Lessons from the Terminally Ill | Travis Luther

Jeff Meade is the founding director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Paul Quinn College, a HBCU in South Dallas where most students are the first in their families to attend college. He ran marketing agencies for decades before leaving the industry to build the support system he never had as a young founder. In this episode, Jeff and Dave discuss the program he built, which now requires every student to launch a business to graduate, the six-week course where freshmen pitch for outside judges, and why Jeff spends most of his time teaching his students confidence. Links: Jeff's Website: https://jeff-meade.com  Paul Quinn College Entrepreneurship: https://paulquinn.edu Jeff's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffmeade/  

Travis Luther is a five-time founder, sociologist, and the author of "The Last Exit: Lessons in Business and Life from the Terminally Ill." He grew up on welfare in a trailer park, beat a six-year opioid addiction, and went on to build and sell multiple companies before sitting down with founders who had just been given a terminal diagnosis. In this episode, he tells Dave what those founders wish they had done sooner, and why he believes the gap between the life you're living and the one you meant to live can still be closed.  Links: Travis's Website: https://travisluther.com/ Travis's Book, The Last Exit: https://a.co/d/0cQWP4dW

Nausheen Chen is a public speaking coach who has worked with leaders at Amazon, NASA, and the UN. After years as a filmmaker, she left that career when her husband pushed her to build a business around the thing she had loved since childhood: performing and speaking in public. In this episode, Nausheen talks about why public speaking triggers fight or flight response, how thought structures like the rule of three stop you from rambling, and what real preparation looks like, from audience research to recording yourself on camera.  Links: Nausheen's Website: https://www.speaking.coach/ Nausheen's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nausheenichen/ Nausheen's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nausheen.speaking.coach

Matt Friedman is the co-founder of Wing Zone, the author of "From Frat House to Franchising," and the new CEO of Epic Wings. He started the Wing Zone in 1993 out of his fraternity house kitchen at the University of Florida with $500 and a one-page business plan. In this episode, Matt and Dave trace how that turned into 140 locations across six countries and ultimately a sale in 2020. They also get into the day the university shut him down, his 27 year partnership with his co-founder Adam, and what Matt would do differently as a first-time CEO. Links: Matt's Website: https://mattfriedman.com/ From Frat House to Franchising: https://a.co/03g9diXc

Jay Bacrania, growth consultant at Crews & co., returns for another session of "Coaching with Jay," this time focusing on how leadership has to change as a company grows. Jay and Dave discuss unique ability, flow state, and the personal calendar exercise that helps founders see what fills them up versus what drains them. They talk through the crossroads every owner hits when the company starts to outgrow its leader, including whether to stay the right size, grind through, grow into the next seat, or bring in someone else. Jay also covers the shift from operator to leader and when to hire people who know more than you.  Links: Jay's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaybacrania/ Jay's Email: [email protected]  

Mike Wystrach is the founder of Freshly, the ready-made meal delivery company he launched in 2015 and sold to Nestlé for US$1.5 billion five years later. In this episode, he shares his journey from growing up in an entrepreneurial family on a cattle ranch in southern Arizona to starting Freshly. He and Dave discuss what it takes to scale a physical food business fast, how Freshly hit a US$8 million run rate in five months, and the exhaustion that eventually compelled him to sell. They also cover his current work at PetFolk, his US$75 million consumer VC fund Cutting Horse, and how he thinks about evaluating founders. In his view, grit and coachability are more vital than product and market size. Related Links: Mike's Website: https://mikewystrach.com/ Mike's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelwystrach Mike's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikewystrach/?hl=en  

Ethan King is an entrepreneur, AI advisor, and author of " Done: Let AI Do Your Work So You Can Live Your Life." In this episode, he returns to the show for a mid-2026 update on where AI actually stands for business owners. He and Dave dig into why most entrepreneurs are still stuck at the chatbot level, what it looks like when AI stops answering questions and starts completing tasks, and how Ethan published 12 blog posts in 40 seconds without a word of generic slop. They also get into the anti-AI backlash, the stark contrast with how China is approaching it, its impact on jobs, and Ethan's six levels of AI autonomy, a framework for honestly assessing where you are and what to tackle next.  Related Links: Ethan's Website: https://ethanking.com/ Ethan's Book: https://donebook.ai/  

Gorm Tuxen is a Danish-born entrepreneur and author of "Immigrant Entrepreneurship in America." In this episode, he shares his journey from arriving in the U.S. in 1982 to founding the Tuxen Group, a holding company spanning tech, security, parking, and transportation. He and Dave explore what makes immigrant entrepreneurs disproportionately successful, including the statistic that nearly 50 percent of billion-dollar U.S. tech companies are founded by foreign-born founders, and dig into the mindset advantages that come from starting with nothing in an unfamiliar country. They also discuss the "American dream" then and now, the immigration system, and why Gorm is still more focused on building than on selling. Related Links: Gorm's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gorm-tuxen-784a767b Tuxen Group: https://www.tuxen.com/ Immigrant Entrepreneurship in America: https://a.co/d/0bodEKGj  

With the Tour de France coming up in July, Tyler Hamilton's story remains relevant. Tyler is a former professional cyclist who competed at the sport's highest levels — from the Olympics to the Tour de France — throughout his extensive career. Tyler joins the podcast to discuss his book The Secret Race and his involvement in the doping culture that surrounded professional cycling.  Related Links: The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: https://amz.run/5dYQ Adventure Base Camps: https://www.adventurebasecamps.com/

Kimberly Moffit is an international relationship expert and the founder of KMA Therapy, one of Canada's premier psychological care clinics. Over the last 14 years, she has scaled KMA into a multi-location practice while amassing over 1.5 million social media followers and 70 million views on her YouTube channel. In this episode, Kimberly talks about her research on entrepreneurial isolation, the psychological realities of carrying a team, and how founders can leverage consumer empathy to unlock rapid growth on social media. Links: KMA Therapy: https://www.kmatherapy.com/ Kimberly's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kmatherapy/ Kimberly's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/kmatherapytoronto Kimberly's LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/kma_therapy