21st Century Entrepreneurship
The 21st Century Entrepreneurship Podcast is a weekly show that features interviews with successful entrepreneurs and leaders. It covers the fundamentals of starting and growing a business, achieving and maintaining success, and the challenges entrepreneurs face. The show also explores the future of entrepreneurship and offers insights for staying competitive. It has received four Gold Awards for its content.
Episodes
#548 Matt Edelman: How Can Brands Win Gamified Consumers?
Matt Edelman is the CEO and president of Super League Enterprise and we spoke about how the gamified consumer mindset is reshaping marketing—and how his own path from Marvel and film production unexpectedly prepared him to run a public company. He describes producing a film as surprisingly close to running a business: “a film is like a mini company,” with budgets, contracts, marketing, distributio
#547 Dean Drako: How Do Product, Timing, and Luck Drive Success?
Dean Drako is a serial entrepreneur who has founded somewhere between five and fifteen companies, raised venture capital around 20 times in Silicon Valley, and experienced both successful exits and failures—and we spoke about the operating lessons that came from building repeatedly. His starting principle is simple: find a pain point you understand deeply, make sure many other people share it, and
#546 Sam Demma: What Happens When You Expect Nothing Back?
Sam Demma is an author and keynote speaker who has delivered close to 850 talks across four continents, and we spoke about how losing a Division I soccer scholarship after three major knee injuries redirected his life toward service, storytelling, and speaking. A teacher challenged him to take small, consistent action, which led to five and a half years of community cleanups—and eventually to scho
#545 Amy Perez: Can Dreams Improve Your Decisions?
Amy Perez, CEO at myDream & Mindful Software, Inc. - is a former government technology leader, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, and responsible AI consultant, and we spoke about using dreams as another source of information for decisions, self-awareness, and major life changes. After years managing high-stakes programs - including a digital system that distributed more than $10 billion in pandemic a
#544 Saurabh Gupta: Why Do 90% of AI Pilots Fail to Scale?
Saurabh Gupta is CEO of The Modern Data Company, and we spoke about why so many AI initiatives struggle to scale despite massive investment in the technology. His perspective comes from nearly 30 years in data: designing the World Bank’s open data platform, spending 12 years leading statistical data at the IMF, serving as Chief Data Officer for Washington, DC, and later working across more than 20
#543 Digna Deleon-Morris: How Did $5.25 Become $4M a Month?
Digna Deleon-Morris is an entrepreneur and insurance agency CEO, and we spoke about her path from arriving in the United States at 17 and earning $5.25 an hour to building an agency doing almost $4 million a month. Before entrepreneurship, she earned two college degrees, supervised 30 locations and managed $82 million in operations while working seven days a week — but, as a mother of four, realiz
#542 Robert Misheloff: How Do You Avoid a $3,000 Financing Scam?
Robert Misheloff, Smarter Equipment Finance co-owner, is an equipment-financing entrepreneur, and we spoke about how small business owners can finance essential equipment without falling into costly traps. After running direct marketing campaigns for financing companies, Robert saw firms brag about how they “pulled the wool over the eyes of their customers.” That experience pushed him to build a b
#541 Luke Girgis: How Do You Turn $400K a Month Into Breakeven?
Luke Girgis is a founder, operator and author, and we spoke about why he believes companies should be designed around workflows rather than org charts. The idea grew out of businesses where revenue increased but efficiency did not: while running Rolling Stone and Variety Australia, margins never exceeded 4% because new revenue continually required more people. Looking back, Luke says, “we were jus
#540 Marissa Alfe & Lauren Fitzgerald: Why Isn't Talent Enough?
Marissa Alfe & Lauren Fitzgerald is the partnership behind a boutique talent agency PRTNRS MGMT, and we spoke about what it takes to turn creative talent into a durable business. After years in artist representation, they launched their own agency as COVID upended the industry; Marissa remembers, “I had $800 in my checking account,” while still needing to protect clients she had spent years bu
#539 Scott Oldford: Was $100M Worth Losing $14M?
Scott Oldford is a lifelong entrepreneur who built his first seven-figure business at 16, and we spoke about what happened when decades of entrepreneurial instinct collided with an identity he was trying to force. By 2022, he was making roughly $7 million a year at a 70% profit margin while working 15–20 hours a week. Then he chased a bigger identity and a $100 million outcome, losing $14 million
#538 Denis O'Shea: How Do You Turn Technology Into Advantage?
Denis O'Shea is the founder and CEO of a technology services company, and we spoke about how a painful sales failure became the foundation for 22 years of helping organizations extract more value from technology. Early in his career at Nokia, a customer challenged him on why they should buy more technology when employees barely used what they already had. Denis says that conversation “burnt a
#537 Jonny Price: Can Customers Be Your Best Investors?
Jonny Price is President of WeFunder, and we spoke about why startup investing should no longer be reserved for millionaires—and why founders may be overlooking one of their strongest sources of capital: their own customers. He explains how changes in U.S. regulation opened private investing to everyday people and why that shift creates opportunities not only for investors, but also for entreprene
#536 Kim Butler: Should You Invest Before Saving $100K?
Kim Butler, Prosperity Thinkers founder, is a financial educator with more than 30 years of experience in banking, investing, and insurance, and we spoke about why strong earners often build wealth in the wrong order. Her starting question is direct: “You’re awesome at making money. How much of it are you keeping?” Rather than beginning with investment products, she helps entrepreneurial thinkers
#535 Mike Ryan: Can AI Save Investors 80% of Their Time?
Mike Ryan, BPN CEO, is a former Goldman Sachs analyst who later ran its global equity business and managed Harvard’s $18 billion endowment, and we spoke about why powerful AI still fails investors when its answers cannot be trusted. After repeatedly receiving polished but incorrect information from generic tools, he decided to develop a more reliable approach. As he puts it, “AI wouldn’t pass a fi
#534 Chris Majer: Why does coordination fail as companies grow?
Chris Majer is a former University of Washington rugby captain, performance psychologist, and organizational consultant, and we spoke about how practice, mood, and coordination determine whether growing companies can actually transform. An airport-bookstore encounter with George Leonard’s The Ultimate Athlete led him from rugby into Aikido, sports psychology, and work with elite athletes, Olympic
#533 Simon Mach: How do you build a crypto firm for every cycle?
Simon Mach is a crypto trader and founder of MyCryptoParadise, and we spoke about how a lean operation that began with four traders survived repeated market cycles after launching in 2016. When meme-coin bets that worked during bull markets vanished in a downturn, Simon stopped chasing potential 1,000% gains and developed a professional approach guided by one hierarchy: “Capital protection first,
#532 Xavier Rivera: How Did a $300K Trade Erase $60K Debt?
Xavier Rivera is a former U.S. Marine, trader, and financial education mentor, and we spoke about turning a $200 teenage investment into $20,000—then borrowing $60,000, losing most of it, and spending four years trapped in debt. At 17, he entered the military believing his basic needs would be covered while he learned the markets, but the failed pharmaceutical trade pushed him so far into pressure
#531 Timothy Dougherty: How do meals become measurable wins?
Timothy Dougherty is a fitness entrepreneur and franchisor, founder and CEO of Project LeanNation, and we spoke about rebuilding identity after poverty, financial success, federal prison, and the collapse of everything he had tied his value to. The gym was the first place “where pain had purpose,” and keeping a small promise—to arrive at 6:00 each morning—gave him evidence that he could become dis
#530 Mike Stone: Can 10 People Scale $5M to $10M?
Mike Stone is President & CEO of CertaPro Painters®, and we spoke about building scalable businesses through trust, proven systems, technology, and values. After more than 26 years with the organization, Mike believes sustainable growth comes from moving beyond individual projects toward long-term relationships because “projects end,” while strong customer relationships endure.Mike explained h
#529 Andy Harris: How Did One Exit Sell for Twice Its Value?
Andy Harris is a former three-time CEO and current President of North American Strategies and Managing Director with STS Capital, and we spoke about how founders can prepare their companies for an exit that delivers more than standard market value. After completing more than 20 acquisitions and six exits, Andy learned M&A by “being in the shoes” of business owners—building companies, managing
#528 Sam Rosenberg: How Do You Spot Danger Before It Strikes?
Sam Rosenberg is a former Marine officer and close-protection specialist, and we spoke about how ordinary people can recognize danger, avoid freezing under pressure, and protect those they love. After safeguarding prominent public figures, he concluded that “it’s good to have a lifeguard, but ultimately you should know how to swim”—meaning people should learn the same foundational thinking skills
#527 Yana Carstens: Is Overwork Really Causing Burnout?
Yana Carstens is the founder and executive coach of Realign and Thrive, and we spoke about why she believes burnout is not caused simply by working too much. After experiencing severe stress herself—including a visit to the emergency room—she began examining the deeper patterns that keep founders and leaders operating under constant internal pressure. She defines burnout as a “lack of vibrancy”: l
#526 Dr Peter Kevorkian: Can spine care raise vitality?
Dr Peter Kevorkian is a chiropractor, educator, international speaker, and President of Life Chiropractic College West. We spoke about why he believes chiropractic care belongs in proactive health, not only crisis care. He argues that more people are moving away from waiting for pain, illness, or breakdown before caring for the body, and toward asking how they can become healthier, stronger, and m
#525 Peter Murphy: How did two 299s become 40 employees?
Peter Murphy is the CEO and co-founder of Pocket Prep, and we spoke about how failing the same certification exam twice by one point became the starting point for a 15-year software business. A former aerospace employee, Peter was trying to advance his career through a difficult supply-chain credential when he scored 299 twice on a test that required 300 to pass. That moment changed his view of pr
#524 Reza Rahman: Can 100 credit points beat a raise?
Reza Rahman is the co-founder of AVA Finance, and we spoke about why so many American households are drowning in debt, financial stress, and credit confusion. He started the company six years ago with two co-founders after seeing two problems: consumer debt growing toward $18 trillion, and a financial system that “was not built for humans.”The turning point was recognizing that most people are exp
#523 David Liddle: What Keeps Managers Up at 11:59pm?
David Liddle is a conflict resolution expert, culture adviser, author, and founder who has spent 25 years helping organizations move from toxic teams and formal grievances toward healthier, higher-performing workplaces—and we spoke about why culture is not “words on a wall,” but the operating system behind scale, growth, and performance.David explains that many workplace problems leaders lose slee
#522 Frederick Fisher: Can One Missed Filing Cost $12M?
Frederick Fisher is a 51-year insurance professional, author, educator, and expert witness, and we spoke about why insurance often fails at the exact moment people expect it to work. He explains why claims-made policies can be “very, very, very dangerous,” and why the real insurance product is not the policy document but the way a claim is handled when something goes wrong.The turning point in thi
#521 Todd M. Villarrubia: Can a C Corp Save You $15M in Taxes?
Todd M. Villarrubia is a 30-year tax attorney, estate planning expert, and exit planning advisor, and we spoke about how high-income entrepreneurs can reduce taxes, protect assets, and plan wealth before a sale, lawsuit, divorce, or death forces the issue. His focus is simple: entrepreneurs spend years building wealth, but as they grow, “the protection of that wealth becomes even more important.”T
#520 Miriam Schulman: How Can Artists Price to Sell?
Miriam Schulman is the author of Artpreneur, founder of the Artist Incubator program, and a longtime artist and business coach, and we spoke about how creatives can build profitable businesses without underpricing, chasing social media, or waiting to feel ready. After starting on Wall Street and changing direction after 9/11, Miriam realized she was not living her purpose and began applying “time
#519 Ferdinand Mehlinger: What replaced old SEO?
Ferdinand Mehlinger is a search technologist and founder @ G-Stacker who says his background goes back to Backrub, the early project that became Google, and we spoke about why small business owners struggle to be found online without spending heavily on ads. He explains that most plumbers, landscapers, doctors, architects, and local operators do not have time to study SEO after work, and that many
#518 Saahil Mehta: Can Less Work Create More Success?
Saahil Mehta is a business owner, mountaineer, and coach, and we spoke about redefining success after realizing that the version he had been chasing was not truly his. By 36, he had grown his net worth fivefold, built businesses across two continents, owned the Porsche, the villa, and the lifestyle—yet still felt hollow. The turning point came after a near-fatal car crash and his wife telling him
#517 Evan Marks: How Do You Decide Under Pressure?
Evan Marks, Founder @ M1 Performance Group, is a former Wall Street hedge fund professional and mental performance coach, and we spoke about how high performers make better decisions under pressure instead of simply reacting. After 25 years on Wall Street, Evan now coaches traders, portfolio managers, CEOs, entrepreneurs and athletes, including NASCAR drivers, on what separates the best from the m
#516 Dr. Irena O'Brien: Why Does Change Feel So Hard?
Dr. Irena O'Brien is a cognitive neuroscientist and founder of the neuroscience school, and we spoke about how the brain shapes change, leadership, energy, and performance before we are even consciously aware of it. Her work helps coaches and helping professionals understand why “the brain's first job is survival” and why change often fails when we treat it only as mindset, motivation, o
#515 Zack Tomlin: Why most business advice fails you?
Zack Tomlin is a former founder who spent 12 years building and exiting a business, and we spoke about why most business advice doesn’t actually work for individual leaders. He’s also the author of Craft: The Expedition of Business, a book he repeatedly referenced throughout the conversation as a practical guide to mastering decision-making, leadership, and the craft of business. His core argument
#514 Guffy Wright: How to remove friction in big decisions?
Guffy Wright is a risk advisor and sales leader at The Mahoney Group, working with entrepreneurs and large companies in scale mode. We spoke about how to make high-stakes decisions when millions are on the line. His work sits at the intersection of insurance, strategy, and human behavior—helping leaders think beyond price and into consequences, especially “on their worst day” and their best.A turn
#513 Dave Munson: Why Are Vision, Numbers, and Growth Key?
Dave Munson is the founder of a global leather goods company Saddleback Leather Co., and we spoke about how he built it from nothing, nearly lost it multiple times, and ultimately learned how to run a healthy, profitable business. His journey includes sleeping on the floor in Mexico, being stolen from “millions of dollars several times,” and almost going out of business—experiences that forced him
#512 Alec Broadfoot: When does a CEO need a #2 leader?
Alec Broadfoot is founder and CEO of VisionSpark and author of Hiring Your Right #2 Leader. We spoke about why most entrepreneurs fail to hire the right number two—and how to fix it using data instead of gut instinct. His turning point came after building a profitable company with great service but disastrous hiring results, where “we were actually firing about 7 out of 10 people.” Everything chan
#511 Jon Ostenson: Build a Business Without an Idea?
Jon Ostenson is a franchise consultant and former corporate executive, and we spoke about how people can enter business ownership without a “million-dollar idea” by leveraging franchising—especially beyond fast food. After years in corporate, he “always had the desire to build my own empire instead of someone else’s,” but lacked a clear starting point. His turning point came when he discovered non
#510 Dr. John Scott: How to Turn 6% R&D Into Revenue?
Dr. John Scott is a former astrophysicist turned serial entrepreneur, and we spoke about why most innovation fails—and how to systematically flip those odds. After earning dual PhDs and spending over a decade in academia, he walked away from a tenured position after realizing that entrepreneurs “were having a lot more fun and satisfaction… than me writing equations on a blackboard.” That turning p
#509 Rob Braiman: Why do founders block growth past $5M?
Rob Braiman is a serial entrepreneur who has built 10 companies and advised thousands of business owners, and we spoke about why most businesses plateau—and how to break through those ceilings. Over 30+ years, he’s seen the same pattern repeat: founders start strong, but growth stalls as they remain the bottleneck, “wearing too many hats” and keeping control instead of building real leadership str
#508 Nate Amidon: How do teams stay aligned while scaling?
Nate Amidon is a former United States Air Force officer, former C-17 pilot, and CEO of Form 100 Consulting, and we spoke about why many companies execute well at small scale but begin to fail once complexity increases. His core argument is simple: a great idea is not enough—“if you have a great business idea, but you can't execute on your great business idea, then it doesn't really matte
#507 Brett Penager: How Do You Build Success Beyond Yourself?
Brett Penager is an entrepreneur, former wrestling coach at Olympic level, and co-builder of a multistate healthcare business that grew beyond $100 million, and we spoke about what it actually takes to fail repeatedly, learn precisely, and eventually build something measurable at scale. His story starts unusually early: in sixth grade, after hearing Earl Nightingale ask, “Why do people become who
#506 Peter Holtz: How Do You Cut Business Taxes by 40%?
Peter Holtz is a CPA and certified tax planner with nearly 40 years of experience, and we spoke about why most entrepreneurs misunderstand taxes, profits, and the real role a financial advisor should play in growing wealth. Rather than acting as what he calls “box fillers,” accountants who simply submit returns, Peter focuses on helping business owners understand their numbers and build what he ca
#505 Julie Wilson: Can Doctors Work Less and Grow Faster?
Julie Wilson is a Canadian family physician and healthcare entrepreneur, and we spoke about how she built one of the largest primary care groups in British Columbia by redesigning work itself to eliminate burnout instead of accepting it as inevitable. During the pandemic, when clinics were closing and healthcare workers were overwhelmed, she saw an opportunity to rethink the system—creating workpl
#504 Bo Jacob: How Do You Turn 1 Hour a Day Into Wealth?
Bo Jacob is a CPA, investor, and entrepreneur, and we spoke about his book Unstuck Economics: How Ordinary People Turn Smart Hustles into Real Wealth and the practical path to financial freedom in a world where the old career blueprint no longer works. He argues that many people feel trapped because “the blueprint that we saw a long time ago… has changed,” with unstable careers, rising costs, and
#503 Karen Green: How Do You Sell More by Knowing the Buyer?
Karen Green is a sales consultant, former retail buyer, and author of Buyology: Know Your Buyer, Sell More and Sell Better, and we spoke about how understanding buyer behavior can dramatically improve sales outcomes. After sitting on both sides of the table — buying for major UK retailers like Boots and Tesco and later selling into them — she developed a structured approach to decode what truly dr
#502 Julius Lassalle: How Can Leaders Stay Out of Autopilot?
Julius Lassalle is an international executive coach, leadership consultant, and embodiment trainer, and we spoke about how founders and C-level leaders can sustain performance without sacrificing well-being. After building his career in high-performance environments—including management consulting and a global tech organization—Julius hit what he now describes as a burnout turning point, realizing
#501 Michael DeLon: Create a Book in 24 Hours of Your Time?
Michael DeLon is a marketing strategist turned author-advocate, and we spoke about how entrepreneurs can create a book without writing it—and use it to build trust and gain clients. After leaving what he describes as an “emotional prison” in a family ministry, he faced a credibility gap when prospects questioned his experience. His turning point came when he realized he needed proof of expertise,
#500 Tamiko Messenger: What Changed After She Died?
Tamiko Messenger is the author of The Word: There Is No Other Way, and we spoke about surviving a near-fatal accident, returning from death, and carrying a message of faith, accountability, and compassion. Before the accident, she endured years of bullying, harassment, racism, and injustice that shaped how she saw the world and herself. Then came the moment that redefined everything—when her “hear
Isaac Getz & Laurent Marbacher: Why Care Beats Profit?
Isaac Getz and Laurent Marbacher — authors of The Caring Company (Wiley) — join us for a deep exploration of a powerful idea: companies that genuinely care outperform those that merely optimize. Their work challenges the dominant narrative of modern capitalism and introduces a disciplined, research-backed alternative — one where the common good becomes the organizing principle of business.Drawing
Daniel McDavid: Why Your Credit Profile Matters More Than Scores?
Daniel McDavid is a former frontline support worker who became an entrepreneur, and we spoke about how misunderstanding credit keeps many people stuck—and how fixing the right things can unlock real funding. He explains why “it’s not really the credit score that matters, it’s more so about a person’s credit profile,” especially outdated names and addresses that quietly signal risk to lenders, even
Marvin Karlow: How Do I Maximize Exit Value?
Marvin Karlow is an investment banker and former business owner, and we spoke about how founders can realistically maximize the value of their business when it’s time to exit. Trained originally as a physicist, Marvin left corporate life, bought and scaled multiple companies, and ultimately sold his largest business to a public company—an experience that pulled him into helping other owners do the
Frans Campher: Why leaders must stop playing and conduct?
Frans Campher is a leadership educator, executive coach, and former corporate leader, and we spoke about the shift leaders must make from managing work to leading people. After 30 years in insurance, risk, and global corporate roles, Frans moved into executive education and leadership development, shaped by a personal turning point where he realized that “who I was was sufficient” and stopped “ben
Garrett Fritz: How do leaders measure real AI ROI?
Garrett Fritz, Partner and CTO at MetaCTO, is a longtime CTO and product leader, and we spoke about why many companies feel intense pressure to “use AI” yet struggle to show real returns. With an aerospace engineering degree from MIT and years as an in-house CTO and head of product, Garrett has built and shipped products across media, sports, and technology before moving into fractional CTO work f
Athena Dean Holtz: How trauma cost me a $3.5M company?
Athena Dean Holtz is a longtime entrepreneur and publisher, and we spoke about how unprocessed trauma quietly shaped her biggest business decisions. After losing a 20-year, $3.5M company through deception, she was forced to ask, “How did that happen?”—and realized she had been leading from wounds she had never allowed to heal.She explains how optimism, workaholism, and chasing success became a for
Frank Scarso & Anthony DeBenedictis: How do you rebuild life after rock bottom?
Frank Scarso, the CEO and founder of Avanza Capital Holdings, is a former Wall Street broker and a longtime financial professional. We spoke about addiction, pressure, and rebuilding a life after years in a high-stress culture. Frank spent over 20 years on Wall Street, ranking top-five at his firm, before spiraling into severe alcoholism, jail, shelters, and losing contact with his children. Antho
Jay Patel: Can 11% a year fund your retirement?
Jay Patel is a real estate fund manager and we spoke about why he pushes people to rethink defaulting to the stock market when planning retirement. He argues many investors want a better return with less risk, yet find real estate “too intimidating” and don’t want the “headaches of managing real estate,” especially dealing with tenants—so the real question becomes whether you can access real estat
Sam Miles: How do you avoid IRS audits as an entrepreneur?
Sam Miles is a CPA, and we spoke about how entrepreneurs can legally reduce taxes while avoiding the small, preventable mistakes that trigger IRS audits. Drawing on years of audit defense and advisory work, Sam explains why “it’s not the spending of money that makes a tax deduction, it’s the context or the story,” and why documentation—not clever tricks—is what actually protects you as the IRS get
Chris Kille: How did delegation save his life and business?
Chris Kille is a serial entrepreneur who exited multiple companies, and we spoke about how running everything himself nearly killed him—and why delegation changed everything. At his first exit, he was earning a few million a year but doing every job himself, until “they thought I had a stroke.” That moment forced a hard reset: if the business depends on the founder, it’s fragile, stressful, and wo
Kate Assaraf: Seven-figure growth without ads?
Kate Assaraf is an economist and founder, and we spoke about how she built a seven-figure, mission-driven business through word of mouth—without paid ads, influencers, or marketplaces. Her turning question was simple and risky: could a modern business grow purely through trust and real customers? She decided to prioritize direct relationships, email lists, and selective distribution, arguing that
Trevor McGregor: Why busy founders can’t scale?
Trevor McGregor is a high-performance coach and CEO, and we spoke about why so many entrepreneurs feel burned out, misaligned, and trapped by the businesses they built. After “over 45,000 one to one coaching sessions,” Trevor has seen the same patterns repeat: founders hustling harder, short on time, and unsure what they’re even optimizing for anymore.He breaks this down into five concrete blocker
Scott Abbott: How systems turn chaos into scalable growth?
Scott Abott is the founder and CEO of BOS-UP, a three-time bestselling author, and a former EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist. He is a systems implementer and early-stage investor, and we spoke about why structure—not hustle alone—is what actually allows companies to grow. After decades in ERP, SAP, and Oracle environments, and after building (and overbuilding) his own ventures, Scott learned t
Scott Kelly: What actually gets a yes from investors?
Scott Kelly is a veteran venture investor and advisor, and we spoke about what it really takes to raise capital after decades on both sides of the table. With 35 years in venture, multiple exits, and billions raised, Scott has seen where founders consistently get it wrong—and what actually moves investors to say yes.At the center of his approach is preparation and relationship-building. He explain
Rob May: When should you stop using just one AI model?
Rob May is a serial founder (five startups) and we spoke about how he went from “I did not intend to go do a fifth” startup to building a new AI company after he “stumbled upon an AI idea” he could prove out—and couldn’t ignore. He’s been focused on AI since 2015 (after exiting his first company in December 2014) and framed the current moment simply: even “10 years later… we are still just at the
Rod Khleif: How did he recover after losing $50M?
Rod Khleif is a real estate entrepreneur and educator, and we spoke about how he rebuilt after losing $50 million during the 2008–09 crash—and the mindset that allowed him to have $50 million to lose in the first place. Growing up as an immigrant with little money, Rod watched his mother quietly build wealth through real estate, which pushed him to choose that path early and scale fast.The turning
David Deane-Spread: How do you become employer of choice?
David Deane-Spread is a former military and law-enforcement leader who built a decades-long career helping organizations turn cultural dysfunction into alignment, resilience, and performance. We spoke about how he applies the same persistence that kept him “fully booked without marketing for 20 years” to transform leadership teams and entire companies.His approach centers on what he calls the ABC
Jake Stahl: Are You Missing Hidden Decision Signals?
Jake Stahl is a psychology-trained communication strategist, NLP master practitioner, and global trainer who has coached over 10,000 people across six countries—and we spoke about how people actually make decisions. His core premise is simple: every person has two profiles, the polished public one and the internal one “that responds to fear and biases and happiness,” and only that second profile m
Peter Maher: Can cash-flow beat broken credit?
Peter Maher is the U.S. expansion lead for Ovanti—recently rebranded as Flote—and we spoke about why he left a stable, well-paid role in fintech leadership to build an alternative to what he calls a “very, very broken” credit system. With 12+ years in payments, partnerships, and market launches, he brought a career’s worth of operational and commercial experience to a problem he personally lived t
Jeff Abraham: Why do men last 5:40 while women need 18 min?
Jeff Abraham is an entrepreneur who retired after selling a semiconductor engineering company, and we spoke about how he later built a sexual wellness brand by using medical credibility instead of hype. He explained that “even in healthy couples, the average man finishes in 5 minutes and 40 seconds” while “the average female takes 18 minutes,” a difference he called “the arousal gap.” Rather than
AJ Cassata: Can Cold Email Really Fill a Sales Pipeline?
AJ Cassata is an entrepreneur who has spent more than a decade building companies using one core mechanism—outbound lead generation. We spoke about why so many founders struggle with lead flow and how, as he says, “leads are the lifeblood of your business,” yet most assume they need ads, a large audience, or influencer status to grow.His turning point was realizing that targeted outbound—“starting
Paul Cecil: When can going public unlock real growth?
Paul Cecil is the VP of Strategy at realpha and we spoke about how a young founder-minded strategist thinks through scale, pressure, and the role of AI in real business results. He began as a pre-med student, switched into business after realizing he “liked trading stocks a lot more,” and later worked for years without pay to learn capital formation. Joining realpha as employee number ten, he help
Bogdan Micov: How fast can identity shift?
Bogdan Micov is a former CEO who led 700 people in Dubai before a stroke at 32 forced him to confront what he calls “how stress affects us” and how much of his success was built on pressure rather than wellbeing. We spoke about his shift from operating on cortisol to operating from calm, and the method he later developed to help high performers do the same.His approach is built on a simple chain:
Srikar Yeruva: Can hospitals avoid waste with full-workflow data?
Srikar Yeruva is an engineer-turned-serial entrepreneur, and we spoke about why he believes healthcare transformation starts with respecting the problem—not throwing technology at it. After years building technical companies, exiting one to Bain Capital and selling another in smart contracts, he realized “technology doesn’t sell—solutions do.” That shift pulled him into the heart of U.S. health sy
Melissa Faith Hart: What makes people feel truly safe again?
Melissa Faith Hart is a public-safety innovator with 20 years of experience, and we spoke about how personal survival, technology, and community systems shaped her mission. She began her career at Xerox helping police departments modernize, eventually co-building the first criminal e-discovery system in Colorado. As she put it, she always asked, “how can I make the system better… so that we can he
Brandon Williams: How persistence built billion-dollar deals and TV hits?
Brandon Williams is a lawyer, entrepreneur, and business executive with over twenty years of experience bridging law, business, and entertainment across the globe. We spoke about how he turned persistence and practical judgment into the foundation for billion-dollar deals and international success stories.After representing Fortune 10 companies and global icons, Williams learned that growth begins
Adam Cerra: Can You Sell Without Selling?
Adam Cerra is a high-ticket sales expert who has closed more than $30 million in offers for coaches, consultants, and entrepreneurs. We spoke about how he teaches people to “sell without selling” — a process he calls inverse closing, where persuasion is replaced by empathy and guided conversation.As Adam puts it, “You’re not convincing anyone to buy anything. You’re getting your prospect to sell t
Dwan Bent-Twyford: How Do You Earn Six Figures in Six Months?
Dwan Bent-Twyford is one of America’s most recognized real estate investors and educators, known for turning a $75 setback into a multimillion-dollar career. We spoke about how losing her home and car as a single mother became the catalyst for a 35-year journey and over 2,000 completed property deals.Her approach begins with empathy, not transactions. “People before profits,” she said, describing
John Frost: What’s your why—and are you ready to say yes?
John Frost is the Vice President of Enrollment Management and Marketing at Doane University with nearly 20 years in higher education across community colleges and private and public universities. We spoke about what it truly means to change lives through learning—and why education is not just for the gifted but for anyone curious enough to start.Frost believes that “what we do is what politicians,
Patrick Wood: Why Every Entrepreneur Should Plan for Failure?
Patrick Wood is a 30-year entrepreneur in finance and capital markets across Canada and the U.S., now leading an early-stage public company redefining how digital asset treasuries hedge risk. We spoke about what it really takes to endure the entrepreneurial grind — and why expecting failure can become your most powerful advantage.“Always plan on failure first,” Patrick says. “Expect it’s going to
Gail Kasper: How logic saves your business from emotion?
Gail Kasper is an author, professional speaker, and performance coach who has spent over 15 years training entrepreneurs and executives—from solo founders to leaders in multi-billion-dollar companies—on leadership, customer service, and sales. We spoke about how few CEOs (only 15%) have ever been formally trained in sales, and why that missing skill often determines whether a business scales or st
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Breaking News from Pod Save America
The Young and Called Podcast .
Jubal Phone Pranks from The Jubal Show
TopMusic Piano Podcast
CBS Evening News
The Daily
World News Tonight with David Muir
The Joe Rogan Experience
TED Talks Daily
