The Entrepreneur DNA

In this episode, I sit down with Tiffany Ward, founder and CEO of Human Creative, the company behind Certified Human Content, a service that live-monitors the entire writing and creative process to prove a piece of work was made without generative AI. We get into just how much of what we read today (emails, resumes, social captions, even "motivational" posts) is quietly AI-generated, and why that's eroding trust across education, journalism, hiring, and the creator economy. I share my own story of getting caught plagiarizing my senior year at UCLA, long before AI existed, and we talk about how much easier, and more damaging, that shortcut is today. Tiffany walks me through how schools, publications, and businesses are using her platform instead of unreliable after-the-fact AI detectors, including a wild example of her own company using it to hire a junior developer. We close out talking about where "proof of human" goes next, from graphic design to physical craftsmanship.

About Tiffany:

Tiffany Ward is Co-Founder and CEO of Human Creative, a company dedicated to certifying original human content in the age of AI. She received her M.A.B.S. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 2018 and authored a successful fictional trilogy under a pen name. She lives in Morgantown, WV with her husband and children.

Guest Social Links

Website: https://humancreative.org

X (Twitter): https://x.com/HumanCreativeUS LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/human-creative-llc Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/humancreativeus/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj40OeNmELVc7bJUVJcH3eA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578869820261

Email: [email protected]

Justin Colby is the host of The Entrepreneur DNA and The M.O.R.E Show podcasts and a best-selling author. He is a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned real estate investor with over 20 years of experience. Driven by a passion to help entrepreneurs thrive, Justin created the Entrepreneur DNA community to support business owners in building wealth, systems, and long-term freedom. Through his podcasts, books, education platforms, and hands-on mentorship, he continues to help entrepreneurs scale with clarity and confidence.

Connect with Justin:

Instagram: @thejustincolby

YouTube: Justin Colby

TikTok: @justincolbytsof

LinkedIn: Justin Colby

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Book a free 15-minute consultation at manifesttherapy.com.

Nathaniel Cilley is a licensed mental health counselor, psychedelic therapist, and manifestation coach based in New York City, and he's joining our School.kol.com community to help entrepreneurs work through fear and mental roadblocks.

In this episode we cover:

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About Nathaniel:

Nathaniel Cilley is a licensed mental health counselor based in New York City, a psychedelic therapist, and a manifestation coach. He specializes in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), helping clients work through anxiety, phobias, and fear of failure by challenging the beliefs behind them. His work now blends traditional psychotherapy with consciousness work, psychedelic integration, and manifestation coaching to help people reprogram limiting identities and align with what they actually want in life.

Connect with Nathaniel:

About Justin:

Justin Colby is the host of The Entrepreneur DNA and The M.O.R.E Show podcasts and a best-selling author. He is a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned real estate investor with over 20 years of experience.

Driven by a passion to help entrepreneurs thrive, Justin created the Entrepreneur DNA community to support business owners in building wealth, systems, and long-term freedom. Through his podcasts, books, education platforms, and hands-on mentorship, he continues to help entrepreneurs scale with clarity and confidence.

Connect with Justin:

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In this episode, I sit down with Brad Sugars — the Founder and Chairman of ActionCOACH, the world's #1 business coaching firm with over 1,000 offices in 85 countries — to break down exactly what separates the entrepreneurs who scale from the ones who stay stuck. Brad calls out what he sees as the biggest epidemic in business right now: wimpy goals.

We dig into the three stages of business growth (0 to $1M, $1M to $10M, $10M to $100M), why the skills that get you to your first million will actually hold you back from your next ten, and why most business owners have built themselves a job with overheads instead of a real business. Brad also gets honest about his own failures — from team members who liked his money more than he did, to reinvesting $4M right before COVID hit — and shares the mindset shifts that let him operate his companies in just one hour a week. We also get into work-life harmony, the epidemic of loneliness among male entrepreneurs, and why Brad believes the most expensive advice in the world is free advice from a poor person.

Facebook: Brad Sugars ActionCOACH

X (Twitter): @BradSugars

LinkedIn: Brad Sugars

YouTube: Brad Sugars ActionCOACH

Website: actioncoach.com

About Justin:

Justin Colby is the host of The Entrepreneur DNA and The M.O.R.E Show podcasts and a best-selling author. He is a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned real estate investor with over 20 years of experience.

Driven by a passion to help entrepreneurs thrive, Justin created the Entrepreneur DNA community to support business owners in building wealth, systems, and long-term freedom. Through his podcasts, books, education platforms, and hands-on mentorship, he continues to help entrepreneurs scale with clarity and confidence.

Connect with Justin:

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Get your free copy of Allison's book 'Scale or Fail' - https://pinnacleglobalnetwork.com/dna

In this episode I sit down with Allison Maslan, founder and CEO of Pinnacle Global Network and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Scale or Fail, who has personally built ten companies and helped her team mentor over 150,000 founders. We talk about why the business owner is so often the thing standing in the way of their own growth, and Allison walks me through her five phases of scaling, from the seeker all the way through what she calls the ringleader phase, the chaotic circus stage where most businesses get stuck for years. We get into how to build a team of what she calls scale multipliers instead of people who just complete tasks, why tracking your return on employee matters as much as any other business metric, and how her own burnout and health scare early in her career led her to build a completely different way of running a business. We also dig into her morning vision crafting practice and how she uses alignment to make faster, clearer decisions as a CEO. If you've ever felt like your business can't run without you, this conversation will change how you think about that.

Main Topics Covered

About Allison:

Allison Maslan is the founder and CEO of Pinnacle Global Network, a global business mentoring company that has helped more than 150,000 founders scale their companies from seven to nine figures. She has built ten successful companies from the ground up starting at age 19, with past clients including Ben & Jerry's, Supercuts, and Charlotte Russe. Allison is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Scale or Fail, endorsed by Daymond John and Barbara Corcoran, and has been featured in Forbes, Success, Fortune, and Entrepreneur Magazine. She was named one of Forbes' Top 10 Women Entrepreneurs to Watch.

Website: https://pinnacleglobalnetwork.com

About Justin:

Justin Colby is the host of The Entrepreneur DNA and The M.O.R.E Show podcasts and a best-selling author. He is a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned real estate investor with over 20 years of experience.

Driven by a passion to help entrepreneurs thrive, Justin created the Entrepreneur DNA community to support business owners in building wealth, systems, and long-term freedom. Through his podcasts, books, education platforms, and hands-on mentorship, he continues to help entrepreneurs scale with clarity and confidence.

Connect with Justin:

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Are you ready to stop treating your startup like a side project and start building a scalable business? In this episode, Dr. Michael Burcham shares the hard-earned wisdom of a veteran who has transitioned from a physical therapist to a multi-million dollar private equity investor.

We dive deep into the mindset shifts required to go from a day job to a full-time founder, the critical importance of customer discovery, and why most investors won't touch your project until you have skin in the game. Michael breaks down the common mistakes technical founders make and how to navigate the emotional rollercoaster of anxiety and frustration that comes with the territory. You will learn how to differentiate your brand in a noisy market, the power of personal touches in networking, and how to align your vision with what investors are actually looking for.

Justin Colby is the host of The Entrepreneur DNA and The Science of Flipping podcasts and a best-selling author. He is a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned real estate investor with over 20 years of experience.

Driven by a passion to help entrepreneurs thrive, Justin created the Entrepreneur DNA community to support business owners in building wealth, systems, and long-term freedom. Through his podcasts, books, education platforms, and hands-on mentorship, he continues to help entrepreneurs scale with clarity and confidence.

Connect with Justin:

Instagram: @thejustincolby

YouTube: Justin Colby

TikTok: @justincolbytsof

LinkedIn: Justin Colby

After starting his career in healthcare, he went on to build and grow multiple companies before transitioning into venture capital and private equity, where he now helps founders navigate growth, fundraising, leadership, and long-term business strategy. He is also the author of multiple books focused on startups, scaling, failure, and investor relationships.

Connect with Dr. Michael Burcham:

Chapters

0:00 Intro and meeting Dr. Michael Burcham

3:15 The journey from physical therapy to private equity

6:30 Why relationships and local ecosystems matter

9:45 The biggest misconception for early stage founders

13:10 Diversifying your offerings and solving customer pain

16:20 The framework for launching a successful venture

19:40 Building awareness and the sales pipeline

23:05 How to differentiate your brand in a noisy market

26:30 The power of handwritten notes and networking

30:00 Projects vs businesses and getting investor attention

33:50 Learning from failure and the importance of grit

37:20 Managing the seven deadly emotions of entrepreneurship

41:00 Identity shifts and the new book Blood Sweat and Equity

44:49 Final thoughts and where to find Michael

#entrepreneurship #startupgrowth #venturecapital #businessstrategy #entrepreneurmindset

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Get Mauricio's book 'Tackling Toxicity' on Amazon here: https://a.co/d/08uHkZag

In this episode I sit down with Mauricio Velasquez, a worldwide conflict resolution and emotional intelligence consultant who has trained in over seventy five countries, from Guantanamo Bay to the White House to professional sports organizations like the MLS. We get into why most people are conflict averse and what happens when you ignore toxic behavior instead of addressing it. Mauricio breaks down the difference between reacting and responding, how to spot your own triggers before they take over, and the exact language he teaches leaders to use when someone is coming in hot. We talk through real stories from his thirty year career, from coaching a CEO who nearly destroyed his company's culture in fifteen seconds to a moment in the stands at his daughter's basketball game where he chose to stand up instead of stay silent. This conversation is about moving from bystander to upstander, in your business, your family, and your life.

Main Topics Covered

About Mauricio:

Mauricio Velasquez is the founder and president of Diversity Training Group and the author of Tackling Toxicity: A Skill-Based Guide to Addressing Toxicity. Over his thirty year career, he has worked as a management consultant, workplace investigator, executive coach, trainer, and expert witness specializing in bias, prejudice, and hate, training more than one million employees, managers, and executives. He has worked in nearly every U.S. state and traveled to more than seventy five countries, coaching organizations ranging from the White House and Guantanamo Bay to Native American tribes, law enforcement agencies, and professional sports organizations like the MLS. Mauricio holds a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia and an MBA in Human Resource Management from George Washington University.

Connect with Mauricio:

About Justin:

Justin Colby is the host of The Entrepreneur DNA and The M.O.R.E Show podcasts and a best-selling author. He is a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned real estate investor with over 20 years of experience.

Driven by a passion to help entrepreneurs thrive, Justin created the Entrepreneur DNA community to support business owners in building wealth, systems, and long-term freedom. Through his podcasts, books, education platforms, and hands-on mentorship, he continues to help entrepreneurs scale with clarity and confidence.

Connect with Justin:

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In this episode I sit down with Brett Gilliland, founder and CEO of Elite Entrepreneurs, who has spent the last fourteen years helping business owners make the leap from hustler to real CEO. We dig into why so many founders get stuck right before the ten million dollar mark, and why it almost always comes down to control. Brett walks me through the four systems his company teaches to build a business that doesn't depend on the founder for everything, what a CEO's real job becomes once a leadership team is in place, and how to know when you're still holding onto something you should have let go of months ago. We also get personal, talking about the daily disciplines that keep us both grounded, including his fourteen "I am" statements that he's repeated every single morning for over a decade, and why taking care of yourself first isn't selfish, it's what makes you capable of showing up for everyone else. If you've built something real but feel like you're the bottleneck holding it back, this conversation is for you.

Topics Covered

About Brett Gilliland:

Brett Gilliland is the founder and CEO of Elite Entrepreneurs, a company that gives seven figure business owners the knowledge, systems, and coaching to grow to ten million dollars and beyond. For over a decade, Brett helped lead Infusionsoft's growth from seven million to more than one hundred million dollars in revenue, where he was involved in building the company's Purpose, Values, and Mission, co-created the Elite Forum, and served as VP of Leadership Development. He has spent fourteen-plus years coaching founders and executives on how to move from hands-on hustler to confident, capable CEO. Brett has been married to his wife Sharon for thirty years, and together they have eight children.

Connect with Brett:

Website: https://growwithelite.com

About Justin:

Justin Colby is the host of The Entrepreneur DNA and The M.O.R.E Show podcasts and a best-selling author. He is a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned real estate investor with over 20 years of experience.

Driven by a passion to help entrepreneurs thrive, Justin created the Entrepreneur DNA community to support business owners in building wealth, systems, and long-term freedom. Through his podcasts, books, education platforms, and hands-on mentorship, he continues to help entrepreneurs scale with clarity and confidence.

Connect with Justin:

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What does it really take to walk away from a seventeen-year corporate career and build an $18 million marketing agency in just three years? In this episode, Eric Winegard shares the mindset, discipline, and relentless commitment that helped him go from a troubled childhood and military structure to becoming the CEO of Rare Blue Moon Marketing.

We dive into the realities of entrepreneurship, the difference between paid ads and organic content, and why most businesses fail before marketing even begins. Eric breaks down the importance of networking without an agenda, building a real personal brand online, and why commitment is the trait that separates successful founders from everyone else. You’ll also learn how sales psychology, leadership, and self-belief became the foundation for scaling one of the fastest-growing agencies in the space.

Justin Colby is the host of The Entrepreneur DNA and The MORE Show podcast and a best-selling author. He is a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned real estate investor with over 20 years of experience.

Driven by a passion to help entrepreneurs thrive, Justin created the Entrepreneur DNA community to support business owners in building wealth, systems, and long-term freedom. Through his podcasts, books, education platforms, and hands-on mentorship, he continues to help entrepreneurs scale with clarity and confidence.

Connect with Justin:

Instagram: @thejustincolby

YouTube: Justin Colby

TikTok: @justincolbytsof

LinkedIn: Justin Colby

His story spans a difficult upbringing, military discipline, and years of mastering sales, networking, and leadership before becoming a founder. Today, Eric works with businesses across multiple industries to help them grow through strategic marketing, brand positioning, and scalable customer acquisition.

Connect with Eric Winegard:

YouTube: @ericwinegard8088

Facebook: winegard1

LinkedIn: Eric Winegard

Chapters

0:00 The road from W2 to eighteen million dollars

2:45 Is sales a born talent or a learned skill

5:30 Why high level masterminds are worth the investment

9:15 Overcoming a difficult childhood and foster care

13:40 How the military builds a wartime mentality

17:50 Why Eric left a safe CEO track to start over

22:10 The role of faith and grit in business growth

26:45 Burning the boats and making success a necessity

30:15 Paid ads vs organic content strategy

33:50 Humanizing your brand on social media

37:20 Geofencing and targeting for local businesses

41:05 Lessons from the Gold Coast Podcast and Brad Lea

44:30 Why marketing cannot fix a broken business model

46:46 Final advice for aspiring entrepreneurs

#entrepreneurship #digitalmarketing #salesstrategies #scalingbusiness #mindset

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In this episode, I sit down with Hillel Presser, a nationally recognized asset protection attorney who's helped protect over $11 billion in client assets and written six books on the subject. We get into why "it's not what you make, it's what you keep," and unpack the exact strategies the ultra-wealthy use to become "uncollectible" — from owning nothing and controlling everything through LLCs and limited partnerships, to the real difference between revocable and irrevocable trusts, to lesser-known free strategies like tenancy by the entirety and Florida's homestead exemption. Hillel also shares jaw-dropping stats (you're seven times more likely to be sued than to be in a car accident, and there are over 100 million lawsuits filed every year) along with real client stories, from a woman selling dolls at a flea market who got sued for millions, to the risks of golf carts, boats, and jet skis sitting unprotected in your name. Whether you're just starting your first business or you've already built serious wealth, this conversation is a masterclass in protecting what you've worked so hard to build.

Hillel L. Presser, Esq., MBA is the Managing Partner and founder of The Presser Law Firm, P.A., a national and international asset protection law firm based in Boca Raton, Florida. Over more than two decades, Hillel has helped protect over $11 billion in client assets and has represented some of the country's most recognizable entrepreneurs, business owners, celebrities, and professional athletes. He is the author of several books on asset protection and financial self-defense, including Asset Protection Secrets and Financial Self-Defense, and has been featured in Forbes, Sports Illustrated, the Robb Report, and on FOX, BRAVO, NBC, ABC, and CBS. Hillel holds a law degree from Nova Southeastern University, an MBA in marketing from Lynn University, and studied entrepreneurship at Syracuse University.

Connect with Hillel Presser:

About Justin:

Justin Colby is the host of The Entrepreneur DNA and The M.O.R.E Show podcasts and a best-selling author. He is a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned real estate investor with over 20 years of experience.

Driven by a passion to help entrepreneurs thrive, Justin created the Entrepreneur DNA community to support business owners in building wealth, systems, and long-term freedom. Through his podcasts, books, education platforms, and hands-on mentorship, he continues to help entrepreneurs scale with clarity and confidence.

Connect with Justin:

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I sat down with Ian Watts, a workforce transformation specialist who's spent two decades helping companies fix what most of them get wrong about their people. Ian's story starts on the east side of Detroit, growing up on welfare, and it's what drove him to chase becoming a millionaire by 30 — which he hit almost four years early, right before his first business completely collapsed in 2006. That season is where he found his real why: building businesses that bless the world by taking care of the humans inside them. We got into why employee engagement is at some of the lowest levels in history, why layoffs are gutting trust even at companies that think they're becoming leaner, and why salary and benefits will get someone in the door but it's culture that keeps them. Ian broke down his ACTS Method for building real engagement, and we talked about the mistakes founders make when they hire reactively instead of designing their team on purpose. If you run a business, manage people, or are wondering why good employees keep walking out the door, this episode is for you.

About Ian Watts:

Ian Watts helps executives enhance employee engagement, boost team performance, and reduce employee turnover in 90 days or less, guaranteed. He does this through transformative keynotes, hands-on workshops, and his proprietary ACTS Method, a breakthrough system developed from scaling an HR department that grew from 6 to over 60 locations and recruited 350+ team members nationwide.

An accomplished author, speaker, business consultant, and breakthrough coach, Ian built his first multi-million-dollar business by age 26. He has raised millions in capital, launched multiple ventures, and guided global clients across 30+ industries and 40+ U.S. states—as well as internationally in China, Hong Kong, Canada, the U.K., Saudi Arabia, and Australia.

Ian’s personal mission is simple but powerful: “Build businesses that bless the world.”

Connect with Ian Watts:

About Justin:

Justin Colby is the host of The Entrepreneur DNA and The M.O.R.E Show podcasts and a best-selling author. He is a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned real estate investor with over 20 years of experience.

Driven by a passion to help entrepreneurs thrive, Justin created the Entrepreneur DNA community to support business owners in building wealth, systems, and long-term freedom. Through his podcasts, books, education platforms, and hands-on mentorship, he continues to help entrepreneurs scale with clarity and confidence.

Connect with Justin:

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