The Inspired Stories Podcast

🎙️ Twenty Years After a Shady Start in Insurance Sales: Brandon Hayes's Journey Building Kalos Consulting In this episode, Brandon Hayes, founder and CEO of Kalos Consulting, shares how a shaky start booking commission-only insurance interviews led to a twenty-year career spanning executive search and leadership coaching. Brandon opens up about launching his own firm forty-eight hours after de...

🎙️ From a Negative 9% Margin to Positive 19%: Karen Bennett's Path to Doyenne Advisory Group In this episode, Karen Bennett, managing partner of Doyenne Advisory Group, shares a three-decade finance career that spans portfolio analysis at Chase Manhattan Private Bank, corporate turnarounds, ERP rollouts, and over a decade of independent M&A consulting before she formally launched her own f...

🎙️ Youngest Branch Manager in Company History: John Reed's Path to Founding JAG Insurance Agency In this episode, John Reed, founding president and CEO of JAG Insurance Agency, shares a career that began as an 11-year-old newspaper carrier and stretched through the Marine Corps, two decades in newspaper and media publishing, and a September 11th newscast that finally pushed him into insurance...

Josh Ramsey, CPA and Managing Director at Cherry Bekaert, taught himself Excel in a casino count room in 2000 because nobody else would, got promoted off the back of a spreadsheet nobody asked him to build, and spent the next decade earning a degree at 34 with four kids, a mortgage, and his father’s passing three weeks before his first day at Cal State Long Beach. The career pivot that followed —...

🎙️ From Cold Texting to True Texas Church Insurance: Ron Wadley's Path to Insurance for Texans In this episode, Ron Wadley, owner and general solver of problems at Insurance for Texans, shares how a childhood spent in small Texas and Missouri towns, a broken marriage, and a captive insurance career too limited to solve his clients' real problems led him to build one of the state's most...

🎙️ Prepared to Sell: Greg DeSimone's Journey From Corporate Finance to Exit Advisory In this episode, Greg DeSimone, founder and president of Catapult Advisory Group, shares how a corporate finance career built on compliance work and 80-hour weeks led to a panic disorder diagnosis, an unceremonious firing, and eventually a mergers and acquisitions advisory firm built on honest referrals rather...

🎙️ Keeping Independent Shoe Stores Alive: Mark Denkler's Leadership at the National Shoe Retailers Association In this episode, Mark Denkler, president of the National Shoe Retailers Association, shares how he turned down a $50,000 job managing his uncle's shoe stores for a $19,000 banking role at Fuji Bank, rose through corporate finance working on billion-dollar deals, and eventually wal...

🎙️ From Store Merchandiser to COO: Lynnette French's Path to Nova Farms In this episode, Lynnette French, Chief Operating Officer of Nova Farms, shares how 18 years climbing the ranks at Urban Outfitters led her into Massachusetts' earliest cannabis dispensaries, through a multi-state restructuring at Parallel, and eventually into the COO seat at a company built around large-scale outdoor cannabis...

🎙️ From Arthur Andersen to Charlotte, David Tunstall Built the Tunstall Organization One Referral at a Time David Tunstall, founder and president of the Tunstall Organization, is a CPA and fractional CFO who started his own firm after being laid off from AIG. He shares how a restaurant owner on his corner became his first client, what he learned as finance director for the American Friends of the...

🎙️ From Broker and Client to Business Partners, Mitch McGinley and Kristin Abel Built Boutique Fitness Broker Together Mitch McGinley, founder and CEO of Boutique Fitness Broker, and Kristin Abel, its president, both left corporate finance careers to own yoga studios before becoming broker and client, then partners. Mitch shares how a failed first sale taught him what buyers need, and why he told...

🎙️ From Mainframe Programmer to Insurtech Founder, Mark Seghers Built Inspire Health Tech to Put Consumers First Mark Seghers, CEO and co-founder of Inspire Health Tech, has spent three decades in insurance technology, from building an insurer's first internet strategy to helping grow the company that became GoHealth. He shares why he believes consumers should find the right plan before they t...

🎙️ Live Well, Earn Well: Dr. Terri Levine's Heartrepreneur Journey From Speech Pathology to Coaching In this episode, Dr. Terri Levine, founder and Chief Heart-repreneur of Heartrepreneur LLC, shares how a career that began in speech pathology led through a corporate healthcare CEO role, a devastating neurological disease diagnosis, and the sudden loss of her mother and closest friend within a...

🎙️ From Library Directory Letters to CEO: J.J. Sorrenti Building Best Life Brands In this episode, J.J. Sorrenti, CEO and board member of Best Life Brands, shares how a 1990 job search built on handwritten letters to CFOs led to a 35-year career spanning vitamins, tutoring, tanning, and business printing before he took the helm of a senior care franchise platform two days before COVID was declared...

🎙️ A Store Manager's Bold Email to Corporate Bought Parker Bushnell a Buyer Job Instead of a Reprimand: His Journey to Rank + Rally In this episode, Parker Bushnell, Divisional Director of Special Events and Partnerships at Rank + Rally, shares how a candid email to a head buyer while working a cash register launched a career that now spans the NBA All-Star Game, the Grammy Awards, and the PGA...

🎙️ A City Health Clinic That Cost Nothing to Build Saved Quincy a Million Dollars: Glenda Hackemack's Journey to Farm and Home Supply In this episode, Glenda Hackemack, Chief People Officer at Farm and Home Supply, shares how she built a people-first career that zigzagged from running a YWCA to negotiating union contracts to placing rural physicians in hospitals that didn't even employ the...

🎙️ From Automotive Paint Chemistry to Life Insurance AI, Sudhama Gopalan Solves Problems at Averisana Sudhama Gopalan, founder and CEO of Averisana, trained as a chemical engineer and has solved problems in automotive paint at Sherwin-Williams, credit cards at HSBC, and now life insurance. He shares what a Volvo truck plant taught him about troubleshooting, why online credit applicants carry more...

🎙️ From Trucking Company Owner to Business Broker: Rob Ismoilov's Journey Representing Sellers In this episode, Rob Ismoilov shares a career that began near the Afghan border in Uzbekistan, moved through corporate law and insurance sales, and eventually led him to building and losing a 150-person trucking company before becoming a business broker representing sellers exclusively. Rob opens up...

🎙️ From a Bizarre Lego Interview to Hospitality Recruiting: Jeremy Nichols's Journey Building Gecko Hospitality In this episode, Jeremy Nichols, franchise owner of Gecko Hospitality in South Florida, shares how a strange group interview at H&M launched a career in retail leadership that eventually led him into hospitality recruiting. Jeremy opens up about the mentor who taught him to inter...

🎙️ From Six Retail Careers to Sales Director: Ben Chase's Path at Big Sandy In this episode, Ben Chase, sales director at Big Sandy Superstore, shares how he turned down a job offer, came back on a 30-day proving period, and sold $150,000 against a $70,000 goal. He walks through the light-bulb moment that changed how he sells, what he learned about culture training teams across six states, and...

🎙️ A Father-in-Law's Insurance Payment Saved a Life and Changed Rebecca Yates's Entire Career Path In this episode, Rebecca Yates, founder and CEO of ARK Insurance Solutions, shares how a family health crisis changed her mind about insurance forever and set her on a path to building one of Utah's most trusted independent brokerages. Rebecca opens up about surviving a very public person...

🎙️ From Butcher Shop to Ten Supermarkets: Joe Fasula's Family Legacy at Gerrity's In this episode, Joe Fasula, co-owner of Gerrity's, The Fresh Grocer, shares how a family grocery chain founded in 1895 survived his father's sudden death, a chaotic co-op conversion, and the chaos of COVID-era retail. Joe opens up about the parking lot moment that made him question everything, and ho...

🎙️ From Family Therapy to Founder: Grant Johnson's Journey Building  Värde Insurance In this episode, Grant Johnson, founder and principal of  Värde Insurance Group, shares how a master's degree in marriage and family therapy shaped an unexpected career in insurance. Grant opens up about the painful business partnership breakup that forced him to rebuild his agency from scratch, and how the skills...

🎧 2,400 Deals and Counting: Ed Mysogland’s 30-Year Journey Inside Indiana Business Advisors Ed Mysogland, managing partner at Indiana Business Advisors, walked into a business brokerage at 22 with no experience, got turned away, and came back four hours later with a better argument. Three decades later he’s overseen more than 2,400 business transitions, valued companies in 28 states, testified as...

🎙️ From the White House Press Corps to Building an Amazon Growth Agency: Josh Levine's Journey In this episode, Josh Levine shares a career that spans the White House press corps, Microsoft's early discoverability partnership with a small startup called Google, a mobile social network wiped out by the 2008 financial collapse, and a business partnership derailed by falsified books. Josh ope...

🎙️ Seven Years of Not Knowing Where Payroll Was Coming From: Dave Olsen's Journey Building Nimbl Staffing In this episode, Dave Olsen, co-founder and CEO of Nimbl Staffing, shares how two full-time CFO roles that shrank into part-time work revealed a business model that would eventually become a 100-plus person outsourced accounting company. Dave opens up about seven grinding years of financia...