INspired INsider Podcast

Duncan Alney is the Founder and CEO of Firebelly Marketing, an award-winning Social Media Marketing firm that increases brand likability through social media marketing. Duncan has worked in marketing for 25 years and brings his expertise in engaging with clients and rebuilding brands to each project. He has worked with Netflix, Fiji Water, and so many more brands. Duncan is also the Host of the Firebelly Social Show, a podcast that features top entrepreneurs in the food and beverage space on a mission to make the world better. In this episode… Social media can expand your brand's impact and help you become a likable brand, but there's one big problem: many brands do not know how to connect with people on social media, so they leave money on the table. However, you can change that quickly by utilizing social channels that are relevant to your brand.  How do you know which social channels are great for your brand? Which platforms are often overlooked but are a great place to connect with your potential customers? Today's guest is here to answer all of your social media marketing questions.  To find out how to take your brand’s social game to the next level, listen to this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz featuring Duncan Alney, Founder and CEO of Firebelly Marketing. You don't want to miss a minute of this episode! They discuss the underutilized social channels you should get on quickly, social trends to help your brand become more likable, and lots more.

Michael Houlihan is a highly sought-after business strategist, keynote speaker, consultant, and corporate trainer. He is the Founder of the iconic Barefoot Wine brand, which eventually was acquired by E & J Gallo.  After selling the company, Michael and his partner Bonnie Harvey co-authored The New York Times best-selling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. His latest venture is Business Audio Theatre, which performs founder stories in audiobook format to improve employee acquisition, engagement, and tenure. In this episode… Inspirational stories, the sheer hustle behind building a household brand, and the heart that keeps going no matter what: today’s guest, Michael Houlihan, shares it all. He takes us back to when Barefoot Wines was an accidental idea, the arduous task of winning shelf space in retail stores, and why worthy cause marketing was not a cool thing to do back in the day — but it paid off.  And just when you think you’ve learned the biggest lesson, Michael drops how to implement change in your company quickly and how it was the lifeline for Barefoot Wines. On top of that, Michael reveals top insights for effective worthy cause marketing in today’s wine business space, why sharing your founder story is an HR hack, and lots more valuable lessons.  Listen to this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz and Drew Hendricks of the Legends Behind the Craft podcast. Together they host Michael Houlihan, Co-founder of Barefoot Wines and Business Audio Theatre. They talk about the Barefoot story like you’ve never heard it — from idea to exit, the hard lessons in-between, and how the story became a best-selling book and an award-winning audio play. Stay tuned.

Joe Valley is a serial entrepreneur, M&A Advisor, podcaster, and Partner at Quiet Light, one of the top online business brokerage-advisory firms in the world. He is the author of The EXITPreneur's Playbook: How to Sell Your Online Business for Top Dollar by Reverse Engineering Your Pathway to Success and host of the Quiet Light Podcast. As a Certified Mergers & Acquisitions Professional and a frequent guest expert in mastermind groups, AMAs, podcasts, and speaker events for entrepreneurs worldwide, Joe has mentored thousands of entrepreneurs who want to manage their own exit. In this episode… Do you have the stamina to pursue a dream, fail big, and still keep going? Joe Valley’s honesty and integrity are evident as he shares raw stories of failure, greed, lessons learned, and building his company to help other entrepreneurs succeed. There is an overwhelming success that can be achieved if you are persistent, open to learning, building relationships, growing, and simply being a good person. In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz talks with Joe Valley, a Partner at Quiet Light, to hear his insight on becoming a successful serial entrepreneur and best-selling author. Joe also shares the benefits of utilizing media for advertising, tips for buying and selling a business, and how to epically fail — and still succeed. Stay tuned!

Peggy O'Flaherty is the Chief Community Officer and Co-founder of Mavely along with Sean O'Brien and Evan Wray. Mavely is a company solving the issue of rising customer acquisition costs for direct-to-consumer brands while driving consumer product discovery and additional income for everyday families. Mavely helps build growth opportunities for millions of retailers and entrepreneurs by fostering a relationship between brands and their advocates. They have a community of over 25,000 creators and entrepreneurs and service over 200 brands. Before Mavely, Peggy co-founded OneParish, an app designed to foster engagement within church communities. In this episode… With media buying, customer acquisition costs will continue to rise — but what can brand owners do about it? How do you reach your ideal customers and turn them into advocates for your brand without paying cut-throat prices? No better way than to engage everyday people.  Consider it word-of-mouth at scale without the hassle of building a community from scratch. That's precisely what Peggy O'Flaherty and the team at Mavely provide to help brands amplify their message organically. Do you want to learn more?  Listen to this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz featuring the Co-founder and Chief Community Officer at Mavely, Peggy O'Flaherty. They discuss the power of brands connecting to their most prominent advocates, generating word-of-mouth marketing at scale, and more. Tune in for free. 

Marty McDonald is the Co-founder and CEO of Bad Rhino, a full-service social media marketing agency based in Pennsylvania. The company services and specializes in e-commerce, community management, online branding, content creation, and more. Their clients include craft beer, golf, staffing and recruiting, and hospitality companies, among clients in many other industries. Marty has used social media strategies to actively recruit and build an online marketing business for over 18 years. Marty also wrote the book Great Beer is Not Enough and hosts a podcast, Taps and Tees. At Bad Rhino, Marty has worked with the PGA of America, Laser Putt, indoor golf simulator companies, and he runs Golf Fanatics and Golf Cheapskate.  In this episode… Google and Facebook ads are great ways to get people into your sales funnel, but if you’re not doing videos yet, you’re missing out on the chance to shortcut your sales process. With video, you can reduce your sales funnel from five steps to three. It’s that effective, but many people do not know the most efficient way to use this type of digital media.  Video can significantly increase your brand awareness, lead flow, the quality of business you attract, and it can impact how you target your ideal customers. It starts by addressing ideal customer questions to create valuable content, which could be the beginning of a faster sales process. The big question is how do you do this?  Listen to this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz featuring Marty McDonald, Co-founder and CEO of Bad Rhino. They discuss the power of video to shortcut your sales process, the types of video content Marty has found super helpful, where your videos should reside, and more. 

Vicki Higgins is a sponsorship and brand partnership expert. She is the Founder and CEO of the CXP Agency and host of the Sponsorship Mastery podcast. She negotiated the 2019 naming rights for Toyota Arena and landed over $20 million in sponsorship deals since 2018 with brands like Toyota, Coca-Cola, American Express, Lucas Oil, and more.  Before starting CXP Agency, Vicki worked with a major NBA sports franchise and an international airline. She was an executive with a few of the most prestigious tourist destinations in the US. In this episode… As the world continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, venues and event owners seek strategic partnerships through sponsors. However, finding a brand that is the right fit is a struggle. Even worse, brands are pickier about the venues or events they sponsor.  The problem is venue and event managers do not know how to make the business case for sponsorship. On the other hand, brands are finding it challenging to justify sponsorship spending despite its vast benefits. Whether you run a venue, an event, or a company, this episode is packed with answers for all things relating to sponsorship.  Listen to this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz featuring Vicki Higgins, Founder and CEO of CXP Agency. They discuss how Vicki helped broker the naming rights deal for Toyota Arena, some creative sponsorship examples, how to turn sponsorship into a strategic partnership, options for venue and event owners, and lots more.

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 Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz featuring Mixergy Founder Andrew Warner. They discuss interviewing techniques for building deeper relationships, getting people to open up, overcoming self-doubt, why you should never end a conversation on a low point, and more.

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 The Ohio State University, and NFL TV analyst with CBS Sports. He is a Partner and on the Athlete Advisory Board at Kirtland Hills Capital. Donte is also an accomplished real estate developer, NFLPA President of the Orange County Chapter, and sits on the advisory board of several organizations that help athletes understand the importance of financial literacy. In this episode… As an athlete, you have the power to do what you want with your money. Suppose you’re looking to go into business or invest in any company. In that case, you need to change your mindset and take responsibility for the process, including vetting the professionals you want to work with. That can only happen with a change of perspective since many professional athletes are used to having professionals readily available to them.  How do you take ownership of your business life and understand it as well as you know your sports? Also, keeping in mind that the lifespan of your professional career is short, how do you start to plan your future, so you don’t go bankrupt when you quit playing?  Listen to this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz featuring Tracy Deforge, Shawn Springs, and Donte Whitner. They discuss and expose the truth about being an athlete in business, the mindset needed, the professionals to vet, the mentors to keep, and the low and high points of the journey. Stay tuned.

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?  Listen to this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz featuring Todd Brown. They discuss risk reversals, levels of prospect awareness, the economics of customer acquisition, how to create an irresistible offer, and more! Stay tuned. 

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.  Fast forward many successful exits later, Richard shares some of his entrepreneurial battle scars that could set you straight on your way to building the next Apple. Why does Richard think everyone else is wrong about AI being the future? What is that one thing a company must get right to succeed?  Listen to this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz featuring Richard Melmon, Co-founder at Bullpen Capital and NSV Wolf Capital. They discuss Richard’s tech background, his running with Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, co-founding Electronic Arts (EA), becoming a venture capitalist, the many scars along the way, and skepticism about AI. Stay tuned!