Send us Fan Mail

Trey Roth spent ten years being called a failure before the world called him a success.

He founded YayStack in September 2014. Raised money. Failed. Raised again. Failed again. Facebook killed his API access and forced a full rebuild. He watched other founders zoom past him with cleaner product-market fit and shorter timelines. Two weeks before the ten-year anniversary of the company — the deadline he and his wife Ashley had actually set as the “throw in the towel” date — everything clicked.

Today YayStack is a geocaching gift card and giveaway platform. Think Pokémon Go, but instead of chasing creatures, you’re chasing real gift cards from real local businesses. The tagline is “we made advertising fun,” and Trey relaunched the whole entity around that promise in January of this year.

In this episode of Spartan Leadership, Trey and Josh Kosnick go deep on the twelve-year grind, the McDonald’s nuggets moment with his last twenty dollars, the plane crash at nineteen that changed how he views every breath, the pirated software prayer that led directly to the idea for YayStack, and the Dwight Howard six-figure investment story that started with a 51%-decided choice to get in the car when he was too tired to drive.

You’ll hear:

• Why Trey was preparing the “I quit” email to his shareholders and what changed his mind

• The identity stack — “I am undefeated, and this is how I know”

• Why “51% decided” is Trey’s action threshold and how it literally saved his twin brother’s life

• The Dwight Howard story — how a $200 Apple Pencil turned into a six-figure investment check

• The transition from platinum-selling music producer to tech founder — and the integrity moment that made the bridge

• How faith actually shows up on a Tuesday morning when payroll is due on Friday

• The 1-in-400-trillion odds that every one of us already beat

Josh’s takeaway from Trey — “I am undefeated, and this is how I know” — is added to his own identity stack on-mic. If you take one thing from this episode, take that.

FOLLOW TREY & YAYSTACK

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yaystack

Trey on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/treyroth

Website: https://yaystack.co

Download the YayStack app in the App Store or Google Play — national gift card drops every Saturday through the end of 2026.

SUBSCRIBE TO SPARTAN LEADERSHIP
https://www.youtube.com/@spartanleadershippodcast?sub_confirmation=1

FOLLOW JOSH KOSNICK

Website: https://joshkosnick.com

The Kairos Code (book + audiobook): https://joshkosnick.com/thekairoscode

Bridge Builder Mastermind: https://www.joshkosnick.com/mastermind

Rate and review the Spartan Leadership Podcast wherever you listen. It’s how the next operator finds the show.

Remember, the good and great are the enemies of possible. Lead like a Spartan today.

#SpartanLeadership #TreyRoth #YayStack #Entrepreneurship #Faith #Leadership #KairosCode

CONNECT WITH ME HERE:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
TikTok
YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Send us Fan Mail

Nick Hutchison walked into his senior year of college with a 0% homework average and zero interest in reading. Ten years later, he's read over 1,000 personal development books and built BookThinkers into a seven-figure book marketing agency serving hundreds of authors a year.

In this conversation, Josh and Nick break down:

• The reading system Nick uses to actually implement books instead of just consuming them
• Why 4% of the books you read create 95% of the change in your life
• The SMART goal framework you should set BEFORE opening page one
• How Nick built BookThinkers as a side hustle while working a full-time B2B sales job
• The failed Argentina app build that almost ended it before it started
• The anonymous team survey that exposed his biggest leadership blind spot
• The five-year "deposit strategy" that got Jim Kwik to invite him on stage
• Why 84% of American adults read nothing — and how to reverse it

If you've ever finished a book and thought, "That was great — now what?" this episode is your operator's manual.

——————————————

CONNECT WITH NICK
Instagram: @bookthinkers
Website: bookthinkers.com
Get his book: Rise Of The Reader (new edition launching November 1st)

CONNECT WITH JOSH
Website: joshkosnick.com
Instagram: @joshkosnick
Get The Kairos Code: joshkosnick.com/thekairoscode

Remember: the good and the great are the enemies of the possible. Lead like a Spartan today.

CONNECT WITH ME HERE:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
TikTok
YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Send us Fan Mail

Ken Rusk was 15 years old when he walked through a hole in the fence behind his high school, into an industrial park, and asked a construction company what they did. Their answer: we dig ditches and fix wet, smelly basements. Ken said, “I thought I was qualified for that,” and took the job. He never went to college. In 1986, he founded Rusk Industries in Toledo, OH with six ditch diggers. 

Today it’s a portfolio of construction companies with over 200 employees and nine figures in revenue. Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Blue-Collar Cash. Fox News contributor. Publicly endorsed by Tony Robbins. 

In this conversation, Ken and Josh dismantle the college lie (only 1 in 3 degrees ever get used), walk through Ken’s 5-step Path, and unpack why Ken funds Trump Accounts for his employees’ kids, launched a bourbon company for Gold Star families, and taught his framework to female inmates. Plus a first look at Ken’s new book, Rockstars and Rainmakers.

CONNECT WITH ME HERE:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
TikTok
YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Send us Fan Mail

In-N-Out took 80 years to become a legend. Raising Cane's did it in 36 — with worse chicken and a better marketing team. Two founders sat down with Josh at the Book & Bourbon Club fly-in to debate what actually wins in 2026: the slow, silent build or the personal-brand turbocharge.

Guests: Dennis Leis (investor, MetPro, LRT, Whole Body Fitness) and Trace Miller (founder/CEO of Konala — high-protein drive-thru restaurants, konalafranchise.com).

Three debates, no filler:

The personal branding debate — can you still grow a massive business silently? The In-N-Out vs. Raising Cane's case study, the "sellout" question every founder wrestles with, and why your best customer is literally dying every day.

The AI debate — Dennis is all-in, Trace is skeptical, and Josh is in the middle. China just passed a law that you can't lay someone off and replace them with AI. Salesforce is cutting tens of thousands. Only 2% of the world is actually using it. What "ethical capitalism" looks like when the tokens cost more than the labor.

The hiring debate — Dennis hires for his weaknesses and openly admits he has zero desire to be a CEO. Trace wants to grow into his weaknesses, Gymshark-style. Two founders, two very different answers to the oldest question in business.

Plus Dennis unveils the AI-powered talent-matching platform he's building in beta — outbound recruiting for cultural fit instead of skills-first hiring.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Follow Dennis Leis: Instagram @dennis.leis
Follow Trace Miller & Konala: konalafranchise.com
Book & Bourbon Club: joshkosnick.com

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Books mentioned:
• Raving Fans — Ken Blanchard
• Unreasonable Hospitality — Will Guidara
• Good to Great — Jim Collins
• Blue-Collar Cash — Ken Rusk

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Follow Josh Kosnick:
Website — joshkosnick.com
Instagram — @joshkosnick
LinkedIn — linkedin.com/in/joshkosnick

Subscribe for weekly conversations on leadership, faith, and building a life worth living.

#SpartanLeadership #JoshKosnick #DennisLeis #TraceMiller #Konala #PersonalBranding #AIinBusiness #EthicalCapitalism #FounderPodcast #HiringStrategy

CONNECT WITH ME HERE:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
TikTok
YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Send us Fan Mail

Chris Welton was born with one hand. He's a performance coach, TEDx speaker, and international bestselling author of One Jordan — and he built his entire professional network by mailing strangers a single Jordan sneaker with a note: want the other one? Give me a call.

It worked on Damon West. It worked on Ben Newman. It worked well enough that John Maxwell built a keynote around the strategy and started naming Chris from the stage — Chris found out because strangers began messaging him on LinkedIn mid-talk.

In this conversation, Chris and Josh get into what separates lived adversity from performative resilience: the four ways people show up when adversity hits, why Chris intentionally puts himself in brutal physical situations before life does it for him, and what happened at HYROX in Dallas when he went face-first into the turf twenty meters from the finish and his wife told the paramedics to back up.

He also opens up about mental health, PTSD, and why men his size don't have those conversations.

In this episode:

- The One Jordan strategy and why most people aren't bold enough to try it
Why the gap between top producers and mediocre performers is smaller than you think

- Victim, Survivor, Warrior, Architect — the four adversity paradigms

- The Adversity Accelerator: training for hardship before it arrives

- Why Chris moves foster-care kids to the top of the resume pile

- Accountability versus ownership, and what it costs teams when leaders get it wrong

- The sentence his grandmother said to him 47 years ago that shaped everything

Connect with Chris Welton:
Website: https://chriswelton.live
Instagram: @onehandatatime
Podcast: One Hand At A Time
Book: https://onejordanbook.com

Connect with Josh Kosnick:
https://joshkosnick.com
Life Quotient Assessment: https://www.joshkosnick.com/assessment

Spartans — share this episode far and wide.

CONNECT WITH ME HERE:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
TikTok
YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Send us Fan Mail

Most people think legacy is something you build at the end — a monument, an inheritance, a name on a building "someday." That's the first lie. The second one is even more common: legacy is what you leave behind.

In this solo episode, I break down the two lies about legacy almost everyone believes — and why both of them are keeping you from building one right now.

Inside this episode:

• The moving-truck moment that made me question everything I'd chased
• The three questions I asked myself in the field — and the sad answer to all three
• Why your legacy is a Kairos problem, not a Kronos problem
• What Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Deuteronomy actually say about inheritance (hint: it's not the greeting-card version)
• Marcus Aurelius vs. the Spartans — and the tension that reframes how you should live today
• The one question to ask yourself before you go to bed tonight

If this hit you, share it with one person who needs to hear it today.

📖 The Kairos Code audiobook launches August 1. Join the launch team → kairoscode.com/250

Connect with Josh Kosnick: https://joshkosnick.com/connect

Chapters:

0:00 What did you leave in someone today?
1:17 Welcome + audiobook launch team (Aug 1)
2:18 Two lies people believe about legacy
2:51 The boxes in the basement
4:56 If you died tonight, what would they say?
6:09 Lie #1 — Legacy is a future event
7:14 The to-be list and the to-feel list
8:38 The DM that arrived 8 years later
10:46 Lie #2 — Legacy is what you leave behind
12:57 My father-in-law's boots
14:01 What scripture actually says
16:25 Why I started this podcast
17:25 Marcus Aurelius pushes back
19:08 The Spartan view — timē and kleos
21:08 Kronos vs. Kairos
22:03 What did I leave in someone today?

#SpartanLeadership #Leadership #Legacy #Kairos #FaithInBusiness #JoshKosnick #TheKairosCode #Mindset #Entrepreneurship #SelfImprovement

CONNECT WITH ME HERE:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
TikTok
YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Send us Fan Mail

People don’t change.

It sounds wise… until it quietly wrecks your life.

In this episode, Josh makes the case against one of the most common lies in our culture: that you’re stuck with who you’ve always been. He breaks down why that belief feels safe, how it kills growth in real time, and what the science and lived stories say about actual transformation.

You’ll hear:
• Why “people don’t change” is self-protection, not truth
• How your brain and nervous system can actually rewire over time
• Why the “21 days to change your life” idea is wrong (and what really happens)
• Real examples of addiction broken, bodies rebuilt, and generational patterns ending
• A practical framework for what change requires: decision, plan, repetition, community, faith

This isn’t motivational fluff. It’s the uncomfortable reality that change is hard, slow, and still completely available—if you’re willing to pay the price in repetition.

If you’ve ever looked at your own story and thought,  “Maybe this is just who I am…” ,watch this before you decide that your past gets the final say.

Connect with Josh Kosnick: joshkosnick.com

#SpartanLeadership #Leadership #BusinessSuccess #Mindset #Entrepreneurship #SelfImprovement #Podcast #JoshKosnick #SpartanMindset

CONNECT WITH ME HERE:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
TikTok
YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Send us Fan Mail

What does it really look like to go from a $2,500 bet to a 9‑figure beverage brand?

In this episode of Spartan Leadership, Josh Kosnick sits down with Adam Kroener, co‑founder and president of Carbliss, to break down how he went from putting a drink “in a can” and “selling the shit out of it” to building a massive ready‑to‑drink cocktail company.  Adam shares how a backyard idea turned into a real business, why his wife’s 25 “better questions” became their first business plan, and how they ended up doing the exact opposite of what was on that plan once they got into the real world.

Adam pulls back the curtain on formulation, distribution, culture, and the realities of scaling, including flying to California to dial in flavor because he didn’t know how to describe what he was tasting, honoring his late best friend through the parent company name, and learning to ask experts better questions instead of pretending to know it all.

You’ll hear the unpolished story behind Carbliss, from early fears and $2,500 on the line to navigating explosive growth, hiring, and building a team that can sell “the shit out of it” without losing who they are.

In this episode:

• The $2,500 down-payment story and the “put it in a can” moment with his wife
• How a non-beverage guy learned to talk to beverage experts and dial in flavor
• Turning 25 questions into a business plan they eventually did the opposite of
• Honoring a best friend through the parent company behind Carbliss
• What it really takes to scale from an idea to a 9-figure brand

Connect with Adam Kroener | adamkroener.com
Drink Carbliss | https://drinkcarbliss.com
Follow Josh Kosnick | joshkosnick.com

Timestamps:

00:00 Cold open – “Put it in a can and sell the shit out of it”  
00:57 Welcome back + who Adam is and why his story matters  
02:23 Army deployment to Iraq and how it shaped his leadership  
04:11 From factory floor to leading 1,000+ people in manufacturing  
07:41 Early failed business, delusional confidence, and what he learned  
10:22 The $2,500 bet and the origin story of Carbliss  
12:32 Visionary vs. integrator – building the business with his wife  
13:54 Why Carbliss tastes like the name on the can (product and flavor philosophy)
39:57 Family, staying grounded, and building a life around the business  
01:08:01 Legacy, the real American Dream, and Adam’s final leadership lesson

#SpartanLeadership #AdamKroener #Carbliss #Entrepreneurship #StartupStory #BusinessPodcast #Founders #Leadership #BeverageIndustry #CPG #DrinkBusiness #SmallBusiness #BusinessGrowth #VeteranOwned #HusbandAndWifeTeam

CONNECT WITH ME HERE:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
TikTok
YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Send us Fan Mail

AI isn’t here to replace you. It’s here to multiply you.

In this Spartan Leadership episode, Josh sits down with entrepreneur and operator Matt Schmitt to break down why his core thesis is simple: AI + humans = superpowers.

Matt shares how he went from an IT grad in the Great Recession, to buying cans for Anheuser-Busch, to building and exiting e‑commerce brands, and now to building AI tools that help small operators move like an army without losing the handshake, the character, or the relationship.

They talk about how to use AI without handing over your thinking, why the “big guys” will cut people while the real competitive advantage for small businesses is keeping your people and equipping them, and how faith, marriage, and fatherhood have shaped the way Matt builds.

Connect with Josh Kosnick: https://joshkosnick.com

Connect with Matt Schmitt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/realmattschmitt

CONNECT WITH ME HERE:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
TikTok
YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Send us Fan Mail

What do you do when the business, career, or life plan you built your identity on suddenly disappears?

In this episode of Spartan Leadership, Josh Kosnick sits down with Dr. Christine Whelan, the “purpose professor,” to talk about why purpose is a verb—something you do every day with your gifts and values—rather than a job title or a single life calling.

They unpack what happens when everything falls apart: Josh’s story of losing his business five years ago, empty nest transitions, career changes, and the quiet identity crises that come when a chapter ends. Dr. Whelan explains how to separate your purpose from your role, why transitions make purpose feel more urgent, and how to design a life where you spend more time on the things you’re gifted at and actually enjoy.

You’ll hear a research‑backed definition of purpose, a fresh take on happiness as a byproduct (not the goal), and a practical framework for living with pro‑social purpose—using your gifts, in keeping with your values, to positively impact other people in the community.

If you’ve ever asked “What now?” after a loss, layoff, or big life change, this conversation is for you.

In this episode:
• Why “purpose is a verb,” not a one‑time discovery or slogan
• How to think about purpose when your business, role, or season ends
• Designing work you love using a simple “T‑chart” exercise
• Purpose in parenting and raising kids who live their values
• Pro‑social purpose, “eco‑you” vs “ego‑you,” and why community matters

Connect with Dr. Christine Whelan:
- Website: https://christinewhelan.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cbwhelan/

Connect with Josh Kosnick:
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/joshkosnick
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/joshkosnick
- Website: https://joshkosnick.com

#PurposeIsAVerb #ChristineWhelan #SpartanLeadership #PurposeAfterLoss #LifeTransitions #FindYourPurpose #ChristianLeadership #BusinessLeadership #PersonalGrowth #Podcast 

CONNECT WITH ME HERE:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
TikTok
YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube