{"podcast":{"title":"REAL Mentors Podcast","slug":"real-mentors-podcast-7081727","podcast_index_feed_id":7081727,"rss_url":"https://www.spreaker.com/show/6390395/episodes/feed","website_url":"https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/real-mentors-podcast--6390395","image_url":"https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/2aff7ab07a5a6c7c2eaf1bd211d5d9de.jpg","author":"Sean Martin","episode_count":95,"summary":"REAL = Real Examples Altering Lives Mentors ⭐️ We shed light on mentors and leaders who are impacting lives and creating success stories for everyone, most especially the youth.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-29T00:17:23.323417+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/real-mentors-podcast-7081727"},"episode":{"title":"From Overdoses to 9 Figures | Ryan Zofay on REAL Mentors Podcast EP 82","slug":"from-overdoses-to-9-figures-ryan-zofay-on-real-mentors-podcast-ep-82","published_at":"2026-04-28T12:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/real-mentors-podcast-7081727/from-overdoses-to-9-figures-ryan-zofay-on-real-mentors-podcast-ep-82","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/real-mentors-podcast-7081727","url":"https://www.spreaker.com/episode/from-overdoses-to-9-figures-ryan-zofay-on-real-mentors-podcast-ep-82--71704617","audio_url":"https://api.spreaker.com/download/episode/71704617/57c93995_4a07_4cea_b5b6_b8cd237ab03f.mp3","summary":"Ryan Zofay started using drugs at 11. By his late teens he was incarcerated, facing a potential life sentence. Most people don't come back from that but Ryan built a 9-figure business from it.The turning point wasn't a strategy. It was his mother, newly sober herself, walking into that detention center with the 12-step program and a decision to stop abandoning her son. That moment cracked open something that anger, hustle, and failed ventures in his 20s never could.Today Ryan is the founder of We Level Up, a national addiction treatment organization he built from the ground up starting in 2013. He's also a speaker, life and business coach, and author of An Unlikely Businessman: From Overdoses to Multimillionaire. His mission is simple: help people stop reliving the past by finally dealing with what created it.In this episode, Ryan and Sean get into what it actually takes to break generational cycles, why self-acceptance is the real foundation of success, and why surrounding yourself with the wrong people keeps you stuck longer than any addiction ever could.This Episode Explores:✅ Drugs at 11, incarceration by his teens and the childhood trauma underneath it all✅ A mother's sobriety visit that changed everything✅ How the 12-step program became the foundation for a 9-figure business✅ Anger, failed ventures, and what his 20s really taught him✅ Founding We Level Up in 2013 from sales to mission-driven impact✅ Why you keep reliving the past until you meet the unmet needs underneath it✅ Falling in love with yourself as a business strategy, not just self-help talk✅ The ESOP plan: transitioning to employee ownership by 2030✅ Why who you're around matters more than what you know🔗 Connect with Ryan ZofayInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryan.zofay/ YouTube: youtube.com/@ryanz…","meta_description":"Ryan Zofay started using drugs at 11. By his late teens he was incarcerated, facing a potential life sentence. Most people don't come back from that but R…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3344,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/real-mentors-podcast-7081727/episodes/from-overdoses-to-9-figures-ryan-zofay-on-real-mentors-podcast-ep-82/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/real-mentors-podcast-7081727/from-overdoses-to-9-figures-ryan-zofay-on-real-mentors-podcast-ep-82.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}