The Inspired Stories Podcast

🎙️ From Radio Sales to Record-Setting M&A Advisor: Jeremy Furtick’s Path to NorthStar Jeremy Furtick, founding partner of NorthStar Mergers and Acquisitions, took a journalism degree, a radio sales career, and an instinct for understanding what people really want — and built one of the most unlikely track records in business brokerage. The first multi-year winner of the worldwide agent title i...

🎙️ From Failure to Framework: April King's Journey Building Restaurant PhD Consulting In this compelling episode, April King, founder of Restaurant PhD, shares her remarkable journey from starting as a server at 14 to becoming a trusted advisor for multi-unit restaurant operators. Through raw honesty about a professional breakdown that became her breakthrough, April reveals how systems thinkin...

🎙️ From the Classroom to Client Services: Marc Macdonald’s Pivot Into Supporting Strategies Reno Tahoe Marc Macdonald, Director of Client Services at Supporting Strategies Reno Tahoe, spent years teaching English and coaching basketball, made a sharp pivot into financial advising at Northwestern Mutual, and finally landed in outsourced bookkeeping — a career path that looked nothing like a plan bu...

Steve Lombardo on Hospitality as a Craft, the Gibson's Gospel, and What It Really Takes to Run Chicago's Most Iconic Restaurant Group Steve Lombardo, CEO and General Counsel of Gibson's Restaurant Group, shares his journey from growing up around blue-collar entrepreneurs in suburban Chicago, through producing a nationally syndicated college football TV show during his first semester of...

🎙️ From Tax Manager to Recruiter: Cameron Fakouri's Niche Career Firm for Accountants Cameron Fakouri, CPA and founder of RezzyCheck, left a tax manager role at top firms to build a recruiting and career coaching company exclusively serving public accounting professionals. Drawing on his psychology degree and frontline experience, Cameron shares how transparency, niche expertise, and relations...

From Volunteer at 12 to CEO: Chris Hall's Lifelong Mission with Remote Area Medical Chris Hall, CEO of Remote Area Medical (RAM), has been showing up for this nonprofit since he was a kid cleaning eyeglasses on a Tennessee mountain. Now leading a team of 65 across 150+ free clinics a year, Chris shares what it takes to bring dental, vision, and medical care to underserved communities coast to...

From the IRS to Eight-Figure Savings: Mark Misselbeck's 50 Years Finding What Nobody Else Catches Mark Misselbeck, Core Tax Director at Cherry Bekaert Advisory, shares his journey from a father who survived a Siberian gulag and died at 45, through the IRS, four CPA firms, and 27 years at Cherry Bekaert, to becoming the go-to problem solver for some of the most complex tax situations in the cou...

🎙️ From 7-Eleven Cashier to Corporate Wine Director: Higor Valle's Journey From Brazil to Mr. Hospitality Miami Higor Valle, corporate wine director at Mr. Hospitality Group in Miami and founder of Wise Cellar consulting, shares his journey from arriving in Naples, Florida at 18 on a J1 visa and discovering his job had been canceled before he even landed, through a series of chance encounters...

From $500K in Past Due Debt to Three Exits: Brent Bardales on Building, Losing, and Rebuilding Brent Bardales, founder of Rev Your Business, shares his journey from borrowing money at 23 to buy a struggling medical imaging company his father built, growing it 30% year over year before selling, launching a digital marketing agency mid-exit, scaling a manufacturing company to 237% average annual gro...

Craig Window on Earning the Commute, Workplace Hospitality, and What 18 Years at One Company Actually Teaches You About Growth Craig Window, Country President of Circles, a Sodexo company, shares his journey from six and a half years as an assistant golf professional at a country club in New Hampshire, through an entry-level research analyst role helping employees with everything from travel to er...

Fair Deals, Transparent Books, and 23 Years Without a Cold Call: Dino Lucarelli of Capital Tactics Dino Lucarelli, CPA and founder of Capital Tactics, shares his journey from guiding a multi-billion dollar company through Chapter 11 bankruptcy and scaling a publicly traded tech firm from $400 million to nearly $1 billion, to building a 23-year middle market M&A advisory practice in Cincinnati...

From Roofing Sales to Accounting Business Development: Daniel Gonzalez's Relationship-First Growth Story Daniel Gonzalez, Director of Business Development at Accounting to Scale, shares his journey from nine years of commission-only roofing sales in South Florida to helping grow his wife Tiffany's Miami-based CPA firm through BNI networking, a 560-video YouTube channel, and a relationship-...

🎙️ From the Knitting Factory to City Winery: Michael Dorf's 40-Year Journey Scaling Intimacy in Live Music Michael Dorf, Founder and CEO of City Winery, shares his journey from dropping out of law school in Wisconsin and sleeping on a futon under his desk at an East Village performance space in 1987, through the painful dilution and exit from the Knitting Factory after 15 years of building one...

From P&G to Bankruptcy to Five Exits: Kevin Carlson's Journey with Top to Bottom Business Solutions Kevin Carlson, Director of Strategic Business Development at Top to Bottom Business Solutions, shares his journey from consumer packaged goods at Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, and SC Johnson, through a boardroom showdown that forged his executive character, a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2008...

🎙️ From Aspiring Radio Reporter to VP of Valuation: Michael Moscarelli's Career Pivot to Finance at Houlihan Capital Michael Moscarelli, Vice President of Valuation and Financial Advisory at Houlihan Capital, shares his journey from pursuing a radio journalism career with a double major and a started master's degree in media, to sitting in a pitch meeting with a blank page and realizing he...

From Valet to COO: Brooks Ellis on Trust, Training, and Building Evolution Parking Brooks Ellis, COO of Evolution Parking and Guest Services, shares his journey from falling into valet parking after a restaurant closed overnight, through 20 years growing at Town Park from the ground up, to helping build Evolution into a 100-plus location hospitality-first parking company with a new self-parking te...

🎙️ From IMF Quant to Boutique Deal Maker: Richard Phillips's Journey Building Crossroads Capital Richard Phillips, Senior Partner and Co-Founder of Crossroads Capital, shares his journey from studying at Johns Hopkins and working as a quantitative analyst at the International Monetary Fund, through a winding path into boutique investment banking where he had to earn credibility without a bulge...

Glass Eater: Lil Roberts on Grit, Growth, and Reshaping Accounting at Xendoo Lil Roberts, founder and CEO of Xendoo, shares her journey from a childhood marked by poverty, an abusive home, and losing three brothers before she turned 22, through eight businesses including a manufacturing exit, to winning pitch competitions in front of Jason Calacanis and Steve Case, appearing on CNBC's premiere...

🎙️ From Grill Operator to Franchise Owner: Ryan O'Malley's Journey Building Wendy's of Bowling Green Into a 150-Restaurant Operation Ryan O'Malley, Franchise Owner at Wendy's of Bowling Green, shares his journey from growing up as the son of a 50-year Wendy's franchisee, through every level of operations from crew member to DAO, to becoming a franchise owner in 2021 and leading an organization tha...

🎙️ From 800 Square Feet in Newport Beach to a National Franchise: Randy Wyner's Chronic Tacos Story Randy Wyner, founder and president of Chronic Tacos, shares his journey from washing windows at Jiffy Lube at 18 and selling t-shirts out of his trunk to opening an 800-square-foot taco shop in Newport Beach on a two-week handshake deal, growing it into a 30-plus location franchise across the US and...

🎙️ From Music Dreams to Business Coach: Kenny Harper's Journey Building Growth Amplifiers Kenny Harper, co-founder and lead growth coach at Growth Amplifiers, shares his journey from teenage music passion to becoming a sought-after business coach for accountants, CPAs, and advisors. Starting at 14 when his cousin took him to a Matallica concert, Kenny got bit by the music bug and spent his ear...

🎙️ From Engineering to Bar Inventory Expert: Dave Domzalski's Journey Building Barmetrix and Writing the Hospitality Playbook Dave Domzalski, franchise owner of Barmetrix in South Florida and Michigan, shares his path from Polk Audio engineer to hospitality consultant, bestselling author of three books, and the man helping bars and restaurants find the profit hiding in plain sight through week...

🎙️ From Fine Dining Empire to Pickleball Pioneer: Mike Gibbons's Journey Building Toledo Pickle Company Mike Gibbons, co-founder of Toledo Pickle Company and former president and CEO of Main Street Ventures, shares his journey from starting as a college student at a Charlie's Crab restaurant in Ohio, through building a 26-location fine dining empire across five states over 45 years, to bre...

🎙️ From Accidental Sales Tax Accountant to Cannabis CPA and Casino Game Inventor: Daryl Jendras's Unlikely Journey Daryl Jendras, founder of Salt Cap and managing director of Green Rush Accounting and Tax, shares his journey from switching out of engineering at Purdue after one week, stumbling into sales tax accounting because nobody in school teaches it, and spending 30 years becoming one of...

From Ford Motor Company to Innkeeper to CEO: Mark Reichle's Journey with Select Registry Mark Reichle, CEO of Select Registry, shares his journey from corporate life at Ford Motor Company, through 21 years running a boutique inn in Kansas City, to leading a 50-year organization through a pandemic and now positioning it for the AI era of personalized travel. Key Insights You'll Learn: 401k...