Jeff Pelaccio on Losing His Mom, Corporate Layoffs, AI & Reinvention | Hidden Foundations Ep. 16

Viewer discretion is advised. This episode includes conversations about childhood loss, Alzheimer’s, physical discipline, career instability, and difficult family memories.Jeff Pelaccio’s foundation was shaped early by loss, loyalty, and the need to keep moving. His mother died the day before his fifth birthday. His father, a union welder, developed early-onset Alzheimer’s when Jeff was still a kid. And the New York Italian family around him modeled work ethic, loyalty, survival, and showing up when life gets hard.In this episode of Hidden Foundations, Kendall and Jeff trace how those early patterns followed him into corporate America, where nine involuntary career transitions taught him that no job is ever fully safe. Their conversation moves through reinvention, podcasting, leadership, stoicism, meditation, AI, deep work, interviewing, mentorship, and why resilience often begins with learning what you can control and what you have to release.Chapters00:00 Cold Open: Loss, Failure, and Reinvention00:40 Meet Jeff Pelaccio02:31 Starting The Corporate Couch06:51 Career Strategy, Leadership, and Reinvention13:06 Losing His Mother Before Age Five17:39 Family, Work Ethic, and Loyalty20:58 Corporate Instability and Stoicism28:36 AI, Deep Thought, and Podcasting#HiddenFoundations #JeffPelaccio #Reinvention