The Matthews Mentality Podcast

In this episode of the Matthews Mentality Podcast, Kyle Matthews sits down with Dr. Abbie Marono, behavioral scientist, author, and international expert on trust, influence, body language, and human behavior. Dr. Marono has trained the U.S. Secret Service, FBI, and numerous federal agencies on behavioral analysis, interviewing, and nonverbal communication. In this conversation, she explains how to...

Kyle Matthews sits down with Ricky Silver, CEO of Daily Harvest, to discuss how one of America's fastest-growing healthy food companies is changing the way people eat. Ricky shares his unconventional journey from studying chemistry at Skidmore College and pursuing a PhD at NYU to becoming a personal chef, working in PepsiCo's research and development division, leading innovation at Vita Coco, and...

In this episode of the Matthews Mentality Podcast, Kyle Matthews sits down with Paul Tran, founder and CEO of MANSCAPED, the company that transformed men’s grooming by creating an entirely new category and turning it into a global brand. Born in Vietnam and arriving in America as a first-generation immigrant with his family, Paul’s story is a true example of the American Dream. From growing up in...

In this episode of the Matthews Mentality Podcast, Kyle Matthews sits down with Jodie McLean, CEO of EDENS, one of the nation’s largest privately held owners, operators, and developers of open-air retail and mixed-use destinations. Jodie’s journey is anything but conventional. She joined EDENS as a financial analyst fresh out of college and spent more than three decades helping transform the compa...

In this episode of the Matthews Mentality Podcast, Kyle Matthews sits down with Brian Finnegan, President and CEO of Brixmor Property Group (NYSE: BRX), one of the largest open-air shopping center owners and operators in the United States. Brian’s story is a masterclass in leadership, patience, and long-term career growth. Starting as a leasing representative in 2004, he spent more than two decade...

Nick Friedman, co-founder of College Hunks Hauling Junk and Moving, joins Kyle Matthews to share how a 2003 summer hustle with a beat-up cargo van grew into a national brand with roughly 200 franchise owners across 40+ states. They discuss the origin of the name and the HUNKS acronym (Honest, Uniformed, Nice, Knowledgeable Service), why customers pay for convenience and clutter relief, and how sys...

On the Matthews Mentality podcast, host Kyle Matthews interviews four-time founder and Kasheesh CEO Sam Miller, who dropped out of college, bootstrapped early companies, achieved three exits, and now leads a fintech platform that lets consumers split purchases across multiple cards with no loans, interest, or credit checks. Miller explains Kasheesh’s origin as a response to predatory buy-now-pay-l...

In this episode of the Matthews Mentality Podcast, Kyle Matthews interviews Neil Hershman, CEO of 16 Handles, entrepreneur, franchise operator, Everest summiter, endurance athlete, and business owner. Neil shares how he left a hedge fund career at 23 years old, bought a single 16 Handles frozen yogurt franchise with an SBA loan, and scaled it into a rapidly growing national franchise brand with ne...

Kyle Matthews interviews Marc Riccio, CEO of USA Lacrosse, about the sport’s growth, access challenges, and lacrosse’s return to the Olympics in LA 2028 as a medal sport for the first time since 1908. Riccio explains the sixes format (a faster, smaller-sided game akin to rugby sevens) and notes the U.S. women are ranked No. 1 while the U.S. men are No. 2 behind Canada. He discusses obstacles such...

Kyle Matthews interviews Stephen Smith, founder and CEO of HOTWORX, a 24-hour infrared fitness studio franchise that has grown to over 800 locations since opening its first studio in 2017 after a Jamaica conversation sparked the “yoga in a sauna” concept and a patented infrared fitness sauna. Smith explains HOTWORX's model—app-based access and booking, isometric sauna sessions (30 minutes) and HII...

Kyle Matthews interviews Deb Liu, former Facebook senior executive who built the first mobile ad product, created Facebook Marketplace, and launched Facebook Pay, later serving as CEO of Ancestry and now co-founding Ember AI to bring AI-driven enterprise back office automation. Deb explains how Ember identifies workflow “hotspots” where human time is trapped in routinized tasks—often in procuremen...

Kyle Matthews interviews Brad Beeler, a retired U.S. Secret Service special agent and prolific criminal polygraph examiner who served on President George H.W. Bush’s protection detail and was named Special Agent of the Year for work combating crimes against children. Beeler discusses polygraph accuracy and how it works, emphasizing preparation, baselining, and that people “beat the examiner” rathe...

On the Matthews Mentality Podcast, host Kyle Matthews interviews Dr. Michael Burcham, who launched, scaled, and sold three healthcare companies and later founded the Nashville Entrepreneur Center. Burcham recounts being rejected by 30 Nashville investors before flying to New York for his first trip and securing $10M at Rockefeller Center, then building Therapy Physics by consolidating outpatient r...

Real estate developer Mike Nielson, CEO of LivAway Suites and West 77 Partners, explains economy extended stay hotels as a hybrid closer to multifamily than traditional lodging, serving essential-workforce and life-transition guests needing furnished stays from roughly 90 days to six months. He shares how COVID revealed the segment’s resilience when traditional hotels collapsed, inspiring the miss...

Kyle Matthews interviews Tony Zaccario, president and CEO of Stretch Zone, the largest practitioner-assisted stretching franchise. Zaccario shares his leadership principle “never confuse effort with results,” emphasizing data-driven decisions, franchisee profitability, and removing emotion from business. He recounts joining Stretch Zone in 2016 when it had four locations, becoming CEO at 26 in 201...

Kyle Matthews interviews Will and Chris Salvi, brothers and Notre Dame football alumni who built Salvi Media and Executive House, an executive media platform behind the Emmy-winning CEO Series, CEO Roundtable, and other C-suite verticals. They discuss how they started by making videos for service businesses with little experience, why entrepreneurship appealed over traditional jobs, and how walk-o...

Entrepreneur and healthcare investor Marcus Whitney joins the Matthews Mentality podcast to discuss his journey from growing up in Brooklyn and dropping out of college to teaching himself to code, becoming a CTO, and eventually co-founding and leading Jumpstart Health Investors, an early-stage healthcare venture firm. He explains why building companies in healthcare is uniquely difficult due to re...

On the 100th episode of the Matthews Mentality podcast, Kyle Matthews interviews his brother Clay Matthews, a former Green Bay Packers linebacker and the franchise’s all-time sack leader. Clay discusses life after football with three kids and working outdoors, then recounts nearly taking a commercial real estate internship arranged by Kyle before choosing to pursue the NFL. He reflects on being a...

In this Matthews Mentality Podcast episode, host Kyle Matthews interviews Dr. Debra Clary, founder and CEO of the Clary Group and author of The Curiosity Curve (launching with Fast Company in October 2025). Clary shares how she grew up feeling like an underdog and used that mindset to outwork others, beginning her career as a 4:00 AM Frito-Lay route driver in Detroit before moving into leadership...

What does it take to build one of the most powerful real estate companies in the world? In this episode of the Matthews Mentality Podcast, Hamid Moghadam — Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Prologis — shares how he went from immigrating to the United States as a teenager to leading the world’s largest logistics real estate company. Under Hamid’s leadership, Prologis grew into a global powerhous...

In this engaging episode of the Matthews Mentality Podcast, host Kyle Matthews sits down with UFC Hall of Famer and former Light Heavyweight Champion Forrest Griffin. They discuss Griffin's storied career, including his time on the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter, his legendary fight against Stephan Bonnar, and his championship victory over Rampage Jackson. Griffin shares insights into hi...

In this episode of the Matthews Mentality podcast, host Kyle Matthews interviews Piotr Tomasik, the co-founder and COO of TensorWave. Piotr shares the journey of founding TensorWave, an AI cloud and compute company based in Las Vegas, which aims to provide high-performance cloud infrastructure for modern AI workloads. The discussion covers Piotr’s background, his previous ventures, and the importa...

In this episode of Matthews Mentality, join host Kyle Matthews as he reconnects with his former USC teammate, Owen Hanson. Their conversation takes a deep dive into Owen's incredible life story that spans his days as a football player, becoming a notorious international bookie, and later a drug lord, to spending nearly a decade in federal prison. Discussing his motivations, the adrenaline rush, an...

In this episode of the Matthews Mentality Podcast, Kyle Matthews interviews Antoine Tessier, CEO of DuPont Registry Group. They dive deep into Antoine's career journey from serving as the Chief Technology Officer at LVMH to leading the world's premier luxury automotive ecosystem. Antoine shares key lessons from his experience in luxury retail, the transformation of DuPont Registry into a seamless...

In this episode, Kyle Matthews speaks with Dr. Patrick Leddin, a distinguished leader spanning military service, Fortune 500 consulting, entrepreneurship, academia, and bestselling authorship. Dr. Leddin, who co-authored 'Disrupt Everything and Win' with James Patterson, shares insights on adapting to disruption, essentials of effective leadership, and personal transformation. The conversation cov...