In this episode, Adam sits down with Justin Corson, owner of Wreck Room HV, the Hudson Valley's place to grab a bat and smash TVs, dishes, and everything else weighing on you. Justin traces his path from St. Louis to culinary school in the Hudson Valley, a year back at the culinary school as a manager-in-training, a few local restaurants, and about eight years managing a small cafe he calls a local institution, to the celebrity-chef dreams, a Chopped tryout, and a YouTube venture that never quite panned out. When the frustration piled up, a conversation with his therapist sparked an idea: there wasn't a single rage room within two hours, so he built one himself.

The conversation covers what it really costs to open a business nobody in your area has done before. Justin breaks down why he walked away from a $300,000 franchise fee plus 6–8% of revenue and built it for half, the thousands he wasted on jumpsuits nobody wanted, and why he won't print merch until he knows people will buy it. He explains how he was so busy in his first months that he had to turn customers away for lack of things to smash, and how partnerships with local thrift stores and the Habitat ReStore solved his supply problem. He also gets into the cash surprises of year two: a lease he paid upfront that came due in full again, and an insurance "renewal" that was really a brand-new policy with 25% down.

Justin gets candid about the real cost of ownership: wearing every hat from janitor to social media manager, hiring help to get home to his family only to fire him over a safety violation, and why you should plan on three times the money and half the family time you expect. He makes the case that the restaurant industry treats burnout as a badge of honor, that society teaches us to bury our anger instead of releasing it, and that everyone who looks perfect online is fighting the same battles. He also opens up about his younger son's autism journey, the local therapy program that helped him find his voice, and his dream of adding sensory rooms so families of kids with disabilities can finally do something together.

Whether you're a career-changer with an idea nobody in your town has tried, a first-year owner staring down cash flow surprises, or someone who needs a reminder that it's okay to be angry, this episode is packed with hard-won lessons on planning, money, mental health, and the mindset to smash through fear instead of being paralyzed by it.

Find Justin and Wreck Room Hudson Valley at the Poughkeepsie Galleria and online at https://wreckroomhv.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wreckroomhudsonvalley/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Wreck-Room-HV-61580917328253/

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