After six years and almost 500 conversations, we're taking our first real break. Parker becomes a dad next week, and he's stepping away from EY and Elevation Nation for four months to show up fully for the most important job he's ever had.

In this episode:

• Why choosing to pause can take more strength than pushing through
• How to be honest about fear and excitement living in the same moment
• What it means that this podcast will one day be a time capsule for our kids

Elevator 263: Ben Sharf is the co-founder and CEO of Platter, one of the fastest agencies ever to reach Shopify Platinum Partner status, building storefronts for brands like NeuroGum, Gainful, and Every Man Jack that have driven over $1B in sales. He's also an angel investor, host of the Turning Pro podcast, and a former competitive hockey player who has sat in silence for ten days, trained for a boxing fight, and run 130 miles from Montauk to Manhattan.

In this episode: how Ben walked away from the "safe" path and got his doctor dad on board, why chasing the next big goal will never solve your problems, the non-negotiables that keep him grounded while running a 30-person company, and the mental motto behind every hard decision he makes.

Your feed says corporate is the enemy. Quit, build your own thing, become a creator, or you're wasting your life. We couldn't disagree more.

We've worked corporate jobs for eight years while building Elevation Nation on the side. In this episode, we get honest about why that wasn't settling, and why it might be the smartest path for you too.

In this episode:

• What the creator life really costs
• Letting go of the shame of feeling "meant for more"
• Building something fulfilling while your job pays the bills

Elevator no. 262: Kourosh Ashtary is the founder of EatFree, a platform that helps people with food allergies and dietary restrictions safely eat at restaurants. DMV born and raised, dog dad of two, and a fellow Terp, Kourosh went undiagnosed for 15 years and was hospitalized five times for anaphylactic shock in college. After stints at Deloitte and Carnival, he walked away from a director-level promotion to build the tool he wished he had.

In this episode:

• Why he left the corporate ladder, and why he calls the desk job the scarier option now
• The pivot from a "Yelp for food allergies" app to QR codes on restaurant menus
• Leaning on his best friend Jorge and protecting his marriage from startup stress
• Why there's no perfect route, only your route

Made a mistake at work and can't let it go? Sam and Parker break down why high achievers turn small slip-ups into week-long spirals, and what to do instead.

Inspired by a Yom Kippur sermon about tapping your chest instead of punching it, you'll learn a simple 3-step way to handle any mistake: own it, show how you're fixing it, and move on without over-apologizing. The guys also get into why school trains us to fear failure, why forgiving yourself matters more than being willing to fail, and how the people around you decide whether a mistake becomes a lesson or a setback.

Elevator no. 261: Jake Fishbein is an executive coach and men's group facilitator who helps leaders, non-profit heads, and everyday guys become better communicators and build relationships that actually nourish them. In 2026, after ten years of writing, he published The Men's Group: A Novel of Messy Friendships. When he's not coaching or writing, you can find him walking the streets of New York, rooting for the Red Sox, or buried in a new book.

In this podcast: Jake gets real about growing up with no clear "calling," a decade-long journey of learning to trust himself, and why some of his hardest conversations happened in a room of strangers before they ever happened with the people he loved. We talk about the self-trust minotaur we're all carrying, the eight years he spent in a men's group he joined "for research," and his mental motto pulled straight from the Odyssey.

Football season means one thing is back everywhere: sports gambling. Sam and Parker dig into the data on how it's wrecking young people's savings, and the real story behind it: our addiction to fast wins over slow, boring discipline. Not financial advice, just some hard truths about patience.

Elevator 260: Mitchell Harounian is a venture investor and the founder of The Venture Reel, a media-first syndicate that discovers and backs the next generation of startups. He's invested in 15+ companies, sits on boards as a member and advisor to early-stage founders, and built his platform by pairing venture capital with media and distribution, helping founders raise awareness, build credibility, and reach new investors and customers.

In this episode: Mitchell breaks down why he'd rather bet on an A+ founder with a B product than the reverse, and the three traits he looks for before he ever wires money. He gets real about the immigrant story behind his hustle, why he benchmarks himself against his past self instead of anyone else, and the mindset shift that turned a setback with his video editing team into his biggest growth month. Plus, the mental motto that grounds everything he does: "You can't be good if you're not grateful."