Beyond The Hustle

Corey Barkach
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  • Entrepreneurship

BEYOND THE HUSTLE dives deep into the real stories behind success. Each episode features raw, honest conversations with entrepreneurs, creatives, community leaders, and high performers who’ve pushed past the noise of the daily grind to build something meaningful. These are the unfiltered stories of resilience, reinvention, and the rise that comes after the struggle. Because let’s be honest—no one makes it without the hustle. But the ones who go beyond it? That’s where the real magic happens.

  1. 3d ago

    He made $50,000 on one flip and quit his engineering job for good | Teo Bogdan

    Teo Bogdan came to Michigan from Romania at 10 years old. He grew up to get a mechanical engineering degree and land a good corporate job at a Japanese auto supplier. But sitting in that office, and looking out over the parking lot at his dream car while feeling completely trapped, he knew it wasn't his endgame. After a single real estate flip netted him $50,000 in two weeks, the illusion of corporate security shattered. He walked away to pursue business on his own terms. Today, Teo is rewriting the playbook on "Entrepreneurship through Acquisition." Two and a half years ago, he bought A Plus Heating and Cooling, and he’s scaling it the right way: by treating it like a system, not a job. What we covered: → Why the scale of American business looked so "insane" to him at 10 → The specific moment he realized he was done with the corporate grind → Why he avoided starting from scratch and chose to acquire an existing HVAC company → Building a shop that creates techs from high school grads. → Why answering the phone within 5 minutes matters more than your SEO → Why you need to watch out for fake local companies Thanks Teo for sharing the blueprint on how to build a business that runs without you… Appreciate you dude! Chapters 00:00 Intro 1:00 From Romania to a mechanical engineering degree 3:52 Stuck in the corporate grind at Denso 5:12 From real estate to trades 5:55 Buying A Plus Heating and Cooling 9:29 The growth strategy: master HVAC before anything else 11:27 Hiring and training techs the right way 19:06 The flip that changed everything 28:12 Answering the phone, AI search, and why reviews win the job 38:09 Watch out for fake local companies ~~~ 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

  2. Jul 22

    Build Wealth By Buying Businesses | Jeff Schulmeister

    Jeff Schulmeister spent decades behind the scenes of some of the biggest manufacturers in the country, building engineering databases for Siemens and BorgWarner, while running side businesses on his own time. A limousine company. A laundromat. A home health care company. Now, Jeff’s buying companies; he walks through the exact math on why buying a cash flowing business can outperform the stock market, and why he'd rather fire an owner on day one than trust them to stick around. In this episode we covered: → How Jeff financed his first limousine with no money down at 20 years old → Getting laid off from Siemens and hired the same day by the guy he trained → Why the laundromat business almost went bankrupt before it worked → Buying Omni Home Health Care → What Jeff learned about financing acquisitions through SBA loans Thanks Jeff for making the time to sit down and share the whole story. Glad to have you here man! Chapters 00:00 - Intro 01:08 - Financing his first limousine with no money down 04:38 - Driving for Aretha Franklin's parties and Motown connections 06:54 - Teaching himself AutoCAD to break into design 09:43 - Laid off from Siemens, hired the same day 11:28 - Costing Siemens $800,000 out of pure revenge 19:11 - Building a laundromat out of an old dry cleaning plant 22:47 - Nearly bankrupt and the hundred dollar bill that changed it 25:45 - Buying Omni Home Health Care and the money the last owner missed 34:45 - Why buying a business beats investing in the stock market ~~~ 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

  3. Jul 15

    How Businesses Really Get Sold | Mya Stone

    Mya Stone runs Stone Capital Partners, a people first M&A firm out of Grand Rapids doing buy and sell side deals for founder owned businesses doing $1M-$100M a year. After walking away from law, Mya built and sold a hospitality startup, then helped grow a body shop company up to 47 locations. When that business got hit with a lawsuit, she had to rebrand every location overnight. She sold that business and later started Stone Capital Partners on the single idea that the right people are the real asset. Here's what we covered: → How a Harvard advisory board told her she wasn't ready to be CEO → Scaling and losing a body shop rollup to a lawsuit → Why most business owners have no idea what their company is worth → Being a young woman in a room full of suits has an advantage When owners build a business they rarely think about what it's worth or who it's for once they're gone. Mya's whole career is proof that the people side of a deal matters as much as the numbers. Thank you Mya for making the time to come on and go Beyond The Hustle with us! Chapters 0:00 Intro 01:47 Raised by grandparents, Harvard by 16 04:47 Walking away from a Harvard law career 06:19 Building and selling a Boston hospitality startup 10:08 Told to lead people, not run the company 11:28 Scaling a body shop rollup to 47 locations 21:48 The real messes inside family owned businesses 25:19 Telling employees about a sale, and the fridge that changed everything 32:47 Cold calling, urgency, and the truth about the silver tsunami 47:36 Being a young woman in a room full of suits ~~~ 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

  4. Jul 8

    THIS Is Why Recurring Revenue Changes Everything | Aaron McCarthy

    Aaron McCarthy spent 20 years in corporate IT before deciding he was done climbing someone else's ladder. In 2018 he convinced his wife for them to take a SBA loan and started Maven IT out of a borrowed front office in exchange for free support. No staff. Just him and a laptop. In this episode we covered: → Why he picked recurring revenue as his model before he even had a business → How a cold call to a Smoothie King franchisee turned into a 50-location relationship → What actually happens operationally when you acquire a business → The cybersecurity basics small businesses skip until they get hacked → What he's looking for in his next acquisition strategy Aaron’s got a simple filter: will it produce recurring revenue? Can I improve the operations? Can I learn it myself first? When those boxes check, he moves. Aaron, thanks for coming in and sitting down on Beyond The Hustle. Appreciate you dude! Chapters 0:00 - Intro 1:00 - Who Aaron is and what Maven IT does 2:30 - 20 years in corporate and the recurring revenue light bulb 5:05 - Why he bought a commercial cleaning company 6:15 - Transitioning ownership and what he inherited 9:00 - Starting Maven IT at 40 with an SBA loan 12:25 - How the Smoothie King relationship started 15:15 - How the MSP space has changed and where new growth comes from 20:05 - AI, cybersecurity, and what's actually happening in the space 25:34 - What small businesses should do right now about cybersecurity ~~~ 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

  5. Jul 1

    He Makes Up To 80% Of All Cannabis Beverages In Michigan | Matthew McAlpine

    Matt McAlpine went from washing kegs at a cider farm to running Michigan's largest cannabis beverage operation. The early days at Blake’s Hard Cider were tough… Their first big bet (getting non-smokers into dispensaries with a 2mg drink) didn't land the way they planned. They adjusted and deployed 150 refrigerators into dispensaries which doubled average sales per store. And they went from near zero to manufacturing 60%-80% of all cannabis beverages in Michigan. In our episode we covered: → How Matt scaled Blake's Hard Cider from 10,000 to 1.3 million cases → Why the "get canna-curious consumers into dispensaries" strategy failed → The play that unlocked 51 dispensaries and doubled their average order size → How Michigan stacks up as a cannabis beverage market → How 37,000 Michigan liquor stores present the real opportunity Matt thanks for coming by the studio to record and share your story of struggles and successes! Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:00 Who is Matt McAlpine 03:14 Chrysler and the manufacturing leadership program 05:50 Leaving corporate for Blake's Hard Cider 07:53 Scaling Blake's from 10,000 to 1.3 million cases 10:05 Blake's Beverage Company and acquiring regional cider brands 13:40 How Emerald Canning Partners was formed 15:37 Building the facility and the early product launch struggles 20:35 Who the real cannabis beverage consumer is 24:24 Brand partners, the full portfolio, and owning the fridge 30:38 Michigan's market share and the 37,000 liquor store opportunity 36:43 Why cannabis beverages beat alcohol for recovery 44:00 Operations, team building, and the hire slow fire quick mentality 50:00 What fires Matt up and where ECP is headed ~~~ 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? https://pod.link/1896663240 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

  6. Jun 24

    Nobody Talks About This Side Of Success | Kelly Siegel

    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 ~~~ 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/T8LzJkBrfAc 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

  7. Jun 17

    Why Knowing Your Stuff Matters More Than Your Age | Dan Russell

    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

  8. Jun 10

    Criminal Defense Secrets: What Lawyers Know That You Don't | Maggie George

    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

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About

BEYOND THE HUSTLE dives deep into the real stories behind success. Each episode features raw, honest conversations with entrepreneurs, creatives, community leaders, and high performers who’ve pushed past the noise of the daily grind to build something meaningful. These are the unfiltered stories of resilience, reinvention, and the rise that comes after the struggle. Because let’s be honest—no one makes it without the hustle. But the ones who go beyond it? That’s where the real magic happens.

Information

  • Creator
    Corey Barkach
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    17
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Show Website
    Beyond The Hustle