PEO Speedwagon

About PEO Speedwagon

The PEO Speedwagon Podcast is a dynamic podcast that delves into the intricate world of HR outsourcing, focusing on how small businesses can leverage Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) to their advantage. Hosted by Heather Applegate and Ryan Shapiro (peomg.com), each episode unpacks the complexities of PEOs in a conversational and accessible manner to demystify the process and highlight its benefits. With a blend of expert insights, real-world examples, and a touch of humor, this is the go-to resource for anyone looking to optimize their HR operations and foster growth.

Publisher

PEOMG

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

5 Jan 2024

Latest episode

6 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

55 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   6 Oct 2026

   There's a PEO for That? Arkenstone Defense with Kerry Ashby

   Wait...there's a PEO specifically for government contractors and defense companies? There is. And once you understand the HR and compliance complexity these businesses face, it makes a whole lot of sense. In this episode of PEO Speedwagon, Heather Applegate and Ryan Shapiro sit down with Kerry Ashby of Arkenstone Defense to explore what happens when the PEO model is built specifically for the government contracting and defense industry. With more than 20 years of PEO experience, Kerry explains why government contractors need support that goes beyond traditional payroll, benefits, and HR. Security clearances, classified information, DCAA compliance, cleared recruiting, cybersecurity requirements, and rapid hiring tied to contract awards all create challenges most businesses never encounter. The conversation also explores a bigger opportunity for the PEO industry: specialization. As Kerry puts it, clients want their partners to **"show me you know me."** When a PEO understands a client's industry, language, risks, and challenges before the relationship even begins, the value of that partnership changes considerably. Heather, Ryan, and Kerry discuss the origins of Arkenstone Defense, Kerry's experience in the PEO industry, the realities of supporting federal government contractors, and what extreme specialization might tell us about the future of PEO. 🎙️ Listen to the full conversation with Kerry Ashby of Arkenstone Defense on PEO Speedwagon.

2. 

   21 Sept 2026

   HR Tea - Watch Out for HR Karma!

   Welcome to HRT: HR Tea, a new PEO Speedwagon format where Heather Applegate and Ryan Shapiro dig into the strange, messy, complicated, and occasionally unbelievable stories happening in the world of work. Because HR headlines are rarely as simple as they sound. In our first edition, Heather and Ryan take on three stories that raise some surprisingly big questions about leadership, workplace culture, discrimination, employee behavior, and what happens when the people making employment decisions suddenly find themselves on the other side of one. First up is the story of Vishal Garg, the Better.com CEO who became infamous for firing roughly 900 employees during a Zoom call. Years later, Garg reportedly found himself out of the CEO role, giving Heather and Ryan plenty to discuss about leadership, accountability, and whether the way an organization handles difficult decisions tells you something about its culture. From there, the conversation turns to age discrimination and a case that isn't quite as straightforward as the headline might suggest. What responsibilities do employers have when making decisions that affect older workers? Where does legitimate business judgment end and discrimination begin? And how should leaders think about consistency when employment decisions inevitably involve some level of subjectivity? Then things get even messier. What happens when an employee does something questionable outside of work? At what point does personal behavior become an employer's concern, and how much should someone's actions away from the office influence their professional life? It's an increasingly difficult line for employers to navigate, especially when social media can turn a private moment into a very public one almost instantly. Naturally, this discussion also leads to an unexpectedly detailed conversation about stealing trash cans, because apparently that's part of HR now too. Throughout the episode, Heather and Ryan don't always agree, and that's exactly the point of HRT. These aren't meant to be perfectly packaged case studies with obvious answers. They're real situations that expose the gray areas leaders, HR professionals, and business owners have to navigate every day. How consistent do you need to be? When should an employer get involved? How much does context matter? And what does the way you handle the uncomfortable situations say about the culture you're actually building? Pour yourself a cup. ☕️ The first serving of HRT: HR Tea is officially on the table.

3. 

   8 Sept 2026

   For the Good of the Pack with Fred Gauna | Endangered Wolf Center

   What do wolves, leadership, and PEOs have in common? More than you'd probably expect. In this episode of the PEO Speedwagon Podcast, Heather Applegate and Ryan Shapiro sit down with Fred Gauna, Executive Director of the Endangered Wolf Center, for a conversation that starts with endangered species and eventually finds its way to a challenge facing leaders of small and mission-driven organizations everywhere: How do you take care of your people while protecting the resources you need to fulfill your mission? Fred's career has taken him from working directly with animals to leading an organization dedicated to preserving and protecting endangered wolves and other wild canid species. He gives us a fascinating look behind the scenes at the Endangered Wolf Center, the realities of conservation work, and what it means to lead an organization where the mission is deeply personal to the people doing the work. That passion, however, can come with a cost. Fred talks candidly about the "passion tax" that often exists in nonprofit organizations, where employees accept lower compensation or fewer benefits because they believe so deeply in the work. As a leader, Fred wanted something better for his team. That ultimately led the Endangered Wolf Center to explore a PEO. Fred shares what that decision looked like, the concerns he had going into the process, and what has changed since making the move. Two years later, the organization has been able to invest more in employee benefits while gaining access to the HR infrastructure and support a smaller organization would struggle to build internally. For Fred, that means less time navigating the administrative side of employment and more time focused on the work only his organization can do. And that work is pretty incredible. We get into wolf conservation, breeding programs, raising pups for eventual release into the wild, the role wolves play in healthy ecosystems, and some of the misconceptions people still have about these animals. We also explore Fred's evolution from animal care into executive leadership, what working with animals has taught him about people, and the unique challenge of leading employees who are deeply emotionally connected to an organization's mission. And because this is PEO Speedwagon, we don't stay entirely on the serious stuff. Fred tells us about his former life walking a warthog on a leash, we debate which animals you should actually be afraid of in the wild, crows make a surprisingly strong case for being smarter than most of us give them credit for, and Ryan gets the opportunity to ask approximately every question he would have asked during a third-grade field trip. It's a conversation about conservation, leadership, employee experience, and the role a PEO can play in helping a small organization operate with the resources and sophistication of a much larger one. But more than anything, it's a reminder of what all that HR infrastructure is supposed to accomplish in the first place: Give great people the support they need to spend more of their time doing work that matters.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

10 ratings

Spotify

4.9 / 5

30 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 28 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

36

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

51

Contact PEO Speedwagon

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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