Beyond the Crucible

Life can be better. That’s the cry of the heart and the hope of the spirit for those who take our Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment and get as their result the profile of On A Different Track, the subject we discuss this week on the latest episode of our spring series.   Those who find themselves On A Different Track make up the 28 percent of people who have taken the assessment who don’t believe they’ve had a crucible that has changed the trajectory of their life. But as we unpack here, when they reflect at a deeper level on their lives, they realize there is a gnawing sense of “Is this all there is?”   They may look happy and successful on the outside, but there remains some inner turmoil they haven’t dealt with that’s keeping them from achieving their unique life of significance.   But here’s the good news: as we explore here, just taking a small step in the direction of what truly brings you joy, even if you’ve never dared to do more than dream about it, can move you beyond “Is this all there is?” to “This is all I’ve ever wanted.”   To take the Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment and discover your own "you are here" mark on your roadmap to a life of significance, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com

A really hopeful place to be. Maybe you’ll be surprised to learn that the profile from our Trials to Triumphs Self-Assessment we’re describing is the one we call Afraid to Trip. What’s hopeful about that?   You’ll learn the answer to that question in this week’s episode as we discuss how those who receive this result are closer to living their life of significance than they likely realize. They’ve processed their crucible, they have a vision they’d like to pursue … but they’re wrestling with emotions that are keeping them from moving forward.   But if they tap into the safety, encouragement and support that can come from others and from shifting their self-talk and the worries and fears that guide it, the obstacles they’re worried about stumbling over can change from virtual boulders that seem insurmountable into pebbles they can’t even see.   To take the Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment and discover your own "you are here" mark on your roadmap to a life of significance, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com

Not filling your bucket but draining it. That’s what it can feel like if you find yourself living the profile of Running in Place from our Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment.   This week, in our fourth episode of our spring series unpacking what your assessment results can teach you about where you are on your journey of moving beyond your crucible, we examine this unique situation in which you find yourself with a vision in your mind you can’t seem to get started pursuing.   The good news is, we also offer you insight and action steps on how you can get off the treadmill – move past living in the gray and feeling like “OK” is about the best you’ll ever feel – and start truly moving forward to a full-technicolor life of significance.   To take the Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment and discover your own "you are here" mark on your roadmap to a life of significance, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com

Not able to get ahead. That feeling is one of the hallmarks of being Stuck at the Starting Line, the profile from our Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment we discuss on today’s show. But fear not: While feeling stuck after a crucible is normal, it does not have to be forever. In this third episode of our series delving into our statistically valid self-assessment, we not only explain what it looks and feels like to be stuck at the starting line, but how to get yourself unstuck. A critical aspect of breaking free is mustering the wherewithal to make a mindset shift that allows you to see your crucible not as something that happened to you, but something that happened for you.  And then, with that perspective in hand, setting a course for your unique vision for a life of significance.   To take the Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment and discover your own "you are here" mark on your roadmap to a life of significance, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com

Living as your best self. Pursuing your vision. Fulfilled by your life of significance. If so, we’ve got good news for you. Just keep listening. Does that sound like a place in which you’d like to stand?    This week, in the second episode of our spring series exploring our Trials-to-Triumphs self-assessment, we begin examining the assessment’s unique profiles by starting with the end in mind. So the first one we unpack here is Hitting Your Stride.  But listen closely.  Even if you are Hitting Your Stride, there is still more to do and crucibles have a habit of appearing when you least expect it.   It’s our way of casting a vision for the goal of the race we’re all running as we look to bounce forward from our crucible experiences. No matter where your “you are here” mark falls on the map, you can get to Hitting Your Stride.  Stick with us … and we’ll help you get there.   To take the Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment and discover your own "you are here" mark on your roadmap to a life of significance, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com

Could we really prove it? The stages and the process we go through – each of us individually – after we’ve been through a crucible … and then chart our way beyond it? The answer? Absolutely. As you’re about to discover in our spring series that begins this week on how we built and how you can benefit from our Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment.   In this first episode of our eight part series, we’ll explain how and why we created a statistically valid survey and the surprising – sometimes shocking, even – things it told us about how we experience crucibles and chart our own unique course to a life of significance after them.   So get ready: You’re about to better understand how your setbacks and failures have affected you … and how you can move on from those trials to experience life-changing triumphs.   To take the Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment, visit www.crucibleleadership.com. You'll get your results immediately and be able to better dig into your unique results as our series unfolds.

Someone you admire. Someone who knows more than you about your job or about the lifestyle you want to live. Someone who shares your values. People like that are the ones you should be on the lookout for in selecting a mentor.   On this week’s episode, we discuss Warwick's latest blog at BeyondTheCrucible.com, titled “How To Find the Right Mentor.” Among the seven tips he offers to assist us in securing a helpful mentor are to make sure we’re ready for one, find one who will make us do the work rather than do it for us and be on the lookout for someone who is a great listener and asks great questions.   “Mentors are there to assist us and help us," he says. "Not to fix us."   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Lion Goodman recounts his harrowing experience of being shot twice (two other bullets narrowly missed him) by a man whose car broke down in the middle of the Mojave Desert to whom he was being a good Samaritan – and the hours of discussion that he engaged in with his attacker, finally, miraculously convincing the gunman to let him go.   The incident, he tells Warwick, set him on the path to becoming a coach helping clients eliminate negative and limiting beliefs, resolve childhood wounds and delete traumatic memories at their source.   Today he’s CEO of the Clear Beliefs Institute, dedicated to awakening, healing, and enlightening humanity so we can get on with the job of being fully human, working in collaboration to create a world that works for everyone.   To learn more about Lion Goodman and his work, visit www.liongoodman.com   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance asseo2ssment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

The horrors our guest this week, Amanda Blackwood, endured almost from birth are hard to hear. Decades of physical, emotional and sexual abuse … but heartache was not the end of her story. Healing was.   Our interview with Blackwood, by necessity, covers the traumas she experienced being sex-trafficked on more than one occasion. But make no mistake about it: Amanda Blackwood may have been victimized, but she has emerged as anything but a victim. She fought for freedom from the demons of her past, assisted by therapy and her faith, to emerge as an author, artist and public speaker who offers hope to women who’ve been wounded by the same devastating crucibles.   “The first time I got up on a stage I had a speaking voice like a mouse,” she says. “But I found there was a lion in my lungs.”    To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Character. Discipline. Overcoming a natural weakness like impatience. These are critical characteristics for leaders, and for bouncing back from a crucible, and we explore this week how George Washington modeled them. It’s our focus on this fifth episode of our series within the show, STORIES FROM THE BOOK CRUCIBLE LEADERSHIP.   Warwick discusses his appreciation of and respect for Washington as a man of inviolable character who walked away from power after winning the American Revolution even when many clamored for him to keep it as long as he wanted it and America needed it.   He also examines Washington's rare gift for listening, not just hearing but heeding his advisors at a key point in the war when he wanted his army to attack the British but those who counseled him urged restraint. The advisors proved right, and Washington proved his greatness.   It's a greatness we all can lean into by modeling America’s founding father, Warwick says, even though our vision will almost certainly be different than winning a nation its independence.   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance asseo2ssment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

This week, we commemorate our 200th episode by revisiting three moments from past shows that moved Warwick and have shaped the kind of podcast we have now. You’ll discover how crucibles can often be vastly different in details but so similar to be almost identical in emotion; the power of being able to find gratitude in your traumas and tragedies; and how mindset and perseverance can be your superpowers in turning what’s been broken into breakthrough.   The basic truth we aim to unpack here? As Warwick says: "We can learn something not just from everybody’s crucibles, but from how they navigate their journey back."   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

This week, we discuss Warwick's latest blog, “Seven Ways to Live By Your Passions, Not Others’ Expectations.” In the piece, and on this episode, he unpacks key building blocks to develop and deploy a vision for a life of significance that you, not your friends or family, are uniquely off-the-charts passionate about.   What's a stake if we pursue what pleases others, not what ignites our spirits? Warwick says it can be "soul-destroying." Not just hard. Not just unfulfilling. Not just feeling trapped. But having your dreams and passions, the essence of who we are, obliterated.    The bookend exhortations we discuss are “Remember, it’s your life!” and “Do something!” In between, you’ll discover what you need to know -- and do – to avoid living, as Warwick puts it, “A dreary black and white life of obligation and people pleasing.”   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance asseo2ssment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Brad Jeffery was visiting a Kenyan slum on a business trip focused on finding ways to financially help those who lived there when he found himself asking questions about what it would really take to help the impoverished, endangered women he talked with. Just giving them money, he determined, would not solve their dire situation.   So he founded Made Free, an apparel accessories brand that competes on the world stage in design and quality while serving as a vehicle for consumers to help create sustainable change through dignified work and livable wages.   Every purchase supports a day of freedom from human trafficking and poverty … and moves Jeffery further beyond his crucible of feeling that his life – running a successful family business founded by his great-grandfather – lacked the significance to leave a legacy that truly helped others.     To learn more about Made Free, visit www.madefree.co   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com

Trusting ourselves and our vision, especially when naysayers offer all sorts of reasons designed to dissuade us from pursuing it, is a necessity in our journey to a life of significance.   This week, in the latest episode of our series within the show, Stories from the Book Crucible Leadership, we discuss how Walt Disney did just that, not letting the doubts of others or the crucibles he encountered stop him from pursuing his dreams. Disney refused to let his vision get derailed – and it resulted in seismic changes in entertainment and culture across the globe.   From bouncing forward after being swindled out of his first comic creation, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, to envisioning a family-friendly theme park at a time when such places were seedy and suspect – leading to the creation of Disneyland – Walt Disney was, as Warwick says, never one to give up.   That’s why we’d all do well to summon the same determination in bringing our own visions to reality.   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Turning tragedy into triumph. You’ve heard us use those words scores of times, because we know, from experience, that it’s not only possible to turn what’s broken into breakthrough – but that brokenness is often a key ingredient of the breakthrough.   This week's guest, Tyler Sexton, has cerebral palsy, a condition that has forced him to endure 18 surgeries and decades of insults and being regarded as incapable of doing much with his life. Well, Dr. Tyler Sexton has proven the taunters and doubters wrong.   He's become a pediatrician who can connect with the children he treats because of his crucibles – using his skills and experience to not just treat their bodies, but to plant hope in their spirits.   The philosophy he’s lived by and encourages others to adopt is rooted in what he’s discovered is a life-changing truth: “There’s always something to be thankful for.”   To learn more about Tyler Sexton and his book, No Such Thing As Can't, visit www.tylersexton.com   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Original air date: June 20, 2023 Janine Shepherd was on track to represent her home nation of Australia in the Olympics as a cross-country skier – but then her dream, quite literally, crashed when she was hit by a utility truck while on a bicycle training exercise with her teammates. She came out the other side of that horrific accident and the 6 months of arduous recovery that followed to discover she was a paraplegic. But as she explains to Warwick, her identity as “Janine the Machine,” the elite athlete, was not to be her destiny. She had another calling, learning to fly and training others to be pilots, and inspiring multitudes who have suffered tragedies and trials to embrace loss as their lives’ greatest teacher. An in-demand speaker whose Ted talk was been viewed more than 2 million times, Shepherd calls herself “a mirror to help people see their own defiant spirits." Her guiding philosophy? “Nothing comes easy, and if it did, it wouldn’t be worth having.” To learn more about Janine Shepherd, visit www.janineshepherd.com To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Original air date: May 9, 2023 Lauren Sisler was a freshman at Rutgers University when learned she had lost her father just hours after she had lost her mother. Having come home to grieve one parent, she was blindsided by the news that the other had died, too. And she had no idea how any of it had happened We speak with Sisler about that 2003 tragedy, when she was not only hit with the unfathomable news of the deaths of her mom and dad, but the shame she couldn’t shake after she learned how they died: from prescription-drug overdoses. It would take her years to break free from what she calls the shackles of that shame, keeping the truth to herself even as she launched a successful career as a sideline reporter for college football and gymnastics on ESPN and the SEC Network. But as she began to share the true story of her parents’ deaths, she discovered she could transfer the hope and healing she experienced in facing those hard truths to the audiences that heard her speaking them. To learn more about Lauren Sisler, visit www.laurensisler.com To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

The way of others before self. The path lined with humility, authenticity and selflessness. That's the road we discuss this week in our latest episode of the Series Within the Show, Stories from the Book Crucible Leadership.   The historical figure we discuss here is Jesus – specifically His example of servant leadership and His exhortation for us to do as He did. Our conversation is designed to encourage you to think and act counter-culturally: leading in your workplace, your community, as a parent … in a way that makes the needs and wellbeing of others your highest priority.   Why is that not only a noble goal, but a wise one, to aim for? As Warwick says, “Joy and fulfillment come when you’re serving other people, living with some other-centered purpose.”   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Misaligned, misguided identity is one of the greatest tripwires to our crucible experiences. Placing our worth in other people’s perceptions of us – based not on our true inner selves – is a recipe for struggle and setback.   This week, we talk with former NFL quarterback Jeff Kemp, author of the new book, Receive: The Way of Jesus for Men. He stresses the necessity for men to build deep and meaningful friendships with each other in which they share the most intimate and important details of their lives. Because in doing so they will be all that God created them to be … in the areas that truly matter.   And Kemp doesn’t sugarcoat how challenging forging such relationships can be. You’ll be floored when he talks about just how high the percentage is of men who don’t have a close and trusted friend they can share anything with on any topic. The insights he shares here are aimed at lowering that number considerably.   To learn more about Jeff Kemp and to download his free Level-5 Friendship Playbook, visit www.jeffkempteam.com/men-huddle/   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

A parent’s worst nightmare. That’s what Gerard Long and his wife, Jeannie, endured in 2005 when their son, Alex, committed suicide. And, inconceivably, it wouldn’t be their last nightmare. Their daughter, Rebecca, was killed in an accident in 2014.   How did the Longs bounce back from their pair of life-shattering crucibles? Not quickly. And not easily. The trauma of the events nearly ripped their marriage in two, but as Gerard tells Warwick, they both found their way back to their faith – which not only helped them make sense of the tragedies, but create a life of greater significance and impact in their aftermath.   Out of their pain the Longs created Awakened to God Ministries, where they carry out a mission close to their now-healed hearts: Showing others who’ve suffered hard times and loss that God can take the worst things that happen to us turn them for good.   As Gerard explains, “Everything that God permits us to go through in our lives is preparation for what He’s got for us later on.”   To learn more about Gerard Long, visit www.awakeningtogod.org   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Conflicting. Confounding. Confusing. Did you feel any of those emotions when gathering with family and friends over Thanksgiving? If so, we’ve got the antidote for turning those difficult feelings into warm memories.   This week, Warwick discussed his latest blog at Beyond the Crucible.com, “Not Feeling Thankful? These Seven Tips Can Get You in the Holiday Spirit.” We recorded this episode before Thanksgiving (the blog had already been posted) knowing you wouldn’t hear it until after Thanksgiving. Why? Because the tips we discuss to truly celebrate Thanksgiving with a capital T will equip you for day-to-day thanksgiving with a lower-case t.   The key points touched on here – which include ALLOW YOURSELF TO REFLECT, CRAFT A MISSION FROM THANKFULNESS and BE PRESENT -- will serve you and your relationships the other 364 days of the year that aren’t the fourth Thursday in November. And remember – Christmas is coming.   What’s the ultimate takeaway here? As Warwick says, “It’s a lot easier being thankful when you’re serving a mission beyond yourself.”   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Doug Fleener, had been living without serenity, joy or purpose since the vise grip of addiction started closing around him when he was just 12 years old. The lowest point came decades later, when he woke up hung over in an airplane that had just landed, unsure how he got there – or how the large sum of cash in his pocket got there.   Fleener shares not only how he got clean from drugs and alcohol, but how he rebuilt his personal and professional lives by applying the lessons and practices he learned in recovery to his day-to-day existence. He’s compiled those insights into his book The Day Makes the Year (Makes a Life): Transform Your Work and Life with One-Day Success.   The key principle that undergirds it all? “You can’t change something you don’t own.”   For more information about Doug Fleener and his book, visit www.dougfleener.com   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

It can be a difficult, even scary journey when we set out to accomplish a challenging and noble goal. But that did not stop William Wilberforce, the British politician in the late 1700s and 1800s who fought for years to end the slave trade in his nation.   Wilberforce is the subject of our latest episode of the series within the show STORIES FROM THE BOOK CRUCIBLE LEADERSHIP, Warwick’s Wall Street Journal best-seller. What we unpack in our discussion are the ways in which Wilberforce modeled self-sacrifice – the commitment to a cause greater than ourselves – and in doing so changed the trajectory of humankind.   Trafficking in slaves, and eventually the institution of slavery itself, were ended because Wilberforce cared more about following his convictions than attaining higher office. As Warwick says, “He sacrificed his career, his self-interest, for a higher purpose.”   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Image. Identity. Success. Failure. Topics you’ve heard us discuss often on the show. And topics that this week’s guest, Dr. Glenn Williams, covers in discussing his new book, WHEN LEADERS ARE LOST.   Williams talks in detail about what he’s learned about feeling lost from his professional setbacks and the personal tragedy of losing his son, as well as insights he's gleaned as an executive coach. He unpacks how not to lose sight of our goals or give up on them when disappointment, failure, and hurt hit us head on.   Applying the truth that crucibles and our reactions to them serve only as a detour and not a hard stop, he says, is the way forward to a new and joy-filled life.   To learn more about Glenn Williams and his book, When Leaders Are Lost, visit www.lcp-global.com   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com

This week, we discuss Warwick's latest blog at BeyondTheCrucible.com. That piece, and the discussion we have here about it, is designed to show you that if you think your vision is too small, you’re not giving yourself, or that vision, enough credit.   We explore seven truths that can change that perspective: from realizing you’re not in a vision competition with anyone else to focusing on what’s on your heart, from connecting your vision to who you fundamentally are and what you’re passionate about, to believing unwaveringly that one life changed is enough, you’ll learn valuable insights and action steps to help ensure your vision is one you are proud of.   And you’ll also learn why what Warwick says is true: Your vision has to come from deep within.   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

"I'm guilty" is not something you hear from the mouths of those who work in politics very often. But Tim Goeglein mustered the courage and character to say them … and that rare immediate honesty taught him valuable lessons to move beyond his self-inflicted crucible.   In his interview with Warwick, Goeglein confesses how he on several occasions plagiarized the work of others for a column he wrote for his hometown newspaper while he was serving as a special assistant to President George W. Bush.   You hear us talk often on the show about how forgiveness – from others and to ourselves – is a critical step to turning what’s been broken into breakthrough. You’ll want to listen to Goeglein recount how the Leader of the Free World forgave him for his actions and the bad press they caused the White House.   Goeglein has continued to live a life of significance, serving as the D.C.-based vice president of external relations for the Christian nonprofit Focus on the Family.   His top takeaway from his journey? “Failure reintroduces you to yourself.” To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

This week we kick off what we’re calling a series within the show, which we’ve named Stories from the Book Crucible Leadership. That’s Warwick’s Wall Street Journal bestseller, filled with examples of how historical figures and his family members weathered their crucibles to lead lives of significance – and the character traits that led them to do it.   Our first discussion is on John Fairfax because there would be no Beyond the Crucible without John Fairfax. We unpack some lessons in forgiveness that were essential not just to the media dynasty Warwick’s great great grandfather built, but the legacy he passed on to his descendants. A legacy that can help you through your own crucible today.   As Warwick says of his forefather, “It’s hard to fault somebody that overdoes character, that overdoes forgiveness.”     To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Losing millions of dollars -- twice -- was not the hardest crucible Ken Eslick has had to face. The most challenging thing about moving beyond those setbacks was decoupling his identity from the number of zeroes on his balance sheet. Describing himself as someone who was good at making money but not at keeping it, he needed to change the story he had told himself about himself since he was a teenager. We talk with Eslick this week about how he bounced back from his financial failures, and also how he overcame a drinking problem that cost him his job. Those challenging journeys helped him craft a new narrative for his life and career, one that’s led him to found The Leaders Lab, an executive search firm that’s placed more than 500 executives.  He’s also the host of the popular Leaders Lab Podcast. To learn more about Ken Eslick, visit www.theleaderslab.co  To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

We have a confession to make: When we sit down to interview a guest about how he or she has moved beyond a crucible, we assume – subconsciously we’ve come to realize – that you’re listening because you’ve struggled through a crucible too … or maybe find yourself smack in the middle of one.    But our own research tells us that that might not be the case.  Our study found that 72 percent of those we surveyed have “experienced an event so traumatic or painful that it that it fundamentally altered the course” of their lives. That’s a big number, but it leaves 28 percent – more than one in four – who don’t believe they’ve had such an experience. If that’s you, this episode is for you.  We talk this week about three ways you – or someone close to you – can ask the right questions and prompt the proper thoughts to determine if you have, indeed, suffered a crucible experience. We do it not to push you in to what we call the pit, but to help you realize if you’re already in it so you can begin your journey out of it.  To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]  

The COVID 19 pandemic cost many of us many things. It cost this week's guest, Katie Jesionowski, the children's superfoods business she'd spent more than a decade building -- just as it was poised to really take off. But from the ashes of that crucible, she has been able to build a new, equally rewarding life of significance.   Jesionowski explains how both the tragedies and the triumphs of her failed startup have proven invaluable to her new career as chief marketing officer of Total Family Management. The company brings the best aspects of personal and business life coaching to the entire family unit, helping the building block of society build a clearer shared future of joy.   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

In this final episode of our special summer series, CRUCIBLE HACKS, we offer you some “assembly instructions” for how you can take what you’ve learned in the previous nine episodes and get to work on turning what’s been broken into breakthrough. While the vision for a life of significance you bring to reality will look different for each one of you, the process of making it all happen centers on one key truth. As Warwick says, “When we use our pain in the service of others it does give our life purpose.” To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]  

Reality. Moving from a vision in your mind to action in your life. That’s been the journey we’ve been taking you on in our special summer series, CRUCIBLE HACKS. In this final episode exploring the hacks that will help you move from setback to significance, we offer up a pair to clear the runway for you to launch your unique vision into reality. One’s called The First Steps, the other’s called Overcome Your Fears. Taken in tandem, they cover the ground Warwick talks about when he says: “Making a vision become reality can feel like a daunting task. But the key is taking one small step.” To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]  

We say often here that moving beyond your crucible is a team sport, and the team we’re helping you build on this episode of our summer series, CRUCIBLE HACKS, is what we call your fellow travelers. Without them, your pursuit of a vision that will lead you to a life of significance is far more difficult – if not completely unlikely. The hacks we offer this week focus on helping you identify the two most valuable types of fellow travelers – encouragers and complementors: that’s complementors with an e, not an I  -- people you trust who have different skills and perspectives than you do.   Both types of people are critical to you turning your tragedy into triumph. Because, as Warwick says here, “Asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness.” To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]  

A world of what could be or needs to be. That’s the stuff of vision. And looking to films that resonate with you to find the seeds of your own unique vision is one of the hacks we offer in this week’s episode of our special summer series, CRUCIBLE HACKS. In this seventh episode of the series, all about the development of vision, our second hack takes you through several questions to help you in crafting a vision you can live out with gusto. And remember as you try your hand at these hacks, as Warwick says during our chat, “What moves us is often what motivates us.” To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]  

The real you. We’ve spent the last few weeks helping you discover who that is – now we shift our attention to the importance of making sure you live in light of what you’ve learned. That you resist the temptation to don a mask and instead show the world the authentic you. In this sixth episode of our special summer series, CRUCIBLE HACKS, we offer a pair of ways you can help ensure you’re living authentically. We call them "Anchors Aweigh" and "Forgive, Forgive, Forgive." They’ll help you as you continue to journey past what’s been broken in your life and toward the breakthrough that’s waiting for you. Wearing a mask will not help you reach that destination because, as we say in this episode, “There are no alter egos in a life of significance.” To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visitwww.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]  

Once you've identified your beliefs and values and your passions, the next step to crafting and executing a vision that's unique to you is coming to a deeper understanding of your talents.  Our hacks this week, "Look to the Past to Forge the Future" and "Words Matter," are all about identifying where your gifts lie, because knowing what you’re good at, and what you’re not good at, is a critical step to moving beyond your crucible and into a life of significance – where you can apply those talents in to others. To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Excavation. Digging deep to discover what you’re truly off-the-charts passionate about. That’s the focus of this episode of our special summer series, CRUCIBLE HACKS. As we continue our step-by-step journey through the Beyond the Crucible Refining Process, we offer you three hacks to help you unearth the passions that will guide you along your pursuit of a life of significance. We call them “Redeem the Pain,” “Meet the Younger You” and “Call in Reinforcements.” Each one will bring clarity to what you care most about. “Passion,” Warwick says, “is what fuels us to move forward, to get beyond the ashes of our crucible and to use our pain for a purpose.” To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Beliefs and values … two connected building blocks of the road that leads you to a life of significance. But how do you know what yours are -- and how do you make sure they line up with each other? That’s the focus of this third episode of our special summer series, CRUCIBLE HACKS. Warwick and Gary offer you a pair of hacks this week – one to help you identify your beliefs, called Be the Change. And one to help you bring those beliefs to bear on your day-to-day life, which we’ve whimsically called Know Thyself, By George after George Harrison of the Beatles.  Why? Press play..   As you do, you’ll keep gaining insights into building the road to your life of significance. To use the values worksheet discussed in this episode: Direct landing page for download form: https://beyondthecrucible.com/values-worksheet/ Free resources page on website: https://beyondthecrucible.com/resources/ To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Finding the healing in heartache and hard times is not easy -- but it is an absolutely indispensable step we all must take to recover from a crucible experience.   This week, in episode 2 of our special summer series CRUCIBLE HACKS, Warwick and Gary share how you can understand how you were refined by the challenges you’ve faced. They share two hacks that will help you find beauty from the ashes of those setbacks and failures. One involves facing the demons of what went wrong and finding a way to turn them into angels; the other is creating a 3 by 5 card – that is, jotting down three to 5 lessons your trauma or tragedy taught you – and even looking for blessings attached to those lessons.   The bottom line: “In order to reframe,” as Warwick says, “you’ve got to do the inner work.”   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

This week, we launch our special summer series, CRUCIBLE HACKS. Each of the 10 episodes focuses on fresh insights to guide you along your journey from tragedy to triumph.   We start with the end in mind -- significance. What does it mean to live a life of significance … and how do you get there? That’s where our hacks come in: We'll walk you through a pair of them: Emulate it Till You Make it and Doing a Life 360.   The idea behind it all is to equip you with new tools to live out what we call the Beyond the Crucible Refining Process as you do what this podcast is all about – moving beyond your crucible.   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Mission drift may come on slowly, imperceptibly even, but its impact is like death from a thousand cuts. What can it kill? Your purpose. This week, we walk you step by step through our latest blog, 7 Ways to Realign With Your True Purpose. It all starts with understanding that purpose … and along the way we talk at length about how to know if you’ve drifted off mission, what you can do to right the ship if you have and how fellow travelers can help keep you sailing in a straight line. Warwick also explains the critical difference between mission drift and mission evolution – the latter is a good thing – and what role giving yourself grace plays in finding your true north again if you’ve veered away from it. “Living outside your true purpose is not fun,” Warwick says, but it’s also not irreversible.   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

We’ve heard some remarkable stories on this podcast, but Alice Tsang’s is one of the most remarkable … and triumphant. That's because from the crucible of abject poverty that saw her sharing a tiny apartment with more than a dozen others, needing the quarter a day her uncle could spare that allowed her to eat lunch at high school, she gained an unlikely education that she’s put two use in a pair of successful careers – first as a successful fixed-income analyst on Wall Street and now as a college finance professor.   Warwick talks with Tsang this week about what her hardscrabble upbringing in Hong Kong taught her about what’s truly important in life … lessons she now aims to teach her students so they understand how to cope with and overcome the challenges they will inevitably face.   “We do not have the ability to be perfect,” she says. “But we can control how much effort we put into a better future for ourselves.”   For more information about Alice Tsang, visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/alice-tsang-a3236190/   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Janine Shepherd was on track to represent her home nation of Australia in the Olympics as a cross-country skier – but then her dream, quite literally, crashed when she was hit by a utility truck while on a bicycle training exercise with her teammates. She came out the other side of that horrific accident and the 6 months of arduous recovery that followed to discover she was a paraplegic. But as she explains to Warwick, her identity as “Janine the Machine,” the elite athlete, was not to be her destiny. She had another calling, learning to fly and training others to be pilots, and inspiring multitudes who have suffered tragedies and trials to embrace loss as their lives’ greatest teacher. An in-demand speaker whose Ted talk was been viewed more than 2 million times, Shepherd calls herself “a mirror to help people see their own defiant spirits." Her guiding philosophy? “Nothing comes easy, and if it did, it wouldn’t be worth having.” To learn more about Janine Shepherd, visit www.janineshepherd.com To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

A violent altercation in which her enraged husband choked her was the last straw for Victoria McCooey. It left her 6-year-old son, who was in the room at the time, thinking she had been killed. But it also started her down a path of self-discovery and self-care.   On this week’s episode, McCooey tells Warwick in detail the toll that being married to a narcissist had on her identity … as his controlling ways left her feeling unworthy and ashamed. But she also describes how she fought her way back to not only find her value, but to help other abused women find theirs – first through the same nonprofit that aided her and now as a narcissist divorce coach.   She teaches her clients the Reclaim Your Power System she created initially for herself … to help them find the same freedom she’s living today.   To learn more about Victoria McCooey, visit www.victoriamccooey.com   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Dr. Erica Harris endured a cavalcade of crucibles – starting with being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and given just two months to live after her body did not respond to chemotherapy treatments. But then, miraculously she believes, she went into remission in time to receive a bone-marrow transplant that put her on the road to recovery … only to find herself in the direst of straits again when her new immune system rejected her lungs and her life was hanging by a thread of hope.   In this week’s episode, Harris explains every harrowing detail of her years-long up-and-down medical crises – finally set on a more stable path when she received a double lung transplant. Along that journey, she explains, she learned the important difference between toxic positivity and genuine positivity and discovered that the key to her recovery was a mindset shift.   “I have lived a million more lifetimes than I could have if I never had cancer,” she says today – and now shares the lessons her journey has taught her as a speaker and coach who encourages others through her true wellness platform, Rise Today. To learn more about Dr. Erica Harris, visit www.risetoday.com To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Using our worst days to help others have their best days. That’s the undergirding philosophy, the bedrock exhortation, of BEYOND THE CRUCIBLE. And we explore it on this week’s episode in detail so that you can apply the lessons we've learned to turn your own trials into triumphs. Warwick and I take a tour of those learnings, ground also covered in the new blog at BeyondTheCucible.com, 3 Critical Lessons All 5 Crucible Types Can Teach Us. We’ve discovered and keep discovering with each new guest we interview that while crucible experiences vary greatly in their circumstances, they come with many similar emotions, whether it’s a business crucible or a physical crucible, an emotional crucible or a Life crucible – or even the quiet crucible marked by feeling stuck and wondering “Is This All There is?” And those three important truths that help you navigate your way up from and out of the pit? Realizing that mindset is everything; not going it alone; and taking the first right step, then the next right step. Putting those truths together is the key to being able to consider your crucible not as something that happened to you, but as something that happened for you. To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Helping people develop a right relationship with money, particularly the younger generations in families of wealth and influence, is the unique focus of the work done by this week’s guest, Kristin Keffeler. As a leading practitioner of family wealth advising called Wealth 360, she supports families of significant means in doing what she calls the “inner work” of money. It’s not just about managing portfolios, but developing a healthy life identity around the dollar signs.   This may be the most personal episode we’ve yet done from Warwick’s perspective, given his history as the 5th generation heir to a multibillion-dollar media dynasty in his home nation of Australia. The ground he and Keffeler cover here not only offers insights and action steps for families like the one Warwick was born into, but to any family that can benefit from shoring up its relationship to money and their relationships to each other.   At the root of finding that health, Keffeler explains, is understanding that the formation of personal identity separate from the numbers on a balance sheet is an important destination all of us must find our way to.   To learn more about Kristin Keffeler and her work, visit www.illumination360.com   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Lauren Sisler was a freshman at Rutgers University when learned she had lost her father just hours after she had lost her mother. Having come home to grieve one parent, she was blindsided by the news that the other had died, too. And she had no idea how any of it had happened   This week, we speak with Sisler about that 2003 tragedy, when she was not only hit with the unfathomable news of the deaths of her mom and dad, but the shame she couldn’t shake after she learned how they died: from prescription-drug overdoses.   It would take her years to break free from what she calls the shackles of that shame, keeping the truth to herself even as she launched a successful career as a sideline reporter for college football and gymnastics on ESPN and the SEC Network. But as she began to share the true story of her parents’ deaths, she discovered she could transfer the hope and healing she experienced in facing those hard truths to the audiences that heard her speaking them.   To learn more about Lauren Sisler, visit www.laurensisler.com   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

A new day. The sun will come up. Hope. Things will get better. These are beliefs and emotions we all long to experience when we’ve been through a crucible. It’s not easy to get there, but in this episode we aim to help you move in that direction. Warwick discusses in detail his new blog at BeyondTheCrucible.com about the four things he wishes he'd known when he went through his darkest time … to help you get through yours. You’ll learn that it’s OK to give yourself permission to grieve, that feeling broken doesn’t mean you’re worthless, that you're not defined by your worst day and that a small step can be a defining moment in your life of significance. The upshot of it all: The bottom of the pit, where so many of us find ourselves after setback and failure find us, does not have to be our permanent address. To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Adam Vibe Gunton shares in harrowing detail how his life went from him being a “golden boy,” the star of every sports team he played on, to a tragic descent into darkness and dependence on heroin and prescription painkillers – set into motion by being introduced to cocaine at 12 and worsened when he blamed himself for a friend’s suicide.   He wanted to die … until the rekindling of his faith in a miraculous way set him first on the road to sobriety … and then to significance. He founded Recovered on Purpose, a nonprofit that helps men and women in recovery tell their stories in ways that help others find sobriety, too. Just five years clean, he’s helped more than 1,000 people overcome their addictions … and has big plans for even more wide-ranging impact.   To learn more about Adam Vibe Gunton and Recovered On Purpose, visit www.recoveredonpurpose.org   To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com   Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at [email protected]