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Lead long enough and it will find you. The email that lands wrong on a Tuesday morning. The comment after a sermon that won’t let go by Thursday. The board member who says what everyone else was thinking but wouldn’t say out loud.

Here’s what forty years of leadership teaches you: if you’re leading and nobody’s ever criticised you, you’re probably not leading much. Craig Groeschel put it plainly: “If you’re not open to criticism, you’re not open to leadership.” Criticism isn’t a sign you’ve failed. It’s a sign you’re visible enough to matter.

In this episode, Carson, Chuck, and Ingrid sit with that. Not to make criticism comfortable, because it rarely is, but to help mentor leaders to tell the difference between feedback that’s shaping them and noise that’s just trying to wound them.

And as is their style, they don’t leave it theoretical. Proverbs 27:6 grounds the idea that a friend’s wounds can be trusted. Matthew 5 shows a leader who bore constant criticism and stayed the course anyway. And they get honest about the harder case: criticism that’s simply unfair, born from misunderstanding rather than any real mistake, and how to tell the two apart without losing your footing in the process.

Three things worth carrying out of this conversation.

1. Pause before responding.

2. Separate the message from how it was delivered.

3. And ask, every time, whether this touches your values and your calling, or whether it’s just noise you’re free to release.

They flip it around too. Most leaders will give criticism at some point, to a staff member, a volunteer, their own kids. Ephesians 4:15 offers a line worth building a leadership on: speak the truth in love. That’s the whole art in five words.

Here’s the question worth carrying into this episode: when criticism stings the most, is it usually because it’s wrong, or because it’s true?

So grab a cup or glass of your favourite beverage and join this important leadership conversation.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:34 — 57.8MB)

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Everyone has a story. The real question is whether you know how to read yours.

In this Season 2 finale, Carson, Chuck, and Ingrid dig into one of the most underused tools in a mentor’s hands — story. Not storytelling as a presentation skill, but story as the lens through which we understand our own lives, and help others understand theirs.

Dan Allender puts it plainly: most people miss the deeper meaning of their own life because they don’t know how to read it. And as John McCauley adds, we’re not actually designed to read our stories accurately on our own. That’s where a mentor comes in.

The conversation covers a lot of ground: the neuroscience behind why stories stick (Dr. Paul Zak’s work on oxytocin is worth knowing about), the danger of fixed narratives — those internal scripts that quietly limit us — and the extraordinary thing that happens when a mentor believes a better story about you before you can believe it yourself. They call it “borrowed belief.” It’s one of the most honest descriptions of what good mentoring actually does.

Ingrid shares how she draws people’s stories out in practice. Carson brings the biblical frame — Jesus was, after all, history’s most effective storyteller. And the whole conversation ends with a practical challenge you can act on this week.

To our 13,000-plus listeners: Season 2 has been something. Thank you for being part of it. Season 3 is coming.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:09 — 53.4MB)

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There’s a kind of leader who commands a room without raising their voice. And there’s another kind who needs a title to be taken seriously. They are not the same.

In this milestone 50th episode, Carson, Chuck, and Ingrid sit down with a question that cuts to the heart of every leader’s journey: Where does your authority actually come from?

Institutional power is given. Spiritual authority is grown — slowly, often painfully, through faithfulness in hidden places. But in a world that rewards platforms, metrics, and organizational rank, it’s easy to confuse the two. And that confusion has consequences — for your team, your family, and your own soul.

This conversation doesn’t offer easy answers. It asks better questions. What does it look like to lead from a place of genuine calling rather than positional leverage? What happens when your title disappears — do you still have something worth following? And how do you build the kind of authority that outlasts any role you’ll ever hold?

Whether you lead a congregation, a company, or a family — this episode is worth your time.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:33 — 63.3MB)

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Episode 46 shines a light on resilience as a major transformative force in leadership and life. Hosts Carson Pue, Ingrid Davis, and Chuck Davis redefine resilience—not just as bouncing back, but as bouncing forward, growing stronger through life’s challenges. They share heartfelt stories, practical wisdom, and spiritual insights to inspire listeners to embrace resistance as a gift that builds strength.

With themes of vulnerability, recovery, and continuous growth, this episode encourages everyone to see setbacks as stepping stones and to lead with courage, faith, and perseverance. Resilience isn’t perfection—it’s the power to keep moving forward.