Stories that Shaped Me with Avram Gonzales

In this special recap episode, Avram Gonzales reflects on completing a 40-day creative challenge that turned into Stories That Shaped Me : forty videos, forty stories, and a powerful return to consistency, creativity, and self-expression. What began as a simple challenge from a friend—to show up on camera every day—quickly became something deeper. Over the course of the series, Avram rediscovered...

In this final episode of Stories That Shaped Me , Avram Gonzales reflects on one of the most influential experiences of his childhood: spending extended time in Belgium with his family. Every couple of years, from early childhood through his mid-teens, Avram lived for weeks at a time immersed in another culture, language, and way of life. Those trips quietly shaped how he sees the world. Being sur...

In this episode, Avram Gonzales shares one of the most confusing and unexpected moments of his life—the day he reached a major milestone and felt absolutely nothing. After the excitement of high school graduation and the sense of possibility that followed college, Avram expected his graduate school commencement to feel even bigger. He had worked harder than ever, pushed through the most demanding...

In this episode, Avram Gonzales shares the story of the very first money he ever made on the internet—and how it was far smaller, yet far more meaningful, than he ever expected. Late one night in 2010, a simple conversation with a friend introduced him to something he’d never heard of before: affiliate marketing. After signing up for Amazon’s affiliate program and sharing a single product link, Av...

In this episode, Avram Gonzales shares a lighter story that reveals one of his longtime traits: a love for a well-executed prank. What started as a spontaneous moment during a house tour turned into one of the longest-running jokes he’s ever pulled. While his mom was showing off a newly remodeled bathroom to a friend, Avram quietly hid behind a curtain and flicked the light switch—once, then again...

In this episode, Avram Gonzales shares one of the most frightening moments of his life—a night during spring break in 2010 when exhaustion, determination, and poor judgment collided. After a long day of work, final exams, and a birthday dinner, Avram convinced himself he could still make a late-night drive to Steamboat Springs. What he underestimated was just how tired he truly was. Somewhere outs...

In this episode, Avram Gonzales looks back on a Christmas from 15 years ago, when he was a broke college student living at home with no money to buy gifts. Rather than showing up empty-handed, he decided to lean into something he loved—tie-dye—and make handmade gifts for everyone in his life. What started as a cost-saving idea quickly turned into a demanding week of long nights, endless prep, and...

In Episode 34, Avram Gonzales reflects on how an unlikely mix of video games and science experiments quietly shaped his mindset as an entrepreneur. It starts in seventh grade with a simple school project: building a pressurized water rocket that could stay in the air as long as possible. While others focused on parachutes, Avram and his partner obsessed over small design tweaks—adding length, adju...

In Episode 33, Avram Gonzales shares a Christmas story that starts mischievous, turns intense, and ends with an unexpected lesson about curiosity, awareness, and timing. As a kid, Avram mastered the art of secretly opening Christmas gifts—taking a trick from his mom and pushing it to the next level. Convinced he’d spotted the Diablo II expansion in his stocking, he carefully unwrapped it, installe...

In Episode 32, Avram Gonzales reflects on a habit from his college years that frustrated his parents—but quietly prepared him for entrepreneurship. From day one of every class, Avram studied the syllabus like a strategist. He calculated point values, weighed effort versus reward, and determined exactly what was required to pass—no more, no less. He showed up, did the work, but never wasted energy...

In Episode 31, Avram Gonzales shares a story he rarely tells—one marked by shame, reflection, and a turning point he didn’t expect. What started as a familiar weekend of partying with friends in Breckenridge took a hard turn when alcohol stripped away Avram’s judgment. An interaction with someone he had just met—rooted in curiosity but derailed by intoxication—ended in words and behavior that didn...

In Episode 30, Avram Gonzales shares a quiet but meaningful childhood victory—the first time he beat his dad at chess—and the lesson it revealed about how his mind works. As a third grader in Phoenix, an unfinished chess game turned into an opportunity. With his dad away on a business trip, Avram spent days replaying the board in his head, running through every possible scenario, and testing outco...

In Episode 29, Avram Gonzales shares one of his most unconventional—and often unbelievable—stories: the time he brought a completely dead car battery back to life using nothing but focus, intention, and energy. Stranded in a parking lot with no money for a tow and a car that wouldn’t even attempt to turn over, Avram and his partner decided to try something radical. Drawing from their experience wi...

In Episode 28, Avram Gonzales tells one of the most emotional and unbelievable stories of his life—the time his puppy went missing for five days in the Las Vegas desert, and the extraordinary effort it took to bring him home. What began as a simple moment at a hotel during a work event quickly turned into a nightmare. In the span of seconds, Avram’s one-year-old puppy vanished into the dark desert...

In Episode 27, Avram Gonzales shares a deeply personal and reflective story about trust, authority, and a pattern he didn’t fully understand until much later in life. As a third grader newly relocated to Arizona, Avram found himself under the care of a teacher who treated him unfairly and inappropriately—not in ways that were obvious or dramatic, but in subtle, damaging acts of humiliation and iso...

In Episode 26, Avram Gonzales shares one of the most painful and disorienting relationship experiences of his life—the moment he learned the truth behind an unexpected and shocking proposal. Just one day before their seventh anniversary, Avram’s long-term partner invited him to consider being part of a throuple. What followed was a rapid unraveling of trust built over years. As he reflects on the...

In Episode 25, Avram Gonzales takes you back to one of his most reckless—and revealing—teenage adventures: the day a homemade potato gun almost turned deadly. What started as harmless mischief quickly escalated into an engineering project fueled by curiosity, the internet, and a classic teenage desire to “go bigger.” After building an oversized, ether-powered spud cannon capable of launching potat...

In Episode 24, Avram Gonzales shares a deeply sobering moment from his childhood—the first time he saw death up close, and how it permanently changed the way he experiences life. While driving through the Colorado mountains with his dad on the way to a Boy Scout campout, Avram witnessed the aftermath of a tragic accident involving a runaway truck. What he saw that day shattered his abstract, child...

In this episode, Avram Gonzales shares a defining leadership moment from a 2013 team training in Denver—one that challenged how people expect to be led. While teaching his network marketing downline how he created massive results, a surprising moment stopped the room cold: 22 hands went up when asked who was frustrated with his leadership style. The reason? Avram didn’t respond to every message as...

Like many teenagers, Avram Gonzales struggled with moodiness, backtalk, and low self-esteem. In Episode 22, he shares the pivotal decision his parents made that helped change the trajectory of his confidence, character, and self-respect. What began as a reluctant trial TaeKwonDo class quickly turned into a life-defining journey. From putting on a uniform for the first time to training alongside hi...

In Episode 21, Avram Gonzales shares one of the most intense and eye-opening stories of his life: the time he left a spiritual organization—only to find himself publicly targeted by it. In his early twenties, driven by a passion for personal development and New Age spirituality, Avram became deeply involved in a group called Access Consciousness . What started as fascination quickly escalated into...

In Episode 20, Avram shares a hard-earned lesson from the early days of his agency journey. After helping an e-commerce brand selling dog backpacks grow from $25–30K a month to $140K a month in revenue—purely through SEO—the results spoke for themselves. The client even shut off all other advertising channels. So why did they leave? The answer had nothing to do with performance—and everything to d...

Is the internet a safe place? Can you really trust the people you meet online? In Episode 19, Avram Gonzales shares a formative story from his teenage years that helped shape his perspective on trust, connection, and friendship in the digital age. At just 17 years old, Avram spent countless hours playing Halo 2 Online , forming deep bonds with players he’d never met in person—until he decided to t...

In this episode, Avram Gonzales shares one of the most difficult seasons of his entrepreneurial journey—a period when he was waking up nightly in cold sweats, overwhelmed by the stress of tasks slipping through the cracks in his business. The physical symptoms were a sign he couldn’t ignore: the way he was running his company wasn’t sustainable. When the 2020 shutdowns hit and nearly all of his cl...

In this episode, Avram Gonzales opens up about a heavy secret he carried alone for six months. After ending a seven-year relationship, he continued living with his ex—supporting her financially and pretending to everyone that they were still together. The shame, confusion, and emotional weight of the situation kept him silent, even from family and close friends. It wasn’t until a brunch with his c...