

Travis Makes Money
Travis Chappell
You can't save your way to your dream life anymore. The truth is, you’re gonna need to learn to make more money. The Travis Makes Money Podcast is not your typical personal finance show. Rather than shaming you for buying a Starbucks coffee or pressuring you to become a billionaire, we focus on empowering you to make more money so you can enjoy life today while preparing for your future. You don’t have to cut back so much that you miss out on the present, and you don’t need to become the next Jeff Bezos either. Hosted by veteran podcaster Travis Chappell, each daily episode features interviews with regular people just like you – yes, you – who have learned how to make more money in unique and unconventional ways. From turning side hustles into an extra six figures to building massive business empires, these conversations dive into the mindset shifts, hard-earned lessons, and simple strategies that helped these individuals succeed. With over 1,000 podcast episodes under his belt, Travis has developed a unique ability to pull out inspiring stories and practical advice you can apply to your own financial journey that you just won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you’re looking for strategies on side hustles, skill building, investing, building generational wealth, or just motivation to take your next steps, this podcast is your resource. Tune in daily for insights, actionable tips, and inspiration from some of the most successful and interesting money-makers on the planet.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 11, 2025 • 31min
Make Money with Coffee Brands | Josh Molina
Josh Molina is the co‑founder and CEO of Makers & Finders, founder of Take It Easy Roasters, and a first‑generation Colombian‑American entrepreneur who’s generated over $30M in lifetime sales. With 100+ employees and multiple Las Vegas locations, Josh has built beloved food & coffee brands from scratch while also mentoring students and supporting community nonprofits.
Lessons & Practical Advice for Aspiring Café Owners:
Be endlessly curious. Call the planning, building, and fire departments before you sign anything — learn the build‑out hurdles and code requirements.
Mind the capital needs. A proper commercial kitchen hood and grease trap can run $80–100K alone. Save aggressively and protect your credit so you can bring capital to the table.
Right‑size your space. Start smaller than you think; lower costs and keep it feeling full.
Start small & build presence. Consider a coffee cart/truck or popup to prove your concept and audience before a full‑scale lease.
Adapt to your market. Each neighborhood has distinct customer behavior — don’t assume what works in one location will in another.
Top 3 Takeaways:
Niche + Experience = Differentiation: Pairing underrepresented cuisine with a service model Vegas didn’t have created a clear market position.
Location choice is strategy, not luck: Cheap rent in an up‑and‑coming area gave room to survive the early years and grow with the neighborhood.
Systems before scaling: You can add locations faster than you can add process — but you’ll regret it if you do.
Connect with Josh Molina:
Makers & Finders: makerslv.com
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Aug 10, 2025 • 33min
Make Money on TikTok | Nick Fowler
Nick Fowler is a Navy Aviation Rescue Swimmer turned viral marketing coach and TikTok Shop expert who’s helped generate over $9.5M in sales through affiliate content. What started as a few free products and a $180 commission in his first week turned into a one‑month blowout—$350K in sales and $59K in commissions. Now Nick teaches aspiring creators how to grow, monetize, and go viral on TikTok without needing a huge following.
Top 3 Takeaways:
TikTok Shop is still a Blue Ocean: The platform is barely two years old, with low competition in many product categories.
Volume + Hooks = Sales: Consistent posting with curiosity‑driven openers and problem‑solving demos drives clicks and conversions.
Start broad, then niche: Test everything early—double down on categories where your videos convert best.
Notable Quotes:
“The hook at the beginning is everything—if you lose them there, nothing else matters.”
“I made my yearly salary in the military in one month on TikTok.”
“Pick products you can visually solve a problem with—it’s easier to sell what you can show.”
Connect with Nick Fowler:
TikTok: @thenickfowler
🚀 Travis Makes Money is made possible by High Level — the all‑in‑one sales & marketing platform built for agencies, by an agency.🚀 Capture leads, nurture them, and close more deals — all from one powerful platform.🎁 Get an extended free trial at gohighlevel.com/travis
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Aug 9, 2025 • 31min
Make Money with E-Commerce | Marissa Rodriguez
Marissa Rodriguez is an e‑commerce growth expert who’s helped clients generate over $100 million in online revenue. After leaving a decade‑long corporate career in fashion, she built a location‑independent business, eventually relocating to Greece in 2021. Through her company, Through Experience, she mentors entrepreneurs on building high‑revenue e‑commerce brands that support personal freedom.
Top 3 Takeaways
Act Entrepreneurially—Even in a Job: Find problems no one else is fixing, deliver unexpected value, and make yourself indispensable.
Play the Long Game: Short‑term “step‑backs” in pay or title can massively expand your future market value if they build new capabilities.
Design for Freedom: If your work is location‑agnostic, challenge assumptions about where and how you “must” live to be successful.
Notable Quotes
“I didn’t see a ceiling in terms of earning potential—I just asked, ‘Where can I create value no one else is?’”
“You can never be worse off by investing in your ability to learn and expand your capabilities.”
“Sometimes you don’t need the whole plan—you just need to take the next right step.”
Connect with Marissa Rodriguez / Through Experience:
Website & Programs: throughexperience.com
🚀 Travis Makes Money is made possible by High Level — the all‑in‑one sales & marketing platform built for agencies, by an agency.🚀 Capture leads, nurture them, and close more deals — all from one powerful platform.🎁 Get an extended free trial at gohighlevel.com/travis
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Aug 8, 2025 • 24min
Make Money with Male Pleasure Devices | Brian Sloan
Brian Sloan is a true outsider entrepreneur—a former lawyer turned unconventional inventor and e-commerce mogul. Best known for launching the AutoBlow (the world’s best-selling robotic male pleasure device), Brian has built a multi-million dollar business at the strange intersection of crowdfunding, product invention, adult e-commerce, and viral marketing. With over 20 patents and stunts covered everywhere from TechCrunch to Playboy, his story is a lesson in how creativity and opportunism can outperform more “vanilla” high-earning careers.
Top 3 Takeaways
Embrace Unconventional Niches: Some of the most lucrative opportunities are in spaces “polite” society ignores—if you can spot supply/demand gaps and bring professionalism, the rewards can be enormous.
Learn by Doing, Iterate Relentlessly: You don’t need every skill in-house. Build on existing products, use global suppliers, and aggressively learn the skills you need to move forward.
If You Can’t Buy Attention, Earn It: In “taboo” or restricted industries, PR stunts, viral content, and direct response marketing can build a brand when paid ads won’t touch you.
Notable Quotes
“Everyone asked—are you sure? What if you fail? What will you fall back on? But I knew I wanted to compete on my own terms.”
“It’s not about being interested in the niche—it’s seeing signals, buyer demand, and then figuring out how to serve it.”
“I invented by necessity. If you can get people 70–80% of the way, the right partners can bring it home—and you don’t need an engineering degree to do it.”
Connect with Brian Sloan:
Products: autoblow.com
🚀 Travis Makes Money is made possible by High Level—the all-in-one sales & marketing platform built for agencies, by an agency.
🚀 Capture leads, nurture them, and close more deals—all from one powerful platform.
🎁 Get an extended free trial at gohighlevel.com/travis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aug 7, 2025 • 26min
Make Money by Ditching Your Baggage | Dr. Bob Rosen
Dr. Bob Rosen is a globally recognized psychologist, New York Times bestselling author, researcher, and sought-after advisor to CEOs and organizations. With decades spent interviewing hundreds of top leaders around the world, Bob’s latest work focuses on a crucial, often overlooked success lever: learning to detach from the mental and emotional baggage that holds us back (the subject of his new book, Detach: Ditch Your Baggage to Live a More Fulfilling Life).
Top 3 Takeaways
Winning by Letting Go: True success isn’t just about effort or ambition—it’s about identifying the inner stories, fears, and attachments that keep you stuck, and learning to release them.
Abundance and Imperfection are Superpowers: Happiness and agility come from embracing where you are, loving your imperfection, and taking risks—not just chasing the next goalpost.
Self-Awareness is the New Competitive Edge: Every meaningful upgrade—in business, money, or life—starts when you become aware of what you’re holding onto and choose to change the story.
Notable Quotes
“The healthiest leaders are deeply self-aware and committed to their development—it’s their competitive advantage.”
“Happiness comes from embracing what you have right now. Attachment to success, perfection, and stability blocks that happiness.”
“Every morning you choose to live the day in love or fear. Fear locks you down; self-love and abundance open doors.”
Connect with Dr. Bob Rosen:
Website & Digital Learning: bobrosen.com
🚀 Travis Makes Money is made possible by High Level—the all-in-one sales & marketing platform built for agencies, by an agency.
🚀 Capture leads, nurture them, and close more deals—all from one powerful platform.
🎁 Get an extended free trial at gohighlevel.com/travis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aug 6, 2025 • 26min
Make Money by Job Stacking | Delaney William
Delaney William is the founder of Elevated Tech, a coaching and done-for-you service that’s helped 120+ professionals (from Meta, Google, Netflix, Airbnb, and more) land high-paying remote jobs—often more than one at the same time. After scaling his own income from $80K to nearly $400K/year by "job stacking," Delaney built a 7-figure business now generating $120K/month, proving you don’t need to wait decades for financial freedom if you’re willing to think (and work) outside the box.
Top 3 Takeaways
Stacking jobs is the ultimate “side hustle” for skilled professionals: If you have in-demand skills, you can often double or triple your income—without killing yourself, without building a business from scratch, simply by getting more remote jobs and “work hacking” your calendar.
It’s a game of volume and ROI: Success is about finding roles that care about output, not hours, and being ruthless about using tech, systems, and (if needed) inexpensive assistants to handle repetitive or low-value tasks.
Discipline is key: The real path to freedom comes from keeping your lifestyle expenses in check even as your income rises—invest the surplus, don’t inflate your spending.
Connect with Delaney William:
Website & Done-For-You Services: elevatedtech.us
Instagram: @delaneywilliam_
🚀 Travis Makes Money is made possible by High Level—the all-in-one sales & marketing platform built for agencies, by an agency.
🚀 Capture leads, nurture them, and close more deals—all from one powerful platform.
🎁 Get an extended free trial at gohighlevel.com/travis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aug 5, 2025 • 34min
Make Friends with Dr. Jeff Gross | TMF Preview
In this preview of the Travis Makes Friends podcast, host Travis dives deep into health, longevity, and biohacking with Dr. Jeffrey Gross, a renowned neurological surgeon and regenerative medicine expert. From the truth about GLP-1 peptides and testosterone therapy to debunking cholesterol myths and exploring stem cell treatments, this conversation unpacks cutting-edge insights for optimizing your health. Tune in for practical tips and a no-nonsense take on navigating modern medicine!
Catch the full episode on the Travis Makes Friends Podcast.
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Aug 4, 2025 • 29min
Make Money with Trading | JJ Kinahan
JJ Kinahan is the CEO of IG North America, overseeing Tastytrade, Tastycrypto, and Tasty Live, and is a veteran of over 30 years in the financial markets. From his early days shoveling snow for neighbors in Chicago to trading options on the bustling floor of the CBOE, JJ brings real-world experience and a deep understanding of market cycles, entrepreneurship, and the shifting investing landscape.
On this episode we talk about:
JJ’s journey from a fourth-grade snow-shoveling hustler in Chicago to CEO and respected financial educator
Lessons from his immigrant family upbringing, navigating a blue-collar path to college (thanks to baseball) and seizing an unplanned opportunity that redirected his career into trading
The value of saying “yes” to new experiences—especially early in your career—and why breaking into offices, showing up, and staying open are career-changing moves
Why the status and stigma against the trades is fading, with skilled labor now highly respected and compensated (“plumbers charge like lawyers—as they should!”)
The evolution of JJ’s career: from summer clerk at the options exchange to running trading operations and eventually leading Tastytrade and Tastycrypto
Tasty Live’s mission of financial education: daily free live content empowering retail investors with practical, actionable trading and risk management education
JJ’s active investing toolbox: stocks, options, futures, forex, crypto, real estate, and small business investing, plus the importance of “tuition” (learning cheaply when you’re new)
Step-by-step practicals: how non-professionals can use conservative options strategies like covered calls and puts to enhance returns on stocks they already own
The real way to build wealth: small habits over a long time; why “get rich quick” always ends badly, and the importance of financial discipline
Why starting small, managing risk, and knowing your downside before you act are the keys to surviving—and eventually thriving—as an investor
Top 3 Takeaways
Seize Opportunity and Say “Yes” Early: Careers—in trading or elsewhere—are built by showing up, embracing new experiences, and being available when opportunity knocks.
Discipline and Risk Management are Everything: Start small, define your worst-case scenario, and don’t let emotions (or others’ hype) dictate your investments.
Wealth is Built Slowly, Not Speculatively: There are no shortcuts. Learn, automate good habits, and put your money to work without betting the farm.
Notable Quotes
“People will pay you for things they don’t want to do themselves.”
“If somebody cracks the door, just beat it down and keep going until somebody tells you to stop.”
“If anyone’s telling you there’s an instant way to make money—run. There’s always risk and reward.”
“Financial discipline is not a game—risk not thy whole lot!”
Connect with JJ Kinahan:
Free financial markets education: TastyLive.com
Brokerage and trading platform: Tastytrade.com
Disclosure: Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors as the special risks inherent to options trading may expose investors to potentially significant losses. Please read Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options at tastytrade.com/disclosures before deciding to invest in options.
🚀 Travis Makes Money is made possible by High Level—the all-in-one sales & marketing platform built for agencies, by an agency.
🚀 Capture leads, nurture them, and close more deals—all from one powerful platform.
🎁 Get an extended free trial at gohighlevel.com/travis
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aug 3, 2025 • 30min
Make Money and Have an Impact | Neil Ghosh
Neil Ghosh is a proven leader who has spent 30+ years launching and scaling both nonprofit and for-profit ventures—all in service of meaningful impact. With work spanning over 50 countries, Neil brings unique experience bridging humanitarian mission and entrepreneurial rigor. His journey is a testament to how passion, adaptability, and value creation fuel both personal fulfillment and real-world change.
On this episode we talk about:
First hustle and immigrant experience: Neil’s first jobs in America were cleaning kitchens and waiting tables—not glamorous, but foundational. As a new immigrant from Calcutta, India, he learned resilience, patience, and the lesson that any work can be a platform for excellence and opportunity.
Foundational life lessons: Echoing his mother’s mantra, “If you’re going to sweep a floor, sweep it well,” Neil developed a career-long commitment to doing the best work possible—no matter the role.
Mindset principles for impact and growth:
Reinvention: Always strive to become the best version of yourself, regardless of circumstance or job title.
Passion as a transferable skill: Carry enthusiasm wherever you go—passion for your work attracts allies, mentors, and opportunities.
Mentorship’s multiplying effect: Seek mentors and be a mentor. The more you give, the more returns in unexpected ways.
Empathy as a strategic advantage: Empathy is not just a “soft” skill—it's a superpower in building trust, partnerships, and team cohesion.
Brand (including failure): Authenticity and a willingness to share failures build a personal brand that is relatable and trustworthy.
On getting mentorship and opportunity: The best mentors look for mentees who show grit, passion, and a willingness to add value in any position. Exceptional performance, even in “menial” jobs, is what gets you noticed and sponsored.
Advice for ambitious newcomers: Don’t expect entitlement; own your success by excelling wherever you start. Opportunity follows attitude and effort.
Nonprofit vs. for-profit for “doing good”
Top 3 Takeaways
Do Good Wherever You Are: “Doing good” isn’t dependent on working for a nonprofit—you can create impact in any career by showing up, helping others, and standing for something meaningful.
Mentorship and Passion Create Results: The combination of a mentor’s insight and a mentee’s work ethic unlocks opportunity and advancement at every level.
Operate with Business Rigor, Even in Nonprofits: Sustainability, efficiency, and accountability are just as important in the impact sector as they are in the for-profit world.
🚀 Travis Makes Money is made possible by High Level—the all-in-one sales & marketing platform built for agencies, by an agency.
🚀 Capture leads, nurture them, and close more deals—all from one powerful platform.
🎁 Get an extended free trial at gohighlevel.com/travis
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aug 2, 2025 • 25min
Make Money with Sales and Leadership Coaching | Marc Nudelberg
Marc Nudelberg’s journey bridges high-level athletics and entrepreneurship. Having started in the pressure-cooker of college football coaching, Marc now leads On The Ball as president, transforming it into a renowned sales and leadership coaching company. His passion: helping individuals and organizations cultivate high-performance cultures, modern business development strategies, and the “1% better every day” mindset.
On this episode we talk about:
First lessons in helping and performance: Even as a child, Marc instinctively motivated others to move on from past successes and focus on continuous improvement.
The power of sweat equity: At Florida State, he sacrificed high-paying family business opportunities to coach football and learn through action—not expecting pay, but investing in growth and relationships.
Pursuing passion over profit (at first): Rather than follow the traditional (and easier) route to money, Marc chose to chase what truly interested him—understanding that real value comes from helping others, not simply chasing sales.
Navigating big career choices: Given the chance to coach after college (at the poverty line), Marc chose passion over immediate money—knowing it was a now-or-never opportunity.
Ten years in coaching = real-world MBA: From the realities of being fired to the requirement of always expanding his network, Marc learned resilience, adaptability, and how to thrive in chaotic environments—lessons that seamlessly translated into business and entrepreneurship.
Modern sales mastery: After leaving coaching, he spearheaded business development for ESPN's local markets, winning rookie of the year by deploying modern outbound strategies—using LinkedIn, video, and personalized outreach, not just cold calls/emails.
Leadership at On The Ball: Marc and his family have reimagined the company: from marketing agency to a human development, sales, and leadership training firm devoted to building high-impact, high-performance communities.
The entrepreneur's edge: True entrepreneurship is about proactively shaping your life—taking personal responsibility, leveraging your network, and turning adversity into opportunity. Marc highlights that this path is now more accessible than ever, but only works if you root what you do in real passion and purpose.
**#1 skill for making moreoney today: Communication. Marc emphasizes mastering video, digital presence, and conversational skills as the highest-leverage ability for anyone looking to start, grow, or pivot a business.
Step one for side-hustlers: Start talking! Whether your idea is still just an idea or you’re refining a side hustle, sharing it (in person, on video, or via email) is the only way to validate opportunities and turn intention into income.
Top 3 Takeaways
Sweat Equity First, Money Follows: Early-stage investment in skills, network, and helping others lays the foundation for outsized future earnings.
Communication Is the Ultimate Multiplier: Video, digital presence, and clear messaging are the fastest path to attention, opportunity, and sales in the modern economy.
Tie Profit to Purpose: Only those who connect what they do to what motivates them—personally or professionally—will persist through adversity and build something meaningful.
Connect with Marc Nudelberg:
https://ontheball.co/
🚀 Travis Makes Money is made possible by High Level—the all-in-one sales & marketing platform built for agencies, by an agency.
🚀 Capture leads, nurture them, and close more deals—all from one powerful platform.
🎁 Get an extended free trial at gohighlevel.com/travis
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices