If you want to understand the athlete mindset for entrepreneurs, there's no better teacher than someone who went undrafted, made an NFL roster anyway, and is now building an investment portfolio in his spare time.

Maema Njongmeta is a linebacker for the Carolina Panthers heading into his contract year. Born in Cameroon and raised in Texas and Illinois by immigrant parents (his mother a Fulbright scholar, his father an epidemiologist), Maema went undrafted out of Wisconsin in 2024 despite a standout senior season, and made an NFL roster anyway. He also holds both a finance undergrad and an MBA from Wisconsin, earned while training as a professional athlete. 

In this episode, he sits down with John to unpack the athlete mindset for entrepreneurs: the mental skills that separate good performers from great ones, and how he's applying the same discipline to building a life after football.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• What it means to be a "third culture kid," and how Maema turned feeling caught between two worlds into a professional strength.
• Why the athlete mindset for entrepreneurs comes down to consistency, not raw talent, and why consistent execution is harder than it sounds.
• The book that revived his football career, and the self-image framework behind it (Psycho-Cybernetics).
• How visualization actually works, and why the stories you tell yourself become self-fulfilling.
• His approach to staying "calm as a cucumber" in high-pressure, nationally televised moments, and the role detachment plays in it.
• Why he treats his offseason as training for his mind, not just his body, including silent retreats and therapy.
• The difference between an occupation and a vocation, and why the distinction changed how he plays the game.
• How he's building a post-NFL investment portfolio, from historical real estate to alternative assets, while staying disciplined about risk.
• Why going undrafted may have made him a better long-term player than being a highly-touted pick.

Connect with Maema Njongmeta:

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/the.maema
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/maema-njongmeta-3a93b61a9/

Connect with Dr. John M. Torrens:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmtorrens/
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/johnmtorrens/
• TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@drjohntorrens
• Website - Podcast.JohnMTorrens.com

If you ever wonder how to avoid burnout, the answer might start on your plate and end in your bedroom, not in your business plan.

Jenn Trepeck is the host of Salad With a Side of Fries, known for "wellness without the weirdness." She spent 12 years building her health coaching practice as a side hustle, while working full-time in hedge funds, before going all in in 2019.

In this episode, she sits down with John to break down the practical, no-perfectionism approach to nutrition, sleep, and pacing that keeps entrepreneurs from burning out in the first place.

Key Topics:

• Why the American food supply has fundamentally changed, and why an apple today isn't the same apple your grandparents ate.

• Jenn's simple formula for how to avoid entrepreneur burnout through food: protein and fiber at every meal, plus quality fat, for stable blood sugar and focus.

• What a proper serving size actually looks like (it's probably more food than you think).

• Why blood sugar swings quietly drive your energy, focus, clarity, and willpower.

• The real reason burnout hits, and the mental shift Jenn recommends to stop feeling pulled in a hundred directions.

• Her favorite pre-meal breathing habit to shift out of fight-or-flight and into rest-and-digest.

• Why sleep is usually the first thing to go for entrepreneurs, and the single habit that fixes it (hint: it's not about bedtime).

• The tools she personally uses to protect her sleep, including a genuinely clever calendar hack.

• Why consistency beats intensity, in your health habits and in your business activities.

• Her honest story of leaving hedge funds after 12 years of side-hustling, and why she never officially "decided" not to go back.

Connect with Jenn Trepeck:

• Website - https://asaladwithasideoffries.com

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifertrepeck/

• YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@jenntrepeck

Connect with Dr. John M. Torrens:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmtorrens/

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/johnmtorrens/

• TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@drjohntorrens

• Website - Podcast.JohnMTorrens.com

If you've ever wondered how to improve focus as an entrepreneur but felt like distraction was just part of the job, this conversation will change your mind, literally.

Dandapani spent 10 years as an ordained Hindu monk before leaving with $1,000, a laptop, and the beads around his neck to build a life and career from scratch. Today he's a sought-after speaker who works with entrepreneurs, YPO chapters, Fortune 500 companies, and professional athletes, and he's the bestselling author of The Power of Unwavering Focus. 

In this episode, he sits down with John to break down the mental framework that changed everything for him: the critical difference between the mind and awareness, and why learning how to improve focus as an entrepreneur is a trainable skill, not a personality trait some people simply don't have.

Key Topics:

• The "ball of light" framework: why you can't control your mind, but you can control your awareness and why that distinction changes everything.
• How to build a "home base" in your mind so external comments and chaos don't hijack your attention.
• Why understanding the mechanics of focus has to come before practicing it (and the simple daily habit that builds it in as little as two hours a day).
• The real reason so many entrepreneurs feel empty after a successful exit, and how to avoid it.
• Energy economics: why you should protect your energy as carefully as you protect your money, and the "return on energy" question to ask before saying yes to anything.
• How to find your energetic "holes",  the toxic clients, bad systems, and draining habits quietly bankrupting your daily energy.
• Dandapani's take on ADHD and focus, including his call to stop treating distraction as an unavoidable entrepreneurial trait.
• The three-story building metaphor for the mind, and how to access intuition (the "superconscious") instead of just reacting.
• His four-step framework for an aligned life: purpose, focus, simplify, sacrifice.
• The difference between legacy and stewardship, and why one is about you, and the other isn't.
• The humbling story of leaving the monastery with almost nothing, and hustling his way to speaking on stages with thousands of people.

Resources & Links Mentioned:

• The Power of Unwavering Focus by Dandapani - https://dandapani.org/unwavering-focus-book/
• Get 3 exclusive gifts - https://dandapani.org/the-total-entrepreneur-mind-body-spirit/

Connect with Dandapani:

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dandapanillc
• YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/dandapanillc
• Twitter - https://x.com/DandapaniLLC

Connect with Dr. John M. Torrens:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmtorrens/
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/johnmtorrens/
• TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@drjohntorrens
• Website - Podcast.JohnMTorrens.com

If you've ever been told diabetes is something you just manage for the rest of your life, this episode on how to reverse type 2 diabetes will challenge everything you thought you knew.

Dr. Jason Shumard is a functional medicine doctor based in San Diego who has spent over two decades studying functional endocrinology after watching his own mother's diabetes diagnosis turn fatal, despite her doctors repeatedly telling her she was "fine." 

In this episode, he sits down with John to explain why treating diabetes as a blood sugar problem misses the real issue entirely, how to reverse type 2 diabetes by addressing the root causes of cellular damage, and the practical daily habits that protect your metabolic health as an entrepreneur.

Key Topics:

• The personal story that sent Dr. Shumard into functional medicine, and why his mother's "well-managed" A1C didn't save her.
• Why traditional medicine treats diabetes like ignoring a check engine light, and what functional medicine does differently.
• How insulin resistance actually develops at the cellular level, explained through a simple analogy anyone can understand.
• Why diabetes should be understood as a "cell disease," not a "sugar disease", and why that changes everything about how to reverse type 2 diabetes.
• The real relationship between sugar, cholesterol, and arterial damage (it's not what the food pyramid taught us).
• The two root-cause tests Dr. Shumard runs on every patient, and what they reveal.
• A real case study: how one patient with 15 toxins and multiple organ issues reversed their diabetes and came off medication.
• What continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) reveal about "healthy" foods that spike your blood sugar.
• The direct link between blood glucose dysregulation and ADHD symptoms, critical info for entrepreneurs.
• Berberine vs. metformin: how they compare, and what berberine can't do that medication can.
• The morning routine Dr. Shumard uses to protect his own energy, focus, and metabolic health.

Connect with Dr. Jason Shumard:

• Website - drshumard.com
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-shumard-853658140/
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/drjasonshumarddc/ 

• YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@drjasonshumard 

Connect with Dr. John M. Torrens:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmtorrens/

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/johnmtorrens/

• TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@drjohntorrens
• Website - ⁠Podcast.JohnMTorrens.com

If you've ever wondered why seed oils are bad, and what that has to do with your energy, focus, and longevity as an entrepreneur, this episode is essential listening.

Cherie Calbom, known worldwide as "The Juice Lady," is a celebrity chef, award-winning nutritionist with a Master of Science from Bastyr University, and bestselling author of 36 books with over 3.5 million copies sold. After overcoming chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia in her twenties through a radical dietary overhaul, she's spent decades helping people reclaim their health, including advising a Middle Eastern royal family and serving as George Foreman's nutritionist for 13 years. 

In this episode, she sits down with John to unpack why seed oils are bad for your body, how they quietly drive the inflammation at the root of most disease, and the simple swaps that can restore your energy starting today.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why seed oils are bad, the chemistry of how they're processed, and why that creates inflammation.

• The surprising history of seed oils, from machine lubricant to "heart-healthy" cooking oil.

• How your body uses the fats you eat as literal building blocks for your cells and brain.

• Why inflammation, not cholesterol, may be the real marker to watch, and the tests Cherie says matter most.

• The "good fats" list to cook with: butter, ghee, coconut, olive, avocado, and sesame oil.

• The cold, omega-3-rich oils (flax, hemp, walnut, black seed) and how to use them.

• Why the omega-6 to omega-3 imbalance in the modern diet fuels chronic inflammation.

• Cherie's story of overcoming chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia through juicing and whole foods.

• How to do a juice fast the right way, including how to break one safely.

• The entrepreneurial lesson behind her career: spot the need nobody's filling, and say yes.

Connect with Cherie Calbom:

• Website - https://juiceladycherie.com/

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/juiceladycherie

• YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJuiceLadyCherie

• Juicing for Life by Cherie Calbom - https://www.amazon.com/Juicing-Life-Guide-Benefits-Vegetable/dp/0895295121

Connect with Dr. John M. Torrens:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmtorrens/

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/johnmtorrens/

• TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@drjohntorrens
• Website - ⁠Podcast.JohnMTorrens.com

What does it take to walk away from a safe, tenured university professorship to build a business on your own terms?

In this episode of The Total Entrepreneur: Mind, Body, Spirit, John interviews Dr. Julie Causton, founder of Inclusive Schooling. Julie shares her bold transition from Syracuse University into full-time entrepreneurship, how she built a remote-first consulting company, and the exact daily systems she uses to harness ADHD as a superpower.

Whether you're looking to optimize your executive functioning, prevent burnout, or design a business around ultimate life freedom, this conversation is packed with actionable strategies, wisdom, and a touch of "magic."

Key Takeaways:

• Leaving tenure for the unknown: Julie reflects on straddling academia and consulting before making the leap from a secure, tenured faculty position at Syracuse University to full-time entrepreneurship.

• The mission of inclusive schooling: How Julie’s company helps school systems integrate students with disabilities into general classrooms, replacing traditional "sit-and-get" learning with student choice and movement.

• Building a remote-first model by design: Why Julie and her partner, Dr. Christie Pretti-Frontczak, eliminated heavy business travel to transition to a 100% remote model, and how an abundance mindset keeps them thriving.

• Entrepreneurship with ADHD: Superpowers and Systems - Navigating time and space blindness, delegating executive functioning tasks, and building a business partnership where strengths and deficits complement each other.

• "Rest Like It's Your Job": Why deep rest and sleep hygiene are essential high-performance tools for preventing entrepreneurial burnout.

• Daily Architecture: Journaling, 15-Minute blocks and sprints - Julie breaks down her exact daily operating system, including "Morning Magic" journaling, visual time-blocking, and gamifying tedious tasks with 8-minute sprints.

• Bringing "The Woo" into Business: How setting segment intentions, practicing gratitude, and utilizing visualization can transform business negotiations, day-to-day interactions, and long-term goal setting.

Connect with Dr. Julie Causton:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-causton-4696032a/

• Website - https://www.inclusiveschooling.com/

Connect with Dr. John M. Torrens:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmtorrens/

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/johnmtorrens/

• TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@drjohntorrens
• Website - ⁠Podcast.JohnMTorrens.com

What does it take to perform at the highest level, not just in professional sports, but in business and life?

In this episode of Total Entrepreneur: Mind, Body, Spirit, John sits down with former NFL first-round draft pick Justin Pugh to explore the lessons that carried him through an 11-year NFL career and into entrepreneurship, investing, and international sports leadership.

Justin shares the mindset required to thrive under pressure, why accountability is one of the greatest competitive advantages in business, and how elite athletes prepare for life after their playing careers. He also discusses his transition into finance, investing, and his unexpected role as Commissioner of the Italian Football League, where he's helping grow American football across Europe.

Beyond business, Justin opens up about transforming his own health after retiring from the NFL. From losing more than 70 pounds to prioritizing sleep, nutrition, recovery, and longevity, he explains why your greatest investment will always be your health.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, investor, athlete, or leader, this episode is packed with practical lessons on resilience, accountability, long-term thinking, and building a life that continues to evolve long after your first career ends.

Key Points Discussed:

• Lessons learned from professional football.

• Building an identity beyond the NFL.

• Why networking creates unexpected opportunities.

• Leadership starts with accountability.

• The culture of winning teams.

• Accountability in sports and business.

• From NFL player to investor.

• Why he became Commissioner of the Italian Football League.

• Rebuilding health after professional sports.

• Investing in your health pays the highest returns.

• The sleep habits that improve performance.

• Why moderation beats perfection.

Connect with Justin Pugh:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-pugh-b38a17267/

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/justinpugh67

Connect with Dr. John M. Torrens:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmtorrens/

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/johnmtorrens/

• TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@drjohntorrens
  
• Website - ⁠Podcast.JohnMTorrens.com

If you're a creator or a business owner building an audience online, these content creator burnout tips could save your mental health and your momentum.

Thomas O'Brien is the Project Coordinator of the Center for the Creator Economy at Syracuse University, the first academic resource center of its kind, and a creator-entrepreneur himself whose cinematic short-form series "Welcome to My Mind" pulled in over 10 million views. 

In this episode, he and John dig into the unique pressure that creator entrepreneurs face: income tied directly to view counts, algorithms that change week to week, and the constant compulsion to refresh, scroll, and compare. More importantly, Thomas shares the practical strategies he uses to stay grounded, protect his focus, and keep creating without burning out.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why creator entrepreneurs carry a heavier mental load than traditional entrepreneurs, and how to manage it.

• The single mindset shift that separates "posting" from "sharing" (and why it protects your self-worth from the algorithm).

• "Consume less, produce more": how to break the scroll cycle that quietly fuels anxiety.

• The free app Thomas uses to interrupt doom-scrolling and reclaim his attention.

• Why scrolling first thing in the morning and last thing at night wrecks your nervous system, and the science behind it.

• How to curate your feed so social media stops making you anxious or angry.

• Why storytelling is the most durable content strategy in human history, and how to find yours.

• The "get it out at 85%" rule that kills perfectionism and keeps you shipping.

• How to study other creators the right way: "copy with taste, not copy and paste".

• The truth about going viral: why consistency beats chasing any single number.

Resources & Links Mentioned:

• The Center for the Creator Economy at Syracuse University - https://creatoreconomy.syracuse.edu/

• Screen Zen (Free screen-time app that interrupts the scroll) - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.screenzen&hl=en

Connect with Thomas O'Brien:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas0brien/

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thomas.obri/

• Website - https://creatoreconomy.syracuse.edu/

Connect with Dr. John M. Torrens:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmtorrens/

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/johnmtorrens/

• TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@drjohntorrens
• Website - ⁠Podcast.JohnMTorrens.com

Every immigrant entrepreneur success story involves obstacles, but few compare to what Charles Van Kessler overcame before he ever started a business.

Taken from his family as a toddler during the Nazi occupation, Charles spent eight years in a state-run orphanage before escaping and surviving alone on the streets of Amsterdam as a child. An American family he met there helped bring him to the United States, where he arrived at 22 with almost nothing in his pocket. 

Within three days, he was working two jobs, and over the next decade, he taught himself nutrition, developed a liquid vitamin formula, and built Passion 4 Health into a company doing millions a year. True to a promise he made as a child, he also founded Passion 4 K.I.D.S. (Kids In Desperate Situations), a charity supporting abused and disabled children and their families.

In this episode, Charles sits down with John to share one of the most remarkable stories of resilience, social entrepreneurship, and second chances you'll ever hear.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How Charles turned an unimaginable childhood into the fuel behind his immigrant entrepreneur success story.

• Why he started two jobs within three days of arriving in America, and what kept him going.

• How he taught himself nutrition with no formal training and spent nearly 10 years developing his liquid vitamin formula.

• The promise he made as a child that led him to build a charity for children in desperate situations.

• Why he believes bioavailability, how much of a supplement your body actually absorbs, is the key issue most people overlook.

• The mindset that carried him through the moments he wanted to quit.

• His straightforward advice for anyone who thinks they need money, connections, or perfect conditions to start.

• What he's thinking about now, at 85, as he plans the eventual sale of his company.

Resources & Links Mentioned:

• Passion 4 Health Liquid Vitamins - passion4healthvitamins.com (also available on Amazon)

• Passion 4 K.I.D.S. (Kids In Desperate Situations) - https://passion4kids.com

Connect with Charles Van Kessler:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-van-kessler-8348033/

• Website - https://passion4healthvitamins.com/ 

Connect with Dr. John M. Torrens:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmtorrens/

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/johnmtorrens/

• TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@drjohntorrens
• Website - ⁠Podcast.JohnMTorrens.com

Most mindfulness advice tells you to quiet your mind. Dr. Fleet Maull teaches something different, somatic mindfulness for entrepreneurs that works from the body up, not the head down. And his understanding of resilience and transformation didn't come from a textbook. It came from 14 years in federal prison.  

Dr. Fleet Maull is a Buddhist priest, executive coach, and founder of HeartMind, an Inc. 5000 company. After serving over a decade in federal prison on drug charges, he built the philosophy he now calls "radical responsibility" and used it to create national hospice and mindfulness programs from inside prison walls before launching a thriving business at age 71.

In this episode, he and Dr. John break down the neuroscience of why most people quit meditation, how somatic mindfulness for entrepreneurs leads to sharper decisions and less reactivity, and how Fleet rebuilt his entire life using the same principles he now teaches founders and CEOs.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why somatic mindfulness for entrepreneurs works faster than traditional "focus on your breath" meditation, and the neuroscience behind it.

• The "default mode network" vs. "task positive network," and why your wandering mind defaults to negativity.

• The minimum effective dose of mindfulness backed by research (it's only 12 minutes).

• Why busy, ADHD-style minds often respond better to embodied practices than cognitive ones.

• How to use "body-based decision-making" before a major business call, hire, or deal.

• Fleet's concept of radical responsibility, and how it kept him from falling into a victim mindset during 14 years in federal prison.

• How he built the first hospice program in prison history during the height of the AIDS epidemic.

• Why recency bias quietly sabotages investors and entrepreneurs alike.

• What's coming from Fleet's HeartMind organization, including a free entrepreneurship summit this July.

Connect with Dr. Fleet Maull:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/fleetmaull

• Website - https://www.heartmind.co/

Connect with Dr. John M. Torrens:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmtorrens/

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/johnmtorrens/

• TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@drjohntorrens
• Website - ⁠Podcast.JohnMTorrens.com