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

Haley Kwait Zollo is Principal at Starting Line, a Chicago-based, thematic early-stage venture capital fund focused on investing in consumer services and products that are cheaper and better. They’ve invested in companies like Cameo, Catch Co, SpotHero, and many more.  Before joining Startling Line, Haley was VP of Strategy and Business Operations at Mac & Mia and was Manager of strategy and analytics at Trunk Club. She began her career as a Transaction Services Associate at KPMG. In this episode… Building a business in today's highly digitalized world is a double-edged sword because there's a lot of data created that can make or break a business. The misanalysis of data or analyzing the incorrect data can lead to poorly informed decision making that can hurt your business. But on the flip side, using the data and measuring KPIs the right way will drive important decisions that can multiply your business's growth. However, the million-dollar problem is how do you know which metrics to measure and how do y

Rudy Mawer is the CEO and Founder of ROI Machines. ROI Machines is a digital marketing agency that helps companies get tens of thousands of leads with paid ads by setting up everything that a company needs from funnel design, development, copywriting much more. They help multiple 7 to 8 figure businesses generate over $150 million per year. Rudy is also the CEO of Pier1, an online retail and home store chain specializing in imported home furnishings and decor. Pier1 is part of the Retail E-commerce Venture's holdings, where Rudy is an investor and advisor. Tai Lopez and Alex Mehr run Retail E-commerce Ventures and their holdings include Pier1, RadioShack, Dressbarn, Stein Mart, Franklin Mint, Linens 'n Things, and many more.  Before founding ROI Machines, Rudy was an elite sports nutritionist and trainer. He worked with Hollywood celebrities, elite athletes, NBA players, WWE, gold medalists, and more. In this episode… How do you rebuild a brand that has made a billion dollars in revenue and went bankrupt? How

Ray Edwards is a famous copywriter, best-selling author, and keynote speaker. His direct response campaigns have resulted in an estimated $100 million in sales, and he has worked with high-profile clients such as Tony Robbins, Jack Canfield, and Mark Victor Hansen. Ray is currently a copywriting consultant and the Founder of the Copywriting Academy Coaching Program and the Ray Edwards Copywriting Agency. He is also the host of the top-ranked podcast, The Ray Edwards Show.  In this episode… What is the secret to writing a compelling and unforgettable story—for direct response marketing campaigns and beyond? According to copywriter Ray Edwards, the best possible story is the true story.  While many marketers and business owners shy away from storytelling that makes them feel vulnerable or uncomfortable, Ray insists that the most powerful stories are the ones that are personal and emotional. That’s because they strike a chord with your audience, inviting them to create a connection with you and your brand. For e

Ron Popeil is a unique inventor and a legend of sales infomercials and direct response marketing. Over the last 40 years, Ron’s products have pulled in more than $2 billion in sales. He has created innumerable products and infomercials, such as the Showtime Rotisserie, the Chop-O-Matic, the Veg-O-Matic, and many more.  Ron is still going strong with his latest product, the 5-in-1 fryer which can cook a 15 pound turkey in 46 minutes. In this episode… Do you want to know how to craft top-notch marketing campaigns that are persuasive and profitable? Are you looking for the secrets behind some of the biggest infomercials in TV history? If so, you’re in the right place! Ron Popeil had an early start in direct marketing. Growing up, Ron spent a great deal of time selling products and services to large crowds of people on Maxwell Street. Through that experience, Ron learned the best strategies and hacks for selling products--fast. So, when Ron found an opportunity to sell on TV through infomercials, he knew just wha

Peep Laja is a former champion of optimization and experimentation turned business builder. He is the Founder and CEO of CXL Institute, the only skill-building platform for marketers that uses the world’s top 1% of practitioners as its instructors. With years of experience and multiple companies under his belt, Peep is considered the #1 most influential conversion rate optimization expert in the world.  Peep also hosts the annual CXL Live, a must-attend conference that features the best in online optimization and experimentation. In this episode… What if there was a single feature that you could add to your business website that would skyrocket your conversion rates? This is called conversion optimization, and, as online optimization expert Peep Laja knows, it’s all about trial and error.  Throughout his successful career, Peep has made a significant amount of conversion optimization changes that have failed. However, this is all part of his process for building stellar websites. As he says, the most strategi

Joanna Wiebe is the Founder and Conversion Copywriter at Copyhackers, as well as the Co-Founder and Head of Growth at Airstory. As the original conversion copywriter with a career that spans almost 15 years, Joanna has worked with incredible companies such as BT, Canva, Glowforge, Prezi, and many more. In addition to writing top-notch copy, Joanna has also coached and advised more than 70,000 businesses of all shapes and sizes. In this episode… Communication is one of the most important tools that we have as humans. Consequently, words can also be one of the hardest tools to master. That’s why professional copywriters are such an integral part of marketing—without engaging and professional writing, many marketing and advertising attempts would fail.  Joanna Wiebe discovered the value of writing when she dropped out of law school and began to work as a copywriter. At first, Joanna branded herself as a ‘creative writer’ because the title of ‘copywriter’ sounded too banal. However, with time and experience, Joan

David Mann and Derrick Smith are Partners at The Firefly Group. They invest in growth-oriented, lower middle market companies that include US-based companies with EBITDA of at least a million dollars.  Before co-founding The Firefly Group, David Mann co-founded Spring Mill Venture Partners, a venture capital firm. He previously worked with ServiceMaster Ventures and served as a founding member of the ServiceMaster home Service Center. David began his career as an Officer of the US Navy. He got his MBA from Harvard and is an Adjunct Faculty at the Indiana University, Kelley School of Business.  Derrick Smith led the launch of a family office where he served as managing director before co-founding The Firefly Group. He began his career with CHV Capital, the healthcare venture capital arm of the Indiana University Health. He also helped start and led Indiana University's Health International and Management Company while at CHV Capital. He earned his MBA from Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, and ser

John and Dr. Denitra Griffin are Co-Founders of the largest black-owned security firm in the United States, AGB (Always Giving Back) Investigative Services. John is the CEO of the AGB Investigative Services and Dr. Griffin is the President. John and Dr. Griffin founded AGB Investigative Services in 2001. They offer expertise in all aspects of security, including physical and cyber. Their mission is to eliminate economic inequities by delivering training and smart services to protect your people, property, and data. Dr. Griffin is also the CEO and Founder of the AGB Foundation where they give out business internships and college scholarships to young people.  They also own and run The AGB Institute which provides training for people seeking to better themselves as professionals and enhance their life skills. They offer various courses related to security training, business security, professional development, and administrative support. In this episode… John and Dr. Denitra Griffin’s story isn’t your usual gras

Leigh William Steinberg (born March 27, 1949) is an American sports agent. During his 41-year career, he has represented over 300 professional athletes in football, baseball, basketball, boxing, and Olympic sports.  Leigh has successfully negotiated over $3 billion in contracts for players, including Troy Aikman, Steve Young, and Ryan Leaf, and has represented the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft a record eight times.  Many consider Leigh as the real-life inspiration for the sports agent from Cameron Crowe's 1996 film, Jerry Maguire. He has also helped and been a consultant on different movies such as Jerry Maguire, Any Given Sunday, and For the Love of the Game. In this episode… 2020 has been a year of adversities for many entrepreneurs. Now more than ever, entrepreneurs need to tap into their superpowers to make a comeback and dominate their market. But the big question is, how? How do you determine your superpower and use it to dominate the market?  Tune in to this episode of Inspired Insider as renowne

Matthew Le Merle is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of the Fifth Era and Keiretsu Capital, one of the most active early-stage venture investors backing almost 200 companies a year. They've backed over 20 unicorns, including Airbnb, Spotify, Coinbase, and many more.  Matthew has advised leading companies, including Amazon, Cisco, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, on growth and innovation. He's an economic value creation expert that has helped drive annual savings of over $2 billion at a leading retailer and $1 billion at a leading bank.  He has written several books with the latest one being The Intelligent Investor - Silicon Valley: Practical Wisdom for Investors and Entrepreneurs from 50 Leading Silicon Valley Angels and Venture Capitalists which he co-wrote with Alison Davis. In this episode… Early-stage investing is difficult and often very risky–many people have invested their money in the wrong start-ups and ended up losing money. But what if there was a way to avoid and minimize losses in early-stage inv

 Ido Safruti is the Co-Founder and CTO of PerimeterX, a cybersecurity company that can detect and stop automated threats and helps to block malicious code. They began operations in 2014. Some of their solutions are PerimeterX Bot Defender™ and Code Defender, among others, which help to accurately protect companies' websites across the digital enterprise, e-commerce, financial services, food delivery, travel and hospitality, and media industries.   PerimeterX helps protect these websites from all types of automated or non-human attacks at any scale, including protection from infected code that can leak personal information. They've helped some of the world's largest brands, including Zillow, Bill.com, Skechers, Godiva, and many more. In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz, the CTO and Co-Founder of PerimeterX, Ido Safruti takes you into the mind of the hacker. He reveals how hackers operate, where they operate from (the dark web), the different types of vulnerabilities, and how y

Bob Circosta is an entrepreneur and TV host. He is the pioneer host of home shopping on TV and has helped grow home shopping into a multi-billion dollar industry. He has sold over $6 billion worth of merchandise in his 43 years in the industry, earning him the title "TV's Billion Dollar Man."  In this episode… About 43 years ago, Bob Circosta’s boss handed him an electric can opener to sell on his radio show. Even though Bob had never sold on the radio before–and neither had anyone else back then–he went with the flow and he managed to sell over a hundred electric can openers in what will become the start of the radio/TV shopping industry.  Tune in to this episode of Inspired Insider as TV’s BIllion Dollar Man, Bob Circosta, to find out the three rules that he credits for his success in the business and as an entrepreneur.

Elie Wurtman is the Co-founder and Partner at PICO Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm headquartered in Jerusalem. Elie's investments portfolio includes Vroom, a company that hit a market cap of $5.5 billion after its IPO, and Spot.io, which was acquired by NetApp for $450 million. Elie also has investments in Gloat, ChargeAfter, AutoLeadStar.  Prior to starting PICO, Elie was a General Partner of Benchmark Capital and he has taken three companies from founding to IPO. He was also the co-founder and CEO of Deltathree, one of Jerusalem's first unicorns.  Elie's other notable startups include Iron Source, where he's an External Director and active mentor. He is also the Founder of PICO Kids, a social enterprise focused on child education in Jerusalem. Elie also owns and runs Bat Shlomo Vineyards, a boutique winery in Northern Israel. In this episode… Every entrepreneur's dream is to disrupt industries, build lasting companies, and change the world around them. But what happens when the dream b

Dan Zawacki founded Lobster Gram in 1986, a company that sold and delivered live lobsters and seafood around the U.S as gifts. He was the first person in the world to do this and by doing so, he was able to create a new market. As a result, he was featured in Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Oprah, and 500 other media outlets.  After three decades of running Lobster Gram, Dan sold the company. Dan now runs THE 4 MORES℠, where he helps organizations implement the Entrepreneur Operating System (EOS). As a Certified EOS Implementer, Dan helps owners and leadership teams gain more structure, growth, profit, and fun. In this episode… It’s easy to guess what Oprah Winfrey and Howard Stern could have in common: media. But when you throw lobsters into the mix, what you get is Dan Zawacki and the company he founded, Lobster Gram. Through his unique business, Dan was able to create a whole new market that drew the attention and appetite of people from all over the United States. While being featured by Oprah and Howard is

Chris Gandy is the Founder of Midwest Legacy Group, a boutique concierge insurance group for executives, professional athletes, physicians, business owners, and entrepreneurs. Chris has spent the last two decades helping individuals reach their most important financial goals. His firm focuses on unique tax reduction strategies, retirement income optimization, generational wealth, and more. Chris is a former pro-basketball player. He played for the University of Illinois, where he was co-captain before playing professionally for the Chicago Bulls, San Antonio Spurs, and France. He's been featured in numerous magazines such as Crain's Chicago, GQ, Black Enterprise, African American Career Worlds.  Chris has served on multiple boards including the Chicago Concussion Coalition, The Urban League, and he is currently serving as board member of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, and the National Committee for Diversity Inclusion Task Force where he is the youngest member serving on the nat

Marcel Petitpas is the CEO and Co-founder of Parakeeto, an agency profitability platform that modern digital and creative agencies use to scope and measure more profitable projects in record time. They help agencies and consultancies automagically create accurate and data-driven estimates for their projects in seconds. They utilize information gathered from the Harvest time-tracking data of their clients to get the results they need for their project estimations. Harvest data allows Parakeeto to view all information from past projects to show you exactly how much time it's likely to take you to complete your next one. Their methods also provide real-time feedback on any changes made to the project and gives an updated estimate that compares the current project to previous ones. In this episode… Any company, no matter how great their products and services may be, will experience some financial struggle if they do not know how to value their offerings properly. This undervaluation of their company will, at some

Fabrice Grinda is a Founding Partner at FJ Labs, is a stage-agnostic consumer facing-fund headquartered in New York City. They invest in ambitious founders solving big problems. They have investments in more than 600 investments around the world including Alibaba Group, Airbnb, Beepi, Fanduel, Dropbox, and many more, and have had over 300 million investment exits.  Fabrice was a Co-founder and former CEO of OLX, and drove the company’s business development, investor relations, M&A and product development efforts in his capacity as co-CEO. Prior to OLX, he was the founder and CEO of Zingy Inc., a mobile media startup which he successfully grew to $200 million in content sales in just four years. Fabrice was also the Co-founder and former CEO of Aucland, one of the three largest auction websites in Europe.  Forbes named Fabrice as the number one Angel Investor in 2018, which was measured by the number of investments and exits that he has done over the years.  In this episode… We all have to make decisions e

Ryan Moran is the Founder of Capitalism.com, where he brings like-minded entrepreneurs and experts together to build brands and businesses that last. Ryan has launched Amazon businesses that he eventually sold for over eight-figures. Today, he has a portfolio of brands and he documents and shares his entrepreneurial journey on his podcast, Capitalism.com podcast. Ryan is also the author of the book 12 Months to $1 Million: How to Pick a Winning Product, Build a Real Business, and Become a Seven-Figure Entrepreneur. In this episode… It’s every entrepreneur’s dream to build a great business and to one day relinquish some control in exchange for a big payday exit. But what many entrepreneurs are unaware of is that there is the other side to a big exit. It’s this other side that few people talk about and it involves knowing how to build a great company and maintaining it post-sale. So how do you build, sell, and keep a great company from going bankrupt?  Ryan Moran of Capitalism.com shares his big exit story and

Deirdre Breakenridge is the CEO of Pure Performance Communications, a company that fuses strategic communications with innovative technology to impact business communications from consumer interest to brand loyalty and advocacy. Deirdre has been in PR and marketing for over 25 years, helping senior executives in mid-and-large organizations better communicate with their stakeholders.  Deirdre also does reputation management and social media relations. She's a LinkedIn Learning instructor and was an Adjunct Professor at NYU, and she has written many books including Answers for Modern Communicators, and her latest one book, Answers for Ethical Marketers. In this episode… As humans, we want empathy, understanding, kindness, ethics, good judgment, and love. When we add these elements to how we communicate and market our products and services to people, these can positively affect people and influence consumer behavior. However, not many business leaders know how to add these attributes to their communication and m

Angela Lauria is the Founder of The Author Incubator, an $18 million business that provides guidance for aspiring authors on how to write and publish their books. The Author Incubator has succeeded in helping more than 1,000 authors write, publish, and promote their books.  Angela has published many books herself, including Make 'Em Beg to Work for You, The Incubated Author: 10 Steps to Start a Movement with Your Message, and more. She most recently published the second edition of The Difference: 10 Steps To Writing A Book That Matters, which details her transformational ideas on the 10 steps to writing a book that matters. In this episode… Writing a book can become an evergreen source of qualified leads, but many entrepreneurs do not leverage it for different reasons. Some fear they aren’t good enough to write a book, others worry about who would care enough to buy their books, while some assume that they won’t make enough book sales to make it a worthwhile process. But Angela Lauria says that you can clear