No Suits Allowed: Real Talk with Real Executives

In this episode of No Suits Allowed,, Connor speaks with Drew Hamblen of Fairview Custom Homes. Drew shares how he went from flying Navy helicopters and briefing admiral war rooms in Japan to helping run his family’s second-generation homebuilding business in the Cliffs communities of South Carolina and North Carolina. He and his brother inherited both the vision and the risks of their father’s mo...

In this episode of No Suits Allowed, Connor speaks with Brian Arnold, founder of Arnold Roofing and Restoration. Brian takes us from his early days in Ohio homebuilding, where he went from six figures to zero almost overnight during the housing crisis, to a leap of faith in Phoenix that led to selling 19 roofs in three days.  After 12 years helping build another company and watching it shutter, he...

In this episode of No Suits Allowed, Connor speaks with Joe Sallé of Sallé Custom Contracting, a Greenville‐based renovation specialist who turned a childhood in his dad’s plumbing business into a thriving trade operation. Joe chronicles his journey from door-knocking as a six-year-old, to chasing big corporate dreams with a business degree, to ultimately embracing the family trade and officially...

In this episode of No Suits Allowed, Connor speaks with Tim Nihart. Tim takes us on a journey from his childhood as a devoted baseball player to a professional career in the Minnesota Twins organization, then into 20 years as a college coach and professor, earning a master’s in communication and ultimately a PhD along the way.  Today he runs his own leadership and team-development LLC, coaching or...

In this episode of No Suits Allowed, Connor speaks with Chris Sweet, the founder and owner of Swamp Rabbit Moving in Greenville, South Carolina.  Chris opens up about how a broken GED transcript and one lone truck in October 2020 turned into a booming business operating 21 trucks and a 40,000-square-foot storage facility in just a few years. From welding school and a stint in rehab to moving for T...

In this episode of No Suits Allowed, Connor speaks with Walker Thompson about the real, unvarnished journey of building businesses from the ground up. They kick off with some lighthearted golf banter before diving into Walker’s first big leap, buying a rental house at eighteen with no roadmap, only confidence and owner-financing.  From there, Walker chronicles how he scaled into real estate flippi...

In this episode of No Suits Allowed: Real Talk with Real Executives, Connor sits down with Jack Cottrell, owner of Jack the Roofer, to explore his journey from working as a roofing installer in 1996 to building his own successful roofing company in the competitive Denver market. Jack shares his story of starting as a laborer who intended roofing to just pay the bills through college, transitioning...

In this episode of No Suits Allowed, Connor speaks with Shawn Whalen of Whalen Exteriors. Shawn opens up about growing up in a generational roofing and exterior business, taking over just days before the pandemic hit, and breaking the seven-figure barrier after 39 years in the making.  Together, Connor and Shawn walk through the mindset shift from “hammer swinger” to CEO, the tough decision to nic...

In this episode of No Suits Allowed: Real Talk with Real Executives, Connor sits down with Adam Keys, Head of Product at Job Nimbus, recorded live at a Job Nimbus event in Chicago. Adam shares his unconventional journey from serial entrepreneur to product leader, starting with his creative solution to the housing market crash – selling "No Soliciting" signs door-to-door with a craft vinyl cutter....

In this episode of No Suits Allowed: Real Talk with Real Executives, Connor sits down with Ken Strecker, a seasoned business operator who has spent years managing the day-to-day chaos while entrepreneurs chase big visions. Ken shares his unique perspective from the operator's seat, detailing his journey from sales into operations and his experience building a roofing company from $2 million to sig...

In this raw and honest episode of No Suits Allowed: Real Talk with Real Executives, Connor sits down with Chase Johnson, CEO of Johnson Construction Company. Chase opens up about one of the most challenging seasons any entrepreneur can face – watching a decade of success nearly crumble in 2022-2023. From humble beginnings doing summer roofing jobs in high school to building a company that scaled 1...

In this episode of No Suits Allowed: Real Talk with Real Executives, Connor speaks with Adam Kaminski of Indy Roof & Restoration. Adam pulls back the curtain on his unlikely rise, from scraping concrete forms as a 14-year-old in Chicago to studying theology in Indiana, then pivoting into sales and climbing the ranks of a regional alarm company for 17 years.  Along the way, he earned an executi...

In this episode of No Suits Allowed, Connor speaks with Brendan O’Keefe, founder and CEO of RoofSource in the Denver market. Brendan opens up about growing up as one of three triplet brothers, watching his parents lose everything in the 2008 real estate crash and instantly adopting a survival-first mindset. He shares how a pivotal encounter with faith sent him chasing an intentional entrepreneuria...

In this episode of No Suits Allowed, Connor speaks with Derrick Christy of Approved Mortgage , a self-made entrepreneur whose journey spans from mowing lawns and running a cleaning company in high school to founding one of Indianapolis’s most respected mortgage and real estate enterprises. Derrick opens up about his early years, selling a small cleaning business, taking a corporate job at Prudenti...

In this episode of No Suits Allowed, Connor Rodich speaks with Tony Carleo, owner of Patriot Roofing and a man whose life story reads like something out of a Netflix series.    Tony opens up about his fall into addiction, his nine-year stint in prison, and the moment he realized that if he didn’t change course, he wouldn’t survive. Through grit, voracious reading and a return to the roofing trade...

In this episode of No Suits Allowed: Real Talk with Real Executives, Connor speaks with Aaron Christy, owner of Indy Roof and serial entrepreneur, about the highs, lows, and hard-won lessons of scaling a service business.    Aaron takes us from his first hesitant days learning roofing in 2018 to hitting nearly $10 million in revenue by year three, and the unglamorous balancing act of “grow the sal...

In this episode of No Suits Allowed, Connor speaks with Ben Hodson, founder and CEO of JobNimbus, from right inside the company’s Salt Lake City headquarters. Ben takes us on a journey through a roller-coaster entrepreneurial career, ten startups in all, with hard-won lessons learned from early wins, devastating investor fraud that froze the bank accounts of his last venture, and a pivot into home...

In this episode of No Suits Allowed, host Connor Rodich sits down with Patrick Carr, founder and CEO of Blue Collar Media Group, for an unfiltered conversation about entrepreneurship, resilience, and the real cost of building a business from nothing. Patrick's story is one of incredible determination - from facing home foreclosure and living in a $1,000/month motel to building a debt-free media co...

In the inaugural episode of No Suits Allowed: Real Talk with Real Executives, host Connor Rodich sits down with his VP of Executive Partners, Mikaela Freeman, for an unfiltered look at his entrepreneurial journey. Connor pulls no punches as he shares the real story behind building, losing, and rebuilding multiple businesses across nearly a decade.   From his early days climbing the corporate ladde...