What happens when the business you built starts to break you?

Shannon McLay, founder of Collective Wellness Revival and former CEO of The Financial Gym joins JR Lay for a conversation that goes far beyond entrepreneurship. After 12 intense years of building a business and raising over $14 million in funding, Shannon found herself at rock bottom—burned out, disconnected, and questioning everything. What followed were three days in a mental health facility that would become a profound spiritual turning point.

Shannon shares the lessons she learned in the silence—about workaholism, misplaced identity, and the soul-crushing expectations founders place on themselves. She speaks openly about how her faith, intuition, and connection to something greater led her to a new mission: helping entrepreneurs heal from the inside out. This episode is a guide for every founder who has ever felt like they’re barely holding it together while keeping up appearances.

You’ll leave with a deeper sense of clarity—and permission to slow down, surrender, and find yourself again.

Rory Sylvia, founder of The Ways We Work, joins JR Lay to explore how leaders can create more human-centric, adaptive teams in the face of exponential change. Rory unpacks his RIDE framework—Reflect, Ideate, Design, Experiment—as a practical, repeatable rhythm for modern leadership. Together, they discuss why traditional top-down management models are failing, how fear and comfort hold teams back from meaningful growth, and how small, safe-to-try experiments can unleash innovation, trust, and connection.

Rory also shares how a simple 90-day LinkedIn experiment led to new relationships, clarity in his message, and business growth—proof that the ride really works. This episode will challenge your assumptions, encourage you to embrace tension as data, and equip you with tools to lead your team with intention in a fast-moving, AI-shaped world.

When your podcast feels transactional, it shows. You miss the chance to build real trust—and in B2B, that trust is everything. Especially now, when AI-generated “slop” is everywhere and people crave something real.

Robb Conlon, founder of Westport Studios, joins JR Lay to break down why authentic connection is your podcast’s secret weapon. They talk about building real relationships, creating content that actually connects, and why giving a damn might just be your best marketing strategy.