Built Not Born

Today’s guest is Mike Trombetta. Mike Trombetta, a native of Flemington, NJ, grew a passion for mountain living, skiing, and gourmet cooking. After attending culinary school in Vermont, Mike headed west to the Sierra Nevada Mountains to start a new life in Truckee, California. Mike has a fascinating and adventurous career path. He is a ski patrolman and a wilderness first responder and a...

Today’s guest is Barry Butler. Barry Butler is an internationally published landscape photographer.  Known as “Chicago’s Picture Poet” , Barry Butler’s remarkable photographs have appeared everywhere: from television, books, billboards, to album covers of rock bands. His images have been featured on the Weather Channel, CNN, and every local news affiliate in Chicago. &nbsp...

Today’s guest is Mike Thomas Mike Thomas a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley , where he was a 7x All-American swimmer and a member of Cal Berkeley’s 2019 NCAA National Championship Swim Team when the Cal Bears defeated the University of Texas Longhorns. Growing up, Mike attended Hatboro Horsham High School outside of Philadelphia, where he broke the National 100m Backstroke reco...

Today’s guest is Joe Gozdieski Joe Gozdieski is the Senior Director of Commercial Effectiveness and Training for a specialty pharmaceutical company in San Diego, California.  Joe has about as an impressive of a resume as you are going to see in the corporate world and a remarkable story to tell.. Joe is a US army veteran and commissioned officer through the ROTC program where he was the...

Today’s guest is Marco “The Professor” Perazzo. Marco Perazzo is a 3 rd degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, owner and head instructor New Jersey Marital Arts located in Maple Shade, NJ. Marco known in the BJJ community as “The Professor” has been cornerman for MMA fighters competing in the UFC and in Bellator.  Marco is also the  is co-host (or likes to say the main cohost of...

Today’s guest is Dr David Meltzer David Meltzer, OD is a US Army veteran of the Iraq War and an optometrist at Salus University in Philadelphia. David Melter has literally looked into the eyes of killers and lived to tell the story.  David is a native of Rockville, Maryland. After spending the better part of his high school days skipping school and getting bad grades, he was rejecte...

Mike Collins is the head baseball coach at Bloomsburg University. Coach Collins is the all time winningest coach in program history. He is a 3x winner of the PSAC Coach of the Year and in the Spring of 2021 lead the Huskies to their first ever back to back PSAC Championships when they knocked off #6 in the nation Seton Hill on their home turf.  Mike, a native of Scranton, PA, graduated f...

Today’s guest is Nadine Kelly, MD. Nadine Kelly, MD grew up on the South Side of Chicago as the eldest daughter to Haitian Immigrant parents. Dr Kelly is a graduate of the University of Chicago. After graduating from medical school, she did her residency training in pathology.  Dr Kelly then she spent 7 years as a practicing pathologist. Dr Kelly says she never really have a deep love for pra...

Matt Seabrook is the owner of Dresher Physical Therapy. Matt founded Dresher PT in 2001 and has built it into two highly respected community-based rehabilitation centers in suburban Philadelphia. Matt discuses what he and his wife Chris calls “the most challenging thing we ever went through in our lives", when their first child was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called H urler’s Syndrome....

Cara Ooi, MD is a sleep physician and psychiatrist working in Toronto, Canada. Dr Ooi works with teens with insomnia, delivering a modified version of cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I). Dr Ooi obtained her medical degree from the Western University.  She then went on to complete her residency and subspecialty training in General Psychiatry and Child & Adoles...

Mark Ciccone is a Vietnam veteran, where he served 12-month combat tour as an officer in the US Army Rangers . During his tour in Vietnam, Mark led infantry units through heavy combat in the jungles of Vietnam.  In our conversation, Mark shares remarkable stories of the Tet Offensive , what it was like to come face to face with a 10 foot king cobra while walking point in the jungle, and...

Tania Del Rio is the author of the book “Happy, Healthy & Zen in Paris” and the creator of the podcast “Postcards from Paris”.   She is sought-after wellness and mindfulness coach for busy executives and professionals. Tania has been leading wellness workshops and health programs in Paris since 2012.  Tania specializes in showing high-performing professionals how to succeed in t...

Sammy Oropeza is a former  mixed martial artist , who competed in  Bellator 's  middleweight  and welterweight divisions. "Sammy O" had 16 professional MMA fights, racking up an impressive 13-3 record. With some of the meanest knockouts you’ll ever see on YouTube.  Sammy and I have a far-ranging conversation: from what it was like growing up as the youngest of 6 kids,...

Kristi Artz, MD is an emergency medicine physician based in Grand Rapids Michigan. She is a graduate from The University of Michigan, attended medical school at Wayne State University . Dr Artz did her residency in emergency medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Kristi shares her story of how she became the first physician in her family, how she wound up in Emergenc...

Tom Garvey is the author of The Secret Apartment: Vet Stadium a surreal memoir . The book tells the story of Tom secretly living inside of Veterans stadium, the home of the Philadelphia Eagles & Phillies, for almost 3 years.  Our conversation starts off by what made Tom storm out of a college classroom at Widener University, walk down to the post office and volunteer for the Army Air...

Andreia Torain is a classically trained musician. Andrea teaches violin in the city of Philadelphia. She is also a student of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Andreia describes the connection between classical music and jiu jitsu.  Andreia also discusses what it is like being a women training in a mostly male dominated combat sport like jiu jitsu. We take a deep dive into our shared experience...

Jim Trunick is the author of the acclaimed book The CORE of Leadership ™, keynote speaker and leadership consultant. Jim discusses growing up in Ohio, how he took a degree in Zoology from The Ohio State University and created 30+year career in the pharmaceutical industry in southern California. We talk about Jim's work as a leadership coach and mentor to C-Suite executives. We also discuss wh...

David Kaplan is Chief Operating Officer of WatchBox, the largest buyer, seller, and trader of pre-owned luxury watches in the world. David discusses growing up in Long Island, his time at Duke University, and how he first got into watches. We also discuss the importance of building trust as a marketer, how leaders must learn from past failures and what baseball can teach our kids about life. Thank...

Shawn Nesbit is the CEO of Good Karma Cafe, a chain of coffee cafes in Center City Philadelphia. Shawn discusses growing up in foster care, spending 20 years in corporate America before " Going for Now" as an entrepreneur in a big city like Philadelphia. Shawn speaks to what it is like to lead a small business through a global pandemic and social unrest. We also cover lessons learned from training...

Welcome to Built Not Born ! The story of EVERYDAY PEOPLE creating REMARKABLE LIVES . Each week we bring a REMARKABLE story of an ordinary person that overcame the odds, fought through adversity and positively impacted the lives of countless people in their community. From the BOARD ROOM to the BATTLEFIELD , from the JIU JITSU MAT to the field of MEDICINE we will discuss the LESSONS learned, the&nb...