Jarred Elmar bought his first properties on courthouse steps right out of high school with no college, no capital, no connections and no safety net. Just a scrappy kid from South Florida who refused to let his circumstances write his ending.

Today he's the Managing Partner of The Geneva Group with over 1.8 million square feet of commercial real estate and a goal of 5 million. But the real story isn't the portfolio. It's what it took to build it and who he had to become along the way.

In this episode, Jarred gets into the pivotal moment a complete stranger stopped him cold with a tough conversation he didn't ask for and couldn't ignore. He talks about spending years hiding where he came from and why he finally stopped. He breaks down the scrappy, grassroots prospecting model that built his empire and the same one he now teaches young people coming out of high school and college.

This is a conversation about owning your story, building from zero and what happens when you stop apologizing for who you are.

This Episode Explores:

✅ Buying properties on courthouse steps straight out of high school

✅ No college, no backing, no experience and why that became the advantage

✅ Getting in trouble with the law and what it actually cost him

✅ Hiding his background for years and why he finally owned it completely

✅ The stranger who gave him a tough pep talk that changed his life

✅ Building a grassroots prospecting model from the ground up

✅ Teaching the next generation of scrappy, first-generation real estate investors

✅ Faith, family and his grandfather's lasting influence

✅ The goal: 5 million square feet

🔗 Connect with Jarred Elmar

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geneva_gp/

Website: genevagp.com Book: Built From Nothing

Follow REAL Mentors Podcast

Instagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcast

Host Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartin

Ryan Zofay started using drugs at 11. By his late teens he was incarcerated, facing a potential life sentence. Most people don't come back from that but Ryan built a 9-figure business from it.

The turning point wasn't a strategy. It was his mother, newly sober herself, walking into that detention center with the 12-step program and a decision to stop abandoning her son. That moment cracked open something that anger, hustle, and failed ventures in his 20s never could.

Today Ryan is the founder of We Level Up, a national addiction treatment organization he built from the ground up starting in 2013. He's also a speaker, life and business coach, and author of An Unlikely Businessman: From Overdoses to Multimillionaire. His mission is simple: help people stop reliving the past by finally dealing with what created it.

In this episode, Ryan and Sean get into what it actually takes to break generational cycles, why self-acceptance is the real foundation of success, and why surrounding yourself with the wrong people keeps you stuck longer than any addiction ever could.

This Episode Explores:

✅ Drugs at 11, incarceration by his teens and the childhood trauma underneath it all

✅ A mother's sobriety visit that changed everything

✅ How the 12-step program became the foundation for a 9-figure business

✅ Anger, failed ventures, and what his 20s really taught him

✅ Founding We Level Up in 2013 from sales to mission-driven impact

✅ Why you keep reliving the past until you meet the unmet needs underneath it

✅ Falling in love with yourself as a business strategy, not just self-help talk

✅ The ESOP plan: transitioning to employee ownership by 2030

✅ Why who you're around matters more than what you know

🔗 Connect with Ryan Zofay

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryan.zofay/

YouTube: youtube.com/@ryanzofay

Website: ryanzofay.com Book: An Unlikely Businessman

Follow REAL Mentors Podcast

Instagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcast

Host Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartin

Franjez grew up in Yonkers with nothing and says that's exactly why he appreciates everything. Raised in a Dominican household where daily drinking was just part of life, he spent years as a New York State corrections officer feeling lost, chasing control and going through the motions. Then a doctor's visit and the right roommate at the right time cracked something open.

Now he's the host of Talk About It with Franjez, a platform built on transparency and the conversations most people avoid. Every episode starts the same way, by asking “where did you grow up?” or “how was your childhood?” because Franjez believes everything you are today lives in what you experienced before you had words for it.

In this episode, he and Sean get into what it really takes to do a complete 180, why your subconscious is running the show whether you like it or not and what it means to go all in on something you actually love. Including everything hard that comes with it.

This Episode Explores:

✅ Growing up Dominican in Yonkers and normalizing what others would call dysfunction

✅ 8.5 years as a corrections officer and feeling lost, goalless or chasing control

✅ The doctor's visit that forced him to pay attention

✅ How one roommate and The Four Agreements changed his trajectory

✅ Why every guest starts with childhood and why that's not an accident

✅ Going all in on content creation: food reviews, podcasting, and building a brand on positivity

🔗 Connect with Franjez

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/franjez/

YouTube: youtube.com/@franjez

Podcast: Talk About It with Franjez

Follow REAL Mentors Podcast

Instagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcast

Host Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartin

Men's mental health is in crisis. The statistics prove it. The disconnection proves it. And nobody wants to sit with that long enough to actually fix it.

Vinny Brusco decided to build the fix. He's a certified life coach, Purple Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, host of The Council of Dudes podcast, and founder of Agora Social Club — a physical space in Westchester, NY built specifically to give men a place to connect, grow, and stop white-knuckling life alone. No bar. No ego. No small talk. Just intentional brotherhood.

In this episode, Vinny gets into why modern convenience is killing character, what it actually means to be a father versus just a dad, and why most men are ruled by their thoughts instead of leading from them. This is a conversation about what men are missing and what it takes to build it back.

This Episode Explores:

✅ The male loneliness epidemic: depression, suicide rates, and the failure to launch

✅ Why comfort is the enemy of the character men actually need

✅ Meditation, sensory deprivation, and BJJ as tools for staying grounded under pressure

✅ Dad vs. father: the difference between being fun and being intentional

✅ How Agora Social Club became the modern fourth place men are desperate for

✅ Self-sabotage, the lure of comfort, and why the journey never gets easier, you just get stronger

🔗 Connect with Vinny Brusco

Instagram: @vinnybrusco

Website: vinnybrusco.com

Agora Social Club: agorasocialclub.com | @agora_westchester

Follow REAL Mentors Podcast

Instagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcast

Host Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartin

High-pressure leaders don't fail because they lack strategy. They fail because their nervous system is running a program their ambition can't override.

Ian Garfinkel is a Neural Performance and Executive Function Specialist and founder of Evolution Mindset. He works with high-pressure leaders and teams on the things most coaches won't touch. He focuses on identity reconstruction, nervous system regulation and what he calls purpose engineering. His core conviction: your thoughts mean nothing if your body hasn't felt them first.

In this episode, Ian breaks down why the highest performers are often the most wired for self-sabotage, how unregulated nervous systems kill focus and execution and what it actually takes to build habits that hold under real pressure, not just in calm conditions.

This Episode Explores:

✅ Why thoughts without feeling are just noise

✅ How your nervous system overrides your best intentions

✅ The neuroscience behind why high performers plateau and stall

✅ Identity reconstruction and changing who you are, not just what you do

✅ Purpose engineering and why most people are executing the wrong mission

✅ What nervous system regulation looks like in high-stakes environments

🔗 Connect with Ian Garfinkel: / iangarfinkelevolutionary

Follow REAL Mentors Podcast Instagram: / realmentorspodcast

Host Sean Martin: / theseanmartin

Traci Mitchell spent years in newsrooms covering the White House, Capitol Hill and anchoring in San Francisco. But the real story isn't the Emmy. It's what she discovered underneath the achievement.

In this episode, Traci breaks down why most people are living a story they never chose and how to change it. She gets into the scarcity mindset that runs through high-achievement spaces, the power of sitting in silence and what her mother taught her about not letting other people's reality become your ceiling.

Now a narrative coach and keynote speaker, Traci helps people stop being invisible and start designing the story they actually want to live. Her new book, Design Your Mindset, is the blueprint.

This Episode Explores:

✅ First Black family in an all-white neighborhood and a mother who refused to break

✅ The scarcity mindset in media: "There's only room for one of us"

✅ Why your brain sees filters, not facts

✅ Silence as a pattern-interruption tool

✅ How to stop living someone else's story

🔗 Connect with Traci Mitchell:

Instagram @iamtracimitchell

Follow REAL Mentors Podcast

Instagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcast

Host Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartin

From streets and needles to $700K business turnarounds, Trevor Cowley shares his brutal path: extreme poverty, 4 years of IV heroin addiction, homeless rock bottom, and cold-turkey mountain detox. Now co-owner of Easier Accounting and host of Real Business Owners Podcast (2M+ downloads), he reveals how stacking cash, extreme discipline, and facing demons built his empire. Expect unfiltered truths on pain as transformation, why opportunity hunts money, and honoring commitments when you feel like quitting.

This Episode Explores:

✅ Half marathons EVERY DAY (131 indoor laps) for a moving world record

✅ Praying for injury to escape pain—then adapting through it

✅ IV drugs daily for 3.5 years: heroin, meth, anything to escape

✅ Kicked out homeless at 24: "I'm a complete loser" wakeup

✅ $120K sales to partnership: "If it's my money, it's my rules"

✅ No high school diploma? "School told me I'm an idiot"—sales was his out

✅ Why pain lowers standards (even porta-potty sprints) and how to hold yours

✅ "Opportunity finds money"—why broke people miss breaks

✅ 3 years of two-a-days + writing "The Journey to Becoming Remarkable"

Real pain, real resilience, real wealth—when breaking your word hurts worse than running 13.1 miles daily.

🔗 Connect with Trevor Cowley

Instagram: @trevorleecowley

@realbusinessowners

Follow REAL Mentors Podcast

Instagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcast

Host Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartin

Tags & Keywords

Trevor Cowley, Real Business Owners Podcast, Easier Accounting, Sean Martin, REAL Mentors Podcast, half marathon every day, world record running, addiction recovery, heroin to millionaire, IV drugs story, homeless to entrepreneur, business turnaround, extreme discipline, radical ownership, stack cash opportunity, pain adaptation, detox cold turkey, no degree success, sales to CEO, St George Utah entrepreneur, resilience mindset, world record chase, two-a-days streak, becoming remarkable, business ownership, mental toughness, poverty to wealth, facing demons

From managing a $25M P&L in male-dominated HVAC to building a thriving restaurant franchise (and recently exiting amid "financial debris"), Angela Goodman reveals how core wounds—like over-helping others—sabotage entrepreneurs' wealth and growth. She shares her raw journey: grateful for her parents' divorce at age 8, twice-divorced herself, and now coaching high-performers to prioritize self-leadership, trust God as provider, and scale without burnout. Faith, tough decisions, and personal evolution drive her Evolve event and EVOLVE thru God podcast.

This Episode Explores:

- "Financial debris": Lessons from her messy business exit

- Self-sacrifice as the #1 entrepreneur killer—and how to heal it

- "Your bank account is a mirror" of hidden interpersonal issues

- God as provider: Making hard calls without carrying your team's burden

- Saving vs. serving: Why over-helping creates dependency

- From corporate pay gaps ("My boobs kept me from earning") to franchise success

- Building culture in restaurants amid COVID chaos

- Faith beyond religion: Spirituality for business and life

- Evolve event: Immersive growth for faith-based leaders (March 2026, Savannah)

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🔗 Connect with Angela Goodman

Instagram: Instagram.com/msangelagoodman

Evolve Event: evolve-us.org

Follow REAL Mentors Podcast

Instagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcast

Host Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartin

📚 Book: "Beyond the Bronx: From Prison to Purpose" https://www.instagram.com/beyondthebronxbook/

Grab Your Copy 👉 https://a.co/d/gKLMhg9/

🎙️ Podcast: R.E.A.L Mentors Podcast (New episodes every week)

💬 Money Mindset Movement

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Tags & Keywords

Angela Goodman, Evolve Through God, REAL Mentors Podcast, Sean Martin, faith-based entrepreneurship, self-sacrifice entrepreneurs, financial debris, business exit lessons, God as provider, saving vs serving, personal development coach, HVAC corporate to franchise, restaurant business culture, core wounds healing, spirituality vs religion, Evolve event Savannah 2026, entrepreneur self-leadership, cash flow mirror, people-pleasing trap, faith and business growth, women's entrepreneurship, male-dominated industry, burnout recovery, purpose-driven scaling, resilience, mindset shift, non-denominational faith, high-performer retreats, Valkyrie Ventures

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