The Success Architect

Momentum hit eight figures in three years, and then it stopped growing. Jake spent a long time looking for the reason before realizing the ceiling was him. In this episode, Jake gets honest about how the same habits that build a company can end up capping it. He talks about the founder’s instinct to fill every hole, why “it’s faster if I just do it” works until it doesn’t, and the uncomfortable tr...

Jake Lewendal was twenty-six years old when an employee sat him down and told him something no one else ever had: he didn't do what he said he was going to do. And the employee was right. In this episode, Jake goes back to that moment — a career conversation on a bar patio that turned into the most honest feedback he'd ever received — and traces how a habit of overpromising quietly ran t...

Jake starts with a line from Justin Owens (New Age CEO) that stopped him cold: you can be a lion in public and a lamb in your own living room.  In this episode, Jake takes that idea somewhere different — not disagreeing with it, but digging into why it happens, and what most men do wrong once they notice it. Jake walks through his own five-thirty homecoming — frazzled, untransitioned, watching his...

In this episode of The Success Architect, Jake sits down with Jeffrey Greenberg, founder and managing partner of Heritage, whose portfolio spans over 10 million square feet of flex, industrial, and office space from New Jersey to Montana, plus more than 7,000 multi-family units across Virginia and the Carolinas. Jeff has been a key player in Newark, New Jersey's revitalization since 2000, red...

In the final episode of this series, Jake Lewendal helps listeners turn everything they've uncovered into something concrete: a short, written financial philosophy they actually own. After tracing where their money beliefs came from, learning to shift between scarcity and abundance on purpose, and reconnecting money to values instead of identity, Jake makes the case that a philosophy nobody w...

In this episode, Jake talks about why net worth and self-worth get tangled up so easily and what it actually takes to untangle them. We've all met someone who lets their bank account do the talking - for better or worse. Here's the thing Jake has come to believe: money doesn't change who you are, it magnifies it. If you're generous, more money makes you more generous. If you&ap...

In episode two of his money series, Jake Lewendal explores how our mindset around money shapes nearly everything else — how we live, work, invest, build businesses, and prepare for the future. Most of us swing between scarcity and abundance in how we relate to money, often without realizing it. In this episode, Jake breaks down how shifting toward a positive money mindset can change the trajectory...

Most of us never chose how we think about money. We inherited it. In this episode, Jake breaks down where our financial habits actually come from: the beliefs about spending, saving, and investing that got wired into us long before we ever earned a paycheck. Jake unpacks the concept of "money scripts," the unconscious rules formed by childhood experiences, family dynamics, and even one-o...

In this solo episode, Jake dives into the growth tax.  Growth always costs something — the question is whether you're paying it on purpose. In this episode, we dig into the "growth tax": the trade-offs every ambitious person and business inevitably makes. For businesses, it's the margin sacrificed for market share, the systems strained before they're rebuilt, the culture t...

Most business owners are mixing their personal and business finances without even realizing the damage it's doing. In this episode, I sit down with Sarah Hurlburt, a financial expert with over 25 years of experience as a Controller, Tax Advisor, and Auditor, to talk about what it actually takes to build a business budget that works. Sarah has spent her career helping small business owners get...

Today's guest is Allison Bryan, AIA — founder and principal of Physical Space (formerly Open Studio Collective), an award-winning architecture and design practice that has quietly reshaped how the West thinks about place. Allison's projects have landed in The New York Times, Dwell, Forbes, Dezeen, and Archinect, and her portfolio spans everything from residential commissions to work for...

Fatherhood comes with a manual nobody hands you - so this week, Jake writes a few pages of his own. He talks about the 2 a.m. moments that taught him more than any business book ever did, the quiet panic of realizing your kid is watching everything (not just listening), how becoming a dad rewired his definition of success, and the one piece of advice he ignored early on that he wishes someone had...

This week, Jake answers listener questions on training, discipline, and what it actually takes to stay in shape when you're building a business, running a household, and trying not to lose yourself in the process. He gets into how he structures his week around workouts instead of the other way around, what he does when motivation disappears (because it always does), the mindset shifts that ma...

Today's episode is a different kind of conversation — instead of one guest, Jake sits down with three women who each bring a completely different vantage point on the same question: what is marriage, really? Joining him are his wife, Makenzie Lewendal, married to Jake for over a decade; Merrit Peterson, who's been married just over a year; and Lisa Walthers, who spent 15 years married be...

Today's guest is Joy Vance, Managing Partner of The Agency Bozeman and one of Montana's most respected names in luxury real estate. A proud Montana native and Montana State University graduate, Joy has spent years cultivating a reputation that speaks for itself — not just in sales volume or market knowledge, but in the way she shows up for her clients, her team, and her community. Her wo...

In this FBF episode of The Success Architect , Jake Lewendal shares the power of relationships. He highlights the importance of shared values all while providing actionable steps to help you take ownership of your own life and leadership style. Tune in to learn how to harness relationships, values, and how we all rise and drive positive change in your life and business. 

What if the way you talk to yourself is the single biggest thing holding you back from the life you're trying to build? In this episode, Jake sits down with Ken Adams, founder of NLP Legacy, for a conversation that cuts straight to the root of high performance — the mind. Ken brings a unique framework to the table: using Neuro-Linguistic Programming to rewire the patterns, beliefs, and intern...

In this episode of The Success Architect with Jake, we are diving deep into one of the most important conversations in the construction industry today, understanding where we came from so we can protect what we have and build something worth leaving behind. Jake takes listeners on a journey through the rich and layered history of the Gallatin Valley, one of Montana's most storied and beloved...

Jake Lewendal turns the mic toward his own team — sitting down with Hayden Haft, Pre-Construction Manager at Momentum Customs and co-owner of a coffee business with his wife. Hayden brings a perspective that's rare: someone who has worked in the construction industry from multiple angles, and who now knows firsthand what it means to be on the other side of the table as a business owner himsel...

(FBF) Jake Lewendall dives into one of the most overlooked drivers of business growth: clarity. Whether you're leading a construction company, scaling a business, or managing a team, confusion is costing you more than you think. Jake breaks down why clarity creates speed, accountability, and better decision-making, while confusion acts as a hidden tax that drains margins, productivity, and mo...

Episode 16 of The Success Architect dives into one of the most important aspects of life and success: relationships. In this episode, we discuss how to build healthy relationships through better communication, trust, emotional intelligence, accountability, and personal growth. Whether it’s marriage, friendships, business partnerships, leadership, or family, strong relationships shape every area of...