Traction Podcast

Traction Podcast
  • 5.0 (26)
  • BUSINESS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

The Traction Podcast provides founders with the tools to optimize their mind, body, and business for peak performance.

  1. 1D AGO

    Dr. Wayne Diesel: What World-Class Athletes Teach Entrepreneurs About Performance

    What if the reason most high-performance careers end early isn’t effort, but how performance is managed over time? In this episode, Dr. Wayne Diesel, elite sports physiologist and long-time performance leader across the NBA, NFL, Premier League, and international rugby, and Ray Walia explore how founders can apply elite athlete principles to build sustainable, long-term performance. After decades inside the world’s most demanding sports organizations, Wayne has seen firsthand why even the most talented athletes break down, and why a small minority build careers that last. His work focuses on load management, recovery, mental resilience, and decision-making under pressure. Wayne has worked with championship teams and elite athletes across three continents, helping design performance systems where longevity is a requirement, not a bonus. He breaks down the exact frameworks used in elite sport to prevent burnout, manage stress, and sustain peak performance, and why founders who ignore these principles pay the price over time. Dr. Wayne Diesel - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-diesel-3012122a/

    48 min

  2. JAN 22

    The Peak Performance Code: How to Use Your DNA to Work Smarter, Age Slower, and Recover Faster with Dr Matt Dawson

    What if you could extend your healthspan, sharpen your focus, and increase your stress resilience by decoding your DNA? In this powerhouse episode, Dr. Matt Dawson, ER physician and early longevity pioneer turned health tech founder, and Lloyed Lobo discuss how startup founders can optimize their health span while scaling high-impact companies. After years of watching patients suffer from avoidable conditions, Matt left traditional medicine to build companies that keep people healthy before things break. He co-founded and exited Wild Health, a genomics-based performance medicine clinic, and now leads TruDiagnostic, an epigenetics company that helps people measure how fast they are aging and how to reverse it. Matt breaks down the exact systems he uses with elite athletes, founders, and high performers to engineer long-term energy, recovery, and focus. TIMESTAMPS 00:00   From ER doctor to healthtech entrepreneur 03:12   Why emergency medicine can't fix chronic disease 04:49   Treating health as a data problem 09:24   Genetics vs epigenetics 13:11   Why entrepreneurs age faster than everyone else 19:42   Measuring biological aging 36:36   Health trends that matter vs ones that don't 44:16   Top health hacks you didn't know Dr. Matt Dawson, CEO, TrueDiagnostic TrueDiagnostic: https://www.trudiagnostic.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-dawson-75196040/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trudiagnosticofficial

    47 min

  3. JAN 7

    The Founder Lifestyle Is Killing You | Part 2 | Traction

    Building a startup rewards intensity, not longevity. In this episode of Traction, Alex Bruyn joins Lloyed Lobo to challenge the founder playbook. Drawing from repeated burnout and serious health failures, Lloyed argues that hustle is not a badge of honor, it’s a structural flaw in how entrepreneurship is practiced. They examine how stress compounds over time, why founders are treated nothing like elite athletes, and how chasing momentum degrades performance. The conversation reframes success around endurance, relationships, and the shift from achievement to purpose. TIMESTAMPS: 01:05 Why environment determines founder outcomes 03:13 Early health signals founders miss 05:34 Momentum vs gravity 09:32 How hustle culture compounds damage 28:47 The role of AI and community 30:07 The first mountain and the second 44:32 Relationships as the strongest predictor Lloyed Lobo - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lloyedlobo/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lloyedlobo/

    1h 28m

  4. 12/23/2025

    Hustling Almost Killed Me | Part 1 | Traction

    Most startup stories focus on the win. Very few talk about what it costs to get there. In this episode, Lloyed Lobo sits down with Alex Bruyn, co-founder of Karak Creative, for a candid conversation about the realities founders rarely say out loud. From taking an unconventional path into tech to building a fast-growing company under constant pressure, Lloyed shares the parts of the journey that don’t show up on pitch decks or LinkedIn posts. They talk about momentum, stress, and the habits that quietly compound over years of building. The conversation explores why things can unravel after success, how founders end up running on empty, and what finally forces a rethink. Lloyed Lobo: https://instagram.com/lloyedlobo Stay tuned for Part 2. Releasing on January 7th, 2026.

    1h 13m

  5. 12/11/2025

    Why Your Startup Keeps Hiring the Wrong People | Traction

    The talent market has shifted in ways that make hiring harder for early-stage teams. In this episode, Melissa Kwan and Lloyed Lobo talk about why salaries jumped, why interviews often look better than the work that follows, and how these gaps slow companies down. They share what they’ve learned from hiring mistakes, how expectations changed after the unicorn wave, and what founders should pay attention to when building teams that can actually deliver. TIMESTAMPS: 00:56 The current state of the talent market 02:24 Gaps between interviews and actual performance 07:22 Compensation expectations vs. capabilities 21:23 Organizational impact of early mis-hires 34:24 Building a team that delivers consistently 45:03 Hiring for trajectory, not tenure Lloyed Lobo: - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/lloyedlobo - Instagram: https://instagram.com/lloyedlobo

    50 min
  6. The Fine Line Between Founder and Fraudster | Traction

    11/26/2025

    The Fine Line Between Founder and Fraudster | Traction

    Fake it till you make it is a phrase founders hear early and often. Ambition can drift past honesty faster than most founders realize. This episode looks at how pitching and fundraising expectations shape the stories founders tell and the pressure to appear further along than reality. Lloyed Lobo and Melissa Kwan unpack the pressure behind projections, user claims, and the instinct to present a version of the company that is not fully real yet. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Fake it till you make it and where it breaks 04:46 Values, joy, and building the company you actually want 11:06 Realistic projections and the truth about TAM 33:44 Investor updates that create real accountability 35:53 Leading through communication and alignment 38:34 The Wizard of Oz phase and early-stage shortcuts 39:10 Confidence vs pretending you are further along 42:06 Values, consequences, and building without collateral damage Lloyed Lobo: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lloyedlobo - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lloyedlobo

    43 min
  7. The Founder Breakup Playbook: Lessons From the Companies That Didn't Survive

    11/12/2025

    The Founder Breakup Playbook: Lessons From the Companies That Didn't Survive

    Building a startup together tests everything you believe about trust. In this episode, serial entrepreneur Lloyed Lobo and Melissa Kwan, CEO at eWebinar, unpack the cofounder confessions founders whisper but rarely admit: love turned liability, handshake deals gone wrong, and the quiet resentment that kills partnerships faster than failure itself. From equity fights to emotional burnouts, they dissect why cofounder breakups feel worse than divorces, and the principles that keep the right ones from imploding. 00:41 Love, lies, and why 65% of startups fail from conflict 02:06 Handshake deals and the myth of “trust over paperwork” 05:46 The fairness trap: splitting equity before earning it 14:20 Why vesting clauses save friendships and companies 17:03 When one founder works harder and starts to resent it 32:36 How to rebuild communication when it turns personal 38:39 The truth about burnout, buyouts, and walking away Follow Lloyed: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lloyedlobo/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lloyedlobo/

    53 min
  8. Venture Capital Is A Ponzi Scheme

    10/29/2025

    Venture Capital Is A Ponzi Scheme

    Building a startup is like jumping off a plane and assembling the parachute mid-air. In this episode, serial entrepreneur Lloyed Lobo and Melissa Kwan, CEO at eWebinar, break down the reality of scaling: the discipline constraints create, the myths founders chase, and why too many companies lose sight of customers in pursuit of hype. From the unicorn bubble to billion dollar collapses overnight, they explore how venture capital’s incentives shape companies, for better and for worse, and why great businesses come from customers, not inflated valuations. Lloyed Lobo: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lloyedlobo/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lloyedlobo/

    46 min
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5
out of 5
26 Ratings

About

The Traction Podcast provides founders with the tools to optimize their mind, body, and business for peak performance.

Information

  • Creator
    Traction Podcast
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    165
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Traction Podcast
  • Show Website
    Traction Podcast

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