He led people carrying poverty, violence, and sexual abuse—and hit a brutal truth: he wasn’t equipped. What happened next turned a week of raw storytelling into a profound breakthrough in healing.

I Couldn’t Help Them

What if the answer to burnout isn’t more self-control, but making something beautiful? This clip flips grind culture on its head with a hopeful, almost rebellious idea: the best version of you shows up when you create, not when you punish yourself.

Forget Discipline—Create Instead

This didn’t start with confidence or a perfect plan—it started with desperation. In a brutally honest turn, they reveal how leadership coaching was born from brokenness, survival mode, and the pressure to make a living when everything felt like it was falling apart.

Broke, Burned Out, Then Built a Career

A brutal year of daily writing turned discipline into freedom. This is the surprisingly emotional case for choosing lifelong creative work over burnout, retirement, and having it all figured out.

365 Days of Writing Changed Everything

This hits a nerve: the real reason so many people lose energy isn’t laziness—it’s living out of sync with who they really are. A sharp, emotional take on identity, values, and the slow drift that quietly wrecks your life.

Why You Feel Stuck

He says every leader is trapped in a foxhole, taking hits from every side—and the real power move is having someone jump in with you. A raw, visual take on leadership that turns burnout, isolation, and pressure into something brutally relatable.

Leading Feels Like a Gunfight

A 46-year-old donor didn’t just give $500 a month—he gave his final year, showing up every Thursday to coach, guide, and pour into a mission bigger than himself. The last text? “Heading to hospice, pray for me.” It’s a devastating story of sacrifice, gratitude, and a legacy that hits hard.

He Mentored Him Until Hospice

Behind the polished confidence, so many leaders are quietly battling impostor syndrome, isolation, and the exhausting pressure to fake it. This clip hits a nerve for anyone who’s ever looked successful on the outside while feeling completely alone inside.

The Lonely Lie Every Leader Lives

One brutal pause changed everything: “Everybody showed up… except you.” What starts as a public call-out turns into a raw, rage-filled moment—and an offer of help that hits way too deep.

He Called Him Out Cold

One brutally simple line hits harder than most self-help books: your worst version might be the one that only consumes. It’s a sharp, uncomfortable wake-up call for anyone stuck scrolling, taking in, and not making anything that matters.

Create More Than You Consume

Phil Fontaine of Faith Driven Jobs joins us to talk about building a career around people and relationships. He traces his path from early jobs through sales and recruiting into coaching, and talks about team identity, self-worth, and the people who shaped him along the way. Phil shares his advice on trusting God with what's next, his hope of becoming a community connector, and why pausing leads to more purposeful connections. He closes with practical networking tips and, of course, his cereal-for-dinner pick.

Phil Fontaine has spent his career at the intersection of people and opportunity. His background spans executive recruiting, leadership and career coaching, ministry work, and resume services. After years in that work, he kept noticing two gaps.

The first was on the organizational side. Faith-driven businesses, nonprofits, churches, and schools struggle to find people who are not just qualified but genuinely aligned with their mission. And believers who want to target faith-driven organizations had no clear place to go. The general job boards were not built for that. Faith Driven Jobs is.

The second was on the candidate side. Hardly anyone knows how to search for a job effectively, and the landscape is changing quickly, causing confusion. The way candidates find opportunities, present themselves, and navigate hiring processes looks different than it did even a few years ago.

Faith Driven Jobs is the natural extension of everything Phil has spent his career doing: helping people find a higher calling in their vocation and helping organizations find the kingdom-driven people they have been looking for.

This episode is brought to you by QuestionFuel: https://questionfuel.ai/scorecard?rep=RJ

Phil's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-fontaine-vi/
Faith Driven Jobs: https://www.faithdrivenjob.com
RJ Caswell: https://www.rjcaswell.com

Phil Fontaine on Building a People-Centered Career

In this episode, Zach Barnett talks about the hospitality lessons he took from Chick-fil-A, his move from football into athletics, and how that path shaped his relationship-first approach to fundraising. At the heart of the conversation is Zach's Generosity Wheel, a way of thinking about generosity as more than money, built around your skills, your values, and the causes you care about. Plus, Zach's cereal-for-dinner pick.

Generosity was part of Zach Barnett's life before it became his work. People shared what they knew, showed up for him, and said things he still carries. Zach believes people have skills, connections, and experience they want to share, too. Often, they just need help finding where to begin. That's what he writes, speaks, and teaches about: putting what we have to work for someone else.

This episode is brought to you by QuestionFuel: https://questionfuel.ai/scorecard?rep=RJ

Zach's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zach-b-a619ab5a/
Zach's website: https://zachdbarnett.com
Generous Humans: https://generoushumans.com
RJ Caswell: https://www.rjcaswell.com

Zach Barnett on Redefining Generosity

In this episode, Nick Kalenichenko traces his path from data science to people-centered work. He talks about the first person who believed in him before he believed in himself, and how his story led him to start Kingdom Kickbacks and grow it into a nonprofit. Nick talks about the tension between building systems in an organization and keeping real Christian community for the person who shows up alone. He also explains why he left consulting to found Alyra Technology and compares starting a nonprofit with starting a for-profit business. Throughout, he comes back to why relationships matter in both business and ministry. To close, Nick shares his hopes for the next five years, gives advice to recent graduates trying to build community in a new city, and answers the rapid-fire question: which cereal would he pick for dinner?

This episode is brought to you by QuestionFuel: https://questionfuel.ai/scorecard?rep=RJ

Nick's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickkalenichenko/
Alyra Technology: https://www.alyratechnology.com
WorkProduct.ai: https://www.workproduct.ai
Kingdom Kickbacks: https://www.kingdomkickbacks.com
RJ Caswell: https://www.rjcaswell.com

Nick Kalenichenko on Building Community Through Business and Ministry

In this episode, Jon Lane shares how he helps donors and investors steward capital for meaningful, lasting impact at Impact Foundation — and how a path through financial planning, microfinance, and nonprofit leadership shaped a conviction that resources, values, and purpose belong together. Jon Lane is a Senior Advisor at Impact Foundation, partnering with Donor/Investors to thoughtfully steward capital for meaningful, lasting impact. With a background that bridges financial planning and global impact investing, Jon is passionate about helping individuals align their resources with their values and purpose. Jon graduated from Liberty University with a bachelor's in Business Administration (Financial Planning) and maintains both CFP® and CKA® designations. Prior to joining Impact Foundation, Jon served as an Associate Advisor at Blue Trust, where he supported clients in their stewardship journeys. He also spent time with HOPE International as Performance Analysis Manager for Microfinance, leading a team dedicated to strengthening financial institutions supporting underserved communities around the world. Jon also currently serves as board chair for UrbanPromise Latin America, supporting youth development initiatives across the region. Jon lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with his wife, Marlen. Outside of work, he enjoys running, hiking, and writing about soccer across the FIFA Concacaf region. This episode is brought to you by QuestionFuel: https://questionfuel.ai/scorecard?rep=RJ Impact Foundation: https://www.impactfoundation.org Jon's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-lane-cfp/ RJ Caswell: https://www.rjcaswell.com

Jon Lane on Integrating Purpose and Work

In this episode, Bill Cummings shares his journey from leadership in faith communities and nonprofits to leading Liminal, a branding agency serving justice-focused nonprofits. We talk about the relationships and partnerships that shape meaningful work, and what it looks like to build a career around making people's lives better. Bill loves building meaningful relationships and partnerships with the hope that people's lives are made better in the process. After serving in leadership roles for many years in faith communities and nonprofit organizations, he's now the CEO of Liminal, a branding agency that works with justice-focused nonprofits. Bill and his wife Cherie have twin adult sons and a daughter in college, and they live in Raleigh, NC. This episode is brought to you by QuestionFuel: https://questionfuel.ai/scorecard?rep=RJ Liminal: https://meetliminal.com Bill's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billkcummings/ RJ Caswell: https://www.rjcaswell.com

Bill Cummings on Relationships, Partnerships and Purpose-Driven Work

In this episode, Gabe Smith shares his perspective on what he calls congruent leadership — aligning who you are, what you value, and how you lead — and how his journey from West Point and Army Infantry to executive advisory shaped it. Gabe Smith is an executive advisor and leadership coach who helps CEOs, founders, executives, and leadership teams lead with greater clarity, alignment, and confidence, whether they're navigating growth, working through a leadership challenge, or stepping back to ask whether the way they're leading is aligned with who they actually want to be. He calls that alignment congruence, also the idea at the heart of his book, Congruent: Align Who You Are, What You Value, and How You Lead Into a Life That Flows. Gabe's perspective on leadership was shaped in part by his military background. A West Point graduate and Ranger-qualified former Army Infantry Officer, he was at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, and later led soldiers in combat operations in Mosul, Iraq. Since leaving the Army, he's spent more than two decades building organizations, leading teams, developing leaders, and advising executives at the intersection of leadership, growth, purpose, and responsibility. Today his work includes executive advisory, leadership coaching, team alignment, speaking and keynotes, and writing and teaching on congruent leadership. This episode is brought to you by QuestionFuel: https://questionfuel.ai/scorecard?rep=RJ Gabe's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabesmithwork/ Gabe's website: https://www.gabesmith.work RJ Caswell: https://www.rjcaswell.com

Gabe Smith on Congruent Leadership — Aligning Who You Are with How You Lead

In this episode, Bryan Berry shares the story behind his move to Charlotte, the transplant and career shift that led him to My Purpose Plan, and how a chance meeting turned into a full-on partnership. We dig into what My Purpose Plan actually does for teams and operators, why the business ultimately narrowed its focus, and what makes a partnership genuinely work. Bryan also opens up about the people who believed in him before he believed in himself, and closes with a rapid-fire cereal-for-dinner pick.

Bryan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryankberry/
My Purpose Plan: https://www.mypurposeplan.com
RJ Caswell: https://www.rjcaswell.com

Bryan Berry on Finding Purpose, Partnership, and My Purpose Plan

RJ Caswell (@rjcaswell) · Zencastr

RJ Caswell (@rjcaswell)

Skip the pitch. Cereal for Dinner is a kitchen-counter conversation with leaders of churches, nonprofits, and faith-driven businesses about the relationships, hard seasons, and partnerships that shaped them. Hosted by RJ Caswell.