The Open Exchange with Paul Martinez Podcast By Paul Martinez cover art

The Open Exchange with Paul Martinez

The Open Exchange with Paul Martinez

By: Paul Martinez
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The Open Exchange Podcast shares real conversations with people from different backgrounds who have something meaningful to say. Paul Martinez hosts each episode with curiosity and honesty, asking questions that lead to deeper stories and personal truths. Guests include creators, entrepreneurs, athletes, and everyday individuals who talk about growth, failure, faith, identity, and discipline. Episodes capture honest moments, unexpected lessons, and practical takeaways without forcing a narrative. The focus is on connection, reflection, and the value of listening to someone’s journey without rushing past the details.


© 2026 The Open Exchange with Paul Martinez
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Episodes
  • He Lost His Wife to Cancer — Here's What No One Told Him About Grief | Justin Schunk | Ep. 99
    Mar 23 2026

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    What does it actually feel like to watch the person you love more than anything slowly disappear? Justin Schunk joins Paul on The Open Exchange for one of the most honest conversations this show has ever had.

    Justin lost his wife Katie on April 29th, 2024 — after a 3-year battle with stage 4 metastatic colon cancer that had spread to her lungs and liver. She was in the best shape of her life when they found it. There were no warning signs.

    In this episode, Justin shares what it was like to receive a terminal diagnosis, how he processed grief while Katie was still alive, what the final days looked like, what he misses most, how he's raising their kids alone, and why giving yourself grace might be the most important thing nobody tells you when you lose someone.

    This is not a clinical breakdown of the stages of grief. This is a real conversation between two old friends — one who's been through it, one who hasn't — about the raw, nonlinear, complicated, and deeply human experience of loss.

    Whether you're going through it right now, supporting someone who is, or just trying to understand what grief actually looks like up close — this one's for you.


    Chapters:

    00:00 Introduction & Why This Episode Matters
    01:10 Meeting Justin: A Decade of Friendship Before This Conversation
    02:24 April 29th, 2024 — The Day Justin Lost Katie
    03:00 The First Cancer Diagnosis (10 Years Earlier): Stage 1, No Panic
    04:20 The Second Diagnosis: Stage 4, Terminal, No Evidence of Disease Possible
    05:48 No Symptoms — How Katie's Fitness May Have Hidden the Signs
    08:37 Processing the Terminal Diagnosis as a Husband
    09:25 Finding a Therapist Who Specialized in Terminal Illness
    10:42 What Happens When Old Anger Comes Back (Regression in Grief)
    11:43 You Can't Grieve for 3 Years — Life Still Has to Continue
    14:03 Paul's Own Relationship With Loss and Detachment
    15:27 What Justin Didn't Expect: How His Father's Death Felt Different
    16:19 The Most Unexpected Part of Grief: Giving Yourself Grace
    17:54 Coming Home After — The Silence and the Permanence
    19:26 Grief Isn't Linear: The Roller Coaster Nobody Warns You About
    20:49 Looking at Old Photos and Learning to Sit in the Sadness
    23:01 Raising the Kids: What to Watch For and What's Gone Right
    26:56 Keeping Katie's Memory Alive in the House
    28:19 Feeling Guilty About NOT Feeling Worse (His Father vs. His Wife)
    29:40 Choosing How You React When You Can't Control Anything Else
    30:37 The Guilt of Being Happy Again
    33:25 Emotional Awareness Justin Didn't Have Before
    34:11 When People Break Down in Front of the Grieving Person
    35:06 What Would Katie Say About How He's Doing?
    37:03 Talking Out Loud to Katie — and Catching Himself
    38:12 Their Last Real Conversation
    40:05 What He Misses Most: Watching Her Walk Into a Room
    41:39 Grieving the Future You Planned — Not Just the Person
    43:29 Buying the Dirt Bike: Rediscovering Life Alone
    44:04 On "Vulnerability" — Why Justin Rejects the Word
    45:32 Advice for Anyone Going Through Grief Right Now



    Support the show

    'Virtual Tip Jar' - Donate to my show to keep me going! Thank you!

    Paypal:
    https://paypal.me/PaulMartinez89?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US (PaulMartinez89)
    Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/Paullyymm (Paullyymm)

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    46 mins
  • Walking With God for 20 Years As A Struggling Believer
    Mar 2 2026

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    Most people won't say this out loud — but I will. I've been walking with Christ for 20 years, and I still wrestle. Still waver. Still feel the gap between who I want to be and who I actually show up as on a given day.

    In this episode, I'm being completely honest about what faith actually looks like from the inside — not the polished Sunday version, but the real one. The one full of doubt, distance, guilt, and still somehow, hope.

    We talk about why the tension you feel doesn't disqualify you. Why the Apostle Paul, Abraham, Moses, Peter, and David — the greatest heroes of Scripture — were all deeply flawed, deeply human, and still used by God in ways that changed the world. We break down what grace actually means, why most people only read half of Romans 6:23, and what the story of Abraham and Isaac reveals about the cross that most people never see.

    If you've ever felt like your faith isn't clean enough, consistent enough, or certain enough — this episode was made for you. The struggling believer is still a believer. And if you're in the doubt right now, in the distance, in the middle of the sinking — He's watching the road. And He's already coming.

    Chapters
    00:00 The Thing Most Believers Feel But Won't Say
    01:05 You're Not Broken, You're Not Disqualified
    01:54 Even the Apostle Paul Struggled
    02:40 The Age of Distraction and the Slow Drift
    03:27 Why You Should Start With the Gospel of John
    04:22 Shadrach, Job & Abraham — Stories That Prove Everything
    06:03 Abraham & Isaac: A Preview of the Cross
    07:16 Reading the Bible Like One Continuous Letter
    07:42 How Guilt Kept Me From the God I Claimed to Believe In
    08:11 Romans 6:23 — Read the Whole Sentence
    09:38 What Science Still Can't Explain
    11:16 Faith Lives in the Gap
    12:10 The Baseball Story — When I Felt That Stillness
    14:42 Is Faith Just Psychology?
    15:47 The Ache You Feel Is the Design
    16:46 Augustine, Solomon & the Restlessness We All Have
    17:35 Every Hero of Faith Had Serious Doubts
    19:45 David's Psalm of Despair and Praise
    21:04 Real Faith Moves — Paul vs. James Explained
    23:01 The Prodigal Son's Father Was Watching the Road
    24:48 Two Kinds of Trials and What They Promise
    25:51 What Gets Built in the Fire Lasts
    26:39 Faith Isn't the Absence of Doubt

    🎙️ Follow Me:
    TikTok: @paullymtv @theopenexchangepodcast
    Instagram: @paullyym @theopenexchangepodcast
    Email: Theopenexchangepodcast@gmail.com
    Subscribe: / @paullyymm

    🎙️ Other ways to listen:

    Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-open-exchange-with-paul-martinez/id1733876904

    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Qh1HPG7IF9vlI1Sy21gST


    Podcast

    #Conversations #PersonalDevelopment #Faith #Inspiration #StoryTelling #Podcast

    Support the show

    'Virtual Tip Jar' - Donate to my show to keep me going! Thank you!

    Paypal:
    https://paypal.me/PaulMartinez89?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US (PaulMartinez89)
    Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/Paullyymm (Paullyymm)

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    27 mins
  • Dad Mode. Grind Mode. Why Smart Buyers Are Acting NOW | Keith Turner | Ep. 096
    Feb 23 2026

    Send a text to suggest topics you’d like to hear!

    You're not lazy. You're not a bad dad. You're just carrying something nobody taught you how to put down.

    In Episode 96 of The Open Exchange, Keith Turner — my very first guest from Episode 1 — comes back nearly two years later. A lot has changed for both of us.

    Keith is now a father of two, one of Connecticut's top mortgage advisors at Homestead Funding, and still one of the most honest people I've sat across from. We didn't do an interview. We had a conversation — the kind men don't usually have on record.

    We got into:
    → What work-life balance actually looks like when you're grinding and parenting at the same time
    → The phone problem — and the moment Keith almost snapped his in half
    → Raising kids in a world built for distraction
    → Why your dad might have been doing it right without you knowing
    → Imposter syndrome — even when you've closed 3,000 mortgages
    → The 2026 housing market — why smart buyers are moving NOW before rates drop
    → What happens when rates finally fall (it won't be what you expect)
    → Airbnb, LLCs, and the real housing supply problem
    → Urgent vs. important — the framework that changes everything

    This one hit different. Two guys. Two years later. Figuring it out in real time.

    Chapters:

    • 0:00 Cold Open
    •0:05 Welcome Back — Episode 1 Guest Returns
    •1:30 What Keith's Life Looks Like Two Years Later
    •2:45 Two Kids, Disney Trips & The Dad Life
    •5:00 The Pressure Men Don't Talk About
    •6:30 Keith's Work-Life Balance System (It Actually Works)
    •8:00 The Phone Problem — Being Present for Your Kids
    •10:30 The Aaron Paul Story That Will Make You Put Your Phone Down
    •12:00 Raising Kids Without the Phone Culture
    •14:00 Role Models — What Our Dads Got Right Without Knowing It
    •17:00 The Chip Clip Moment — When Keith Almost Snapped
    •20:00 The Grind vs. The Guilt: Can You Have Both?
    •24:00 Grant Called Keith Mr. Rogers. The Best Compliment a Dad Can Get.
    •27:00 Sharpening the Knife in the Age of AI
    •30:00 Why Keith Would Never Retire — Even If He Could
    •33:00 Fanatical Prospecting, Scaling Back & Knowing What Matters
    •38:00 Being a Short-Tempered Parent — The Honest Conversation
    •41:00 Your Kids Want Your Time, Not Your Dime
    •44:00 Imposter Syndrome — Even at 3,000 Closings
    •46:00 Just Do. Detach From the Outcome.
    •47:00 Urgent vs. Important — The Framework That Changes Everything
    •49:00 2026 Housing Market Outlook with Keith Turner
    •50:30 Why Smart Buyers Are Moving NOW (Don't Wait for Rates to Drop)
    •52:30 The Hidden Costs of Homeownership Nobody Warns You About
    •54:30 Airbnb, LLCs & The Real Housing Supply Problem
    •56:30 Approaching 3,000 Closings — A Major Milestone
    •58:00 Where to Find Keith + Final Thoughts

    📞 FIND KEITH TURNER
    Homestead Funding | New London, CT
    Search: Keith Turner Homestead Funding
    Phone: (444) 444-0650

    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

    🎙️ Follow Me:
    TikTok: @paullymtv @theopenexchangepodcast
    Instagram: @paullyym @theopenexchangepodcast
    Email: Theopenexchangepodcast@gmail.com
    Subscribe: / @paullyymm

    🎙️ Other ways to listen:



    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Qh1HPG7IF9vlI1Sy21gST



    Support the show

    'Virtual Tip Jar' - Donate to my show to keep me going! Thank you!

    Paypal:
    https://paypal.me/PaulMartinez89?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US (PaulMartinez89)
    Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/Paullyymm (Paullyymm)

    Show more Show less
    57 mins
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