The Inspired Stories Podcast

Kevin Harrison on Why the Uncommon Influence Coaching Program Starts with a Question, Not an Answer

From 31-Year Franchisee to Executive Coach: Kevin Harrison's Uncommon Reinvention Kevin Harrison, founder of Uncommon Influence, spent three decades as a Chick-fil-A franchisee before walking away to build an executive coaching firm from scratch. Recognized by the Virginia General Assembly for people development, Kevin now coaches leaders across hospitality and beyond on how to grow capacity, reinvent themselves, and have life-changing influence on the people around them. Key Insights You'll Learn: * 31-year Chick-fil-A run ending when the vision stopped inspiring him * iPad drive-through system: early pioneer growing throughput from 100 to 300+ cars per hour * Leader intern program attracting recent grads through structured rotations and experiences * Marathon wellness program inside Chick-fil-A sending dozens of employees to Disney race * Origin of Uncommon Influence: ninth-grade teacher mailing life goals back 11 years later * Five D's framework for overwhelmed leaders: do, delete, defer, delegate, decide * Camino de Santiago reinvention experience: 95-mile trek sold out through 2026 * Coaching principle: you cannot want growth more than your client wants it * Distinguishing statements from questions as tools for lasting change * AI as thought partner, not thought leader, for high-performing executives Kevin's Key Mentors: * Roger Flinchum (Ninth Grade English Teacher): Mailed back life goals 11 years later; sparked the Uncommon Influence vision * Chick-fil-A Company President: Planted the question "How good do you want to be?" at a critical moment * Kevin's Wife: Named the moment his vision no longer inspired him and gave him permission to leave * Kevin's Personal Coach: Facilitates annual and biannual strategic retreats; challenges his thinking regularly * Mitch and Stacey Hartman (Scrimp Shack Founders): Trusted Kevin with scaling their brand after retirement Don't miss this conversation about what it looks like to rebuild at the top of your game and why the leaders who truly change are the ones who want it most. Connect with Kevin Harrison: Website: uncommoninfluence.com Transcript Available: Kevin Harrison on Why the Uncommon Influence Coaching Program Starts with a Question, Not an Answer 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

Brad Barmore on Why the Customer Isn’t Always First. And Why That’s the Secret to Great Hospitality

🎙️ From $120K and a Pizza Oven to Three Sonoma County Restaurants: Brad Barmore’s Story at Kin Restaurant Group Brad Barmore, co-founder of Kin Restaurant Group, started with $120,000 scraped from friends, a personal loan, and two silent partners, signed a lease April 1st, and opened Kin Windsor by June 22nd of 2011. Fourteen years later, he runs three concepts across Sonoma County and owns two of the properties under them. In between: wildfires, evacuations, a global pandemic, a face plant with a fourth concept, barbecue competitions, a malfunctioning smoker on opening day, and a lesson about family he learned while his father was dying of cancer in Las Vegas. The kin brand — the idea that guests don’t visit your restaurant, they just show up at their place — turned out to be both a philosophy and a competitive advantage. ✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn: * What the early days at Johnny Garlic’s and Tex Wasabi’s taught Brad about creative possibility in a restaurant kitchen * How New York stripped away everything except the conviction that relationships are what hold a kitchen together * The $120,000 bootstrap story — signed a lease before the concept was finished, opened 12 weeks later * Why getting a full spirits license two years in changed everything — even for guests who only drink wine * How Kinsmoke went from a backyard competition to a San Francisco Chronicle front page * The opening day smoker collapse and 76-straight-day stretch that almost broke him * What COVID taught him about the loyalty of a community — and why taking care of staff first built business during lockdown * Why the customer should not come first, and what Danny Meyer’s hospitality philosophy actually means in practice * The face plant at 1910 — their best creative work, the wrong location, and a father dying in Vegas * Why owning the buildings under two of their three restaurants is the real retirement plan 🌟 Brad’s Key Mentors: * Guy Fieri & Steve Rubbers (Johnny Garlic’s / Tex Wasabi’s): Taught Brad what it looks like to empower managers like owners — and what gets lost when a company scales past that * Carl Ruiz (Food Network Personality & Kitchen Operator): The ‘assassin’ who showed Brad what surgical operational efficiency looks like and invited him to New York * Danny Meyer (Setting the Table, Union Square Hospitality Group): The philosophy that flipped Brad’s entire approach — staff first, vendors second, guests third — and it’s been the backbone of Kin ever since * JC (Business Partner): Held the restaurants together while Brad sat with his dying father — the kind of partnership that makes the word kin mean something * Logan (Chef, Kin Windsor since 2013): A prep cook from Tex Wasabi’s who has been with Brad through every opening, every close, and every hard stretch 👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it actually takes to survive in the restaurant business in one of California’s most disaster-prone counties, why the hospitality philosophy that makes guests feel at home starts with the dishwasher, and how a face plant at a fourth restaurant became the best lesson Brad ever learned. 🔗 Connect with Brad Barmore: Website: kinwindsor.com Website: kinsmoke.com Website: thepublicanwindsor.com 📎 Transcript Available: Brad Barmore on Why the Customer Isn’t Always First. And Why That’s the Secret to Great Hospitality 📺 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

Patrick Rogers on Why Acquiring Businesses Beats Growing Them Every Time

🎙️ From Nuclear Reactors to Acquisition Arbitrage: Patrick Rogers’ Path to Elkridge Advisors Patrick Rogers, managing partner of Elkridge Advisors, ran nuclear reactors in the Navy, spent 13 years in chemical sales management, built a property management company from a real estate crash, coached CEOs for 17 years, and then watched his M&A mentor reveal a complete absence of character at exactly the wrong moment. What came next — three months of meditation, a complete reinvention, and a business model nobody else is running — is the real story. His goal: create 1,000 deca millionaires by acquiring businesses at 5% down and selling them at double the multiple. ✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn: * The SBA hack that gets buyers into deals at 5% down instead of 10% * Acquisition arbitrage: buying five companies at 4x and selling the combined entity at 8x * How to structure a seller standby note that makes the 5% down possible * Why the SBA Business Expansion Program can get qualified buyers in at zero down * Elkridge’s 60-day observation protocol before any changes are made post-acquisition * Employee-driven strategy sessions — letting the team determine the direction * How Patrick spotted the organic growth ceiling and pivoted to acquisitions * The mentor betrayal that cost $1M and launched Elkridge Advisors * How three months of meditation and manifestation produced a business model that didn’t exist * The 25-company close goal for the coming year 🌟 Patrick’s Key Mentors: * Dave Lofts (District Manager, Nalco Water): Taught Patrick that modeling the best is the fastest path to becoming the best * Wendy Patton (Real Estate Investor): Introduced Patrick to creative deal structures that planted the acquisition mindset * His M&A Mentor (Unnamed): A cautionary lesson in vetting character before trust — and whose betrayal led directly to Elkridge * Robert (Co-Founder, Elkridge): Found through meditation and a year of silence — brought the business operating system that doubled Elkridge’s value proposition * His Own Subconscious: Three months of deep meditation that produced the Elkridge concept and the conviction to build it 👉 Don’t miss this wide-ranging conversation about deal structure, people-driven acquisition strategy, and why the most important business decision Patrick ever made was choosing to sit still. 🔗 Connect with Patrick Rogers: Website: elkridgeadvisors.com LinkedIn: Patrick Rogers — Elkridge Advisors 📎 Transcript Available: Patrick Rogers on Why Acquiring Businesses Beats Growing Them Every Time 📺 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

What Losing Everything Taught Krystle Holguin About Leading With Emotional Intelligence

Krystle Holguin: From HR Clerk at 15 to People Strategy Director at Colonial Country Club Krystle Holguin, Director of Human Resources at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, shares her journey from a part-time high school clerk job she took for extra spending money to leading the people strategy behind one of America’s most storied private clubs — including a $120 million renovation and the annual Charles Schwab Challenge PGA Tour event. Key Insights You’ll Learn: * Starting in HR at 15 with no career vision — and spending nearly a decade there * Three years in teaching, a failed certification, and what rejection taught her about redirection * Following a partner across Texas, getting laid off during COVID, and choosing to start over * Building an HR department solo with no staff and no employees coming to work * Implementing a new HRIS system over heavy internal resistance — and winning with data * The “hire character, train skill” philosophy and how it changed her interview approach * Launching Colonial’s in-house university: skill classes, wellness, and professional development * Managing HR for a $120M renovation and a PGA Tour event broadcast in 200+ countries * Why emotional intelligence is the most underrated trait in senior leadership * Building an engagement committee that actually executes instead of just meeting Krystle’s Key Mentors: * High School Business Teacher: Connected her to the school district clerk role that started it all * Teaching Students: Showed her the power of genuine connection that carried into HR leadership * Difficult Bosses: Toughened her emotional intelligence in ways she didn’t appreciate until later * COVID-Era Staff: Forced her to become the expert by being the only one with answers * Colonial Leadership Team: Gave her the support and space to build the vision she had been carrying for years Don’t miss this conversation about what real HR leadership looks like, why the scenic career route can be the best preparation, and how one leader is turning a century-old club into a place where employees genuinely want to show up. Connect with Krystle Holguin: Website: colonialfw.com Transcript Available: . What Losing Everything Taught Krystle Holguin About Leading With Emotional Intelligence 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

Brand Vision and Barefoot Luxury with Sean Dee of Outrigger Resorts

From Levi.com to Barefoot Luxury: Sean Dee's Journey Building the OUTRIGGER Brand Sean Dee, EVP and Chief Commercial Officer at OUTRIGGER Resorts and Hotels, shares his unlikely path from Stanford political science major and advertising media planner to launching the first consumer website in history at Levi Strauss, placing Levi's first-ever Super Bowl spot, and ultimately becoming the commercial force behind one of the world's most authentic beach resort brands. Key Insights You'll Learn: * Started at ad agency Foote, Cone and Belding at $17,500 a year and deliberately spent after-hours in the creative department to broaden skills beyond the media job he was hired for * Helped launch Levi.com in 1994 as the first consumer brand website, born from a talent budget surplus and a consumer affairs team trying to reduce 25,000 monthly call center calls * Organized the first internet consumer poll in history to let Levi's fans vote on which Super Bowl spot to air, generating over 250,000 votes before social media existed * Left Levi's shortly after that success in a departure that was not his choice, a turning point that shaped his outlook on resilience and keeping perspective on professional wins * OUTRIGGER's brand positioning as the world's premier beach resort company grew from an HR orientation program, not a marketing brief * Barefoot luxury combines beachfront authenticity, live music daily, local cultural celebration, and signature experiences like surf lessons with the world-famous Moniz family * AI tool Coral now handles roughly 50% of OUTRIGGER's call center volume, freeing human agents to focus on conversion conversations instead of service calls * International visitation to the US dropped nearly 10% last year while Japan remains 50% below pre-COVID levels due to health anxiety that has little to do with US policy * OUTRIGGER has completed or is completing roughly half a billion dollars in renovations with the flagship Waikiki property undergoing its biggest renovation in company history * Growth criteria is disciplined: beachfront, warm weather year-round, overlap with existing source markets, and operational experience in the region Sean's Key Mentors: * Uncle Ernie Chambers, Merv Griffin's partner: Sparked Sean's interest in broadcast and suggested advertising when production jobs were scarce in the Bay Area * Levi Strauss marketing leadership: Gave Sean the latitude to take risks on the internet, the first Super Bowl buy, and consumer voting before any of it had a proven track record * Hamish Dodds, Hard Rock CEO: Led the brand restoration that stripped away years of dilution and returned Hard Rock to its founding purpose * Dr. Kana-Hilley, Hawaiian cultural historian: Developed the OUTRIGGER Way 30 years ago as an HR program; Sean recognized it as the brand's true differentiator and moved it to the center of all marketing * Jeff Wagner, OUTRIGGER CEO: Joined in 2018 and set a higher bar for brand elevation, guest experience, and growth pace that pushed the entire organization forward Don't miss this conversation about what it really means to own a brand position, why the best marketing insights sometimes hide in HR orientation manuals, and what the early internet can teach us about navigating the AI moment right now. Connect with Sean Dee: Website: OUTRIGGER.com [https://outrigger.com] LinkedIn: Sean Dee [https://www.linkedin.com/in/seandee] Email: sean.d@OUTRIGGER.com 📄 Transcript Available: Brand Vision and Barefoot Luxury with Sean Dee of Outrigger Resorts 📺 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