Moneywise

Stop making million-dollar decisions alone. Hampton gives you a personal board of eight vetted founders in your city who meet monthly to tackle your hardest problems. Find your group: joinhampton.comEveryone’s chasing success — but what does that actually mean? Founders hit milestones, sell companies, and still feel unsatisfied. After 150+ interviews, the most consistent lesson is that most people are aiming at the wrong definition.Here’s what we talk about:Why the traditional founder definition of success doesn’t hold upThe dangerous feedback loop of external validationHow imposter syndrome thrives — even after a $50M exitWhy goal-setting alone can leave you feeling hollowThe “post-success” slump that no one prepares forWhy founders keep building (and chasing) after they’ve “won”A better way to define success that doesn’t move the goalpostsCool Links:Hampton https://www.joinhampton.com/Lower Street https://www.lowerstreet.co/Sponsors:Get a team of AI agents that run compliance for you at delve.co/moneywiseAchieve your dream body with dailybodycoach.com/moneywiseJoin 700+ founders hiring A-players in Latin America at hirewithnear.com/moneywiseChapters:(1:00) Founders Who “Make It” Still Feel Unsatisfied(2:57) Defining Success: Objective vs. Subjective(4:27) The Founder’s Scoreboard and Moving Goalposts(5:11) The Emptiness After Achieving Big Goals(6:36) Internal Fulfillment vs. External Markers(8:23) Connecting Goals to Personal Fulfillment(8:44) The Search for Purpose After Success(9:25) Rethinking Purpose: Determination Over Destiny(10:30) Lifelong Fulfillment vs. Chasing Milestones(10:48) The Trap of Confusing External and Internal Success(12:01) Why Internal Success Makes External Success EasierThis podcast is a ridiculous concept: high-net-worth people reveal their personal finances. Inspired by real conversations happening in the Hampton community.Your Host: Jackie LamportNot really the host, but the producer.Wrote this sentence.

Stop making million-dollar decisions alone. Hampton gives you a personal board of eight vetted founders in your city who meet monthly to tackle your hardest problems. Find your group: joinhampton.comAdam White didn’t set out to build a media company – he just wanted a job in sports. So at 19, he started posting informational interviews on a Wix site. Today, he runs a $20M brand with NFL partnerships and no background in media. Because in the end, it wasn’t about who he knew – it was about who knew him, and how he got in the right rooms by outplaying legacy media at their own game.Here’s what we talk about:Building Front Office Sports out of his dorm roomWhy brand aura matters more than ever and how to create it from scratchThe tweet that led to a $750K investmentWhy he gave up 51% of the business early – and doesn't regret itThe role of soft touchpoints in landing major dealsGrowing to 800K newsletter subs without chasing SEOHow an official NFL content partnership changed everythingDiversifying revenue from newsletters, social, events, and brand partnershipsThe personal side: paying off student debt, buying his mom a car, and defining success as freedomCool Links:Hampton https://www.joinhampton.com/Lower Street https://www.lowerstreet.co/Front Office Sports https://frontofficesports.com/ Adam White https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-white-85ab4389/Sponsors:Protect your upside and get your time back at cressetcapital.com/moneywiseAchieve your dream body with dailybodycoach.com/moneywiseJoin 700+ founders hiring A-players in Latin America at hirewithnear.com/moneywiseChapters:(0:42) Building Front Office Sports: Growth & Early Days(1:40) Revenue Milestones(3:40) Building Brand Aura & Early Partnerships(10:34) Attracting Investors & Business Model Shift(13:24) Audience Growth During COVID(16:04) Monetization & Revenue Diversification(17:44) Philosophy on Investors(19:08) New Investors, Professionalization, & Validation(22:07) NFL Partnership (25:44) Networking Secrets(28:31) Personal Growth as a CEO(30:45) Personal Financial Journey & Mindset(33:40) Motivation, Competition, & Enjoying the JourneyThis podcast is a ridiculous concept: high-net-worth people reveal their personal finances. Inspired by real conversations happening in the Hampton community.Your Host: Harry MortonFounder of Lower Street, a podcast production company helping brands launch and grow top-tier podcasts.Co-parents a cow named Eliza.

Stop making million-dollar decisions alone. Hampton gives you a personal board of eight vetted founders in your city who meet monthly to tackle your hardest problems. Find your group: joinhampton.comAlex Smereczniak built a $100M laundry business and sold 118 franchise locations in just 14 months. But just as the business took off, life hit hard. After a series of personal and professional crises, he stepped down as CEO. Now he’s back – not for another big exit, but to fix a franchise industry riddled with bad incentives and hidden fees.Here’s what we talk about:Building a $100M brand from a college dorm laundry hustleThe personal crises that forced him to walk awayWhy he thinks franchising is totally broken – and how brokers quietly take 60% commissionsWhat he’s doing differently at Franzy: flat fees, transparency, no bullshitWhy he’s not taking a salary, even with an $11M net worthWhat it actually costs – financially and emotionally – to scale fastThe moment he knew he wasn’t the right CEO anymoreWhy he believes franchising could be the path for millions displaced by AIHow he defines success today: not exits, but impactCool Links:Hampton https://www.joinhampton.com/Lower Street https://www.lowerstreet.co/Franzy https://franzy.comAlex Smereczniak https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-smereczniak-%F0%9F%A6%81-40310329 Sponsors:Get US caliber talent at offshore prices with https://www.oceanstalent.com/Achieve your dream body with https://www.dailybodycoach.com/moneywiseProtect your upside and get your time back at https://www.cressetcapital.com/moneywiseChapters:(0:41) Early Entrepreneurship: College Laundry Business(1:31) Selling the First Business & Lessons Learned(2:47) The Moment Alex Reconsidered Corporate Life at Ernst & Young (3:37) Returning to Laundry: The Startup Vision(6:07) Raising Capital & Startup Growth(10:40) Team Building, Hiring Challenges, and Culture(13:15) COVID-19, Franchising, and Business Model Shift(18:21) The Franchise Broker Problem & Franzy's Solution(20:45) Franchising as a Path to Wealth(24:03) AI, Job Displacement, and the Future of Work(28:30) Alex’s Personal Wealth, Fulfillment, and Impact(31:00) Reflections on Net Worth, Liquidity, and Success(34:40) Community, Support, and Peer Groups(40:02) The Sweet Spot: Wealth, Happiness & Freedom for FoundersThis podcast is a ridiculous concept: high-net-worth people reveal their personal finances. Inspired by real conversations happening in the Hampton community.Your Host: Harry MortonFounder of Lower Street, a podcast production company helping brands launch and grow top-tier podcasts.Co-parents a cow named Eliza.

Stop making million dollar decisions alone. Hampton gives you a personal board of eight vetted founders in your city who meet monthly to tackle your hardest problems. Find your group: joinhampton.comKory Mitchell built a blue collar asbestos business and sold it for $200M. When he stepped back, everything started to fall apart. A new CEO lost millions. The culture cracked. Kory came back to fix it, then walked away on his own terms. This is what happens when scaling works…until it doesn’t.Here’s what we talk about:Buying blue collar businesses: the unsexy but ultra-profitable path to serious scaleWhy adding debt transformed their trajectory – and nearly broke the companyWhat not to do after an exit: the new CEO that lost $12M in 6 projectsThe hidden tax of scale: how managing founders who’ve “already made their money” can kill your businessHow to build trust during M&A, and the warning signs that should make you walkLessons in culture, integration, and the real cost of bad communicationThe burnout that followed a $200M exit, and why Kory walked awaySabbaticals, Porsches, and starting over: what post-exit life really looks likeThe secret to finding off-market deals, and why PE firms keep asking Kory for helpWho shouldn’t do M&A (and why doing it while your house is on fire is a terrible idea)Cool Links:Hampton https://www.joinhampton.com/Lower Street https://www.lowerstreet.co/Kory Mitchell https://www.linkedin.com/in/korylmitchell Sponsors:Get US caliber talent at offshore prices with https://www.oceanstalent.com/Achieve your dream body with https://www.dailybodycoach.com/moneywiseProtect your upside and get your time back at https://www.cressetcapital.com/moneywiseChapters:(01:54) Growing Up Blue Collar & Family Business Roots(03:09) Taking the Leap: Debt and Aggressive Growth(05:53) Merging, Scaling, and Learning from Private Equity(08:19) Managing People: The Human Side of M&A(13:18) Integration and Building Company Culture(19:25) The $200M Exit and Stepping Away(21:48) Crisis: Post-Sale Struggles and Turnaround(25:22) Burnout, Sabbatical, and Starting Over(27:47) Lessons Learned: Who Should (and Shouldn’t) Do M&AThis podcast is a ridiculous concept: high-net-worth people reveal their personal finances. Inspired by real conversations happening in the Hampton community.Your Host: Harry MortonFounder of Lower Street, a podcast production company helping brands launch and grow top-tier podcasts.Co-parents a cow named Eliza.

Stop making million dollar decisions alone. Hampton gives you a personal board of eight vetted founders in your city who meet monthly to tackle your hardest problems. Find your group: joinhampton.comJaclyn Johnson sold Create & Cultivate for $22 million. Then she hit pause – burned out, got divorced, and took a year off to figure out what she actually wanted. Now? She’s back, running the same company she sold, after buying it back for less.Here’s what we talk about:Flipping real estate, investing in 25 startups, and turning $10K into $1.2MSpending $17K/month on rent – and not caringThe number where she actually felt rich: $4–5M liquidHer full wealth breakdown: real estate, stocks, startups, and “a little” cryptoWhy angel investing works for her, and the returns that keep her goingHow burnout and divorce forced her to take a full year offWhat it’s like buying back the company you sold – for lessWhy she’ll never run day-to-day again (and how operators changed everything)Female founder scrutiny, and why being the face of the brand gets brutalWhy she’s done chasing status, and how FOMO just disappearedCool Links:Hampton https://www.joinhampton.com/Lower Street https://www.lowerstreet.co/Jaclyn Johnson https://jaclynrjohnson.com/ Sponsors:Get US caliber talent at offshore prices with https://www.oceanstalent.com/Achieve your dream body with https://www.dailybodycoach.com/moneywiseProtect your upside and get your time back at https://www.cressetcapital.com/moneywiseChapters:(0:25) How Jacqueline Johnson built and sold businesses for millions(1:43) The three kinds of success every founder chases(7:04) What it actually feels like to have $15M in the bank(15:29) How Create & Cultivate became a brand women rally behind(18:37) The double standard: What it’s really like being a female CEO(23:18) The moments that made Jacqueline feel like she’d “made it”(25:37) What happens after you stop chasing FOMO(29:38) The money mistakes founders make after a big exit(32:04) What Jacqueline wishes every founder knew before sellingThis podcast is a ridiculous concept: high-net-worth people reveal their personal finances. Inspired by real conversations happening in the Hampton community.Your Host: Harry MortonFounder of Lower Street, a podcast production company helping brands launch and grow top-tier podcasts.Co-parents a cow named Eliza.

Stop making million dollar decisions alone. Hampton gives you a personal board of eight vetted founders in your city who meet monthly to tackle your hardest problems. Find your group: joinhampton.comDonald Spann built a multi-million dollar call center from scratch — with no outside capital, no technical background, and no safety net. Even crazier? He sold it for $12M to the first person who ever signed up.Here’s what we talk about:Dropping out of college because he knew he’d never work for anyone elseBuilding a cleaning business off a Reddit thread… then using it to launch something way biggerAccidentally going viral and getting 65,000 applications on a mom blog Why he’s never raised a dollar of capital — and never plans toHis $12M exit from a bootstrapped call center (and how the buyer was his first-ever customer)Breaking down his finances: no real estate, no advisor, just stocks and angel betsGrowing up Black in a private school bubble and how that shaped everythingLiving on $10K/month in Mexico and self-funding a new mezcal brandCool Links:Hampton https://www.joinhampton.com/Lower Street https://www.lowerstreet.co/Sponsors:Tam your taxes today at https://olarry.com/moneywise Achieve your dream body with https://www.dailybodycoach.com/moneywiseProtect your upside and get your time back at https://www.cressetcapital.com/moneywiseChapters:(1:26) Donald’s Net Worth & Current Ventures(3:57) Early Life, Education, and First Lessons(7:40) First Businesses & Getting Into Y Combinator(10:49) Building and Selling the Cleaning Business(14:02) The Successful Exit of Vicki Virtual(18:54) Personality, Confidence, and Entrepreneurial Edge(22:41) Meritocracy, Hard Work, and the Role of Luck(25:40) Reflections on Success & Personal Growth(29:02) Race, Identity, and the Entrepreneurial JourneyThis podcast is a ridiculous concept: high-net-worth people reveal their personal finances. Inspired by real conversations happening in the Hampton community.Your Host: Harry MortonFounder of Lower Street, a podcast production company helping brands launch and grow top-tier podcasts.Co-parents a cow named Eliza.

Stop making million dollar decisions alone. Hampton gives you a personal board of eight vetted founders in your city who meet monthly to tackle your hardest problems. Find your group: joinhampton.comAli Abdaal didn’t sell a startup. He didn’t raise money. He didn’t even plan to leave medicine. He just turned himself into the business, and ended up happier, wealthier, and more free than he ever expected.Here’s what we talk about:Why Ali says money hasn’t made him more happy, just removed the stuff that made him unhappyHis net worth (between $1M and $10M) and how it breaks downHow a scammed MacBook deal sparked a business that made £1M+What he learned after hitting $6M/year in revenue, and why he stopped trying to scale furtherHow flying business class and skipping trash day became his personal luxuriesWhy “$100M in the bank” wouldn’t change how he spends his timeHow coaching, meditation, and philosophy reshaped his relationship with moneyThe moment Lewis Howes helped him break his identity as a doctorHis rule of thumb: “Freedom comes from leaving money on the table”Why he's building software to reduce his dependence on contentHis real goal: $2M/year profit so he can work when he wants, on what he wantsSponsors:Get US caliber talent at offshore prices with https://www.oceanstalent.com/Achieve your dream body with https://www.dailybodycoach.com/moneywiseProtect your upside and get your time back at https://www.cressetcapital.com/moneywiseCool Links:Hampton https://www.joinhampton.com/Lower Street https://www.lowerstreet.co/Ali’s stuff: https://aliabdaal.com/Chapters:(0:00) Introduction & Ali's Philosophy on Wealth(1:48) Net Worth Breakdown & Investing(3:17) Life in Hong Kong: Renting vs. Owning(4:54) From Medicine to Entrepreneurship(6:09) Early Business Lessons & Getting Scammed(7:44) Building and Selling the First Business(9:02) YouTube Journey & Passive Income(12:00) Revenue Growth, Plateau, and Lifestyle Design(16:01) Money, Happiness, and Scarcity Mindset(24:00) Motivation, Fulfillment, and Final ThoughtsThis podcast is a ridiculous concept: high-net-worth people reveal their personal finances. Inspired by real conversations happening in the Hampton community.Your Host: Harry MortonFounder of Lower Street, a podcast production company helping brands launch and grow top-tier podcasts.Co-parents a cow named Eliza.