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PODCAST

Default Profitable

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

business entrepreneurship

All Episodes

19:55

Ep194 What You Say No To: Jireh Gibson, Founder of...

Default Profitable ·

2026/10/06

Jireh Gibson's first pitch was "I do marketing." People changed the subject as fast as they could. In this episode of the Default Profitable podcast, host Matt Nettleton sits down with Jireh Gibson, founder of Skyscraper Digital Marketing, a Fort Wayne agency that works on brand visibility for local service businesses doing one to ten million a year. Jireh has a master's in marketing and years in sales and customer service, and his last job was consulting for a full-service marketing agency. That

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27:23

Ep193 Calvin Ellison, President of The Executive...

Default Profitable ·

2026/09/29

Calvin Ellison figured going independent would be a slam dunk. Six months in, he was calling his dad to borrow money. In this episode of the Default Profitable podcast, host Matt Nettleton sits down with Calvin Ellison, president of The Executive Impact Group, an Indianapolis executive coaching business built around peer groups, where CEOs and senior leaders meet on a regular basis and use each other as an advisory board. Calvin grew up in California, went to UC Davis, and worked his way east

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23:00

Ep192 The Layoff He Prayed For: George Powell Jr.,...

Default Profitable ·

2026/09/15

George Powell hated his name until he looked it up. It means farmer. In this episode of the Default Profitable podcast, host Matt Nettleton sits down with George Powell Jr., founder and CEO of Exponential Equity Group, an Indianapolis real estate development firm he describes as faith-driven, building affordable housing alongside churches, nonprofits, CDCs, and grassroots groups that have underused land and a vision but not the capital or the capacity to develop it. George spent most of his career

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28:51

Ep191 Seventy-Six Simple Steps to Running A Service...

Default Profitable ·

2026/09/08

Her team named her Bosslady. She just kept it. In this episode of the Default Profitable podcast, host Matt Nettleton sits down with Katie Smith, co-founder of All Pro Heating, Air & Plumbing, the Indianapolis HVAC and plumbing company she and her husband started at their kitchen table in 2012. It wasn't the first one. Before this there was direct sales, selling legal services, and then a general contracting outfit they closed on their attorney's advice. All Pro is the version that stuck. They

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22:20

Ep190 Larry Lannan, Founder of LarryInFishers.com:...

Default Profitable ·

2026/09/01

What do you do when the news business is dying and you've just retired? Larry Lannan started covering it himself. In this episode of the Default Profitable podcast, host Matt Nettleton sits down with Larry Lannan, founder of LarryInFishers.com, a local news website and podcast covering Fishers, Indiana. Larry moved to Fishers in 1991, when about 9,000 people lived there. After more than a decade as a journalist and broadcaster and 28 years with the federal government, he retired and launched the

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22:43

Ep189 Amanda Hill of Connections of Hope: The Founder...

Default Profitable ·

2026/08/25

Amanda Hill started her business because her therapist told her to. In this episode of the Default Profitable podcast, host Matt Nettleton sits down with Amanda Hill, founder of Connections of Hope, a private counseling practice she launched in 2020 and has grown to five locations and 14 therapists. She'd been a counselor for 20 years and was working four jobs, teaching college on top of multiple counseling agencies, when her own therapist, a private practice owner, told her she couldn't keep going

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22:22

Ep186 Nobody Gets Into Insurance on Purpose: Jenna...

Default Profitable ·

2026/08/04

In this episode of Default Profitable, host Matt Nettleton sits down with Jenna Romens, owner and agent at Martin & Martin Insurance in downtown Noblesville. Jenna spent 16 years at Erie Insurance, moving through customer service, marketing, and agent roles before being promoted to district sales manager over agents across Hamilton, Marion, and Tipton counties. Then one of the agents she supported asked her to come to the agency side as part of a perpetuation plan. It took three asks before she

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25:17

Ep187 Real-World Grad School: Bob Fasick, Certified...

Default Profitable ·

2026/07/28

In this episode of Default Profitable, host Matt Nettleton sits down with Bob Fasick, a Certified EOS Implementer based in Fishers, to trace a path that runs from a corporate career at Charles Schwab to a property management company he and a friend started without either of them knowing how they'd get paid. Bob moved to Indianapolis in 1992, spent about a decade at Schwab helping the firm transition from discount brokerage to advice provider, then took his first entrepreneurial leap in 2003 — one

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24:51

Ep186 The Worst Timing on the Planet: Gerry Bailey of...

Default Profitable ·

2026/07/21

In this episode of Default Profitable, host Matt Nettleton sits down with Gerry Bailey, founder of Corvano, a veteran-owned technology consultancy in Fishers, Indiana. Gerry spent twelve years in the Air Force before landing at Sprint, where he learned what a P&L actually was, then spent nearly a decade helping grow someone else's consulting firm across South Africa, Brazil, Australia, and the UK. He founded Corvano in 2016 while still employed, named it for Core Values Now, and left to run it

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32:23

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

Default Profitable ·

2026/07/14

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

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31:05

Ep184 Build It Like You'll Sell It: Jason Swathwood...

Default Profitable ·

2026/07/07

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

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34:10

Ep183 Ed Gunnell, Founder of Gunnell Financial:...

Default Profitable ·

2026/06/30

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

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25:43

Ep182 Hunter Beale, Executive Director of High School...

Default Profitable ·

2026/06/16

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,

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27:07

Ep181 From Asbestos Removal to a 30-Year Coatings...

Default Profitable ·

2026/06/09

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

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27:00

Ep180 The Twenty-Dollar Leaf: Jesse Wechter on...

Default Profitable ·

2026/06/02

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

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20:40

Ep179 Lindsay Bledsoe, Owner of Burnbright Creative...

Default Profitable ·

2026/05/26

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

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25:08

Ep178 The Cabinet That Looked Like a Casket: Chris...

Default Profitable ·

2026/05/05

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

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27:02

Ep177 The Parking Lot Decision: David and Christina...

Default Profitable ·

2026/04/28

David Reynolds and his sister Christina Reynolds-Grisby spent more than 25 years at the same electrical contracting company. The plan was always to buy it. They'd consulted with the bank, drawn up the legal work, and lined up the transfer of ownership. The morning the deal was supposed to close in 2023, they walked in and got introduced to the new owners. A private equity firm had bought it out from under them. They decided to start Reynolds Electric standing in the parking lot that same morning

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17:51

Ep176 After 90 Years, Don't Screw It Up: Will Steck...

Default Profitable ·

2026/04/21

Will Steck and his sister both started at Winthrop Supply on the same day in 2009, sweeping warehouse floors and loading trucks. Eleven years later, they bought the business from their dad. Winthrop is a fourth-generation Indianapolis plumbing supply company started in 1939, and also happens to be the longest-running Rheem distributor in the country.In this conversation, Will talks about the three years he and his sister spent modernizing the ERP before they owned a single share, the moment their

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19:12

Ep175 From IT Struggle to Sustainable Success:...

Default Profitable ·

2026/04/14

Matt sits down with David Kusch, co-owner of Technic Consulting, a family-run IT managed services provider serving small to mid-sized businesses in Indianapolis. David shares his raw journey—from launching in 2001 with nothing but technical skills and hope, to seven years of hourly billing struggles, selling the business, and a smarter 2012 relaunch built on fixed-fee subscriptions, standardized systems, and proactive support. Listeners will gain practical insights on avoiding the classic

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