Burn the Ships

I first met Adria King a few years ago in a communicator workshop—she was supposed to deliver a 30 minute sermon and I was evaluating it. Things got REAL awkward when she finished talking in about 7 minutes flat. I blinked once and it was over. Thankfully, she took that moment and became a sought after speaker in the years to come, and just published her first book! A real redemption story. If this was The Blindside, I was kind of like her Sandra Bullock. Just kidding, I take zero credit for any of it, but I have loved learning from Adria over the years. You're going to love her take overcoming challenges to live courageously today.

If I had to make a list of people (outside of my family) who have influenced my life the most, Mark Lamb is one of them. In many ways, this interview felt like any other phone call with Mark—meaning he exposed my childhood wounds and made me question the entire direction of my life again. Happens every time. Good thing you're enjoying this from the emotional safety of your headphones. Anyway, here's our conversation about discovering healthy rhythms, true love as courage, and our opinions on the state of Arkansas.

Blake's over-the-top personality took him from intern to an on-air role with The Bert Show in a couple months. His specialty is working his way into opportunities that other people can only dream of, and today he shares how the heck he does it. We also talk about the time we wrangled a cat together in front of a few thousand teenagers and the time his ex-girlfriend embarrassed him in front of his entire neighborhood. (Probably while listening to that one Carrie Underwood song.)

Danielle's style of joy is downright infectious. (Can we use that word anymore?) She quit her job to start a social media company this year that has BLOWN UP (in a good way) and created a platform that makes thoughtful design look easy. You'll love her take on clarifying your mission, pursuing racial justice, and being joyfully courageous in the face of a dark world.

In many ways, this podcast is my attempt at Burning the Ships. And because I believe in the power of long-form conversation inspiring people to be courageous and have fun, I want it to blow up! Instead of pretending otherwise, I’m inviting you into the journey of turning a few amateur recordings from my closet into a successful podcast. Now you’re thinking about my closet. Get out of here. Anyway, here’s how you can help me grow this thing and beat Joe Rogan. (some day)

Guitar Hero world champion and all-around-good-guy, Nigel Wallace, sat down with me to talk creativity, courage, and the status of his DMs. Seriously, Nigel is one of the best people I know and seems to do EVERYTHING creative all at once. I love and hate him for it. You’re going to love his story and the theme of his new book, Humanity’s table.

Preston and Eric are my roommates, which means they would have been really offended if I didn’t ask them to be the first guests on the new podcast. So here we are. We sat down for an inspiring and hilarious hour last week to talk quitting things, living your purpose, and why you should NEVER poop on a tour bus. You’re going to like what you hear.

Welcome to Burn the Ships—the podcast for dreamers who want to live more courageously and have more fun.