From Educational Psychology to Staffing COO: Marnie Byford's Path to Supreme Staffing

Brandon McConnell on A People First Mentality in Hospitality + His Book on AI & Human Psychology

Brandon McConnell, corporate executive at Delavan Lake Lawn Management, learned hospitality before he learned long division — garnishing plates at his mother’s diner at age six, stripping hotel beds in middle school, and eventually turning a TQM class on a Tuesday night into a professional philosophy that followed him through Disney, Grand Geneva, and now Lake Lawn Resort. He’s also finishing a 330-page book on AI psychosis through a Johns Hopkins research cohort. ✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn: * Diner childhood: learning hospitality through food, family, and 4:45 AM wake-ups * Skipping class to vocational school: how TQM lit up Brandon’s mind and redirected his career * Disney at scale: timing housekeepers with a stopwatch to save $40K per property annually * Grand Geneva turnaround: diagnosing a four-diamond property in 30 days and moving the needle in 90 * Hire for aptitude first, attitude second, availability third * Lake Lawn Resort: Wisconsin’s oldest resort spanning golf, spa, marina, and residential real estate * Night golf and short courses: where the sport is headed and what Lake Lawn is building * Imposter syndrome as a reminder of the journey rather than a reason for fear * AI psychosis research: what LLMs are doing in suicide prevention that surprised even Brandon * Why the AI moment mirrors where social media was a decade ago 🌟 Brandon’s Key Mentors: * His Mother: Introduced him to hospitality through her diner and modeled hard work and human connection * TQM Instructor (Vocational School): Gave Brandon the process framework that redirected his entire professional life * Disney Leadership Teams: Taught alignment, scale, and people-centric operations at an institutional level * COO of Development (Former GM, Delavan): Hired Brandon twice and shaped his long-term trajectory * Johns Hopkins Research Cohort: Challenged Brandon to think rigorously about AI from a non-clinical standpoint 👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what hospitality actually teaches you about people, why imposter syndrome belongs on the table not buried underneath it, and how a resort executive ended up writing one of the more unusual books on AI and human psychology. 🔗 Connect with Brandon McConnell: Website: https://www.lakelawnresort.com/ [https://www.lakelawnresort.com/] Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-m-mcconnell-1aba4240/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-m-mcconnell-1aba4240/]  📤 Transcript Available: Brandon McConnell on A People First Mentality in Hospitality + His Book on AI & Human Psychology 📺 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

Richard Parker: Stop Working In Busyness and Start Building a Business Worth Selling

🎤 Richard Parker Bought 13 Businesses Before He Started Helping Others Sell Theirs Richard Parker, founder of Roy Street Advisors and author of How to Buy a Good Business at a Great Price, has personally bought and sold 13 businesses — not as a banker advising from the sidelines, but as the one signing the checks and losing sleep over payroll. That experience became the foundation for a boutique M&A firm that closes over 90% of its deals, and a program that has helped over 100,000 buyers across 80 countries navigate a process that most people get badly wrong. ✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn: * Why blowing $60,000 in the stock market at age 29 launched a career in business ownership * The case for buying a business over starting one — and the math that makes it work * How $100,000 down can get you into a million-dollar business with a real salary on day one * Why 94% of people who search for businesses to buy never close a deal * The three questions Richard asks every client before taking them to market * Why spotless books and records are the single highest-leverage pre-sale move * How second-tier management transforms sellability and business value simultaneously * Why a 90% close rate starts with refusing listings that aren’t ready to sell * Ego as the thing that held Richard back longest — and what finally changed it * The $197 program with unlimited email access to Richard that marketers keep trying to upsell 🌟 Richard’s Key Mentors: * His first employees who outperformed him: revealed that getting it right matters more than being right, and that empowering better people changes everything * Andy Cagnena (Trans World Business Brokers): the conversation about $60,000 average broker earnings that told Richard exactly what was broken — and exactly how to fix it * The clients who took six months of vacation: living proof that a business built on systems and second-tier management is worth far more than one that can’t run without its owner * His own failures: the botched acquisition he walked away from became the case study that drove him to write the course, and the stock market loss that forced him into entrepreneurship in the first place 👉 Don’t miss this conversation about why most deals die before they start, what separates a sellable business from a lifestyle job with helpers, and how a guy from the suburbs of Montreal built one of the most trusted names in lower middle market M&A. 🔗 Connect with Richard Parker: Website: RichardParker.com [http://richardparker.com] and RoyStreet.com [http://roystreet.com] Social Media: https://www.youtube.com/@richardparkerdiomo [https://www.youtube.com/@richardparkerdiomo] https://www.facebook.com/RichardParkerDiomo [https://www.facebook.com/RichardParkerDiomo] https://www.instagram.com/richardparkerdiomo/ [https://www.instagram.com/richardparkerdiomo/] https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardparkerdiomo/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardparkerdiomo/] 📤 Transcript Available: Richard Parker: Stop Working In Busyness and Start Building a Business Worth Selling 📺 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

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 self * Family serial entrepreneurship: route accounting at 14, managing rental business through college * Georgia State scholarship, LSAT tutoring, and building Atlanta operations from scratch * Joining Cogent Analytics in 2016 as regional VP at 28, selling to owners older than his career * Managing director of business development through COVID with zero travel and near heart failure * Left for a deliberate reset: design consultant at bathroom remodeling company to decompress * Returned to Cogent as Director of Portfolio Development and now Senior Business Analyst * AI as a hyper-literal intern: multiplier, not replacement, with real management implications * The owner's trap: what got you here will not get you there * Stewardship 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 ambition * His Mother: Serial entrepreneur and business analyst who modeled resourcefulness and introduced him to consulting * Rob Raymond (Cogent Founder): Mentored Andrew through leadership transitions and growth at the firm * His Team at Cogent: Gave direct feedback that reshaped his communication and delegation approach * Business 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 Acer Website: 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

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 Path Jon 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 step * 11 years at ExxonMobil’s global projects organization — $40B+ capital programs * Pursuing a Berkeley data science master’s while working full-time at ExxonMobil * Why AI transformation is a leadership problem, not a technology problem * BCG study: 75% of CEOs at large companies are the primary AI decision-maker * AI use case ROI stacks — the real value starts at use case three, four, and five * Sales call coaching agent: AI listening to every rep and generating coaching reports * Patient care coordination agent: identifying fall risk from unstructured conversation * Audit agent: comparing narrative reports against financial data for discrepancies * Why 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 engineering * Zacher Hussein and Fazl (EY): Taught Jon how enterprises actually approach AI strategy and change management at scale * Dr. Charlie Pegian (LBMC Colleague, former Belmont/MTSU Professor): Co-developer of Jon’s problem-first AI framework for client engagements * His Wife: Held the family together through two Iraq deployments, expat assignments in Norway, France, and England, and a Berkeley master’s program — the unsung hero * His 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 — LBMC Website: 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

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 later * How a trade show accidentally launched a B2B telemarketing firm aimed at financial services companies * Why positioning financial advisors as exit planning specialists worked in the mid-90s before anyone had a name for it * The difference between increasing EBITDA and increasing your multiple — and why both matter * Why one plus one doesn’t equal three in a roll-up and what TobinLeff learned the hard way * Growth, margins, transferability, and client retention: the four value drivers buyers actually measure * Why 60 to 90 days of prep before going to market changes everything * Deal fatigue is real: what happens when a seller takes their eye off new business during the process * Why getting on a plane to meet a prospective client won an engagement that a Zoom call never would have * The 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 drive * His Mother: Her line — experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want — stayed with him through his hardest exit * His Three Partner Colleagues (Former Marketing Agency Owners): Proved that good business sense built over years of ownership transfers directly to MA advisory work * The 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