Beyond the Crucible
You are more than your failures and setbacks. We share stories of leaders who have moved beyond life’s most difficult moments to lead lives of significance, and insights on how you can do the same. Hosted by Warwick Fairfax.
Episodes
Best of 2025 3: Meet Our "Actionable Truths"
Our research into how people experience crucibles and chart a path beyond them led us to identify a core set of "actionable truths" — 10 in all — that will help you overcome the impediments you face as you navigate your unique journey from trials to triumph.
In this first episode of what we're calling the series within the show, we'll discuss the insight...
Best of 2025 2: Gregory Vetter Gained Much After Losing His $300 Million Business:
Gregory Vetter describes the shock and loss he felt over losing the $300 million dollar salad dressing business he and his brothers built using their mother's recipe.
They were forced to file for bankruptcy, he says, because of a legal battle with greedy and unscrupulous investors. He may have lost millions of dollars, but not his entrepren...
Best of 2025 1: Big Screen, Big Crucibles: Les Miserables
You've heard us talk a lot over the years at Beyond the Crucible about the power of forgiveness — and that's one of the core themes of our discussion this week of LES MISERABLES, the fourth film in our summer series BIG SCREEN, BIG CRUCIBLES.
Everyone in the movie experiences a crucible, but those who receive and then extend mercy and forgiveness to others are the ones who fin...
Applying the Actionable Truths 10: Significance
This week, in the final episode of our yearlong series within the show on the actionable truths of the Beyond the Crucible roadmap, we discuss just how we can get to a life of significance as we navigate our way back from a crucible.
Pay special attention near the end, when Warwick lays out each one of the truths we covered in order, offering a step-by-step process that can ensu...
How To Assist, Not Control, Those You Want to Help
Have you ever found yourself thinking you're helping someone but you were really trying to fix them in a way that's not helpful to either of you?
If so, you'll want to listen to this discussion of Warwick's latest blog at beyondthecrucible.com Beyond The Crucible dot com, in which he lays out several ways you can stop yourself before your actions get out of h...
Our guest this week, John Ulsh, spent 18 days in a coma after he and his family were in a high-speed head-on car crash. And that was just the beginning of the ordeal he endured.
Given just a 3 percent chance to live, enduring more than 45 surgeries to piece his broken body back together, he has not let the pain keep him from discovering his purpose: helping others overcome adversity and finding strength in their struggles.
To...
Applying the Actionable Truths 9: Redemption
Redemption. It's what we all want — what we all need — after a crucible. How do we get there — and stay there when in walking out our vision for a life of significance when life gets challenging.
That's what we talk about this week. You'll want to pay special attention when we talk about the value of keeping a purple file.
To explore Beyond the Crucible resources, in...
Justice Denied, But She's Still Pursuing It: Kristin Louise Duncombe
Our guest this week, Kristin Louise Duncombe, describes this week the horror of the molestation she suffered as a preteen girl at the hands of an American diplomat who was also her best friend's father.
Even after her abuser was exposed, he was not brought to justice by the American government for decades — and still, to this day, never for his abuse...
Embrace Your Wounds To Conquer Their Power Over You
Aftershocks from a crucible you have experienced are common, as are wounds that be might independent of those crucibles.
As we discuss this week, it's critical you identify and create a strategy to neutralize those wounds and aftershocks as you pursue your life of significance.
How? Warwick's got eight tips for you in his latest blog at BeyondTheCruciible.com, Wou...
He Gained A Lot After Losing His $300 Million Business: Gregory Vetter
Our guest this week, Gregory Vetter, describes the shock and loss he felt over losing the $300 million dollar salad dressing business he and his brothers built using their mother's recipe.
They were forced to file for bankruptcy, he says, because of a legal battle with greedy and unscrupulous investors. He may have lost millions of dollars, but not his entrepreneu...
Applying the Actionable Truths 8: Perseverance
Arriving at the place after a crucible where you believe you have what it takes to overcome setbacks and failures is only possible, we discuss today, if we're able to muster and maintain perseverance.
That's why it's the 8th actionable truth in our Beyond The Crucible Roadmap — essential for turning trials into triumphs. And listen closely — you won't want to miss...
The Healing Power of Hidden Medicine: Dr. Thomas McCormack
That's our guest this week, Dr. Thomas McCormack, has done pioneering research into how adding a spiritual component to psychiatric and medical care can have a powerful impact.
The medical discipline he pioneered — rouachiatry — takes a 12-step approach to helping patients find healing, especially in the wake of crucibles, by leaning into such things as finding pe...
Aim for Healing, Not a Cure, After a Crucible: Sharon Land
Her life was in complete upheaval. Her future was uncertain. But her mind was made up.
Our guest this week, Sharon Land, recounts how a devastating relationship crucible, plus the health crisis of suffering a stroke in her 30s, led her to pursue true wellness — first for herself, and then for others as a licensed holistic therapist, high performance mentor and transfo...
Building a Life-Changing Gratitude Habit
How do we train our brains, hearts and souls to dial into gratitude? That's the ground we cover today as we look at Warwick's latest blog — How to Tap Into the Life Changing Power of Gratitude.
We explore seven steps that will help you focus more regularly on being grateful. And, as a bonus, we also discuss the physical, psychological and social benefits of living from an attit...
Applying the Actionable Truths 7: Fellow Travelers
People you can trust. Who don't have hidden agendas. Who are truly on the same page. That's who you need to look for when you are building a team of fellow travelers, which we discuss this week on the seventh episode of our series within the show on the Beyond the Crucible Roadmap.
How do you find them? As we say here, you can learn a lot from Frodo's companions in THE LORD OF THE RI...
She Lost Millions and Found Her True Calling: Amy Shippy
Broken and shattered. These are familiar emotions after a crucible — especially one that forces you to start over after losing a multi-million-dollar business.
But start over is exactly what our guest this, week, Amy Shippy did — and continues to do. She's started four new businesses, including the one she says is her true calling to a life of significance — Lady Bi...
Summer Reflections: Rest is a Weapon for a Life of Significance
Prioritizing rest. Taking the time to take a break. It can sound counterintuitive to living a life of significance, but as we discuss this week, it's actually critical to it.
Why and how? We discuss several reasons why slowing down can actually speed up your readiness to live a life on purpose, dedicated to serving others. And it all starts with remembering the words of ...
Big Screen, Big Crucibles VIII: The Monuments Men
In this final episode of our summer series, BIG SCREEN, BIG CRUCIBLES, we discuss the crucibles and the overcoming of them in THE MONUMENTS MEN.
That's the name given during WWII to the ragtag team of art historians and curators who form a unit to recover stolen art before Hitler destroys it. The mission becomes urgent, and their crucibles more difficult, when they learn o...
This week, in the seventh episode of our summer series, BIG SCREEN, BIG CRUCIBLES, we look at INVICTUS.
It's the story of how after apartheid, President Nelson Mandela uses the national rugby team to unite a deeply divided South Africa and win the 1995 Rugby World Cup, transforming a nation through the universal language of sport.
It would prove to be a crucible-riddled pursuit that requires all of Mandela's intellige...
Big Screen, Big Crucibles VI: Erin Brockovich
Making a significant difference is the goal of anyone hoping to lead a life of significance. And it's certainly the vision the title character of ERIN BOCKOVICH is committed to living out.
This week, in episode six of our summer series BIG SCREEN, BIG CRUCIBLES, we discuss how Erin overcomes being underestimated and seizes the opportunity her job at a law firm gives her to hel...
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