# 237: How to Build Category-Defining Brands in Any Industry with Jim Donnelly

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Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/beyond-a-million-4835442/237-how-to-build-category-defining-brands-in-any-industry-with-jim-donnelly.md
Podcast: [Beyond A Million](https://stenobird.com/podcast/beyond-a-million-4835442)
Published: 2026-07-16T09:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://beyondamillion.com/audio/jim-donnelly-build-category-defining-brands
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bradweimert/237_-_How_to_Build_Category-Defining_Brands_in_Any_Industry_with_Jim_Donnelly-2.mp3?dest-id=2974040
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Duration seconds: 3663

## Resource

Today I'm talking to Jim Donnelly, a founder who has built and scaled businesses across travel, real estate, wellness, and longevity medicine. He built an online travel community with 300,000+ members that later rolled into Travelocity. He developed luxury real estate that still holds Charlotte's record for price per square foot. He co-founded Restore Hyper Wellness and helped scale it to 225+ locations. Now, he's building Humanaut Health, a longevity medicine company with $10M-per-clinic potential. But the interesting part isn't just what Jim has built. It's how he keeps moving into completely different industries and finding the opportunity before everyone else sees it. A lot of founders fail when they jump categories because they assume the same playbook will work again. Jim sees it differently. He's clear about what transfers from one business to the next, what doesn't, and why the best opportunities are often hiding inside big categories that already exist. We get into how he builds brands people actually care about, why he'd rather have fewer customers who love him than more customers who only like him, and the biggest lessons he learned after raising $140M in private equity. Watch on YouTube: Let's Connect: Website | Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | Twitter | Facebook

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## Transcript

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