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

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...

In this week's episode of Chiseled, I welcome Kyle Wilson to share his story. But he does much more than that. Kyle is one of the people helping to chisel me, and once you hear him, you are going to want him to do the same for you. A self-made entrepreneur who effectively made personal growth guru Jim Rohn into a household name, Kyle is the creator of his very own Inner Circle. If you know me, you...

Pastors Don and Ethel Rucker both heard the voice of God when they first laid eyes on each other. Meeting in a church — she was there because church was always her "safe haven" and he was there because he wanted to "appease" his sister — the word reached them as a whisper in their hearts acknowledging they had met their life partner. It wasn't long afterward that they married. But even though they...

It's our 100th episode of Chiseled and I'm so excited to have Paul Hutchinson join me for this milestone. You may have heard of Paul, the executive producer and inspiration for the movie, The Sound of Freedom.  Paul was living the high life building a multi-billion dollar company, Bridge Investment Group. He had a house with 10 bathrooms, seven fireplaces, three kitchens, and a closet larger than...

It's funny. When I reflected on my conversation with Carol Foderick, this week's guest on Chiseled, I was amused that she is known as "the hardest working woman in real estate," yet she prioritizes her life outside the office. And then it made sense to me. Working hard at a career is one thing, but creating work-life balance is a whole other level of effort. As you will learn this week, Carol is t...

Eric A. Clayton is a born storyteller. Writing fiction as a child, his grandmother would edit Eric's fantastical stories about elves and dragons, teaching him the skills of imaginary world-building. It is no wonder, then, that as an adult, Eric loves borrowing from the colorful St. Ignatius, who helped Eric find his spirituality as a writer, first for Catholic Relief Services and now as the deputy...

I have been in real estate a long time, but Danny Hicks taught me something new this week. Many of us in the real estate industry know the trifecta of the deal — location, price, and condition. For most homebuyers, you usually have to sacrifice one criterion to get into a home. But as Danny explains this week, you can actually get all three, when you can change the location of a home. His perspect...

Blane Stewart was a latchkey kid, who turned his freedom into a hustle, often with severe consequences. Raised in his early years on a 100-acre farm, he was devastated by his parents' divorce, his dad's raging alcoholism, and his mom moving him and his two siblings into a two-bedroom apartment in a low-income area of the city. With his mom forced to work three jobs, Blane was left with little supe...

Every story is unique, but sometimes I have to chuckle at our similarities. Take Brett Snodgrass. His story sounds familiar to  Brad Noll  — a guest I had on way back in the early days of Chiseled, on episode 19.   Brett and Brad both grew up in Indiana. They both were sons of high school basketball coaches who were loving and highly demanding. They both played basketball in college and now work i...

Mark Victor Hansen is the world's No. 1 author, having sold 500 million copies of a little book series he co-wrote, called Chicken Soup for the Soul. I'm thrilled to say that he is also this week's guest on Chiseled. As a keynote speaker, author, publisher, and philanthropist, Mark is the guy whose face appears next to the words "determination" and "energy" in the dictionary. He started out being...