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Recorded remotely from Brian Riley’s garage pub hangout, this episode follows Brian’s path from growing up in Enfield, Connecticut and playing football and baseball to a life shaped by “saying yes,” including a chance retail interview that launched a 20-year career with Structure/Express, where he met his wife Cheryl and focused on developing teams. Brian contrasts today’s club “super team” sports with neighborhood development, explains why time and relationships matter more than money, and shares how COVID pushed him into business development and restoration. He discusses prioritizing trust over selling, rejecting referral-fee kickbacks in trades, helping customers avoid unnecessary insurance claims, and Built Different Restoration’s emphasis on accessibility, ownership, and doing the right thing. Brian defines legacy as being a good person and a great dad, advocates kindness, community, and travel, and describes his dream of owning a community pub.

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Elisha Kameyama, CEO and co-founder of Red Crane Digital in Phoenix, shares how embracing discomfort fuels growth, then traces his journey from growing up in California and Colorado as a pastor’s kid through joining the Navy two weeks after high school, serving eight years with deployments tied to 9/11-era operations and later humanitarian work in South America. He explains how a separation from his wife led him back to faith, inspired by the film “Fireproof,” ultimately restoring their marriage after months of intentional courtship, and why he left the military to prioritize family. Elijah discusses therapy, self-development, CrossFit and completing around 20 Spartan races in 2024, leading men’s ministry during a church plant and COVID, and pivoting from a failed wholesale real estate attempt into launching a video marketing agency that helps service businesses and events with social media, ads, and content systems, now beginning to scale with a first full-time hire

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Tank Giles, a Daytona Beach native, shares how sports helped him navigate a challenging childhood, including family violence that led to being taken from his parents twice and periods living with a football coach and later with his sister. He explains earning the nickname “Tank,” excelling in football, missing a Division I opportunity due to credits, taking a gap year, then moving to Arizona in 2012 to play at Mesa Community College, where an ankle injury ended his playing career and led to a dark period. Tank describes finding purpose coaching at Athletes in Training, eventually becoming owner after serving as YMCA sports director and returning during COVID, and outlines AIT’s recess and after-school multi-sport programs across 73 schools. He also discusses Humble Savage club basketball, Humble Cares nonprofit support for kids in need, leadership challenges, and his mission to teach hard work, discipline, respect, and character.

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Alia Gauthier, co-founder of Tinted Salt in Chandler, Arizona, shares her journey from leaving Iran at age 11 during the revolution and war era, living in Turkey for 18 months, and arriving in Toronto as a refugee without speaking English. She discusses building resilience, dropping out of university, becoming a licensed aesthetician, buying and turning around a struggling salon, and marrying her husband Steve within six months of meeting online. Alia explains how manifestation and energy work influenced their lives, including Steve’s eventual hiring by Toronto Police, and how COVID disruptions helped prompt their move to Arizona. She describes her severe 2019 viral thyroiditis and holistic recovery, which inspired Tinted Salt’s personalized approach using the Harmonic Egg, VibroAcoustic therapy, red/infrared light, and halotherapy to reset the autonomic nervous system and support healing.

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Adam Baugh, partner and co-owner at Withey Morris Baugh, shares how lessons from his LDS mission in Atlanta—speaking Spanish, living on a budget, learning empathy, and developing door-to-door communication skills—became the foundation for his career helping developers and business owners navigate City Hall, zoning, and land use approvals in Arizona. He recounts a childhood moving frequently with an Air Force father who later worked in city management, his surf/skate/punk-rock years in Southern California, and the winding path to law school internships that sparked his interest in zoning. Adam discusses building his firm through relationships, integrity, and customer service, learning from mistakes and occasional losses, managing public opposition and misinformation, defining leadership as service, and hoping to pass grit, entrepreneurship, and values to his five children.

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Phil Passante shares why he prefers “excellence” over “expert,” framing it as a continual pursuit, then traces his journey from an idyllic childhood outside Milwaukee to moving to Arizona in 1986 seeking better weather and opportunity. After early work selling high-end men’s clothing, he learned the auto glass business from the ground up—sales, installation, leadership—and in 2001 launched Auto Glass Excellence, emphasizing responsiveness, integrity, and service. He describes early challenges including 9/11, industry changes, and major personal and financial betrayals: a builder taking $200,000 in 2008 and a trusted employee embezzling nearly $1 million over about a decade, discovered in 2016. Anchored by faith, family support, and regained health, he kept the business moving, expanded into window tint, and defines success as love, family, and his grandchildren—living the “dash” between life’s dates.

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Matt Dallas, a Gilbert resident, shares his journey from growing up in upstate New York and playing baseball through college to selling Cutco, experiencing a serious illness (double pneumonia and Stevens-Johnson syndrome) that led him to move to Arizona, and eventually leaving corporate B2B sales to start neighborhood publications with N2/Stroll in 2014. He discusses building Val Vista Lakes, launching Agritopia (later transitioned after 100 issues), and taking over and revitalizing Seville, including the panic and pressure of producing a new issue every month and how he uses boundaries, systems, automation, checklists, and time-management to sustain the work. Matt explains his purpose-driven mission—connecting neighbors, introducing local businesses, and giving back through nonprofit partnerships—along with how faith and reading shaped his leadership and values.

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From Indian Wells during the 6th annual APN Golf weekend, Frank Stirpe Jr. reflects on how Above Par Network began in January 2019 as his personal “Rolodex” for solving inevitable life and business problems, then evolved into a service-first, relationship-driven community of about 400 members with chapters in Phoenix and Myrtle Beach. He contrasts APN’s culture of “builders over bullshitters” with traditional transactional networking, describing programs ranging from happy hours, lunch mobs, Breakfast of Champions, and roundtables to retreats, majors-style golf events, and unconventional outings, all designed to create connection, experiences, and collaboration. Frank discusses growth through COVID, protecting culture through member referrals and selectivity, expanding cross-chapter opportunities, and future possibilities like more chapters and an annual conference, emphasizing legacy, authenticity, and surrounding yourself with the right people.

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