Travis Makes Money

Why investing in coaching, masterminds, and mentorship can dramatically shorten your learning curve

How starting a podcast became Travis’s most powerful networking tool

Using a podcast as a way to create genuine relationships and get your foot in the door with high-level people

How cold DMs, persistence, and the law of averages can help you land opportunities

Building credibility by leveraging relationships with people your prospective guests already know and trust

Why rejection is an unavoidable part of entrepreneurship and networking

How consistency creates a snowball effect that makes future opportunities easier to create

Why Travis believes podcasting remains a relatively untapped opportunity despite perceptions that the space is oversaturated

The origin of Guestio and how it helps podcasters connect with guests and shows

How podcasting can serve as a forcing function for learning, communication, and personal growth

Invest in yourself before you have assets to invest in. When you're starting from scratch, you are your primary asset. Coaching, mentorship, and proximity to people who have already accomplished what you want can help you avoid unnecessary mistakes and accelerate your learning curve.

Create a reason to reach out. Travis discovered that his podcast gave him a natural, mutually beneficial reason to contact people he wanted to know. Instead of simply asking for someone's time, he could invite them into a conversation where he could learn from them while also giving them a platform.

Keep asking and let your credibility compound. Rejection is part of the process. The more people you reach out to, the more opportunities you create, and every successful connection makes the next one easier. Over time, persistence, consistency, and social proof can turn cold outreach into a powerful network.

"When you don't have any assets, you are your only asset."

"The podcast became like this perfect next step and the perfect foot in the door because it's just an innocent ask."

"No is just a not yet."

Instagram: @TravisChappell

Website: TravisChappell.com

How Beth and Victoria went from corporate careers to building and exiting successful professional services firms

Why identifying gaps in an established market can create opportunities for new businesses

The importance of learning from mentors and spending time around people who have the results you want

How Beth and Victoria built a highly complementary business partnership based on different skill sets, shared values, and mutual trust

Why they're now focused on helping 10,000 women build seven-figure businesses while balancing entrepreneurship and family

Prioritize learning over earning early in your career. Find the smartest person you can, get close to them, and absorb how they think, communicate, make decisions, and operate—not just what they know.

Look for opportunities where others aren't willing to compete. Beth identified an underserved market, offered a better-priced service, and challenged CEOs' thinking to win clients despite competing against much larger firms.

Choose business partners based on complementary strengths and shared values. Beth and Victoria's partnership worked because one naturally leaned toward strategy and vision while the other excelled at execution, while both shared the same ambition, purpose, and commitment to supporting each other.

"You get to decide if you're the person to build a business around the disruptive thing and if it's the right timing."

"I think my career would have been so different if I was at home fifty to seventy-five percent of the time."

"As long as you're not making a profit, you are not making money."

Website: ⁠FemaleMavericks.com⁠ — female entrepreneurs can visit the site and connect with Beth and Victoria about their mentorship programs.

Book: ⁠Entrepreneur Like a Mother⁠, releasing September 22 **use code Maverick25 code, so listeners can get the bundle.

Where Travis’s competitive drive comes from and how it has evolved over time

The difference between competing against others and competing against who you were yesterday

Why a little bit of competition can be a useful source of motivation

How Travis learned to prioritize the highest-leverage activities in his life

Why entrepreneurs need to learn when to say yes and when to say no

What a “zone of genius” is and how to identify yours

Why doing everything yourself can prevent a business from scaling

How hiring and delegating allowed Travis to focus on his highest-value work

Building clear boundaries around work, family, and personal time

Why productivity is about being productive, not simply being busy

The importance of identifying your “big three” priorities each day

Why your zone of genius isn't necessarily something you're born knowing

How taking on different jobs and responsibilities can help you discover what you're good at

The relationship between talent, hard work, and developing a skill

Why mentorship can dramatically shorten your learning curve

How books, podcasts, and relationships can serve as forms of mentorship

Why time is more valuable than money when it comes to learning

How discipline, habit stacking, and identity work together

Creating the identity you want through consistent action

Find your zone of genius and spend more time there.
Your zone of genius is the work you're disproportionately good at and enjoy to some degree. Once you identify those activities, your goal should be to spend the majority of your time on them while finding other people who are better suited to handle the tasks outside your strengths.

You discover your strengths by doing the work.
Travis doesn't believe your zone of genius simply appears out of nowhere. You have to try things, work hard, develop skills, and pay attention to what you're naturally good at and enjoy. His experience in sales showed him that an initial advantage only becomes valuable when it's paired with continuous learning and effort.

Use discipline to build habits that become your identity.
Rather than relying on willpower every day, Travis recommends creating habits and systems that reduce the number of decisions you have to make. Over time, those habits become part of your identity, making the behaviors you once had to force yourself to do feel like a natural part of who you are.

Website: TravisChappell.com

Social Media: Available through TravisChappell.com

Why Kyle decided to serve his country and ultimately pursue a career with the FBI

How earning money from a paper route at 11 taught him the value of saving and investing early

The financial lessons Kyle learned from his father and through government service

How Kyle built nearly 32 years of government service and incorporated his military time into his federal retirement

Launching his business, Inner Perimeter, after retiring from the FBI

How professional connections helped create opportunities for Kyle after leaving the FBI

Why nurturing relationships over the long term is one of the most valuable things you can do for your career

The radically different approaches Kyle learned from serving on both the Hostage Rescue Team and Crisis Negotiation Unit

How lessons from high-stakes FBI operations translate directly into sales, leadership, and entrepreneurship

The four-step “path to influence”: framing, empathy, rapport, and giving people choices

How Kyle used genuine connection and empathy during the Boston Marathon bombing manhunt

Why “control can extract compliance, but choice creates commitment”

How giving people agency can make them more committed to a decision

Why empathy doesn't require agreeing with someone

The importance of seeing a situation from another person's perspective before trying to influence them

What entrepreneurs and leaders can learn from crisis-response decision-making

Why leaders should establish decision-making triggers before a crisis happens

How businesses can prepare for uncertainty by planning for best-case, most likely, and worst-case scenarios

Kyle's forthcoming book, Shaping Chaos, and the lessons he drew from his FBI career

Website - Visit the site to download a free chapter of the book

Book: Shaping Chaos, available for pre-order ahead of its November release

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