The Inspired Stories Podcast

🎙️ How Crystal Farmer Transformed Healthcare Leadership Through Compassionate Connection In this inspiring episode, Crystal Farmer, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Augusta Health, shares her remarkable 28-year journey from bedside nursing to executive leadership. Through personal stories of tragedy and triumph, Crystal reveals how a devastating experience with her mother's...

🎙️ How Greg Geehan Built Scale Up Labs: AI Venture Studio Revolutionizing Healthcare and Manufacturing In this fascinating episode, Greg Geehan, co-founder and managing partner at Scale Up Labs, reveals how his venture studio is using "Blueprint AI" to rapidly prototype and launch AI-driven companies in healthcare and advanced manufacturing. From his winding career path through multiple...

🎙️ From Teen Mother to Tech CEO: Tana Greene's Journey of Resilience and Innovation In this powerful episode, Tana Greene, CEO of My Work Choice, shares her extraordinary journey from becoming a mother at 15 while trapped in an abusive marriage to building a revolutionary staffing company that's transforming the manufacturing industry. Through candid revelations about overcoming trauma, se...

🎙️ How Chris Chambers Built Einstein Bridge: From Corporate America to AI Innovation Leadership In this compelling episode, Chris Chambers, founder and CEO of Einstein Bridge, shares his remarkable journey from 16 years in corporate America to building a revolutionary research and innovation data-as-a-service platform. Through candid stories of business failures, pivots, and breakthroughs, Chris r...

🎙️ Adil Nurgozhin: From Kazakhstan Street Survival to Building Big Sky Capital's Founder-First Empire In this gripping episode, Adil Nurgozhin, founding partner at Big Sky Capital, shares his extraordinary journey from surviving 1000% inflation and street fights in post-Soviet Kazakhstan to building a venture capital firm across three continents. Through raw stories of smuggling cell phones, s...

🎙️ Eyal Bino: From Blue-Collar Roots to Building the Israel-New York Tech Bridge with 97212 Ventures In this compelling episode, Eyal Bino, founding partner at 97212 Ventures, shares his remarkable journey from blue-collar family roots to becoming a leading venture capitalist connecting Israeli startups with the New York tech ecosystem. Through personal stories of cancelled engagements, career piv...

🎙️ John Frankel: From Goldman Sachs Trading Floor to Manufacturing Renaissance - Building FF Venture Capital's Success In this compelling episode, John Frankel, founding partner at FF Venture Capital, shares his remarkable journey from being bottom of his class to Oxford mathematics and philosophy, then conquering Goldman Sachs' trading floor for 21 years before founding one of the best-performing...

🎙️ Megan Crawford: From Childhood Space Dreams to Space Fund Success - Building the New Space Economy In this fascinating episode, Megan Crawford, co-founder and managing partner at Space Fund, shares her remarkable journey from a three-year-old throwing tantrums because her Barbie didn't fit in her space shuttle to becoming a leading venture capitalist in the commercial space industry. Throug...

🎙️ Craig Dunaway: From CPA to COO - Building Penn Station's Culture of Excellence Through Perseverance In this compelling episode, Craig Dunaway, Chief Operating Officer at Penn Station East Coast Subs, shares his remarkable journey from small-town CPA to restaurant industry leader. Through personal stories of athletic setbacks, entrepreneurial risks, and franchise success, Craig reveals how a phi...

🎙️ From Adversity to Innovation: Sonya Locke's Vision for Workforce Excellence In this compelling episode, Sonya Locke, CEO of EDS Service Solutions, shares her extraordinary journey from surviving a tumultuous divorce and business crisis to building a $50 million staffing powerhouse with zero sales team. Through transparent leadership, proprietary technology, and a passion for people, Sonya demon...

🎙️How a marketing expert transformed a "dumpy website" into a multi-channel growth engine that drives qualified leads to a thriving fractional services firm.  In this enlightening episode, Kate Adams shares her journey as Chief Growth Officer at Burkland Associates, where she's built innovative marketing, partnerships, and business development channels to help the firm better serve venture-backed...

🎙️ Beyond the Medals: Sarah Haines on Creating Inclusive Communities Through Special Olympics   In this inspiring episode, Sarah Haines, Chief Administrative Officer and Regional Executive Director at Special Olympics Texas, shares how the organization provides year-round sports training and competition opportunities for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Sarah reveals how Special Olympic...

🎙️ Building Black Business Power: Melvin Coleman on Economic Development and the Atlanta Black Chambers In this compelling conversation, Melvin Coleman, President and CEO of the Atlanta Black Chambers, shares his journey from Navy service to UPS executive to leading one of the nation's most influential Black business organizations. With passionate conviction, Melvin reveals why successful Blac...

🎙️ Breaking Barriers: Mallory Govert on Disability Employment, Peak Performers, and Leading with Empathy In this powerful conversation, Mallory Govert, COO of Peak Performers, shares her journey from accidentally falling into the staffing industry to leading a groundbreaking nonprofit that's revolutionizing employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. With refreshing honesty, Mallor...

🎙️ From Collection Calls to Columbus: Dan Saas on Building Vaco's $1 Billion Growth Story In this engaging conversation, Dan Saas, Managing Partner at Vaco, shares his remarkable journey from making $12.50/hour collection calls to leading a Columbus office that's part of a global professional services firm that's grown 5X in the past decade. With refreshing honesty, Dan reveals how des...

🎙️ From Betrayal to Breakthrough: Gary Frey on Business Success, Forgiveness, and Silencing the Impostor In this powerful conversation, Gary Frey shares his remarkable journey from graphic designer to business leader, including his role transforming bizjournals.com from three employees into a $100 million enterprise. With refreshing candor, Gary reveals how his greatest failures proved more defini...

🎙️ From Welding Hood to Production Floor: JR Rodriguez's Journey from Addiction to Assistant Plant Manager In this powerful episode, JR Rodriguez, Assistant Plant Manager at HB Specialty Foods, shares his remarkable journey from battling addiction as a young man to leading operations at a facility producing food coatings for major brands. Through raw honesty, JR reveals how his wife saved his life...

🎙️ "The Artisan's Legacy: John Grove on Family Business, Quality Mattresses, and Finding Joy in Each Day" In this uplifting conversation, third-generation mattress maker John Grove shares the remarkable story of Mattress Grove - a family-owned North Carolina manufacturer with over 100 years of mattress-making heritage and more than five decades of independent production. With refreshing authentici...

🎙️ From Green Screens to the Cloud: Teddy Hazelwood's Journey Leading Technology at Smyrna Ready Mix In this enlightening episode, Teddy Hazelwood, Chief Information Officer at Smyrna Ready Mix Concrete, shares his remarkable journey from competing in high school computer competitions on green screen terminals to leading technology strategy for one of America's fastest-growing construction materia...

🎙️ "Engineering Solutions and Building Lives: Shaun Eller on Faith-Based Leadership at Ohio Gratings" In this inspiring episode, Shaun Eller shares his remarkable 30-year journey at Ohio Gratings, from being hired as a drafter despite meeting none of the job qualifications to his current role as Chief Business Officer. With refreshing humility and candor, Shaun reveals how faith, perseverance, and...

🎙️ From Amusement Park to America's First Family of Pasta Sauce: Michael DelGrosso's Journey In this captivating episode, Michael DelGrosso, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer of DelGrosso Foods, shares the incredible 100+ year family story that began with a chance meeting in a café and led to creating America's oldest family-owned pasta sauce company. From hand-cranking sauce lids in a converted...

🎙️ How a tech entrepreneur survived the 2008 mortgage crisis and unimaginable personal tragedy to build Boardsi, a revolutionary platform connecting executives with board positions. In this powerful and deeply moving episode, Martin Rowinski, CEO of Boardsi, shares his remarkable journey through professional setbacks and profound personal tragedy to build a thriving company that's transforming boa...

🎙️ From Family Crisis to Environmental Innovation: Matt Sweetwood's Multi-Industry Leadership Journey In this compelling episode, Matt Sweetwood, serial entrepreneur and author of "Leader of the Pack," shares his remarkable journey from single father of five to leading groundbreaking companies in environmental technology and medical diagnostics. Through his patented hermetic seal tec...

🎙️ From Buying to Building: Jennifer and Brian Perruccio's Home Care Journey In this enlightening episode, Jennifer and Brian Perruccio, co-owners of Home Choice Home Care Solutions, share their remarkable 15-year journey of building a thriving home care business while navigating the challenges of working together as a married couple. With candor and wisdom, they reveal how they transitioned from...

🎙️How a finance professional evolved into a visionary COO who's reshaping an entire industry's approach to customer and employee experience.  In this revealing episode, Greg Althardt shares his journey from public accounting to leadership at Peach State Truck Centers, a family-owned truck dealership transforming the commercial vehicle space with Disney-inspired service excellence and innovative fa...