Sunday, Unedited

Validating an idea is the easy part. Getting it in front of customers is where most businesses stall.

In episode 4, JP and Todd pick up where last week's build left off: distribution. Todd breaks down earned, borrowed and paid media with deals he's actually run, from a table at BJ's Wholesale Club to a bike shop partnership. We get into why the first sale is fool's gold, why your followers live on rented land, and how to test one variable at a time. Before all that: gut health, East Tennessee heat, comfort TV, and a few too many bear stories.

What you'll hear:

- The difference between earned, borrowed and paid media, and when to use each

- How to borrow someone else's foot traffic by aligning incentives with them

- Why profit lives in the second, third and fourth sale, not the first

- How to move followers off rented platforms and onto lists you own

- Why a handwritten note can do more for retention than an ad

- How to test like an elimination diet: one variable at a time

Mentioned in this episode:

- Long Way Round (Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman)

- BJ's Wholesale Club

- NASM

- Johnny Cupcakes

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We each brought a startup idea. Rock, paper, scissors decided which one we'd build on air. Scissors won.

In episode 3, JP pitches Investro, an AI that interviews founders and finds them matching investors. Todd pitches a mini pop-up art show: baseball-card-sized original art and $10 prints sold from retro vending machines in local galleries. Todd's idea wins, and we gameplan it live, from a two-city test to unit economics to a trading platform, and why being second to market can beat being first.

What you'll hear:

- How to validate an idea with two vending machines instead of an app

- What 500 prints in a month would prove, and why we picked that number

- Why people are paying for real-world experiences again

- How collectibles turn a $10 print into something people trade

- Why the second mouse gets the cheese

- How to ask customers questions that don't lead them to yes

Mentioned in this episode:

- Meow Wolf (Denver)

- Magic: The Gathering and the One Ring card

- Clayton Christensen, The Innovator's Dilemma

Follow Sunday, Unedited on Spotify so you don't miss the build.

In episode 2, JP and Todd get into the pull between building something huge and doing work you love. It starts with two consulting deals nobody saw coming and the old story about the mechanic who charges $4,000 for five minutes of work.

From there: clients worth walking away from, what corporate awards are worth once you leave, raising kids into adults, and the lake where everything got clear.

What you'll hear:

- Why clients pay for knowing where to hit, not for swinging the hammer

- How a few high-margin projects can fund the work you care about

- Why "small business" is not a customer, and what to target instead

- The idiot tax: when to double the price and when to walk

- Why skills travel with you and titles don't

- What true wealth looks like after burnout

Chapters:

00:00 Two surprise deals and the hammer story

[02:51] Building an empire or doing what you love

[08:56] The idiot tax and bad-fit clients

[13:38] Walking away from the CEO track

[20:59] What true wealth looks like

[29:10] Raising adults and skills over titles

[38:42] Buying a bankrupt sporting goods store

[43:09] A paddle board and a second chance

[01:01:36] Chess, jiu-jitsu and the next episode

Next episode: we each bring a business idea, rock-paper-scissors picks the winner, and we build the company on air.

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Two old friends on quitting corporate at the top, building businesses from a garage, losing a brother, and what success looks like at 50.

One lost his first karate tournament in 15 seconds and wrote a novel in 90 days after losing his brother. The other walked away from a media career at its peak, and started a print shop in a 130-degree garage.

This week it's two friends of more than 15 years with the mics on and nothing cut. Todd traces the road from Rochester, New York to Tennessee, through corporate sales, a year in Denver and 10,000 miles on a bike, to the burnout that made him quit. We get into the businesses he built afterward, the fitness brand he's launching in his 50s, and what success means once titles stop mattering.

What you'll hear:

- Why the best deals are sometimes the ones you don't do

- How burnout can show up in your best revenue years

- What a grandfather who bought a company at 65 taught him about risk

- Why friendships in your 50s run on difference, not competition

- How losing in 15 seconds at age 15 shaped everything after

Chapters:

00:00 Ukulele, air guitar and playing live again

[18:07] Family legends and a Gen X childhood

[18:34] Grandfather Frank bought a company at 65

[24:44] Quitting corporate

[MM:SS] A fitness brand and redefining success at 50

[39:00] Writing a fantasy novel

[44:50] The best deals are the ones you don't do

[56:05] Losing in 15 seconds and never again

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