Chiseled - We're all a work in progress - with Rob Commodari

Many of you have been listening to Chiseled since I started podcasting in 2021. I love interviewing new people and hearing what they have to say. I hope you have found some useful insights from my guests on personal and professional growth. Most of all, I hope the podcast has entertained you. Turns out podcasting has brought me closer to an already strongband of brothers. In this week's Chiseled,...

When Chad Kneller was in his 20s, he “was all about sex, drugs, and rock and roll.” Laser-focused on being a singer in a rock band, Kneller figured life ends at age 27, just as it did for a host of famous musicians who burned hot and diedyoung. Through the lens of that existentialism, Chad drank too much, partied too hard, and ignored basic rules of society. Eventually, the warrants piled up and C...

Fazeena Haniff was just seven years old when she witnessed her three-year-old cousin killed by a drunk driver. Visiting family in New York City for her birthday, she ended up attending a funeral instead of a celebration. The pain of the event was immediately suppressed in a family that tended to hide its emotions, so Fazeena never got to process the guilty feeling that she was to blame for the acc...

Will Heaven be boring? During a trip to the Grand Canyon a couple years ago, I looked out at the vastness of it all and thought, if this is Heaven, I can't wait. One step closer to the edge and I may have found it. But I'm not ready yet. I have a lot of life left in me, plus I really don't know what I'm going to do with myself when I get there. Apparently, I'm not the only one. Many years ago, D....

Growing up in a "poor family" with "a lot of violence, drugs and alcohol in the house," Ken was a succesful entrepreneur from a young age, having started working at 8 years old. But by time he was 34, his success could not keep him from hitting rock bottom. "I had no business trying to run a business of any kind in the state of mind that I was in constantly, which was drunken at all times," he sai...

Justin Breen was an enterprising journalist in a Midwest media market when his bosses started slashing staff salaries in 2017. With a wife and two young children, Justin knew it was time to take his next step. It wasn't nearly as challenging for Justin as you'd think it might be. Tapping into his visionary mindset, Justin reached out to his 5,000-plus social media fanbase. Just six weeks later, he...

For Amy Somerville, life happens in the transitions. Amy was in the real estate business for 18 years with RE/MAX — as a realtor, broker, team leader, franchise consultant, and coach. She readily admits that throughout it all, she was not a public speaker. But after nearly two decades in business, Amy needed to help her young family transition to the next stage of their lives. She chose to "take o...

My guest this week, Dr. Robb Kelly, grew up in the projects of Manchester, England. Blessed with musical talent, he was performing on stage by the time he was 9 years old.  The music career led him to college, and even to a job as a session musician at the famous Abbey Roads Studio in London, but it also led him to drink. While he was able to get his PhD in psychology at University of Oxford, his...

At a tender age, Craig Moody moved with hisfamily to a new town. His educator mother and a businessman father wanted the best for their son, but while going to stay with family friends during thetransition, Craig felt unwelcome and unliked. Later, at school, he was bullied and had trouble making friends despite his best efforts. Flash forward two decades and Craig was stillfeeling uprooted. With n...

Chiseled Ep 79 A Conversation with God - Jamie Krakofsky You would never know it talking to mild-mannered Jamie Krakofsky that he grew up a hard partier in Ft. Lauderdale. Immersed in drugs, alcohol, women, and gangviolence, he was thrown out of his dad's house at age 17. He tried living on his own but couldn't keep a job or an apartment. Exasperated, his mom challenged him to change his life. She...

Lancaster, Pennsylvania-native Dan Armstrong was born with a cleft palate, a congenital abnormality during fetal development that leaves a hole in the roof of the mouth. While today this is frequently surgically fixed during infancy, Dan, 60, had a prosthesis put in his mouth to enable him to speak. As you can imagine, as a result of this condition, he was mercilessly bullied by neighborhood kids...

When COVID-19 hit, Laura Di Franco immediately had to shut down her physical therapy business. She took that opportunity to focus on another project she had beenworking on since 2015 — Brave Healing Productions, a publishing company for health practitioners who use holistic approaches to physical healing. It was a leap of faith that Laura didn't mind taking because she already had a highly develop...

Marvin Phillip grew up in Trinidad & Tobago, one of the most southerly islands in the Caribbean, where track and soccer are sports that every child plays. At age 12, Marvin couldn't qualify for his school teams. It was devastating to him. So, his mom got him into two clubs, each with a coach. Within one year — through coaching and hard work — he was able to become a junior champion on the trac...

Katie Kiliszewski spent nearly half of her life battling an eating disorder that threatened to take everything from her. At a young age, she began obsessing over her weight, counting calories, and running. She was only 14 when she was diagnosed with anorexia. "I was so young when the eating disorder started, I didn't know what I was doing. It seemed like I was beinghealthy," she said. "I didn't kn...

Baseball fans are in for a treat this week. I had the pleasure of interviewing Baltimore Orioles Hall of Famer Mike Bordick, who shared stories about his experiences playing in the Major League for 14 years, lessons he took from the game, and thoughts on the role of sports in young people's lives. As a true lover of baseball, I was in heaven talking to Mike, who is very down-to-earth and charitabl...

Kenny Barnwell grew up on a dirt road in Villa Rica, Georgia. His parents were deaf. He was the fifth of five children, and at age 14, when his parents split up, he turned to drugs. It wasn't long before he ended up homeless with just a guitar on his back that had belonged to his brother. About two years later, with no prospects but a great work ethic, he was helping out a small businessman who ra...

When you hear someone say Jesus was a hustler, you probably think that person doesn't like Jesus. But what if the disconnect isn't the name but the definition of a "hustler"? Erin Harrigan says that's the mistake most people make. The word "hustle" doesn't mean someone who's deceptive, aggressive, or pushy. To hustle actual means to do something with intention. "First of all, Jesus is never in a h...

Randy Wilson spent most of his life wondering what he was going to do with himself. An average student who wanted to play pro basketball but lacked the height, he debated entering the military before going to a hometown university and eventually dropping out. In his early 30s and pleased to be a chain retail store manager who could afford to raise his family, his life was upended when the company...

Patrick Lewis started working at Superior Rigging and Erecting Company, his dad's place of employment, at the tender age of 10. By the time he was 16, he knew he wanted to own the company. By age 27, in 2001, Patrick and his partners bought it.  You would think someone with that kind of focus and drive would be strutting his stuff, but Patrick, while appearing confident on the outside, was plagued...

Real estate agents — and anyone who may be struggling with self-esteem — are really going to enjoy this week's guest on Chiseled. For years, Janell Schmittling seemingly had the tools to become a successful real estate agent — but she lacked the biggest one — self-esteem. Why? Perhaps due to a lack of support from her brokerage, a lot of spinning wheels without getting results, and a husband who w...

Jake Ballentine is a success coach who’s helped over 1,000 people break through the invisible barriers holding them back from their goals. But before he could guide others, Jake had to overcome his own. In his early years, Jake left college to pursue a career in music — and by most accounts, he did well. But after years on the road, he realized the message he was passionate about sharing wasn’t re...

Many people who are treated for cancer follow a routine — home, treatment, work, home. Rinse and repeat. That was the case for Florida Atlantic University (FAU) baseball coach John McCormack when he was getting treatment for a neuroendocrine tumor — until one day when he could not get a ride home. John lost weight, had no energy, and was unable to drive a car during his cancer treatment. He was fe...

The doctor who let Paul Hunter know he had back of throat and neck cancer did not have much of a bedside manner. According to Paul, he came in and said, "I'm sorry to have to tell you this. You have cancer and your life is changed forever." Then he handed him a reference for an oncologist and sent him out the door. Paul could have let that curt diagnosis impact his reaction. But after he and his w...

Ron White is a two-time USA Memory champion. He has memorized the first seven chapters of the book of Proverbs, the U.S. Constitution, and the names of every service member fallen in Afghanistan, where he served as a naval intelligence specialist. Ron has appeared all over the world displaying his feats of memory, including on National Geographic's "Brain Games," Fox TV's "Superhuman," and History...

The worst thing imaginable happened to Bob Arnold and his wife Jeanne in 2002. They were getting ready for bed and a coroner calls. Their 23-year-old daughter Marcie was found dead in her apartment nearly 500 miles away. Marcie, a vibrant young woman who was just getting established in North Myrtle Beach, S.C., was talking with a friend on the phone when the conversation went silent. She had suffe...