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

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 Hospitality Elizabeth 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 existed * Overpouring as a training problem, not a theft problem * Bartenders earn more tips by pouring less per drink * Menu pricing drift when ingredient costs change but prices don't * Deliveries as a hidden and frequently overlooked source of loss * Third party accountability removing the owner from being the bad guy * Dead stock identification and how to move it before it costs you * A 2025 that reversed years of growth and what she learned from it * Volunteering with no skin in the game as the fastest path back to confidence * Sandler selling transforming her from feature pitcher to question asker * Alabama Gulf Coast as one of the fastest growing regions in the country * Frontline 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 business * Brian 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 clients * Bethany 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 function * Clients 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 enormously * Husband: 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

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 Years Kasey 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 word * ADP training as a total transformation — from territory management to pipeline structure * The chamber of commerce moment that turned near-failure into a relationship-first sales philosophy * How to ask the one sidebar question at the end of every meeting that changes everything * The mortgage application that showed Kasey how far the PEO industry had fallen behind * Why Entravia pivoted from B2C shopping platform to white-labeled B2B infrastructure overnight * The general agency model and how it made brokers partners instead of competitors * Getting rejected by every VC, then getting a second look through one unexpected relationship * Why the cost of building software dropped enough to make this startup possible now * Browser-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 creation * TriNet founder and ProCare HR founder: showed him what it looks like to lead a sales and marketing org with accountability and discipline * M25 and Cambrian Ventures: gave him the capital and credibility to move fast on a problem he already understood better than anyone * His 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

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

🎙️ Scott Sowers: From Textile Executive to Ohio Pest Control Founder In 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 control * Left a global career after his wife's tearful request * Threw out his business plan two weeks after launch * Built one of Ohio's top bed bug heat eradication companies * People, pet, and plant safe treatment philosophy * Worked seven days a week for over a decade * Daughter's school letter sparked a major life reset * Spent a year and thousands solving one unique infestation * Expanding into Dublin and Polaris for efficiency * Shifting the company to run on data, not gut feel 🌟 Scott's Key Mentors: * His Father: Serial entrepreneur who modeled relentless work ethic * His Wife: Former ICU cardiac nurse who pushed him toward something real * His Uncle: Ran the family's side pest control truck, sparked his interest * His Daughter: Her school letter reshaped how he spends his time * Nationwide 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 line Website: addbackbenefits.com Keywords: 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 Control Meta 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

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 Sports Ben 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 PRs * Running Princeton Running Company as a de facto entrepreneur for 11 years under a Koch Industries executive * Selling to Finish Line and stepping into a national roll-up role without M&A experience * Transitioning from owned retail to franchising and why the cultures require entirely different instincts * Building Fleet Feet’s e-commerce, Amazon business, and distribution center from scratch * The On Running partnership that took them from zero to hundreds of thousands of pairs * Acquiring Marathon Sports in 2022 and growing from 18 to 32 locations in four years * Trail running as a flywheel — races, field trips, and dirt camps building the customer of tomorrow * Why win-win-win is the only deal structure worth pursuing * Losing 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 it * Fleet Feet leadership: gave him room to innovate across every department and scale concepts from zero * Podcasts (Founders, Acquired): a daily MBA on the commute, replacing incidental mentorship with intentional learning from the best business minds in history * His 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

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 Apparel Eric 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 1970s * How sublimation printing innovation unlocked photorealistic design at mass-market scale * Warehouse move as an MBA-caliber project management experience in summer 2014 * Post-COVID inventory crisis and the eight-figure write-off that preceded the rebuild * Stop the bleeding — the four-stage turnaround framework borrowed from battlefield medicine * The dynamics of reporting directly to your father as president and CEO * Acquisition of Stedman Europe expanding Next Level from two to fourteen distributors * First-ever impact report measuring carbon footprint, cotton sourcing, and supply chain responsibility * US Cotton Trust Protocol and recycled polyester as tangible sustainability commitments * Altana 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 generation * His father: market-research-driven entrepreneur who identified every new business category before competitors saw it, and modeled the courage to start over twice * Next Level’s leadership team: COO, VP of HR, and department heads who carried institutional knowledge through multiple transitions * The 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