Vital Wealth Strategies

Is your money building the life you want, or have you been building your life around money? On this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Christina Suter, a real estate investor, consultant, and founder of Live a Rich Life. Christina started investing at seventeen and became financially free with her first apartment building. Then she discovered that doing nothing was not the dream she imagined. Drawing on her master’s in spiritual psychology and decades of real estate experience, Christina explains why so many successful entrepreneurs confuse financial success with personal significance, an...

Does your will keep your family out of probate? For most entrepreneurs, the answer is no, and that misunderstanding can cost their families time, money, and privacy. On this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Lauren A. Klein, Esq., LL.M., an estate planning and tax attorney, founder of Flourish Law Group, and adjunct law professor of wills and trusts. Pat and Lauren break down estate planning for entrepreneurs in plain language. They cover the foundational documents every adult needs, the difference between revocable and irrevocable trusts, and the trust-funding mistake Lauren...

Do you know what your business is actually worth to a buyer, or just what it’s worth to you? On this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan welcomes back David C. Barnett, one of the show’s very first guests, to unpack one of the most important questions every entrepreneur eventually faces: “What is my business worth?” David is a business consultant, author, and equipment appraiser who has sold 36 businesses as a broker, spent years as a banker, and has advised on more than a thousand deals. In his new book, Business and Asset Values...

Is your business exit on the horizon, and have you already decided that some of your wealth will one day go to causes you care about? On this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan, founder of Vital Wealth and advisor to high-level entrepreneurs, sits down with Phoenix Hafen, Director of Advisor Solutions at UI Charitable. UI Charitable manages more than $550 million in donor-advised funds for high-net-worth individuals and families. Together they break down why cash is the least tax-efficient asset you can give, and how entrepreneurs can donate appreciated stock, private business interests, real estate...

Why do 75% of business owners who successfully sell their company feel profound regret within the first year? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Sarah Friedell O'Connell, founder and president of ChangePoint Advisors, to unpack the side of exit planning most entrepreneurs never prepare for: life after the sale. Sarah is a certified retirement coach and executive transition coach, a former Fidelity Investments executive, and a former spokeswoman for the president of Harvard University. She has guided hundreds of business owners and senior executives through one of life's most stressful transitions...

Should entrepreneurs trust AI with their tax strategy, or is that a risk too big to take? On this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Ricky Lavina, a CPA and the founder of TaxFyle, to separate the hype from the reality of AI in tax filing. Lavina started his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers before founding TaxFyle in 2015, and today serves on the IRS's Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee (ETAC), giving him a rare, inside perspective on how both the private sector and the federal government are approaching the future of tax technology.

What if the very thing you've spent your career trying to eliminate, discomfort, is actually the thing driving your growth? On this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Darshan "Dave" Patel, co-founder of BuildRite, a healthcare billing company he has run alongside his business partner Soren for nearly three decades. Dave's story starts in a lower middle class household in India, where he repeated two grades in school before finding his footing not in a classroom, but with his hands, fixing broken equipment in his father's small service business. That early spark...

What if the same Airbnb everyone scrolls past on vacation could be the reason your next tax bill drops by six figures? On this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Nick Korom, CEO of MyBnBAccelerator.com, to break down exactly how entrepreneurs are using short-term rentals to legally slash their tax liability without becoming a full-time real estate professional. Nick has helped close over 500 short-term rental properties for more than 300 clients, and in this conversation he pulls back the curtain on the strategy, the numbers, and the mistakes that turn a promising...

What if the best real estate deal in Europe cost a fraction of what the same property would run in Sedona or Santa Barbara? On this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Mike Stohler of Gateway Private Equity to unpack why he's moving beyond the traditional US real estate playbook and into international hotel investing, specifically historic boutique properties in Spain. Stohler shares his journey from financing his first units on a credit card in the pre-Google era to building a portfolio that spans multifamily, senior housing, and hotels across the US...

What happens when a "genius" tax write-off you saw on TikTok turns out to be the same strategy that landed two professionals in federal prison for over 20 years each? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with colleague Michael to unpack the difference between smart, compliant tax strategy and the sham strategies that can trigger IRS penalties, audits, or worse. From viral myths about writing off G-Wagons and vacation homes to real-world fraud cases involving KPMG, syndicated conservation easements, and abusive trust structures, this conversation separates the tax moves that build real...

What if the single most important financial decision of your life happened before you ever built a business, bought a house, or started a family? On this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Dale Alexander, a CFP, national speaker, and author of The Talk About Money, to unpack the framework Dale calls Make 70 Your 100: live on 70% of your income, invest 20%, and give 10%, starting with your very first paycheck. It's a conversation built for entrepreneurs, parents, and anyone who's ever wondered why more income never seems to solve a spending problem.

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Why do some ideas spread like wildfire while others die the moment they leave a boardroom? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Neal Foard, a 25-year advertising veteran to unpack the real reason facts, data, and bullet points fail to persuade and what actually does. Neal has spent his career teaching some of the biggest brands in the world how to turn ideas into stories that stick, and in this conversation he brings that same expertise directly to entrepreneurs, business owners, and leaders who want their vision, their pitch, and...

Why is it that entrepreneurs who've hit every financial goal they set still feel like something's missing? On this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Ryan Johns, one of our lead advisor at Vital Wealth, attorney, and Certified Kingdom Advisor, to unpack why financial success so often fails to deliver the peace and contentment entrepreneurs expect it to bring. Drawing on real client stories, behavioral patterns around wealth and comparison, and timeless biblical wisdom from King Solomon's own pursuit of "everything," Lonergan and Johns explore why the goalposts keep moving even after...

If you sold your business tomorrow, would you know who you are without it? It's a question most entrepreneurs spend years avoiding, and in this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan turns the tables and sits down as the guest, with his teammate Michael stepping in to host. Together they close out the Designed to Last series with a conversation that shifts away from financial strategy and into something entrepreneurs rarely make time for: themselves. Patrick shares the story of a friend who sold his company for a life-changing exit and broke down in tears...

Why do 96% of deals never get funded, even when the product is exceptional? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Pat Lonergan sits down with Jason Fishman, CEO of Digital Niche Agency and the marketing mind behind more than 500 capital raises that have generated hundreds of millions of dollars for founders. Jason has spent over 15 years proving a truth most entrepreneurs learn too late: they don't have a funding problem, they have a marketing problem. The best companies don't win the capital, the companies that communicate value most clearly do. Pat and Jason break down the...

What happens to an entrepreneur's wealth the day they finally step back from the business they spent decades building? On this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Andrew Horowitz, a nearly 40-year veteran of the financial services industry and host of The Disciplined Investor podcast, to break down why so many successful business owners struggle to invest their wealth with the same discipline they used to build their company.

Horowitz and Lonergan dig into why an entrepreneur's own business behaves like one of the riskiest assets in their portfolio, the...

What does it actually take to get a business loan and why are so many successful entrepreneurs getting denied? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Levi King, co-founder of Nav and one of the foremost experts on small business credit and financing in the country. Levi brings a rare combination of real-world experience, having started five businesses, secured over forty commercial loans across multiple industries, and built Lendio, the nation's largest commercial loan broker and the technical depth of a fintech founder who has spent a decade solving the financing...

Are you still the most important person in your sales process? For most entrepreneurs, the honest answer is yes and it's the single biggest thing capping their revenue, their company's value, and their freedom. In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Mike Huey, founder of Scalable Sales Solutions and a sales veteran with 30 years of experience building, breaking, and rebuilding sales organizations from coast to coast. Mike has taken companies from founder-led sales to national scale, including growing a seven-employee facility services business into a nationwide operation and today he helps...

What would it look like if your business finally stopped bleeding money through taxes, messy books, and financial blind spots and instead became the wealth-building machine it was always meant to be? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Gretchen Roberts, CEO of Red Bike Advisors, a national tax, accounting, and advisory firm that has helped hundreds of business owners improve financial performance, reduce taxes, and build long-term wealth since 2009. Gretchen brings a rare combination of deep financial expertise and an operator's mindset as a multi-time entrepreneur herself, making her advice...

What if your business is generating great income but you're still not financially free? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Christopher Larsen, founder and Principal of Next-Level Income, to tackle one of the biggest blind spots entrepreneurs face, building income without building lasting wealth. Chris brings over 20 years of real estate investing experience, an MBA in Finance, and a track record of over $2 billion in real estate acquisitions to the conversation. He walked away from an 18-year career in the medical device industry because he built something better, and now...

What separates the entrepreneurs who build lasting, generational wealth from those who watch it disappear by the second or third generation? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with DJ Van Keuren – Harvard educated family office real estate expert, founder of the Family Office Real Estate Institute, and a man who has personally managed real estate portfolios for some of the most prominent families in the country, including the Marriott family, to unpack the strategies, systems, and mindset shifts that turn entrepreneurial success into a lasting legacy. DJ brings decades of real-world ex...

Are you leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table with your retirement income strategy? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Russ Gaiser III and Mike Hoeflich - co-authors of the #1 bestselling book Beyond Breakeven: The Essential Guide to Social Security Optimization and founders of Retirement Income HQ of America, to tackle one of the most misunderstood challenges facing entrepreneurs today: turning a lifetime of accumulated wealth into a reliable, tax-efficient retirement income stream. Russ and Mike have helped thousands of couples stop guessing with their benefits and start...

What if the tax strategy your CPA has never mentioned could legally eliminate hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax liability and generate cash flow at the same time? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with returning guest Michael Moffa, founder of Prosperity Tax Advisors, for a masterclass in advanced tax strategy built specifically for high-income entrepreneurs. Michael brings nearly 25 years of experience in private wealth advising and leads the only tax advisory firm in the country housing eight professional credentials under one roof, giving business owners access to elite-level tax...

What if the most powerful wealth-building investment on the planet has been deliberately kept out of reach, until now? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Mike Collins, founder of Alumni Ventures, one of the most active venture capital firms in the United States, for a conversation that will fundamentally change the way entrepreneurs think about building and growing wealth. Mike brings over three decades of venture capital experience, starting at TA Associates in Boston in 1986, and has spent the last 12 years cracking open access to elite startup deals for everyday...

Did you know more Americans drink coffee every day than a glass of water and yet almost nobody thinks of coffee as an investment opportunity? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Adam Jason, co-founder of Green Coffee Company and former Wall Street capital markets attorney, to unpack one of the most compelling alternative investment opportunities available to accredited investors today. Patrick and Adam explore how Green Coffee Company became the largest coffee producer in Colombia, why the traditional coffee supply chain is fundamentally broken, and how their farm-to-cup model is...

What if busy entrepreneurs could build real estate empires without ever leaving their lane? In this power-packed episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Matthew Ricciardella, co-founder of Crystal View Capital, to uncover exactly how savvy entrepreneurs are quietly building real estate empires through institutional-grade manufactured housing investments. Matthew shares how Crystal View Capital has spent over two decades acquiring affordable housing communities across 32 states, delivering outsized returns to investors, including a 26% gross IRR on their first fund, all while busy entrepreneurs focus on what they do best: running their businesses.

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In this episode, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with self-storage investing expert Joe Downs, entrepreneur, operator, and founder of The Storage Moguls, to make the case for one of the most overlooked recession-resistant real estate asset classes available today. With 80% of U.S. self-storage facilities owned by mom-and-pop operators, Joe explains why secondary and tertiary markets are overflowing with undervalued acquisition opportunities for investors willing to do the work. He breaks down three entry points - fully passive investing, hybrid owner-operator with third-party management, and active operator, showing how self-storage can generate meaningful passive real estate income with far...

What if the biggest thing holding your business back isn't your market, your competition, or your capital, it's you? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick sits down with seasoned entrepreneur, operator, and professor Brad Poulos to unpack the hard truths about what it actually takes to scale a business and run it well. With 40 years of experience, from growing a wireless company from 4 to 200 employees and taking it public, to teaching entrepreneurship at Toronto Metropolitan University for nearly two decades, Brad brings the kind of battle-tested wisdom that no textbook can replicate.

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What does it actually cost to build a successful business without balance? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Dr. Travis Parry, PhD, author of Marry and Grow Rich, and a business coach who has worked with thousands of entrepreneurs across all 50 states, to have one of the most honest and practical conversations about what it truly takes to build wealth without losing everything that matters most along the way. Dr. Parry brings a rare and powerful combination of financial expertise, psychological insight, and real world coaching experience to the table...

What if the biggest opportunities to grow your wealth and reduce your taxes aren't found in what you're already doing, but in what you don't even know is possible yet? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Chris Papin, a rare triple-threat advisor who is a licensed attorney, CPA, and insurance producer, to unpack what high-level financial planning actually looks like when you connect the dots between tax strategy, legal structure, and risk management. Chris brings a forward-looking perspective that most business owners never get access to, helping entrepreneurs stop playing...

What if you applied the same data-driven thinking you use to evaluate a business acquisition to the most examined claim in human history? In this solo Easter episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan steps outside the usual conversation on taxes, wealth, and optimization to tackle a question that even the most disciplined high-performers tend to leave unexamined, the historical case for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Patrick isn't asking listeners to take a leap of faith. He's asking them to do what they do best: look at the evidence and follow it wherever it leads.<...

What if everything you’ve been told about investing, by your wealth manager, your bank, and even your financial advisor, is shaped more by their incentives than your best interests? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Tad Fallows, co-founder of Long Angle, a private peer community built exclusively for high-net-worth entrepreneurs and investors. Tad spent a decade building and exiting a software company, and when he suddenly found himself managing serious wealth, he discovered a startling gap: the people best positioned to help often had the most conflicts of interest. So...

What if the biggest threat to your success isn’t taking too much risk, but taking the wrong risk at the wrong time? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Michael O’Keefe to break down one of the most misunderstood concepts for entrepreneurs: how risk should evolve as your business grows. Together, they walk through a powerful four-stage framework that helps entrepreneurs align their decisions with where they are today so they can stop guessing and start building with intention.

Patrick and Michael explore how entrepreneurs can move from...

What if you could legally defer, or even eliminate, capital gains taxes on the sale of your business, real estate, or investments? Many entrepreneurs spend decades building wealth only to see a large portion disappear to taxes after a major liquidity event. In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, Patrick Lonergan explores one of the most powerful, and often misunderstood, tax strategies available to investors today: Opportunity Zones.

Patrick sits down with Ashley Tison, founder of OZ Pros and one of the leading experts on Opportunity Zone investing, to break down how this strategy works...

Can a podcast become one of the most valuable marketing assets your business ever builds? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with entrepreneur and digital platform builder Nathan Gwilliam, founder of Pod Up, to discuss how podcasting has evolved into a powerful growth strategy for entrepreneurs and CEOs. Patrick explores why podcasting has become such an effective way to build authority, develop relationships with influential people, and expand a company’s reach. Nathan shares insights from building large digital platforms that have reached hundreds of millions of users and explains why po...

What if the fastest path to business ownership wasn’t starting from scratch, but stepping into a system that’s already proven to work? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with franchise consultant and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Greg Mohr to unpack what franchising really looks like behind the scenes. Together, they explore how entrepreneurs can replace W2 income, diversify risk, and build scalable cash flow without reinventing the wheel. For high earners who feel stuck in income concentration or hesitant to gamble six figures on an unproven startup, this conv...

The wealth you’ve worked so hard to build could be eroded far more by taxes and lawsuits than by market volatility. In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Michael Moffa, Founder and President of Prosperity Tax Advisors and Prosperity Wealth Advisors, to discuss how entrepreneurs can shift from reactive tax filing to proactive tax strategy. Patrick, founder of Vital Wealth, leads a compelling conversation about why many business owners outgrow their CPA, how fragmented financial advice creates unnecessary risk, and why true wealth building requires coordination between tax planning, investment st...

What if the very systems that helped build a successful business are now the reason it can’t scale? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan sits down with Michael O'Keefe to explore the critical shift entrepreneurs must make to grow beyond their current ceiling. Together, they unpack why hustle alone won’t scale a business, how leadership evolution impacts enterprise value, and why structural design matters more than effort at higher levels of growth. This conversation challenges founders and CEOs to rethink their role, their financial architecture, and their strategy for long-term durability.

What if the real reason your business feels exposed isn’t your income, but your structure? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan breaks down why so many successful entrepreneurs remain vulnerable to lawsuits, tax inefficiencies, and unnecessary risk due to poor entity planning and lack of privacy. Patrick is joined by Bobby Casey, founder of Business Anywhere, who shares hard-earned insights from decades of entrepreneurial experience helping business owners protect assets, reduce exposure, and build resilient structures that support long-term freedom.

Together, Patrick and Bobby dive into the real-world mechanics of as...

What if building Passive Income didn’t require becoming a landlord or adding another job to your life?

In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick Lonergan, founder of Vital Wealth, sits down with Bronson Hill to unpack how investors and high net worth entrepreneurs can create truly scalable wealth without sacrificing time, freedom, or focus. Patrick brings his perspective as a tax-focused wealth strategist, while Bronson shares his journey from medical device sales to replacing earned income with passive cash flow in under three years through private real estate and alternative investments.