The Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset

In this episode of The Determined Society, Shawn French sits down with Nick Ayala, entrepreneur, co-founder of Platform One, and author of Capital Is the Game, for a raw conversation on business, discipline, fatherhood, integrity, raising capital, and what it really means to stay solid when life tests you.
Nick shares how growing up in Boca Raton showed him both sides of life: sleeping on a mattress in a one-bedroom apartment with his father while living across the street from extreme wealth. That contrast shaped the way he studied people, money, opportunity, and success.
The episode dives into:
• Growing up with financial struggle while being surrounded by wealth
• Learning how to study successful people from a young age
• Why Nick refuses to live with a victim mentality
• The golf injury that forced him to face a new identity
• Transitioning from sports into business
• Building and selling companies
• Doing nearly $100 million a year on the insurance side
• The truth about insurance, leads, chargebacks, and ego in the industry
• Walking away from a business situation he says he could not support morally
• Facing lawsuits, sleepless nights, and pressure without compromising integrity
• Why most founders are not ready to raise money
• What it means to be a steward of someone else’s capital
• How private equity, family offices, and high-net-worth investors think
• Why relationships matter more than transactions in business
• Lessons from doing business in Dubai and the UAE
• Fatherhood, discipline, marriage, and raising mentally strong kids
• Protecting your energy and choosing who gets access to your mind
• Why waking up early creates an advantage most people never use
• What determination really means in business, family, and life
This conversation goes beyond business and capital. It is about becoming mentally strong, building discipline, choosing responsibility over excuses, protecting your name, leading your family, and learning how to operate in rooms where the biggest deals are built on trust.
Watch the full episode now on The Determined Society.

Connect with Nick Ayala
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NickJamesAyala/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickjayala
Website: https://nickjayala.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN5GSbKmGzZJZKNYe9vLnJQ
Connect with Shawn
pillar.io/theshawnfrench
Subscribe to our newsletter for all updates and heavy doses of DETERMINATION:
https://thedeterminedsociety.com
Subscribe on Apple/Spotify:
Apple- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/determined-society-with-shawn-french-adversity-mindset/id1555922064
Spotify- https://open.spotify.com/show/5kS9tkLGQLcVyRgB3mDznw?si=184c18d1b9d44f53

The Determined Society is hosted by Shawn French — a show for people who refuse to quit. Every episode goes beyond the highlight reel to explore the real stories behind resilience, reinvention, and the relentless pursuit of a life built on your own terms.
Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all others.. If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it — and leave a review. It helps more than you know.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In the new episode of The Determined Society, Shawn French sits down with Yosef Martin, founder of BoxyCharm, entrepreneur, operator, investor, and founder of PepNow, for a high-level conversation on business, SEO, community, viral growth, peptides, biohacking, longevity, and what happens after you achieve the exit everyone else is chasing.
Yosef came to America as an immigrant student and started his first business because he needed to pay tuition. With no experience, no ad budget, and only $375 to start, he learned SEO, built Merchandise Liquidators, and later created BoxyCharm, one of the most influential beauty subscription brands in the world. The company scaled to over 1 million active members, generated massive revenue, and eventually became part of a major beauty industry deal. But when the wire hit, Yosef says he didn’t feel what people think he should have felt.
The episode dives into different chapters of Yosef’s life, including:
• Coming to America as an immigrant student
• Starting a business to pay out-of-state tuition
• Learning SEO before he knew what business would become
• Building Merchandise Liquidators from $375
• Going from liquidation to beauty subscription boxes
• Creating BoxyCharm with no traditional beauty background
• Building a cult-like community around the brand
• Using Facebook groups, sneak peeks, surveys, influencers, and customer obsession to fuel growth
• Why the right product and the right community can create a viral growth loop
• Scaling BoxyCharm to over 1 million active members
• Why the exit didn’t feel the way people expect
• Coming back into the arena with PepNow
• Peptides, GLP-1s, biohacking, sleep, visceral fat, metabolic health, and longevity
• Why the future of health may be built around education, community, and better products
• What determination really means when the climb starts to feel rewarding instead of painful
This conversation goes far beyond business success. It is about obsession, product-market fit, community, health, reinvention, and the mindset required to build again after achieving the kind of exit most entrepreneurs dream about.
Connect with Yosef Martin
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yflmartin/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yosefmartin/
PepNow: https://pepnow.com/
Connect with Shawn
pillar.io/theshawnfrench
Subscribe to our newsletter for all updates and heavy doses of DETERMINATION:
https://thedeterminedsociety.com
Subscribe on Apple/Spotify:
Apple- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/determined-society-with-shawn-french-adversity-mindset/id1555922064
Spotify- https://open.spotify.com/show/5kS9tkLGQLcVyRgB3mDznw?si=184c18d1b9d44f53

The Determined Society is hosted by Shawn French — a show for people who refuse to quit. Every episode goes beyond the highlight reel to explore the real stories behind resilience, reinvention, and the relentless pursuit of a life built on your own terms.
Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all others.. If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it — and leave a review. It helps more than you know.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this deeply vulnerable episode of The Determined Society, Shawn French sits down with Garrett White for a conversation about identity, success, marriage, fatherhood, faith, surrender, ego, and what happens when the life you built no longer fits the person you're becoming.

By the time Garrett White was 30, he had built a fortune in mortgages and real estate, competed in Ironman races and ultramarathons, and created a life that looked like success from the outside.

Then it all came crashing down.

In 2008, his money, businesses, marriage, and identity were underwater at the same time. Instead of asking how to become more comfortable, Garrett began asking a much harder question:

How do I become the strongest possible human being in every area of my life?

That question eventually led to the creation of Wake Up Warrior, a system that has trained tens of thousands of men.

But years later, Garrett found himself confronting an uncomfortable truth: he had spent years teaching men how to “have it all,” while realizing that having it all did not necessarily mean being free.

Together, they explore:

• Losing his identity after sports and searching for a new purpose

• The 2008 collapse that changed everything

• How money, success, and achievement became Garrett’s identity

• The “never enough” mindset and the illusion that more will finally bring fulfillment

• Moving from motivation to discipline, process, and doing the simple work every day

• How marriage and communication forced Garrett to confront the man he had become

• Building a life of prosperity that somehow still felt like a prison

• The difference between having it all and actually being free

• Why Garrett began pursuing peace instead of constantly fighting for more

• Surrendering control and dismantling the identity of “Garrett White” piece by piece

• Contraction vs. collapse, and recognizing the warnings before everything falls apart

• Faith, God, surrender, and discovering what was underneath the pursuit of success

• Why Wake Up Warrior may have been built to wake Garrett up

• Letting go of an old identity to create something new

• Garrett’s powerful definition of determination: “Nothing and everything.”

This episode is about what happens when success stops being enough.

It’s about the courage to question the identity you've spent years building, the willingness to surrender what no longer serves you, and the determination to keep moving when you don't even know what the destination looks like.

Watch the full episode now on The Determined Society.

Connect with Shawn French
https://pillar.io/theshawnfrench
Subscribe to our newsletter for all updates and heavy doses of DETERMINATION:
https://thedeterminedsociety.com
Subscribe on Apple/Spotify:
Apple- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/determined-society-with-shawn-french-adversity-mindset/id1555922064
Spotify- https://open.spotify.com/show/5kS9tkLGQLcVyRgB3mDznw?si=184c18d1b9d44f53

Connect with Garrett J. White

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/garrettjwhite/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@garrett.j.white

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrett-j-white-0b8768313/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/GarrettJWhite

Website: https://wakeupwarrior.com/

The Determined Society is hosted by Shawn French — a show for people who refuse to quit. Every episode goes beyond the highlight reel to explore the real stories behind resilience, reinvention, and the relentless pursuit of a life built on your own terms.
Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all others.. If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it — and leave a review. It helps more than you know.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In the new episode of The Determined Society, Shawn French sits down with Anthony Perera, founder of Air Pros USA and Exuma Capital Partners, for a powerful conversation on entrepreneurship, brand building, risk, loss, loyalty, fatherhood, mindset, and what it really takes to rebuild after watching something you built fall apart.
The episode dives into different chapters of Anthony’s life, including:
• Starting his first magazine business with a $10,000 loan meant for tuition
• Selling magazines at events with no experience and no safety net
• Learning that perception becomes reality in business
• Taking risks before the money was there
• Building brands across media, hospitality, HVAC, technology, and capital
• Launching Air Pros USA with one truck and his father
• Using bold branding to stand out in a crowded home services market
• Scaling Air Pros into a $200M+ company
• Stepping down as CEO and watching the company be dismantled
• Losing massive paper net worth and facing public criticism
• Learning who was loyal when things got hard
• Buying back the Florida legacy operations through Exuma Capital
• Why mindset, positive energy, and family matter during pressure
• Building companies that create real impact for employees and operators
This conversation goes beyond business success. It is about risk, resilience, loyalty, fatherhood, reputation, and the determination to keep building even after the company you created is taken apart piece by piece.
Watch the full episode now on The Determined Society.
Connect with Shawn
https://pillar.io/theshawnfrench
Subscribe to our newsletter for all updates and heavy doses of DETERMINATION:
https://thedeterminedsociety.com
Subscribe on Apple/Spotify:
Apple- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/determined-society-with-shawn-french-adversity-mindset/id1555922064
Spotify- https://open.spotify.com/show/5kS9tkLGQLcVyRgB3mDznw?si=184c18d1b9d44f53
Connect with Anthony Perera
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyperera
Website: https://exumafunds.com/

The Determined Society is hosted by Shawn French — a show for people who refuse to quit. Every episode goes beyond the highlight reel to explore the real stories behind resilience, reinvention, and the relentless pursuit of a life built on your own terms.
Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all others.. If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it — and leave a review. It helps more than you know.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What happens when you stop negotiating with yourself and start doing what you said you were going to do?
In the first-ever Dose of Determination, Shawn French breaks down a simple but powerful truth: real change starts by keeping the promises you make to yourself.
Determination is not about waiting for motivation. It is about showing up when you are tired, frustrated, overwhelmed, or simply do not feel like doing the work.
Whether your promise is getting to the gym, starting the business, making the extra sales calls, improving your health, or being more present with your family, every promise you keep builds confidence, discipline, and self-trust.
In this episode, Shawn shares why discipline matters more than motivation, why self-shame does not create growth, and why becoming the person capable of achieving your goals starts with what you do today.
Ask yourself:
What is the one thing I keep telling myself I am going to do but continue putting off?
Make the promise. Keep the promise.
Visit TheDeterminedSociety.com to join the community and stay connected with everything happening inside The Determined Society.
If this episode hits home, share it with someone who needs their own Dose of Determination.
Stay Determined.
Join The Determined Society- https://thedeterminedsociety.com/


The Determined Society is hosted by Shawn French — a show for people who refuse to quit. Every episode goes beyond the highlight reel to explore the real stories behind resilience, reinvention, and the relentless pursuit of a life built on your own terms.
Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all others.. If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it — and leave a review. It helps more than you know.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.