INspired INsider Podcast

Chris Kneeland is the CEO of Cult Collective, one of North America's premier engagement marketing firms and they help companies embrace proven marketing principles that Chris discovered while working with the most iconic cult-like brands on the planet. He co-founded Cult in 2010 and has consulted with Harley-Davidson, Canadian Tire, Zappos, Best Buy, Keurig, and many more. Prior to founding Cult, Chris has held marketing roles at the world headquarters of John Deere and Home Depot. Chris co-authored the book Fix: Break The Addictions That Are Killing Brands. He is also the co-Founder of Communo, an agency talent management platform that helps small agencies exploit the sharing economy.  In this episode… What is it that makes some brands more exceptional than others? Is it their storytelling, origin story, promotional strategies, or activations? According to Chris Kneeland, it’s their capability to become a cult-like brand which is essentially a brand that has a purpose built from the inside out. Cult-like brands are remarkable because they mark off all the right boxes in what Chris calls The Cult Scorecard. Find out what makes a cult brand stand out from the crowd and how they are created on this episode of Inspired Insider. Tune in as Dr. Jeremy Weisz talks with Chris Kneeland of Cult Collective about how cult-brands emerge and what makes them so undeniably successful. They dive deep into the principles of creating a cult-like brand, how some brands have applied these principles successfully in their branding and story, and how you can do the same for your company. Stay tuned.

Zach Benson is the Founder of Assistagram, an Instagram marketing agency with a network of over 220 million Instagram followers to drive brand awareness, leads, and sales. They've helped businesses grow their Instagram following by 30,000 or more followers per month. Zach has worked with companies run by people like Russell Brunson, The Rock, and even helped the official Dubai account and so many more. In this episode… The size of your page traffic is a big deal in today’s online business world. One of the many traffic sources that have proven to be incredibly valuable is Instagram. Instagram is a potential gold mine for driving traffic, increasing product awareness, and everything else that creates buzz online, and knowing how you can use this to your benefit can help make or break your business. The problem is, not many business owners know how to leverage everything that it has to offer. An even bigger problem still is that a lot of them have no clue on how they can increase the number of followers they have and turn their Instagram page into a booming success.  Zach Benson of Assistagram dives deep into the world of Instagram and how to enjoy all that it has to bring to the table on this episode of Inspired Insider. Tune in as Zach talks to Dr. Jeremy Weisz about how his company grew to have 220 million followers on Instagram. He also shares his top Instagram growth hacks, the challenges he faced as he was growing his company, and how he determines the value of an account.

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 ran his own boutique law firm in the San Francisco Bay Area catering to small business owners and entrepreneurs. John has been the host of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast since 2012 where he has interviewed hundreds of CEOs, founders, authors and entrepreneurs, from Peter Diamandis and Adam Grant to Gary Vaynerchuk and Marie Forleo. John is also the co-founder of Rise25 Media, a company that connects B2B businesses with their ideal clients, referral partners, and strategic partners. They help their client generate ROI through their done-for-you podcast service. In this episode… The first step to cold emailing any VIP for an ask is to lead with the exact opposite. Lead with a give. According to John Corcoran, when everyone else is zigging, if you zag, you stand out. And this means that if you lead with a give, instead of an ask, it is more effective. But leading your cold email with giving is only one part of the puzzle. There are other elements that are just as important and as powerful in order to bridge that gap and create a connection. Join Dr. Jeremy Weisz on this episode of Inspired Insider as he talks with John Corcoran, his co-founder over at Rise25 about the best tips and strategies they use when sending cold emails to VIPs. They discuss in details the give-first philosophy of cold emailing, the elements that make a cold email successful, and they also explain the difference between a short and a long version outreach. Stay tuned.

Fran Biderman-Gross is the CEO and Founder of Advantages, an award-winning New York-based end to end communications agency. She is also the co-author of the book, How to Lead a Values-Based Professional Services Firm: 3 Keys to Unlock Purpose and Profit, which she wrote with Don Scales.  Fran works with senior executives to see the results of purpose-driven marketing and leadership. She leads her clients on an invaluable journey of brand discovery that reveals their personal and organizational 3 keys: Purpose, Values, and Story. She empowers leaders and organizations to infuse meaning into everything they do so that their visions become realized. In this episode… When you open a swanky, membership-driven bar that has millions of dollars in paraphernalia with the intention of using it as the perfect place for a private breakout, how do you sell it? How do you get high net worth individuals excited to fork over a small fortune for this luxurious experience? Think exclusivity, lumpy mail, and direct response conversion—at least, that’s how Fran Biderman-Gross helped Jay-Z's 40/40 do it.  On this episode of the Inspired Insider podcast, Fran Biderman-Gross, CEO of Advantages, shares with host Dr. Jeremy Weisz all the best tips on how to get the most out of lumpy mails and how it can drive your business through the scales. She discusses how Jay-Z relates to lumpy mail and direct response conversion, how she helped the Boxperience launch, and she also talks about the ABCDE rules of leadership and why it’s important for leaders to keep them in mind. Stay tuned. 

AJ Wilcox is a LinkedIn Ads Specialist and Founder of B2Linked.com, a LinkedIn Ads-specific ad agency. He has managed over $130 million in ad spend across 400 ad accounts.  AJ is an official LinkedIn Partner, and he hosts The LinkedIn Ads Show podcast which is a top source for news, how-tos, and insights about the LinkedIn Ads platform.  AJ has managed some of the world's largest LinkedIn Ad accounts, and he's helped companies like Hired, BambooHR, SpareHire, and many more. In this episode… LinkedIn ads are not for every business. They’re one of the most challenging ads mediums to get right because the clicks are expensive. If you don’t know what you’re doing, any mistake you make will be costly. But despite the high price tag on the ads on LinkedIn, getting it right will be beneficial for your purposes. Why? Because the market isn’t flooded and the channel gets to close the largest deals.  So who should be using LinkedIn ads? According to LinkedIn Ads Specialist AJ Wilcox, the key is in the lifetime value of every lead you get from LinkedIn. And if your company qualifies to run and generate ROI from LinkedIn ads, you want to know the types of ads, the structure, and what works and what doesn’t.  Listen to this episode of the Inspired Insider podcast to catch some of the best LinkedIn hacks to grow your business as Dr. Jeremy Weisz interviews LinkedIn Ads Specialist AJ Wilcox. They will also be discussing who should be using LinkedIn Ads, important elements that should be on your ad, and the latest updates on the platform. Stay tuned.

John Munro is the CEO of Chargeback, a Utah-based industry-leading software company that helps merchants automate dispute management. This technology-driven solution leverages APIs, plugins, and other integrations to maximize the recovery of revenue lost to customer disputes and fraud. They have a real-time dispute management platform built to empower internal teams with expert knowledge and robust automation. Chargeback has helped companies like Levi’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Fanduel, and many more stop disputes before they can happen. In this episode… Preventing friendly fraud in credit card payment processing is a much bigger problem than any business would like to admit, especially during this COVID-19 season. Trying to resolve these disputes in real-time to get the percentage of refunds down is only a part of the problem. Another critical issue that people overlook is the risk of losing the lifetime value of a customer. How can businesses resolve these payment disputes in real-time and reduce customer churn rate?  John Munro says technology solutions like what Chargeback offers are essential in solving a big part of the problem. However, there are other aspects of the company that leaders need to look into in order to determine how low the refunds threshold would be.  On this episode of the Inspired Insider podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz chats with John Munro, CEO of Chargeback, about how credit card chargebacks impact a business, what they can do about it, and how their culture plays a big part. Stay tuned.

Garry Ridge is the CEO and Chairman of the WD-40 Company. He joined WD-40 Company in 1987 and has worked directly with WD-40 Company in over 50 countries, and he was elected as its CEO and Chairman in 1997. Garry is passionate about empowering organizational culture that he has helped establish at the WD-40 Company. Garry is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of San Diego, where he teaches Talent Management and Bench Building in the Masters of Science - Executive Leadership at the university's School of Business. He also co-authored the book, Helping People Win at Work: A Business Philosophy Called "Don't Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A" with Ken Blanchard where he outlines his effective leadership techniques. In this episode… 70% of people who go to work every day are either disengaged in acting or actively disengaged. Why? According to Garry Ridge, it’s because many CEOs have become soul-sucking to their employees and have created toxic environments that inhibit their people from becoming the best they can be. And he says that servant leadership is the only way to go for company leaders who want their team members to reach their maximum potential. Garry is incredibly passionate about organizational culture. He does not only share this through his Executive Coaching, Speaking, and Consulting, he's been able to establish it at WD-40 Company, where he has been CEO and Chairman of the Board since 1997.  Listen to Garry Ridge as he shares the leadership principles behind his success at the helm of WD-40 Company in this episode of Inspired Insider podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz. Tune in as Garry discusses how and why servant leadership has been the abiding principle that has helped him and other business leaders succeed, why he considers his role as CEO as his purpose and not merely his job, and the keynotes companies need to take note of if they want to expand internationally.

John Warrillow is the Founder of The Value Builder System™, a cloud-based assessment tool that business owners use to assess their company's scalability. John has helped more than 55,000 business owners improve their company's value by up to 71%. He's the author of Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You. Both Fortune and Inc magazines have recognized the book as one of the best business books. John also wrote The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry, and he hosts Built to Sell Radio, where they interview founders about their exit journey. In this episode… What was your ultimate goal when you built your business? Whatever your reason was, if you don’t build your business like you intend to sell it, your company will most likely not survive even a single day without you. Of course, you don’t have to sell your business if you don’t want to but wouldn’t you want to build a company that can survive any situation? This is the crux of today’s episode with John Warrillow. Join Dr. Jeremy Weisz as he talks with John Warrillow of The Value Builder System™ on this episode Inspired Insider about the value of building a business that can thrive and survive even without you. Tune in as John explains why people are opposed to selling their company, how they can overcome that mindset, and the steps business owners can make in order to make their company salable even when you have no intention of selling it.

Robert (Bob) Sutton is a Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. He is the co-founder of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the D School).  Bob is currently working with Huggy Rao on The Friction Project, where they focus on why companies make the right things too complicated and the wrong things too easy and what to do about it. He's published over 200 articles in academic and popular outlets, and seven of Bob's books have gotten accolades, including being part of the Top 100 Business Books list, New York Times Bestseller, The Wall Street Journal bestseller, and more. His books include Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, And Total Nonsense; The Knowing-Doing Gap; Weird Ideas That Work, The No Asshole Rule, and Good, Bad Boss. He also wrote The Asshole Survival Guide: How to Deal With People Who Treat You Like Dirt and Scaling-Up Excellence. In this episode… Many companies are doing the opposite of what they need to do in order to scale their business. They make bad things easy and faster to do, while good things pose more challenges and are accomplished at a slower pace. Bob Sutton says that many companies make this mistake in a variety of ways, from creating friction-laden processes to spending a ton of money on billable hours while doing mundane and unproductive tasks. So what’s the alternative approach that is making unicorns like Facebook change their perspective? How are top CEOs like Patrick Collison of Stripe accomplishing massive things that would typically take months so quickly? Listen to this episode of the Inspired Insider podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz as he talks to Stanford professor, best selling author, and in-demand speaker, Bob Sutton, about some of the exciting things he discovered through The Friction Project. They’ll be discussing how top brands like Uber, Google, and Facebook get things done so quickly, how companies can uncomplicate the process for easy tasks, how to avoid making bad things an effortless endeavour, and more. Stay tuned.

Andrea Herrera is President and Founder of Amazing Edibles Gourmet Catering and Boxperience. Through her companies, she is able to create meaningful connections and build relationships between individuals and communities. Boxperience creates customized wooden crates filled with premium food, beverages, and monogrammed gifts that are personalized specifically for its recipient. It is the go-to brand for top salespeople, CEOs, and business owners who want to share their gratitude and maintain their most important business relationships.  Andrea’s other company, Amazing Edibles Gourmet Catering, is an award-winning company that has provided catering services for weddings, intimate social events, as well as for corporate and educational events. Some of their past clients include Fortune 500 companies, Non-profit organizations, Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Studios, the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois, and many more. In this episode… Fostering relationships in the current business climate is not just challenging, it’s complicated. There are no more events to go to where you can connect with people, and people aren’t as keen to go to business lunches and dinners. As a result, salespeople, CEOs, and other business leaders are having a hard time starting new relationships and cultivating existing ones on a deeper level. And Andrea Herrera is more than ready to solve this problem.  Through her business, Boxperience, Andrea helps individuals give to their best relationships and create lasting experiences despite physical distance through their personalized git box experience. She has pivoted her catering company into a relationship-building business that allows people to stay connected during these trying times. Tune in to this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz as he talks to Andrea Herrera of Boxperience and Amazing Edibles Gourmet Catering to learn more about how you can give back and maintain your best relationships. They’ll also be discussing how Andrea has always been a person that embraces change, how she pushed past a challenging time in her business, and the value of staying connected in times of difficulty.