21st Century Entrepreneurship

Dr. Nicholas E. Michels is a financial planner and author, and we spoke about how childhood adversity shaped his lifelong mission to help families master money and life. He recalled the moment his parents’ divorce “wrecked my childhood” and how his mother working three jobs drove him to study money so “you never have to worry again.”Michels explained how his early success as one of the youngest partners in his firm taught him that wealth without alignment leads to conflict. “On the outside we were successful, but inwardly stressed,” he said, describing repeated money fights with his wife until they created a shared vision statement. He outlined practical steps—mentorship, identifying four daily key activities, and later focusing on unique abilities—that allowed him to 10x his business while reducing stress.Today, his work blends financial expertise, faith, and teaching. He speaks in schools, telling kids, “Money is going to influence your life… doing nothing is still a choice.” All proceeds from his book fund his nonprofit to spark early money education. Listeners will hear not only strategies for building wealth but also how to build confidence, joy, and security for themselves and their families.Key takeawaysCreate a vision statement with your spouse to align money and life goalsIdentify four daily key activities and repeat them consistentlySeek mentors and copy proven processes before scaling your own pathFocus only on unique abilities and delegate the rest to 10x resultsTeach kids one simple money skill early to spark lifelong confidenceWealth without alignment can cause stress—success requires shared purpose

Dominic Forth is the CEO of Thought Leaders America, and we spoke about turning personal stories into trust and impact that extend far beyond likes and clicks. With decades in media, he consulted over 40 TV stations in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, researching not just what audiences chose but “the why behind it.” That background now informs how he helps entrepreneurs and thought leaders amplify their message.His method centers on aligning purpose with energy and guiding people to share authentic, sometimes uncomfortable stories. As he put it, “Attention is fleeting, but trust is priceless.” One client in real estate initially focused on numbers, but his true turning point came from a rafting accident where he nearly drowned. Dominic encouraged him to tell that story because “not everyone has near-death experiences, but they do have crossroads in life.” That shift transformed how audiences connected with him.Practically, Dominic outlines frameworks: leading with statistics to hook attention, weaving in personal narrative for emotional resonance, and ending with clear calls to action. He warns against poor preparation, weak tech, or unfocused messaging when showing up on podcasts. His personal “why” comes from his family and community—“my goal is to make the world a better place”—and he applies that mission to causes from healthcare to education.Listeners will learn how to craft stories that build credibility, win trust, and inspire action.Key takeawaysLead with statistics before personal story to hook and retain attention.Avoid weak calls to action and poor tech when podcasting.Share vulnerable stories that resonate at life crossroads.Replace likes and clicks with strategies that build lasting trust.Align your story with purpose and audience impact.Use a framework to guide audiences smoothly through your message.

Blackburn & Johnson is the duo behind Rich From Anywhere, and we spoke about turning ad spend into revenue by fixing strategy, creative, and follow-up—not just products. They started as music artists, learned online marketing to fund the dream, built a multi–six-figure agency, and now coach entrepreneurs on paid acquisition.Their turning point came after wasting $5,000 on ads with zero sales, hiring a mentor, and getting a sale in seven hours—proof that “it’s not about time, it’s about strategy.” As they put it, “We did 209,000 in sales in the next seven months” once they changed the approach. The core method is their Core 4: Offer (make it irresistible), Creative (stop-the-scroll hooks), Destination (conversion-ready landing page), and Systems (automated follow-up and fulfillment).Practically, they insist on running desktop Ads Manager over phone boosts (the App Store adds 30% on in-app purchases), installing the Facebook Pixel, and collecting names, phone numbers, and emails on an optimized landing page—because “data equals dollars.” They argue many “seasonal” businesses just have weak lead engines; paid traffic validates offers quickly while organic takes time.You’ll get a concrete playbook to capture leads, validate offers fast, and scale.Key takeawaysInstall Facebook Pixel and track website actions for data.Capture names, phone numbers, and emails on optimized landing pages.Use Ads Manager on desktop; avoid phone boosts and 30% App Store fees.Validate offers fast with paid traffic; don't wait on organic.Apply Core 4: Offer, Creative, Destination, Systems for conversions.Seek a coach to correct strategy; results can appear within hours.

Robert Howard is a former auto-sales pro who spent 20 years grinding “from what they call can to can’t,” and we spoke about how he bought back his time by learning real-estate wholesaling, turning a $25k first deal into steady monthly volume—and more time with his family. He explains wholesaling in plain English (find a motivated seller, match a buyer, and assign the contract—“some people… call it paper profits”), but he’s transparent about the real costs: “you’re going to have to invest… your time.” Robert shares how a tough schedule (5–7 a.m. prospecting, lunch-break calls in the car, 10–13 Sunday appointments with his daughter) led to momentum, and how mentorship—not $40–50k of courses—unlocked his first results: “That’s not how you do business,” a fellow wholesaler told him, then showed him the right way.The turning point came when he realized, “If I can build it for somebody else, I definitely can build it for myself… I owe it to me to at least try.” Deal flow grew from one a month to 3, 5, then 8–10, making it possible to replace his six-figure income. Today, the metric that matters most is time: “that time for me is the new currency.” Robert outlines beginner-friendly paths (Zillow leads, courthouse/abatement lists, talking to agents) and practical tools (e.g., Propstream, low-cost skip tracing) while setting a clear expectation: “spend at least 10 hours a week on this.” For listeners who want a head start, he offers a free cold-call script and an intro guide via epicwholeselling.com.Key takeawaysWhat wholesaling actually is (and isn’t), plus a simple numbers example and why assignments create “paper profits.”How to stack consistent action around a full-time job (early mornings, lunch breaks, Sunday sprints).Why mentorship and ethical deals beat “course collecting” (“That’s not how you do business.”).Realistic pacing: first deal at ~$25k; typical spreads around ~$10k; what it takes to scale to 8–10 deals/month.The north star: replacing income to buy back the one resource that matters—“time… is the new currency.”In short, if you’re asking how to create more time without another back-breaking hustle, Robert’s playbook shows a disciplined, ethical path into wholesaling—and a mindset that turns hours into freedom.

Joshua Lauer is a marketing-intelligence consultant who helps teams clean, connect, and operationalize their data — and we spoke about GA4 done right, UTM discipline, data warehousing, brand metrics that actually mean something, and how bad assumptions (like mis-calculated LTV) ripple into pricing, deliverability, and trust. Joshua’s central warning is urgency: “It’s really important to get your analytics sorted out as soon as possible so you know exactly where you’re heading,” because if your tracking (or your assumptions) are off, you might scale the wrong thing faster.We unpack GA4’s event model — “with GA4… everything is an event” — and why you should enrich events with context (e.g., product review count and rating at view-time) to explain behavior, not just log it. Joshua shares a $50k cautionary tale — “These ads were set up with no UTM link tracking on them” — where the campaigns worked but attribution didn’t, turning real performance into “direct” traffic and hard lessons in governance.From there, we zoom out to ownership and longevity: “If we don’t own our data, we don’t own our data.” Piping GA4 into BigQuery, joining ad spend and downstream outcomes, and keeping history protects you from platform amnesia — and reveals cross-channel cause and effect (like the “newsletter trap” where aggressive capture boosts list size but hurts inbox placement). We also cover measuring brand signals on purpose (applause/amplification/conversation rates) and why, creatively, “you don’t always have to be in sell mode.” Instead of brittle hyper-personalization, Joshua argues for clear personas to reach the majority without losing relevance.Ultimately, the craft is pairing numerics with narrative: “The data… can tell you exactly what happened… but it doesn’t always tell you why.” Leaders bring the business context that turns dashboards into decisions.Key takeawaysInstrument the “why,” not just the “what.” Enrich GA4 events with meaningful parameters (e.g., review count/rating at product view).Make UTM discipline non-negotiable. Templates, pre-flight checks, and audits prevent “direct” from hiding paid impact.Own your history. Send GA4 to BigQuery and join with ad spend and customer data so platform changes don’t erase your past.Measure brand engagement, on purpose. Track applause/amplification/conversation rates and tailor posts to the behavior you want.Beware vanity growth. Aggressive email capture can tank deliverability; optimize the path, not just the signup count.Prefer personas over brittle hyper-personalization. Serve 3–5 clear archetypes to widen resonance.Context beats dashboards. Numbers show what happened; your business knowledge explains why — and what to do next.

Stacey Hylen is a veteran business coach and growth strategist (25+ years, formerly VP of Consulting with Tony Robbins), and we spoke about growing revenue while protecting your life—family time, freedom, and energy. Stacey traces the mission back to a personal loss—“giving entrepreneurs back to their family and adding a zero without a hustle”—and why regrets like “He had a lot of regret at the end of his life” pushed her to design results that don’t require burnout. We unpack her playbook for spotting roadblocks, strategic positioning—“This is what I call going from commodity to couture”—and how AI now compresses timelines: “What used to take us months to do before now we can do in an afternoon.” She details the “hidden profits” lens—“The average business owner that comes to one of my live events has found $85,000 of hidden profits in their business”—plus masterminds, VIP strategy days (Zoom or at her lake house), and why “until you decide, nothing happens.”What you’ll learnHow to grow by priority: fix the one constraint (positioning, sales process, or ops) blocking everything else.Position yourself as couture, not a commodity, to escape price wars and win bigger clients.Use AI to accelerate strategy, messaging, and implementation—work that took months can fit into a focused half-day.Find fast, low-cost wins via “hidden profits” before adding complexity or headcount.Design offers and delivery for retention and lifestyle, not annual reset—maximize impact and energy.Key takeawaysDecide first; momentum follows the decision.Map your “hidden profits” (quick, low-cost, easy wins) before new funnels.Elevate positioning to reach the right decision-makers without competing on price.Treat AI as an execution multiplier for lean teams.Build a business that serves your life—on purpose, by design.

Monica Cox is the founder of Finding Fertility and a coach who turned an eight-year fertility struggle—and a late-in-life caregiving pause—into a mission. We spoke about rethinking hustle, honoring seasons of life, and building a business that serves your body, family, and long-term joy.Monica’s story challenges the “boss babe” grind and the instant-success myth. After stepping back from her business to care for her father and two young sons, she asked the question too many entrepreneurs avoid: what am I really doing this for? That pause changed everything—how she shows up, how she uses AI, and how she protects the “cellular health” that fuels sustainable performance. As she puts it, “AI has absolutely changed the game,” but it’s leverage, not a license to burn out. You still need boundaries, recovery, and what she calls “radical honesty with grace.”Her core ideas land with pragmatic bite: “You got to do the work. You got to show up,” but also “Your nervous system is the blueprint.” Monica explains why clearing emotions isn’t enough—you also have to rewire patterns in the mundane: notice the old loop and choose differently, again and again. Her mantra for interrupting unhelpful habits? “We don’t live there anymore.” And beneath the strategy sits a simple north star: “The basis is joy.”You’ll hear how fertility and entrepreneurship mirror each other, why chasing worth through sales creates fragile businesses, and how to pair AI + human support without recreating hustle in prettier packaging. Expect candid moments (“The math isn’t mathing”) and empowering reframes (“I was never infertile… I was solving issues”), plus a reminder many high-flyers hide: “Most of life is failures.” The work is showing up anyway.Key takeawaysFrequency > frenzy: Success compounds when your actions match your nervous system capacity. Protect sleep, food, movement—your “cellular health.” “I promise you, your body will hit a wall.”Leverage wisely: Use AI and assistants to remove toil, not to triple your workload. Output ≠ worth.Pattern interrupts in the mundane: Catch the loop, choose differently, repeat—“We don’t live there anymore.”Meaningful metrics: Joy, presence, and recovery are performance variables, not luxuries. “The basis is joy.”Identity, not hustle: Build from aligned beliefs; stop outsourcing worth to sales spikes.Energy + execution: “We are both energetic beings, but we’re playing a physical game”—pair inner work with consistent, concrete action.Monica’s closing invitation: “You are the controller of your reality.” Get curious, set a kinder pace, and build in a way your future self can actually live with.

Joshua Sizemore is a brand builder and operator who’s taken ideas from scrappy to scale across retail, beverages, e-commerce, and franchising, and we spoke about how to balance personal authenticity with hard market signals, why DTC-first matters for new products, and building solutions to your own problems—from beverage pivots to diabetic-safe snacks and a vetted surrogacy platform.From a 900-person town in Kentucky to leading roles in national retail, Josh shares the lessons behind relaunching a heritage soda into “10, 000 stores in two months,” grinding daily at a premium water plant, scaling an Amazon-for-CBD marketplace later sold to Snoop & Martha’s group, a presidency inside a large franchise system, and growing powdered kombucha from zero to nine figures—before returning to consumer goods with a new, patent-backed snack formulated not to spike blood sugar. Along the way he breaks down how to test market fit, why margins now trump vanity revenue, and the mindset rituals (hello, 5 a.m. and 4 p.m. gym sessions) that keep founders level through the roller coaster.The focus of our conversation is FeastFast — the functional snack brand Josh is leading today. With a patented formula and delivery method, their mini cookies don’t spike blood sugar or insulin, don’t break a fast or ketosis, and are designed to be especially safe for people with diabetes or prediabetes. Launched just weeks ago with a direct-to-consumer strategy (website + TikTok Shop) and Amazon coming in September, the brand currently offers four cookie flavors in 3oz bags (18 mini cookies, 6 per serving), with cereals and crackers already in development. The ambition is clear: to become the world’s most trusted and delicious everyday snack for anyone choosing a consistent, sustainable lifestyle over quick-fix diets — a practical tool for daily routines without the stress of sugar spikes.What we discussedAuthenticity vs. audience reality: put your values into the brand, but don’t confuse your personal habits with the market’s behavior (his early SKU mix miss is a case study).A practical launch path: prototype → brutal feedback → DTC for 2–3 months to own customer data → then expand to platforms like Amazon.Margin as the compass: why profitability discipline now beats growth-at-all-costs, and how packaging, shipping, and pricing flow from that.Operator reps: what he learned bottling water daily, running franchise P&Ls, and handing growth to the right mentors at the right time.Building from lived pain: a diabetic-friendly snack (with a delivery method they say won’t spike blood glucose) and a new tech startup to match intended parents with super-vetted surrogates after a personal setback.Founder stamina: simple rituals to buffer the highs and lows so you can keep shipping.

Tim Townsend is a seasoned financial advisor with over 35 years of experience, and we spoke about the enduring value of personal service in an increasingly depersonalized, technology-driven world. Tim’s career spans from leading major firms to building his own practice alongside business partner Rod Cobain, always with a clear vision: to protect the human connection at the heart of client relationships.We explored why “bigger is not always better” in business, the difference between a customer and a client, and how the pursuit of cheap has often come at the expense of genuine service. Tim shared candid reflections on the limits of personal capacity — his “60 seats on the bus” philosophy — and why trying to stretch beyond it can “turn your life into a personal hell.”With a mix of humor and hard truth, Tim observed: “You will never, ever hear the words ‘your call is important to us’ when you ring me… because if that were true, we’d employ enough staff to answer the phone.” He also reminded us that information alone isn’t enough: “It takes motivation with information, it takes discipline with information, to actually get the outcomes that we seek.”Key themes included:Client vs. customer: Why the depth of the relationship matters more than the transaction.The 60-client rule: How setting clear limits can safeguard both service quality and personal well-being.Technology’s double edge: AI can enhance service but can’t replace human knowledge and connection.Value-based pricing: Charging appropriately for high-touch service to protect both business and client outcomes.Whether you’re in financial services or any profession where relationships matter, this conversation is a masterclass in building sustainable, trust-based client care — and a call to resist the race toward depersonalization at all costs.

Mark Khuri is the co-founder and CEO of SMK Capital Management, with over 20 years of experience as a real estate investor. We spoke about the historic market correction in commercial real estate, why certain sectors present unusually strong opportunities right now, and how passive investors can reduce risk while securing attractive returns.“The commercial real estate sector has undergone a historic market correction… pricing’s down anywhere from 20 to 30% over the last few years. Right now is a very opportune time to be getting into this space,” Mark explains. From apartments and self-storage facilities to industrial properties, he outlines where the best deals are hiding—and the red flags that can derail an investment.We explored his approach to diversification—spreading capital across multiple assets, regions, and operating partners—and why SMK invests in only 1–2% of the deals they review. As Mark puts it, “We’re really trying to… cherry pick the best deals out there… the lowest amount of risk with the highest potential upside.”Key takeaways include:Why market timing matters—and how today’s price corrections create opportunity.Passive vs. active investing—what investors gain by partnering with specialized operators.The four core asset classes Mark focuses on: mobile home parks, self-storage, multifamily, and industrial.Risk-reduction tactics—from occupancy analysis to avoiding cherry-picked sales comps.The importance of cash flow from day one in protecting against market shocks.For anyone seeking to diversify beyond stocks and bonds, this conversation offers practical criteria for spotting quality deals, negotiating better terms, and building a portfolio designed for both income and growth.