The Upgrade Podcast

Pastor Joe goes solo again with a raw, no-holds-barred talk about stocks, investing, and everything he learned from over 20 years on Wall Street. From counting stock certificates in a locked vault at Thompson McKinnon to making $300,000 in a minute trading crude oil when Saddam Hussein invaded Iraq, to losing almost everything and having a heart attack from the stress of day trading, Joe has seen...

Pastor Joe goes solo on this one and gets into something he's been teaching young men for years: how to actually make money in real estate. No fluff, no guru talk, just 30+ years of experience from a guy who bought his first rental property for $75,000 and has pulled over a million dollars in profit from it without ever selling. Joe breaks down the difference between flipping, buying and holding,...

Pastor Joe sits down with most of the members of Unspoken, the Christian band that got their start playing a coffee house at Grace Church for five or ten people over 20 years ago. Chad, Ariel, and Matt walk through what 22 years of touring really looks like, from being poor and alone on the road to watching God open doors one nursing home, subway platform, and college campus at a time. They break...

Pastor Joe sits down with a very special guest, Mayor Mack Womack of North Brunswick, New Jersey. Mayor Womack has served the town for 21 consecutive years. Born in Travelers Rest, South Carolina (the same town as Jesse Jackson), Mack's journey took him through West Virginia, Orlando, Alabama, and a failed Jimmy Carter reelection campaign before law school and a girl from Bayonne brought him to Ne...

Pastor Joe sits down with his older brother, Dr. David Dean, for the story behind the Bible that saved his life. David and Joe grew up together but were separated for 13 years after their mother kidnapped Joe and their younger siblings. While Joe was living on the streets of New York, David was studying nuclear physics at Cornell, working underground at a particle accelerator, and proudly calling...

Pastor Joe sits down with Sean Isaacs, known as "The Wisdom Coach," author, Christian businessman, and the man behind the marketing at Star 99.1, one of the biggest Christian radio stations in the country. Sean's story starts in the Bahamas with a praying mother, a twin brother, and an older brother whose mysterious illness and death at 22 became the event that brought both twins to Christ. From a...

Pastor Joe and Alicia sit down with Associate Pastor Courtney Robinson and his wife Erica for one of the most emotional conversations you'll ever hear. Courtney and Erica both grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, met through a cadet program and a little sister who decided the cure for her big sister's depression was a boyfriend. Erica opens up about childhood molestation, being given away at birth, kidna...

Pastor Joe and Alicia sit down with two of their closest friends and earliest mentors in the faith, Pastor John and Susan Bevilacqua. Susan shares her story of growing up with an alcoholic mother, being kidnapped and raped as a teenager, and finding Jesus in a hippie storefront in Baltimore. John opens up about nearly dying three times before age 22, dealing drugs at Villanova, and getting radical...

Pastor Joe sits down with his wife, Pastor Alicia Adevai, for a raw and deeply personal conversation about their journey together. Alicia opens up about growing up in an abusive home, surviving sexual abuse as a child, and the years of silence and fear that followed. She shares how she met Joe on a train platform in New Brunswick, what it was like marrying a former drug dealer turned Wall Street g...

In the very first episode of The Upgrade, Pastor Joe Adevai introduces you to the heart behind the podcast and the life behind the pastor. A high school dropout, former drug dealer, and cocaine addict who was ready to end it all at 27, Joe shares how a Bible he never wanted to open and a verse in John 3 changed the trajectory of his life forever. Now a retired Wall Street SVP, founder of Grace Chu...