Beyond The Hustle

Corey Barkach
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  • Entrepreneurship

BEYOND THE HUSTLE dives deep into the real stories behind success. Each episode features raw, honest conversations with entrepreneurs, creatives, community leaders, and high performers who’ve pushed past the noise of the daily grind to build something meaningful. These are the unfiltered stories of resilience, reinvention, and the rise that comes after the struggle. Because let’s be honest—no one makes it without the hustle. But the ones who go beyond it? That’s where the real magic happens.

  1. 1d ago

    The Biggest AI Opportunity Is Here | Randy Tobbe

    Randy Tobbe started his entrepreneurial journey with a power washing business. 20 years later, he's built and sold two software companies. The first software company sold to a company that eventually owned by Zillow. The second started out as a side project to help a friend build a CRM, which later became LionDesk. In 5 years it went from 0 customers to 165,000 monthly paying users - they sold three years ago. Now Randy runs RanToro Group, to help companies in telehealth, ecommerce, and legal use AI to cut costs and get their time back. In this episode of Beyond The Hustle, we covered: → Why Randy’s first exit was “mediocre” but the second wasn't → How and why he built a live dashboard in 15 minutes for a client → Why enterprise software is losing to tools companies build themselves → The short window before AI levels the playing field for good → Why chasing the Instagram flex is the wrong game entirely My big takeaway: the businesses that’ll win the next five years are the ones willing to build a decent version first, fix it later and get known in the market. Thanks to Randy for making time between running his own company. Appreciate you being here, brother. Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:09 From power washing to software, twenty years in business 01:58 Building Realty Commander by accident and selling to Zillow 05:08 Why the first exit was mediocre and LionDesk wasn't 08:23 The ripple effect, impact beyond the paycheck 10:12 Why he skips the Instagram flex 12:56 Imposter syndrome, even for the guys who've done it before 22:23 AI, efficiency, and the coming creative renaissance 30:24 Why enterprise software is losing to homemade tools 40:28 Building Mission Control, a live dashboard, in 15 minutes ~~~ This episode is powered by Drive Creative: 🌐 https://drivecreativeagency.com/ Subscribe for more conversations with entrepreneurs and innovators who push Beyond The Hustle Prefer to listen? Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/033gI3Y3rhCbWjbPqfVmMf?si=3ad1a107ca2244fa Apple → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beyond-the-hustle/id1896663240 Do you have a story to tell? We’d love to hear from you! Learn more about being a guest on Beyond The Hustle by visiting https://www.beyondthehustle.show

  2. Aug 12

    Why Every Restaurant Needs a Pivot | John Spreitzer

    John Spreitzer runs Green Lantern Pizza. He has seventeen stores across Metro Detroit, two more opening, and a franchise company being built behind the operation. He opened his Berkeley location in February 2020. But three weeks later, Covid shut it down. Everything he had was tied up in his store. He didn't even know if he'd lose his house… They made it through and learned from the experience. Now he's building a franchise model, aiming to hit a hundred stores over the next ten years. In this episode of Beyond The Hustle, we covered: → Growing from one location to seventeen stores → Why minimum wage is the biggest threat to the business → The real story behind the Pepperoni King brand → Marketing in the age of AI and managing reviews across every location → Why he helps competitors down the street instead of ignoring them Thanks John for making the time to sit down and and share with our listeners! Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:04 Meet John Spreitzer and the story of Green Lantern Pizza 3:00 Franchising 17 stores and building the company behind them 5:51 Off the grid bear hunting in Quebec 9:48 The vision to scale to 100 stores 12:13 Minimum wage, food costs, and the economics of running pizza shops 18:29 Road construction, real competitors, and supporting the neighborhood 20:44 Cup and char pepperoni and building the Pepperoni King brand 30:43 Marketing in the age of AI and managing reviews across 17 locations 35:25 Almost losing everything during Covid, and his advice for anyone starting a restaurant ~~~ This episode is powered by Drive Creative: 🌐 https://drivecreativeagency.com/ Subscribe for more conversations with entrepreneurs and innovators who push Beyond The Hustle Prefer to listen? Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/033gI3Y3rhCbWjbPqfVmMf?si=3ad1a107ca2244fa Apple → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beyond-the-hustle/id1896663240 Do you have a story to tell? We’d love to hear from you! Learn more about being a guest on Beyond The Hustle by visiting https://www.beyondthehustle.show

  3. Aug 5

    Turning Near-Bankruptcy into Record Growth | Ivan Katz

    Ivan Katz has run Great Lakes Landscape Design for 37 years. He's been embezzled from, close to bankruptcy, and had run-ins with the IRS… all from putting trust in the wrong people and not having the right controls in place. But between 2021 and 2024 he nearly tripled his revenue and headcount, by fixing the people-side of the business and creating a culture of honest feedback with great core values. On this episode of Beyond The Hustle, we covered: → How a paper route and a flower planting side hustle turned into a real business → Surviving embezzlement, IRS trouble, and near bankruptcy → Building a culture around feedback and core values → Getting sober at 30 and replacing addiction with endurance racing → Why communication is the hardest skill in business and in life Thanks Ivan for making the time to sit down and talk shop. Appreciate you, man! Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:00 Planting flowers for four bucks a flat 09:56 Near bankruptcy, an embezzlement, and owning it all 12:39 Fixing the people problem with feedback and core values 16:18 Building a culture around honesty, safety, and innovation 19:05 Getting sober and finding structure in exercise 23:47 The mindset behind finishing a race no matter what 30:23 What sobriety actually taught him 38:19 Being honest about recovery with everyone 42:07 What's next: the Summer Summit and the human element in an AI world ~~~ This episode is powered by Drive Creative: 🌐 https://drivecreativeagency.com/ Subscribe for more conversations with entrepreneurs and innovators who push Beyond The Hustle Prefer to listen? Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/033gI3Y3rhCbWjbPqfVmMf?si=3ad1a107ca2244fa Apple → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beyond-the-hustle/id1896663240 Do you have a story to tell? We’d love to hear from you! Learn more about being a guest on Beyond The Hustle by visiting https://www.beyondthehustle.show

  4. Jul 29

    He made $50,000 on one flip and quit his engineering job for good | Teo Bogdan

    Teo Bogdan came to Michigan from Romania at 10 years old. He grew up to get a mechanical engineering degree and land a good corporate job at a Japanese auto supplier. But sitting in that office, and looking out over the parking lot at his dream car while feeling completely trapped, he knew it wasn't his endgame. After a single real estate flip netted him $50,000 in two weeks, the illusion of corporate security shattered. He walked away to pursue business on his own terms. Today, Teo is rewriting the playbook on "Entrepreneurship through Acquisition." Two and a half years ago, he bought A Plus Heating and Cooling, and he’s scaling it the right way: by treating it like a system, not a job. What we covered: → Why the scale of American business looked so "insane" to him at 10 → The specific moment he realized he was done with the corporate grind → Why he avoided starting from scratch and chose to acquire an existing HVAC company → Building a shop that creates techs from high school grads. → Why answering the phone within 5 minutes matters more than your SEO → Why you need to watch out for fake local companies Thanks Teo for sharing the blueprint on how to build a business that runs without you… Appreciate you dude! Chapters 00:00 Intro 1:00 From Romania to a mechanical engineering degree 3:52 Stuck in the corporate grind at Denso 5:12 From real estate to trades 5:55 Buying A Plus Heating and Cooling 9:29 The growth strategy: master HVAC before anything else 11:27 Hiring and training techs the right way 19:06 The flip that changed everything 28:12 Answering the phone, AI search, and why reviews win the job 38:09 Watch out for fake local companies ~~~ This episode is powered by Drive Creative: 🌐 https://drivecreativeagency.com/ Subscribe for more conversations with entrepreneurs and innovators who push Beyond The Hustle Prefer to listen? Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/033gI3Y3rhCbWjbPqfVmMf?si=3ad1a107ca2244fa Apple → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beyond-the-hustle/id1896663240 Do you have a story to tell? We’d love to hear from you! Learn more about being a guest on Beyond The Hustle by visiting https://www.beyondthehustle.show

  5. Jul 22

    Build Wealth By Buying Businesses | Jeff Schulmeister

    Jeff Schulmeister spent decades behind the scenes of some of the biggest manufacturers in the country, building engineering databases for Siemens and BorgWarner, while running side businesses on his own time. A limousine company. A laundromat. A home health care company. Now, Jeff’s buying companies; he walks through the exact math on why buying a cash flowing business can outperform the stock market, and why he'd rather fire an owner on day one than trust them to stick around. In this episode we covered: → How Jeff financed his first limousine with no money down at 20 years old → Getting laid off from Siemens and hired the same day by the guy he trained → Why the laundromat business almost went bankrupt before it worked → Buying Omni Home Health Care → What Jeff learned about financing acquisitions through SBA loans Thanks Jeff for making the time to sit down and share the whole story. Glad to have you here man! Chapters 00:00 - Intro 01:08 - Financing his first limousine with no money down 04:38 - Driving for Aretha Franklin's parties and Motown connections 06:54 - Teaching himself AutoCAD to break into design 09:43 - Laid off from Siemens, hired the same day 11:28 - Costing Siemens $800,000 out of pure revenge 19:11 - Building a laundromat out of an old dry cleaning plant 22:47 - Nearly bankrupt and the hundred dollar bill that changed it 25:45 - Buying Omni Home Health Care and the money the last owner missed 34:45 - Why buying a business beats investing in the stock market ~~~ This episode is powered by Drive Creative: 🌐 https://drivecreativeagency.com/ Subscribe for more conversations with entrepreneurs and innovators who push Beyond The Hustle Prefer to listen? Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/033gI3Y3rhCbWjbPqfVmMf?si=3ad1a107ca2244fa Apple → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beyond-the-hustle/id1896663240 Do you have a story to tell? We’d love to hear from you! Learn more about being a guest on Beyond The Hustle by visiting https://www.beyondthehustle.show

  6. Jul 15

    How Businesses Really Get Sold | Mya Stone

    Mya Stone runs Stone Capital Partners, a people first M&A firm out of Grand Rapids doing buy and sell side deals for founder owned businesses doing $1M-$100M a year. After walking away from law, Mya built and sold a hospitality startup, then helped grow a body shop company up to 47 locations. When that business got hit with a lawsuit, she had to rebrand every location overnight. She sold that business and later started Stone Capital Partners on the single idea that the right people are the real asset. Here's what we covered: → How a Harvard advisory board told her she wasn't ready to be CEO → Scaling and losing a body shop rollup to a lawsuit → Why most business owners have no idea what their company is worth → Being a young woman in a room full of suits has an advantage When owners build a business they rarely think about what it's worth or who it's for once they're gone. Mya's whole career is proof that the people side of a deal matters as much as the numbers. Thank you Mya for making the time to come on and go Beyond The Hustle with us! Chapters 0:00 Intro 01:47 Raised by grandparents, Harvard by 16 04:47 Walking away from a Harvard law career 06:19 Building and selling a Boston hospitality startup 10:08 Told to lead people, not run the company 11:28 Scaling a body shop rollup to 47 locations 21:48 The real messes inside family owned businesses 25:19 Telling employees about a sale, and the fridge that changed everything 32:47 Cold calling, urgency, and the truth about the silver tsunami 47:36 Being a young woman in a room full of suits ~~~ This episode is powered by Drive Creative: 🌐 https://drivecreativeagency.com/ Subscribe for more conversations with entrepreneurs and innovators who push Beyond The Hustle Prefer to listen? Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/033gI3Y3rhCbWjbPqfVmMf?si=3ad1a107ca2244fa Apple → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beyond-the-hustle/id1896663240 Do you have a story to tell? We’d love to hear from you! Learn more about being a guest on Beyond The Hustle by visiting https://www.beyondthehustle.show

  7. Jul 8

    THIS Is Why Recurring Revenue Changes Everything | Aaron McCarthy

    Aaron McCarthy spent 20 years in corporate IT before deciding he was done climbing someone else's ladder. In 2018 he convinced his wife for them to take a SBA loan and started Maven IT out of a borrowed front office in exchange for free support. No staff. Just him and a laptop. In this episode we covered: → Why he picked recurring revenue as his model before he even had a business → How a cold call to a Smoothie King franchisee turned into a 50-location relationship → What actually happens operationally when you acquire a business → The cybersecurity basics small businesses skip until they get hacked → What he's looking for in his next acquisition strategy Aaron’s got a simple filter: will it produce recurring revenue? Can I improve the operations? Can I learn it myself first? When those boxes check, he moves. Aaron, thanks for coming in and sitting down on Beyond The Hustle. Appreciate you dude! Chapters 0:00 - Intro 1:00 - Who Aaron is and what Maven IT does 2:30 - 20 years in corporate and the recurring revenue light bulb 5:05 - Why he bought a commercial cleaning company 6:15 - Transitioning ownership and what he inherited 9:00 - Starting Maven IT at 40 with an SBA loan 12:25 - How the Smoothie King relationship started 15:15 - How the MSP space has changed and where new growth comes from 20:05 - AI, cybersecurity, and what's actually happening in the space 25:34 - What small businesses should do right now about cybersecurity ~~~ This episode is powered by Drive Creative: 🌐 https://drivecreativeagency.com/ Subscribe for more conversations with entrepreneurs and innovators who push Beyond The Hustle Prefer to listen? Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/033gI3Y3rhCbWjbPqfVmMf?si=3ad1a107ca2244fa Apple → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beyond-the-hustle/id1896663240 Do you have a story to tell? We’d love to hear from you! Learn more about being a guest on Beyond The Hustle by visiting https://www.beyondthehustle.show

  8. Jul 1

    He Makes Up To 80% Of All Cannabis Beverages In Michigan | Matthew McAlpine

    Matt McAlpine went from washing kegs at a cider farm to running Michigan's largest cannabis beverage operation. The early days at Blake’s Hard Cider were tough… Their first big bet (getting non-smokers into dispensaries with a 2mg drink) didn't land the way they planned. They adjusted and deployed 150 refrigerators into dispensaries which doubled average sales per store. And they went from near zero to manufacturing 60%-80% of all cannabis beverages in Michigan. In our episode we covered: → How Matt scaled Blake's Hard Cider from 10,000 to 1.3 million cases → Why the "get canna-curious consumers into dispensaries" strategy failed → The play that unlocked 51 dispensaries and doubled their average order size → How Michigan stacks up as a cannabis beverage market → How 37,000 Michigan liquor stores present the real opportunity Matt thanks for coming by the studio to record and share your story of struggles and successes! Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:00 Who is Matt McAlpine 03:14 Chrysler and the manufacturing leadership program 05:50 Leaving corporate for Blake's Hard Cider 07:53 Scaling Blake's from 10,000 to 1.3 million cases 10:05 Blake's Beverage Company and acquiring regional cider brands 13:40 How Emerald Canning Partners was formed 15:37 Building the facility and the early product launch struggles 20:35 Who the real cannabis beverage consumer is 24:24 Brand partners, the full portfolio, and owning the fridge 30:38 Michigan's market share and the 37,000 liquor store opportunity 36:43 Why cannabis beverages beat alcohol for recovery 44:00 Operations, team building, and the hire slow fire quick mentality 50:00 What fires Matt up and where ECP is headed ~~~ This episode is powered by Drive Creative: 🌐 https://drivecreativeagency.com/ Subscribe for more conversations with entrepreneurs and innovators who push Beyond The Hustle Prefer to listen? https://pod.link/1896663240 Do you have a story to tell? We’d love to hear from you! Learn more about being a guest on Beyond The Hustle by visiting https://www.beyondthehustle.show

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About

BEYOND THE HUSTLE dives deep into the real stories behind success. Each episode features raw, honest conversations with entrepreneurs, creatives, community leaders, and high performers who’ve pushed past the noise of the daily grind to build something meaningful. These are the unfiltered stories of resilience, reinvention, and the rise that comes after the struggle. Because let’s be honest—no one makes it without the hustle. But the ones who go beyond it? That’s where the real magic happens.

Information

  • Creator
    Corey Barkach
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    20
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Show Website
    Beyond The Hustle