From Corrections Officer to Content Creator | Franjez on REAL Mentors Podcast EP 81

The Truth Is Funnier Than the Lie | Esther Acosta on REAL Mentors Podcast SP 87

Esther Acosta didn't see herself as a comedian. Then one open mic she flourished and found her calling. Three years later she's sold out over thirty shows, performed at the Laugh Factory in Chicago and built one of New York's most authentic comedy platforms from scratch. But before any of that, there was a family secret she didn't find out about until she was twenty one and a pattern she kept repeating in relationships without knowing why. A mother who saw something in her daughter before her daughter could see it herself. Esther's comedy comes straight from her life. A Cuban household, the bad boys, the restaurant kitchen and the things Latina women live through but rarely hear talked about on stage. When she tells a joke she's telling the truth and in this episode she brought all of it. This Episode Explores: ✅ Growing up Cuban in Hialeah and the family secret that changed everything ✅ Why she kept choosing the wrong men and what she finally realized underneath it ✅ The open mic that launched everything and the comedian who refused to believe it was her first time ✅ The Latin comedy legend who inspired her to just start ✅ Building Out of Control Comedy into thirty sold out shows ✅ Running Rincon Criollo, the family restaurant from Corona Queens to Long Island ✅ Why we spend our adult lives chasing what we never got as kids 🔗 Connect with Esther Acosta Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/estherthecubancomic [https://www.instagram.com/estherthecubancomic] Rincon Criollo: https://www.rincon-criollo.com/ [https://www.rincon-criollo.com/] Rincon Criollo: https://www.instagram.com/rinconcriollo76/ [https://www.instagram.com/rinconcriollo76/] Follow REAL Mentors Podcast Instagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcast [https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcast] Host Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartin [https://instagram.com/theseanmartin]

A Drug Dealer From Facing 60 Years to 8 Figure CEO | Kelly Siegel on REAL Mentors Podcast EP 86

Kelly Siegel grew up with alcoholic parents who beat him when they came home drunk. He learned early that showing fear meant weakness and that survival required toughness. By college he was shipping weed on planes and slinging hundred dollar bags of dope to pay tuition. Then he got arrested, everybody testified against him, the college threw him out and the system threw the book at him. He looked in the mirror and said he did this. Then he negotiated his way back into college at twenty years old while fighting criminal charges and did four months in county jail. That moment in a jail cell is where he decided he was never putting himself in that position again. Today Kelly is the CEO of National Technology Management, a high seven figure company approaching eight figures, a motivational speaker and author of Harder Than Life: Weaponizing Poverty, Addiction and Violence. His message is simple: you can learn every business system in the world but if you don't do the work between your ears none of it matters. In this episode Kelly and Sean get into generational cycles of abuse, what it actually means to heal, why scaling yourself is the only real business strategy and the TLC framework Kelly swears by for winning in every area of life. This Episode Explores: ✅ Alcoholic parents, childhood beatings and learning to exile fear to survive ✅ Shipping weed on planes and selling drugs through college ✅ Getting arrested, facing 60 years and everyone turning against him ✅ Negotiating his way back into college at twenty years old from a jail cell ✅ The mirror moment, which is taking full accountability with no parents to run home to ✅ How street survival instincts kept him small in business for years ✅ IFS therapy, exiled emotions and why you can't push out the bad without pushing out the good ✅ The first person who genuinely offered to help him and how that changed everything ✅ Why you are your best investment and bleeding on people who didn't cut you ✅ The TLC framework: Training, Learning and Coaching as a daily operating system 🔗 Connect with Kelly Siegel Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kelly.siegel.71/ [https://www.instagram.com/kelly.siegel.71/] YouTube: youtube.com/@harderthanlife [http://youtube.com/@harderthanlife] Website: harderthanlife.com [http://harderthanlife.com] Book: Harder Than Life Follow REAL Mentors Podcast Instagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcast [https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcast] Host Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartin [https://instagram.com/theseanmartin]

Homeless, Handcuffed in Front of His Son, Then Found God | Jonnie Parsons on REAL Mentors Podcast EP 85

Jonnie Parsons had the $70,000 truck, the four bedroom house and the white picket fence. He gave it all away chasing a void he couldn't fill. What followed was meth, opiates, fentanyl, eighteen months in county jail inside a two year stretch and getting arrested in front of his son and his girlfriend who barely spoke English and didn't have a license. He was a firefighter risking his career to get high two days before his shift. He was a construction worker making good money at eighteen and spending it all on drugs. He kept coming back to the same bottom in different cities, different jobs and different circumstances because the problem was never the situation. It was him. The turning point came in a spiritual dorm behind bars in one of Florida's toughest counties. For the first time in his life, Jonnie says he was in chains and felt completely free. That's where he found God and where everything actually changed. Today, seven years removed from homelessness and addiction, Jonnie is the Executive Vice President of Alliance Land Development, author of the 365-day devotional Unshakable and a man who refuses to waste the life he almost lost several times over. This Episode Explores: ✅ Growing up in Fort Pierce with a Vietnam vet father and a mother who never missed a day of work ✅ Making good money at eighteen in construction and finding meth and opiates on the job site ✅ The void that no amount of money, sex or drugs could fill ✅ Eighteen months in county jail inside two years and getting beaten by cops on the last arrest ✅ Being a firefighter and using cocaine two days before shifts knowing he could be drug tested ✅ Fentanyl taking him to his absolute bottom ✅ Getting arrested in front of his son and girlfriend with a warrant out for his arrest ✅ Finding God in a spiritual dorm in one of Florida's toughest county jails ✅ Getting married with $11 Walmart rings because the pastor paid the $85 marriage certificate ✅ From homeless drug addict to Executive VP in seven years 🔗 Connect with Jonnie Parsons Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonnie_parsons_official/ [https://www.instagram.com/jonnie_parsons_official/] Book: Unshakable 365 Day Devotional E-Book: 5 Daily Disciplines of Personal Development Follow REAL Mentors Podcast Instagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcast [https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcast] Host Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartin [https://instagram.com/theseanmartin]

From Manhattan Prosecutor to Passion Coach | Kereen Evans on REAL Mentors Podcast EP 84

Kereen Evans migrated to the United States at eleven years old. She went on to become a Manhattan prosecutor, a legal advisor, a podcast host in the top ten percent of all podcasts worldwide and a passion to purpose coach. She didn't plan all of it. She just kept moving. In this episode, Kereen gets into what drew her to the prosecutor's office in the first place which was not to lock people up, but to help people stuck in addiction cycles get treatment instead of sentences. She breaks down how that work shaped the way she sees people, asks questions and leads conversations. And she gets honest about what it actually looks like to build a full life while still becoming who you're supposed to be. This is a conversation about alignment, humanity and what happens when you stop waiting for the right moment and just start. This Episode Explores: ✅ Migrating to the US at eleven and what that shaped in her ✅ From paralegal to Manhattan prosecutor: the path that wasn't random ✅ Working in drug treatment alternative programs: rehabilitation over incarceration ✅ Why she asks probing questions in every conversation and what that cost her in relationships ✅ Bail reform, petty crimes and what real justice actually looks like ✅ Views change but choosing humanity first, stays the same ✅ Building a podcast to the top ten percent of all shows worldwide ✅ Connecting your talents, passions and purpose without waiting until you're ready 🔗 Connect with Kereen Evans Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thekereenconnection/ [https://www.instagram.com/thekereenconnection/] YouTube: youtube.com/@thekereenconnection [http://youtube.com/@thekereenconnection] Website: thekereenconnection.com [http://thekereenconnection.com] Podcast: The Kereen Connection Follow REAL Mentors Podcast Instagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcast [https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcast] Host Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartin [https://instagram.com/theseanmartin]

Arrested, Broke and Built an Empire Anyway | Jarred Elmar on REAL Mentors Podcast EP 83

Jarred Elmar bought his first properties on courthouse steps right out of high school with no college, no capital, no connections and no safety net. Just a scrappy kid from South Florida who refused to let his circumstances write his ending. Today he's the Managing Partner of The Geneva Group with over 1.8 million square feet of commercial real estate and a goal of 5 million. But the real story isn't the portfolio. It's what it took to build it and who he had to become along the way. In this episode, Jarred gets into the pivotal moment a complete stranger stopped him cold with a tough conversation he didn't ask for and couldn't ignore. He talks about spending years hiding where he came from and why he finally stopped. He breaks down the scrappy, grassroots prospecting model that built his empire and the same one he now teaches young people coming out of high school and college. This is a conversation about owning your story, building from zero and what happens when you stop apologizing for who you are. This Episode Explores: ✅ Buying properties on courthouse steps straight out of high school ✅ No college, no backing, no experience and why that became the advantage ✅ Getting in trouble with the law and what it actually cost him ✅ Hiding his background for years and why he finally owned it completely ✅ The stranger who gave him a tough pep talk that changed his life ✅ Building a grassroots prospecting model from the ground up ✅ Teaching the next generation of scrappy, first-generation real estate investors ✅ Faith, family and his grandfather's lasting influence ✅ The goal: 5 million square feet 🔗 Connect with Jarred Elmar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geneva_gp/ [https://www.instagram.com/geneva_gp/] Website: genevagp.com [http://genevagp.com] Book: Built From Nothing Follow REAL Mentors Podcast Instagram: https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcast [https://instagram.com/realmentorspodcast] Host Sean Martin: https://instagram.com/theseanmartin [https://instagram.com/theseanmartin]