Unscripted Small Business

If you've ever found yourself trapped in the exhausting cycle of filling your pipeline, delivering to clients, then scrambling to fill your pipeline again—this episode is for you. Rachel Minion, Head Rock Star at Rockstarr & Moon, joins host Zaneta Chuniq Inpower to break down why consultants get stuck in what she calls "the grind cycle" and how to escape it without working more hours.

Rachel brings a unique perspective as a third-generation entrepreneur who cut her teeth managing 400 to 1,200 estimates daily at her parents' printing company before moving into corporate marketing roles at Verizon Wireless and Ticketmaster. When the pandemic hit and she was furloughed, she went full-time on her consulting business and never looked back.

In this conversation, Rachel shares how her Profit Multiplier program helps consultants find at least $100,000 in hidden profit—with one client already seeing a 52% year-over-year sales increase and another at 42% growth, all without adding staff. She also gets refreshingly honest about the moment every entrepreneur faces when they think "maybe it would be easier to just get a job" and how to push through it.

The most tactical segment comes when Rachel describes losing her project manager of three years and her husband's challenge: what if you automated 80% of the role? Three weeks of intensive work later—mapping processes, rewriting SOPs, and building automations—she went from working 3 a.m. to 7 p.m. to finishing by 5:30 for dinner. Her example of turning meeting note-takers into automated task creation systems is something any consultant can implement immediately.

Rachel also challenges the common advice to just "talk about yourself more" when marketing your consulting business. Her reframe: make the client the hero of every success story. When you showcase their transformation and challenges, prospective clients see themselves achieving the same results.

The conversation touches on why systems beat hustle every time, the importance of interconnected tools rather than disconnected apps, and Rachel's ambitious goal to help 100 small businesses double by 2029. She argues that when small businesses grow, the ripple effects extend far beyond revenue—to their families, communities, local little leagues, and neighboring businesses in ways that large corporations simply don't replicate.

For consultants struggling with inconsistent lead flow, Rachel's core message is clear: you're not lacking talent, you're lacking structure. And more hustle won't fix a business that isn't built on a proven growth system.

Connect with Rachel directly at rachelminion.com or explore her consulting frameworks at rockstarrandmoon.com—that's Rockstarr with two R's at the end.

Rachel's current reading stack includes Alex Hormozi's $100M Offers and $100 Million Leads, which she returns to regularly for fresh ideas on testing and experimentation.

About the Host

Zaneta Chuniq Inpower is a marketing professional and entrepreneur based in Atlanta with experience across multiple industries including resume writing and personal branding.

About the Guest

Rachel Minion is the founder and Head Rock Star at Rockstarr & Moon, a RevOps organization helping B2B consultants escape the grind cycle and build predictable, scalable profit. A third-generation entrepreneur, Rachel previously contributed to the Verizon Wireless website rebuild and led marketing at Ticketmaster before going full-time on her consulting practice during the pandemic. She's based in Northeast Florida.

Episode produced by Unscripted Small Business

Interview edited and formatted by Jeremy Rivera

At twenty-four, with a grandmother dying of cancer and her mother having just found a lump, Chelsea Jambo asked a doctor for preventative care. He told her to come back when she actually had breast cancer. That refusal is where Our Body began. Host Zaneta Chuniq Inpower takes her through it.

And it’s kind of come to the realization that it’s not really taboo for women, it’s taboo for men.

It is a small reframe that changes the marketing entirely. If women are not the ones who find the subject uncomfortable, then softening the language for their benefit is solving a problem they do not have.

It’s what I like to call the chaos phase, where you’re like, well, I’m still menstruating, but also I’m experiencing the symptoms of hot flashes, I’m also feeling depressed, it’s just pure chaos.

We ended the appointment with him saying, you’re 24, you don’t have breast cancer, I’m not putting my name on it.

It’s not like I’m saying I have a cold. It’s like I’m trying to figure out if I have a risk of having cancer, a serious disease, down the line, and his refusal shocked me.

Her grandmother was in stage four. Her mother had found a lump. She was asking about risk, not diagnosis, and was refused on the basis of her age.

What followed was taking inventory of her own health, finding she was living on over-the-counter painkillers for debilitating period pain, and looking for something that targeted the symptom rather than numbing everything.

The formulation decision is the most interesting business choice in the episode. Products in this category are usually built around a type of person. Hers are built around a symptom.

We’re hearing a lot about support for small businesses and startups, but the category is often toward AI and tech.

The funding is genuinely available and it is pointed somewhere else. A wellness brand for hormonal health is not what most of the current programmes were designed to back, which shapes what she can build and how fast.

Us women, we have a voice, we have a platform, we’re half the world’s population. Let’s talk about this, let’s start changing the narrative, and let’s provide other women with education.

People saw the tea and they’re like, oh, you’re a tea company. And I’m like, no, we’re not a tea company, we’re a women’s wellness company.

The format of the product keeps becoming the category in people’s heads. It is a familiar problem for anyone whose delivery mechanism is more recognisable than their purpose, and the only fix is repetition.

Growth comes from teaching rather than selling, which is slower and produces customers who understand what they bought. Retail expansion is planned, and the education has to come first for it to land.

Because I think the best brands and the best projects are those built out of pure passion.

Every link above goes somewhere different. These are the ones not already mentioned above.

Our Body is at ourbody.ca, and the brand is on Instagram as shopourbody. Hosted by Zaneta Chuniq Inpower. More at Unscripted Small Business.

Jambo, Chelsea. Interviewed by Zaneta Chuniq Inpower. “Building a Tea Brand That Actually Sees Women’s Hormonal Health.” Unscripted Small Business, 2026. https://unscripted-small-business.castos.com/episodes/chelsea-jambo-building-a-tea-brand-that-actually-sees-womens-hormonal-health

Episode from the Unscripted Small Business Podcast

Host: Jeremy Rivera — SEO Arcade Founder & Freelance SEO Consultant

Guest: Dave Gulas — President & Co-Founder of EZDC 3PL

Sponsored by: Cookeville Sunroom Company

Dave Gulas is the president and co-founder of EZDC 3PL, providing warehousing, fulfillment, and transportation services for manufacturers and e-commerce brands. With 20 years in medical/pharmaceutical sales and over three years in logistics, Dave brings a customer-first approach to the 3PL industry.

Dave also hosts the Beyond Fulfillment Podcast, featuring real stories from entrepreneurs — available on the EZDC Blog and all major podcast platforms.

In this conversation, Dave shares how he and his partner identified a gap in the 3PL market — legacy providers weren't delivering the customer service that growing e-commerce brands needed. Three years later, EZDC has built a reputation for responsiveness and genuine care.

Key Topics Covered:

From SEO Arcade:

From Jeremy Rivera SEO:

"We saw a vast amount of complacency within the market to where legacy big box 3PLs were just not providing the proper service to e-commerce brands." — Dave Gulas

"Our guiding principle is we want to treat our customers as if it's our business in terms of we're gonna operate with urgency." — Dave Gulas

"Entrepreneurship has been glamorized so much in recent years... But let's be real about what it's really like to be an entrepreneur." — Dave Gulas

"Having a personal brand is more important than ever. People do business with people and faceless nameless brands are really losing ground." — Dave Gulas

"Struggle creates strength... It's really nature's way of making you stronger. Certainly entrepreneurs can relate to that." — Dave Gulas

Have questions about e-commerce fulfillment? Reach out to EZDC 3PL for a quote.

Need help with SEO strategy for your business? Contact Jeremy Rivera for consulting

Guest: Bill Kasko, Founder & CEO of Frontline Source Group
Host: Jeremy Rivera
Podcast: Unscripted Small Business by Be Sharp Digital Marketing

In this episode, Bill Kasko shares how he built a successful recruiting and staffing agency by doing the exact opposite of industry standards. From inverting the traditional sales model to being the first company to publish pricing online, Bill's "Costanza Theory" has disrupted an entire industry for over two decades.

We dive deep into the evolution of customer service technology, the fragmentation of the search landscape, and how AI is creating both opportunities and challenges for businesses. Bill also shares his insights on the current job market and why honest communication wins more business than overselling.

Bill Kasko is the Founder and CEO of Frontline Source Group, a staffing agency and executive search firm with over 21 years of experience. Known for their industry-disrupting five-year placement warranty and contrarian business approach.

Connect with Frontline Source Group:

Jeremy Rivera is an SEO expert and digital marketing strategist who hosts the Unscripted Small Business podcast, featuring conversations with entrepreneurs and business leaders about real-world challenges and innovative solutions.

"I'm not that smart of a guy, Jeremy. I'm just not. These are just stupid things that I have stumbled on over 21 years and realized that business people sometimes are stupid." - Bill Kasko

"We don't like to fail. It's so simple. Like, have an honest conversation with someone, especially a service business, if it's something that you know is going to be a struggle." - Bill Kasko

"When you start doing the opposite of everybody else, it will work. Now I tell people when they call and give me a hard time about it. No, it doesn't work. You're right. Don't do it. Stay away from it. It's horrible." - Bill Kasko

Innovation Area Traditional Approach Frontline's Approach Result Sales Model 20 salespeople, 10 recruiters 1 salesperson, 20 recruiters Better candidate quality wins business Pricing Transparency No pricing pages in industry First to publish pricing online #1 traffic driver to website Customer Service Hours Monday-Friday, 8-5 only 24/7 scheduling, weekend calls Competitive differentiation Placement Guarantees 90-day standard 5-year warranty Industry disruption, client confidence

 Listen to this episode: Unscripted Small Business Podcast

 Subscribe on your favorite platform:

Questions or feedback? Reach out to Jeremy Rivera or connect with our guests directly through the links above.

Want to be a guest? Email the show through our Unscripted Small Business website.

Guest: Tianna Mamalick, SMB Marketing School

Tianna Mamalick brings 12 years of SEO expertise focused exclusively on small businesses. In this conversation, she reveals why working with SMBs is more rewarding than enterprise clients, how to honestly manage expectations while delivering real results, and why she went back to human-written content after testing AI extensively. If you're a small business owner wondering what actually works in SEO right now, this episode cuts through the hype with practical, proven strategies.

Running a small business means every marketing dollar counts. Tianna specializes in helping businesses with limited budgets compete effectively by focusing on what drives actual revenue—not just traffic or rankings. She shares her formula for pairing SEO and paid ads that works specifically for service-based businesses, and explains why your service pages matter more than blog posts right now.

The Small Business Advantage Unlike enterprise clients where a 20% conversion increase gets a polite "that's nice," small business owners email about life-changing results: hiring their first employee, taking their first vacation, or investing in business growth. For Tianna, this feedback makes the work meaningful.

Honest Expectations Setting

The SEO + Ads Formula While ads don't directly boost SEO, they strategically help prime new pages through engagement. When expanding to multiple locations, running targeted ads on new service pages helps get Google Business Profiles moving faster and improves location-specific performance.

What's Actually Working in Content

The AI Content Experiment Tianna's agency tested AI-generated content extensively—and none of those articles ranked well. They've gone 100% back to human-written content, using AI only for creating outlines based on top-ranking competitors. The reality: people want authentic mistakes and real human voice.

AI Search Reality Check Less than 10% of traffic comes from ChatGPT for most small businesses. While you should prepare by enriching About pages with certifications and expertise, this isn't the urgent crisis some marketers claim. Most people aren't using ChatGPT for business searches yet—we're still in early adoption.

Mining Your Best Content Stop using SEMrush as your starting point. Instead:

Platform-Agnostic SEO SEO principles work across all platforms, not just Google. Younger generations search directly on Instagram. Make sure you're consistently talking about your actual services across social media, not just listing a keyword in your bio while posting unrelated content.

"When I increase revenue by 10K a month for a small business, I get emails like, 'I just hired my next person. I was able to take my first vacation.' It's not just a nice investment—it's a business changing investment."

"People want to work with people they like, know and trust. It's not just about the backlink. We're really looking at conversions—how can we get SEO to convert for you?"

"We can't give them cookie cutter content anymore. People want to see mistakes. They want to see people talking. They want to be connecting even in this content."

The SEO landscape is shifting from keyword-focused blog content to comprehensive service pages that answer real questions. Small businesses with limited budgets can't afford to waste money on tactics that don't convert. Tianna's approach focuses on the fundamentals that drive actual business growth: clear service descriptions, strategic local targeting, and content based on real customer conversations—not AI-generated fluff.

Join Jeremy Rivera as he delves into the world of wedding photography with Terrence Irving. Discover how Terrence transitioned from a hobbyist to a professional, balancing his passion with a corporate career, and the unique challenges and joys of capturing life's most cherished moments. Learn about his marketing strategies, the importance of building relationships, and his vision for the future.

Scott Curry shares his incredible 15-year entrepreneurial journey from multiple failed businesses to building a thriving YouTube channel that replaced his six-figure income in just three months. In this powerful conversation, Scott reveals how a personal tragedy inspired his new mission: helping a million people achieve financial freedom so they never have to choose between work and family.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

Key Timestamps:

Notable Quotes:

"I didn't give up. I had a failure, overcame it, failure, overcame it, and just kept on going."

"It is exceptionally rare to find somebody who can and teaches—and when you find people like that, go subscribe to every single social media platform they're on."

"I've met a lot of people on their deathbeds. I've never met anybody who said they regretted not working more. I've met a lot of people who regretted not spending more time with their family."

"The people that go into business to help others are the ones that are the most successful. Your why for starting a business has to be to help people. It cannot be to make money."

"The only thing that is stopping you from achieving the life you've always wanted is action. So just get started."

Resources Mentioned:

Connect with Scott Curry:

About the Unscripted Small Business Podcast:

Hosted by Zanetta Chunique Empower, Unscripted Small Business brings you authentic conversations with entrepreneurs who share the real stories behind their success—including the failures, pivots, and breakthroughs that shaped their journeys.

Michael Gerard is the founder of Wildwood Ovens and Barbecues, an LA-based manufacturer of high-end wood-fired ovens, Argentine grills, Brazilian barbecues and Japanese yakitori grills. In 1999 he imported a wood-fired pizza oven, found the packaging terrible and the product "not so good," and decided to cast his own. Wildwood now has products in 32 countries.

"Be prepared to roll up your sleeves. Be prepared to work 12 to 16 hours a day."

Read the full episode recap: Roll Up Your Sleeves: Michael Gerard on 24 Years Building Wildwood Ovens.

What Michael and Jeremy cover

Do this next

Related episodes

Jeremy's fry oil client story, the one about writing for the chef instead of the fry cook, gets a longer telling in his conversation with Grady Teske. For the SEO side of Michael's YouTube strategy, see Anthony Prichard on video SEO. See Wildwood's cooking videos on YouTube and Instagram, and shop the wood-fired pizza ovens.

More founder interviews in the small business marketing that actually works collection and the full Unscripted Small Business interview archive.

Host: Jeremy Rivera. Guest: Michael Gerard, founder, Wildwood Ovens and Barbecues.

Most copywriters are writers who can do a little strategy. Sarah Ashley of Portal Copy Co built her business the other way around. Host Zaneta Chuniq Inpower talks with her about pivoting without betraying yourself, why the honest version of freelancing is unglamorous, and using AI as a thought partner rather than a ghostwriter.

Read the full recap: How I Fuse Marketing Strategy With Copywriting to Get Clients Results

Connect with Sarah: portalcopyco.com

Hosted by Zaneta Chuniq Inpower. More at Unscripted Small Business.

In this episode, Jeremy Rivera sits down with Justin Stehr, OT, a Certified Hand Therapist at Vanderbilt Health and Clinical Consultant for MetaFlex®. Justin shares his journey from business operations to working at Vanderbilt, and discusses innovative approaches to hand therapy, the mental health connection to chronic pain, and unexpected clinical applications of compression gloves.

Episode Highlights:

Justin Stehr, OT, CHT is a Certified Hand Therapist at Vanderbilt Health in Nashville, Tennessee, where he was recently named 2024 Acute Occupational Therapist of the Year. He holds a master's degree in occupational therapy with specialized focus on upper extremity rehabilitation, stroke recovery, and hand therapy.

Justin also holds certifications in:

He currently serves as Clinical Consultant for MetaFlex®, where he educates healthcare professionals on innovative approaches to hand rehabilitation. Justin has presented research at national conferences including the American Congress of Rehabilitative Medicine (ACRM) and has upcoming presentations with the Canadian Percussion Network on the biomechanics of drumming.

Personal Background: Justin's path to hand therapy includes a unique personal connection—15 years ago, he experienced a severe hand injury requiring reconstruction of tendons, nerves, and arteries, giving him firsthand understanding of the rehabilitation journey.

Quote: "We spend all day long, we grip everything. So we're constantly grabbing and pinching and then when we're ready to let go of that item or task, we just let go, we relax. We never forcefully open."

This creates an imbalance where our flexor muscles become overly strong while extensors remain weak and stretched out—contributing to conditions like carpal tunnel syndrome.

Action Item: Take frequent breaks to stretch what's tight and strengthen what's weak.

Quote: "The power of movement and the same motion is lotion, right? We need to be able to take those frequent breaks."

Regular movement and position changes are essential for joint and soft tissue health.

Quote: "In terms of devices, there's a lot out there. People can get sucked into the next best, greatest thing... They're all very supplemental but nothing really is a substitute for natural functional motion and stretching."

While devices and tools have their place, natural movement patterns and functional activities remain the gold standard.

Quote: "Mental health is at the forefront of everything we do in OT. Humans and living organisms, we can't be in a constant state of pain or stress."

There's a bidirectional relationship between chronic pain and depression—addressing one helps address the other.

Poor sleep due to hand pain creates a vicious cycle affecting healing, mental health, and overall function.

Quote: "It doesn't really just hold your hand in one position like maybe braces of the past or splints do, but it allows you to maintain this constant motion while you have it on. So it's really kind of a departure from those traditional hand therapy modalities and really a focus on that natural motion."

Learn more about the science behind this approach at Why MetaFlex® Works.

The MetaFlex® glove is a fingerless compression glove with adjustable elastic bands running along the back of each finger. When you close your hand, the bands stretch; when you relax, they gently pull your fingers back into extension—maintaining motion rather than immobilizing.

For detailed information on getting the right fit, see the Fit & Sizing Guide.

Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome: Quote: "Patients with Ehlers-Danlos, with that condition, you've got hypermobility... while stretching is contraindicated for that diagnosis, that proprioceptive input that those bands give to the joints by pulling back, they've found helpful and comforting."

Stroke & TBI Recovery: Quote: "For those that have low tone, or they're easily able to be passively ranged, those bands have been actually helpful in keeping those fingers open."

Active Assist Training: Quote: "They had a patient that was able to grip, squeeze something, but they lacked the ability to really fully open their hand... the bands actually pulled their hand fingers back when they relaxed and activated the extensors part of it. That was an adaptive tool, but also a training tool."

Read more clinical insights and research at the MetaFlex® Health Blog.

Justin is presenting a poster at the American Congress of Rehabilitative Medicine (ACRM) featuring a remarkable limb salvage case where MetaFlex® gloves were used as an alternative to traditional custom orthotics.

Quote: "She was able to actively open her hand because she didn't have the ability to open her fingers. She had flexors, but just couldn't open."

For more about MetaFlex®'s innovative approach and founder's story, visit the About MetaFlex® page or watch videos and read customer reviews on the Learn More page.

For comprehensive information about MetaFlex®, see 10 Things You Should Know About the MetaFlex® Glove.

Quote: "Really going back to those principles of stretch, strengthen, really education. That's one of my focuses with Metaflex is trying to provide just general knowledge and exposure to simple ideas that can have a big impact."

Quote: "If someone has a hand injury and let's say they're really into quilting or doing puzzles, we could do those things either using adaptive equipment or compensatory strategies, or just doing those tasks with varying levels of difficulty to increase endurance or to increase fine motor dexterity."

Quote: "How do we best set that patient up or the individual up to have the highest likelihood of success is by meeting them holistically, meaning looking at all aspects of their care."

Topic: Limb salvage case study featuring multidisciplinary team approach and innovative use of MetaFlex® gloves

Topic: Biomechanics of drumming Exploring repetitive motion and hand health in musicians

Professional Affiliations:

To Find a Certified Hand Therapist: Visit HTCC.org to locate qualified hand therapy professionals in your area.

Professional Organizations:

Host: Jeremy Rivera Company: SEO Arcade

[Full interview transcript available - see cleaned interview artifact]

[Links to related episodes about healthcare innovation, occupational therapy, or medical devices]

This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

Produced by: SEO Arcade Host: Jeremy Rivera Guest: Justin Stehr, OT, CHT Episode Length: [Duration] Release Date: [Date]

#HandTherapy #OccupationalTherapy #MetaFlexGloves #CarpalTunnel #StrokeRecovery #EhlersDanlosSyndrome #ChronicPain #MentalHealth #Rehabilitation #VanderbiltHealth #HandHealth #CompressionGloves #MedicalDevices #PhysicalTherapy #PainManagement #SleepHealth #HealthcareInnovation

Interested in learning more about hand health and innovative therapy solutions?

Have questions about hand therapy or MetaFlex® gloves?

Want to stay updated on MetaFlex® news and innovations? Follow the MetaFlex® News blog for the latest updates.

Special thanks to Justin Stehr for sharing his expertise and clinical insights on this episode.