Living Your Legacy

Former U.S. Marine Corps officer Ryan Sturm enters civilian life without a clear career path, then discovers an ownership model that lets him lead like an entrepreneur. Now president of Winsupply of Omaha, he explains how Marine Corps leadership principles translate into building teams, earning customer trust, and creating business growth. Ryan shares what he learned while growing Wichita Winsupply from $3 million to $23 million in revenue, why word-of-mouth marketing follows operational consistency, and how expanding into HVAC creates new opportunity. He also reveals why he hires around his weaknesses, gives employees direction without micromanaging, and believes authenticity is essential to leadership. For veterans, operators, and entrepreneurs, his journey explores what it takes to build a company people want to work with.

Key Takeaways

• Strong growth starts with developing existing talent and hiring people who fill the leader’s weaknesses.
• Customer and vendor trust grows through consistent pricing, reliable deliveries, and operational execution.
• Leaders can reduce micromanagement by defining the destination while giving employees freedom to determine how to get there.
• Word-of-mouth marketing becomes powerful when customers genuinely save time, make money, and enjoy doing business with the company.
• Veterans transitioning into civilian careers can benefit from recruiting and placement services that connect military leadership experience with business opportunities.

Notable Quotes

• “People don’t follow fake. People follow authenticity.”
• “Don’t tell people what to do all the time.”
• “Tell them what you need done. Don’t tell them how to do it.”
• “The less I have to tell people what to do... that’s ideal.”
• “At some point once it starts working, then people want to do business with you.”

Veronica Baiz is helping rethink what in-home care can look like when technology, local communities, and human connection work together. As COO of Herewith, she tackles a growing challenge for families balancing careers, children, and aging loved ones while navigating a fragmented care system. She explains why the company shifted its focus from seniors to the family members actually arranging care, how its health tech platform connects families directly with local helpers, and why flexibility can improve the caregiving experience. Baiz also explores caregiver burnout, nationwide dialysis support, the hidden risks families face when hiring help, and Herewith’s expansion into B2B healthcare. The conversation raises a bigger question: can technology bridge the gap between medical providers and what happens inside the home?

Key Takeaways

• Why Herewith shifts the traditional in-home care model toward direct connections between families and local helpers.
• How recognizing the real decision-maker changed Herewith’s approach to marketing and customer adoption.
• Why caregiver burnout and the “third shift” create growing pressure for flexible respite and in-home care.
• How technology can help bridge the information gap between healthcare providers and what happens inside a patient’s home.
• Why Herewith is expanding beyond senior care into dialysis support, B2B healthcare partnerships, and specialized care services.

Notable Quotes

• “The things you enjoy now don’t go away. You’re just physically less able to do them.”
• “We quite often forget our seniors.”
• “They’re just trying to live their lives just like we lived our lives.”
• “There’s a huge gap in what they can see that happens in the home.”
• “Herewith is actually making a cultural change in the way that we receive care.”

After 17 years in IT, Zenji Tancinco has the money, the house, the car, and every box the traditional recipe for success says to check. Yet something is still missing. In this episode of Living Your Legacy, he explores the rock-bottom turning point that forces him to reconsider what success actually means and build a life centered on purpose, service, and human connection. He reveals how Energy AO grows through word-of-mouth referrals without advertising, why he lets coaching clients decide what his work is worth, and how that unconventional pricing model challenges traditional entrepreneurship. His journey explores personal transformation, life coaching, finding purpose, and the courage to build a business around what genuinely gives you energy.

Key Takeaways

• Traditional markers of success such as money, a house, and a successful career do not automatically create happiness or fulfillment.

• Hitting a personal low point can become an inflection point for questioning what truly matters and making meaningful changes.

• Zenji builds Energy AO around service, creating a coaching model where clients decide what the work was worth after completing a project.

• Trying unconventional ideas without fearing failure allows entrepreneurs to learn, adapt, and discover models that work for them.

• Word-of-mouth referrals can become a powerful growth engine when clients genuinely value the transformation they experience.

Notable Quotes

• “I had followed the recipe for success.”

• “Those things themselves, at least for me, don’t fundamentally or inherently provide happiness.”

• “You shouldn’t be afraid to try something new.”

• “I’m a big believer in no regrets and everything always happens the way it’s supposed to.”

• “Expectations in life are one of those things that, to a large degree, can only lead to disappointment.”

Dave Barrett is a self-made insurance executive and serial entrepreneur who believes businesses grow when people have a reason to grow with them. After leaving a successful career, he starts his own insurance brokerage and quickly discovers that the industry’s traditional incentive structure is holding people back. What follows is years of trial, error, failure, and rebuilding as Dave develops a system designed to give employees a direct stake in their own success. He shares why he once regretted leaving his career, how a business that initially struggled became a valuable asset, and what he learned about recurring revenue, incentive structures, scalable systems, and building generational wealth. His story offers a candid look at the mistakes and breakthroughs behind creating a business built to grow beyond its founder.

Key Takeaways

• Why Dave turned down a $7 million offer after resigning from his previous company
• How an initial business failure forced him to rethink traditional insurance industry structures
• Why incentivizing employees to become producers helped create scalable growth
• What makes a business a valuable asset rather than simply a high-paying job
• How Dave approaches recurring revenue, systems, and opportunities through Scaled Up Ventures

Notable Quotes

• “I turned down a big offer.”
• “The business grew by giving people the opportunity for themselves to grow.”
• “It’s just common sense. You incentivize human behavior, you know what you’re going to get.”
• “The initial big failure led to figuring out a system that led to the final massive success.”
• “I would love to help people build generational wealth and value.”

Valerie Fitzgerald has spent decades building a career in Los Angeles luxury real estate, generating more than $3.5 billion in career sales while adapting to a market that never stands still. As the founder and president of the Valerie Fitzgerald Group, she shares how she is reinventing the way she builds authority, reaches clients, and prepares for the next wave of real estate discovery. From Beverly Hills and the shifting California housing market to AI, educational content, and her new podcast, Valerie reveals why the old playbook is changing and why real estate professionals need to think differently about how people find them. She also opens up about reinvention, resilience, and the importance of continuing to pursue a dream.

Key Takeaways

• Why Valerie is shifting from traditional real estate promotion toward educational content and authority building
• How AI could fundamentally change the way people discover real estate professionals
• What Valerie is seeing across Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Brentwood, Malibu, and the broader Los Angeles market
• Why first-time buyers are increasingly using strategies like renting, buying condos, and building equity before purchasing a home
• How Valerie’s personal experiences with reinvention inspired her new podcast, Queen Bee: Grit, Grace, and Reinvention

Notable Quotes

• “The new wave of what's going to be happening is people won't go to Google.”
• “I've completely flipped on everything. And mine is all educational.”
• “You got to hop on that AI train. You got to because it's a bullet train.”
• “You have to have the editorial articles.”
• “Well, that's so important to have a dream.”

Chris Lovell knows what it means to build a business when failure is a very real possibility. After leaving a 24-year Marine Corps career, he launches Lovell Government Services with a mission to connect federal healthcare systems with life-saving medical resources for veterans and service members. But the early years bring mounting debt, lost clients, difficult contracts, and a moment when he has to decide whether to keep going. Chris shares the uncomfortable decisions, veteran mindset, strategic relationships, and breakthrough opportunity that reshape the company. He reveals what he learned about government contracting, hiring veterans, building systems for growth, and staying committed when the path forward is anything but certain.

Key Takeaways

• How Chris transitioned from 24 years in the Marine Corps into entrepreneurship and government contracting
• Why embracing discomfort, integrity, work ethic, courage, and commitment became foundational to his business
• How Lovell Government Services survived major financial pressure, including $1.5 million in debt
• Why understanding exactly what a government customer wants can matter more than being the lowest bidder
• How the right people, systems, and preparation created the foundation for exponential growth

Notable Quotes

• “Being comfortable being uncomfortable, that’s the biggest thing.”
• “I know what to do with it. Give it to me.”
• “Handshake means something.”
• “Sales cure all.”
• “If it wasn’t for Paige, Lovell wouldn’t exist.”

Kristen Herzog leaves a successful ER nursing career, withdraws $30,000 from her 401k, and bets it on an idea her family thinks is crazy. Starting Perfect Dose inside a tiny salon suite, she has no investors, no paid ads, and no guarantee the risk will work. She markets through Instagram, hands out business cards, and learns why consistency matters more than avoiding failure. But as the luxury medspa grows, Kristen discovers that hustle alone cannot build a lasting business. She confronts hiring mistakes, rising overhead, maternity leave, and her own role as a bottleneck while developing the systems, patient experience, and customized aesthetics approach behind Perfect Dose. Now, as she prepares the brand for nationwide franchising, she reveals what it really takes to turn personal grit into a business that can grow beyond its founder.

Key Takeaways

• Why Kristen risked $30,000 from her 401k to launch Perfect Dose instead of staying in a well-paying ER nursing career.
• How Instagram, word of mouth, and relentless personal outreach helped build a medspa without paid advertising.
• Why consistency and getting back up after mistakes became a defining advantage in her entrepreneurial journey.
• How SOPs, better hiring, and developing her team allowed Kristen to stop doing everything herself and focus on brand vision.
• Why customized treatment plans, patient experience, and natural results became the foundation for scaling Perfect Dose and preparing it for franchising.

Notable Quotes

• “Failure was really not an option for me.”
• “It was a grind every single day.”
• “You have to get back up and keep putting yourself out there.”
• “There is a system, an SOP, standard operating procedure for everything.”
• “We age in our skin, our muscle, our bone, and our fat.”

Dr. Rae Huang, OD believes eye care should prevent prescriptions, not simply correct them as they worsen. After her infant son develops a rapidly progressing prescription that threatens vision in one eye, the Boston optometrist begins a years-long mission to rethink orthokeratology. She teaches herself to custom-design hard contact lenses, tests 24 iterations, invests heavily in patents, and builds what she calls “braces for your eyes.” But bringing preventative eye care into an industry built around glasses and contacts creates a new challenge: how does she protect her life’s work while getting it into more hands? Dr. Huang explores myopia prevention, the risks of the current standard of care, self-funding innovation, and her vision for shifting eye care from correction to prevention.

Key Takeaways

• Why Dr. Huang believes preventing myopia should begin with a child’s first prescription.
• How her son’s vision crisis pushed her to teach herself custom hard contact lens design.
• Why she redesigned her orthokeratology lens 24 times over roughly a decade.
• How self-funding patents and FDA approval allows her to protect the mission behind her innovation.
• Why her larger legacy is shifting eye care from correcting worsening prescriptions to preventative eye care.

Notable Quotes

• “I prevent prescriptions instead of correcting them.”
• “Think of them like braces for your eye.”
• “The best prescription is no prescription.”
• “It’s my life’s work.”
• “We can actually prevent these prescriptions from happening before they happen.”

After years of carrying the emotional weight of community mental health, Dr. Anna Berin reaches a crossroads: keep succeeding by conventional standards or redefine what success should cost. The immigrant, clinical psychology leader, mother, and founder of Berin Psych reveals what 70-to-80-hour workweeks taught her about burnout, boundaries, and the hidden sacrifices behind achievement. She explores why helping professionals must protect their own well-being, how motherhood forced an honest look at her limits, and why she built a group practice around work-life balance and relational safety. Her journey challenges the idea that leadership means being superhuman and asks a deeper question: Can you build something meaningful without sacrificing yourself to create it?

Key Takeaways

• Sustainable success requires knowing your boundaries, needs, and limits.
• Leadership can prioritize people and well-being without sacrificing quality of care.
• Burnout often hides behind impressive titles, productivity, and outward success.
• Building a business can begin with an honest assessment of how you are showing up at work and at home.
• Difference, discomfort, and failure can become opportunities for growth when decisions stay aligned with personal values.

Notable Quotes

• “I am not my fears. I am not my failures, but I am everything that came out of that.”
• “Sitting with people's pain for 8 to 10 hours a day, that seeps into your soul.”
• “I wanted my kids to have a present parent.”
• “For a long time, I felt like I was a superhuman because I needed to be.”
• “Difference is an opportunity for growth. It’s not a barrier.”

After joining the U.S. Army straight out of high school and deploying to Iraq, Eric Gillis discovers that the hardest battle begins after coming home. Civilian life brings financial pressure, PTSD, a traumatic brain injury, job loss, and a growing sense that the person he once was is gone. In this episode of Living Your Legacy, the Army veteran and leadership strategist shares the pivotal conversation that changes how he sees recovery and why rebuilding requires more than simply returning to who you were. He explores the role of structure, accountability, resilience, and daily progress in leadership development, revealing the ideas behind The Rebuilt Warrior framework. His journey raises a powerful question: when adversity breaks the life you knew, what does it actually take to build something stronger?

Key Takeaways

• Rebuilding starts when someone stops trying to return to who they were and begins building who they can become.

• Structure and accountability can provide direction when life after adversity feels uncertain.

• Small, consistent improvements can be more powerful than expecting an overnight transformation.

• Eric’s transition from military service reveals how difficult it can be to translate skills, identity, and routines into civilian life.

• Personal adversity can become the foundation for leadership, service, and helping others rebuild.

Notable Quotes

• “Adversity is inevitable. Staying broken is optional.”

• “You’ll never be who you were, but you can be better.”

• “I just want to be better tomorrow and the next day and the next day.”

• “I don’t want to be broken anymore. What do I do now?”

• “I want people to experience true joy, not just happiness, but true joy.”