There were two versions of this podcast.

The one you heard: strategy, growth, frameworks, confidence.

And the one happening when I hit record: depression, suicidal ideations, doubt, and a man running from everything he refused to face.

You didn't know. But you held me up anyway.

Episode 701 isn't a celebration. It's a confession and a thank you.

In this raw, unfiltered solo episode, George pulls back the curtain on what the last six and a half years of this podcast have actually looked like behind the scenes, the darkness, the performing, the shame, and the slow, painful process of becoming someone who actually lives what he teaches.

This is not a strategy episode. It's a permission slip, for you, and for George.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode:

What was really happening behind the scenes during some of the show's most downloaded episodes
Why performing confidence while falling apart only widens the gap between who you are and who you're pretending to be
How consistency, even when it was the only thing holding George together, became the unexpected path to healing
Why the episodes George most feared posting hit the hardest every single time
The moment "relationships beat algorithms" stopped being a philosophy and became a conviction
What shame does to your business, your relationships, and your capacity to actually help people
Why doubt, mess, and reinvention are qualifications, not disqualifiers
The one thing 701 episodes taught that no framework or model ever could

Key Takeaways:
✔️The podcast you heard was a director's cut. The real version was messier, darker, and more honest than what made it to publish and that gap almost broke George.
✔️Showing up is how you get it together. You do not need to have it figured out first.
✔️Teaching something you've never lived is a hiding place.
✔️The episodes you're most afraid to post are usually the ones people need most. Fear is often a signal, not a stop sign.
✔️Isolation and self-doubt feed each other. The faster you get stuck, the more you isolate. The more you isolate, the faster you get stuck.
✔️Trust is not a soft metric. It's a feeling and it determines everything: buy-in, effort, results, and the depth of every relationship you'll ever have.
✔️People always come before products. Not as a tagline. As a law.
✔️You don't need more information. You need permission: to be messy, to evolve, to show up before you're ready.
✔️The mess is the qualification. Your struggles, doubts, and reinventions are not proof you don't belong. They're proof you're actually in it.

Timestamps & Highlights:
[00:00] — The two versions of this podcast: what you heard vs. what was really happening
[00:57] — Why 701 isn't a milestone, it's evidence
[02:30] — How this podcast started: COVID wiped out six figures a month overnight
[04:45] — Running from fatherhood, relationships, and himself, the real reason George hit record
[07:00] — "Unapologetically authentic", wearing the shirt but not living it
[09:30] — Teaching the emotional journey with logic while refusing to take it himself
[12:00] — Performing vs. being: the gap that was breaking him from the inside out
[15:00] — The episodes he was most afraid to post were the ones that hit the hardest
[17:30] — What the audience gave back: grace and acceptance before George could give it to himself
[20:00] — Around episode 300–450: when things started to shift
[22:30] — The moment "relationships beat algorithms" became a law, not a lesson
[25:00] — How shame became the hiding place and what it cost him
[27:30] — The addiction to distraction and doubt keeping entrepreneurs stuck in paralysis
[30:00] — This episode is a permission slip, not a framework
[33:00] — What George is still learning: fatherhood, friendship, faith, and being on the field
[36:00] — The hill he'll die on: people over products, always
[38:00] — A thank you: to the ones who stayed, left, came back, and prayed

Your Challenge This Week:
If any part of this landed, George wants to hear from you.

Send him a DM on Instagram. Tell him what hit. Tell him where you're stuck. Tell him you listened. You don't need a polished message, just reach out.

And if this show has ever meant something to you, an honest review is the best way to help another entrepreneur find it when they need it most.

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