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How Entrepreneurs Are Reinventing Themselves Through Crisis, Community, and Innovation

GLC Interview #3

Michael HsuMichael Hsu is the Founder and CEO of MEASURE × HACK, a financial literacy and business performance company that helps entrepreneurs understand and manage their money through systems and metrics. He is also the Founder and CEO of DeepSky, a leading CFO consulting and outsourced accounting firm.

 

Lisa RileyLisa Riley is the Owner and President of multiple Tulsa-area Pinot’s Palette studios, part of a US paint‑and‑sip franchise offering guided canvas painting with wine and cocktails. Under her leadership, she expanded to three locations and built a reputation for creativity. Lisa also works as a professional food stylist.

 

Lorraine CorcoranLorraine Corcoran is the Co‑founder and CEO of Nyrah Beauty, a science‑driven, plant‑infused skincare company. A mechanical engineer with over 25 years of experience in product development, she led the formulation, manufacturing, and innovation of products in the cosmetics, pharmaceutical, and medical device industries.

 

Marina ByezhanovaMarina Byezhanova is the CEO of Brand of a Leader, a global personal‑branding agency that helps entrepreneurs and executives build thought leadership voices. Born in Soviet-era Ukraine, she is a global speaker, university instructor, and has been featured in top-tier media like Inc., Forbes, Fast Company, and WSJ.

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Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

  • [1:27] Michael Hsu reveals how overlooking finances nearly sank his business and what pulled him out
  • [6:29] How a cancer diagnosis and a CNBC show helped reignite Lisa Riley’s franchise’s growth
  • [11:37] Lorraine Corcoran talks pivoting during COVID and producing 9 million hand sanitizers in record time
  • [20:03] Marina Byezhanova explains how AI forced a major team overhaul and led to faster growth and stronger content

In this episode…

Building a business is never a straight line. From personal health challenges to financial missteps, global disruptions, and emerging technologies, entrepreneurs are constantly faced with moments that demand reinvention. The ones who thrive are those who lean into community, stay adaptable, and turn setbacks into catalysts for growth.

For Michael Hsu, losing track of his company’s finances forced a wake-up call and a return to disciplined money management. Lisa Riley’s cancer diagnosis and appearance on a business reality show helped her reimagine her franchise and earn national recognition. Lorraine Corcoran shifted a manufacturing business during COVID and launched a skincare brand focused on hormonal health. Leveraging AI allowed Marina Byezhanova to restructure her agency and gave her a renewed focus on high-impact talent and innovation.

In this episode of the Rising Entrepreneurs Podcast, recorded live at the Entrepreneurs’ Organization Global Leadership Conference in Honolulu, you’ll hear how four founders embraced crisis, leaned on community, and came out stronger through clarity, creativity, and change.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments:

  • “I took my eyes off of my financials and I ran out of money, you know?”
  • “When you’re running a business, you’re in between totally killing it and going out of business tomorrow.”
  • “I was bear hugging things too much, and I was watching him go in and fix small businesses.”
  • “We did 9 million units of hand sanitizer. We were the largest supplier in the whole of Ireland.”
  • “Instead of essentially overnight, we got a competitor who was not as good as us but getting better.”

Action Steps:

  1. Revisit your financials daily and weekly: Maintaining close oversight helps prevent cash flow surprises and supports informed decision-making.
  2. Empower your team to lead: Letting go of control can unlock employee potential and drive business growth faster.
  3. Build a diverse support network: Surrounding yourself with experienced entrepreneurs provides insights and emotional resilience during tough business phases.
  4. Embrace AI tools intentionally: Leveraging automation for repetitive tasks boosts efficiency and frees up time for strategic thinking.
  5. Turn setbacks into learning opportunities: Sharing failures openly normalizes vulnerability and accelerates growth through honest reflection and course correction.

Sponsor for this episode…

At Rise25 we help B2B businesses give to and connect to your ‘Dream 200’ relationships and partnerships.

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We’ll distribute each episode across more than 11 unique channels, including iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon Podcasts. We’ll also create copy for each episode and promote your show across social media.

Cofounders Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran credit podcasting as being the best thing they have ever done for their businesses. Podcasting connected them with the founders/CEOs of P90x, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, Rx Bars, YPO, EO, Lending Tree, FreshBooks, and many more.

The relationships you form through podcasting run deep. Jeremy and John became business partners through podcasting. They have even gone on family vacations and attended weddings of guests who have been on the podcast.

Podcast production has a lot of moving parts and is a big commitment on our end; we only want to work with people who are committed to their business and to cultivating amazing relationships.

Are you considering launching a podcast to acquire partnerships, clients, and referrals? Would you like to work with a podcast agency that wants you to win?

Rise25 Cofounders, Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran, have been podcasting and advising about podcasting since 2008.

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Episode Transcript:

Intro: 00:02

Welcome to the Rising Entrepreneurs Podcast, where we feature top founders and entrepreneurs and their journey. Now let’s get started with the show.

John Corcoran: 00:12

Hey everybody, this is John Corcoran with Dr. Jeremy Weisz, and this episode is a little bit different. This is a live interview that we recorded at the Global Leadership Conference from Entrepreneurs’ Organization, where some of the best entrepreneurs from around the globe share ideas and to learn about entrepreneurship. And of course, this episode is brought to you by Rise25, where we help B2B businesses to give to and to connect to their Dream 100 relationships and partnerships, helping you to run a podcast so that it generates a referral pipeline and ROI.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 00:44

Yeah, I mean, John, after both of us have been podcasting for over a decade, the number one thing in our life is relationships, and we’re always looking at ways to give to our best relationships, and we found no better way to do that over the past decade than to profile the people and companies we admire and shout from the rooftops what they’re working on, and this interview is no different. So if you’ve thought about podcasting, you should go to rise25.com to learn more or email us at support@rise25.com.

John Corcoran: 01:11

Thanks everyone. Enjoy the interview.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 01:12

Enjoy.

Michael Hsu: 01:27

My name is Michael Hsu and who am I? I’m an entrepreneur. I’m a EO Las Vegas and EO Taipei member. And what we do is we do. We have a couple companies around financial literacy, teaching entrepreneurs about money and how to manage them.

A major hurdle that I have experienced during my time. There’s too many to count. I mean, I feel like. I feel like when you’re running a business, you’re you’re you’re in between. You’re in between the Palace of Lights where we’re totally killing it and we’re going out of business tomorrow, right?

And I’m thinking I’m trying to think of one. I think I can talk about the most embarrassing moment. Okay. The most embarrassing moment for me was when I took my eyes off of my financials and I ran out of money, you know? And that is embarrassing, because that’s literally my profession.

It’s like the plumber’s house always leaks, right? And and it’s not just so much. It’s not it’s not just so much that, you know, I obviously didn’t go out of business, but then it’s that idea of that embarrassment of how did I end up here? What have I done to fail? To have no money in the bank to make payroll.

Right. And it was it was that. It was, it was. I got overly excited. I got overly comfortable, and I took my eyes off of my business.

I took my eyes off. I just didn’t pay attention. And there’s so many entrepreneurs these days, and I share this with them all the time. A lot of times people don’t come to me when they’re having a good time, when business is good and killing it. You don’t look for you.

Don’t try to understand your financial literacy. There’s money in the bank. Life is good, right? Sales is going up. But it’s when they come to me.

So many entrepreneurs EO YPO. Otherwise they feel embarrassed, right? They’re supposed to be this successful entrepreneur and yet they have no money in the bank. And I always share this one thing and I say, look, even me, who’s got two degrees and a CPA license and a financial consulting company for 15 years, I mess up. We’re humans, we mess up.

Right? And the good thing is, entrepreneurs are incredibly talented, smart people that we can solve almost any problem as long as we can identify and know what that problem is. And so that’s that’s probably my most embarrassing story, but that’s probably the biggest hurdle that I have to go through myself, which was taking my eyes off the ball and running out of money. When you have to sit at the conference lobby where you just did a keynote presentation about financial literacy, to ask your forum mate to float you for your next payroll. It’s pretty humbling, right?

And, and and the good thing is, I have EO that’s always been my strongest support group for 15 years, and I have four mates who came through for me and the rest is easy. Like I said, this is what I do. Back to the problem, right? I know exactly what I got to do. I know what I did to get here, and I know what I need to do to get out of this hole, which was to pay attention.

So I rehired my team. Right. And then we just started from daily cash flow statements and then into weekly into monthly, just everything that we already know that we should be doing. And you just climb out of that hole. My favorite resources that I think other entrepreneurs should check out.

Man, I think, I think I think that’s a tough question. My favorite resource as an entrepreneur is EO. It’s the EO network, the global network. It doesn’t matter if it’s your local forum or it doesn’t matter if it’s a bridge forum or a regional event or GLC global event. I think other entrepreneurs have always been my best resources and not just for business.

It could be for personal, it could be for relationship. I think EO, we talk a lot about that and you have this right in EO, we call it intimacy, right? You get with somebody and you get past all the BS and you just you just share vulnerable real. And there are so many experience shares from other people, from other countries, from other industries, from other, you know, anything that you can apply into your industry, into your business that you would just totally kick ass. And and that’s why I that’s why I have friends from all around the world, something that is normal for a marketing agency in Europe, when applied to an accounting company in America, could be a game changer.

You can find me online and most of my handle is at W. Michael. Michael. Well, Michael. And then Hsu is Hsu.

And you can find me everywhere. Mostly on Instagram, on YouTube. And yeah. Talking about financial literacy. So that’s where you’ll find me.

John Corcoran: 06:05

All right, John Corcoran, we’re here at the Entrepreneurs Organization Global Leadership Conference in beautiful Honolulu, Hawaii, 2025. I’m from San Francisco. I’m the Co-founder of Rise25, which helps B2B businesses to get clients and referrals and strategic partnerships with done for you podcasts and content marketing. And I’m here with Lisa Riley from EO Tulsa. And tell us a little bit about your company.

You have a couple of different companies, but your main company.

Lisa Riley: 06:29

So my main company that qualifies me for EO is a franchise. I have multiple franchises. I’m a multi-unit franchisee called Pinot’s Palette. It’s a paint and sip kind of entertainment franchise. And then my other stuff that I do is I’m a professional food stylist for national brands.

John Corcoran: 06:43

Wow. Very cool. Yeah, cool.

Lisa Riley: 06:45

Super random.

John Corcoran: 06:45

And this is such a beautiful event. Amazing venue. Here we see these world class speakers, and you actually got to meet the man who helped to save your business, Marcus Lemonis, who is speaking here. And you, just a few moments ago, bumped into him in the hallway and were able.

Lisa Riley: 07:00

To look like I’ve been crying because I got to meet my business idol unexpectedly.

John Corcoran: 07:04

And tell him that he helped save your business. So tell us the story.

Lisa Riley: 07:07

So, long story short, I started my franchises and you know, they took off and they did really well. And then it kind of plateaued. And I was opening my last store, and as I was opening it up, I realized my growth, my sales weren’t growing and things were kind of plateaued. And then I got diagnosed with cancer. And so while I was at home, sitting on the couch healing and kind of getting well from chemo and that kind of thing, I started, I stumbled across this TV show called The Profit.

Like money profit on CNBC or MSNBC. And it was with Marcus Lemonis. And he would go in and help failing businesses. And mine wasn’t failing, but it was just plateaued. So I watched the show while I was sitting on the couch healing, and I watched every episode like ten times, took feverish notes.

And then I as I was watching the show, I thought, Holy shit, I’m the problem. That’s I’m the problem. Why? My company is not growing. I was bear hugging things too much, and I was watching him go in and fix small businesses and teach them how to fix their businesses.

So obviously I couldn’t afford a coach or reach out to Marcus. And so I took all the things that I learned from his show, implemented them in my business, and within the next two years, I became my business, took off, I allowed my staff to shine, and my business jumped up 10% immediately. Once I stopped bear hugging everything and started doing that. But quickly. Then I became the small business person of the year for my city, then my state, and then the US through the US chamber.

So I got to tell him that story downstairs. I was walking out from lunch and he came walking in and I saw him, and I immediately burst into tears and was like, oh my God, I’ve waited my whole life to say thank you. And he was like, take a deep breath, hand me your plate of food. Let’s set it down on a table. And he goes, let me hug you.

And I was just like, oh my God, it was amazing.

John Corcoran: 08:59

So yeah, that’s such a cool story. And obviously we’re here at Entrepreneurs’ Organization. What has that been? How has that played a role for you being involved in EO?

Lisa Riley: 09:08

Well, you know, the thing that I love about EO and love coming to Global Leadership Conference or other conferences that EO puts on is you’re around like minded people, so you’re not doing the silly conversations with people that are not on your level, that are just fluff that you do at typical open conferences, you’re with like minded people who are here to grow, learn, want to figure out what they can do better, and they have that growth mindset or the mindset that they don’t have it all figured out, and that we can always evolve and be better and be better humans. And so I love being around like minded people because I always go home so energized and also with a whole bunch of little knowledge nuggets that I can implement in my business when I get back, or even just things that I can do to better myself.

John Corcoran: 09:51

Yeah, that’s great to hear. And what about GLC? This event here, other than obviously running into Marcus Lemonis, what have been your takeaways from the last couple of days of being here?

Lisa Riley: 10:03

Oh my goodness. There’s a lot of takeaways. You know. Oh my gosh there’s so many. You know one of the things I love about this one’s theme is the ohana of the sense of family and the sense of community.

It doesn’t mean just blood family. It means like business, family or people in my forum that I work with or, you know, and and do those types of things. But I really love this GLC because people I’ve gotten to meet people from 56 different countries, and I have learned more from some of them than I’ve never met before till today, that they have come in and told me about their businesses. And it’s a tech firm. It has nothing to do with paint and sip, which is what my businesses are.

But their lessons that they’ve shared, their experience shares resonated with me to make me go, oh, I should do that in my business or that with my employees. And so I always feel like when I leave GLC, I go home armed with all this stuff that I can do better with.

John Corcoran: 10:57

That’s great. Lisa, this has been great. Where can people go to learn more about you and your your companies?

Lisa Riley: 11:02

Well, I have a personal branded website. It’s called lisawriley.com and it’s really for my food styling or just that kind of thing. And then my franchises are called pinotspalette.com and they’re based in the US and in Canada.

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