Podcasts about Scaling

#881 What's stopping you from building your dream life? Often, it's something more subtle than obstacles you can't overcome. The thing that's holding you back is likely a clear path to a lesser goal! So, how do you set your sights on "impossible" achievements for next-level business growth? I'm joined by Dr. Benjamin Hardy, co-author of the incredible 10x Is Easier Than 2x, for today's episode. In this chat, we dive deep into building a massive brand using lessons from Dr. Hardy's new book, The Science of Scaling. This session is a total game-changer. You'll learn why thinking big can make it easier to grow your business, how compressing your timeline forces better action, and why you should say no to more opportunities. Much of what we discuss today may seem counterintuitive, but listen in to find out why rewiring your mindset is the key to unlocking new growth!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Networth and Chill, Vivian sits down with Lucy Guo, the serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Scale AI, to explore the financial blueprint behind building multiple unicorn companies before age 30. From dropping out of Carnegie Mellon to co-founding Scale AI—now valued at over $13 billion—Lucy's story reveals the strategic decisions and calculated risks that transformed her from a college dropout into one of tech's most influential young billionaires. Vivian explores Lucy's investment philosophy, her strategies for identifying market opportunities in emerging tech sectors, and how she's diversified her wealth beyond Scale AI through ventures like Passes, her social platform for creators.Whether you're interested in AI entrepreneurship, startup scaling strategies, or understanding how to leverage technical skills into generational wealth, this episode offers crucial insights on building in the rapidly evolving tech landscape. Check out Lucy on Instagram and learn more about Passes at https://www.passes.com/ Follow the podcast on Instagram and TikTok! Got a financial question you want answered in a future episode? Email us at podcast@yourrichbff.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dr. Benjamin Hardy joins David to reveal why so many real estate entrepreneurs hit a ceiling—even when revenue is rising. They unpack the mindset traps that stall your growth, why compressing your timeline can unlock faster results, and how to scale without becoming the bottleneck. If you've ever felt like you're growing but not actually moving forward, this one's for you.Get your copy of "The Science of Scaling": https://a.co/d/5Naoc4c KEY TALKING POINTS:0:00 - Intro0:22 - Dr. Benjamin Hardy's Background1:34 - What Made Him Want To Write “The Science of Scaling”2:40 - Having A “No Goal” Strategy5:02 - Setting Goals For Revenue7:16 - An Example Of How Thinking Big Creates A Different Path11:37 - Compressing The Timeline Of Your Goals15:51 - Why It's Important To Stick With One Thing And Focus19:36 - How To Make Sure You're Setting The Right Goals24:15 - Why He Decided To Study Entrepreneurial Courage26:15 - Raising The Floor29:28 - What Benjamin's Looking Forward To With Scaling.com31:39 - His Own Personal Goal Setting With His Business35:27 - What David's Going To Do Differently After Reading The Book42:01 - Closing Thoughts43:13 - Outro LINKS:Instagram: Dr. Benjamin Hardyhttps://www.instagram.com/drbenjaminhardy/ Website: Scaling.comhttps://www.Scaling.com/ Instagram: David Leckohttps://www.instagram.com/dlecko Website: DealMachinehttps://www.dealmachine.com/pod Instagram: Ryan Haywoodhttps://www.instagram.com/heritage_home_investments Website: Heritage Home Investmentshttps://www.heritagehomeinvestments.com/

Today we're talking about that moment so many high-achieving business owners encounter: "What's next?"You've built something you're proud of, but a shift is happening. Maybe you're craving more ease, simplicity, impact, or space and rest. The conventional wisdom tells us growth equals success, but the truth is, success gets to look different in every season and for every person. Sometimes, the bravest thing you can do is pause and redefine what success means to you, right now.This episode is for entrepreneurs who have poured their time, sweat, and tears into building something meaningful, and are now asking deeper questions. For the first time, maybe it's less about proving and more about peace. Megan shares her own journey through this "in-between" space and why this crossroads isn't a failure—it's an invitation.This isn't a one-size-fits-all answer, but a guide to help you get clear on what you truly want and choose a path that feels grounded, not forced.Let's Work Together:Book a 90-Minute Clarity CallJoin Our In Person VIP CEO DayToday's episode is brought to you by The Planner's Vault—your go-to resource for wedding pros who want to grow, connect, and thrive. If you're looking for expert education, a supportive community, and real-talk guidance to elevate your business, come join us inside The Vault. We'd love to have you!For Real on Social Media:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forrealwithmegan/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ForRealPodcastHosted by Megan Gillikin, For Real is presented by The Planner's Vault, and is produced by Walk West. ----2025 VIP CEO Day: https://www.megangillikin.com/2025-vip-ceo-day

Most real estate developers think they need institutional investors or private equity to scale their projects.Ryan Andrews proved you can raise millions locally while building stronger community connections.Here's what makes this approach powerful:His $8 million fund is 80% local investors who show up to city council meetings advocating for his projects.These aren't just silent money partners.They're community champions.When your investors live in the community, they care about getting it right."We've had investors showing up at city council meetings, advocating for the projects, and giving public testimony. And like, it gives you a really different kind of investor." - Ryan AndrewsWe'll dive deep into this (and so much more) in this episode of the DealQuest Podcast:• Systematic approaches to local capital raising • Building investor relationships in small communities • Scaling through developer partnerships nationwide • Creating attainable housing that communities actually want Perfect for: Real estate developers, entrepreneurs seeking community-driven growth strategies, and business leaders looking for alternatives to institutional capital. • • •FOR MORE ON THIS EPISODE:https://www.coreykupfer.com/blog/ryanandrew• • • FOR MORE ON RYAN ANDREWRyan Andrew's LinkedIn Hiatus Homes Email: ryan@hiatushomes.com FOR MORE ON COREY KUPFERhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/coreykupfer/https://www.coreykupfer.com/ Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator, and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author, and professional speaker. He is deeply passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.Get deal-ready with the DealQuest Podcast with Corey Kupfer, where like-minded entrepreneurs and business leaders converge, share insights and challenges, and success stories. Equip yourself with the tools, resources, and support necessary to navigate the complex yet rewarding world of dealmaking. Dive into the world of deal-driven growth today!

Title: How to Make Millions with Vending Machines with Mike Hoffman Summary: In this conversation, Seth Bradley and Mike Hoffman delve into the world of vending machines as a business opportunity. Mike shares his journey from a Midwest farm boy to a successful entrepreneur in the vending industry, highlighting the evolution of vending technology and the potential for passive income. They discuss the importance of location, understanding demographics, and the scalability of vending routes. Mike emphasizes the need for upfront work and learning before delegating tasks, while also addressing the misconceptions surrounding passive income in the vending business. In this conversation, Seth Bradley and Mike discuss various aspects of entrepreneurship, particularly in the vending machine business. They explore the importance of capital raising, the journey of self-discovery, influences that shape business decisions, and the definition of success. The dialogue emphasizes the significance of flexibility, discipline, and focus in achieving entrepreneurial goals, while also touching on financial milestones and the attributes that distinguish successful entrepreneurs. Links to Watch and Subscribe:   Bullet Point Highlights: Mike's journey from a classic Midwest farm boy to a successful entrepreneur. The evolution of vending machines from traditional to smart technology. Understanding the importance of location in the vending business. The analogy of baseball levels to describe starting in vending. Scaling up from single A to big leagues in vending routes. The significance of demographics in product selection for vending machines. The potential for passive income with proper systems in place. The need for upfront work before achieving passivity in business. Vending is not a get-rich-quick scheme; it requires dedication. The future opportunities in the vending industry are expanding rapidly. Raising capital can dilute ownership but may be necessary for rapid growth. Self-discovery often leads to unexpected career paths. Influences in business can come from personal experiences rather than just mentors. Success is often defined by the ability to prioritize family and flexibility. Entrepreneurs work harder than in traditional jobs but gain flexibility. Discipline is crucial for saying no to distractions. Successful entrepreneurs often focus on niche markets. High foot traffic locations are ideal for vending machines. AI is transforming business operations and efficiency. Networking and connections can lead to valuable opportunities. Transcript: Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:04.898) Mike, what's going on buddy? Doing great brother, doing great. How about you?   Mike (00:06.748) Don't worry,   Mike (00:11.664) Good, I'm a little flustered. I usually have my mic set up over here, but I guess we just moved and it's not here today. I guess, yeah, new office and it's been a whole hot mess.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:19.822) New office or what?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:27.862) Nice man, nice. I see you got the whiteboard cranking back there. Love to see that.   Mike (00:33.114) Always. I love your background. That's sweet.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:38.03) Thanks man, yeah, I'm on camera all the time so I like I need to just build this out instead of using like a green screen so Made the investment made it happen   Mike (00:44.86) Totally.   Yeah, absolutely.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:49.442) Have we met in person or not? I don't know if we've met at a Wealth Without Wall Street event or I couldn't tell. Okay. No, I did not go to Nashville last year.   Mike (00:58.478) I don't think so. don't think you're... Were you in Nashville last year?   Mike (01:04.634) No, okay. No, I don't think we've met in person. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (01:08.256) Okay, all good, man. All good. Well, cool. I'll just go over the format real quick. We'll do kind of a shorter recording. We're do like 30 minutes, something like in that range. And then we'll just kind of like break. And then I'll, want to record a couple of other quick segments where I call it Million Dollar Monday. I'm kind of asking you about how you made your first, last and next million. And then 1 % closer, which would just be kind of what separates you, what makes you the   top 1 % in your particular vertical. So we'll just kind of record those separately. Those will be real short, like five minutes or so.   Mike (01:44.924) Okay, yeah, I'll follow your lead. All good.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (01:47.15) Cool. Cool. Let's see. I think I already have this auto recording. So we're already recording. So I'll just jump right in.   Mike (01:55.377) Okay.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (01:57.782) Welcome to Raise the Bar Radio, hosted by yours truly Seth Bradley. We today we've got Mr. Passive, Mike Hoffman. Mike, welcome to the show.   Mike (02:08.189) Thank you for having me fired up to be here.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (02:10.855) Absolutely man, really happy to have you on. I know it's been a little bit of a trek here to get our schedules lined up, but really stoked to have you on today, man. I see you said you moved into a new office. You've got the whiteboard cranking, so love to see it.   Mike (02:25.372) yeah, whiteboards are the only place I can get my thoughts down.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (02:29.399) Yeah, man, it makes a difference when you actually write something rather than type it or even on a mirror board where you're doing it online. just there's something about physically writing something down.   Mike (02:41.328) You know, I'm glad you said that because yesterday I flipped to Seattle for a quick work trip and I didn't have wifi and I literally had three pages of just, I, was so like the clarity of some of these kinds of bigger visions I have now from just being able to write for an hour on a flight was, I was like, man, I gotta do this more often.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (03:00.363) Yeah, for sure. The key though is once you write it down, it just doesn't go into the trash or into a black hole somewhere where you never see it again. So that's kind of the disadvantage there. If you have it on your computer and you're taking notes or you have it on a mirror board, at least it's there to reference all the time. If you write it down on paper, sometimes, I've got my Raze Masters book right here for notes, but it's like, it might go into the abyss and I'll never look at it again. So you gotta be careful about that.   Mike (03:27.184) Yeah, yeah, I need to check out the Miro boards. I've heard a lot of good things about them.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (03:31.467) Yeah, yeah. Awesome, Mike. Well, listen, for our audience who doesn't know anything about you, maybe just tell them, you know, tell them a little bit about your background. Tell them about your your main business and we can take it from there.   Mike (03:43.354) Yeah. So I think for those that don't know about me, I'm a classic Midwest farm boy started with a classic, you know, showing cattle at the county fair and all of that and had a lemonade stand growing up. And then my first job was actually at McDonald's, you know, thinking about the whole success of that business model. But when I was coaching and, out of college, I got my first rental and I was like, wow, this is crazy. making money without.   really much time involved. and then with my work in Silicon Valley, know, Seth, was classic Silicon Valley, you know, cutthroat job that, startup life and traveling three weeks out of the month. And I was on, I was in airports all the time. And was like, these vending machines I would run into at airports were just so archaic. And so I went down this path of like unattended retail and kind of the future of, of that. And that's really where I just see a huge opportunity right now.   And so it's kind of what led me into all these different income streams that I'm passionate about.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (04:49.431) That's awesome, man. Well, let's dive into that a little bit deeper. me about these income streams. It centers around vending machines, right? But I'm sure there's a lot more to it. I'm sure there's a lot of different entry points for people. Maybe just kind of give us a general synopsis to start out.   Mike (05:06.78) Yeah, so I think the big thing with, you know, if we're talking vending specifically as an income stream, you know, most people think of vending as the traditional machines where you enter in a code, you put your card on the machine and then a motor spirals down a Snickers bar or a soda and you go into the chute and grab it.   Nowadays, there's these smart machines that literally you just unlock the door, or even if you go into, land in the Vegas airport right at the bottom of the escalator where it says, welcome to Las Vegas, there's a 7-Eleven with gates and AI cameras, and there's no employees in the 7-Eleven. And it just tracks whatever you grab and to exit the gate, you have to pay for it. So like, there's just this huge market now where we just installed it in urgent care.   less than two months ago and we can do over the counter meds in that machine because it doesn't have to fit into a motor. It's just shelf space. You identify with the planogram with the AI cameras like, okay, Dayquil in this slot or Salad in this slot and then whatever they grab, gets charged to the person that pulls it from it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (06:15.469) That's interesting, man. Yeah, I mean, my initial thought too, was just like the traditional old vending machine where you're getting a candy bar or a cola out of there. But yeah, nowadays, now that you mentioned that, you see this more and more every single day where you've got these scanners, you've got kind of self-checkout, that sort of thing. So that's kind of, that expands that world and really opens it up to the future, right? Like it just really, that's what we're trying to get to, or at least we think we wanna get there, where we're kind of removing humans and...   kind of working with technologies and things like that.   Mike (06:49.488) Yeah, and I think, you know, removing the whole human thing. mean, those machines still got to get stocked and you know, there's not robots running around doing that. But I just come back to, I was a Marriott guy when I was on the road all the time and I'd go to these grab and goes at a Marriott and grab a, the end of the night, I'd grab like a little wine or an ice cream sandwich. And I literally had to go wait in line at the check-in desk behind three people checking in just to tell them, Hey, put these on.   room charge and I was like if I had a checkout kiosk in that grab-and-go I could have just removed all the friction for this customer experience.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (07:27.772) Right, 100%. Yeah, I mean, there's a place and time for it and there's more and more applications for it that just pop up every single day and you can kind of spot that in your life as you're just kind of moving through, whether you're checking into your hotel or whatever you're doing.   Mike (07:41.456) Yeah, yeah. So that's just kind of what excites me today.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (07:45.973) Yeah, yeah, so when a stranger asks you what you do just in the street, what do you tell them? Because I have a hard time answering that question sometimes too, but I'd love to hear what your answer is.   Mike (07:56.804) Yeah, I would just say it depends on the day. You know, what do you do or what's your, you know, it's like at the golf course when you get paired up with a stranger and they're like, tell me about what you do for your career. And I just say, I'm a classic entrepreneur. And then I'm like, well, what do you do? And it's like, well, tell me about the day. You know, what fire are you putting out? Like today we just got the go ahead for five more urgent cares for our local route. But then, you know, we have a community of operators across the country that we help really build.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (07:57.933) haha   Ha ha ha.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (08:09.879) Yeah. Yeah.   Mike (08:25.616) Vending empires and so we had a group call this morning. So literally, there's a lot of just, you know, it's classic entrepreneurial life. You never know what the day's script is gonna be.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (08:36.161) Yeah, for sure. And you focus a lot on not only on your own business, but also teaching others, right? Teaching others how to kind of break into this business.   Mike (08:45.402) Yeah, that's my passion, Seth. When I got into my first investment out of college was a $70,000 rental, you know, putting 20 % down or 14K and using an emergency fund. like my background in going to college was as a coach. like I knew I wanted to kind of take that mindset of like coaching people, you know, teach them how to fish. I don't want to catch all the fish myself. It's just not fulfilling that way. So that's really where my passion is.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (09:15.373) Gotcha, gotcha. tell me about like, tell me about step one. I mean, how does somebody break into this business? Obviously your own personal business is probably very advanced. There's probably a lot more sophisticated investing strategies at this point and you've got different layers to it. But somebody just kind of starting out that said, hey, this sounds pretty interesting. This vending machine business sounds like it can be passive. How do you recommend that they get started?   Mike (09:40.57) Yeah, so I'm always, I view like the whole vending scale as similar to Major League Baseball. You got your single A all the way up to the big leagues. And if you're just starting out, I always recommend like find a location where you can put a machine and just learn the process. Like to me, that's single A analogy. you know, that always starts with, people want to jump right to like, well, what type of machines do you recommend?   products, how do you price products? And the first question I'll always ask Seth is, well, what location is this machine going in? And they're like, well, I don't know yet. I was just going to buy one and put it in my garage to start. And it's like, no, you need to have the location first. So understanding that, is it a pet hospital? Is it an apartment? Is it a gym? Where is the foot traffic? And then you can cater to what's the best machine for that type of location.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (10:36.887) Got it, got it. Now is this a kind of a rent, you rent the space to place the machine with that particular business or wherever you're gonna place it or how does that all come together?   Mike (10:47.644) not typically, some people are kind of more advanced, like apartment complexes are used to the revenue share model. So they're going to ask for a piece of the pie for sure, for you to put the machine in their lobby. but like, you know, when we're talking urgent carers or even pet hospitals are viewing it as an amenity. And so we probably have, I don't even know how many machines now 75 now, and we, you know, less than half of those actually,   Seth Bradley, Esq. (10:50.423) Okay.   Mike (11:15.1) us rent or ask for a revenue share to have them in there. So I never leave lead with that, but we'll do it if we need to get the location.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (11:23.989) Interesting gotcha. So it's really a value add for wherever you're gonna place it and that's how most people or I guess most businesses would look at that and then you're able to capture that that space   Mike (11:27.366) Mm-hmm.   Mike (11:34.236) Yeah, absolutely. So, um, a great case study is we have a 25 employee roughing business here in Oregon. And you might think like, only 25 employees. It's not going to make that much money. Well, we do $1,200 a month. And the cool thing about this, Seth, is the CEO of this roughing company literally did napkin math on how much it costs for his employees to drive to the gas station during their 20 minute break. And then   How much they're paying for an energy drink at the gas station and then how much gas they're using with the roofing like the work trucks to get to and from the gas station So he's like I want to bring a smart machine into our warehouse Set the prices as half off so that four dollar monster only costs his rofers two dollars and then we invoice him the the business owner every month for the other 50 % and so he actually   Calculated as a cost savings not asking for money to rent the space   Seth Bradley, Esq. (12:35.597) Yeah, gotcha, gotcha. That makes sense. That makes sense. I love the baseball analogy with the single A, double A, triple A, even into the big leagues here. know, a lot of the folks that listen to this are already kind of, you know, in the big leagues or maybe think about some capital behind them. Like how would they be able to jump right in, maybe skip single or double A or would they, or do you even suggest that? Do you suggest that they start, you know, small just to learn and then maybe invest some more capital into it to expand or can they jump right to the big leagues?   Mike (12:48.891) Yeah.   Yeah.   Mike (13:03.966) I think they can jump right to the big leagues. this is, I'm glad you brought this up because just listening to some of your episodes from the past, there's no doubt that you have people that could buy a route like a off biz buy sell today. And I think this is a prime opportunity. it's very similar to flipping a house. you, you know, there's a route in Chicago, I think it was for $1.1 million, you know, whatever negotiating terms or seller financing or, or what have you, got a lot of, your, your   audience that is experts in that. But the cool thing about these routes is they have the old school machines that have the motors and that are limited to, this type of machine, you can only fit a 12 ounce cannon. Well, guess what? The minute you buy that route, you swap out that machine with one of these micro markets or smart machines. Now you just went from selling a 12 ounce soda for $1.25 to now a 16 ounce monster for $4.50.   Well, you just bought that location based on its current revenue numbers and by swapping out that machine, you're going to two or three acts your revenue just at that location. And so it's truly just like a value play, a value upgrade, like flipping the house of, okay, there's a lot of deals right now of these routes being sold by baby boomers where it's like, they got the old school Pepsi machine. Doesn't have a credit card reader on it. They can't track inventory remotely via their cell phones. So   They're not keeping it stocked. Like all those types of things can really play in your favor as a buyer that just wants to get to the big leagues right away.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (14:37.651) I love that. When you say buy a route, what are you really buying? Tell me about the contractual agreement behind that. What are you really buying there?   Mike (14:47.184) You're just buying the locations and the equipment associated with it. So like this Chicago route, it's like, we have machines in 75 properties all across the Chicago suburbs. And they could be medical clinics. could be apartments. could be employee break rooms at businesses, but that's when you start diving into those locations. It's like, I have a snack machine and a soda machine here. Well, you swap that out with a micro market that now instead of.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (14:49.279) Okay. Okay.   Mike (15:13.626) that machine that'll only hold a small bag of Doritos that you charge two bucks, well now you get the movie size theater bags that you can really put in there in a micro market. Like naturally just that valuation of that route based on those 75 machines current revenue, I mean you're gonna be able to two or three X your revenue right by just swapping out those machines.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (15:35.959) Wow, yeah, I love that analogy with real estate, right? It's just like a value add. It's like, how can I bring in more income from what already exists? Well, I need to upgrade or I need to put in some capital improvements, whatever you want to call it. Here's the vending machine upgrades or a different kind of system in there. And you get more income. And obviously that business in itself is going to be worth more in a higher multiple.   Mike (15:58.396) Absolutely. mean, a great example of this is we had a machine in an apartment complex and it was your traditional machine with the motors and you have to enter in the code. Well, we could only put in four 12 ounce drinks and then chips. Well, we swapped that out with a micro market. Well, now that micro market, we literally put in bags of Tide Pods for laundry, like these big bags of Tide Pods. We'll sell those like hotcakes for 15 bucks. And our old machine,   Seth Bradley, Esq. (16:25.281) Yeah, let's say those aren't cheap.   Mike (16:27.246) Yeah, our old machine Seth, it would take us to get to 15 bucks, we'd have to sell eight Snickers. That's one transaction.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (16:33.547) Right, right. Yeah, yeah. How do you do an analysis kind of based on like what you think is gonna sell there, right? Like you're replacing, let's say a Dorito machine with Tide Pods, you know? So you have to individually go to each location and figure out what will work, what will sell.   Mike (16:47.738) Yeah.   Mike (16:51.834) It's all about demographic. Absolutely. So, you know, we have, we have, we have a micro market and a manufacturing plant that's, it's a pumpkin farm and there's a ton of Hispanic workers. So we do a lot of like spicy foods, a lot of spicy chips. do, we do a ton of, mean, the sugar or sorry, the glass bottle cokes. They do, they love their pastries.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (16:53.431) Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (17:06.349) Yeah.   Mike (17:15.868) So we just doubled down on the demographics. So yesterday I was filming at one of our micro markets that's in a gym and they crushed the Fairlife protein shakes, like the more modern protein shakes, but they won't touch muscle milk. So we're literally taking out one row of muscle milk just to add an extra row of Fairlife shakes. So you're constantly just catering to the demographics and what's selling.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (17:40.632) Yeah, yeah, this is awesome. I mean, this is literally just like real estate, right? Like you go and you find a good market. You're talking about demographics, right? Find the market, see what they want, see how much you can upgrade, how you can upgrade. If it's an apartment, it's a unit. If it's here, it's the product that you're selling and the type of machine, or maybe it's a mini market. A lot of things to kind of tie your understanding to here.   Mike (17:45.926) Yeah.   Mike (18:05.904) Yeah, absolutely.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (18:07.615) Yeah, awesome, man. Awesome, Where are you at in your business? Like what, you know, what are the big leagues looking like right now? You know, what are you doing to expand your business, raising the bar in your business?   Mike (18:18.692) Yeah, I'm going after that's a really good question. I'm going after kind of these newer markets and we're kind of past that point of like, okay, let's pilot in this location. For example, that urgent care, we didn't know if it was going to be a good location two months ago when we installed. Well now it's already crushing it. Well, there's six other urgent cares in town and we just got to go ahead on five of those six. So like for me, it's doubling down on our current proof points of where.   okay, we know that manufacturing plant, the pumpkin farm does really well. So let's start getting intros to all their, manufacturers of the products they need to grow pumpkin. know, like we're just doubling down on scaling because now we have the operational blueprint to really just kind of to go after it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (19:03.917) Gotcha, gotcha. Tell me about how passive this can really be, right? So I used to have, before we switched over to the new brand, Raise the Bar podcast, it was the Passive Income Attorney podcast, right? I was really focused on passive investments, focused on bringing in passive investors into my real estate deals, things like that. And I think that word passive gets thrown around quite a bit, right? And sometimes it's abused because people get into things that are not truly passive.   Mike (19:18.427) Yeah.   Mike (19:28.784) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (19:33.517) What's your take on that as it relates to the vending business?   Mike (19:38.49) Yeah, so I think as far as with the vending business, there's clearly upfront leg work that needs to be done, whether that's finding locations or any of those things. So I have a route that is here in Oregon, and then we bought a route last year in Illinois and have scaled that route. I spend 30 minutes a week on each route now. that these urgent cares and stuff, like we have an operator that's running the whole route.   Here's the problem, Seth. It's like people are so scared to build systems to ultimately systemize things or they're too cheap to hire help. And I'm the opposite. like, you know, kind of like Dan Martell's buy back your time. Like I have like a leverage calculator and like I constantly think about is this worth my time? Cause as you know, you're busier than me. Like it's so limited.   for me, my routes, I would consider them passive, like one hour a week is, is nothing in my mind. But as far as like, you know, I'm, I'm also a passive investor on, we're building a, an oil loop station in Florida and I sent my money a year ago to, to my, active investor and I haven't talked to him since. Like that's actually truly probably passive now, you know, I'm not doing anything, but there's, there's different levels to that. And I'm a huge believer like.   don't delegate something until you know what you're delegating. So people that want to start with the vending routes, sure, if you want to buy a route that already has an operator, that's one thing. but these, if you're starting a vending route for your kid or for your stay at home wife or whatever, as a side hustle, like get in the weeds and install that first machine. So when you hire help to take over the route, you know what you're delegating.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (21:09.773) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (21:27.021) Yeah, that's key. That's key. And you you described just like any other business, right? I think that's kind of where people get themselves into trouble. That sometimes they get sold the dream that is truly passive. And eventually it can be. I mean, you're talking about an hour a week. To me, that's pretty damn passive, right? But you know, upfront, you you've got to learn the business. You've got to know what you're getting yourself into. Like you said, you've got to learn before you delegate so that you know what you're delegating.   There is going to be some upfront work and then as you're able to kind of delegate and learn Then you can make it more and more passive as you go   Mike (22:00.88) Yeah, I mean, it's no different than what's the same when people tell you that they're busy. I mean, you're just not a priority. Like that's a fact. you're not. People say it's the same thing when people come to me and they're like, I'm so busy. It's like, okay, well let me, let me see your schedule. Where are you spending your time? You know, it's like when people are like, I can't lose weight. Okay, well let me see your food log. What did you eat yesterday? Did you have ice cream? Like this is like the same kind of thing. That's where passive I think has been really abused.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (22:16.097) Yeah. Yep.   Mike (22:29.638) To me, the bigger issue is like, vending is not get rich quick. And so like, if you're expecting to leave your nine to five tomorrow and vending is going to make up for that in one day, like that's not going to   Seth Bradley, Esq. (22:41.089) Right, Makes sense. Speaking of passive, do you raise capital or do you have any kind of a fund or have you put together a fund for something like this?   Mike (22:51.48) We haven't put together a fun, we're definitely buying routes is definitely becoming more and more intriguing. And I know there's some PE players starting to get into the vending game, but it's something we've been definitely considering and on our radar of do we want to.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (22:58.541) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (23:10.231) Gotcha. Cool. I mean, you brought in money partners for some of those routes yet, or is that still something you're exploring too?   Mike (23:18.168) No, I think it's just something we're thinking about. mean, what do you recommend?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (23:21.089) Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'd recommend I mean, it depends, right? Like I'm I'm scared to turn you by trade, but I don't like to say you should always raise capital no matter what. Right. Like you've been able to scale your business as you have and grown it to where it is without bringing outside capital. It sounds which is great because you own 100 percent or with whatever business partners you might have. You know, when you start raising capital, you're giving a large chunk of that piece away, not necessarily your whole company. But if you're buying   you know, a set of routes or that sort of thing. You you're gonna give a big piece away to those past investors if you're starting a fund or even if it's up. Even a single asset syndication here for one of these, you know, these routes, you could put it together that way. You know, it's just something to consider. But a lot of times when people are looking to scale fast, right, if they wanna grow exponentially, you've gotta use other people's money to get there or hit the lottery.   Mike (24:08.294) Mm.   Mike (24:15.856) Absolutely, no, agree. That's spot-on and I actually before you know the Silicon Valley company That I was part of we had a we went through probably series a B C D C ground   Let's just say we weren't very fiscally responsible. So I come from the, you know, it's like the ex-girlfriend example. I don't want to just start taking everyone's money.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (24:42.413) Yeah, yeah, that tends to happen with some startups, right? Like before you get funding, you're super frugal because it's your money and every single dollar counts. And you're like, I don't want to pay, you if it's software, you don't want to pay the software engineers. I'm going to out, you know, put it, you know, hire Indian engineers, that sort of thing. And then once you get a few million bucks that you raised in that seed round, then it just goes and you're like, whoa, wait a minute, let's hire 20 people. You know, it's you got to be careful about that.   Mike (25:05.606) Yeah   Yeah, yeah, that's a great, great take on it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (25:11.245) Yeah, it's, yeah. It's a question I love to ask and I think it's about time for that. So, in a parallel universe, tell me about a different version of you. So a different but likely version, right? Like, for example, for me, I went to med school for a year and a half and then I dropped out and I ended up becoming an attorney. So that was like a big turning point, right? So I could have easily at some point just said screw it and became a doctor and that would have been a totally different route than I'm going down right now.   What's an example of something like that for you?   Mike (25:42.524) Wait, are you being serious about that? I took the MCAT too. I got into med school and then I, yeah, I was pretty mad in school. And then the more I learned about exercise science, I was like, organic chemistry is not fun.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (25:44.321) Yeah, totally.   yeah? There you go.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (25:57.39) It is not fun. I did not love that. I majored in exercise physiology and then I ended up switching to biology because it was just a little bit of an easier route to get my degree and go into med school and I went for a year and a half and then I dropped out because I absolutely hated it. I knew I didn't want to do it. I was just more attracted to business and that sort of thing.   Mike (26:16.346) Yeah, that's crazy. That's awesome. parallel universe. I, that's a really good question. I don't know. I, kinda, I have two kids under three and the other side of me wishes I would have traveled more.   you know, I mean, we'll get there hopefully when they get out of high school and someday. But right now I just think there's so many different cultural things and ways to skin the cat. And it's just fascinating to learn some of those things.   Mike (26:55.352) yourself in those cultures.   go to different cultures and really like understand how they did things for a time, a period of time to really just learn their thinking.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (27:07.777) Yeah, I love that man. I had a similar experience of what you're describing. I didn't travel abroad really other than like, you know, Canada and Mexico until I studied abroad in Barcelona during law school and I got to stay there for a couple of months. So you actually had some time. It wasn't like you're just visiting for a week or a weekend or anything like that. You got to kind of live there right for a couple of months and it just totally changed my, you know, my outlook on life and just the way that you see things like I feel like we're in the US and we just think   Mike (27:19.627) Seth Bradley, Esq. (27:37.76) US is number one and there's only one way to do things the way that we do things that kind of attitude. And then when you go to Western Europe and you see that culture and you drive or get on a train, it's like an hour away and you're in a totally different culture and they're doing it a certain way as well and it's working. You just see that other people are doing things differently and still being successful at it, still having a thriving culture and it's just awesome to see.   Mike (28:03.312) Yeah, absolutely.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (28:06.251) Yeah. Tell me about some major influences in your life. What turned you or got you into that, the vending business? It's not one of those typical things. mean, I know you're in the education business, so you're kind of really spreading the word about this type of business. But I would say when you started, there might not have been a mastermind or educational courses around this. mean, how did you kind of get drawn into that? Were there any particular people or influences that brought you in?   Mike (28:29.308) you   Mike (28:36.188) Yeah. So the, biggest influence for me to get into vending, uh, wasn't actually a person. It was actually, was, um, I had landed, I was coming back from the Pentagon from a trip back to the Bay for the startup we were talking about. And I was in the Denver airport and 11 PM, you know, our flight was delayed. And then they're like, Hey, you have to stay in the airport tonight. The pilot went over their hours for the day, blah, blah, blah. So I went to a vending machine and I remember buying a bottle of water.   I think it costs like at the time three bucks or something. I knew that bottle of water cost 20 cents at Costco. And I was like, there is someone that's at home with their kids right now making money off me and they're not even at this mission. Like the machine is doing the work. So I had like an aha moment of like, what are my true priorities in life? And like, why am I chasing this cutthroat startup from.   Palo Alto and trying to make it when reality was my priorities are freedom to spend more time with my family. So that's really kind of what led me into this path of starting a vending machine side hustle to keep our lifestyle as we had kids. We wanted to have a nanny and we wanted to be able to still go on dates and things like that as a couple with my wife. So that's really kind of my family and just like...   having the freedom to do things. Like that's what I'm really passionate about.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (29:59.084) Yeah. Yeah. I mean, building on that, and you may have already answered that, but what does success look like for you?   Mike (30:01.766) next   Mike (30:06.268) an empty calendar.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (30:08.621) Good luck with that. Good luck with that.   Mike (30:11.516) Oh man, I was gonna say, how do we crack that code? No, yeah. No, but I think success to me is doing things like picking up my daughter at three and even being able to say no to the things that aren't gonna get you to where you need, like the discipline piece of this too.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (30:15.708) man.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (30:33.995) Yeah, yeah, mean, you know, for me, it's kind of similar, right? It's not going to be able to empty that calendar. Not yet, at least maybe here in the future. But for now, it's pretty filled. But it is it's flexible, right? Like us as entrepreneurs, you know, we probably work more than we ever worked when we were in our W-2s. But at the same time, it's you know, we're working in our own business for ourselves, for our families. And we have the   Flexibility, a lot of people will say the freedom, right? But we have the flexibility to move things around. And if you want to pick your kids up at school at three, or you do want to take a weekend off, or something comes up in your schedule, you have the flexibility to do that. Whereas if you're kind of slaving away at the nine to five, you can't really do it.   Mike (31:04.486) Yeah. Yeah.   Mike (31:20.198) Yeah, that's spot on. mean, I just wrote that down, but flexibility is, cause you're right. When you started becoming an entrepreneur, this is what I tell people all the time when they want to get a venting around is like running your own business. You are going to work harder than you do for your boss currently at your W-2. Like you have to do payroll. You have to do, like you gotta like make sure there's money to actually do pay, you know, like all those things that you just don't even think about when you have a W-2. It's like, today's   Seth Bradley, Esq. (31:39.543) Yeah   Mike (31:48.89) You know, this Friday I get paid. Well, when you run a business, mean, that money's got to come from somewhere.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (31:51.905) Yeah   Right, yeah, 100%, man, 100%. All right, Mike, we're gonna wrap it up. Thanks so much for coming on the show. Tell the listeners where they can find out more about you.   Mike (32:05.286) Yeah, so thanks for having me. This has been great. I have free content all over the place. can find me on the classic Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, but I also have vendingpreneurs.com is where we help people that are more interested in actually the vending stuff. But I've been really trying to double down on YouTube lately because there's just a lot of content and you can't get it off a one minute reel.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (32:32.417) Love it, man. All right, Mike, appreciate it. Thanks for coming on the show.   Mike (32:35.91) Thanks for having me.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (32:37.227) Hi brother. Alright man, got a couple more questions for you. We do like a quick, kind of do the full podcast episode and then I'll just do kind of a quick episode that'll follow up on a Monday and then another one on a Friday. Cool.   Mike (32:55.814) See you.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (32:59.693) We out here.   Welcome to Million Dollar Mondays, how to make, keep, and scale a million dollars. Mike is a super successful entrepreneur in the vending machine business and beyond. Tell us, how did you make your first million dollars?   Mike (33:20.922) Yeah, Seth. It was probably actually through real estate and just getting a little bit kind of lucky with timing with COVID and short-term rentals and some of that. But yeah, that's probably how I got the first million.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (33:25.229) Mm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (33:37.079) Gotcha, cool. Yeah, real estate usually plays a role in the everybody's strategy down the line, whether they're in that primary business or not, whether they start out there or they end up there, real estate usually plays a part. How'd you make your last million?   Mike (33:53.956) Yeah, that's a good question because it's completely different than real estate, but it's actually been vending machines. So that's been kind of fun. just, you you talk about product market fit whenever you're an entrepreneur with a business. And that was just kind of the perfect storm right now of traditional vending really kind of being outdated. And we found a product market fit with it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (33:57.57) Right. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (34:16.215) Gotcha. Cool. that was from, was this maybe mostly attributed to kind of buying those routes, those larger routes?   Mike (34:23.32) Exactly. Yeah. Buying old school routes and really kind of flipping them like a house with modern micro markets charging, with different products and what would fit in a vending machine, like more of the unorthodox, you know, toilet paper and tide pods and things that wouldn't fit in a traditional vending machine. I mean, we'll sell $35 bottles of shampoo in these micro markets. So just kind of, go and add it in a different way.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (34:49.857) Yeah, and then with the aging population, there's gotta be more and more of these things popping up. So there should be more opportunity for people to get involved or for people like yourself to just snag everything, right?   Mike (35:01.102) Yeah, I think there's no chance I could snag everything, not even just in this town alone that I'm currently in. I mean, machines are getting cheaper, the technology is getting way better with AI. And nowadays, it's not what fits in a vending machine motor. It's okay, what's shelf space? if it's a bottle of shampoo or a glass Coke, it doesn't matter because it's not just getting thrown down the chute of a traditional machine.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (35:05.387) Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (35:27.521) Makes sense, makes sense. Last, how are you planning on making your next million dollars?   Mike (35:34.3) I think probably with AI, we're doing a lot of interesting stuff with helping people scale their, their vending routes. that is applicable to any, small business. And so I'm really intrigued. Just every time I go down a rabbit hole with some new AI tool, I feel like there's another better one that just came right behind it. So I just think it's kind of that time where you can really get ahead by just learning.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (36:06.209) Yeah, totally makes sense. mean people that are not paying attention to AI whether it's simply using chat GPT instead of Google search are getting left behind quickly because it's just advancing so fast. I can't even imagine what this world's gonna look like five years from now the way that things are moving.   Mike (36:23.132) It's crazy. Three years ago when I was working for a tech company selling software into the government, I would have to work with three secretaries to schedule a meeting with the general to sell their software. Now my EA is literally an AI bot and everyone that's scheduling time on my calendar, they don't even know they're talking to a non-human, which is pretty   Seth Bradley, Esq. (36:43.479) Yeah, 100%. We're gonna, I predicted within five years, everybody's gonna have a humanoid robot in their home with AI instilled and they're gonna be doing physical things for us at our homes. Yeah. Yep. Yep. 100%. Awesome, All right, moving on to the next one.   Mike (36:50.181) Yeah!   Mike (36:57.917) I hope so. I hope they can go to Costco get all our groceries do our do our laundry The dishes   Seth Bradley, Esq. (37:11.501) You're clearly in the top 1 % of what you do, Mike. What is it about you that separates you from the rest of the field?   Mike (37:19.056) Ooh, that's a good question, Seth. I think it's just discipline, know, discipline and focus. One of the hardest things is being able to say no with the things that don't align. And when I was growing up, I had a quote that has really stuck with me. That's like, it's better to be respected than liked. And I think that really resonates. Like naturally as a human, you want to be liked and help people, but the 1 % are really good at saying no.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (37:47.649) Yeah, I love that man. That's a great answer. Kind of building on that, what do you think the number one attribute is that makes a successful entrepreneur?   Mike (37:57.468) probably focus. Yeah. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (37:59.212) Yeah, focus. Yep. The one thing, right? The one thing.   Mike (38:04.186) Yep. That's why you come back to like the most successful entrepreneurs. They always niche down and they niche down because they just, got hyper-focused. Like this is kind of why for me, you know, I started this passive Mr. Passive on social media before I even got into Vendi. Well, now everyone's like, well, how passive is Vendi? And well, it's like, what's really interesting is I was posting all these different, what I thought passive income streams in the time, but everyone, 95 % of the questions I got about   Airbnbs are all my different investments was about bending. So I just niche down on, on bending and I just looked back on that and I was like, it really forced me to focus.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (38:43.263) Awesome, awesome. What's one thing someone could do today to get 1 % closer to success in the vending machine business if they are really interested in learning more?   Mike (38:53.892) tap into your connections and find a location that has high foot traffic, whether that's a friend that works at an urgent care, a sister that lives at an apartment. You know, you take your kid to that gymnastics studio that has a ton of foot traffic between 4 PM and 8 PM. Like all those locations are prime locations to put one of these modern smart machines in. so, tapping into your connections, well, you know,   Seth Bradley, Esq. (39:24.567) Love that man. Awesome. All right, Mike, I appreciate it, brother. We'll to meet in person sometime,   Mike (39:30.574) I would love to. Where are you based, Seth?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (39:31.789) I'm in San Diego, where you at?   Mike (39:34.78) I am in Eugene. Yeah, Oregon. I'll come down your way though.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (39:37.39) Cool We're planning on doing yeah, we're planning on doing so me and my wife we have a Sprinter van and Last May we did we did going back to the flexibility piece, right? We did 32 days in the van up through Wyoming Montana and then into like Into Canada and they're like Banff and Jasper and all the way up to Jasper and then we circled back on the west coast Through Vancouver and then down back to San Diego Yeah   Mike (40:05.52) What?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:06.829) Pretty wild, pretty awesome. And the reason I brought that up is this year we're gonna do shorter trip. We're probably gonna do two, maybe three weeks at the most, but we're gonna do kind of the Pacific Northwest. So Oregon, Washington, and Vancouver and all those parks and stuff up there.   Mike (40:17.254) Yeah.   Mike (40:21.744) Yeah, you definitely have a, have you been to Bend before? Bend is like my, that whole area, Central Oregon is, and even Idaho, like all those kind of, yeah. That's awesome. Please let me know when you're up this way. I mean, I'll come meet you wherever. That'd be amazing. Absolutely. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:24.641) Yeah, yeah I have.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:38.861) Sure man grab a coffee or beer. I appreciate it. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah all right brother great to meet you and I will send the information on when this is gonna get released and give you you materials and all that stuff so we can collaborate on social media   Mike (40:51.964) Okay. Okay. Yeah. Is a lot of your audience, like passive investors?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:58.593) So most of that, so now I'm rebranding. I rebranded because I'm gonna be speaking more towards like active entrepreneurs, Active entrepreneurs, people raising capital, that sort of thing. Whereas before it was based on passive investors and people really focused on attorneys. So I'm an attorney and I was raising capital from attorneys for my real estate deals. Now I'm really more into selling shovels. I'm scaling my law firm. I'm chief legal officer for Tribest, which is, we've got a fund to fund.   Mike (41:20.262) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (41:28.085) legal product there as well. So we're really trying to bring in active, active entrepreneurs and people raising capital.   Mike (41:29.777) Yeah.   Mike (41:36.572) Okay, because I got that, I was just thinking through when we talking about that oil development project, that could be a good, the guy that runs that fund could be a good interview for you. Just thinking through your audience, because he's always looking for investors into his fund and like these oil lubs are just crushing it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (41:49.901) Cool. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (41:58.464) Yeah, cool. Who is it? Just, I don't know if I know him or not.   Mike (42:02.183) Um, Robert Durkey, he's out of Florida. has, his problem is he's sitting on a gold mine that has no, like he's old school, doesn't know social media, any of that. So that's why I think he'd be perfect for you. Cause I think you could help him and he could definitely help you with some kickback. Yeah. So cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully we meet soon. Okay. See you Seth. Bye.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (42:05.645) I don't think I know. I don't think I know.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (42:13.889) Yeah. Gotcha.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (42:20.705) Cool, okay, sounds good man. Yeah, I appreciate the introduction.   Yeah, all right brother. Talk soon. See ya. Links from the Show and Guest Info and Links: Seth Bradley's Links: https://x.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.youtube.com/@sethbradleyesq www.facebook.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.threads.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.instagram.com/sethbradleyesq/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethbradleyesq/ https://passiveincomeattorney.com/seth-bradley/ https://www.biggerpockets.com/users/sethbradleyesq https://medium.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.tiktok.com/@sethbradleyesq?lang=en Mike Hoffman's Links: https://www.instagram.com/mikehoffmannofficial/ https://x.com/mrpassive_?lang=en https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikedhoffmann/ https://www.tiktok.com/@mr.passive

This episode starts with the shift that happened after our last session, and a look at what happens when the business starts talking back to tell us if it actually worked. It ends with a discussion on if Jackie should fire me as her coach. In between, you'll hear Jackie and I dig into what it really takes to see her pivot all the way through to truly create the big shifts and results she's after.   This one is for you if you've ever found yourself hustling to “just get it done” and wondered why your results still feel stuck. We get into it all: messy pivots, money mindset, team dynamics, and the emotional labor behind staying focused when you really want to run to the next thing.    In this episode, you'll hear: The $5 ad pivot that changed everything, and how we made it happen mid-launch Why your webinar should be doing the heavy lifting (and what to do if it's not) The real ROI of an evergreen funnel that is crucial to understand if you want to really scale The #1 thing that keeps most high-achievers from creating serious momentum Why your team can't own your voice, and what to do instead The big convo Jackie and I wrap with around if it makes sense for her to have my support    Episode Links Join my Facebook group Connect with Jackie on Instagram Learn more about Jackie on her website 

What happens when you start with a 10-year prison sentence—and end up managing over $50 million in real estate assets? In this powerful episode of the Invest2FI, Craig Curelop welcomes Alex Donnolo: a real estate expert, public speaker, and former inmate with a story that defies the odds. Alex Donnolo's life wasn't always destined for success. Learn how he went from wrongful conviction to creating a thriving business in mobile home park investing through seller financing and operational discipline.  You'll hear how he scaled from a lawn care hustle to an empire with 21 parks across 11 states and what it really takes to raise capital, build a hybrid investment model, and lead with resilience. Whether you're facing setbacks or looking for a strategic investing edge, this episode delivers inspiration and tactical wisdom in every minute. PODCAST HIGHLIGHTS:[02:35] - Growing up with family of business owners [03:02] Middle school hustling with t-shirts and skateboards [03:10] Ran small business screen printing with friends [03:49] Wrongfully convicted, sentenced to 10 years [06:50] Became national news, withdrew from high school [12:46] While incarcerated, Alex found spiritual guidance [26:45] Started seller-financed mobile home park investing [32:31] Alex manages 21 properties across 11 states, totaling $50 million [34:31] Blended interest rate strategy at 8% [35:59] Exit strategies and contingency planning [38:21] "Hybrid model" gives lenders partial equity [42:40] Doubled value of first MHP in 2 years [45:31] Rent increase strategy done with transparency [47:19] Solo growth after partnership split in 2020 [48:00] Why MHPs outperform storage and multifamily [49:02] Seller-financed deals are harder in storage asset class [51:01] Scaling challenges, building efficient team culture [52:55] Plans to focus more on writing and speaking [53:05] Upcoming book release in September [53:51] Best advice: “Resilience not perfection” by Jim Collins HOST Craig Curelop    

In this week's episode of the Friends in Beauty Podcast, we're joined by Tomara Watkins, the powerhouse President of Buttah Skin. Tomara has been shaping the brand since 2020—first as a strategic growth consultant, and now as the executive leading its continued expansion and innovation.We dive into what it truly takes to run a fast-growing beauty brand from the inside—from managing operations and scaling strategy to staying rooted in inclusive beauty. Tomara shares the realities of upholding a founder's vision while driving business forward, what kind of structure a brand needs before stepping away from founder-led visibility, and the metrics that matter when you're scaling with intention.We also explore how Buttah Skin is incorporating AI into its strategy, and Tomara gives her candid thoughts on Black-owned beauty brands being acquired—what it means for the culture, and how founders can prepare for legacy moves.With a 12-year track record of scaling multicultural beauty and CPG brands like Bevel, Hyper Skin, and Alodia Haircare, plus a background in leading eCommerce strategy at Microsoft/Xbox, Tomara brings a powerful blend of corporate leadership, financial acumen, and authentic brand storytelling to the table. She's also a proud graduate of Howard University and the University of Pennsylvania.Whether you're a beauty pro, a founder, or just curious about what happens behind the scenes of your favorite brands—this conversation is packed with gems you won't want to miss.Enjoy this episode!Leave us a 5 star review and share this episode with a friend or 2 or 3.info@friendsinbeauty.comGET A PEEK INSIDE OF BEAUTYPRO FUNNELS HEREhttps://www.getbeautyprofunnels.com/friends

What if curiosity wasn't just a nice to have, but a key ingredient in building lasting wealth and healthy leadership?   In this powerful episode, we sit down with Carl Lubbe, founder of Curiosity Coach, who helps leaders harness emotional intelligence, communication skills, and team clarity to unlock both financial and emotional wealth.   From his early days as a touring musician to becoming a sought-after consultant for growth-minded organizations, Carl shares stories, strategies, and frameworks for leading with empathy and purpose.   We dive deep into what truly drives business success, and it's not just spreadsheets. Expect insights on handling conflict, cultivating curiosity, adapting to AI, and leading people well while growing profits with integrity.   Whether you're a business owner, team leader, or someone rethinking the way you approach success—this one's a must-listen.  

Specialty pharmacy is one of the most critical areas of care—especially for patients with complex and chronic conditions—but scaling the business isn't always easy. In this episode, Lori Maraist shows how pharmacists can do both. Lori, the Chief Operating Officer at Professional Arts Specialty Pharmacy, shares how she scaled her team from a small operation to a nationally recognized pharmacy with over 100 employees. She dives into how to carve out niches in specialty care, build a strong culture across a large team, and hire intentionally in high-stakes clinical environments. Whether you're already in the specialty sector or just looking to learn more, Lori's episode is one you won't want to miss.  00:00 - Introduction to Lori Maraist and Professional Arts Pharmacy 02:11 - Lori's Early Pharmacy Journey and Leadership Origins 06:16 - Evolution from Compounding to a Diversified Pharmacy Model  10:22 - Lessons in Change Management and Staff Buy-In 14:11 - Clinical Programs and Commercial Product Expansion 22:14 - National Licensure and Wound Care Specialization 31:00 - Hiring Philosophy and Building a Scalable Team 38:42 - Advice for Scaling a Pharmacy and Picking Leaders  Hosted By: Mark Bivins | Chief Growth Officer, RedSail Technologies         Johnathon Duhon | Director of Sales, PioneerRx Guest:  Lori Maraist | Chief Operating Officer at Professional Arts Specialty Pharmacy  Looking for more information about independent pharmacy? Visit https://www.redsailtechnologies.com 

Hey friends! In this personal episode, I'm sharing a behind-the-scenes look at my summer journey. I've been focusing on mindfulness, avoiding rushing through the season, and protecting my energy during our time in the Midwest. This summer has been about intentional living - from setting boundaries in social situations to experimenting with my diet by cutting out added sugar. I discovered some interesting insights about decision-making and how small dietary changes can impact inflammation. Looking ahead to fall, I'm excited about some big changes coming to my business (tune in next week for the full reveal!). I'm planning a photo shoot, preparing for the next Calendar Blocking Blueprint launch, and scheduling family photos. I'm also embracing my "future self" vision - becoming a more present mother and business owner, allowing myself to be softer and more feminine in my approach. This means making intentional choices, like updating my daughters bedroom and being more open to spending on things that matter. If you're loving the podcast, please leave a review and come say hi on Instagram! Free Resources:Join 30 Day Calendar Blocking Blueprint and finally feel in control. ​Click here to join the next round. ​Are you a business owner making $100,000+ and still wearing all the hats? ​Click here​ to learn about my upcoming 12-week Outsourcing Mastermind.Are you an aspiring or newer business owner who needs some accountability and clarity on the next steps? ​Click here​ to join my 6-month accountability group - Simplify.

In this episode, we dive into fixing warehouse chaos for e-commerce success. Thomas Kircheis, CEO of PULPO WMS, shares how poor warehouse management hurts profits and customers. Learn why 50% of warehouses still use pen and paper, how a WMS cuts costs and boosts efficiency, and why accurate stock is key for scaling. From optimizing routes to reducing staff, discover practical tips to streamline your warehouse and keep customers happy. Topics discussed in this episode:  Why 50% of warehouses still use pen and paper — and how it hurts your business. How warehouse chaos leads to lost sales and unhappy customers. Why stock accuracy is key to scaling your Shopify store. What makes picking the most expensive part of your warehouse. Why warehouse staff walk 10 miles a day — and how to fix it. How one company cut their warehouse team from 50 to 20. What slows down your fulfillment — and kills your profit. Why better warehouse routes beat hiring more people. What most brands get wrong about warehouse growth. Why setting up a WMS only takes 1–2 weeks, not months. Links & Resources Website: https://www.pulpowms.com/Shopify App Store: https://apps.shopify.com/pulpo-wmsLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaskircheis/Get access to more free resources by visiting the show notes athttps://tinyurl.com/3u542jpuMORE RESOURCES Subscribe to our FREE Newsletter: https://newsletter.ecommercecoffeebreak.com/ Free Store Optimization Beginners Guide: Instant PDF Download!

Joel shares his inspiring journey from business economics and tech startups to building a fast-growing regenerative ranch. He explains how he used herd shares and ultra high density grazing to expand from a small herd to nearly 500 cows in just a few years. Along the way, he discusses developing hardy genetics, navigating serious labor shortages, and creating a supportive network of investors and mentors. Joel blends economics, history, faith, and land stewardship into a powerful vision for the future of ranching.Topics Covered:Launching a ranch with zero capital through herd share partnershipsChoosing Oklahoma for its climate challenges and opportunitiesLessons from tech and startup life that apply to ranchingUltra high density grazing and how it multiplies carrying capacityGenetic selection for cattle that thrive without inputsUsing community and social capital to scaleThe hidden economics behind modern ranch failureAdvice for young or aspiring regenerative ranchersWhy You Should Listen:This episode offers a rare look into what it takes to build a large-scale regenerative operation from the ground up. Joel is not only focused on grazing methods but also on solving the deeper economic, cultural, and logistical problems facing ranchers today. His practical strategies and vision for the future will resonate with anyone serious about making a living on the land.Resources Mentioned:Smoke River RanchBook: Man, Cattle & the Grass by Johann ZietsmanJoel's handle: @untappedgrowth on X/TwitterLooking for Livestock that thrive on grass?  Check out Grass Based GeneticsVisit our Sponsors:Noble Research InstituteRedmond AgricultureGrazing Grass LinksNew Listener Resource GuideProvide feedback for the podcastWebsiteInsidersResourcesCommunity (on Facebook)Check out the Apiary Chronicles Podcast (00:00) - Introduction and Fast Five Questions (00:21) - Challenges in Labor and Livestock Management (02:30) - Labor Issues and Solutions (07:38) - Podcast Introduction and Sponsor Message (09:20) - Farm Updates and Podcast Announcements (12:30) - Joel's Journey into Farming (12:49) - Health Crisis and Nutritional Discoveries (16:20) - Educational Background and Career Path (18:50) - Starting the Ranch and Bitcoin Investment (27:05) - Scaling the Ranch and Herd Share Program (39:24) - Challenges and Strategies in Modern Ranching (49:37) - The Impact of Historical Agricultural Practices (50:03) - The Evolution of American Agriculture (51:07) - Challenges and Innovations in Modern Ranching (51:48) - The Herd Share Arrangement (53:06) - Ultra High Density Grazing (55:07) - Building a Supportive Ranching Community (56:15) - The Importance of Hardy Cattle Breeds (01:07:46) - Scaling and Adapting to High Density Grazing (01:14:44) - Future Innovations and Tools for Ranching (01:18:29) - Famous Four Questions (01:34:31) - Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Send us a textIn this episode of The AI Advantage on The Matt Brown Show, Matt sits down with Bill Weathersby, Chairman of Next Stage Trajectory, to explore how artificial intelligence is transforming the way startups scale. With experience helping companies grow from $1M to over $10M in revenue, Bill shares his insights on leveraging AI tools, agents, and data-driven strategies to drive frictionless growth.They unpack:Why a third of his portfolio companies are AI-drivenThe rise of the “three-person unicorn” powered by botsHow AI is changing the investor mindset and risk calculusThe key leadership traits founders need in an AI-native worldIf you're serious about scaling your business in the era of AI, this is a must-listen conversation packed with practical insights and forward-thinking strategy.Support the show

In this episode of C-Sweet Talks, Co-CEOs Dianne Gubin and Beth Hilbing sit down with Shirin Sabouri, CPA, Senior Tax Manager at CohnReznick, for a candid conversation on career resilience, flexibility, and the people side of tax. Shirin shares her path from CSUN to Big Four to CohnReznick; how parenting shaped her career decisions; what keeps women in (or drives them out of) the profession; and why “building the bench” through mentoring is non‑negotiable. We also get into compliance madness, shifting tax laws, digital transformation, cybersecurity, and teaching financial literacy to kids. Real talk. Real leadership. Real life. Join the community!www.CSweet.org

Ep. 174 features Evan Fisher from Sparket, which is a B2B platform helping operators reach new demographics through alternative betting markets and gamified slots. Hear him discuss: How he and co-founder Aaron built Sparket after work hours while still at Google and in finance Why Sparket is doubling down on alternative markets like pop culture and reality TV to attract underserved bettors New partnerships with Penn Entertainment and Wonder Nation, and what they signal about Sparket's momentum Their soon-to-be-granted patent for AI-powered market creation, filed back in 2020 How Sparket raised ~$2.5M through angel investors while avoiding institutional capital (so far) What winning “Startup of the Year” at The Starties meant to him and why it felt different from other industry awards His honest take on the mental toll of founding a startup, and how he manages the grind Why gratitude, yoga, and stepping away from the screen help him stay sane while building How Sparket is preparing for NFL season with Swift-Kelce-themed contests and slot-credit tie-ins   Catch the video version of this episode here.   Learn more

In this episode of the Hospitable Hosts podcast, Waigwa shares his journey from a single-room rental in London to managing over 20 properties. He discusses the evolution of his business, the challenges of maintaining high standards in guest experiences, and the importance of building trust with property owners. Waigwa emphasizes the need for patience and consistency in the short-term rental market and offers insights into how he differentiates his services to attract property owners.For more information: https://www.hostmynest.co.uk/about-usSleep easy, host confidently with Hospitable. Automate your guest messages, sync your calendar across booking channels, and protect yourself from bad direct booking guests.Sign up today at hospitable.com/podcast and get 25% off your bill for 3 months.

Here's What I Wish I Knew at Each Milestone If you're sitting at six figures and asking yourself, "What do I need to focus on to grow this business the right way?" — this episode is your roadmap. I'm walking you through what I call the three critical scaling phases: the Foundation Phase at $100K, the Momentum to Millions Phase at $500K, and the Leadership Expansion Phase once you've hit $1M. I break down the exact moves to make at each level, from optimizing your core offer and tightening up your systems, to tracking profit margins and building a team you can trust. You'll learn how to stop spinning your wheels, make smarter decisions based on real data, and step into the CEO role your business needs from you. This isn't about doing more. It's about doing the right things at the right time—without burning out, losing profit, or feeling like you have to constantly reinvent the wheel. I'm sharing behind-the-scenes strategies I used to scale my own business and what I teach inside my masterminds and Digital Course Academy. So whether you're trying to stabilize your income, grow with intention, or finally let go of the tasks that are dragging you down, I've got you. HERE ARE THE 3 KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE: 1️⃣ Scaling from $100K starts with building a rock-solid foundation  – Without a strong foundation, you'll pay for it later. Learn how to systematize your processes, get clear on your finances, and stop jumping from offer to offer too soon.  2️⃣ At $500K, focus on financial mastery and the customer journey – Know your numbers, track your profit margins, and design offers that support your audience as they continue to grow with you. 3️⃣ Once you've hit $1M, it's time to lead like a CEO – This is where leadership becomes essential. You'll need to build a strong team, clarify roles, and step fully into the visionary role so your business doesn't rely on you for every little decision. RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Doubting every move? Stressing over every sentence, margin, and graphic? Take a beat and grab my guide, 3 Mind Games That Keep You Playing Small (And How to Break Free for Good). You'll learn how to gently get your thoughts in check so you can keep moving forward.  Digital Course Academy is opening in September! To be the first to know and access all the early bird perks, sign up for the waitlist: amyporterfield.com/dca  Check out Episode 21, all about business metrics and data: amyporterfield.com/show-notes/21  MORE FROM ME Follow me on Instagram @amyporterfield SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW If you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts! Your support helps us reach more entrepreneurs who need these insights.

Is intelligence just compute plus data? And if so... what happens next? In this episode, Dwarkesh Patel, host of one of the most respected AI podcasts and author of “The Scaling Era”, joins us to break down the exponential rise of artificial intelligence. We explore how scaling laws became the engine behind modern models, why AI still can't learn on the job, and whether we're truly on the brink of AGI. From coding to consciousness, from geopolitics to governance, Dwarkesh shares a grounded but urgent perspective on what it means to live through the transition and how we might prepare for what's coming. ------

Dr. Ben Hardy is an organizational psychologist and bestselling author of multiple books including "10x Is Easier Than 2x" and "The Science of Scaling." He helps high achievers compress time and achieve impossible goals through his research-based frameworks.GET The Science of Scaling: Scaling.comInstagram: @drbenjaminhardyWant To Quit Your Job In The Next 6-18 Months Through Buying Commercial Real Estate & Small Businesses?

If you're a coach, creator, or business owner who's already seeing some success—but you know there's another level waiting for you—this episode is going to flip the switch. I'm joined by Dr. Benjamin Hardy, best-selling author of The Science of Scaling, to unpack how to simplify your business, clarify your goal, and 10X in less time than you think. This isn't about hustle—it's about alignment. Get ready for a framework that can reshape your strategy and your identity.

What do luxury fashion, planetary sustainability, and a late-night knock from counterfeiters have in common? They're all part of Julie Wainwright's extraordinary story.In this compelling episode of Thrive LouD, host Lou Diamond sits down with trailblazing entrepreneur Julie Wainwright—the powerhouse behind The RealReal and now founder of Ahara, a precision nutrition venture. Julie pulls back the curtain on how she turned an unconventional idea into a billion-dollar company that rocked the fashion industry, championed sustainability, and faced off against both luxury titans and the dark world of high-stakes counterfeiting.Julie dives deep into the sparks and pivots that shaped her career, revealing the real-life “aha moment” that launched The RealReal and the tough venture capital battles she endured. She reflects on the personal and environmental impacts of her work, how she defines success beyond the bottom line, and shares some truly wild stories—including one that might just make you rethink what it means to challenge an industry's status quo.The episode also touches on Julie's writing journey with her new book Time to Get Real, her latest health-tech startup, and the leadership secrets she's learned through decades of scaling and innovating in Silicon Valley and beyond.Key Highlights:How Julie spotted an untapped goldmine in luxury consignment (and outpaced the competition)The operational nightmare—and innovation—behind processing millions of unique fashion items a yearThe double-edged sword of disrupting an industry: sustainability wins, investor skepticism, and threats from counterfeitersThe emotional and surprising process behind writing her no-punches-pulled memoirJulie's latest mission: revolutionizing nutrition and preventative health with AharaCandid advice on leadership, new ventures, and why success is more than just a financial numberFun insights into Julie's personal tastes, from her favorite movies to pickleball matches and coleslaw cravingsTimestamped Overview:[00:00:02] – Lou introduces Julie Wainwright and sets the stage for her impressive career[00:01:28] – The RealReal: how it rewrote the rules of luxury fashion resale[00:03:00] – The surprising shopping trip that sparked the business idea[00:05:02] – Moving fast, executing harder, and venture capital realities[00:07:17] – Scaling operations, overcoming skepticism, and the AI advantage[00:08:43] – Shifting definitions of success—impact, planet, and profit[00:10:03] – Julie's book journey: catharsis, legal battles, and a sign from London[00:16:28] – Face-offs with counterfeiters and luxury brands[00:17:32] – What's next: launching Ahara and the future of nutrition tech[00:20:16] – Leadership hats, the IPO high, and why collaboration matters[00:23:06] – Where to find Julie and her work[00:24:28] – Fun Street: movies, food, hiking, and more personal favoritesDon't miss this energetic, inspiring, and sometimes jaw-dropping conversation with one of Silicon Valley's true originals!

Stephen Predmore is the founder and managing partner of Talbott Investments. A former engineer with over 20 years of experience in the manufacturing industry, Stephen transitioned into real estate after a sudden layoff. Since then, he's grown from single-family investor to general partner in multifamily, specializing in JV structures and educating engineers on passive investing strategies.    

Dean Neff didn't set out to build the biggest seafood restaurant—he set out to build the most meaningful.At Seabird in Wilmington, North Carolina, Dean's created a model where purpose isn't a marketing angle—it's the operating system. From sourcing to storytelling to team education, his restaurant is a case study in how to scale impact without sacrificing profitability.In this episode, Dean breaks down the systems that support a values-driven business, the importance of teaching staff to connect the dots between product and purpose, and why his restaurant runs on more than just service—it runs on story. For any operator wondering if deeper meaning can lead to stronger margins, this episode says yes—and shows you how.To learn more about Seabird and the work he's doing in Wilmington, visit https://www.seabirdnc.com.____________________________________________________________Full Comp is brought to you by Yelp for Restaurants: In July 2020, a few hundred employees formed Yelp for Restaurants. Our goal is to build tools that help restaurateurs do more with limited time.We have a lot more content coming your way! Be sure to check out our other content:Yelp for Restaurants PodcastsRestaurant expert videos & webinars

In this inspiring episode of The Entrepreneurial You, host Heneka Watkis-Porter welcomes Betsy Pepine—serial entrepreneur, bestselling author, and founder of a top-producing real estate brokerage. Betsy shares her transformative journey from corporate pharmaceuticals to real estate, highlighting how life's challenges—including job loss and single motherhood—served as catalysts for reinvention. With honesty and heart, she outlines how passion, leadership, and purpose-driven decisions helped her grow a thriving business and impactful community initiatives. What You'll Learn in This Episode: • How Betsy transitioned from corporate to real estate success • The impact of flexible careers on women in leadership • How unplanned growth led to intentional leadership change • The power of mentorship and mastermind groups • Why culture and community matter in business success • Insights from Betsy's book Breaking Boxes • Upcoming leadership events for growth and connection • Why real estate—and entrepreneurship—is all about relationships COMMUNITY CONNECTION: Let us take a brief moment to celebrate community and growth. Leadercast Kingston returns this October, offering an exceptional opportunity to connect with some of Jamaica's most dynamic and influential leaders. Then in November, it is time to exchange the office for the ocean with the highly anticipated LeadHerShip Cruise. This empowering four-day journey aboard Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas promises learning, networking, and well-deserved relaxation. A fun fact about the ship: its Royal Promenade is like a floating city — ideal for spontaneous mastermind sessions or a peaceful midnight stroll. For more information or to share a personal story, listeners are encouraged to reach out via email at heneka@henekawatkisporter.com or through WhatsApp at 876-849-2571. CONTACT BETSY PEPINE: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gainesvillerealtor Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/betsypepine Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/betsypepine/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/betsypepine/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BetsyPepine GIVE AWAY: Sign up on website for free newsletter TRENDING NOW: Here's something to chew on: 89% of real estate leaders say company culture is their top retention tool, and brokerages with a strong giving-back mission grow 3x faster than their peers. Betsy's blend of business acumen and heart is exactly what today's market craves. If you enjoyed this episode of The Entrepreneurial You, subscribe on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, leave a rating, and share it with your friends. Visit henekawatkisporter.com to download a free eBook on how to conduct podcast interviews like a pro! RELATED EPISODES YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Discover more episodes that offer valuable insights, inspiration, and practical tips to help you on your entrepreneurial journey. • Investing in Sustainability, and Redefining Success With Mark Rampolla • Building Trust and Collaboration: Insights from Mike's ‘We're All in This Together With Mike Robbins AFFIRM WITH ME: I am breaking out of my boxes and building a legacy of impact and abundance. LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE: Spotify: https://bit.ly/TEYSpotify Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/2nDEbsZ POWERED BY OUR SPONSORS: Thanks to our sponsors henekawatkisporter.com & the Jamaica Stock Exchange Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most gym owners start with a fitness passion, instead Sheetal started with a tech background and a  structured business plan, and it worked. He built three Club Pilates studios that together do over $100K/month with 50% profit margins and scaled without him onsite. In this episode, you'll hear how he built the system, sold the portfolio, and walked away with a multi-seven-figure exit. We break down the real numbers behind his sale, how “add-backs” boosted his valuation, why clean P&Ls attract better buyers, and how NPS helped him grow without ads. Whether you're building for freedom, scale, or a future exit, Sheetal's approach proves you don't need to be a fitness expert to run a wildly successful studio, you just need to think like a business owner and implement the right systems.      Chapters (00:00) Introduction (07:05) Scaling to A $100K/Month Portfolio   (11:10) Why Great Product Is the Best Marketing  (15:55) Using NPS and Online Reviews to Drive Growth   (23:12) Health Scare & When He Started Thinking About Selling  (27:24) Preparing for Exit: Financials, Add-Backs, Clean P&Ls    (36:01) Valuation Multiples: Portfolio Size & Profit Matter   (42:50) The Value Of Using A Broker vs. DIY Sale   (48:17) Why Future Gyms Must Adapt   Ready to GROW your GYM? Schedule a free call to learn how we can help: https://loudrumor.com/discover Get Mike's Book... The Standard Is You: The Gym Employee's Guide to Winning in Work, Life, and Leadership: https://a.co/d/atZ70dA More From Loud Rumor Website: https://www.loudrumor.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loudrumor LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/loud-rumor Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/boom.loudrumor Twitter: https://twitter.com/LoudRumor

What's stopping your business from scaling? It might be a revenue bottleneck—and Andrea Beach knows how to fix it. In this episode of Behind The Numbers With Dave Bookbinder, Andrea Beach, CEO of Growth Concierge and founder of 22 companies, shares how her membership-based model gives businesses access to a team of seasoned entrepreneurs—without the overhead of full-time hires. Andrea explains how to identify and remove growth roadblocks, streamline operations, and build a culture that supports long-term success. She also explores the psychology of leadership and why understanding human behavior is critical to scaling smart. This episode is a must-listen for founders and business leaders ready to accelerate growth without sacrificing culture or control. ----more---- About our Guest: Andrea Beach is an accomplished entrepreneur, investor, and business strategist specializing in scalable growth, technology innovation, and consumer behavior. In addition to having founded over 21 companies herself, she has helped CEOs and business owners scale efficiently while reducing risk. As founder of the TC Network, Andrea provides a special operations – meets - white glove service for companies looking to grow without adding overhead. She has worked with Fortune 500 brands, advised hundreds of growth-stage companies. As an in-demand speaker and media commentator, Andrea is passionate about helping leaders unlock growth, leverage technology, and work smarter—not harder.   About the Host: Dave Bookbinder is known as an expert in business valuation and he is the person that business owners and entrepreneurs reach out to when they need to know what their most important assets are worth. Known as a collaborative adviser, Dave has served thousands of client companies of all sizes and industries.    Dave is the author of two #1 best-selling books about the impact of human capital (PEOPLE!) on the valuation of a business enterprise called The NEW ROI: Return On Individuals & The NEW ROI: Going Behind The Numbers.    He's on a mission to change the conversation about how the accounting world recognizes the value of people's contributions to a business enterprise, and to quantify what every CEO on the planet claims: “Our people are this company's most valuable asset.”   Dave's book, A Valuation Toolbox for Business Owners and Their Advisors: Things Every Business Owner Should Know, was recognized as a top new release in Business and Valuation and is designed to provide practical insights and tools to help understand what really drives business value, how to prepare for an exit, and just make better decisions. He's also the host of the highly rated Behind The Numbers With Dave Bookbinder business podcast which is enjoyed in more than 100 countries.  

People Strategy Is Business Strategy: The Essentials You NeedThink HR should handle all the “people stuff”? Think again.In this episode, I'm calling out one of the most common mistakes founders make when trying to scale—treating people strategy like an admin function or annoyance instead of core business strategy. I break down exactly what people systems you need and why this is all a part of your overall business operations strategy, not something else you need to do. We'll talk through the key systems every small business needs to grow a high-performing team, how to divide ownership between HR, managers, and leadership, and what happens when you avoid the hard conversations and hope someone else will handle them for you.If you've ever said, “I just need to hire a strong HR person to manage the team,” this episode is for you.What you'll hear in this episode:[1:45] Why outsourcing leadership doesn't work[4:00] The parts of people strategy founders must own[7:20] HR's real role—and where their responsibility ends[9:40] The essential systems every growing team needs[13:10] The “Owner Map” for hiring, management, and culture[16:25] What happens when you pass off uncomfortable conversations[18:00] Practical steps to lead your team (with HR as a co-pilot)[20:15] Wrap-up: Scaling people is the jobResources + LinksConnect with me on LinkedInGet our HR & Hiring EssentialsNeed help building your people systems? Reach out for a free discovery call

In this episode, Lady Landlords founder, Becky Nova breaks down the BRRRR strategy—Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat—as a powerful way for real estate investors to grow their portfolios without constantly saving for new down payments.===

#104.In this episode, Josh sits down with chefs Shawn Aoki and Ryan Harris to explore their journey from working in hotels to running a successful culinary consultancy in Dubai's dynamic food scene. They dive into the unique challenges of menu development, ingredient sourcing, and the competitive nature of the culinary community in Dubai. Throughout the conversation, Shawn, Ryan, and Josh discuss the importance of understanding client needs while developing new culinary concepts, emphasizing how the creative process adapts to the growing demands of a consultancy.The trio also shares insights on the balance between maintaining creative control and learning to delegate as businesses expand. They touch on the importance of continuous learning through travel, the evolving world of food trends, and how AI is influencing recipe development. The episode wraps up with a conversation on the timeless value of cookbooks as sources of inspiration for culinary professionals. Tune in for an engaging, professional, and thought-provoking discussion about scaling culinary businesses and staying ahead in a fast-paced industry.Links and resources

Want to watch this episode on video? Check it out here on YouTube: https://youtu.be/M5PHrJrXVIoSign up for the FREE Masterclass- How to Build a 7-Figure Group Practice → https://mccancemethod.com/webinar-free-masterclass-from-solo-to-superteam/ In this episode, I'm sharing an inspiring panel discussion from my live event, where graduates of my program—the Clinic Growth Map—open up about their real-life scaling journeys. From maternity leaves to mindset shifts and marketing wins, these successful group practice owners reveal what it really took to build thriving multi-six and seven-figure practices.Make sure to bring your paper and pen because this episode is full of actionable tips!Here are some key points in this episode:[02:16] Carla shares how she built a team of 20 and structured her business to step back as the owner[04:23] Panelists discuss what initially motivated them to scale their solo practices into group practices[09:40] Nicole dives into how limiting beliefs hold many therapists back and how each guest overcame theirs[14:35] Group owners reveal the top client attraction strategies working for them right now[27:34] The panel reflects on how their lives have changed since scaling their practices, including income and freedom[36:26] Q&A begins with tips on fixing “leaky buckets” and building strong intake systemsLinks From The Episode:Learn more about the Clinic Growth Map here: https://mccancemethod.com/ Book a Strategy Call → https://mccancemethod.com/strategy-call/ Follow me on Instagram, @nicole.mccanncemethod. If this episode provided you with value and inspiration, please leave a review and DM to let me know. Click here: https://www.instagram.com/nicole.mccancemethod

Building trust in data isn't just a modern challenge—it's a decades-old problem that continues to evolve. In this episode, Chief Data Citizen Stijn Christiaens sits down with Axel Frank and Kevin Falkenstein of Siemens AG to explore how one of the world's largest industrial manufacturers is tackling that challenge head-on.Together, Axel and Kevin lead Siemens' internal data governance platform, where they've reimagined data management around reuse, business ownership and transparency. They discuss the company's shift toward data products, the creation of a centralized data marketplace and the cultural transformation that's helping Siemens scale governance across business domains.From skeptical executives to AI-powered possibilities, learn how to make data governance a source of value—not friction.Three reasons you should listen to this episode:1. Build trust through transparency. Hear how Siemens uses data lineage, ownership, and quality checks to foster confidence in data—so executives can make decisions without second-guessing the numbers.2. Design data for reuse and scale. Learn to define and structure data products for business users, making data both consumable and composable across teams.3. Future-proof your data strategy. Discover how strong governance today enables data products to evolve alongside AI—ensuring your foundation is built for whatever comes next.ResourcesConnect with StijnConnect with AxelConnect with KevinEnjoyed this episode?Be sure to follow us so you never miss an update. You can leave us a review on Apple or Spotify, and share it with your friends and colleagues to help others learn more about the importance of a data-first digital transformation approach.Have questions? You can connect with us on LinkedIn. For more updates, please visit our website.

In this episode, Megan chats with Amir about his journey into the world of content creation and how he's built a presence as a veterinary influencer. Amir shares how he balances creating engaging content with his locum work, and how he stays grounded while growing his online presence. From managing time to maintaining authenticity, Amir offers honest insights into making social media work for you.  Learn more about Amir Anwary: https://www.instagram.com/amir_the_vet/ Learn more about Amir's Dog Survival Guide: https://petsurvivalguide.shop/ Learn more about Vets2Pets products: https://vets2pets.com/ Find out more about the Vet Rehab Summit: https://vetrehabsummit.com/ Learn more about Paw Prosper's special offer: https://pawprosper.com/OPH Learn more about Paw Prosper: https://pawprosper.com/ To learn about Onlinepethealth, watch a free webinar, or join any of our Facebook groups, click here: https://onlinepethealth.com/podcast

In this episode, Pete and Tyler discuss the success of a local news publisher who has implemented a new subscription model through the Paywall Project. This episode covers the publisher's initial challenges, the transition to a more effective paywall strategy, and the significant growth in email list and revenue.

On this episode Pat sits down with Gaurav Biswas, Co-Founder & CEO of leading freight forwarder and logistics scaleup Trukker. We dive into the company's journey from their initial launch in India, focusing on MENA scaling to 200M+ in revenues, servicing 1,500 clients across 9 countries and raising $300M+ from the likes of ADQ, Ruya and Investcorp You will learn aboutScoping the opportunity and setting your target focusScaling in a fragmented, archaic industry picking your battles and finding your sweet spotLet expansion be driven on the back of your customer needs Excel doesn't lie if the numbers don't add up you are on the wrong track 

For memberships: join this channel as a member here:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_mGuY4g0mggeUGM6V1osdA/joinSummary:In this conversation, Kaivalya Apte and Rajesh Pandey talk about the engineering behind AWS Lambda, exploring its architecture, use cases, and best practices. They discuss the challenges of event handling, concurrency, and load balancing, as well as the importance of observability and testing in serverless environments. The conversation highlights the innovative solutions AWS Lambda provides for developers, emphasizing the balance between simplicity and complexity in cloud computing.Chapters:00:00 Introduction to AWS Lambda04:36 Use Cases and Best Practices for AWS Lambda09:34 Event Handling and Queue Management19:41 Idempotency and Event Duplication Challenges29:39 Cold Starts and Performance Optimization34:37 Statelessness and Resource Management in Lambda42:18 Understanding Micro-VMs and Cold Starts45:14 Resource Management and Recommendations for Developers47:04 Scaling and Back Pressure in Serverless Systems51:33 Cellular Architecture and Fairness in Resource Allocation55:23 Handling Problematic Events and Poison Pills01:01:03 Testing and Operational Readiness in Lambda01:14:11 Preparing for High Traffic EventsReferences:Handling Billions of invocations: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/compute/handling-billions-of-invocations-best-practices-from-aws-lambda/Firecracker: https://firecracker-microvm.github.io/AWS Lambda: https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/Connect with Rajesh: https://x.com/RPandeyViewshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/rajeshpandeyiiit/Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe for more insights!=============================================================================Like building stuff? Try out CodeCrafters and build amazing real world systems like Redis, Kafka, Sqlite. Use the link below to signup and get 40% off on paid subscription.https://app.codecrafters.io/join?via=geeknarrator=============================================================================Database internals series: https://youtu.be/yV_Zp0Mi3xsPopular playlists:Realtime streaming systems: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLL7QpTxsA4se-mAKKoVOs3VcaP71X_LA-Software Engineering: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLL7QpTxsA4sf6By03bot5BhKoMgxDUU17Distributed systems and databases: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLL7QpTxsA4sfLDUnjBJXJGFhhz94jDd_dModern databases: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLL7QpTxsA4scSeZAsCUXijtnfW5ARlrsNStay Curios! Keep Learning!#aws #awslambda #serverless #distributedsystems #scalability #reliability

After achieving massive success as a renowned author, Dr. Benjamin Hardy knew he was destined for more. Leaving behind a profitable collaboration with his co-author, he focused on mastering the art of scaling a business. As the co-founder of Scaling.com, he has helped top performers transform their strategies and unlock next-level growth in entrepreneurship. In this episode, Benjamin discusses the power of setting impossible goals and reveals his three-step scaling framework, designed to help entrepreneurs grow ten times faster than they ever imagined. In this episode, Hala and Benjamin will discuss:  (00:00) Introduction   (02:27) His Career Journey and Identity Shifts (06:11) Building a Mindset for Future Success (08:13) Scale Faster: Why 10X Thinking Beats 2X Goals (12:46) The Biggest Blockers to Scaling Your Business (14:44) The Power of Setting Impossible Goals and Deadlines (27:45) Benjamin's Framework to Scale Faster as a Founder (36:12) Finding Your “Super Whos” for Business Growth (42:17) Simplifying Your Systems to Scale Your Impact (48:27) Letting Go of Identities to Embrace 10x Growth (51:55) How Entrepreneurs Can Leverage Scaling.com Dr. Benjamin Hardy is an organizational psychologist and the co-founder of Scaling.com, a performance-based training program designed for fast-growth companies. As a bestselling author, his books, including 10x Is Easier Than 2x, have sold millions of copies worldwide. His latest book, The Science of Scaling, offers entrepreneurs a powerful framework to achieve 10x growth by setting impossible goals and aligning with their future selves. Sponsored By: Shopify - Start your $1/month trial at Shopify.com/profiting. Indeed - Get a $75 sponsored job credit to boost your job's visibility at Indeed.com/PROFITING OpenPhone - Get 20% off your first 6 months at OpenPhone.com/profiting. Airbnb - Find a co-host at airbnb.com/host Boulevard - Get 10% off your first year at joinblvd.com/profiting when you book a demo Resources Mentioned: Benjamin's Book, The Science of Scaling: bit.ly/TheScienceofScaling  Benjamin's Book, 10x Is Easier than 2x: bit.ly/10xIsEasierthan2x  Benjamin's Book, Who Not How: bit.ly/Who_NotHow  Benjamin's Book, The Gap and the Gain: bit.ly/TheGapandtheGain  Benjamin's Audiobook: scaling.com/audiobook  Benjamin's Website: benjaminhardy.com  YAP E206 with Benjamin Hardy: bit.ly/YAP-apple YAP E260 with Benjamin Hardy: bit.ly/YAP-BHapple  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steve Covey: bit.ly/7Habits_EffectivePeople  Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Remelt: bit.ly/_GoodStrategy_BadStrategy  Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl: bit.ly/Search_for_Meaning_  Don't Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen: bit.ly/DontBlieve_YouThink  Active Deals - youngandprofiting.com/deals  Key YAP Links Reviews - ratethispodcast.com/yap YouTube - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ Social + Podcast Services: yapmedia.com Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com/episodes-new  Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Podcast, Business, Business Podcast, Self Improvement, Self-Improvement, Personal Development, Starting a Business, Strategy, Investing, Sales, Selling, Psychology, Productivity, Entrepreneurs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Marketing, Negotiation, Money, Finance, Side Hustle, Startup, Mental Health, Career, Leadership, Mindset, Health, Growth Mindset, Passive Income, Online Business, Solopreneur, Networking

In this episode we will dive into the final phase of the Profitable Scaling Playbook: building enterprise value. Shannon breaks down what enterprise value means and why it's crucial for scaling and ultimately selling your business. She emphasizes the importance of risk mitigation, the need for replicable and transferable operations, and how to avoid over-reliance on the owner. Tune in to learn actionable steps to maximize your business's value, from maintaining positive cash flow to reducing keyman risk and developing robust SOPs.   Don't miss Shannon's insights on ensuring your business can thrive without you, positioning it for a successful future sale or continuous growth.   What you'll hear in this episode: [0:45] Understanding Enterprise Value [2:15] Risk Mitigation and Management [4:55] Keyman Risk and Personal Brand Challenges [6:05] Building Systems and Processes for Scaling [6:35] Maximizing Customer Value   Learn more about our CFO firm and services: https://www.keepwhatyouearn.com/   Connect with Shannon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannonweinstein Watch full episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMlIuZsrllp1Uc_MlhriLvQ Follow along on IG: https://www.instagram.com/shannonkweinstein/   The information contained in this podcast is intended for educational purposes only and is not individual tax advice. We love enthusiastic action, but please consult a qualified professional before implementing anything you learn.

Scaling a real estate portfolio is challenging enough—but doing it across multiple states while serving in the military takes a whole different level of strategy.  Jefferson Calloway started investing in 2019 while stationed as a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army, buying a townhome near Fort Rucker, Alabama. Since then, he's mastered creative financing and grown his portfolio to 27 doors across seven states with over $1 million in equity. Jefferson is here to share how new investors can find and finance deals creatively, scale in high-interest markets, and why investing near military bases might be one of the best-kept secrets in real estate. Find out more: Jefferson@calcapital.us Website - www.americanhomeconcepts.com Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jeffersoncalloway/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jefferson-calloway-2bb17381/ Today's episode is brought to you by Green Property Management, managing everything from single family homes to apartment complexes in the West Michigan area. https://www.livegreenlocal.com And RCB & Associates, helping Michigan-based real estate investors and small business owners navigate the complex world of health insurance and Medicare benefits. https://www.rcbassociatesllc.com

In this episode of the Becker's Healthcare Podcast, Lukas Voss of Becker's Healthcare sits down with Ben Mirtes, CEO of Ingenovis Health, to explore how forward-thinking partnerships and emerging technologies are reshaping the future of healthcare staffing. From workforce strategy shifts to clinician well-being and the growing influence of AI, Ben shares actionable insights and real-world examples of how health systems can scale smarter. Tune in for a timely conversation on building a resilient, tech-enabled workforce in an evolving healthcare landscape.This episide is sponsored by Ingenovis.

When we think about reducing the environmental impact of our outdoor gear, we often focus on the materials we can see, like recycled fabrics or plant-based alternatives. But what about the processes behind the scenes? A significant portion of the climate footprint actually comes from the production process of those materials.In this episode, we're taking a closer look at insulation and the invisible side of sustainability in outdoor manufacturing.I'm joined by Andrea Paulson, the SVP of Innovation and Technology at PrimaLoft Inc., the global leader in high-performance, sustainable insulation. Andrea has over two decades of product development, engineering, manufacturing, and functional testing experience. At PrimaLoft, Andrea guides her team towards breakthrough innovation on both data-driven highways, and creative dusty-switchbacks.At the heart of today's conversation is PrimaLoft P.U.R.E.—a manufacturing method that reduces carbon emissions by more than 50% compared to conventional processes. As of January 2025, PrimaLoft's flagship Gold Insulation is now made exclusively using P.U.R.E., a milestone in their shift toward cleaner production and renewable energy integration.INSTAGRAM: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/outdoor.minimalist.book/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠WEBSITE: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.theoutdoorminimalist.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YOUTUBE: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@theoutdoorminimalist⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LISTENER SURVEY: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://forms.gle/jd8UCN2LL3AQst976⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠-----------------PrimaLoftWebsite: https://primaloft.com/PrimaLoft P.U.R.E: https://primaloft.com/pure/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PrimaLoft/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/primaloft/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/primaloft-inc-/

Aaron Zagha is the Chief Marketing Officer at Newton Baby, the largest direct-to-consumer brand in the baby sleep category. With a background in investment banking at Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan, Aaron brings a financial operator's lens to performance marketing, attribution modeling, and team leadership.Before joining Newton, Aaron led international Ecommerce for Teleflora, managing growth across global markets and navigating the complexity of seasonal retail cycles and cross-border logistics. Today, he applies that same analytical rigor to the world of baby and juvenile goods where trust, conversion, and retention all hinge on deeply personalized journeys.Aaron shares how finance-trained marketers bring discipline to growth forecasting, why he encourages his team to challenge attribution models, and how incrementality testing has become central to his media mix. He also unpacks the pitfalls of over-indexing on Meta, why Pinterest deserves more spend, and how to onboard new marketing hires with the right mental models from day one.Whether he's explaining why some site visitors can't be influenced or why channel diversification is more urgent than ever, Aaron delivers a clear-eyed, tactical view into what's working in DTC marketing today.In This Conversation We Discuss:[00:40] Intro[01:13] Finding opportunity through internal mobility[02:34] Building with seasoned tech entrepreneurs[03:09] Keeping connections that open future doors[03:53] Auditing channel mix to unlock growth[04:50] Applying stats to improve ad performance[05:54] Selling off-site and skewing test results[08:00] Optimizing upstream metrics with caution[09:00] Driving sales with offer and positioning[10:19] Episode Sponsors: Electric Eye & Zamp[12:44] Relying on incrementality to guide spend[14:20] Backing bold ideas with leadership support[15:31] Humanizing luxury to boost relatability[17:01] Turning off losers without ending the test[20:14] Feeding AI tools to stay effective[21:11] Measuring performance with GeoLift testsResources:Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube#1 rated baby crib mattress newtonbaby.com/Follow Aaron Zagha linkedin.com/in/aaronzaghaSchedule an intro call with one of our experts electriceye.io/connectFully managed sales tax solution for Ecommerce brands zamp.com/honestIf you're enjoying the show, we'd love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!

Carrie talks with Paul Shunnarah, co-owner of Fit Five Meals and Gauntlet Fitness, about how he turned a nutrition need at his gym into one of the Southeast's fastest-growing meal prep companies. Paul shares what makes Fit Five stand out, why they avoid subscriptions and how they've grown without sacrificing quality. Mentioned in this episode: Fit Five Meals Fit Five Meals on Instagram Gauntlet Fitness Elite Nutrition Wheelhouse Salon Infomedia Overtime Grill & Bar Church Street Coffee & Books Baba Java Paul Shunnarah on Instagram Absolute Nutrition  

Send us a textUnlock Proven Strategies for a Lucrative Business Exit—Subscribe to The Deep Wealth Podcast TodayHave Questions About Growing Profits And Maximizing Your Business Exit? Submit Them Here, and We'll Answer Them on the Podcast!“Soft skills matter.” - Mark HerschbergExclusive Insights from This Week's EpisodesIn this episode, Mark pulls back the curtain on why technical skills alone won't carry you to the top—and how leadership, communication, and strategic thinking are the real X-factors behind sustained growth. Whether you're stuck at 7 figures or racing toward 9, this is the episode that will change how you think about success, forever.00:04:00 – Why Mark Herschberg built a dual career in tech and teaching00:10:00 – Why soft skills are the new hard edge in business00:13:00 – What most entrepreneurs miss when hiring and training teams00:18:00 – The truth about AI and how it's already changing the workforce00:24:00 – The looming talent disruption—and how to prepare for it00:27:00 – How to create a culture of internal leadership and strategic thinking00:30:00 – Why Brain Bump changes how we retain business wisdom00:35:00 – How ethical blind spots kill long-term growth00:47:00 – The one skill you must master to scale beyond yourselfClick here for full show notes, transcript, and resources:https://podcast.deepwealth.com/459Essential Resources to Maximize Your Business ExitLearn More About Deep Wealth MasteryFREE Deep Wealth eBook on Why You Suck At Selling Your Business And What You Can Do About It (Today)Unlock Your Lucrative Exit and Secure Your Legacy

On this episode of Teamwork a Better Way, we're joined by executive coach and former global COO Rob Ott, who shares his Dynamic Calibration framework—a game-changing approach for leaders navigating growth, change, and complexity.Rob grew a company from under 10 to 2,000+ employees across 10+ countries. Now, he's helping leaders do the same without losing their people-first culture.Learn how his “3Cs”—Context, Content, and Conduct—build emotionally intelligent, high-performing teams that thrive through transformation.Transcript: https://share.transistor.fm/s/19bd893f/transcript.txt

 What You'll LearnHow to reverse-engineer the customer journey to simplify complex operational challengesWhy grounding teams in customer empathy unlocks better delivery across multi-site venuesCross-functional collaboration's role in innovating under tariff pressures and supply chain disruptionsBalancing brand standards with local authenticity in high-scale venue operationsEmbedding real-time two-way feedback channels with frontline teams for continuous improvementCultivating inclusive teams through targeted skill-building and representation to drive diverse leadershipLessons from hospitality and gaming industries on agility amid market volatility and post-COVID shiftsHighlights00:00 – Intro and Erin Chamberlin's operational background at Topgolf and Caesars01:22 – Erin's career path: transitioning from consulting to casino and hospitality ops04:50 – The “work backwards from the customer” framework for experience design08:40 – Cross-functional innovation example: rethinking Topgolf's donut hole injectors under tariff risk12:00 – Scaling consistency across 97 venues through systemized audits and local empowerment15:30 – Culture of innovation fueled by frontline feedback and open idea channels among Playmakers20:15 – Managing growing complexity, market volatility, and agility post-COVID24:50 – Building inclusive, diverse teams with skills development and mentorship programs29:40 – Erin's personal “lean-in circle” and the importance of peer support in career growth32:00 – Upcoming innovations and expansions at Topgolf: new venues and new game experiences33:20 – Closing and how to follow Erin on LinkedIn Quotes[00:04:54]: “You have all of these lenses and perspectives you've gathered throughout your career, and you try to simplify all of these complex challenges by working backwards from the customer.” - Harshida Acharya[00:07:42]: “What the tech team needs to deliver, what the supply chain team needs to make sure that we have staffed and inventory—we peel that back at each step until you get to the most simple form of what you need to accomplish.” - Erin Chamberlin [00:26:41]: “It's really about providing skills for folks... Getting them to feel comfortable about reading a P&L, getting them comfortable presenting to large groups... We put in place concrete things that folks could do to level up their skill sets—to make them feel more confident.” - Erin Chamberlin [00:30:48]: “It's meant to be, ‘Let's support each other. Don't think that you're alone in this.' There are lots of us who are not sure if we belong here and if there's a path for us to grow.” - Harshida Acharya About the GuestErin Chamberlin is the Chief Operating Officer at Topgolf, leading operations across over 90 venues globally. With deep expertise from leadership roles at Caesars Entertainment and Penn Entertainment, Erin combines analytics, hospitality, and customer experience to deliver scalable, consistent, and playful experiences. She is passionate about building inclusive teams and fostering culture-led innovation in complex, rapidly growing organizations.Follow Erin on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-chamberlin-7360814/Topgolf venues: https://topgolf.com/  Subscribe and Keep Learning!If you're a logistics leader looking to scale sustainably, don't miss out! Subscribe for more expert strategies on tackling modern supply chain challenges.Be sure to follow and tag the eCom Logistics Podcast on LinkedIn and YouTube

Many skilled operators dream of being their own boss, but the reality is a brutal mix of financial pressure, operational chaos, and personal sacrifice. In this episode, Sy Kirby of Sy-Con Excavation shares his unfiltered story of turning a trade into a thriving business.From a name his grandfather wrote on a toy truck to building a company, a popular YouTube channel, and the Blue Collar Business Podcast, Sy reveals the raw truths about making big bets on people, kickstarting a marketing strategy at CONEXPO, and handling the crushing stress of being the CEO.

In this event session, Coach Micheal Burt delivers a high-impact breakdown of what it actually takes to grow your business, lead your team, and scale your income in today's competitive market. Speaking directly to driven sales pros, business owners, and entrepreneurs, Coach reveals the real reasons people stay stuck: lack of clarity, no structure, low follow-through, and weak environments.This isn't another motivational talk. It's a strategic coaching session that will push you to take ownership, build real frameworks, and finally activate the prey drive required to move from average to elite. If you've been working hard but still feel like you're spinning your wheels—this is for you. You'll walk away knowing exactly why you've plateaued, and how to create the mental, emotional, and tactical breakthroughs to scale faster without burning out.Chapters:00:00 - Teaser00:38 - Intro00:49 - Main Content38:18 - The Big Table39:32 - Main Content59:06 - Outro___________________Events:https://www.coachburt.com/eventsMasterclass:https://offer.coachburt.com/preydrivemasterclassregisterHire Me To Speak:https://www.coachburt.com/hirecoachCheck out my Books:https://www.coachburt.com/resources