INspired INsider Podcast

Richard Rossi is the co-founder of two of the world's largest and most prestigious enrichment programs for high achieving students. In 1986, he co-founded InVision EMI which became one of the country's largest providers of live leadership and career exploration programs for high achieving students. They sold the InVision EMI in 2011 and Richard has since gone on to create a company that connects high-achieving kids with high achievers in the STEM fields. He also owns Davinci50, the highest-level live coaching program in the world on Superaging: biohacking our bodies for boundless energy and a dramatically extended life without disease, physical limitation or mental decline.

Robert is the founder of four successful companies that grew from zero to $10 million. In the past few years alone, he grew those companies from $10 million to over $100 million in sales. His companies include Absolute Wireless, a preferred partner for Sprint, Dang IT Repair, a cell phone repair company, and Call Proof, a CRM for B2B companies to manage their sales process. Robert is also the founder of Shift Your Time, a company where he teaches business leaders and entrepreneurs how to get back an extra 40 hours of productivity a month using specific communication techniques. 

Jeff Jordan is the General Manager of the Fazer U.S team, a 129-year-old international family-owned company out of Finland that specializes in making some of the world’s best confectionery. Jeff led Fazer’s  U.S team to the successful launch of the Nordi brand of chocolates into the U.S market. Nordi is a premium brand of chocolate inspired by Nordic recipes.  

David Long is the Founder and CEO of My Employees, a company that specializes in helping business managers grow through the development of their relationships with their employees. David has worked with many major corporations such as McDonald’s, FedEx and Walmart. David is also the best-selling author of Built To Lead: 7 Management R.E.W.A.R.D.S. Principles for Becoming a Top 10% Manager.

Robert Hartline is the Owner of Absolute Wireless. He is also the Founder of Shift Your Time, which teaches entrepreneurs and business leaders how to give their staff an extra 40 hours of productivity a month. Over the past 21 years, he has started and grown four companies from zero to $12 million.  Just in the past few years alone is taken those businesses from $12 million to over $100 million in sales. His success has earned him recognition, being named the fastest growing business in Middle Tennessee two years in a row.

Elan Amir is the Founder of PodiPop, a South Indian-inspired popcorn company. They use a nutrient-dense multi-colored heirloom popcorn kernel allowing for better digestion. Their recipe has five grams of protein per serving and is organic, gluten-free, vegan, non-GMO, and soon to be kosher certified.

David Long is the Founder and CEO of My Employees, which specializes in helping business managers grow through the development of their relationships with their employees. David is also the best-selling author of Built To Lead: 7 Management R.E.W.A.R.D.S. Principles for Becoming a Top 10% Manager.  In this episode... What are the most important elements of a successful business? How key are people in the day-to-day growth of an organization? On this episode of Inspired Insider, David Long drops by the podcast to talk about his book and what the keys to success are for a successful manager. David also discusses the importance of management in the happiness of all employees, and how they have to be “all-in” with ownership. What does success look like? What are the key factors and traits to look for in employees and candidates that go into David’s R.E.W.A.R.D.S? Each of those letters in that acronym are one of the seven principles that David scripted that will lead to great management that is elevated into the top 10% of managers. 

Joey Gilkey is the Founder of Tribe Prospecting, which helps businesses land six and seven-figure contracts with their dream 500 clients through account-based selling. If they don't deliver they personally buy you a Tesla. They have a multi-discipline, multi-channel, hyper-personalized, highly-targeted, account-based sales outreach system to reach the list of your 500 dream clients over the course of the year. What goes into the buying decisions that people make? What are the motivating factors of customers when different salespeople have different closing rates? This week’s guest was a psychology major, and that background, as well as his background in football and the ministry, definitely guided his life and decisions.  Joey Gilkey was also introduced to a book called “The Challenger Sale” which changed his outlook on life and sales. The book details varies “types” of salespeople, but identifies the “Challenger” as the type who has the most success. This type of person is one who challenges their customers on their buying habits. He put this into practice in his former position in insurance and beyond, to great success. Joey’s company guarantees success for its customers or they will give a free Tesla. That confidence comes from their history of success, but what if the clients don’t capitalize on the leads they generate? Joey points out that while average salespeople should be able to close 10-15% of the time, the really good, rockstar salespeople should have a closing rate of at least 30%.

Mitch Kahn is the Co-Founder and CEO of Grassroots Cannabis, which started in 2014. Since then, Mitch has grown the company to operations in 11 states with 61 licenses and more than 800 employees. Recently, Massachusetts-based company Curaleaf signed a merger agreement which makes Grassroots Cannabis the largest medical and adult-use cannabis company. Mitch is also Chairman of Frontline Real Estate Partners and the former President and CEO of Hilco Real Estate. In this episode… Every organization and company will have challenges. No matter how much preparation goes into a business, there will be something unexpected that arises and throws the plan out the window. In those moments, it is how leadership responds to the problem that makes the difference.  Mitch and his company have experienced a meteoric rise, placing themselves at the top of their industry. But it was not always clear that they would get this far. As Mitch mentions in this episode, there was a point in the company’s development that they weren’t even sure they were going to be able to pay their contractor, despite that contractor being a friend of his. Fortunately, things made a nice rebound and the company became the giant that it is today.

Rabbi Mois Navon is the founding engineer at Mobileye, and Intel corporation that develops vision-based, self-driving car and advanced driver-assistance systems. Mobileye’s systems provide warnings for drivers that prevent and mitigate possible collisions. He also helped to create the $15 billion chip that is powering the autonomous revolution. Mois’ professional experience in the research and development of digital hardware spans over 35 years, working with IBM, NASA’s JPL, and more.  In this episode… How far would you go for happiness? How about for success? Patience is said to be a virtue, but sustaining it for a period of years can be difficult. When he was brought on board of Mobileye, the company was a startup. The leadership told Mois that they had an exit planned within two years. He was advised to pull his kids out of extracurricular activities and limit his life for the imminent exit. Two years became sixteen before things were finalized. The strength of Rabbi Mois’ family was also displayed in their move to Israel. Deciding to relocate your life to the other side of the world is difficult enough, but to do so without immediate work is even harder. The decision, largely spiritual, turned out to be a good one, as Mois ended up working with IBM through an unusual interview conducted at an airport.