The Entrepreneurial Journey

What happens when a high-powered Wall Street attorney walks away from the predictable path and bets everything on coffee in Colombia? On this Tuesday's episode, Dave sits down with Adam Jason, Co-CEO of @The Green Coffee Company, Colombia’s largest coffee producer and a vertically integrated farm-to-cup business reshaping the global coffee market. Adam shares how he traded IPOs and Fortune 500 cli...

Do you have a message you want to get out about your business, service, or product, but struggle to connect with people when you pitch it in a room? In this episode of The Entrepreneurial Journey Podcast, Dave sits down with Fern Chan, CEO and Founder of Fern Chan Ventures, to unpack what it really takes to stand out, be heard, and make people care. Fern has spent 15+ years helping leaders, entrep...

Most businesses aren't losing money on ads because ads don't work. They're losing money because they don't understand how to use them. In this episode, Dave talks with Andy Janaitis, Founder and Chief Strategist at PPC Pitbulls, to break down why so many companies waste ad spend and what to do instead. Andy shares how to simplify paid ad strategy, focus on the metrics that actually matter, and bui...

Anthony Scavo has spent nearly three decades in real estate development, construction, and operations, and today he is helping lead one of the most interesting plays in commercial real estate. As President and Partner at Basis Industrial, Anthony helps drive a fast-growing platform focused on multi-tenant small bay industrial and self-storage. What began as a self-storage development strategy evol...

Chance McClain is the founder of Heritage Films, a storytelling company that has produced more than 800 feature-length documentaries capturing family stories and life legacies. What started as a creative experiment eventually turned into a mission: preserving the voices, values, and memories that families wish they could keep forever. Before Heritage Films, Chance’s career bounced across the creat...

Andrew Munoz is the Co-Lead Pastor of New Life Church in Everett, Washington, and has spent more than 16 years in pastoral ministry. He's married to Amanda and is raising three children, Lydia, June, and Silas. But Andrew’s story does not start in a megachurch or a spotlight. It begins in a small home church led by his parents, where he watched them love broken, ordinary people with extraordinary...

Ethan Hardinger built a business around something nobody wanted to touch. After starting his career in luxury real estate, Ethan realized he was hunting every deal just to get paid. Big checks, yes. Stability, no. What he wanted was a “chicken” that laid eggs. Recurring revenue. Predictable income. Something that worked while he slept . That search led him to an overlooked opportunity sitting in...

Tim Packer walked away from a badge and a steady paycheck to live his dream. Tim spent 18 years as a police officer and detective before making one of the boldest decisions of his life. He left a secure career to pursue art full-time. What started as a side passion turned into a thriving, multi-million dollar art business built on originals, self-published prints, and direct-to-collector sales. Bu...

Jonathan Sherrill is an entrepreneur, investor, and former manufacturing CEO who successfully exited the business he built from the ground up. In this episode, Jonathan and Dave unpack what makes an exit truly extraordinary. Not just financially, but emotionally and personally. Jonathan shares lessons from his own exit, why most sellers experience regret, and how understanding your deeper “why” ea...

When the founder breaks, the business often follows. Phil Neil knows this reality better than most. An entrepreneur, investor, and founder of Founders Compass, Phil has lived on both sides of the scoreboard. He scaled a medical supply business to more than $70 million in revenue and achieved an eight-figure exit, only to discover that success did not quiet the internal pressure to prove it was not...

Jacob Vanderslice focuses on building something that lasts. Jacob is the Co-founder and Principal of VanWest Partners, where he oversees the creation of value-add self-storage portfolios across the country. But his entrepreneurial journey did not start in an office or a boardroom. Before real estate, Jacob served as a firefighter and arson investigator in Colorado, a role that shaped his thinking...

Karen Caplan's family has created long-lasting trends in the produce and grocery industries that continue to this day. Karen is the former owner and CEO of Frieda's Branded Produce, a company that quite literally changed how America eats. Built on the vision of her mother, Frieda Caplan, the business introduced more than 200 fruits and vegetables to the U.S. market, including kiwifruit, spaghetti...

Some entrepreneurs chase growth. Jason Kruger chased understanding first. Jason is a Partner at Citrin Cooperman and the founder of Signature Analytics, an outsourced accounting and CFO advisory firm he launched in 2008, right as the financial world was coming apart. While most people were pulling back, Jason leaned in, betting that businesses would need clarity, discipline, and financial leadersh...

Some leaders build companies. Val Lesak builds community. Val is the co-founder of Influential Encounters, an organization designed to support women in male-majority industries by creating spaces to meet, inspire, and influence one another. Her work grew out of real life experience. As the wife of a snow industry operator, a business professional, and a mother of three, Val saw firsthand the isola...

John Giegerich returns to the show with a clear message for entrepreneurs and leadership teams: if you wait until January to plan the year ahead, you are already behind. As a Partner at CEO Coaching International and a former senior leader in capital markets and banking, John has spent decades helping CEOs turn vision into results. In this episode, John and Dave break down how elite leadership tea...

Robert Feldman is on the front lines of one of the biggest challenges facing homeowners and businesses today. As the founder of WOWS Fire Insurance Services, he specializes in insuring homes in high-risk fire zones that many carriers avoid. In this episode, Robert and Dave break down how wildfires have reshaped the insurance industry and why the future of coverage depends on education and preventi...

Tommy Sutherland built his career the hard way. Born in Scotland, he left school at fifteen and went straight to work. By twenty-three, he launched his first company and exited just two years later, kicking off a 25-plus-year journey of building, losing, rebuilding, and investing across the U.S., U.K., and Asia. In this episode, Tommy and Dave talk about grit, risk, and what it really takes to las...

Billy Blough, National Accounts and Sales Manager for Douglas Dynamics, joins the show to share what really drives success in the snow and ice industry. Billy supports fleet contractors across the country and explains why the right plow is only half the story. The other half is the relationship. He talks about Douglas Dynamics’ commitment to building Western, Fisher, and SnowEx equipment in-house,...

Kinder Smoots is the Executive Director of Eagle Wings disAbility Ministries, serving more than 2,200 adults with developmental disabilities in the North Puget Sound. Her journey began after the loss of her daughter Kayla, when volunteering became a path toward purpose and healing. In this episode, Kinder shares how a simple potluck for 60 people unexpectedly grew into a 240-person celebration and...

Zech Strauser has spent his life building businesses with grit, purpose, and a deep love for the outdoors. From launching Strauser Nature’s Helpers to creating Urture Apparel and Outfitters, Zech is driven by a simple mission: improve people, improve the trades, and leave everything better than he found it. In this episode, he and Dave talk about the early days of hauling mulch, the lessons that s...

David Morgan has spent his life studying honest money and real value. What started at age eleven, when he noticed silver disappearing from U.S. coins, grew into a lifelong pursuit of financial clarity and responsible investing. After learning the hard way through early mistakes, David launched The Morgan Report to help people avoid gambling in the markets and make decisions based on discipline and...

Mike Rohrbach has spent his life building champions on the field, in the locker room, and in faith. A former University of Washington football captain, Rose Bowl champion, and longtime team chaplain for the Seattle SuperSonics and UW athletics, Mike’s greatest legacy is not in the record books. It is in the lives he has changed through Run to Win Outreach, the youth sports ministry he co-founded w...

Ever wonder what it takes to build a company that turns into the storm instead of running from it? This week, Dave sits down with Kevin Stonitsch, owner of Adirondack Customs and Bison Facility Management Services. Kevin’s story is all about grit, creativity, and staying true to your values, from building custom homes to managing snow and ice across half of New York. We discuss smart growth, under...

This week, I sit down with Ryan Hogan, a Navy Reservist, serial entrepreneur, and Co-Founder and CEO of Talent Harbor. Ryan knows what it means to scale a business, challenge an industry, and lead with clarity. Before founding Talent Harbor, Ryan helped turn Hunt A Killer from a small idea into a $205 million global brand. Along the way, he saw firsthand how broken the recruiting world had become....

Christian Reed launched REEKON Tools to change how builders measure, plan and execute. In the process he uncovered something bigger. In this episode we dig into how Christian went from MIT machine-shop nights and Army engineer deployments to founding a hardware-first startup from his own garage, why the conventional tool industry is overdue for a makeover and how REEKON’s digital tape measure is j...