You were created in the image of a Creator.

So the question isn't whether you're creating something with your life.

The question is: What are you creating?

On this episode of Like It Matters Radio, Mr. Black explores how our thoughts, beliefs, choices, and internal narratives continually shape the life we're building. We can create fear, doubt, insecurity, and limitation, or we can create faith, courage, vision, purpose, and possibility.

Because we don't simply respond to circumstances. We respond to the meaning we give them.

Mr. Black examines the power of frames and reframing, the stories we construct about our past and future, and why identity sits at the center of lasting transformation. He also returns to three questions every leader needs for clear vision:

Where am I now?

Where am I going?

What will it take to get there?

Joining the conversation is Micah Fiechter, creator of Music Bible, a project turning the complete, unedited text of Scripture into music across multiple genres. What began with one chapter became a much larger mission, providing a practical example of what can happen when someone invests their time, talents, and treasure into something they believe they were created to build.

And ultimately, Mr. Black challenges listeners to begin with the end in mind.

Your choices are creating something.

Your relationships are creating something.

Your beliefs are creating something.

Your days are creating something.

One day, the dash between your birth and death will tell the story of what you did with the life you were given.

So ask yourself:

Who will be different because I lived?

What am I creating that will matter when I'm gone?

Inspiration. Education. Application.

When you live your life like it matters… it does.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How do you measure a life?

By what you accomplish? What you earn? What you own? How many people know your name?

Or is there a completely different measuring stick?

On this episode of Like It Matters Radio, Mr. Black explores an ancient question that every person eventually has to answer: What is the measure of my life?

Drawing from Scripture and ancient Jewish wisdom, Mr. Black challenges the way we define success and examines what our choices reveal about who we are becoming.

An ancient teaching attributed to Rabbi Ilai says a person can be recognized by three things: their cup, their pocket, and their anger.

In other words, character becomes visible at the pressure points:

• The cup: Who are you when your guard is down?
• The pocket: What do your money, resources, and opportunities reveal about what you value?
• The anger: Who do you become when you're frustrated, challenged, or don't get your way?

These aren't measuring sticks meant primarily for judging everyone around us. They're mirrors.

Because the ultimate measure of a life isn't simply what we've accumulated. It's what we've done with what we've been given.

Mr. Black is also joined by Autumn Christensen, Executive Director of Her Plan, to talk about what that looks like in action. Her Plan connects women facing unexpected pregnancies with a nationwide network of practical support, from medical care and counseling to housing, transportation, job training, material resources, and community.

Their conversation provides a real-world example of a larger question at the heart of the episode:

Are we living primarily for what we can get, or for what we can give?

Our time. Our money. Our abilities. Our influence. Our relationships.

They all become part of the answer.

Because the measure of your life isn't ultimately found in your résumé, possessions, position, or applause.

It's found in your character, your purpose, and the lives that are different because you were here.

So when your life is weighed, what will the scales reveal?

Inspiration. Education. Application.

When you live your life like it matters… it does.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The most dangerous lies aren't always completely false.

Sometimes they're just true enough to believe.

On this episode of Like It Matters Radio, Mr. Black explores the power of half truths: incomplete stories, inherited beliefs, distorted narratives, and deeply embedded messages that can quietly shape our identity and direction.

Because when you change the meaning of a story, you can change what someone believes about themselves.

Mr. Black explores epistemic drift, the gradual shift in how we determine what is actually true. In a world of endless information, social media, AI, competing narratives, and tribal loyalties, it's increasingly easy to accept something because it sounds right, feels right, or has simply been repeated enough times.

But this isn't only about misinformation around us.

It's about the stories inside us.

Our earliest experiences can create powerful beliefs about safety, belonging, failure, love, and identity. Repeated long enough, those beliefs become patterns. Patterns become paradigms. And eventually, the map we've constructed can feel indistinguishable from reality.

This episode explores:

• Why half truths can be more convincing than obvious lies
• How repetition strengthens the beliefs and patterns we live from
• Why we need to examine what we believe instead of simply inheriting it
• How early experiences can shape our personal “map of reality”
• Why old patterns may have once protected us but now hold us back
• How new truth, experiences, relationships, and repeated choices can create new patterns

And there are two important challenges at the center of this conversation.

First: Check things out for yourself.

Ask questions. Challenge assumptions. Examine the evidence. Understand why you believe what you believe.

Second: Your first half doesn't have to determine your second.

You may not have chosen the experiences that shaped your earliest beliefs. You may not have drawn the first map you were given.

But you don't have to navigate by it forever.

What was learned can be challenged.

What was practiced can be changed.

What was wired through repetition can begin to be rewired through truth, practice, connection, and grace.

You cannot live a full life on half truths.

And no matter what's already been written, you still have a second half to write.

Inspiration. Education. Application.

When you live your life like it matters… it does.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What is your IT?

In Like It Matters, the “IT” is the thing worth fighting for. The thing worth building. The thing that gives meaning to the work.

And for leaders, IT is PEOPLE.

On this episode of Like It Matters Radio, Mr. Black returns to the foundation of the People Business and explores why understanding people may be one of the most important skills a leader can develop.

Products matter. Profits matter. Performance matters.

But those are outcomes.

People are the cause.

Organizations are built by people. Cultures are shaped by people. Teams rise and fall because of people. And when leaders learn to understand the emotional, relational, and psychological forces shaping the people around them, they become capable of building something far greater than performance alone.

Mr. Black explores Emotional Intelligence and Interpersonal Neurobiology, examining how the brain, mind, body, and relationships work together to shape who we are and who we can become.

At the center of it all is connection.

People need to feel safe enough to be honest. Seen enough to know they matter. Supported enough to grow. And secure enough to bring their best into the relationships, teams, and organizations they are part of.

Mr. Black is also joined by Jo Ann, a longtime listener experiencing his training in person for the first time, and Adrian, a construction company CEO whose experience with Leadership Awakening and Emotional Intelligence training dramatically impacted his life and leadership.

Because leadership isn't ultimately about controlling people.

It's about understanding them.

It's about creating environments where people can connect, grow, confront what's holding them back, and become more fully who they were created to be.

The greatest potential in your organization is people.

The greatest challenge is people.

And the greatest work you'll ever do as a leader is with, for, and through people.

Because our IT is PEOPLE.

Inspiration. Education. Application.

When you live your life like it matters… it does.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why would someone choose a comfortable lie over an uncomfortable truth?

Because truth can cost us something.

On this episode of Like It Matters Radio, Mr. Black ventures deeper into Plato’s Cave, exploring why human beings cling so tightly to beliefs, communities, identities, and familiar ways of seeing the world, even when they may not be true.

The episode begins with the story of Truth and Lie: two brothers who enter a race, only for Lie to steal Truth’s clothes and return to town dressed as him. When the real Truth arrives naked, the people reject him because he is uncomfortable to look at.

And that becomes the question at the heart of this episode:

Why are we so often willing to believe a well-dressed lie rather than face a naked truth?

Through Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, the biblical account of Pilate standing before Jesus, and insights into human psychology, Mr. Black explores five lessons about our relationship with truth:

• We avoid truth because truth demands change.
• We reject truth when it threatens our belonging.
• Truth often hurts before it heals.
• We fear truth because it exposes our identity.
• Truth ultimately requires courage, not simply intelligence.

Because our beliefs don't exist in isolation. They're shaped by family, experiences, wounds, communities, culture, and our deep human desire to be accepted. Sometimes the shadows feel safer because everyone around us is looking at the same wall.

But leadership requires something more.

It requires the curiosity to ask difficult questions, the courage to examine what you've always believed, and the willingness to step toward the light even when doing so costs you comfort or acceptance.

And once you've left the cave, leadership isn't about looking down on those still inside.

You go back for them.

You invite. You walk alongside. You help their eyes adjust. You create an environment where truth can be encountered with both courage and love.

Because you cannot lead someone out of a cave you refuse to leave yourself.

The question isn't simply, “What is truth?”

The question is whether we're courageous enough to follow it when we find it.

Inspiration. Education. Application.

When you live your life like it matters… it does.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if some of the things you are most certain about aren't actually true?

We all see the world through beliefs shaped by our experiences, relationships, culture, fears, and communities. And while we may want the truth, confronting it can threaten the very things that make us feel safe.

On this episode of Like It Matters Radio, Mr. Black ventures into Plato's Allegory of the Cave to explore one of leadership's most important questions: Why do people resist the truth, even when the truth could set them free?

For Plato's prisoners, shadows were reality because shadows were all they had ever known. When one prisoner finally encountered the light, it was painful and disorienting. And when he returned to share what he had discovered, the others didn't celebrate. They resisted.

More than 2,000 years later, the cave remains a powerful picture of human behavior.

Mr. Black connects Plato's allegory with Jesus' words, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free," along with insights from psychology and neuroscience to examine why truth can be so difficult to face.

This episode explores:

• Why familiar beliefs can feel true simply because we've lived with them for so long
• How cognitive dissonance, fear, group identity, and past experiences influence what we're willing to believe
• Why belonging can sometimes become more important than accuracy
• How today's echo chambers can become modern versions of Plato's cave
• Why discomfort isn't necessarily a reason to retreat
• How leaders can help people confront difficult truths without shaming or forcing them

Mr. Black is also joined by two recent graduates of Team 909 from Leadership Awakening, sharing what happened when they confronted truths about themselves and began experiencing freedom on the other side.

Because transformational leadership isn't about standing outside the cave yelling at everyone still inside.

It's about having the courage to examine your own shadows, walk toward the light, and then return for others with patience, humility, wisdom, and love.

Truth can disrupt. Truth can hurt. Truth can heal. And truth can set you free.

The question is whether you're willing to leave the cave.

Inspiration. Education. Application.

When you live your life like it matters… it does.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sometimes the best leadership lessons aren’t learned in a classroom, boardroom, or book.

Sometimes they’re learned on the blacktop.

On this episode of Like It Matters Radio, Mr. Black takes listeners inside his experience serving at Sturgis 2026, a trip that became far more than a mission. It became a lesson in people, pain, conflict, leadership, and his own heart.

Mr. Black went to Sturgis to serve a group of people he once avoided and assumed he had little in common with. What he found was a powerful reminder that underneath the differences, people are people. We carry wounds. We disappoint each other. We make mistakes. We want to belong. And we all need grace.

Through stories straight from his audio journal, Mr. Black shares three major leadership lessons the blacktop taught him:

• The Power of Awareness – You cannot change what you cannot see, heal what you cannot name, or lead what you do not understand.
• The Stewardship of Power – Power doesn’t create character, it reveals what’s already there. Leadership isn’t about having authority over people; it’s about using influence to serve, protect, reconcile, and build.
• The Courage to Confront – Avoiding conflict doesn’t make it disappear. It gives hurt, resentment, and misunderstanding time to grow.

You’ll hear the story of a simple seven-minute confrontation that turned tension into tears, humility, hugs, and reconciliation. It became a living example of what happens when a leader chooses courage over comfort.

But Sturgis also became a mirror.

Mr. Black gets personal about his own patterns of avoiding confrontation, the cost of allowing unresolved issues to grow, and what God revealed when he finally had the space to become aware of what was happening inside himself.

Because leadership isn’t about having people figured out.

It’s about continually learning people, understanding yourself, stewarding your influence, and having the courage to deal with what’s real.

People will disappoint you.

You will disappoint people.

You will even disappoint yourself.

But God is still working.

These are the lessons from the blacktop.

Inspiration. Education. Application.

When you live your life like it matters… it does.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What separates a leader who simply manages people from one who truly understands them?

Curiosity.

On this episode of Like It Matters Radio, Mr. Black goes deeper into the People Business, exploring what happens when leaders become curious about how people are wired, how relationships shape us, and why connection can be one of the most powerful forces for change.

At the center of the conversation is Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB), an interdisciplinary approach that brings together neuroscience, psychology, attachment theory, sociology, trauma research, systems theory, and more to better understand the connection between the brain, mind, and relationships.

The core idea is powerful: we are shaped through relationships.

Mr. Black explores the importance of attunement, the ability to genuinely see, hear, understand, and respond to another person. Great leadership isn’t simply telling people what to do. It’s creating the trust, safety, connection, and accountability that allow people to grow.

This episode explores:

• How relationships shape the brain, beliefs, identity, and behavior
• Why neuroplasticity means our patterns are capable of changing
• How people help regulate one another through presence, empathy, and connection
• Why integration of emotion, logic, identity, relationships, and purpose matters
• The importance of becoming a safe person through presence, grace, and truth
• How understanding people helps leaders build healthier people, cultures, and organizations

And while human behavior follows recognizable patterns, every person is still completely unique. That’s why leadership requires curiosity. You cannot assume you already know someone’s story, motivations, fears, strengths, or internal wiring.

People are not problems to manage. They’re people to understand.

If you want to build better organizations, stronger relationships, and healthier cultures, become curious about the people in front of you.

Because we’re all in the People Business.

Inspiration. Education. Application.

When you live your life like it matters… it does.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.