The Journey

Hosted by Ricardo Vargas

Business Entrepreneurship Management

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May 2026

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About the show

In this podcast, I will record my journey to becoming successful in the business world, starting from literally day 0 until I make it. You will listen to raw experiences, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I wish the great minds of our times did this as they were coming up, so I hope to do that here. Thank you for investing your time and I hope you enjoy!

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May 9, 202640 min

The Real Price of Not Taking Action

Eight words wrecked my whole week: "If you think the price of being successful is too high, wait until you've served the bill for regret." This episode is different. No guest. No interview. Just me, a microphone, and the ideas that have been keeping me up at night. We talk about the guy who spent six months building the appearance of a business before he built the actual business. The dopamine trap that tricks your brain into thinking you already accomplished your goals. The plank that's easy on the ground and terrifying 1,000 feet in the air. The difference between loyalty friends and gravity friends. And the thousand small choices you make every day that are either feeding your dreams or feeding your fears. The bill of regret compounds. The bill for trying and failing never does. That's the trade nobody understands. 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:30 The Quote That Wouldn't Leave My Mind 00:03:30 A Few Years Ago I Started Building Something 00:05:00 There Is No Secret — Stop Looking for One 00:07:30 Idea #1 — You Can't Trick the Universe 00:14:30 Idea #2 — The Work That Builds Anything Real Is Invisible 00:28:30 Idea #3 — The Plank: 1,000 Feet in the Air 00:34:00 The Cost of Trying vs. The Cost of Not Trying 00:41:00 The Last Idea — Every Day You Feed Dreams or Fears ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📩 JOIN THE NEWSLETTER Every week — strategy, lessons, what I'm building. → ricoxjourney.com/subscribe ────────────────────────────────── FIND ME EVERYWHERE 📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@thericardovargas 📸 Instagram → instagram.com/ricardovargas174 🎵 TikTok → tiktok.com/@r.vargas174 🐦 Twitter/X → twitter.com/ricardov174 🧵 Threads → threads.net/@ricardovargas174 🎙️ Podcast → The Journey on Apple Podcasts ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

April 19, 20261 hr 44 min

Success Looks Different Than You Think - Marcus Roberts

I had a powerful conversation with Marcus Roberts, owner of two Augusta locations, about his transformation from a lazy teenager in Montana to building a million-dollar lawn care business. We dove deep into topics most business podcasts avoid — from morning meditation and faith to the mental toll of management and finding your true purpose. Marcus got real about the osmosis effect of surrounding yourself with the right people and content. We talked about the difference between physical and mental exhaustion, why firing employees is one of the hardest parts of leadership, and how meditation isn't some mystical practice — it's just sitting with yourself. The conversation took an unexpected turn into religion and spirituality, where all three of us shared our complicated relationships with faith. Marcus told the Mexican fisherman story that completely reframes what success means. Sometimes we're already living the life we want, we just don't realize it. This isn't your typical business interview. It's raw, reflective, and gets into the real cost of entrepreneurship — both what you gain and what you might lose along the way. What's your Mexican fisherman moment?Drop a comment below.0:00 Intro1:53 Marcus Roberts: From Lazy Teenager to Two-Location Owner4:37 How to Move Up: What Managers Actually Look For9:00 Building Future GMs: Marcus's Operational Manager Playbook20:00 The P4P Model & Paying Employees for Performance28:06 Faith, God & Building Your Own Relationship With Religion49:08 What's Actually Wrong With Church Culture1:00:00 Grieving With Purpose: A Different Way to See Loss1:15:30 Going Deep: Reflection, Silence & Self-Awareness1:19:51 The Rare Thing About Building Something of Your Own1:23:35 Burning the Plan B: Going All In on Yourself1:36:00 The Fisherman & Jeffrey: A Story About What You Actually Want━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━📩 JOIN THE NEWSLETTERESEvery week — strategy, lessons, what I'm building.→ ricoxjourney.com/subscribe──────────────────────────────────FIND ME EVERYWHERE📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@thericardovargas📸 Instagram → instagram.com/ricardovargas174🎵 TikTok → tiktok.com/@r.vargas174🐦Twitter/X → twitter.com/ricardov174🧵 Threads → threads.net/@ricardovargas174🎙️ Podcast → The Journey on Apple Podcasts━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

April 13, 20261 hr 2 min

Behind the Scenes: Cuts, Growth & the Bottom Line

We tried to start this episode six times. That tells you everything about where we're at right now — Marco, Bryson, Andrew and I sitting down to reflect on a year that taught us more than we bargained for. Marco learned the hard way about being kind versus nice to employees. Bryson had to fire someone who kept stirring up drama in group chats. I bought a second location I wasn't planning to buy until 2027. We're all trying to figure out how to build general managers while dealing with the reality that managing people who manage people is a whole different beast. The conversation gets real about choosing profit over growth, why Andrew's taking GM training even though plans changed, and that moment when you realize making money isn't enough if you don't know why you're making it. We end with the Mexican fisherman story — fitting for a year that made us all question what we're really building towards. What's your version of the fisherman's life? 00:00 Intro 00:46 Multiple Takes and Bloopers 03:41 Marco's Year Review 06:21 Being Kind vs Nice to Employees 10:06 Firing That One Guy 17:00 Dump Trailer Strategy 26:20 Content Creation Journey 30:10 Ricardo's Second Location Story 38:40 Revenue and Service Breakdown 42:15 General Manager Challenges 47:50 Profit Mode vs Growth Mode 54:00 The Mexican Fisherman Tale ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📩 JOIN THE NEWSLETTER Every week — strategy, lessons, what I'm building. → ricoxjourney.com/subscribe ───────────────────────────── FIND ME EVERYWHERE 📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@thericardovargas 📸 Instagram → instagram.com/ricardovargas174 🎵 TikTok → tiktok.com/@r.vargas174 🐦 Twitter/X → twitter.com/ricardov174 🧵 Threads → threads.net/@ricardovargas174 🎙️ Podcast → The Journey on Apple Podcasts ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

March 28, 202645 min

Trauma as Catalyst, Not Anchor - Morgan Latimore

Morgan Latimore grew up in East St. Louis. He served in Afghanistan. He came back not with PTSD — but with a decision to let trauma be a catalyst. This conversation covers the full picture: where Morgan came from, what the Marine Corps actually taught him about discipline, why most people buckle under pressure, and what he means when he says we're all "human doings" instead of human beings. There's a line in here about looking inward first — before fixing your business, your team, or your relationships — that's worth sitting with.Morgan coaches endurance athletes and life clients, but what he actually does is something simpler: he asks why. Not once. Repeatedly. Until the person sitting across from him hears something they've never been asked before.If you're building something — a business, a team, a better version of yourself — and you keep spinning your wheels, this is probably the episode to start with. The answers aren't outside you.They never were. Follow Morgan on Instagram and connect with him through Augusta.🎙️ The Journey Podcast is built for builders, creators, and people in motion. Subscribe for new episodes every week.00:00 Intro01:57 Meet Morgan Latimore: the people's coach04:11 Why you keep looking in the wrong place for answers05:33 What separates high-capacity people from the rest07:05 The emotional pain most coaches never address09:13 Using trauma as fuel, not an anchor14:36 What the Marine Corps actually teaches you17:29 The real definition of discipline20:38 How to diagnose your own lack of discipline22:15 The coaching courtship: curious not judgmental25:53 Owner mindset vs. employee mindset34:04 Human doing vs. human being39:07 The one word that unlocks everything43:12 Turning "why" into a daily practice───────────────────────────── FIND ME EVERYWHERE 📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@thericardovargas 📸 Instagram → instagram.com/ricardovargas174 🎵 TikTok → tiktok.com/@r.vargas174 🐦 Twitter/X → twitter.com/ricardov174 🧵 Threads → threads.net/@ricardovargas174 🎙️ Podcast → The Journey on Apple Podcasts ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

January 24, 20261 hr 31 min

Change Your Circle or Stay the Same - Mark Siles

Six figures in six months… sounds clean on paper.This episode isn’t the highlight reel — it’s the real timeline: the wins, the mistakes, the pressure, and the discipline it took to keep going.Mark breaks down how he started flipping products on Amazon, what changed when he began treating it like a real business, and the parts nobody warns you about: account risk, IP complaints, margins, and learning (the hard way) to track your numbers. We also get into the deeper stuff — identity, faith, insecurity, the people around you, and what “making it” is actually supposed to feel like.If you’re building from zero, subscribe and follow the journey. More long-form conversations and real breakdowns like this are coming.00:00:00 Intro00:02:08 The Jump: Flipping On Amazon + Big Goals Early00:05:29 Discipline > Motivation: Staying Consistent On Bad Weeks00:10:28 Origin Story: Early Hustles, Dropshipping, Learning To Sell00:15:38 The Amazon Playbook: Sourcing, SellerAmp, Product Research00:20:35 Scaling Up: Wholesale, Approvals, And The Long Game00:32:46 Risk & Reality: IP Complaints, Deactivations, Money Locked Up00:40:21 The Numbers Lesson: High Sales… Negative Profit00:46:05 Work Ethic & Resilience: Toyota Days, Gym Discipline, Staying In The Fight01:09:29 Environment & Identity: Your Circle, Family Pressure, Degree Debate01:30:55 Outro───────────────────────────── FIND ME EVERYWHERE 📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@thericardovargas 📸 Instagram → instagram.com/ricardovargas174 🎵 TikTok → tiktok.com/@r.vargas174 🐦 Twitter/X → twitter.com/ricardov174 🧵 Threads → threads.net/@ricardovargas174 🎙️ Podcast → The Journey on Apple Podcasts ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

January 17, 202618 min

The Secret Beauty of Hard Lessons

Every season of your life leaves a mark.Some lift you higher than you ever imagined —and others break you down until all that’s left is the truth.This is a chapter about understanding the rhythm of life.The highs don’t last.The lows don’t last.But the person you become in the middle of all of it… that’s permanent.We grow the most in the quiet moments —the boring victories no one sees,the days we show up even when we don’t feel like it,the nights we try again despite not believing in ourselves.And when you look back, you realize the struggle wasn’t punishment.It was the preparation.If you’re in a season that feels heavy, slow, confusing, or unfair…just remember: the season always turns.It always has.It always will.And when it does, you’ll look back and see that this was the moment that shaped you.00:00 Nothing Lasts Forever04:52 The Quiet Victories09:10 The Emotional Weight of Growth13:36 The Beauty of Looking Back───────────────────────────── FIND ME EVERYWHERE 📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@thericardovargas 📸 Instagram → instagram.com/ricardovargas174 🎵 TikTok → tiktok.com/@r.vargas174 🐦 Twitter/X → twitter.com/ricardov174 🧵 Threads → threads.net/@ricardovargas174 🎙️ Podcast → The Journey on Apple Podcasts ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

January 10, 20261 hr 55 min

Your Standards at Home Show Up at Work - Caleb Storts

Most people talk about winning.This conversation is about the cost of trying to win too fast — and what it takes to build a life that can actually hold the weight of the business.In this episode of The Journey, Ricardo sits down with Caleb for a raw, practical talk that moves from the realities of scaling a lawn care/home service business (systems, hiring, leadership, money) into the parts nobody wants to admit out loud: relationship standards, emotional discipline, and the seasons where you feel “locked in”… but you’re actually breaking your foundation.If you’re a builder, creator, entrepreneur — or a man trying to grow without losing yourself — this one is a watch-to-the-end episode. Subscribe for more long-form conversations like this, and keep following The Journey.00:00:00 Intro00:01:53 Meeting Caleb00:09:59 The Locked In Trap00:29:53 You Can't Skip The Foundation00:36:02 The Laundry Basket Test00:45:54 Stop Tolerating Low Standards00:56:09 The Weekly Test01:01:56 Write It Down01:11:53 The 3-Part Relationship Filter01:17:57 Your standards At Home Show Up At Work01:23:53 Separating Your Life From Business01:31:58 Every Business Becomes A People Management Company01:39:57 Flashy Goals Vs Real Authority01:47:55 Documenting The Grind───────────────────────────── FIND ME EVERYWHERE 📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@thericardovargas 📸 Instagram → instagram.com/ricardovargas174 🎵 TikTok → tiktok.com/@r.vargas174 🐦 Twitter/X → twitter.com/ricardov174 🧵 Threads → threads.net/@ricardovargas174 🎙️ Podcast → The Journey on Apple Podcasts ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

January 3, 202645 min

Competitors Aren’t the Enemy - Parker Hodge

Most people think the hard part is getting clients.The harder part is keeping trust—especially when you leave town, the phone won’t stop ringing, and your business starts exposing every crack in your life.In this episode, Parker Charles Hodge and I talk through what it actually looks like to build a lawn care/landscaping business in real life: the seasons that blindside you, the marketing mistakes you only make once, and the moment you realize growth doesn’t just require more work—it requires better leadership.We get into door hanger marketing, “Mulch Madness,” hiring and training crews, the difference between training vs micromanaging, and what burnout feels like when you push past your personal capacity.Then we take it where most business conversations don’t: marriage, compromise, communication, and what it costs when entrepreneurship starts taking your weekends. If you’re building a service business, chasing excellence, or trying to become the kind of man who can carry more without losing himself—this one is for you.Watch to the end for the leadership and “long game” lesson that reframes what dedication really looks like. Subscribe if you’re following the journey, and check the channel for more long-form conversations on business, discipline, and growth.00:00 Intro01:22 The Episode That Almost Didn’t Happen03:38 Competitors As Allies10:43 Mulch Madness14:05 Door hangers & $20K Months16:21 Training Is Culture23:35 Business Reflects You30:05 Compromise & Boundaries39:43 Leading From the Front───────────────────────────── FIND ME EVERYWHERE 📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@thericardovargas 📸 Instagram → instagram.com/ricardovargas174 🎵 TikTok → tiktok.com/@r.vargas174 🐦 Twitter/X → twitter.com/ricardov174 🧵 Threads → threads.net/@ricardovargas174 🎙️ Podcast → The Journey on Apple Podcasts ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

December 27, 20251 hr 40 min

The Long Road to Being Undeniable - Bristol Banchek

This episode is a deep conversation with Bristol about mastery, discipline, and what it really takes to build a career — and a life — you’re proud of.From falling in love with the craft, to hitting ceilings, to teaching others how to level up, this isn’t a highlight-reel conversation. It’s about the slow, earned process of becoming undeniable.We talk about:• Mastery before money• Discipline over motivation• Teaching others without ego• Loneliness at higher levels• Confidence built through repetition• Identity, self-trust, and responsibilityIf you’re a barber, creator, entrepreneur, or anyone trying to turn skill into something lasting — this episode will hit close to home. Nothing here is rushed. Nothing here is fake. Everything here is earned.Links:Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thericardovargasInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ricardovargas174Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@r.vargas174?_t=8lJxUUN4SD5&_r=1Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/ricardov174Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ricardovargas174Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-journey-from-zero-to-a-million-and-beyond/id1734802848

December 20, 202510 min

The Lonely Chapter

Every man has a season that happens in silence.A season with no applause, no validation, no audience.A season where the world gets quiet enough for you to hear your own doubts… and your own potential.The Lonely Chapter is where transformation begins.You’re not who you used to be, but you’re not who you’re becoming either —you’re suspended in the middle, building a life no one sees yet.It’s the early mornings, the empty rooms, the internal battles.It’s the grind that doesn’t show up online.It’s the chapter you must survive alone…so you can emerge as someone new.This is the price of entry.And this chapter is where you pay it.Links:Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thericardovargasInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ricardovargas174Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@r.vargas174?_t=8lJxUUN4SD5&_r=1Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/ricardov174Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ricardovargas174Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-journey-from-zero-to-a-million-and-beyond/id1734802848