While the podcast is titled Dirt Talk, we barely touched on dirt in this episode and instead discussed life, religion, marriage, painful lessons, and leadership.

Many people know Mikel Bowman as an extremely upbeat and inspirational mining industry leader, but it took a lot of pain and work to get to where he is today. We dive into his past only a few minutes in to talk about his mistakes early on, how he met his wife, and how he eventually found his way into Bible college.

From there, he went on to become a counselor, and after a number of difficulties both personally and professionally, he knew he needed a major change. That's when he found the mining industry, which is where he's been ever since. He started by doing anything and everything he could, worked his way up to a driller, and today he's Turner Mining Group's, Chief Culture Guru.

"Yes, there was the motivation of wanting to be home with my wife and kids. Two, the stress of what had previously happened over the past seven years had deteriorated our marriage, and I knew and felt in my heart that I was going to lose my wife. And she was literally my best friend. I think on my deathbed, that would've been my biggest, most glaring mistake. That if I lost her, I lost everything.

My drive is to want to do better and make me better. I don't get up in the morning and think, 'gee, my boss isn't looking at me this way, or I'll never progress because of my race or religion.' I think about, 'how do I punch yesterday's Mike Bowman in the gut and defeat him? How do I do better every day? How do I beat my own records?' Because I'm not competing against anyone but me."

Learn more about Mikel and follow along with him at @mikelbowman243 on Instagram and @Mikel Bowman on LinkedIn!