INspired INsider Podcast

Lance Graulich is the Founder and CEO of ION Franchising, an industry-leading franchise, consulting, and development group. They represent over 650 franchise brands and business opportunities within 90 different categories.

Lance helps prospective entrepreneurs find their perfect franchise free of charge and he also helps independent business owners create a franchise system. He started in a family business on Wall Street after receiving his economics degree. He joined TGI Friday's franchise in Arizona as a key executive and was vital in the rapid growth of the over $225 million organization.

Lance was a multi-unit, multi-state franchisee of Wingstop and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. He has created countless startup brands and is one of the industry-leading donut experts. He is the Founder of the doughnut chain Pinkbox Doughnut in Las Vegas.

As a business start-up expert with more than 25 years of experience, Lance has served as President of various franchise advisory councils and boards advising emerging franchise brands. He has also helped a multitude of companies grow efficiently and effectively, and he routinely provides advisory services to private equity firms covering the restaurant industry.

Are you interested in starting a new business but have no idea on how to begin? Are you looking to expand your brand to other areas but don't want the associated cost? If these are questions that you want answered ASAP, you should consider resourcing up and hiring two people who can help you get those questions answered: an attorney and an accountant.

The only caveat is that there are many misconceptions about franchising especially if you're asking for advice from the wrong people. But connecting with experts such as Lance Graulich, who is a serial franchisee and a certified business startup expert, helps you avoid three very possible scenarios: ruining your brand, missing out on a great business opportunity, or getting hit with the double whammy in one fell swoop.

Make sure to tune in to this episode of Inspired Insider as Dr. Jeremy Weisz as he chats with Lance Graulich, the Founder and CEO of ION Franchising, about the challenges and opportunities that come with franchising. They'll discuss how to leverage franchising to expand your brand, how Lance became a successful franchisee, the work he does with some remarkable brands that he represents, and how he can help you become a franchise owner even with a $50,000 budget.

Robert Wallace is a speaker, author, and a consultant with over 40 years of business experience spanning engineering, energy, and IT. He has a true rags-to-riches story that began in the Baltimore Projects amidst poverty and racial segregation before overcoming obstacles to establish three companies: BITHGROUP Technologies, Bithenergy, and EntreTeach.

Robert shares his innovative strategies for success in his books and workshops, which includes one of his books, Black Wealth: Your Road to Small Business Success. He partners with many different types of clients across a range of industries and some of his clients include Bank of America, Dartmouth College, IBM, Salvation Army, NIH, Toyota, Verizon, University of Pennsylvania, and many more.

"Why does America hate us so much?" That was the depressing question young Robert Wallace asked his father when he watched the news about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. As an adult and as a parent today, how do you answer that question? Robert's father was able to talk to him and his siblings about racial inequality which shaped his perspective about it and made him see that not everyone was truly bad. But sadly, many years later, racial inequality still persists, and the recent events at the Capitol Building lend credence to it.

But what impact does racial inequality have in you as a person and in your business? And how can addressing the appalling silence on racial inequality help you determine the direction that might want to have for your business? And more importantly, what can you learn from Robert's experiences of racial inequality and how he turned it around to succeed in life and business?

Listen to this episode of Inspired Insider as Dr. Jeremy Weisz talks to Robert Wallace, Founder of BITHGROUP Technologies, about the appalling silence on racial inequality. Robert talks about his experiences of racial inequality in the United States and how he has seen it persist through the years. He also shares the lessons he's learned and the mindset that shaped his success in education and entrepreneurship, and his favorite story from his book, Black Wealth: Your Road to Small Business Success.

Haley Kwait Zollo is Principal at Starting Line, a Chicago-based, thematic early-stage venture capital fund focused on investing in consumer services and products that are cheaper and better. They've invested in companies like Cameo, Catch Co, SpotHero, and many more.

Before joining Startling Line, Haley was VP of Strategy and Business Operations at Mac & Mia and was Manager of strategy and analytics at Trunk Club. She began her career as a Transaction Services Associate at KPMG.

Building a business in today's highly digitalized world is a double-edged sword because there's a lot of data created that can make or break a business. The misanalysis of data or analyzing the incorrect data can lead to poorly informed decision making that can hurt your business. But on the flip side, using the data and measuring KPIs the right way will drive important decisions that can multiply your business's growth.

However, the million-dollar problem is how do you know which metrics to measure and how do you identify which KPIs move the needle for your business?

On this episode of Inspired Insider, Dr. Jeremy Weisz interviews Haley Kwait Zollo, Principal at Starting Line, about the importance of making informed decisions in business. They discuss Haley's background in analytics, her foray into the VC world, the data and KPIs digital brands should be analyzing, and Haley's advice to early-stage startups on how to have non-linear growth. Stay tuned.

Rudy Mawer is the CEO and Founder of ROI Machines. ROI Machines is a digital marketing agency that helps companies get tens of thousands of leads with paid ads by setting up everything that a company needs from funnel design, development, copywriting much more. They help multiple 7 to 8 figure businesses generate over $150 million per year.

Rudy is also the CEO of Pier1, an online retail and home store chain specializing in imported home furnishings and decor. Pier1 is part of the Retail E-commerce Venture's holdings, where Rudy is an investor and advisor. Tai Lopez and Alex Mehr run Retail E-commerce Ventures and their holdings include Pier1, RadioShack, Dressbarn, Stein Mart, Franklin Mint, Linens 'n Things, and many more.

Before founding ROI Machines, Rudy was an elite sports nutritionist and trainer. He worked with Hollywood celebrities, elite athletes, NBA players, WWE, gold medalists, and more.

How do you rebuild a brand that has made a billion dollars in revenue and went bankrupt? How do you rebuild the trust with partners and vendors with backlogs of unpaid invoices? That's the scary and chaotic state Pier1 was in before Rudy Mawer took over its operations after Retail E-commerce Ventures acquired it.

Rudy has since gone on to put Pier1 and brands like RadioShack and Linens 'N Things on a steady growth trajectory while still running his own digital marketing agency that generates over 150 million $ per year for top businesses. Impressive, isn't it?

In this episode of Inspired Insider Dr. Jeremy Weisz interviews the CEO and Founder of ROI Machines, Rudy Mawer, to discuss how he rebuilds and grows big brands that have gone bankrupt. Rudy also talks about the mindset behind his success with elite clients, the metrics that matters when growing and rebuilding a big brand, what makes an ad convert, and how he built a 60-person digital agency that's capable of running on its own. Stay tuned.

Ray Edwards is a famous copywriter, best-selling author, and keynote speaker. His direct response campaigns have resulted in an estimated $100 million in sales, and he has worked with high-profile clients such as Tony Robbins, Jack Canfield, and Mark Victor Hansen. Ray is currently a copywriting consultant and the Founder of the Copywriting Academy Coaching Program and the Ray Edwards Copywriting Agency. He is also the host of the top-ranked podcast, The Ray Edwards Show.

What is the secret to writing a compelling and unforgettable story—for direct response marketing campaigns and beyond? According to copywriter Ray Edwards, the best possible story is the true story.

While many marketers and business owners shy away from storytelling that makes them feel vulnerable or uncomfortable, Ray insists that the most powerful stories are the ones that are personal and emotional. That's because they strike a chord with your audience, inviting them to create a connection with you and your brand. For example, the hardest story for Ray to tell was about his Parkinson's disease. However, when he finally embraced his discomfort and posted the story on his professional website, he received an astounding and positive response. As it turns out, this was just the story that people were waiting for.

Sit down with Dr. Jeremy Weisz and copywriting legend Ray Edwards in this episode of the Inspired Insider podcast as they talk about how to tell a story that leaves a lasting impression on your target audience. Ray opens up about the many valuable lessons he has learned throughout his career, his journey toward embracing vulnerability in life and in business, and the storytelling strategies that he believes are the most powerful (hint: always tell your truth).

Ron Popeil is a unique inventor and a legend of sales infomercials and direct response marketing. Over the last 40 years, Ron's products have pulled in more than $2 billion in sales. He has created innumerable products and infomercials, such as the Showtime Rotisserie, the Chop-O-Matic, the Veg-O-Matic, and many more.

Ron is still going strong with his latest product, the 5-in-1 fryer which can cook a 15 pound turkey in 46 minutes.

Do you want to know how to craft top-notch marketing campaigns that are persuasive and profitable? Are you looking for the secrets behind some of the biggest infomercials in TV history? If so, you're in the right place!

Ron Popeil had an early start in direct marketing. Growing up, Ron spent a great deal of time selling products and services to large crowds of people on Maxwell Street. Through that experience, Ron learned the best strategies and hacks for selling products--fast. So, when Ron found an opportunity to sell on TV through infomercials, he knew just what to say to win over hoards of customers.

In this episode of Inspired Insider, Dr. Jeremy Weisz is joined by Ron Popeil, inventor and expert direct marketer, to discuss Ron's background and experience with infomercials and direct response marketing. Listen in as Jeremy and Ron talk about Ron's most successful campaigns (and the strategies behind them), Ron's thoughts on pitching products, and the craziest inventions Ron has seen in his 40 years as a direct marketing aficionado. Stay tuned!

Peep Laja is a former champion of optimization and experimentation turned business builder. He is the Founder and CEO of CXL Institute, the only skill-building platform for marketers that uses the world's top 1% of practitioners as its instructors. With years of experience and multiple companies under his belt, Peep is considered the #1 most influential conversion rate optimization expert in the world.

Peep also hosts the annual CXL Live, a must-attend conference that features the best in online optimization and experimentation.

What if there was a single feature that you could add to your business website that would skyrocket your conversion rates? This is called conversion optimization, and, as online optimization expert Peep Laja knows, it's all about trial and error.

Throughout his successful career, Peep has made a significant amount of conversion optimization changes that have failed. However, this is all part of his process for building stellar websites. As he says, the most strategic thing you can do for your website is to follow data rather than opinions. By running data-driven tests on each change he makes—from new pull-down menus to a different color for a CTA button—Peep is able to determine exactly what it takes to quadruple a website's conversion rates.

Join Dr. Jeremy Weisz in this episode of the Giants of Direct Response Summit as he sits down with Peep Laja, the Founder and CEO of the CXL Institute, to discuss how to use conversion optimization to take your business to the next level. Peep discusses the lessons he has learned from his failures, the intense research process he follows when taking on a new client, and the data-driven tests he uses to track his success. Stay tuned!

Joanna Wiebe is the Founder and Conversion Copywriter at Copyhackers, as well as the Co-Founder and Head of Growth at Airstory. As the original conversion copywriter with a career that spans almost 15 years, Joanna has worked with incredible companies such as BT, Canva, Glowforge, Prezi, and many more. In addition to writing top-notch copy, Joanna has also coached and advised more than 70,000 businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Communication is one of the most important tools that we have as humans. Consequently, words can also be one of the hardest tools to master. That's why professional copywriters are such an integral part of marketing—without engaging and professional writing, many marketing and advertising attempts would fail.

Joanna Wiebe discovered the value of writing when she dropped out of law school and began to work as a copywriter. At first, Joanna branded herself as a 'creative writer' because the title of 'copywriter' sounded too banal. However, with time and experience, Joanna began to appreciate and embrace copywriting as her true calling in life. Now, she's taking the copywriting world by storm with her successful companies, Copyhackers and Airstory.

If you want to learn the best tips and tricks for copywriting and marketing, this episode of Inspired Insider with Dr. Jeremy Weisz is for you! Tune in as Jeremy sits down with Joanna Wiebe of Copyhackers and Airstory to discuss her biggest influences, the relationship between design and copy, and her top strategies for engaging users. Joanna's story is honest and inspiring, and her practical advice for writers and marketers may just change your career.

David Mann and Derrick Smith are Partners at The Firefly Group. They invest in growth-oriented, lower middle market companies that include US-based companies with EBITDA of at least a million dollars.

Before co-founding The Firefly Group, David Mann co-founded Spring Mill Venture Partners, a venture capital firm. He previously worked with ServiceMaster Ventures and served as a founding member of the ServiceMaster home Service Center. David began his career as an Officer of the US Navy. He got his MBA from Harvard and is an Adjunct Faculty at the Indiana University, Kelley School of Business.

Derrick Smith led the launch of a family office where he served as managing director before co-founding The Firefly Group. He began his career with CHV Capital, the healthcare venture capital arm of the Indiana University Health. He also helped start and led Indiana University's Health International and Management Company while at CHV Capital. He earned his MBA from Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, and serves as an executive business advisor at Rise Sports Advisors.

As an entrepreneur, your business's geography, EBITDA, operating profile, and industry can potentially attract many venture capitalists. But if you want a strategic growth partner who will bring more than just money to your business, you have to have your core values identified and you need to be applying them in each step of your company's growth.

According to David Mann and Derrick Smith, your core values may be the reason an investor will pass on your company. It's such a crucial and fundamental part of your company culture and it's worth investing time in. But why is it so important and how can you flesh one out to help direct your company's growth?

Listen to this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz as he hosts David Mann and Derrick Smith, Partners at The Firefly Group, to talk about core values and the role they play in attracting potential investors in your company. They'll be discussing Firefly Group's investment criteria, the story of how they invested in EOS Worldwide, and how David and Derrick assess key hires for their company. Stay tuned.

John and Dr. Denitra Griffin are Co-Founders of the largest black-owned security firm in the United States, AGB (Always Giving Back) Investigative Services. John is the CEO of the AGB Investigative Services and Dr. Griffin is the President. John and Dr. Griffin founded AGB Investigative Services in 2001. They offer expertise in all aspects of security, including physical and cyber. Their mission is to eliminate economic inequities by delivering training and smart services to protect your people, property, and data.

Dr. Griffin is also the CEO and Founder of the AGB Foundation where they give out business internships and college scholarships to young people.

They also own and run The AGB Institute which provides training for people seeking to better themselves as professionals and enhance their life skills. They offer various courses related to security training, business security, professional development, and administrative support.

John and Dr. Denitra Griffin's story isn't your usual grass to grace story. From growing up in the projects for John and with Dr. Griffin wondering at an early age about the possibilities available for her, they knew that they wanted to have the capacity to help other people. This power couple has made it their life's work to make sure other people from marginalized communities get a chance to be better.

The couple runs a solid, full-service security business that began as a side hustle to become a standout company supporting over a thousand employees and their families. Dr. Griffin and John have picked up many lessons along the way and were happy to sit down with Dr. Jeremy Weisz to unpack some of it.

Listen to John and Dr. Denitra Griffin', owners of the largest black-owned security firm, AGB Investigative Services, on this episode of Inspired Insider as they share their inspiring story with Dr. Jeremy Weisz. They'll be talking about the growth of their company and how their offerings have evolved over time, some remarkable stories of their trainings applied in action, the employee growth opportunities in their firm, and what the AGB Foundation is all about.