Entrepreneurs United

Kevin Cassidy (Cassidy Paving, President & Founder) began his entrepreneurial path when he was 15 years and was cutting lawns throughout his neighborhood. From there, Kevin built a landscape company with over 20 employees and successfully sold it in 2007.   He then discovered a huge opportunity in the asphalt and paving industry and quickly encountered the struggles and challenges of tryi...

Jeff Chastain (Admentus, Business Transformation Coach) is a serial entrepreneur and has “been there” and “done that” when it comes to both successful and less than successful ventures.   Jeff coaches entrepreneurs in building and structuring their businesses more like a franchise by creating scalable systems so that the entrepreneur themselves are not just creating a JOB for themselves that...

Krystal Hicks (Founder / Career Strategist, JOBTALK, LLC) started her company after 10+ years in the employment sector as she saw there was a huge need for affordable, accessible, and inclusive career counseling among job seekers.    At the same time, Krystal watched employers struggle to attract, recruit, and retain the talent they wanted and needed and her firm started to become a liai...

Aleta Norris (Co-Founder, Living As A Leader®) is an expert leadership coach and trainer with 30 years of experience developing leaders. She is committed to helping leaders learn what great leadership looks like. This competence and confidence changes the employee experience. As a result of effective leadership, employees have a better experience at work and a better life all around.   Aleta...

Diane Pleuss (Franchise Business Consultant and Career Transition Specialist, FranChoice) has been focused on helping others find their perfect franchise fit since 2004. If you have ever wanted to start your own business and ever thought about owning a franchise, Diane is the matchmaker you have been looking for. Starting a business can be daunting and the initial start-up years of building y...

Shawn Shepheard (Business Growth Coach & Keynote Speaker, The Leadership Advantage) is an executive coach, business strategist and keynote speaker. Shawn helps great leaders become exceptional, on their terms. Shawn has a long track record of being the secret weapon for executives and business owners. He has worked with entrepreneurs across North America, and for global companies includin...

Javier Lozano, Jr. (Anchor Wave, CMO), is both an experienced entrepreneur and a senior-level strategist. Javier is the host of the "Trust Tipping Point" Marketing Podcast where he shares a ton of marketing strategies for businesses looking to improve their marketing efforts.   As an entrepreneur, he opened his first business in 2008, during the great recession, and built it up over a decade...

Gordon Blocker (Principal Consultant, The Table Group, a Pat Lencioni Company) works regularly with CEOs and executive teams in quickly and effectively applying the concepts captured in all of Pat Lencioni's books. He helps leadership teams transform their organization by creating organizational clarity, over-communicating that clarity, and reinforcing key messages through human systems. In additi...

Erin Diehl (Founder and Chief Edutainment Officer, improve it! LLC) develops teams and leaders through play, improv, and experiential learning. Erin is a Business Improv Edutainer, Failfluencer and Professional Zoom-bie. Empirical evidence has shown that improvisational training can enhance professional development, team building, effective communication, networking, presentation sk...

Joel Bennett (Owner, Veel Hoeden Consulting) has 20+ years of human resources experience and builds improved organizational capacity by providing customized consulting, training, and coaching services to growth-focused businesses. His expertise in leadership development, performance management, and change management in blue-collar environments allows him to assist leaders in tackling challenging p...

Mike Zani (The Predictive Index, CEO), runs The Predictive Index, a talent optimization platform that uses over 60 years of proven science and software to help businesses design high-performing teams and cultures, make objective hiring decisions and inspire greatness in people.   Mike is also the co-founder and partner at Phoenix Strategy Investments, a private investment fund. An avid sailor...

Building a world-class sales team should be a major priority for entrepreneurs wanting to grow their businesses.  In this episode, our co-hosts, Rich Hoffmann and John St. Pierre share their learnings from both success and failures of building sales teams. The 5 keys to building a world-class sales team will walk entrepreneurs through finding and recruiting top sales talent, how to properly t...

Johnathan Grzybowski (Co-founder/CMO, Penji), and his team ultimately found the solution to a larger problem with Penji. Today Penji provides companies with unlimited and on-demand access to dependable and vetted digital designers that will deliver your graphic design project in under 48 hours. In today's conversation, Jonathan shares a very transparent view of the life of an entrepreneur.  H...

Bill Pienias (President, FinFit Life), has been a leader in the insurance and investment industry for over 25 years and has built and led companies in the US and Europe, most notably being the President of AEGON’s largest Broker-Dealer.   Rich and I first met Bill in our first couple of years out of college and spent a lot of time learning under his leadership   In our conversation about...

Jeffrey Unger (Founder and CEO, G2 Capital), is a very accomplished CEO, Director, and Sr Executive with experience in building scalable organizations across several sectors including. Jeffrey also has Significant experience working with Private Equity, Venture Capital, and Debt/Credit financing.   In today's conversation, we talk about why and how businesses get themselves into trouble, what...

Meridith Elliot Powell ( Business Motivational Speaker, Award-Winning Author, Business Strategist ), is a Sales strategist, leadership expert, Certified Speaking Professional, and award-winning author. Meridith wants today’s businesses to stop viewing uncertainty as something that prevents them from being successful. This is why her virtual programs, leadership coaching, online courses, and keynot...

Jill Diamond (by Jill Diamond, Owner), is a seasoned communication coach with a specialization in working with international professionals. With more than 20 years of experience, a background in the performance arts, and a keen interest in people, Jill helps professionals Write it, Show it, and Voice it with precision, passion, and impact. Whether it is a board presentation, a weekly meeting, or a...

Cameron Herold (Founder, COO Alliance), has become known around the world as The CEO Whisperer. He is helping hundreds of CEOs from 17 countries grow their businesses by growing their 2nds in Command.    Today we sit down with Cameron as he shares his 25 years of mind-shifting experience as a Business Growth Guru, having helped build TWO $100 Million Dollar companies by the time he was 4...

Cory Carlson (CEO, Connector Consulting) is an entrepreneur, former executive, husband, and father of three, Cory Carlson understands the pressures working parents face every day. He is passionate about helping business leaders win at home and work.   Twenty years working in corporate America gave Cory amazing opportunities - But he also saw brokenness: work without purpose, burnout, lack of...

Jon and Ben Chastney are twin brothers who combined their passion for film production and sports to co-found their national media company, First Scout Productions.   Running a business with family members can be both rewarding and challenging.  Jon & Ben share with us the secrets of building their successful, values-based business while working with a family member and the lessons th...

Tim Fitzpatrick (President, Rialto Marketing) is an entrepreneur/business owner with expertise in marketing and business growth. He has 20+ years of entrepreneurial experience with a passion for developing and growing businesses. That passion served him well in operating and managing a wholesale distribution company he co-owned for nine years. The company grew an average of 60% a year before being...

Mike Hopkins (COO, Paul Davis Restoration), is a very talented and caring leader for one of the largest residential and commercial restoration contracting businesses in America. Mike has always been an entrepreneur and was an owner of several franchise businesses, which he successfully built and sold. Mike is a man of faith, having spent time planting churches, and has used this faith to develop h...

Kyle York (CEO/Co-Founder, York IE) leads a vertically integrated strategic growth and investment firm helping reshape the way companies are built, scaled, and monetized. Kyle works closely with entrepreneurs, operators, and investors to help them realize their shared ambition to build good companies, create new jobs, grow generational wealth, and impact the world around them. Prior to joinin...

Employees vs. Intrapreneurs - Companies of the future must learn how to empower their teams in entrepreneurial ways so that their level of commitment and ownership for the goals of the organization provides them the drive to scale and build the business. Control strategy builds obedient but not committed workforce. Commitment strategy builds loyal and committed long term partners in building the e...

Dennis Markway (Founder/President,  Iron Horse Wealth Management, LLC) is a fee-only Certified Financial Planner and Adjunct Professor of Personal Finance at Drake University who is responsible for teaching the Ethics class that all Certified Financial Planners must take in the state of Iowa.  Dennis's experience in Financial Services with Fortune 500 Companies both domestically and inte...