Dr. Sam McGough interviews Marlon Mueller, a fourth-generation Iowa farmer who was shaped by the 1980s farm crisis and a multi-year estate lawsuit, leading him to study finances and become successful across farming, life insurance, and alternative real estate. Mueller recounts an early annuity mistake, later revisiting life insurance through deep research and adopting the infinite banking concept, stressing the need to discern misinformation online and to use mentors and trustworthy sources. He explains using whole life policies to borrow against cash value to fund investments, increasing “money velocity” by keeping dollars working in multiple places, often focusing on paying interest while pursuing higher-return real estate deals, with simple administration via annual premiums and tracking. The conversation covers faith-driven principles, calculated risk, rising living costs and debt burdens, and building generational wealth by teaching heirs mindset and money skills rather than simply passing money.

00:00 Farm Roots and Early Lessons

02:09 Farm Crisis and Estate Battle

03:14 Life Insurance Wake Up Call

04:41 Infinite Banking Explained

05:58 Finding Truth in Finance

08:05 Wealth Books and Mentors

09:56 Choosing the Right Agent

12:44 Money Velocity and Leverage

17:12 Admin Setup and Farm Life

20:12 Entrepreneur Mindset and Values

23:59 Faith Through Struggles

28:14 Teaching Generational Wealth

32:31 Avoiding the Third Gen Trap

34:20 What Income Feels Livable

35:17 Debt Versus Lifestyle

36:08 Housing Costs Surge

37:52 Assets Beat Inflation

38:35 Fuel Hits Businesses

40:07 Insurance And Deductibles

42:36 Credit Lines And Banks

44:15 Financial Literacy Gap

46:23 Failures And Persistence

49:39 Time And Consistency

52:46 Farm Work And Reset

Thanks for listening, and please share this episode with someone who's building more than a business, someone who's building a life worth living. It helps us grow the show and bring these honest conversations, practical insights, and life design strategies to more founders, operators, and builders pursuing both success and freedom. Have a great day.

Dr. Sam McGough

"Success should fund a life you actually want, not a self-created prison."

Discover conversations with founders, operators, and builders who have earned success and intentionally designed the freedom to enjoy it. Access real stories, practical lessons, and authentic perspectives on leadership, discipline, business growth, systems, and life by design.

Join a community of entrepreneurs and leaders committed to building businesses that create opportunity without sacrificing the life they're working for.

Join FREE at: https://thehuntforsuccess.com/

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About Marlon

Marlon Mueller is a financial educator, investor, and fourth-generation farmer who helps individuals and business owners build lasting wealth through financial education, mindset, and long-term planning. His work focuses on helping people create financial freedom while leaving a meaningful legacy for future generations.

On the Hunt for Success podcast, the host interviews Christian Zoron, a longtime entrepreneur and watch enthusiast, about building resilience in business, balancing pride in hard work with financial outcomes, and staying principled even when it costs views or money. Zoron explains how he started Theo and Harris at 19 flipping vintage watches and later shifted most of his time to a marketing and consulting firm doing small and mid-size business strategy and commercial production. He describes souring on social media and content creation, then returning after his first hunt—a Louisiana duck hunt—sparked renewed passion and viral success. Zoron discusses rapidly taking up turkey, hog, goose, dove, and upcoming moose and potential bear hunts, how hunting community culture feels more welcoming than the watch world, and previews a new long-form series, “Meeting America,” focused on reconnecting with nature and American values.

00:00 Entrepreneur Roots

02:48 Watches Into Business

05:58 Handling Business Lows

09:00 Principles Over Clicks

11:20 Back To Content

15:37 First Duck Hunt

16:31 Chasing Adrenaline Hunts

19:40 Going Public Reluctantly

24:48 Outsider Honesty Wins

27:58 Hunting Vs Watch Culture

29:34 Hunters Everywhere Connect

30:16 Food Source Reality Check

32:23 Cooking And Better Stories

34:38 Hunting As Equalizer

38:51 Online Vs In Person

41:36 Upcoming Hunts Calendar

44:50 Camaraderie And Outdoors

47:21 Meeting America Mission

49:32 Private Equity Rollups

Thanks for listening, and please share this episode with someone who's building more than a business, someone who's building a life worth living. It helps us grow the show and bring these honest conversations, practical insights, and life design strategies to more founders, operators, and builders pursuing both success and freedom. Have a great day.

Dr. Sam McGough

"Success should fund a life you actually want, not a self-created prison."

Discover conversations with founders, operators, and builders who have earned success and intentionally designed the freedom to enjoy it. Access real stories, practical lessons, and authentic perspectives on leadership, discipline, business growth, systems, and life by design.

Join a community of entrepreneurs and leaders committed to building businesses that create opportunity without sacrificing the life they're working for.

Join FREE at: https://thehuntforsuccess.com/

Follow Hunt for Success: Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | TikTok | YouTube

About Christian

Christian Zeron is an entrepreneur, storyteller, and founder of Theo & Harris, a vintage watch company and media brand he launched in 2015. What began as a passion for vintage watches grew through Christian’s early use of YouTube and social media into a recognized voice in the watch industry. Today, his work combines entrepreneurship, luxury, digital media, and brand storytelling, with Theo & Harris creating content and campaigns for some of the world’s leading watch brands.

Links

Website: https://theoandharris.com/vintage-watches/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianzeron/

Dr. Sam McGough interviews financial advisor Chris Norton about his shift from traditional wealth management into sourcing late-stage private-company shares (e.g., SpaceX, xAI, Palantir) for high-net-worth clients through funds that buy access via investment banks, VCs on cap tables, and employee liquidity events. Norton explains how companies staying private longer moves value creation to private markets, why major banks reserve these deals for ultra-wealthy clients, and how his firm separates a traditional RIA business from the private fund operation. He outlines due diligence focused heavily on counterparty credibility, his ideal client allocating 10–20% for higher-growth opportunities, and lessons on maintaining a stable financial foundation while not market-timing. They discuss wins (SpaceX, HydroForum) and losses (Energy Vault), missed opportunities (Anthropic), and briefly connect investing and business lessons to fishing experiences and client selection.

00:00 Meet Chris Norton

01:58 Accessing Private Shares

05:19 Fund Operations Roles

07:38 Ideal Investor Profile

11:28 Wins and Losses Stories

15:02 SpaceX Long Term Thesis

19:50 Deal Flow Sectors Strategy

22:19 Investor Playbook Foundation

28:28 Fishing Life Lessons

32:40 Big Wins Investing

36:14 Firing Bad Customers

39:48 Tarpon Kayak Wakeup

42:37 Deals That Got Away

Thanks for listening, and please share this episode with someone who's building more than a business, someone who's building a life worth living. It helps us grow the show and bring these honest conversations, practical insights, and life design strategies to more founders, operators, and builders pursuing both success and freedom. Have a great day.

Dr. Sam McGough

"Success should fund a life you actually want, not a self-created prison."

Discover conversations with founders, operators, and builders who have earned success and intentionally designed the freedom to enjoy it. Access real stories, practical lessons, and authentic perspectives on leadership, discipline, business growth, systems, and life by design.

Join a community of entrepreneurs and leaders committed to building businesses that create opportunity without sacrificing the life they're working for.

Join FREE at: https://thehuntforsuccess.com/

Follow Hunt for Success: Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | TikTok | YouTube

About Chris Norton

Chris Norton is Senior Managing Director at Sutter Securities. He is also the co-founder and managing member of Strategic Growth Opportunities and Strategic Growth Ventures, where he helps identify and develop opportunities for long-term business growth.

Links

Website: Sgofund.com

Dr. Sam McGough interviews Dan Beaudoin, president and CEO of DMF Bait Company, whose live bait is sold in about 12,000 U.S. stores and has been in business 49 years. Beaudoin shares how the company began when his father, uncle, and a friend—Michigan teachers seeking summer income—were drawn into a red-worm “buyback” scam, then pivoted into supplying nightcrawlers after discovering demand from bait shops, despite nightcrawlers’ difficult sourcing and inability to reproduce in captivity. Key turning points included landing Kmart in the early 1980s, surviving a 1988 drought by shipping at a loss, and later expanding into Walmart, Bass Pro, and Cabela’s while developing proprietary nationwide shipping and packaging systems. He defines success as making DMF the “Kleenex of live bait,” emphasizes humility and culture, and describes DMF’s new tackle-line expansion for convenience stores.

00:00 Meet Dan Beaudoin

01:42 Worm Scam Origins

04:03 Nightcrawler Reality Check

11:01 Dan Joins the Business

19:05 Power Outage Worm Chaos

25:01 Landing Walmart and Big Box

32:26 Catawba Worm Goldmine

33:43 Defining Real Success

41:42 Building Lasting Culture

45:20 Leadership and Morale

52:29 Where to Buy DMF

54:18 Garlic Worm Proof

Thanks for listening, and please share this episode with someone who's building more than a business, someone who's building a life worth living. It helps us grow the show and bring these honest conversations, practical insights, and life design strategies to more founders, operators, and builders pursuing both success and freedom. Have a great day.

Dr. Sam McGough

"Success should fund a life you actually want, not a self-created prison."

Discover conversations with founders, operators, and builders who have earned success and intentionally designed the freedom to enjoy it. Access real stories, practical lessons, and authentic perspectives on leadership, discipline, business growth, systems, and life by design.

Join a community of entrepreneurs and leaders committed to building businesses that create opportunity without sacrificing the life they're working for.

Join FREE at: https://thehuntforsuccess.com/

Follow Hunt for Success: Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | TikTok | YouTube

About Dan

Dan Beaudoin is the owner and operator of DMF Bait, a family business founded in Pontiac, Michigan, in 1977. Under his leadership, the company has expanded its live-bait distribution across 49 states while continuing to innovate in packaging, shipping and product development. Dan is passionate about building a strong company culture, creating local employment and sustaining the sport of fishing for future generations. His goal is to make DMF Bait the most recognized name in live bait nationwide.

Links

Website http://www.dmfbait.com

Dr. Sam McGough interviews Brian McNally, a Philadelphia working-class entrepreneur who exited a healthcare revenue-cycle business and is now writing a book, launching coaching, and developing a “founder operating system” focused on building a sellable asset by designing with the end in mind, setting a clear revenue target, replacing founder dependency, and keeping operations clean for an eventual buyer. McNally reflects on lessons from the exit, especially missed advanced tax strategies, and emphasizes defining personal success as freedom, health, family, and fulfillment rather than chasing societal “magic numbers.” He describes a major 2020 COVID-driven business downturn that triggered a spiral, then a disciplined turnaround using strict routines, fitness, jujitsu, and self-trust. He discusses purpose-driven entrepreneurship, charitable work with performance-based frameworks, his late-life MMA fight journey, and future plans including selective equity partnerships and digital products.

00:00 Meet Brian McNally

02:34 Rejecting The Fixed Income Life

07:36 Building A Sellable Company

12:05 Exit Regrets And Tax Moves

14:20 Defining Freedom And Enough

19:57 Post Exit Mission And Impact

27:19 Self Trust And Fix The Founder

30:36 Fitness Goals That Matter

32:00 Hunting Shape Reality Check

36:25 Family Reaction To Fighting

42:36 Performance Based Charity

45:41 Nature Hunting And Tradition

50:06 Where To Find Brian

Thanks for listening, and please share this episode with someone who's building more than a business, someone who's building a life worth living. It helps us grow the show and bring these honest conversations, practical insights, and life design strategies to more founders, operators, and builders pursuing both success and freedom. Have a great day.

Dr. Sam McGough

"Success should fund a life you actually want, not a self-created prison."

Discover conversations with founders, operators, and builders who have earned success and intentionally designed the freedom to enjoy it. Access real stories, practical lessons, and authentic perspectives on leadership, discipline, business growth, systems, and life by design.

Join a community of entrepreneurs and leaders committed to building businesses that create opportunity without sacrificing the life they're working for.

Join FREE at: https://thehuntforsuccess.com/

Follow Hunt for Success: Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | TikTok | YouTube

On the Hunt for Success podcast, Dr. Sam McGough sits down with Ben Jordan, a plumbing and HVAC entrepreneur, coach, and lifelong hunter who believes the skilled trades are positioned to create a new generation of millionaires. Jordan shares how reaching a breaking point led him to lose 120 pounds while running a growing company, why creating content became part of his responsibility to help others, and how service businesses can grow by focusing on root problems, consistent standards, and genuinely serving customers instead of simply chasing leads. He explains why he believes tradespeople often underestimate the businesses they’ve built and how changing the perception of blue-collar work could change thousands of lives. Jordan also shares stories from growing up elk hunting in Colorado, traveling to hunt with the great-aunt who helped raise him, and creating hunting experiences with his own family. He and Sam explore the similarities between hunting and entrepreneurship, including learning to enjoy preparation, embracing the work that comes after the win, continually raising your standards, and refusing to plateau. Jordan also discusses his plans to expand his coaching business, sell his plumbing company, help create 1,000 millionaires over the next decade, and why investing in yourself and your team can produce a greater return than any financial investment.

00:00 The Next Millionaires

00:34 Hunt For Success

01:11 Losing 120 Pounds

03:03 Content That Changes Lives

04:21 Opportunity In The Trades

07:20 Service Versus Fixing Problems

10:16 Finding The Root Cause

11:26 Systems Standards And Consistency

12:38 Growing Up Hunting

14:13 Hunting Dreams Become Reality

15:15 Hunting With Family

20:01 Now The Work Begins

20:44 Never Plateau In Business

21:21 Hunting And Raising Standards

22:25 Elk Versus Whitetail

25:47 Changing The Trades

27:16 Blue Collar Perception

28:38 Creating 1,000 Millionaires

31:39 Investing In Yourself

32:25 Building Great Teams

33:07 Living Up To Your Potential

Thanks for listening, and please share this episode with someone who's building more than a business, someone who's building a life worth living. It helps us grow the show and bring these honest conversations, practical insights, and life design strategies to more founders, operators, and builders pursuing both success and freedom. Have a great day.

Dr. Sam McGough

"Success should fund a life you actually want, not a self-created prison."

Discover conversations with founders, operators, and builders who have earned success and intentionally designed the freedom to enjoy it. Access real stories, practical lessons, and authentic perspectives on leadership, discipline, business growth, systems, and life by design.

Join a community of entrepreneurs and leaders committed to building businesses that create opportunity without sacrificing the life they're working for.

Join FREE at: https://thehuntforsuccess.com/

Follow Hunt for Success: Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | TikTok | YouTube