Stephen May is a realtor and a self-storage owner-operator, and a college friend of the guys from Missouri State. He graduated in May 2019 with a bachelor's in nursing, took a job at Saint Luke's on the Country Club Plaza, and moved to Kansas City having visited exactly once — he'd already bought a house there before he arrived.

That house was a house hack: 3% down, conventional, owner-occupied, with buddies paying $400 a room to cover the mortgage. Eight months later he talked a lender past the 12-month owner-occupant rule and bought a second at 5% down. The roommates moved out, the first became a rental, and he was hooked at 23.

The pivot that matters is what came next. Studying self-storage through Bigger Pockets and AJ Osborne, he built a sourcing method anyone can copy: Google “self storage near me” in a market he already knew (the Ozarks, where he'd spent every summer), then scan for facilities with no website or two-star reviews — distressed mom-and-pop owners who've stopped managing. He pulled owners off the county site, skip-traced them, and started dialing. On the third or fourth call an office manager simply handed him the owner's number. That conversation became his first facility, closed at the end of 2021. Five months later the same seller sold him the second — for $750,000, which meant writing a personal check for roughly $75,000 at 25 years old.

Today it's seven locations, about 750 units at ~95% occupancy, two rent raises this year, entirely self-managed with his cousin and business partner Nick, and 100% owned with no outside capital. He went part-time nursing in 2022, then PRN (one to two shifts a month), and finally quit — without telling his parents for three or four months. He's now back in St. Louis with his wife, figuring out what the next chapter looks like.

Along the way the guys get into the lending math on multi-family, why he stress-tests every deal after watching a 4% note reset to 7.5%, the FIRE movement and “work optional” as a goal instead of retirement, and — refreshingly — why he was still partying hard through the whole build.

What would you say if you could sit down with your 25-year-old self for one conversation? No guest this week. Just Zach and Pat going through the four things they'd change - career, relationships, money, and health - including the mistakes that cost them time they can't get back. Pat on the years he spent building a business while his kids grew up without him. Zach on three years of sweat equity that never paid out, and why he cut his own income in half on purpose. Real numbers, real regrets, and the advice they wish someone had handed them a decade ago.

Everybody told you the pain is where it hurts. Stephen Shinn has built an entire practice on the idea that it almost never is. Stephen is the owner of Revive Wellness Company, and he works in the gap nobody else covers — the space between rehab and fitness that he says both sides fundamentally misunderstand. He's gotten people out of wheelchairs, taken a paralyzed bricklayer from five years of failed PT to walking and talking in six months, and cut a leading stem-cell clinic's treatment counts in half using nothing but breath work. In this one: why "it's just part of getting older" is a lie, the difference between a tissue issue and a tone issue, why you should stop stretching your hamstrings, what your chiropractor is actually giving you (and why it doesn't stick), what weighted-ball training is doing to 10-year-old arms, stem cells and peptides, neutral thinking, and the three habits he'd change in the average American day.

Everything in the block below goes straight into the YouTube description field. Wes Hoffman has written over 50 songs in a year, toured 924 Gilman, and built two music communities from an Instagram account. He also says the thing most musicians don't want to hear: good songs will only take you so far. In this episode we get into what actually grows a band, why Spotify monthly listeners are a lie, and how a divorce, a closed business and a new job inside three months turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to him. Wes Hoffman is a St. Louis singer-songwriter, frontman of Wes Hoffman and Friends, and the founder of 314 Punk and Frequency Midwest. New record out in October — and there's a St. Louis festival announcement coming in August.

Jack returns a year on to trace how much has shifted in the business and in himself. On the business side he walks through the full subcontractor life cycle he's now watched play out over five years, why he's productizing fencing into a simple, scalable 'Chick-fil-A' menu under Faster Fences, and the honest fear of letting go of operational control that's the single thing capping his growth. On the personal side, he opens up about realizing he'd built his whole identity around chasing money, the spiritual-coaching work with Josh Wiesler that followed, and a run of experiences (a business he tried to close, a calling to a coffee shop, baptisms at the gym) that reoriented him. Pat mirrors it with his own reset: a month-and-a-half off social media and a six-month break from dating, and what both have done for his focus.

What you'll take away

● The subcontractor (and employee) life cycle - how good crews start hungry, peak in the middle, then drift - and how to see the end coming.

● Why productizing a service into 3-5 fixed options (the "Chick-fil-A" model) simplifies inventory, speed and customer experience all at once.

● The real bottleneck to scaling isn't leads - it's the founder's fear of handing off control.

● A practical case that growth for its own sake can cost you the client experience and the life you actually want.

● How a social-media and dating fast can free up focus, money and genuine connection - plus the discipline-vs-motivation cycle every entrepreneur rides seasonally.

Dalton is a realtor at CRS Belt Nichols — and the "bonus dad" to co-host Pat’s two boys. He and the guys cover his path from car sales to real estate, the mentors who shaped him, the realities of the sales grind (lead sources, pre-approvals, listing strategy), and some genuinely wild listing stories. Then the episode turns into its best self: an honest, moving conversation about co-parenting after divorce — how Pat and Dalton put their egos aside, backed each other up, and built a blended family the kids actually thrive in.

What you’ll take away

• How to co-parent after divorce without making the kids collateral — "put down your swords."

• Why "if I hate my ex, I hate half my kids" reframes the whole thing.

• The reality of the real-estate grind: mentors, lead sources, and running a real buyer consult.

• A masterclass in ego, humility, and doing what’s best for the children.

Dr. Jessica Nieva was born profoundly deaf and grew up isolated — raised to read lips, not sign, in a Filipino family that pushed medicine. She didn’t hear clearly until a cochlear implant at 30, an experience she calls life-changing. In this episode she and the guys talk about the first sounds she ever heard, running 60+ miles a week to cope with loneliness, building Benton Family Dentistry while raising four daughters in five years, dropping insurance to trade burnout for quality, and why she now takes health and happiness over income.

What you’ll take away

• How adversity built the toughness behind her success — and why she has empathy to match.

• The business case for going out-of-network: fewer patients, higher quality, more happiness.

• Why "saying no" and setting boundaries is a superpower for any owner.

• Choosing health, family, and presence over maximizing income.

Stephen Burton is the owner and educator of Foundation Rescue in St. Louis, with 35 years and $100M in foundation repairs behind him. In this episode he pulls back the curtain on an industry with no licensing test and no standards: why homes really fail (gutters and downspouts, not "your walls falling"), how to avoid getting ripped off, the $175 inspection he’ll do before you spend $30,000, the difference between clients and customers, and the faith and integrity that turned him from "part of the problem" into an advocate. Equal parts homeowner survival guide and a lesson in doing business the right way.

What you’ll take away

• The real cause of most foundation problems — and the two things every homeowner should do today.

• How to tell a good foundation contractor from a predatory one (licensing, insurance, the 3-day rescission).

• Why "fixing the crack" without fixing the cause guarantees a new crack.

• Clients vs. customers — and why treating people as clients wins long-term.

• Owning your mistakes: how he went from "the problem" to reforming the industry.

Pull-quotes

• "Your walls do not fall. That’s the scare tactic."

• "Clients buy information. Customers buy products."

• "If you don’t know who the idiot is at the poker table, it’s you."

• "He was a slow learner, but he figured it out." (his tombstone)