Proven Podcast

John R. Miles graduated from the Naval Academy and spent years supporting special operations teams, including SEAL units, on ships and in high-risk missions. He later ran technology teams at Dell and Lowe's, and he now writes books and hosts the Passionstruck podcast. Charles talks with him about what he learned leading people where mistakes cost lives and where they only cost money.
When John started at Lowe's, the team he inherited ranked last in the company's employee survey. He explains what he found when he talked to the people on that team, why they had stopped speaking up, and the steps he took to turn it around. He also shares the daily habits that keep him steady and why he stopped drinking three years ago.
You'll hear how he thinks about autonomy, how to rebuild trust when people are afraid to bring you bad news, why he compares leadership to gardening, and the six signals that show whether people feel they matter at work.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Why a leader who controls every move becomes the bottleneck, and how clear boundaries let capable people do the work
How to earn trust in a new role by listening to the people closest to the work before you change anything
Why people who fear blame hide problems, and how rewarding early bad news saves time and money
How meaning, autonomy, trust, time, energy, and reciprocity show whether your team feels they matter
Why a daily habit of checking your actions against your values keeps you steady under pressure
KEY POINTS:
00:20 - From the Navy to Fortune 50 tech: John explains how burning out as a high performer changed what he thinks drives real results.
02:40 - Leading special operations teams: John shares what he learned supporting SEAL units, and why a leader can never become the bottleneck.
06:01 - Earning trust on a Navy ship: John describes walking onto a ship with broken morale and why he volunteered for any job that needed doing.
13:10 - Self-regulation comes first: John walks through his daily routine of gratitude, mindfulness, exercise, and setting intentions.
16:29 - Tying gratitude to your values: John explains how checking your daily actions against your core values shows you where you fall short.
22:11 - Taking alcohol off the table: John talks about quitting, what it did for his sleep and energy, and why Charles says vulnerability takes strength.
25:50 - Walking into the lowest-ranked team at Lowe's: John shares the call that told him his team finished last in employee engagement.
29:17 - Systemic unmattering: John explains why people stop speaking up after they learn that nothing changes.
33:24 - Gardener leadership: John describes why he sees leadership as creating the right conditions instead of pulling on people.
37:56 - Autonomy means authorship with guardrails: John explains how training the whole team on one shared process gave them a common language.
44:04 - The six signals of mattering: Meaning, autonomy, trust, time, energy, and reciprocity.
46:22 - How to rebuild trust: John explains why hiding bad news leads to bad decisions, and what he did to make it safe to tell the truth.
52:29 - Time as a signal: John explains how a calendar full of meetings tells people what you really value, and how he cut the extra governance.
56:58 - Reciprocity: John shares how he gave his team training, promotions, and visibility, and why he got to know them outside of work.
01:03:48 - What becomes more human in the age of AI: John explains why companies should ask what machines free people up to do, instead of which jobs to cut.

Michael Ramsey co-founded Strong Pilates seven years ago. It now has 120 locations in 15 countries and brings in about $75 million a year. He opened his first franchise at 26 and later sold his stake in six of them, so he has seen both sides of the model. Charles sits down with him to talk about why more people will turn to franchising as AI takes over skilled jobs.
Most people think a franchise is passive income. Michael says it isn't, and he explains what you're really buying and why your first unit rarely makes you rich on its own. They also cover why some brands fall apart after 25 locations, and how to spot the weak ones before you sign a five-year agreement.
You'll hear the questions to ask other franchisees, how much cash to keep in reserve, what a realistic payback looks like, and why the best franchisees often have no franchise experience at all.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Why a franchise gives you a system but still requires you to do the work every day
How to check unit economics and talk to both top and bottom performers before you buy
Why pre-selling before you open is one of the biggest factors in a strong first year
How 12 to 18 months of reserve cash protects you from leases, loans, and a slow start
Why the person who wants it the most often beats the person with the best background
KEY POINTS:
00:31 - From marketer to franchise owner: Michael shares how he went from climbing the corporate ladder at 26 to building a global Pilates brand.
02:43 - Why AI pushes people toward franchising: Skilled jobs in legal, marketing, and copywriting are already shrinking, and Michael explains where those workers could land.
04:29 - Employee versus entrepreneur: Charles explains why the jump from one to the other is bigger than most people think, and where a franchise helps.
07:57 - The biggest mistake new franchisees make: Michael explains why a franchise is not passive income, and what franchisors get wrong when they sell to anyone with a checkbook.
11:22 - Why most franchises stall: Fewer than half reach 25 units and only 5 percent reach 100. Michael shares the one metric he watches to tell the good ones from the hype.
15:50 - What to ask other franchisees: Unit economics, top and bottom performers, advisory boards, and exit plans.
21:59 - The mistakes to avoid after you buy: Skipping pre-sales, picking a brand you don't care about, building no financial model, and running short on capital.
25:41 - How much cash to keep in reserve: Michael gives his rule of thumb for surviving the slow early months.
31:26 - Who makes the best franchisee: Michael and Charles agree it comes down to hunger and sales skill, not a résumé.
40:33 - The real numbers: Payback time, monthly revenue, and profit margins for a strong performer.
43:21 - What drives a higher return: Marketing spend and the small personal touches that build a loyal community.

Charles goes one on one with David Goldhill, founder and CEO of Sesame, former president of television at Universal Studios, and author of Catastrophic Care, to tear apart why American healthcare costs so much and what it would actually take to fix it.
They walk through why the United States covers 40 percent of the world's healthcare spending while making up just 3 percent of the population, why insurance companies and government payers killed normal pricing, and why the fix isn't one big policy swing. It's a shift back to treating patients like customers.
The conversation covers the real economics behind a $900 million pill, why Sesame borrows its pricing model from a stone crab restaurant in Miami, why hospitals are stuck with a broken business model, and why the doctor in your neighborhood is about to compete with the best doctor on the planet.
KEY POINTS:
00:34 – Entertainment executive to healthcare founder: David walks through his path from Universal Studios and the Game Show Network to building Sesame, and why Charles calls it a classic swap from one broken industry to another.
01:57 – America is subsidizing world healthcare: David explains why the US pays 70 to 80 percent of the cost of medical innovation while capturing a fraction of the benefit, and why cutting that funding would collapse care standards everywhere.
04:04 – The NATO of medicine: David compares American healthcare spending to defense spending in NATO, and lays out the number that stops most people cold. The US is 3 percent of world population and 40 percent of world healthcare spend.
09:13 – Why the first pill costs $900 million and the second costs a penny: Charles and David break down drug pricing, and why a business model that looks terrible everywhere else works in healthcare because normal competition never gets the chance to bring prices down.
14:42 – The real lifetime cost of healthcare: David shares the number that shocked him while writing his 2012 book, what one employee puts into the healthcare system over a lifetime, and where all of that money actually goes.
27:30 – The Joe's Stone Crab model: Charles and David use a Miami restaurant to explain how Sesame built a cash pay system that gives patients upfront pricing without insurance, and why doctors are lining up to join it.
31:33 – Telemedicine breaks the map: David explains why location is about to stop deciding who gets access to the best doctors, and how remote care strips real cost out of the system instead of just shifting it around.
37:05 – What happens when incentives go wrong: Charles shares a story from his years in hospice about a system that started rewarding shorter patient stays, and David explains why neither side of that story is really about good or evil people.
44:11 – The biggest shifts in the market right now: David breaks down why patients are getting more financially sophisticated, why doctors are leaving independent practice, and why big hospital chains are structurally unable to compete on cost.
52:09 – Fighting conventional wisdom: David walks through the assumptions people in healthcare kept telling him were impossible, like doctors posting real prices, and why more of the best doctors in the country are asking how to get out of insurance entirely.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Why the US being 3 percent of world population and 40 percent of world healthcare spend is the number that explains almost everything else in this conversation
How third party payers removed the pressure that normally pushes prices down as a product matures
Why Sesame's cash pay, upfront pricing model is pulling in doctors who are tired of spending their time on insurance paperwork
Why hospitals keep growing their share of the healthcare dollar even though they play a shrinking role in actual care
Why personalized, proactive healthcare cannot run on a payment system built for a world where medicine could only react to problems after they happened

Charles sits down with Mark Roberge, tech entrepreneur, Harvard Business School professor, and founding Chief Revenue Officer of HubSpot, to break down what AI is actually doing to sales, scaling, and the way companies get built.
From the real numbers behind AI adoption to the frameworks that separate companies that scale successfully from the ones that stall out, Mark shares why growth isn't about working harder. It's about measuring the right things before you push the gas.
Together, they dive into the four phases of AI in the workplace, why chasing revenue too early can kill product market fit, how big companies survive disruption by cannibalizing themselves first, and why mental health still gets treated differently than physical health in business. This isn't just a conversation about AI or sales. It's a blueprint for scaling smarter, staying human while everything speeds up, and building a company that lasts past the next hype cycle.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
How Mark Roberge built HubSpot's revenue engine from the ground up and turned that experience into a framework other companies now use to scale
Why measuring selling time and rep to manager ratios says more about AI adoption than any buzzword does
The difference between chasing revenue and building real product market fit rooted in customer retention
How Salesforce, Workday, and ServiceNow beat established leaders by building something new instead of protecting what they already had
Why venture capital isn't the right path for most founders, and how to know if it's the right one for you
KEY POINTS:
00:25 – From HubSpot's first salesperson to Harvard professor: Mark walks through building HubSpot's revenue engine as founding CRO through IPO, teaching sales at Harvard Business School, and launching Stage 2 Capital, while Charles points out how far the same starting line can take two different people.
02:53 – The four phases of AI in sales: Mark breaks down how AI moves from clearing out busywork to fully autonomous agents on both sides of a deal, while Charles pushes him to define what being AI enabled actually means beyond the buzzwords.
13:18 – Comparing AI to the biggest shifts in human history: Mark compares the AI transition to humanity's move from nomadic life to agriculture and from feudalism to democracy, while Charles connects it to how badly people misjudged the internet's arrival.
25:24 – Turning scaling into a science: Mark explains why most founders decide to scale off gut feeling instead of data, while Charles pushes him for the exact numbers that separate a real strategy from a guess.
29:50 – Fixing churn before it kills growth: Mark introduces the lead indicator of retention and how to diagnose why customers stop getting value, while Charles asks what founders should change the moment this episode ends.
36:37 – The innovator's dilemma, all over again: Mark explains how Siebel, PeopleSoft, and BMC lost their categories to Salesforce, Workday, and ServiceNow, while Charles compares the moment to a hockey team showing up to find the rink turned into a pool.
59:41 – What people get wrong about funding: Mark explains why venture capital is the wrong move for most founders, and why more wealth gets created outside VC backed companies than inside them, while Charles closes the conversation on why the proceeds from Mark's book go straight to mental health.

In this eye opening episode, Charles sits down with Garrett Gunderson, entrepreneur, bestselling author, and financial educator to challenge the conventional wisdom surrounding money, taxes, and wealth creation. Growing up in a coal mining town and learning painful lessons from his first bad investment at just 18, Garrett spent the next two decades uncovering why so many of the beliefs people hold about money are fundamentally flawed. What he discovered changed not only his own financial future, but the way thousands of entrepreneurs approach wealth.
From debunking common myths about investing and retirement to exposing the hidden opportunities buried inside the tax code, Garrett shares why financial success isn't about working harder, it's about thinking differently. He explains how entrepreneurs can build the right financial team, maximize deductions, and create strategies that preserve wealth instead of simply deferring taxes. Along the way, he reveals why most traditional financial advice is reactive rather than proactive, and why understanding the rules of money is one of the greatest competitive advantages an entrepreneur can possess.
Together, they dive into the mindset of true wealth-building, why cash flow matters more than accumulation, why financial freedom starts with education, and how aligning money with purpose creates lasting abundance. This isn't just a conversation about taxes or investments. It's a blueprint for breaking free from outdated financial beliefs and building wealth that serves your life, your business, and your legacy.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
How Garrett Gunderson turned early financial mistakes into a lifelong mission to challenge conventional wisdom about money
Why many traditional beliefs about investing, retirement, and taxes are keeping entrepreneurs from building real wealth
The difference between accumulating assets and creating true financial freedom through cash flow
How understanding the tax code can become one of an entrepreneur's greatest competitive advantages
Why proactive financial planning beats reactive money management
KEY POINTS:
01:08 – Growing up with the wrong money lessons:
Garrett reflects on his upbringing in a coal mining town and the painful lessons from his first investment, while Charles explores how early beliefs often shape our financial destiny.
05:14 – Why conventional financial advice falls short:
Garrett explains why much of what people are taught about money is outdated, while Charles highlights the importance of questioning accepted wisdom.
09:38 – Cash flow versus accumulation:
Garrett challenges the obsession with net worth and retirement accounts, while Charles reframes wealth as freedom, not just numbers on a statement.
14:27 – Understanding the hidden opportunities in the tax code:
Garrett shares how entrepreneurs can legally keep more of what they earn, while Charles emphasizes that financial literacy creates leverage.
19:11 – Building the right financial team:
Garrett explains why advisors should serve as strategic partners rather than product salespeople, while Charles reflects on the power of surrounding yourself with experts.
24:43 – Proactive versus reactive wealth strategies:
Garrett reveals why waiting until tax season is too late, while Charles discusses how intentional planning compounds over time.