Success, Rewritten

Jay Laughrey has built Proteus Pools into a thriving pool business, but the road there was rocky and started with losing his brother and mentor, Jeff, to suicide in 2009. In this episode, Jay shares what it was like to watch Jeff's rapid decline into depression at a time when almost nobody talked about mental health, the day he got the call that changed everything, and the words from a police offi...

The mental health advice entrepreneurs don't want to hear is that working less can actually make you more effective in your life and business. I can prove it, because it happened to me. In 2018, I had a manic episode that turned into psychosis. I was hospitalized, diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and spent three months on medical leave from a full-time job I loved. When I came back, I rebuilt my w...

Subscribe to the newsletter at Success, Rewritten for more conversations like this one. The language around mental illness is completely wrong. Gabe Howard, a sought-after mental health speaker, author of Mental Illness is an Asshole and Other Observations, and host of the Inside Bipolar podcast, joined me to crack that wide open. We both live with bipolar disorder, but our experiences land in ver...

Can you turn $5 into $10 million? Mignon bet the last $5 she had for dinner to build a bakery business that has sold over five million cupcakes and crossed $10 million in revenue. She didn't know how to bake initially. She had six kids, a stack of bills, and a customer who promised to pay her the next day. She gambled the $5 on cupcakes instead of groceries, turned it into $60 by morning, and $600...

For deeper reflections on work, resilience, and redefining the way we live, subscribe to the Success, Rewritten newsletter. Mental health and mental strength are not the same thing. Amy is a psychotherapist, host of the Mentally Stronger podcast, and the author of 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do. Her TEDx Talk has been viewed over 24 million times. But the part of her story most people s...

Pre-Order Totally Nachrageous here . If you're sitting on a creative idea waiting for permission, this episode is about the person who stopped waiting. Today’s guest, Alex P. Taylor, sent his cookbook proposal to ten publishers on April 2nd, 2025. Typically, it would have taken 6 months to 2 years to receive a response from publishing companies. He heard back in a week, and by Easter, he had a sig...

If this conversation gave you a clearer way to think about your next move, you’ll find more episodes and insights at Success, Rewritten . It’s all there to help you keep moving forward and build something that actually works for your life. What happens when getting fired forces you to figure it out fast with no backup plan? Getting fired forced Ramon Ray to make things work. Ramon is a serial entr...

Explore SuccessRewrittenShow.com and Jay's top locations: tequilareport.com and jaybaer.com When Jay Baer was 30, his best friend called to say he had brain cancer. Jay quit his job the next day. That call, and the list he made afterward of what he was actually afraid of, set off a 28-year career of building, selling, writing, and starting again. Jay is a sixth-generation entrepreneur, a seven-tim...

If this helped you think more clearly about what you’re building and who it’s for, there’s more waiting for you at Success, Rewritten . The same drive that made her successful is the thing she had to unlearn to protect her health. Zanade Mann is the founder of Zanade Enterprises, a full-service marketing and communications agency she built from a single client into a collaborative team of strategi...

End stigma together, one story at a time, with The WISE Approach . How long can you run away from trauma before it catches up to you? Dr. Ricardo Anderson was a principal making six figures and finishing his doctorate, all while silently struggling with his mental health. At 32, he quit everything and moved to start addressing it for the first time. His story shows what happens when trauma goes un...

If you’re thinking more about what’s really important in life, you can get the newsletter at Success, Rewritten . What if success isn't about retiring someday, but funding the life you actually get to live? This week on Success, Rewritten, I sat down with Xerxes Nabong, a wealth advisor with twenty years in the business and his own firm, Wealth Avenue. Xerxes was nine years into his career when hi...

If you’re in the middle of your own shift, get the newsletter at Success, Rewritten . What happens when the person who taught you to work hard is the one who makes you question it? Jenny Dempsey, also known as San Diego Furniture Flipper, started by rescuing discarded furniture and found herself rebuilding her own confidence and career path in the process. That idea of restoration, finding potenti...

Order Of Course, I’m Here Right Now , your compassionate, practical guide to comforting someone who’s grieving. You don’t need better intentions to support someone who’s grieving; you need better words. Grief isn’t just about death. It shows up in divorce, diagnosis, job loss, and the moments that reshape your life. Shelby Forsythia is a grief coach, author, and founder of Life After Loss Academy,...

What if the hardest part of success is not starting, but continuing? Today’s guest, Cate Luzio, is the Founder and CEO of Luminary, a global professional networking platform designed to support women and allies across every stage of their careers. After two decades in corporate banking leadership, she left to build a self-funded startup with no external capital and no backup plan. Networking opene...

Explore more conversations like this and dive deeper into the work at Success, Rewritten . Why do smart, capable people still struggle to communicate clearly under pressure? Today I’m joined by Lynn Smith , a former news anchor turned communication expert, who now helps leaders confront what she calls the “brain bully.” Her work focuses on how fear, not skill, is often the root of communication st...

Find a nearby class and get two weeks of unlimited DivaDance classes for $59! What if the thing you started for fun after work turned into a national business? Jami Stigliano, founder of DivaDance, joins me to talk about how a frustrating experience in a competitive New York dance class led her to create something entirely different. She originally started teaching classes because she wanted a spa...

If you’re ready to redefine success in a way that supports both achievement and well-being, subscribe to my YouTube channel, follow me on Instagram , and join us at Success, Rewritten . What happens when a manic episode interrupts a high-achieving life that looks successful on paper? Welcome to Success, Rewritten. I’m your host, Emily, and from the outside, my corporate career in tech was accelera...