Kelly grew up in Eight Mile in Michigan, the same streets Eminem rapped about.

His house was absolute chaos: a drunk stepfather, a drunk mother who once stabbed her husband and set the house on fire, and a kid who learned to survive by reading the room before anything else. By the time he got to college, he was selling drugs, racking up arrests, and lying on every job application about his two felonies. Then he went to jail.

That four months in a cell changed him forever: Kelly realized he was good at sales and started a telecom brokerage from nothing. He built it into a multimillion-dollar company even without a website.

Kelly wrote Harder Than Life. Then Happier Than Life. He built a podcast and an AI-driven cybersecurity company.

And he keeps going back into the hard stuff because he's learned feeling it is the only way through it.

In this episode, we tackled:

→ Why alcohol and drugs are always a symptom of the disease

→ The childhood trauma that drove his addiction for decades

→ His TLC framework for rebuilding your mind, body, and life

→ What faith, surrender, and a specific prayer to God have done for his business

→ Why the thing you keep avoiding is your actual portal to growth

Kelly told me you can't heal what you're unwilling to reveal… Everything opened up once he stopped sugarcoating how bad things really were.

Thank you Kelly for bringing this level of honesty into the room!

Chapters

0:00 - Introduction

1:00 - Kelly's Background: Eight Mile, Eminem, and Growing Up Poor

3:30 - Selling Drugs, Getting Arrested, and Two Felonies

6:45 - Jail, the Wake-Up Call, and the First Honest Job

10:30 - Dillon Shares His Own Story: Heroin at 18

14:00 - Faith, God Moments, and the Power of a Specific Ask

17:00 - Why Kelly Stopped Drinking and What Happened Next

21:30 - The 15 Days of Anxiety: Healing Childhood Trauma

25:00 - What Being Happier Than Life Actually Looks Like

27:30 - The TLC Framework: Train, Learn, Coach

32:00 - Finding Common Ground in a Divided World

35:30 - Final Message: TLC, Truth, and How to Get Both Books Free

~~~

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Early on in his sales career, Dan received a $0 commission check. With a wife and kids at home to take care of, it was a moment that changed him forever…

Dan Russell is VP of National Sales at Trion Solutions, overseeing payroll, HR, and benefits for over a million employees across the globe. But before any of that, he was a mortgage banker trying to do right by his clients in an industry that stopped letting him.

In this episode we tackled:

→ Why Dan walked away from mortgage banking at its peak

→ What a $0 commission check teaches you that success never will

→ How Trion handled an employee dying on a client's floor in real time

→ Why asking for help is the most underrated skill in business

→ What community investment actually looks like when no one's watching

A huge takeaway from my time with Dan was that asking for help isn't a sign you don't have it together… it's how people who actually have it together got there.

Dan, thanks a ton for coming in and being so open about the hard moments. Appreciate you dude!

Chapters

0:00 - Introduction & Welcome

1:00 - What Dan Does at Trion Solutions

1:55 - How Dan's Company Got Acquired

2:49 - The Mortgage Banking Days

4:35 - The $0 Commission Check

5:43 - Why Dan Left Banking and Found PEO

8:20 - Sink or Swim: Learning a Brand New Industry

10:55 - Why You Have to Know Your Product

21:55 - What the Best Business Owners Have in Common

27:48 - When a Client Called About a Dead Employee

34:36 - Community Work: Covenant House and Beyond

38:45 - Homeless Youth and the "Lost Generation"

41:53 - Advice to His Younger Self

46:39 - Stop Trying to Do It Alone

47:07 - Why Starting Matters More Than Being Ready

49:39 - Gratitude as a Practice, Not a Feeling

~~~

This episode is powered by Drive Creative

🌐 https://drivecreativeagency.com/

Subscribe for more conversations with entrepreneurs and innovators who push Beyond The Hustle

Prefer to watch?

YouTube → https://youtu.be/nPJQmvcdogY

Have a story to tell? We’d love to hear from you!

Learn more about being a guest on Beyond The Hustle by visiting https://www.beyondthehustle.show

Maggie George is a criminal defense attorney and partner at George Law Firm in Royal Oak, Michigan. Before she ever set foot in a courtroom, she spent 13 years with a mortgage lender, worked a stint on Capitol Hill, and raised a one-year-old while taking the LSAT on maternity leave.

In this episode of Beyond The Hustle we covered:

→ What it's actually like to defend someone you know is guilty

→ The drunk driving death trial that almost ended in a mistrial

→ How AI is already changing who walks through a defense attorney's door

→ What running a law firm with your husband looks like when it actually works

Maggie told me that she never wants to be the smartest person in the room, and if she is, she’s in the wrong room.

Chapters

0:00 - Introduction & Teaser

1:00 - Meet Maggie George: Attorney, Partner, and Career Chameleon

3:00 - What Criminal Defense and Civil Litigation Actually Mean

5:00 - From Capitol Hill to Quicken Loans to Law School

9:00 - Running a Law Firm With Your Husband

12:00 - What Happens When You Know Your Client Did It

15:00 - The Drunk Driving Death Trial That Almost Ended in a Mistrial

19:00 - What Law School Doesn't Teach You

22:00 - The Clients Who Come Back Sober

25:00 - Building a Brand in a New Market: The Florida Expansion

30:00 - How AI Is Already Changing Criminal Defense

36:00 - What George Law Does and Who They Help

37:00 - The Best Advice for Anyone Starting in Law

~~~

This episode is powered by Drive Creative

🌐 https://drivecreativeagency.com/

Subscribe for more conversations with entrepreneurs and innovators who push Beyond The Hustle

Prefer to listen?

Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/033gI3Y3rhCbWjbPqfVmMf?si=3ad1a107ca2244fa

Apple → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beyond-the-hustle/id1896663240

Do you have a story to tell? We’d love to hear from you!

Learn more about being a guest on Beyond The Hustle by visiting https://www.beyondthehustle.show