"Every human challenge starts the same way: get your brain to 10 Hertz."

Dr. Izzy Justice discusses how founders, leaders, athletes, and parents can use neuroscience to reduce cognitive load, access calm under pressure, and show up as the best version of themselves in the moments that matter most.

What if the way you think about your brain is only part of the story?

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Izzy Justice for a conversation that goes beyond the usual talk about success, focus, and staying calm under pressure. He brings a different lens to human performance — one that connects the brain, our daily choices, and the moments that shape how we lead, work, and live.

We also explore why so many people feel pulled in too many directions, and what it really takes to be steady when life gets loud.

Dr. Justice shares ideas, stories, and practical tools that may change the way you think about your own state of mind.

This one is for anyone who wants to perform better, think clearer, and understand themselves on a deeper level.

• Your brain plays a bigger role than you think and most people were never taught how to use it well.
• Performance improves when the brain is in a calmer, slower state, which Dr. Justice calls 10 Hertz.
• Calm is not luck. It can be trained. Simple, repeatable neuro hacks can help shift the brain state in seconds.
• Kindness is not only good for others; neurologically, it can be a powerful way to regulate yourself.

Dr. Izzy Justice is the Chief Neuroscience Officer at Neuro580 and a pioneering sports neuroscientist focused on human performance, mental training, and leadership resilience. He has worked with elite athletes, CEOs, and executive teams, and has conducted thousands of functional brain scans in live performance settings. He is also the bestselling author of 10 books, including Life Explained: Chasing 10 Hertz.

Rick Meekins (rickmeekins.com) is a serial entrepreneur, strategic business disruption advisor, and host of The Relentless Pursuit of Winning Podcast — where he explores what it actually takes to build, lead, and sustain meaningful businesses. With over 30 years of experience working alongside founders and leadership teams, Rick helps companies develop disruptive advantages and build platforms to explore and distribute human insight.

Interested in working together, having Rick speak, or partnering with the show? Start here: rpowpodcast.com/contact

00:00 Welcome and introduction 00:46 Dr. Izzy's background 03:09 A different way to think about the brain 08:24 What brain state means 14:02 The idea behind 10 Hertz 24:05 Finding calm in busy moments 33:19 A simple brain reset exercise 40:26 Another quick tool to shift your state 46:09 Why kindness matters 47:07 What it means to win

#braintraining #rpowpodcast #relentlesspursuitofwinning #neuroscience #mentalperformance #leadershipmindset

"You're not exiting from something. You need to know what you're exiting to."

Zach Jennings helps founders stop building businesses that depend entirely on them — and start building ones that can be sold, transitioned, or scaled without the founder holding everything together.

Exit ready value starts long before a founder decides to sell.

That is what I wanted to get beneath in this conversation with Zach Jennings. He has built companies, filed patents, launched products, and now runs Southern Exits to help small business owners increase enterprise value and prepare for successful transitions. What stood out to me is how many founders build around their own talent, relationships, and work ethic — then realize too late that the company cannot survive without them.

We talked through valuation, EBITDA, seller discretionary earnings, pricing power, technology gaps, and customer concentration. But the number that stopped me was this: there is a 50% chance a business owner will exit because of one of the five Ds — death, disability, divorce, distress, or disagreement. Half. Not as a worst case scenario. As a statistical likelihood. And the worst time to build an exit plan is in the middle of any one of those.

What Zach made clear is that exit ready value is not really about selling. It is about building a healthier company. Better systems. Cleaner financials. Documented processes people actually use. Leadership that does not collapse when the founder steps back. And a business that can command a higher multiple because it is genuinely transferable.

He also made a point I think every founder needs to sit with. You are not only exiting from something. You need to know what you are exiting to. That clarity protects the business, the team, the family, and whatever comes next.

• A business built around the founder is not transferable — and not exiting from something means you're exiting to nothing.
• Valuation is driven by cash flow and multiple, not top-line revenue. One year of revenue is the least defensible number in any deal.
• There is a 50% chance your exit will be forced by one of the five Ds. Build the plan before you need it.
• SOPs only create value when they shape daily behavior — documentation sitting in a folder is not an asset.
• Most small business owners haven't raised prices in years. That absorbed cost is equity they are leaving on the table.
• 500 profitable customers can be worth more than 1,000 marginal ones. Pricing power is part of enterprise value.

Zach Jennings is an entrepreneur and exit advisor who founded Southern Exits to help small business owners increase enterprise value and prepare for successful transitions. His approach combines business assessment, valuation, strategic restructuring, and personal exit planning — built around what the owner actually wants, not just what the spreadsheet says.

Rick Meekins (rickmeekins.com) is a serial entrepreneur, strategic business disruption advisor, and host of The Relentless Pursuit of Winning Podcast — where he explores what it actually takes to build, lead, and sustain meaningful businesses. With over 30 years of experience working alongside founders and leadership teams, Rick helps companies develop disruptive advantages and build platforms to explore and distribute human insight. Interested in working together, having Rick speak, or partnering with the show? Start here: rpowpodcast.com/contact

00:00 Welcome and introduction 00:32 Zach's entrepreneurial background 03:35 Early lessons from consulting 06:26 Building beyond the founder 09:49 What drives business valuation 14:51 Why revenue alone is not value 29:14 When to start exit planning 36:40 The five Ds every founder faces 42:25 Starting the exit conversation 44:28 Zach's definition of winning

#exitreadyvalue #rpowpodcast #relentlesspursuitofwinning #exitplanning #businessvaluation #founderstrategy #businesssystems #zackjennings

"Whatever you do probably won't work the first time, but that doesn't mean you've failed. It means you've learned."

Mind shifting becomes the foundation for navigating complexity, managing emotion, and working through conflict. Mitch Weisburgh outlines how resourcefulness, resilience, and collaboration allow founders to think clearly, adapt quickly, and lead effectively in uncertain environments.

Mind shifting sits at the center of how we operate as founders, especially when pressure rises and clarity fades. What surfaced in this conversation is that success is rarely blocked by lack of knowledge. It is blocked by our inability to access what we already know when it matters most.

Mind shifting begins with awareness. The realization that most reactions are instinctive, fast, and often misaligned with what we actually want. That gap between reaction and intention is where leadership either strengthens or breaks down.

From there, mind shifting becomes a discipline. It requires learning how to interrupt emotional momentum, redirect focus, and return to a resourceful state. Whether through movement, breath, or simply stepping away, the goal is not avoidance. It is recalibration.

The deeper layer of mind shifting shows up in how we approach uncertainty. Founders tend to seek certainty in environments that do not offer it. The reality is that most meaningful problems are complex. They require experimentation, iteration, and the willingness to move without guarantees. The OODA loop framework reinforces this by shifting focus from outcomes to learning cycles.

Mind shifting also reshapes how we engage with people. Conflict is not the exception. It is the environment. The ability to remain grounded, curious, and intentional in the face of disagreement determines whether progress happens or stalls. Collaboration is not automatic. It must be built through trust, awareness, and deliberate communication.

What becomes clear is that mind shifting is not a tactic. It is a way of operating. It influences how we think, how we respond, and how we lead others through uncertainty.

• Awareness creates the space to shift from reaction to intention
• Emotional regulation is a practiced skill, not a personality trait
• Complex problems require experimentation, not certainty
• Iteration cycles accelerate learning and decision quality
• Curiosity strengthens influence and collaboratio
• Conflict can be navigated without losing alignment or momentum

"What's Your Conflict Style?"

A practical conversation guide designed to help you and your team understand how you naturally respond in conflict situations and how to navigate those dynamics more effectively.

Download here: https://mindshiftingwithmitch.org/conversationcircles/conflictstyles/download-9065

Mitch Weisburgh is an author, educator, and thought leader focused on helping individuals develop resourcefulness, resilience, and collaborative capability. His work centers on teaching practical frameworks that enable people to navigate complexity, manage internal responses, and build more effective relationships.

Rick Meekins (https://rickmeekins.com) is a serial entrepreneur, strategic business disruption advisor, podcast guest, and host of The Relentless Pursuit of Winning Podcast, where he explores what it actually takes to build, lead, and sustain meaningful businesses. With over 30 years of experience working alongside founders and leadership teams, Rick focuses on helping companies develop and implement disruptive advantages and developing platforms to explore and distribute human insight.

Interested in working together, having Rick speak, or partnering with the show?

Start here: https://rpowpodcast.com/contact/

00:00 Introduction to mind shifting 03:00 Resourceful vs reactive thinking 10:00 Emotional regulation in leadership 18:00 Navigating complex problems 26:00 The OODA loop in decision making 34:00 Conflict and collaboration dynamics 42:00 Building resilient mindsets 50:00 Mission and long term impact

#mindshifting #leadershipmindset #resilience #entrepreneurmindset #decisionmaking #conflictresolution #founderlife #criticalthinking

"I'd been asking God for months, ' do you want my eye?' And then I woke up that morning and I just knew. And then ironically, a few days later, my doctor called. It's still growing. We need to remove your eye. And I was at peace."

Diana Fritz spent 12 years fighting a rare cancer while leading as an executive, raising two boys alone, and quietly building other people up. What kept her standing wasn't willpower. It was a foundation she built before the crisis hit and a daily decision to keep choosing.

Leadership, discipline, and resilience are not theories in Diana Fritz's life. They are choices she has had to make under pressure, through a rare cancer journey, executive responsibility, single motherhood, and the daily work of showing up with purpose.

In this conversation, I sat with Diana as she shared how team sports shaped her leadership, why servant leadership matters, and how transparency builds trust when the room is uncertain. Her story is not polished for effect. It is grounded in hard decisions, honest faith, and the refusal to let adversity define the whole picture.

Diana's approach to leadership, discipline, and resilience begins with ownership. She talks about journaling, prayer, accountability, gratitude, and choosing contribution even when circumstances are painful. That is the part founders need to hear. We do not always control the diagnosis, the market shift, the lost customer, or the setback. We do control how we lead through it.

Her story reminds us that leadership, discipline, and resilience are built before the crisis and tested during it. Diana's foundation gave her language, strength, and clarity when the path changed. For any founder building from the ground up, this episode is a reminder that winning is not the absence of adversity. It is the disciplined decision to keep fighting with purpose.

• Servant leadership requires accountability, transparency, and the willingness to do the work.
• Resilience is a daily decision, not a personality trait.
• A strong foundation is built through reflection, faith, values, and disciplined practice.
• Adversity can become a platform for service when it is handled with integrity.
• Founders must choose how they respond when circumstances move outside their control.

Diana Fritz is an executive leader, author, speaker, wife, and mother whose rare cancer journey — including the removal of her left eye in 2023 — has become the very thing that opens doors. Her book Uniquely Imperfect, Uniquely Qualified is a raw, photo-documented account of adversity, faith, and the discipline of choosing contribution over victimhood. She works with businesses, schools, nurses, and anyone willing to ask harder questions of themselves.

Diana is giving away a copy of her book, Uniquely Imperfect, Uniquely Qualified, along with the companion journal. Connect with her on LinkedIn or visit grituiuq.com.

Rick Meekins (https://rickmeekins.com) is a serial entrepreneur, strategic business disruption advisor, podcast guest, and host of The Relentless Pursuit of Winning Podcast, where he explores what it actually takes to build, lead, and sustain meaningful businesses. With over 30 years of experience working alongside founders and leadership teams, Rick focuses on helping companies develop and implement disruptive advantages and developing platforms to explore and distribute human insight.

Interested in working together, having Rick speak, or partnering with the show?

Start here: https://rpowpodcast.com/contact/

00:00 Welcome and introduction 00:54 Diana's background and cancer journey 04:11 Servant leadership and team accountability 08:18 Developing leaders from where they are 10:20 Leading through uncertainty 12:43 Choosing your response 14:53 Faith, diagnosis, and foundation 19:04 Returning to work and asking for help 23:28 Journaling, surrender, and resilience 28:13 Using adversity to serve others 35:10 Building a daily foundation 40:42 Diana's book and message 42:43 Defining the relentless pursuit of winning 44:03 Giveaway and closing

#rpowpodcast #relentlesspursuitofwinning #leadership #resilience #discipline #servantleadership #faith #founders

"Money doesn't change who you are. It reveals who you are."

Entrepreneurs stay small through misalignment in values, reactive money decisions, lack of systems, and avoidance of difficult leadership choices. The conversation centers on building assets, creating structure, and leading with clarity to support long term growth.

Why entrepreneurs stay small is not something most founders recognize while it is happening. The work is there. The effort is real. The hours are long. Yet the outcome stays contained.

I see this show up when the business continues to revolve around the owner. Every decision runs through them. Every problem lands on their plate. That level of involvement feels necessary in the early stages, yet it becomes the very thing that limits growth later on.

There is a deeper layer tied to values. As life evolves, priorities shift. What once felt aligned begins to feel off, even if the business is still producing. That tension is easy to ignore because it does not always show up on a financial statement. It shows up in how decisions are made, what gets avoided, and where energy starts to drain.

Money plays a central role in this conversation. Not just how it is earned, but how it is understood. The relationship with money shapes behavior in ways that are often unconscious. When money is approached from fear or uncertainty, decisions tighten. When it is approached with clarity, it expands options and creates space for better thinking.

There is also a difference between working for income and building assets. Income solves immediate needs. Assets change how time and pressure are experienced. That shift requires discipline. It requires holding back in moments where spending would feel easier and redirecting those resources into something that continues to produce.

Structure becomes unavoidable at a certain stage. Without systems, the business cannot operate consistently. Without defined roles, accountability becomes unclear. Growth without structure creates friction. With structure, the business begins to stabilize and extend beyond the individual.

Leadership decisions carry weight here. Holding on to the wrong people impacts more than performance. It affects trust, momentum, and the standard the rest of the team operates within. These decisions are rarely comfortable. They are often delayed. That delay compounds the issue.

Clarity of direction matters just as much. When the message is broad, the response is weak. When the focus sharpens, execution improves. Knowing who the business serves and how it creates value removes noise from the system.

There is also a personal responsibility that cannot be ignored. The founder sets the tone. The way they think, decide, and respond becomes embedded in the business. Creating space to think clearly, away from constant demand, strengthens that foundation.

Why entrepreneurs stay small is not about a single mistake. It is the result of patterns that remain unchallenged. Growth begins when those patterns are examined with honesty and addressed with discipline.

The path forward is not complicated. It is intentional. It requires alignment, structure, and the willingness to make decisions that support the business beyond the individual.

• Businesses stall when everything depends on the founder.
• Values misalignment quietly impacts decision making.
• Financial behavior reflects underlying beliefs about money.
• Assets create stability beyond earned income.
• Structure enables consistency and scalability.
• Delayed leadership decisions weaken culture.
• Clarity improves execution and direction.

Gino Barbaro is an investor, Certified Money Coach®, entrepreneur, and podcast host who has built a real estate portfolio of over 1,900 multifamily units and $450,000,000 in assets under management. Through Barbaro 360, his work centers on helping families create lasting legacy by strengthening values, improving financial clarity, and building a healthier relationship with money. He is the best selling author of Happy Money Happy Family Happy Legacy and lives in St. Augustine, Florida with his wife Julia and their six children.

Gino is offering a free copy of "Happy Money Happy Family Happy Legacy," a guide to building financial clarity, stronger values, and a business that actually supports the life you're trying to create. Get a copy at https://barbaro360.com/happy-money/

Rick Meekins ( https://rickmeekins.com) is a serial entrepreneur, strategic business disruption advisor, podcast guest, and host of The Relentless Pursuit of Winning Podcast, where he explores what it actually takes to build, lead, and sustain meaningful businesses. With over 30 years of experience working alongside founders and leadership teams, Rick focuses on helping companies develop and implement disruptive advantages and developing platforms to explore and distribute human insight. Interested in working together, having Rick speak, or partnering with the show?

Start here: https://rpowpodcast.com/contact/

00:00 Introduction 01:05 Transition from restaurant ownership 08:40 Values and decision making 14:05 Financial freedom and assets 19:00 Systems and scaling 24:15 Navigating uncertainty 39:10 Vision and culture 45:20 Hiring decisions 48:50 Sustaining pursuit 50:45 Closing

#rpowpodcast #relentlesspursuitofwinning #entrepreneurship #businessgrowth #leadership #founders #scaling #moneymindset

"You talked for 70 percent of that call, but you didn't create enough space to find out what you could have done."

Sales system for founders defines whether early traction becomes scalable growth. Monica Stewart explains how instinct driven selling creates dependency, and how structure creates consistency across people and performance.

Many times, founders don't notice when the selling process stops being an advantage and starts becoming a limitation.

In the early stages, everything feels natural: You know how to guide the conversation. You understand the buyer. Deals move forward without needing a defined process. It works because you're close to it. As a result, nothing gets written down.

But that's where the problem begins.

The moment you start hiring, the gut instincts you've honed over time doesn't transfer. Each new salesperson brings their own style. Messaging shifts. Qualification changes. Conversations sound similar on the surface, but the substance underneath starts to drift.

Because deals are still closing - at least the obvious ones - it doesn't feel urgent. The gaps stay hidden. The team keeps moving, but the learning slows down. You hear the same calls, ask the same questions, and assume you already know what's happening.

Guess what? You don't.

Without structure, without a process, repetition replaces awareness: New tactics get layered on without understanding what worked before. There's no baseline, so nothing can really improve. (Ugh.)

More effort. More noise. More inconsistency. You've built a squeaky hamster wheel.

At some point, you recognize that growth demands more clarity.

A real sales system isn't an exercise in creatively scripting every word. It's about identifying and expanding on what you know already works: how you choose the right opportunities, how conversations should flow, what qualifies a deal, and how progress actually happens. With a solid baseline, you can adjust and adapt to refine and improve.

Pro tip: Scaling sales isn't about hiring more people. It's about making good judgment repeatable.

• Early success often lacks structure • Hiring without a system creates inconsistency • Repetition without awareness limits learning • Unvalidated tactics create noise • Documented process enables scale

Monica Stewart is a go-to-market strategist who helps founders move out of survival mode by building revenue systems that actually scale. With over 15 years in B2B sales, she has generated more than $25 million in direct revenue and contributed to company valuations exceeding $200 million.

She has worked with companies like LinkedIn, Trello, S&P, and Berkshire Hathaway, giving her a clear view into how sales evolves from founder-led execution to structured growth.

What makes her perspective different is her focus on sustainability. Not just closing deals—but building systems that continue to produce results without constant founder involvement. Her work centers on helping founders turn instinct into repeatable performance, so growth doesn't depend on individual effort.

Rick Meekins ( https://rickmeekins.com) is a serial entrepreneur, strategic business disruption advisor, podcast guest, and host of The Relentless Pursuit of Winning Podcast, where he explores what it actually takes to build, lead, and sustain meaningful businesses. With over 30 years of experience working alongside founders and leadership teams, Rick focuses on helping companies develop and implement disruptive advantages and developing platforms to explore and distribute human insight. Interested in working together, having Rick speak, or partnering with the show? Start here: https://rpowpodcast.com/contact/

00:00 Founder led sales reality 03:30 Transition to ownership 07:00 Learning new sales models 13:00 Designing sustainable work 19:00 Sales mistakes and patterns 25:40 Scaling stages explained 32:00 Founder to leader shift 39:00 Traits of top performers 46:40 Sustaining growth discipline

#salesstrategy #b2bsales #foundersales #saasgrowth #revenuegrowth #salesprocess #startupscaling

"If you don't quit, you win. You may not hit the goal you wanted, but if you don't quit, you win regardless."

Podcasting with purpose means knowing what you want it to do before you record a single word. Jonathan Armbruster has spent 20 years learning what separates the podcasts that build real business from the ones that fade out before episode ten. This conversation is about what the top one percent of podcasters actually do differently.

Podcasting is one of the clearest ways to build trust at scale, and this conversation with Jonathan Armbruster brought that into focus fast. Jonathan shared how podcasting moved from church production work into a 20 year career helping leaders build shows that are clear, consistent, and connected to real business outcomes.

What stood out to me is that podcasting is not just a content channel. Podcasting creates credibility. Podcasting helps people move from awareness to trust. For founders, podcasting can open doors, deepen relationships, and support the next step in a customer journey without turning every episode into a pitch.

Jonathan also made a critical point that many business owners need to hear. Podcasting does not work well when it is built on hope alone. It needs a system, a goal, and the discipline to stay consistent. We talked about guests, newsletters, social clips, and how podcasting becomes far more valuable when it is part of a larger strategy. His reminder was simple and strong. If you do not quit, you win.

• Trust is the real power of a podcast
• Business podcasts need a defined goal
• Consistency matters more than early download numbers
• Guests can expand reach and deepen relationships
• A simple production system protects momentum

Jonathan Armbruster has been shaping the sound and strategy of podcasting for over twenty years, starting long before most people knew what an RSS feed was. He built his foundation in church production, learned the craft of audio storytelling from the ground up, and eventually scaled a podcast to one million downloads in a single month while leading the network that produced it. That experience taught him something most podcast consultants never learn at scale: the difference between a show that grows and a show that survives is almost always a systems problem, not a content problem. Today Jonathan works with business owners and leaders through Content Builders, helping them build the production infrastructure and strategy that keeps them consistent, credible, and growing. His approach is practical and grounded in results, built for founders who want their podcast to move the business forward.

Jonathan built a free podcast production planner to help you solve the system problem that quietly stops most business owners from staying consistent. It is twenty years of practical knowledge organized into a single Google Sheet, complete with instructions to help you plan, schedule, and execute your podcast without letting production overwhelm your schedule. This is the infrastructure behind the consistency that separates the top one percent from the rest. Grab it by reaching out to Jonathan directly on LinkedIn or at [email protected].

Rick Meekins ( https://rickmeekins.com) is a serial entrepreneur, strategic business disruption advisor, podcast guest, and host of The Relentless Pursuit of Winning Podcast, where he explores what it actually takes to build, lead, and sustain meaningful businesses. With over 30 years of experience working alongside founders and leadership teams, Rick focuses on helping companies develop and implement disruptive advantages and developing platforms to explore and distribute human insight. Interested in working together, having Rick speak, or partnering with the show?

Start here: https://rpowpodcast.com/contact/

0:00 From Church Cassettes to a Million Downloads 4:10 Why Podcasting Is a Trust Layer, Not a Discovery Tool 10:30 Where a Podcast Actually Sits in Your Marketing Funnel 15:45 The Business Goal That Should Drive Every Podcasting Decision 21:00 The Best Strategies for Growing a Podcast Audience 27:30 Building a Guest Pipeline Like a Sales Process 33:40 Pre-Interviews, Fresh Conversations, and When to Be Selective 41:55 Systems, Consistency, and Why 20 Episodes Puts You in the Top One Percent 47:00 The Relentless Pursuit: Why Not Quitting Is the Strategy

#podcastingwithpurpose #podcaststrategy #podcastgrowth #rpowpodcast #businesspodcast #podcasttips #contentmarketing #foundermindset #audiencebuilding #podcastproduction

"Market value fuels the ego, makes you feel like a big deal. But income fuels the yacht."

Steve Selengut spent 40 years building a portfolio management system that most financial advisors never teach and Wall Street rarely promotes. In this conversation, he walks through the mechanics of income investing, why founders are uniquely positioned to understand it, and what it takes to start generating reliable cash flow from a portfolio regardless of what the market is doing.

Income investing is a discipline most founders never encounter until they are already deep into building wealth the hard way. I sat down with Steve Selengut, and what he laid out reframed the entire conversation around what a portfolio is actually supposed to do.

Steve's starting point is straightforward. A profitable company should pay its shareholders. Income is both the goal and the quality filter. He built his entire system around that principle, and by 34 he had left corporate life entirely, earning four times his New York salary from his portfolio alone.

The vehicle at the center of his approach is the closed-end fund, a trust structure purpose-built for income investing that trades on exchanges, requires no markups, and must distribute the vast majority of its earnings to shareholders. Steve targets yields between 9 and 10 percent annually from these positions.

What makes this conversation worth a founder's time is how recognizable the framework is. Velocity of money. Inventory turnover. Buy low, sell at a target, reinvest. Steve applies every concept a founder already knows directly to income investing. The guardrails replace guesswork, and the system runs in roughly an hour a day from anywhere in the world.

If your portfolio is not producing reliable income, this conversation will tell you why and what to do about it.

• Income investing is built around cash flow, and Steve explains exactly how to construct a portfolio that generates it consistently.
• Closed-end funds are the core vehicle, and understanding how they work changes the way a founder thinks about where money should live.
• The velocity of money applies directly to portfolio management, and Steve walks through how disciplined profit-taking compounds returns over time.
• Diversification across sectors functions as an active strategy, and Steve explains why owning everything positions you to benefit wherever gains occur.
• Managing this approach takes less time than most founders expect, and Steve describes what a typical day looks like.

Steve Selengut is an income investing strategist, author, and former financial advisor with 40 years of market experience. He built and led a firm managing 110 million dollars in client assets before selling the business in 2023. His book Retirement Money Secrets has sold more than 8,300 copies in its first 18 months and received recognition from the American Literary Foundation.

Steve now leads an online community of investors focused on practical, income-first strategies at theincomecoach.net.

If this conversation challenged the way you think about what your portfolio should be doing, Steve has built an entire course designed to take you further. His FIRE course on income investing walks you through the process of building a portfolio that generates reliable cash flow, step by step, in your own time. As a listener of this show, Steve is extending 25 percent off to you personally. Reach out at theincomecoach.net (https://theincomecoach.net) and mention this episode to claim it.

👑 Host Info Rick Meekins (https://rickmeekins.com) is a serial entrepreneur, strategic business disruption advisor, podcast guest, and host of The Relentless Pursuit of Winning Podcast, where he explores what it actually takes to build, lead, and sustain meaningful businesses. With over 30 years of experience working alongside founders and leadership teams, Rick focuses on helping companies develop and implement disruptive advantages and developing platforms to explore and distribute human insight. Interested in working together, having Rick speak, or partnering with the show? Start here: https://rpowpodcast.com/contact/

01:38 Steve's Origin Story: Stock Certificates and a Father's Advice 04:44 Building an Income Machine from the Ground Up 09:30 Why Market Timing Fails and Income Holds Steady 11:10 The Four Pillars of Sound Investing 13:34 Closed-End Funds Explained 19:30 Municipal Bond CEFs and Tax-Free Income 22:11 Retirement Planning for Business Owners 27:33 Setting Guardrails: The Discipline Behind the System 31:00 Diversification as an Offensive Weapon 35:46 The Community, the Book, and the FIRE Course 40:52 Defining Winning and Staying Motivated

"Your brain is either working for you or quietly working against you."

Eric Collett and I explore how brain health shapes clarity, resilience, and execution. We walk through practical ways to improve performance through sleep, nutrition, movement, stress management, and measurable data.

Brain health shows up in every decision, every conversation, and every moment where leadership is required.

In this conversation, I sit down with Eric Collett to unpack how brain health influences the way founders think, respond, and execute. Many leaders push through fatigue, stress, and mental fog without realizing the cost. Over time, that cost compounds in decision making, relationships, and performance.

We walk through the foundations that support brain health. Sleep, nutrition, movement, and stress management shape how the brain produces energy and processes information. When these are aligned, thinking becomes clearer, responses become steadier, and execution becomes more consistent.

Eric shares how pressure during COVID forced a complete shift in his business. The situation demanded clarity and decisive action. That clarity came from a state of readiness that had already been built through discipline and awareness.

This conversation brings brain health into focus as a practical responsibility for anyone building and leading. It influences how challenges are handled, how opportunities are seen, and how progress is sustained over time.

• Brain health influences clarity, judgment, and execution.
• Daily habits shape how the brain performs under pressure.
• Consistency in simple actions strengthens long term performance.
• Feelings can be acknowledged without defining identity or direction.

Eric Collett is the founder of A Mind For All Seasons and a brain health educator who works with leaders, caregivers, and families to improve cognitive performance and long term mental resilience.

Eric is offering a 30 day free trial to the AmFAST community. Use code RELENTLESS at checkout to access live office hours, masterclasses, and practical tools to improve brain health. (https://amindforallseasons.com/energy)

Rick Meekins (https://rickmeekins.com) is a serial entrepreneur, strategic business disruption advisor, podcast guest, and host of The Relentless Pursuit of Winning Podcast, where he explores what it actually takes to build, lead, and sustain meaningful businesses. With over 30 years of experience working alongside founders and leadership teams, Rick focuses on helping companies develop and implement disruptive advantages and developing platforms to explore and distribute human insight.

Interested in working together, having Rick speak, or partnering with the show?

Start here: https://rpowpodcast.com/contact/

00:00 Introduction and Eric's background 06:35 Recognizing hidden performance issues 11:19 What optimal brain performance requires 24:44 Practical ways to improve brain health 31:13 COVID pivot and leadership decisions 38:13 Retraining the brain for performance 46:19 Final insights and giveaway

#brainhealth #founderleadership #mentalclarity #resilience #cognitiveperformance #entrepreneurmindset #rpowpodcast #relentlesspursuitofwinning

"$700,000 went to my competitor before he even realized what he had lost — and that client was already his."

Most entrepreneurs look outward for growth while ignoring what's already inside the business. Stacey Hylen joins the show to break down her Hidden Profits framework — how to recover revenue from past clients, leverage AI without losing your edge, and build a business that doesn't cost you the life you're working toward.

There's money sitting inside most businesses that never gets touched — not because the opportunity doesn't exist, but because founders aren't looking for it.

Stacey Hylen has spent 25 years helping entrepreneurs find exactly that. Her entry point into this conversation was a story that stopped me cold: a client who had unknowingly lost $700,000 in revenue — $100,000 a year for seven years — to a competitor, from a past client he already had a relationship with. That moment became the seed for her Hidden Profits methodology. The strategy is simple, but the psychology behind it matters. Past clients don't reach back out — not because they've moved on, but because they feel awkward. They went somewhere else. They fell off the wagon. They don't know if you still do what you used to do. When Stacey gave one of her clients a reactivation campaign during December — the worst possible month to sell weight loss programs — she had the best revenue month in the history of her business. Permission to return is a product in itself.

From there, the conversation moved into how AI fits (and doesn't fit) into this picture. Stacey was among the first one percent of ChatGPT users and is a certified AI consultant, but her approach is anything but hype. She introduced her SASSY AI Framework — Strategic, Authentic, Stories, Sell, You — a system that forces entrepreneurs to think before they prompt. The garbage-in-garbage-out problem is real, and throwing a generic request at a model produces generic output. The stories, the specificity, and the "you" component are what separate content that converts from content that blends in. We also got into what it actually takes to move from six to seven figures — and the answer isn't more hustle. Stacey's Add a Zero Without the Hustle Framework starts with lifestyle design as an active requirement, not an afterthought. The question isn't just "how do I grow?" It's "what do I want this business to support?" Without that anchor, growth becomes pressure instead of freedom.

Her most powerful client stories weren't about revenue milestones. They were about the Inc 500 founder who took his first Disney trip with his family. The eight-figure entrepreneur who dropped everything to spend a weekend with his daughter when she needed him. That's the ripple effect of getting this right.

• Past clients hold immediate, often untapped revenue — give them permission to return
• The SASSY AI Framework produces specific, authentic content that generic prompting never will
• Lifestyle design belongs at the beginning of your growth strategy, not the end
• Moving from commodity to couture brand is what unlocks higher-value clients
• Winning means knowing your why first — relentless action without direction is just scatter

Stacey Hylen is a business coach and certified AI consultant with 25 years of experience. A former Vice President of Consulting with Tony Robbins and Chet Holmes, she helps entrepreneurs grow revenue — without the hustle — through her Hidden Profits methodology and SASSY AI Framework. Her mission is simple: give entrepreneurs back to their families.

Try Stacey's interactive Hidden Profit tool and assessment: moreclientsandcash.com

Rick Meekins (rickmeekins.com) is a serial entrepreneur, strategic business disruption advisor, and host of The Relentless Pursuit of Winning Podcast — where he explores what it actually takes to build, lead, and sustain meaningful businesses. With 30+ years working alongside founders and leadership teams, Rick helps companies develop disruptive advantages and build platforms that distribute human insight.

Work with Rick, book him to speak, or partner with the show: rpowpodcast.com/contact

00:00: The $700K mistake hiding in your client list 01:37 : Stacey's background and mission 04:28 : Tony Robbins, the recession, and the origin of Hidden Profits 08:00 : The come-on-back strategy and why past clients feel stuck 12:25 : Repositioning and re-educating past clients on new pricing 13:42 : What actually makes an AI consultant credible 17:18 : The SASSY AI Framework, explained 28:27 : Add a Zero Without the Hustle: six to seven (and eight) figures 32:12 : The psychology of going after bigger clients 38:10 : How Stacey captures ideas: ChatGPT voice, Fathom, and the Plaud recorder 41:18 : The client stories that define the mission 44:11 : Defining direction: start with your why

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