Podcasts about Shark Tank

Emma Grede is the businesswoman behind major fashion brands including Skims and Good American, which she co-founded with Kim Kardashian and Khloé Kardashian, respectively. Last year Forbes included her on their list of America's Richest Self-Made Women, with an estimated net worth of $405 million.She grew up in Plaistow, East London, the eldest of four daughters. Her parents separated when she was five and she was raised by her mum, who worked long hours as a trader at an investment bank. Emma took on a lot of the responsibility at home caring for her sisters. Dyslexia meant she struggled at school, but she found satisfaction in a string of part-time jobs, from delivering newspapers to making sandwiches in a deli. She later dropped out of the London College of Fashion to pursue a career in the industry, and by her mid-twenties she had founded her first company. She made her name brokering deals between celebrities and brands that included signing Natalie Portman as the face of Dior. In 2016 she founded an inclusive denim brand called Good American with Khloé Kardashian, and in 2019 she launched the shapewear brand Skims with Kim Kardashian. Lately her success has led her out of the boardroom and into the spotlight with guest appearances on Dragon's Den, and the US equivalent Shark Tank, as well as launching a podcast and writing a memoir. Emma lives in Los Angeles with her husband and business partner Jens, and they have four children.Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Hannah Hufford and Christine PawlowskyDesert Island Discs has cast away many fashion leaders to the island over the years including Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood and Paul Smith. You can hear their programmes if you search through BBC Sounds or our own Desert Island Discs website.

Today's callers: Cristopher from Chicago wants to expand his family's salsa brand from farmers markets into retail. Next, Darcy in Australia considers adapting his protein bar brand's messaging to reach beyond his core enthusiasts. Finally, Seema in Canada seeks strategies to increase B2B sales for her ethical kitchen linen company. Plus, Daymond and Guy talk about what makes a great Shark Tank pitch, and why Guy decided to start How I Built This 10 years ago. Thank you to the founders of Sabor a Mexico, Raised Nutrition and Cooks Who Feed for joining us on the show.If you'd like to be featured on a future Advice Line episode—where Guy and former show guests take questions from early-stage founders—leave us a one-minute message that tells us about your business and a specific question you'd like answered. Send a voice memo to hibt@id.wondery.com or call 1-800-433-1298. And be sure to listen to FUBU's founding story as told by Daymond on the show in 2018. This episode was produced by Katherine Sypher with music by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by John Isabella. Our audio engineer was Kwesi Lee.You can follow HIBT on X & Instagram and sign up for Guy's free newsletter at guyraz.com and on Substack.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Kevin O'Leary (investor, entrepreneur, and Shark, ABC's “Shark Tank”) joins Chris Cuomo for a wide-ranging conversation about Donald Trump's economic challenges heading into the midterms, the escalating trade fight with Canada, and what America needs to compete in the AI and energy race. O'Leary argues that despite strong markets and corporate performance, Trump has a problem at the kitchen table: small-business owners and everyday Americans are still feeling the effects of high energy, food, and operating costs. He explains what he thinks Trump could change before November, including easing tariffs and focusing more directly on the economic pressures facing small businesses and the heartland. Chris and Kevin also dig into Trump's increasingly contentious relationship with Canada and Prime Minister Mark Carney, whom O'Leary calls “smart as hell.” They debate whether Trump's approach to tariffs and trade is ultimately hurting American interests, how Carney has benefited politically from standing up to Trump, and why the economic relationship between the U.S. and Canada makes a prolonged trade war difficult for both countries. Plus, O'Leary discusses his massive investments in energy and AI infrastructure and responds to the growing backlash against data centers over their use of water, power, and other community resources.  Join The Chris Cuomo Project on YouTube for ad-free episodes, early releases, exclusive access to Chris, and more: https://www.youtube.com/@chriscuomo/join Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday: https://linktr.ee/cuomoproject Save 20% on your first online Lucy order at https://lucy.co/CUOMO with promo code CUOMO! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TikTok Shop isn't just a sales channel. It can be the top-of-funnel engine that creates demand across your entire ecommerce ecosystem.Jordan West sits down with Noah Almanzar from Read Arest to unpack Noah's journey from 3D printing and launching his own product to helping grow a Shark Tank brand through TikTok Shop.The conversation turns into a live consulting session as Jordan and Noah break down the real constraints facing the brand: building an engaged creator community, increasing AOV, making creator commissions attractive, navigating GMV Max with a low-ticket product and measuring TikTok Shop's halo effect on Amazon.You'll learn:- How product-content fit can drive organic TikTok virality- How Read Arest grew from $3.5K to $22K in monthly TikTok Shop GMV- How to approach creator community building when response rates are low- Why AOV matters for creator recruitment and profitable scale- How TikTok Shop can generate demand that spills over to Amazon- Why TikTok, Meta and marketplaces should operate as one connected ecosystemTikTok Shop can create the attention. The bigger opportunity is understanding how that attention translates into profitable revenue across the rest of the business.Need help scaling your TikTok Shop?Visit https://socialcommerceclub.comSubscribe for more TikTok Shop, GMV Max and social commerce strategies.

Martha interviews Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian about life with Serena, investments on Shark Tank, and being a girl dad. This episode is brought to you by McCormick Signature Seasonings.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hour 3 (8.24) Malibu's ten new speed cameras start issuing warnings in late September and real citations in late November — 11 mph over is all it takes. Plus two street takeovers in two hours, and a robot that ran a 9.32 hundred. 8:05 — Sunday night, a crowd of about 100 gathered for a street takeover on Whittier Boulevard in Boyle Heights while burglars cut into Lorena Pharmacy with a saw and walked out with baskets of merchandise. Fifteen minutes later and less than two miles away, masked suspects walked two cash registers out of a Jack in the Box in East LA. No arrests. Also: Conway's case for fries as a taco heat-warmer, and the Conway Show sandal line Angel still refuses to greenlight. 8:20 — Halloween season is close enough to smell, and the LA Haunted Hayride is the ex-Clear Channel executive success story nobody talks about. Melissa Carbone walked into Shark Tank's fifth season in 2013 and walked out with the biggest investment in the show's history to that point — Mark Cuban, $2 million for 20 percent. Plus a Chinese humanoid called Lightning that ran 100 meters in 9.32 seconds. 8:35 — Ten automated cameras on Malibu's 21-mile stretch of PCH, using lidar to flag anyone doing at least 11 over. Warnings start in late September, citations in late November — civil penalties, no license points, no insurance hit. More than 60 people have been killed on that stretch since 2010. Sorry, Ashley Mackie. 8:50 — Conway responds to YouTuber Nick Shirley's videos claiming widespread fraud against California welfare and health programs — what he's actually shown, what the state says, and where the number came from. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jeff Mains sits down with Elie Bouzaglou, founder of Fish Tank, a video-first crowdfunding platform built for a generation that discovered entrepreneurship on their phone. Elie built an AI voice-call analysis tool as an internal sales tool at his web agency, only to have his team push him to bring it to market. After getting rejected by Republic, Wefunder, and every major crowdfunding platform, Elie didn't blame his product — he blamed the format. Pitch decks are boring, gatekept, and built for VCs, not consumers. His answer: a platform where founders pitch like content creators and everyday people can watch and actually invest, Shark Tank style. The conversation covers building in public, going "all in" on a risky content bet that proved his thesis before launch, why the next Mark Zuckerberg is more likely to be an ex-UGC creator than a programmer, and his "carefully reckless" framework for tackling the thing founders are most afraid of.Key Takeaways3:48 — How Elie's internal AI sales tool became a product because his team saw value he didn't.6:15 — Why the tool wasn't VC fundable, and the pivot toward crowdfunding.10:30 — The core insight: crowdfunding's real problem isn't quality, it's that discovery is boring.13:01 — Why people will binge-watch Shark Tank but can't invest in it — and how Fish Tank closes that gap.17:10 — The "pushing a car" metaphor: starting is the hardest part, momentum does the rest.19:46 — His trick for beating camera-shyness: film it and tell yourself you won't post it.28:54 — Why the next Zuckerberg probably won't be a programmer — it'll be an ex-UGC creator.36:42 — The "carefully reckless" framework: name the thing you're avoiding, write it down, do it.37:31 — The story of betting nearly his last dollar on a content shoot with a VC-turned-content-creator — and how it proved his thesis before launch.40:19 — Why investors are just people, and being seen with flaws beats not being seen at all.41:59 — On dealing with online hate: most of it comes from jealousy, not dislike.Tweetable Quotes"The worst possible case scenario is no one knows who you are. It's not bad PR — that's where you're at right now, and it can only get better." — Elie Bouzaglou"You have to be carefully reckless. What is the thing you are delaying the most? What is the thing you're most afraid of? And just do it." — Elie Bouzaglou"It's always easier to build than to start from zero." — Elie Bouzaglou"I believe the next Mark Zuckerberg will not be a programmer. He'll probably be an ex-UGC person." — Elie Bouzaglou"The greatest success is just on the other side of that fear." — Jeff Mains"When someone hates on you and takes time out of their day to comment, it's because they're jealous — not because they actually dislike what you're doing." — Elie BouzaglouSaaS Leadership LessonsShip it even if you don't see the value. Elie almost never brought his internal tool to market — his team had to convince him. Don't assume "anyone could build this" means no one wants it.Question the format, not just the product. When rejected by every platform, Elie didn't fix his pitch — he concluded the entire crowdfunding format was broken and built a new one.Momentum beats planning. His "pushing a car" philosophy: the hardest part is starting; perfect names, decks, and plans can wait.Break big fears into small, reversible actions. Film it without posting. Schedule it with the option to cancel. Small, low-stakes steps unlock big behavior changes.Distribution is a founder skill now, not a marketing afterthought. Building in public and mastering short-form content may matter more than technical pedigree for the next generation of founders.Bet asymmetrically on your scariest move. Spending nearly his last dollar on a content shoot was terrifying — but the asymmetric upside (VC access, proof of concept, investor DMs) made it the right kind of reckless.Guest Resourceselie@fishtank.vchttps://www.fishtank.vceliebouzaglou.comeliebouzaglou.com/linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/elie-bouzaglo/https://www.instagram.com/ftnk.elieEpisode SponsorThe Futureproof Series - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfkXKUPZ5xuOqMPR7_gzGybncTtavyR1NThe Captain's KeysSmall Fish, Big Pond – https://smallfishbigpond.com/ Use the promo code ‘SaaSFuel'Champion Leadership Group – https://championleadership.com/https://jeffmains.com/books/SaaS Fuel ResourcesWebsite - https://championleadership.com/Jeff Mains on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffkmains/Twitter - https://twitter.com/jeffkmainsFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/thesaasguy/Instagram - https://instagram.com/jeffkmains

Alan interviews Tony Gonzales. Tony Gonzales is an attorney who has also built a business using an innovative coating that keeps scorpions, rodents, and other pests out of people's homes. Now he is taking his product - Slick Barrier - nationwide and soon internationally as part of the future of pest control. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts, so you won't miss a single episode. Website: www.SlickBarrier.com

Episode Summary: In this episode of the Work at Home Rockstar Podcast, Tim Melanson chats with Dr. Rob Yonover, founder and CEO of Sea Rescue Corporation, who has worked from home for over 30 years inventing survival gear for military and civilian use. What started as him "screwing around with a piece of plastic" on his patio became the SeeRescueStreamer, a signaling device he says is now military-approved worldwide and has even flown on SpaceX missions. Rob gets candid about what it actually takes to make working from home sustainable: brutal self-discipline, a simple math equation for building a passion project around a day job, and a thick skin built from years of rejection, including five no's on Shark Tank. He walks through the relentless, old-school media hustle that got his product into outlets like the Miami Herald, Outside Magazine, and Playboy, and explains why he still believes trade shows and face-to-face relationships beat digital marketing for building trust. The conversation also covers how a 15-year licensing deal with guaranteed royalties gave him the cash flow to keep inventing, what's exciting him now with a new pocket desalinator project and his published books, and his strong personal views on keeping kids off phones and social media. Who is Dr. Rob Yonover? Dr. Robert Yonover is a Ph.D. geochemist/volcanologist with a history of innovative scientific contributions and technologies that have been awarded U.S. Military/DARPA funding and U.S. Patents. The military-approved/adopted SeeRescueStreamer has saved lives on land and in water. A North Shore big wave surfer and Molokai Channel rough-water fisherman, Dr. Yonover uses the ocean as his laboratory. He's the founder and CEO of Sea Rescue Corporation and has worked from home in Hawaii for over 30 years, describing himself as a third-generation work-at-home entrepreneur following his grandmother, who ran an early medical practice out of her Chicago home, and his father, who built a mail-order business in the 1960s. The SeeRescueStreamer earned Navy approval and has since been adopted across military branches, including the Canadian Air Force. He's also the author of four books, Hardcore Inventing, Caregiver's Survival Guide, Hardcore Health, and Brainstorm Islands, and is currently working on a pocket desalinator that converts saltwater to freshwater. Connect with Dr. Rob Yonover: Website: SeeRescueStreamer.com Host Contact Details: Website: https://workathomerockstar.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/workathomerockstar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/workathomerockstar LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timmelanson YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WorkAtHomeRockStarPodcast X / Twitter: https://twitter.com/workathomestar Email: tim@workathomerockstar.com In this Episode: 00:00 — Welcome and Guest Intro 00:30 — From Patio Idea to Lifesaver 01:30 — Discipline for Remote Work 03:18 — Side Hustle Time Math 04:53 — Avoiding Desperation Deals 05:52 — Handling Rejection and Doubt 08:32 — Protect Ideas Before Sharing 09:29 — Finding Your First Yes 13:42 — Old School Media Hustle 16:01 — Marketing in the Internet Age 19:50 — Work Ethic Beats the Odds 20:43 — Passion and Ownership Matter 21:55 — Tools That Still Work 22:31 — Trade Shows and Niches 24:32 — Longevity and Low Overhead 25:51 — Relationships Beat Automation 27:53 — Licensing and Cash Flow 30:28 — Thick Skin and Trolls 32:10 — Phones Without Guardrails 35:16 — What Excites Him Now 35:57 — Desalinator and Storytelling 40:00 — No Electricity Grandpa 40:58 — Where to Find Rob 41:50 — Desert Island Albums General Business Advice Disclaimer The strategies and experiences shared in this episode are based on our guest's personal journey and are for inspiration and education, not a guarantee of results. What worked for them may not work the same way for everyone. Guest Claims & Product Disclaimer Any claims made about products, approvals, or outcomes in this episode reflect our guest's own statements about their business and have not been independently verified by Work at Home RockStar. Personal Opinions Disclaimer Our guests share their own opinions and life philosophies, on technology, parenting, or anything else, which don't necessarily reflect the views of this show. 45:24 — Final Thanks and Signoff

What does it take for an emerging CPG brand to go from promising to investable? Brian Folmer, founder of FirstLook and FirstLook Ventures, offers a behind-the-scenes look at how he evaluates the next generation of consumer brands. FirstLook is a "Shark Tank in a box" platform that vets hundreds of brands before putting a select group of products in the hands of nearly 100 investors, while FirstLook Ventures takes that deal flow a step further by funding emerging companies alongside its investor community.  Brian reveals what catches his attention—from traction and valuation to market potential, founder quality and the elusive "X factor"—and shares why some brands make the cut while others don't. He also explains why overpricing a company can stall a fundraise, how potent consumer pain points can create breakout opportunities, and why today's shift toward cleaner, less-processed products is creating new opportunities for CPG founders. Show notes: 0:20: Brian Folmer, Founder, FirstLook & FirstLook Ventures – Brian chats about his background and foray into CPG investment before explaining First Look's model and the criteria the company uses to vet hundreds of brands and select a group of products to present monthly to its investor members. The First Look Ventures founder also breaks down the factors that influence investment decisions, including valuation, sales traction, retail interest, market size, pricing, category potential and founder quality. Using Laurel's Coffee, Miils, Boost Cous, SUUS, Awesome Aminos, Zoli Gummy Pops and Magna as examples, he discusses what makes brands stand out and the importance of solving a clear consumer need. He also addresses regulatory and legal risk, the shift toward cleaner and less-processed products, the growing use of AI to build more efficient companies and the "X factor" he looks for in founders. Folmer explains why an inflated valuation can slow a fundraise, why a large market matters and what founders can do to get investors' attention, including keeping outreach concise and making pitch decks mobile-friendly. Brands in this episode: Laurel's Coffee, Miils, Boost Cous, SUUS, Awesome Aminos, Gruns, Zoli Gummy Pops, Poppi, Vita Coco, Siete, Vaquero Bandito, Primal Queen, Magna, Ugly Drinks

Presentamos nuestros inventos para Shark Tank, intentando convencer a posibles inversores de que nos den plata. Y aunque nuestros inventos parezcan absurdos, los defendemos a capa y espada para demostrar nuestro ingenio

Selling Sunset isn't just a show about real estate, drama, and outfits... it's a show about money. Over the past few years, Nicole has had four cast members from the Selling Sunset universe on Money Rehab: Jason Oppenheim, Emma Hernan, Mary Bonnet, and Polly Brindle. Today, she's pulling out four moments from those conversations that she hasn't been able to stop thinking about. Jason, one of the most successful real estate brokers in LA, makes a confession you'd never expect from someone who sells homes for a living: renting often beats buying, financially speaking. Mary opens up about the ex-husband who secretly ran up six figures of debt in her name, and the exact tactic she used to rebuild her credit score from scratch. Emma explains why she's turned down millions in outside investment for her company and what she thinks is broken about "Shark Tank culture." And Polly gets brutally honest about maxing out three credit cards, borrowing from friends, and the mindset shift that turned her financial life around. Start investing investing at SoFi.com/MNN  Check out Nicole's financial literacy course ⁠The Money School⁠  Find a Financial Advisor or Financial Coach from Nicole's company ⁠Private Wealth Collective⁠  Watch video clips from the pod on ⁠Money Rehab's Instagram⁠ and ⁠Nicole Lapin's Instagram⁠  Here's what Nicole covers today: 00:00 Are You Ready for Some Money Rehab? 00:15 Four Money Moments From the Selling Sunset Universe 00:42 Jason Oppenheim's Take: Renting Beats Buying 04:48 Mary Bonnet's Secret Debt and Financial Abuse Story 09:07 Red Flags to Watch For Before You Share Finances 12:29 Emma Hernan on Turning Down Millions in Funding 16:47 Polly Brindle: From Maxed Credit Cards to $48M in Sales 21:46 Tip You Can Take Straight to the Bank All investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Always do your own research and consult a licensed financial advisor before making any financial decisions or investments.

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Dr. Shaan Patel. Founder and CEO of Prep Expert, a leading online test prep company. The conversation explores Patel’s journey from struggling test-taker to perfect SAT scorer, bestselling author, and successful entrepreneur. He shares how his personal experience inspired a mission to help students unlock scholarship opportunities and academic success.

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Dr. Shaan Patel. Founder and CEO of Prep Expert, a leading online test prep company. The conversation explores Patel’s journey from struggling test-taker to perfect SAT scorer, bestselling author, and successful entrepreneur. He shares how his personal experience inspired a mission to help students unlock scholarship opportunities and academic success.

Watch the show on television by downloading the SuperCrowd.tv Channel app to your Roku or Amazon Fire TV or e360tv channel app to your Roku, LG or Amazon Fire TV. You can also see it on YouTube.Devin: What is your superpower?Tom: Passion is what fuels the fire in my belly… It gets me excited, keeps me up late, and helps me go after these investments.Glenn: My superpower is bringing people together, adding value wherever I can… I try to help founders after I invest by sending resources or opportunities their way.Regulated crowdfunding has leveled the playing field for investors, allowing almost anyone to back startups with significant growth potential. During this episode, I had the pleasure of discussing strategies with two veteran Reg CF investors, Tom J Wright and Glenn Burney, who've honed distinct approaches to choosing impactful investment opportunities.Glenn emphasizes the importance of early-stage research and trusted tools like KingsCrowd, a platform that evaluates crowdfunding opportunities. “I usually start there, and if they're rated at least a four, I start digging deeper,” he explained. Glenn's diligence doesn't stop there; he carefully evaluates the founders. “The most important things I look for before I invest are the founders and the total addressable market. If I believe in the founder and the product or service, that's when I invest.”Tom echoed many of Glenn's insights but with his own seasoned approach, placing a special emphasis on market size. “I love a big TAM (total addressable market) because a startup can grow as big as the market allows,” he said. Using a memorable analogy, Tom compared startups to goldfish, explaining that their growth often depends on the size of their environment: “A goldfish will be small in a small tank, but if it's in a lake, it can grow to a foot long.”Beyond market size and founder qualities, Tom also values passion and disruptive potential. “Is the founder full-time? Are they going to do whatever it takes to make this thing successful?” He noted that revolutionary technology is often his green flag: “I love revolutionary tech because it can reset an entire market.”Valuation also plays a critical role in their decision-making. Glenn shared his preference for startups with valuations under $20 million, explaining his goal of achieving at least a 10x return: “If I feel like I can get at least a 10x return, then I feel like the valuation is good.” Tom approaches things similarly but allows for higher valuations when the opportunity feels right. “You want in early… Low valuation and a big TAM? That's a powerful combination.”Their stories also highlight the importance of intuition and alignment. “Does it resonate with me personally?” Tom asked, reflecting on how his values influence his choices. Glenn concluded by sharing his proudest success: investing in a startup that became a unicorn, providing him with a 21x return.The insights shared by Tom and Glenn prove that regulated crowdfunding isn't just about profit—it's about backing great people with big ideas while making a difference in the world. For investors, their advice is invaluable: do your research, trust your instincts, and focus on opportunities that combine potential impact with strong fundamentals.tl;dr:Tom and Glenn share strategies for evaluating and investing in Reg CF startups for impact.They highlight tools like KingsCrowd and key criteria such as TAM and founder commitment.Glenn recounts his story of helping a startup raise $125,000 via a meaningful introduction.Tom and Glenn discuss aligning investments with personal values and market trends for success.Both emphasize the power of passion and networking in transforming investments into impact.How to Develop Passion and Networking As a SuperpowerTom's superpower is his passion, which fuels his mission to make the world more just. As he explained, “Passion is what fuels the fire in my belly… It gets me excited, keeps me up late, and helps me go after these investments.” Glenn's superpower is networking and connection. He shared, “My superpower is bringing people together, adding value wherever I can… I try to help founders after I invest by sending resources or opportunities their way.”Glenn shared a story that exemplified his networking prowess. After investing in a startup, he connected them with an accelerator program that ultimately helped them raise $125,000. His introduction led the company to win the program's grand prize, underscoring how impactful his connections could be for early-stage companies.Tips for Developing the Superpower:Continuously seek inspiration by surrounding yourself with motivational materials, like books and quotes.Look for examples of courage and perseverance from history and everyday life to reignite passion.Focus on adding value to others before asking for help in networking situations.Leverage social media platforms like LinkedIn to build meaningful professional connections.Look for ways to champion others' success through introductions and referrals.By following Tom and Glenn's example and advice, you can make passion and networking your superpowers. With practice and effort, you could develop these skills to do more good in the world through impactful investments and purposeful connections.Remember, however, that research into success suggests that building on your own superpowers is more important than creating new ones or overcoming weaknesses. You do you!Guest ProfileTom J Wright (he/him):Angel Investor/Unicorn Hunter/Crowdfunding Course Creator, Angel Investor, Crowdfunding Course CreatorAbout Online Angel Investing/Crowdfunding Courses for Investors: Tom Wright is currently preparing several online angel investing/crowdfunding courses for investors who want to learn how to take advantage of the INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITIES that now exist for every-day people, in start-up companies. These courses will be part of an amazing, informative and highly actionable group of ongoing courses available through Tom's Angel Investing Academy, available soon at Kajabi.comWebsite: Please look for his angel investing courses soon at KajabiOther URL: youtube.com/watch?v=yDjYw0mfRHcBiographical Information: Tom Wright is an accomplished angel investor and startup expert with a portfolio spanning 141 startup companies. An early investor in Cisco, Tom has built a reputation for identifying promising companies and supporting entrepreneurs at the earliest stages of growth.He was ranked #7 among startup investors worldwide on Wefunder, one of the world's leading equity crowdfunding platforms. His experience has also led him to become an angel investing expert and course creator, helping others understand startup investing and how to evaluate emerging opportunities.Tom's influence extends across the startup and investment community. At Wefunder, he is followed by Mr. Wonderful of Shark Tank, StartEngine, and more than 555 other angel investors, startup founders, and venture capital firms.With deep firsthand experience as both an investor and educator, Tom brings a practical perspective on startup investing, portfolio building, and finding high-potential companies before they become widely recognized.LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tom-wright-59a80324Glenn Burney (he/him):Accounting Manager, American UniversityAbout American University: ⁠American University is a student-centered research institution located in Washington, DC, with highly ranked schools and colleges, internationally renowned faculty, and a reputation for creating meaningful change in the world. Our students distinguish themselves for their service, leadership, and ability to rethink global and domestic challenges and opportunities.Biographical Information: Glenn Burney is an accounting professional and active angel investor based in Arlington, Virginia. He serves as an Accounting Manager at American University, where he leads a team responsible for financial reporting, reconciliations, endowment accounting, and other critical financial operations. Outside of his professional career, Glenn has built a diverse portfolio of early-stage investments across healthcare, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, energy, consumer products, and other emerging industries. He is especially passionate about identifying promising founders and companies before their potential is widely recognized. Glenn approaches angel investing with disciplined curiosity, combining detailed research, thoughtful founder engagement, and a willingness to support ambitious ideas that could create meaningful economic and social impact.LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/glenn-k-burney-jr-68a55842/Personal Facebook Profile: facebook.com/glenn.kevin.3Support Our SponsorsOur generous sponsors make our work possible, serving impact investors, social entrepreneurs, community builders and diverse founders. Today's advertisers include PurposeBuilt100™ Winners and supercrowd.tv. Learn more about advertising with us here.Max-Impact Members(We're grateful for every one of these community champions who make this work possible.)Brian Christie, Brainsy | Cameron Neil, Lend For Good | Carol Fineagan, Independent Consultant | Eric Coury, Arthia AI | John Berlet, CORE Tax Deeds, LLC. | Justin Starbird, The Aebli Group | Ken Steele, Rotarian | Lory Moore, Lory Moore Law | Marcia Brinton, High Desert Gear | Mark Grimes, Networked Enterprise Development | Mike Babbit | Coledger Solutions | Mike Green, Envirosult | Nick Degnan, Unlimit Ventures | Paul Lovejoy, Stakeholder Enterprise | Pearl Wright, Global Changemaker | Scott Thorpe, Philanthropist | Sharon Samjitsingh, Health Care Originals | Add Your Name HereUpcoming SuperCrowd Event CalendarIf a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.Join the SuperCrowd Impact League! You can be recognized for making impact investments via Reg CF. See how your activity compares to your peers. It's free. Win valuable prizes. Start now!SuperCrowd Impact Member Networking Session: Impact (and, of course, Max-Impact) Members of the SuperCrowd are invited to a private networking session on September 8th at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT. Mark your calendar. We'll send private emails to Impact Members with registration details. Upgrade to Impact Membership today!SuperCrowdHour, August 19, 2026, at 12:00 PM Eastern. Devin Thorpe, CEO and Founder of The Super Crowd, Inc., will lead a session on “How to Make Money As an Impact Investor Starting with $10.” Drawing on his experience as a former investment banker, impact investor, and crowdfunding expert, Devin will demonstrate how anyone can begin building wealth while investing in companies that create positive social and environmental impact—even with as little as $10. In this session, he'll explore how impact crowdfunding has opened investment opportunities to everyday investors, explain how to identify promising mission-driven companies, and share practical strategies for building a diversified portfolio over time. Attendees will learn how to get started with limited capital, manage risk, evaluate investment opportunities, and avoid common mistakes new investors make. Whether you're completely new to investing or looking for an affordable way to expand your impact investing portfolio, this SuperCrowdHour will provide actionable insights to help you invest with purpose, build long-term wealth, and make a meaningful difference. Register now!SuperCrowd26 featuring PurposeBuilt100™: This August 25–27, founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders will gather for a three-day, broadcast-quality global experience focused on disciplined capital formation, regulated investment crowdfunding, and purpose-driven growth. We're bringing together leading voices in impact investing, compliance, digital marketing, and circular economy innovation to deliver practical frameworks, real-world case studies, and actionable strategies. The event culminates in the PurposeBuilt100™ Showcase, recognizing 100 of the fastest-growing purpose-driven companies in the U.S. Register now to secure your seat and get all the details. August 25–27, streaming worldwide.Visit Our Complete Community Event CalendarIf you would like to submit an event for us to share with the 10,000+ changemakers, investors and entrepreneurs who are members of the SuperCrowd, click here.Manage the volume of emails you receive from us by clicking here.We share educational information—not investment advice. Some links may generate compensation. See our full disclosure.We use AI to help us write compelling recaps of each episode. Get full access to Superpowers for Good at www.superpowers4good.com/subscribe

In today's episode, I sit down with FUBU founder, Shark Tank investor, and business executive Daymond John to discuss the value of building a personal brand rooted in wisdom, service, and humility. Daymond explains why adding value to others creates lasting opportunities and how leaders can use their unique perspective to stand out in a world where information is readily available. We also discuss the growing responsibility CEOs have to build visible, credible platforms that protect their reputations, teams, and businesses. Daymond shares why empowering others, remaining curious, and making people feel important are essential to creating trust, influence, and a legacy that extends far beyond professional success.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Dr. Shaan Patel. Founder and CEO of Prep Expert, a leading online test prep company. The conversation explores Patel’s journey from struggling test-taker to perfect SAT scorer, bestselling author, and successful entrepreneur. He shares how his personal experience inspired a mission to help students unlock scholarship opportunities and academic success.

Discover entrepreneurship, innovation, business growth, scaling, and intellectual property strategies from successful founders and industry leaders. Richard Gearhart and Elizabeth Gearhart, co-hosts of the Passage to Profit Show interview Sonia Satra from Moticise, Noah Fleischman from iHeartRadio and Lisa Lane, Co-Founder and Lauren Lane, Operations Manager at Rinseroo. What if the biggest thing holding you back from entrepreneurial success is your own brain? In this inspiring conversation, Sonia Satra, founder of Moticse, keynote speaker, actress, author and mindset coach, explains how entrepreneurs can overcome limiting beliefs, fear and mental blocks to become more creative, focused and confident. Sonia shares why movement can unlock better ideas, how writing a book can establish credibility and create business opportunities, when to take small steps versus a bold leap, and why aligning your mind, body and spirit can help you find greater clarity, energy and purpose. She also reveals practical strategies for getting unstuck, building momentum and turning mindset into a competitive advantage. Read more at: https://www.soniasatra.com What does it take to create great radio and compelling content when audiences are overwhelmed by endless choices? In this special Passage to Profit conversation, longtime radio professional and Passage to Profit producer Noah Fleishman reveals what happens behind the scenes of producing a successful show, from guest preparation and authentic conversations to deciding what makes the final cut. Noah and Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart explore the evolution of radio, podcasts, television and streaming, the growing “war for attention,” information overload, narrowcasting and why great storytelling still depends on something surprisingly simple: making people want to listen. Read more at: https://passagetoprofitshow.com/noah-fleischman/ How do you turn a simple idea into a successful product business? Lisa Lane and Lauren Lane of Rinseroo share the inspiring entrepreneurial journey behind their patented slip-on hose, from a shower-time idea and DIY prototype to Shark Tank's coveted Golden Ticket from Lori Greiner. They reveal how they learned patents, manufacturing and marketing from scratch, leveraged Shark Tank, TikTok and media exposure to grow sales, battled copycats and intellectual property challenges, and built a family business designed to create a lasting legacy. Read more at: https://rinseroo.com/ Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur, startup founder, inventor, or small business owner, the Passage to Profit Show is a leading podcast for insights on entrepreneurship, innovation, intellectual property and business strategy. Hosted by Richard Gearhart and Elizabeth Gearhart, the show features industry leaders, investors, and founders who share real-world lessons on scaling companies, protecting ideas, building generational wealth, and navigating today's evolving business landscape. Visit https://passagetoprofitshow.com/ for the latest episodes, expert interviews, and resources designed to help you grow, protect, and profit from your ideas. Chapters (00:00:00) - Passage to Profit: The 300th Episode(00:00:54) - Noah Fleischman on Starting The Radio Show(00:04:51) - 300th Episode(00:07:26) - What Was the One Decision That Changed Your Life?(00:10:57) - Deciding to Jump Ship From Manufacturer(00:13:20) - Punishment for Talking About AI on the Podcast(00:15:59) - What If It Were Easy Book?(00:17:01) - The Making of Moticize(00:17:51) - Moticise: The Mindset Program(00:21:29) - Including the Fear in Business(00:23:43) - Take a Leap of Faith in Acting(00:25:37) - Car Shield(00:26:36) - Better Health Insurance for You and Your Family(00:27:37) - Passage to Profit: The Soul of an Entrepreneur(00:31:26) - How to Become More CALM in Your Life(00:37:30) - Business Owners Roundtable: Real AI Use Cases(00:41:48) - AIPC: AI and Marketing(00:43:09) - Debtor Assistance Hotline(00:45:32) - The 300 Million-Dollar Patent Case(00:49:02) - Passage to Profit(00:50:33) - What is involved in producing great radio?(00:54:10) - Richard Pryor on How Much He Loves Radio(00:56:57) - The War for Attention Space(00:57:59) - In a World of Limited Choices, Radio Wins(01:00:50) - Noah on Passage to Profit(01:02:38) - Rinseroo: The Easy Wash Your Bathroom Hose(01:06:08) - Did Being On Shark Tank Help Your Sales?(01:07:19) - How To Start a Business on Shark Tank(01:09:17) - What is one of the biggest things you've done to market the(01:10:13) - What's It Like To Work With Your Mother?(01:11:05) - What's The Best Pet Tub Hose?(01:12:24) - In the Elevator With Entrepreneurs(01:13:19) - What was the biggest obstacle that you faced?(01:14:18) - Do You Need to Do an Apex Takedown?(01:16:25) - Rinsing a Roo: Should I License the Product?(01:17:45) - Inventing a Stretchy Hydrolyte(01:18:44) - Rinseroo on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn(01:19:23) - Car Shield(01:20:46) - Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind

This week on The Lazy CEO, Jane is joined by Gabrielle Requena, founder of Wrinkles Schminkles, the beauty brand behind the reusable medical-grade silicone wrinkle patches that pioneered an entirely new skincare category. Gabrielle launched the business in 2014 with one hero product, bootstrapped it from day one, grew it to $20 million in annual revenue, expanded into 22 countries, and after 12 years, successfully exited the business.In this episode, we get into: What it was really like to be on Shark Tank, and the rejection that followed. The TikTok that generated $11M in sales! The actual cost of selling your business: the physical, mental and emotional toll. What life is like post-exit. Connect with us: Follow The Lazy CEO podcast: @thelazyceo_podcast @thelazyceopodStay updated with Jane Lu: @thelazyceoConnect with Gabrielle: @gabriellereqCheck out Wrinklesschminkles: @wrinklesschminklesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Dr. Christina Dukes Brown. CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Paterson and Passaic, New Jersey. The discussion centers on the organization's mission to support underserved youth through education, mentorship, entrepreneurship, life skills development, athletics, and community engagement. Dr. Brown also shares her vision for empowering young people and calls on businesses, volunteers, and community leaders to help create opportunities for the next generation. Purpose of the Interview The interview was designed to: Highlight the needs of children and families in Paterson and Passaic, New Jersey. Showcase the impact of the Boys & Girls Club's programs. Encourage volunteers, mentors, business owners, and corporations to get involved. Promote youth entrepreneurship and leadership development. Demonstrate how communities can work together to improve outcomes for young people. Key Takeaways 1. The Boys & Girls Club Is a Lifeline for Many Families The organization serves more than 1,400 children and teens daily through after-school programs, summer camps, tutoring, athletics, arts, and mentoring. Many of the families served face challenges such as poverty, food insecurity, homelessness, and educational barriers. Impact: Academic support and homework assistance. Nutritious meals and safe environments. Positive recreational and leadership opportunities. Family and community support services. 2. Education Requires Community Support Dr. Brown explained that schools alone cannot provide everything children need to succeed. The Boys & Girls Club helps fill those gaps through smaller group settings, individualized attention, and additional academic resources. Programs Include: Homework support (Power Hour) Tutoring Character development Leadership training Creative arts and athletics College and career preparation 3. Entrepreneurship Is a Major Focus One of the Club's signature initiatives is Girls with Goals, a 10-week entrepreneurship program designed to help young women develop business skills. Participants: Learn from successful women entrepreneurs. Create business plans. Develop pitching skills. Present their ideas in a Shark Tank-style competition. The program aims to build confidence, leadership abilities, and financial literacy while inspiring future business owners. 4. Mentorship Is Critical A central message throughout the interview is the importance of mentorship. Dr. Brown emphasized that young people benefit from seeing successful individuals who share similar backgrounds and experiences. She encouraged professionals, entrepreneurs, and community leaders to volunteer their time and expertise. Why Mentorship Matters: Provides real-world guidance. Builds confidence. Expands career awareness. Helps break cycles of poverty. Creates positive role models. 5. Challenging Negative Stereotypes Dr. Brown spoke passionately about overcoming what she called "deficit ideology," the belief that young people from marginalized communities lack the ability to succeed. Her message was clear: Talent exists everywhere. Success is not determined by zip code. Every child has strengths that deserve recognition. Soft skills are just as important as academic achievements. She stressed the importance of helping young people recognize their own value and potential. 6. Preparing Youth for Adulthood The organization serves youth from ages 5 to 25, including young adults who are still exploring career options. For older participants, the Club focuses on: Professional development Workplace readiness Internships Career exploration Leadership opportunities Dr. Brown also discussed expanding partnerships with local businesses to expose young adults to skilled trades and vocational careers. 7. Community Involvement Is the Solution Both Dr. Brown and Rushion McDonald repeatedly stressed that real change happens when communities become actively involved. The interview served as a call to action for: Volunteers Business owners Corporations Churches Mentors Community organizations The message: everyone has something valuable to contribute to the success of young people. Notable Quotes On Community Responsibility "I can't complain about the position of Black and Brown people in society if I'm not going to do the work necessary to support its elevation." On Motivation "It's hard to get to sleep at night because you're constantly thinking about what's next and what you must do. But I am motivated to jump out of bed every morning to come and support these communities." On Potential and Success "No matter where you come from and no matter what you look like, no matter what skin you show up in, you have the capacity to become great." On Building Confidence "We have to help affirm those skills just like the others, so that young people can be confident in who they are." On Mentorship "One of the best motivating factors for most young people is being able to look into the eyes of a person who looks like them, who has a similar background." On Entrepreneurship "Many of our teenage female club members wanted to start their own businesses." On Community Access "We want to make ourselves available to the community as often as the community has a need." Executive Summary Dr. Christina Dukes Brown's appearance on Money Making Conversations Masterclass was a powerful call for community-driven youth empowerment. She highlighted the Boys & Girls Club of Paterson and Passaic's efforts to address educational challenges, develop future leaders and entrepreneurs, provide mentorship, and create pathways to long-term success. Her overarching message is that every child has the potential to thrive when surrounded by opportunity, encouragement, and a community willing to invest in their future. #BEST #STRAW #SHMS Money Making Conversations Master Class with Rushion McDonald is America's premier entrepreneurship, business leadership, financial literacy, and wealth-building podcast featuring successful entrepreneurs, executives, founders, celebrities, and industry experts sharing actionable insights for professional and financial success. Business Podcast Entrepreneurship Small Business Business Growth Financial Literacy Wealth Building Black Entrepreneurs Minority Business Leadership Executive Leadership Business Funding Marketing Strategies Personal Development Startup Advice Sales Training CEO Interviews Founder Stories Professional Development Economic Empowerment Business Success Networking Brand Building Innovation How to start a business Small business funding Entrepreneur success stories Business leadership podcast Wealth building strategies Black entrepreneur podcast Minority business development Marketing for small businesses Business growth strategies Startup funding opportunities Executive leadership training Financial literacy education Success mindset podcastSupport the show: https://www.steveharveyfm.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Dr. Christina Dukes Brown. CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Paterson and Passaic, New Jersey. The discussion centers on the organization's mission to support underserved youth through education, mentorship, entrepreneurship, life skills development, athletics, and community engagement. Dr. Brown also shares her vision for empowering young people and calls on businesses, volunteers, and community leaders to help create opportunities for the next generation. Purpose of the Interview The interview was designed to: Highlight the needs of children and families in Paterson and Passaic, New Jersey. Showcase the impact of the Boys & Girls Club's programs. Encourage volunteers, mentors, business owners, and corporations to get involved. Promote youth entrepreneurship and leadership development. Demonstrate how communities can work together to improve outcomes for young people. Key Takeaways 1. The Boys & Girls Club Is a Lifeline for Many Families The organization serves more than 1,400 children and teens daily through after-school programs, summer camps, tutoring, athletics, arts, and mentoring. Many of the families served face challenges such as poverty, food insecurity, homelessness, and educational barriers. Impact: Academic support and homework assistance. Nutritious meals and safe environments. Positive recreational and leadership opportunities. Family and community support services. 2. Education Requires Community Support Dr. Brown explained that schools alone cannot provide everything children need to succeed. The Boys & Girls Club helps fill those gaps through smaller group settings, individualized attention, and additional academic resources. Programs Include: Homework support (Power Hour) Tutoring Character development Leadership training Creative arts and athletics College and career preparation 3. Entrepreneurship Is a Major Focus One of the Club's signature initiatives is Girls with Goals, a 10-week entrepreneurship program designed to help young women develop business skills. Participants: Learn from successful women entrepreneurs. Create business plans. Develop pitching skills. Present their ideas in a Shark Tank-style competition. The program aims to build confidence, leadership abilities, and financial literacy while inspiring future business owners. 4. Mentorship Is Critical A central message throughout the interview is the importance of mentorship. Dr. Brown emphasized that young people benefit from seeing successful individuals who share similar backgrounds and experiences. She encouraged professionals, entrepreneurs, and community leaders to volunteer their time and expertise. Why Mentorship Matters: Provides real-world guidance. Builds confidence. Expands career awareness. Helps break cycles of poverty. Creates positive role models. 5. Challenging Negative Stereotypes Dr. Brown spoke passionately about overcoming what she called "deficit ideology," the belief that young people from marginalized communities lack the ability to succeed. Her message was clear: Talent exists everywhere. Success is not determined by zip code. Every child has strengths that deserve recognition. Soft skills are just as important as academic achievements. She stressed the importance of helping young people recognize their own value and potential. 6. Preparing Youth for Adulthood The organization serves youth from ages 5 to 25, including young adults who are still exploring career options. For older participants, the Club focuses on: Professional development Workplace readiness Internships Career exploration Leadership opportunities Dr. Brown also discussed expanding partnerships with local businesses to expose young adults to skilled trades and vocational careers. 7. Community Involvement Is the Solution Both Dr. Brown and Rushion McDonald repeatedly stressed that real change happens when communities become actively involved. The interview served as a call to action for: Volunteers Business owners Corporations Churches Mentors Community organizations The message: everyone has something valuable to contribute to the success of young people. Notable Quotes On Community Responsibility "I can't complain about the position of Black and Brown people in society if I'm not going to do the work necessary to support its elevation." On Motivation "It's hard to get to sleep at night because you're constantly thinking about what's next and what you must do. But I am motivated to jump out of bed every morning to come and support these communities." On Potential and Success "No matter where you come from and no matter what you look like, no matter what skin you show up in, you have the capacity to become great." On Building Confidence "We have to help affirm those skills just like the others, so that young people can be confident in who they are." On Mentorship "One of the best motivating factors for most young people is being able to look into the eyes of a person who looks like them, who has a similar background." On Entrepreneurship "Many of our teenage female club members wanted to start their own businesses." On Community Access "We want to make ourselves available to the community as often as the community has a need." Executive Summary Dr. Christina Dukes Brown's appearance on Money Making Conversations Masterclass was a powerful call for community-driven youth empowerment. She highlighted the Boys & Girls Club of Paterson and Passaic's efforts to address educational challenges, develop future leaders and entrepreneurs, provide mentorship, and create pathways to long-term success. Her overarching message is that every child has the potential to thrive when surrounded by opportunity, encouragement, and a community willing to invest in their future. #BEST #STRAW #SHMS Money Making Conversations Master Class with Rushion McDonald is America's premier entrepreneurship, business leadership, financial literacy, and wealth-building podcast featuring successful entrepreneurs, executives, founders, celebrities, and industry experts sharing actionable insights for professional and financial success. Business Podcast Entrepreneurship Small Business Business Growth Financial Literacy Wealth Building Black Entrepreneurs Minority Business Leadership Executive Leadership Business Funding Marketing Strategies Personal Development Startup Advice Sales Training CEO Interviews Founder Stories Professional Development Economic Empowerment Business Success Networking Brand Building Innovation How to start a business Small business funding Entrepreneur success stories Business leadership podcast Wealth building strategies Black entrepreneur podcast Minority business development Marketing for small businesses Business growth strategies Startup funding opportunities Executive leadership training Financial literacy education Success mindset podcastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike O'Dell, CRNA never planned on becoming a quilting entrepreneur, but a love of art, a willingness to experiment, and a push from the right mentor changed everything. What started as a handmade quilt pattern eventually became Legit Kits, a growing business that brought him all the way to Shark Tank. In this episode, Mike shares the twists, risks, failures, and lessons behind that journey while explaining why CRNA training gave him the confidence to pursue something completely outside anesthesia. His story is a reminder of what can happen when curiosity turns into action. Here's some of what you'll hear in this episode:

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Dr. Christina Dukes Brown. CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Paterson and Passaic, New Jersey. The discussion centers on the organization's mission to support underserved youth through education, mentorship, entrepreneurship, life skills development, athletics, and community engagement. Dr. Brown also shares her vision for empowering young people and calls on businesses, volunteers, and community leaders to help create opportunities for the next generation. Purpose of the Interview The interview was designed to: Highlight the needs of children and families in Paterson and Passaic, New Jersey. Showcase the impact of the Boys & Girls Club's programs. Encourage volunteers, mentors, business owners, and corporations to get involved. Promote youth entrepreneurship and leadership development. Demonstrate how communities can work together to improve outcomes for young people. Key Takeaways 1. The Boys & Girls Club Is a Lifeline for Many Families The organization serves more than 1,400 children and teens daily through after-school programs, summer camps, tutoring, athletics, arts, and mentoring. Many of the families served face challenges such as poverty, food insecurity, homelessness, and educational barriers. Impact: Academic support and homework assistance. Nutritious meals and safe environments. Positive recreational and leadership opportunities. Family and community support services. 2. Education Requires Community Support Dr. Brown explained that schools alone cannot provide everything children need to succeed. The Boys & Girls Club helps fill those gaps through smaller group settings, individualized attention, and additional academic resources. Programs Include: Homework support (Power Hour) Tutoring Character development Leadership training Creative arts and athletics College and career preparation 3. Entrepreneurship Is a Major Focus One of the Club's signature initiatives is Girls with Goals, a 10-week entrepreneurship program designed to help young women develop business skills. Participants: Learn from successful women entrepreneurs. Create business plans. Develop pitching skills. Present their ideas in a Shark Tank-style competition. The program aims to build confidence, leadership abilities, and financial literacy while inspiring future business owners. 4. Mentorship Is Critical A central message throughout the interview is the importance of mentorship. Dr. Brown emphasized that young people benefit from seeing successful individuals who share similar backgrounds and experiences. She encouraged professionals, entrepreneurs, and community leaders to volunteer their time and expertise. Why Mentorship Matters: Provides real-world guidance. Builds confidence. Expands career awareness. Helps break cycles of poverty. Creates positive role models. 5. Challenging Negative Stereotypes Dr. Brown spoke passionately about overcoming what she called "deficit ideology," the belief that young people from marginalized communities lack the ability to succeed. Her message was clear: Talent exists everywhere. Success is not determined by zip code. Every child has strengths that deserve recognition. Soft skills are just as important as academic achievements. She stressed the importance of helping young people recognize their own value and potential. 6. Preparing Youth for Adulthood The organization serves youth from ages 5 to 25, including young adults who are still exploring career options. For older participants, the Club focuses on: Professional development Workplace readiness Internships Career exploration Leadership opportunities Dr. Brown also discussed expanding partnerships with local businesses to expose young adults to skilled trades and vocational careers. 7. Community Involvement Is the Solution Both Dr. Brown and Rushion McDonald repeatedly stressed that real change happens when communities become actively involved. The interview served as a call to action for: Volunteers Business owners Corporations Churches Mentors Community organizations The message: everyone has something valuable to contribute to the success of young people. Notable Quotes On Community Responsibility "I can't complain about the position of Black and Brown people in society if I'm not going to do the work necessary to support its elevation." On Motivation "It's hard to get to sleep at night because you're constantly thinking about what's next and what you must do. But I am motivated to jump out of bed every morning to come and support these communities." On Potential and Success "No matter where you come from and no matter what you look like, no matter what skin you show up in, you have the capacity to become great." On Building Confidence "We have to help affirm those skills just like the others, so that young people can be confident in who they are." On Mentorship "One of the best motivating factors for most young people is being able to look into the eyes of a person who looks like them, who has a similar background." On Entrepreneurship "Many of our teenage female club members wanted to start their own businesses." On Community Access "We want to make ourselves available to the community as often as the community has a need." Executive Summary Dr. Christina Dukes Brown's appearance on Money Making Conversations Masterclass was a powerful call for community-driven youth empowerment. She highlighted the Boys & Girls Club of Paterson and Passaic's efforts to address educational challenges, develop future leaders and entrepreneurs, provide mentorship, and create pathways to long-term success. Her overarching message is that every child has the potential to thrive when surrounded by opportunity, encouragement, and a community willing to invest in their future. #BEST #STRAW #SHMS Money Making Conversations Master Class with Rushion McDonald is America's premier entrepreneurship, business leadership, financial literacy, and wealth-building podcast featuring successful entrepreneurs, executives, founders, celebrities, and industry experts sharing actionable insights for professional and financial success. Business Podcast Entrepreneurship Small Business Business Growth Financial Literacy Wealth Building Black Entrepreneurs Minority Business Leadership Executive Leadership Business Funding Marketing Strategies Personal Development Startup Advice Sales Training CEO Interviews Founder Stories Professional Development Economic Empowerment Business Success Networking Brand Building Innovation How to start a business Small business funding Entrepreneur success stories Business leadership podcast Wealth building strategies Black entrepreneur podcast Minority business development Marketing for small businesses Business growth strategies Startup funding opportunities Executive leadership training Financial literacy education Success mindset podcastSteve Harvey Morning Show Online: http://www.steveharveyfm.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hot takes from Shelby Sapp's Women and Wealth conference There was no way I was missing this marketing guru's first ever event. With speakers ranging from Shark Tank's Lori Greiner to Elena Cardone and Solid Core founder Anne Mahlum, who just had a $100M exit – it was pretty insane. I've compiled my favorite takeaways so you can benefit. – Watch a short video on how to make at least $20k online in your coaching business, or we'll coach you for free. https://audit.impactcoachacademy.com/Connect with Taeler on Instagram. https://www.instagram.comLearn more about Impact Fitness Coaching Academy, and how we've helped 5,035 coaches scale to 6 and 7-figures online and generate $330M in revenue. https://www.impactcoachacademy.com/home Want more proof our methods work? https://www.trustpilot.com/review/impactcoachacademy.com

Special Guest: Hannah ScheckWith Creed behind us, we dive into Rocky's second first swan song, Rocky Balboa. We are joined with our new cohost for the middle films, Katie McKenzie! Will Paulie die? Will Rocky die? Will anyone die?!?!? Why is the best name in this film Little Marie? The Reversers will find out then perform a reality show that is legally distinct from Shark Tank. (00:00) Welcome!(07:44) The Rules(08:59) Part 1: Adrian's Death-A-Versary(15:01) Part 2: Revisiting Boxing(22:28) Part 3: Picking a Fight(31:15) Part 4: Balboas Back Together(40:34) Part 5: Rocky's Last Round(47:42) Movie Ratings(50:34) The Turtle Tank(71:15) Previous PreviewFind us on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube or email us at ReversePsychPod@gmail.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Half of all U.S. teenagers say they already have a business idea they're passionate about pursuing. That's the headline finding host Justin Forman digs into with David Kinnaman, CEO of Barna Group, in this data-rich conversation about a generation quietly gearing up to build. David has spent his career turning research into a roadmap for the church, and in this episode he brings fresh findings on entrepreneurially minded teens — their hope, their hunger for mentors, and the pressure they carry to succeed. Justin and David trace the thread from Lego sets and Shark Tank reruns to the Old Testament story of Daniel, building a case for what David calls a “theology of influence”: preparing young people for a level of impact none of us can fully predict. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation exploring Barna's newest research on faith, identity, and the entrepreneurial generation — and what parents, pastors, and business leaders can do with it. Key Topics: • New Barna data: 49% of U.S. teenagers already have a business idea they're passionate about pursuing • A “theology of influence” — what Daniel's story in Babylon teaches us about preparing the next generation • Why entrepreneurially minded teens report 85% more hope about the future • Growing up in “digital Babylon”: raising kids among tech built to capture their attention • The mentorship gap — and why entrepreneurial teens are 88% more likely to already have one • Identity formation in a world where AI is reshaping the whole idea of a career • A practical next step for families: Faith Driven Entrepreneur for Teens David Kinnaman is CEO of Barna Group, the research firm he has led for over two decades, helping churches, nonprofits, and business leaders understand cultural and generational trends through a faith lens. He is the author of several books on faith and the next generation, and continues to lead original research at the intersection of faith, work, and identity. This conversation is for any parent, pastor, or entrepreneur wondering whether the next generation is ready to build — and whether the church is ready to help them. Notable Quotes: “We need to prepare this generation with a theology of influence that God can and will use them in their faithfulness.” — David Kinnaman “We prepare a generation for success, but we don't prepare them for suffering.” — David Kinnaman “I think we've seen the funeral of the lone wolf over the last decade.” — Justin Forman Watch the full episode on YouTube or continue to stream audio on your favorite podcast platform.

Leave an Amazon Rating or Review for my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Check out the full episode: https://lewishowes.com/podcast/e-daymond-john-rise-grind-habits-successful-business-life/ Daymond John reflects on strategies for revenue growth, emphasizing the importance of the 80/20 principle—identifying the vital 20% that contributes to 80% of revenue or joy. FUBU's collaboration with Puma and new opportunities on Shark Tank stand out as significant revenue drivers. Daymond's commitment to investing in emerging entrepreneurs reflects his belief in paying forward the opportunities he received. Excitement permeates his ventures, particularly Shark Tank, as he envisions the next generation of game-changers. Despite challenges, he expresses pride in defying societal expectations, fostering positivity, and embracing the power of doing the right thing. Sign up for the Greatness newsletter! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode of the People of Packaging Podcast, Adam Peek sits down with Olivia Abrams, CEO and Co-Founder of TickMitt, to chat about turning personal adversity into an innovative, life-saving product line!

If you want to know who to draft in every round of your 2026 fantasy football draft, this episode is for you. Andrew Erickson and Derek Brown go head-to-head in a Shark Tank-style fantasy football draft battle, pitching their favorite targets from Round 1 all the way through Round 15 with Alfredo Brown serving as the judge and deciding which pitch is victorious! Which players have the upside to become league winners? Which late-round values could massively outperform their ADP? And which players should you be targeting when the draft reaches the double-digit rounds? The competition gets especially interesting in the later rounds, where each pick becomes more valuable and the guys look for high-upside players who can help you win your fantasy football league. They also reveal the one player they want to leave every fantasy football draft with, plus additional late-round and dark-horse targets including Brock Bowers and Emeka Egbuka. Timestamps: (May be off due to ads)Intro - 0:00:00Round 1-3 Targets - 0:01:14Square Promo - 0:08:56Round 4-7 Targets - 0:09:55FantasyPros Draft Assistant - 0:22:34Round 8-10 Targets - 0:23:17Hard Rock Bet - 0:32:59Round 11-15 Lottery Tickets - 0:34:35Closing Draft Advice - 0:46:56Outro - 0:51:04 Helpful Links: Hard Rock Bet - Sign up for Hard Rock Bet and make a $5 bet and you'll get $150 in bonus bets if you win. Head over to Hard Rock Bet, sign up and make your first deposit today. Payable in bonus bet(s). Not a cash offer. Offered by the Seminole Tribe of Florida in FL. Offered by Seminole Hard Rock Digital, LLC, in all other states. Must be 21+ and physically present in AZ, CO, FL, IL, IN, NJ, OH, TN or VA to play. Terms and conditions apply. Concerned about gambling? In FL, call 1-888-ADMIT-IT. In IN, if you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-9-WITH-IT. GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER (AZ, CO, IL, NJ, OH, TN, VA) Draft Wizard - Dominate your fantasy football draft with Draft Wizard. Run fast mock drafts, test different strategies, build custom cheat sheets, get pick-by-pick draft advice, and learn your leaguemates' tendencies before draft day. Just download the FantasyPros App or head to fantasypros.com/draftwizard Follow us on Twitch - The team here at FantasyPros is taking questions all week, every week on Twitch. Follow us on Twitch at twitch.tv/fantasypros and never miss a stream! Discord – Join our FantasyPros Discord Community! Chat with other fans and get access to exclusive AMAs that wind up on our podcast feed. Come get your questions answered and BE ON THE SHOW at fantasypros.com/chat Leave a Review – If you enjoy our show and find our insight to be valuable, we’d love to hear from you! Your reviews fuel our passion and help us tailor content specifically for YOU. Head to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts and leave an honest review. Let’s make this show the ultimate destination for fantasy football enthusiasts like us. Thank you for watching and for showing your support – https://fantasypros.com/review/ BettingPros Podcast – For advice on the best picks and props across both the NFL and college football each and every week, check out the BettingPros Podcast at bettingpros.com/podcast, our BettingPros YouTube channel at youtube.com/bettingpros, or wherever you listen to podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hank Watt shares the inspiring story of how he discovered the miracle berry and turned it into a successful business that was featured on Shark Tank and promoted by Jennifer Garner. Learn how the berry makes sour taste sweeter than sugar, how it helped Hank control his emotional eating, how he and his partner built the business, and future potential of this revolutionary product that can transform taste and improve health. Key TopicsHow Hank learned about the miracle berry and its effectsWhat drove Hank & Juliano to launch the businessChallenges in preserving the berry to scale operationsInnovative freeze-drying process to preserve potencyMarket strategy and word-of-mouth growthFuture applications for the berrySound Bites"I swear, I heard the angels and the chorus singing. I felt the whoosh of the gates. I felt like the sunshine come down on me. Like I I had this transformative experience immediately where I became a believer instantly.”“LA is a type of place where if you're keeping weight off for any period of time, especially a significant amount, people want to know like what's your secret?”“He was like, I've got a couple conditions. We have to keep the berry pure. It has to stay raw. Like we don't need to add anything to it. We need to also figure out how to preserve it because we cannot deal with a cold chain.““The sharks have been phenomenal. The best business decision Juliano and I have ever made.”“Jennifer Garner put a video up on her Instagram… that put us on the map and it made us legit.”“These need to be on every table, kind of like butter, salt, and pepper. You know, it's there if you need it and you want it.”Chapters00:00 Introduction to Nature's Wildberry02:57 The Discovery of the Miracle Berry05:45 Transformative Experiences with the Berry09:02 The Locus of Control and Personal Empowerment11:53 Impact on Health and Diet14:57 Business Journey and Challenges17:52 The Berry's Unique Properties and Taste Testing20:55 Community and Word of Mouth Marketing24:01 The Decision to Start a Business26:52 Lessons from Personal Experiences30:10 The Future of Nature's Wildberry32:53 The Journey Begins: Overcoming Doubts35:14 Cracking the Code: Innovation in Preservation40:27 From Concept to Consumer: The Direct-to-Consumer Shift48:01 Shark Tank: A Game Changer for Growth55:02 Future Aspirations: Expanding Horizons01:00:44 Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs: Patience and Partnership01:08:12 A Better World: Quality of Life and CompassionLinksHank Watt on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hankwattNature's Wild Berry - https://natureswildberry.com/Nature's Wild Berry on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/natureswildberryNature's Wild Berry on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/natureswildberryNature's Wild Berry on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@natureswildberryNature's Wild Berry on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/natureswildberryNature's Wild Berry on X - https://x.com/natureswildbrryNature's Wild Berry on Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/natureswildberry/…Brands for a Better World Episode Archive - http://brandsforabetterworld.com/Brands for a Better World on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/brand-for-a-better-world/Modern Species - https://modernspecies.com/Modern Species on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/modern-species/Gage Mitchell on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gagemitchell/…Print Magazine Design Podcasts - https://www.printmag.com/categories/printcast/…Heritage Radio Network - https://heritageradionetwork.org/Heritage Radio Network on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/heritage-radio-network/posts/Heritage Radio Network on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/HeritageRadioNetworkHeritage Radio Network on X - https://x.com/Heritage_RadioHeritage Radio Network on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/heritage_radio/Heritage Radio Network on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@heritage_radio…The Food Institute - https://foodinstitute.com/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When Raechel Van Buskirk served up some creatively-flavored deviled eggs at her dive bar in Omaha, Nebraska, she had no idea that it would change her life. And what started as a way to drum up some business on Sunday mornings, would eventually lead to a chain of restaurants, national distribution and even an appearance on Shark Tank. Today, Raechel walks us through the whirlwind rise of her company, Deviled Egg Co., including the struggle of keeping a business going through Covid, the nerve-wracking preparation for her Shark Tank appearance, and how she's navigated the volatility in egg prices. 

Kevin O'Leary, aka "Mr. Wonderful," joined us on the Guy Benson Show today with guest host Pete Mundo to discuss the latest on politics surrounding data centers. O'Leary, chairman of O'Leary Ventures and 5-time Emmy winner as Shark Tank's Mr. Wonderful, discussed why business leaders haven't done a good enough job promoting what "modern" data center technology looks like, and O'Leary also discussed the state of the economy and the pending economic boom when the war with Iran ends. Listen to the full interview with "Mr. Wonderful" below! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After 135 applications, months of challenges, and three near-"death" experiences, So You Think You Can Tout comes down to this: three finalists (Tony Squares, PPR Tyler, and Alex Cupps), three Shark Tank pitches, and one big decision. A YouTube executive returns to judge, a game of Deal or No Deal breaks out, and the biggest name in fantasy football crashes a call to change someone's life.⁠⁠ Subscribe to the So You Think You Can Tout YouTube channel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Dr. Beckett recaps his week at the 2026 National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago, describing the event as maximally crowded, the biggest National ever, with long lines and high energy. He details his buying-focused approach centered on dollar boxes, especially with the Singles Club, noting which days and times produced the best finds and how dealer markdowns shaped his strategy. Beckett shares highlights including a YouTube content creator gathering, meetings (notably with COMC's Tim Getsch), traditional hobby dinners, and Jeremy Lee's well-produced Shark Tank presentation where Dr. Beckett gave brief remarks paying tribute to deceased National co-founder Mike Berkus. He discusses skipping trade nights, signing autographs without charging, losing his voice from the crowd, travel/packing tactics, and returning home tired but enthusiastic about next year's National and the hobby's continued momentum.   01:48 Staying Fueled and Ready 02:28 Wednesday Arrival Plan 02:51 Singles Club Routine 05:52 Best Times to Buy 06:53 YouTube Creator Meetup 08:07 Friday Meetings and OG Dinner 09:48 Saturday Shark Tank Event 12:04 Sunday Deals and Awkward Checkout 13:15 Autographs and Show Observations 15:05 Packing and Card Plans      

Join host Justin Forman for a candid conversation with Stephen Ellsworth, co-founder of Poppi, the prebiotic soda brand that went from a Dallas farmers market stand to one of the largest exits in beverage history when PepsiCo acquired it for $2 billion. Stephen walks through the pivotal decisions that shaped Poppi's rise — rewriting the formula a week before Shark Tank, the branding fight that determined whether Poppi would be sold as a health product or a soda, and the negotiating table where his team turned down a $1 billion offer because it “didn't feel right.” But the most striking part of Stephen's story isn't the exit — it's what came after. He opens up about the identity crisis, isolation, and unexpected grief that followed closing the deal, and how wrestling with purpose in the months afterward reshaped his understanding of calling, generosity, and what he calls this next season: not retirement, but “preferment.” Throughout, Stephen traces how his faith — dormant since he was a teenager — was reawakened through the entrepreneurial journey itself, from a providential tax refund that arrived the week his mortgage was due, to the conviction that let him walk away from billion-dollar offers that didn't align with what he and his team believed was right. Key Topics: •      From a Wyoming kitchen to Shark Tank to a $2 billion PepsiCo acquisition •      The branding pivot that turned an apple cider vinegar tonic into a prebiotic soda •      Why Stephen's team walked away from a $1 billion Pepsi offer and a $1.65 billion Keurig Dr Pepper offer •      The unexpected identity crisis and isolation that followed the exit •      Moving from a Mormon upbringing to a faith renewed through entrepreneurship •      Setting up a Donor Advised Fund and learning to give with the same rigor used to build a business Notable Quotes: “Sitting where we are now, a $2 billion exit from a farmers market stand is just wild.” - Stephen Ellsworth “Pepsi is a huge system. If you're gonna buy us, buy us.” - Stephen Ellsworth “The idea of coming to know God more fully through [the entrepreneurial journey] is one of the greatest side benefits of the whole equation.” - Justin Forman

Amye is joined by Amanda to discuss Sister Wives S7:EP2 Polygamists in a Shark TankThe jewelry “business” is beginning to overwhelm the wives–more notably Robyn who is having a full-on breakdown over her Scooby-Doo designs, so they turn to investors for money to hire employees.This is a free preview!To listen to all of seasons 1-6 plus this current rewatch of season 7, follow us on Patreon. Please let us know where in the world you are located so we can plan meetups more efficiently and you can connect with local BDFs!https://forms.gle/cJba8oWGM8qLPC6V6GET BONUS CONTENTUnlock ad-free episodes and exclusive bonus recaps by joining our community!Patreon: patreon.com/littlemissrecap Website: littlemissrecap.com/supportOUR OTHER SHOWS & MERCHTrue Crime: Hear our latest documentary deep-dives on Murder She Watched at murdershewatchedpod.comShop Merch: Get your podcast gear at littlemissrecap.threadless.comBuy my book: https://www.amazon.com/Fat-Girl-Skinny-Amye-Archer/dp/B0H6NSD6VJ/CONNECT WITH USInstagram: @littlemissrecapFacebook Group: Little Miss Recap Podcast CommunityYouTube: Watch our recaps hereContact: email littlemissrecap@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Money Making Conversations Master Class with Rushion McDonald is America's premier entrepreneurship, business leadership, financial literacy, and wealth-building podcast featuring successful entrepreneurs, executives, founders, celebrities, and industry experts sharing actionable insights for professional and financial success. Business Podcast Entrepreneurship Small Business Business Growth Financial Literacy Wealth Building Black Entrepreneurs Minority Business Leadership Executive Leadership Business Funding Marketing Strategies Personal Development Startup Advice Sales Training CEO Interviews Founder Stories Professional Development Economic Empowerment Business Success Networking Brand Building Innovation How to start a business Small business funding Entrepreneur success stories Business leadership podcast Wealth building strategies Black entrepreneur podcast Minority business development Marketing for small businesses Business growth strategies Startup funding opportunities Executive leadership training Financial literacy education Success mindset podcast Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Dr. Shaan Patel. Founder and CEO of Prep Expert, a leading online test prep company. The conversation explores Patel’s journey from struggling test-taker to perfect SAT scorer, bestselling author, and successful entrepreneur. He shares how his personal experience inspired a mission to help students unlock scholarship opportunities and academic success.

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Money Making Conversations Master Class with Rushion McDonald is America's premier entrepreneurship, business leadership, financial literacy, and wealth-building podcast featuring successful entrepreneurs, executives, founders, celebrities, and industry experts sharing actionable insights for professional and financial success. Business Podcast Entrepreneurship Small Business Business Growth Financial Literacy Wealth Building Black Entrepreneurs Minority Business Leadership Executive Leadership Business Funding Marketing Strategies Personal Development Startup Advice Sales Training CEO Interviews Founder Stories Professional Development Economic Empowerment Business Success Networking Brand Building Innovation How to start a business Small business funding Entrepreneur success stories Business leadership podcast Wealth building strategies Black entrepreneur podcast Minority business development Marketing for small businesses Business growth strategies Startup funding opportunities Executive leadership training Financial literacy education Success mindset podcast Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Dr. Shaan Patel. Founder and CEO of Prep Expert, a leading online test prep company. The conversation explores Patel’s journey from struggling test-taker to perfect SAT scorer, bestselling author, and successful entrepreneur. He shares how his personal experience inspired a mission to help students unlock scholarship opportunities and academic success.

Nick Friedman is the co-founder of College Hunks Hauling Junk & Moving, one of the most recognizable home service brands in the country. What started as a college summer side hustle has grown into a $300 million national franchise with more than 100 locations. Nick is also the bestselling author of Effortless Entrepreneur and host of the Hunks Talking Junk podcast. In this episode, he shares the lessons behind scaling a simple service business, building systems that last, and why execution—not flashy ideas—is often the greatest competitive advantage. On this episode we talk about: How College Hunks Hauling Junk & Moving grew from a summer side hustle into a $300 million franchise Why branding, customer experience, and execution matter more than having a revolutionary business idea The power of systems, SOPs, and checklists for scaling any business Lessons learned from franchising, appearing on the very first episode of Shark Tank, and building through economic downturns Why resourcefulness may be the most valuable entrepreneurial skill in the age of AI Top 3 Takeaways You don't need to invent the next tech unicorn to build wealth—improving a "boring" business with better branding, systems, and customer service can create extraordinary results. Sustainable growth comes from documenting processes, empowering great people, and continually refining your systems rather than relying on founder hustle alone. Resourcefulness consistently beats raw intelligence. Entrepreneurs who adapt, solve problems creatively, and execute relentlessly will outperform those with the best ideas. Notable Quotes "Execution is a strategy." "Developing systems is something we do—it's not something we did." "If you can do it just slightly better than the alternative on a consistent basis, you win over time." Connect with Nick Friedman: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nickfriedman1/ Website: https://nickfriedman.com College Hunks Hauling Junk & Moving: https://www.collegehunkshaulingjunk.com/ Podcast: Hunks Talking Junk A Word from Our Sponsors: - Visit DrinkAG1.com/TMM to get a free AG1 Travel Case with 7 free AG1Travel Packs in your Welcome Kit with your first AG1 subscription order while supplies last. - Go to Leesa.com for 25% OFF select mattresses (through August 23, 2026) PLUS get an extra $50 off with promo code TMM, exclusive for my listeners  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Wealth Preservation Architecture: Deferring Capital Gains Tax and Maximizing Exit Equity with Brett SwartsIn a recent episode of The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Podcast, host Josh Elledge sat down with Brett Swarts, the Founder and CEO of Capital Gains Tax Solutions, to examine the severe tax liabilities that threaten high-net-worth business exits and real estate transactions. Brett, a leading wealth preservation strategist, commercial real estate expert, and author of Building a Capital Gains Tax Exit Plan, details how traditional tax-deferral mechanisms like the 1031 exchange frequently limit investor flexibility and expose assets to market volatility. This conversation provides a comprehensive, data-backed operational guide for founders, real estate investors, and M&A advisors who want to legally defer 33% to 40% in combined capital gains taxes, retain capital compounding power, and construct flexible, long-term estate planning frameworks using the Deferred Sales Trust (DST).The Asset Preservation Paradigm: Unlocking Compound Growth and Flexible Liquidity Through Deferred Sales TrustsThe primary operational oversight committed by founders and real estate investors during an asset liquidity event is delaying tax-deferral architecture until after a transaction closes. In high-tax jurisdictions where combined federal, state, and depreciation recapture taxes routinely consume 33% to 40% of net profits, selling an appreciated asset without an established exit structure results in an immediate, permanent destruction of capital. While many investors default to a traditional 1031 exchange to defer real estate taxes, this rigid framework forces buyers into strict 45-day identification windows and 180-day closing deadlines, often compelling them to overpay for replacement properties in inflated markets. Implementing an installment sale framework via a Deferred Sales Trust before closing removes these rigid timelines entirely, allowing the full proceeds of a business or real estate sale to be reinvested into diversified stocks, bonds, or new entrepreneurial ventures tax-deferred.Executing a Deferred Sales Trust requires a disciplined structural pivot where the seller transfers ownership of the business or real estate asset to an irrevocable third-party trust in exchange for a customized promissory note. The trust subsequently executes the final transaction with the end buyer, receiving cash proceeds while issuing structured, tax-deferred note payments to the original seller over a multi-year horizon. Because capital gains taxes are triggered only on the principal payments actually received by the seller, the remaining capital inside the trust compounds tax-deferred at its full value. This strategic separation of asset ownership from liquidity streams allows high-net-worth founders to secure predictable passive income, diversify their wealth out of concentrated positions, and maintain strategic influence over investment allocations without incurring immediate tax penalties.Furthermore, leveraging specialized trust structures provides enterprise leaders with critical ancillary benefits, including robust asset protection against future litigation and the systematic reduction of estate tax liabilities. As the global market prepares for unprecedented multi-trillion-dollar wealth transfers driven by retiring business owners, financial advisors, brokers, and CPAs who master advanced capital gains tax-deferral strategies gain a massive competitive advantage. By offering clients viable alternatives to strict 1031 exchanges or immediate tax hits, advisors can unlock trapped equity, preserve multi-generational wealth, and build long-term client retention. When early tax planning, rigorous legal compliance, and flexible trust administration are synthesized into a single exit architecture, business owners eliminate transactional drag, shield their capital, and predictably maximize their enterprise equity.About Brett SwartsBrett Swarts is the Founder and CEO of Capital Gains Tax Solutions, a commercial real estate veteran, an international speaker, and an expert in capital gains tax-deferral frameworks. Drawing from years of hands-on experience facilitating complex real estate transactions and business exits, Brett specializes in helping high-net-worth individuals navigate tax traps and preserve wealth. He is the author of Building a Capital Gains Tax Exit Plan (featuring a foreword by Shark Tank's Kevin Harrington) and host of the Capital Gains Tax Solutions Podcast, dedicated to helping business owners and advisors unlock financial freedom through advanced trust structures.About Capital Gains Tax SolutionsCapital Gains Tax Solutions is an elite corporate tax advisory firm and wealth preservation agency engineered to help real estate investors, business founders, and high-net-worth individuals legally defer capital gains taxes. The company specializes in delivering customized Deferred Sales Trust (DST) frameworks, exit strategy coaching, estate tax planning, and advisor partnership programs. Through structured legal compliance, third-party trust administration, and comprehensive wealth strategy blueprints, Capital Gains Tax Solutions enables sellers across complex asset classes to eliminate tax friction and maximize their net-worth compounding potential.Links Mentioned in This EpisodeCapital Gains Tax Solutions Official Website: capitalgainstaxsolutions.comBrett Swarts on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/brett-swartsKey Episode HighlightsThe Pre-Close Timing Rule: Why exit planning must be executed prior to closing a transaction to legally defer capital gains liabilities and protect wealth.Overcoming the 1031 Exchange Bottleneck: Utilizing the Deferred Sales Trust to bypass strict 45-day identification windows and reinvest in non-real estate asset classes.The Installment Sale Mechanics: Deferring 33% to 40% in combined federal and state taxes by selling assets to a trust in exchange for a structured promissory note.Multi-Generational Estate Tax Protection: Shielding large transaction proceeds from estate taxes and creditors while setting up seamless inheritance structures for heirs.The $124 Trillion Advisory Opportunity: Equipping financial advisors, M&A brokers, and CPAs with advanced tax-deferral strategies to win high-net-worth B2B clients.ConclusionThe conversation with Brett Swarts underscores that maximizing the value of a business exit or real estate sale is an intentional architectural process rather than a post-transaction accounting exercise. By standardizing internal exit governance, replacing rigid exchange models with flexible trust structures, and acting well before the deal closes, business leaders can transform a massive tax burden into a highly structured, self-sustaining wealth preservation engine.More from The Thoughtful Entrepreneur

Send us Fan MailSteven Szymeczek joins the podcast to share a career shaped by curiosity, hands-on learning, and a willingness to explore new opportunities. He traces his path from taking apart gadgets as a child to manufacturing crop-duster components early in his career, designing aircraft interiors, and eventually launching his own product development business. Steven and Aaron discuss the realities of moving from engineering into entrepreneurship, including learning how to communicate with customers, build a dependable network of manufacturing partners, price projects appropriately, and avoid overextending yourself to win the wrong work. Steven also shares the story of an early product-development client whose invention eventually appeared on Shark Tank, along with the lessons he learned about translating an entrepreneur's vision into a manufacturable product. The conversation also explores the rapid evolution of additive manufacturing, from the unreliable desktop printers of the early days to today's fast, accessible systems. Steven explains the differences between technologies such as Multi Jet Fusion and selective laser sintering, why polymer powder-bed fusion is becoming more accessible, and how rapid prototyping enables engineers to fail early, learn quickly, and improve designs faster. Finally, Steven describes his work at Boise State University, where he teaches additive manufacturing and leads a product development lab that gives students experience working on real client projects. From 3D-printed combat robots to medical devices and entrepreneurial product concepts, Steven is helping the next generation of engineers build practical skills, embrace experimentation, and enter their careers with meaningful hands-on experience.  LINKS: Steven Szymeczek LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-m-szymeczek-0a33608a/ Aaron Moncur, host PDX 2026 is October 20-21 in Phoenix, AZ. Attendee tickets are 50% off August 3-7 only. Learn more and register at https://pdexpo.engineer/  Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday.The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment like cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us at www.teampipeline.usWatch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus 

During August, the Motherkind team and I try to practise what we preach by slowing down, taking some time off and making the juggle just a little easier over the summer holidays.So, throughout the month, we're bringing you some of our most listened-to episodes of the year so far.Can you be an ambitious mother without feeling guilty?Emma Grede believes you can, and that our children actually benefit when they see us fully expressed, fulfilled and living in alignment with our own values.Emma is one of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, co-founder of SKIMS, CEO of Good American, founding partner of Safely, investor on Shark Tank and author of Start With Yourself. But this conversation isn't really about business. It's about the invisible pressure mothers carry, the impossible standards we set ourselves, and how to build a life that feels true to you.Together, Zoe and Emma explore why so many mothers feel depleted, how to let go of guilt, and why success looks different in different seasons of life. Emma shares the parenting philosophy that has helped her build multiple global businesses while raising four children and why she believes children don't need a perfect mother; they need one who is fulfilled.They also discuss work-life balance, career ambition after children, asking for help, letting go of control, sharing the parenting load, and why learning to say no is one of the most powerful leadership skills a mother can develop.

Kacie's tallow threatens to tear the family apart in the most bland way possible on The McBee Dynasty. Is there any hope for this future Shark Tank reject? Plus, with a Vegas trip looming and an event called Cowboy Christmas to attend (not a Western themed gay orgy, sadly), the family must weather a new challenge: the most pessimistic rumor EVER about Steven Jr. and Kacie. Grab your oversized coffee beverage: it's time to recap the dullest show on Bravo. To watch this recap on video, listen to our bonus episodes, sign up for our free weekly newsletter and get ad free listening, go to Patreon.com/watchwhatcrappens. Find bonus episodes at patreon.com/watchwhatcrappens and follow us on Instagram @watchwhatcrappens @ronniekaram @benmandelker Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Take a stroll down FMOFM memory lane as the gang recaps some of Josh's greatest stories for his birthday. On this episode, Josh Mills and Wayne McCarty cover your favorite Florida Man headlines, hear "Shark Tank" style investment opportunities submitted by fans (Part 2), and participate in a quiz called "What Would Josh Do?" where Josh highlights some fan favorite stories in honor of his birthday. Headlines: Elderly Florida man gets arrested for drag racing, elderly Florida man goes to jail for setting his girlfriend on fire, elderly Florida woman gets assigned an inappropriate license plate by the Florida DMV. On mic: Josh Mills, Wayne McCarty, Jess Nieman, Emily Grabill, Luke West Each week, the Florida Men on Florida Man podcast blends comedy with the fascinating legends, lore, and history of the wildest state in the Union: Florida. Learn more at www.fmofm.com Support the show at www.patreon.com/fmofmpodcast

How can building an audience in advance help your stories reach the people who make movies? And how can you prove there's demand for your book or screenplay before you've written it? Brooks Elms shares his advice after more than 20 years as a WGA screenwriter. In the intro, what doesn't work for book marketing and what does [Amy Chan SubStack; Unsingle; Rephonic]; Goodreads giveaway for Bones of the Deep; FutureVision XPrize. This podcast is sponsored by Kobo Writing Life, which helps authors self-publish and reach readers in global markets through the Kobo eco-system. You can also subscribe to the Kobo Writing Life podcast for interviews with successful indie authors. This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Brooks Elms is a WGA screenwriter with over 45 scripts, over a dozen sales, and he has directed two indie features. He is the creator of the Answer the Call system and has trained over 1,000 writers. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes How to see the opportunity in AI when others only see the threat How to test a story with samples, and what a 16-second movie can do Building the trailer before you write the screenplay Letting your audience finance the film once they have validated the idea Why Hollywood still wants existing IP, and what makes them pay attention Feeling safe enough to write the truth, and finding a concrete path forward You can find Brooks on LinkedIn or email him at brooks@brookselms.com. Transcript of the interview with Brooks Elms Jo: Brooks Elms is a WGA screenwriter with over 45 scripts, over a dozen sales, and he has directed two indie features. He is the creator of the Answer the Call system and has trained over 1,000 writers. So welcome to the show, Brooks. Brooks: Thank you. It's awesome to be here. Jo: Fantastic. So first up— Tell us a bit more about you and how you got into screenwriting. Brooks: I started filmmaking first. A buddy came up to me in high school and said, “Hey, we're making a karate movie, do you want to help us?” I was like, “Oh my God, yes, that sounds amazing.” So next thing I know, I had this karate outfit on, and we were just making this completely ridiculous and totally fun movie, and it was amazing. It was so fun. Then it went to a whole other level when we shared it with a friend, this guy Jay Sharon, and he watched the movie and he laughed so hard he literally fell out of his chair. I was like, “Oh my God,” the fun I had making it could actually transfer to somebody else. I was hooked. So from there I went to NYU film school, and then made a few independent feature films which were good but not great in terms of how they were received. They were great for me in terms of enjoyment, but I knew I needed to iterate faster at that point. So then I was like, “Well, it's expensive and it takes a long time to make a movie,” at least back then. So I pivoted to screenwriting, and pumped out two, three scripts a year, got signed at UTA, got writing assignments, and basically launched a screenwriting career. Then I still tried to get some stuff going, but it's hard when movies are so expensive. It's not hard, it's just that it takes a lot of precision in the marketing, and a lot of conversations to find the right matches to finance something, and you're either interested in doing that or you're not. I just was like, “Well, I'll just mostly write screenplays.” Then I started teaching at UCLA Extension and then coaching after that, along with writing. Then all the way up to the future. What's great about moving forward is that with AI, shot-making is becoming very close to cinematic quality. You can actually match cinematic quality in moments in some genres, but probably by next year. Right now you could actually do a really good horror movie all AI for 10, 20,000 bucks, depending on how much you're doing yourself or getting other people to do. So the economics are going to absolutely explode. So I'm sitting on dozens of scripts that didn't get through the Hollywood packaging bottleneck because they're too expensive, and I now have this giant slate that's ready to go, and I'm just absolutely thrilled. It's been a lifelong dream for me. Jo: Oh, so much to come back on there. Where to start? I do want to talk about what you just said there, sitting on dozens of scripts and now seeing the opportunity. I actually wrote down in my journal about a year ago, I see what's coming with AI, and I think that the best thing I can do is create as much original IP as possible, so that I can make the most of the opportunity ahead. So let's just get into the AI, because a lot of people feel it's a super bad thing. Talk about the opportunities and the attitude that you've got [around AI], and that you've seen others have around this, for what is ahead in a positive way. Brooks: It's fascinating to see how people respond to AI. I wonder, when the printing press rolled around, if there was some sort of backlash. Books must be handwritten. They can't be mass-produced. Here's one of my theories. At a deep psychological level, it's so profoundly powerful that I think the default setting is, “Oh, crap.” When I was a kid, some things were hard, and that power imbalance, when something big, new and powerful comes along: I'm going to get screwed, and so this is somehow a bad thing. I think that's the base psychological thing going on with most of the noise. Obviously there are some legit problems, in terms of copyright infringement from learning models, or from some of the environmental situation. So I'm not saying it's all rainbows and butterflies, but I think 90% of the noise around it comes from a fear of change. Here's the other one—a fear of, “Oh, yikes, I'm going to get taken advantage of somehow by either robots, or the corporations are going to use the robots against me,” or something like that. I have real empathy for me when I feel that way a little bit, but I don't feel it much, and for other people that do feel it. The other thing is, you know what it is? I think they fear their own empowerment even more. I had a therapist who was really good. He said, people aren't so much afraid of failing as they are afraid of succeeding. Because if we fail, we're stuck in act one and we don't go anywhere. The fear is answering the call and going to act two, when everything effing changes in the new world. So I think people are afraid of how goddamn powerful they're going to be when they can have a team of AI agents helping them do everything they want in business or life or whatever. I think it's the same thing with the internet. People are like, “Oh, I don't like social media, blah, blah, blah.” And I get it. There's a lot of noise and a lot of crap. Yet we have access to billions of people, and the algorithms in social media right now I think are level three out of 10. They're just going to get better and better. Even as it is now, if I do a post about something and it gets ignored, that's on me. The algorithms are trying to match me to my people. So if I'm not unique enough and authentic enough and aware enough of how virality works, that's on me, and it's a learnable skill that I can embrace and then change and then get better at. So I think people then resist that change. They resist the empowerment of learning the art of virality, or learning the art of some sort of social media stuff or whatever. The last thing I'll say about this rant is, I don't want to act like I'm the guru on the hill that has all the answers. I refuse calls all the time. I'm scared about all sorts of things. I'm certainly not perfect. I feel frustrated when I'm trying to put my big ideas into action and I can't get this technology thing to work or that one, and I throw tantrums. I'm trying to come at it from a real human perspective, but by and large, I've got stars in my eyes. I'm like, “This is amazing. This is going to be so powerful.” For so many people, you just have to be ready to embrace it and just go along for the ride, because there's going to be some big-ass changes. There already are, and that's going to accelerate. Jo: You mentioned there learning the art of whatever it is. One of the things is, I've spent 20 years, and so have you, learning our craft and our art, and now it can be done very easily. I'm generating video, as you mentioned, which is a craft I haven't spent 20 years on, but now I can generate. So things have definitely changed in that way. Just coming to the screenwriting side. Probably about a decade ago now, I did my first screenwriting course. I've written screenplays. Then I looked at the game you have to play and, like you said, the conversations you have to have, the events you have to go and network at, all the things that you have to do to put a screenplay in front of the right person at the right time. I was like, “I cannot do that. It's just not going to happen. I can't do that along with everything else.” So I put it aside, but now I feel maybe it's time to bring it back because things are changing. So can you maybe talk about, if someone has a screenplay now that they've written, or some IP like a book that they have now— What would you recommend people do in terms of wanting to get that [IP] in front of somebody, or doing something with it themselves? Brooks: It's such a good question. By the way, not even a screenplay—you could do the same things with a novel. Let me try to be succinct here, which is a good challenge for me. A simple way to look at it is, you're giving samples. Let's say it's a lemonade stand, and you give out a little shot of your… maybe you have cayenne pepper lemonade, some sort of fun lemonade. If you give out a sample and people are into it, they're going to come back and they're going to tell friends. If you give a sample of the lemonade and they're not into it, then you go back to the kitchen and you mix up a different flavour. So that's some basic business, but the internet allows us to do that at scale. So what I like to encourage people to do when I coach them is come up with the minimum viable material. It can be a 10-second clip. There's a writer in my community who made a really beautiful 16-second movie. It's one shot. I love it so much. It's two wine glasses. There's a lipstick smudge on one of the wine glasses. They're half full, and it's just that shot. It's sitting there, and all of a sudden you hear this thundering, thumping down these stairs, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Then you see out of the corner of the frame one person runs by, and then the other person behind her runs by and goes, “Wait.” That's it. That's the whole movie. It's 16 seconds. He did that with his phone. So there's so much going on. There's a couple of basic elements, but he just did it with his phone, and you can evoke enormous emotional impact on people through social media, whether it's just words. You guys have a big advantage as novelists because you're so good with words. Whether it's a little bit longer, like sudden fiction, that's a couple of pages or whatever. Even just copywriters are really in a good position for the future because they're super potent with two words or three words or 10 words. Then novelists are probably really advantageous because it doesn't cost anything to just put some words out on the internet. The point is, if you put something out, it's a signal, and you're talking about billions of people who could find that signal. If you do it and then you look at the response, and then you try again, you look at the response, we can do this iteration infinitely for free. So you can do it already. You've been able to do it for 10, 15, 20 years, just with words. But now you're going to basically be able to do that with movies or clips or trailers. So the thing that I'm leading in my community of writers is having people build trailers in advance, or clips. When a book or a movie is done, how the heck do we get people to see it? One way is a trailer or some sort of behind-the-scenes material. You can just do that stuff now before even writing the screenplay. I saw that you were doing this project, a trailer for this competition. And then you mentioned, “Oh, I've got to write the screenplay.” Not really. You have to develop the story enough to know what you're referring to, and then it's about studying the craft of either trailer construction, or whatever the clips are, or viral clips. They all have a structure, and then you just test it. If you enjoy that testing process, which I find absolutely thrilling, it feels like the filmmaking version of a stand-up comedian. If I did stand-up, I say a joke, they laugh or they don't laugh. It's really beautiful feedback from the universe. Nerve-wracking, right? But we can do that now as storytellers. We put a story out there in any format, and the audience responds. Just like you have to read any room, you have to learn how to read the engagement on social media. What do likes mean? What do shares mean? What do comments mean? How do you deal with trolls? All that is just part of the new art. Once you get good at it, holy smokes, that's the key to the kingdom. You can build audiences in advance, and for movies you could even have them finance your movie in advance, if you've built an email list of 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 people because you kept putting out all these viral clips around your story, novel, or screenplay. Then you go, “Okay, now 30,000 people are on my email list and I tell them about me and my perspective and my world. We're going to make this darn thing with AI for 20,000 bucks. You guys have got to pony up some money. Put in a dollar, five, 10, or you get the VIP $500 experience.” It's like crowdfunding, but much more sophisticated, because most crowdfunding was like begging friends and family to donate to your crazy dream. What I'm talking about is going to the audience directly, developing enough of the story, then going to the audience second, and then only when they validate the idea, to the extent that you're happy with. You could do a crazy idea that's going to have a small audience, and you don't have to have a blockbuster audience. You get to pick the audience size that you want, and then put the samples out there and see if you have a relevant audience size for this next project. Once the audience tells you, “Yes, we want this,” then you go make it. So you're ultimately reducing risk to almost zero. It takes time and you have to learn how to do this stuff, but it's thrilling to me because we just have the capacity to test the material and listen to the audience upfront. The last thing I'll say, and I've rambled a lot, I'm sorry. When I made a movie in 1994, a feature film right out of NYU, it took me three years to find out what the audience thought about that movie. I had to make the damn thing, and then I ran out of money, and that took me years to edit it, and I finally got it, blah, blah, blah. And again, I loved it. I loved every facet of it, and it was fine, but it was super inefficient. Today, I could take those same elements, create an AI trailer this weekend, put it in front of hundreds of thousands of people, and they could tell me right away, “This sucks,” or, “This is interesting,” or, “Holy smokes, this is amazing. I want this.” If it's not, “Holy smokes, this is amazing, I want it,” I can go ahead and re-edit the whole damn trailer, and just keep reiterating at almost no cost. Then once the demand is there, I can take that demand and that audience and go to Hollywood, and that's when they're going to want to work with me. Then it doesn't take a million conversations and finding the needle in the haystack, because Hollywood sees the numbers and they go, “Oh, you're the people we do want to do business with. You've proven demand. We want to do business with you.” Jo: Yes, it's so interesting. I can hear people listening and they're like, “Easier said than done, getting an email list of 40,000 people.” And in fact— It's exactly the same as building up a career as an independent author. This is as a filmmaker, as a visual person, and the industry is visual, so doing a visual trailer is the obvious thing. And as you say, the tools I use just to do this one, I use Midjourney, and I've used Seedance as the main video model. It does take a while, but it is pretty fast now, if you have a visual image of what you want in your head, which obviously you're a visual person as well. But is it… Brooks: Hold on. I want to push back on that a little bit, because I think it's really important. So yes, that's true, but underneath that, my friend, it's a relationship. It's the relationship, and the media is secondary. You have been prolific in connecting with your audience, and that's why I think a lot of people like you, because you share and they get to know you in that sort of cadence. I saw you in another podcast, you mentioned Seth Godin, who just said, “Hey, I want to be the type of person that has this relationship with my audience. I'm going to share some of my thoughts every day.” He happened to do it with words, with his background in marketing, but you could do the same thing with still images. You could do the same thing with a five-second movie clip once a week. It's the relationship you want with your fans. I'm not saying you snap your fingers and you have 50,000 people on your email list. What I'm saying is, what else are you doing? If we're artists and our impulse is to create and share, and if you do it in this way, if I can create and share and inspire trust in this relationship with a stranger because they like my genre thing and they like the way they felt when they experienced my media, words, images, movies, it doesn't matter. They just like the feeling, and they go, “Ooh, I want more of that feeling. How do I get more of that? Oh, this person has this email list or community.” If I can do it with one, then I can scale it out. So getting the first one, or the first 5 or 10 samples, that is a whole process. But then once you do that, scaling up is more of a mechanical thing. It's not even that hard, especially when you can do paid ads. So you can scale up very quickly if you have the sauce. If you don't have the sauce, it doesn't matter who you're related to, you've got to get the sauce right. Jo: Yes, and again, it's so parallel to the indie author community. I've just got to ask you, in the olden days, an author might write a screenplay, or a screenwriter write a screenplay, and then they would send it. They'd find an agent. They'd pitch an agent, and I guess then they'd hope that someone would turn that into a movie. So is that just dead now? Is it realistically that you need to get yourself out there, build the audience in the same way that it often is for authors? Brooks: So, no. I've got two screenplay deals going right now. So here's how it's going to work. Think about Broadway, or the theatre district in Britain. It's like West End or East End or whatever… Jo: The West End. Brooks: Sorry for my American ignorance. West End, okay. So every town on the planet has a stage, but there's only one Broadway, there's only one West End, right? And every town has its own festival, but there are a few significant tastemakers. There's Cannes, there's Sundance, there's Toronto. Hollywood is always going to be a tastemaker in our lifetime, for sure. What they don't have anymore, what they enjoyed for the first 100 years of the industry, is that they had a stranglehold on basically the equipment, the financing, and the audience, and that's all going away. Do you want to hear a fun story about the birth of cinema? Do you know why Hollywood started in Hollywood? Jo: No. Brooks: So Thomas Edison invented the camera, or the type of model camera that they were using in, I don't know, 1910 or something around there. They didn't want to pay his patent. They didn't want to pay the patent to make these movies, so they went all the way across the country, a bunch of outlaws, and they set up shop in California because he couldn't enforce his patent that they were basically stealing. And reason number two, LA enjoys amazing weather almost all year round. The weather here is either nice or really nice. You have mountains, you have beach, you have desert, you have all these different locales. So when it was really important to be on location, LA was the perfect place. Anyway, that is all going away. For many decades, more people could make movies. In the early '90s, Robert Rodriguez made a movie for 9,000 bucks. There was a book in the '80s that I bought that I loved, it was Feature Filmmaking at Used-Car Prices. This guy, Rick Schmidt, I think his name was. There were the independent filmmakers really in the '60s and the '70s. So the cost has been going down and down and down, and now it's less than ever. Once social media came along, now you have access to the audience, so why do you even need Hollywood? That being said, there are tons of people. There are 400,000 people already working in the movie and the TV industry here. And they're voracious. We have a voracious demand. Humans need stories. We need big stories, long stories. We need stories, and Hollywood is so good at giving them stories. And so they have a need for these things, and they're still spending a lot of money on those budgets. So yes, there's still a demand for turning books and optioning them and turning them into movies. Books are great. Any sort of existing IP is great because there are marketing efficiencies there. People already know that stuff, know the vibe of it, and so it's easier to market than something that's totally creative and new. When you're spending that much money, you want those marketing efficiencies. They're really important. So the point being, the power is shifting away from Hollywood. Hollywood will still be a tastemaker, but you and me can reach anybody on the planet now. Almost. Billions of people. If it's making a movie, right now you could make a movie that most people wouldn't realise is an AI movie. If it was a horror film, I know a handful of people that could make a feature-length horror film right now with AI and 99% of the audience couldn't tell, if it was professionally written. Jo: I think the point here though is, I'm an author, the people listening are authors, and we don't want to make movies. We want to license our IP to people who want to make movies. Brooks: Yes. Great. Okay, good. So then you could, if you wanted, build an audience. Hollywood loves when something's already proven, so that's that IP thing, right? So if you just have a great book, then it's all about the sales. You guys have Dragons' Den, we have Shark Tank here. And what's amazing about that show is these are people or entrepreneurs pitching an idea, and there's an amazing rhythm that happens. They say, “We've got this great idea. It's this sort of company.” And the sharks, or the dragons, will listen. And there's a huge turning point when they reveal sales. They're either really excited about the idea and then they go, “Well, how are the sales?” And the person goes, “Well, we don't have any sales yet.” And they go, “Uh,” and they're not interested. Or they might even be like, “Eh, it doesn't seem like a good idea.” And they're like, “Well, how are the sales?” And they're like, “Oh, well, we've sold through the roof.” And then all of a sudden they perk up. So it's all about the sales. So step one is writing something that you want. Step two is making sure other people in your target audience are also loving it as much as you do. Step three is proving in some way at scale that there's real demand for it. So you could do that with trailers, you could do that with clips, you can do that as an indie publisher. There's all sorts of things that you can do. Humans are much more persuaded by concrete data than they are by just vibes. So if you can bring Hollywood concrete data of any type, like viral videos, like audience, like obviously bestsellers. Awards mean something, but not quite as much as sales. Then you're going to get Hollywood's attention because that reduces risk for them. So even now, when Hollywood's definitely shrinking and contracting, there's still very significant money being spent because it's a huge demand. If you ever walk around a studio lot, those things are opulent places. It's stunning. Like, how are they paying for all this stuff? These lots are enormous. It's because humanity is voracious for stories, and movies are one premium type of storytelling. The demand for stories is steady if not going up. It's just that we have a wider variety of types of stories that we can do, whether we're an indie author. So anyway, did I answer the question? You get me too excited with these questions, Jo. It's a problem. Jo: Yes. I think there's a lot of opportunity and a lot of ways in, but the parallels with being an indie author I think are quite clear. One of the things I found interesting about your profile and what you do is that you help clients who are already accomplished but not quite breaking through, and that sounds like a lot of mid-list indie authors, probably a lot of mid-list screenwriters, mid-list filmmakers. This is a hard place to be because, on the one hand, we are grateful for what we have achieved and what we can do, and yet wanting more, wanting that big Hollywood deal or the Netflix deal, or wanting the massive bestseller or whatever. So if someone wants to get to that next level, what are some of the ways that they can perhaps try and get there? Brooks: It's a great question. Coaching is a really wonderful way to learn anything of this sort of complexity and challenge, especially if it's a hyper-competitive business. We need two things, I think, to write a great novel or screenplay or both. A, we need to feel profoundly safe in our space. If we can't really feel deeply authentic about the things that are embarrassing, or that we feel shame about, or just our shadows, or anything that we don't feel completely comfortable saying and sharing in public usually. We need to be able to touch those things, and be articulate about those things, and that's one part of it. Then we need a concrete path forward. Maybe you're thinking about some tragedy that you had in childhood, and how you dealt with it and how difficult that was. So you need to be able to be real precise in those observations about what it felt like, and how you tried to compensate for it, and that didn't work and it made it worse. Whatever your observations are about your life journey, you need to be really specific and really deeply felt. A good coaching relationship allows you to be in that space, to be really honest with yourself and authentic. g Aood coach will push you back and say, “You know what? That sounds interesting, but maybe not quite as true to you deeply.” So that's one piece of it. Then there's a concrete path forward. You need to have the emotional access to that truth, and then you need to know what to do with that truth in a step-by-step way. Because most people, the ones that you're talking about, they're accomplished in something else. What happens is when we first start writing, and maybe this happens with novelists, but for sure it happens to screenwriters, you just start typing words. But you haven't really thought through the theme, the concept, the structure, the character, all the deeper questions that really matter. The milestones, like a North Star: winning a major award, or getting a publisher. That's the direction that we're heading towards, and then you set it and forget it, but you want to keep checking it every week, every month or whatever. But you want it very specific. “I would like to sell a book, or sell a book to Hollywood, or write a screenplay, or get a producer attached to a screenplay.” Whatever the milestone is, make it really specific, really concrete, and then reverse engineer. This is what I do on the concrete path. I reverse engineer every step to get there, starting with a really tiny one we can do today, and I make sure they feel really safe, and then we just walk through. Then what happens is, if you do that, if you feel safe, if you're showing up authentically and you have a process that's repeatable, not just willy-nilly, it's got to be something that's proven to work. It wasn't an accident I wrote 45 scripts. I've got a whole system. But by the way, the first five scripts took me forever. The last movie that I made took me three years to write that script. I can write a better script with those same elements in three months now, because I know I have a concrete path. So if you want to do something new, whether it's playing the piano or getting six-pack abs or writing a screenplay, work with somebody who's got a system that's already proven, and make sure you relate to them, and then just follow the system. Then when the doubts come up, and they will, that's where the feeling safe is really important. Because, oh, I want the six-pack abs, but I don't feel like going to the gym. I want the extra donut. If I'm working with a really good trainer, they go, “Dude, do you want the six-pack abs or not?” And then you go back and forth, and I go, “Okay, now I can make peace with myself and say I can take one tiny bite of the donut and then still do my workout,” and then I'm moving towards that North Star. Does that make sense? Jo: Yes. I think, like many independents, I resist anything that is systematised. I'm a discovery writer, and I follow the muse, and all of that kind of thing. I think I would say something in a similar vein, which is sustainable creativity for the long term, because your 45 scripts are also years of work, and my books are years of work, and we get better at what we do. So my system, I do have a system really, because— My system is that I do the work, and I write my stories, and I get them out there, and I do the marketing. So even if it's not as systematised as such, it's still a process that I have repeated over and over again. Brooks: That's fascinating to me. Would you consider yourself a pantser? You're like, “I've got an idea,” and you just start writing? Jo: I don't use the word pantser. I guess I call it discovery writing, which is… Brooks: That's a better term. Jo: Yes. What I'm writing for this prize, for example, I know the characters, I know now what's happening. When I had the idea, it was very much a vision and a theme, and the competition has a theme: a positive future with AI and technology. But the things that came around that, I then started playing with ideas around the treatment. I haven't written the screenplay yet. I don't do a plot, or I don't follow Save the Cat or any of that kind of thing. When I write a novel, I just explore and I never write in order. Then at some point I stop and then I have to think about the structure and putting it all together, so the edits are quite big. But my fun is in that discovery, really. Brooks: Oh, that's awesome. Okay, so let me ask, that's really fascinating. And by the way, that doesn't, to me, negate the system that I use. The one that I use is ultimately… the thing is, these questions, the audience is wanting your unique answers to. You don't necessarily need to do it in a certain order. I think that's actually really cool that you write out of order and you have a few elements in mind. All that stuff sounds awesome. The only thing that then makes me curious is, how's your pace? Are you actually completing novels at a pace that feels good, or do you feel like you go too fast, too slow? Jo: I do one or two a year at the moment. Well, two a year, really. But I would say I'm not as successful as I'd like to be, so I'm not saying that my system is the best. I'm saying I want to be better. It's just that my fun is this sort of creative chaos, which I then try and control later. One of the things I really like about screenplays and treatments and doing this kind of thing for film is that it is much more structured, I think, than a 70,000-word novel. You can go in all kinds of directions, whereas with screenwriting you do have to be more disciplined really. Brooks: Yes, so this is going to be fun probably, to hear my view for your audience, and the differences as I see them. For starters, you're talking about what, 10, 20, 30 hours reading a novel sometimes, or maybe less, whereas a movie's a 90-minute experience, right? So that's different. Or if it's a TV series, you might see an hour and then an hour. So that's a very different experience. What happens is when it's condensed like that, you're loading up layers. So every scene is stacked with exposition beneath the drama, and done in a certain way. So specifically, movies are only what you can see and only what you hear. Whereas novels, if you can think it, you can write it, it can be in there. So you don't need to have a plot, but if you want to sell your book to Hollywood, it helps. So I was very resistant about structure. I went to NYU film school, where we really just made short films. It was funny, I had friends that were in the dramatic writing department, and I was like, “You guys are wasting your money. You're just learning to write scripts. We learn to write the scripts and make the movies.” What I hadn't realised is it's a different skill set to hold somebody's attention across an hour-long play, or a 90-minute movie, than it is to make a movie that holds their attention for two minutes or five minutes. I found out years later when I made a feature that was like a lot of shorts patched together, and people were not… They liked it, but they didn't love it. I was like, “Well, what's going on?” And so then I learned to really love Save the Cat in particular. It completely changed me. What happened was, I got a big old slice of humble pie. I had made my second feature, and I put everything I had into it, and it had loose structural beginning, middle, end, blah, blah, blah. But I was still, “Eh, Hollywood BS. What do they know? It's all fake.” So I was very anti-Hollywood structure. Then I was like, now I've got two independent films out there, people saw them, liked them, whatever, but it wasn't getting me consistent work. It wasn't really advancing my career in the way that I wanted. And I was like, “Well, maybe there is something to the Save the Cat.” So I went to the Save the Cat workshop with Blake when he was still alive, and he was delightful, a really awesome guy. He's got this kind of cutesy style, for people that don't know. For context, Blake Snyder was a working Hollywood screenwriter, and he had this system called Save the Cat, which actually has some really interesting ideas. He's got this very light, breezy sort of style. A lot of people don't like him and some people really love him, and everything in between. But I took his weekend seminar, and it completely changed me, because at that point, like I said, I took three years to write a script. Then once he had a process and he had a way of thinking about craft that was just much more screenwriter-friendly, I was like, “Oh my God.” It was so much easier, because I was just focused on the right thing at the right time. So it just sped everything up. After that, I was banging out two to three scripts a year, and better and better quality. So for me, because I went from winging it and wrote five scripts in 13 years, and then wrote two to three scripts every year, I became a huge proponent of system and process. Then my own system really came from that, but it's modular. I have a nine-step system, but you don't necessarily have to go in that order, other than the last three steps, but I won't get into the details. Sometimes you kind of jump from two to three and then back to two and then back and forth. So I love that you get the feel for those elements, and then you just felt your way through. But writing screenplay pages doesn't make sense until you really understand concept, you get a deep sense of beginning, middle, end, character arcs, and these other threads. There are just way better tools for those jobs than screenplay format, because it's a really weird format. It's got these weird slug lines at the top that are all in caps, because a screenplay is a blueprint for somebody else to make the movie. It's not an end-user document like a novel. I don't let my clients even go to that format because it just gets them focused on the wrong things. What they really need to know is, what is your perspective about this theme? What happened in your life that you're fascinated with, that you'd even want to write about this? And tell me what your real life lessons are. So we go into… again, I go back to relationship. What's your relationship to the universe? And what's your relationship to your best friends, or where you got your heart broken, or whatever you want to write about. And then we get that clarity, and then I show you how to express it in terms of developing a screenplay. It's really long-form storytelling, and then the structure just makes it build on itself. But with the structure, because you're talking about so much money and people involved to make it, at least traditionally, what ended up happening was narrative structure that was not so much rigid. Because here's the thing, you can look at 50, 100 years of European cinema and you can look at Hollywood cinema, and Hollywood laps them. When I taught at UCLA Extension, I had lots of foreign students. Let's say there'd be two or three students… if there were 12 people in the class, two or three people would be from America, and everybody else would be from other countries. I would go around, I'd be like, “What movies and TV shows have you been watching?” Almost in every single country, they watch half from their own country, half from Hollywood. So Hollywood storytelling works, that's just the data, and they're dominant. The reason it works is what Aristotle was saying thousands of years ago.. There's a way of thinking about beginning, middle, end that just deeply speaks to the psyche, and you can ignore it if you want. I think Godard said, “You need beginning, middle, and end, but not necessarily in that order,” right? Which is great. Just the way we experience life, there's a beginning, a middle, an end to this podcast interview. There's a beginning, middle, end to the day, a beginning, middle, end to me eating lunch. So if you don't lean into the beginning, middle, end psychological aspect of your story, you're going to bore your reader. But to your point, you don't necessarily have to sort that out in the beginning. It's more efficient probably if you do, but you don't have to. Go into it wherever the muse tells you to go, and then at some point, like you do, then you go, “Okay, now I go back and I edit.” If you're saying there's another level, you have another gear in you, then yes, I'd be curious to slowly go through how you're making those decisions. Because what's happening probably is there are ways you're holding back a little bit. There's maybe something you're afraid of being vulnerable about. That's usually where me or other writers are holding themselves back, and we can take a look at that. There are different ways I show writers to do it. Then you can go, “Oh, I was doing it here, and now I can do it there.” And it could be with process, or just a certain creative choice. With story, it's clear and compelling. Those are the simple things. So, is this clear enough? Is it compelling enough? And there are almost always ways to up-level on any facet, whether it's one sentence, or a sentence that describes the whole concept of the book, or a chapter. Each one of those can be looked at with that lens and we can just say, “Hey, this is 70%, 80%,” whatever, and then we say, “Well, how do we get a little bit more?” And then when you do that enough, it piles up. Then especially if you bring in an audience and people are flipping out for your work, they'll tell you. Jo: Yes, I love a challenge, so thank you for everything you've shared today. So where can people find you and everything you do online? Brooks: Well, one way you can find me—if anything I said seemed helpful for you, if you have questions about Hollywood or you have a screenplay in your heart—you can just email me, brooks@brookselms.com. You could look me up on LinkedIn. I'm at Brooks Elms. I also have a Skool community called Screenwriter Marketing, but it's really for any sort of storyteller, and it talks about my favourite way to engage an audience and get through it. So anybody can jump into that if you like my vibe. If you really think anything I've said, or the way I said it, seems like it could be helpful for you, just reach out. Let me know what you're up to, and maybe there's a way I can help you. Jo: Fantastic. Well, thanks so much for your time, Brooks. That was great. Brooks: You're welcome. It was a total pleasure. It was lots of fun, and I really appreciate you.The post How To Prove The Demand For Your Stories And Get The Attention Of Hollywood With Brooks Elms first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Six years is a long time between visits, and I was excited to catch up with Seth Greene, someone I've known and worked with going all the way back to 2017 or 2018. Seth is the founder and CEO of Market Domination, one of the nation's foremost authorities on growing a business through strategic affiliate and referral relationships, and under his leadership Market Domination landed a spot on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies. He's also the co-host of the Sharkpreneur podcast alongside Kevin Harrington, the original Shark from Shark Tank, a nine-time bestselling author, and has been featured on NBC News, CBS News, Forbes, Inc., and CBS MoneyWatch. We got into what Market Domination is doing right now, which has changed a lot even in just the last six years. Seth walked me through two of their newest capabilities: a way to place your podcast ads on other people's podcasts to grow your own audience, and a way to pull real time Google search data to build a list of people actively searching things like "sell my house" or "rent to own" in your target city, so you can put your message directly in front of a warm audience. We also got into the biggest marketing mistake Seth sees investors make, which is simply blending in and looking like everyone else, and who his services are actually built for, established investors doing real volume, not someone on their very first deal. Seth shared his process for building a network of "dream partners," people who already have your ideal audience, and how his own book turns podcast guest appearances into a referral engine. Toward the end, Seth got personal and told me the single most important thing he's learned recently: who you're being affects how well what you do actually works. It's less about the newest marketing tactic and more about the internal work. If you want a masterclass in both cutting edge direct response marketing and the mindset underneath it, this episode has both.   Key Talking Points of the Episode 00:23  Welcoming Seth Greene back after six years and revisiting his background 02:22  Catching up on what Seth has been building since his last appearance 02:48  The two newest capabilities at Market Domination: podcast-to-podcast advertising and Google search data targeting 04:23  Who the Google search targeting tool is actually built for 05:31  The biggest marketing mistake Seth sees real estate investors make 06:41  Who Seth's services are and are not a good fit for 07:36  Using accredited investor data to help investors raise capital without their own money 08:34  Overcoming the fear of pitching investors by getting reps in and expecting rejection 09:17  Why creative deals and the three paydays model beat the old way of getting paid once 11:39  Whether budget minimums apply the same way to brand new investors 12:40  Seth's pricing tiers, from self-serve resources to a full outsourced marketing department 13:22  How to reach Seth for an exploratory call 14:00  Confirming how long Seth and Chris have worked together 14:39  Other ways to reach Seth: email, website, and LinkedIn 14:57  Where Seth sees AI heading in marketing, and why the human check still matters 16:14  What's changed in AI-assisted marketing just in the last couple of hours of testing 16:31  The three things Seth would prioritize first if he stepped into real estate marketing tomorrow 18:19  Building a network of dream JV partners who already have your ideal audience 19:29  A preview of Chris's upcoming appearance on the Sharkpreneur podcast 19:47  The most important thing Seth has learned recently: who you're being affects how well what you do works 21:17  The $4 Sandwich, the book Seth recommends for mindset work 22:14  Closing thoughts and where to find Seth going forward   Quotables "Who you're being affects how well what you do works." "If you say the same things as everybody else, nobody knows how to tell you apart." "Go have some really bad offer conversations… get some reps under your belt with getting rejected so you improve your technique."   Links Market Domination LLC (Seth's direct response marketing firm) — https://www.marketdominationllc.com Sharkpreneur Podcast (Seth's podcast with Kevin Harrington of Shark Tank) — https://sharkpreneurpodcast.com The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your Business with a Podcast: Turning Warm Fuzzy Feelings Into Cold Hard Cash (Seth's book, 30% off Amazon price for listeners as stated on air) — https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guide-Growing-Business-Podcast/dp/B096LTQBH6 Book a call with Seth (free exploratory call for members of the Smart Real Estate Coach community) — https://bookwithseth.com 3 Paydays® Live https://3paydayslive.com/podcast Free Discovery Call https://smartrealestatecoachpodcast.com/discovery  3 Paydays® System Mastery Course - Use coupon code for 50% off https://smartrealestatecoach.com/qls Coupon code: pod  Apprentice Program: 3PaydaysApprentice.com/Podcast  Masterclass: https://smartrealestatecoach.com/masterspodcast 3 Paydays Books: https://3paydaysbooks.com/podcast Partners: https://smartrealestatecoach.com/podcastresources  

Jbird and Dennys Pitch The Sporknifenator To The KVJ Sharks! Are you buying or selling?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this conversation, we sit down with entrepreneur Nick Friedman to discuss entrepreneurship, leadership, franchising, and what it takes to build a lasting business. Best known as the co-founder of College HUNKS Hauling Junk & Moving, Nick joins us to share the lessons behind scaling one of North America's fastest-growing franchise brands, along with insights from his book, Effortless Entrepreneur: Work Smart, Play Hard, Make Millions. Nick is a purpose-driven entrepreneur whose businesses are built around strong values, innovation, and people-first leadership. Alongside College HUNKS Hauling Junk & Moving, he also co-founded Trash Butler, a nationwide valet trash service serving multifamily communities. Hit play to discover: How Nick and his business partner turned a college idea into a national franchise. The leadership principles behind building successful teams. Why company culture is one of the biggest drivers of long-term growth. Advice on franchising, entrepreneurship, and scaling a business. The mindset shifts that separate successful entrepreneurs from everyone else. Nick has been featured by Forbes, Fortune, Newsweek, CNN, CNBC, ABC's Shark Tank, and Undercover Boss. He is also an active member of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) and a founding member of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), where he continues to mentor entrepreneurs and business leaders around the world. Connect with Nick: College HUNKS Hauling Junk & Moving Personal Website Instagram LinkedIn

Last week, President Trump dramatically reduced the size of two national monuments that aren't only beloved by everyday Utahns but contain priceless archeological treasures. But Utah is fighting back – against Trump, and against the Republican legislators letting private industries and a Shark Tank host run roughshod over what most people in the state actually want. To learn more, we spoke to Caroline Gleich. She's an environmental activist and a professional ski mountaineer based in Park City.And in headlines, the Trump Administration announces a deal with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to provide the country with a civilian nuclear program, Arizona Republican Representative Andy Biggs overwhelmingly wins the GOP nomination for Arizona governor, and the power of the US passport has reportedly declined over the past 20 years.Show Notes: Check out Caroline's work – carolinegleich.com Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/ For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com