The Fortunate FISHES Podcast
R360 Global's "Fortunate FISHES Podcast" offers viewers an exclusive look into the entrepreneurial journey of individuals who have achieved an ultra high net worth. We focus on wealth & business Insights, building financial communities, and legacy building for those who want to understand and achieve wealth. At R360, we see wealth as something much bigger than accumulating money. We see wealth as Financial, Intellectual, Social, Human, Emotional, and Spiritual capital - which spells FISHES. In this podcast we're going to showcase many fortunate FISHES, learn about their journey, and offer valuable lessons to our viewers who want to achieve their own success.
The Fortunate FISHES Podcast
Surviving the Odds & Reinventing the Orthodontic Industry | Dr. Jason Gladwell
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Dr. Jason Gladwell mailed Glock 19 handguns to a gun-club list as a promotional offer for clear aligners. CNN ran it. Invisalign pulled him off their site. His own PE group scrubbed him. The schedule sold out anyway — and the gun store had its best month ever.
The stunt is the hook. The operator underneath it is the story: dirt-poor North Omaha to the #2 Invisalign provider in the U.S., 15,000 cases, a 9x single-day world record, and a 2021 exit to LightWave he rolled 30% back into.
Jason's story is one of self-invention: a single mom, a brother sliding into gang life, a move to North Carolina to escape it, and a degree he designed himself because a mentor told him biology was worthless.
No money, no network, no study habits — just a kid who got into NC State off the waitlist, looked around the room, decided he was outgunned, and built the discipline to win anyway. He left the herd on every decision that mattered, and absorbed the arrows each time.
The Outgunned Operating System:
→ Set rules your peers won't follow — "never miss a class" was the entire edge at NC State
→ Disagree and commit: pitch the idea, let the team object, then own 100% of the downside if it breaks
→ Build the contingency plan before you fly close to the sun, not after
The financing reinvention is the quieter masterclass. The industry wanted 20% down and full payment before treatment ended. Gladwell read that the average person carries $300–400 in disposable income, so the math didn't math. He flipped it: low down, 0% financing, direct deposit, and he'd stretch a 24-month case to 28 months. Soccer moms talked. The referral engine paid for everything.
On forgiveness, compounding, and the exit:
→ A grudge is "drinking poison and waiting for someone else to die" — he forgives fast, but if you screw him, he's coming
→ He sold to LightWave in 2021, kept full control of his people and systems, bought himself a gold watch — then worked harder than ever
After the liquidity event the real questions surface: are your kids competitive when they've never known adversity, and are you saying yes to others more than to your own family? For operators past their exit, that's the actual game.
Books Mentioned:
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Stephen Covey)
Making Money Is Killing Your Business (Chuck Blakeman)
A Message from Garcia (Charles Patrick Garcia)
It Works (R.H. Jarrett)
Through My Eyes: Eye Surgeon (the surgeon's memoir Charlie references)
The Yes! Attitude (Jeffrey Gitomer)
Blink (Malcolm Gladwell — no relation)
Unreasonable Hospitality (Will Guidara)
The Little Red Book of Selling (Jeffrey Gitomer)
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Thomas Kuhn)
For the founder who already exited and is deciding what the next 30 years are actually for.
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Charlie's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlespgarcia/
Charlie’s Substack: https://substack.com/@cpgarcia?
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