Most leadership stories start with a promotion. This one starts with five felonies.
In this episode of Inside the C-Suite, Christy Honeycutt welcomes Garrett Mintz - former drug dealer turned executive mastermind facilitator, founder of Ambition in Motion, and the kind of person who’s built his career on second chances and relentless experimentation.
What happens when you combine IO psychology, startup scrappiness, and a deep belief in human potential? You get a business that didn’t just survive - it scaled. Garrett shares how his journey from prison risk to purpose-driven CEO has shaped his views on mentorship, motivation, and building real community at the top.
This isn’t a redemption arc. It’s a blueprint for doing business with conviction.
They unpack:
• Why horizontal mentorship (not top-down advice) creates the best growth
• The real reason most mentoring programs fail - and what to do instead
• How “work orientation” reveals the hidden reason mentorship either clicks or crashes
• Why clarity of why beats charisma or credentials every time
• How executive loneliness gave rise to community-led mastermind groups
• Why obsession with the problem is more powerful than worship of the solution
Whether you’re rebuilding after failure, leading a team through chaos, or trying to scale without losing soul - Garrett’s story proves grit and grace can coexist.
Because leadership doesn’t start with having all the answers. It starts with asking better questions.
Chapters:
00:00:54 – From drug dealer to executive facilitator
00:02:54 – The mentors who changed everything
00:07:24 – Why mentorship often fails
00:08:00 – What makes mentorship work
00:11:20 – Surprised by your work mindset?
00:13:47 – Daily habits that fuel leadership
00:15:17 – What’s next for Garrett’s work
00:22:50 – Keeping your team motivated
00:25:11 – A failure that reshaped the business
00:27:19 – How fatherhood changed his mindset
00:29:02 – A common myth about the C-Suite
00:30:49 – What Garrett does better than anyone else
| Connect with Us |
Learn more about Ambition in Motion:
https://ambition-in-motion.com/
Follow Garrett Mintz:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrettmintz/
(Built a business on second chances and now helps leaders see what’s really happening beneath the surface.)
Follow Inside the C-Suite:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cwiseman/
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Subscribe on Apple – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/inside-the-c-suite/id1739883160
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