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

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...

When a cruel prank during a drunken rager turned into a stop in the local hospital psych ward, then-20-year-old Lindsey Hanson knew something had to change. Released to her parents' custody, she returned home and decided to start right then. "I looked (my mom) in the eye, and said 'I need help,'" Lindsey said. "I was ready." Rather than go to a program, Lindsey stayed home to detox in her parents'...

They say dynamite comes in small packages, and Alice Tang, all five feet of her, is full of spark. An immigrant from China, she arrived in the United States 30 years ago with her husband, who had been hired by a U.S. tech company. But with no work visa or her own, Alice started to languish. "I was truly struggling as a stay-at-home wife with no status to work here," said the self-described extrove...

Eberhard Samlowski, a devout Christian and retired surgeon, knew before the doctors told him in 2022 that he had esophageal cancer. They suggested a three-part treatment — chemotherapy, radiation, and a risky surgery. Eberhard knew the odds were not good. He also had a trip scheduled to Saudi Arabia, a pilgrimage he had been waiting 30 years to take. He was headed to the concealed potential site t...

Chris Cahill was drinking with colleagues one evening while traveling on a business trip when he had an epiphany. His hands prevented him from taking a glass of scotch that was offered to him, as they had many times before. So, he returned to his hotel room, where he spent the night reading a copy of Gideon's Bible, obsessing over a pastor delivering a sermon on YouTube, and meeting Jesus in the b...

Steven Cericola was a bit of a wild child. One of six siblings, he was labeled by classmates as the "guy most likely to be dead at 25." But even in his heady youth, he was athletic. He started swimming in the ocean at age 10. He was a competitive distance swimmer in high school. Eventually, Steve got serious about his life, attending Johns Hopkins University part-time to earn a degree in mechanica...

I have a question for all the business owners out there: Is your 2025 business plan ready? It's nearly Christmas. You should be done with your list and checked it twice. Wherever you are in your plan, I want to give you and anyone else who is ready to wrap up 2024 a Christmas gift: a true story about faith and the cascade of abundance that comes with it. For Chiseled listeners in my Buffini and Co...

The "King of Sales," Jeffrey Gitomer, is the author of 17 bestselling books on sales and personal development, including How to Make Sales Forever and The Little Red Book of Selling. He is an icon in the personal growth and development industry so when he said he would cut out some of his time to record a podcast with me, I was all in. Having written 16 e-books and thousands of columns, blog posts...

Jim Keyes has an outstanding resume. A former CEO of 7-Eleven and Blockbuster, former head of planning at Citgo, a pilot, a sculptor, and a published author, Keyes learned from a challenging childhood that curiosity is the key not merely to get through life, but to grab the reins and run with it. Jim's start wasn't easy. One of six kids, he grew up in a three-room shack with no running water in Gr...

Dale Young seemingly made all the right moves in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s. He got an advanced education, started working for a defense contractor, and moved to Australia where he was making money and enjoying all the perks. Then one day, during a discussion about taxes with colleagues, he realized he was working at a job, not a career, and he most certainly was not following a calling.  So, he mu...