I spend most of my week being the guy with an answer. Clients hire me for it.
My kids expect it. Most of my life doesn't actually run that way.
I've never hidden that. It just doesn't get much room.
No Stage, Just a Chair is the room. Everywhere else, the searching is for
someone: a decision that has to get made, a kid who needs an answer at ten at
night. Here it isn't in service of anything. I bring in whatever I haven't
gotten to the bottom of, and I don't get to the bottom of it here either.
I keep getting up different than I sat down.
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Some nights I’d wake up to a little pile of blonde hair on the pillow next to me. My youngest never said a word. He’d climb in under the covers sometime after I fell asleep, and I’d find him there.
We’d lived in a small apartment for about two years when we found a house for us. Right neighborhood, right street. I sat the boys down and told them we were moving. My youngest looked at me and asked, “Why are we moving into a new house, Dad?”
I said they were getting older and I wanted them to have a little more room.
He grinned. “You realize we’re still gonna end up in your bed, right?”
I laughed a little. He was serious.
I thought I was handing him what he wanted. He’d just told me what he actually wanted, and he’d been telling me every night.
He wasn’t asking for space or things. He wanted closer. And I can see now that we didn’t pick the house, we picked the life. The street, the school I could see from the front porch, everybody who walked past it.
🎧 No Stage, Just a Chair
For people who are changed by the search for truth.
Full episode on Apple Podcasts, YouTube and Spotify.
Before You Listen:
- Your kid asks for a ride, a snack, five minutes. What are they actually asking for, and when did you last answer that instead?
- You can name what your house cost. Can you name what the street gave your kids, and would you have paid for that on purpose?
- Who is already living inside a decision you made years ago, and does it feel to them like a gift or a bill?
13 Oct 2026
It’s Easy to Be Wrong From the Couch
A man who’s been in the music industry for thirty years sat down at a dinner table with me in Nashville and said, “I don’t think anybody really cares anymore. I don’t think anybody wants to make great music. They just want to make a living and get rich.”
He really believed it.
All week I’d been around young artists full of hope. They had goals, and they knew where they wanted to go. Then this man, who isn’t playing anymore, told me what thirty years of disappointment and hurt and probably a thousand good reasons had left him with.
It made me sad to hear. Somewhere in those thirty years he’d stopped believing.
I disagreed with him out loud. He said, “Give it time, you’ll see that I’m right.”
Then I got in the car. The harshness I’d just argued against at the table was waiting for me there, alone.
I’d like to say I was strong enough to shake it off. I’m not sure that’s what happened.
🎧 No Stage, Just a Chair
For people who are changed by the search for truth.
Full episode on Apple Podcasts, YouTube and Spotify.
Before You Listen:
- When disappointment teaches you something, how do you stay engaged instead of jaded?
- What’s the difference between hope you can say in a room and hope you can still find in the car?
- What truth keeps you hopeful?
6 Oct 2026
Lost People Walk in Circles and Swear They're Going Straight
I was never a very good Boy Scout. My best friend could tie every knot. I mostly liked camping out and making s'mores. But I still remember the rule for when you're lost. Don't trust your sense of direction.
At 33, with kids on the way, I felt lost. My dad had always looked ten feet tall and bulletproof, no gaps in the armor. I kept holding the mess I felt up against the man I could see.
Then I started asking around. Friends, mentors, counselors. Nobody felt like they had it together.
Nobody.
When I'm lost, I grab. What helps is slower than that. Something far enough away that it doesn't move when I do. A few trusted people. A few things I've known about myself for a long time.
In a world where everything moves, our landmarks have to be true.
🎧 No Stage, Just a ChairFor people who are changed by the search for truth.
Full episode on Apple Podcasts, YouTube and Spotify.
Before You Listen:
What's the biggest decision you've made just to stop feeling lost?
Who asks you the hard question because they love you, and who asks because they like being right?
What did you know about yourself at 15 that's still true?
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