The Kronos Group Podcast

Most leaders confuse intensity with leadership. Bruce Babashan has spent 30 years in boxing gyms and boardrooms, and he'll tell you the difference.

Bruce trained fighters, Olympians, and world champions while rising to practice president at one of the country's largest executive search firms. Jerry grew up homeless and built companies by doing the opposite of what sports taught him. They don't agree on everything.

In this episode:

- Why process beats outcomes, and what John Wooden's players saw in every other team

- Hard coaching vs. screaming: where standards work and where they get you fired

- Why pain is the best teacher, and most of what you know comes from your screw-ups

- The coach who knew the janitor's name, and why Bruce would have run into a fire for him

Chapters:

00:00 Cold Open
04:53 From the Boxing Gym to the Boardroom
16:37 Why Sports Culture Fails in Business
19:23 Process Over Outcomes
27:51 Bruce Pushes Back: The Case for Hard Coaches
34:14 Does the Screamer Work at McDonald's?
40:03 The Monster Inside and the Voice That Said "That's Enough"
42:41 A Civilized Man Is a Monster Who Learned Control
47:33 Pain Is the Best Teacher
50:50 The Superpower of Learning From Mistakes
1:02:24 Learning to Lead
1:06:43 The Coach Who Knew the Sweeper's Name

Business Operators or Owners, if you are doing 7 to 8 figures in revenue a year, the right room can make all the difference.

Join a cohort that can offer advice and experience that can help you avoid mistakes before you make a decision alone.

Book a call with Jerry: https://thekronosgroup.org/

Not ready yet? Learn more by watching our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thekronosgroup

Find Bruce:

- Website: https://www.brucebabashan.com

- LinkedIn: Bruce Babashan

- Book: Learning to Lead - Available on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0ixIE6G2

You already know what to eat. You know you should move. So why haven't you done it?

Dr. Len Lopez has spent 25 years watching people quit on their health. Jerry Brazie lost 100 pounds after nearly dying in a hospital bed, and kept it off. This is the honest conversation about the gap between knowing and doing.

What you'll take away:

• Why most people quit around week three, and how to get through it
• The Five Steps scorecard: sleep, think, eat, physical, spirit. Two minutes a day.
• Why the fix starts in your kitchen and your head, not the gym

Episode #346 of The Kronos Group Podcast.

Special Pricing for Founder's Cohort: https://thekronosgroup.org/why-kronos/

Dr. Len Lopez: https://drlenlopez.com

Roy Coughlan has started 22 companies across five countries. Then the market turned, the bank changed the rules, and he was staring at a $5 million personal liability.

Jerry sits down with Roy to talk about what losing everything actually looks like, why most business advice online is built to sell you something, and how a guy too shy to order a beer ended up on a TEDx stage.

What you'll take away:

• Why "work on your business, not in it" breaks down in the early years
• How to spot the guru whose real product is the course
• The two very different ways Roy and Jerry got back up after losing fortunes

Episode #345

Book a call with Jerry for a Kronos Group cohort: https://thekronosgroup.org/

Free to Join The Kronos Forge: https://www.skool.com/the-kronos-group/about

Roy Coughlan: https://roycoughlan.com

Everybody claps the day you quit. Nobody talks about what's still waiting for you after.

Episode 344. Melissa Martineau Alexander is 18 years sober and came through depression and bankruptcy. Jerry spent 25 years on opioids after breaking his back. Neither one has patience for the magic wand version of self-help.

In this episode:

- Why quitting is the easy part, and what you actually have to face after

- The "run out of cant's" drill: keep asking why until you hit your last excuse. That's your starting point.

- Worth vs. entitlement, and why nobody gets paid what they're worth. You work your way up to it.

- Why Melissa doesn't manifest. She orchestrates.

Chapters:

00:00 Cold Open

05:11 25 Years on Opioids After a Broken Back

06:13 The Day She Quit Drinking

12:14 Quitting Is the Easy Part

15:58 You Matter Just As Much

23:44 Putting Yourself First Isn't Selfish

28:24 Is Self-Help Keeping People Stuck?

34:03 Keep Asking Why Until You Run Out of Can'ts

39:14 What The Secret Got Wrong

46:52 First Job at 11 for $2.35 an Hour

51:36 Worth vs. Entitlement

55:04 The People Who Leave When You Change

57:46 What Worth, Want, Will Actually Is

1:00:31 Everything Is My Fault, Even When It's Not

Running a business doing $1M+ and tired of being the only one in the room telling the truth? Book a call with Jerry: https://thekronosgroup.org/

Find Melissa Martineau Alexander:

- Website: https://worthwantwill.com

- Instagram: @melissa_m_alex

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thekronosgroup

You think this episode is about church. It's not. It's about why you stopped asking the questions that actually matter once the business started working, and what happens to a man who never deals with what's underneath the hustle.

I sat down with a pastor of 40 years and got more honest than I have on this show in a long time.

Here's what you'll take away:

• Why "everything is my fault" is the only mindset that actually builds anything, in business or anywhere else
• What losing 100 pounds in 8.5 months taught me about leadership, energy, and why your body is part of the business
• Why men are walking away from responsibility everywhere, church included, and what it actually takes to get them back

Michael Muccio - Website / Book: https://michaeljmuccio.com/

About Jerry Brazie:

Jerry Brazie is the founder of The Kronos Group, a peer advisory and coaching community for business owners serious about building something real. He's built and scaled multiple companies, lost it and rebuilt from scratch, and spent 20+ years working alongside hundreds of operators. No theory. No gurus. Just real conversations with real operators.

Business owners or founders - If nobody around you is pushing back on your decisions, you're not being challenged, you're being agreed with. That's not a room that builds anything.

Apply to join a Kronos Group cohort and talk it through with Jerry directly. https://thekronosgroup.org/

You've been told the Fed raises and cuts interest rates to fight inflation. That's half the story — and probably the half that was meant to keep you confused. In 2010, the Federal Reserve made a move that almost nobody talks about. They went from being the lender of LAST resort to the lender of FIRST resort. Banks stopped having to go earn their liquidity.

The Fed just handed it to them. That one shift is why asset prices never stop climbing, why wages never catch up, and why the game feels rigged — because it was changed.

If you own a business, run capital, or just wonder why working harder doesn't seem to close the gap anymore, this conversation is for you.

Here's what you'll take away:

• Why the 2010 "ample reserves regime" changed who gets protected when the system breaks
• What Kevin Warsh is actually doing at the Fed — and why it matters more than interest rates
• How deflation is capitalism working correctly — and why the government has been stealing it from you
• The real reason wealth inequality keeps widening and what a reset would actually look like
• How Raymond built BDGS — an active ETF that drafts the market on the way up and holds cash on the way down

This episode is part of The Kronos Group Podcast, where experienced operators and founders share real-world lessons on building, scaling, and protecting their businesses.

If you run a business doing $1M or more a year, you can't afford not to join a Kronos Peer Cohort. This group gives you monthly access to real operators (other business owners at your level) working through real situations (not generic advice). https://thekronosgroup.org/why-kronos/

If you're ready to get started and know that you need to join the room, fill out the form to book a discovery call with Jerry today: Join a Cohort

Have an idea for a podcast, but don't know where or how to even start one? PodMatch is your one-stop shop. Use our affiliate link here to start your podcasting journey today: https://www.joinpodmatch.com/thekronosgroup

If you're an entrepreneur, founder, or someone wanting to make a change in their life and network, join us inside The Kronos Group community (it's free): https://www.skool.com/the-kronos-group/about

Connect with Jerry Brazie on socials
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jerrybrazie
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrybrazie
X (Twitter): https://x.com/thekronosgroup
Substack: https://substack.com/@jerrybrazie
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thekronosgroup

New episodes weekly. This show is built for business owners who know growth is better when you're not doing it alone.

Randy Gage went from a jail cell at 15 to a Hall of Fame stage, 15 bestselling books, and a career built around one mission: getting people out of the professional victim camp and into the professional victor camp.

In this conversation, Jerry Brazie and Randy Gage compare notes on growing up with nothing — generational poverty, rock bottom moments, and the exact inflection points that changed the trajectory. But this isn't a sob story episode. It's a blueprint.

They go deep on:

• The 4 quadrants of real prosperity (and why chasing just one destroys people)

• The operating system you inherited before age 8 — and how to rewrite it

• Why "follow your passion" is bad advice for most people

• The difference between poverty consciousness and prosperity consciousness

• What AI will never be able to replace — and why that matters for how you build your business

Randy's been the prosperity guy for 30+ years. He's also been broke, had his business seized by the IRS, and slept on the floor. He earned the right to say everything he says in this episode.

This episode is part of The Kronos Group Podcast, where experienced operators and founders share real-world lessons on building, scaling, and protecting their businesses.

If you run a business that is doing $1M or more a year, then you can't afford not to join a Kronos Peer Cohort. This group gives you monthly access to real operators (other business owners at your level) working through real situations (not generic advice). https://thekronosgroup.org/why-kronos/

If you're ready to get started and know that you need to join the room, fill out the form to book a discovery call with Jerry today: Join a Cohort

Have an idea for a podcast, but don't know where or how to even start one? PodMatch is your one-stop shop. Use our affiliate link here to start your podcasting journey today - https://www.joinpodmatch.com/thekronosgroup

If you're an entrepreneur, founder, or someone wanting to make a change in their life and network, join us inside The Kronos Group community (it's free): https://www.skool.com/the-kronos-group/about

Connect with Jerry Brazie on socials
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jerrybrazie
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrybrazie
X (Twitter): https://x.com/thekronosgroup
Substack: https://substack.com/@jerrybrazie
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thekronosgroup

New episodes weekly. This show is built for business owners who know growth is better when you're not doing it alone.

Ed Stapleton Jr. peaked at nearly 400 pounds. He tried bariatric surgery. He gained it back. He went through a divorce with two young kids and a business to run. And then he stopped looking for the easy way out.

Today he's down 170+ pounds, his testosterone is no longer in "elderly woman" territory, and his son drew him as a bodybuilder at the school picnic. He also runs Clicks Geek — a Google Premier Partner agency — and he's one of the most honest people you'll hear from about what's actually happening in digital advertising. Most agencies are selling snake oil. AI search is changing where leads come from faster than most businesses realize. And if you're not answering your phone, no campaign on earth is going to save you.

This one hits different. Real talk on health, business, and what showing up actually costs.

This episode is part of The Kronos Group Podcast, where experienced operators and founders share real-world lessons on building, scaling, and protecting their businesses.

If you run a business that is doing $1M or more a year, then you can't afford not to join a Kronos Peer Cohort. This group gives you monthly access to real operators (other business owners at your level) working through real situations (not generic advice). https://thekronosgroup.org/why-kronos/

If you're ready to get started and know that you need to join the room, fill out the form to book a discovery call with Jerry today: Join a Cohort

Have an idea for a podcast, but don't know where or how to even start one? PodMatch is your one-stop shop. Use our affiliate link here to start your podcasting journey today - https://www.joinpodmatch.com/thekronosgroup

If you're an entrepreneur, founder, or someone wanting to make a change in their life and network, join us inside The Kronos Group community (it's free): https://www.skool.com/the-kronos-group/about

Connect with Jerry Brazie on socials
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jerrybrazie
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrybrazie
X (Twitter): https://x.com/thekronosgroup
Substack: https://substack.com/@jerrybrazie
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thekronosgroup

New episodes weekly. This show is built for business owners who know growth is better when you're not doing it alone.

Most men won't go near the word therapy. But what if the version you've been picturing doesn't exist in this conversation?

Jerry Brazie sits down with Helen Malinowski — a licensed clinical social worker, somatic experiencing practitioner, and founder of both Keros Counseling (a 24-clinician group practice in Massachusetts) and the Somatic Integration Institute — for one of the most honest conversations about stress, burnout, resilience, and the body-mind connection you'll find anywhere.

Jerry and Helen go deep on:

• Why avoiding stress is more dangerous than stress itself
• The real physiological definition of trauma — and why the word gets thrown around so loosely it's lost all meaning
• Self-efficacy as the hidden driver of resilience (and why Jerry's story proves it)
• Jerry's personal story: getting robbed and beaten at 14, the voice that changed everything, and the framework that built his life
• How physical discipline and the body-mind connection directly impact your performance as an operator
• What somatic therapy actually is — and why it's the approach men will be far more willing to try
• The difference between stress that builds you and stress that breaks you down at a nervous system level
• The epidemic of isolation and how community (a real tribe, not followers) changes the game

Jerry also shares his own transformation — 310 pounds, a 25-year opioid addiction, a heart blockage, and a January 2022 decision to rebuild from scratch. 100 lbs down in 8.5 months. No excuses. Just accountability.

Helen's book: Coming Back to Yourself is coming soon. Get early access at: https://www.somaticintegrationinstitute.org/coming-back

Website: https://www.somaticintegrationinstitute.org/

This episode is part of The Kronos Group Podcast, where experienced operators and founders share real-world lessons on building, scaling, and protecting their businesses.

If you run a business that is doing $1M or more a year, then you can't afford not to join a Kronos Peer Cohort. This group gives you monthly access to real operators (other business owners at your level) working through real situations (not generic advice). https://thekronosgroup.org/why-kronos/

If you're ready to get started and know that you need to join the room, book a discovery call with Jerry today: https://calendly.com/thekronosgroup/the-kronos-group-consultation

Have an idea for a podcast, but don't know where or how to even start one? PodMatch is your one-stop shop. Use our affiliate link here to start your podcasting journey today - https://www.joinpodmatch.com/thekronosgroup

If you're an entrepreneur, founder, or someone wanting to make a change in their life and network, join us inside The Kronos Group community (it's free): https://www.skool.com/the-kronos-group/about

New episodes weekly. This show is built for business owners who know growth is better when you're not doing it alone.

Episode #338 — Joe Prencipe, M&A Attorney

Most business owners spend 20 years building something real — then walk into a business sale totally unprepared for what they're about to face. The people across the table have done this hundreds of times. You haven't. And that gap? That's where your money goes.

Jerry Brazie sits down with Joe Prencipe, a veteran M&A attorney who has worked on deals ranging from small business acquisitions to $100M and billion-dollar transactions. Joe has been in the room when deals explode, when sellers get blindsided, and when buyers realize too late they paid for a business they can't run. He's also been in the litigation aftermath when it all goes sideways.

This is an honest, no-filter conversation about the real world of buying and selling businesses — what the game actually looks like when millions are on the line.

In this episode, they cover:

• Why treating the other side as a friend is the most expensive mistake in any deal
• The real reason most businesses fail due diligence — and what buyers actually want
• Seller ego: how the identity you built with your business works against you when it's time to sell
• How to find advisors who actually fight for you — not just for the commission
• What happens when deals fall apart days before closing (and it happens more than you think)
• The business myth that raising money = making it
• Partnerships — why having two captains always sinks the ship
• What happens to purpose and identity after you hand over the keys

If you're building a business right now, planning an exit, or thinking about acquiring — this one's required listening.

Connect with Joe: prencipe.com

This episode is part of The Kronos Group Podcast, where experienced operators and founders share real-world lessons on building, scaling, and protecting their businesses.

If you run a business that is doing $1M or more a year, then you can't afford not to join a Kronos Peer Cohort. This group gives you monthly access to real operators (other business owners at your level) working through real situations (not generic advice). https://thekronosgroup.org/why-kronos/

Have an idea for a podcast, but don't know where or how to even start one? PodMatch is your one-stop shop. Use our affiliate link here to start your podcasting journey today - https://www.joinpodmatch.com/thekronosgroup

If you're an entrepreneur, founder, or someone wanting to make a change in their life and network, join us inside The Kronos Group community (it's free): https://www.skool.com/the-kronos-group/about

Connect with Jerry Brazie on socials
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jerrybrazie
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrybrazie
X (Twitter): https://x.com/thekronosgroup
Substack: https://substack.com/@jerrybrazie
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thekronosgroup

New episodes weekly. This show is built for business owners who know growth is better when you're not doing it alone.