The Success Architect

Jake Lewendal
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Entrepreneurship

Success doesn’t happen by accident — it’s designed, built, and reinforced brick-by-brick. On The Success Architect, builder and business strategist, Jake Lewendal brings a craftsman’s mindset to personal growth, wealth, and high-performance leadership. With raw honesty and practical frameworks, Jake breaks down the systems, habits, and decision-making principles that separate the overwhelmed from the unstoppable. From building multi-million-dollar companies to coaching ambitious people, Jake’s philosophy is simple: success is a structure, and every person can learn to build it. Each episode blends actionable strategy with real-world conversations featuring high-impact, career-driven entrepreneurs and operators who are building lives of purpose, discipline, and momentum. This is for the ones who build. The ones who take responsibility. The ones who know they’re meant for more — and are ready to architect a life of depth, strength, and true success.

  1. Aug 7

    Sarah Hurlburt: The Real Way to Budget for Growth

    Most business owners are mixing their personal and business finances without even realizing the damage it's doing. In this episode, I sit down with Sarah Hurlburt, a financial expert with over 25 years of experience as a Controller, Tax Advisor, and Auditor, to talk about what it actually takes to build a business budget that works. Sarah has spent her career helping small business owners get their financial house in order, across industries like restaurants, medical offices, construction, and professional services. We dig into why keeping your business and personal accounts separate isn't just good practice, it's foundational to understanding whether your business is actually profitable. We also talk about the financial blind spots that trip up even experienced owners, and the simple systems that make budgeting less overwhelming and more useful. If you've ever looked at your bank account and had no idea what your business actually made last month, this episode is for you.

  2. Aug 7

    The Growth Tax

    In this solo episode, Jake dives into the growth tax.  Growth always costs something — the question is whether you're paying it on purpose. In this episode, we dig into the "growth tax": the trade-offs every ambitious person and business inevitably makes. For businesses, it's the margin sacrificed for market share, the systems strained before they're rebuilt, the culture that shifts as headcount climbs. For individuals, it's the relationships stretched thin, the health put on hold, the identity that has to catch up with the title. Growth isn't free — but understanding the bill before it arrives changes everything about how you scale.

  3. Jul 31

    Before The Build: Allison Bryan of Physical Space

    Today's guest is Allison Bryan, AIA — founder and principal of Physical Space (formerly Open Studio Collective), an award-winning architecture and design practice that has quietly reshaped how the West thinks about place. Allison's projects have landed in The New York Times, Dwell, Forbes, Dezeen, and Archinect, and her portfolio spans everything from residential commissions to work for Nike, Kit, The Nature Conservancy, and Knot Springs. With more than 24 years leading international, award-winning work across architecture, interior architecture, and graphic design, Allison has built a career on a simple but disruptive belief: conventional design thinking stifles creativity. Physical Space exists to challenge that convention — to reimagine, question, and problem-solve in service of spaces that elevate human connection, not just square footage. Her path there wasn't conventional either. Allison started with an undergraduate degree in graphic design from Indiana University before earning her Master of Architecture from the University of Oregon — a combination that shows up in the way she approaches every project, blending visual storytelling with structural rigor. Today she's a licensed architect in Oregon, Montana, and Wyoming, a licensed contractor in Montana, a LEED-accredited professional, and — closer to home — an owner and developer on projects right here in Bozeman. In this conversation, Jake and Allison dig into what it actually means to lead a design practice that refuses to default to "the way it's always been done," how she's navigated the rebrand from Open Studio Collective to Physical Space, the throughline between commercial giants like Nike and the residential work that shapes everyday life, and what placemaking really requires when you're building for the West's most demanding — and fastest-changing — landscapes. It's a conversation about creativity as discipline, risk as a design principle, and what it takes to build spaces — and a career — that actually mean something.

  4. Jul 24

    Ask Jake: Lessons In Fatherhood

    Fatherhood comes with a manual nobody hands you - so this week, Jake writes a few pages of his own. He talks about the 2 a.m. moments that taught him more than any business book ever did, the quiet panic of realizing your kid is watching everything (not just listening), how becoming a dad rewired his definition of success, and the one piece of advice he ignored early on that he wishes someone had made him take seriously. This isn't a highlight reel. It's the version of fatherhood that happens after the photos are put away — messy, unscripted, and more rewarding than he expected. If you think you have to have it all figured out before you're "ready" to be a great dad, Jake's here to tell you: nobody does. You just start.

  5. Jul 17

    Ask Jake: Strength as a Strategy

    This week, Jake answers listener questions on training, discipline, and what it actually takes to stay in shape when you're building a business, running a household, and trying not to lose yourself in the process. He gets into how he structures his week around workouts instead of the other way around, what he does when motivation disappears (because it always does), the mindset shifts that made fitness a non-negotiable instead of a nice-to-have, and why he thinks physical discipline is the most underrated leadership skill there is. If you've ever felt like you have to choose between building something big and taking care of your body, this one's for you. Spoiler: you don't.

  6. Jul 10

    Marriage, Unfiltered: I Do, We Did, I Don't

    Today's episode is a different kind of conversation — instead of one guest, Jake sits down with three women who each bring a completely different vantage point on the same question: what is marriage, really? Joining him are his wife, Makenzie Lewendal, married to Jake for over a decade; Merrit Peterson, who's been married just over a year; and Lisa Walthers, who spent 15 years married before going through a divorce. Three women, three stages, three very different truths about what it means to build a life with someone. This isn't a conversation about relationship advice or five-step frameworks. It's about the real, unpolished experience of marriage at every stage — the excitement of the beginning, the grind and growth of the middle, and the honesty that comes from having lived through its ending. Makenzie brings the perspective of someone who's weathered a decade-plus of shared life, the compromises and reinvention that come with staying committed for the long haul. Merrit brings the freshness of a first year — still learning what marriage actually asks of you versus what you expected going in. And Lisa brings a perspective most people are afraid to talk about openly — what she learned looking back, and what she'd tell her younger self on her wedding day. In today's conversation, we get into all of it — what newlywed optimism gets right and wrong, what actually holds a marriage together after ten-plus years, what fifteen years and a divorce teaches you about love and commitment, and the questions most people are too polite or too scared to ask out loud. We talk perspective, we talk reality, and we talk love — in all its forms. This is a conversation full of honesty, contradiction, and hard-earned truth — three women, three chapters, one shared subject none of us ever stop trying to understand.

  7. Jul 3

    Building a Life That Looks Like You: The Second Act with Joy Vance

    Today's guest is Joy Vance, Managing Partner of The Agency Bozeman and one of Montana's most respected names in luxury real estate. A proud Montana native and Montana State University graduate, Joy has spent years cultivating a reputation that speaks for itself — not just in sales volume or market knowledge, but in the way she shows up for her clients, her team, and her community. Her work spans two of the most dynamic and sought-after markets in the American West: Bozeman and Big Sky — places that have captured the attention of buyers from across the country, and where Joy has established herself as a trusted guide and true insider. But Joy's path to real estate wasn't a straight line. Before she ever listed a property, she spent 18 years in corporate leadership and sales management with Victoria's Secret — a career that took her deep into the world of brand building, team development, and high-level customer experience. That foundation didn't just prepare her for real estate; it shaped the way she thinks about people, communication, and what it really means to serve someone well. You can hear it in the way she leads her team, the way she talks about her clients, and the standards she holds herself to every single day. Since making the transition into real estate, Joy has become a driving force behind The Agency Bozeman — helping grow the brand's presence in Montana while staying rooted in the values that matter most to her: authenticity, relationships, and doing the work with integrity. In today's conversation, we get into all of it — the story behind Bozeman's remarkable growth and what's fueling the luxury market here, the leadership lessons she carried over from her corporate career, how she thinks about balance in a demanding industry, and what it actually takes to build a career you're proud of without losing yourself in the process. This is a conversation full of candor, hard-won wisdom, and a genuine love for the place she calls home.

  8. Jun 26

    (FBF) The Law of Relationships: Where Values Rise to the Surface

    In this FBF episode of The Success Architect, Jake Lewendal shares the power of relationships. He highlights the importance of shared values all while providing actionable steps to help you take ownership of your own life and leadership style. Tune in to learn how to harness relationships, values, and how we all rise and drive positive change in your life and business.

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About

Success doesn’t happen by accident — it’s designed, built, and reinforced brick-by-brick. On The Success Architect, builder and business strategist, Jake Lewendal brings a craftsman’s mindset to personal growth, wealth, and high-performance leadership. With raw honesty and practical frameworks, Jake breaks down the systems, habits, and decision-making principles that separate the overwhelmed from the unstoppable. From building multi-million-dollar companies to coaching ambitious people, Jake’s philosophy is simple: success is a structure, and every person can learn to build it. Each episode blends actionable strategy with real-world conversations featuring high-impact, career-driven entrepreneurs and operators who are building lives of purpose, discipline, and momentum. This is for the ones who build. The ones who take responsibility. The ones who know they’re meant for more — and are ready to architect a life of depth, strength, and true success.

Information

  • Creator
    Jake Lewendal
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    29
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Success Architect
  • Show Website
    The Success Architect