Travis Makes Money

Why lasting behavior change starts with changing the way you see yourself

How taking action can reinforce and strengthen a new identity

Travis’s journey from hating reading to becoming a consistent reader

Moving from an “athlete” identity to an identity centered around overall health and longevity

Why short-term fitness and diet challenges often lead to unsustainable results

Using calorie awareness and energy balance to understand weight management

How Travis approaches food, travel, indulgence, and nutrition without unnecessary restriction

The role of sleep, hydration, walking, nutrition, and other foundational health habits

Why community and positive influences can help reinforce lasting change

The difference between using structure as a helpful tool and becoming overly rigid

How grief, addiction, and emotional pain can affect someone’s relationship with food and their body

The importance of worthiness, faith, and taking a leap of faith when creating a new identity

Recognizing when healthy habits may become obsessive or counterproductive

Why sustainable health is ultimately a journey rather than a short-term challenge

Your identity influences your actions.
Travis explains that once you begin identifying as the person you want to become, your actions can start reinforcing that identity. Taking action—even when it feels unnatural at first—creates a feedback loop that makes the new identity increasingly real.

Sustainable change requires a long-term mindset.
After years of losing and regaining weight through short-term challenges, Travis realized that another 30- or 60-day program wasn't the answer. Instead, he focused on understanding the fundamentals of nutrition and building habits he could maintain indefinitely.

Structure should serve your life, not control it.
Travis and the host discuss the tension between using tools like calorie tracking to create awareness and becoming overly rigid around food and body image. The goal isn't perfection—it's finding an approach that supports your health, relationships, and overall quality of life.

Website: TravisChappell.com

Social: @TravisChappell

How David's first jobs taught him the value of earning his own money and independence

Why he initially studied pharmacy and wanted to find cures for diseases

How his grandfather helped him recognize that his strengths were better suited to business, sales, and relationship-building

Turning a sales job into an entrepreneurial opportunity by opening and managing his own locations

How David took a struggling sales office and helped transform it into a top-performing location

Why businesses sometimes need to pivot when the market itself is shrinking

The everyday problem that inspired David to invent the Perky Collar

How he turned a simple idea into a prototype, patented product, and retail business

The importance of finding trustworthy professionals when bringing an invention to market

The lessons David learned from opening a photography studio, franchising his business, and eventually closing his retail store

Why entrepreneurship doesn't have to mean working for yourself full-time

Building a life around the season you're in rather than forcing yourself into one definition of success

The sacrifices entrepreneurship can create for marriage, family, and personal life

Why having the right support system can make a major difference for entrepreneurs

Website: PerkyLLC.com

Social Media: @PerkyLLC on Facebook, Instagram, etc

How facing a major health scare can put everyday problems into perspective

Why a life without problems may not actually be the life we want

The idea that the goal isn’t to eliminate problems, but to keep moving forward in spite of them

How major challenges can force you to step back and look at your life differently

Why Travis came away from his experience with a renewed sense of purpose behind his work

Balancing family, business, podcasting, and the challenges of everyday life

How success can sometimes hide the personal struggles happening behind the scenes

Why Travis has struggled with allowing other people to support him

The importance of letting friends and family see you struggle instead of trying to maintain an impenetrable exterior

How expectations around masculinity can make it harder for men to be vulnerable

The difference between genuine connection and the appearance of connection on social media

Why loneliness among men is a problem that extends beyond social media

The importance of having healthy examples of friendship, vulnerability, and masculinity

Why being able to express who you really are is essential to building genuine relationships

The goal isn’t a problem-free life.
Travis argues that problems are an inevitable—and even valuable—part of being human. Solving one problem simply creates another, and rather than pursuing a life without challenges, we should focus on developing the ability to move forward when those challenges inevitably arise.

Hardship can clarify what actually matters.
Travis describes his cancer diagnosis as a massive problem that temporarily overshadowed all the smaller problems in his life. Coming through that experience gave him a fresh perspective on the things he wanted to accomplish, particularly the importance of finding purpose and meaning in his work and setting an example for his children.

Let people be there for you.
One of Travis’s biggest reflections is that he has historically been much better at supporting other people than allowing others to support him. He realized that keeping struggles hidden out of fear of appearing weak or becoming a burden can actually prevent us from experiencing the relationships and connection we need most.

“The goal is to be able to move forward in the face of problems, not to just not have them.”

“Cancer is like somebody dropped a hippopotamus on the table.”

“It gave me a fresh perspective on the importance of finding purpose and meaning in your work.”

“I do struggle with allowing people to be there for me.”

“I think I’ve been a selfish friend—that I haven’t allowed people to see me struggle.”

“We don’t want to be a burden to those around us, so we keep our struggles inside. But that’s the worst place for them to be.”

“If you don’t feel the freedom to express who you truly are, you’ll always be lonely.”

How moving from Minnesota to South Korea at age 10 taught Cornelia to question her assumptions and adapt to new environments

The importance of being willing to rewrite your mental “map” when entering a new culture, industry, or situation

How Cornelia’s early efforts to help women start businesses shaped her perspective on using your efforts to create meaningful change

Why embracing uncertainty and constant change can help you develop resilience and better decision-making skills

How talking to people with different perspectives can help leaders see a bigger picture and make better decisions

Cornelia’s approach to personal finance, including the importance of timing, flexibility, savings, and having “dry powder” for unpredictable opportunities

Why strong relationships and trust are essential infrastructure for building businesses, leading people, and accessing accurate information

Question the map in your head. The assumptions and mental models that work in one environment may not work in another. When circumstances change, be willing to gather new information, challenge your assumptions, and build a new understanding of how to succeed.

Seek perspectives you don't already have. Leaders can easily surround themselves with people who think similarly or tell them what they want to hear. Talking with customers, suppliers, employees, and people who see situations differently can reveal angles you wouldn't see on your own.

Build relationships based on trust. Strong relationships aren't just valuable socially—they can become the infrastructure for better leadership, better information, and greater opportunities. Leaders need to create enough trust that people feel safe telling them difficult truths rather than simply telling them what they want to hear.

"We can't just expect to coast through life and do nothing, yet at the same time empowering people so that they can realize their dreams."

"Any person in a world of constant change is only able to see a certain part of the puzzle or the certain part of the landscape."

"Our relationship network and the relationships that we have in our lives are the infrastructure and the backbone of our ability to create money."

Website: Cornelia Choe

Instagram: @corneliachoe_author

Why sending a high volume of outreach is one of the keys to landing podcast guests

How starting with more attainable guests can create momentum and credibility

Why staying within one industry when reaching out can make it easier to land increasingly influential guests

The real question high-profile guests are asking before agreeing to an interview

How Travis landed Shaquille O’Neal despite having a relatively small podcast audience

Why you should treat an audience of one, three, or 100 people with the same level of attention as an audience of 100,000

How podcasts compete for attention with everything from other shows to music and streaming services

Why Travis initially expected sponsorships to be the primary way he would monetize his podcast

How audience growth led him to develop products and services instead

The power of using audience conversations as market research

How Travis made his first $200 from a product he hadn’t even created yet

How a $1,000 mastermind became an early profitable offer

Why continually asking your audience what they want can lead to better products, services, and revenue

You don’t need a massive audience to get influential people’s attention.
Travis explains that audience size is only one factor. The bigger question is whether the person believes spending their time with you will be worthwhile. Building credibility, creating a valuable experience, and demonstrating that you can make the conversation worthwhile can matter just as much.

Treat your smallest audience like your biggest audience.
Travis shares a mindset he adopted early on: one person listening is better than zero. If you create a great product for the people who are actually paying attention instead of obsessing over the people who aren’t, you give yourself a better foundation for growth.

Let your audience tell you what to sell.
Instead of starting with a product and trying to convince people to buy it, Travis built an audience around networking and relationships, talked directly with more than 100 listeners, identified their recurring problems, and created offers around those needs. His products and services evolved as he learned more about what his audience actually wanted.

How Bradley landed his first consulting client after leaving Uber and negotiated a $250/hour consulting deal

Why finding the right client can dramatically increase the value of your expertise

Bradley’s process of experimenting with different businesses before discovering the opportunity that became Mylance

How consistently posting on LinkedIn helped Bradley build credibility, trust, and a steady stream of business opportunities

What types of LinkedIn content are working in 2026 and why authentic personal experiences outperform generic AI-generated content

How consultants and founders can use podcasts as a content engine for LinkedIn, newsletters, blogs, and short-form video

Why you don't need highly produced video or complicated content strategies to start building an audience

Sell the solution to an expensive problem. Bradley’s first consulting client had a problem worth millions of dollars to solve, making his expertise significantly more valuable than it would have been in a generic consulting engagement. The right customer and context can dramatically change what your knowledge is worth.

Take action before you have perfect clarity. Bradley experimented with consulting, e-commerce, recruiting, a travel company, coaching, bookkeeping, and software before landing on Mylance. Instead of waiting for the perfect business idea, he learned by trying things and paying attention to what people actually needed.

Your experience is your best content. Rather than relying on generic advice, share your specific stories, wins, mistakes, and lessons. Authentic first-person content builds credibility and trust while naturally demonstrating your expertise without having to constantly sell yourself.

"In the absence of clarity, take action."

"If you find the right customers or the right clients, the value that you can offer to them will be significantly worth more."

"You are actually self-promoting by genuinely sharing your experience."

LinkedIn: Bradley Jacobs 

Other: Mylance

Travis's upbringing in a highly insular religious community and school system

What it was like spending virtually his entire childhood and early adulthood within the same church ecosystem

Why leaving that environment was more of a discovery process than an act of rebellion

How Travis learned to question his beliefs while avoiding resentment toward the people and environment he grew up around

The importance of recognizing that people are often doing the best they can with the information they have

How Travis and his wife navigated the transition out of their shared religious environment together

Travis's evolving perspective on religion, certainty, and the limits of what anyone can truly know

Why being willing to admit you could be wrong is essential to having productive conversations

The communication skills Travis developed from preaching, speaking, and performing from a young age

How door-to-door sales gave Travis a path to making significant money without relying on his college degree

Why he eventually wanted to find a way to make money online and gain more freedom and flexibility

How Travis started his podcast without knowing how to monetize it or turn it into a business

Why it took two to three years before Travis felt like the podcast had real traction

The hundreds of interviews Travis conducted before the podcast began gaining momentum

How email, social media, events, conferences, and masterminds helped Travis build his network

How listening to what people were asking him for revealed opportunities to create podcast coaching and mastermind offers

Why consistency, time, and reps are critical when building something from scratch

How Travis turned his lack of an established network into an opportunity to meet successful entrepreneurs and learn from them

"It's less rebelling as much as it was just a discovery process of who I was."

"Most people are just doing the best that they can with the information that they have."

"I try not to hold grudges or look back with spite or hatred."

"Nobody 100% knows."

"If you're not willing to at least be like, 'Yeah, I could be wrong,' then I don't get into the conversation."

"The podcast was kind of my foray into learning how to make money in any other way than the way I already knew how to make money."

"I just want to have good conversations with interesting people in entrepreneurship."

"It was a while."

"I was interviewing three people a week for two years before I gained any real traction."

"Time. A lot of time and reps."

Instagram: @TravisChappell

Podcast: Travis Makes Money

The surprising first dollar Christina ever made after pulling a struggling swimmer from a deep-water pool

Growing up in an entrepreneurial family and moving 18 times before business school

How Christina went from Wall Street to Harvard Business School

What Harvard's case method is and why it focuses on practical problem-solving rather than textbooks

What "family enterprise" means and why it encompasses everything from mom-and-pop businesses to family offices and major family-owned companies

Why businesses often fail because of poor communication rather than poor business decisions

The relationship between competence, networking, and trust

Why "what you know" gets you ready for the room, but "who you know" can get you into the room

How relationships create the trust necessary to turn knowledge into action

Why Christina wrote Unspeakable and why the list of topics people avoid discussing keeps growing

How avoiding conversations about money, politics, religion, promotions, and other sensitive topics can create bigger problems

The difference between a difficult moment and a difficult conversation

How to approach uncomfortable conversations without becoming "pre-pissed"

Why context, timing, neutrality, and setting matter when discussing sensitive subjects

How Wingspan Legacy Partners helps families and businesses navigate major challenges and execute solutions

Why Christina believes you can't effectively advise global businesses without understanding their culture firsthand

The professional and personal benefits of traveling and experiencing different cultures

Christina's favorite places to visit and the destinations she hopes to explore next

"What you know demonstrates capability. Who you know gets you in the room to use that capability."

"Competency isn't the only thing that's gonna build trust."

"Trust comes through relationships."

"Very rarely do the businesses I work with fail because of poor business decisions. They fail because of poor communication."

"If you can get in the room, unearth the elephant and talk about it, you're more likely to survive."

"Context is everything."

"When you think too long, you get what I call pre-pissed."

"You have to be able to talk."

"You can't solve that without understanding cultural differences."

Website: ChristinaWing.com

Book: Pre-Order Unspeakable: The Taboo Topics We Avoid and How to Talk About Them (available Oct 20)

Matt’s first job at Abercrombie & Fitch and the lessons it taught him about earning money

How Matt discovered and eventually embraced his abilities as a psychic medium

Why fear, self-doubt, and a lack of confidence keep people from pursuing their talents

How to get unstuck by changing your environment, making time for what fulfills you, and taking baby steps

How to distinguish your genuine talents from expectations placed on you by family or society

Why following your own path can lead to both greater success and fulfillment

How Matt turned individual readings into live events, television, books, podcasts, and a full-time career

Why focusing on helping people and enjoying the journey can be more valuable than obsessing over money

How to recognize signs and synchronicities from loved ones who have passed away

The importance of finding your tribe and surrounding yourself with people who encourage your growth

Fear is often the biggest obstacle. You may already have the talent, idea, or ability you need, but self-doubt can prevent you from ever putting it into the world.

Start with baby steps. You don't need to know exactly where your path will lead. Start talking about your idea, get feedback, and take small actions that move you forward.

Follow what fulfills you. Develop your talents, help people, build something meaningful, and enjoy the journey. The money can follow when you're creating real value.

“The number one thing that stops people from making money is really that they're afraid.”

“All it takes is one reason. One reason on why it will work for you, and you will get there.”

“You can't be focused on, you know, making the money, making the money, making the money. You're gonna be focused on helping as many people as you can, enjoying what you're doing, building something great, and the money will come.”

Website: meetmattfraser.com

Instagram: @meetmattfraser

Live Tour: Tour dates are available through Matt’s website