Grit Meets Growth

When life crashes, it rarely sends a warning. A job disappears. An investment fails. A relationship changes. A dream you've spent years building suddenly feels like it's slipping away. In those moments, it's easy to believe you've lost everything. But what if the crash isn't the end of the story? What if it's the beginning of something stronger? In this episode, John and Chris unpack what it means...

Some conversations are worth revisiting. As we continue exploring the intersection of grit, growth, and purpose, we're bringing back one of our favorite episodes from the Grit Meets Growth archive. In Episode 40, we sit down with Dr. Cindra Kamphoff, a nationally recognized performance psychologist, bestselling author, speaker, and coach who has spent her career helping athletes, business leaders,...

Some conversations are planned. Others start with two friends talking and end up somewhere neither expected to go. This episode is one of those conversations. What begins as a discussion about identity, purpose, and the lessons coming out of our Built for More men's group quickly turns into a deeper exploration of faith, gratitude, comparison, authenticity, and the masks we wear. Along the way, we...

Most of us don’t plan to isolate. It just happens quietly. A tough week, a little pressure, a feeling that things aren’t fully under control, and before we know it, we start pulling back. In this episode, we unpack a question that stopped a room full of men in their tracks: when do you find yourself isolating? What surfaced was honest, familiar, and a little uncomfortable. From stress and overwhel...

There’s a quiet kind of damage that happens when we stop trusting ourselves. Not because we’re incapable, untalented, or lazy, but because over time, we slowly build patterns of breaking our own word. We say we’re going to start Monday, make the call tomorrow, get back in the gym, have the hard conversation, show up differently, and then life, excuses, fear, or comfort pull us the other direction....

Last episode forced a level of awareness most people avoid. You took an honest look at your body, your work, your relationships, your environment and somewhere in that audit, something didn’t sit right. You felt the misalignment. The problem is awareness alone doesn’t change anything. It actually makes things heavier, because now you can’t unsee it. So the question becomes simple and uncomfortable...

Last episode hit a nerve. The idea that burnout might actually be misalignment stuck with people, but it also left a bigger question hanging in the air: what do you actually do about it? In this episode, we pick up right there and get practical. No long checklist, no overcomplicated framework. Just a clear way to slow down, face what feels off, and start identifying where misalignment is showing u...

This episode picks up right where a real conversation left off, around a table where nobody hid and nobody let each other off the hook. What started as a discussion about identity turns into something deeper, because a lot of what we call burnout isn’t burnout at all. It’s misalignment. When you’re doing the work but it feels heavier than it should, when you’re productive but not fulfilled, when r...

In this episode of the Grit Meets Growth podcast, we start with a simple idea that applies to almost every part of life: consistency is the missing puzzle piece. Whether you are trying to grow your business, improve your health, strengthen relationships, or build better habits, the results rarely come from one big action. They come from small actions done consistently over time.  That conversation...

Before we jump in, quick time out... This episode is not meant to become ammo in your next relationship debate. It’s not for a husband to say, “See? This is what I’ve been telling you,” or for a wife to respond with, “Finally, someone said it.” That’s not the heart behind this conversation. The goal here is to think differently about roles, responsibility, and how we show up for each other. It’s a...

For five years, this podcast has been about starting—about identity, ownership, grit, and doing the hard internal work. But at some point, starting isn’t the issue anymore. The real question becomes: how do you take the plan and move it to action? How do you move from motivation, which gets you in the gym on January 1, to discipline, which keeps you showing up on February 10 when the excitement fa...

From the archives, originally Episode 33, we're exploring: • Investing in yourself • Answering the question: "If not now, when?" • Battling procrastination • Making and taking the time to recharge • Living a bold life • Making the most of our sphere of influence

This episode of Grit Meets Growth is for people who already show up, already have discipline, and are asking a deeper question: why does this still feel harder than it should? We're unpacking how growth eventually outgrows old systems—how habits, routines, and discipline that once worked can start to feel heavy when they’re no longer aligned with who you are and where you’re going. Rather than add...

This New Year’s Eve episode sits in the quiet, powerful space between what was and what’s coming. We explore the idea of “liminal moments” — those in-between seasons that shape how we actually step into the next chapter — and unpack three deceptively simple questions that can reset your direction, reclaim your energy, and bring clarity to what really matters in 2026. Five takeaways, in true Grit M...

On this episode of Grit Meets Growth, we jump in mid-conversation—because we were already in it—and unpack what confidence really looks like when you level up: that moment when you finally feel like you belong… until you stretch again and the old self-talk comes roaring back. This is a gut-check about the quiet cost of what we’ve normalized—tolerating pain, drifting on the fence, letting tired bec...

Welcome back to another episode of Grit Meets Growth . Today’s a special one. We’re pulling back the curtain on the brotherhood inside Built for More and inviting you into the room with us. Five months into this journey—and with most of the guys having just wrapped up a round of 75 Hard—we thought it was the perfect time to bring everyone together, share what this experience has looked like, and t...

Today’s conversation starts with a simple question: What are we talking about? And it turns into something bigger—something we’ve been seeing everywhere. Men who feel stuck. Men who feel adrift. Men running on autopilot and wondering, Now what? Guys who know deep down there’s more in them, even if they don’t know how to get to it. And here’s the thing… the women in their lives see it too. In this...

This episode kicks off the way so many of our best ones do: with a pre-show conversation that turned into the real show. What started as a casual check-in about 75 Hard, restarts, and setbacks quickly turned into a deep dive on purpose, accountability, and the power of having people who pull you off the sidelines when it’s easier to stay there. From mental toughness and discipline to rediscovering...

When life hits hard, resilience becomes more than a buzzword—it’s a lifeline. In this episode of the Grit Meets Growth podcast, we dive deep into what it really means to walk through the storm and keep moving forward. From personal stories of injury, setback, and shifting priorities, to the raw honesty of confronting ego, fear, and mental clutter, this conversation unpacks what resilience looks li...

We talk a lot on this podcast about grit, about living on the edge of your comfort zone, about pushing yourself through the uncomfortable to grow. Today, we’re going deeper.  We’re talking about what happens when the hustle and performance become masks, when we hide behind being “fine” instead of being seen for who we really are. This episode is about vulnerability, authenticity, and the courage t...

In this episode of Grit Meets Growth, we dive into the power of open dialog—not the surface-level kind that stays safe, but the kind that creates space for honest reflection, real accountability, and genuine connection. We explore how conversation becomes a tool for grit and resilience, challenging us to admit when we’re struggling, to call each other out when excuses creep in, and to carry one an...

We’re back, and today we’re diving into a subject that sits at the core of Grit Meets Growth—comfort. It’s been nearly a year since we dedicated an entire conversation to it, but if you’ve listened for a while, you know this theme surfaces often. We believe growth begins at the edge of your comfort zone, and while the world tells us to chase comfort, the truth is it comes with a hidden cost. Comfo...

Every time we hit record on this podcast, there’s always that half hour before—the raw, unfiltered conversation—that feels like the best part. This time, it was about seasons changing, kids heading back to school, routines shifting, businesses rolling into budget season, and all of us feeling that turbulence. In the middle of that swirl, we started talking about purpose, fear, and what it means to...

In this episode, we’re taking last week’s conversation on why staying the same is easy and why it’s killing your growth, and pushing it further. We’re diving into a powerful, uncomfortable question: What are you tolerating in your life? From toxic relationships to weak boundaries, from bad habits to the excuses you’ve made a dozen times, these are the silent drains on your energy, purpose, and pot...

Staying the same is easy. It’s cozy, it’s familiar, and it doesn’t ask much of us. But what if that comfort is quietly holding you back from who you’re really meant to be? In this episode of the Grit Meets Growth podcast, we’re diving into the tug-of-war between comfort and growth. From personal stories about stepping out of the air-conditioned house into the heat, to breaking old habits that no l...