The Inspired Stories Podcast

Hosted by Anthony Codispoti

Business Entrepreneurship

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Episodes

492

Latest episode

Jun 2026

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EN-US

About the show

Anthony Codispoti has started, built, and sold a variety of successful businesses, including a 7-figure wholesale business (successful exit), a 7-figure consumer business (exited to private equity), a SaaS business (successful exit), and fiscally advantaged benefits. As an innovator and pioneer, he has been awarded patents, earned best seller badges, and gained scores of battle scars. In this show, we gain inspiration from the successes achieved and challenges overcome by today's business leaders.

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June 16, 2026Episode 5011 hr 4 min

Todd Lucas on Building a Training Program From Scratch That Created a Better Employee Experience at Family Farm and Home

Todd Lucas is the Director of Family Culture at Family Farm and Home, a family-owned rural retail chain that has grown from 19 locations to more than 80 stores across Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, and Pennsylvania since he joined in 2012. A former radio DJ turned Menards store manager, Todd came to Family Farm and Home as a district manager, moved through senior buying roles, and was tapped in 2022 to build the company's first-ever training department from scratch — bringing his broadcast background, operations knowledge, and product expertise together in a role that didn't exist before he created it.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Radio DJ career in the Fox Valley area of Wisconsin before Menards pulled him into full-time retailEleven-plus years at Menards across eight locations in Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Michigan, reaching interim store manager by 26Joining Family Farm and Home in 2012 as store manager first, then district manager four months later, by choiceThe average employee age dropped from 53 in March 2020 to 36 in July 2022, creating the product knowledge gap the training department was built to closeCreating Todd Talks: a two-minute video series launched with a deer urine product demo that got 1,800 views from a 1,100-person workforce80-plus percent of employees watch each Todd Talks episode all the way through without scrubbingTriple-digit sales increase on a specific insect control product within three weeks of its Todd Talks featureService centers as a key competitive differentiator: Family Farm and Home services gas-powered equipment that competitors only sell4-H involvement: store managers know kids' names and their animals' names, attend county fairs, and watch those projects grow over the yearThe Frontline Enablement Playbook by JD Dillon: Todd contributed a chapter covering Todd Talks and the training model🌟 Todd's Key Mentors:Menards Store Managers (Early Career): Long-tenured operators who modeled consistency, high standards, and the idea that hard work in a demanding environment would open future doorsFamily Farm and Home Owners: Three-owner family who gave Todd the runway to move from operations to buying to training, always finding a meaningful next roleHis Trusted Friend at the Company: A sounding board during a bruising career transition who helped Todd process the ego hit and come out of it performing at his bestJD Dillon (Author, Frontline Enablement Playbook): Invited Todd to contribute a chapter and helped him frame the Todd Talks model in the context of frontline workforce development nationally👉 Don't miss Todd's account of getting sprayed in the face with deer urine to launch a training series that now reaches more employees than the company has people, and how a career pivot he didn't choose became the role he was most qualified to do.🔗 Connect with Todd Lucas:Website: familyfarmandhome.comLinkedIn: Todd Lucas📋 Transcript Available: Todd Lucas on Building a Training Program From Scratch That Created a Better Employee Experience at Family Farm and Home 🌐 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

June 16, 2026Episode 50057 min

Good Apple's Brie Bolopue and Rochelle Lierz on Why Small Business Deserves Better

C-Suite Thinking for Small Business: Brie Bolopue and Rochelle Lierz on Building Good AppleBrie Bolopue and Rochelle Lierz, co-founders of Good Apple Business Managers, built a fractional leadership firm around a simple conviction: small businesses deserve the same quality of strategic thinking as large ones. With specialties in reputation and reach and money and metrics respectively, they serve as embedded operating partners for small businesses navigating growth, complexity, and exit. Together, they share why they walked away from corporate and what they found on the other side.Key Insights You'll Learn:Why most small business owners carry a shame cloud around their finances and how to dissolve itCash flow mapping as a tool to help intimidated owners see their numbers without fearThe business blueprint: a five-session framework covering mission, vision, values, offering, and financial modelingFractional C-suite leadership as a plug-and-play model for businesses that need expertise without full-time overheadWhy exit planning started three or more years out is the difference between a strategic sale and a fire saleThe silver tsunami: millions of boomer business owners ready to retire with no succession planHelping owners through the egoic death of selling a business they built their identity aroundThe three D's: death, divorce, and disability as the forces that push unprepared owners toward the exitWhy transferability, not just revenue, determines what a business is actually worth to a buyerGood Apple's target client: open, willing to receive help, and feeling the pain of going it aloneBrie and Rochelle's Key Mentors:Rochelle's Family of Accountants: Gave Rochelle the financial language and empathy to translate money concepts without shameRochelle's First Exit Client: Proved the model by walking through partial retirement; still a client three years laterBrie's Stepdad (Small Business Owner): Showed her firsthand that building your own business can create a beautiful, flexible lifeCorporate Executive Brie Supported: Gave Brie a front-row view of how executive presence and communications work at scale, and what she wanted to do differentlyRam Dass (Author): The quote "We're all just walking each other home" became the philosophical foundation of Good AppleDon't miss this conversation about what it really takes to support a small business owner through growth, transition, and the exit they have been quietly dreading.Connect with Brie and Rochelle:Website: wearegoodapple.comTranscript Available: Good Apple's Brie Bolopue and Rochelle Lierz on Why Small Business Deserves Better Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories PodcastOur Website: The Inspired Stories PodcastSpecial 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

June 14, 2026Episode 49956 min

Joel Guth Built a $2.4 Billion Firm by Asking Questions Nobody Else Was Asking

🎧 From Cold Calls to $2.4 Billion: Joel Guth’s Journey Building Gryphon Financial PartnersJoel Guth, CEO and founder of Gryphon Financial Partners, spent more than two decades at Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Smith Barney before walking away to build something more aligned with how he believed wealthy families should be served. What he built — a firm that now oversees $2.4 billion in assets and has guided business owners through more than $2 billion in illiquid business transitions — started with a phone book, 65 calls a day, and a mentor who told him he was an idiot for quitting.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Small-town Ohio upbringing shaped by an older brother who worked in a steel mill and put himself through medical schoolDivision I basketball at Toledo and Cornell; the pivot to finance after a knee injuryStarting at Merrill Lynch with no sales experience and surviving on scripts, cold calls, and persistenceWhy he followed a woman from Mansfield to Columbus and how that shaped his entire careerThe move to independence in 2014 and why he and partner Cathy Corey knew it was timeThe 3:30 a.m. panic the night before Gryphon opened and what got him through itThe mythical origin of the Gryphon name and what it means to protect family treasureWhy he engages clients three to five years before an exit — not three weeks beforeThe Next Mountain framework: helping business owners figure out who they are after the saleThe soccer game that forced him to confront how his competitive drive was hurting his daughter🌟 Joel’s Key Mentors:His Oldest Brother: raised him more like a father; working in a steel mill while putting himself through medical school modeled what drive and sacrifice look likeGreg (Columbus Mentor): taught Joel the formula for sales, gave him scripts, and told him he was a fool to quitCathy Corey (Business Partner for 31 Years): rock-steady co-founder who handled every infrastructure crisis so Joel could focus on clientsBill (Client Turned Mentor): helped them name the firm and gave them the confidence to leave Morgan StanleyHis Daughter and Wife: forced the hardest personal reckoning of his career — that his competitive drive had a dark side👉 Don’t miss this candid conversation about building a firm that protects what families spend their lives creating — and why the work after the exit matters as much as the exit itself.🔗 Connect with Joel Guth:Website: Gryphonfp.com📤 Transcript Available: Joel Guth Built a $2.4 Billion Firm by Asking Questions Nobody Else Was Asking📺 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

June 14, 2026Episode 49850 min

How California's SB68 Is Forcing Restaurants to Tag Allergens and Why Foodini Was Ready

Dylan McDonnell is the founder and CEO of Foodini, an AI-powered dietary intelligence company that helps restaurants, food service operators, stadiums, and delivery platforms map allergen and dietary information down to the ingredient level. An Irish-born corporate lawyer who worked at Mercer in Dublin and Sydney before founding the company, Dylan built Foodini to solve a problem he has lived with since childhood: celiac disease and the constant stress of not knowing what is safe to eat when dining out. He moved the company to Los Angeles two years ago and has since helped pass California's SB68, the first US law requiring allergen labeling on restaurant menus.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Diagnosed with celiac disease as a child, spending years silently navigating meals in school, sports trips, and social settings with no safe optionsCareer path from Big Law in Ireland through Mercer's investment funds practice in Dublin and Sydney to founding Foodini in AustraliaEarly MVP: a consumer discovery app quickly revealed the real problem was the absence of structured ingredient data at the restaurant levelPivoting from consumer-first to B2B-first after realizing the data coverage problem had to be solved before the consumer experience could scaleBuilding integrations with POS systems, recipe and inventory management platforms, and major distributors to pull ingredient data automaticallyTraining LLMs to tag menu items across 150 allergens and dietary preferences, with human dietitian oversight as a quality layerSpending most of Q3 2024 working with California senators and assembly members to help pass SB68, signed by Newsom in October 2024SB68 takes effect July 1, 2026, requiring chains with 20 or more locations to label menus for the top nine allergensSix more states with legislation in progress: New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Michigan, Illinois, and MissouriIntegration with Major League Baseball's ballpark app to help fans with dietary needs navigate concession options at MLB stadiums🌟 Dylan's Key Mentors:His Parents: Glass-half-full, pragmatic personalities who modeled resilience and the perspective that in the grand scheme of things, a lost client is not that big a dealFAIR (Food Allergy Education Organization): The nonprofit food allergy advocacy network that connected Dylan to the regulatory and community work shaping the legislative landscapeMendoza Ventures (Adrian and Sennifer Mendoza): Early-stage fintech investors whose thesis and values resonated with Dylan and expanded his understanding of the startup ecosystemHis Head Dietitian (First Hire): Still with the company, she shaped the credibility and rigor of the dietitian-in-a-box model from day one, including early kitchen visits to photograph ingredient labels👉 Don't miss Dylan's account of manually pulling products from restaurant refrigerators to photograph ingredient labels, the moment he realized the data infrastructure problem was even bigger than the consumer problem, and how a childhood with celiac disease quietly shaped everything that followed.🔗 Connect with Dylan McDonnell:Website: Foodini.co📋 Transcript Available: How California's SB68 Is Forcing Restaurants to Tag Allergens and Why Foodini Was Ready📺 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

June 14, 2026Episode 49759 min

How Acloche Expanded Beyond Staffing Into Skills Training, HR Consulting, and Community Development

Kim Shoemaker is the CEO of Acloche, a Central Ohio staffing institution founded in 1968 that now places roughly 8,000 workers at any given time across contingent staffing, direct hire, and HR consulting. She joined the company in 1999 to run the accounting department and spent a decade learning every corner of the business before being asked by the board to step into the CEO role following the sudden passing of her mentor and predecessor in 2010. More than fifteen years later, she has expanded the company's reach well beyond traditional staffing into skills training, community development, and educational partnership work that most people in the industry aren't doing.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Joining Acloche in 1999 to manage accounting, then spending a decade absorbing operations, IT, marketing, sales, and HRMentor Bobbi Rook taking Kim under her wing and coaching her into public speaking and strategic leadershipStepping into the CEO role in 2010 after Bobbi passed away suddenly, managing grief and company continuity simultaneouslyMoving offices roughly a year into the transition as a way to help the team physically move forwardThree lines of business: contingent staffing across all 88 Ohio counties, direct hire across North America, and HR consulting and trainingPiloting a virtual skilled trade certification program with Northview Trade School offering HVAC, appliance repair, and machine operator coursesRunning an eighth-grade career awareness program through BPA to teach resume writing, cover letters, and interviewingWorking with the College Board to pilot cybersecurity and financial AP courses at the high school level for college creditBuying and building out a 1,500 square foot dedicated training center at Acloche's new Groveport headquarters in 2025Over 30 years of NWBOC and WBENC women-owned business certification; 17 years of Acloche for the Cure at Susan G. Komen's Race for the Cure🌟 Kim's Key Mentors:Bobbi Rook (Former CEO): Mentored Kim for a decade, brought her into strategic leadership, pushed her into public speaking, and built the legacy Kim continues todayBetty Lou (Founder): Acloche's founder and emeritus board member whose original vision set the company's community-first standardsAnswer Team Network: National staffing organization Kim serves on the board of, expanding her view of how the industry can change public perception and workforce outcomesHer Internal Management Team: Long-tenured leaders averaging 15 years who have helped Kim evolve from the one with all the answers to the director of an orchestraHer Daughter: Told Kim directly that not every problem needs to be fixed, only listened to, a lesson Kim carries into her leadership and community work👉 Don't miss Kim's account of being asked to take the CEO role while the entire company was still grieving, the letter from a woman who had been living in her car with two children, and why she believes the staffing industry is bigger than the movie theater industry but far less understood.🔗 Connect with Kim Shoemaker:Website: Acloche.comPhone: 888-608-0889📋 Transcript Available: How Acloche Expanded Beyond Staffing Into Skills Training, HR Consulting, and Community Development📺 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

June 12, 2026Episode 4961 hr 4 min

From Busing Tables at 15 to CEO: Kevin Gudejko's Four Decades Moving Through American Dining History

Kevin Gudejko is the president and CEO of Main Street Ventures Restaurant Group, a collection of 21 upscale scratch kitchen restaurants across five states that donates more than $2 million annually to local community charities. He started busing tables at 15 because his mom was a server and his dad was a meat cutter. What followed was four decades moving through 13 states and some of the most formative kitchens in American dining history, from Bennigan's during the fern bar era, to Hillstone under its perfectionist founder, to Hops Grill during its growth from three to 200 locations, to Carrabba's joint venture work, before completing a buyout of Main Street Ventures in February 2019.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Starting at 15 busing tables at a country club, caddying summers, moving into restaurant management coming out of collegeEarly career at Bennigan's: opening 40 locations a year, navigating a market where alcohol revenues had to drop from 60% to 50% to comply with state lawMentor Jim Pollard's core teaching: you can't muscle your way through, you have to build a bench and develop peopleHillstone and its obsessive standards: a founder who delayed a Manhattan Beach opening two weeks to replace the wrong color booth cushionsHops Grill and Brewery: scaling from 3 to 200 locations using a joint venture market partner modelSix years as a Carrabba's joint venture partner across four Midwest states, learning to manage from hours awayJoining Main Street Ventures in 2007 as director of operations and partner under founder Mike GibbonsCompleting the full company buyout on February 5, 2019 — thirteen months before COVID shut the industry downFlat management structure: eliminating district managers during the 2008 financial crisis and never going backOver $2 million donated annually to local community charities including the Charles Woodson Clinical Research Fund for pediatric research🌟 Kevin's Key Mentors:Jim Pollard: First supervisor at Bennigan's who taught Kevin that developing people and building a bench mattered more than muscling through situationsGeorge (Hillstone Founder): Showed Kevin what obsessive standards look like in practice, including delaying a restaurant opening over booth cushion colors to preserve the brand's visionMike Gibbons (Main Street Ventures Founder): Brought Kevin in as a director of operations and partner, trusted him with the day-to-day running of the company, and made the eventual buyout possibleDennis Saris (Real Seafood Company Founder): Original 1975 founder of the first Real Seafood Company whose founding vision still shapes the company's approach to quality and communityHis Son Xander: Now director of beverage and a district manager, has helped Kevin understand the COVID generation's workforce challenges from the inside👉 Don't miss Kevin's account of closing on the company buyout thirteen months before COVID, how his son Colin's autism diagnosis reshaped his perspective on resilience and community, and why he believes today's restaurant environment is harder than anything he's seen in forty years.🔗 Connect with Kevin Gudejko:Website: mainstreetventuresinc.com📋 Transcript Available: From Busing Tables at 15 to CEO: Kevin Gudejko's Four Decades Moving Through American Dining History📺 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

June 12, 202659 min

Jordan Rodriguez on Why Business Owners Need More Than a Portfolio Manager

Jordan Rodriguez is the founder of Chagrin Valley Legacy Advisors in Beachwood, Ohio, a planning firm built for owners of closely held family businesses, multi-generational families, and high net worth early retirees. A certified financial planner and certified exit planning advisor, he spent nearly a decade at Warnock Spear Wealth Managers before leaving to build a practice specifically structured around the client types where he could deliver real depth, not a generalist service model dressed up to look specialized.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Starting career as a college intern at Warnock Wealth Management, doing data entry and back-office workEarly lessons at Northwestern Mutual and Wells Fargo on commission versus fee-only models and where incentives leadThe difference between wirehouse advisors and independent fiduciaries, and why that distinction matters to business ownersSpinning out Chagrin Valley Business Strategies as a separate entity to provide business valuations and consulting within a compliance constraintUsing Quist Insights software to give business owners a range of values, a gap analysis, and thirteen actionable drivers to close itWhy 75% of a business owner's wealth in an illiquid company requires a fundamentally different financial planning approachThree client demographics: closely held family business owners, multi-generational families, and high net worth early retireesThe case for renaming exit planning, because the word exit scares off founders who aren't thinking about sellingWhy second and third generation owners are often easier to advise than founders who treat the business as their identityEOS Lite: using the VTO, quarterly rocks, and weekly scorecards without the full EOS complexity🌟 Jordan's Key Mentors:Warren Warnock (Managing Director, Warnock Wealth Management): Lifelong family friend who gave Jordan his first look at the industry through a high school shadow and then his first internshipWarnock Spear Team: A decade of shared growth that taught Jordan how to build client longevity, transition from wirehouse to independence, and think about fiduciary standards in every interactionHis Wife: His primary model of doing things the right way, and the person who first noticed the stress the departure took on himTax and Legal Professionals in His Network: The source of most introductions into his practice, because his model integrates them rather than working around themBusiness Owner Clients: They taught Jordan what gap existed in the market by telling him they wanted their business integrated into their financial plan in ways standard advisory firms couldn't deliver👉 Don't miss Jordan's account of leaving a decade-long professional partnership, why a $413,000 enterprise value number on a to-do item is the most motivating thing he can show a business owner, and his honest take on why exit planning needs a name change.🔗 Connect with Jordan Rodriguez:Website: chagrinvalleylegacy.com📋 Transcript Available: Jordan Rodriguez on Why Business Owners Need More Than a Portfolio Manager📺 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

June 11, 2026Episode 39454 min

From Educational Psychology to Staffing COO: Marnie Byford's Path to Supreme Staffing

Marnie Byford is Chief Operating Officer at Supreme Staffing, a national employment agency connecting workers to opportunities in manufacturing, logistics, customer service, and office support across 22 locations. She came to the role through an unlikely path: a degree in educational psychology, nearly five years in disability day services, and a career in workforce management that her industry repeatedly told her she wasn't right for. Under her leadership, Supreme Staffing launched its own forklift training center, built a travel recruiting team, and achieved 7% turnover in an industry that averages over 400%.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Degree in educational psychology, early career working with adults with disabilities at Open Arms CareTransition into workforce management through a Nike warehouse staffing role focused on training and developmentFive years at SIMOS Insourcing Solutions, rising from safety and training manager to executive director of recruitingJoining Supreme Staffing in February 2020, two weeks before COVID changed everythingKeeping doors open during COVID while competitors closed, providing grocery money and flexible schedules to retain workersGrowing organically through the pandemic and beyond through word-of-mouth customer referralsLaunching a forklift training center after four years of planning to address a critical driver shortageDeploying a travel recruiting team to stabilize client sites across the country, including onboarding 200 workers in three weeksPhone system automation that cut response time from four hours to one hour and grew Memphis walk-in traffic from 50 to 200 per dayExpanding to 22 locations with plans for Pennsylvania, Boston, Canada, and beyond🌟 Marnie's Key Mentors:Eduardo Sanchez (Owner, Supreme Staffing): Saw Marnie's potential, handed her the operational mandate, and gave her the private-company flexibility to build something the corporate world wouldn't allowOpen Arms Care Leadership: Grounded Marnie in humanization, patience, and learning people before judging them, skills she brought directly into staffingJason Nunez (Director of Operations): Started at the front desk at 18 and grew into the role under Marnie's mentorship, representing the internal development model she championsHer Four Daughters: Daily motivation to model what it looks like to push past nos and build something in spaces where women are told they don't belongHer Staffing Teams Across 22 Locations: Young, hungry, and eager to learn, they have been both the proof of her leadership philosophy and the engine behind Supreme's growth👉 Don't miss Marnie's account of being told repeatedly that the industrial world wasn't for women, how she kept Supreme Staffing's doors open during COVID when everyone else closed, and the moment a former colleague called to say they had underestimated her.🔗 Connect with Marnie Byford:Website: supremestaffing.agencyLinkedIn: Marnie Byford📋 Transcript Available: From Educational Psychology to Staffing COO: Marnie Byford's Path to Supreme Staffing📺 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

June 11, 2026Episode 4931 hr 10 min

Greg Mahoney on What Breaks Inside a DSO When Acquisitions Move Faster Than Operations

Greg Mahoney is Associate Director of Management Consulting at Skytale Group, a Dallas-based firm helping dental support organizations and multi-site healthcare platforms grow profitably, prepare for M&A, and exit with positive outcomes. He came to that work through a decade of building his father's single-location dental practice from $1 million to $7.5 million in revenue, discovering along the way that he had accidentally built something too profitable for any associate to buy — which sent him inside some of the country's largest PE-backed dental platforms before he landed on the consulting side.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Growing up in a dental family and planning to become a dentist before organic chemistry redirected the pathDiscovering a natural strength in economics, accounting, and finance after his GPA transformed with the switchEarly career in corporate finance at a startup, then product management at Heraeus Kulzer dental manufacturingJoining his father's $1M practice with a mandate to build everything except the dentistryAdding TMJ, sleep apnea, and implant service lines as standalone practices within the practiceGrowing from $1M to $7.5M in two and a half years through internal marketing and specialty cross-referralRealizing the practice was too profitable for associate buyout and choosing private equity as the exit pathJoining Elite Dental Partners post-acquisition, scaling from 66 to 114 locations while building support infrastructureThe shift from buy-and-hold DSO arbitrage to same-store growth as the new operating imperativeJoining Skytale Group to serve founder-led healthcare practices across dental, aesthetics, dermatology, and beyond🌟 Greg's Key Mentors:His Father (Dr. Mahoney): Lifelong role model who handed Greg the business mandate and whose example continues to shape how Greg works with founder-led practicesElite Dental Partners Leadership: Gave Greg the opportunity to go from single-practice operator to multi-location infrastructure builder across 114 locationsSkytale Group Team: A meritocracy where the best idea wins, giving Greg the environment to apply operator experience to consulting without politicsFounder-Led Practice Owners He Has Served: Consistently reinforce why the emotional investment of a founder creates different problems and different opportunities than PE-backed groupsHis Wife: Grounded him when he was still considering dental school mid-MBA with a newborn at home, and redirected him toward the path that fit👉 Don't miss Greg's account of the moment he realized the practice he built was too profitable for anyone to buy, how a failed organic chemistry class shaped a career in dental operations, and why he believes today is the golden age of dentistry for operators.🔗 Connect with Greg Mahoney:Website: Skytalegroup.com📋 Transcript Available: Greg Mahoney on What Breaks Inside a DSO When Acquisitions Move Faster Than Operations📺 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

June 11, 202649 min

Meir Spiegel Built His Own Systems From Scratch. Now He Does It for Everyone.

Meir Spiegel is a CPA and partner at B2B CFO, the nation's largest CFO consulting firm, working with privately held businesses in New Jersey and beyond. He spent over a decade as CFO and controller at VIP Wireless, where he built financial systems from the ground up, implemented NetSuite, and developed automated processes that enabled the company to scale through multiple acquisitions before the industry fundamentally shifted. That experience now drives his fractional CFO work helping business owners see what their own numbers can't tell them.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Joining VIP Wireless two days before a merger went live with no accounting infrastructure in placeBuilding billing, payment, and residual systems from scratch using pseudocode handed to developersNetSuite implementation: nine months, full ERP buildout, itemized inventory tracking for cell phone ESNsAutomated a two-person, two-day residual payment process down to a 90-minute scriptRecognizing a credit system house of cards before COVID hit and rebuilding it to survive the shockMoving from single-company CFO to fractional partner at B2B CFO after the wireless industry restructuredIdeal client: five million to one hundred million in revenue, outgrown their infrastructureB2B Exit: preparing companies for sale by boosting EBITDA and choosing the right exit structureThe management buyout option: benefits, risks, and why pulling back the offer can destroy moraleStaying focused: a short daily priority list as the simplest and most overlooked productivity fix🌟 Meir's Key Mentors:Jerry Mills (Founder, B2B CFO): Author of the B2B CFO and B2B Exit books; built the fractional CFO model Meir now operates withinPartner at Early Accounting Firm: Trusted introduction to VIP Wireless that launched Meir's in-house CFO careerVIP Wireless CEO: Made fast, decisive calls on NetSuite and gave Meir the runway to build for scaleProgramming and Tech Community: Meir's pseudocode-to-developer workflow and current AI coding tools have been shaped by years of working alongside developersClients Over the Career: Business owners facing exits, growth ceilings, and distress have each sharpened his diagnostic instincts👉 Don't miss Meir's account of walking into a merger with no systems and no team two days before go-live, and what that experience taught him about building for scale, staying focused, and knowing when a company has outgrown itself.🔗 Connect with Meir Spiegel:Website: b2bcfo.comEmail: meir.spiegel@b2bcfo.com📋 Transcript Available:Meir Spiegel Built His Own Systems From Scratch. Now He Does It for Everyone📺 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