The Inspired Stories Podcast

Hosted by Anthony Codispoti

Business Entrepreneurship

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Episodes

498

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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July 10, 2026Episode 5181 hr 4 min

The Business Owner's Trap Andrew Acer Sees Time and Time Again

Andrew Acer, Senior Business Analyst at Cogent Analytics, grew up on a ranch in Idaho raised by a Depression-era West Point grandfather before navigating family businesses, serial startups, graduate test prep, and a leadership burnout that cost him his heartbeat. He came back to consulting with a clearer philosophy: stewardship over shortcuts, and truth over comfort.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Ranch upbringing: responsibility, seasonality, and work before selfFamily serial entrepreneurship: route accounting at 14, managing rental business through collegeGeorgia State scholarship, LSAT tutoring, and building Atlanta operations from scratchJoining Cogent Analytics in 2016 as regional VP at 28, selling to owners older than his careerManaging director of business development through COVID with zero travel and near heart failureLeft for a deliberate reset: design consultant at bathroom remodeling company to decompressReturned to Cogent as Director of Portfolio Development and now Senior Business AnalystAI as a hyper-literal intern: multiplier, not replacement, with real management implicationsThe owner's trap: what got you here will not get you thereStewardship model: trust-based leadership built on accountability, not just service🌟 Andrew's Key Mentors:His Grandfather: West Point graduate and stockbroker who modeled hard work, directness, and lifelong professional ambitionHis Mother: Serial entrepreneur and business analyst who modeled resourcefulness and introduced him to consultingRob Raymond (Cogent Founder): Mentored Andrew through leadership transitions and growth at the firmHis Team at Cogent: Gave direct feedback that reshaped his communication and delegation approachBusiness Owners He Has Served: Continue teaching him what high-stakes decision-making looks like from the inside👉 Don't miss Andrew's candid account of burning out at 33, stepping away deliberately, and what returning to the work he loves actually taught him about sustainable leadership.🔗 Connect with Andrew Acer:LinkedIn: Andrew AcerWebsite: cogentanalytics.com📋 Transcript Available: The Business Owner's Trap Andrew Acer Sees Time and Time Again📺 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

July 9, 20261 hr 9 min

The Bronze Star Veteran Who Now Helps Companies Stop Being Afraid of AI with Jon Hilton

🎙️ From West Point to ExxonMobil to AI Practice Leader: Jon Hilton’s Unconventional PathJon Hilton, shareholder and AI practice leader at LBMC, earned a Bronze Star in Iraq, spent over a decade at ExxonMobil managing capital projects across the globe, then walked away from that security to earn a master’s in data science at Berkeley — all while raising four kids. What looks like a series of bold pivots is actually one continuous story about doing hard things, building the right team, and leading through uncertainty. Now he helps middle market companies stop experimenting with AI and start getting results.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:West Point and two tours in Iraq: training, grit, and the next right step11 years at ExxonMobil’s global projects organization — $40B+ capital programsPursuing a Berkeley data science master’s while working full-time at ExxonMobilWhy AI transformation is a leadership problem, not a technology problemBCG study: 75% of CEOs at large companies are the primary AI decision-makerAI use case ROI stacks — the real value starts at use case three, four, and fiveSales call coaching agent: AI listening to every rep and generating coaching reportsPatient care coordination agent: identifying fall risk from unstructured conversationAudit agent: comparing narrative reports against financial data for discrepanciesWhy hallucinations are declining — and why a human in the loop still matters🌟 Jon’s Key Mentors:Thermodynamics Professor (West Point): Recognized Jon’s aptitude for math and redirected him from political science to engineeringZacher Hussein and Fazl (EY): Taught Jon how enterprises actually approach AI strategy and change management at scaleDr. Charlie Pegian (LBMC Colleague, former Belmont/MTSU Professor): Co-developer of Jon’s problem-first AI framework for client engagementsHis Wife: Held the family together through two Iraq deployments, expat assignments in Norway, France, and England, and a Berkeley master’s program — the unsung heroHis Combat Brothers and Sisters: The community that made the hardest years survivable👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what leading through fear actually looks like, why the middle market is falling behind on AI, and what a West Point education and two combat tours have to do with building an AI practice in Nashville.🔗 Connect with Jon Hilton:LinkedIn: Jon Hilton — LBMCWebsite: lbmc.com📎 Transcript Available: The Bronze Star Veteran Who Now Helps Companies Stop Being Afraid of AI with Jon Hilton📺 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

July 9, 2026Episode 5161 hr 5 min

The Lesson David Tobin Learned Running a 60-Person Firm He Couldn’t Scale: Manage for Profit

David Tobin, founder and managing partner of TobinLeff, started with coupon books in college, built a B2B telemarketing firm that he scaled to 60 people and sold under pressure rather than on his terms, and then spent years piecing together what went wrong. That painful exit became the foundation for everything he built next: an MA advisory firm focused on marketing, technology, and professional services companies that has now guided more than 250 clients through valuations, acquisitions, and sales over 16 years.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:College coupon books that sold for more than expected and nearly bought back a few years laterHow a trade show accidentally launched a B2B telemarketing firm aimed at financial services companiesWhy positioning financial advisors as exit planning specialists worked in the mid-90s before anyone had a name for itThe difference between increasing EBITDA and increasing your multiple — and why both matterWhy one plus one doesn’t equal three in a roll-up and what TobinLeff learned the hard wayGrowth, margins, transferability, and client retention: the four value drivers buyers actually measureWhy 60 to 90 days of prep before going to market changes everythingDeal fatigue is real: what happens when a seller takes their eye off new business during the processWhy getting on a plane to meet a prospective client won an engagement that a Zoom call never would haveThe difference between business brokers, MA advisors, and investment bankers — and why it matters🌟 David’s Key Mentors:His Father (Sydney Tobin): Named his first company after him; passed away when David was young and shaped his early driveHis Mother: Her line — experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want — stayed with him through his hardest exitHis Three Partner Colleagues (Former Marketing Agency Owners): Proved that good business sense built over years of ownership transfers directly to MA advisory workThe Buyers and Sellers He Observed Early On: Watching deal rooms before doing deals himself taught him what actually mattered in the process👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what business owners get wrong when they think about selling, why the most painful exit David had turned out to be the most useful, and what separates a firm that commands 7x from one that gets 4x.🔗 Connect with David Tobin:Website: tobinleff.com📤 Transcript Available: The Lesson David Tobin Learned Running a 60-Person Firm He Couldn’t Scale: Manage for Profit📺 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

July 7, 2026Episode 51557 min

The Numbers Never Lie: Elizabeth McKee on Bar Inventory, Overpouring, and Protecting Your Margins

🎙️ From Catfish Restaurant Server at 14 to Hospitality Inventory Consultant: Elizabeth McKee's Journey With Sculpture HospitalityElizabeth McKee, franchise owner of Sculpture Hospitality of the Alabama Gulf Coast, shares her journey from waiting tables at a mom and pop catfish restaurant at 14 and never fully leaving the industry, through discovering inventory consulting as a side gig and watching it grow into her full-time business, to building a referral-driven practice along one of the fastest growing coastlines in the United States. Through candid stories about a 2025 that blindsided her after years of doubling her client base, the relief of learning her losses were economy-driven rather than performance-driven, and how volunteering at a panini cook-off reminded her exactly why she loves hospitality, Elizabeth reveals how accountability without blame is the real secret to helping bars and restaurants stop losing money they didn't even know was walking out the door.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:Weekly inventory revealing losses most owners never knew existedOverpouring as a training problem, not a theft problemBartenders earn more tips by pouring less per drinkMenu pricing drift when ingredient costs change but prices don'tDeliveries as a hidden and frequently overlooked source of lossThird party accountability removing the owner from being the bad guyDead stock identification and how to move it before it costs youA 2025 that reversed years of growth and what she learned from itVolunteering with no skin in the game as the fastest path back to confidenceSandler selling transforming her from feature pitcher to question askerAlabama Gulf Coast as one of the fastest growing regions in the countryFrontline hospitality workers as the most underappreciated people in any business🌟 Elizabeth's Key Mentors:First Sculpture Hospitality Colleague: The employee who invited Elizabeth to ride along on an inventory job 20 years ago and gave her the first look at what would eventually become her full-time businessBrian Jackson (Sandler Sales Coach): Transformed her selling approach from feature-driven pitching to question-driven listening, which she credits with fundamentally changing how she serves clientsBethany Brenlinger (University of Alabama, School of Hospitality and Sports Management): A connector and friend who runs frontline worker training programs along the Gulf Coast, sharing Elizabeth's passion for recognizing and supporting the people who make hospitality functionClients Who Were Honest During Hard Times: The business owners who told her directly what was going wrong in their own operations gave her the data she needed to understand that her 2025 losses were economy-driven, not performance-driven, and that distinction mattered enormouslyHusband: Named directly as the reason the whole operation works, handling the household and kids so Elizabeth can stay in the field👉 Don't miss this conversation about why the numbers never lie, how accountability without blame changes the entire culture of a bar or restaurant, and what volunteering has to do with getting your confidence back after a hard year in business.🔗 Connect with Elizabeth McKee:Company: Sculpture Hospitality of the Alabama Gulf Coast Website: sculpturehospitality.com📄 Transcript Available: The Numbers Never Lie: Elizabeth McKee on Bar Inventory, Overpouring, and Protecting Your Margins📺 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

July 3, 20261 hr 16 min

Kasey Devine Left a Top Sales Job to Fix the Problem He’d Watched the Industry Ignore for Years

🎤 Kasey Devine Left a Top Sales Job to Fix the Problem He’d Watched the Industry Ignore for YearsKasey Devine, founder and CEO of Entravia, spent over a decade mastering the workflows inside some of the biggest names in HR outsourcing — then left a top five national sales ranking at ADP to build the platform the industry never bothered to create. Six months in, Entravia has raised $2.6 million, won the Evergreen Award for Best PEO Shopping Platform, and is already threatening legacy workflows across a $414 billion industry.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Cardinals ticket sales as the moment sales stopped being a dirty wordADP training as a total transformation — from territory management to pipeline structureThe chamber of commerce moment that turned near-failure into a relationship-first sales philosophyHow to ask the one sidebar question at the end of every meeting that changes everythingThe mortgage application that showed Kasey how far the PEO industry had fallen behindWhy Entravia pivoted from B2C shopping platform to white-labeled B2B infrastructure overnightThe general agency model and how it made brokers partners instead of competitorsGetting rejected by every VC, then getting a second look through one unexpected relationshipWhy the cost of building software dropped enough to make this startup possible nowBrowser-based bots that could compress a 9-week PEO evaluation into a single day — once the threats stop🌟 Kasey’s Key Mentors:His ADP manager and training program: built the entire foundation for how he thinks about territory, pipeline, relationships, and value creationTriNet founder and ProCare HR founder: showed him what it looks like to lead a sales and marketing org with accountability and disciplineM25 and Cambrian Ventures: gave him the capital and credibility to move fast on a problem he already understood better than anyoneHis mother: showed him what self-determination looks like when you have no safety net — and that nobody’s coming to save you👉 Don’t miss this conversation about why helping people is the only sales strategy that actually scales, how a $414 billion industry forgot to make its product easy to buy, and what it looks like to bet everything on a problem you’ve spent your whole career watching go unsolved.🔗 Connect with Kasey Devine:Website: entravia.co📤 Transcript Available: Kasey Devine Left a Top Sales Job to Fix the Problem He’d Watched the Industry Ignore for Years📺 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

July 3, 2026Episode 51346 min

Inside Earthrite Pest Control's Bed Bug Heat Business with Scott Sowers

🎙️ Scott Sowers: From Textile Executive to Ohio Pest Control FounderIn this episode, Scott Sowers, founder of Earthrite Pest Control, shares how a tearful conversation with his wife pulled him out of a 16-year global textile career and into building a family-owned, people and pet safe pest control company in central Ohio. He opens up about scrapping his business plan two weeks after launch, building one of the state's top bed bug heat eradication companies, and the letter his eight-year-old wrote at school that changed how he spends his time.✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:16 years in textiles before pivoting to pest controlLeft a global career after his wife's tearful requestThrew out his business plan two weeks after launchBuilt one of Ohio's top bed bug heat eradication companiesPeople, pet, and plant safe treatment philosophyWorked seven days a week for over a decadeDaughter's school letter sparked a major life resetSpent a year and thousands solving one unique infestationExpanding into Dublin and Polaris for efficiencyShifting the company to run on data, not gut feel🌟 Scott's Key Mentors:His Father: Serial entrepreneur who modeled relentless work ethicHis Wife: Former ICU cardiac nurse who pushed him toward something realHis Uncle: Ran the family's side pest control truck, sparked his interestHis Daughter: Her school letter reshaped how he spends his timeNationwide Pest Control Peers: Helped him crack one of his toughest cases👉 A candid look at what it costs to build something from nothing, and what it takes to notice before the cost gets too high.🔗 Connect with Scott Sowers:Website: Earthritepestcontrol.com📄 Transcript Available: Inside Earthrite Pest Control's Bed Bug Heat Business with Scott Sowers📺 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 lineWebsite: addbackbenefits.comKeywords: pest control, bed bug heat treatment, family owned business, central Ohio business, people pet safe pest control, entrepreneurship, work life balance, small business growth, structural pest control, tick control, termite treatment, business scaling, SOPs and delegation, career pivot, Earthrite Pest ControlMeta Description: Scott Sowers, founder of Earthrite Pest Control, on leaving a global textile career, building one of Ohio's top bed bug companies, and the letter that changed everything.#InspiredStoriesPodcast #PestControl #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #FamilyBusiness #OhioBusiness #WorkLifeBalance #CareerPivot

June 30, 2026Episode 5121 hr 7 min

Ben Cooke Turned 18 Running Stores Into a Trail Running Movement with Marathon Sports

🎤 From All-American Runner to Running Retail’s Most Restless Builder: Ben Cooke at Marathon SportsBen Cooke, President of Marathon Sports, has spent 25 years building things inside companies he didn’t own — then lost everything trying to build something that was truly his. Along the way he helped create Fleet Feet’s corporate retail arm, launched their e-commerce platform, built an On Running program that became 8% of On’s global business, and is now turning a 30-location New England specialty retailer into a trail running brand with global ambitions.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Competitive athletics as the foundation for a business career driven by daily PRsRunning Princeton Running Company as a de facto entrepreneur for 11 years under a Koch Industries executiveSelling to Finish Line and stepping into a national roll-up role without M&A experienceTransitioning from owned retail to franchising and why the cultures require entirely different instinctsBuilding Fleet Feet’s e-commerce, Amazon business, and distribution center from scratchThe On Running partnership that took them from zero to hundreds of thousands of pairsAcquiring Marathon Sports in 2022 and growing from 18 to 32 locations in four yearsTrail running as a flywheel — races, field trips, and dirt camps building the customer of tomorrowWhy win-win-win is the only deal structure worth pursuingLosing everything on two outdoor stores in Colorado and what the failure actually taught him🌟 Ben’s Key Mentors:Princeton Running Company founder: modeled entrepreneurial decision-making at the local level, inspired by Koch Industries’ market-based management philosophy — without ever naming itFleet Feet leadership: gave him room to innovate across every department and scale concepts from zeroPodcasts (Founders, Acquired): a daily MBA on the commute, replacing incidental mentorship with intentional learning from the best business minds in historyHis own failures: the Colorado outdoor stores taught him that systems and teams — not individual toughness — are what allow entrepreneurs to flourish👉 Don’t miss this conversation about building something from inside someone else’s company, the specific deal structure that turned On Running into a powerhouse, and what it feels like to lose everything you put in and still say you’d do it again.🔗 Connect with Ben Cooke:Website: marathonsports.com📤 Transcript Available: Ben Cooke Turned 18 Running Stores Into a Trail Running Movement with Marathon Sports📺 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 28, 2026Episode 5111 hr 1 min

From Embroidery Machines to Global Blank Apparel: Three Generations of Next Level

🎤 Three Generations, One Brand: Eric Simsolo’s Path to President of Next Level ApparelEric Simsolo, President of Next Level Apparel, grew up watching his father and grandfather build a wholesale apparel empire from a single embroidery machine in Los Angeles. He chose to start as an intern anyway, worked through every corner of the business, and stepped into the president’s role during one of the company’s most demanding turnarounds. What he found wasn’t just a cleanup project — it was a masterclass in what it looks like to build something that outlasts you.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Three generations of apparel entrepreneurship beginning in Israel in the late 1970sHow sublimation printing innovation unlocked photorealistic design at mass-market scaleWarehouse move as an MBA-caliber project management experience in summer 2014Post-COVID inventory crisis and the eight-figure write-off that preceded the rebuildStop the bleeding — the four-stage turnaround framework borrowed from battlefield medicineThe dynamics of reporting directly to your father as president and CEOAcquisition of Stedman Europe expanding Next Level from two to fourteen distributorsFirst-ever impact report measuring carbon footprint, cotton sourcing, and supply chain responsibilityUS Cotton Trust Protocol and recycled polyester as tangible sustainability commitmentsAltana AI platform for vetting vendor relationships and preventing supply chain blind spots🌟 Eric’s Key Mentors:His grandfather: engineering visionary who retooled industrial printing presses for sublimation, turning a ceiling into a floor for the next generationHis father: market-research-driven entrepreneur who identified every new business category before competitors saw it, and modeled the courage to start over twiceNext Level’s leadership team: COO, VP of HR, and department heads who carried institutional knowledge through multiple transitionsThe Stedman Europe team: gave Eric his first model of what a properly staffed international subsidiary could look like👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it actually feels like to step into your father’s company during a crisis, why sustainability is a revenue strategy and not just a values statement, and what it means to build something designed to outgrow the person who built it.🔗 Connect with Eric Simsolo:Website: nextlevelapparel.com📤 Transcript Available: From Embroidery Machines to Global Blank Apparel: Three Generations of Next Level📺 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 28, 2026Episode 5101 hr 10 min

Rebuilding a Struggling Orthotics Franchise After Buying It the Week Before COVID

🎤 From Beijing Dealmaker to Foot Health CEO: John Prothro’s Rebuild of Foot SolutionsJohn Prothro, President and CEO of Foot Solutions, spent years closing cross-border deals in Beijing, running a 250-person scaffolding company on four continents, and building a private equity fund before acquiring a neglected foot health franchise one week before COVID shut the world down. What followed was a brand overhaul, a failed acquisition that became a recurring speech topic, and the rollout of 3D printed custom orthotics delivering a 97% success rate at four times the speed of traditional methods.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Acquiring Foot Solutions one week before COVID and surviving with no e-commerceBrand overhaul starting with a three-word exercise that revealed complete messaging chaos3D printed custom orthotics outperforming traditional lab methods in speed and accuracySemi-weight-bearing scanning technique that separates effective from ineffective orthoticsHappy Feet Plus acquisition post-mortem — what went wrong and whyService business versus retail business distinction that drove the acquisition failureMedicare diabetic shoe bill as an underutilized patient benefit and growth opportunity5% royalty structure and no brand fund fee as a franchisee-first differentiator26 years of training infrastructure as a near-impossible barrier to entryPath to 350–400 US locations from current base of 52🌟 John’s Key Mentors:Scaffolding company CEO: challenged John to move from advising to doing, exposing the gap between knowing and leadingInner Mongolia business partner: gave John his Chinese name meaning “watering the people around you” — a philosophy he carried forwardPeter Drucker, Jack Welch, and the Harvard Business Review case study library: built his early nonfiction foundation before he realized people skills mattered moreFoot Solutions franchisees: brought the European scanning technology to corporate, modeling the organizational learning John now builds the system around👉 Don’t miss this conversation about why most custom orthotics fail before they’re even made, what a bombed acquisition taught a seasoned dealmaker, and how a 26-year-old brand is building a category from scratch.🔗 Connect with John Prothro:Website: footsolutions.comEmail: franchising@footsolutions.com📤 Transcript Available: Rebuilding a Struggling Orthotics Franchise After Buying It the Week Before COVID📺 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 26, 2026Episode 5091 hr 5 min

How Dave Allred Reverse Engineered Financial Freedom and Hit 1,000 Rental Doors by 40

Dave Allred, founder and CEO of Axia Partners, grew up in a destitute household, was entirely on his own at 17, and built his first million by 26 after climbing through Vivint Smart Home as it reached multi-billion dollar valuation across 41 states. At 30 he sat down with a spreadsheet, reverse engineered what financial freedom would actually cost, set a goal of 40 rental properties by 40, hit it at 36, then reset to 1,000 doors by 40 and hit that too.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Living in a semi truck cab at 17 and finding $120 a month rent with a collapsing roofHow Clint Ashton became the first person to speak possibility into Dave’s lifeThe three skills Dave says lead to seven figure income: salesmanship, recruiting, and leadershipWhy freedom has been his core motivator from the beginning and how it has evolvedThe lifestyle design spreadsheet with 10 tabs he created at 26 and still updates monthlyThe financial freedom equation: reverse engineering passive income by a deadlinePower and proximity: how to get near the people doing what you want to doTeaching all four kids to be employees, investors, and entrepreneurs simultaneouslyHow Axia Partners structures recession-resilient real estate funds for accredited investorsThe legacy video he created for his father after losing his mother unexpectedly🌟 Dave’s Key Mentors:Clint Ashton (Teenage Boss and Neighbor): First person to speak possibility into Dave and rehire him after the pipe bomb incidentTodd Peterson (Vivint CEO): Modeled power and proximity at scale and taught Dave to seek the top 1-2% of any new arenaEd Mylett and Andy Frisella: Reinforced 10x thinking and the concept of being the one who resets generational standardsDave’s Business Coach: Connected the dots between Dave’s childhood freedom deprivation and his core motivator as an adult👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it actually takes to reverse engineer freedom, why leadership beats salesmanship as a long-term skill, and how one man used a Jerry Rice poster in a broken-down house to build a $50 million real estate firm.🔗 Connect with Dave Allred:Website: daveallred.comWebsite: axiapartners.comLinkedIn: Dave Allred, Axia Partners📤 Transcript Available: How Dave Allred Reverse Engineered Financial Freedom and Hit 1,000 Rental Doors by 40📺 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