How Bonhoeffer Film Director Battled His Own Darkness: Todd Komarnicki Our guest this week, Hollywood writer, producer and director Todd Komarnicki, discusses the instructive and inspirational life of German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the subject of a film he made last year. The movie, which explores how Bonhoeffer summoned the courage during the rise of Adolf Hitler to call his nation's churches to stand against the Nazi leader's attempts to overtake them, is a profound look at ...
Jul 01, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 267
Applying the Actionable Truths 6: Vision A great vision, we discuss this week in the sixth episode of our series within the show on the Beyond the Crucible Roadmap and its actionable truths, is one which seems so real you can almost feel it and touch it. You have this overwhelming desire to make that vision a reality. This vision may be a combination of lessons you’ve learned from your crucible. It will typically involve people you want to help. Either way, a great vision is one that is other-fo...
Jun 24, 2025•1 hr 1 min
The Power of Humbler Leadership: Josh Wymore Josh Wymore, our guest this week, was striking out as a leader as an assistant coach of a women's softball team — until a more seasoned coach gave him counsel that changed the trajectory of not just his leadership, but his life. Wymore was trying to lead the ladies thinking he had to have, and provide, all the answers. What the more experienced coach taught him set him on the path of embracing, researching and writing about HUMBLER LEADERSHIP, the tit...
Jun 17, 2025•1 hr
Want Contentment? Here's How to Find It Discontentment. It's a crucible all its own when you're not living a life aligned with your skills and values. But what if you are pursuing a life that is fully aligned with your skills and values? Discontentment can be a world-rattler when is pops up under those circumstances. Warwick tackles this subject in his most recent blog, and in our discussion this week we help you overcome those difficult feelings with such tips as understanding that contentment ...
Jun 10, 2025•1 hr
How Tragedy Awakened Her Extraordinary Purpose to Help Others: Carey Conley Carey Conley lost husband Ross to suicide in 2014 and her son Cole to the same manner of death just three years later. After these devastating losses, she tells us this week, she was faced with a choice: To find purpose through despair, or to throw in the towel. She chose purpose. She found it in helping those who feel lost in day-to-day life craft vision plans to find their footing. She helps people create crystal clear...
Jun 03, 2025•57 min
Applying the Actionable Truths 5: Character We take a look this week at the fifth actionable truth our research has shown us helps you move from trial to triumph: character. It's one thing to have beliefs and values, it's another thing to live them out. So we have to make a choice. Are our beliefs and values going to be a bumper sticker or something hanging on a corporate wall … or are they going to be real? That's the sum and substance of this week's conversation. To come back from our crucible...
May 27, 2025•52 min•Ep. 262
His Greatest Adrenaline Rush? Serving Others: John Graham John Graham shipped out on a freighter to Asia when he was 16, hitchhiked through the Algerian Revolution at 19 and was on the team that made the first ascent of Mt. McKinley's North Wall at 20, a climb so dangerous it’s never been repeated. He hitchhiked around the world at 22, working as a correspondent for the Boston Globe in every war he came across. A U.S. Foreign Service Officer for fifteen years, he served in Libya during the 1969 ...
May 20, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 261
The Valuable Lessons in Others' Mistakes How can other people’s mistakes or misfortunes, whether they were their fault or not, benefit you? We may agree we can learn from our own mistakes and misfortunes, but we can also learn from the mistakes other people made and the misfortunes other people have faced. This week, we discuss Warwick's latest blog at BeyondTheCrucible.com to discover what we can learn from what others have gone through. Action steps like hit the reset button, understand the wh...
May 13, 2025•54 min•Ep. 260
From a Life Sentence to a Life Restored: Judy Henderson To explore Beyond the Crucible resources, including our free Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment, visit beyondthecrucible.com. Enjoy the show? Leave a review on your favorite podcast app and leave a comment at our YouTube channel and be sure subscribe and tell your friends and family about us. Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at info@beyondthecrucible.com At age 18. Judy Henderson married the man who would become the father of her ...
May 06, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 259
Applying the Actionable Truths 4: Faith We take a look this week at the fourth actionable truth our research has shown us helps you move from trial to triumph: faith. To effectively move beyond a crucible, we need to have an anchor for our soul, a guiding light for our journey. Something that will keep us on track and in touch with who we really are. That is what we call faith at Beyond the Crucible. It may include different belief systems, such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism or Buddh...
Apr 22, 2025•54 min•Ep. 258
Lauren Burns was 7 years old when her father, a Jordanian national divorced from her mother when she was just a few weeks old, kidnapped her and took her to his homeland. His plan was to raise her there. But Lauren's Mom fought tirelessly and valiantly to bring her back home to America. The details of how she succeeded in being reunited with her daughter, told here in edge-of-your-seat detail, feature a clandestine rescue operation led by former U.S. military operatives and what Lauren describes...
Apr 15, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 257
Building a Life You Don't Want to Escape From We discuss Warwick’s latest blog at beyondthecrucible.com , with thoughts on how we can shift from a life of quiet desperation to a life of joy, fulfillment and purpose. We've got all the questions you need to ask yourself here, from What is your true calling? to What are your beliefs and values?, from How do you want the rhythms of your life to look? to How do you see this adding up to a life of significance? "It is our life, and we get to choose ou...
Apr 08, 2025•1 hr
Tackling M.S. with Mindfulness: Scott Eblin Scott Eblin describes himself as feeling "bulletproof" after working more than two decades as a executive leader and a leadership coach. Then he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The illness set him on a journey to develop mindfulness practices in his work and life that have made both better. He says mindfulness is the intersection of two qualities—awareness and intention. The first helps with understanding what’s going on both around you and insi...
Apr 01, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 255
Applying the Actionable Truths 3: Authenticity We take a look this week at the third actionable truth our research has shown us helps you move from trial to triumph: authenticity.This truth is the first in the processing phase of our Beyond the Crucible Roadmap for moving past our worst day toward new opportunity. This phase, we discuss, is marked by the need to overcome fear and commit to change — two things we can only do by leaning into who we really are, not who we want others to think we ar...
Mar 25, 2025•52 min•Ep. 254
His childhood was something out of a mafia movie — boy attracted to what he saw as the glamour of the flashy toughs in his working-class New York City neighborhood. And Robert Borelli's story was not headed for a happy ending. What began as running errands for the mobsters he idolized turned into committing crimes that escalated in their violence and an addiction to drugs that robbed him of the respect he worked so hard to get. But Borelli's story did a sharp 180-degree turn to redemption when a...
Mar 18, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 253
A comment from a recent guest on the show about the tension between growth and comfort as we aim to move beyond our crucibles prompted a blog on the subject that fuels this week's discussion. Warwick and Gary examine three truths about why prioritizing comfort rather than growth when setback and failure strike will not lead you to the joy and fulfillment of a life of significance. The only way forward is to press into what your crucible teaches you about yourself, the growth it’s granted you in ...
Mar 11, 2025•56 min•Ep. 152
Flexible Leadership, the title of business consultant Kevin Eikenberry's latest book, offers a new way to think about leading, helping managers break out of leadership styles that may no longer be useful to navigate the challenges they face. In our interview with Eikenberry this week, we discuss his new framework for leadership, built on flexors that allow us to break out of the rigid boxes that limit the ways we approach the thorniest issues before us. The key, he explains, is flexing tactics b...
Mar 04, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 251
We take a deep-dive look at the second actionable truth that helps you move from trial to triumph: self-reflection. Our discussion centers on the ways in which reflecting on your crucible can reveal important insights about yourself — your strengths, weaknesses, even vulnerabilities — that you can use to forgive yourself, forgive others and bounce forward to a life of significance. "It is all too easy to start acting and moving without reflecting," Warwick says. "We always say at Beyond the Cruc...
Feb 25, 2025•55 min•Ep. 250
Jon-Michael Ogletree started playing the piano as a toddler — his rare form of dwarfism no roadblock to his curiosity that through the decades would become his virtuosity. In this discussion with Warwick he describes the "miracle" surgery that saved his life and the musical gift that has allowed him to reach hundreds of thousands through his YouTube video — all the while never learning how to read music. To learn more about Jon-Michael Ogletree, visit https://www.jmopiano.com/ To explore Beyond ...
Feb 18, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 249
Saying "no" to opportunities to assist causes and people we care about is hard, but essential if we want to have the energy and focus to say "yes" to things that allow us to live our most joyful life of significance. In this episode based on Warwick's latest blog, we cover seven things we can do to ensure we’re focused on what really matters to us. Among the best practices determining when to say "yes" and when to say "no" we discuss are anchoring all decisions in your beliefs and values, making...
Feb 12, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 248
Closing the Courage Gap: Dr. Margie Warrell Dr. Margie Warrell is a global thought leader on courage — the ways having it improves your life, how to get it back if you're lost it and how to overcome fear to tap into it. That's the subject of her latest book, The Courage Gap: 5 Steps to Braver Action, which she discusses with us this week. Among the insights she offers are the importance of focusing on what you want, not on what you fear; rescripting what's kept you scared or too safe; and steppi...
Feb 04, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 247
Applying the Actionable Truths 1: Crucibles Our yearlong examination of the actionable truths that will guide you along the Beyond the Crucible Roadmap begins with a discussion of where your journey from setback to significance begins: your crucible. We look at what you need to do to reach the point where you understand it didn't happen to you but happed for you. To explore Beyond the Crucible resources, including our free Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment, visit beyondthecrucible.com . Enjoy t...
Jan 28, 2025•56 min•Ep. 246
Helping Heroes Heal from Moral Injury: Judy Issacson Elias Judy Issacson Elias' traumatic childhood was caused, she says, by the traumas her father brought home with him from his service in World War II. Her dad was withdrawn, struggled with job stability and connecting with his family. The dysfunction in her home led her to run away and turn to alcohol and drugs. But a trip to Israel her father arranged for her led her to reconnect with her Jewish faith, and the healing she felt in doing so wou...
Jan 21, 2025•54 min•Ep. 245
These 'Actionable Truths' Will Guide You From Trial to Triumph Our research into how people experience crucibles and chart a path beyond them has led us to identify a core set of "actionable truths" — 10 in all — that will help you overcome the obstacles you face as you navigate your unique journey from trials to triumph. This week, in our overview episode of what we're calling the series within the show, we'll discuss the insights our newly crafted Beyond the Crucible Roadmap offers and identif...
Jan 14, 2025•52 min•Ep. 244
2024 Rewind: TOY STORY'S Crucible Lessons Kind, compassionate words are life-giving to us when spoken by others after we’ve been through a crucible. And they’re also life-giving to us when we speak them to others .. a truth the main characters in the movie TOY STORY learn when their initial rivalry turns into an unlikely friendship. This week, we revisit the the 9th and final episode of our summer series CLASSIC FILMS, CLASSIC CRUCIBLE LESSONS. We discuss the dangers of comparing our life of sig...
Dec 31, 2024•59 min
2024 Rewind: Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Perseverance Winston Churchill was known for many things – including always looking for ways to move onward after a trial or challenge. That’s the perspective we all should hope to have when life’s crucibles knock us for a loop. When setback and failure are all-too-common companions. When we’re wrestling with our own darkest hour. This week, as part of what we’ve dubbed our series within the show – Stories from the Book Crucible Leadership – we r...
Dec 24, 2024•53 min
2024 Rewind: Jason T. Smith's Surprising Life of Significance We're closing out the year with a look back on a few of our most powerful episodes of the last 12 months. This week, we revisit Jason T. Smith. who thought he'd missed out on his calling to be a medical missionary, until he realized he'd been gifted a new one. Smith's vision for being a doctor helping heal those in underserved nations came crashing down when he didn't qualify to study medicine. So instead, he pursued physiotherapy, fi...
Dec 17, 2024•1 hr 1 min
Sir Warwick Fairfax: A Man of Noble Character It’s certainly not uncommon to hear a son talk about his father with respect, admiration and love – the way Warwick talks about his father in this week's episode. But the noble character Sir Warwick Fairfax modeled to his son has had an impact that’s birthed the business that son founded, including this podcast you’re listening to right now. In this last episode of the year in our series within the show, STORIES FROM THE BOOK CRUCIBLE LEADERSHIP, we ...
Dec 10, 2024•50 min
Make Sure Your Passion Serves Your Purpose How do you handle your passion with care? How do you help ensure when you're off-the-charts passionate about your vision, that you don't go off the rails in pursuit of it? How do you keep that race car that is your passion on the track? In this week's episode, Warwick and I discuss his latest blog at beyondthecrucible.com titled Why Your Passion Must Serve Your Purpose. We explore seven key truths to help you stay out of the danger zone of your passion ...
Dec 03, 2024•57 min
Building a Resilience Strategy: Dr. Marie-Helene Pelletier Relationships, including with those we call fellow travelers, are critical, we learn in this week's episode, to crafting the resilience we need to move beyond our crucibles. Our guest this week, Dr. Marie-Helene Pelletier, is a pioneer in the field of strategic resilience. Her studies and experience have taught her that thriving through setback and failure is not a trait we manifest innately, but a skill we must build. How do we do it? A...
Nov 26, 2024•52 min
