The Michael James Way

The Michael James Way is a podcast about grit, growth, and the mindset it takes to win when the path gets hard. Hosted by Michael James, the show is rooted in his own story: riding a bicycle across the United States from San Francisco to the coast of North Carolina, then taking the lessons from that journey, discipline under pressure, mental toughness, and a competitive edge, and applying them to scale a company into a seven figure business. Each episode blends Michael’s personal perspective with real conversations from people who have done the work. The show begins with fellow remodeling company owners who have fought for every inch of progress, then expands into a wider world of high performers: business owners across industries, sports professionals, success coaches, and other leaders who have overcome long odds and kept moving anyway. This is not motivation for motivation’s sake. It is practical, honest, and story driven: what it costs, what it takes, and what it looks like to build resilience, earn momentum, and lead at a higher level, in business and in life.

The Michael James Way is a business podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 23 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts The Michael James Way, a business show with 23 episodes published.

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  Episode #24

  Brianna & Jasper James: I Thought I Failed Them

  Aug 28, 202653 minS1

  Michael has told the story of riding his bicycle across the United States dozens of times. He had never asked his kids what that summer was like for them. In this episode Brianna and Jasper James answer the questions their dad has been avoiding for almost 20 years. What the divorce felt like at seven and nine. What it was like to lose the house, move into a friend's basement, and sleep on an air mattress and a couch for three years. Whether they knew he was broke. Whether they were embarrassed. Their answer stopped him cold. They do not remember the air mattress. They remember the bedtime stories, the basketball, the duct taped remote control airplane that nose dived into a tree on Christmas, and a dad who was there. Also in this one: the six month rule Michael set before introducing anyone he was dating to his kids, the phone that ended up in the fireplace, why he hid acorns in their backpacks, and the moment on a boat when he realized Brianna had been listening the whole time. The Michael James Way is a conversation about building things that last. Businesses, homes, bodies, families. Hosted by Michael James, founder of Michael James Remodeling.

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  Episode #23

  $1.3M in 30 Days After I Dropped the Fear

  Aug 21, 202614 minS1

  Two years ago a client got on a Zoom call with us, and we could not hit her deadline. She was pregnant, she needed a bathroom finished by a date we could not promise, and she hired somebody else. Last month she signed a contract with us for a kitchen close to two hundred thousand dollars. In this episode I break down why we never wrote her off, and why the client who cannot afford you today is very often the client who calls you first when they can. If all somebody can afford right now is a Honda Civic, that is not a reason for the Porsche dealer to stop talking to them. Water the seed and that Honda Civic client becomes a Porsche client. I also get into the part almost nobody connects to sales. Last year our revenue dropped fifty percent over eight months. I panicked, I went back to being the guy who does everything himself, I started micromanaging, and I eroded the culture I spent years building. Team members were ready to quit. I did not want to come in on Monday morning either. What turned it around was not a new sales script. It was gratitude. Within thirty days of making that shift we closed 1.3 million dollars in work, and the best proof was a Google review that came in from a project I personally visited exactly one time. My team earned that. A grateful team gives birth to a grateful client. What you will get out of this: Why the follow up you are not making is worth more than the lead you are chasing How to serve a client who is not your ideal client yet, without discounting The Honda Civic to Porsche framework for long horizon client value What happens to your culture when the owner takes back control out of fear How to spot fear as false evidence appearing real before it costs you months The gratitude shift that produced 1.3 million dollars in thirty days If you are running a company between zero and three million in revenue, this is the episode I wish somebody had made me watch. Michael James is the founder of Michael James Remodeling. The Michael James Way is where he opens the books on what it actually takes to build, scale and lead a company you still want to walk into on Monday. Subscribe for new episodes.

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  Episode #22

  One Question Took My Company From $900K to $5M

  Aug 14, 20261h 5mS1

  In 2016 my life looked perfect from the outside, wife, kids, white picket fence. Inside, it was falling apart. So I booked a one-way flight to San Francisco and rode a bicycle 3,500 miles across the United States to figure out who I was. 42 days. A tent I set on fire. A 50-foot fall into a ravine outside Telluride with what I'm pretty sure were broken ribs. A relationship with my father that I'd written off, restored one phone call at a time. And on the second-to-last day, when I had nothing left, a 200-mile day built ten miles at a time. When I got home I asked one question: if I can do that in my personal life, what can I do in business? I'd been remodeling homes for 17 years and I was stuck at $900,000 a year. I thought hard work was the whole equation. It's about half of it. This episode is the other half, and today Michael James Remodeling does over $5 million a year building luxury remodels in Atlanta. This is my conversation with Ryan Pineda on The Wealthy Way, and it's the most complete version of the story I've told anywhere.

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  Episode #21

  "There's Safety In Altitude" - What Flying Taught Me About Business

  Aug 10, 202615 minS1

  At 6,500 feet, Michael said something that reframed the entire show: "The reason why I'm up high is because there's safety in altitude." This is the first episode of Podcast in a Plane, five cameras mounted to a single-engine aircraft, one conversation, no cuts to a studio. But the plane isn't the point. Somewhere over north Georgia, a conversation about camera mounts turned into the clearest explanation of scaling a business we've recorded: why altitude buys you reaction time, why noise at ground level makes you respond with emotion instead of information, and why an aircraft without the right instruments can only climb so high no matter how good the pilot is. Michael also talks about the book he wrote twice and threw away. Three hundred pages, a manuscript two inches thick, and his own verdict on it: "Although it was my story, it wasn't my voice." What finally unlocked it wasn't better writing. It was a microphone. And underneath all of it, the reason any of this exists: "If I could just have one life changed, then it's well worth it. Well worth all of the cameras, all of the expense, everything we've done — to make a difference in one person's life." Then his plumber sent him a text. New episodes every Friday. Also on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. #PodcastInAPlane #Entrepreneurship #Aviation #BusinessPodcast #Leadership #SmallBusiness

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  Episode #20

  $65,000 Gone. One 10-Minute Video Could Have Stopped It

  Jul 31, 20261h 30mS1

  I lost $65,000 in a single crypto transaction. I still don't know exactly where it went. This is the conversation I wish I'd had two years earlier. Ryan Horst got into crypto in 2017, watched the 2022 collapse take 95% of his company's monthly revenue, and rebuilt from there. Today he's co-founder and CEO of Altcoin Pro, one of the largest crypto education companies in the country and one of the few crypto businesses growing during a bear market instead of shrinking with it. But this episode isn't really about crypto. It's about what it costs to learn things the slow way. Ryan breaks down how he chose every job he ever took based on the skills it would teach him rather than the money it paid. I tell the story of the mentor I handed $300,000 to and the eight-year-old girl who made the decision for me. And Ryan gives a straight answer to the question I've been stuck on for two years: how do you sell a $500,000 job to a client who's never spent that much on anything? If you've ever thought "I'll figure this out myself" — this one's for you. CHAPTERS 00:00 — $65,000, gone 01:20 — Ryan's start: pre-med, then everything else 06:00 — The Instagram post that changed a stranger's life 09:00 — Why the education system was built this way 12:00 — Michael drops out of college over one exam 14:30 — What Chick-fil-A teaches you about operations at scale 17:30 — Losing 95% of revenue in the 2022 crash 22:00 — "Focus only on what you can control" 25:00 — Choosing jobs for skills instead of salary 30:00 — Knowledge comes before money 33:00 — Michael's blind spot: great at the trade, bad at sales 36:00 — How do you sell a $500,000 job? 39:00 — Find out where your buyer already is 42:00 — Building a lead qualification filter 44:00 — Beating the "you're too expensive" objection 48:00 — Why the business almost didn't survive 54:00 — Growing while the market falls 56:00 — The $65,000 lesson 58:00 — The knowledge gap nobody tells you about 1:00:00 — One 10-minute video that could have saved a fortune 1:06:00 — "So do it." — the $300,000 mentor 1:09:00 — The eight-year-old who closed the deal 1:13:00 — Why Michael gave back a $700,000 client 1:17:00 — The ego trap that stalls most founders 1:20:00 — When your team's wins start feeling like your own 1:24:00 — Rebuilding the comp plan 1:28:00 — "Making money while you hang out with your friends" 1:30:00 — Altcoin Pro Summit + where to find Ryan FIND RYAN Altcoin Pro — altcoinpro.com Altcoin Pro Summit, Oct 2–4, Fontainebleau Miami Beach — altcoinpro.com/summit Instagram — @ryanhorst_ YouTube — Bull Runners Nothing in this episode is financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Cryptocurrency involves substantial risk of loss. Do your own research.

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