The Grant Owen Podcast

Brian Burt, founder and CEO of Canopy Management, joins Grant to share the path from living out of a car and launching a windshield-repair business at 19 to building an agency that received a nine-figure acquisition offer. He explains the mindset shifts, failures, and practical moves that helped him build durable enterprise value.
Brian lays out an actionable roadmap for starting a business, earning your first $10K and $1M, finding a profitable audience, creating a high-value offer, hiring A players, leading teams, performance-based marketing, AI automation, agency roll-ups, and M&A. This conversation is for founders who want to turn attention, expertise, and systems into a real business.
Riverside: Go to https://creators.riverside.com/Grant and use code GRANT to get one month of the Grow plan.
Chapters:00:00:00 Brian Burt’s journey to entrepreneurship00:06:07 Starting an auto glass business at 1900:11:41 The path to your first $10K00:19:03 Attention, audience, and monetization00:21:31 Rebuilding after an SEO agency collapse00:24:21 Community-led courses and the first millions00:27:17 Deliver results in advance00:28:56 Finding a business through your algorithm00:33:39 The leap from $10K to $1M00:38:34 Failure, focus, and choosing one business00:42:54 Building Canopy and enterprise value00:48:04 Growing from founder to CEO00:51:02 Hiring A players and building culture01:05:41 Intrapreneurs and a lateral AI team01:09:58 Delegation and the 70% rule01:14:47 Performance-based pricing and growth offers01:19:42 Building for an exit with AI01:27:52 Private equity vs. M&A01:31:00 Roll-ups and Canopy’s first acquisition01:40:06 EBITDA, multiples, and agency valuation01:47:14 Keeping the drive without ego01:50:49 Leadership mistakes at 100-plus employees01:55:22 AI, attention, and the next wave01:59:11 Grit, fatherhood, and inner certainty

Josh Suggs and Luke Thorburg built StreetTalk by turning a simple idea into one of the most effective paid-social ad formats on the internet. Josh went from sleeping on a friend's couch and walking through Washington Square Park with a microphone to creating street interview ads for major consumer brands. Today, StreetTalk produces 1,200 new ad creatives a month and interviews more than 5,000 people for brands looking for real social proof, authentic reactions, and performance creative that does not feel like an ad.
In this episode, Josh and Luke sit down with Grant to break down how they built the company from scratch, why street interview ads convert, and how they scaled an offer that brands could not ignore. They talk about dropping out of college, making nearly $300K during a summer of street interviews, surviving the backlog that almost broke the business, merging sales with operations, building a team, getting enterprise brands to pay upfront, and the mindset behind their relentless drive. This is a masterclass on finding an offer, building leverage, creating content people trust, and going all in before you feel ready.
Riverside: Go to https://creators.riverside.com/Grant and use code GRANT to get one month of the Grow plan.
Chapters:
00:00:00 The 18-Year-Old Blueprint00:05:47 From Magician to StreetTalk Founder00:10:05 Why Josh Dropped Out of College00:13:39 When the Business Broke00:18:46 The Internet Version of Door Knocking00:22:09 Why Josh and Luke Joined Forces00:27:36 The Growth Model That Funded the Agency00:32:01 Why You Need a Complementary Co-Founder00:38:15 How StreetTalk Makes 1,200 Ads a Month00:43:22 Building a New Category in Advertising00:47:04 What Makes Street Interview Ads Work00:51:07 The B2B Influencer Marketing Playbook00:56:14 College or Entrepreneurship01:03:39 The Quality That Makes You Unstoppable01:10:30 Why Family Became the End Goal01:16:29 Running Toward or Away From Something01:22:31 Inside the StreetTalk Production Process01:27:20 Advice for Your 18-Year-Old Self

How do you build a personal brand, content team, and social media strategy from $0 to $100K a month? I sit down with Alex Garcia, better known as House of AG, to map out the exact content-marketing playbook for founders, creators, and brands trying to grow through organic content. Alex is the co-host of Sweat Equity, alongside Brian Blum, and the founder of House of Distribution, where he helps brands turn content into a real growth engine.
They break down how to build a personal brand without a big budget, the short-form video metrics that actually matter, and how to create a content strategy before you have a full creative team. Alex explains how to test content ideas, improve retention, use visual hooks, tell better stories, and turn ordinary moments into shareable social media content. Then they walk through the exact creator-team structure to build at every level: your first hybrid videographer at $5K, an editor at $10K, a creative director and producer at $50K, and a full entertainment-studio model at $100K. If you want to build a brand, scale organic social media, and create content that drives business growth, this is the roadmap.
Riverside: Go to https://creators.riverside.com/Grant and use code GRANT to get one month of the Grow plan.
Chapters:
00:00:05 Level 1 Building a Personal Brand With No Budget00:03:35 Skip Rate Is Your Most Important Metric00:07:31 How to Read Your Retention Graph00:10:13 The Best Formats to Test When You Have No Budget00:13:39 How to Find a Story in Your Everyday Life00:16:15 Why You Should Post Even When You Feel Embarrassed00:18:58 Level 2 Your First $5K Content Hire00:23:35 How to Train a Creator When You Are Not Creative00:29:31 Every Moment Can Be a Story if You Shoot It Right00:33:16 Content for Followers Not Just New Followers00:35:54 Level 3 Scaling Content With a $10K Budget00:40:02 Why Aesthetics Matter More Than You Think00:45:24 How to Make Great Content With a Small Budget00:47:19 The $10K Budget Test and Scale System00:49:17 Level 4 World Building With a $50K Budget00:55:46 The $50K Team Producer Set Designer and Customer Accounts01:02:30 Organic Content Is the Nucleus of Your Brand01:05:49 Level 5 Building an Entertainment Studio at $100K

Brandon Carter grew up on the South Side of Chicago, was sent to military school, watched his father build and lose a multi-million-dollar business, then built his own seven-figure online fitness company from scratch. In this episode, Brandon sits down with Grant to break down the rules he lives by: how to make failure impossible, why most people waste more time than they realize, how he built a fitness business before social media made it easy, and the one decision from Alex Hormozi that tripled his revenue.
They also get into the side of success people do not talk about enough: why your environment determines so much of your future, how to avoid spreading yourself across too many businesses, why confidence is not the same as courage, what real masculinity looks like, the habits and vices that hold ambitious men back, his approach to managing bipolar disorder, and the exact fitness framework he gives Grant to put on muscle. This is a conversation about discipline, money, fatherhood, health, and becoming somebody your kids can admire.
Riverside: Go to https://creators.riverside.com/Grant and use code GRANT to get one month of the Grow plan.
---
Chapters:
00:00:00 How to Make Failure Impossible00:09:45 Growing Up Poor on the South Side of Chicago00:14:21 Making Money and Keeping Money Are Different Skills00:17:30 Why His Dad Made Him Believe He Could Get Rich00:22:29 The Books That Started His Online Fitness Business00:26:25 How He Went From Personal Trainer to Seven Figures00:31:39 Every Level Is a New Devil00:37:28 Why You Become the People You Spend Time With00:44:15 Alex Hormozi Told Him to Shut Down Everything00:48:25 How to Spend Money Without Raising Your Lifestyle00:55:43 Why Masculinity Is Not Cruelty00:59:45 Raising Kids Who Admire You01:05:01 Stop Acting Like a Victim01:10:27 The Math of Fitness and Business01:13:35 How to Build a Business While Working Full Time01:17:48 What a Successful Man Should Avoid01:21:34 The Habits of Successful People01:26:34 His Meditation Practice and Managing Bipolar Disorder01:32:26 The Simple Framework for Building Muscle01:38:16 Pigeons vs Eagles

Jen Gottlieb went from a struggling actress in New York to building a media company, writing a book, speaking on stages, and becoming one of the loudest voices in the visibility space. But none of it started when she felt ready. It started when she was broke, heartbroken, living in a tiny room with six other actors, and made one promise to herself that she would keep.
In this episode, Jen breaks down the habits that make success hard to avoid, why most people burn out making content, and how to stop changing yourself for the algorithm. We talk about her difficult adolescence, the affirmation that rebuilt her self-trust, why you are not too much, the difference between an open wound and a scar, how she met her husband, what it really means to know your worth, and why the only way to get clarity is to start before you are ready.
Thank you to our sponsor:
Riverside: Go to https://creators.riverside.com/Grant and use code GRANT to get one month of the Grow plan.
---
Chapters:
00:00:00 The Three Inputs That Make Failure Impossible00:03:28 From Actress to Public Speaker00:07:52 The Chaos That Taught Her to Trust Herself00:14:57 Why the Algorithm Is Telling Women Who to Be00:19:31 How to Stop Creating Content for Approval00:24:39 You Are Not Too Much00:27:39 The Difference Between an Open Wound and a Scar00:31:33 The HOPE Framework for Creating Content00:35:47 Mixing the Woo With the Work00:42:04 What It Really Means to Know Your Worth00:50:10 Start Before You Are Ready

Most founders want freedom. Very few have a system to actually build it. In this episode, I sit down with Matt Gray, founder of Founder OS and Herb, to break down the exact five-level framework he used to go from zero to over a million dollars a month in revenue using a personal brand. We talk about why distribution matters more than the product, how to pick the right platform, why you need to own your audience through a newsletter, and how Matt's journey to sobriety was the thing that actually started his personal brand. We cover each level in detail: from posting your first embarrassing video to building a full content waterfall system, hiring A players, running the killer survey to find out what your audience actually wants, and tracking profit per piece of content so you know exactly what's working. If you're a founder who wants to build a profitable personal brand without losing your mind, this is the blueprint.
Thank you to our partner:
Riverside: Go to https://creators.riverside.com/Grant and use code GRANT to get one month of the Grow offer.
---
Chapters:
00:00:00 Level 1 How to Start When You're Making Zero Dollars00:05:31 How Sobriety Started His Personal Brand00:08:02 Why Founders Build Personal Brands and Why That's Fine00:10:37 YouTube vs LinkedIn vs Instagram Which Platform to Choose00:13:18 Why Your Newsletter Is the Most Important Asset You Own00:16:43 What Actually Matters in Your Content at Level 100:25:12 Level 2 How to Make Your First $20K From Your Personal Brand00:32:45 How Many Iterations It Takes to Find Your Offer00:40:59 How to Handle Haters and Long Term Thinking00:50:54 Level 3 Scaling to $100K a Month and Building a Real Business00:52:36 Building a Scalable Offer and the 7 Core Business Components00:58:26 The Content GPS Infrastructure That Drives Predictable Revenue01:00:54 Hiring as a Marketing Funnel01:05:04 Onboarding A Players and Keeping Tight Feedback Loops01:08:46 The Killer Survey That Tells You What Content to Make01:11:02 Stop Comparing Yourself to People at Level 6801:16:06 How to Improve Your Content Quality Without Losing Your Voice01:27:41 Level 4 Scaling to $500K a Month With the Content Waterfall System01:31:51 Zone of Brilliance and What to Delegate01:39:02 The Peer Group That Changes Everything01:44:41 The Creator Identity Trap and How to Escape It01:51:50 Level 5 Over a Million a Month and Burnout Prevention01:55:05 Level 5 Building a Founder Independent Business01:58:26 The Content GPS at Full Scale and Tracking Profit Per Piece of Content02:07:08 What Would You Say to the Version of You That Was Struggling02:10:17 Are You Proud of Yourself

What is the secret to why Diary of a CEO is so successful?
In this episode, I sit down with the trailer editor behind Diary of a CEO to break down the exact frameworks they use to hook millions of viewers. We dive deep into the psychology of retention, why the first 20 seconds matter more than the next two hours, and how to use cinematic storytelling to make your content impossible to scroll past. We cover the 15-point checklist for a perfect trailer, the "perfect imperfection" edit trick, and how to build a narrative arc that keeps people watching until the very end. This is a masterclass in video packaging and audience psychology.
Thank you to our sponsor:Riverside: Go to https://riverside.com and use code GRANT to get one month of the Grow offer.
---
Chapters:
0:00 Why Podcast Trailers Are Essential for Growth6:36 Turning a Podcast Into a Cinematic Documentary11:48 The Psychology of Audience Retention14:52 The 5 Key Elements of a Successful Podcast26:41 The 15-Point Checklist for the Perfect Trailer34:25 Breaking Down the Louis Tomlinson Hook45:28 How to Engineer Intrigue in the First 20 Seconds54:11 Using Sound Design and Visual Details to Keep Attention1:04:18 The Interactive Hook: Vanessa Van Edwards Breakdown1:07:02 Building a Narrative Arc: The Kevin Hart Example1:16:40 The A-B-C Framework for Storytelling1:20:13 The Easiest Win You Can Implement in Your Next Video1:22:36 How AI is Changing the Editing Process

Cale Owen was eight weeks from shutting his gym down, making $30K combined with his wife, and had just gotten a job to keep the lights on.
Then he found Gym Launch, went all in, and eventually became CEO of the company. Then he walked away. This is what happened in between.In this episode, Cale sits down for one of the most honest conversations about building a business, losing yourself in it, and figuring out what actually matters. You'll hear about the home birth that almost took his daughter, going from 33 gym members to selling out a six-week challenge in one night, what it felt like to hit $1 million in his bank account and immediately want ten more, the moment his wife told him he was a shell of who he used to be, and why he resigned from one of the fastest growing companies in the fitness industry. This is a conversation about money, identity, faith, and what it means to run a good race.
Chapters:0:00 There's More to Life Than Scaling Your Business1:15 Were You Always This Driven1:36 The Gym That Lost $3K a Month3:32 Eight Weeks From Shutting the Doors3:58 Getting a Job to Keep the Gym Alive4:18 Combined Tax Return Under $30K4:40 Failing as a Husband and a Father6:32 Finding Gym Launch and Calling Alex6:57 The First Time He Heard Alex Hormozi8:06 Opting In and Testing the Nurture Sequence9:20 First Lead 30 Minutes After Launching Ads11:16 17 People Show Up the First Night11:56 We Made More Today Than the Last Two Months13:07 Going to the First Mastermind13:26 Home Birth Gone Wrong14:08 Why He Went Back to Work on Monday16:43 The C-Section Story and Not Sleeping18:25 She Trusted Me20:07 High Performers Never Think They Could Have Done More21:46 The Interview Process That Changed His Career23:33 Advice for Young Men: Learn Inside Someone Else's Company25:03 Getting Into Strategy Meetings as a Sales Manager26:34 We Could Just Do This Ourselves28:13 Becoming CEO of Gym Launch29:57 Long Way From Not Being Able to Feed Your Kids31:29 Setting a $5K Monthly Personal Income Goal33:17 Breaking Down Goals Into Quarterly Targets35:05 Building a Free Gym Management System36:45 The World's First Free Gym Management System38:21 Getting Friction From Private Equity40:02 We Did Not See Eye to Eye41:51 There's Got to Be More Than This43:23 His Wife Left the Company First44:52 Working 60 Hours a Week and Always On45:09 The 5 to 7 Rule They Never Broke46:19 The Birthday Trip Golf Game and Hard Questions47:21 Three People in His Family Were Professional Athletes48:36 My Proudest Moment Was Being Prepared for a Presentation48:53 You Are a Shell of Who You Were a Year Ago49:47 His Kids Were Starting to Feel It50:22 Physically Present Mentally Somewhere Else51:16 He Put In His Resignation51:42 The Call With Layla52:32 She Said She Didn't Think He'd Last More Than a Year53:35 What He Did After He Left54:29 Buying Into Wolf Gyms Franchise55:37 Solving for Lifestyle Not Scale56:35 What Would Alex Do in Your Situation57:28 He Only Works With People Who Take Action58:22 I Don't Know What the End Play Is59:04 5 to 10 Clients One on One That's It1:00:03 I Don't Know What God Is Calling Me to Do1:01:53 What Grace Actually Means1:03:37 When You Invite Jesus In It Changes Everything1:04:19 The Day He Saw $1 Million in His Bank Account1:05:13 God Said You're Never Going to Be Satisfied1:06:09 95% of Those Calls Could Have Been an Email1:06:51 I Was Always Chasing the Next Number1:08:41 What Would You Say to a 20 Year Old Chasing Money1:10:13 Optionality Is Not the End Game1:11:46 Money Promises Security But It's Lying to You1:13:24 What Game Do You Actually Want to Play1:14:10 What Would You Say to Yourself Before Your Second Kid1:14:17 Just Take the Next Step1:15:50 What Do You Want Your Kids to Say About You1:15:54 That I Ran a Good Race1:16:48 You Can Do Whatever You Want to Do1:18:38 Maybe Pastoral Ministry Isn't the Craziest Idea

Cole Gordon tells me how to make money.
In this episode, he breaks down the exact path from zero to nine figures, level by level. You'll hear why learning to sell inside someone else's company is a faster path to wealth than starting your own, what it actually felt like to hit $3.9 million a month and still be miserable, the $150K conversation with Patrick Bet-David that changed how he thinks about his business, the three things that keep great employees from leaving, and why he launched five initiatives at once and nearly killed his momentum. This is one of the most tactical and honest conversations about building a real business.
Chapters:0:00 Over $100M Cash Collected0:10 Level 1 Zero to $10K2:51 The First $10K and Bartending at Night4:05 Reading How to Get Rich During a Bar Shift5:23 Find a Fast Growing Company and Learn the Most Valuable Skill7:15 First 30 Days on His Own He Did $100K9:20 Go Where the Action Is Not Where the Stability Is12:24 The Habit You Need to Break to Get Out of the Cycle14:12 Level 2 $100K a Month19:46 Why He Hit $100K a Month So Quickly22:32 Zero to $2.5M a Month in Under Two Years38:55 Level 3 Managing the Front Lines44:09 Tormenting People Into Greatness and Why He Stopped47:18 Smoothing Out the Edges With Coaching51:12 Three Things That Keep Great Employees From Leaving54:00 The Mistake After Hitting $1M a Month54:48 $3.9M a Month and Still Not Happy56:17 The $150K Conversation With Patrick Bet-David58:10 The Big Mistake That Cost Him Momentum1:07:00 Level 4 Managing the Managers1:22:44 Level 5 Nine Figures and Beyond1:25:19 Going Upmarket and Changing the Pricing Model1:27:34 The One Step Away Rule1:29:33 The One Step Away Rule Applied to His Business1:33:07 Your Executive Team Should Be Entrepreneur Level1:34:21 Do You Fire Fast1:34:26 Red Flags and Pattern Recognition1:36:07 What He Wants His Team to Say About Him1:37:08 When Did Purpose Start Mattering More Than Money1:38:44 Marriage and What He Thinks It Will Change1:39:30 He Wants Three Kids1:39:52 Being a Present Dad and Having It All1:40:32 An Integrated Life Not a Balanced One1:40:48 The Trait That Makes Him Impossible to Bet Against

Dan Martell has built and sold multiple software companies. He wrote Buy Back Your Time. And he thinks most people are using AI completely wrong. I asked him how to actually make money with it.
In this episode, Dan breaks down the exact playbook for making money with AI at every level, from your first dollar to $10M and beyond. You'll hear why only 5% of the world has ever paid for AI and why that's the biggest opportunity alive right now, the one text message that made Dan's friend Sarah her first $10K, the Replacement Ladder framework for using AI to grow any business, why nobody buys AI but everybody buys trust, the AI tool stack Dan actually uses every day, and what happened when he shut his entire company down for two days to run an AI hackathon. This is the most practical AI business conversation you'll find.
Chapters:0:00 Only 5% of the World Has Ever Paid for AI0:46 The Easiest Thing to Sell With AI Right Now1:56 The Marcus and Sophie Framework4:24 Theory of Constraints and the Right Problem to Solve5:33 What Is the Number One Constraint in Any Business7:13 How to Leave Your Job and Go All In8:27 Business Is Simple Find a Problem and Solve It9:08 Stop Getting Ready to Get Ready9:33 The Sarah Story One Text and $10K9:53 Pull Up Your Phone and Message Your Contacts11:05 Dan's Son Noah Gets His First Client at 800 a Month12:41 Would You Rather Be the Best Employee or the Best Employer13:59 What Other Services Can You Sell With AI14:44 Sales Is Not Talking It's Asking17:01 What to Do When You Hate Your Business18:40 Pain and Pleasure Are the Only Two Motivators19:13 They Haven't Made It a Must Yet20:29 Make It a Must Not a Nice to Have21:06 The Jen Story and the Gasping Moment22:17 How to Find Your First 10 to 15 Clients28:38 The Personal Brand Play33:06 Vision Is What AI Cannot Do34:55 Hard for Computers Easy for Humans36:13 Level 2 Making Your First Million With AI37:18 The Replacement Ladder Framework37:39 Admin First Then Delivery Then Marketing39:09 Why Marketing Is the Biggest AI Category39:32 Why You Should Keep Sales for Yourself40:00 Level 5 Leadership and AI Agents41:41 What a Fully AI Systems Business Looks Like43:13 The Gym Owner With Three Locations46:16 Shutting Down the Company for Two Days46:37 Teaching the Whole Team to Code in Claude49:28 Wayne the 62 Year Old Who Made $12K a Month52:38 I Only Share What Actually Works53:21 Whisper Flow and Talking to Your AI56:41 Claude Chat Claude Coworker and Claude Code57:57 The Claude Browser Extension58:49 Claude Code Is Not Just for Developers1:00:06 How to Migrate Your AI Memory Across Tools1:01:08 Level 3 $1M to $10M and the Brand Play1:02:05 Nobody Buys AI They Buy Trust1:03:25 Brand Is Association and Association Is Trust1:05:12 A Million Followers Is $10M in Activated Revenue1:07:03 How to Keep AI From Becoming Slop1:07:42 Human in the Loop1:08:16 The 10 80 10 Rule and Why AI Is Now the 801:10:01 The Team Built Solutions That Made Their Jobs Obsolete1:11:45 Dan's Free AI Curriculum for Your Team