Holy Sh*t Comfort and Big Ball Girth: Rick Blackshaw’s Very Serious Shoe Brand

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

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 Solutions John 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-commerce * Brand overhaul starting with a three-word exercise that revealed complete messaging chaos * 3D printed custom orthotics outperforming traditional lab methods in speed and accuracy * Semi-weight-bearing scanning technique that separates effective from ineffective orthotics * Happy Feet Plus acquisition post-mortem — what went wrong and why * Service business versus retail business distinction that drove the acquisition failure * Medicare diabetic shoe bill as an underutilized patient benefit and growth opportunity * 5% royalty structure and no brand fund fee as a franchisee-first differentiator * 26 years of training infrastructure as a near-impossible barrier to entry * Path 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 leading * Inner Mongolia business partner: gave John his Chinese name meaning “watering the people around you” — a philosophy he carried forward * Peter Drucker, Jack Welch, and the Harvard Business Review case study library: built his early nonfiction foundation before he realized people skills mattered more * Foot 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.com Email: 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

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 roof * How Clint Ashton became the first person to speak possibility into Dave’s life * The three skills Dave says lead to seven figure income: salesmanship, recruiting, and leadership * Why freedom has been his core motivator from the beginning and how it has evolved * The lifestyle design spreadsheet with 10 tabs he created at 26 and still updates monthly * The financial freedom equation: reverse engineering passive income by a deadline * Power and proximity: how to get near the people doing what you want to do * Teaching all four kids to be employees, investors, and entrepreneurs simultaneously * How Axia Partners structures recession-resilient real estate funds for accredited investors * The 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 incident * Todd Peterson (Vivint CEO): Modeled power and proximity at scale and taught Dave to seek the top 1-2% of any new arena * Ed Mylett and Andy Frisella: Reinforced 10x thinking and the concept of being the one who resets generational standards * Dave’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.com Website: axiapartners.com LinkedIn: 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

From Motel Rooms at 12 to Hotel Developer: Kal Patel

Kal Patel, founder and CEO of Crestpoint Companies, grew up stripping motel rooms at 12 years old, swore he'd never return to hospitality, and then spent 25 years building hotels, a home inspection franchise, an urgent care, and a social media agency his daughter now runs. His path includes a near-fatal car accident, a $150K loss, and a fall off a roof that nearly cost him his arm -- each one followed by a rebuild. ✨ Key Insights You'll Learn: * Childhood motel work as foundation for lifelong grit * T-shirt shop launch with $30K borrowed from friends and family * Head-on car accident that ended the t-shirt business * First hotel built using library books to learn blueprints * $150K loss from partner capital calls and the seven-year payback * Roof fall, nine surgeries, and systems that kept the business running * Home inspection franchise grown to 11 locations across four states * Hospitality principles brought into AFC Urgent Care design * Social Sia: daughter's social media agency at 27 clients * Fueled by Purpose: book dedicated to his late mother 🌟 Kal's Key Mentors: * Craig Oberg: Personal trainer turned advisor who redirected Kal into home inspections and urged him to let go of the $150K loss * Kal's Wife (Lino): 27-year Accenture career; anchor through every financial setback and rebuild * E-Myth Revisited (Michael Gerber): Systems framework that kept the inspection business running through his injury recovery * Kal's Mother: Lifelong cheerleader whose passing inspired the journaling that became his book * Jed (Business Partner): Took over hotel management operations, freeing Kal to focus on development 👉 Don't miss this conversation about rebuilding after loss, building systems that outlast you, and what it looks like to pass a business on to the next generation. 🔗 Connect with Kal Patel: Website: crestpointco.com Email: cal@socialsaiya.com Book: fueledbypurpose.com 📄 Transcript Available: From Motel Rooms at 12 to Hotel Developer: Kal Patel 📺 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