Most entrepreneurs spend an enormous amount of time thinking about their products, customers, competition, revenue, and expenses. But there's another force operating inside every company. It influences who stays, who leaves, how decisions are made, how customers are treated, and whether success energizes people or slowly burns them out.

What's that force? Culture. Every business has one, whether the founder creates it intentionally or simply allows it to develop on its own. And while culture can sometimes sound like a vague collection of mission statements, employee perks, and motivational slogans, today's guest believes it's something far more consequential. Culture can improve people's lives, strengthen the company's performance, and even change the way we experience work itself. Welcome, or hopefully welcome back, to The Reluctant Entrepreneur.

My guest today is Wes Love, co-founder of CultureStoke, a culture consulting and leadership development organization that helps companies build stronger teams, develop better leaders, and create workplaces where people and businesses can thrive together. 

CultureStoke works with organizations through leadership development, workshops, team retreats, coaching, and customized culture transformation programs. Wes followed what he describes as an unconventional path.

He married at 20, became a father at 22, welcomed his second daughter at 24, and then began finding his career and pursuing his education. 

After working in several industries, he joined an award-winning energy company where he advanced from an entry-level position to becoming a leading consultant. While working full-time and helping raise his family, he earned a bachelor's degree in organizational leadership and a master's degree in leadership and management studies. 

He's also the author of Culture Catalyst, the Revolutionary Rethinking of Our Workplace, a book that examines what organizational culture really is, why it matters, and how leaders can shape it intentionally to produce better experiences for people and better results for their organizations. 

Today, we'll talk about Wes's unconventional journey, the experiences that changed the way he thought about work, the decisions to become an entrepreneur, and the challenges of building CultureStoke.

We'll also discuss what company culture actually means, why so many leaders misunderstand it, and what entrepreneurs can do to create workplaces where both people and profits can grow.

CultureStoke:
https://www.culturestoke.com

What happens when the dream you risked everything to build is no longer the business you’re meant to lead? Do you hold on because of the time, energy, and identity you’ve invested in it? Or do you accept that entrepreneurship sometimes requires you to reinvent not only your company, but yourself?

Today’s guest left the security of a conventional career to pursue his dream of working in sports. 
That decision led him into sports media, content creation, podcasting, coaching, leadership, and eventually the rapidly changing world of artificial intelligence.

His journey demonstrates that entrepreneurship isn’t always about building one company for the rest of your life. Sometimes it’s about having the courage to recognize who you’re becoming and building the next chapter around that person.

My guest today is Rob Cressy, an entrepreneur, AI enablement coach, keynote speaker, and host of The Undeniable Leader podcast.

Rob’s entrepreneurial journey began with a dream of working in sports.  After working in digital advertising sales, he took the leap and created Bacon Sports, initially envisioning it as a sports-comedy blog that could grow into a major sports media company. 

That venture became the beginning of a much larger journey through content creation, branding, podcasting, coaching, leadership, and personal development. 

Today, Rob helps entrepreneurs and leadership teams move beyond casually experimenting with artificial intelligence and begin integrating it meaningfully into how they think, lead, create, and grow. 
But his message isn’t about replacing people with technology. It’s about using AI to amplify human creativity, experience, judgment, and leadership.

Rob believes the best results occur when we lead with who we are, and that the most successful approach to AI will be human first and heart led.

Rob's Website:
https://robcressy.com

Bacon Sports YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/baconsports

Most entrepreneurs start a business because they want more freedom. But somewhere along the way, many of them build a company that can’t make a decision, serve a customer, or solve a problem without them.

They’ve become the founder, the manager, the troubleshooter, and sometimes even the administrative assistant.

So how do you begin letting go without losing control? How do you delegate when explaining the work feels harder than doing it yourself? 

And how do you build simple systems that allow the business to operate without the founder sitting in the middle of every decision? That’s what we’re talking about today.

My guest today is Cory Blumenfeld.

Cory is a five-time founder with two exits and more than a decade of experience across startups, operations, sales, and product.

He has launched businesses in industries he initially knew very little about, an experience that taught him that entrepreneurial success rarely comes from having all the answers. It comes from learning, adapting, and surrounding yourself with the right people.

Today, Cory is the founder of BlueMoso, a company that helps business owners reclaim their time by matching them with high-performing virtual assistants based on the way they actually work.

His larger mission is to help one million business owners spend less time buried in day-to-day tasks and more time growing their companies, serving their clients, and building lives outside of work.

Today, we’ll talk about Cory’s entrepreneurial journey, what he learned from building multiple companies, and why delegation requires far more than simply handing someone a list of tasks.

We’ll also discuss how to build a team, create practical systems, and reduce the founder’s involvement without sacrificing quality, accountability, or control.

BlueMoso
https://bluemoso.com

Entrepreneurs are taught that nearly every business problem can be solved with more effort, a better strategy, or another expert telling us what we should do next. 

But what happens when the business is growing, the strategy appears sound, and you’re still exhausted, hesitant, or unable to move forward?

Sometimes the obstacle isn’t in the business plan. It’s buried beneath years of pressure, fear, disappointment, and beliefs we may not even realize we’re carrying.

Today’s guest believes that many successful entrepreneurs aren’t suffering from a lack of ambition or information. 

They’re running into invisible internal barriers that achievement alone can’t remove.
My guest today is Curtis McCullom, founder of Bespoke Human Potential Coaching. 

Curtis is a human potential coach who works with entrepreneurs, executives, and other growth-minded leaders to identify the patterns that may be limiting their confidence, decision-making, and ability to grow.

Curtis brings more than three decades of experience as a speaker, trainer, coach, sales professional, and business leader. 

His training includes executive coaching, clinical hypnotherapy, neuro-linguistic programming, and Mental and Emotional Release techniques. 

Through his proprietary L.G.E.T. Mindset, which stands for learning, growing, expanding, and transforming, Curtis combines personal-development practices with practical leadership and sales coaching. 

His work is built around the idea that people often don’t need another generic formula. They need an approach tailored to the experiences, beliefs, and challenges they’re carrying. 

His company’s programs focus on helping leaders recognize blind spots, align their decisions with their values, and address the internal resistance that can accompany professional growth.

Bespoke Human Potential Coaching:
https://www.bespokehumanpotentialcoaching.com

The Curtis Mccullom Show:
https://www.youtube.com/@curtismccullom

Growth is usually treated as proof that a business is working. But growth has a way of exposing every weakness a smaller company can hide. The founder becomes the answer to every question. Follow-up starts falling through the cracks. 
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Systems bend under the pressure. And the business that was supposed to create freedom begins demanding more and more from its owner.

So, what happens after the breakthrough, when success forces you to rebuild the way the business actually works?

My guest today is Bennett Maxwell, and, if he looks familiar, this is his second appearance on The Reluctant Entrepreneur Podcast.

When Bennett joined me previously, we talked about his journey building Dirty Dough, the company’s rapid expansion, its highly publicized legal battle with Crumbl, and the deeper sense of purpose he found through entrepreneurship.

Since that conversation, Bennett has moved beyond Dirty Dough and into a new chapter with Franchise KI, a platform designed to simplify the franchise due-diligence process. 

Franchise KI allows prospective franchise owners to research and compare brands, review verified and sourced data, and generate a detailed due-diligence dossier in about 90 seconds, a process that might otherwise require hundreds of hours of research.

Through Franchise KI, Bennett is also developing and applying AI systems, including Advaita AI, to help franchise and small-business operators improve follow-up, reduce administrative work, and remove repetitive tasks from the owner’s plate. 

His focus is not on AI as a novelty or an expensive science project, but on using it in practical ways that make a business more efficient without making it feel impersonal or robotic.

This time, we’re not going to spend much time revisiting the cookie war. 

Instead, we’re going to talk about what Bennett learned from building and scaling Dirty Dough, what began to break as the company grew, how founders unknowingly become bottlenecks, and where AI can provide real operational leverage without becoming another overhyped distraction.

Franchise KI
https://franchiseki.com

Advait AI
https://www.advaitxai.com

A lot of entrepreneurs don’t begin with a grand business plan. 

Sometimes they begin with a layoff, a book idea, a little fear, a little curiosity, and the need to figure things out before the rent comes due.

Today’s guest, Liz H. Kelly, knows that path well. After writing and promoting her own dating book, Liz discovered the power of publicity firsthand. 

Later, after leaving the corporate world, including a role at MySpace, she took the leap into entrepreneurship and built Goody PR, an agency focused on helping people magnify their good through positive publicity.

Liz is also the author of the new book Award-Winning Publicity: 8 Media Boosters to Magnify Your Story, a practical guide for small business owners, entrepreneurs, authors, and thought leaders who want to get their story out there without assuming publicity is only for big brands with big budgets.

In the first part of our conversation, we’ll talk about Liz’s reluctant entrepreneur journey, including the leap from corporate life to agency founder, why she worked for free for a year, and what she had to learn the hard way.

Then, in the second part, we’ll shift into her expertise: what entrepreneurs misunderstand about PR, how to find your media-worthy story, and how to show up better in interviews, whether that’s TV, print, radio, or podcasts.

Goody PR
https://goodypr.com/award-winning-publicity/

Award-Winning Publicity: 
8 Media Boosters to Magnify Your Story
https://a.co/d/0aKpZkdg

Most entrepreneurs start a business because they want more freedom. Then, somewhere along the way, they become the person who must approve every decision, answer every question, and solve every problem. The business may be growing, but the owner is trapped inside it.

My Guest today, Jennifer Staats understands that problem because she lived it. 

After beginning her career in real estate, she discovered that her real talent wasn’t simply selling properties. It was building the systems, workflows, and teams that allowed other people to perform at their best. 

After becoming a mother, Jennifer decided she didn’t want to return to a traditional nine-to-five job. She launched Staats Solutions as a virtual operations management company at a time when that business model was still relatively uncommon. 

Within six months, demand forced her to begin hiring, and the company continued to grow until she had accomplished something many founders never achieve: she built a business that could operate without her constant involvement. 

Today, Jennifer remains the founder of Staats Solutions while serving as Chief of Staff at SureSend, an AI-powered CRM designed to help growing companies manage their relationships, workflows, sales activity, and teams more effectively. 

She is also a contributing author to Owning It, a collection of stories about women taking ownership of their lives and work. 

In this episode, we’ll talk about Jennifer’s path from real estate assistant to entrepreneur and executive, the mistakes she made while building her first team, and the difficult transition from doing everything herself to trusting other people with the business she created.

Then, we’ll explore how entrepreneurs can recognize when they’ve become the bottleneck, build practical systems without creating layers of bureaucracy, delegate effectively, and use technology and artificial intelligence without losing the human relationships that make a business work.

Staats Solutions
https://staatssolutions.com

Owning It (book)
https://a.co/d/04clvhvH

A lot of entrepreneurs think branding starts with a logo, a color palette, a website, or maybe a clever tagline. 

But today’s guest would probably argue that’s where branding shows up, not where branding begins.
Solveig Petch, also known as Petchy, is a strategic brandsmith who helps businesses become brands and brands become legacies. Her work sits at the intersection of strategy, identity, values, positioning, and long-term business growth.

But her story is not just about helping other people build brands. It’s also about what happens when the business you helped build no longer feels like yours. 

After co-founding a design agency, Solveig found herself pushed out of the company she helped create. She had a choice: stay in a place that no longer aligned with who she was, or walk away and rebuild on her own terms. She chose the harder road.

Today, we’ll talk about that journey, the courage it takes to start over, why branding is far more than design, and how entrepreneurs can build businesses that don’t just make noise, but actually stand for something.

https://petchy.co

Most business owners think they have a marketing problem. They need a better website, more social media, better SEO, maybe a few videos, maybe some paid ads.

But today’s guest would probably say, “Not so fast.”

Because very often, what looks like a marketing problem is really a positioning problem, a messaging problem, a customer understanding problem, or maybe even a business model problem.

Gee Ranasinha is the Founder and CEO of KEXINO, a marketing agency working with startups and small-to-medium-sized B2B businesses. But his path didn’t begin in a marketing department. 

It began in professional advertising photography, then early digital imaging, then print and publishing, and later a global marketing role for a software company. 

Eventually, after seven years in that role, he realized he wasn’t moving forward in his career or in his own sense of fulfillment. So in January 2008, he left the comfort of corporate life and launched KEXINO.

Today, KEXINO has grown into a distributed team working across multiple countries, and Gee also teaches marketing and behavioral economics to final-year MBA students. 

His views on marketing are refreshingly direct: strategy is not tactics, marketing is not just posting on social media, and value is not created in your brochure, your website, or your pitch deck. Value is created in the mind of the customer.

So today we’re going to talk about entrepreneurship, differentiation, customer behavior, and why so many businesses are trying to be heard while sounding exactly like everyone else.

Kexino
https://kexino.com

A lot of entrepreneurs think they have a marketing problem. They think they need a better website, more social media, a sharper logo, more ads, better SEO, or maybe just more content. And sometimes, sure, those things help. But what if the real problem isn’t the tactic? 

What if the real problem is that the business owner can’t clearly explain what they do, who they help, why it matters, and why anyone should care?

That’s where today’s guest comes in.

Lisa is the founder of Rebel Girl Marketing, a revenue clarity strategist, speaker, podcast host, and author of The Rebel Girl’s Guide to Marketing: Stop Committing Random Acts of Marketing. 

Her work is built around a powerful idea: clarity drives revenue. 

When your message is clear, your sales conversations get easier, your marketing becomes more focused, your referrals improve, and your team starts rowing in the same direction.
In this episode, we’re going to break the conversation into two parts. 

First, we’ll talk about Lisa’s own entrepreneurial journey, including how she went from corporate sales and marketing into building Rebel Girl Marketing, what pushed her into entrepreneurship, and the highs, lows, and lessons along the way.

Then, in the second half, we’ll dig into Lisa’s expertise. We’ll talk about why so many founders commit random acts of marketing, why “expert speak” confuses customers, how to build a better pitch, and how entrepreneurs can stop chasing tactics and start communicating with clarity.

Rebel Girl Marketing
https://rebelgirlrevenue.com

The Rebel Girl’s Guide to Marketing: Stop Committing Random Acts of Marketing
https://a.co/d/01ZZHOM8