Elevation Nation
Elevation Nation is a movement to shape resilient leaders by elevating mental fortitude. Join Sam Panitch and Parker Yablon each week as they sit down with a new Elevator: a bold thinker, creator, or leader who’s using mental fortitude to overcome adversity, lead with purpose, and make an impact. From entrepreneurs and pro athletes to musicians, wellness experts, and changemakers, Elevators come from all walks of life - but they all have one thing in common: mental fortitude that helps them thrive in the real world.
Episodes
After six years and almost 500 conversations, we're taking our first real break. Parker becomes a dad next week, and he's stepping away from EY and Elevation Nation for four months to show up fully for the most important job he's ever had.
In this episode:
- Why choosing to pause can take more strength than pushing through
- How to be honest about fear and excitement living in the same moment
- What it means that this podcast will one da...
Elevator 263: Ben Sharf is the co-founder and CEO of Platter, one of the fastest agencies ever to reach Shopify Platinum Partner status, building storefronts for brands like NeuroGum, Gainful, and Every Man Jack that have driven over $1B in sales. He's also an angel investor, host of the Turning Pro podcast, and a former competitive hockey player who has sat in silence for ten days, trained for a boxing fight, and run 130 miles fro...
Your feed says corporate is the enemy. Quit, build your own thing, become a creator, or you're wasting your life. We couldn't disagree more.
We've worked corporate jobs for eight years while building Elevation Nation on the side. In this episode, we get honest about why that wasn't settling, and why it might be the smartest path for you too.
In this episode:
- What the creator life really costs
- Letting go of the shame of feeling "mea...
Elevator no. 262: Kourosh Ashtary is the founder of EatFree, a platform that helps people with food allergies and dietary restrictions safely eat at restaurants. DMV born and raised, dog dad of two, and a fellow Terp, Kourosh went undiagnosed for 15 years and was hospitalized five times for anaphylactic shock in college. After stints at Deloitte and Carnival, he walked away from a director-level promotion to build the tool he wishe...
Made a mistake at work and can't let it go? Sam and Parker break down why high achievers turn small slip-ups into week-long spirals, and what to do instead.
Inspired by a Yom Kippur sermon about tapping your chest instead of punching it, you'll learn a simple 3-step way to handle any mistake: own it, show how you're fixing it, and move on without over-apologizing. The guys also get into why school trains us to fear failure, why forg...
Elevator no. 261: Jake Fishbein is an executive coach and men's group facilitator who helps leaders, non-profit heads, and everyday guys become better communicators and build relationships that actually nourish them. In 2026, after ten years of writing, he published The Men's Group: A Novel of Messy Friendships. When he's not coaching or writing, you can find him walking the streets of New York, rooting for the Red Sox, or buried i...
Football season means one thing is back everywhere: sports gambling. Sam and Parker dig into the data on how it's wrecking young people's savings, and the real story behind it: our addiction to fast wins over slow, boring discipline. Not financial advice, just some hard truths about patience.
Elevator 260: Mitchell Harounian is a venture investor and the founder of The Venture Reel, a media-first syndicate that discovers and backs the next generation of startups. He's invested in 15+ companies, sits on boards as a member and advisor to early-stage founders, and built his platform by pairing venture capital with media and distribution, helping founders raise awareness, build credibility, and reach new investors and custo...
Sam and Parker break down "doomjobbing," the trend of scrolling job listings at midnight with zero intention of applying. They connect it to the paradox of choice and why unlimited options make it harder, not easier, to actually move.
In this episode: Why AI applications rarely work anymore, why real career change starts with human conversations, and how to filter your job search with actual criteria instead of chasing a fantasy "pe...
Elevator no. 259: Griffin Pinkow is the Founder of Foreseeable Future Foundation, a national nonprofit that has helped more than 5,000 visually impaired and blind individuals live active, independent lives through sports, recreation, and community. After losing his vision as a teenager to a degenerative retinal disease, Griffin refused to let it define him. He's completed four marathons, built a nonprofit that's raised hundreds of ...
Sam and Parker break down their conversation with Timmy the Dreamer and get into where their own dreams stand right now. They talk through the difference between chasing tangible goals and chasing feelings, why hedging on a dream isn't failure, and how quitting on one dream is really just pivoting to another.
Elevator no. 258: Timmy the Dreamer is a motivational speaker and founder of Dreamer State. As former manager of one of LA's biggest influencers, Charlie Rocket, he helped build a social impact movement of over 9 million people, making more than 1,000 dreams come true for kids with cancer, disabilities, and families in need of a miracle. He's collaborated with names like Mr. Beast, Steph Curry, and Jake Paul, and now takes the stag...
Sam is back from a week at Experience Camps, a grief camp for kids who've lost a parent or sibling, and he's not tired in the way you'd expect. He and Parker get into why refilling your soul might matter more than recharging your batteries, why more men need permission to cry, and what 17 days at camp this summer taught Sam about becoming a "camp guy." Rapid fire on the best and worst camp food included.
Elevator no. 256: Colby Berardi is the Associate Director of Experience Camps for the Michigan Girls Program and works in marketing by day. After losing her stepdad Philip in 2023, she found her way to Experience Camps — a free week-long program for kids who've lost a parent, caregiver, or sibling and turned her own grief into a mission to help others process theirs.
In this podcast: Colby gets vulnerable about her grief journ...
It's the three year anniversary of Philip's passing, and for the time time, Sam is heading to Experience Camps without Parker by his side. The guys get real about grief, the moments that sneak up on you, and what it means to carry someone with you instead of moving on from them. They close it out with some camp confessions.
Eighty percent of Gen Z say they've felt lonely in the past year, despite being the most digitally connected generation ever. Sam and Parker dig into why more connection hasn't meant less loneliness, and how comfort zones, phones, and false assumptions about what strangers will think people stuck.
Elevator no. 247: Eric Zalewski is the c-founder of Acru, a social fitness app built to track and share every workout, from lifts to classes to runs. A former S1 basketball player at Northwestern, Eric walked on to the team as a manager and earned his spot on the court through relentless preparation. He's spent the past two-plus years coaching fitness in NYC on top of his finance day job, and outside of work he's chasing marathons,...
Sam and Parker break down 21-year-old PGA Tour winner Jackson Koivun, who beat Scottie Scheffler at the 3M Open with three words written on his glove: confidence, trust, dominate.
The guys talk mental mottos, where theirs live, and why the physical reminder matters. They close with rapid-fire Overrated/Underrated on pre-performance routines, from visualization to meditation to journaling.
Elevator 254: Brian Helfman is the founder and Chief Experience Officer at Third Nature, where he runs adult summer camp retreats, leadership trainings, and community experiences designed to help people reconnect with their authentic selves. He's also a longtime volunteer and now part-time staff member with Experience Camps, running adult grief camps for people who lost a parent young.
In this podcast: we dive into how his father's ...
Sam and Parker celebrate hitting 500 episodes, then dive into David Goggins re-enlisting in the Air Force at 51 to finish the Pararescue training he quit at 19. The guys break down the mixed public reaction and why they're firmly on Team Goggins.
They close out with a Mount Rushmore of legendary quitters-turned-comebacks: Jordan, Steve Jobs, Brian May, and a surprise entry that has nothing to do with sports or business.
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