Send us Fan Mail

You hit the number. You get the promotion. You build the company. For a moment, you feel like you’ve made it.

Then the target moves.

In this solo episode of Spartan Leadership, I share how I spent over a decade chasing a version of myself who would finally achieve enough to feel at peace—and what happened when my identity became tied to my career, title, and results.

From working as a Best Buy sales manager at 24 to building a financial services career, I kept telling myself the next milestone would be enough. Every time I reached it, I raised the bar.

We cover:

- Why achievement can become a source of identity
- How moving the target keeps peace out of reach
- The difference between pursuing goals and depending on them for your worth
- Three questions to help you recognize the ghost you’re chasing

Keep building. Keep pursuing meaningful goals. But pay attention to who you’re becoming along the way.

Take the free Life Quotient Assessment: [Start the assessment](https://joshkosnick.com/assessment)

Explore The Kairos Code: [Learn about the book](https://www.thekairoscode.com/)

Subscribe to @spartanleadershippodcast for conversations about leadership, faith, purpose, and the decisions that matter most.

What number are you chasing—and what do you believe will change when you reach it?

Tell me in the comments.

Inspire & Impact,

Josh

CONNECT WITH ME HERE:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
TikTok
YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Send us Fan Mail

In January 2025, cameras caught Eagles receiver A.J. Brown reading Inner Excellence on the sideline during a playoff game. The book went to #1 on the New York Times list. What nobody saw was what was happening to the author that same week.

Jim Murphy’s mother was dying. Business was slow, and for the first time in years he couldn’t pay off his credit cards. That Sunday, he was walking around downtown Dallas, looked up at a skyscraper, and asked himself whether he’d rather own it outright or have written his newest book. He decided he wouldn’t trade the book for $100 million. Then he got back to his hotel room, saw a pile of texts, and thought his mom had died. The texts said to turn on the Eagles-Packers game.

It was a 15-year overnight success. Jim was drafted by the Chicago Cubs, played five years in the minors, quit a job with the Texas Rangers after six months, gave away most of what he owned, and moved to the desert. He spent five years writing one book and ended up $90,000 in debt. Then a homeless harpist named Zoe changed everything.

In this episode of Spartan Leadership, Josh Kosnick and Jim talk about:

• Why “nobody wants a million dollars”

• The homeless harpist named Zoe and what the name means

• How Henrik Stenson, Hunter Mahan, and the CEO of Yum! Brands found him after reading the book

• Why Jim says he isn’t good at Inner Excellence yet, and what a bad day looks like

• “Selfless is fearless,” and why fear is inherently self-centered

• What elite hitters do against a 100 mph fastball

• The three obstacles to peak performance: overthinking, judgment, and self-consciousness

• Ego, defined as “the part of the mind that’s always threatened, always comparing, never satisfied”

• The one daily habit he’d tell every leader to start

• “I lack nothing, I expect nothing,” plus a breathing tool you can use before your next big moment

• The vortex: why talent, money, and status make you more likely to get trapped

• Why writing a check isn’t compassion

FOLLOW JIM MURPHY

Website and newsletter: https://innerexcellence.com

Inner Excellence Freedom Project: https://innerexcellencefreedomproject.org

SUBSCRIBE TO SPARTAN LEADERSHIP

https://www.youtube.com/@spartanleadershippodcast?sub_confirmation=1

FOLLOW JOSH KOSNICK

Website: https://joshkosnick.com/connect

The Kairos Code (book + audiobook): https://joshkosnick.com/thekairoscode

Rate and review the Spartan Leadership Podcast wherever you listen. It’s how the next leader finds the show.

Remember, the good and great are the enemies of possible. Lead like a Spartan today.

#InnerExcellence #JimMurphy #AJBrown #SpartanLeadership #Mindset #FaithAndBusiness #PeakPerformance

CONNECT WITH ME HERE:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
TikTok
YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Send us Fan Mail

You’ve tried to change before. The new morning routine, the new diet, the new goal. Six days, twelve days, thirty if you’re lucky, and then you’re back. And then you blamed willpower, the calendar, the season of life.

In Episode 2 of The Kairos Code Series, I name the actual thing. Steven Pressfield calls it Resistance in The War of Art, one of my top 10 reads of all time. My longtime mentor, John Wright Sr., pictured it as a river full of predators standing between you and the man or woman God made you to be. John named five. I’ve expanded it to eight, because I’ve met every one of them in my own life.

The walrus, the mermaid, the crab, the shark, the library, the cuttlefish, the cleaner fish and the sirens. One of them is your primary hunter. You cannot beat what you cannot name.

Take the free LQ Assessment and find out where you stand. 

https://www.joshkosnick.com/assessment

Get The Kairos Code:

https://www.thekairoscode.com

CONNECT WITH ME HERE:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
TikTok
YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Send us Fan Mail

You can be winning in business and still be out of alignment with the life God gave you. In this episode, Josh Kosnick explains the two Greek words for time and why the difference between them may be costing you more than you realize.

Chronos is the clock: the meetings, the deadlines, the calendar that keeps moving whether you notice it or not. Kairos is the appointed moment, the season when something significant happens. Josh spent two decades building a life the world would applaud and almost missed the one that mattered. This conversation is about how to recognize that gap before it costs you your family, your health or your faith.

In this episode:

•What kairos means, and what Mark 1:15 says about the appointed time

•The walk with Michael Brownlow that named Josh’s company and his book

•Moses, Elijah, and one conversation across 400 years

•The birth of Josh’s firstborn and the moments that change you

•Why high achievers defer the conversations, apologies, and trips that matter most

•What it looks like to be winning and absent from your own life at the same time

Your challenge this week: create one Kairos moment. Spend five to 15 minutes in the morning asking who you want to be today before you ask what you need to do. Then be fully present for one conversation, one evening, or one moment with the people you love.

Take the free Life Quotient Assessment to see how aligned your life is across the Five Bridges: Spiritual, Internal, Relationships, Environment, and Legacy.

https://www.joshkosnick.com/assessment

Read The Kairos Code: https://www.thekairoscode.com/

Work with Kairos Coaching & Consulting: https://www.kairoscoaching.com/

CONNECT WITH ME HERE:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
TikTok
YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Send us Fan Mail

Travis Hasse put $10,000 down on a 1940 Wisconsin tavern with no bar experience and closed the loan in 48 hours. Behind that bar, he started pouring his dad’s apple pie recipe. In 2008, it became Travis Hasse’s Apple Pie Liqueur, which he grew for 12 years without outside investors before selling.

He planned to take a year off after the sale. He lasted two months. Today his Amazon delivery companies move about 15,000 packages a day, he expects to be close to 400 employees by year’s end, every manager started as a driver, and he’s a partner in about 1,000 apartment units.

In this conversation, Josh Kosnick and Travis talk about the 48-hour close, getting paid up front by his distributor when the first run sold out in two days, why boring businesses win, the note from mentor Tom Maas that still sits in his nightstand, the grief that comes after an exit, faith and design, and the Ray Dalio rule that took out 98% of the problems coming to him.

His hiring philosophy fits in one sentence: “I never hire based on skill. I always hire the person.”

Follow Travis on Instagram at @travishasse and on YouTube at Travis Hasse.

Rate and review Spartan Leadership on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. It helps the next operator find the show.

Remember, the good and great are the enemies of possible. Lead like a Spartan today.

CONNECT WITH ME HERE:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
TikTok
YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Send us Fan Mail

At 18, Blake Erickson led 200 missionaries in Peru. He came home, went commission-only door-to-door, and finished in the top 0.01% of first-year reps. Then he built and led an organization of 300 to 400 salespeople. He was a millionaire at 24.

Then in 2024 he sold his companies and his real estate portfolio, and stepped away from his own podcast, to go all-in on one thing.

That one thing is Scaling.com, co-founded with Dr. Benjamin Hardy. It went from zero to $10 million in its first eight months. Blake and Ben also co-wrote the New York Times bestseller The Science of Scaling, and their firm now advises more than 500 companies doing anywhere from $500,000 to $10 billion a year.

In this conversation, Josh and Blake get into:

• The Science of Scaling and why most growth advice misses the point
• Frame, Floor, Focus: the three principles behind the framework
• Why a 10X goal is a psychological tool, not a fantasy
• The three laws of scaling: a complex system cannot scale, a divided team cannot scale, and you cannot serve two masters
• Why so many owners mistake activity for growth, and how to tell if you’re the ceiling in your own business
• What the mission field and door-to-door sales taught Blake about leading people
• The 2024 decision to sell everything and go all-in
• Building world-class teams, and the hard talent decisions that unlock growth
• Faith, family, and why no one has ever been inspired by somebody playing small

If you’re a founder who has grown the business as far as your own effort can take it, this one is for you.

📘 The Science of Scaling and Scaling.com: https://scaling.com
🔗 Blake Erickson: https://blakeerickson.com

—

Spartan Leadership is hosted by Josh Kosnick, founder of Kairos Coaching & Consulting, author of The Kairos Code, and creator of the Bridge Builder Mastermind.

🏛️ Bridge Builder Mastermind: https://www.joshkosnick.com/mastermind

📖 The Kairos Code: https://www.joshkosnick.com/thekairoscode

📊 Take the free Life Quotient Assessment: https://www.joshkosnick.com/assessment

📺 Subscribe for more Spartan Leadership episodes.

Good and great are the enemies of possible. Lead like a Spartan today.

#SpartanLeadership #BlakeErickson #ScienceOfScaling #ScalingCom #Entrepreneurship #BridgeBuilderMastermind #JoshKosnick

CONNECT WITH ME HERE:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
TikTok
YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Send us Fan Mail

Cam Tolman spent seven years running a home services company in Houston before he ever touched tech. Then he got his MBA, joined Podium, and became the number two rep out of 120 — with a 22-month streak of 100%+ attainment. He climbed to VP of Business Development, Director of Sales at Scorpion, and CRO at Mia Share, where he drove 120% revenue growth and pushed SaaS ACV up 800%. 

Four-time Presidents Club. Million-dollar closer.

And he refused to call himself a salesperson the entire time.

In June of 2025, Cam walked away from the CRO chair to build PitchDown — a framework for founders, engineers, product teams, and everyone else whose title doesn’t say sales but whose job absolutely is. 

His tagline: “The best decisions aren’t sold. They’re discovered.”

In this conversation, Josh sits down with Cam to dig into:

• The one-word question from his first sales manager that changed his career (asked five times in a row)

• Why the word “salesperson” costs the person who wears it — and why he refused it even at the top of the leaderboard

• The PitchDown Method: ignorance, awareness, acknowledgment, acceptance, action — and where most conversations actually get stuck

• Why customers agree with you… then do nothing

• “Pitch down, not up” — the difference between educating a buyer to reality and pushing product features

• The doctor / Ferrari analogy for how expert questions move people from ignorance to action

• The 2024 decision to walk away from the CRO chair and go all-in on PitchDown

• How founders sell the vision — and why “I can’t find good people” is almost always a mirror problem

• Why he’s been fired from multiple CRO chairs for putting customers first — and why he’ll fight that one to the death

If you’re a founder, an engineer, an operator, or anyone whose job is really sales even though your title doesn’t say so, this one is for you.

📘 Cam’s book PitchDown and free Tuesdays @ Two coaching call: https://www.pitchdown.com

🔗 Connect with Cam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camtolman

—

Spartan Leadership is hosted by Josh Kosnick — founder of Kairos Coaching & Consulting, author of The Kairos Code, and creator of the Bridge Builder Mastermind.

🏛️ Bridge Builder Mastermind: https://www.joshkosnick.com/mastermind

📖 The Kairos Code: https://www.joshkosnick.com/thekairoscode

📊 Take the free Life Quotient Assessment: https://www.joshkosnick.com/assessment

📺 Subscribe for more Spartan Leadership episodes and never miss a conversation.

Everyone is in sales, whether they have the title or not. Lead like a Spartan today.

#SpartanLeadership #CamTolman #PitchDown #SalesCoaching #FounderLedSales #BridgeBuilderMastermind #JoshKosnick

CONNECT WITH ME HERE:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
TikTok
YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Send us Fan Mail

Steven Pressfield is the reason a generation of leaders finally put a name on the enemy inside them.

He called it Resistance — capital R. The force that stops the founder from starting, the writer from writing, the leader from leading. He gave the language for it in The War of Art, and he’s been at the desk fighting it every Wednesday for over 50 years. He’s the author of Gates of Fire — required reading at West Point, Annapolis, and on the Marine Commandant’s list — The Legend of Bagger Vance, Tides of War, The Virtues of War, A Man at Arms, and his newest work released this past May, The Arcadian, a novel following Telamon the immortal mercenary through fifteenth-century Spain and the central question: does justice exist in this world?

At 82 years old, Pressfield still shows up. Every Wednesday. That is the discipline this episode is about.

In this conversation, Josh Kosnick and Steven go into:

• Resistance, capital R — what it is, how it shows up on a Tuesday morning, and how to recognize it before it wins

• Steven’s daily ritual after five decades of fighting Resistance — and how he shuts it off at the end of the day

• The Legend of Bagger Vance — what it’s like to have your work adopted by Hollywood


• Gates of Fire and why military academies keep coming back to it — what civilian leaders miss

• The Spartan covenant between mother and son — “come back with this or on it” — and what it teaches a modern leader about standards

• The professional vs. the amateur — the single most important difference, and how a founder knows which side of the line they’re standing on

• Telamon and The Arcadian — what a hero carrying a centuries-old curse teaches a leader who is tired of dragging his own

• Does justice exist in this world — where Steven has landed after 40 years of writing about war and virtue

• AI and the writing world — what a legendary author sees coming for creativity

• Writing Wednesdays — the discipline that keeps an 82-year-old at the desk

• The one Spartan virtue Steven would install in every American boardroom tomorrow

• Steven’s unpopular belief — the answer to Josh’s signature closing question

Josh’s on-mic acknowledgment: The Kairos Code was directly shaped by The War of Art.

Steven’s language of Resistance, the unlived life, and the professional/amateur distinction runs through Josh’s work — and this episode is Josh giving public credit to the man who gave him the language.

CHAPTERS
________________

00:00 Intro
01:04 Spartan mythology and the War of Art — the bridge for an operator
02:27 Resistance, capital R — naming the enemy inside
05:42 Steven’s daily ritual after 50 years of fighting Resistance
07:36 How Steven shuts it off at the end of the day
10:17 The Legend of Bagger Vance and Hollywood
13:33 Gates of Fire — why military academies require it
16:52 What civilian leaders miss about the Spartans
19:23 What drew Steven to Spartan culture in the first place
22:34 The Shield — “come back with this or on it”
27:16 The professional and the amateur — the line
30:37 The Arcadian — Telamon and the curse a leader carries
34:45 Does justice exist in this world
36:06 This life or the next
37:20 A word for the Christian operator
39:42 AI and the future of writing
45:55 Writing Wednesdays — the 82-year-old discipline
51:02 The one Spartan virtue for every American boardroom
54:35 Steven’s unpopular belief
55:13 Where to find Steven’s work
FOLLOW STEVEN PRESSFIELD
Website & Writing Wednesdays: https://stevenpressfield.com
The Arcadian (2026, Norton): available wherever books are sold
The War of Art — the book every operator needs on their desk
Gates of Fire — the Spartan novel required at West Point, Annapolis, and by the Marine Commandant
SUBSCRIBE TO SPARTAN LEADERSHIP
https://www.youtube.com/@spartanleadershippodcast?sub_confirmation=1
FOLLOW JOSH KOSNICK
Website: https://joshkosnick.com
The Kairos Code (book + audiobook): https://joshkosnick.com/thekairoscode
Bridge Builder Mastermind: https://www.joshkosnick.com/mastermind
Rate and review the Spartan Leadership Podcast wherever you listen. It’s how the next operator finds the show.
Remember, the good and great are the enemies of possible. Lead like a Spartan today.
#SpartanLeadership #StevenPressfield #TheWarOfArt #GatesOfFire #TheArcadian #Leadership #KairosCode

CONNECT WITH ME HERE:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
TikTok
YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Send us Fan Mail

Trey Roth spent ten years being called a failure before the world called him a success.

He founded YayStack in September 2014. Raised money. Failed. Raised again. Failed again. Facebook killed his API access and forced a full rebuild. He watched other founders zoom past him with cleaner product-market fit and shorter timelines. Two weeks before the ten-year anniversary of the company — the deadline he and his wife Ashley had actually set as the “throw in the towel” date — everything clicked.

Today YayStack is a geocaching gift card and giveaway platform. Think Pokémon Go, but instead of chasing creatures, you’re chasing real gift cards from real local businesses. The tagline is “we made advertising fun,” and Trey relaunched the whole entity around that promise in January of this year.

In this episode of Spartan Leadership, Trey and Josh Kosnick go deep on the twelve-year grind, the McDonald’s nuggets moment with his last twenty dollars, the plane crash at nineteen that changed how he views every breath, the pirated software prayer that led directly to the idea for YayStack, and the Dwight Howard six-figure investment story that started with a 51%-decided choice to get in the car when he was too tired to drive.

You’ll hear:

• Why Trey was preparing the “I quit” email to his shareholders and what changed his mind

• The identity stack — “I am undefeated, and this is how I know”

• Why “51% decided” is Trey’s action threshold and how it literally saved his twin brother’s life

• The Dwight Howard story — how a $200 Apple Pencil turned into a six-figure investment check

• The transition from platinum-selling music producer to tech founder — and the integrity moment that made the bridge

• How faith actually shows up on a Tuesday morning when payroll is due on Friday

• The 1-in-400-trillion odds that every one of us already beat

Josh’s takeaway from Trey — “I am undefeated, and this is how I know” — is added to his own identity stack on-mic. If you take one thing from this episode, take that.

FOLLOW TREY & YAYSTACK

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yaystack

Trey on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/treyroth

Website: https://yaystack.co

Download the YayStack app in the App Store or Google Play — national gift card drops every Saturday through the end of 2026.

SUBSCRIBE TO SPARTAN LEADERSHIP
https://www.youtube.com/@spartanleadershippodcast?sub_confirmation=1

FOLLOW JOSH KOSNICK

Website: https://joshkosnick.com

The Kairos Code (book + audiobook): https://joshkosnick.com/thekairoscode

Bridge Builder Mastermind: https://www.joshkosnick.com/mastermind

Rate and review the Spartan Leadership Podcast wherever you listen. It’s how the next operator finds the show.

Remember, the good and great are the enemies of possible. Lead like a Spartan today.

#SpartanLeadership #TreyRoth #YayStack #Entrepreneurship #Faith #Leadership #KairosCode

CONNECT WITH ME HERE:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
TikTok
YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Send us Fan Mail

Nick Hutchison walked into his senior year of college with a 0% homework average and zero interest in reading. Ten years later, he's read over 1,000 personal development books and built BookThinkers into a seven-figure book marketing agency serving hundreds of authors a year.

In this conversation, Josh and Nick break down:

• The reading system Nick uses to actually implement books instead of just consuming them
• Why 4% of the books you read create 95% of the change in your life
• The SMART goal framework you should set BEFORE opening page one
• How Nick built BookThinkers as a side hustle while working a full-time B2B sales job
• The failed Argentina app build that almost ended it before it started
• The anonymous team survey that exposed his biggest leadership blind spot
• The five-year "deposit strategy" that got Jim Kwik to invite him on stage
• Why 84% of American adults read nothing — and how to reverse it

If you've ever finished a book and thought, "That was great — now what?" this episode is your operator's manual.

——————————————

CONNECT WITH NICK
Instagram: @bookthinkers
Website: bookthinkers.com
Get his book: Rise Of The Reader (new edition launching November 1st)

CONNECT WITH JOSH
Website: joshkosnick.com
Instagram: @joshkosnick
Get The Kairos Code: joshkosnick.com/thekairoscode

Remember: the good and the great are the enemies of the possible. Lead like a Spartan today.

CONNECT WITH ME HERE:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
TikTok
YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Send us Fan Mail

Ken Rusk was 15 years old when he walked through a hole in the fence behind his high school, into an industrial park, and asked a construction company what they did. Their answer: we dig ditches and fix wet, smelly basements. Ken said, “I thought I was qualified for that,” and took the job. He never went to college. In 1986, he founded Rusk Industries in Toledo, OH with six ditch diggers. 

Today it’s a portfolio of construction companies with over 200 employees and nine figures in revenue. Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Blue-Collar Cash. Fox News contributor. Publicly endorsed by Tony Robbins. 

In this conversation, Ken and Josh dismantle the college lie (only 1 in 3 degrees ever get used), walk through Ken’s 5-step Path, and unpack why Ken funds Trump Accounts for his employees’ kids, launched a bourbon company for Gold Star families, and taught his framework to female inmates. Plus a first look at Ken’s new book, Rockstars and Rainmakers.

CONNECT WITH ME HERE:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
TikTok
YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube