Default Profitable

In this episode of Default Profitable, host Matt Nettleton sits down with Ed Gunnell, founder of Gunnell Financial, to dig into what it takes to launch a financial firm at the worst possible time—Ed went out on his own in early 2008, just before the market crashed. He shares how he built a holistic, one-stop practice that brings taxes, investments, and insurance under one roof, why his financial-planning background makes him a more proactive tax advisor, and the one early partnership he says he'd undo if he could. Founders and aspiring business owners will walk away with grounded takeaways on landing those first clients, knowing when to bring on help, and why the attorney and the accountant are the two things you never cheap out on.

Learn more about Ed Gunnell and Gunnell Financial at https://gunnfin.com. Listen to more Indianapolis Business Leaders at https://defaultprofitable.com or subscribe to Default Profitable on your favorite podcast platform.

In this episode of Default Profitable, host Matt Nettleton sits down with Hunter Beale, Executive Director of High School Hustle, the Indianapolis nonprofit that teaches teenagers to build real businesses—gutter cleaning, car detailing, power washing, thrift flipping—and turn a summer side hustle into something that lasts. Hunter traces his own path from a fifth-grade snow cone stand through the Orr Fellowship and the Jiffy Lube system, then breaks down how the program uses incentives, mentorship, and a gamified leaderboard to push thousands of students past the one thing that stops most people from ever starting: fear.

His whole philosophy comes down to two words: action provides information. The kids who get it learn more from knocking a hundred doors than they ever would planning the perfect launch, and founders at any stage will recognize the lesson—stop perfecting the logo, get in front of a customer, and let the work teach you. Whether you're raising a future entrepreneur or just trying to get out of your own way, it's a reminder that a structure and a scoreboard will take you further than waiting for permission.

Learn more about Hunter Beale and High School Hustle at https://highschoolhustle.org. Listen to more Indianapolis Business Leaders at https://defaultprofitable.com or subscribe to Default Profitable on your favorite podcast platform.

In this episode of Default Profitable, host Matt Nettleton sits down with Clayton Tomasino, CEO of Scorpion Protective Coatings, a family-owned manufacturer of spray-on truck bed liners and window film based in Cloverdale, Indiana. Clayton shares the company's gritty origin—from a family asbestos-removal business, to his father's low-cost batch-mix coating system built to undercut the steep buy-in of the big bed liner franchises, to his own return from Hawaii in 2007 to "help out" and his takeover of the company by 2010. He walks through how a four-product automotive add-on program eventually narrowed to the one offering with the demand and margins worth building a business on, and how that focus carried Scorpion through 30 years and counting.

Listeners will gain grounded lessons on the financial literacy most founders learn the hard way—the gap between net income and actual cash, and how a growing business can still run itself short. Clayton and Matt get into why hitting a revenue milestone can quietly stall a company, why revenue is a lagging indicator rather than a measure of health, how to give your team metrics that aren't just dollars, and the regret that catches a lot of owners off guard: chasing new customers while neglecting the ones they already have. Perfect for bootstrapped founders who'd rather make new mistakes than repeat the same ones.

Learn more about Clayton Tomasino and Scorpion Protective Coatings at https://scorpioncoatings.com. Listen to more Indianapolis Business Leaders at https://defaultprofitable.com or subscribe to Default Profitable on your favorite podcast platform.

Jesse Wechter figured out the whole business at eight years old. He was at a Greek festival, his dad wouldn't give him money for food, so he stormed off, grabbed a leaf off the ground by the gate, and sold it to a stranger for twenty bucks. He'd only asked for five. The lesson stuck: people will buy almost anything if you present it the right way.

It took him a while to turn that into a company. Jesse came back to Indianapolis after flipping cars in West Hollywood and bartending in Chicago, living with his mom, owing money, and unable to land a job in a brutal hiring market. He had the skills, including email marketing for healthcare and medical device companies and a stretch at Red Bull Media House, but no work. So he started building a logo and pulling leads off Google into an Excel spreadsheet, emailing over a hundred people a day. That became Wechter Media.

When Matt runs his standard question, the one about whether you had a strategic plan, six months of savings, and a clear read on what customers would pay, Jesse landed about where most founders do. No savings. A plan that wasn't strategic or detailed. And a customer understanding he had to learn the hard way, after getting stiffed by two clients, one he nearly took to court and another who dumped the contract right before Christmas. The scramble to backfill all of it took about three years.

Then came the part a lot of founders recognize: trying to get stable too fast. Jesse hired three salespeople, bought a CRM, fed them 1,250 leads a month, and watched it sink him into a hole because the reps treated salary as the finish line. His takeaway is the difference between what you need and what you want. These days he only buys the thing when it actually makes sense.

The advice he keeps circling back to is the stuff nobody teaches you, mostly financial literacy. Running a business is not the same as running a household checkbook, and the IRS does not care how small you are. He pays for a bookkeeper and two CPAs now, and he sleeps fine. It's the same answer Matt hears more than any other when he asks founders what they wish they'd known going in.

And if he could sit his 2019 self down before opening the doors, it's one word: focus. Build the frame and the skeleton before the glamour muscles. Do it for yourself, not to impress a table full of friends. Celebrate the wins when you actually land a client, and don't take the big loan and blow it.

Learn more about Jesse and Wechter Media at wechtermedia.com. 

If you're listening, three things really help: leave a review, hit subscribe, share an episode. If you're a bootstrapped business owner and you want to be on the show, head to defaultprofitable.com. Stay focused, keep working, stay profitable.

What happens when a creative person realizes she's actually in sales? In this episode of the Default Profitable podcast, host Matt Nettleton sits down with Lindsay Bledsoe, owner and senior creative director at Burnbright Creative Company, an Indianapolis-based indie advertising agency she co-founded with Nate Riggs. Lindsay spent 15 years inside other people's ad shops, first in Milwaukee newsrooms and then in Indy cable, before her position was eliminated in April 2025. Three months later she and Nate launched Burnbright. Their mission is simple: keep advertising honest, accessible, and affordable for the small businesses and nonprofits bigger shops walk past. Lindsay's take is that marketing is not a line item, it's a vital investment, and every dollar a small client spends should be treated that way.

Have you ever sold a vacuum cleaner door to door without ever asking anyone to buy one? Matt has, and he and Lindsay use it to dig into the part of running a business almost nobody warns you about. Lindsay didn't realize she'd become a full-time salesperson until a few months in. Her take: nobody wants to be sold to, but everyone loves a good ad. The emotional roller coaster surprised her more than the bookkeeping did. Her best advice for anyone about to take the leap: take a breath. You've got this.

Learn more about Lindsay Bledsoe and Burnbright Creative Company at https://www.burnbrightcreative.com/.

Listen to more Indianapolis Business Leaders at https://defaultprofitable.com or subscribe to Default Profitable on your favorite podcast platform.

Chris Boots was building a custom pantry cabinet at his wife's uncle's shop in 1999 when he looked at the top sitting on the cart and thought it kind of looked like a casket. He'd always wanted his own business. He didn't know what business. That cabinet was the seed.

He spent nights on the bed flipping through funeral trade magazines while his wife asked what on earth he was doing. He joined the Casket and Funeral Supply Association — he'd later become its president. He bought a CNC router he didn't know how to operate and was halfway through training in Atlanta before he asked the instructor what the machine actually looked like. Chris walked into the casket industry right as cremation rates climbed from 20% to 70% and the number of casket companies collapsed from hundreds to fifteen. He built CJ Boots Casket Company anyway, going after the high-end Marcellus niche that conglomerate buyouts had cut off from independent funeral homes.

Twenty-one years later he sold it, ran it through COVID for the new owners, tried Florida real estate, and landed in commercial insurance after a chance conversation on Lido Beach with a guy who happened to insure the same trade association Chris used to run. His advice for day one of any new business: understand cash flow before anything else. His motto for the rest of it: don't be afraid to go out on a limb, because that's where the fruit is.

Learn more about Chris Boots and his commercial insurance practice at https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-boots-2990735/. Listen to more Indianapolis Business Leaders at https://defaultprofitable.com or subscribe to Default Profitable on your favorite podcast platform.

David Reynolds and his sister Christina Reynolds-Grisby spent more than 25 years at the same electrical contracting company. The plan was always to buy it. They'd consulted with the bank, drawn up the legal work, and lined up the transfer of ownership. The morning the deal was supposed to close in 2023, they walked in and got introduced to the new owners. A private equity firm had bought it out from under them.

They decided to start Reynolds Electric standing in the parking lot that same morning. Three years later, they're a residential and light commercial electrical contractor in Indianapolis, an authorized Generac and Kohler dealer, with techs in the field and an office staff behind them.

In this conversation, David and Christina get into what 25 years as employees doesn't prepare you for. Picking a business structure. Finding a CPA. Building a brand from scratch. Christina spent six months on the van wrap. Her hair wasn't right, the shoes weren't sitting where she wanted them, the caricature head kept changing size. Her advice for any new founder is progress over perfection. She'll be the first to admit she didn't take it.

The takeaway Matt pulls out of the episode comes in two parts. Start it sooner than you think you want to. And if you're negotiating a business takeover with somebody you've trusted for two and a half decades, get it in writing anyway.

Learn more about David Reynolds, Christina Reynolds-Grisby, and Reynolds Electric at https://powerbyreynolds.com. Listen to more Indianapolis Business Leaders at https://defaultprofitable.com or subscribe to Default Profitable on your favorite podcast platform.

Will Steck and his sister both started at Winthrop Supply on the same day in 2009, sweeping warehouse floors and loading trucks. Eleven years later, they bought the business from their dad. Winthrop is a fourth-generation Indianapolis plumbing supply company started in 1939, and also happens to be the longest-running Rheem distributor in the country.

In this conversation, Will talks about the three years he and his sister spent modernizing the ERP before they owned a single share, the moment their father asked if they were in or if he should find a buyer, and the biggest lesson he'd go back and tell himself: stop trying to clone yourself. Find what your people are good at and let them do that.

Learn more about Will Steck and Winthrop Supply at https://www.winthropsupply.com.

Listen to more Indianapolis Business Leaders at https://defaultprofitable.com or subscribe to Default Profitable on your favorite podcast platform.

From Travel Turmoil to Aligned Success: Krystal Eicher's Real-Talk Business Journey

Dive into this candid conversation on the Default Profitable Podcast as host Matt Nettleton sits down with Krystal Eicher, co-founder of Serendipitous Rebel, to unpack her resilient path from a pandemic-crushed travel business to building a thriving coaching and consulting firm that empowers online entrepreneurs—especially coaches and service providers—to launch with strategy, avoid burnout, and design businesses that truly support their lives. Expect raw lessons on cash flow realities, the coaching vs. consulting divide, why "more" isn't always better, and the power of prioritizing life alignment alongside profitability—perfect for aspiring founders and established leaders craving sustainable growth without the hustle.

Listeners will walk away inspired with practical insights on resilience, smart investments in expertise, and redefining success on your own terms.

Learn more about Krystal Eicher and Serendipitous Rebel at https://www.linkedin.com/in/krystal-eicher.

Listen to more Indianapolis Business Leaders at https://defaultprofitable.com or subscribe to Default Profitable on your favorite podcast platform.

Host Matt Nettleton sits down with Nate Littlewood of Future Ready CFO, a former Wall Street investment banker who built (and exited) his own e-commerce business before becoming the go-to fractional CFO for consumer product and online brands. Nate pulls back the curtain on why so many founders stay in denial or overwhelm when it comes to their finances, how he uses historical numbers to help entrepreneurs confidently plan and scale without burnout, and the mindset shift that separates stressful businesses from predictably profitable ones.

Whether you’re an aspiring founder still hunting product-market fit or already running a seven-figure brand, you’ll walk away with clarity on when (and why) to bring in real financial expertise, the critical role of unit economics before scaling, and why doubling down on your actual strengths can be the most impactful decision you make as an entrepreneur.

Learn more about Nate Littlewood and Future Ready CFO at https://futurereadycfo.com.

Listen to more Indianapolis Business Leaders at https://defaultprofitable.com or subscribe to Default Profitable on your favorite podcast platform.

Takeaways

Chapters

00:00 Welcome to Default Profitable and Introducing Nate Littlewood

00:46 Nate’s Journey: Wall Street to E-commerce Founder to Fractional CFO

03:05 Why Nate Left High-Finance for Entrepreneurship and Purpose

05:32 Surprises of Running an E-commerce Business Despite Finance Background

08:02 The Demoralizing Moment: Realizing Customers Saw Products as Stocking Stuffers

10:48 Navigating the COVID Boom and Eventual Exit from E-commerce

12:09 The Founder Financial Spectrum: Denial → Overwhelm → Intrigue → Enlightenment

16:00 Using Past Numbers to Shape Future Strategy (Not Just Tax Compliance)

17:27 When to Hire a Fractional CFO – The Product-Market Fit Threshold

21:26 Product-Push vs Customer-Pull: Which Type of Business Are You?

23:58 How to Connect with Nate and Access Free Resources