
Growing Through Adversity: From Young Father to Resilient Leader with Terrance Pitts
Real Money with Lisa ChastainShow Notes
In this podcast, Major Terrance Pitts shares his powerful journey from being an 18-year-old father, husband, and military recruit to becoming a distinguished military leader and executive coach. Reflecting on the challenges of growing up alongside his child, he speaks about his evolving identity, balancing military responsibilities, and the importance of mentorship in his personal and professional growth. As a dedicated father of two sons and a husband, he emphasizes the lessons learned from fatherhood, leadership, and life in the military. Terrance candidly discusses his journey in the Army, the importance of balancing responsibilities, and his pursuit of leadership coaching to inspire others. Through real talk about mistakes, growth, and resilience, Terrence encourages listeners to blaze their own path and embrace the lessons life offers, especially in terms of leadership, career, and financial responsibility.
More from Real Money with Lisa Chastain
I have championed women as financial leaders for the last decade, and in this episode I revise part of that position after reading Richard Reeves’ Of Boys and Men. The research on education, wages, and work points to a gap that affects men and women alike, and I walk through the figures that changed my thinking. I have been running breakthroughs with men, and the data in this episode explains why that work matters. Men need to rediscover their purpose, and women can support that without stepping back from our own ambitions. Links: 10-Hour Breakthrough Money Personality Quiz The Wealth Within (January 14–17, 2027)
Dr. Jade Norris explains what became possible once she built a practice with room for real conversations — patients who finally feel heard, care plans built around their actual lives, and prevention that gets caught early instead of missed. This episode is about what individualized attention makes possible, in medicine and in coaching alike. We talk about why the best care, financial or medical, always starts with actually knowing the person. Links: Real Money with Dr. Jade (previous season) NSPIRE Primary Care Want to be part of Real Money podcast? Apply here.
Most of what drives your financial decisions was set before you turned seven — in what your parents said about money, and everything they didn't say. This episode breaks down what happens in a 10-Hour Breakthrough — the four hours we spend on personal history before we ever touch a belief system, and why that order matters. I also introduce the NLP logical levels framework that shapes how I think about real, sustainable change, from environment all the way up to identity. If you've ever felt like you're making decisions on autopilot, this episode explains why.
My Wealth Within co-trainer Robert Pleasants joins me to talk about what actually happens in the training room. We get into the pictures we carry of how love, success, and money are supposed to look, and what happens when life stops matching the frame. We also talk about the difference between the practices that move you forward and the ones quietly running your life on repeat.
I'm reintroducing myself and Real Money as we head into year five, then turning to The Wealth Within. I created it because I watched clients build every marker of success and still feel like it wasn't enough. This season, I'm also widening the conversation to include men; the pressure they carry, the expectations they inherited, and what money reveals about how they lead and provide. Wealth doesn't live in isolation from marriages, families, and partnerships, and neither does this work. Links mentioned: The Wealth Within, September 17-20, 2026 10 Hr Breakthrough Money Personality Quiz