Fear gives way to faith.
Isolation melts into belonging.
The stuck places break open... and life begins to flow again.
On this show, we sit around the fire — so to speak — and listen to the real stories of everyday heroes: men and women who have found freedom and stepped into the unforced purpose they were made for.
If you’re tired of striving... if you’re longing to breathe deep, break free, and come alive — you’re in the right place.
"You're the Angry Guy in the Story": Alex Knoop on Burning Out in the Wrong Seat
"This story is about you. You're the angry guy in the story."
Alex Knoop's business partner told him that in 2024, after two storms hit Houston six weeks apart and Alex hit a wall running operations for the restoration company they own together. Max had just read the Working Genius book Alex gave him. A month later, Alex told him he was right.
Alex co-founded WayForward with Todd Pinkston and has guided backcountry trips for twenty years. He talks about the 2013 hailstorm that almost wrecked the first trip, why a 35-year-old is a lot like a 17-year-old, the six months he and Todd tried to share one seat, and why he'd rather be the assistant coach.
Listen in, especially if you've gotten very good at a job you aren't wired for.
00:00 A burned-out founder called out by his partner
03:41 An untested route, and the call to turn back
06:43 Make a plan, hold it loosely
09:52 A quiet, gangly kid short on confidence
11:40 What he hopes his kids know
14:29 Wired to explore, and "missing the boat" in his 20s
18:27 At 22, faith moves from do's and don'ts to freedom
19:18 "A 35-year-old is a lot like a 17-year-old"
21:52 Dropping the mask at home (and Steven's get-along shirt)
25:33 Kristen, conflict, and switching formats
28:55 Buying a company with his best friend
31:15 Two storms, a wall, and "You're the angry guy in the story"
34:21 How an engineer ends up in the ops seat
36:21 Advice to 25-year-old Alex: "I wish my title was Friend"
38:24 "Work means being in the chair"
41:30 The next 44 years
42:45 Burgers, a whiteboard, and how WayForward started
45:51 Six months in the same seat
47:58 The offsite feedback, and the guy between big picture and details
52:22 Every position on the field, and maps that lie
55:32 Three-game winner: why he'd rather be the assistant coach
58:03 How do you stay where your boots are while running a business?
1:02:11 Why he keeps inviting people into the backcountry
1:06:40 "Meathead": Todd and Alex on twenty years of friendship
1:10:58 An open invite for 2027
Unstuck and Alive Podcast with Todd Pinkston & Steven J. Neuner, authors of Unstuck and Alive https://www.unstuckandalive.com/
WayForward Adventures: https://www.wayforwardadventures.com/
30 Sept 2026
"I Have No Idea Who I Am": Josh Self on Masks, Money Scripts, and Doing the Work
Josh Self was one of the youngest CFPs in the country, and twenty years into a successful financial planning practice he hit the thing he'd watched clients hit for two decades: "I thought this was going to be different." Then the harder version: "I have no idea who I am."
He grew up moving every two or three years, nine schools between kindergarten and twelfth grade, and got very good at reading a room, finding the cool kids, and acting like them. It worked into his 30s. It also had him leading a business through depression and anxiety behind a smile, one mask at the office and another at home.
This conversation with Todd Pinkston and Steven J. Neuner covers what he did about it: therapy, in a family where that wasn't done; two real friends instead of the deal friends he'd been collecting; and an adventure podcast that started as a hobby and ended up rebranding his firm. It also gets into money, from a planner who includes himself in the diagnosis. Everyone has a money script, and Josh's traces to a $10 bat bag his dad bought him right after getting demoted. Clients at every level of net worth ask him the same question, "Is it enough?", and he admits the fear is in his own DNA.
For any high achiever who got what they wanted and still feels the drift. "You don't get to the other side of that without doing the work."
16 Sept 2026
"I Just Lost All Your Money": Bo Barron on Failing Fast, Owning It, and Paying Everyone Back
In 2011, Bo Barron went home and told his wife he had just lost a quarter of a million dollars. Then he went to people he saw at church on Sunday and said, "I just lost all your money. Give me a little time, but you'll get it all back."
Bo is a former Marine, a second-generation commercial real estate guy who bought the company from his dad and then sold it all to co-found HearthStone Capital. He's the kind of leader who shows up in a room and you can tell what he loves. He's also a recovering people pleaser who once started an insurance company on a handshake with a partner he never vetted, and it failed fast. His diagnosis, years later: "I fell in love with the idea of the future and I ignored the realities of the present."
This conversation runs from a church camp in Litchfield, Kentucky, where a hog farmer in a John Deere hat gave a 10-year-old the Gospel "Barney style," to a Marine recruiter who said he wasn't smart enough, to a first Sunday at boot camp where a man from a family of "a large amount of emotional control" wept for an hour and knew exactly what he was going to do with his life. It lands on a question Bo can't stop thinking about: if there's only one real Leader, what does that make the rest of us?
For any builder who's ever wondered what would happen if the deal went sideways and everybody knew.
Connect with Bo: barroncommercial.com | Commercially Speaking podcast: youtube.com/@commerciallyspeaking
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