S2E23 | He Came Home From Vietnam. Nobody Asked If He Was Okay | Keith Cole

S2E28 | Louis Joseph: When the Soul Speaks to the Spreadsheet

Twenty years inside the machine. New Balance. PUMA. K-Swiss. Kering. Pre-IPO diligence on Canada Goose and Moncler before those names meant what they mean today. A seat at every table that mattered. Then a creative yearning. A soulful need to inform, to build, to author something entirely his own. Call it misalignment. Call it vision. A restlessness that operational success could not quiet. Starting a brand when you know what you know is not a romantic act. Louis knew the failure rates. The runway math. The brutal seasonality of outerwear. He had run diligence on the very category he was entering. And he stepped off anyway. Founded Alps and Meters in 2017. Luxury alpine sportswear. Tailored, technical, timeless. Built on the traditions of European mountain sport. Sold at Harrods, Matches Fashion, premier alpine boutiques worldwide. And the people writing personal checks into this bet? Jim Davis, owner of New Balance. Scott Dahnke, Global Co-CEO of L Catterton, the world's largest consumer-focused private equity firm. Zach Duane, former CEO of Victoria Beckham. Are they buying the brand? Or are they buying the person? What if we stopped measuring brand building purely in quarterly returns and asked what resonance actually costs and what it is actually worth? What if creative vision, held long enough, with operational precision behind it, is the hard answer and not the soft one? What if Louis Joseph is the proof of concept for how luxury brands actually get built? Or is cash still king, the clock still running, and the beautiful idea still subject to the unforgiving arithmetic of retail? You decide. --- EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS What luxury really means from the inside Entrepreneurial vs. intrapreneurial thinking How to build a premium brand without brute-force marketing The tradeoff between top-line growth and gross margin What founders should know before taking outside capital How brands manufacture soul through consistency and discipline COVID, supply chain disruption, and rebuilding the operating model Why gross margin is the truest signal of long-term brand health --- CONNECT WITH LOUIS JOSEPH https://www.alpsandmeters.com [https://www.alpsandmeters.com] https://www.instagram.com/alpsandmeters [https://www.instagram.com/alpsandmeters] Email: Louis@AlpsAndMeters.com [Louis@AlpsAndMeters.com] --- CONNECT WITH MYLES https://linktr.ee/fightorfl1ght [https://linktr.ee/fightorfl1ght] https://www.linkedin.com/in/mylesjeffreylevin [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mylesjeffreylevin] https://www.stellaiam.com [https://www.stellaiam.com] Walk Worthy.

S2E27 | Robert Bradshaw: Architect of Presence in High-Stakes Chaos

Robert Bradshaw stands where power meets fragility. He does not provide answers. He creates the conditions for them. He has spent years navigating the moral complexity of the military, the trauma of special operations, and the cold architecture of political leadership. The human soul fractures when it is stretched across these environments. Empathy is the casualty when the mission demands total detachment. Service is not a duty. It is a fundamental human architecture. We dissect the mechanics of spiritual care. The science of trauma. The quiet work of being present when everything else is burning. Listen to the signal. Disregard the noise.

S2E26 | Diego Ugalde — To Whom Much Is Given

He ran 500 missions.Nobody asked him who he was. Diego Ugalde gave fifteen years to Naval Special Warfare. Three wars. NATO partnerships. Hundreds of lives changed by the decisions he made in the dark. And when he walked away from all of it, he looked back at the whole thing: realized he had been a stranger to himself. This is NOT a war story. It IS what happens after. What it costs to give everything, and still not know the person doing the giving. What does it take to turn the mission inward? What happens when we explore "that" awakening: the crack? The moment plant medicine rearranged one's world view? Did the God Molecule show him a more "powerful peace"? Then there is Warriorside. From whom does storytelling heal? Why is sharing a story the most dangerous and necessary thing a person can do. Sit with that for a minute... As we sat, with the question underneath all of it. To whom much is given: what happens to the one who never stopped to receive? No conclusions here. Only the conversation. Draw what you need from it. -- WarriorSide.org — support, volunteer, donategivebutter.com/warriorside — contribute to veteran healinglinkedin.com/in/diegougalde — connect with Diego

S2E25 | Why Are Some Products Beloved and Others Functionally Forgettable? | w/ Kevin Beard

Some creatives iterate. The great ones innovate. So what's the difference? Is it mandate? Short-term profit grabs versus building something that lasts? Is it the people — designers who move culture versus those who mine it for trend cycles and move on? Kevin Beard has lived both sides. Four design careers. Olympic medals won in shoes he designed. A motorsports footwear brand built from nothing, sold to a Fortune 500. Now shaping the next generation at ArtCenter College of Design. In this episode we go deep on what separates beloved from forgettable — and why the answer has nothing to do with the product. In This Episode: * Why psychographics beat demographics every time * The moment the iPhone changed what design even means * How Nike and Apple lost their soul — and what that cost them * Piloti: building a brand from a culture, not a category * The future of craft, small-batch, and why imperfection is winning * Design education in the age of AI — what machines still can't touch Connect with Kevin Beard:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-beard [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-beard]ArtCenter College of Design: https://www.artcenter.edu/ [https://www.artcenter.edu/]

S2E24 Erick DeLeon | He Opened a Retail Store From Scratch: Genius?!

WHO SELF FUNDS, PRODUCES, AND OPENS A BRICK AND MORTAR RETAIL STORE and expects to make money in today's market? Naive? Or transformative? You decide. Myles sits back down with Erick DeLeon, founder of Of The Lion in South Minneapolis. Erick is betting that authenticity, community, and curation will always beat convenience: You might just agree. They dig into the seismic shifts breaking retail, why fast fashion is losing to craft and character, the brands you need to know, and the Ice Cutters bandana story. Get in. Get active. Support Local. Stay REAL. This is Of The Lion. Connect with Erick: erik@ofthelion.shop [erik@ofthelion.shop] | (630) 742-2285 | @ofthelion