Trading Secrets

Description:With a new season of Dancing With the Stars just around the corner, we’re flashing back and revisiting one of our favorite conversations with DWTS legend Val Chmerkovskiy.

Originally recorded in 2023, Val opens up about his unconventional path from competitive ballroom dancing to becoming one of the biggest names on television, including why he initially resisted joining Dancing With the Stars, what finally changed his mind, and how his career evolved once he made the leap.

Val also gets candid about the business of being a professional dancer, the financial realities of competitive dance, negotiating his value, building multiple streams of income, and why he would sometimes choose equity in a business over getting paid upfront.

Plus, he shares the mindset that helped him navigate difficult seasons, career setbacks and the uncertainty of being dealt a bad hand: “delusional optimism.”

From building Dance With Me Studios to turning his DWTS platform into a larger business ecosystem, this is a conversation about knowing your value, betting on yourself, and turning a passion into a career.
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Jessie James Decker has built a career by refusing to stay in one lane. From country music and reality TV to fashion, fitness, publishing, and entrepreneurship, Jessie has turned her creativity into a growing business empire—and she joins Trading Secrets to break down how she did it.

Jessie opens up about growing up with very little, the childhood experiences that still drive her to prove herself, and the financial mistakes she made early in her career. She shares the money lessons she learned from her husband, Eric Decker, why surrounding yourself with people who are smarter than you can be a game changer, and how her biggest weaknesses have become some of her greatest strengths.

She also gets candid about building Kitnish into a $60 million business, recognizing when she needed to step away from the CEO role, and why giving up operational control was one of the hardest—and smartest—business decisions she made.

Plus, Jessie reveals how she built a fitness community of nearly 40,000 subscribers, why authentic content is outperforming highly produced social media, what she thinks is missing from today's music industry, her experience on Dancing With the Stars, and the money and relationship rules that have helped her and Eric navigate their careers together.

And she leaves us with her ultimate Trading Secret: “It’s never no.”
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Jason Tartick and the Curious Canadian are back for another 30-Minute Thursday covering everything from Jared Freid’s relentless approach to success to Apple’s brand-new $2,000 foldable iPhone.

The guys break down the biggest business takeaways from Jared’s return to Trading Secrets, including why asking for what you want, being scrappy, and putting yourself out there can create opportunities. They also debate whether the new iPhone is actually worth the price, talk podcast negotiations, the rise of athletes in pop culture, the US Open, football season, and the latest sports headlines.

Then, for the first time ever, a Trading Secrets listener joins the show. Taylor Fraser shares her journey from accounting to teaching, how she turned her side hustles into a growing business, and how she and her husband launched Bluegrass Flow, a cold-pressed juice company now sold in 60+ retail locations.

Taylor also opens up about teacher compensation, retirement, AI in education, entrepreneurship, using grants to fund a growing business, and the importance of building a career around something you genuinely love.
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This week, Jason is joined by stand-up comedian, podcaster, and now first-time author Jared Freid for a conversation about the business behind comedy, betting on yourself, and how money, confidence, and relationships are more connected than we think.

Three years after his first appearance on Trading Secrets, Jared returns with his second Netflix special, The Family Plan, and breaks down exactly what it took to get there. After spending roughly $80,000 producing his first special, Jared reveals why he invested around $100,000 of his own money into the second, how the licensing economics work, why he partnered with Betches for marketing power, and why that partnership means splitting the licensing fee 50/50. He also shares why landing in Netflix’s Top 10 in the U.S. and Canada for nearly a week still wasn’t enough to guarantee Netflix would finance his next special.

Jared also opens up about the economics of his growing comedy career, revealing that touring and the U Up? podcast are currently his two biggest financial drivers. He breaks down the ownership structures behind U Up? and JTrain, why subscriptions have become increasingly important to podcasting, and why paid social partnerships remain more of a bonus than a core piece of his business.

Beyond comedy, Jared gets candid about writing his first book, Walking Red Flag, including spending two years on the project, realizing after his first page that he needed a ghostwriter, and paying that expense out of his book advance. He also shares how stepping away from alcohol, his experience with GLP-1s, and rebuilding his relationship with his girlfriend changed his confidence and outlook on life.

From investing six figures into your own career to prenups, joint finances, ghosting, dating economics, protecting what you’ve built, and why Jared says he’s never regretted taking a risk—this episode breaks down what it really looks like to build a career without waiting for someone else to give you your big break.

Host: Jason Tartick
Audio: John Gurney
Video: Marc Colcer
Guest: Jared Freid

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Jason Tartick and the Curious Canadian, David, are back together for another chaotic 30-Minute Thursday—and they have a lot to unpack.

From Jason’s trip to the U.S. Open and the eye-popping $108 million prize pool, to the $23 Honey Deuce and the bizarre world of Burning Man, the guys cover it all. They also dive deep into AI, the fear of giving bots access to our personal lives, the future of work and parenting, and how social media algorithms are increasingly shaping—and sometimes hijacking—our brains.

Plus, they break down the latest Dancing with the Stars cast, debate whether Jason and David could survive Burning Man, talk about finally getting into Harry Potter, and reveal what they’re trying to do to take back control of their algorithms.
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