He grew up sleeping on bricks in a tent extension of a caravan — and turned that raw struggle into a life of building and exiting companies.

From bankrupt parents filleting fish in New Zealand to bootstrapping a tech platform out of the printing business, this is the story of resilience, obsession, and choosing struggle as a way of life. In this conversation, the masks come off: money raised too early, founders eating tuna and rice for years, and the real cost of chasing KPIs.

Key Episode Highlights:

From signboards to tech platforms — how a “boring” problem created a powerful business

Why bootstrapping teaches lessons no VC cheque ever could

The brutal caravan childhood that forged founder resilience

Struggle meals, scams, and survival abroad

Honouring family sacrifices while building something bigger

Why business becomes identity — and the richest version of life

The crossroads of raising VC vs. keeping control

Why monetisation is the ultimate validation test

100 true fans vs. 500,000 free users

Tall poppy syndrome, Gen Z ambition, and thinking differently in Australia

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro – Business talk finally begins

00:01 First Startup – From signboards to tech platform

00:04 Bootstrapping – Hard lessons and discipline

00:07 Market Validation – Data, pain points, and talking to users

00:11 Struggle Story – Growing up in a caravan

00:16 Chosen Struggle – Founders chasing hardship

00:17 Struggle Meals – Scams, survival, and hunger in Germany

00:18 Family Sacrifice – Honouring parents’ struggle

00:20 Business Identity – Why founders keep building

00:25 VC Crossroads – Deciding whether to take funding

00:29 Monetisation – Paying users vs. free noise

00:31 100 True Fans – Why depth beats scale

00:36 Content Leverage – Documenting, building in public, and strategy

00:40 Tall Poppy Syndrome – Thinking differently in Australia

Follow Our Podcast Studio:

Follow Our Podcast Studio:

🎥 https://www.linkedin.com/company/candid-studios/

Nick’s Apps:

🧠 SCULPTED → https://sculpted.site

📚 LivFree → https://livfree.live

⚽️ B42 → https://b-42.com

Follow Nick:

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-kratochvil/

📸 https://www.instagram.com/nickratochvil/

Meet The Team:

🎬 Editor – https://www.instagram.com/jethropaco/

🎨 Design – https://www.instagram.com/shanika.j11/

🎙 Producer – https://www.instagram.com/_charlieslattery/

📂 Podcast Manager – https://www.instagram.com/alfiogangemi_/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

He lost in the first round at the Olympics, on camera, and cried. Now he’s chasing a medal with nothing left to lose.

Josh Katz is no stranger to pain. After reconstructive knee surgery and ten months away from competition, he’s back, mentally sharper, emotionally lighter, and physically primed. But this episode isn't just about rehab and comeback. It’s a raw dive into what it really costs to pursue greatness. Josh opens up about missing life outside the mat, building a mentorship business with his brother, and why hard work isn’t enough to guarantee success. This isn’t inspiration. It’s reality.

Key Episode Highlights:

• Why losing early at the Olympics might’ve saved his career

• How rehab forced him to face what he’d sacrificed, and what he wanted back

• The brutal truth about effort: “Working hard is the bare minimum”

• Inside the subjective politics of Olympic selection

• Why some athletes thrive without goals, and others can’t survive without them

• The surprising camaraderie inside an individual combat sport

• What makes a coach actually credible (hint: not medals)

• Why he avoids coaching elite athletes… for now

• Starting a business to teach resilience, while still chasing his own

• The most honest answer he gives students chasing “impossible” dreams

Follow Our Podcast Studio:

🎥 https://www.linkedin.com/company/candid-studios/

Nick’s Apps:

🧠 SCULPTED → https://sculpted.site

📚 LivFree → https://livfree.live

⚽️ B42 → https://b-42.com

Follow Nick:

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-kratochvil/

📸 https://www.instagram.com/nickratochvil/

Meet The Team:

🎬 Editor – https://www.instagram.com/jethropaco/

🎨 Design – https://www.instagram.com/shanika.j11/

🎙 Producer – https://www.instagram.com/_charlieslattery/

📂 Podcast Manager – https://www.instagram.com/alfiogangemi_/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

He couldn’t speak, read, or believe in himself — now he’s rewiring minds for a living.

Karim, once a stuttering, overweight kid with undiagnosed learning disorders, is now a world-class peak performance coach using advanced hypnosis to reprogram limiting beliefs. From working in high-pressure surgical sales to mentoring elite athletes and entrepreneurs, Karim’s transformation is staggering — and in this raw, live hypnotherapy session, he turns the mic on Nick for a confronting, breakthrough experience that redefines what it means to take radical responsibility.

Key Episode Highlights:

• The belief that almost destroyed Karim’s life — and how he rewired it.
• What it really means to take radical responsibility (and why most people get it wrong).
• Why we unconsciously adopt limiting beliefs as kids — and how they shape our future.
• The moment Nick confronts his own transactional mindset live on air.
• Karim’s framework for spotting subconscious blind spots in 5 questions.
• Why the most successful people in the world all share one trait: they act.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro – “I can only take you where you want to go”

01:00 Meet Karim – Hypnosis, Performance & His Journey from Stutterer to Stage

05:30 Breaking Limiting Beliefs & Victim Mentality

09:00 Karim’s Rock Bottom: Quitting His Job, New Baby, No Plan

13:30 Radical Responsibility: The Mindset That Changed Everything

17:00 Helping vs. Distracting Yourself From Inner Work

21:00 The Deep Childhood Root of Anxiety

26:00 How Scarcity Shapes Our Adult Operating System

29:00 Why Successful People Think Differently

33:00 Live Blind Spot Analysis: Nick’s Transactional Mindset

36:00 Lone Wolf vs. King – The Real Cost of Control

40:00 The Hidden Voice Driving Nick’s Relentless Drive

44:00 Karim’s Hypnosis Begins — Visualising the Subconscious

50:00 Visiting the 13-Year-Old Version of Nick

54:00 Releasing Fear & Rewriting the Narrative

59:00 The Moment It All Changes: “I Am Enough”

1:02:00 A New Timeline: Letting Go of Scarcity, Embracing Abundance

1:06:00 Debrief – “My Head’s Spinning. That Was Real.”

1:10:00 Karim’s Final Message: Take Action. Think Differently.

Follow Our Podcast Studio:

🎥 https://www.linkedin.com/company/candid-studios/

Nick’s Apps:

🧠 SCULPTED → https://sculpted.site

📚 LivFree → https://livfree.live

⚽️ B42 → https://b-42.com

Follow Nick:

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-kratochvil/

📸 https://www.instagram.com/nickratochvil/

Meet The Team:

🎬 Editor – https://www.instagram.com/jethropaco/

🎨 Design – https://www.instagram.com/shanika.j11/

🎙 Producer – https://www.instagram.com/_charlieslattery/

📂 Podcast Manager – https://www.instagram.com/alfiogangemi_/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.