He was 20 years old, freshly done with a graduate job he lasted six months at, and signing a $100,000-per-year commercial lease with no loans and no business plan. Just a Pilates class, a community hall, and a market test that told him enough.
Todd Kuhn — co-founder of The Core Collab USA and creator of the Sculptformer — joins Skoob for one of the most grounded, no-nonsense entrepreneurship conversations on the show. This isn't a highlight reel. It's a real conversation about what it actually takes to start something from nothing, test it honestly, build it slowly, and eventually step out of the trenches long enough to think like a CEO.
If you've been stuck in analysis paralysis, spinning on what ifs, or waiting until you know enough — this episode is your permission slip to just get started.
🗓️ TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – Welcome & Introduction
01:00 – Todd's Origin Story: Six Months in Corporate, Then 40 Pilates Classes a Week
03:00 – Why a Degree Doesn't Equal Success Anymore
04:30 – YouTube University: Learning Skills Without a Classroom
05:00 – Learning Is Useless Until You Implement Something
06:00 – Entrepreneurship as a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Book
07:00 – Imposter Syndrome & Taking Feedback as Data Instead of Attack
08:00 – Finding Your Tribe — or Letting It Find You
09:00 – Analysis Causes Paralysis: The Mindset That Stops Most Entrepreneurs Cold
10:00 – Calculated Risk vs. Blind Jumping: The Critical Difference
12:00 – The Trap of a Comfortable Job You Secretly Hate
13:00 – How Todd Bootstrapped: Testing the Market in Community Halls Before Signing a Lease
14:30 – Just-in-Time Learning: Stop Wasting Brain Calories on What You Don't Need Yet
15:00 – Continuous Learning Compounds: You Don't Need to Know It All to Start
15:30 – Niche Down or Stay Scattered: Why Focus Beats Being a Jack of All Trades
16:00 – The Pitfall He's Proud Of: A Personal Crisis That Unlocked the CEO Mindset
18:00 – One Piece of Advice for Every New Entrepreneur: Just Get Started
19:00 – Don't Quit Your 9-to-5 Until the Side Hustle Matches or Exceeds the Salary
20:00 – The Snowflake-to-Snowball-to-Snowman Model for Building Business Momentum
21:00 – Todd's Six-Month Goal: Double Income and Build a Values-Aligned Team in the US
23:00 – How to Find Todd, The Core Collab USA & Sculptformer
🧠 WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE
Todd Kuhn didn't have a master plan. He had a girlfriend who taught Pilates, a brother-in-law who knew someone, and a willingness to run classes in community halls to test whether anyone would actually show up. They did. So he kept going.
What makes Todd's story different isn't that he was fearless — it's that he was honest about the risk and smart enough to validate before he committed. He didn't sign a $100,000 lease on hope. He signed it because the market had already told him there was demand. That's the difference between a calculated risk and a leap of blind faith.
In this conversation, Todd and Skoob break down the biggest barrier to starting — analysis paralysis and the endless loop of what ifs — and flip the question on its head: what if it works? They talk about just-in-time learning versus just-in-case learning, why niching down beats trying to serve everyone, and why the people nobody expected to succeed are often the ones who do, because they didn't know enough to be scared.
Todd also opens up about the personal pitfall he's most proud of — a relationship breakdown that forced him to stop being an operator and start thinking like a CEO — and what it means to finally have the mental space to make the decisions that actually move a business forward.
📌 CONNECT WITH TODD KUHN
🌐 thecorecollabusa.com
🌐 sculptformer.com
📱 Socials: @TheCoreCollabUSA (Instagram, Facebook)
📚 BOOK MENTIONED: Lean Learning — Pat Flynn (just-in-time learning vs. just-in-case learning)
🎙️ ABOUT UNDISCOVERED ENTREPRENEUR: GET ACROSS THE START LINE
Hosted by Skoob, this podcast is for entrepreneurs who haven't crossed the start line yet — and those still finding solid ground after they have. Real conversations. Real people. Zero fluff.
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👍 Like this video if Todd's story made you want to stop overthinking and just start.
💬 Comment below: What's the one what if that's been holding you back — and what would happen if you flipped it?
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