The Leaders' Arena Podcast

What happens when life repeatedly pulls the rug out from under you? In this raw, unscripted episode of The Leaders' Arena Podcast, hosts Clifford Starks and Nate Fochtman sit down with Xavier Smith, Founder of Xcellent Solutions LLC, for a powerful conversation on trauma, resilience and the ultimate power of self-ownership. Xavier opens up about surviving a near-fatal heart attack at age 29,...

You can't force change before someone is ready. That's the truth Laurie Sharp-Page, MS, LPCC-S, CWC dropped in our upcoming conversation on The Leaders' Arena Podcast and it stopped me cold. Laurie calls them "mental health snacks." Small, intentional moments. Not the pill. Not the quick fix. Just recognizing what state you're in right now. Because here's the thi...

"All my friends are at a lacrosse tournament in Ocean City and I'm sitting here setting up a Microsoft Link server with Jordan." That one line from Mason Viener tells you everything you need to know about what it actually looks like to grow up inside a family business. Not the highlight reel.  The Saturday mornings.  The summer breaks.  The years you don't fully understand what...

Mason and Jordan Viener grew up watching their father Wayne build an IT firm from the ground up in 1991. Now they're running it themselves, and the company looks nothing like it did then. In this episode of The Leaders' Arena Podcast, Nate Fochtman sits down with the brothers behind VienerX, an industry-agnostic enterprise technology management firm serving multi-location brands across t...

In our latest episode of The Leaders' Arena Podcast, Rob Tracz MS, CSCS joins Clifford Starks and I for a raw conversation on what it actually takes to scale without losing your soul in the process. Rob shared his powerful transition from the world of elite strength coaching to high-performance strategy. We talked about "robot mode" - that state where you’re financially successful b...

High performance often comes at a high price. In this episode of The Leaders' Arena, hosts Clifford Starks and Nate Fochtman sit down with Rob Tracz, a former strength and conditioning coach turned high-performance strategist. Rob opens up about his journey from "robot mode,” working 16-hour days and losing touch with his family - to the wake-up call of losing his father to cancer. We di...

The glory of business isn't found in your bank account - it is found in the autonomy and agency you gain over your life.  In this clip from The Leaders' Arena Podcast, we discuss why shifting your mission from profit to freedom changes everything. Nate Fochtman & Clifford Starks break down the importance of the "becoming" process and why the ultimate game is about connectio...

We all love a good vision board, but putting a picture on a wall doesn't magically turn you into the person capable of sustaining that reality. There is a massive gap between identifying what you want and actually becoming the leader, founder or parent who can execute it. This was a powerful conversation from a recent episode of The Leaders' Arena Podcast with Leonne Sherr and Clifford S...

I failed at getting sober. A lot. We always tell people, "Don't be afraid to fail," but we rarely talk about what failure actually looks like in practice. On a recent episode of The Leaders' Arena Podcast, I sat down with someone who has seen my failures and successes firsthand: Coach Rick Hendrickson. I’ve known Coach since I was seven years old in Berkeley Springs, WV. He was...

Are you trying to build an online business using someone else's blueprint? In this clip from The Leaders' Arena Podcast, Ted McLyman explains why the "one size fits all" approach to business often fails. If a strategy goes against your natural wiring and temperament, it will not work for you. Discover why you need to stop forcing yourself into lockstep formulas and start design...

"We spend our whole lives trying to climb the ladder, only to find it’s leaning against the wrong wall." In this episode of The Leaders’ Arena, Nate Fochtman and Clifford Starks sit down with retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel and behavioral finance expert Ted McLyman. If you’ve ever felt like traditional financial planning doesn’t "fit" you, there’s a biological reason for that...

What actually changes a person: motivation, or pattern recognition? In this episode of The Leaders’ Arena Podcast , I’m joined by my co-host Clifford Starks and our guest Deevo The Storyteller (Chief Experience Officer, Storyteller) for a real, unscripted conversation about what happens when life forces a mirror in front of you and you choose to look. We get into: Why most “decisions” are unconsci...

What if the reason you keep “knowing what to do” but still can’t follow through… isn’t discipline? In this episode, we sit down with Quentin McCain, co-owner of The Leaders Edge and a subconscious mindset coach who works with leaders on anxiety, productivity, high performance, limiting beliefs, and the deeper root issues that keep people stuck. We get into the difference between the conscious mind...

Most people are waiting. Waiting for the right moment. Waiting for less stress. Waiting for someone to show up and fix it. But here’s the truth: Nobody’s coming. In this episode of The Leaders’ Arena Podcast, Clifford Starks sits down with leadership coach and parenting strategist Leonne Sherr to unpack the real work of leadership - the internal work most people avoid. This conversation goes deep...

This episode is personal. Rick Hendrickson isn’t a stranger to me. He’s my high school wrestling coach, a lifelong mentor, and one of the biggest reasons I understand what leadership actually looks like when no one’s watching. We talk about what it means to be a man in 2025 without the performative nonsense. We get into emotional intelligence, accountability, and the reality that there is no neutr...

Most people think entrepreneurship is about strategy, hustle, and execution. It’s not. It’s negotiation. With people. With systems. And most of all, with yourself. In this episode of The Leaders Arena, former UFC & Bellator Fighter Clifford Starks and Nate Fochtman go deep into the realities founders don’t talk about: survival mode, self-inventory, over-ownership, addiction in all its forms, l...

Today’s episode of The Leaders’ Arena is all about leadership under pressure. Clifford Starks and I dive into what it actually means to stand firm when the ground shifts beneath you. We talk about internal alignment, personal development, and the difference between reacting to the world and responding with intention. Clifford brings his perspective as a coach and former UFC fighter, and I bring tw...

Is the robot takeover coming for sales? Daniel Johnson, Founder of Sovereign Sales Agency, argues that the order taker is obsolete, but the true problem-solver is irreplaceable. In this powerful episode of The Leader's Arena, Daniel dives deep into why most B2B sales teams are failing and why they need to stop relying on tech stacks to fix fundamental communication issues. Daniel reveals the...

We dive deep with the brilliant Timothy Morgan, founder of Giver Marketing Network, who functions as a Fractional CMO and helps causes and companies amplify their purpose. Timothy and the hosts (Nate Fochtman and Clifford Starks) break down why authenticity and human connection are the only way to win in modern business. We hit on why relying on a perfect script is failing you, how to craft an aut...