From The Ground Up Show with Erick Loden
27 episodes listed below
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From The Ground Up Show is where the next generation of free-thinking leaders come to be inspired. Host Erick Loden sits down with the men and women who’ve built success with their hands, their hustle, and their heart — from tradespeople and entrepreneurs to self-starters and service members we sit down with those who have rejected the traditional career path and chosen to blaze their own path. Through raw, honest conversations and real listener questions, we uncover the lessons, mindset, and grit it takes to build something that lasts — from the ground up.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Founder stories become concrete lessons in execution, customer experience, hiring, structure, and the daily judgment required to keep a business moving.
From The Ground Up Show turns founder interviews into practical accounts of how businesses are built, corrected, and scaled. Eric Loden keeps the discussion close to decisions: simplifying a customer journey, training employees, recovering from a poor first impression, choosing…
A Cybertruck complaint turns into a branding lesson; your business notes may need a wider margin.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded farm and work story about attitude, integrity, and staying the course.
Bob Zimmerschied's story stays focused on farm work, early responsibility, and the lessons that came with both. He talks about driving a 49 Chevy pickup, learning animals and machinery young, and returning again and again to the idea that attitude and integrity matter.
A grounded rise-from-welfare story that ties belief and business together.
Dima Sobovoy's path moves from welfare help and uncertainty into a missionary drive and business building, and the episode stays grounded in ordinary work and money. What sticks is the way it links faith, discipline, and practical lessons about making a brand easy to find.
A recession-era growth story about standards, hiring, and staying the course.
Greg McAfee's story treats growth as a choice, not a mood. He says his father told him he had Cadillac taste on a Volkswagen pocketbook, and that pushed him to change the pocketbook.
A steady construction story about growth, discipline, and the cost of getting the work wrong.
This episode stays close to the hard parts of construction and ownership: failed jobs, tied-up money, and the grind of rebuilding after overexpansion. It is less interested in polish than in the daily reality of keeping a business moving.
A builder's comeback story about collapse, humility, and learning which opportunities deserve a yes.
Mike Riddle's path runs from elementary-school teaching into custom home building, then into a collapse that forces a business owner to decide what survives when the market and money give out.
A recovery story grounded in roofing, production, and business ownership.
Brie Reis' story follows a hard turn from alcohol and marijuana into cocaine and meth, then into roofing business ownership and production work.
A trades story about responsibility, faith, and the cost of being needed.
This episode frames work as a matter of endurance and duty, built around the idea of being the person a crew cannot afford to lose. It widens that into responsibility for workers and their families, with the parking lot detail adding a small but telling sense of scale.
Leadership gets clearer when teams line up why people act, who they work with, and how the work gets done.
The episode opens with Mark Cuban's call about Indiana basketball and online monetization, then settles into Reggie Brock's Axis 8 framework. Reggie treats leadership as a problem of alignment: why people act, who they are paired with, and how work gets done.
Rob Walling on bootstrapped SaaS growth, plateaus, and exits — with founders who lived them.
Abbey Ashley's playbook for turning your job skills into a virtual assistant business.
Naval Ravikant on epistemology, startups, and crypto, from David Deutsch to Vitalik Buterin.
Alex Theuma interviews SaaS founders and investors on scaling to $10M-plus ARR.
Guy Raz traces founders' origin stories and fields live advice-line calls from entrepreneurs.
Alex Blumberg interviews guests like Megan Phelps-Roper and Shane McAnally about failure and reinvention.
An interview with a guest who moved his family multiple times and learned to think outside the box, followed by an ad for a sports detergent.
The pressure is the point.
A man tells a story that starts far from polished business talk.
Brian opens with a story that stops the room.
Eric Loden sits down with an accounting guest to dig into the tax questions that keep business owners awake at night.
She tells the story plainly.
Reggie Brock starts with a Mark Cuban phone call.
From The Ground Up Show host Eric Lodin interviews Adam Weatherby, president of Weatherby Firearms in Sheridan, Wyoming, about faith, leadership, and carrying a third-generation brand.
Grant Gilmore talks through a career that moved from racing to roofing.
The speaker talks through the satisfaction of handing someone something he created and watching them drink it and be wowed.
The host introduces the show and welcomes guests from Green Ridge Solar, discussing their journey and challenges in building a renewable energy company.
The host discusses business write-offs and introduces a sponsor, MacArthur Company, highlighting the importance of supplier relationships for contractors.
A raw interview with an entrepreneur reflecting on early business mistakes and lessons learned.
A pinto colt in the living room starts the story.
Host Eric Loden interviews Dima Sobovoy, an entrepreneur and father of eight who immigrated from Ukraine.
Greg McAfee, founder of McAfee Heating, Air, and Plumbing, shares his 35-year journey building a multi-million dollar business from scratch with no formal education.
Host Eric Loden interviews Ken Dickson, founder of AMW Architectural Metal Works, who shares 34 years of hard-won lessons from the commercial construction industry.
Mike Riddle, owner of Riddle Construction, shares his raw journey from elementary school teacher to custom home builder, detailing how he lost everything to bankruptcy after the 2008 market crash and a client lawsuit.
Interview with renowned gunsmith and competitive shooter Ryan Pierce about his expertise in long-range accuracy and rifle building.
Host Erick Loden interviews Randy Brothers, founder of Elite Roofing and Solar, about his journey from financial struggle to building a successful roofing company and coaching program.
Host Erick Loden interviews Dominic Frazier, owner of a top 100 roofing company, about his journey from childhood to building a successful blue-collar business.
Host Erick Loden interviews former Marine and sheriff Eric Horsley about his unconventional career path and leadership lessons.
Host Erick Loden interviews Craig Summitt, an Air Force veteran and entrepreneur, about his outdoor experiences and business journey.
Host Erick Loden interviews Randy Hurtado, a former fire captain who built a roofing business into a $30 million construction conglomerate.
Host Erick Loden interviews Dylan McCabe, co-founder of Limitless Roofing Group, about his journey from a troubled childhood to building a national roofing organization.