E-Forge With Cory Long

Everyone wants to start a business. But how do you build one that actually lasts 30 years? What separates entrepreneurs who survive economic changes, tough customers, staffing problems, and setbacks from those who quit?

In this episode of the E Forge Podcast, host Cory Long sits down with Don Sizemore, founder of Anything Goes Moving (AG Moving), to uncover the secrets behind building a successful small business that has stood the test of time.

After being laid off from the aviation industry, Don started his moving company in 1993 with a pickup truck, a trailer, and a willingness to work 16 to 18 hour days. More than three decades later, his North Texas moving business demonstrates the power of customer service, reputation, leadership, hard work, and relationship-driven growth.

This conversation explores real-world entrepreneurship, starting a business from scratch, growing a service business, hiring and retaining loyal employees, building customer trust, generating referrals, and creating long-term financial freedom. Don shares how he found his first customers, navigated difficult business seasons, adapted to changing technology, and developed a team that allows him greater freedom to serve others.

Whether you're a startup founder, established business owner, or overwhelmed entrepreneur trying to become a stronger leader, this episode offers practical lessons on sustainable business growth, employee loyalty, customer relationships, and building a lasting legacy.

What You'll Learn

→How Don built a business from nothing: Discover how a layoff led to entrepreneurship, how door-to-door marketing helped him find customers, and why consistent sales effort mattered more than having the perfect business plan.

→Why reputation is your greatest business asset: Learn how delivering on promises, solving customer problems, answering the phone, and generating word-of-mouth referrals can help a service business thrive for decades.

→How to build a team that creates freedom: Hear why Don made a loyal 17-year employee part-owner, how he trains employees to protect the customer experience, and why keeping great people is essential for long-term business success.

→How to build a business that supports your purpose: Explore Don's transition from exhausting workdays to greater flexibility, community service, disaster relief volunteering, and creating a business that makes a difference beyond profit.

Want to learn more about Cory Long? Check out the links below.

Ai Authority Engine https://aiauthoritychallenge.com/ 

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@therealcorylong

Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e-forge-with-cory-long/id1823417933

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4aZD9YaIr5OttNLce5iGOm?si=7149ceb9ed9c4819

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealcorylong/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/therealcorylongEforge/

Disclaimer - 

This video is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, tax, or legal advice. Always consult with a licensed tax professional or financial advisor to discuss your specific situation.

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Are you running a successful business, or have you built yourself a job you can never escape? If your company depends on you for every decision, every sale, and every problem, you may be stuck in The Operator Trap. Discover how to stop being the bottleneck, transition from operator to owner, and build a business that can grow without you.

In this episode of the E-Forge Podcast, host Cory Long sits down with Louis Hunter, business investor, entrepreneur, and co-author of The Operator Trap, to uncover why so many business owners struggle with delegation, leadership, systems, and sustainable growth.

Louis shares lessons from buying, building, and exiting businesses, including what makes a company valuable, why profitable companies aren't always sellable, and how owner dependency can destroy business value.

You'll discover the difference between self-employment and true business ownership, how to identify key-person risk, and why working harder isn't always the answer to scaling your company.

Whether you're an overwhelmed entrepreneur, small business owner, founder, or CEO looking for business growth strategies, this conversation will challenge how you think about freedom, building wealth, business acquisitions, and creating a company that operates without your constant involvement.

You’ll Learn: 

→ How to Escape the Operator Trap: Why the habits that made your business successful can eventually prevent it from growing, and how to shift your mindset from doing everything yourself to building a business that doesn't depend entirely on you.

→ Why Profitable Businesses Aren't Always Sellable: Understand key-person risk, how business buyers evaluate owner-dependent companies, and why removing yourself from daily operations can increase the enterprise value of your business.

→ Building Systems, Teams, and Real Business Assets: Learn why delegation, accountable leadership, clear agreements, operational systems, and scalable business structures matter when turning a business into a long-term investment.

→ How Smart Entrepreneurs Think About Growth and Ownership: Explore business acquisition strategies, vertical integration, long-term decision-making, authentic marketing, mentorship, and the power of viewing your own company through an investor's eyes.

Want to learn more about Cory Long? Check out the links below.

Ai Authority Engine https://aiauthoritychallenge.com/ 

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@therealcorylong

Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e-forge-with-cory-long/id1823417933

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4aZD9YaIr5OttNLce5iGOm?si=7149ceb9ed9c4819

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealcorylong/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/therealcorylongEforge/

Disclaimer - 

This video is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, tax, or legal advice. Always consult with a licensed tax professional or financial advisor to discuss your specific situation.

What does it really take to scale a company from successful to massive, without destroying the culture, losing your family, or becoming the bottleneck?

In this episode of the EForge Podcast, Cory Long sits down with Stephen Lambert, founder of Oprex Construction, a fast-growing commercial general contractor serving West Texas, the Permian Basin, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and beyond. Stephen shares what he has learned while growing a construction company, building a high-performance team, managing multimillion-dollar commercial projects, and pursuing an ambitious goal of becoming a $200 million company.

This conversation goes far beyond commercial construction. It is about leadership, business growth, scaling, hiring great employees, building company culture, extreme ownership, trust, delegation, faith, family, and becoming the kind of leader capable of carrying a much larger organization.

Stephen also explains why growth exposes weaknesses, how Oprex decides which projects to pursue, why great people are expensive, how leaders can remove themselves as the bottleneck, and why protecting your reputation may matter more than chasing revenue.

What You’ll Learn

→ You’ll learn why the leadership style that gets a company to one level often cannot take it to the next, and why founders must intentionally become more capable as the organization grows.

→ Stephen explains how trust is built through character, competency, communication, accountability, and doing what you said you would do—even when a project becomes difficult or expensive.

→ You’ll hear how Oprex uses core values, extreme ownership, strategic hiring, delegation, partnerships, and experienced construction professionals to pursue larger commercial projects while protecting execution quality.

→ You’ll also learn how Stephen thinks about faith, family, business growth, boundaries, ego, financial pressure, company culture, and building an organization that can continue operating at a high level without depending entirely on the founder.

Want to learn more about Cory Long? Check out the links below.

Ai Authority Engine https://aiauthoritychallenge.com/ 

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@therealcorylong

Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e-forge-with-cory-long/id1823417933

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4aZD9YaIr5OttNLce5iGOm?si=7149ceb9ed9c4819

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealcorylong/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/therealcorylongEforge/

Disclaimer - 

This video is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, tax, or legal advice. Always consult with a licensed tax professional or financial advisor to discuss your specific situation.

AI is changing how customers find businesses, and that could create one of the biggest agency opportunities of the next decade.

For years, businesses competed to rank at the top of Google using SEO, websites, reviews, backlinks, content, and Google Ads. But customers are increasingly asking ChatGPT, Google AI, Claude, Perplexity, Grok, and other AI assistants a very different question: Who should I hire?

That shift changes everything.

A business can have strong traditional SEO, great Google rankings, hundreds of reviews, and an established website, and still be almost invisible when customers ask AI for a recommendation.

In this episode of the E-Forge Podcast, Cory Long explains why AI search visibility, AI SEO, AEO, GEO, and AI authority could create a major new opportunity for agency owners, consultants, marketers, freelancers, coaches, and entrepreneurs. You’ll discover how businesses can become brands that AI understands, trusts, and recommends, and how marketers can build recurring services around solving that problem.

If you’ve been wondering how to turn AI into a legitimate service business instead of selling another chatbot, prompt pack, or AI course, this episode breaks down a practical agency model built around an emerging customer acquisition problem.

What You’ll Learn:

→ Why ranking at the top of Google no longer guarantees that a business will appear when customers use ChatGPT and other AI search platforms, and how this creates an entirely new visibility problem for business owners.

→ How an AI search agency can audit what AI currently understands about a company, uncover authority and visibility gaps, compare competitors, strengthen digital signals, create the right content, and measure improvements over time.

→ Why the future of marketing agencies may depend less on simply producing websites, articles, graphics, and social posts—and more on strategy, diagnosis, authority building, implementation, and solving expensive business problems.

→ How the AI Authority Engine model combines AI search strategy, positioning, prospecting, sales, client retention, certification, fulfillment, and authority building to help entrepreneurs create an actual AI agency rather than simply learn more about artificial intelligence.

Want to learn more about Cory Long? Check out the links below.

Ai Authority Engine https://aiauthoritychallenge.com/ 

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@therealcorylong

Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e-forge-with-cory-long/id1823417933

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4aZD9YaIr5OttNLce5iGOm?si=7149ceb9ed9c4819

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealcorylong/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/therealcorylongEforge/

Disclaimer - 

This video is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, tax, or legal advice. Always consult with a licensed tax professional or financial advisor to discuss your specific situation.

What if your business is growing while everything that matters most is shrinking?

Entrepreneurs are taught to chase business growth, more revenue, bigger teams, more clients, wealth, influence, and opportunity. But sustainable business growth means very little if success costs you your marriage, your relationship with your kids, your faith, or your peace. In this episode of the eForge Podcast, Cory Long sits down with entrepreneur JC Hite to explore how ambitious business owners can scale without sacrificing their family and personal life.

JC shares lessons from building companies, making the Inc. 5000, managing hundreds of employees, investing in businesses, and developing relationships with influential leadership voices including John Maxwell and Dr. Gary Chapman. He also shares what happened when outward business success collided with panic attacks, overwhelming pressure, and the realization that growth alone isn't the goal.

If you're an entrepreneur, founder, business owner, or leader trying to build wealth, create impact, strengthen your marriage, raise your kids well, deepen your faith, and grow a profitable company, this conversation challenges the traditional definition of success.

What You’ll Learn:

→ You’ll discover why more time with your children doesn't automatically mean more meaningful connection, and why JC emphasizes intentional, distraction-free time with family.

→ You’ll hear how entrepreneurs can navigate the tension between business growth, marriage, faith, family obligations, and opportunities that could accelerate their careers.

→ JC explains his approach to finding mentors and intentionally getting into rooms with successful leaders, including the formula he uses: vulnerability, the right room, execution over time, and faith.

→ You’ll also hear a different definition of entrepreneurial success: building profitable companies and creating meaningful impact without sacrificing the people and relationships you were building everything for in the first place.

Want to learn more about Cory Long? Check out the links below.

Ai Authority Engine https://aiauthoritychallenge.com/ 

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@therealcorylong

Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e-forge-with-cory-long/id1823417933

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4aZD9YaIr5OttNLce5iGOm?si=7149ceb9ed9c4819

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealcorylong/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/therealcorylongEforge/

Disclaimer - 

This video is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, tax, or legal advice. Always consult with a licensed tax professional or financial advisor to discuss your specific situation.

AI can build a marketing plan, write a sales script, explain Facebook ads, teach SEO, and create an entire business curriculum in seconds. So if you’re a coach, consultant, trainer, expert, or course creator, you need to answer a difficult question: What happens when the information inside your online course is no longer the main reason someone should pay you?

In this episode of the E-Forge Podcast, Cory Long sits down with Alex Changho to explore how artificial intelligence is changing the online coaching and knowledge business, and why the future may be less about selling information and more about creating transformation, competency, accountability, and certification.

They unpack the difference between someone saying, “I watched your course,” and being able to say, “I was trained, evaluated, and certified by you.” You’ll discover why AI may continue to commoditize information while increasing the value of human judgment, feedback, implementation, community, testing, and demonstrated expertise.

If you sell coaching programs, online courses, consulting, training, masterminds, or intellectual property, this conversation will challenge you to rethink exactly what your clients are paying for, and how to build an offer AI can strengthen instead of replace.

Highlights:

→ Discover why information alone is becoming harder to monetize as AI makes expert knowledge faster and easier to access.

→ How certification changes a course from information consumption into demonstrated competency and skill.

→ Why accountability, human feedback, judgment, community, and implementation can become increasingly valuable in an AI-driven coaching business.

→ How coaches and experts can identify the critical 20% of their expertise clients still need from a human even when AI can provide much of the underlying information.

Want to learn more about Cory Long? Check out the links below.

Ai Authority Engine https://aiauthoritychallenge.com/ 

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@therealcorylong

Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e-forge-with-cory-long/id1823417933

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4aZD9YaIr5OttNLce5iGOm?si=7149ceb9ed9c4819

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealcorylong/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/therealcorylongEforge/

Disclaimer - 

This video is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, tax, or legal advice. Always consult with a licensed tax professional or financial advisor to discuss your specific situation.

What are you building that will still matter when nobody remembers your name? As entrepreneurs, it’s easy to measure success by revenue, businesses, followers, influence, property, authority, and recognition. But what if those are the wrong finish lines? 

In this episode of the E-Forge Podcast, Cory Long explores what Hebrews 11 teaches Christian entrepreneurs about faith, legacy, generational wealth, leadership, family, and building a life that matters. The people remembered in the Bible’s Hall of Faith weren’t perfect. Abraham, Moses, Rahab, David, Samson, and others had failures, fears, and painful chapters, but their worst moments didn’t become the final headline of their lives. That raises a bigger question for every business owner and leader: What will your life ultimately be known for? 

This conversation is for entrepreneurs who want to build successful businesses, create wealth, develop influence, use AI and technology, and make an impact without sacrificing their faith, family, character, or calling along the way. Because building a great company is valuable, but building a legacy of faithfulness that changes generations is something even bigger.

Highlights:

→ Why one failure, bad decision, or difficult season doesn’t have to become the title of your entire story.

→ Why true legacy isn’t necessarily having future generations remember your name, it’s giving them something worth receiving.

→ How Christian entrepreneurs can build wealth, businesses, assets, influence, wisdom, character, and faith together instead of choosing one over the other. 

→ Five powerful questions that can help you evaluate what your business, family, leadership, and daily decisions are actually passing to the next generation.

Want to learn more about Cory Long? Check out the links below.

Ai Authority Engine https://aiauthoritychallenge.com/

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@therealcorylong

Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e-forge-with-cory-long/id1823417933

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4aZD9YaIr5OttNLce5iGOm?si=7149ceb9ed9c4819

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealcorylong/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/therealcorylongEforge/

Disclaimer - 

This video is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, tax, or legal advice. Always consult with a licensed tax professional or financial advisor to discuss your specific situation.

What does it take to build a business that can survive for nearly 50 years, and then hand that legacy to the next generation?

In this episode of the EForge Podcast, Cory Long sits down with Nick Bigham of Bigham’s Smokehouse, a family-owned Lubbock barbecue restaurant founded by his father, Don Bigham, in 1978. Nick shares what it’s really like to inherit a family business, lead employees, grow multiple restaurant locations, expand a catering operation, and protect your family while carrying the responsibility of a name that has served West Texas for generations.

This conversation goes far beyond barbecue. Nick breaks down the realities of restaurant ownership, entrepreneurship, leadership, delegation, business growth, customer service, rising food costs, catering large events, and building a company that can operate beyond the owner. If you own a small business, work in a family business, lead a team, run a restaurant, or want to build something that lasts beyond you, this episode is packed with lessons on stewardship, leadership, consistency, community, and legacy.

You’ll Learn:

→ Why taking over a successful family business requires more than simply preserving what the previous generation built, and how Nick learned to introduce change without abandoning the reputation Bigham’s had earned since 1978.

→ Why restaurant owners can’t remain the technician forever. Nick explains why being great at barbecue, cooking, or another craft is different from being able to hire, train, delegate, lead, manage finances, and grow a company.

→ How Bigham’s is expanding beyond its three Lubbock locations through large-scale catering, including events serving 900, 1,000, and even 1,800 people, while creating affordable catering options for businesses, weddings, families, job sites, and organizations.

→ Why leadership ultimately shows up in the business itself. Nick and Cory unpack the challenging idea that your company often reflects your leadership, and why developing people, setting standards, building accountability, and protecting quality time with family matters as much as revenue.

Want to learn more about Cory Long? Check out the links below.

Ai Authority Engine https://aiauthoritychallenge.com/

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@therealcorylong

Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e-forge-with-cory-long/id1823417933

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4aZD9YaIr5OttNLce5iGOm?si=7149ceb9ed9c4819

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealcorylong/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/therealcorylongEforge/

Disclaimer - 

This video is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, tax, or legal advice. Always consult with a licensed tax professional or financial advisor to discuss your specific situation.

What separates an entrepreneur who earns a good income from one who builds real, lasting wealth? In this episode of the E-Forge Podcast, Cory Long sits down with entrepreneur, investor, and insurance veteran Brian Hutchinson to unpack how successful business owners think differently about money, ownership, opportunity, risk, and legacy.

Brian shares lessons from 30 years in insurance, acquiring businesses, investing in land, developing an RV park, learning from wealthy mentors, and growing up under an entrepreneurial father. But this conversation goes far beyond making money. It explores Christian entrepreneurship, biblical stewardship, faith-based business leadership, building assets, creating generational wealth, developing sales skills, finding business mentors, taking calculated risks, and remembering that everything we build ultimately belongs to God. If you are a Christian business owner who wants to move beyond simply creating another job for yourself and begin building businesses, assets, freedom, impact, and a legacy that can outlive you, this conversation will challenge the way you think about success.

What You’ll Learn:

You’ll discover why entrepreneurs eventually need to shift from asking how to earn more money to asking what they can own; how Brian learned to evaluate opportunities by studying successful people and asking better questions; why sales, relationships, mentorship, calculated risk, and cash discipline played such a major role in his success; and how Christian entrepreneurs can pursue wealth while keeping God, family, generosity, stewardship, and purpose in the proper order.

Want to learn more about Cory Long? Check out the links below.

Ai Authority Engine https://invisibletoinvinciblechallenge.com/aiengine

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@therealcorylong

Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e-forge-with-cory-long/id1823417933

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4aZD9YaIr5OttNLce5iGOm?si=7149ceb9ed9c4819

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealcorylong/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/therealcorylongEforge/

Disclaimer - 

This video is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, tax, or legal advice. Always consult with a licensed tax professional or financial advisor to discuss your specific situation.

Do you keep telling yourself you’ll start your business, post the video, make the sales call, hire the employee, launch the podcast, or make the investment once you finally feel ready?

For Christian entrepreneurs, waiting for more confidence, knowledge, money, experience, or certainty can feel responsible, but sometimes it’s simply fear disguised as preparation. In this episode of the E-Forge Podcast, Cory Long breaks down a powerful entrepreneurship lesson from the story of Joshua and the 31 kings in Joshua 12. Joshua didn’t begin with King Number 31 experience. He had to fight King Number One first.

The same principle applies to business growth, Christian leadership, sales, content creation, investing, hiring, and building a legacy. You don’t become an experienced entrepreneur before you take action. Experience is built through decisions, failures, victories, obedience, faith, and repetition.

If you’re a Christian business owner, entrepreneur, creator, or leader who feels unqualified for what God has placed in front of you, this episode will challenge you to stop waiting for perfect confidence and start faithfully confronting the battle that is actually in front of you today.

You may not be ready for King Number 31.

You only need enough faith for King Number One.

Highlights:

→ Why waiting until you feel completely ready can keep Christian entrepreneurs stuck for years, and how to recognize when preparation has become fear.

→ How Joshua’s journey from his first battles to defeating 31 kings reveals the real process behind business experience, leadership development, confidence, and growth.

→ Why failure in entrepreneurship doesn’t automatically mean you chose the wrong path, and how your early sales calls, videos, employees, investments, and business decisions become training for future opportunities.

→ How to stop comparing your beginning to someone else’s decades of experience, trust God with what is in front of you, and take the next faithful step even when you don’t feel qualified.

Want to learn more about Cory Long? Check out the links below.

Ai Authority Engine https://invisibletoinvinciblechallenge.com/aiengine

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@therealcorylong

Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e-forge-with-cory-long/id1823417933

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4aZD9YaIr5OttNLce5iGOm?si=7149ceb9ed9c4819

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealcorylong/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/therealcorylongEforge/

Disclaimer - 

This video is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, tax, or legal advice. Always consult with a licensed tax professional or financial advisor to discuss your specific situation.