The Unshakable Life

• Why doing everything yourself eventually becomes a problem.
• How fatherhood changed Joe's approach to business and success.
• The importance of emotional health, boundaries, and asking for help.
• How to use automation without hiring a large team.
• Why small interruptions can cost you more time than you realize.
• How to use AI without losing your personal touch.

• ✓ Building a business that depends entirely on you makes it difficult to enjoy the freedom you started it for.
• ✓ Asking for help and acknowledging your emotional struggles are signs of self-awareness, not weakness.
• ✓ Delegating becomes easier when you recognize which tasks genuinely require your unique skills.
• ✓ Automation can reduce mental overload by handling repetitive tasks and protecting your attention.
• ✓ Saving time becomes more meaningful when you know what you want to do with that time.
• ✓ AI works well as an assistant to your memory and judgment, but it still needs oversight.
• ✓ Reliable systems and firm boundaries make it possible to be present with your family without constantly worrying about work.

00:00 Building a business and a life that can thrive

01:52 The panic attack that changed Joe's approach to business

05:53 The emotional aftermath and learning to ask for help

11:11 Journaling, music, boundaries, and making room for rest

15:39 Letting go of the need to do everything yourself

20:12 Why Joe chose automation instead of hiring a large team

26:53 Getting your time back and understanding the cost of interruptions

32:57 Joe's favorite AI automation and how it helps him stay present

35:23 Why reliable automation still matters in the age of AI

38:28 Where to start fixing your business systems

• Zapier  - Joe's preferred tool for dependable, task-based automation.
• Claude  - The AI assistant Joe uses to process meeting notes and manage follow-up tasks.
• Google Meet  and Gemini  - Tools used in Joe's meeting workflow.
• Fathom  - An AI meeting recorder that Joe uses to capture conversations.
• Todoist  - Joe's task management tool.

• Notion  - Mentioned as an example of a tool that can be connected through automation.

   

Joe shares a free eight-question quiz to help you identify which business system to fix first, along with a playbook, automation ideas, and tool recommendations.

Take Joe's free quiz. The episode-specific link Joe shared during the interview.

Joe's Website :  Joe helps solo business owners save 25 hours per month without overreliance on AI or hiring a team.

Streamlined Solopreneur Podcast: Solo operations to stop doing everything yourself 

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• Why your identity can become dangerously tied to your career.
• How to recognize the hidden cost of chasing importance.
• What unexpected setbacks can teach us about purpose.
• Why leadership requires moving from doing to being.
• How to pursue success without sacrificing your health and relationships.
• What it means to develop people rather than collect followers.
• Why you should discover your purpose long before retirement.

• ✓ Borrowed importance disappears when the position or organization providing it is gone.
• ✓ Being useful can bring deeper fulfillment than being recognized as important.
• ✓ Success comes with trade-offs, including time, relationships, and opportunities you cannot recover.
• ✓ Finding your purpose changes how you approach your work, relationships, and daily decisions.
• ✓ Leadership requires developing people, not simply being the best at your previous job.
• ✓ Becoming the healthiest version of yourself deserves more attention than chasing an undefined ideal of success.
• ✓ Letting go of an old identity creates room to grow into a new season of leadership.
• ✓ You don't have to wait for a crisis or retirement to ask what your life is really for.

00:00 Who are you when your accomplishments disappear?

03:37 Borrowed importance and the need to feel important

07:18 How a stroke and a woodshop changed Chip's perspective

11:17 The personal price of success and ambition

18:06 Finding fulfillment, meaning, and purpose

22:59 Why leadership is about developing other leaders

24:38 Advice for those beginning their careers

27:00 Letting go of identity and navigating transitions

30:20 Becoming the healthiest version of yourself

33:46 Chip's books and recommended reading

36:13 Why you shouldn't wait until retirement to discover your purpose

• Small Decisions, Big Shifts by Chip Scholz. How ordinary decisions shape the direction of our lives. (Amazon Link)
• Every Dog Has Its Day by Chip Scholz. Stories and reflections on the lessons found in everyday life. (Amazon Link)

• The Second Mountain by David Brooks. Exploring the shift from personal achievement toward meaning, commitment, and purpose. (Amazon Link)

   

What's Chip Reading?  A collection of approximately 140 short book reviews and reading recommendations, available through the books section of Chip's website.

Scholz & Associates | Official Website 

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Thanks for listening!

Never miss an episode of The Unshakable Life. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. And if this conversation helped you think differently about joy, identity, or learning how to seize the day again, share it with a friend who needs the reminder that they are not stuck where they are.

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• Why shame and fear can keep Christians isolated.
• The difference between emotional maturity and emotional suppression.
• How to recognize when fear is driving your decisions.
• Why slowing down matters when pursuing emotional healing.
• How Heather approaches prayer, listening to God, and identifying deeper struggles.
• The role of community in healing and spiritual growth.
• How to work through anger and disappointment with God.

• ✓ Shame can convince you that isolation is safer than asking for help.
• ✓ Fear may feel protective while keeping you from meaningful relationships and opportunities.
• ✓ Ignoring your emotions doesn't mean you've healed from them.
• ✓ Changing a behavior doesn't always address the desire or beliefs behind it.
• ✓ Prayer involves making time to listen as well as speaking.
• ✓ Healing can happen gradually as you recognize and work through deeper layers.
• ✓ You don't have to navigate your struggles alone. Community matters.
• ✓ Being honest about disappointment with God can open the door to a deeper conversation about trust.

00:00 Loving Jesus while struggling emotionally

02:00 How shame keeps Christians silent and isolated

06:00 When fear disguises itself as protection

08:00 Heather's personal battle with depression

12:00 Emotional maturity versus emotional suppression

15:00 Christian language, therapy speak, and accountability

19:00 Slowing down and learning to listen to God

22:00 Moving beyond symptoms to deeper struggles

27:00 Finding support when emotional noise is overwhelming

30:30 Working through anger and disappointment with God

34:00 Heather's Heal with God book and free workshop

Free Heal with God Workshop 

Join Heather's free monthly online workshop to learn her approach to prayer, identifying deeper struggles, and pursuing emotional healing with God.

Heal with God ( Amazon )

Heather's book offers practical prayer exercises, guidance on hearing God's voice, and a step-by-step approach to inner healing. Find out more on Heather's website .

Visit Heather's Podcast, Heal With God, and explore more of Heather's teaching on emotional healing, prayer, and developing a deeper relationship with God.  Podcast Link

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Support & Engage with the Show

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✅ Leave a 5-star review if this episode encouraged your faith.

✅ For more faith-driven leadership content, visit leadwithjim.com.

Thanks for listening!

Never miss an episode of The Unshakable Life. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. And if this conversation helped you think differently about joy, identity, or learning how to seize the day again, share it with a friend who needs the reminder that they are not stuck where they are.

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• How AI is already shaping our everyday lives and decisions.
• Why Christians should participate in conversations about emerging technology.
• How to use AI without surrendering your critical thinking.
• The difference between having information and exercising wisdom.
• Why spiritual formation matters more as technology advances.
• How churches can better prepare people for an AI-driven world.
• Why Christopher believes AI could create opportunities for greater human connection.

✅ AI is already woven into our lives, whether we recognize it or not.

✅ Christians have a responsibility to help shape technology's ethical use.

✅ Fear often grows when we lack the information needed to make thoughtful decisions.

✅ AI can be a valuable collaborator, but it should never replace personal discernment.

✅ Biblical literacy and Christian community help us recognize when outside influences are shaping our beliefs.

✅ Leaders must take responsibility for the ethical consequences of the technology they adopt.

✅ The church needs to engage more deeply with scientists, technologists, and the questions emerging from their work.

✅ Christopher sees an opportunity for AI to help us recognize our shared humanity and grow in grace toward one another.

00:00 Who are we becoming in the age of AI?

01:10 Meet Christopher Benek and his work in faith and technology

03:55 A hopeful Christian perspective on technological progress

08:35 Overcoming fear and taking part in the AI conversation

13:20 Developing your own ethical framework for AI

15:44 Science fiction, AI safety, and human responsibility

21:01 Avoiding AI idolatry through biblical literacy and discipleship

26:47 AI echo chambers, critical thinking, and finding your own voice

33:48 Where the church needs to grow in its understanding of AI

38:11 Why AI may challenge us to show greater grace and love

41:02 Sharing human wisdom with the next generation

Book: Church Leader's Guide to Artificial Intelligence ( Click Here ) 

Christopher's Personal Website: (Go Here)

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Thanks for listening!

Never miss an episode of The Unshakable Life. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. And if this conversation helped you think differently about joy, identity, or learning how to seize the day again, share it with a friend who needs the reminder that they are not stuck where they are.

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✓ Your ability to grow a business is partly limited by your capacity to handle its increasing complexity.

✓ Slowing down can give you enough clarity to recognize when you are making something harder than it needs to be.

✓ Over-systemizing often begins when a leader struggles to trust people, delegate, and allow others enough time to learn.

✓ A time and energy audit can reveal low-value activities that drain the energy you need for higher-level work.

✓ Changes in patience, anger, mental fog, and communication can be early signs that you are operating beyond a healthy capacity.

✓ David learned to build a business that fits his life instead of continually forcing his life to fit around the business.

✓ Movement, sleep, nutrition, timing, repetition, and community all play a role in maintaining brain performance.

✓ Christian stewardship includes asking whether the way you are running your business, relationships, and responsibilities reflects what God entrusted to you.

0:00 — Is your brain becoming the limitation in your business?

1:30 — From Midwest farm kid and serial entrepreneur to brain performance coach

3:11 — Hitting the ceiling of complexity in business

6:25 — Faith, logic, systems, and seeing God through creation

9:13 — When business success begins costing you your relationships

11:29 — Building a business that fits your life

15:52 — Increasing your capacity to handle what you have been given

18:31 — Over-systemizing, delegation, and the entrepreneur’s need for control

20:14 — Using a time and energy audit to decide what needs to leave your plate

23:15 — What David does when overwhelm and mental fog begin showing up

25:22 — Faith, stewardship, and asking whether God would be pleased with how you are running what He gave you

The Five Love Languages

Predictive Index

David Forster’s Brain Performance Index

DM David “UNSHAKABLE” on Instagram to request the Brain Performance Index.

Instagram: @rdavidforster
https://instagram.com/rdavidforster

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Support & Engage with the Show

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✅ Leave a 5-star review if this episode encouraged your faith.

✅ For more faith-driven leadership content, visit leadwithjim.com.

Thanks for listening!

Never miss an episode of The Unshakable Life. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. And if this conversation helped you think differently about joy, identity, or learning how to seize the day again, share it with a friend who needs the reminder that they are not stuck where they are.

Affiliate Disclosure:

Some of the links in the notes may be affiliate links, meaning we earn a small commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you.

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✓ Healthy relationships rarely develop by accident. They require deliberate attention and investment.

✓ Loss has a way of exposing what we valued but failed to fully appreciate while it was still available to us.

✓ Grief does not follow one predictable pattern, and its impact can surface years later through ordinary moments and major milestones.

✓ Maturity includes learning that relationships are about what we can give, not simply what another person can provide for us.

✓ Becoming a parent can reveal both what we received from our parents and what we want to do differently with our own children.

✓ Faith can give us perspective on mortality while still calling us to take responsibility for the choices and relationships in front of us.

✓ Reconciliation is not completely within our control, but we can take responsibility for the part that belongs to us.

✓ The assumption that there will always be another opportunity can become one of the most costly assumptions we make.

00:00 The relationship you may regret putting off
01:20 Mick’s story and Walking with Grizzlies
04:03 How his father’s death became a catalyst
06:27 Grief, emotion, and how men process loss
12:13 The lessons Mick missed while his father was alive
13:06 How losing his father changed the way Mick parents
16:56 Youthful arrogance and realizing what you failed to appreciate
19:49 Humility, selfishness, and becoming more relationally aware
22:51 How Mick’s faith shaped his understanding of loss
26:30 “I’ll call later” and the danger of assuming there is more time
29:57 What reconciliation looks like when the relationship is complicated
38:58 Walking with Grizzlies, The Walk, and the Grizzly Letters

Walking with Grizzlies: Lessons for Those with Dads

The Grizzly Letters

The Walk

Connect with Jim

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Thanks for listening!

Never miss an episode of The Unshakable Life. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. And if this conversation helped you think differently about joy, identity, or learning how to seize the day again, share it with a friend who needs the reminder that they are not stuck where they are.

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✓ Money is a tool that should help you move toward your purpose rather than become the purpose itself.

✓ Your bank statements and spending habits often reveal what you actually value more clearly than your intentions do.

✓ Identifying your signal gives you a clearer standard for deciding which opportunities deserve a yes and which require a no.

✓ Becoming a father forced Albert to recognize that his time and decisions affected people beyond himself.

✓ Legacy requires thinking beyond your own lifetime and considering what you are building for future generations.

✓ Failure becomes useful when you examine it, learn from it, and allow it to shape your next decision.

✓ Integrity is built through the decisions you make when nobody else is watching.

✓ Wisdom comes through evaluated experience, which is why reviewing your actions is essential to growth.

0:00 — What if success is costing you what matters most?

1:06 — Albert Butler on accounting, strategy, and stewardship

3:11 — Identifying your signal versus the noise

4:39 — What your money reveals about your decisions

7:39 — Fatherhood changes Albert’s definition of responsibility

10:43 — The flight to Singapore that sparked his book

15:06 — The One Word SWOT and discovering your current reality

20:29 — Failure as an opportunity for future success

23:17 — Learning to say no and protecting your direction

25:11 — Integrity, conviction, and doing the right thing privately

28:43 — Family finances and the Plan, Act, Review framework

LIFE: Truth, Love, Loss, Success & Failure

https://albertbutler.com

Affiliate Disclosure

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Thanks for listening!

Never miss an episode of The Unshakable Life. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. And if this conversation helped you think differently about joy, identity, or learning how to seize the day again, share it with a friend who needs the reminder that they are not stuck where they are.

Affiliate Disclosure:

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✅ Affiliate marketing is essentially referral marketing, where you recommend something to your audience and earn a commission when people buy through your link.

✅ Faith and affiliate marketing can work together, but only when integrity, service, and stewardship lead the way.

✅ The real issue is not whether Christians can make money online, but whether they can handle money, influence, and opportunity without being ruled by them.

✅ Jeff’s early success taught him that money can come quickly, but without character and foundation, it can also disappear quickly.

✅ Sustainable success requires more than tactics, posts, links, funnels, or platforms.

✅ Leadership begins with self-leadership, because you cannot lead others well if you are not willing to be formed yourself.

✅ Stewardship means recognizing that everything belongs to God and our job is to manage it faithfully.

✅ Trust, respect, love, and integrity are the foundation of lasting influence.

00:00 — Can Christians do affiliate marketing without compromise?

02:07 — Meet Jeff Ross and his life around faith, family, and business

03:37 — How a serious horse accident led Jeff into online marketing

05:36 — What affiliate marketing actually means

06:44 — Affiliate marketing vs. MLM

09:17 — Why frustration in affiliate marketing is really a leadership conversation

13:41 — Money, impact, and the lessons of early success

19:23 — From money-driven success to God-driven stewardship

21:39 — The emotional cost of failure and the long rebuild

28:00 — Why Jeff rejects prosperity doctrine and instant-gratification faith

32:47 — What stewardship means when God owns everything

38:27 — Control, pride, sin, responsibility, and surrender

48:04 — Where to connect with Jeff Ross

49:37 — Why real influence starts with inner transformation

You Don’t Need to Shout

Facebook: HERE

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Thanks for listening!

Never miss an episode of The Unshakable Life. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. And if this conversation helped you think differently about joy, identity, or learning how to seize the day again, share it with a friend who needs the reminder that they are not stuck where they are.

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✅ Being organized means you can accomplish your work and still enjoy your life.

✅ Your level of organization will change through different seasons of life.

✅ A clutter-free zone can help you build confidence and momentum.

✅ Internal clutter includes the thoughts, emotions, and stories that keep weighing you down.

✅ External clutter does not always mean something is wrong with you.

✅ Organization is not about making everything pretty. It is about making decisions that move your life forward.

✅ Systems can become clutter when they create gaps, redundancies, or confusion.

✅ The best system is the one that actually works for your life, your brain, and your season.

00:00 Clutter, overwhelm, overstimulation, and overfunctioning
00:34 Meet Kerry Thomas and her work with Conquer the Chaos
02:05 What it really means to be organized
03:40 Executive function, ADHD, and getting started
05:03 Choosing one clutter-free zone
06:02 Brain dumps, next steps, and building momentum
07:26 Internal clutter and the stories we tell ourselves
11:12 The connection between external clutter and internal clutter
16:03 The weight of clutter and decision fatigue
23:01 Spiritual clutter, prayer, routines, and faith
27:07 Systems clutter, gaps, redundancies, and where to start

Conquer the Chaos

Less Clutter, More Peace

From Clutter to Clarity

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Thanks for listening!

Never miss an episode of The Unshakable Life. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. And if this conversation helped you think differently about joy, identity, or learning how to seize the day again, share it with a friend who needs the reminder that they are not stuck where they are.

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✅ Community becomes easier to recognize when you know who you are.

✅ Your values are often revealed by where your time, money, and energy actually go.

✅ Serving everyone else can become unhealthy when it disconnects you from your own needs.

✅ Saying no is not selfish when it allows you to steward your life more faithfully.

✅ When you always volunteer first, you may be preventing someone else from stepping up.

✅ Accepting help allows other people to participate in the grace God may want to give through them.

✅ Clarity often comes when we slow down enough to listen.

✅ You can have needs, acknowledge those needs, and still live a life of service.

00:00 Losing yourself while caring for everyone else
00:35 Meet Marie Smith and Golden Hour Coaching
01:54 Why community feels harder as adults
04:30 Knowing who you are before finding your people
08:00 Marie’s story of losing herself in motherhood and service
11:41 Therapy, reframing, and learning the power of no
13:18 Hearing God after letting go of false identities
18:05 Achievement, productivity, and tying worth to doing
20:06 Learning to receive help after major surgery
26:02 Saying no, the sacred pause, and making room for better yeses
31:17 Stress tools, the SOS guide, and where to find Marie

Stress SOS Guide

Golden Hour Coaching

Jesus in My Pocket: Stories of Grace and Final Chapters in the Nursing Home

Instagram and Facebook

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✅ Leave a 5-star review if this episode encouraged your faith.

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Thanks for listening!

Never miss an episode of The Unshakable Life. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. And if this conversation helped you think differently about joy, identity, or learning how to seize the day again, share it with a friend who needs the reminder that they are not stuck where they are.

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