BUILDERS with Alex Snider

WHAT COMES AFTER FLOW: Nervous System Strategy, AI Leverage & The Long Game with Caleb Jennings Part 2 of 2What happens after the breakdown?In Part 2 of this raw and tactical conversation, Caleb Jennings and Alex Snider shift gears... from mindset and identity to building frameworks, nervous system-led leadership, and AI as a co-founder.This episode moves from the esoteric to the executable. It’s where flow meets infrastructure, trauma meets tech, and legacy meets long-game strategy.If Part 1 was the why - this is the how.In this episode, we explore: ✅ 00:00 – 02:51 Part 1 RecapA recap of Part 1, revisiting Caleb’s journey from elite athletics to systems thinking, and reframing the breakdown as a transition point - setting the context for why Part 2 moves from flow into structure, regulation, and long-term leadership.✅ 04:00 – 30:00 Defining success, satisfaction, and wealthy leadershipHow Olympians and billionaires demonstrate that ordinary thinking and behavior don’t lead to extraordinary outcomes.From PMI and humanized metrics to redefining success on your own terms, Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey, multi-passionate builders, energy management, routine as freedom, Human Design, and the shift from frustration to satisfaction as a performance signal.✅ 30:00 – 49:50Failure, trade-offs, and perspective:Using frustration as feedback, failure as a spectrum, structure over force, scaling laws, stoicism vs hedonism, and making conscious trade-offs in health, business, and life through better metrics and perspective.✅ 49:50 – 01:07:13Scaling Young and Raw & leverage in business:Moving the “free line,” organic growth experiments, Apple features, distribution leverage, and knowing when to pivot or shut things down with integrity.✅ 01:07:13 – 01:29:26Health optimization, biohacking, and the path to AI & supplements:Foundational breathwork, sleep, trauma healing, peptides and recovery, over-optimization vs basics, and how Caleb’s biohacking work evolved into high-ticket consulting, AI-enabled growth, and mineral-based supplements.✅ 01:30:07 – 02:01:30AI as a co-founder, ethical scaling, and legacy leadership:Using AI for compliance, contracts, and prompt architecture; scaling with integrity in wellness and e-commerce; and closing reflections on community, humility, long-term thinking, and what it really means to build an epic life.This episode is for founders ready to scale sustainably - leaning into their nervous system, not working against it.🎧 Catch up on Part 1 for the origin story and mindset rewirethen 📲 Listen to Part 2 on your favorite platformConnect with Caleb Jennings:https://www.upgradedformulas.com/calebjennings IG: @calebjennings FB: @calebjennings

What do martial arts, minerals, and marketing experiments have in common?For Caleb Jennings, they’re all part of a bigger system: building a life - and a business - in flow.In Part 1 of this powerful two-part episode, Caleb shares the deeply personal and wildly practical mindset shifts that laid the groundwork for his recovery from a broken back, identity confusion, and over-optimization.From muscle hacking to Human Design to the 'Trim Tab Effect,' this conversation is anything but surface-level. It’s a deep dive into the operating system behind sustainable success. One that includes the nervous system, but also redefines how founders think about habits, health, identity, and intuition.This one’s for anyone obsessed with optimization… and ready for a deeper form of alignment.In this episode, we explore: ✅ 00:02:20 – 00:09:21 From gold medals to systems thinking: Caleb’s evolution from championship martial arts and snowboarding to entrepreneurship - driven by his core operating system: “Less Friction, More Flow.”✅ 00:14:00 – 00:23:20 The architecture of identity: Why “embracing your weird” is a competitive advantage, how to split-test your habits like a marketer, and using The Alter Ego Effect to engineer a new self-image.✅ 00:25:40 – 00:30:25 The muscle-hacking experiment: How floating, minerals, and growth factors helped Caleb gain 40 lbs of muscle naturally - and how it relates to the concept of “Identity Lag” (why you might feel clumsy after any quantum leap).✅ 00:35:02 – 00:40:00 The “Trim Tab Effect”: How a tiny rudder on the Titanic teaches us about leverage - and why health is the ultimate business multiplier.✅ 00:53:56 – 01:00:53 Humans as time travelers: The story behind Caleb’s iPod engraving, and a masterclass on managing the drivers of anxiety & depression to lead from the now.✅ 01:22:23 – 01:31:56 The esoteric edge: Why “millionaires don’t believe in astrology, but billionaires do.” How he uses Human Design and astro-cartography to time launches, build teams, and outmaneuver competitors who ignore the "woo."You’ll walk away with a radically expanded view of what it means to scale like a prolific builder and why real transformation starts inside your operating system.🎧 Part 2 coming next week: Rebuilding From Burnout, AI as a Co-Founder, and the Future of Nervous System-Led LeadershipConnect with Caleb Jennings:https://www.upgradedformulas.com/calebjennings IG: @calebjennings FB: @calebjennings

What happens when your highlight reel no longer tells the whole truth?In this raw, real, and revealing episode, I sit down with brand strategist, outdoorsman, and serial entrepreneur Seth Spears - a man who helped scale one of the world’s most-read wellness platforms, built values-driven companies with his family, and still found himself asking: “Is this what success is supposed to feel like?”This conversation is a masterclass in tenacity, trade-offs, ego, identity, and redefining success on your own term. Seth’s journey isn’t linear - it’s circuitous by design. From being homeschooled and voraciously self-educated… to early digital marketing and SEO in the Wild West days… to co-building WellnessMama into a category-defining platform… to stepping back, letting go of ego, and navigating the personal cost of growth. We talk about building companies with your wife, what happens when ambition reshapes relationships, and why what got you here won’t get you there - in business or in life. This episode is about Wealthy Leadership in its truest form - not just money, but freedom, health, alignment, presence, and choosing your seasons intentionally.In this episode, we explore:✅00:00 – 13:00 | Becoming a Builder: From homeschooled rebel to digital marketing pioneer - and how stepping back to position his wife as teh face of the brand required he drop his ego.✅13:00 – 22:00 | Polarity, Power, and Partnership: How shifting business roles impacted his marriage - and why personal dynamics matter in scaling with family.✅22:00 – 31:00 | Redefining Success: Surfing analogies, seasonal balance, and the hard truth that “having it all” isn’t real - but owning your pace is.✅31:00 – 50:00 | Burnout, Trade-offs & the Myth of Optimization: The comfort crisis, hustle epigenetics, and why growth often requires discomfort by design.✅50:00 – 1:18:00 | Entrepreneur vs. Business Owner: The identity trap of hustle culture, redefining what “winning” looks like, and how travel expands leadership perspective.✅1:18:00 – 1:37:00 | Legacy Tension: Navigating roots vs. wings, family vs. freedom, and how to build a life that fits the season you're in now.✅1:37:00 – End | Rewilding, Rapid Fire & the $250K Lesson: Building a passion project, trusting intuition, and the CEO hire that changed everything.We also dive into Rewild Gear, Seth’s passion project with his brother rooted in conservation, craftsmanship, and reconnecting with nature - a reminder that not every business has to be optimized for scale to be meaningful.Checkout their unique outdoorsman gear and conservation efforts here: https://rewildgear.comThis episode is thoughtful, raw, philosophical, and deeply human.If you’ve ever questioned the path you’re on…If you’ve ever wondered whether “success” is costing you more than you planned…If you’re building something big - and trying not to lose yourself in the process…This one’s for you.🔗 Connect with Seth Spears:https://sethspears.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethspears/https://www.facebook.com/sethspearshttps://www.youtube.com/@SethSpears https://x.com/spearsmarketinghttps://www.threads.com/@spearsmarketinghttps://www.tiktok.com/@spearsmarketinghttps://www.instagram.com/spearsmarketing

What happens when a father of four, a franchise veteran, and an expert CMO collide with a unique private equity opportunity?You get Leigh Feldman - a leader on a mission to turn cooking into confidence and business into community impact. As CEO of Youth Franchise Brands, Leigh is scaling companies like Young Chefs Academy and Flour Power Cooking Studios while rewriting the rules of franchising, leadership, and success.But Leigh’s work is about more than business. It’s about teaching confidence through cooking, instilling STEM and entrepreneurial skills in the next generation, and building businesses that become true community assets.This conversation is packed with frameworks, stories, and quotable moments on leadership, franchising, and redefining success on your own terms.In this episode we dive into:✅ The journey from agency life to private equity - and the lessons that stuck✅ The Three Deep, Three Wide, Three High framework for building lasting client relationships✅ The STOP method: how to cut through miscommunication and align teams fast✅ Why franchising is really about empowering owners, not selling dreams✅ The parallels between martial arts belts and teaching kids kitchen skills in a progression model✅ Why most new franchisees fail - and how to avoid under-capitalization✅ What franchisors get wrong about “one-size-fits-all” support (and what to do instead)✅ The North Star question: Is it important because it’s measured, or measured because it’s important?✅ Why community reputation and relationships matter more than ads or campaigns✅ What success looks like on Leigh’s terms - and what happened when he reverse-UNO'd that question back to AlexThis episode will expand how you think about leadership, growth, and building businesses that truly matter.👋 Connect with Leigh:LinkedIn: Leigh Feldman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leigh-feldman/Learn more about Youth Franchise Brands: Young Chefs Academy: www.youngchefsacademy.comFlour Power Cooking Studios: www.flourpowerstudios.com-----------If you’re new here, I’m Alex—Strategic Growth Architect, keynote speaker, podcast host and creator of The CEO Recode. If you’re scaling fast but stuck at the center of everything, let’s get you back in your Zone of Genius by jumping on a free Business Breakdown Call: ⁠https://calendly.com/alexsnider/the_business_breakdown_call⁠ Want to stay in the know…?Join The Builders Club: ⁠https://alexsnider.com/join-builders-club/⁠ My website ⁠https://leaderswhobuild.com/⁠ has alllll the links plus client testimonials, feature articles, presentations and moreCheck out Instagram to see where in the world I am and if I want to the gym today ⁠https://www.instagram.com/leaderswhobuild/?hl=en ⁠🎧 Subscribe to the Podcast on your favourite platform: ⁠https://builderswithalexsnider.my.canva.site⁠

Jesse P. Gilmore is the Founder of Niche In Control and the creator of the Scalable Agency Accelerator™ + Leverage for Growth® Method - a system that’s helped over 500+ agency owners break free from the founder trap and build businesses that scale without consuming their lives. But Jesse’s journey to wealthy leadership wasn’t a straight line. After burning out in three businesses built on hustle and long hours, he stepped into Corporate America, where he learned about systems, leadership, and scalability that lead him to see how freedom could be created.That experience, combined with his entrepreneurial lessons, became the backbone of the framework he now teaches agency owners around the world. This conversation is raw, tactical, and deeply personal. From lucid dreams that sparked his entrepreneurial path, to losing $60K in 3 months while transitioning his business model, to redefining freedom as choice - Jesse brings a mix of humility, candour, and hard-won wisdom.In this episode, we unpack: 🔥 Why working harder is one of the most dangerous myths in entrepreneurship🔥 The shift from operator to CEO - and the 3 roadblocks that keep agency owners stuck 🔥 How time freedom (not financial freedom) is the true unlock for growth🔥 The “trifecta of chaos” every founder faces - and how to prioritize health, family, and business without losing yourself 🔥 Why proof of concept beats perfection (and how to validate your next offer fast🔥 The power of internal vs. external locus of control in navigating setback🔥 Why scalable offers - not more leads- are the real key to sustainable agencies🔥 How AI is disrupting the agency model - and where the biggest opportunities lie 🔥 Jesse’s vision to impact 1M entrepreneurs and the new Scalable Agency Accelerator.If you’re building an agency - or any business that you want to scale sustainably - Jesse’s insights will challenge the way you think about freedom, leadership, and what it really takes to build something that lasts. 👋 Connect with Jesse: 🔗 Website - https://www.nicheincontrol.com🔗Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessepgilmore/🔗Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@nicheincontroltv🔗 The Agency Owner's Guide to Freedom: Take Back Your Life, Control Your Time, and Transform Your Agency - https://www.amazon.com/Agency-Owners-Guide-Freedom-Transform/dp/B0CK3XGBLM🔗 Join the Scalable Agency Accelerator launch event on November 11 - https://go.nicheincontrol.com/launch-----------If you’re new here, I’m Alex—Strategic Growth Architect, keynote speaker, podcast host and creator of The CEO Recode. If you’re scaling fast but stuck at the center of everything, let’s get you back in your Zone of Genius by jumping on a free Business Breakdown Call: ⁠https://calendly.com/alexsnider/the_business_breakdown_call⁠ Want to stay in the know…?Join The Builders Club: ⁠https://alexsnider.com/join-builders-club/⁠ My website ⁠https://leaderswhobuild.com/⁠ has alllll the links plus client testimonials, feature articles, presentations and moreCheck out Instagram to see where in the world I am and if I want to the gym today ⁠https://www.instagram.com/leaderswhobuild/?hl=en ⁠🎧 Subscribe to the Podcast on your favourite platform: ⁠https://builderswithalexsnider.my.canva.site⁠