What makes someone worth following when no one is watching. In this leadership roundtable, that question sits in the center of the table as stories unfold from classrooms, locker rooms, offices, and quiet early mornings when no one else is around to see the work.

On this episode of BeTempered, hosts Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr sit down with guests Brian Ballenger, Mark Broeker, and members of the Wayne County Area Chamber of Commerce WC Leads Cohort to unpack leadership that is not about titles or platforms, but about service, alignment, and consistency when the spotlight is off.

The conversation traces the path from a high school teacher who walked away from a 20 year career to a coach who drilled preparation and accountability into every practice. Their stories show how example beats rhetoric, how standards shape culture, and how small daily choices quietly forge character over time.

Together, the group explores why alignment often works better than chasing balance. Instead of trying to slice life into even pieces, they talk about naming non negotiables like faith, family, service, and health, then letting those priorities drive the calendar. That framework gives leaders a steady place to stand when it is time to enforce standards, make hard calls, protect culture, and still hold compassion for the people involved.

You will also hear practical insight on how to have tough conversations, how to tailor feedback so it actually lands, and how to judge leadership by the culture it creates rather than the title on a door. The WC Leads cohort shares what it looks like to grow as young professionals across healthcare, housing, education, finance, and business while staying rooted in Wayne County.

Integrity in the dark shows up too. The early workouts no one sees. The quiet reading before the day starts. The text or note of encouragement that costs a few minutes but compounds into trust over time. Challenges like 75 Hard become case studies in ownership, grit, and the kind of self discipline that teams and families naturally follow.

If you care about servant leadership, real accountability, and practical tools you can use with your team tomorrow, this conversation will sit right beside you in the work.

Connect with BeTempered and the hosts:
BeTempered website: https://betempered.com

BeTempered on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/betempered

Learn more about WC Leads and the Wayne County Area Chamber of Commerce:

WC Leads program: https://www.wcareachamber.org/wcleads.html

Wayne County Area Chamber of Commerce: https://www.wcareachamber.org

If this conversation encouraged you, follow BeTempered, share it with a friend who leads, and leave a quick review. When you support the show and check out these links, you help more people find stories of real faith, resilient leadership, and communities that grow stronger together.

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A locked door at 3 a.m., a voice that asked one piercing question, and a church parking lot where a bag of drugs met a trash can. Tim Clowers’ turning points do not read like safe, polished faith stories. They read like real life. On this episode of BeTempered, hosts Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr sit down with the Knoxville chef and creator behind Cook It With Tim to unpack an extraordinary arc, from addiction and anger after his brother’s death to Bible college, missions across 66 countries, and a calling that keeps reshaping itself through service.

Tim brings us into his years in Southeast Asia organizing large leadership conferences, including the tragic Manila hotel fire that claimed 88 attendees. What followed was a masterclass in accountable compassion, coordinating restitution, sending bodies home, and personally visiting 86 families to grieve, listen, and help. We explore how forgiveness, especially toward a father who finally showed up, can remake a man from the inside out, and why choosing presence over constant travel changed the trajectory for his own kids.

Back in Tennessee, a catering shift ended with pans of fresh food in a Corolla trunk and a simple, brave decision: drive under the bridge and feed whoever was there. That night birthed Juniper Worldwide, a nonprofit rooted in Isaiah 55:13 and focused on consistent Friday outreach. From a living room Bible study to a driveway smoker during COVID to millions of followers drawn by barbecue and everyday encouragement, Tim shares how digital ministry and community outreach can live under one roof without losing the plot. He also opens up about launching a church, the pain of closing it, and the pastoral wisdom that helped him follow what God was clearly blessing.

Along the way, you will hear about blended family lessons, being introduced as “my dad” for the first time, and a surprising moment on a country music stage when an old prophecy that he would speak to thousands came true. Food, faith, and service meet here without pretense. If you have wrestled with addiction recovery, forgiveness, burnout, or purpose, Tim’s story offers a grounded path forward: show up, serve well, and let the blessing lead.

Connect with BeTempered and the hosts:
BeTempered website: https://betempered.com

BeTempered on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/betempered

Connect with Tim and Cook It With Tim:
 Website and recipes: https://cookitwithtim.com

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CookItWithTim

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cookitwithtim

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cheftimothyclowers

Link hub for all platforms and resources: https://linktr.ee/cookitwithtim

Amazon storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/influencer-5fdccbaf

If this conversation gave you hope, follow BeTempered, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review. When you support the show and check out these links, you help more people find stories of real faith and resilient lives.

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A great story does not skip the hard parts, and Erin Flynn refuses to. On BeTempered, hosts Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr sit down with Erin to trace the real path from Indiana gym floors to Silicon Valley boardrooms. She chased a dream, ran into walls, and still chose to build a company and a life that actually fit. Her early chapters read like a crash course in grit. She graduated into the 2009 recession, rode a bus six hours a day to an unpaid internship, and turned a blog into a bridge between brands and creators. Then came her first startup, the shock of blunt sexism in investor rooms, and a humbling move back into her childhood bedroom when both money and luck ran out.

What changed everything was not louder hustle. It was alignment. Erin joined Cladwell, helped it grow, and then faced the VC treadmill that demanded free growth and breakneck scale. When the numbers no longer served customers or the mission, she did something few founders even consider. She bought back the business, raised values aligned capital, and rebuilt the app around a simple promise. Cladwell now helps people get dressed with what they already own, pairing weather smart suggestions with a capsule wardrobe philosophy that encourages doing more with less. Motherhood added urgency and perspective, faith shifted from a slogan into a steady rhythm, and her love for design grew into real estate renovations, boutique lofts, and kitchen design studios that put craft and service at the center.

The conversation also dives into her bestselling book, The Road Less Worn, where she clears out the closet of her life and keeps only what still fits. Identity, failure, resilience, and the courage to swim sideways out of the rip current. For anyone who has felt pressured into a version of success that did not feel like their own, Erin’s approach is a lifeline. Choose profits over posturing, customers over vanity metrics, and values over speed. She shares practical insight on fundraising, bias, creative focus, and building businesses that breathe, along with a hopeful reminder that company failure is not personal failure.

Connect with the hosts at www.betempered.com and www.patreon.com/betempered. Explore Erin’s work at https://cladwell.com/ and her design and development projects at https://eastmain.com/. If this conversation encouraged you, follow the show, share it with someone who is building their own path, and leave a quick review so more people can find these stories.

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Some stories knock the wind out of you and then hand you back your breath. On this episode of BeTempered, hosts Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr sit down with Robert Rogers, who in one devastating moment lost his wife and four children in a sudden flash flood and yet, in the very room where he identified their bodies, chose to lift a hand and trust God. This is not a tidy arc. It is a raw, lived map through catastrophe where scripture becomes a lifeline, counseling becomes a compass, and service becomes medicine.

Robert’s story begins in a large Cincinnati family where music and faith shaped the rhythm of life. As a teen, he fell in love with the Bible and memorized verses that later became anchors in the storm. Marriage brought joy and testing, including an ectopic pregnancy that nearly claimed his wife, the birth of Zachary with Down syndrome, and a step of faith to adopt Alina from China. After a summer focused on family and simplicity, tragedy struck. While driving through Kansas, rising floodwaters surrounded their van. The family prayed Psalm 46 and sang “Lord, I Lift Your Name on High.” Moments later, a wall of water swept them away.

Survival brought the hardest hours of Robert’s life and the first acts of surrender. He held on to Job 23 and Psalm 71 and built a daily rule that kept him close to God when nothing else made sense: no Bible, no breakfast; no Bible, no bed. Grief counseling helped him work through trauma, and invitations to share his story soon became a calling. He founded Mighty in the Land Ministry with a simple mission: face it, embrace it, replace it. His work now supports orphans and children with special needs while teaching others how to honor their pain without becoming defined by it.

There is restoration too. Robert later married Inga, welcomed new children, chose to homeschool, and kept family first. He poured his journey into books that weave story with scripture, including Into the Deep, Seven Steps to No Regrets, Rise Above, Stay Pure, and Father Your Family. If you are walking through fire or feel like you are being pulled under by your own storm, this conversation offers more than inspiration. It offers practical handles to hold on to. Open the Psalms. Ask for help. Serve someone. Let God meet you where your heart is heaviest.

If this episode moved you, subscribe and share it with someone who needs hope. Visit www.betempered.com
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To learn more about Robert Rogers, his ministry, and his books, visit www.mightyintheland.com

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Senior year can feel like standing on a cliff’s edge, and Leah Schmidt brings us right to that moment with clarity, humor, and heart. Hosted by Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr, this conversation follows Dan’s daughter as she wraps a long soccer journey, weighs college athletics, and chooses something rarer: a future built on faith, family, and balance.

From small town sidewalks to country life, 4-H chores, and the day a goat didn’t make it, Leah shows how responsibility and loss shape character long before resumes do. She walks into a new club team where no one knows her name and still finds her voice. She explains why she stepped away from the D1 chase to protect what matters most. Church and camp helped turn prayer into a real back and forth. A raw breakthrough from her dad during a rite of passage reframed vulnerability as strength and growth as a choice.

You’ll hear about the lively chaos of five siblings, firm consequences with love, and how a teen cleaning business quietly teaches service, standards, and grit. If you’re a parent guiding without smothering, or a student deciding who you want to be beyond the next game or grade, Leah’s story offers honest encouragement that growth lives just past comfort and grit comes from losses you carry well.

Follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review. For daily encouragement and behind the scenes content, join us on Patreon. Patreon members get the option to view every episode LIVE.

Learn more at www.betempered.com

Patreon at www.patreon.com/betempered

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Doubt has a way of sounding smart. It whispers that you’re a fraud, that you got lucky, that someone else would have done it better. On this episode of BeTempered, hosts Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr challenge that voice head-on as they unpack how labels, setbacks, and perfectionism feed imposter syndrome and how faith, community, and honest storytelling cut it down to size.

We start with the hard truth that many of us chase achievement while starving for fulfillment. A bank’s refusal once said, “You’re not ready,” but perseverance and a second chance became a decades-long lesson in grit and responsibility. That same weight now shows up in leadership because hiring someone means serving the family behind their name. Along the way, we explore how vulnerability unlocks healing for both the speaker and the listener, sharing messages from people moved by recent guest stories of grief, resilience, and hope.

From sobriety to simple rhythms that pull you through hard days, Dan and Ben get practical. Plan for storms before they hit, stack small wins, and change one thing to break isolation. Scripture anchors the message in courage and identity through Ephesians 2:10, 2 Timothy 1:7, and 2 Corinthians 12:9–10, while time in nature reminds us that perspective can heal what pressure distorts. A father-son trip becomes a rite of passage when a 13-year-old battles a shark and a dad learns to stop forcing perfect moments and let God lead them.

If doubt has been loud lately, let this be your reminder: you are not an accident, you are not behind, and you are not disqualified.
 Press play, share this with someone who needs courage today, and join our growing community on Patreon at patreon.com/betempered
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When someone says, “Brian’s dead,” life divides into a before and an after. For Chuck Winings, it divided twice. What began as an ordinary Super Bowl Sunday became a season of heartbreaking loss. First came the passing of his father. Soon after came the fight no family is ever ready for, when his wife Rhonda was diagnosed with triple negative metastatic breast cancer. On BeTempered, hosted by Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr, Chuck opens his heart and tells the story from the very beginning: high school sweethearts, a surprise third child, years spent teaching and coaching, and the long road of hospitals, hope, and hard decisions.

This conversation takes you inside the moments most people never see. Chuck talks about the diagnosis delivered on a blank sheet of paper, the infusion days filled with silent prayers, and the moment the word “curable” slipped away. Through it all, Rhonda remained a teacher. She wrote notes for the future, made plans for the children, and showed what love looks like when it prepares to let go. Chuck explains why honesty with his kids mattered more than pretending to be strong, and how trust was built by telling the truth, even when it hurt.

He shares how their community stepped in, not with answers, but with presence. Meals left at the door. Friends who sat in silence. Small signs that felt like messages from above. A lone cardinal on a beach fence. A quiet breeze when he needed one most. These moments stitched a fragile thread of comfort through unbearable days.

You will hear about the strength of his children. Theo calling every day just to check in. Gavin choosing to wear his mother’s number eight and making a play he still believes she was part of. Emma asking simple questions that cut straight through the noise of adult grief. These stories are not about tragedy, but about the proof that love continues in those who remain.

We also talk about the part of loss no one prepares you for. The mornings that feel like climbing out of concrete. The day Chuck realized he was stuck in a hole. The first walk he took just to breathe. The decision to speak goals out loud, including 75 Hard, because sometimes choosing discipline is the only way to choose life again.

This episode is not about having the right words. It is about standing when your legs shake. It is about fathers trying to be anchors for their children when they feel like they are drifting. It is about carrying a legacy forward without letting it crush you. If you have ever whispered, I am not okay, or wished someone would simply check on you, this conversation is a hand on your shoulder.

If this story reached you, do not carry it alone. Share it with someone who needs proof that hope can survive heartbreak. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us what keeps you going when life hits hardest.

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The wind through pine branches can sound like a lullaby, or the whisper of survival. That’s where Shirley Thacker loved to sit with her husband, Rich—a farm kid turned teacher, veteran, and fighter—dreaming about the book she would someday write. In this powerful episode of BeTempered, hosts Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr sit down with Shirley to trace the hard and luminous arc of her life: a small Indiana farm in the 50s and 60s, a ten-year-old’s stolen safety and the silence that followed, the middle-school note that tried to erase her, and the moment on the edge when she felt a love stronger than despair pull her back.

We follow Shirley into young love forged by letters during Rich’s Air Force years, a marriage built with grit and not much money, and a cancer diagnosis that rearranged everything. With Dr. Lawrence Einhorn’s groundbreaking protocol, Rich endured brutal chemo, a miraculous brain surgery, and the long tail of complications—retina damage, PTSD, Parkinsonian symptoms. Alongside the fear and fatigue, there were precise graces: a surgeon who showed up on a Saturday, a tumor lifted out in forty-five minutes, a renowned doctor acknowledging a higher power, and a gas-station prayer met with unexpected peace. When an untreatable brainstem tumor closed the final chapter, hospice brought them home. In the quiet, Rich asked for three things: mow under my red Chevy, fly a flag on my grave, and be happy. She promised.

Shirley kept that promise by writing. Her words became a way to translate grief into craft and service. She wrote poetry and children’s stories, taught kids to compress truth into six words, and donated every dollar to cancer research, local teachers, veterans, and a memorial scholarship. She told her daughters the hard story she’d once hidden, then told her parents, and now tells us—so others don’t have to carry it alone.

We talk practicals too: why boys and men must do self-exams, how to start hard talks with kids, how to spot signals of silent pain, and how to build daily habits that make joy easier to find.

If you need a companion for a long night, this conversation sits beside you without flinching. It’s about breaking secrecy, holding on through treatment, trusting help, and noticing small mercies—the pine wind, a friend at lunch, a nurse’s extra hour, a promise kept.

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or support the show at patreon.com/betempered

You can explore Shirley’s books and poetry here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B08PXVH3MK?ccs_id=4bd01bf5-9ad4-41ad-bf88-2e2edf28d35e

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The first thing Greg Jackson will tell you is simple: no peace, no decision. That quiet rule has guided him from a teen revival moment in Dayton to decades of faithful pastoring in Camden, Ohio—through false starts at the post office, a bi-vocational grind, and the messy, beautiful work of building a church that truly serves its town.

In this episode of BeTempered, hosts Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr sit down with Greg to explore what a small, faithful life looks like when it’s lived at full strength. He shares how working as a mail clerk taught him the people skills he’d need in ministry, why listening often beats advice, and how a simple three-by-five card can anchor a leader in the middle of chaos. Greg opens up about funeral ministry—nearly 500 services—and why end-of-life moments are some of the most honest pulpits for hope. You’ll also hear the story of the church’s leap to buy homes, build a new facility, and pay it off through grit and unity, all while resisting the pressure to perform like a “celebrity church.”

Family threads through every story. From Greg and Renee’s marriage, to consistent parenting, to the power of a dinner table ritual—this episode offers a grounded playbook for moms and dads. A hard season—when their 8-year-old broke both legs—became a lifelong lesson in empathy for families with special needs. And yes, we even talk Pistol Pete: the artistry, the late-life conversion, and his piercing line about money buying everything but happiness—and paying your fare to everywhere but heaven.

If you’re searching for authentic faith, small-town leadership, grief care that tells the truth, and practical ways to avoid burnout, this conversation will meet you where you are. Tune in for a clear gospel, steady wisdom, and stories that remind you to bloom where you’re planted.

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Raw vulnerability fills this deeply moving episode of BeTempered, where co-host Ben Spahr courageously opens up about processing a personal tragedy that has shaken his faith community to its core. When someone you’ve shared life with commits an unthinkable crime, how do you reconcile the good memories with their devastating actions? Where was God in the middle of all this heartbreak?

Ben allows listeners into the raw and uncomfortable reality of his journey—sharing the guilt, anger, confusion, and the difficult path toward forgiveness. His honesty reminds us that walking through grief and faith struggles isn’t a neat, quick process but a painful road that requires courage to face openly.

Together, hosts Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr widen the lens to explore not just personal tragedy, but the broader struggles we all face in today’s world. They reflect on the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the troubling rise of political violence in America. Their discussion calls out how social media often fuels division, amplifies hate, and dehumanizes those who see the world differently. Both hosts emphasize the responsibility we all share when speaking about others—especially when our words could weigh heavily on someone already battling mental health challenges.

Scripture anchors the conversation. Passages from Ephesians, Colossians, and the powerful account of the woman caught in adultery remind us that forgiveness is not just a biblical teaching—it is a life-altering, liberating force. Ben acknowledges that he is not fully at the point of forgiveness yet, and in doing so, he shows that Christian growth is rarely instantaneous. Instead, it’s a journey of wrestling, questioning, and slowly allowing God’s love to change us over time.

As the hosts remind us, our response to tragedy defines us. In moments of brokenness, we can choose love instead of bitterness. We can reach out to the vulnerable instead of withdrawing. We can take steps toward forgiveness, even when it feels impossible. Ben’s heartfelt words capture the spirit of this episode: “The most powerful language is love.”

This is not an episode that offers simple answers. Instead, it offers space for honest wrestling, biblical wisdom, and compassionate guidance for anyone trying to keep their faith alive in the face of heartbreaking circumstances.

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