The Branding Laboratory

The Self-Limiting Beliefs Quietly Killing Your Leadership (And Your Revenue)

Most leaders hired JM Ryerson to double their revenue. He started by asking them what they did for themselves that morning. The answers told him everything he needed to know about why the revenue problem existed in the first place. JM is the founder of Let's Go Win, a performance and mindset ecosystem that works with growth-oriented companies on leadership alignment, sales execution, and culture. In this conversation on The Brand Lab, he goes deep on the identity work that sits underneath every organizational problem people mislabel as a strategy or messaging issue. If you have ever hired for culture fit and gotten it wrong, lost a client you should have kept, or found yourself making good money while quietly dreading your own life, this episode lands in a specific and useful place. What You'll Learn: 1: The three questions JM uses to dismantle any self-limiting belief, including the money belief that held him back even after his first seven-figure year. 2: Why culture is motor oil and not gasoline, and what that distinction means for how you build a team that doesn't grind itself apart. 3: How to give feedback that people can actually receive, and the one question you must ask before you open your mouth. 4: What JM learned about alignment by almost losing his family while financially succeeding at everything around him. 5: Why leadership development and revenue growth are the same conversation, and why separating them is where most coaching engagements quietly fail. About JM Ryerson: JM Ryerson is a performance coach, author, and founder of Let's Go Win, a holistic performance platform built around leadership alignment, mindset, and culture. His clients' lowest revenue increase on record last year was 47%. He is based in Boca Raton, Florida, and hosts his own podcast. He ran two and a half miles every day in college before he found out his coach was running five. He has been chasing that standard ever since. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 — Introduction and five years of The Brand Lab 02:00 — What people miss when they Google JM Ryerson 05:30 — Authenticity, the Midwest, and the cost of curation 10:00 — How JM defines leadership and the coach who ran twice as far 14:00 — Diagnosing leadership gaps: how JM assesses an organization 17:00 — Core values, three per company, and why alignment starts there 19:00 — How to give feedback without blowing up the relationship 23:00 — Ego, meditation, and the practice of responding instead of reacting 26:00 — JM's four daily non-negotiables and why they are not optional 31:00 — The identity work behind the revenue: what happens when you're not aligned 38:00 — Rejection, ICP clarity, and learning from the proposals that said no 42:00 — Three questions that break self-limiting beliefs and generational patterns 48:00 — The Win Performance Platform: philanthropy, business, and winning from within 52:00 — How JM decides who he works with and why fixed mindsets are a hard stop 55:00 — Where to find JM and how to connect Connect with JM Ryerson: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jm-ryerson/ Instagram: @letsgowinofficial About The Brand Lab: The Brand Lab is a thinking room for founders and leaders who are building something real. Host Deevo explores the intersection of identity, positioning, and strategy with people who have already done the work and are still doing it. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss a conversation worth having.

Why Your Fridge Is Full But You Don't Know What to Cook — Jay Lee, Spring House

Thirty percent of the food you buy this week will end up in the trash. Not because you're careless — because your home is the only place in the entire food supply chain with zero inventory system. Jay Lee, founder of Spring House, is fixing that with an AI-powered food intelligence platform that tracks what you have, reduces waste, and tells you exactly what to cook tonight based on what's already in your fridge. This conversation goes deep on the behavioral design challenge behind building a consumer habit product, how Jay went from a career in defense technology to founding a company in food tech, and what it actually takes to solve a problem that every household on the planet deals with every single day. What You'll Learn: 1: Why 30% of household food gets thrown away — and the behavioral gap Jay identified at the root of the problem 2: How Spring House tracks pantry and fridge inventory through photos, voice, and receipt capture to create a real-time food intelligence layer for your home 3: The difference between static recipes (which create more stress) and adaptive recipes (which cook with what you actually have) 4: Why Jay says building a startup is more about stamina than speed, and how that mindset changed from his first company to his second 5: How culture functions in a startup — and why Jay describes it as the motor oil of a company rather than the gasoline About Jay Lee: Jay Lee is a second-time founder and entrepreneur with a background spanning defense technology and consumer product development. He is the founder of Spring House, an AI-powered food intelligence system designed to help households understand what food they have, reduce waste, and cook smarter. Spring House is currently in development with a beta waitlist open at springhouse.co. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 — Introduction: Jay Lee and the Spring House concept 03:00 — The behavior Spring House is trying to change: awareness as the foundation 06:20 — The sour cream moment: the eureka origin story 09:00 — Why recipe apps make food waste worse, not better 11:00 — How Spring House tracks inventory: photos, voice, and receipt capture 14:30 — Why Spring House is focused on consumers, not restaurants 17:30 — Stamina over speed: lessons from building two companies 22:00 — Adaptive recipes and the food science taxonomy behind them 26:00 — Where Spring House is right now and how to join the beta waitlist 28:00 — What building companies has taught Jay about himself 33:00 — Culture as motor oil: Jay's philosophy on building great teams 36:00 — Getting the Spring House story aligned: perception vs. intent 40:00 — Technology vs. psychology: what this product is really about 44:00 — What Jay hopes people say about Spring House in three years 47:00 — Building in public and the power of transparent storytelling Connect with Jay Lee: Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaylee00/ Spring House: https://springhouse.co/ About the Show: The Brand Laboratory is a thinking room, not a traditional interview show. Host Devo explores the intersection of identity, strategy, and psychology behind what founders and entrepreneurs are actually building — and the friction they navigate to build it. Subscribe so you never miss a conversation.

Why Every Successful Entrepreneur Feels Lonely — And the Community That Actually Fixes It

What happens when you stop going to conferences for the content, and start going for the conversations in the lobby? That question became the foundation for one of the most exclusive entrepreneur networks in the world. Hollis Carter, Founder of Baby in the Bathwater, built a sold-out, decade-old community of seven- and eight-figure founders by scratching his own itch. What You'll Learn: 1: Why curating the room matters more than curating the content — and how Hollis's "current is strong" philosophy keeps the culture intact at scale 2: How to identify the three levels of community participation and why the third level is where the real business breakthroughs happen 3: The hard lesson Hollis learned about "bettering vs. biggering" and how it applies to your business decisions right now 4: Why early entrepreneurial success without the process often leads to self-sabotage — and how to build the experience base that makes success stick 5: How to develop personal core values before your business demands them from you (most founders learn this far too late) 6: The leadership move that transformed Hollis's team meetings: speaking last, and why it creates better outcomes every time About the Guest: Hollis Carter is the founder and CEO of Baby in the Bathwater, a private membership community and event series for founders in the grow-and-scale phase of their business. He began his entrepreneurial journey at 12, growing a lawn business before he had a driver's license, and has since bootstrapped multiple companies to seven figures across industries including publishing, software, and real estate. Baby in the Bathwater has been running for over a decade with a waitlisted, referral-only membership. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 — Introduction & Welcome to The Branding Laboratory 02:30 — Devo on finding Baby in the Bathwater and why it blew him away 04:00 — Hollis's origin story: from dyslexic kid with a lawnmower to serial entrepreneur 08:00 — The accidental birth of Baby in the Bathwater 10:30 — The lobby theory: why conversations beat content at every conference 13:00 — How Hollis decided to manufacture serendipity 15:30 — Defining the community: who Baby in the Bathwater actually serves 19:00 — New app launch, membership model, and the decade-long journey 21:00 — Attention span vs. passion: why Hollis is in year 10 and still fired up 23:00 — The three levels of community participation and competitive giving 28:00 — What collaborative leadership actually looks like in practice 31:00 — How Hollis defines leadership (and why it's not a canned answer) 36:00 — Hollis's single superpower: curating and connecting 39:00 — Nature vs. nurture: how Baby in the Bathwater built its culture 43:30 — Working on yourself before working on your business (Jim Rohn principles) 47:00 — Personal values as a leadership foundation 53:00 — Core values Hollis lives by: bettering, saying nice things, and doing what you say 58:00 — Final gift: why experience is the only thing that matters Connect with Hollis Carter: https://babybathwater.com/ About The Branding Laboratory: A podcast hosted by Deevo that brings together entrepreneurs, leaders, and brand builders to explore what it takes to break free from uninspiring systems, build a genuine personal brand, and lead with purpose. Visit thebrandstoryteller.com to learn more. Subscribe so you never miss a conversation. New episodes drop regularly.

Drink Like You Mean It: Building a Category-Defining Brand with Milan Martin

What does it take to build a brand in a category that barely exists yet? Milan Martin walked away from 20 years in advertising, including work on some of the world's most recognized campaigns, to found Free Spirits, a company making non-alcoholic spirits for people who love cocktails, not people trying to quit drinking. That distinction matters. Free Spirits isn't a sobriety brand, but a choice brand, built for drinkers who want to stay in the room, enjoy the ritual, and skip the regret later on. In this episode, Deevo and Milan dig into what it really takes to introduce something new to a market that doesn't know it wants it yet. Milan shares the brand strategy behind 'Drink Like You Mean It,' how Free Spirits is disrupting a trillion-dollar alcohol industry without wagging a finger at it, and the near-death shipping disaster that almost killed the company in year one. What You'll Learn: * Why the biggest misconception about non-alcoholic spirits is who they're actually for * How Milan positions a challenger brand against a deeply entrenched cultural narrative around alcohol * The 'and not or' philosophy that shapes everything from product strategy to marketing * What actually drives brand loyalty (hint: it's not product, it's community and identity) * How baby steps and compounding progress can take you further than a dramatic leap ever could Connect with Milan: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/milanmartin/ Website: https://drinkfreespirits.com/ Instagram: @drinkfreespirits TikTok: @drinkfreespirits

The Modern Dating Code: Values, Attachment, and the Art of Choosing Right | Chelsko Thompson

What actually makes someone worth choosing in the modern dating landscape? In this episode of The Brand Laboratory, host Deevo sits down with Chelsko Thompson — known to her community as Chelsko — a relationship coach who helps men understand women, attraction, and themselves.Chelsko pulls zero punches. From unpacking attachment theory to explaining why leading with desperation repels the very people you want to attract, she lays out a clear-eyed framework for what it takes to show up grounded, clear on your values, and genuinely ready for a healthy partnership. Topics covered in this episode: 1: How Chelsko built her coaching practice from personal heartbreak and abuse recovery 2: The difference between anxious and avoidant attachment — and how to stop the cycle 3: Why asking the hard questions early isn't scary; it's efficient 4: The five values Chelsko looks for before she'll go on a first date 5: What men and women each need to do before they're actually ready to date 6: How social media is conditioning both sexes to chase the wrong signals 7: The masculine-feminine dynamic — what it looks like when it works. Whether you're re-entering the dating world or trying to figure out why the same patterns keep showing up, this conversation will give you language for things you've been feeling but couldn't name. Guest Bio: Chelsko Thompson, known online as Chelsko, is a relationship coach, musician, and actor who built her practice the hard way: through two abusive relationships, years of self-work, and the realization that the best thing she could do with what she'd learned was stop giving it away for free. She specializes in helping men understand attraction, dating, and healthy relationship dynamics, and has built a community known for honest, direct conversation about modern dating. Her upcoming course, Unshakeable, guides men through the inner work of becoming the kind of person a high-quality partner is drawn to. LISTEN / WATCH YouTube + all major podcast platforms. Instagram: @chelskocoaching Website: https://chirp.me/chelskonellie Host: thebrandstoryteller.com If this episode hit you, like it, subscribe, and leave a review. It helps the right people find this show.