Entrepreneur Conundrum

Kelly Faetanini is a bridal designer and entrepreneur who has spent more than a decade building a globally recognized wedding dress brand. She has led her company through rapid growth, industry shifts and a full reinvention, including bringing manufacturing into a facility of her own, and she blends intuition with strategy in everything from design to leadership.   Key Discussion Themes: • Fr...

Lisa Cole is the Chief Marketing, Product and AI Officer at 2X, a leading B2B marketing-as-a-service firm, with more than 25 years of experience building scalable growth engines at companies like Huron, FARO Technologies and Cellebrite. She's the only two-time recipient of Forrester's Return on Integration Award and the author of The Limitless CMO.   Key Discussion Themes: • The marketing res...

Michael Barbarita is an entrepreneur, award-winning public speaker and co-author with more than 40 years across retail, manufacturing and service companies. He founded Next Step CFO in 2007 to help business owners build more consistent profits and more time freedom by implementing financial and business strategies their competition isn't doing. Key Discussion Themes: • Why 95% of business strategy...

Rachael Davila is a delegation and implementation strategist, author, speaker and the founder of Extra Hands! Virtual Assistance. With more than 20 years on both sides of the VA and client relationship, she hosts the Hey! Do I Need a VA? podcast and wrote the book of the same name to help business owners hire the right support and grow without burning out.   Key Discussion Themes: • Doers vs....

Nir Zavaro is a business storyteller, author and speaker who has helped Microsoft, Unilever and hundreds of startups and international brands grow through storytelling, with talks and workshops in more than 35 countries. He founded and ran Streetwise for 15 years and is now building Stook, a platform that helps people write, measure and win their next pitch.   Key Discussion Themes: • Why sto...

Phillip Hogan is the CEO of Signing Services of America (SSA), the author of Relentless Excellence: A Story of Family Business Building and Value-Driven Leadership, and a third-generation entrepreneur who grew SSA from five figures to seven. Under his leadership, SSA was recognized by Inc. as the 30th fastest-growing company in the Southeast. Key Discussion Themes: - Where relentless excellence co...

Kevin Roy is the founder of Green Banana SEO, where he has spent nineteen years studying search and now spends a minimum of five hours a week on it. He talks with Virginia about answer engine optimization, why sixty percent of searches now end without a click, and what it actually takes to get cited by ChatGPT and Gemini. Key Discussion Themes: - Why topical authority is what decides whether AI wi...

April Martini and Anne Candido are the co-founders of ForthRight People, a leadership performance company focused on building high-performing leaders from the inside out, and co-authors of The Power of Your Personal Brand: A Playbook for Struggling Middle Managers Who Want to Do Big Things. With more than 45 years of combined experience, they have lived the realities of the struggling middle and c...

Greg Hoover spent his career at the top of the relocation and moving industry, with CEO, COO, and President roles at Bekins Van Lines, A. Arnold Relocation, New World Van Lines, and Atlas Van Lines. Two years ago he was outsourced, that turned into consulting work, and it has since grown into Third Star Consulting and a book called Lead Anyway: Ordinary You, Extraordinary Impact. His argument is t...

Wilson Zehr is an entrepreneur, academic and marketing strategist with more than 25 years in technology and telecommunications behind him, across six large-scale startups and over $60 million raised in venture funding. He runs Zairmail, a platform that automates the production and delivery of physical mail, and he teaches marketing, entrepreneurship and business strategy as an assistant professor...

Maaya Konishi is the CEO of Communica, an English education and leadership communication company that helps Japanese professionals thrive on the global stage. A former investment banker turned entrepreneur, she has worked with more than 4,000 professionals on finding their voice and communicating with authenticity across cultures, and she is a bestselling author in Japan and a recognized authority...

Hey everyone, today I'm talking with Rena Duell, a business coach at One Team Partners who supports female small business entrepreneurs in leading with clarity, confidence, and purpose without burning out. After years of balancing leadership, motherhood, and constant travel, Rena hit a breaking point that brought serious health challenges and forced her to rethink how she was running her business...

Dominic Forth is a media strategist and the founder of Thought Leaders America, where he helps experts turn big ideas into authority that drives business growth. He trained at the BBC and worked across NBC, Fox, ABC stations and CBS affiliates in the US, which gave him a front row seat to how producers choose guests. In this conversation he breaks down why credentials get your pitch deleted, how o...

Henry DeVries is a business book ghostwriter and the publisher at Indie Books International, the author of 20 marketing books, and a senior staff writer with the California Business Journal. Over the last 15 years he has ghostwritten, co-authored, edited, and published more than 200 business books, including his international bestseller from McGraw Hill, How to Close a Deal Like Warren Buffett. He...

Len Ward went from a Wall Street trading desk to leading the AI work at Commexis, an AI consulting and product development firm, and he has become a go-to voice for leaders trying to make sense of AI without the hype. In this episode he breaks down why AI is changing the business model itself, not just the speed of the work, and what owners should do about it right now.   Key Discussion Themes: -...

Reed Nyffeler is the CEO and founder of Signal, a security services franchisor operating in 48 states and nine countries with more than 8,500 employees. He is also the founder of FilterGo and FrameBrand, and the author of Transform Through Purpose and Lead Exponentially, with his third book, Brand New, arriving in the summer of 2026.   Key Discussion Themes: - Leading yourself before you ever lead...

In this solo episode, Virginia Purnell breaks down the domino effect: how one date or booking can trigger everything downstream in your business, so the work stops running through you for every little step. She uses her friend Mary's photography business and her own podcast production to show what it looks like when one input sets off the whole chain.   Key Discussion Themes: - The one thing every...

Michael Uadiale is a serial entrepreneur, practicing CPA, and the founder of SMEED CPA, where he helps business owners use the tax code as a tool to build real wealth and reach financial freedom faster.   Key Discussion Themes: - Why most business owners spend 13 to 18 years in "tax jail" — and how to get out - The tax code as a roadmap: how the government uses taxes to incentivize behavior - What...

Lee Smith is a UK-based, values-driven M&A operator with over 25 years of experience buying, fixing, and scaling businesses, and the founder of Verdani Capital. He's acquired 26 companies and now focuses on buy-and-build growth, ethical deal-making, and leading without ego.   Key Discussion Themes: - Why the leap from a small business to a large one is psychological, not financial - Buy-and-build...

Lisa Woodruff is the founder and CEO of Organize 365 and host of the Organize 365 podcast (24M+ downloads). A former teacher with a PhD in applied psychology, she's the author of six books, including her newest release, Escaping Quicksand. Key Discussion Themes Why cleaning up isn't the same as organizing — and what "Swiss cheese organizing" quietly costs you The declutter → organize → productivit...

James Rose is the founder and CEO of Inflective Group, a media and communications group built by acquiring minority equity stakes in profitable marketing agencies. He has spent over 20 years building and scaling companies across startups, tech, and private equity. Key Discussion Themes - Scaling a service business through M&A without losing what makes it work - Why a people-first culture beats a c...

Guest Introduction Greg Workmon is the founder and CEO of LoadUp, a tech-enabled junk removal marketplace transforming the industry with transparent pricing, operational efficiency, and innovation-driven growth. Key Discussion Themes How LoadUp started with one repeatable service: mattress removal Why transparent online pricing changes the customer experience The decision to skip franchising—and w...

Guest Introduction Bill Crawley is the Founder and CEO of Advark AI. He’s been an entrepreneur since childhood, has built and sold multiple companies, and now focuses on helping small business owners market with clarity—without needing to become marketers themselves. Key Discussion Themes Why marketing feels like “who can spend the most on Google” (and what to do about it) How Advark AI guides own...

Guest Introduction Rich Kahn is a digital marketing veteran and serial entrepreneur, co-founder and CEO of eZanga and Anura. He’s spent 30+ years in digital advertising and built Anura after discovering fraud was damaging traffic quality inside his own ad network. Key Discussion Themes How Rich went from early internet projects to building ad tech companies What ad fraud is — and why it’s not just...

  Jim Beach is an entrepreneurship educator, author, and radio host. He hosts School for Startups Radio and teaches founders how to build practical, profitable businesses without hype, shortcuts, or unnecessary risk. Key Discussion Themes Getting fired—and using it as a starting line instead of a dead end Why Jim teaches entrepreneurship without creativity, big risk, or “passion-first” thinking Th...