The Michael James Way

I lost $65,000 in a single crypto transaction. I still don't know exactly

where it went. This is the conversation I wish I'd had two years earlier.

Ryan Horst got into crypto in 2017, watched the 2022 collapse take 95% of his company's monthly revenue, and rebuilt from there. Today he's co-founder and CEO of Altcoin Pro, one of the largest crypto education companies in the country and one of the few crypto businesses growing during a bear market instead of shrinking with it.

But this episode isn't really about crypto. It's about what it costs to learn things the slow way. Ryan breaks down how he chose every job he ever took based on the skills it would teach him rather than the money it paid. I tell the story of the mentor I handed $300,000 to and the eight-year-old girl who made the decision for me. And Ryan gives a straight answer to the question I've been stuck on for two years: how do you sell a $500,000 job to a client who's never spent that much on anything?

If you've ever thought "I'll figure this out myself" — this one's for you.

CHAPTERS

00:00 — $65,000, gone

01:20 — Ryan's start: pre-med, then everything else

06:00 — The Instagram post that changed a stranger's life

09:00 — Why the education system was built this way

12:00 — Michael drops out of college over one exam

14:30 — What Chick-fil-A teaches you about operations at scale

17:30 — Losing 95% of revenue in the 2022 crash

22:00 — "Focus only on what you can control"

25:00 — Choosing jobs for skills instead of salary

30:00 — Knowledge comes before money

33:00 — Michael's blind spot: great at the trade, bad at sales

36:00 — How do you sell a $500,000 job?

39:00 — Find out where your buyer already is

42:00 — Building a lead qualification filter

44:00 — Beating the "you're too expensive" objection

48:00 — Why the business almost didn't survive

54:00 — Growing while the market falls

56:00 — The $65,000 lesson

58:00 — The knowledge gap nobody tells you about

1:00:00 — One 10-minute video that could have saved a fortune

1:06:00 — "So do it." — the $300,000 mentor

1:09:00 — The eight-year-old who closed the deal

1:13:00 — Why Michael gave back a $700,000 client

1:17:00 — The ego trap that stalls most founders

1:20:00 — When your team's wins start feeling like your own

1:24:00 — Rebuilding the comp plan

1:28:00 — "Making money while you hang out with your friends"

1:30:00 — Altcoin Pro Summit + where to find Ryan

FIND RYAN

Altcoin Pro — altcoinpro.com

Altcoin Pro Summit, Oct 2–4, Fontainebleau Miami Beach — altcoinpro.com/summit

Instagram — @ryanhorst_

YouTube — Bull Runners

Nothing in this episode is financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.

Cryptocurrency involves substantial risk of loss. Do your own research.

Michael hit rock bottom, no house, no money, living in a basement apartment with his kids, and bought a one-way ticket to San Francisco with no plan to get back except riding a bicycle across the country.

In this episode, he breaks down the ice-fishing detour, the coach's warning about the five times you'll want to quit, and the cyclocross race that taught him how to actually win, and how every one of those lessons ended up rebuilding his business after 2008 nearly took it all.

In this episode: why "burning the boat" (a $150 one-way ticket) forced a real commitment, the rule that got him through day 3 of a cross-country ride ("don't act on your emotions"), how studying a competitor's weaknesses won a race he'd already lost, and why knowing your numbers is the difference between planning for hard times and getting blindsided by them.

After 30 years of watching the James family from the front pew, Cora Varvell sits down with Michael for a conversation neither of them fully expected. She saw the man his father was at church, and heard from Michael's mother what he was at home.

In this episode: the childhood that made Michael call church "a fraud," the cross-country bike ride that broke him open, the father who became his biggest fan through care packages mailed to small-town post offices, and the revelation Michael learns on air: that Cora was at the bedside, singing hymns, the night his dad slipped away. A story about what it costs to carry hurt, and what it takes to put it down.

Follow Cora Varvell and her husband C.L. on their YouTube channel,

From the Holler to the World: @FromtheHollertotheWorld

New episodes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 6 PM.

Dr. Tom Incledon, PhD, is the founder and CEO of Causenta Wellness, a cancer treatment and performance center in Scottsdale, Arizona that sees patients from 90 countries.

His story doesn't follow a straight line. Raised by a single mom two standard deviations below poverty, accepted to medical school as a young teenager, a self-made millionaire in computer hardware before 21, and then he walked away from all of it to train for the Olympics. Injuries, car accidents, and partial paralysis later put him in a wheelchair. Today he hangs from a bar for two minutes at 240 pounds.

In this conversation, Michael and Dr. Tom get into why most people manage their health like a bad investor, keeping it in the expense column instead of the asset column. They cover the "movement snacks" approach that replaces hour-long workouts, why your microbiome matters more than your macros, the two-minute rule that has never failed in 40 years of working with patients, and where stem cell therapy is actually headed versus the hype.

Learn more about Dr. Tom: causenta.com

Nothing in this episode is medical advice. Talk to your own healthcare provider before making treatment decisions.

This episode wasn't planned. Michael opens up about something most business podcast hosts never admit: while teaching frameworks for success, he's been battling self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and mornings where he doesn't want to get out of bed. What follows is an unfiltered team conversation about what a hard season actually does to you, and what it's for.

Inside this episode:

• Why Michael says "I feel like a liar" hosting a success podcast during a losing streak
• The scarcity trap: how reacting to slow business makes it slower
• Baron's guitar tuning analogy. You're always tuned to something, so what frequency are you locked into?
• "This season is conditioning me, not feeding me," the reframe from Michael's coach
• The cocoon truth nobody mentions: a caterpillar doesn't eat in the chrysalis, it digests its own body
• How one gratitude practice visibly shifted an entire team call in a week

If you're in a season where everything feels restrictive and nothing's working, this conversation is the permission slip to stop reacting and start transforming.

Before Michael James scaled his remodeling company past seven figures, he made a decision that mirrored something he'd done years earlier on a solo bike ride across the country: Push all the chips in. No turning back, no plan B, all in.

In this solo episode, Michael reflects on the parallel between that cycling trip and the journey of building his business, from a million dollars in revenue to multiples of that today, and the mindset shifts required to keep going when the results aren't showing yet. He breaks down the "sleep, creep, leap" pattern of growth, why setbacks aren't a sign to quit, and how gratitude, not grinding, is often the real starting point for momentum.

Michael also shares the math behind Mel Robbins selling out the Fox Theater in Atlanta, the rejection stories behind Coca Cola, Walt Disney, J.K. Rowling, and Michael Jordan, and what it really looks like behind the scenes of a company chasing a $100M goal, including two acquisition conversations that could add $13M in revenue almost overnight.

In this episode:

• The "all in" decision that changed the trajectory of his business
• Why setbacks don't justify quitting, even when they feel like permission to
• The "sleep, creep, leap" pattern most businesses go through before visible growth
• The math behind Mel Robbins selling out the Fox Theater in Atlanta
• Why rejection (Disney, Rowling, Jordan, Coca Cola) is part of every success story
• Two acquisition opportunities that could add $13M to the company's revenue

Sources referenced in this episode:

• Mel Robbins, "5,4,3,2,1, The Count Down to Success" — https://youtu.be/_BNDdamTDak
• Michael Jordan, "Failure" Commercial — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA7G7AV-LT8
• J.K. Rowling, "Is A Billionaire Again" — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ8E7On0IfU
• Walt Disney, Disneyland 1955 Opening Dedication Speech — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-Ebp2PHofw
• Coca-Cola, 1983 Commercial featuring Keanu Reeves — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9ZSPC3J6hA

Connect with Michael James & The Michael James Way: themichaeljamesway.com / michaeljamesremodeling.com / @michaelgjames / @themichaeljamesway / @michaeljamesremodeling

Description:

Luis Barraza didn't grow up dreaming of remodeling bathrooms; he went to college for business administration. But six years after co-founding Blue Wave Home Improvement in Central Virginia, he's built a company specializing in kitchens, bathrooms, basements, and a particular passion for turning "ugly bathrooms" into something beautiful.

In this episode, Luis sits down with Michael James to talk about the early days of not knowing his numbers and pricing jobs off instinct, getting burned by a subcontractor relationship gone wrong, and the moment he found out, mid conversation with his accountant, that he needed a license he didn't have. He opens up about nearly losing the business altogether, the support that got him through it, and the systems and mindset shifts that turned things around.

Now Luis is scaling Blue Wave from $1.2M to a $3M goal, shifting toward more of a design build model, and leaning on the relationships and lessons he's picked up from other contractors along the way.

In this episode:

• Why not knowing his numbers almost cost Luis everything
• The subcontractor experience that taught him to verify, not assume
• Finding out the hard way that he needed a contractor's license
• How honesty (not sales pressure) became Blue Wave's competitive edge
• His plan to scale from $1.2M to $3M and shift toward design build
• The books that reshaped his mindset, from Extreme Ownership to Think and Grow Rich

Connect with Luis Barraza & Blue Wave Home Improvement: bluewavehic.com / @bluewave_home_improvement

Connect with Michael James & The Michael James Way: themichaeljamesway.com / michaeljamesremodeling.com / @michaelgjames / @themichaeljamesway / @michaeljamesremodeling

Zack Clayton got the call to wrestle for AEW with three days' notice. No warning. No runway. Just show up or lose the shot.

In this episode of The Michael James Way, Zack breaks down exactly what it takes to be ready when opportunity doesn't wait: the decade of grinding underground shows for "a hot dog and a handshake," the uncomfortable truth that the people cheering you on will eventually start rooting against you, and why eliminating the word "should" from your vocabulary changes everything.

Zack and Michael go deep on the athlete's mindset, accountability without excuses, building both body and mind so one can carry the other when the other quits, and what it really means to live on always-season, no off-season.

If you're building something and running low on fuel, this one's for you.

🎙️ Guest: Zack Clayton | @ZackClayton
🎤 Host: Michael James | The Michael James Way

📺 Catch Zack this summer in TNA Wrestling:
👉 tna.com/events

📺 Watch Jersey Shore: Family Vacation — Thursdays at 8PM on MTV

To connect with Zack's Venture's outside of Wrestling (Podcast and His Companies):

https://linktr.ee/zackclayton?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=fa5af51d-dd69-442a-895f-35b549e69a43

⏱️ Chapters
00:00 – Cold Open
01:00 – Intro & Zack's origin story
05:38 – The grind: from local shows to AEW
12:04 – Discipline vs. motivation
20:09 – Always be ready: the three-day call
25:12 – Life after AEW: TNA, MTV, and giving back
30:02 – Impact first, money follows
40:46 – Belief systems and the words you need to cut
47:35 – Why people root against you when you level up
54:24 – 200 miles on broken ribs: the 10-miles-at-a-time story
1:02:38 – Advice for anyone grinding with no end in sight

📌 Footage used in this episode is for commentary purposes. All rights belong to their respective owners.

🎬 Copyright Credits:

• "The Final Showdown" — Jersey Shore: Family Vacation | © MTV Entertainment Studios | youtube.com/@jerseyshore
• HOOK vs. Zack Clayton – FTW Title Defense | AEW Rampage, Aug 19, 2022 | © All Elite Wrestling | youtube.com/c/aew
• Colt Cabana & Dark Order vs. Zack Clayton | AEW Dark, Sep 4, 2020 | © All Elite Wrestling | youtube.com/c/aew
• Zack Clayton vs. Tommy Dreamer | Awesome Championship Wrestling | © Awesome Championship Wrestling | youtube.com/@awesomechampionshipwrestling

What do you do when the worst possible thing happens, and then something even worse follows?

In this episode of The Michael James Way, Michael sits down with elite endurance cyclist and coach Michelle Grainger, the woman who coached him across the United States, for a conversation that goes far beyond cycling.

Michelle has raced across America, biked solo from Florida to Alaska, and competed at the highest levels of the sport for decades. But it's what happened off the bike that defines her most: a near-fatal truck collision that triggered severe PTSD, a twin sister's devastating ALS diagnosis, cancer, broken bones, and being buried alive in a mudslide.

Through every one of those moments, Michelle kept pedaling, literally and figuratively.

In this episode you'll hear:

• Why Michelle told Michael he'd want to quit exactly five times, and why she was right
• How a bike accident broke her brain before it broke her body
• What watching her twin sister lose everything to ALS taught her about gratitude
• The "Monday morning regret" rule that changed how she races and lives
• Why sport and life aren't just similar, they mirror each other completely

Whether you're an athlete, an entrepreneur, or just someone trying to get through a hard season, this episode will remind you that forward motion, even a single inch, is always the answer.

"If you can't pedal, you walk. And if you walk long enough, you'll get back on your bike."

- Michelle Grainger

Most of us wait for perfect conditions to take action, but what if the secret to a breakthrough is burning the ships and committing fully?

In this episode, Michael James shares the transformative lessons from a 3,500-mile cycling journey across America that reshaped his mindset and business. When he committed to riding from California to North Carolina, he discovered that the real journey begins only when you decide to go all-in and never look back.

You'll discover how his bike trip became a powerful metaphor for life and business showing that clarity, courage, and unwavering commitment lead to extraordinary growth. Michael breaks down the specific discipline of taking daily action, the mindset shifts that paid off, and the strategic steps he used to turn a $300K savings into a thriving multi-million dollar enterprise. Learn how he harnessed the "burn the ships" mentality to eliminate doubt, ignite motivation, and unlock success.

We break down: the influence of daily habits and intentional focus, the importance of investing in yourself through coaching, and the mindset shifts that turn setbacks into opportunities. You'll hear how planting seeds like the story of the acorns can inspire your team and transform your perspective on growth. This episode reveals why resilience, decisiveness, and willingness to risk everything are the keys to creating a legacy.

Why does it matter? Because staying stuck in indecision keeps you away from your true potential, while embracing commitment accelerates your journey. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a dreamer, or someone facing a pivotal crossroads, this story reminds you that success demands nothing less than total dedication and the willingness to burn the ships behind you.

Perfect for leaders ready to break free from hesitation, entrepreneurs seeking sustainable growth, and anyone committed to pushing beyond limits. Press play and discover how to turn your biggest obstacles into the fuel for your greatest achievements.

Michael James is a successful entrepreneur and coach known for transforming mindsets and building legacy-driven businesses. His journey from a cross-country cyclist to a thriving business owner exemplifies the power of decisive action and relentless focus.

Stop waiting for the perfect moment your breakthrough starts when you burn the ships and commit fully to your vision. Are you ready to go all-in?