Inspired Insider With Dr. Jeremy Weisz | Ecommerce Interviews | Entrepreneurship | Inspirational Stories | Business Lessons

Andrew Warner is the Founder of Mixergy, where he has interviewed over 2,000 entrepreneurs. He's the author of Stop Asking Questions, a guide for interviewers and anyone who wants to learn more from the people they admire. Andrew was a marathon runner who did a marathon in every continent in his 20s. He used credit cards to create a business with his younger brother that generated over 30 million dollars a year. In this episode… The depth of relationships is powered by the good conversations that drive them. Unfortunately, not many know how to engage in meaningful conversations, so they struggle to start — and build — valuable relationships. And in today’s business world, relationships are everything.  How do you have insightful conversations that strengthen relationships without making anyone feel drilled and vulnerable? When people show resistance about a topic in their lives you’re interested in, how do you overcome that and cut through the resistance?  Listen to this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcas

Tracy Deforge is the CEO and Co-founder of The Players' Impact. The Players’ Impact is a platform that empowers athletes and businesses exclusively for current and former professional athletes looking to preserve and build wealth through their premier private market investment opportunities. Some of their community members include Tracy McGrady, Gabby Douglas, and many more. Their portfolio companies include Cameo, DraftKings, Robin Hood, and others.  Shawn Springs is the CEO of Windpact, a materials data and technology company located in Leesburg, Virginia. He is passionate about protecting the next generation of kids, and the inspiration behind founding Windpact stems from his 13 seasons playing in the NFL. In 1997, he was drafted third overall in the first round, spent time with three teams — the Seahawks, Washington Football Team, and New England Patriots — and was in the Pro Bowl.  Donte Whitner was an 11 year NFL veteran, three-time pro-bowler, eighth overall pick in the 2006 NFL Draft, All-American at

Todd Brown is the Founder of the E5 Method. He's considered one of the top authorities on engineering profitable customer acquisition campaigns, and they have clients in over 64 countries operating in over 71 different markets.  Todd has helped his students engineer six and seven-figure marketing campaigns. His list of coaching students, consulting clients, and subscribers are some of the who's who of A-list entrepreneurs. In this episode… Two numbers are crucial in direct response marketing for customer acquisition and generating buyers at scale. What are these two numbers, and how do they impact your business?  One is the cost per acquisition (CPA): how much does it cost you to acquire a new buyer? The second is the average order value (AOV): the average amount of money that a buyer spends the day they become a buyer with you. Many entrepreneurs are obsessed with keeping their CPA low, but what's most important is increasing the AOV. So how do you increase AOV and the overall performance of your campaign? 

Richard Melmon is a pioneer in the technology industry. He launched the first spreadsheet, VisiCalc, he was in charge of the early advertising for Apple, and he launched the first digital watch at Intel. Richard is the Co-founder of Electronic Arts, a company with a $30 billion market cap. He also co-founded Melmon Tawa & Partners, a high-tech advertising agency acquired by Livingston and Co. in 1989. Richard built and sold Objective Software to Asymetrix in 1993. He has co-founded and built many businesses ever since.  More recently, Richard co-founded Bullpen Capital in 2010 with Paul Martino and Duncan Davidson and has led several of its key investments, including Braze and Homelight. Richard is also is Managing Partner at NSV Wolf Capital. In this episode… One common thread among successful entrepreneurs is that they have built companies that failed. Richard Melmon is no exception. He thought all that a company needed to succeed was good marketing, but that became his most significant career regret. 

Rohan Sheth is the Co-founder and CEO of GrowRev, a digital agency that helps companies grow their businesses online. They've handled over $100 million in ad spend for 1000s of companies resulting in over $600 million in returns. Rohan founded GrowRev with Matt Farmer.  Rohan's sales journey began in high school when he imported pocket bikes and sold them to his friends. He cut his teeth selling $13,000 education packages door to door, and in a few short months, was the "go-to" guy to close impossible leads. Since then, Rohan has worked with companies like Clickfunnels, Tony Robbins, Dean Graziosi, and many more. In this episode… One-on-one selling is brutal, but imagine having to do it going door-to-door. The chances are that you’ll face rejection nine times out of 10, but by the time you become good at selling, you’d have mastered the art of dealing with rejections. That’s precisely the story of today’s guest, Rohan Sheth.  Rohan takes us back to the time he did door-to-door sales, where he was rejected oft

Dodd Caldwell is the Co-founder and CEO of MoonClerk, a web-based software company that helps businesses accept one-time and recurring payments online without any coding. Dodd is also the President of Rice Bowls, a creative nonprofit that partners with grassroots orphanages in eight countries to feed hungry children. Before that, Dodd founded an e-commerce company that he sold, and he led international chain sales efforts for his family's manufacturing business In this episode… Every business owner wants to get paid quickly. They find it even better when such payments are recurring and forgo the stress of writing code or managing a developer team. Unfortunately, many small businesses still struggle with payment processing, and it's hurting their business.  Today's guest on the show, Dodd Caldwell, runs a payment platform that helps solve the recurring payment headache with a dash of personalized support and low fees. Bootstrapped and having had to raise prices twice, their progress has not been nearly as pret

Elon Gold is a comedian and actor who has starred in FOX's Stacked and NBC's In-Laws. His one-hour stand-up special on Netflix, Elon Gold: Chosen & Taken, received wide acclaim from audiences and peers alike. It is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. He has made ten appearances on The Tonight Show and had a recurring role on FOX’s hit show, Bones. Elon was a writer and performer on ABC's The Dana Carvey Show and has guest-starred on Frasier, The Mentalist, and Chappelle's Show, among others.  Elon made stellar appearances on The Late Late Show With James Corden and Comedy Central's This Week At The Comedy Cellar. Millions around the globe have shared his routines. Elon is also currently featured in the Hulu movie The Binge and season 3 of HBO's Crashing, playing his most challenging role yet…himself. Elon can be seen opposite Larry David in a recurring role in the upcoming 11th season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Jason Ciment is the Founder and CEO of Get Visible, a digital marketing agency that helps compan

Paul Martino is a Venture Capitalist and a Managing General Partner and Co-founder of Bullpen Capital. Before forming Bullpen in 2010, Paul was an active angel investor and personally invested in the first rounds of Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA), TubeMogul (NASDAQ: TUBE), and uDemy. He sold a company to Millennial Media before its public offering (Condaptive) and to Marketo before its public offering (Crowd Factory). He’s an eight-time company founder, movie producer, and now sports entertainment venue operator. Paul’s production company gave rise to the film Inside Game, a movie about the 2007 NBA betting scandal. Paul’s early online gaming innovations in multi-player user experience from over 30 years ago are the inspiration for several modern social gaming offerings. He holds over a dozen patents on core social networking concepts, content targeting, and recommendation systems. In this episode… If you walked into a meeting with the legendary CEO coach Bill Campell, would he take you on as a protégé? Imagine going i

Matt DeCoursey is a Kansas City-based Co-founder and CEO at Full Scale. Full Scale is a business that helps software companies recruit, assess, retain, and employ experts. They have a staff of over 225 people — and growing.  Matt is also the CEO and Founder of GigaBook, a provider of cloud-based business tools for small and medium-sized companies. He's a Co-host of the Startup Hustle Podcast and the author of Million Dollar Bedroom, Balance Me, and a co-author of The Realist’s Guide to a Successful Music Career. In this episode… Hiring tech talent is a hustle most founders would want to wish away. That is because many businesses struggle to find a good mix of talent, skills, experience, and culture fit. Filtering for these — and more — requires best practices. But that’s only one part of the problem.  When your demand for tech talent increases and you have to hire outside the US, how do you scale your hiring process to maintain a high standard of team members? At what point do you outsource your tech work or

Keith Bank is the Founder and CEO of KB Partners, a leading early-stage sports and technology venture capital firm. KB Partners have recorded successes, with many of the companies they back either having been acquired or gone public.  Before founding KB Partners, Keith served as a Principal at Hiffman Shaffer Associates, Inc., a Chicago-based national real estate development, investment, management, and brokerage firm. He's been a highly successful entrepreneur, real estate developer, and angel investor. Keith is one of the Founders of the Illinois Venture Capital Association and was the recipient of their highly coveted fellows medal for leadership. In this episode… The venture capital space is as risky as it gets. Yes, they do a bunch of research to decide which companies to back, but they still have to rely on their guts and experience to choose one or more of the qualifying companies to fund. That alone does not increase the chances of success — getting hands-on does.  What does getting hands-on mean for

Scott Becker is the Founder and Publisher of Becker's Hospital Review and Becker's Healthcare. Becker's Healthcare is a platform that offers forward-looking business news, analysis, and guidance relating to the healthcare industry. Scott has been running Becker's Healthcare for over 30 years.  Scott is also a lawyer and Partner in the healthcare department at McGuireWoods, where he represents hospitals and health systems, healthcare companies, surgery center chains, large practices, and private equity funds. He previously served on the Board of Partners of the firm and chaired the healthcare department for nearly 13 years. Scott is a Harvard law graduate and certified public accountant. In this episode… How do you know if you’re winning digitally? It comes down to one thing: is your website the most visited in your niche? Becker’s Healthcare has built a solid readership and following over the past 15 years in the healthcare information space. Their secret sauce? Excellent content and great distribution.  Howe

Grant Johnson is the Founder and CEO of Responsory, a full-service marketing communications agency focused on providing measurable marketing solutions to B2B, B2C, and not-for-profit organizations. Their process combines data, AI, and testing to deliver multi-channel marketing campaigns to make their clients heroes — and ultimately get them ROI. Grant started Responsory in 1999 but has been in the agency world since 1988. When people ask Grant what he does, he says, “I’m a drug dealer.” That’s because Grant has marketed products in the Pharma, Vitamins, and Nutraceuticals industry. His expertise also cuts across the insurance and B2B products marketing space.  Grant is a sought-after public speaker, direct marketing trainer, copywriter, award-winning author, and the creator of Direct BrandingSM, Responsory’s method for producing sure-fire measurable results. He’s helped companies like Humana, Northwestern Mutual, Microsoft, and many more. In this episode… What does a “drug dealer” have to do with B2B marketin

Brent Novoselsky is a Vice President at the wealth management company, GCG Financial. GCG has been serving clients since 1989 with a particular focus on the accumulation and preservation of assets and risk management. Brent played seven seasons in the NFL, and he played with the Chicago Bears in ‘88 and Minnesota Vikings from ‘89 to ‘94. He retired after a severe neck injury. Brent is also a member of the Chicago Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and is active in many charities; he serves as the Vice President of the Retired Professional Football Players of Chicago (RPFPC).  Wendell Davis is the Co-founder of Trywen Medical, a Chicago-based healthcare products and services company. In college, Wendell was two times All American of Louisiana State. He is a former NFL wide receiver who played six seasons for the Chicago Bears and was selected in the first round in ‘88. After his career in the NFL, Wendell became the Assistant Coach for the 49ers. Wendell is currently also the President of the Retired Professional Foot

Steven Hoffman, also known as Captain Hoff, is the CEO of Founders Space, which is a global startup accelerator with over 50,000 entrepreneurs and members in 22 countries. Founders Space was ranked the number one incubator for overseas startups by Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine. Every year, Steven mentors hundreds of startups, helping them overcome their biggest challenges. Steven is also a venture investor, serial entrepreneur, and best-selling author of several books, including Make Elephants Fly, Surviving a Startup, and The Five Forces That Change Everything. In this episode… What do you do when you run out of money, no investor is showing interest in your business, and your team has taken so many pay cuts they’re now working for free? Even worse, how do you come out of a meeting with an investor who promised to invest, but seeing that you’re desperate, they want to cut your valuation by half?  While you’re thinking about how to come out of those situations, you get a chance with an investor who’s willi

Dr. Jeremy Weisz is the Co-founder of Rise25. He has been involved in podcasting for 11 years and was a Senior Producer for one of the early business podcasts; he assisted in putting all of their systems in place and helped them add volume, feature, and edify various business leaders. Dr. Weisz has also been running his podcast, Inspired Insider, since 2011. He has featured top entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs of P90X, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, the Orlando Magic, and many more. In addition to running Rise25, Dr. Weisz owns a nutritional supplement business and runs his chiropractic and massage facility, Chiropractic Solutions & Massage. John Corcoran is a recovering attorney, an author, and was a former White House writer and speechwriter to the Governor of California. Throughout his career, John has worked in Hollywood, the heart of Silicon Valley, and has run his boutique law firm in the San Francisco Bay Area catering to small business owners and entrepreneurs. John has been the host of the Smar

Katie Wagner is the President and CEO of KWSM, a full-service digital marketing agency made up of journalists. They specialize in website development and SEO, social media strategy and management, content creation, PR and influencer marketing, and digital advertising.  Katie spent more than 15 years as a journalist and spent a decade as a television radio news anchor. She worked at CBS, ABC, Fox, CNN, and National Public Radio. In 2010, Katie realized that she could use those skills she learned in the newsroom to help business owners connect with their clients online — so she opened KWSM. Katie is also an active member of various organizations, including the Young Entrepreneurs Council, ProVisors, and Vistage.  In this episode… Agency life is hard. There are many moving processes with different people and brands involved, and we don't share enough about what that life truly is. From client inquiry to results, Katie Wagner of KWSM unbundles the agency lifestyle and shares how she and her team stay on top of th

Kevin Miller is the Co-founder and CEO of GR0, an agency that helps scale DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) brands. They’ve helped companies like Legends Boxing, Adquick, MuteSix, and many more. He is adept at SEO and has helped companies like Ritual build their SEO engine to reach the #1 Google ranking for the chosen keyword. Before founding GR0, Kevin was a Digital Marketing Account Executive at Google, where he learned growth marketing frameworks to help DTC companies scale using organic search. He later returned to the startup world and became the Director of Growth and Digital Marketing at Spire and Director of Growth at Open Listings, before it sold to Opendoor. In this episode… What does agency success look like? An SEO agency, for example, finds success in taking your client’s traffic from 15,000 a month to 400,000 and ranking them for buyer intent keywords. The key point to remember is that it’s not the size of your company, but the results you deliver to clients that will keep you in business for a long time

Chris Clark is the Founder and Managing Partner at Digital Ignite. Digital Ignite is a full-service digital agency using data science to improve advertising, media, and marketing decisions. Chris focuses on generating attributable results through the latest technologies. He entered the fast-paced AI industry in 2012 and has embraced helping clients and partners find success in the world of digital marketing. He thrives on the challenges occurring in media delivery and the ever-changing shift in content consumption. In this episode… Media buying is almost a democratic space where anyone can participate and succeed, but few know how to deliver results. The difference-maker is data. Not just any data but data used transparently to place marketing campaigns in front of the target audience.  Chris Clark of Digital Ignite knows all too well about data transparency, and it is at the core of their business which recently made the Inc 5000 list. So, what type of data do you need for media buying? How has Chris used da

Todd Taskey is an M&A Advisor for CEOs and Entrepreneurs at Potomac Business Capital. He has been an entrepreneur, business owner, investment banker, and business finance advisor for more than 20 years.  In addition to M&A advice and investment banking activities, Todd has been a founding investor, board member, or part of the management team of several business ventures. He helps CEOs and entrepreneurs develop a successful exit strategy by understanding the mid-market investment banking process. In this episode… What’s the most valuable thing you should know when selling your agency? Beyond that, how do you navigate the entire process, knowing that the buyer is coming with a team whose job is to close that deal? But you, on the other hand, are an expert at running your business and not much else. How do you ensure you’re not blindsided?  You’ll get answers to these defining questions and more, as Todd Taskey of Potomac Business Capital reveals the intricacies of an agency acquisition process. From th

Alvy Ray Smith is an American computer scientist and a Co-founder of the Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Division, Pixar, and Altamira Software. Alvy was part of the 1980s and 1990s expansion of computer animation into feature films.  He created his first computer graphic in 1965 at New Mexico State and, by 1970, he had earned a Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University.  Alvy would later become the first Graphics Fellow after Microsoft bought Altamira Software. He was also the first Director of Computer Graphics at Lucasfilm. More recently, he authored the book, A Biography of the Pixel. In this episode… Have you seen the Toy Story series or The Incredibles? Pixar, the company behind these animated movie classics and many others, has been around for decades and is worth $7 billion today. What's more exciting is that a letter started it all as one of the co-founders, Alvy Ray Smith, said.  How did Pixar start, and what's its connection to Disney? What are the inner workings of such a company, and what ha