Beyond the Crucible

Leaning Into Her Own Homelessness to Help Other Women Escape Theirs: Leanna Fairfax Leanna Fairfax, a distant relative of Warwick's, talks about her rough early years – homeless at 15 and off-and-off again through the years after that, in an abusive relationship, plagued by the gnawing feeling that she would always live her life on the margins. But that’s just the start of Leanna Fairfax’s journey...

His Dreams of Being a Doctor Dashed,  He Found a New Calling Running a Physiotherapy Business: Jason T. Smith Jason T Smith 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 pursue...

From a Tin Shed to the United Nations: Stephanie Woollard Not a handout but a hand up. That’s what our guest this week, Stephanie Woollard, just described about how she responded when did when, during a visit to Nepal, she encountered seven women living in a tiny tin shed. They were suffering from physical handicaps and from being marginalized by their society because of those challenges. And...

Stories from the Book Crucible Leadership: Abraham Lincoln on the Character to Build a Team of Rivals The best people possible. That’s who Abraham Lincoln drafted for his Cabinet during the most precipitous time in U.S. history. And most of them weren’t the biggest fans of the country’s 16th president. This week, in the latest episode of our series within the show, STORIES FROM THE BOOK CRUCIBLE L...

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, in the 9th and final episode of our summer series CLASSIC FILMS, CLASSIC CRUCIBLE LESSONS, we di...

Compassion and empathy. Two traits that help elevate Rocky Balboa out of his hardscrabble life as a small-time boxer who will need both his fists of stone and his heart of gold to escape the crucibles that have dogged him most of his life. This week, in the eighth episode of our summer series CLASSIC FILMS, CLASSIC CRUCIBLE LESSONS, we take a look at 1976’s Oscar-winning ROCKY, both written by and...

Courage. It’s indispensable to our pursuit of a life of significance in the wake, and especially in the midst, of a crucible. That’s one of the key truths we unpack in our discussion of THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, the latest movie from the American Film Institute’s Top 100 we discuss in our summer series CLASSIC FILMS, CLASSIC CRUCUBLE LESSONS. The first movie in director Pe...

Classic Films, Classic Crucible Lessons VI: To Kill a Mockingbird  One person doing the right thing. That sums up succinctly TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, the movie we discuss this week on the sixth episode of our summer series, CLASSIC FILMS, CLASSIC CRUCIBLE LESSONS. The person who keeps doing the right thing in this movie the American Film Institute ranked at number 25 on its Top 100 list is Atti...

Helping other people and having a higher purpose. That's a spot-on definition of what a life of significance is all about ... and also what IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE -- the movie we discuss on this week’s episode of our summer series -- is all about. The movie’s become an iconic Christmas tale because, as we discuss here, it shows that when we live our lives guided by our character and values, rather...

This week, we focus our summer-series discussion on the Oscar-winning SCHINDLER'S LIST, No. 8 on the American Film Institute's Top 100 Movies. Specifically, we focus on Oskar Schindler’s journey from an amoral man focused on profiting from World War II and his fellow Nazis’ barbaric treatment of Jews … to a savior of those victimized people. How does he end up there? His compassion and his charact...

SINGIN' IN THE RAIN is one of the most beloved movie musicals of all time, its title song a fabulous exhortation to face crucibles with a happy refrain and a smile on our face. This week, in part three of our summer series CLASSIC FILMS, CLASSIC CRUCIBLE LESSONS, we talk in entertaining depth about the lessons the movie – number 5 on the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 U.S. films – c...

In this week's episode, the second in our summer series CLASSIC FILMS, CLASSIC CRUCIBLE LESSONS, we discuss THE GODFATHER, number 2 on the American Film Institute's Top 100 list. It's a cautionary tale that spotlights how critical it is we live a life guided by beliefs and values rooted in something nobler than our own self-Interests. We zero in on Michael Corleone, the youngest son of the mafia f...

This week we kick off our special nine-week summer series, CLASSIC FILMS, CLASSIC CRUCIBLE LESSONS. We begin our examination of the lessons we can learn from movies on the American Film Institute’s list of the top 100 U.S. films of all time by discussing CITZEN KANE – No. 1 on AFI’s list. Unlike most of the conversations we have on the podcast (and unlike most we’ll have on this series), our look...

A life of significance is not a numbers game. That’s just one of the kernels of wisdom and inspiration you'll hear in this week’s episode, in which he unpacks his new blog at beyondthecrucible.com  – titled Why Your Life of Significance matters. It offers you the hope and insight you need to turn your worst day into your greatest opportunity.   Warwick runs through some things you should...

Our guest this week, Kim Cantin, discusses a tragedy of the deepest sorrow: the 2018 flash floods in Montecito, California, that obliterated her home and took her husband and son from her. Yet the rain and the mud and the devastation could not take her hope.   Cantin was herself injured seriously and her daughter, Lauren, trapped for six hours under the debris. While the body of her husband,...

Winston Churchill was known for many things – always looking for ways to move onward after a trial or challenge chief among them. 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...

Bolstered and resilient. That’s how we all want to feel after we’ve been through a crucible. And this week’s guest, Vanessa Vershaw, is known as the CEO whisperer because she has an impressive track record of helping leaders arrive at that very destination.   In her conversation with Warwick, Vershaw speaks candidly about her own crucibles – some she’s never spoken publicly about before – whi...

A team so connected, so authentic with each other and committed to the leader’s vision – sounds like a great place to work, doesn’t it? Listen to our discussion on this week’s episode that unpacks Warwick’s latest blog.   That blog, HOW TO BUILD A GREAT TEAM, extrapolates lessons learned during a recent team strategy meeting we had in Savannah, Georgia. From our sessions, Warwick discusses th...

A little more hope. That was a lifeline our guest this week, Teri Wellbrock, desperately needed after a soul-crushing series of crucibles that began in childhood. She suffered through the traumas of sexual molestation, rape, bank robberies, the murder of a co-worker, emotional abandonment by an alcoholic parent, physical abuse, poverty and the resulting panic attacks that eventually would lead her...

We hope our series exploring the methodology and the profiles of our Trials to Triumphs Self-Assessment has offered you an exciting opportunity to process the crucible you’ve been through and apply what you learn from reflecting on it toward your unique life of significance.   In this eighth and final episode of the series, we revisit the three big takeaways our...

An exciting opportunity. That may not seem like an apt description for In a Mad Dash, the profile we discuss this week on the seventh episode of our series unpacking our Trials to Triumphs Self-Assessment. But stay tuned – we think you’ll be surprised, encouraged and equipped.   People whose assessment results return this profile are high performers who’ve had a crucible and se...

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 be...

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. Th...

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 y...

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 a...