Ral West on Why Open Book Management Built the Most Loyal Team She’s Ever Seen

How Nathan Anderson Built Nimbl Tech Inside Someone Else's Company

Nathan Anderson is the co-founder and head of operations at Nimbl Tech, a fractional IT firm in Lehi, Utah serving small remote accounting and financial services companies with device management, cybersecurity, and compliance. He built it from scratch inside Nimbl, the parent company where he serves as head of tech, after being turned down from a master's program and redirected by a CEO who offered to show him how to build a business instead. ✨ Key Insights You'll Learn: * Managing 1,500 employees to remote work overnight during COVID at the Missionary Training Center * Joining Nimbl part-time while finishing school, starting with basic IT and early automation * Recognizing a market gap when cloud accounting peers kept asking how Nimbl secured its remote team * CEO Dave Olson's offer: skip the MBA and build the company instead * Signing first client July 2024, reaching six figures by end of year one * Three core services: device management, access management, and data security compliance * FTC and IRS compliance documentation: written information security plans and incident response * Phishing emails as the most common real-world threat, not sophisticated outside attacks * AI safety for accounting firms: paid plans, SOC 2 certification, and the right privacy settings * 15-minute help desk response time as a non-negotiable standard, not a marketing claim 🌟 Nathan's Key Mentors: * Dave Olson (CEO, Nimbl): Redirected Nathan from pursuing an MBA to building NimblTech, then backed him fully * Missionary Training Center Leadership: Gave Nathan his first large-scale tech transition experience during COVID * Cloud Accounting Community: Provided a collaborative peer network that surfaced the market need NimblTech was built to fill * His Parents: Offered faith-grounded perspective during his lowest point after the master's rejection * NimblTech Clients: Each new service line has come from a client request, shaping the firm's growth organically 👉 Don't miss Nathan's candid account of being rejected from the graduate program all his friends got into, the professor who confirmed he should have been admitted, and the moment a CEO's belief in him changed everything. 🔗 Connect with Nathan Anderson: Website: trustnimbl.com 📋 Transcript Available: How Nathan Anderson Built Nimbl Tech Inside Someone Else's Company 📺 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

From Venezuela's First McDonald's to Miami Bar & Restaurant Group CEO: Luis Ginestra's Hospitality Journey

From Venezuela's First McDonald's to Miami Nightlife CEO: Luis Ginestra's Hospitality Journey Luis Ginestra, CEO of the Rabbit Group, built one of Miami's most innovative hospitality portfolios through a career spanning Venezuela, San Francisco, and South Florida. From cleaning grills at McDonald's at 16 to managing a 300-seat Thai restaurant at 21 to leading a multi-concept group through COVID and out the other side with double the sales, Luis shares the operational instincts, strategic partnerships, and hard lessons that shaped him. Key Insights You'll Learn: * Crew member at Venezuela's first McDonald's in 1986 at age 16 * GM of the Western Hemisphere's first Thai restaurant at age 21 with no prior restaurant leadership experience * Hospitality degree pursued over computer engineering after realizing he needed to be with people * Joining the Dirty Rabbit Group in 2022 to professionalize a fast-growing but financially scattered operation * Cutting 15 concepts to 7 while doubling sales and corporate staff from 32 to 14 * Promoter costs reduced from 20% to 10-12% through strategic marketing and social investment * Entertainment costs cut from 14% to 8% by curating DJ talent rather than chasing headliners * Partnership model with Mandala Group bringing Bagatelle and Sala de Espejo to Miami * Hurricane growth strategy: expand from the inside out, stay close to home base * Shifting from CEO to Chief Partnerships Officer to focus on brand licensing and strategic deals Luis's Key Mentors: * Jean-Paul Coupal (Restaurateur): Took a raw 21-year-old under his wing at the first Thai restaurant in the Western Hemisphere; taught operational detail and the art of hospitality * Renato Viola (Mr. O'Wan Founder): Showed Luis that great ingredients, fair pricing, and genuine service can outperform any marketing budget * Mandala Group Leadership: Global hospitality partner that expanded Luis's exposure to ultra-premium concepts and international brand management * McDonald's Training System: First school in consistency, process, and the value of repeatable standards * Karen Cohen (Franchisee CEO): Former McDonald's boss who later became a business connection and example of long-term growth through franchising Don't miss this conversation about what it actually takes to survive in one of the most competitive hospitality markets in the country and why cutting the fat was the best decision Luis ever made. Connect with Luis Ginestra: Website: thedirtyrabbitgroup.com Transcript Available: From Venezuela's First McDonald's to Miami Bar & Restaurant Group CEO: Luis Ginestra's Hospitality Journey 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

Drew Allen on Why American Manufacturing Needs to Think 10X Bigger, Not Just 10% Better

Drew Allen is the President and CEO of Grace Technologies, an electrical safety and predictive maintenance manufacturer based in Davenport, Iowa whose products are used in factories and facilities across more than 60 countries. He made his first trip to China at 13, spent years selling car care products across Asia for Meguiar's and 3M after college, and then returned to run strategy and product development at the family business his father founded in 1993 before stepping into the top role. Grace holds a patent for industrial interface design, has been recognized as a top workplace in Iowa and a BBB Torch Award winner for ethics, and Drew also hosts his own podcast, The Factory Futurist. ✨ Key Insights You'll Learn: * First trip to China at 13, studying international business at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, and nearly four years running Asian distribution for Meguiar's and 3M * Growing China sales 70% year over year by raising prices, creating a certification model for detail shops, and activating distribution partners across provinces * Joining Grace Technologies to run international operations, then product development and strategy, before taking over as CEO * Grace's four product lines: Graceport industrial interface panels, absence-of-voltage testing, electrical reliability monitoring, and wireless vibration condition monitoring * Arc flash explained: a copper-vaporizing electrical explosion triggered by short circuits in high-amperage industrial systems that can reach tens of thousands of degrees * The $400,000 product failure that produced the iterative development philosophy Grace now uses across all hardware launches * Firing bullets before cannonballs: never cutting tooling, paying for certifications, or ordering inventory without multi-customer validation first * 3D-printed molds for pre-production validation: an innovation discovered during a 48-hour engineering hackathon that allows physical testing without traditional tooling costs or lead times * Perceive: a separate technology holding company structured to enable equity participation for key engineering talent without diluting the family-owned Grace entity * Seven days walking 22-26 miles per day on the Camino de Santiago — in a monsoon, with an injured ankle — while processing his mother's terminal cancer recurrence 🌟 Drew's Key Mentors: * His Father (Grace Founder): Invented both the Graceport product and the mass-customization business model in the 1990s, and first took Drew to China at 13 to show him where the world was heading * Jim Collins (Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0): The fire bullets before cannonballs framework became the foundation for how Grace approaches all hardware product development after Drew's $400,000 failure * His CTO (Sivionics Founder): Brought condition monitoring technology into Grace through a creatively structured acquisition that solved both the equity and cash constraints of a family-owned company * Asian Distribution Partners: Taught Drew that channel activation and relationship density are as critical to revenue growth as product quality, a lesson he carries into Grace's go-to-market today 👉 Don't miss Drew's account of sinking $400,000 into a product no one wanted, walking 22 miles a day through a Spanish monsoon while his mother was dying, and what meeting the future Uber CTO on a boat to Alcatraz taught him about never dismissing an idea too quickly. 🔗 Connect with Drew Allen: Website: graceport.com Email: drewa@gracetechnologies.com LinkedIn: Drew Allen, Grace Technologies 📋 Transcript Available: Drew Allen on Why American Manufacturing Needs to Think 10X Bigger, Not Just 10% Better 📺 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

Shaun McDonald on What Harri's One-Click AI Scheduling Actually Does Behind the Scenes

Shaun McDonald is the Director of Customer Success at Harri, a New York-based technology company founded in 2012 that helps restaurants, hotels, and hospitality businesses hire, schedule, and engage frontline employees. Harri serves millions of workers across tens of thousands of locations worldwide and counts McDonald's, Subway, Burger King, Raising Cane's, and Shake Shack among its clients. Shaun came up through restaurant operations as a general manager at Sweetgreen and Luke's Lobster before moving into hospitality SaaS through Restaurant 365, where he earned a promotion within his first year and discovered that the gap between restaurant operations and tech was far smaller than he expected. ✨ Key Insights You'll Learn: * Started as a dishwasher and bus boy in college before transferring to Johnson and Wales University to complete culinary and business degrees * General manager at Sweetgreen and Luke's Lobster, where he once ran a new store opening entirely alone after his full staff called out * Moved to Restaurant 365 after seven-plus years in restaurants, renting an RV with his then-girlfriend and driving cross-country before either had secured a job * Joined Harri after being recruited out of Restaurant 365, drawn to customer success over reactive support work * Harri's platform covers the full employee lifecycle from applicant tracking through scheduling, timekeeping, onboarding compliance, and employee engagement * Fair Work Week compliance automation: helping operators avoid tens of thousands of dollars per week in penalties as city-level regulations expand * California break law as a top client acquisition trigger: operators get sued, lose their vendor, then find Harri * Harry Engage: clock-in touchpoint delivering surveys, training, and recognition at the moment employees have to interact with the system, driving response rates into the 70-90 percent range * One-click AI scheduling in beta: agentic flows checking forecasts, local events, employee availability, and skill levels simultaneously to produce a complete schedule with a single button press * Misdiagnosed with blood cancer at 23, spent over a year getting bone marrow tests before a specialist cleared him — an experience that reoriented his relationship with gratitude 🌟 Shaun's Key Mentors: * Restaurant Operations Career (Dishwasher to GM): Eight-plus years of frontline experience that gave Shaun the operational credibility to consult enterprise hospitality clients as a peer, not a vendor * Restaurant 365 (Early SaaS Career): Showed him that everyone in tech is figuring it out too, earned a promotion in under a year, and connected him to the tight-knit hospitality SaaS community * The Luke's Lobster Employee He Promoted to GM: A young woman from South Boston who never thought she'd amount to anything, whose journey from crew member to store manager is the moment Shaun most wants to be remembered for * All In Podcast (Ongoing Learning): Chamath Palihapitiya, David Sacks, and the other hosts provide real-time visibility into what cutting-edge AI companies are doing, helping Shaun stay at the edge rather than chasing from behind 👉 Don't miss Shaun's account of running a restaurant opening entirely alone, the cancer misdiagnosis he kept from almost everyone for years, and why hospitality is the best possible training for a career in customer success. 🔗 Connect with Shaun McDonald: Website: harri.com Email: shaun.mcdonald@harri.com 📋 Transcript Available: Shaun McDonald on What Harri's One-Click AI Scheduling Actually Does Behind the Scenes 📺 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

Matt Coyne: A Catholic Deacon and an M&A Advisor. Helping people get where they want to go

From GE Finance to M&A Advisor: Matt Coyne's 25 Years on the Front Lines of Business Exits Matt Coyne, founder of Brandywine Mergers and Acquisitions and Formation LLC, spent a decade inside Fortune 100 companies before stepping away to help privately held business owners navigate the most important financial transaction of their lives. A deacon, author, and recovering alcoholic with a disarming honesty about all three, Matt shares what he has learned from hundreds of deals and why most owners leave an enormous amount of money on the table when they finally sell. Key Insights You'll Learn: * GE Financial Management Program: high-pressure training that shaped a career-long view of finance * Watching a 30-year GE veteran face public humiliation for missing numbers at 25 years old * Leaving Precision Castparts after a brutal Sunday review in Yorkshire and never looking back * Starting Brandywine M&A in 2001 with a lifelong friend and zero corporate safety net * The identity crisis that follows handing over 500 employees and an executive title overnight * Why small business M&A and corporate M&A are entirely different animals * Most common seller mistakes: weak books, customer concentration, and waiting too long * The M&A Mastery Program: eight-week coaching for wealth advisors and business owners * Why owners need their wealth advisor articulate in M&A before any deal conversation begins * How sobriety, faith, and a seven-year deacon program reshaped Matt's approach to life and work Matt's Key Mentors: * Dennis Damerman (GE CFO): Walked into a room of new hires, shook Matt's hand, and asked about his wife by name; demonstrated that personal leadership scales * Tom (GE VP): After being publicly dressed down, told a 25-year-old Matt to decide what he wanted his career to be; one of the rawest honest lessons Matt ever received * Frank (Business Partner and Lifelong Friend): Pulled Matt out of burnout with a partnership offer and helped him build Brandywine from scratch * Lisa (Wife): Held him accountable through recovery, supported the deacon program, and kept the faith when he couldn't * Tim Ferriss (Author): The Four-Hour Workweek prompted Matt to write his own book and think differently about information as a tool Don't miss this conversation about what business exits really look like from the inside, and why the owners who get what they deserve are the ones who started the conversation years before they were ready. Connect with Matt Coyne: Website: formation-llc.com Email: mcoyne@bma1.com Transcript Available: Matt Coyne: A Catholic Deacon and an M&A Advisor. Helping people get where they want to go 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