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.