Josh Zolin is the CEO of Windy City Equipment, a commercial equipment service company operating across Arizona and Texas with 50 to 60 employees and between $10 and $12 million in annual revenue. He joined his father's one-man repair operation at 21 with no degree and no plan, after spending his early life in a stunt family and nearly 16 years doing stunt work across film and television. Along the way he co-founded Blue Is the New White, an academy teaching soft skills and practical leadership to blue collar professionals, and hosts the Everything They Don't Tell You podcast.

✨ Key Insights You'll Learn:

• Born into a stunt family in Chatsworth, California, with his grandfather, mother, father, and three uncles all working in the industry

• First stunt appearance at age six in Matinee with John Goodman, rolling out of the way of an oncoming car

• Teaching at the family stunt school from age 14, training people from around the world in falling, fighting, and fire work

• Moving to Los Angeles and breaking onto film sets at all hours, knocking on stunt coordinators' trailers to find work

• The studio apartment mirror moment in 2008 during the writer's strike that sent him toward his father's business in Phoenix

• Joining Windy City Equipment at 21, spending ten years in the field learning the trade before stepping into the CEO role

• Expanding from kitchen equipment into HVAC and refrigeration, which drove revenue from $1M to $6-7M in four to five years

• Achieving Inc. 5000 recognition three times and expanding from Phoenix to Tucson to Houston

• Launching Blue Is the New White in 2019 as a book and advocacy platform, then building the academy eighteen months ago

• Sister-in-law's sudden death on January 1, 2015 as the mindset shift that ended procrastination and anchored his daily urgency

🌟 Josh's Key Mentors:

• His Grandfather: First memory of the stunt world, jumping from 50 feet into a pool, and the origin of everything that followed

• His Mother and Father: Both stunt professionals who trained Josh from childhood, ran the stunt school, and modeled the work ethic he brought into business

• His Father (Windy City Founder): The mechanic who built the original business and made the call to get out of stunts to never miss a weekend with his son, setting Josh's path in motion

• James and Terry (HVAC and Refrigeration): Master technicians who helped Josh launch the division that became Windy City's growth engine

• His Wife: The steady presence through his sister's death and the person who helped him learn that sometimes being there is all that's needed

👉 Don't miss Josh's account of staring down a 60-foot drop onto a bag the size of a pen cap, the studio apartment mirror moment that ended his stunt career, and why his sister-in-law's death at 26 became the most clarifying day of his life.

🔗 Connect with Josh Zolin:

Website: joshzolin.com

📋 Transcript Available: From Stuntman to CEO: How Josh Zolin Built a Family Business into an Inc 5000 Enterprise

📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast

🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast

📋 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com