The Code To Winning

In this episode, we sit down with Rosezena “TheBizLawyer” Pierce, a leading trademark attorney and the CEO of RJ Pierce Law Group, PC in Chicago. Known as “the biz lawyer” on Instagram, Rosezena takes us through her extraordinary journey, from excelling in law school to facing the harsh reality of job hunting, and ultimately building a highly successful law firm dedicated to intellectual property law. Rosezena opens up about her background and the challenges that shaped her path. She graduated from John Marshall Law School with a 3.5 GPA and excelled in her intellectual property classes, yet she did not receive a single job offer. She also shares her unique experience of studying for and passing the bar exam while managing the responsibilities of motherhood. Instead of waiting for an opportunity, she created her own, launching a practice that served underserved small business owners in trademark law and using social media to educate and attract her first clients. Today, RJ Pierce Law Group is ranked Number 40 out of more than 28,000 trademark law firms in the country, and Rosezena herself is ranked Number 15 out of more than 33,000 trademark attorneys. She credits that success to hard work, smart strategy, and a dedicated team, including a key lesson from her first business coach about building a team instead of personally handling every client. We then dive into why protecting your brand matters so much. Rosezena compares trademarking your brand to owning the land before you build a house on it, because without that foundation, everything you create can be taken from you. She walks us through the real life stories that prove the point, including the original Burger King case in Illinois, which shows how critical it is to secure federal trademark rights before someone else does. Rosezena also breaks down exactly what it takes to protect your brand, step by step. It starts with a thorough search, including the USPTO website, followed by opinion letters and client counseling, then filing and handling any office actions from the government. She explains why hiring an attorney can make a major difference, and why review times have grown longer since the surge in filings during COVID. For brands ready to go global, she explains how international trademarking works through the Madrid Protocol, weighing its benefits and challenges, and why hiring local counsel is essential for navigating different laws in each country. She also covers what happens after you file, including the importance of monitoring your brand so you can stop infringement before you lose your rights. This episode is a must watch for aspiring entrepreneurs, small business owners, and anyone who wants to understand the ins and outs of trademark law. Rosezena Pierce’s story is one of resilience, innovation, and the power of using social media to build an impactful career, and her advice will leave you ready to protect the brand you have worked so hard to build. Chapters 00:00 What is a Trademark? 07:13 Overcoming Career Obstacles 12:37 The Decision to Niche Down 16:28 Four Types of Intellectual Property 24:11 International Trademark Protection 31:11 State vs. Federal Registration 38:07 When to Secure Your Brand 40:58 The Trademark Registration Process 55:40 Cost of Trademarking and Classes 01:00:53 The Danger of Choosing Wrong Classes

In this episode, we sit down with Caden, the 15 year old CEO of Caden Teaches, who graduated high school at just 13 years old and is proving that age is not a limitation when it comes to building something meaningful. On a mission to empower and educate young minds, Caden is inspiring a new generation to take control of their financial future and pursue their dreams regardless of where they start. His message is simple and powerful: "If Caden Can, You Can Too." We dive into Caden's journey as a young entrepreneur, from finishing high school years ahead of his peers to becoming a CEO before most teens get their driver's license. He shares how his father took him along to business meetings at a young age, which sparked his passion for money, and how he went on to write books, create financial flashcards, and become a sought after speaker. Caden also opens up about handling the word no and the challenge of raising the money to bring his biggest dream to life. That dream is his Financial Learning Bus. At just 11 years old, Caden bought a school bus and, with the help of his father, transformed it into a mobile classroom on wheels that brings financial education directly to schools and communities. Inside, kids experience a mock bank, a mock grocery store, and tablet stations where they learn about earning, budgeting, saving, and investing through hands on experience. Caden has already taught around 50,000 kids, and his mission is to reach 500,000. We also break down "The Cash Code," Caden's comprehensive program designed to give middle school students real financial literacy skills, from budgeting and saving to investing, while connecting real world scenarios to math and economics. His financial learning center features a mock banking station, a mock grocery store, and a mock stock exchange, giving kids a firsthand look at deposits, withdrawals, budgeting, and stocks. Whether you are a parent looking to raise money smart kids or a young person ready to start your own journey, this episode will leave you inspired to start now. Chapters 00:00 Who is Caden Harris? 01:58 How Caden Started His Business at 11 06:30 Building the Financial Literacy Bus 10:42 Why Caden Left Traditional School 14:01 Speaking on National TV & the White House 15:58 The Role of Supportive Parents 18:44 Overcoming Rejection & Early Mistakes 26:32 Learning to Command the Stage 27:51 Caden's Financial Literacy Tools 32:55 What the School System Gets Wrong 34:44 How to Network on LinkedIn 38:57 Caden's Daily Routine & Filmmaking 41:15 Why You Can't Do It Alone 45:20 Caden's Vision for the Future 48:10 What Winning Means to Caden

In this episode, we sit down with Amber, co-founder of MOKIPOPS, to talk about how a simple homeschool project with her three children, ages 3, 5, and 7 at the time, turned into a thriving frozen fruit bar company. What started as a fun way to teach her kids about food, creativity, and hard work quickly became something much bigger when her then 7 year old son asked a question that changed everything: "How can we make more money and not be at every single event?" That one question sparked a serious commitment to building a real, sustainable business for the sake of their children and their family. We dive deep into what it really looks like to raise entrepreneurs from an early age, how Amber and her family taught their kids about business, money, and responsibility while still keeping things rooted in creativity and fun. From humble beginnings in a home kitchen in 2016 to hand molding every single popsicle themselves, MOKIPOPS grew through grit, community connection, and an unwavering commitment to quality. Amber shares how understanding her children's strengths, curiosity, and ideas played a central role in shaping the direction of the business, proving that kids are capable of far more than we often give them credit for. Today, MOKIPOPS has sold hundreds of thousands of natural frozen fruit bars and has grown from a shared facility into their own dedicated factory, now using automated machines that produce thousands of pops per hour. Along the way, the brand has caught the attention of major names like GoDaddy, the Atlanta Hawks, Entrepreneur Magazine, Atlanta Magazine, Southern Living, VOXAtl, and the Atlanta Small Business Network. This conversation is a powerful look into what it takes to build a family business from the ground up, the importance of listening to your children, and how raising young entrepreneurs can change the entire trajectory of a family's future. Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:37 Amber's Background & Moving to Atlanta 06:03 Travel Aspirations & South Africa 09:37 The Origin of Moki Pops 12:58 Branding & Legitimatizing the Business 19:13 How Hurricane Irma Changed Everything 24:11 Scaling & Working with Major Brands 27:27 The Reality of Parenting Kid Founders 31:42 Why Kids Should Build the Business 37:18 How to Raise Confident, Creative Kids 41:54 Advice for B2B Distribution & Paperwork 44:26 Learning from Failure & Sharpening the Sword 46:20 The Future of Moki Pops & Getting Kids Off Devices 50:44 How Gen Z Uses Technology & AI 54:04 What Winning Means to Amber

INTENNSE Tennis: Inside the League with Marcelo Ferreira and Oliver Bell In this interview, I sit down with two leaders behind INTENNSE, the fast-growing professional tennis league redefining how the sport is played and watched. Marcelo Ferreira is the Head Coach of Team Atlanta and the Director of the High-Performance Tennis Academy at Windy Hill Athletic Club. Oliver Bell is the Chief Financial Officer of INTENNSE, overseeing the league's finance, legal, HR and operations. What is INTENNSE? INTENNSE is a co-ed, team-based pro tennis league built for speed. Matches are played in 10-minute "BOLTs" with a running clock, simple point-based scoring, and live substitutions. A full team matchup (an "ARC") combines men's, women's and mixed singles and doubles. In this interview, we cover: • How INTENNSE started and the vision behind it • Where the league stands today • The direction it's heading and what's next • Why Atlanta's tennis community made it the ideal home for the league • How the player draft works • How the game is played, including the format and rules Chapters 00:00 The Problem with Professional Tennis 02:19 How Intense Tennis Started 08:36 The Fast-Paced Match Format 10:53 Expanding Beyond Atlanta 13:26 The Business of a 90-Minute Match 16:11 Vetting Players for Personality 19:07 Player Salaries and Contracts 26:13 Building a Grassroots Movement 29:57 The Revenue Model and Sponsors 33:40 Equal Pay Across Genders 39:19 Choosing New Cities for Expansion 44:40 Recruiting and NCAA Rules 48:54 The Role of Pulse Partners 51:25 What Could Kill the League? 57:17 What Winning Means to Us

In this episode, we sit down with Donald Luxama, one of the biggest names in the vending machine industry, with over 700,000 followers and more than 1 billion views across social media teaching people how to start and scale a real vending business. What began as a simple side hustle, buying used vending machines for around $500 that generate over $1,000 in profit a month, has grown into a full-fledged movement inspiring thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs to take control of their financial future. Donald breaks down the exact blueprint he used to get started, from finding locations to sourcing machines. He explains that the first step is going around your local town and asking family, friends, and local businesses if you can place a vending machine in their establishment, often pitching it as a free vending machine for their location. From there, he shows how to search Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, and Craigslist to find machines typically ranging from $300 to $700, and the importance of testing every machine before buying it to make sure it is fully functional. We also dig into the numbers behind the business, because vending is as much about margins as it is about hustle. Donald shares real examples of how he prices his products for maximum profit, revealing gains that range from over 100 percent to as high as 700 percent on certain snacks. Beyond the numbers, Donald opens up about his world tour, where he traveled to meet some of the top vending machine operators across the globe, learning firsthand how different markets, cultures, and business models are pushing the industry forward in ways most people never see. The conversation also dives into where vending is headed next, including Donald's move into Pokemon and trading card vending machines, a fast growing niche built for collectors that operates on cashless, remotely managed technology, as well as the rise of AI powered vending machines that are changing how operators track inventory, manage restocks, and maximize profit with far less manual work. Whether you are just getting started with your first machine or looking to scale into new verticals, this episode is packed with real, actionable insight into building and future proofing a vending machine empire Chapters 00:00 Vending Machine Idea 03:09 First Vending Machine 09:48 Pitching to Owners 16:11 Bad Location Strategy 23:06 Pokemon Machine 30:15 AI in Vending 33:31 Permits & Licenses 40:48 Lowest Performer 47:24 School for Vending Pros 53:31 Product Sourcing