Episode 1257: Hustle to Hard Money: Scale Without Burning Out with Lady Jen Du Plessis

If your business only works when you’re working, it’s time to redesign how it runs. In this episode of Sharkpreneur, Seth Greene interviews Lady Jen Du Plessis, DC, The Scaling Architect, who shares how she went from knowing nothing about mortgages to becoming a top-producing leader who helped fund more than a billion dollars in loans. A celebrated Amazon best-selling author, podcaster, and TV host, she’s helped more than 8,000 entrepreneurs transition from practitioner mode to scalable companies that don’t require daily intervention. She breaks down the mindset shift, systems, and leadership habits that drive real harmony and long-term growth. Key Takeaways:→ Teams can’t execute consistently without documented, repeatable processes.→ People struggle when they aren’t empowered with clear workflows and expectations. → Scaling a business requires clarity about vision, values, and voice. → AI is useful, but it can’t replace the human touch. → Know when to hire using lead indicators and KPIs, not out of desperation.  Affectionately known as The Scaling Architect, Lady Jen Du Plessis is the Leading Expert in helping powerhouse business owners create a company that runs smoothly without them - achieving massive revenue growth while gaining more freedom and fulfillment in life with grace and ease. Who would have ever thought that little "Jenny Who Ain't Got a Penny," now Dame Lady Jen, a member of the Royal House of Cappadocia and the Royal Order of Constantine the Great and Saint Helen, would have become a numerous #1 Amazon best-selling author, host of 3 top ranking podcasts, and producer and host of her TV show Business on the Vine. Connect With Jen:Website: https://www.ladyjenduplessis.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenduplessis/X: https://x.com/JenDuPlessisFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/JenDuPlessis22LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenduplessis/ 

Are you a high-income earner looking to build long-term wealth without spending more time on active investing? Learn the secrets of passive real estate investing and why it’s the key to financial freedom. In this episode of Sharkpreneur, Seth Greene interviews Whitney Elkins-Hutten, Director of Investor Education at PassiveInvesting.com, Founder of Ashwealth.com, and Author of the #1 Bestseller Money for Tomorrow: How to Build and Protect Generational Wealth, who shares her journey from accidental real estate investor to expert in passive investing. With a wealth of experience, including a bestselling book Money for Tomorrow, Whitney explains how high-income earners can transform active income into passive income while capitalizing on cash flow and equity growth. If you’re looking for ways to achieve financial independence, Whitney's insights on real estate investments and market strategies are invaluable. Key Takeaways:→ Passive investing enables high-income earners to focus on their jobs while building wealth through real estate.→ Diversification across asset classes is crucial for long-term financial success, especially as capital stacks grow. → Market dynamics, such as job and income growth, are critical factors in evaluating investment opportunities. → Deals should have clear paths to capital preservation, cash flow, and equity growth, with tax benefits as a bonus. → The current economic climate requires patience as investors must navigate volatility and identify genuine opportunities.  Whitney Elkins-Hutten is the Director of Investor Education at PassiveInvesting.com, founder of Ashwealth.com, and author of the award-winning #1 bestseller Money for Tomorrow: How to Build and Protect Generational Wealth. Through her proven wealth-building framework, Whitney empowers high-earning professionals and business owners to create secure, passive income streams that support a legacy of financial freedom for generations. With over $800MM in assets—including 6,500+ residential units, 15 express car washes, and 2,200+ self-storage units—Whitney guides clients to invest strategically, helping them confidently turn a single $100,000 investment into hundreds of thousands within a few years or millions over decades. Connect With Whitney:Website: https://www.passiveinvesting.com/welcome-whitney/https://ashwealth.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitneyelkinshutten/

Looking to raise capital and elevate your business? Discover how proximity, trust, and AI can be game changers in the world of family offices. In this episode of Sharkpreneur, Seth Greene interviews Richard Wilson, Founder & CEO of Family Office Club, who shares expert insights on navigating the world of family offices, capital raising, and building trust with investors. With 18 years of experience and a reach of 18 million across his social platforms, Richard discusses the power of proximity to highly successful entrepreneurs and how leveraging AI tools can give you an edge in investor relations. Tune in as he unveils the mental models and strategies that have helped him build a thriving community of capital-raisers and investors. Key Takeaways:→ Surrounding yourself with highly successful entrepreneurs and investors elevates your thinking and expands your opportunities. → The most important aspect of pitching is building trust before presenting. → Pitching without adding value or establishing trust is a common mistake among capital raisers. → Leveraging AI tools can significantly enhance decision-making, messaging, and client engagement for capital raisers. → Live events where investors and capital-raisers can meet face-to-face increase the chances of success by 16 times. Richard C. Wilson is the founder of the Family Office Club, a global investor community with millions of members and dozens of live events each year, serving professionals in the family office and private wealth sectors. He has built the leading media platform in this niche, including the most-visited website, the top-ranked podcast, and the most-watched YouTube channel dedicated to family offices.Richard is also the creator of Investor Super Intelligence, an AI platform that models how investment deals are sourced, evaluated, and closed, based on thousands of investor conversations and real-world deal workflows. He is the author of 13 books, has spoken on over 1,000 stages and podcasts across 20 countries, and runs Billionaires.com, a leading resource on the mental models and strategies of ultra-high-net-worth families. Connect With Richard:Website: https://familyoffices.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/familyofficeclub/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/familyofficeclubLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/familyoffices/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FamilyOfficeClub 

If you’re looking to scale your business without breaking the bank on full-time hires, fractional staffing could be the game-changer you need. In this episode of Sharkpreneur, Seth Greene interviews Nicole Grinnell, 2x Business Founder of Bosun Solutions and Mic'd Up Booking, who shares her entrepreneurial journey from executive assistant to building a staffing solutions business that helps small businesses thrive. With over nine years of experience, Nicole discusses the benefits of fractional staffing and virtual assistants, offering affordable and flexible solutions for growing companies. Tune in to learn how fractional teams can help you scale your business efficiently, avoid hiring mistakes, and create a well-balanced work-life environment. Key Takeaways:→ There is a growing need for fractional staffing solutions among small businesses. → Fractional teams provide the flexibility to scale without the overhead of full-time employees. → The difference between traditional staffing and fractional work, and how they complement each other. → The role of personality assessments in ensuring a successful candidate-client match. → Common hiring mistakes small businesses make and how to avoid them.  Nicole Grinnell comes from a long line of entrepreneurs and small business owners. She is a 2x business owner and launched her first business, Bosun Solutions, in 2017. As the daughter of a small business owner turned corporate executive support, she has unique insight into the needs entrepreneurs and CEOs face when scaling their businesses. Her entire career has been defined by finding a work-life balance, from working for her family business to getting married, having children, and climbing the corporate ladder. She is now married and has two teenage children, and her businesses have grown to $2 million in revenue. Her goal is to help other small businesses succeed. Connect With Nicole:Website: https://www.bosunsolutions.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bosunsolutions/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosunsolutions/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bosunsolutions/ 

What happens when a wealth manager applies institutional discipline and global insight to hospitality investing?  In this episode of Sharkpreneur, Seth Greene interviews William Huston, Founder and General Partner at Bay Street Hospitality, who discusses his journey from a call center business to creating global hospitality-focused funds designed to deliver high yields through quant-driven strategies. William shares deep insights into hospitality investment, covering topics from student housing in Hong Kong to tourism growth in India, and how his firm’s data-driven approach maximizes returns for institutional investors. He explains how combining local market intelligence, government partnerships, and strategic acquisitions has enabled Bay Street to scale rapidly while maintaining high-quality service for asset owners, operators, and developers worldwide. Key Takeaways:→ Long-term success depends on backing proven operators and developers—not just attractive properties. → Student housing shortages in Hong Kong, India’s tourism boom, and Australia’s Olympic-driven infrastructure investments all represent distinct, time-sensitive market drivers. → The same disciplined frameworks used in wealth management, including risk assessment, alignment, and scalability, can be successfully applied to hospitality. → Hospitality is an experience-driven business, shaped by human connection, culture, and memory. → Growth should align with life priorities.  In 2018, William Huston founded Bay Street Hospitality, where he currently serves as General Partner. Bay Street started as a call center based in El Salvador, structured as an LLC, serving his own investment fund rather than other companies' clients. The firm operates globally across public and private markets and applies a proprietary quantamental investment framework that integrates quantitative scoring models with fundamental underwriting discipline and targets hospitality operators, developers, and asset owners, offering equity, credit, and hybrid capital solutions. In May 2025, Huston launched a $430 million hospitality investment fund aimed at combining financial returns with positive social impact, targeting underinvested hotel markets globally, with a particular emphasis on India’s fast-growing tourism sector. Connect With William:Website: https://www.baystreethospitality.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/huios/  

Leadership isn’t about control. It’s about presence, character, and who you choose to be when things get hard. In this episode of Sharkpreneur, Seth Greene interviews Mick Hunt, creator of the MICK Factor™, who shares the deeply personal story that shaped his leadership philosophy. From a promise he made at age ten to change his mother’s life to building a successful career in entrepreneurship, consulting, and podcasting with over 20 million downloads, Mick explains why emotional intelligence and presence now matter more than authority. He breaks down his MICK Factor framework and explains why leadership today requires empathy, accountability, and the courage to keep going. Key Takeaways:→ How leadership has fundamentally changed in a world where everything is instantly validated.→ Trust, transparency, and empathy outweigh titles, perks, and compensation packages. → Sustainable success is never about the individual; it’s about developing people.→ Growth comes from committing to your own development, not just from working harder. → Your standards and values are visible before you ever say a word.  Mick Hunt is the unapologetic voice of modern leadership. As the creator of the MICK Factor™—a leadership framework rooted in Mastery, Impact, Courage, and the drive to Keep Going—he helps purpose-driven entrepreneurs and executives lead with clarity, courage, and authenticity. He's the founder of Mick Hunt Official and host of Mick Unplugged, the #1 Self-Improvement podcast with over 2 million monthly downloads. A dynamic speaker, business builder, and mentor, Mick has been featured in Forbes, collaborated with brands like Nike and McDonald's, and been mentored by icons like Les Brown and Daymond John. Connect With Mick:Website: https://mickhuntofficial.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mickunplugged/X: https://x.com/MickUnpluggedFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/mickunpluggedLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mickhunt/ 

If AI answer engines stopped reading your brand tomorrow, would anyone searching for your solution still find you? In this episode of Sharkpreneur, Seth Greene interviews Julian Lopez, Head of Research at AEO.co, who explains how brands can become the answer AI is most likely to recommend. Drawing on months of deep research with co-authors Perry Belcher and Kasim Aslam, Julian explains why branding, structure, and multimodal content now sit at the heart of discovery in an AI-driven world. He also outlines what small businesses can do over the next 6–12 months to become compliant with this new landscape, increase AI visibility, and prepare for shifts such as zero-click search and wearables. Key Takeaways:→ How AEO builds on top of traditional SEO rather than replacing it.→ Why branding is becoming the key differentiator in AI recommendations. → Why you shouldn’t chase schema hacks and listicle formats without first building a solid foundational structure. → How video, transcripts, and repurposed clips give AI the rich data it craves. → How profiles, mentions, and consistent brand signals across platforms help engines confirm you’re real and relevant.  Julian Lopez is a 'recovering' graphic designer with over 8 years of branding experience who decided to get into marketing as a new challenge to sharpen the skills that can make or break a business. Julian has co-authored The AEO Blueprint, the first full-length book on Answer Engine Optimization, which guides business owners and entrepreneurs in future-proofing their brands and becoming the AI-recommended answer in their market. Connect With Julian:Website: http://aeo.co/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@aeo.coX: https://x.com/AEOdotCO 

Social media management is evolving rapidly, and the future of content creation hinges on understanding both technology and audience behavior. In this episode of Sharkpreneur, Seth Greene interviews Emeric Ernoult, Founder and CEO of Agorapulse, a social media management platform that has grown to $20 million in revenue without external funding. With more than 26 years of entrepreneurial experience, Emeric shares the challenges and breakthroughs that led to Agorapulse's success, from its early days of bootstrapping to its emergence as a leader in social media management. In this episode, Emeric also discusses the shifting social media landscape, trends businesses can't afford to ignore, and how AI is poised to revolutionize content creation. Key Takeaways:→ Agorapulse supports 10 major social networks and helps businesses publish content, engage with their audience, and analyze social media performance.→ AI automation within Agorapulse enables brands to manage high volumes of interactions, prioritize engagement, and streamline moderation.→ Social listening capabilities extend beyond social profiles to track brand mentions across forums, blogs, and other online platforms. → The future of social media is evolving from a focus on follower count to “interest media.”→ Content creation today must be hyper-targeted, focusing on understanding the audience’s pain points and creating content they would pay for. Emeric Ernoult is a serial entrepreneur with 25 years of experience in Social Media and Saas (software as a service). He is the CEO and co-founder of Agorapulse, a Paris-based Social Media Management Software launched in 2011. Agorapulse has 175 team members in 19 countries, and is currently being used by more than 37,000 users across 180 countries. It is the only business in this industry to have exceeded $20M in annual revenue without raising capital. Connect With Emeric:Website: https://www.agorapulse.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agorapulse/ Threads: https://www.threads.com/@agorapulse TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@agorapulse X: https://x.com/agorapulse Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Agorapulse/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/agorapulse/  

Struggling with paid ads? Find out how to simplify your strategy and grow your small business without blowing your budget! In this episode of Sharkpreneur, Seth Greene interviews Andy Janaitis, Founder & Chief Strategist at PPC Pitbulls, a digital marketing agency specializing in paid advertising for small businesses. With a background in data science and software development, Andy transitioned from corporate work to help e-commerce businesses scale through more strategic, simplified, and cost-effective marketing. He shares insights on avoiding common ad mistakes, leveraging AI tools, and building campaigns that drive long-term growth. Key Takeaways:→ How many small businesses are overwhelmed by digital marketing, so they overcomplicate campaigns and waste money.→ Simplifying ad structures and focusing on robust measurement systems can lead to better results with smaller budgets.→ Why you should focus on what’s working and avoid jumping onto multiple platforms or constantly chasing new strategies.→ E-commerce businesses aiming for 7-figure growth need a targeted, scalable paid ad strategy.→ Automated bidding and data-driven decision-making are essential to optimizing ad campaigns effectively. Andy Janaitis is the founder and chief strategist of PPC Pitbulls, a boutique digital marketing agency that helps small businesses grow past 7 figures using Google and Meta Ads. He partners with founder-led brands and e-commerce teams to simplify their paid ad strategies,ensuring campaigns are built on solid tracking, clean execution, and profitability—not noise or guesswork.With over 10 years of agency and analytics experience, Andy’s background spans engineering, web development, and digital strategy. He’s known for his practical, down-to-earth approach that cuts through marketing overwhelm and empowers business owners to take confident action. Whether he’s helping a brand understand attribution or demystifying Performance Max, Andy brings clarity, integrity, and a deep respect for the entrepreneurial journey. Connect With Andy:Website: https://www.ppcpitbulls.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ppc-pitbulls/ 

What if three minutes in cold water could reset your brain and your day? In this episode of Sharkpreneur, Seth Greene interviews Troy Laing, Founder of Culture OC, who shares how fitness, breathwork, and modern recovery tech power a community-driven biohacking and performance center. From overcoming addiction to building a hub with medical-grade LED light therapy, hyperbaric oxygen, infrared saunas, and coached cold-plunge protocols, he explains what truly moves the needle. He also unpacks his approach to discipline, leadership, and his vision to scale internationally while preserving the intimate culture that drives outcomes. Key Takeaways:→ Why breathwork and cold plunges rewire stress responses and build everyday resilience → How stacked protocols synergize to reduce inflammation and accelerate recovery. → The role of mindset and brainwave training. → How health, family, leadership, and then business create a practical framework for balance. → How your morning routine shapes the rest of your day.  Culture OC was founded by Troy Laing, an Australian entrepreneur passionate about health and fitness, inspired by his global travels and immersion in diverse wellness practices. His vision was to create a pioneering biohacking social wellness club that fosters strong community bonds while promoting physical and mental well-being. This mission has earned recognition in esteemed publications highlighting its innovative approach to merging fitness with social connectivity. Troy, also a devoted husband and father, instills values of compassion and resilience, adding a personal touch to the club's ethos. Connect With Troy:Website: https://cultureoc.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cultureoc_TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@culture_ocX: https://x.com/cultureoc_Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cultureocusa/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/troy-laing-591a71285/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CultureOC