My Lighthouse: She Found Me When I Was Ready To Quit

She Was in the Room When Both My Parents Died

After 30 years of watching the James family from the front pew, Cora Varvell sits down with Michael for a conversation neither of them fully expected. She saw the man his father was at church, and heard from Michael's mother what he was at home. In this episode: the childhood that made Michael call church "a fraud," the cross-country bike ride that broke him open, the father who became his biggest fan through care packages mailed to small-town post offices, and the revelation Michael learns on air: that Cora was at the bedside, singing hymns, the night his dad slipped away. A story about what it costs to carry hurt, and what it takes to put it down. Follow Cora Varvell and her husband C.L. on their YouTube channel, From the Holler to the World: @FromtheHollertotheWorld New episodes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 6 PM.

Run Your Body Like a Business with Dr. Tom Incledon

Dr. Tom Incledon, PhD, is the founder and CEO of Causenta Wellness, a cancer treatment and performance center in Scottsdale, Arizona that sees patients from 90 countries. His story doesn't follow a straight line. Raised by a single mom two standard deviations below poverty, accepted to medical school as a young teenager, a self-made millionaire in computer hardware before 21, and then he walked away from all of it to train for the Olympics. Injuries, car accidents, and partial paralysis later put him in a wheelchair. Today he hangs from a bar for two minutes at 240 pounds. In this conversation, Michael and Dr. Tom get into why most people manage their health like a bad investor, keeping it in the expense column instead of the asset column. They cover the "movement snacks" approach that replaces hour-long workouts, why your microbiome matters more than your macros, the two-minute rule that has never failed in 40 years of working with patients, and where stem cell therapy is actually headed versus the hype. Learn more about Dr. Tom: causenta.com [http://causenta.com] Nothing in this episode is medical advice. Talk to your own healthcare provider before making treatment decisions.

This Season Is Conditioning You, Not Feeding You

This episode wasn't planned. Michael opens up about something most business podcast hosts never admit: while teaching frameworks for success, he's been battling self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and mornings where he doesn't want to get out of bed. What follows is an unfiltered team conversation about what a hard season actually does to you, and what it's for. Inside this episode: * Why Michael says "I feel like a liar" hosting a success podcast during a losing streak * The scarcity trap: how reacting to slow business makes it slower * Baron's guitar tuning analogy. You're always tuned to something, so what frequency are you locked into? * "This season is conditioning me, not feeding me," the reframe from Michael's coach * The cocoon truth nobody mentions: a caterpillar doesn't eat in the chrysalis, it digests its own body * How one gratitude practice visibly shifted an entire team call in a week If you're in a season where everything feels restrictive and nothing's working, this conversation is the permission slip to stop reacting and start transforming.

Pushing the Chips In: The Mindset Behind Building a Legacy

Before Michael James scaled his remodeling company past seven figures, he made a decision that mirrored something he'd done years earlier on a solo bike ride across the country: Push all the chips in. No turning back, no plan B, all in. In this solo episode, Michael reflects on the parallel between that cycling trip and the journey of building his business, from a million dollars in revenue to multiples of that today, and the mindset shifts required to keep going when the results aren't showing yet. He breaks down the "sleep, creep, leap" pattern of growth, why setbacks aren't a sign to quit, and how gratitude, not grinding, is often the real starting point for momentum. Michael also shares the math behind Mel Robbins selling out the Fox Theater in Atlanta, the rejection stories behind Coca Cola, Walt Disney, J.K. Rowling, and Michael Jordan, and what it really looks like behind the scenes of a company chasing a $100M goal, including two acquisition conversations that could add $13M in revenue almost overnight. In this episode: * The "all in" decision that changed the trajectory of his business * Why setbacks don't justify quitting, even when they feel like permission to * The "sleep, creep, leap" pattern most businesses go through before visible growth * The math behind Mel Robbins selling out the Fox Theater in Atlanta * Why rejection (Disney, Rowling, Jordan, Coca Cola) is part of every success story * Two acquisition opportunities that could add $13M to the company's revenue Sources referenced in this episode: * Mel Robbins, "5,4,3,2,1, The Count Down to Success" — https://youtu.be/_BNDdamTDak [https://youtu.be/_BNDdamTDak] * Michael Jordan, "Failure" Commercial — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA7G7AV-LT8 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA7G7AV-LT8] * J.K. Rowling, "Is A Billionaire Again" — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ8E7On0IfU [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ8E7On0IfU] * Walt Disney, Disneyland 1955 Opening Dedication Speech — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-Ebp2PHofw [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-Ebp2PHofw] * Coca-Cola, 1983 Commercial featuring Keanu Reeves — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9ZSPC3J6hA [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9ZSPC3J6hA] Connect with Michael James & The Michael James Way: themichaeljamesway.com [http://themichaeljamesway.com] / michaeljamesremodeling.com [http://michaeljamesremodeling.com] / @michaelgjames / @themichaeljamesway / @michaeljamesremodeling

From Drowning in Debt to Scaling to $3M: Luis Barraza's Journey Building Blue Wave Home Improvement

Description: Luis Barraza didn't grow up dreaming of remodeling bathrooms; he went to college for business administration. But six years after co-founding Blue Wave Home Improvement in Central Virginia, he's built a company specializing in kitchens, bathrooms, basements, and a particular passion for turning "ugly bathrooms" into something beautiful. In this episode, Luis sits down with Michael James to talk about the early days of not knowing his numbers and pricing jobs off instinct, getting burned by a subcontractor relationship gone wrong, and the moment he found out, mid conversation with his accountant, that he needed a license he didn't have. He opens up about nearly losing the business altogether, the support that got him through it, and the systems and mindset shifts that turned things around. Now Luis is scaling Blue Wave from $1.2M to a $3M goal, shifting toward more of a design build model, and leaning on the relationships and lessons he's picked up from other contractors along the way. In this episode: * Why not knowing his numbers almost cost Luis everything * The subcontractor experience that taught him to verify, not assume * Finding out the hard way that he needed a contractor's license * How honesty (not sales pressure) became Blue Wave's competitive edge * His plan to scale from $1.2M to $3M and shift toward design build * The books that reshaped his mindset, from Extreme Ownership to Think and Grow Rich Connect with Luis Barraza & Blue Wave Home Improvement: bluewavehic.com [http://bluewavehic.com] / @bluewave_home_improvement Connect with Michael James & The Michael James Way: themichaeljamesway.com [http://themichaeljamesway.com] / michaeljamesremodeling.com [http://michaeljamesremodeling.com] / @michaelgjames / @themichaeljamesway / @michaeljamesremodeling