In this episode of the Northwest Arkansas Founders podcast, hosts Cameron Clark and Nick Beyer sit down with Jim Smith and Rebecca Hurst, the co-founders of Smith Hurst law firm and Emeraude (a multifamily office and business services platform). Jim and Rebecca share their parallel journeys — both with accounting degrees, both with tax LLMs from NYU — and trace the arc of their careers from the Friday firm (Arkansas's largest law firm) to launching Smith Hurst in 2011. They discuss the evolution of family offices in Northwest Arkansas, the explosive growth of the region's M&A and private equity landscape, and the strategic decision to expand beyond legal services into Emeraude, which provides family office and back-office business services to entrepreneurs and wealthy families.

Throughout the conversation, Jim and Rebecca reflect on the relationships and timing that fueled their early success — from landing the Rockfish/WPP deal out of the gate, to the $83 million Acumen Brands capital raise in 2013. They cover practical topics like how M&A attorneys get paid (hourly, not success fees, to maintain objectivity), when to involve counsel in a deal (ideally before the letter of intent), and how AI is transforming legal practice. They also share the Wizard of Oz–inspired origin of the Emeraude name, discuss the $124 trillion wealth transfer ahead, and close with personal reflections on success, purpose, and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of building a business in Northwest Arkansas.

Key moments:

• 13:45 — Their competitive edge: relationships, not the firm name — 738 files moved in two weeks
• 14:30 — Landing the Rockfish/WPP acquisition deal out of the gate, giving the new firm instant credibility
• 17:30 — Acumen Brands' $83M capital raise from General Atlantic, a top-five Q1 2013 PE deal
• 45:35 — Why Smith Hurst bills hourly instead of success fees: maintaining objectivity
• 51:18 — The Wizard of Oz / Emerald City story behind the Emeraude name
• 75:55 — What's next: staying relevant as big players arrive in NWA

Three key takeaways:

1. Relationships are the real currency. When Jim and Rebecca left the Friday firm — the largest in Arkansas — 738 client files moved with them in the first two weeks. The business belonged to the relationships they'd built, not the firm name on the door. Jim emphasizes that most deals come through client and accountant referrals, and that the shift from legal advice to business strategy happens naturally over years of working alongside founders in the boardroom.
2. Objectivity is worth more than a success fee. Smith Hurst deliberately charges hourly rather than taking a percentage of deal value, so clients never have to wonder whether the attorney's advice is driven by a personal financial stake in closing. Jim frames this as a trust principle: "We don't want them to feel that they're at risk that we're not giving them sound advice because we don't get paid if they don't close a deal." The same logic drives Emeraude — they facilitate, advise, and connect, but they don't manage assets or sell insurance, keeping their counsel independent.
3. Northwest Arkansas is a once-in-a-lifetime window — and the clock is ticking. Both guests stress that the region's legitimacy as a market for private equity, venture capital, and talent is no longer a question. But Jim warns that bigger players will inevitably arrive as the population climbs toward 750,000 and beyond, and local firms must keep sharpening their edge. His advice to anyone on the fence: "Make the call" — whether for a family office, business services, or a career move — because the opportunity in NWA is as rare as it gets.

This episode of the Northwest Arkansas Founders Podcast features the team behind Duncan & Stone Paper Co. — Garrett Peters, Stephanie Peters, and Sarah Autry — discussing how they built a keepsake journal and gift business that now does e-commerce across Amazon, Etsy, and their own Shopify store. They trace the origin story back to Sarah quietly hand-making pregnancy prayer cards from her living room, Stephanie recognizing the business potential, and a family medical crisis that pushed them to seriously commit. A scrappy weekend at a stationery conference in LA, sketched-out plans on a cardboard box, and a risky $30,000 wire transfer for their first inventory order set the company in motion just before the pandemic — which, unexpectedly, became a growth catalyst as people stuck at home began filling out baby books.

The conversation then moves into the mechanics of scaling an online consumer brand: navigating Amazon dupes and copycats, structuring ownership (52% women-owned, quarterly financial reviews, an annual planning retreat), managing cash flow and inventory forecasting for seasonal spikes, and deliberately staying lean with just four full-time owners and outsourced specialists instead of an office and large staff. They dig into marketing economics (ad spend, return on ad spend, shifting traffic from Amazon to their own Shopify store), product strategy (designing a "funnel" of journals across life stages), and the unpredictability of channels like TikTok. The episode closes on reflections about partnering with best friends, protecting relationships through trust and quick communication, and how each founder defines success — mostly in terms of financial stability and time with family rather than pure revenue growth, even as they debate whether to scale toward $10 million.

Key moments:

• 2:00 – Team introduces the business and Amazon/Etsy brand-building approach
• 5:06 – Discussion of Amazon copycats, dupes, and trademark/copyright protection
• 7:28 – Origin story: Sarah's stationery side hustle and the pregnancy prayer cards
• 19:02 – Landing the manufacturer, the $30,000 first order, and pallets in the garage
• 24:01 – Garrett quits his job to go all-in on the company
• 28:42 – Scaling numbers: from 10 pallets in year one to 200 pallets today
• 35:25 – Why they've kept the team to just four people, no office
• 51:55 – Breaking down e-commerce mechanics: cost of goods, ad spend, ROAS
• 69:36 – Each founder defines what success means to them

Three key takeaways:

1. Know your "why" before you grind. Multiple founders emphasize that a clear, personal reason behind the business — not just wanting extra income — is what sustains people through the hardest years of building a company.
2. Structure and clarity protect both the business and the friendships. Formalizing ownership splits, roles, and communication norms (quick apologies, staying in your lane, quarterly financial reviews) before money is on the line kept the founders' partnership and friendships intact.
3. Growth isn't always the goal. Despite having a path to double revenue, the team repeatedly chooses to stay lean and intentional, prioritizing time with family over maximum scale — success is measured holistically, not just in dollars.

Steve Graves joins the NWA Founders Podcast to talk about his four-decade career coaching CEOs, founders, and business owners through his firm, Cornerstone Coaching. He shares his philosophy of working with individuals rather than companies directly, on the belief that as the leader grows, so does the organization. He explains how he and his original partner, Tom Addington, start the business on faith and word-of-mouth alone, deliberately keep a small client portfolio to protect quality and their personal lives, and eventually build a scalable model only after multiple failed attempts, with the right team finally making it work.

The conversation ranges widely across leadership philosophy: the "composite scorecard" for measuring a holistic successful life, the danger of listening to too many strategic voices versus unlimited voices of inspiration, the difference between businesses designed to scale versus those that aren't, harnessing ambition to something bigger than yourself, and staying alert to market shifts (using Kodak as a cautionary tale). He closes by reflecting on why Northwest Arkansas is a hotbed for talent and thought leadership, and how he personally defines success through a faith-anchored, multi-dimensional lens rather than money alone.

Click the link for The Founders Toolbox - https://www.stephenrgraves.com/nwafounders. An exclusive coaching tool for listeners developed by Steve Graves & NWA Founders.

Highlights:

• 0:44 – The "composite scorecard" concept: your results reveal your organization's design.
• 10:57 – Steve's origin story: choosing philosophy/theology over law, and eventually founding Cornerstone with Tom Addington.
• 34:44 – "A man with a testimony is never at the mercy of a man with an argument" — on overcoming the "age barrier" as a young coach.
• 45:04 – The two voices every founder hears: unlimited inspiration vs. very limited, trustworthy strategic guidance.
• 50:46 – Why his core strategy is offensive, not defensive — set your own pace and execute your plan.
• 58:01 – "Businesses create cultures, cultures create businesses — but people create the businesses and the cultures."
• 63:17 – The "Bonfire on the Beach" metaphor: focus on one real fire (business) instead of scattering energy across many small ones.
• 81:57 – The Kodak cautionary tale — staying "heads up" to market change instead of just executing.
• 87:51 – Defining success through a faith-anchored, multi-dimensional "composite scorecard" rather than money alone.

Three key takeaways:

1. Vision – Steve's business model and mission stay remarkably consistent for nearly 40 years.
2. Wisdom – Decades of both failed and successful attempts to scale offer hard-won lessons on timing, team, and model design.
3. Steadiness – A patient, deliberate pace — rather than a rush to scale — defines his approach and his advice to founders.

Full show notes, the transcript and every chapter: nwafounders.com/episodes/steve-graves-cornerstone-coaching/

More on Cornerstone Coaching: nwafounders.com/guests/steve-graves-cornerstone-coaching/

Every episode, searchable: nwafounders.com