The Inspired Stories Podcast

🎙️ 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 interview like a real conversation instead of a script, the impulsive call that pushed him to buy a franchise in an empty territory, and the house fire that nearly took his family before reshaping how he lives.

✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:

• Landed his first retail job at H&M through an unconventional group interview built around building with Lego blocks

• Trained in Germany early in his H&M career and saw firsthand how workplace culture shifts across countries

• Learned to interview candidates as real conversations rather than scripted questions under mentor Martha

• Spent years building a stable career in corporate recruiting before feeling pulled toward ownership

• Left a director-level role after a single phone call from a former coworker changed his mind

• Became Gecko Hospitality's first recruiter in Florida, building the territory from nothing

• Lost his home to a fire that reduced it to the slab, with firefighters delayed nearly an hour

• Quit drinking the same night as the fire after realizing how differently things could have gone

• Found unexpected unity in his community's response to the fire, across political and ideological lines

• Now advises job seekers to submit a short video introduction instead of relying on a resume alone

🌟 Jeremy's Key Mentors:

• Martha (H&M District Manager): Taught him to interview candidates through real conversation instead of reading from a script

• A Former Coworker Turned Headhunter: His phone call from the driveway became the final push toward Jeremy's own franchise ownership

• His Daughter: Described as the emotional anchor that carried the family through the night of the house fire

• His Local Community: Neighbors across political lines who came together to support his family after the fire

👉 Hear how an unconventional H&M interview launched a career that led to franchise ownership, and how a devastating house fire reshaped how Jeremy Nichols lives and leads.

🔗 Connect with Jeremy Nichols:

Website: geckohospitality.com

📄 Transcript Available: How a Tragic House Fire Reshaped Jeremy Nichols Life for the Better

📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast

🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast

📄 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line

Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎙️ 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 the two kinds of pain he hopes his kids never have to choose between.

✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:

• Worked six different retail careers before finding his footing

• Turned down Big Sandy's initial offer, then returned on a 30-day plan

• Sold $150,000 against a $70,000 goal in his first 30 days

• Learned to focus on the customer's story, not the sale itself

• Coaches teams across 30 stores in six states

• Carried $20,000 in credit card debt before finding Art Van

• Uses AI to visualize furniture inside customers' actual homes

• Big Sandy named fastest-growing home furnishings retailer in 2024

• Believes culture is set in a store's first 30 minutes of the day

• Teaches his kids the difference between the pain of discipline and regret

🌟 Ben's Key Mentors:

• Martin (GM at Art Van): Asked the question that changed how Ben sold

• Robbie Van Hoos: Big Sandy leader behind "without a story to tell, you have nothing but price to sell"

• Chad Sanchagrin: Trainer who reframed what it means to sell furniture

• Every GM He's Worked Under: Taught him what to do, and what not to do

👉 A candid look at what it takes to rebuild culture store by store, and why Ben measures success in the pain his kids choose to avoid.

🔗 Connect with Ben Chase:

Website: bigsandysuperstore.com

📄 Transcript Available: The Pain of Discipline vs. the Pain of Regret: Ben Chase’s Journey at Big Sandy Superstore 

📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast

🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast

📄 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line

Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎙️ 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 personal crisis as a young single mother, walking away from an employer who told her to stop helping clients, and the years of advocacy work that quietly reshaped how millions of Americans access coverage through healthcare.gov.

✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:

• Watched her ex-husband's medical bill spiral toward a million dollars with no insurance in place

• Changed her mind about insurance after her father-in-law's premium payment covered the entire bill

• Spent nine years and eight months being publicly harassed following a highly publicized personal crisis

• Left her second industry job after being told to stop helping a client fight an unfair rate increase

• Launched her own brokerage in 2009, just as the Affordable Care Act was reshaping the industry

• Has served on the CMS Broker Advisory Group for Healthcare.gov since 2017

• Helped close a six-year regulatory loophole that let 850,000 more people qualify for subsidies

• Co-founded a software company, Max Methodology, to help independent brokers stay compliant and competitive

• Pays her agents higher commission splits and renewals to reward client education over fast sales

• Crossed her agency's first million-dollar revenue year, a milestone only 2% of women-owned businesses reach

🌟 Rebecca's Key Mentors:

• Her Father-in-Law: Paid the insurance premium that covered a near-million-dollar medical bill and changed her view of the industry

• Her Mother: Took her in during her hardest years and showed up for her consistently through a public crisis

• Her In-Laws: Provided steady childcare and support that let her rebuild her career as a single parent

• Colleagues on the CMS Broker Advisory Group: Partners in years of advocacy work that reshaped healthcare.gov's systems and protections

👉 Hear how a near-catastrophic medical bill turned a skeptic into one of the health insurance industry's most active advocates for consumers.

🔗 Connect with Rebecca Yates:

Website: ARK-ins.com

📄 Transcript Available: Paying Agents to Educate Instead of Sell Is the Bet Rebecca Yates Built Her Brokerage On

📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast

🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast

📄 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line

Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎙️ 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 how his mother stepped in from teaching to run a nine-store supermarket chain almost overnight.

✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:

• Turned down a New Jersey supermarket job after his father passed away

• Watched his mother step in as CEO with no prior business management experience

• Learned to solicit feedback after a manager was afraid to correct the boss's son

• Joined Wakefern, the co-op behind ShopRite, and rebranded in 2022

• Lowered cost of goods seven to ten percent and passed most of it to customers

• Watched one store's sales drop twenty percent mid-transition

• Operates on razor thin margins of about three percent before taxes

• Refused to raise egg prices above eight dollars during the 2023 shortage

• Expanded into Ace Hardware, now with seven locations

• Expects an 80 percent refrigeration energy savings from adding cooler doors

🌟 Joe's Key Mentors:

• His Father: Built the company from a small meat shop into a multi-store chain before his sudden death

• His Mother, Joyce: Stepped in as CEO from a teaching career and still advises the business today

• Ron Gadowski: Longtime center store supervisor who mentored him early in his career

• Mark Braddon: Director of operations who now runs the day-to-day business alongside him

👉 Hear how a family grocery chain founded in 1895 survived a father's sudden death, a chaotic co-op conversion, and the razor-thin margins of the supermarket business.

🔗 Connect with Joe Fasula:

Website: gerritys.com

📄 Transcript Available: From 1 Butcher Shop to 17 Stores: Joe Fasula's Family Legacy at Gerrity's

📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast

🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast

📄 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line

Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎙️ 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 he learned as a therapist now guide how he trains his team to sit with clients in their hardest moments.

✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:

• Was a year into licensure as a marriage and family therapist before pivoting to insurance

• Discovered his own home policy was dangerously underinsured after becoming an agent

• Left a captive agency because he felt more like a consultant than a salesperson

• Built early client relationships through nearly 500 personalized LinkedIn outreach messages

• Named the agency  Värde after the Swedish word for value

• Watched his closing ratio fall from 87% to 45% during industry-wide rate spikes

• Survived a difficult 50-50 business partnership split in 2023

• Rebuilt the agency with a much slower, more deliberate hiring process

• Expanded from personal lines into commercial insurance almost overnight

• Plans to add health insurance as the agency's next line of business

🌟 Grant's Key Mentors:

• His Father-in-Law: First suggested he consider a career in insurance

• Early Insurance Company Contacts: Vouched for him personally to secure his agency's first carrier appointments

• His Wife: Brought professional recruiting experience that shaped  Värde's hiring process

• Real Estate and Mortgage Partners: Early referral relationships that helped launch his independent agency

👉 Hear how a licensed family therapist rebuilt an insurance agency from scratch after a painful business split — and why he still treats every client conversation like a counseling session.

🔗 Connect with Grant Johnson:

Website:  Värdeinsurance.com

📄 Transcript Available: Grant Johnson's Closing Ratio Dropped From 87% to 45% During Insurance's Perfect Storm

📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast

🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast

📄 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line

Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎧 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 an expert witness in valuation disputes, and is weeks away from releasing his first book. His thesis: most business owners will only sell once, and they show up completely unprepared. He’s built his career making sure that doesn’t happen.

✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:

• Showing up at Indiana Business Advisors at 22, getting rejected, and returning four hours later with a single argument: it’s commission only, what do you have to lose?

• How his father’s death at 21 redirected his Wall Street dreams toward staying close to home in Indianapolis

• Teaching himself FrontPage to build the firm’s first website when the partners thought the internet was a fad

• Why IBA does valuations on every deal before going to market — and how that separates them from the competition

• The three reasons 80% of businesses never sell: value gap, due diligence failure, and wrong motivation

• Why selling in a divorce is bad and retiring is good — and how motivation shapes deal success

• The “take a vacation and don’t call” stress test for identifying where a business depends too much on its owner

• How AI is changing valuations — and why it still can’t replace the wisdom of 2,400 completed deals

• The quality of earnings analysis trend that may surpass traditional business valuation

• Done Deal — the book coming in August that is a playbook for selling a business whether you use a broker or go it alone

🌟 Ed’s Key Mentors:

• Dick Hester and Larry Metzing (IBA Founders): took a chance on a 22-year-old with nothing to offer but tenacity, then stepped aside and let him build — never once slowed him down

• His Father: instilled an early sense of responsibility and urgency that shaped Ed’s approach to work and legacy

• John Warrillow (Built to Sell Author): Value Builder framework became a core tool for identifying the eight drivers of business value in every deal

• His Expert Witness Experience: hundreds of courtroom cases across divorce and dispute valuations that sharpened his ability to defend and challenge any number

• His 2,400 Clients: every deal taught something the last one didn’t — the cumulative reps that no AI model can replicate

👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it actually takes to sell a business — and why most owners don’t find out until it’s too late.

🔗 Connect with Ed Mysogland:

Website: indianabusinessadvisors.com

Personal site: edmysogland.com

Podcast: Defenders of Business Value

📤 Transcript Available: Ed Mysogland Built Indiana's Largest Brokerage by Treating Deals Like Investment Banking

📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast

🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast

📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎙️ 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 opens up about what those setbacks taught him about trust and incentives, and how those lessons shaped the performance-based, full-service model behind the Amazon growth agency he built.

✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:

• Got an early, formative look at media incentives while observing the White House press corps as a kid

• Worked at Microsoft during a period when the company quietly partnered with a young startup called Google

• Co-founded a mobile social network that raised $7.2 million from Sand Hill Road investors

• Lost the company and years of work when a VC fund collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis

• Discovered a business partner's books had been falsified during a fundraising round

• Learned firsthand how quickly trust and reputation collapse once financial numbers are compromised

• Built an Amazon growth agency around a full-service model instead of single-channel services

• Prices services on performance-based alignment rather than flat retainer fees

• Structures client engagements so the agency effectively fires itself if results don't show within 30 days

• Emphasizes preparation and timing as decisive, often uncontrollable factors in business success

🌟 Josh's Key Influences:

• Early White House Press Exposure: Shaped a lasting skepticism about incentives and integrity in institutions

• Microsoft Colleagues: Introduced him to an early, discoverability-focused partnership with Google

• Sand Hill Road Investors: Backed his mobile social network and shaped his understanding of venture-backed risk

• A Business Partner's Failure: The discovery of falsified books became a defining lesson in trust and accountability

👉 Hear how a career shaped by media pettiness, Microsoft's Google partnership, a lost venture, and a business betrayal led to a performance-based Amazon growth agency.

🔗 Connect with Josh Levine:
Website: growthavenue.com

📄 Transcript Available: Josh Levine Brought Google Into Microsoft. Now He Helps Founders Grow and Exit Faster.

📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast

🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast

📄 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line

Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎙️ 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 financial uncertainty during the housing crisis, the executive coach who convinced him he didn't have to sacrifice family for growth, and why he believes AI is creating more work for accountants rather than replacing them.

✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:

• Switched from accounting to information systems at BYU before Ernst & Young's audit program pulled him back

• Took his first CFO role at a startup just a week after finishing his CPA requirements

• Realized full-time CFO work wasn't sustainable at small startups and pivoted to serving multiple clients at once

• Spent seven years during the housing crisis uncertain where payroll, and his own paycheck, would come from

• Formed a joint venture called Tanalytics with a regional accounting firm in 2018

• Bought out that joint venture in 2019 and rebranded the combined company as Nimbl Staffing

• Hired an HR-focused leader as his second employee, well before most companies would consider that role

• Built Nimbl Staffing around referral partnerships rather than digital advertising or cold outreach

• Grew to over 100 team members split between the US and the Philippines

• Gives individual team members their own AI tool access rather than building company-wide automated workflows

🌟 Dave's Key Mentors:

• The Founder of AquaTherm: Remembered him from a high school job and gave him his first CFO opportunity

• His Executive Coach of Seven Years: Helped him realize he could grow the business without sacrificing family and health

• His Wife: Trusted him through years of financial uncertainty rather than pushing him toward a traditional job

• His Early Accounting Peer Group: Formed in 2019 and still provides some of his closest professional relationships today

👉 Hear how two CFO jobs that became too small to justify full-time work led to a 100-person outsourced accounting company built on referrals, systems, and a refusal to sacrifice family for growth.

🔗 Connect with Dave Olsen:

Website: https://trustnimbl.com/staffing/

📄 Transcript Available: Integrity at Nimbl Means One Thing to Dave Olsen: Be Your Word

📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast

🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast

📄 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line

Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎙️ Robby Younes on COVID, the Board That Tried to Fire Him, and Taking Crystal Springs Resort From $10M to $26M

Robby Younes, President of Crystal Springs Resort, grew up in Beirut during the war, came to the United States, got humiliated at a social gathering for not knowing wine well enough, walked into Barnes & Noble the next morning, and never stopped. Twenty years later he runs a resort with a wine cellar worth over $32 million, 438 rooms across two properties, and a EBITDA he tripled from 10 million to 26 million — despite a board that tried to fire him multiple times for keeping the property open, renovating with his own staff, and charging $1,200 a night during COVID while everyone else was closed.

✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:

• Growing up in Beirut during the war and what a life of survival taught him about risk

• Being humiliated over wine at a social gathering and the Barnes & Noble morning that followed

• How founder Gene Mulderhill let him taste millions of dollars of wine that built his palate and his career

• Building a wine cellar with 135,000 bottles across 9,100 labels and why it was always a marketing vehicle

• Deciding not to close during COVID while the board prepared his termination paperwork

• Renovating four properties with his own hotel staff, broken into 12 teams, during 11 weeks of COVID shutdown

• Opening in June 2020 at $700 a night, closing at $1,200, and running at 100 percent occupancy

• Reinvesting 60 percent of profits back into the property and growing customer return rate from 28 to 58 percent

• Taking the company from $10.9 million to $26 million EBITDA over five years and what that made it worth at sale

• The $54 million investment plan with the new ownership group, South Street Capital

🌟 Robby's Key Mentors:

• His Father (Army General): A man who scared everyone in life and had thousands of people at his funeral — including soldiers whose weddings he secretly paid for — who never raised his voice

• Gene Mulderhill (Crystal Springs Founder): Gave Robby access to wine that money rarely buys and the mandate to build the best cellar in the world

• The Person Who Humiliated Him Over Wine: The moment that sent him to Barnes & Noble and started everything

• The Retirees He Calls Weekly: Not in his industry, not in his company — just successful, humble people who tell him when he's wrong

👉 Don't miss this conversation about what happens when you refuse to close during the worst crisis in hospitality history, why the dollar chases you if you stop chasing it, and what a general's funeral in Beirut taught a resort president in New Jersey about what leadership actually looks like.

🔗 Connect with Robby Younes:

Website: crystalgolfresort.com

📄 Transcript Available: Fair Leadership Without Fear: Robby Younes on the Standard He Wants at Crystal Spring Resort

📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast

🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast

📄 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency — Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com

🎙️ Started with a Three Thousand Dollar Loan on the Family Car: Rich Balot's Journey Building Victra

In this episode, Rich Balot, founder and CEO of Victra, shares how a mobile DJ business in high school and a $3,000 loan against the family car led to building the largest exclusive Verizon authorized retailer in the country. Rich opens up about the sudden death of his COO that pulled him back from retirement, buying his own company back from private equity within weeks of raising the capital, and how he rebuilt a broken culture across 1,800 stores nationwide.

✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:

• Started a mobile DJ business in high school that grew to seven employees and six-figure profit by age 16

• Opened his first cell phone store in 1996 in Wilson, North Carolina, at age 18

• Brought his brother on as a business partner specifically to help outvote their father

• Grew the company from a single storefront to roughly 250 stores before retiring in 2015

• Returned as CEO in 2019 after his successor left and company culture had deteriorated

• Fired three of four area vice presidents and nine of sixteen regional directors within 60 days of returning

• Learned his COO had died in a car accident weeks after selling the business in 2015

• Raised the capital to buy Victra back from private equity in just 24 hours in 2021

• Now oversees roughly 1,800 stores across all 50 states generating nearly $3 billion in revenue

• Serves as president of a Catholic high school that grew from 32 to nearly 300 students

🌟 Rich's Key Mentors:

• His Father: Risked the family car to fund his first business loan and gave him early confidence and trust

• His Brother, Dave: Longtime silent business partner who helped balance family dynamics and later co-led the company buyback

• His Wife: Founder of Haven at Blue Creek, whose own recovery journey shaped his approach to giving back

• The Bishop of Raleigh: Entrusted him with leading a Catholic high school despite his own Jewish faith

👉 Hear how a teenage DJ business and a risked family car became the largest exclusive Verizon retailer in the country, and what it took to rebuild it after tragedy and a broken culture.

🔗 Connect with Rich Balot:

Website: victra.com

📄 Transcript Available: Brotherhood, Trust, and a Father's Belief Anchored Rich Balot's Path to Building Victra

📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast

🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast

📄 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line

Website: addbackbenefits.com