REAL Mentors Podcast

Shawn French earned an athletic scholarship to LSU, became a top 1% performer in medical device sales and built one of the top 0.5 percent ranked podcasts in the world. By every external measure he was winning. He was still empty inside and it took him until his mid forties to understand why.It started in the third inning of a baseball game when he let a ball go between his legs and his father criticized him from the stands. That single moment set a program running in the background that quietly drove every major decision he made for decades. The need to prove himself. The relationships where he constantly asked are we okay because deep down he never felt safe enough to just exist. The career achievements that never filled the hole they were supposed to fill.Today Shawn is a high performance coach, keynote speaker and creator of the Determined Society podcast ranked in the top 0.5 percent globally. His upcoming book Blood Type Determined is about building the grit, resilience and accountability that nobody hands you and that you have to fight for yourself.In this episode Shawn and Sean get real about father wounds, breaking generational cycles, what it actually costs to chase external validation your entire life and why the so called midlife crisis is really a midlife reinvention for the people brave enough to do the real work.If you are a high achiever, entrepreneur, father or creator who has ever wondered why success still does not feel like enough this episode will hit home.This Episode Explores:✅ Earning an athletic scholarship to LSU and what chasing validation through baseball actually cost him✅ Becoming a top 1% medical device sales performer and still feeling completely empty inside✅ How one Tony Robbins clip led to a phone call that repaired his relationship with his father✅ Why his seven year old daughter is here to heal him and what she is teaching him about empathy and active listening✅ Breaking generational cycles deliberately so his children never have to break them themselves✅ Starting the Determined Society podcast alone recording audio in his car with no audience and no team✅ Why your friends and family will be laughing on the group text before they slide into your DMs as fans✅ The number one limiting belief that stops most creators and podcasters before they ever start✅ Why growing up in an unsafe environment actually prepares you better for entrepreneurship than a comfortable childhood ever could✅ The midlife crisis reframed as a midlife reinvention and why crossing into the second half of life with meaning is the real win🔗 Connect with Shawn FrenchInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/theshawnfrench/Determined Society Podcast: https://www.instagram.com/thedeterminedsociety/Book: Blood Type DeterminedFollow REAL Mentors PodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcastHost Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartin

Sam Tejada spent 12 years as a firefighter paramedic watching the same people call 911 over and over. Not because the system was failing them. Because the system was working exactly the way it was designed to, which is treating sickness, not preventing it. He watched people show up in the back of his ambulance with grocery bags full of medications that contradicted each other, prescribed by doctors who never talked to one another, for conditions that started with lifestyle choices nobody ever addressed.He could not keep being a product of that system. So he built a different one.Today Sam is the founder and president of Liquivida, a multi million dollar wellness company with a network of over 4,000 physicians and practitioners nationwide. He is the author of How to Win in Modern Wellness and the chairman of the American IV Association. He started it at 26 years old on his days off from the fire department out of a single room in a chiropractor's office that was collecting dust.In this episode Sam and Sean get into why longevity science is 25 years ahead of what your doctor is actually practicing, what the pharmaceutical system is doing to your hormones and cellular health without you realizing it and what prevention actually looks like when someone builds an entire company around it.If you care about your health, your hormones, your energy or what you are putting in your body this episode will change how you think about all of it.This Episode Explores:✅ Watching patients deteriorate and die on repeat 911 calls and deciding he could not be part of that system anymore✅ Working with longevity pioneer Dr. Robert Willicks and seeing disease get reversed through functional medicine✅ Starting Liquivida at 26 on his days off from the fire department out of a single spare room✅ Why the medical system is not broken. It is working exactly the way it was designed to✅ The algorithmic pharmaceutical cycle that puts you on one pill and creates five new problems✅ Why longevity science is 25 years ahead of what your doctor is actually practicing right now✅ What IV therapy actually does for your body and why the wealthy were doing it before anyone else✅ Testosterone decline, hormone replacement therapy and what happens when you do it wrong✅ Why the soil your food grows in has no nutrients left and why supplementation is no longer optional✅ How AI is accelerating medical research and what that means for the future of personalized healthcare🔗 Connect with Sam TejadaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/sammy_tejada/Website: www.liquivida.comBook: How to Win in Modern WellnessFollow REAL Mentors PodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcastHost Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartin

Max Mayes built a construction company to $1.6 million a month in under six months then walked away from it. He has raised over $30 million across venture, real estate and alternative investments and figured out early that once money stopped being hard to get the relationship with it changed completely. He hit $50,000 a month take home and realized it did not feel the way he thought it would.Today Max is the founder of GrowthGod, where he works with founders and investors on contrarian marketing, capital strategy and the systems that actually turn a good offer into an enterprise. His model is find the growth constraints, build the marketing team inside the business and only focus on what actually moves the needle.In this episode Max and Sean get into what most business owners get completely wrong about marketing, why your offer economics have to work before any marketing will and what it actually means to hire unmanageable people and make them your greatest asset. They also get real about what happens when financial success arrives before emotional maturity and why chasing more money after a certain point is just filling a hole that money was never going to fill.If you are a founder, entrepreneur or investor trying to scale faster and smarter this episode is exactly what you need to hear.This Episode Explores:✅ Building a construction company to $1.6 million a month in under six months and exiting✅ Raising over $30 million across venture real estate and alternative investments✅ Hitting $50,000 a month take home and realizing it still did not feel like enough✅ Why offer economics have to work before any marketing strategy will save you✅ The presupposition problem that kills most marketing campaigns before they start✅ Why broadening your market filter can dramatically increase your conversion rates✅ How to hire unmanageable lone wolf marketers and actually make them team players✅ The difference between a marketing agency model and what GrowthGod actually does✅ Why fulfillment is rarely the problem and acquisition is almost always where businesses are stuck✅ What chasing money costs you in relationships and what to do once you finally realize it🔗 Connect with Max MayesInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/maxmayes/Follow REAL Mentors PodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcastHost Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartin

Kelly Siegel already wrote the book on grinding through pain. Harder Than Life was the story of weaponizing poverty, abuse and addiction to build a successful company. Then he got to the top of that mountain, made the money and realized he still was not fulfilled. That is when the real work began.In this episode Kelly comes back to the REAL Mentors Podcast for a second time and goes deeper than he has ever gone publicly. He talks about the three beliefs that ran on repeat in his head for most of his life — unworthiness, unlovable and death — and what it actually took to rewire them. He gets into doing mirror work alone during the pandemic, couples therapy with his wife and finally learning how to listen instead of just solve. He talks about the difference between acts of service that come from love and acts of service that come from fear of not being safe if everyone is not happy.This is not a conversation about grinding harder. This is a conversation about what comes after the grind and why getting to the second mountain is the hardest climb of all.This Episode Explores:✅ Why scaling your business starts with your willingness to heal yourself first✅ The three beliefs that ran on repeat: unworthiness, unlovable and death✅ Five minutes of mirror work every day during the pandemic and what it actually did for him✅ The difference between Harder Than Life and his new book Happier Than Life and why they are polar opposites✅ Why people stay in comfortable misery instead of facing the unknown to live their dreams✅ What wiring for chaos looks like in business and in relationships and how to recognize it in yourself✅ Going to couples therapy as a fully healed version of himself and finally hearing what the therapist was saying✅ Why showing up and providing is not the same thing as making someone feel seen and heard✅ The second mountain is getting to the top financially and realizing success still does not taste the way you thought it would✅ Why manifestation without action is just a dream and presence without doing is not the answer either🔗 Connect with Kelly SiegelInstagram: @kelly.siegel.71YouTube: youtube.com/@harderthanlifeWebsite: harderthanlife.comBooks: Harder Than Life and Happier Than LifeFollow REAL Mentors PodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcastHost Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartin

Madeline Martinez was a teenage mother living in the New York City shelter system before she was old enough to graduate high school. She got her GED the same year she would have walked across that stage, enrolled in college and kept moving. Then life pulled her back under.What followed was fourteen years of addiction, an $800 a day habit, sex work, evictions, shelter system violations and a morning she woke up at 108 pounds with no shoes, people crossing the street to avoid her, and two kids she had somehow never lost custody of. That last part is what saved her.She joined the Army to escape the cycle, built a life in Arizona, watched it fall apart again and finally hit a bottom so complete there was nowhere left to go but up. She came out the other side with one mission, to make sure nobody else goes through it alone.Today Madeline is the founder of Boots Underground, an organization born from her own hunger and heartbreak, dedicated to serving veterans, single mothers and people fighting their way out of systems that were never designed to help them win.This Episode Explores:✅ Growing up in the Bronx and entering the shelter system as a single teenage mother✅ Getting her GED the year she would have graduated and starting college at LaGuardia✅ Joining the New York Army to escape a cycle she did not know how to break any other way✅ Leaving her baby behind to go into service and what that cost her✅ An $800 a day addiction and what it took to feed it✅ Hitting rock bottom at 108 pounds with no shoes and people crossing the street to avoid her✅ Never losing custody of her kids throughout fourteen years of active addiction✅ Why she refuses to judge anyone because you never know what road they walked✅ What finally made her stop and how she rebuilt from absolute zero✅ Founding Boots Underground and turning her pain into a platform that serves others🔗 Connect with Madeline MartinezInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/alwysmaddi3/Boots Underground: https://www.instagram.com/bootsonground_nyc/Follow REAL Mentors PodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcastHost Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartin

Adam Roth was smoking weed stolen from his mother at nine years old. His father taught him how to smoke crack. Anger was the only emotion he knew because at twelve years old he made the decision to stop feeling anything else. From sixteen to twenty he cycled in and out of institutions. Every single day he did not know if he was going to live or die.He got clean at 26 and never looked back. Today he is the Chief Executive Officer of We Love Walk, overseeing six addiction treatment centers across five states generating ninety to a hundred million dollars in revenue. He did not inherit that position. He built it from the ground up starting as an employee, bringing his expertise and his lived experience and growing into ownership over thirteen years alongside his partner Ryan who he met in juvenile detention when they were both sixteen years old.In this episode Adam and Sean get into what the disease of addiction actually is, why drugs are just a symptom and not the real problem and what separates the people who stay sober from the ones who keep relapsing. Adam also breaks down the KPI driven system that allows his company to outspend the competition while spending significantly less and what it actually means to master your internal world before everything else falls into place.If you are serious about recovery, entrepreneurship, mental toughness or building a data driven business from nothing this episode is required watching.This Episode Explores:✅ Smoking weed stolen from his mother at nine and being taught to smoke crack by his father✅ Anger as the only emotion he knew from age twelve until he sat in front of a therapist at thirty✅ Cycling through institutions from sixteen to twenty and not knowing if he would survive each day✅ Getting clean at 26 and building an entirely different life from scratch✅ Meeting his business partner Ryan in juvenile detention at sixteen and riding together ever since✅ Growing from employee to CEO of a six center addiction treatment company over thirteen years✅ Why the disease of addiction has nothing to do with drugs and everything to do with thought process and decision making✅ What separates people who stay sober from those who keep relapsing✅ Why vulnerability is not weakness but the actual definition of being a man✅ The KPI system that lets his company outperform competitors who spend three times as much✅ Going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm and why that is the only real business strategy🔗 Connect with Adam RothInstagram: [handle]We Love Walk: [link]Follow REAL Mentors PodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcastHost Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartin

Adam Jablin was standing in a room full of people who loved him, listening to them read letters about who he was and begging him to get help. His only thought in that moment was what everyone else was going to think. That is how deep the addiction had taken him.He went to treatment on a ten day trial basis because he could not imagine being gone for twenty eight. He never left. What came out the other side was a man with a gift he had been resisting without even knowing it — the ability to look at someone and see exactly who they are capable of becoming before they can see it themselves.Adam is an author, speaker and spiritual trainer who has worked one on one with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs and war heroes. He did not start with a website, a coaching program or a single certification. He started by sitting with one person for three hours at the request of a friend and watching her walk out of that room completely changed. That was the moment he answered the call.In this episode Adam and Sean get into what spiritual fitness actually means, why the most successful people in the world are often the most restless and disconnected inside and what it looks like when someone finally wakes up and experiences their own life for the first time.This Episode Explores:✅ Standing in an intervention listening to people he loved beg him to get help and only thinking about what others would think✅ Going to treatment on a ten day trial and never leaving✅ Sitting with one person for three hours with no credentials and watching her transform✅ Why he resisted his calling for years without realizing he was resisting it at all✅ What spiritual fitness actually means and why everyone already has the muscles they need✅ Why the most successful people often feel the most fake inside and what to do about it✅ The client who started smiling for the first time in years and got a text from his kids in that exact moment✅ Why doing everything for your kids is actually one of the most selfish things a parent can do✅ Why you owe everybody your story and why that is a badge of honor not a liability✅ What it looks like when someone finally wakes up and experiences their life for the first time🔗 Connect with Adam JablinInstagram: @adamjablinWebsite: adamjablin.comFollow REAL Mentors PodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcastHost Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartin

Kevin McShan was born three months premature with cerebral palsy. At nine years old a doctor told him he would never walk without assistance. What happened next is what this episode is about.Kevin built a career in sports broadcasting, professional speaking and disability advocacy by refusing to let anyone else write the story of what he was capable of. He launched a podcast called Let's Have This Conversation during COVID because he decided there were only so many hours of news he could watch. Six years later he has recorded over 1100 episodes, built nearly 20,000 subscribers and has almost two million views on YouTube alone. He became the first regional ambassador of the Discoverability Network in Canada, keynoted for the state of Oklahoma and has delivered his message of inclusion and independence on stages across the United States and Canada.His model is simple. Inclusion is the gateway to independence and the only limitations on your life are the artificial ones you place on yourself.In this episode Kevin and Sean get into what it actually means to turn a so called tragedy into a tribe, why disability is one of the most misunderstood conversations in business and what it looks like to stack the cards you were dealt instead of wishing for a different hand.This Episode Explores:✅ Being born three months premature with cerebral palsy and what that meant growing up✅ The doctor who told a nine year old he would never walk without assistance and the therapist who changed everything✅ Building a broadcasting career by creating a platform that did not exist instead of waiting for one✅ Launching Let's Have This Conversation during COVID and growing it to over 1100 episodes and nearly 2 million views✅ Becoming the first regional ambassador of the Discoverability Network in Canada✅ Keynoting for the state of Oklahoma and delivering inclusion speeches across North America✅ Why diversity and inclusion have become so politically muddy and what actually matters underneath the debate✅ Living on $1,000 a month on Ontario disability support and what that reality taught him about opportunity✅ Why the only limitations on your life are the artificial ones you place on yourself✅ How to turn what the world calls a tragedy into a platform that changes lives🔗 Connect with Kevin McShanInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevin.mcshan8159/Podcast: Let's Have This ConversationYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@letshavethisconversationFollow REAL Mentors PodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcastHost Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartinTags: Kevin McShan, Let's Have This Conversation, Sean Martin, REAL Mentors Podcast, cerebral palsy, disability advocate, sports broadcasting, professional speaker, inclusion keynote speaker, Discoverability Network, Ontario disability support, disability and entrepreneurship, overcoming disability, born premature, resilience mindset, inclusion is the gateway to independence, diversity equity inclusion, disability and business, podcast host disability, YouTube growth, turning tragedy into triumph, disability representation, New York poverty, Canadian advocate, keynote speaker Oklahoma

Justin Prince moved thirteen times before he was a teenager. No college degree, no professional background, making pizzas and doing construction work before he found his way into sales at a mall and realized he was actually good at it. He built his first business at 25 in the wellness space, watched it collapse overnight when the parent company pulled the plug and had to go back to the job he had just left with his tail between his legs.Then he built something that generated billions in revenue over eleven years. And the people closest to him, the partners he trusted, the ones who had eaten steak at his table and whose kids went to school with his kids, terminated him without a single phone call.His daughter was in the backseat when he got the call. She turned to her sister and said she thought dad was the company. That line says everything about what betrayal at that level actually costs.Justin came back and built MAKE Wellness into the largest bioactive precision peptide company in the world in under a year, doing 6.4 million dollars in the first four days and 7.2 million in month two. This is a conversation about what it takes to survive betrayal, rebuild your identity and go bigger the second time around.If you are an entrepreneur who has been knocked down, pushed out or told it is over this episode is exactly what you need to hear.This Episode Explores:✅ Moving 13 times before his teenage years and building hunger from instability✅ No college degree, no connections and selling bio videos in a mall at 21 years old✅ Building his first business at 25 in wellness and watching it collapse overnight✅ Building a company to billions in revenue then getting terminated without a single phone call✅ His daughter asking from the backseat what terminated means and why that moment defined everything✅ Why the people closest to you are never revealed until the pressure is on✅ Why his wife saw the wolves coming before he did and what that taught him about listening✅ Rebuilding from zero with back taxes, a pregnant wife and no income✅ Why he built MAKE Wellness around peptide science and creating real economic opportunity for families✅ Doing 6.4 million dollars in the first four days and becoming the largest bioactive peptide company in the world in under a year🔗 Connect with Justin PrinceInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamjustinprince/?hl=enMAKE Wellness: https://meet.makewellness.com/Follow REAL Mentors PodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcastHost Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartin

Most people will grind for hours in the gym but refuse to sit still with their own thoughts for five minutes. Jennifer Clearwater and Cindy O'Connell have spent a combined four decades figuring out why that is and what it actually costs people in their health, their relationships and their results.Jennifer is a licensed professional counselor with a background spanning clinical practice, education, yoga and holistic wellness. Cindy is a retired professor, certified yoga teacher, national trainer and a woman who has maintained a daily meditation practice every single day for 37 years without missing once. Together they are the co-authors of The Elevation Principles and co-hosts of the Mindset Connection Podcast, which reached the top 12 percent of all podcasts worldwide in just over a year.In this episode Jen and Cindy break down what is actually happening inside the people who walk into their offices and corporate mental health workshops. Anxiety, unprocessed trauma, an inability to be still and a childhood program running in the background that most people have never once examined. They get into why people refuse to seek mental health help even when they are desperate for it, what simple daily mindfulness practices actually do to your brain chemistry and why three to six months of full immersion is the real threshold for lasting identity change.If you are serious about mental health, mindset transformation, anxiety relief or building habits that actually stick this episode will change how you think about all of it.This Episode Explores:✅ Why training your mind is harder than training your body and what that gap costs most people✅ How to maintain a 37 year daily meditation practice and what that level of consistency produces in a life✅ The simple grounded breathing and mindfulness practice Jen and Cindy taught Sean live on air✅ Why most people are running a subconscious program downloaded onto them in childhood without realizing it✅ The mental health stigma that stops high achievers from getting help and the professions where asking for help can cost you your career✅ Why three to six months of full immersion is what it actually takes to rewire your identity around any new habit✅ What happens to your anxiety and cortisol levels when you stop distracting yourself and sit in stillness✅ How nutrition and diet directly drive anxiety, depression and emotional dysregulation✅ Why attorneys, educators, corporate professionals and entrepreneurs are all suffering from the exact same things✅ What a corporate mental health workshop on stress, trauma and workplace loss actually looks like from the inside🔗 Connect with Jen and CindyPodcast: The Mindset Connection PodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindset_connection_/Book: The Elevation PrinciplesWebsite: www.mindsetnj.com/Follow REAL Mentors PodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcastHost Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartin