listings that aren’t ready to sellEgo as the thing that held Richard back longest — and what finally changed itThe $197 program with unlimited email access to Richard that marketers keep trying to upsell🌟 Richard’s Key Mentors:His first employees who outperformed him: revealed that getting it right matters more than being right, and that empowering better people changes everythingAndy Cagnena (Trans World Business Brokers): the conversation about $60,000 average broker earnings that told Richard exactly what was broken — and exactly how to fix itThe clients who took six months of vacation: living proof that a business built on systems and second-tier management is worth far more than one that can’t run without its ownerHis own failures: the botched acquisition he walked away from became the case study that drove him to write the course, and the stock market loss that forced him into entrepreneurship in the first place👉 Don’t miss this conversation about why most deals die before they start, what separates a sellable business from a lifestyle job with helpers, and how a guy from the suburbs of Montreal built one of the most trusted names in lower middle market M&A.🔗 Connect with Richard Parker:Website: RichardParker.com and RoyStreet.comSocial Media: https://www.youtube.com/@richardparkerdiomohttps://www.facebook.com/RichardParkerDiomohttps://www.instagram.com/richardparkerdiomo/https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardparkerdiomo/📤 Transcript Available: Richard Parker: Stop Working In Busyness and Start Building a Business Worth Selling📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line Website: addbackbenefits.com

Andrew Acer, Senior Business Analyst at Cogent Analytics, grew up on a ranch in Idaho raised by a Depression-era West Point grandfather before navigating family businesses, serial startups, graduate test prep, and a leadership burnout that cost him his heartbeat. He came back to consulting with a clearer philosophy: stewardship over shortcuts, and truth over comfort.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Ranch upbringing: responsibility, seasonality, and work before selfFamily serial entrepreneurship: route accounting at 14, managing rental business through collegeGeorgia State scholarship, LSAT tutoring, and building Atlanta operations from scratchJoining Cogent Analytics in 2016 as regional VP at 28, selling to owners older than his careerManaging director of business development through COVID with zero travel and near heart failureLeft for a deliberate reset: design consultant at bathroom remodeling company to decompressReturned to Cogent as Director of Portfolio Development and now Senior Business AnalystAI as a hyper-literal intern: multiplier, not replacement, with real management implicationsThe owner's trap: what got you here will not get you thereStewardship model: trust-based leadership built on accountability, not just service🌟 Andrew's Key Mentors:His Grandfather: West Point graduate and stockbroker who modeled hard work, directness, and lifelong professional ambitionHis Mother: Serial entrepreneur and business analyst who modeled resourcefulness and introduced him to consultingRob Raymond (Cogent Founder): Mentored Andrew through leadership transitions and growth at the firmHis Team at Cogent: Gave direct feedback that reshaped his communication and delegation approachBusiness Owners He Has Served: Continue teaching him what high-stakes decision-making looks like from the inside👉 Don't miss Andrew's candid account of burning out at 33, stepping away deliberately, and what returning to the work he loves actually taught him about sustainable leadership.🔗 Connect with Andrew Acer:LinkedIn: Andrew AcerWebsite: cogentanalytics.com📋 Transcript Available: The Business Owner's Trap Andrew Acer Sees Time and Time Again📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📋 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎙️ From West Point to ExxonMobil to AI Practice Leader: Jon Hilton’s Unconventional PathJon Hilton, shareholder and AI practice leader at LBMC, earned a Bronze Star in Iraq, spent over a decade at ExxonMobil managing capital projects across the globe, then walked away from that security to earn a master’s in data science at Berkeley — all while raising four kids. What looks like a series of bold pivots is actually one continuous story about doing hard things, building the right team, and leading through uncertainty. Now he helps middle market companies stop experimenting with AI and start getting results.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:West Point and two tours in Iraq: training, grit, and the next right step11 years at ExxonMobil’s global projects organization — $40B+ capital programsPursuing a Berkeley data science master’s while working full-time at ExxonMobilWhy AI transformation is a leadership problem, not a technology problemBCG study: 75% of CEOs at large companies are the primary AI decision-makerAI use case ROI stacks — the real value starts at use case three, four, and fiveSales call coaching agent: AI listening to every rep and generating coaching reportsPatient care coordination agent: identifying fall risk from unstructured conversationAudit agent: comparing narrative reports against financial data for discrepanciesWhy hallucinations are declining — and why a human in the loop still matters🌟 Jon’s Key Mentors:Thermodynamics Professor (West Point): Recognized Jon’s aptitude for math and redirected him from political science to engineeringZacher Hussein and Fazl (EY): Taught Jon how enterprises actually approach AI strategy and change management at scaleDr. Charlie Pegian (LBMC Colleague, former Belmont/MTSU Professor): Co-developer of Jon’s problem-first AI framework for client engagementsHis Wife: Held the family together through two Iraq deployments, expat assignments in Norway, France, and England, and a Berkeley master’s program — the unsung heroHis Combat Brothers and Sisters: The community that made the hardest years survivable👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what leading through fear actually looks like, why the middle market is falling behind on AI, and what a West Point education and two combat tours have to do with building an AI practice in Nashville.🔗 Connect with Jon Hilton:LinkedIn: Jon Hilton — LBMCWebsite: lbmc.com📎 Transcript Available: The Bronze Star Veteran Who Now Helps Companies Stop Being Afraid of AI with Jon Hilton📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📎 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

David Tobin, founder and managing partner of TobinLeff, started with coupon books in college, built a B2B telemarketing firm that he scaled to 60 people and sold under pressure rather than on his terms, and then spent years piecing together what went wrong. That painful exit became the foundation for everything he built next: an MA advisory firm focused on marketing, technology, and professional services companies that has now guided more than 250 clients through valuations, acquisitions, and sales over 16 years.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:College coupon books that sold for more than expected and nearly bought back a few years laterHow a trade show accidentally launched a B2B telemarketing firm aimed at financial services companiesWhy positioning financial advisors as exit planning specialists worked in the mid-90s before anyone had a name for itThe difference between increasing EBITDA and increasing your multiple — and why both matterWhy one plus one doesn’t equal three in a roll-up and what TobinLeff learned the hard wayGrowth, margins, transferability, and client retention: the four value drivers buyers actually measureWhy 60 to 90 days of prep before going to market changes everythingDeal fatigue is real: what happens when a seller takes their eye off new business during the processWhy getting on a plane to meet a prospective client won an engagement that a Zoom call never would haveThe difference between business brokers, MA advisors, and investment bankers — and why it matters🌟 David’s Key Mentors:His Father (Sydney Tobin): Named his first company after him; passed away when David was young and shaped his early driveHis Mother: Her line — experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want — stayed with him through his hardest exitHis Three Partner Colleagues (Former Marketing Agency Owners): Proved that good business sense built over years of ownership transfers directly to MA advisory workThe Buyers and Sellers He Observed Early On: Watching deal rooms before doing deals himself taught him what actually mattered in the process👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what business owners get wrong when they think about selling, why the most painful exit David had turned out to be the most useful, and what separates a firm that commands 7x from one that gets 4x.🔗 Connect with David Tobin:Website: tobinleff.com📤 Transcript Available: The Lesson David Tobin Learned Running a 60-Person Firm He Couldn’t Scale: Manage for Profit📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency — Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎙️ From Catfish Restaurant Server at 14 to Hospitality Inventory Consultant: Elizabeth McKee's Journey With Sculpture HospitalityElizabeth McKee, franchise owner of Sculpture Hospitality of the Alabama Gulf Coast, shares her journey from waiting tables at a mom and pop catfish restaurant at 14 and never fully leaving the industry, through discovering inventory consulting as a side gig and watching it grow into her full-time business, to building a referral-driven practice along one of the fastest growing coastlines in the United States. Through candid stories about a 2025 that blindsided her after years of doubling her client base, the relief of learning her losses were economy-driven rather than performance-driven, and how volunteering at a panini cook-off reminded her exactly why she loves hospitality, Elizabeth reveals how accountability without blame is the real secret to helping bars and restaurants stop losing money they didn't even know was walking out the door.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Weekly inventory revealing losses most owners never knew existedOverpouring as a training problem, not a theft problemBartenders earn more tips by pouring less per drinkMenu pricing drift when ingredient costs change but prices don'tDeliveries as a hidden and frequently overlooked source of lossThird party accountability removing the owner from being the bad guyDead stock identification and how to move it before it costs youA 2025 that reversed years of growth and what she learned from itVolunteering with no skin in the game as the fastest path back to confidenceSandler selling transforming her from feature pitcher to question askerAlabama Gulf Coast as one of the fastest growing regions in the countryFrontline hospitality workers as the most underappreciated people in any business🌟 Elizabeth's Key Mentors:First Sculpture Hospitality Colleague: The employee who invited Elizabeth to ride along on an inventory job 20 years ago and gave her the first look at what would eventually become her full-time businessBrian Jackson (Sandler Sales Coach): Transformed her selling approach from feature-driven pitching to question-driven listening, which she credits with fundamentally changing how she serves clientsBethany Brenlinger (University of Alabama, School of Hospitality and Sports Management): A connector and friend who runs frontline worker training programs along the Gulf Coast, sharing Elizabeth's passion for recognizing and supporting the people who make hospitality functionClients Who Were Honest During Hard Times: The business owners who told her directly what was going wrong in their own operations gave her the data she needed to understand that her 2025 losses were economy-driven, not performance-driven, and that distinction mattered enormouslyHusband: Named directly as the reason the whole operation works, handling the household and kids so Elizabeth can stay in the field👉 Don't miss this conversation about why the numbers never lie, how accountability without blame changes the entire culture of a bar or restaurant, and what volunteering has to do with getting your confidence back after a hard year in business.🔗 Connect with Elizabeth McKee:Company: Sculpture Hospitality of the Alabama Gulf Coast Website: sculpturehospitality.com📄 Transcript Available: The Numbers Never Lie: Elizabeth McKee on Bar Inventory, Overpouring, and Protecting Your Margins📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📄 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎤 Kasey Devine Left a Top Sales Job to Fix the Problem He’d Watched the Industry Ignore for YearsKasey Devine, founder and CEO of Entravia, spent over a decade mastering the workflows inside some of the biggest names in HR outsourcing — then left a top five national sales ranking at ADP to build the platform the industry never bothered to create. Six months in, Entravia has raised $2.6 million, won the Evergreen Award for Best PEO Shopping Platform, and is already threatening legacy workflows across a $414 billion industry.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Cardinals ticket sales as the moment sales stopped being a dirty wordADP training as a total transformation — from territory management to pipeline structureThe chamber of commerce moment that turned near-failure into a relationship-first sales philosophyHow to ask the one sidebar question at the end of every meeting that changes everythingThe mortgage application that showed Kasey how far the PEO industry had fallen behindWhy Entravia pivoted from B2C shopping platform to white-labeled B2B infrastructure overnightThe general agency model and how it made brokers partners instead of competitorsGetting rejected by every VC, then getting a second look through one unexpected relationshipWhy the cost of building software dropped enough to make this startup possible nowBrowser-based bots that could compress a 9-week PEO evaluation into a single day — once the threats stop🌟 Kasey’s Key Mentors:His ADP manager and training program: built the entire foundation for how he thinks about territory, pipeline, relationships, and value creationTriNet founder and ProCare HR founder: showed him what it looks like to lead a sales and marketing org with accountability and disciplineM25 and Cambrian Ventures: gave him the capital and credibility to move fast on a problem he already understood better than anyoneHis mother: showed him what self-determination looks like when you have no safety net — and that nobody’s coming to save you👉 Don’t miss this conversation about why helping people is the only sales strategy that actually scales, how a $414 billion industry forgot to make its product easy to buy, and what it looks like to bet everything on a problem you’ve spent your whole career watching go unsolved.🔗 Connect with Kasey Devine:Website: entravia.co📤 Transcript Available: Kasey Devine Left a Top Sales Job to Fix the Problem He’d Watched the Industry Ignore for Years📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎙️ Scott Sowers: From Textile Executive to Ohio Pest Control FounderIn this episode, Scott Sowers, founder of Earthrite Pest Control, shares how a tearful conversation with his wife pulled him out of a 16-year global textile career and into building a family-owned, people and pet safe pest control company in central Ohio. He opens up about scrapping his business plan two weeks after launch, building one of the state's top bed bug heat eradication companies, and the letter his eight-year-old wrote at school that changed how he spends his time.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:16 years in textiles before pivoting to pest controlLeft a global career after his wife's tearful requestThrew out his business plan two weeks after launchBuilt one of Ohio's top bed bug heat eradication companiesPeople, pet, and plant safe treatment philosophyWorked seven days a week for over a decadeDaughter's school letter sparked a major life resetSpent a year and thousands solving one unique infestationExpanding into Dublin and Polaris for efficiencyShifting the company to run on data, not gut feel🌟 Scott's Key Mentors:His Father: Serial entrepreneur who modeled relentless work ethicHis Wife: Former ICU cardiac nurse who pushed him toward something realHis Uncle: Ran the family's side pest control truck, sparked his interestHis Daughter: Her school letter reshaped how he spends his timeNationwide Pest Control Peers: Helped him crack one of his toughest cases👉 A candid look at what it costs to build something from nothing, and what it takes to notice before the cost gets too high.🔗 Connect with Scott Sowers:Website: Earthritepestcontrol.com📄 Transcript Available: Inside Earthrite Pest Control's Bed Bug Heat Business with Scott Sowers📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📄 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom lineWebsite: addbackbenefits.comKeywords: pest control, bed bug heat treatment, family owned business, central Ohio business, people pet safe pest control, entrepreneurship, work life balance, small business growth, structural pest control, tick control, termite treatment, business scaling, SOPs and delegation, career pivot, Earthrite Pest ControlMeta Description: Scott Sowers, founder of Earthrite Pest Control, on leaving a global textile career, building one of Ohio's top bed bug companies, and the letter that changed everything.#InspiredStoriesPodcast #PestControl #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #FamilyBusiness #OhioBusiness #WorkLifeBalance #CareerPivot

🎤 From All-American Runner to Running Retail’s Most Restless Builder: Ben Cooke at Marathon SportsBen Cooke, President of Marathon Sports, has spent 25 years building things inside companies he didn’t own — then lost everything trying to build something that was truly his. Along the way he helped create Fleet Feet’s corporate retail arm, launched their e-commerce platform, built an On Running program that became 8% of On’s global business, and is now turning a 30-location New England specialty retailer into a trail running brand with global ambitions.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Competitive athletics as the foundation for a business career driven by daily PRsRunning Princeton Running Company as a de facto entrepreneur for 11 years under a Koch Industries executiveSelling to Finish Line and stepping into a national roll-up role without M&A experienceTransitioning from owned retail to franchising and why the cultures require entirely different instinctsBuilding Fleet Feet’s e-commerce, Amazon business, and distribution center from scratchThe On Running partnership that took them from zero to hundreds of thousands of pairsAcquiring Marathon Sports in 2022 and growing from 18 to 32 locations in four yearsTrail running as a flywheel — races, field trips, and dirt camps building the customer of tomorrowWhy win-win-win is the only deal structure worth pursuingLosing everything on two outdoor stores in Colorado and what the failure actually taught him🌟 Ben’s Key Mentors:Princeton Running Company founder: modeled entrepreneurial decision-making at the local level, inspired by Koch Industries’ market-based management philosophy — without ever naming itFleet Feet leadership: gave him room to innovate across every department and scale concepts from zeroPodcasts (Founders, Acquired): a daily MBA on the commute, replacing incidental mentorship with intentional learning from the best business minds in historyHis own failures: the Colorado outdoor stores taught him that systems and teams — not individual toughness — are what allow entrepreneurs to flourish👉 Don’t miss this conversation about building something from inside someone else’s company, the specific deal structure that turned On Running into a powerhouse, and what it feels like to lose everything you put in and still say you’d do it again.🔗 Connect with Ben Cooke:Website: marathonsports.com📤 Transcript Available: Ben Cooke Turned 18 Running Stores Into a Trail Running Movement with Marathon Sports📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎤 Three Generations, One Brand: Eric Simsolo’s Path to President of Next Level ApparelEric Simsolo, President of Next Level Apparel, grew up watching his father and grandfather build a wholesale apparel empire from a single embroidery machine in Los Angeles. He chose to start as an intern anyway, worked through every corner of the business, and stepped into the president’s role during one of the company’s most demanding turnarounds. What he found wasn’t just a cleanup project — it was a masterclass in what it looks like to build something that outlasts you.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Three generations of apparel entrepreneurship beginning in Israel in the late 1970sHow sublimation printing innovation unlocked photorealistic design at mass-market scaleWarehouse move as an MBA-caliber project management experience in summer 2014Post-COVID inventory crisis and the eight-figure write-off that preceded the rebuildStop the bleeding — the four-stage turnaround framework borrowed from battlefield medicineThe dynamics of reporting directly to your father as president and CEOAcquisition of Stedman Europe expanding Next Level from two to fourteen distributorsFirst-ever impact report measuring carbon footprint, cotton sourcing, and supply chain responsibilityUS Cotton Trust Protocol and recycled polyester as tangible sustainability commitmentsAltana AI platform for vetting vendor relationships and preventing supply chain blind spots🌟 Eric’s Key Mentors:His grandfather: engineering visionary who retooled industrial printing presses for sublimation, turning a ceiling into a floor for the next generationHis father: market-research-driven entrepreneur who identified every new business category before competitors saw it, and modeled the courage to start over twiceNext Level’s leadership team: COO, VP of HR, and department heads who carried institutional knowledge through multiple transitionsThe Stedman Europe team: gave Eric his first model of what a properly staffed international subsidiary could look like👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it actually feels like to step into your father’s company during a crisis, why sustainability is a revenue strategy and not just a values statement, and what it means to build something designed to outgrow the person who built it.🔗 Connect with Eric Simsolo:Website: nextlevelapparel.com📤 Transcript Available: From Embroidery Machines to Global Blank Apparel: Three Generations of Next Level📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎤 From Beijing Dealmaker to Foot Health CEO: John Prothro’s Rebuild of Foot SolutionsJohn Prothro, President and CEO of Foot Solutions, spent years closing cross-border deals in Beijing, running a 250-person scaffolding company on four continents, and building a private equity fund before acquiring a neglected foot health franchise one week before COVID shut the world down. What followed was a brand overhaul, a failed acquisition that became a recurring speech topic, and the rollout of 3D printed custom orthotics delivering a 97% success rate at four times the speed of traditional methods.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Acquiring Foot Solutions one week before COVID and surviving with no e-commerceBrand overhaul starting with a three-word exercise that revealed complete messaging chaos3D printed custom orthotics outperforming traditional lab methods in speed and accuracySemi-weight-bearing scanning technique that separates effective from ineffective orthoticsHappy Feet Plus acquisition post-mortem — what went wrong and whyService business versus retail business distinction that drove the acquisition failureMedicare diabetic shoe bill as an underutilized patient benefit and growth opportunity5% royalty structure and no brand fund fee as a franchisee-first differentiator26 years of training infrastructure as a near-impossible barrier to entryPath to 350–400 US locations from current base of 52🌟 John’s Key Mentors:Scaffolding company CEO: challenged John to move from advising to doing, exposing the gap between knowing and leadingInner Mongolia business partner: gave John his Chinese name meaning “watering the people around you” — a philosophy he carried forwardPeter Drucker, Jack Welch, and the Harvard Business Review case study library: built his early nonfiction foundation before he realized people skills mattered moreFoot Solutions franchisees: brought the European scanning technology to corporate, modeling the organizational learning John now builds the system around👉 Don’t miss this conversation about why most custom orthotics fail before they’re even made, what a bombed acquisition taught a seasoned dealmaker, and how a 26-year-old brand is building a category from scratch.🔗 Connect with John Prothro:Website: footsolutions.comEmail: [email protected]📤 Transcript Available: Rebuilding a Struggling Orthotics Franchise After Buying It the Week Before COVID📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line Website: addbackbenefits.com

Dave Allred, founder and CEO of Axia Partners, grew up in a destitute household, was entirely on his own at 17, and built his first million by 26 after climbing through Vivint Smart Home as it reached multi-billion dollar valuation across 41 states. At 30 he sat down with a spreadsheet, reverse engineered what financial freedom would actually cost, set a goal of 40 rental properties by 40, hit it at 36, then reset to 1,000 doors by 40 and hit that too.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Living in a semi truck cab at 17 and finding $120 a month rent with a collapsing roofHow Clint Ashton became the first person to speak possibility into Dave’s lifeThe three skills Dave says lead to seven figure income: salesmanship, recruiting, and leadershipWhy freedom has been his core motivator from the beginning and how it has evolvedThe lifestyle design spreadsheet with 10 tabs he created at 26 and still updates monthlyThe financial freedom equation: reverse engineering passive income by a deadlinePower and proximity: how to get near the people doing what you want to doTeaching all four kids to be employees, investors, and entrepreneurs simultaneouslyHow Axia Partners structures recession-resilient real estate funds for accredited investorsThe legacy video he created for his father after losing his mother unexpectedly🌟 Dave’s Key Mentors:Clint Ashton (Teenage Boss and Neighbor): First person to speak possibility into Dave and rehire him after the pipe bomb incidentTodd Peterson (Vivint CEO): Modeled power and proximity at scale and taught Dave to seek the top 1-2% of any new arenaEd Mylett and Andy Frisella: Reinforced 10x thinking and the concept of being the one who resets generational standardsDave’s Business Coach: Connected the dots between Dave’s childhood freedom deprivation and his core motivator as an adult👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it actually takes to reverse engineer freedom, why leadership beats salesmanship as a long-term skill, and how one man used a Jerry Rice poster in a broken-down house to build a $50 million real estate firm.🔗 Connect with Dave Allred:Website: daveallred.comWebsite: axiapartners.comLinkedIn: Dave Allred, Axia Partners📤 Transcript Available: How Dave Allred Reverse Engineered Financial Freedom and Hit 1,000 Rental Doors by 40📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency — Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

Kal Patel, founder and CEO of Crestpoint Companies, grew up stripping motel rooms at 12 years old, swore he'd never return to hospitality, and then spent 25 years building hotels, a home inspection franchise, an urgent care, and a social media agency his daughter now runs. His path includes a near-fatal car accident, a $150K loss, and a fall off a roof that nearly cost him his arm -- each one followed by a rebuild.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Childhood motel work as foundation for lifelong gritT-shirt shop launch with $30K borrowed from friends and familyHead-on car accident that ended the t-shirt businessFirst hotel built using library books to learn blueprints$150K loss from partner capital calls and the seven-year paybackRoof fall, nine surgeries, and systems that kept the business runningHome inspection franchise grown to 11 locations across four statesHospitality principles brought into AFC Urgent Care designSocial Sia: daughter's social media agency at 27 clientsFueled by Purpose: book dedicated to his late mother🌟 Kal's Key Mentors:Craig Oberg: Personal trainer turned advisor who redirected Kal into home inspections and urged him to let go of the $150K lossKal's Wife (Lina): 27-year Accenture career; anchor through every financial setback and rebuildE-Myth Revisited (Michael Gerber): Systems framework that kept the inspection business running through his injury recoveryKal's Mother: Lifelong cheerleader whose passing inspired the journaling that became his bookJed (Business Partner): Took over hotel management operations, freeing Kal to focus on development👉 Don't miss this conversation about rebuilding after loss, building systems that outlast you, and what it looks like to pass a business on to the next generation.🔗 Connect with Kal Patel:Website: crestpointco.comEmail: [email protected]: fueledbypurpose.com📄 Transcript Available: From Motel Rooms at 12 to Hotel Developer: Kal Patel📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📄 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency -- Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎤 The Accident That Redefined Marketing: Kevin Koster’s Mission to Fix Business ValueKevin Koster, President and Chief Brand Officer of Skopós, The Brand Refinery and founder of Nexit Growth Partners, watched two business owners die in the same accident — and only one company survived. That moment set him on a 20-year mission to prove that marketing, done right, is the most powerful driver of business value that most owners have never measured.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Two owners, one accident — what separated the company that survivedWhy most businesses are worth half what the owner thinksMarketing controlling five of eight business value driversThe $10M swing from a 20-minute assessment and 90-minute meetingOwner concentration as the #1 killer of transferable business valueRecurring revenue and true delegation as value-building leversThe roofing company conversation that sparked the Nexit vision20-to-1 ROI guarantee on business value assessmentsEntrepreneurship through acquisition and how MBA buyers find unprepared sellersBuilding Skopós  on purpose-first positioning, not lead generation🌟 Kevin’s Key Mentors:Dave Sandweiss: Founded Sandweiss Advertising modeled conservative brand-first client service, and unknowingly built a transferable companyJohn Warrillow: Author of Built to Sell and creator of the Value Builder System used as the backbone of Nexit assessmentsKansas City Star leadership: Shaped Kevin’s creative sales instincts and exposed the dysfunction of rigid corporate systemsTimes Mirror Corporation: Forged his competitive instincts in a brutal Southern California newspaper market fresh out of college👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what business owners almost never calculate, why the marketing industry is missing the biggest opportunity in front of it, and how one tragedy launched a career-defining mission.🔗 Connect with Kevin Koster:Website: nexitgrowth.comWebsite: skoposworks.com📤 Transcript Available: Kevin Koster on Why Marketing Drives Business Value More Than You Realize📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line Website: addbackbenefits.com

Christian Hertl is a CFP and partner at Antolino Wealth Advisors, a Columbus-based fiduciary wealth management firm now in its third generation, with offices in Columbus, Gallipolis, Estero, and Naples. The firm was founded in 1960 by Ralph Antolino Sr., a schoolteacher whose part-time life insurance work outpaced his salary, and has been built on a philosophy of thinking and caring rather than product sales. Christian joined in 2004 after a stint at Wells Fargo Financial, earned his CFP designation in 2010, became a partner in 2013, and now leads client relationships focused primarily on business owners navigating the intersection of their companies and their personal wealth.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Antolino Wealth Advisors founded in 1960 by Ralph Antolino Sr., a former schoolteacher and son of Italian immigrants who couldn't read or writeFirm philosophy of thinking and caring: the value is in understanding what clients want, not in specific products or strategiesChristian's early lesson at Wells Fargo: people make financial decisions based on motivation toward goals, not mathJoining Antolino in 2004 through a college network connection, arriving at exactly the right moment when two spots had openedThe Ultra Vision System: a proprietary discovery process to get clients ultra-clear on what they want and build a path to get thereThree-tier client model with paired resources for each level, from business owners with complex needs to their families and employeesAdvanced strategies including specialty retirement plans that allow business owners to shelter up to $1-2 million annually in tax-deductible contributionsEmployee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) as a tool to sell a business, avoid capital gains, and transfer wealth to employeesSuccession planning as a core differentiator: acquiring four to five smaller advisory firms whose owners had no plan for transitionGrowing from roughly 15 employees three years ago to 25 today, with three more graduates coming from Ohio State🌟 Christian's Key Mentors:Ralph Antolino Sr. (Founder): The most thoughtful and caring person Christian ever worked with, whose Optimist Creed and mission of thinking and caring still define the firm's cultureRalph Antolino Jr.: Built on his father's foundation, modeled the owner-operator mentality and brought Christian into the firm through a shared network connectionMaureen Armstrong (Partner): Made partner at the same time as Christian, brings deep employee benefits expertise, and helped build the firm's team-based advisory modelHis Father: A church employee who gave Christian a strong sense of purpose and belief that shaped how he processes his sister's illness and finds meaning in suffering👉 Don't miss Christian's account of how his sister's terminal cancer diagnosis at 34 forced him to rethink everything he believed about purpose and suffering, and what he found on the other side of that reckoning.🔗 Connect with Christian Hertl:Website: antolino.com📋 Transcript Available: Christian Hertl on Building Wealth Advisory Relationships That Outlast Any Single Advisor's Career📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📋 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎧 From Chuck Taylor to Hey Dude to Stoke: Rick Blackshaw’s Career in Footwear and the Brand He Built for the Guy Nobody Was ServingRick Blackshaw, founder and Chief Stoke Officer of Stoke Shoes, spent four decades building some of the most recognized footwear brands in the world — growing Chuck Taylor’s global revenue from $400M to $1.8B, doubling Hey Dude to over $1 billion, and turning around Keds with Taylor Swift. Then he had a conversation with his deathbed self and decided he couldn’t leave the one idea he’d been carrying for seven years unbuilt. Stoke is a sport casual brand built exclusively for wide and wider feet — the 75% of American men nobody in Big Sneaker was designing for.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:How Hey Dude was a $500M revenue startup with no systems, no racking, and no infrastructure when Crocs acquired itGrowing Hey Dude to over $1 billion and quadrupling market share in two yearsWhat made Chuck Taylor the most popular footwear silhouette of all time — and how collaborations with The Clash, Metallica, and fashion brands kept the conversation aliveThe focus group moment with Chicago high school girls that sparked the Brave Girl campaign — and led to signing Taylor SwiftRebranding Sperry around sea-based adventure and discovery when the boat shoe fell completely out of fashionBuilding CCM Hockey from zero EBITDA to top-decile profitability under private equityThe conversation with his deathbed self that pushed him to finally start StokeWhy 75% of American men have wide feet and only 25% are buying wide shoesThe Mansplay midsole, Big Ball Girth, and Holy Shit Comfort — Stoke’s trademarked technology stackWhy 30% repeat purchase rates at 120 days in is unheard of — and what it signals about product-market fit🌟 Rick’s Key Mentors:His Teams at Each Brand: every major success came from assembling great people and building a culture worth showing up forTaylor Swift (Keds Partner): showed him what it looks like to be so consumer obsessed that the consumer becomes a movementHis Deathbed Self: the imagined future version of himself that finally prompted him to stop deferring the Stoke ideaRetail Partners: validated the white space in men’s wide footwear and gave Stoke 400 doors in its first yearThe Stoke Consumer: 30% repeat buyers in 120 days became the clearest signal that the product was solving a real problem👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it takes to build great brands, survive corporate politics, and finally bet on yourself when the idea won’t leave you alone.🔗 Connect with Rick Blackshaw:Website: stokeshoes.com📤 Transcript Available: Holy Sh*t Comfort and Big Ball Girth: Rick Blackshaw’s Very Serious Shoe Brand📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎧 From 58 Wendy’s in 48 Months to Artisan Pizza: Andres Garcia’s Relentless Entrepreneurial JourneyAndres Garcia started as a chemical engineer in Venezuela, became a passive restaurant investor, then bought a struggling multi-brand restaurant group and turned it around in six months. He built Venezuela’s first Wendy’s into a 240-location empire across five US states, survived political upheaval, rebuilt from scratch in America, and sold in 2024. Now at 70, he’s doing it again — this time with Mr. O1 Extraordinary Pizza, a 12-location artisan brand growing deliberately because he learned the hard way what happens when you don’t.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Starting as a passive investor and falling in love with the direct connection between product and guestRescuing a struggling restaurant group in Venezuela by negotiating supplier terms, mortgaging personal property, and launching a TV campaignGetting Venezuela’s first Wendy’s deal done through a Puerto Rico franchisee who made one phone callOpening a single Wendy’s doing $5 million a year with two-hour lines before they unlocked the doorsMoving to the US and discovering Venezuelan operational models don’t translate — then fixing itCutting drive-through time from 300 seconds to 100 seconds as the key lever for sales growthGrowing to 240 Wendy’s locations across five US states before selling in 2024The operating partner model at Mr. O1: up to 10% equity vested over five years for the right operatorsWhy Mr. O1 is deliberately capping expansion to protect culture — and what happened when he didn’t do that with Wendy’sThe pizza school: hands-on classes where guests learn to make the crust that cures for 72 hours🌟 Andres’s Key Mentors:Jorge Colon (Wendy’s Puerto Rico): made one call that opened the door to Venezuela’s entire Wendy’s franchiseDave Thomas (Wendy’s Founder): the philosophy “do the right thing” guided the hardest decisions of Andres’s careerFernando Tamayo (Early Partner): helped capitalize the Venezuela Wendy’s launch and structure the partnershipRenato, Viola, and Umberto (Mr. O1 Founders): introduced him to a pizza concept compelling enough to pull him out of retirementHis Daughter (Operating Partner): now running one Mr. O1 location with two more planned — the clearest signal of what this model can do👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it takes to build, lose, and build again — and why the most dangerous thing a founder can do is grow faster than their culture can follow.🔗 Connect with Andres Garcia:Website: Mr01.com Email: [email protected]📤 Transcript Available: From 58 Venezuelan Wendy’s Locations to 240 in USA: Andres Garcia’s Four-Decade Restaurant Arc📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line Website: addbackbenefits.com

Chloe Li, Director of Finance at CloudBeds, left a career in investment banking after realizing she was telling founders how to grow revenue without truly knowing if any of it would work. She joined CloudBeds to build real value from the inside — and has since helped drive the company’s strategic shift upmarket while shaping its AI data infrastructure, payments strategy, and go-to-market analysis.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:From Sichuan province to New York City: Chloe’s path to Baruch CollegeFirst job at Ernst & Young: learning that teamwork beats individual effortThe “disagree but commit” principle from mentor Sarah at KeyBankInvestment banking exit: recognizing she wasn’t creating real valueCloudBeds as the ERP for hotels: one unified data layer across all functionsStrategic upmarket push: the analysis that drove a company-defining decisionAI integration: natural language queries against live BI data for leadershipSignals AI: CloudBeds’ property-facing business intelligence productAgentic buying: why hotels must win guests through direct booking channelsPersonal crisis and the support group that carried her through🌟 Chloe’s Key Mentors:Sarah (KeyBank Manager): Taught “disagree but commit” and how to channel assertiveness into team alignmentKevin (VP of Finance, CloudBeds): The leader Chloe cold-reached; now her manager and sponsorFriends and Family Network: Informal support group that held her through a career-ending dark periodCloudBeds Leadership Team: Collaborative decision-makers who trusted data-driven analysis on the upmarket pivot👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it really means to create value, why data quality determines AI quality, and how one bad season at work can rewrite what you believe about resilience.🔗 Connect with Chloe Li:LinkedIn: Chloe Li, CloudBedsWebsite: cloudbeds.com📤 Transcript Available: Chloe Li: Why the Hotels That Own Their Guest Data Will Win the Next Decade 📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency — Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎧 From Blue Collar Beginnings to Adecco Acquisition: Steve Belcher’s Staffing JourneySteve Belcher, co-founder and president of Advantis Medical Staffing, built a Dallas-based travel nursing agency from a laptop and a cell phone to one of the Inc 5000’s fastest-growing staffing firms — then sold it to Adecco, the largest staffing company in the world. His story spans a lawsuit in the first 30 days, a 50% post-COVID revenue cliff, and a proprietary AI agent built before the term was trendy.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Blue collar upbringing to Virginia Tech business degreeFirst staffing internship at 16 as a file clerk at AerotechAerotech’s feedback-as-gift culture that shaped his leadership DNAOpening a new market from scratch in Virginia Beach with no brand recognitionLaunching Advantis Medical in 2018 with four partners and zero revenueSurviving a first-30-days lawsuit with no revenue yet generatedHockey stick COVID growth: onboarding 15 recruiters per month at peakPost-COVID 40–50% revenue cliff and identity crisis tied to workBuilding Emma, a proprietary AI recruiting agent two years ahead of the curveAdecco acquisition thesis: platform company with technology, people, and process🌟 Steve’s Key Mentors:Aerotech Leadership: feedback culture, discipline sales approach, and blueprint for building staffing firmsDan Pollock (Co-Founder): college-era critic turned business partner; wrote the letter that challenged Steve to grow upJimmy Tanner (VP): culture carrier during hypergrowth who modeled early-company behaviorsRaul (Director of Technology): built a custom ATS from scratch and drives AI innovation at AdvantisHis Wife: primary support system through the industry downturn; held the belief when he couldn’t👉 Don’t miss this candid conversation about what it really takes to build and sell a staffing company — from surviving litigation on day one to navigating a years-long industry free fall.🔗 Connect with Steve Belcher:Website: advantismed.comLinkedIn: Steve Belcher (Advantis Medical Staffing)📤 Transcript Available: Steve Belcher Sold Advantis to the World’s Largest Staffing Firm — Here’s How They Built It📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line Website: addbackbenefits.com

Todd Lucas is the Director of Family Culture at Family Farm and Home, a family-owned rural retail chain that has grown from 19 locations to more than 80 stores across Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, and Pennsylvania since he joined in 2012. A former radio DJ turned Menards store manager, Todd came to Family Farm and Home as a district manager, moved through senior buying roles, and was tapped in 2022 to build the company's first-ever training department from scratch — bringing his broadcast background, operations knowledge, and product expertise together in a role that didn't exist before he created it.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Radio DJ career in the Fox Valley area of Wisconsin before Menards pulled him into full-time retailEleven-plus years at Menards across eight locations in Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Michigan, reaching interim store manager by 26Joining Family Farm and Home in 2012 as store manager first, then district manager four months later, by choiceThe average employee age dropped from 53 in March 2020 to 36 in July 2022, creating the product knowledge gap the training department was built to closeCreating Todd Talks: a two-minute video series launched with a deer urine product demo that got 1,800 views from a 1,100-person workforce80-plus percent of employees watch each Todd Talks episode all the way through without scrubbingTriple-digit sales increase on a specific insect control product within three weeks of its Todd Talks featureService centers as a key competitive differentiator: Family Farm and Home services gas-powered equipment that competitors only sell4-H involvement: store managers know kids' names and their animals' names, attend county fairs, and watch those projects grow over the yearThe Frontline Enablement Playbook by JD Dillon: Todd contributed a chapter covering Todd Talks and the training model🌟 Todd's Key Mentors:Menards Store Managers (Early Career): Long-tenured operators who modeled consistency, high standards, and the idea that hard work in a demanding environment would open future doorsFamily Farm and Home Owners: Three-owner family who gave Todd the runway to move from operations to buying to training, always finding a meaningful next roleHis Trusted Friend at the Company: A sounding board during a bruising career transition who helped Todd process the ego hit and come out of it performing at his bestJD Dillon (Author, Frontline Enablement Playbook): Invited Todd to contribute a chapter and helped him frame the Todd Talks model in the context of frontline workforce development nationally👉 Don't miss Todd's account of getting sprayed in the face with deer urine to launch a training series that now reaches more employees than the company has people, and how a career pivot he didn't choose became the role he was most qualified to do.🔗 Connect with Todd Lucas:Website: familyfarmandhome.comLinkedIn: Todd Lucas📋 Transcript Available: Todd Lucas on Building a Training Program From Scratch That Created a Better Employee Experience at Family Farm and Home 🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📋 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

C-Suite Thinking for Small Business: Brie Bolopue and Rochelle Lierz on Building Good AppleBrie Bolopue and Rochelle Lierz, co-founders of Good Apple Business Managers, built a fractional leadership firm around a simple conviction: small businesses deserve the same quality of strategic thinking as large ones. With specialties in reputation and reach and money and metrics respectively, they serve as embedded operating partners for small businesses navigating growth, complexity, and exit. Together, they share why they walked away from corporate and what they found on the other side.Key Insights You'll Learn:Why most small business owners carry a shame cloud around their finances and how to dissolve itCash flow mapping as a tool to help intimidated owners see their numbers without fearThe business blueprint: a five-session framework covering mission, vision, values, offering, and financial modelingFractional C-suite leadership as a plug-and-play model for businesses that need expertise without full-time overheadWhy exit planning started three or more years out is the difference between a strategic sale and a fire saleThe silver tsunami: millions of boomer business owners ready to retire with no succession planHelping owners through the egoic death of selling a business they built their identity aroundThe three D's: death, divorce, and disability as the forces that push unprepared owners toward the exitWhy transferability, not just revenue, determines what a business is actually worth to a buyerGood Apple's target client: open, willing to receive help, and feeling the pain of going it aloneBrie and Rochelle's Key Mentors:Rochelle's Family of Accountants: Gave Rochelle the financial language and empathy to translate money concepts without shameRochelle's First Exit Client: Proved the model by walking through partial retirement; still a client three years laterBrie's Stepdad (Small Business Owner): Showed her firsthand that building your own business can create a beautiful, flexible lifeCorporate Executive Brie Supported: Gave Brie a front-row view of how executive presence and communications work at scale, and what she wanted to do differentlyRam Dass (Author): The quote "We're all just walking each other home" became the philosophical foundation of Good AppleDon't miss this conversation about what it really takes to support a small business owner through growth, transition, and the exit they have been quietly dreading.Connect with Brie and Rochelle:Website: wearegoodapple.comInstagramrochellelierzhucklebriewearegoodappleGood Apple FacebookGood Apple https://www.linkedin.com/company/we-are-good-apple/Brie's Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/briebolopue/ Rochelle's Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/rochellelierz/Transcript Available: Good Apple's Brie Bolopue and Rochelle Lierz on Why Small Business Deserves Better Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories PodcastOur Website: The Inspired Stories PodcastSpecial Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎧 From Cold Calls to $2.4 Billion: Joel Guth’s Journey Building Gryphon Financial PartnersJoel Guth, CEO and founder of Gryphon Financial Partners, spent more than two decades at Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Smith Barney before walking away to build something more aligned with how he believed wealthy families should be served. What he built — a firm that now oversees $2.4 billion in assets and has guided business owners through more than $2 billion in illiquid business transitions — started with a phone book, 65 calls a day, and a mentor who told him he was an idiot for quitting.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Small-town Ohio upbringing shaped by an older brother who worked in a steel mill and put himself through medical schoolDivision I basketball at Toledo and Cornell; the pivot to finance after a knee injuryStarting at Merrill Lynch with no sales experience and surviving on scripts, cold calls, and persistenceWhy he followed a woman from Mansfield to Columbus and how that shaped his entire careerThe move to independence in 2014 and why he and partner Cathy Corey knew it was timeThe 3:30 a.m. panic the night before Gryphon opened and what got him through itThe mythical origin of the Gryphon name and what it means to protect family treasureWhy he engages clients three to five years before an exit — not three weeks beforeThe Next Mountain framework: helping business owners figure out who they are after the saleThe soccer game that forced him to confront how his competitive drive was hurting his daughter🌟 Joel’s Key Mentors:His Oldest Brother: raised him more like a father; working in a steel mill while putting himself through medical school modeled what drive and sacrifice look likeGreg (Columbus Mentor): taught Joel the formula for sales, gave him scripts, and told him he was a fool to quitCathy Corey (Business Partner for 31 Years): rock-steady co-founder who handled every infrastructure crisis so Joel could focus on clientsBill (Client Turned Mentor): helped them name the firm and gave them the confidence to leave Morgan StanleyHis Daughter and Wife: forced the hardest personal reckoning of his career — that his competitive drive had a dark side👉 Don’t miss this candid conversation about building a firm that protects what families spend their lives creating — and why the work after the exit matters as much as the exit itself.🔗 Connect with Joel Guth:Website: Gryphonfp.com📤 Transcript Available: Joel Guth Built a $2.4 Billion Firm by Asking Questions Nobody Else Was Asking📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line Website: addbackbenefits.com

Dylan McDonnell is the founder and CEO of Foodini, an AI-powered dietary intelligence company that helps restaurants, food service operators, stadiums, and delivery platforms map allergen and dietary information down to the ingredient level. An Irish-born corporate lawyer who worked at Mercer in Dublin and Sydney before founding the company, Dylan built Foodini to solve a problem he has lived with since childhood: celiac disease and the constant stress of not knowing what is safe to eat when dining out. He moved the company to Los Angeles two years ago and has since helped pass California's SB68, the first US law requiring allergen labeling on restaurant menus.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Diagnosed with celiac disease as a child, spending years silently navigating meals in school, sports trips, and social settings with no safe optionsCareer path from Big Law in Ireland through Mercer's investment funds practice in Dublin and Sydney to founding Foodini in AustraliaEarly MVP: a consumer discovery app quickly revealed the real problem was the absence of structured ingredient data at the restaurant levelPivoting from consumer-first to B2B-first after realizing the data coverage problem had to be solved before the consumer experience could scaleBuilding integrations with POS systems, recipe and inventory management platforms, and major distributors to pull ingredient data automaticallyTraining LLMs to tag menu items across 150 allergens and dietary preferences, with human dietitian oversight as a quality layerSpending most of Q3 2024 working with California senators and assembly members to help pass SB68, signed by Newsom in October 2024SB68 takes effect July 1, 2026, requiring chains with 20 or more locations to label menus for the top nine allergensSix more states with legislation in progress: New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Michigan, Illinois, and MissouriIntegration with Major League Baseball's ballpark app to help fans with dietary needs navigate concession options at MLB stadiums🌟 Dylan's Key Mentors:His Parents: Glass-half-full, pragmatic personalities who modeled resilience and the perspective that in the grand scheme of things, a lost client is not that big a dealFAIR (Food Allergy Education Organization): The nonprofit food allergy advocacy network that connected Dylan to the regulatory and community work shaping the legislative landscapeMendoza Ventures (Adrian and Sennifer Mendoza): Early-stage fintech investors whose thesis and values resonated with Dylan and expanded his understanding of the startup ecosystemHis Head Dietitian (First Hire): Still with the company, she shaped the credibility and rigor of the dietitian-in-a-box model from day one, including early kitchen visits to photograph ingredient labels👉 Don't miss Dylan's account of manually pulling products from restaurant refrigerators to photograph ingredient labels, the moment he realized the data infrastructure problem was even bigger than the consumer problem, and how a childhood with celiac disease quietly shaped everything that followed.🔗 Connect with Dylan McDonnell:Website: Foodini.co📋 Transcript Available: How California's SB68 Is Forcing Restaurants to Tag Allergens and Why Foodini Was Ready📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📋 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

Kim Shoemaker is the CEO of Acloche, a Central Ohio staffing institution founded in 1968 that now places roughly 8,000 workers at any given time across contingent staffing, direct hire, and HR consulting. She joined the company in 1999 to run the accounting department and spent a decade learning every corner of the business before being asked by the board to step into the CEO role following the sudden passing of her mentor and predecessor in 2010. More than fifteen years later, she has expanded the company's reach well beyond traditional staffing into skills training, community development, and educational partnership work that most people in the industry aren't doing.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Joining Acloche in 1999 to manage accounting, then spending a decade absorbing operations, IT, marketing, sales, and HRMentor Bobbi Ruch taking Kim under her wing and coaching her into public speaking and strategic leadershipStepping into the CEO role in 2010 after Bobbi passed away suddenly, managing grief and company continuity simultaneouslyMoving offices roughly a year into the transition as a way to help the team physically move forwardThree lines of business: contingent staffing across all 88 Ohio counties, direct hire across North America, and HR consulting and trainingPiloting a virtual skilled trade certification program with Northview Trade School offering HVAC, appliance repair, and machine operator coursesRunning an eighth-grade career awareness program through BPA to teach resume writing, cover letters, and interviewingWorking with the College Board to pilot cybersecurity and financial AP courses at the high school level for college creditBuying and building out a 1,500 square foot dedicated training center at Acloche's new Groveport headquarters in 2025Over 30 years of NWBOC and WBENC women-owned business certification; 17 years of Acloche for the Cure at Susan G. Komen's Race for the Cure🌟 Kim's Key Mentors:Bobbie Ruch (Former CEO): Mentored Kim for a decade, brought her into strategic leadership, pushed her into public speaking, and built the legacy Kim continues todayBetty Lou (Founder): Acloche's founder and emeritus board member whose original vision set the company's community-first standardsAnserteam Network: National staffing organization Kim serves on the board of, expanding her view of how the industry can change public perception and workforce outcomesHer Internal Management Team: Long-tenured leaders averaging 15 years who have helped Kim evolve from the one with all the answers to the director of an orchestraHer Daughter: Told Kim directly that not every problem needs to be fixed, only listened to, a lesson Kim carries into her leadership and community work👉 Don't miss Kim's account of being asked to take the CEO role while the entire company was still grieving, the letter from a woman who had been living in her car with two children, and why she believes the staffing industry is bigger than the movie theater industry but far less understood.🔗 Connect with Kim Shoemaker:Website: Acloche.comPhone: 888-608-0889📋 Transcript Available: How Acloche Expanded Beyond Staffing Into Skills Training, HR Consulting, and Community Development📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📋 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

Kevin Gudejko is the president and CEO of Main Street Ventures Restaurant Group, a collection of 21 upscale scratch kitchen restaurants across five states that donates more than $2 million annually to local community charities. He started busing tables at 15 because his mom was a server and his dad was a meat cutter. What followed was four decades moving through 13 states and some of the most formative kitchens in American dining history, from Bennigan's during the fern bar era, to Hillstone under its perfectionist founder, to Hops Grill during its growth from three to 200 locations, to Carrabba's joint venture work, before completing a buyout of Main Street Ventures in February 2019.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Starting at 15 busing tables at a country club, caddying summers, moving into restaurant management coming out of collegeEarly career at Bennigan's: opening 40 locations a year, navigating a market where alcohol revenues had to drop from 60% to 50% to comply with state lawMentor Jim Pollard's core teaching: you can't muscle your way through, you have to build a bench and develop peopleHillstone and its obsessive standards: a founder who delayed a Manhattan Beach opening two weeks to replace the wrong color booth cushionsHops Grill and Brewery: scaling from 3 to 200 locations using a joint venture market partner modelSix years as a Carrabba's joint venture partner across four Midwest states, learning to manage from hours awayJoining Main Street Ventures in 2007 as director of operations and partner under founder Mike GibbonsCompleting the full company buyout on February 5, 2019 — thirteen months before COVID shut the industry downFlat management structure: eliminating district managers during the 2008 financial crisis and never going backOver $2 million donated annually to local community charities including the Charles Woodson Clinical Research Fund for pediatric research🌟 Kevin's Key Mentors:Jim Pollard: First supervisor at Bennigan's who taught Kevin that developing people and building a bench mattered more than muscling through situationsGeorge (Hillstone Founder): Showed Kevin what obsessive standards look like in practice, including delaying a restaurant opening over booth cushion colors to preserve the brand's visionMike Gibbons (Main Street Ventures Founder): Brought Kevin in as a director of operations and partner, trusted him with the day-to-day running of the company, and made the eventual buyout possibleDennis Saris (Real Seafood Company Founder): Original 1975 founder of the first Real Seafood Company whose founding vision still shapes the company's approach to quality and communityHis Son Xander: Now director of beverage and a district manager, has helped Kevin understand the COVID generation's workforce challenges from the inside👉 Don't miss Kevin's account of closing on the company buyout thirteen months before COVID, how his son Colin's autism diagnosis reshaped his perspective on resilience and community, and why he believes today's restaurant environment is harder than anything he's seen in forty years.🔗 Connect with Kevin Gudejko:Website: mainstreetventuresinc.com📋 Transcript Available: From Busing Tables at 15 to CEO: Kevin Gudejko's Four Decades Moving Through American Dining History📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📋 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

Jordan Rodriguez is the founder of Chagrin Valley Legacy Advisors in Beachwood, Ohio, a planning firm built for owners of closely held family businesses, multi-generational families, and high net worth early retirees. A certified financial planner and certified exit planning advisor, he spent nearly a decade at Warnock Spear Wealth Managers before leaving to build a practice specifically structured around the client types where he could deliver real depth, not a generalist service model dressed up to look specialized.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Starting career as a college intern at Warnock Wealth Management, doing data entry and back-office workEarly lessons at Northwestern Mutual and Wells Fargo on commission versus fee-only models and where incentives leadThe difference between wirehouse advisors and independent fiduciaries, and why that distinction matters to business ownersSpinning out Chagrin Valley Business Strategies as a separate entity to provide business valuations and consulting within a compliance constraintUsing Quist Insights software to give business owners a range of values, a gap analysis, and thirteen actionable drivers to close itWhy 75% of a business owner's wealth in an illiquid company requires a fundamentally different financial planning approachThree client demographics: closely held family business owners, multi-generational families, and high net worth early retireesThe case for renaming exit planning, because the word exit scares off founders who aren't thinking about sellingWhy second and third generation owners are often easier to advise than founders who treat the business as their identityEOS Lite: using the VTO, quarterly rocks, and weekly scorecards without the full EOS complexity🌟 Jordan's Key Mentors:Warren Warnock (Managing Director, Warnock Wealth Management): Lifelong family friend who gave Jordan his first look at the industry through a high school shadow and then his first internshipWarnock Spear Team: A decade of shared growth that taught Jordan how to build client longevity, transition from wirehouse to independence, and think about fiduciary standards in every interactionHis Wife: His primary model of doing things the right way, and the person who first noticed the stress the departure took on himTax and Legal Professionals in His Network: The source of most introductions into his practice, because his model integrates them rather than working around themBusiness Owner Clients: They taught Jordan what gap existed in the market by telling him they wanted their business integrated into their financial plan in ways standard advisory firms couldn't deliver👉 Don't miss Jordan's account of leaving a decade-long professional partnership, why a $413,000 enterprise value number on a to-do item is the most motivating thing he can show a business owner, and his honest take on why exit planning needs a name change.🔗 Connect with Jordan Rodriguez:Website: chagrinvalleylegacy.com📋 Transcript Available: Jordan Rodriguez on Why Business Owners Need More Than a Portfolio Manager📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📋 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

Marnie Byford is Chief Operating Officer at Supreme Staffing, a national employment agency connecting workers to opportunities in manufacturing, logistics, customer service, and office support across 22 locations. She came to the role through an unlikely path: a degree in educational psychology, nearly five years in disability day services, and a career in workforce management that her industry repeatedly told her she wasn't right for. Under her leadership, Supreme Staffing launched its own forklift training center, built a travel recruiting team, and achieved 7% turnover in an industry that averages over 400%.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Degree in educational psychology, early career working with adults with disabilities at Open Arms CareTransition into workforce management through a Nike warehouse staffing role focused on training and developmentFive years at SIMOS Insourcing Solutions, rising from safety and training manager to executive director of recruitingJoining Supreme Staffing in February 2020, two weeks before COVID changed everythingKeeping doors open during COVID while competitors closed, providing grocery money and flexible schedules to retain workersGrowing organically through the pandemic and beyond through word-of-mouth customer referralsLaunching a forklift training center after four years of planning to address a critical driver shortageDeploying a travel recruiting team to stabilize client sites across the country, including onboarding 200 workers in three weeksPhone system automation that cut response time from four hours to one hour and grew Memphis walk-in traffic from 50 to 200 per dayExpanding to 22 locations with plans for Pennsylvania, Boston, Canada, and beyond🌟 Marnie's Key Mentors:Eduardo Sanchez (Owner, Supreme Staffing): Saw Marnie's potential, handed her the operational mandate, and gave her the private-company flexibility to build something the corporate world wouldn't allowOpen Arms Care Leadership: Grounded Marnie in humanization, patience, and learning people before judging them, skills she brought directly into staffingJason Nunez (Director of Operations): Started at the front desk at 18 and grew into the role under Marnie's mentorship, representing the internal development model she championsHer Four Daughters: Daily motivation to model what it looks like to push past nos and build something in spaces where women are told they don't belongHer Staffing Teams Across 22 Locations: Young, hungry, and eager to learn, they have been both the proof of her leadership philosophy and the engine behind Supreme's growth👉 Don't miss Marnie's account of being told repeatedly that the industrial world wasn't for women, how she kept Supreme Staffing's doors open during COVID when everyone else closed, and the moment a former colleague called to say they had underestimated her.🔗 Connect with Marnie Byford:Website: supremestaffing.agencyLinkedIn: Marnie Byford📋 Transcript Available: From Educational Psychology to Staffing COO: Marnie Byford's Path to Supreme Staffing📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📋 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

Greg Mahoney is Associate Director of Management Consulting at Skytale Group, a Dallas-based firm helping dental support organizations and multi-site healthcare platforms grow profitably, prepare for M&A, and exit with positive outcomes. He came to that work through a decade of building his father's single-location dental practice from $1 million to $7.5 million in revenue, discovering along the way that he had accidentally built something too profitable for any associate to buy — which sent him inside some of the country's largest PE-backed dental platforms before he landed on the consulting side.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Growing up in a dental family and planning to become a dentist before organic chemistry redirected the pathDiscovering a natural strength in economics, accounting, and finance after his GPA transformed with the switchEarly career in corporate finance at a startup, then product management at Heraeus Kulzer dental manufacturingJoining his father's $1M practice with a mandate to build everything except the dentistryAdding TMJ, sleep apnea, and implant service lines as standalone practices within the practiceGrowing from $1M to $7.5M in two and a half years through internal marketing and specialty cross-referralRealizing the practice was too profitable for associate buyout and choosing private equity as the exit pathJoining Elite Dental Partners post-acquisition, scaling from 66 to 114 locations while building support infrastructureThe shift from buy-and-hold DSO arbitrage to same-store growth as the new operating imperativeJoining Skytale Group to serve founder-led healthcare practices across dental, aesthetics, dermatology, and beyond🌟 Greg's Key Mentors:His Father (Dr. Mahoney): Lifelong role model who handed Greg the business mandate and whose example continues to shape how Greg works with founder-led practicesElite Dental Partners Leadership: Gave Greg the opportunity to go from single-practice operator to multi-location infrastructure builder across 114 locationsSkytale Group Team: A meritocracy where the best idea wins, giving Greg the environment to apply operator experience to consulting without politicsFounder-Led Practice Owners He Has Served: Consistently reinforce why the emotional investment of a founder creates different problems and different opportunities than PE-backed groupsHis Wife: Grounded him when he was still considering dental school mid-MBA with a newborn at home, and redirected him toward the path that fit👉 Don't miss Greg's account of the moment he realized the practice he built was too profitable for anyone to buy, how a failed organic chemistry class shaped a career in dental operations, and why he believes today is the golden age of dentistry for operators.🔗 Connect with Greg Mahoney:Website: Skytalegroup.com📋 Transcript Available: Greg Mahoney on What Breaks Inside a DSO When Acquisitions Move Faster Than Operations📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📋 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

Meir Spiegel is a CPA and partner at B2B CFO, the nation's largest CFO consulting firm, working with privately held businesses in New Jersey and beyond. He spent over a decade as CFO and controller at VIP Wireless, where he built financial systems from the ground up, implemented NetSuite, and developed automated processes that enabled the company to scale through multiple acquisitions before the industry fundamentally shifted. That experience now drives his fractional CFO work helping business owners see what their own numbers can't tell them.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Joining VIP Wireless two days before a merger went live with no accounting infrastructure in placeBuilding billing, payment, and residual systems from scratch using pseudocode handed to developersNetSuite implementation: nine months, full ERP buildout, itemized inventory tracking for cell phone ESNsAutomated a two-person, two-day residual payment process down to a 90-minute scriptRecognizing a credit system house of cards before COVID hit and rebuilding it to survive the shockMoving from single-company CFO to fractional partner at B2B CFO after the wireless industry restructuredIdeal client: five million to one hundred million in revenue, outgrown their infrastructureB2B Exit: preparing companies for sale by boosting EBITDA and choosing the right exit structureThe management buyout option: benefits, risks, and why pulling back the offer can destroy moraleStaying focused: a short daily priority list as the simplest and most overlooked productivity fix🌟 Meir's Key Mentors:Jerry Mills (Founder, B2B CFO): Author of the B2B CFO and B2B Exit books; built the fractional CFO model Meir now operates withinPartner at Early Accounting Firm: Trusted introduction to VIP Wireless that launched Meir's in-house CFO careerVIP Wireless CEO: Made fast, decisive calls on NetSuite and gave Meir the runway to build for scaleProgramming and Tech Community: Meir's pseudocode-to-developer workflow and current AI coding tools have been shaped by years of working alongside developersClients Over the Career: Business owners facing exits, growth ceilings, and distress have each sharpened his diagnostic instincts👉 Don't miss Meir's account of walking into a merger with no systems and no team two days before go-live, and what that experience taught him about building for scale, staying focused, and knowing when a company has outgrown itself.🔗 Connect with Meir Spiegel:Website: b2bcfo.comEmail: [email protected]📋 Transcript Available:Meir Spiegel Built His Own Systems From Scratch. Now He Does It for Everyone📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📋 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

Pat Voltapetti is the co-founder and managing partner of Pinnacle One Capital, a private equity and advisory firm focused on multifamily and commercial real estate in high-growth markets across the Southeast and Sun Belt. A third-generation investor who spent nearly four years managing investor relations at Cardone Capital, Pat left to build something built entirely on his own terms, grounded in transparency, operator alignment, and the philosophical foundation his Italian grandfather laid when Pat was still a teenager.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Three generations of real estate: from grandfather Gino's Italian restaurant and flea markets to Pat's private equity firmGrandfather's innovation: using a broker's license to source off-market deals, then holding paper on salesAccounting and public auditing background: understanding how businesses are valued and where numbers are hiddenFinding Grant Cardone through YouTube cold-calling content, joining as an early team memberCardone Capital's crowdfunding evolution: from friends-and-family funds to managing thousands of investorsHitting the corporate ceiling and leaving to build Pinnacle One Capital from scratchTargeting distressed commercial deals where debt is coming due and basis has resetOperator alignment: bringing developers in as partners so incentives match across the dealAdvisory model: helping operators on bigger deals find valuation errors before signingStoicism, metaphysics, and teaching children to notice the limits of the five senses🌟 Pat's Key Mentors:Grandfather Gino: Introduced Pat to accounting, self-improvement books, stoicism, and Eastern and Western philosophy starting at age 14Grant Cardone: Showed Pat how to build investor infrastructure, crowdfunding systems, and scale a real estate brand at speedHis Father: Modeled the brokerage side of real estate and reinforced the value of staying close to the transactionLong-term Operators in His Network: Taught Pat what 15-plus years of successful asset management actually looks like from the insideHis Children: Drive his continued exploration of purpose, legacy, and how to pass real knowledge forward across generations👉 Don't miss Pat's account of leaving a recognized brand to start over, the philosophy his grandfather handed him at 14, and why he still believes in finding partners even after being burned.🔗 Connect with Pat Voltapetti:Website: PinnacleOneCapital.comLinkedIn: Pat Voltapetti📋 Transcript Available: The Deal Gap Nobody Sees: Pat Voltapetti's Strategy Against Overpaying📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📋 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com