The Michael Peres Podcast

The Michael Peres Podcast

By Michael PeresBusinessEntrepreneurshipScienceTechnologyNatural Sciences
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The Michael Peres Podcast episodes

  • A Conversation with Jill Jones and Elizabeth Reeder

    Michael Peres sits down with Jill Jones and Elizabeth Reeder, lifelong friends, busy moms, and co-founders of FitQuo – a practical, science-backed fitness system designed to help real adults over 40 feel strong, capable, and confident again. After watching people they love struggle with mobility, strength loss, and “feeling old” far too early, they became certified personal trainers and built a program that actually fits into real life.

    In this episode, you’ll learn:

    • How a bold “you’re going to be my friend” in high school gym class sparked a decades-long friendship
    • Why Jill and Elizabeth kept circling back to the idea of building a business together around health, fitness, and real-world wellness
    • The family experiences that made mobility and strength loss feel urgent, not theoretical
    • How Elizabeth’s dad’s battle with Parkinson’s showed them firsthand how strength training can slow decline and preserve independence
    • Why effective strength training doesn’t require a gym, hours a day, or perfection – and how 20–30 minutes at home can be genuinely life-changing
    • The philosophy behind FitQuo and how they’re helping adults over 40 reclaim strength, mobility, and confidence on their own terms

    22 min
  • A Conversation with Kelsey Formost

    Michael Peres welcomes with Kelsey Formost, head of marketing at Togal.AI, an award-winning construction tech company using AI to transform pre-construction. A marketing expert and copywriting thought leader, Kelsey blends strategy, human psychology, and her Hollywood background to create entertainment-first brand storytelling that actually connects.

    In this episode, you’ll learn:

    • How a theater-obsessed, entrepreneurial kid became a professional actor and improv comedian
    • The leap from Broadway and CollegeHumor into marketing, copywriting, and brand strategy
    • What “entertainment first” really means and why humor and humanity beat jargon
    • How she uses those storytelling skills at Togal.AI to make complex construction tech feel simple and engaging

    24 min
  • A Conversation with Dr. Eric Weiss

    From board-certified plastic surgeon to pioneering regenerative medicine, Dr. Eric Weiss joins me to unpack how a deeply personal journey with his autistic son Marston led him to the frontier of stem cell–based therapies. We dive into the science behind glial cell inflammation, why umbilical cord stem cells are so powerful, and how chronic inflammation may sit at the center of both autism and aging. If you’ve ever wondered where fasting, exercise, NAD/NMN, and mitochondrial health actually intersect with real-world medicine, this episode goes straight into the cellular trenches.

    In this episode, you’ll learn:

    • How Dr. Weiss went from a busy plastic and reconstructive surgery practice to founding the North Florida Stem Cell Clinic.
    • What landmark studies on glial cell inflammation in autism and CTE revealed about brain inflammation and neurodegeneration.
    • Why umbilical cord stem cells are uniquely potent compared to adult stem cells from bone marrow or fat.
    • How off-label use, FDA timelines, and medical ethics shape access to cutting-edge stem cell treatments in the U.S.
    • The links between inflammation, mitochondrial decline, NAD/NMN, fasting, and longevity – and why Dr. Weiss sees stem cells as “chicken soup for healing.

    38 min
  • A Conversation with Donzel Leggett

    Catching up with Donzel Leggett, principal at Destiny Development Delta LLC, a U.S.-based international consultancy focused on executive leadership development. With 32+ years as a senior executive across Fortune 200 consumer product companies, Donzel has led global organizations of up to 10,000 people and navigated large-scale transformation through complex, fast-changing environments.

    In this episode, you’ll learn:

    • Why having a plan matters even when the world changes every minute, and how to make “audibles” without losing your north star.
    • How to build personal agency by stacking skills, expanding your “career portfolio,” and staying adaptable as AI reshapes work.
    • The mindset shift from improving systems to helping people change their lives, and how that became the foundation for his coaching work.
    • What inspired his book, Make Your Destiny Happen, and why legacy and purpose are bigger than a job title.
    • How family role models and lived values can quietly become the blueprint for leadership.

    28 min
  • A Conversation with Michael Wu

    Michael Peres sits down with Michael Wu, general manager and president of Phison Technology USA and a veteran of 20+ years in the NAND storage industry. After starting in radio frequency engineering, Michael took a leap into storage when Phison opened its U.S. office, helping grow it into a leading flash storage solutions provider and overseeing its American operations today.

    In this episode, you’ll learn:

    • How Michael went from RF test engineer to leading a major NAND storage company
    • Why he chose hardware over programming and what drew him into storage
    • What SSDs and flash looked like 17 years ago versus where the industry is today
    • How advances in storage parallel CPU evolution and shape the future of computing

    38 min
  • A Conversation with Mitchell DiRaimondo

    Michael Peres is joined by Mitch DiRaimondo, a capital allocator, commercial real estate entrepreneur, and Web3 founder based in San Francisco. Mitch leads SteelWave Digital, a real estate tokenization platform expanding access to institutional-grade commercial properties, and serves as CEO of eCobalt Investment LLC. Having started trading crypto in high school back in 2012, he’s become a vocal advocate for blockchain’s real-world applications, with appearances in outlets like Bloomberg, Fortune, and The Wall Street Journal.

    In this episode, you’ll learn:

    • How early experiments with hacking, pattern recognition, and crypto trading in 2012 pulled Mitch into digital assets
    • Why he saw crypto as the foundation of a global, digital economy still in its infancy
    • What it takes to make institutions comfortable deploying capital into crypto and tokenized assets
    • How SteelWave Digital is using tokenization to open up access to commercial real estate and transform capital markets
    • The bridge between traditional commercial real estate, Web3 infrastructure, and regulated investment products
    • Where Mitch sees the most credible real-world use cases for blockchain over the next decade

    27 min
  • A Conversation with Cameron Martel

    In this episode, Cameron opens up about his early days hacking together GeoCities pages on a 10GB IBM Aptiva, why he dropped out of university to chase Facebook affiliate revenue, the chaos and brilliance of nonlinear productivity, and how two decades of internet evolution shaped his thinking about SEO, content, and building brands in the age of AI.

    If you’ve ever wondered how digital natives actually navigate an industry that reinvents itself every few years, this is the conversation you’ll want to bookmark.

    In this episode, you’ll learn:

    • How a lonely move to a prairie town — plus unexpected high-speed internet — sparked Cameron’s obsession with building websites.
    • The moment his university journey ended and his affiliate marketing career exploded into six-figure months.
    • Why he considers himself a poor employee — and how nonlinear productivity shaped the systems he built as an entrepreneur.
    • Cameron’s candid take on ADHD-like work patterns, focus, and managing “hit-or-miss” productivity.
    • What two decades in SEO taught him about algorithms, bias, accountability, and why content-led strategy still wins.
    • Why major Google updates are less of a threat and more of an opportunity for creators who actually add value.
    • How his business was once wiped out — and the hard lessons that reshaped his approach to marketing and entrepreneurship.

    41 min
  • A Conversation with Steve Durbin

    In this episode, Michael Peres sits down with Steve, a forward-thinking financial leader whose career spans private equity, hedge funds, and investment banking—experience that ultimately led him to co-found RYT, a next-generation layer-one blockchain built to fix the inefficiencies buried deep inside global financial systems. From missed “early Bitcoin” moments to navigating today’s rapidly maturing crypto landscape, Steve breaks down why blockchain infrastructure—not speculation—is the real future, and how RYT is pushing that future forward by working directly with governments.

    Steve reveals how his team is creating secure, scalable digital identity solutions for populations in Pakistan, Panama, and Costa Rica—unlocking access, fighting fraud, and modernizing outdated systems from the ground up. He also dives into the psychology of risk, why people cling to legacy systems, and how comfort—not logic—keeps innovation from scaling.

    In this episode, you’ll learn:

    • Why Steve believes blockchain’s biggest value isn’t tokens—but infrastructure that removes friction and cost
    • How the crypto industry has “grown up,” moving from hype metrics to real-world profitability and institutional trust
    • Why regulation, stability, and transparency are accelerating the next phase of adoption
    • How RYT is partnering with governments to deploy secure digital ID systems, starting with 20,000 users per day
    • The challenges of replacing legacy systems—and why comfort keeps people tied to inefficient structures
    • Why identity and remittance are the top real-world blockchain use cases poised for global transformation

    25 min
  • A Conversation with Lindsay Kirsh

    Michael Peres chats with Lindsay Kirsh, a results-driven PR strategist with 15+ years of experience leading campaigns for major global brands like Marriott, Hyatt, Molson Coors, Cathay Pacific, McDonald’s USA, and Hard Rock Cafe. From Toronto politics to agency life and in-house roles, Lindsay has built deep expertise in media relations, crisis management, and brand reputation, now recognized as a trusted PR voice across Scottsdale, New York, and Toronto.

    In this episode, you’ll learn:

    • How a political science background and Canadian politics opened the door to PR
    • Lessons from agency vs. in-house roles at firms like Fleishman-Hillard and Molson Coors
    • Her move to the U.S., rebuilding a network from scratch, and returning to agency life
    • Overseeing field PR for McDonald’s across half the country and what it taught her about scale and storytelling
    • The skills modern PR pros need to navigate crises, fast media cycles, and brand reputation today

    36 min
  • A Conversation with Matt Boden

    Catching up on another powerful episode with Matt Boden — owner of Fresh Coat Painters of Tampa, nationally recognized entrepreneur, and cancer survivor — as he shares a raw, inspiring journey from college hospitality jobs to building an award-winning painting franchise with heart. From owning restaurants across the Southeast to facing a life-altering cancer diagnosis at 27, Matt opens up about resilience, loss, and the mindset shifts that pushed him to redesign both his career and his priorities.

    In this episode, you’ll learn:

    • How Matt went from “buying more beer in college” to mastering business management and running restaurants for 20 years.
    • What it’s like to be diagnosed with stage-two cancer at 27 — and how it reshaped his outlook on life, family, and work.
    • Why the loss of his father became the true catalyst for leaving hospitality and betting on entrepreneurship.
    • How Matt is professionalizing the painting industry by bringing hospitality-level service into home services.
    • The mission behind Fresh Coat Cares and how Matt gives back to families facing cancer and vulnerable communities.
    • What it takes to build a profitable service business in under a year — and scale it sustainably.

    14 min

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