Default Profitable

Matt Nettleton
  • 5.0 (13)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Are you an aspiring entrepreneur or a seasoned business owner looking to sharpen your skills and grow your business? The Default Profitable podcast delivers powerful lessons from real bootstrapped business owners who have navigated the ups and downs of starting, running, and scaling their ventures. Join Matt Nettleton and tap into a wealth of knowledge and firsthand experiences, learn to avoid common pitfalls, and stay ahead of industry trends. Whether you’re launching your first venture or optimizing an established one, each episode provides actionable insights and fosters a community of support, helping you achieve sustained, profitable success.

  1. 2d ago

    Ep185 Build It Like a House: Jon Meeks, Owner of the Jon Meeks Agency

    In this episode of Default Profitable, host Matt Nettleton sits down with Jon Meeks, owner of the Jon Meeks Agency, to trace an entrepreneurial path that winds from fixing tanning beds and running a tanning salon to a mortgage company, a construction business, and the Farmers Insurance agency he's run since 1999. For most of those years the agency simply bumped along in the background, until Jon had the realization that changed everything: build the business the way you'd build a house, by handing the work to people who are great at it. Jon shares the mindset shifts behind that turnaround, from why surrounding yourself with confident people beats trying to do it all, to how the "birdcage theory" gets others invested in your goals, to what he means when he says you're either part of your own plan or part of someone else's. Founders and operators will pick up practical lessons on delegation, recruiting people who buy into your vision, and why his number-one piece of advice for anyone opening a business comes down to one thing: keep selling. Whether you're launching your first venture or breathing new life into one you've run for years, it's a candid look at how vision, people, and a little stubbornness add up to sustainable success. Learn more about Jon Meeks and the Jon Meeks Agency at https://agents.farmers.com/in/anderson/jon-meeks Listen to more Indianapolis Business Leaders at https://defaultprofitable.com or subscribe to Default Profitable on your favorite podcast platform.

  2. Jul 7

    Ep184 Build It Like You'll Sell It: Jason Swathwood of Indiana Equity Brokers

    In this episode of Default Profitable, host Matt Nettleton sits down with Jason Swathwood, a corporate attorney turned entrepreneur turned business broker at Indiana Equity Brokers. Jason traces his path from practicing law at a mortgage company to building and selling the Perfect Wedding Guide franchise in Indianapolis, then crossing to the other side of the table to help founders exit the businesses they spent years building. Jason gets candid about what actually makes a business sellable — and why so many owners are stunned when they hear what their company is really worth. He and Matt dig into the difference between selling a business and selling a job, the risks a buyer spots before you do, and the moves a founder can make years ahead of an exit to protect the payday. If you're building something you might one day want to walk away from, what would a buyer see when they look under the hood? Learn more about Jason Swathwood and Indiana Equity Brokers at https://indianaequitybrokers.com. Listen to more Indianapolis Business Leaders at https://defaultprofitable.com or subscribe to Default Profitable on your favorite podcast platform.

  3. Jun 30

    Ep183 Ed Gunnell, Founder of Gunnell Financial: Launching a Financial Firm Right Before the 2008 Crash

    In this episode of Default Profitable, host Matt Nettleton sits down with Ed Gunnell, founder of Gunnell Financial, to dig into what it takes to launch a financial firm at the worst possible time—Ed went out on his own in early 2008, just before the market crashed. He shares how he built a holistic, one-stop practice that brings taxes, investments, and insurance under one roof, why his financial-planning background makes him a more proactive tax advisor, and the one early partnership he says he'd undo if he could. Founders and aspiring business owners will walk away with grounded takeaways on landing those first clients, knowing when to bring on help, and why the attorney and the accountant are the two things you never cheap out on. Learn more about Ed Gunnell and Gunnell Financial at https://gunnfin.com. Listen to more Indianapolis Business Leaders at https://defaultprofitable.com or subscribe to Default Profitable on your favorite podcast platform.

  4. Jun 16

    Ep182 Hunter Beale, Executive Director of High School Hustle: Why the Buffalo Runs Into the Storm

    In this episode of Default Profitable, host Matt Nettleton sits down with Hunter Beale, Executive Director of High School Hustle, the Indianapolis nonprofit that teaches teenagers to build real businesses—gutter cleaning, car detailing, power washing, thrift flipping—and turn a summer side hustle into something that lasts. Hunter traces his own path from a fifth-grade snow cone stand through the Orr Fellowship and the Jiffy Lube system, then breaks down how the program uses incentives, mentorship, and a gamified leaderboard to push thousands of students past the one thing that stops most people from ever starting: fear. His whole philosophy comes down to two words: action provides information. The kids who get it learn more from knocking a hundred doors than they ever would planning the perfect launch, and founders at any stage will recognize the lesson—stop perfecting the logo, get in front of a customer, and let the work teach you. Whether you're raising a future entrepreneur or just trying to get out of your own way, it's a reminder that a structure and a scoreboard will take you further than waiting for permission. Learn more about Hunter Beale and High School Hustle at https://highschoolhustle.org. Listen to more Indianapolis Business Leaders at https://defaultprofitable.com or subscribe to Default Profitable on your favorite podcast platform.

  5. Jun 9

    Ep181 From Asbestos Removal to a 30-Year Coatings Business: Clayton Tomasino of Scorpion Protective Coatings

    In this episode of Default Profitable, host Matt Nettleton sits down with Clayton Tomasino, CEO of Scorpion Protective Coatings, a family-owned manufacturer of spray-on truck bed liners and window film based in Cloverdale, Indiana. Clayton shares the company's gritty origin—from a family asbestos-removal business, to his father's low-cost batch-mix coating system built to undercut the steep buy-in of the big bed liner franchises, to his own return from Hawaii in 2007 to "help out" and his takeover of the company by 2010. He walks through how a four-product automotive add-on program eventually narrowed to the one offering with the demand and margins worth building a business on, and how that focus carried Scorpion through 30 years and counting. Listeners will gain grounded lessons on the financial literacy most founders learn the hard way—the gap between net income and actual cash, and how a growing business can still run itself short. Clayton and Matt get into why hitting a revenue milestone can quietly stall a company, why revenue is a lagging indicator rather than a measure of health, how to give your team metrics that aren't just dollars, and the regret that catches a lot of owners off guard: chasing new customers while neglecting the ones they already have. Perfect for bootstrapped founders who'd rather make new mistakes than repeat the same ones. Learn more about Clayton Tomasino and Scorpion Protective Coatings at https://scorpioncoatings.com. Listen to more Indianapolis Business Leaders at https://defaultprofitable.com or subscribe to Default Profitable on your favorite podcast platform.

  6. Jun 2

    Ep180 The Twenty-Dollar Leaf: Jesse Wechter on Bootstrapping a Marketing Agency

    Jesse Wechter figured out the whole business at eight years old. He was at a Greek festival, his dad wouldn't give him money for food, so he stormed off, grabbed a leaf off the ground by the gate, and sold it to a stranger for twenty bucks. He'd only asked for five. The lesson stuck: people will buy almost anything if you present it the right way. It took him a while to turn that into a company. Jesse came back to Indianapolis after flipping cars in West Hollywood and bartending in Chicago, living with his mom, owing money, and unable to land a job in a brutal hiring market. He had the skills, including email marketing for healthcare and medical device companies and a stretch at Red Bull Media House, but no work. So he started building a logo and pulling leads off Google into an Excel spreadsheet, emailing over a hundred people a day. That became Wechter Media. When Matt runs his standard question, the one about whether you had a strategic plan, six months of savings, and a clear read on what customers would pay, Jesse landed about where most founders do. No savings. A plan that wasn't strategic or detailed. And a customer understanding he had to learn the hard way, after getting stiffed by two clients, one he nearly took to court and another who dumped the contract right before Christmas. The scramble to backfill all of it took about three years. Then came the part a lot of founders recognize: trying to get stable too fast. Jesse hired three salespeople, bought a CRM, fed them 1,250 leads a month, and watched it sink him into a hole because the reps treated salary as the finish line. His takeaway is the difference between what you need and what you want. These days he only buys the thing when it actually makes sense. The advice he keeps circling back to is the stuff nobody teaches you, mostly financial literacy. Running a business is not the same as running a household checkbook, and the IRS does not care how small you are. He pays for a bookkeeper and two CPAs now, and he sleeps fine. It's the same answer Matt hears more than any other when he asks founders what they wish they'd known going in. And if he could sit his 2019 self down before opening the doors, it's one word: focus. Build the frame and the skeleton before the glamour muscles. Do it for yourself, not to impress a table full of friends. Celebrate the wins when you actually land a client, and don't take the big loan and blow it. Learn more about Jesse and Wechter Media at wechtermedia.com.  If you're listening, three things really help: leave a review, hit subscribe, share an episode. If you're a bootstrapped business owner and you want to be on the show, head to defaultprofitable.com. Stay focused, keep working, stay profitable.

  7. May 26

    Ep179 Lindsay Bledsoe, Owner of Burnbright Creative Company: Creative Director, Accidental Salesperson

    What happens when a creative person realizes she's actually in sales? In this episode of the Default Profitable podcast, host Matt Nettleton sits down with Lindsay Bledsoe, owner and senior creative director at Burnbright Creative Company, an Indianapolis-based indie advertising agency she co-founded with Nate Riggs. Lindsay spent 15 years inside other people's ad shops, first in Milwaukee newsrooms and then in Indy cable, before her position was eliminated in April 2025. Three months later she and Nate launched Burnbright. Their mission is simple: keep advertising honest, accessible, and affordable for the small businesses and nonprofits bigger shops walk past. Lindsay's take is that marketing is not a line item, it's a vital investment, and every dollar a small client spends should be treated that way. Have you ever sold a vacuum cleaner door to door without ever asking anyone to buy one? Matt has, and he and Lindsay use it to dig into the part of running a business almost nobody warns you about. Lindsay didn't realize she'd become a full-time salesperson until a few months in. Her take: nobody wants to be sold to, but everyone loves a good ad. The emotional roller coaster surprised her more than the bookkeeping did. Her best advice for anyone about to take the leap: take a breath. You've got this. Learn more about Lindsay Bledsoe and Burnbright Creative Company at https://www.burnbrightcreative.com/. Listen to more Indianapolis Business Leaders at https://defaultprofitable.com or subscribe to Default Profitable on your favorite podcast platform.

  8. May 5

    Ep178 The Cabinet That Looked Like a Casket: Chris Boots on Building CJ Boots Casket Company

    Chris Boots was building a custom pantry cabinet at his wife's uncle's shop in 1999 when he looked at the top sitting on the cart and thought it kind of looked like a casket. He'd always wanted his own business. He didn't know what business. That cabinet was the seed. He spent nights on the bed flipping through funeral trade magazines while his wife asked what on earth he was doing. He joined the Casket and Funeral Supply Association — he'd later become its president. He bought a CNC router he didn't know how to operate and was halfway through training in Atlanta before he asked the instructor what the machine actually looked like. Chris walked into the casket industry right as cremation rates climbed from 20% to 70% and the number of casket companies collapsed from hundreds to fifteen. He built CJ Boots Casket Company anyway, going after the high-end Marcellus niche that conglomerate buyouts had cut off from independent funeral homes. Twenty-one years later he sold it, ran it through COVID for the new owners, tried Florida real estate, and landed in commercial insurance after a chance conversation on Lido Beach with a guy who happened to insure the same trade association Chris used to run. His advice for day one of any new business: understand cash flow before anything else. His motto for the rest of it: don't be afraid to go out on a limb, because that's where the fruit is. Learn more about Chris Boots and his commercial insurance practice at https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-boots-2990735/. Listen to more Indianapolis Business Leaders at https://defaultprofitable.com or subscribe to Default Profitable on your favorite podcast platform.

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5
out of 5
13 Ratings

About

Are you an aspiring entrepreneur or a seasoned business owner looking to sharpen your skills and grow your business? The Default Profitable podcast delivers powerful lessons from real bootstrapped business owners who have navigated the ups and downs of starting, running, and scaling their ventures. Join Matt Nettleton and tap into a wealth of knowledge and firsthand experiences, learn to avoid common pitfalls, and stay ahead of industry trends. Whether you’re launching your first venture or optimizing an established one, each episode provides actionable insights and fosters a community of support, helping you achieve sustained, profitable success.

Information

  • Creator
    Matt Nettleton
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    198
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 All Rights Reserved
  • Show Website
    Default Profitable