Living Your Legacy

What does it really take to build a multi-million dollar design-build company in a male-dominated industry? In this episode, Suzanne Porter, founder of Retreat & Co, shares the unfiltered journey from scraping by with no savings to leading a design-driven construction business. Through real estate, interior design, and relentless grit, she redefines what success looks like in construction. This conversation explores the daily grind behind building a business, the mindset required to lead with vision, and the power of staying faithful to small steps. For entrepreneurs chasing financial freedom, innovation, and legacy, this episode reveals what it truly takes to turn vision into reality.

Key Takeaways

• Success is built through daily discipline, not one defining moment

• Design-led construction can disrupt traditional building models

• Financial struggle can become the foundation for long-term freedom

• Vision allows you to see potential where others see problems

• You cannot succeed while playing the victim mindset

Notable Quotes

• “It’s just putting in the time and being disciplined.”

• “You can’t play the victim.”

• “Anything is possible. You can fix anything.”

• “It’s really just the daily grind.”

• “Design drives the build, not the other way around.”

What happens when personal devastation becomes the foundation for a bigger purpose? In this episode of LIVING YOUR LEGACY, Northeast Ohio real estate entrepreneur and Lokal Real Estate co-owner Kayla Carosella opens up about the heartbreak, rebuilding, and mindset shifts that transformed her life and business. From navigating loss and rebuilding her confidence to creating a human-centered real estate brokerage focused on mentorship, investing, and generational wealth, Kayla shares the lessons that shaped her journey. She breaks down how real estate investing, passive income, networking, leadership, and mindset helped her rise through adversity while empowering agents to build businesses rooted in authenticity, confidence, and community. This conversation is a powerful reminder that healing, resilience, and purpose can become the blueprint for lasting impact.

Key Takeaways

• Success is built through consistency, not talent alone
• Healing and personal growth directly impact leadership ability
• Real estate investing can create long-term passive income and generational wealth
• Building culture and mentorship matters more than scaling headcount
• Networking and putting yourself in the right rooms creates opportunity

Notable Quotes

• “How are you going to make me successful?”
• “We’re going to teach you how to create passive income and build wealth.”
• “Your stomach doesn’t know the difference between nerves and excitement.”
• “Healing is part of the hustle.”
• “I don’t just bounce back. I rise higher.”

Born and raised in San Francisco, Rosemary Mogannam turns a streetwear idea inspired by tattoo art into a humanitarian movement designed to transform how cities approach homelessness. In this episode of LIVING YOUR LEGACY, the founder of iHeartSF shares how personal adversity, divorce, motherhood, education, and decades of community involvement shape her mission to create transitional housing through a self-sustaining business ecosystem. From launching a podcast and augmented reality clothing line to pursuing a revolutionary housing model for homeless families, Rosemary reveals the mindset shifts, painful lessons, and relentless consistency driving her vision. This conversation explores entrepreneurship, humanitarian leadership, perspective-taking, transitional housing, San Francisco culture, and the future of community-driven impact.

Key Takeaways

• Perspective changes can completely transform a person’s life trajectory.
• Consistency and discipline create long-term personal and professional growth.
• Entrepreneurship can become a vehicle for humanitarian impact.
• Transitional housing needs sustainable systems, not temporary fixes.
• Personal adversity can unlock creativity, clarity, and purpose.

Notable Quotes

• “When you change your perspective, you can change your life.”
• “I’m going to break the cycle of homelessness.”
• “Consistency. My whole life has been consistency.”
• “I’m a humanitarian, not a philanthropist.”
• “Don’t change the world. Change your world.”

From balancing numbers to building a purpose-driven life, entrepreneur and DJ Charlie Sacco shares how he transformed his mindset, scaled his tax business, and turned manifestation into daily practice. In this episode of LIVING YOUR LEGACY, Charlie reveals how meditation, law of attraction, and relentless action helped him leave behind a stable corporate career, grow Sacco Tax Accounting LLC, and create a life on his own terms. He breaks down practical tax strategies for entrepreneurs, lessons from surviving uncertainty, and how focus and belief reshaped his future. This conversation explores entrepreneurship, manifestation, small business taxes, and personal growth while showing how ambition and mindset can work together to build a meaningful legacy.

Key Takeaways

• Charlie explains how manifestation and action worked together to transform his life and career
• Entrepreneurs learn practical tax strategies for LLCs, S Corps, and recordkeeping
• Meditation and mindset helped Charlie leave his corporate job and grow his business
• He shares how he combined DJing and accounting into one personal brand
• The episode explores how belief, focus, and consistency shape long-term success

Notable Quotes

• “It’s not over until I win.”
• “Your thoughts create your reality.”
• “You have to take action because the universe could drop what you want right in front of your face.”
• “The more you do it, the more you believe.”
• “If you don’t think you’ll ever make a million dollars, you’ll never make a million dollars.”

After being charged with 42 felonies while working for the Department of Corrections, Justin Watts faces a moment that could have destroyed everything. Instead of giving up, he rebuilds his life through discipline, fatherhood, military resilience, and a mission bigger than himself. In this episode of Living Your Legacy, Justin opens up about serving in Afghanistan, surviving generational trauma, raising two daughters as a single father, and building Veterans Last Mission LLC with purpose at the center. From combat security missions overseas to navigating entrepreneurship and personal failure, he shares the mindset shifts that helped him keep moving forward. This conversation explores leadership, accountability, resilience, real estate investing, and the drive to create a legacy that changes lives.

Key Takeaways

• How Justin rebuilt his life after being charged with 42 felonies
• Why fatherhood became the driving force behind his transformation
• The military mindset shifts that shaped his leadership and discipline
• How generational trauma influenced his approach to parenting and legacy
• Why he believes real estate and storytelling are part of his bigger mission

Notable Quotes

• “It ended up being one of the most powerful blessings of my life.”
• “Before life gives me a problem, it has already given me a solution.”
• “I run through fire with gasoline draws before I did that to them.”
• “The will to want to do it is where you find the power to get it done.”
• “I really feel like my story is powerful enough to change lives.”

Jennifer Wahl, founder of Lash Divas Day Spa, shares the raw journey behind building one of Washington’s most recognized lash studios while surviving toxic relationships, financial collapse, lawsuits, divorce, injury, and life-altering health challenges. What begins with a YouTube video and a dental chair quickly turns into a thriving lash extension business, custom lash product line, and apprenticeship program helping women launch careers of their own. Jennifer opens up about female entrepreneurship, online hate, building a loyal client base through word of mouth marketing, and the sacrifices required to grow a beauty business from nothing. Through setbacks that would break most people, she continues pushing toward creating a lasting empire while empowering others to succeed alongside her.

Key Takeaways

• Building strong client relationships matters more than chasing quick money
• Success in entrepreneurship often comes from consistency and hustle behind the scenes
• Word of mouth marketing can outperform expensive advertising when trust is built
• Hardships, failures, and setbacks can become the foundation of long-term resilience
• Empowering employees and future entrepreneurs creates a lasting legacy

Notable Quotes

• “I always tried to be the boss that I never had.”
• “If you can’t beat them, join them.”
• “The biggest revenge is my success.”
• “Nothing has ever held me back.”
• “Believe in yourself always. Having self doubt will defeat you quicker than anything.”

What starts as a casual golf outing turns into a business idea that disrupts an entire industry. In this episode of LIVING YOUR LEGACY, serial entrepreneur and Greenside Cigar Company founder Ty Murphy opens up about building a golf cigar brand from scratch, scaling through influencer marketing, and creating a direct-to-consumer business model that challenges traditional cigar distribution. He shares the emotional highs and lows of entrepreneurship, the mindset required to persevere through uncertainty, and how following “the little voices” led him to unexpected success. From golf culture and branding psychology to cigar experiences and product market fit, Ty reveals how an average guy turned a simple observation into a thriving company.

Key Takeaways

• How Ty Murphy identified a gap between golf culture and cigar culture
• Why disrupting traditional distribution created massive growth opportunities
• The power of influencer marketing in the golf industry
• How branding and “gamification” increased cigar sales at golf courses
• Why entrepreneurship requires perseverance through uncertainty and self-doubt

Notable Quotes

• “Committing to something and persevering through stuff changes everything.”
• “Golf is four hours with the same four people. A lot of business happens there.”
• “It’s not about smoking cigars. It’s about the experience I’m having.”
• “We disrupted an entire distribution chain.”
• “Sometimes that little voice in your head is worth listening to.”

After being told a single mother with two children would never become successful, Candice Bourne refuses to accept that future. Originally from Jamaica, she builds her career in the travel industry, becoming a top sales performer before realizing she no longer wants to stay trapped on a hamster wheel. With banks rejecting her nine times, Candice risks everything, cashes in savings, and buys her first coin laundry business in 2012. What follows is a relentless journey filled with fire damage, triple shifts, employee struggles, and moments that test her discipline and belief in herself. In this episode of LIVING YOUR LEGACY, the founder of Candy Clean Laundry shares how grit, consistency, community service, pickup and delivery innovation, and real estate investing helped her transform a failing laundromat into a million-dollar business while raising two children alone.

Key Takeaways

• Success requires going all in, not halfway
• Consistency and community visibility build long-term business growth
• Rejection from banks does not define your future
• Essential service businesses can create massive opportunities during difficult times
• Discipline and resilience can turn survival into generational wealth

Notable Quotes

• “I did not want to be a hamster on a wheel.”
• “You have to go all in or nothing.”
• “They’re gonna learn how to fight.”
• “I love what I do.”
• “It’s not an easy road.”

Empress Edwards-El turns pain into purpose as she shares the extraordinary journey behind Yummy Treats, a family-driven dessert brand built from resilience, faith, and survival. After growing up surrounded by poverty, addiction, incarceration, and eventually being diagnosed with HIV at just 19 years old, Empress refuses to become another statistic. Instead, she builds a decades-long career in public health advocacy, works with major networks like BET, MTV, VH1, and Lifetime, and empowers communities facing trauma and chronic illness. When layoffs, caregiving, and personal loss threaten everything she built, she returns to the one vision she never abandoned: creating soulful comfort food with her daughters. In this emotional episode of Living Your Legacy, Empress reveals how entrepreneurship, family, faith, public health advocacy, and Sweet Potato Pie become the foundation for generational legacy.

Key Takeaways

• Turning personal adversity into purpose-driven entrepreneurship
• Building a family business centered on culture, joy, and community
• Overcoming stigma, poverty, and chronic illness through resilience
• Why authenticity creates stronger brands and loyal customers
• Using public health advocacy and storytelling to inspire lasting impact

Notable Quotes

• “A real empress doesn’t just inherit greatness. A real empress creates greatness.”
• “People can literally taste the love in our stuff.”
• “It began by me just trying to be the best mom that I could be.”
• “We don’t die. We multiply.”
• “Success is about more than money. It is about seeing the value in yourself.”

Most people know they should move more, yet they stay stuck in a sedentary lifestyle that quietly impacts their health, focus, and relationships. In this episode, Russell Rogers, founder of MoveToday365, shares how a lifetime of outdoor living, family values, and a sudden moment of inspiration turned into a global health and wellness movement. From coaching and personal training to launching the Today Series and Community Strides, he reveals how small daily habits can reshape mental clarity, productivity, and family connection. As he challenges the rise of isolation and screen addiction, Russell breaks down practical ways entrepreneurs can integrate movement into busy schedules and build intentional living into everyday life.

Key Takeaways

• Sedentary lifestyles and isolation are the hidden drivers of declining mental and physical health

• Small, consistent movement habits outperform extreme, unsustainable fitness routines

• Environment and daily structure play a major role in long-term health and productivity

• Family connection is strengthened through shared movement and intentional time outdoors

• Building a movement starts with one simple action done consistently

Notable Quotes

• “We don’t need to allow ourselves to get to that point.”

• “Either we’re going to be a consistent sitter or a consistent mover.”

• “Something is always better than nothing.”

• “The most important thing is consistency.”

• “People are suffering with their mental and physical health and I am here to change lives one at a time.”