Private Market Funds with Chris Norton

Dr. Sam McGough interviews Hall of Fame third baseman Wade “Chicken Man” Boggs about his baseball career, outdoor life, and health. Boggs discusses his TV work in the outdoor industry, early fishing and hunting influences, and how big-game pursuits expanded after retirement, including completing the North American sheep grand slam and pursuing African Big Five/Dangerous Seven and billfish slams. He explains how extensive game-day superstitions and regimented routines—such as eating chicken—helped create a positive mindset and manage pressure, while noting fewer rituals outdoors. Boggs compares the mental and physical demands of playoff baseball to strenuous hunts like sheep and elephant tracking, recounts a grizzly charge, and notes rising hunt costs and safety concerns in some regions. He also details his prostate cancer diagnosis, treatment, becoming cancer-free on Feb. 7, 2025, and urges regular PSA screening, while sharing his current fitness routine.

Dr. Sam McGough interviews Marlon Mueller, a fourth-generation Iowa farmer who was shaped by the 1980s farm crisis and a multi-year estate lawsuit, leading him to study finances and become successful across farming, life insurance, and alternative real estate. Mueller recounts an early annuity mistake, later revisiting life insurance through deep research and adopting the infinite banking concept, stressing the need to discern misinformation online and to use mentors and trustworthy sources. He explains using whole life policies to borrow against cash value to fund investments, increasing “money velocity” by keeping dollars working in multiple places, often focusing on paying interest while pursuing higher-return real estate deals, with simple administration via annual premiums and tracking. The conversation covers faith-driven principles, calculated risk, rising living costs and debt burdens, and building generational wealth by teaching heirs mindset and money skills rather than simply passing money.

On the Hunt for Success podcast, the host interviews Christian Zeron, a longtime entrepreneur and watch enthusiast, about building resilience in business, balancing pride in hard work with financial outcomes, and staying principled even when it costs views or money. Zeron explains how he started Theo and Harris at 19 flipping vintage watches and later shifted most of his time to a marketing and consulting firm doing small and mid-size business strategy and commercial production. He describes souring on social media and content creation, then returning after his first hunt—a Louisiana duck hunt—sparked renewed passion and viral success. Zeron discusses rapidly taking up turkey, hog, goose, dove, and upcoming moose and potential bear hunts, how hunting community culture feels more welcoming than the watch world, and previews a new long-form series, “Meeting America,” focused on reconnecting with nature and American values.

Dr. Sam McGough interviews Dan Beaudoin, president and CEO of DMF Bait Company, whose live bait is sold in about 12,000 U.S. stores and has been in business 49 years. Beaudoin shares how the company began when his father, uncle, and a friend—Michigan teachers seeking summer income—were drawn into a red-worm “buyback” scam, then pivoted into supplying nightcrawlers after discovering demand from bait shops, despite nightcrawlers’ difficult sourcing and inability to reproduce in captivity. Key turning points included landing Kmart in the early 1980s, surviving a 1988 drought by shipping at a loss, and later expanding into Walmart, Bass Pro, and Cabela’s while developing proprietary nationwide shipping and packaging systems. He defines success as making DMF the “Kleenex of live bait,” emphasizes humility and culture, and describes DMF’s new tackle-line expansion for convenience stores.

Dr. Sam McGough interviews Brian McNally, a Philadelphia working-class entrepreneur who exited a healthcare revenue-cycle business and is now writing a book, launching coaching, and developing a “founder operating system” focused on building a sellable asset by designing with the end in mind, setting a clear revenue target, replacing founder dependency, and keeping operations clean for an eventual buyer. McNally reflects on lessons from the exit, especially missed advanced tax strategies, and emphasizes defining personal success as freedom, health, family, and fulfillment rather than chasing societal “magic numbers.” He describes a major 2020 COVID-driven business downturn that triggered a spiral, then a disciplined turnaround using strict routines, fitness, jujitsu, and self-trust. He discusses purpose-driven entrepreneurship, charitable work with performance-based frameworks, his late-life MMA fight journey, and future plans including selective equity partnerships and digital products.