Entrepreneurs United

Jon and Ben Chastney are twin brothers who combined their passion for film production and sports to co-found their national media company, First Scout Productions.   Running a business with family members can be both rewarding and challenging.  Jon & Ben share with us the secrets of building their successful, values-based business while working with a family member and the lessons they have learned in such a short time on how to successfully build their entrepreneurial venture.   Jon and Ben are two of the most genuine people and entrepreneurs I have ever had the chance to work with and I am very excited to share their story and learnings with you on this episode this week.

Tim Fitzpatrick (President, Rialto Marketing) is an entrepreneur/business owner with expertise in marketing and business growth. He has 20+ years of entrepreneurial experience with a passion for developing and growing businesses. That passion served him well in operating and managing a wholesale distribution company he co-owned for nine years. The company grew an average of 60% a year before being acquired in 2005.   Since then, he’s had failures and successes that have been valuable learning experiences. He started Rialto Marketing in 2013 and has been helping service businesses simplify marketing so they can grow with less stress. Most people overcomplicate marketing. Tim doesn’t think it has to be that way.

Mike Hopkins (COO, Paul Davis Restoration), is a very talented and caring leader for one of the largest residential and commercial restoration contracting businesses in America. Mike has always been an entrepreneur and was an owner of several franchise businesses, which he successfully built and sold. Mike is a man of faith, having spent time planting churches, and has used this faith to develop his leadership style to lead with love because it makes good business sense! Mike talks to us about being gentle on people, and though on results. Take note of the messaging Mike shares with us about being connected, healthy, humble, invested, and present.  

Kyle York (CEO/Co-Founder, York IE) leads a vertically integrated strategic growth and investment firm helping reshape the way companies are built, scaled, and monetized. Kyle works closely with entrepreneurs, operators, and investors to help them realize their shared ambition to build good companies, create new jobs, grow generational wealth, and impact the world around them. Prior to joining York IE, Kyle was an executive with Dyn since 2008, primarily as Chief Revenue Officer. During his years there he spearheaded corporate strategy, growth, and go-to-market, scaling to $100M annual recurring revenue, 5000 enterprise customers, one million paid users, $100M fundraised, 500 global employees, and 11 executed M&A transactions, which led to its strategic acquisition by Oracle in 2016. Advising and investing in over 100 startups over the past decade and shares his biggest learnings with us here today.

Employees vs. Intrapreneurs - Companies of the future must learn how to empower their teams in entrepreneurial ways so that their level of commitment and ownership for the goals of the organization provides them the drive to scale and build the business. Control strategy builds obedient but not committed workforce. Commitment strategy builds loyal and committed long term partners in building the enterprise In this episode, Rich and John discuss the major differences between Control and Commitment run organizations and help entrepreneurs think of ways they can create a more committed organization.

Dennis Markway (Founder/President,  Iron Horse Wealth Management, LLC) is a fee-only Certified Financial Planner and Adjunct Professor of Personal Finance at Drake University who is responsible for teaching the Ethics class that all Certified Financial Planners must take in the state of Iowa.  Dennis's experience in Financial Services with Fortune 500 Companies both domestically and internationally has armed him with the ability to make a difference in the lives of families and business owners.   In this episode, we discuss the learnings and tools he developed and hear about the advice that he would provide entrepreneurs after also having run 4 businesses himself.

Ryan Walter (Owner/President, Heads Up Communications), is a former National Hockey League player that played many seasons with the Montreal Canadiens.  Ryan was one of the youngest team captains in NHL history back in 1979 with the Washington Capitals when he was only 21 years old, he won a Stanley Cup in 1986 with the Canadiens, became the VP of NHL Players Association, a Colour Analyst, an actor in the film “Miracle”, and has become an inspiring speaker, author and leadership expert. Ryan helps executives and their teams to lead effectively, work as a team and achieve their performance goals through specialized training that melds science and lessons learned from 17 years in the NHL. His "THINKING TENDENCIES" Model is on the cutting edge of helping Corporate Cultures increase their performance.

Monte Wyatt (CEO, AddingZEROS) is a best-selling author and an organizational & executive development facilitator. AddingZEROS is a company that works with executives to achieve exponential growth, helping them grow in multiples rather than small percentage increases. AddingZEROS provides organizations with the tools and the guidance to add zeros in every aspect of the business – revenue, margin, profit, customer acquisition, customer retention, employee engagement, employee retention, and community involvement. Monte’s book "Pulling Profits Out of Hat" reached best-seller status in May of 2019 and his 5 Disciplines of Exponential Growth and 5 Constituents that every business must satisfy is a key message for growing every organization.

Curtis Zimmerman (Founder, Curtis Zimmerman Group) is a keynote speaker, best-selling author, and podcast host.   Curtis's first career for over 25 years was as a mime (think Marcel Marceau) and for the last 20 years, Curtis has been sharing his message with over 1 million people at Fortune 500 corporations, universities, and organizations.  He has spoken at over 1,000 campuses and has worked with the world's largest brands; Proctor and Gamble, Coca Cola, Walt Disney World, Kroger, Bacardi, Universal Studios Orlando, McDonald’s, and the U.S. Air Forces.  Curtis is also the host of the podcast, "The Next 24 Hours"  focused on helping listeners change their lives one day at a time!

Julian Hayes II (Founder, The Art of Fitness & Life), is an author, a human performance advisor, an epigenetic coach, and the host of Optimal Health for Busy Entrepreneurs. His initial journey began in the pursuit of becoming a doctor. However, he left after one year to pursue an even bigger dream. Now, he's the founder of The Art of Fitness & Life, where the mission is to help entrepreneurs and executives become superhuman in life and business without the guesswork. Julian has also written nearly 200 columns at Inc, along with frequently being published over at Entrepreneur, SUCCESS, Chief Executive, Business Insider, Bodybuilding.com, and many more of the world's largest publications. Today Julian talks to us about how we, as Entrepreneurs, can become superhuman in our lives and our businesses! Let’s jump right in!