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What would you do if you stopped following the traditional path and started building a life around what truly matters to you? Matthew Mitten left his corporate career at Bank of America to pursue entrepreneurship, travel the world, and create a lifestyle built around freedom. Matthew joins Brendan Dauenhauer and Punith Upadhya to share his journey from corporate finance to becoming a digital nomad, the challenges of building businesses while traveling, and the mindset shifts that helped him take the leap. They also dive into the rapidly changing world of AI, the importance of authentic relationships, building a personal brand, and how technology is creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs. From redefining success to finding the balance between ambition and happiness, Matthew's story challenges us to rethink what we're working toward and why. Because sometimes success isn't about earning more. It's about creating a life you actually want to live. Greatness starts within.

Being positive around other people doesn’t always mean you’re positive with yourself. What does your attitude look like when nobody else is around? Brendan Dauenhauer and Punith Upadhya explore the self talk, expectations, and beliefs beneath a positive attitude. Punith shares how an hourly check in exposed negative thought patterns he hadn’t noticed, while Brendan explains why nearly $20,000 spent on a business he never pursued became one of his most valuable investments. From gratitude to self worth, they discuss how changing your perspective can change what you take away from setbacks.

50 properties under management at 25. His secret? Obsession. Gabe Chase didn’t wait until he had all the answers. He started, learned along the way, and became obsessed with improving his business. But one of his biggest lessons was realizing that growth isn’t about saying yes to every opportunity. On Inside First, Gabe joins Brendan and Punith to talk about starting before you feel ready, finding your focus, and building a business that means more than the numbers. Greatness starts within.

What books actually have the power to change the way you think, grow, and approach life? In this episode of Inside First, Brendan Dauenhauer and Punith Upadhya switch things up by ranking 10 of their favorite personal development and business books. From classics like Rich Dad Poor Dad and Think and Grow Rich to powerful mindset reads like The Power of Awareness and You², they share their personal experiences, biggest takeaways, and the lessons that have shaped their journeys in business and life. But it's not just about reading great books. It's about applying what you learn to create meaningful change. Tune in to see which books make the S-tier, where Brendan and Punith disagree, and which ones they believe everyone should read. Greatness starts within.

Courtney Petrovich didn’t start out thinking she would become a designer, let alone build a design firm working on hotels and high-end short-term rentals. In this episode of Inside First, Courtney shares how she went from real estate investing to discovering a passion for design, and how one short-term rental changed the direction of her career. She talks about going from assembling furniture on the floor of her first paid project to sitting inside a hotel she was designing just one year later.Courtney also breaks down the identity shift that helped her stop thinking like a designer and start thinking like a business owner. She shares what it took to build a team, let go of control, and create a company that could grow beyond her. She also opens up about the story behind Denori Designs, the influence of her parents, and why legacy, storytelling, and intentionality are at the center of the work she creates. This conversation is about thinking bigger, evolving your identity, and building something that can outgrow the version of you that started it

In this episode of Inside First, Brendan and Punith talk about what it really means to be an effective leader and why leadership goes far beyond simply managing people. They break down how trust, communication, accountability, and the way you show up can shape the people around you. They also explore what makes someone worth following and why strong leadership starts with the relationships you build. If you want to become a better leader, strengthen your team, and improve the way you influence others, this conversation is for you.

Most people are only scratching the surface of what AI can actually do. In this episode of Inside First, Brendan and Punith sit down with Will Hawkins, founder of RitewAI, to talk about how AI is changing the way we work, build, create, and grow businesses. Will breaks down the difference between copilots and AI agents, why delegation is becoming one of the most valuable skills you can have, and how entrepreneurs can use AI to create more time, move faster, and take on things that would have once required entire teams. They also get into the limits of AI, the importance of keeping humans in the loop, responsible use, creativity, and what becomes possible when you stop treating AI like a simple chatbot and start using it as a real part of how you operate. This conversation isn’t about replacing people. It’s about expanding what people are capable of.

In this episode, Punith and Brendan unpack the difference between simply wanting change and actually becoming the person capable of creating it. They talk about self image, identity, energy, environment, and why doing more isn’t always what moves you forward. Sometimes the bigger shift is in how you show up, what you believe about yourself, and whether you’re truly committed to becoming a different version of who you’ve been. It’s a conversation about leaving old patterns behind, trusting the process, and learning how to operate from the person you want to become before the results fully catch up.

Britney Wambold kept seeing the same problem in the short term rental space, so she decided to build the solution herself. In this episode, she shares how her own experiences helped her spot the gap, why finding the right people matters, and how paying attention to what isn’t working can lead to a real business opportunity. Follow Britney:@wamboldtproperties@chanelbytheshore@prettyinnpinkairbnb

What makes someone want to buy from you before you have even finished the pitch? In this episode, Brendan and Punith talk about why sales is about more than having the perfect script or knowing exactly what to say. The energy you bring into a conversation matters, and people can feel when you genuinely believe in what you are offering. They also get into fear of rejection, failure, confidence, enthusiasm, and what it actually looks like to change the way you show up when things are not going your way. This conversation is about learning to bring more intention into your work, your relationships, and the way you carry yourself every day. Because sometimes the biggest shift is not changing what you are doing. It is changing the energy you bring to it.

Joel Weigle knows what it feels like to have everyone waiting on you for an answer. While helping lead the build of a chemical plant in his 20s, he was working nonstop, making thousands of decisions, and slowly becoming the bottleneck for everything around him. That’s when he started doing something simple. He gave himself 30 seconds to make a decision and move on. In this episode, Joel talks about where that rule came from, what happened when the chemical plant he helped build exploded, and how those experiences completely changed the way he thinks about leadership, risk, business, and trusting yourself. We also get into real estate, thinking bigger, learning from the decisions that don’t work out, and why waiting too long to make a decision can sometimes be heavier than making the wrong one. As Joel says, the heaviest things in life aren’t iron and ore. They’re unmade decisions.

What if the reason you’re not getting ahead has nothing to do with how hard you’re working? In this episode, Brendan and Punith break down why more effort doesn’t always create better results, and why your identity can matter just as much as the work itself. Punith opens up about the period when his answer to every problem was simply to work harder. More hours. More effort. More pressure. But eventually, he realized the real shift wasn’t in doing more. It was in changing who he was becoming while he did the work. They talk about identity, self image, decision making, and what it actually means to start showing up as the version of yourself who has already achieved the goal.

Adam Avenus joins Brendan and Punith for a conversation about identity, fear, intuition, and what it really takes to change your life. Adam shares his journey through different careers, sobriety, and eventually coaching, along with the moments that pushed him to stop ignoring what he really wanted. They also get into mindset, manifestation, trusting yourself, and why so many people already know what needs to change but are too afraid to face it. It’s a conversation about letting go of old programming, listening to what actually feels right for you, and becoming the person capable of creating the life you want.

What if the problem isn’t that you need more discipline, but that your goals aren’t actually changing you? In this episode, Brendan and Punith talk about why realistic goals can keep you playing small, how obsession can actually work in your favor, and what it looks like to start becoming the person you want to be before the results show up. They get into comfort zones, self-image, visualization, the difference between doing and being, and how to bring more of your “future life” into the way you live right now. If you’ve been waiting until you feel ready, successful, or motivated enough to start showing up differently, this episode is for you.

What does it take to keep betting on yourself when everything seems to be working against you? Spencer Richey spent 10 years in the MLS, but the road there was anything but smooth. He dealt with his vision deteriorating to 20/400, a compound fracture, setbacks in his career, and years of fighting for his place in professional soccer. In this episode, Spencer sits down with Brendan and Punith to talk about what those experiences taught him, how he carried that mindset into business, why he got into real estate, how he built Soundstays, and the bigger vision behind Missing Hotel including a $500M valuation goal. It’s a conversation about resilience, self-belief, reinvention, and what it looks like to keep thinking bigger even after you’ve already achieved the thing you once thought was the dream.