In this episode of What’s the Gift, Mike Oglesbee sits down with Dr. Alan Weisser, a clinical psychologist, author, and founder of New Options, to talk about chronic pain, identity, healing, resilience, and human potential. Alan shares how breaking his neck at 12 years old changed not only his body, but also his confidence and sense of what was possible. Alan explains that pain can reshape far more than the body. After being told he would be fragile for life, he struggled with confidence before eventually challenging those limits through persistence, martial arts, and a willingness to question what he had been told. The conversation explores Alan’s whole-person approach to chronic pain and recovery. Rather than focusing only on symptoms, he looks at emotional health, identity, beliefs, relationships, and purpose. He describes his approach as an “existential dojo,” where people strengthen the parts of themselves that difficult experiences often expose. Mike and Alan also discuss self-love, choice, resilience, belief systems, and the idea of seeing change as a reset instead of a setback. Their conversation centers on discovering what is still possible instead of allowing pain to define the future.

In this episode:

● How pain can reshape identity

● Rebuilding confidence after trauma

● Challenging perceived limitations

● Recovery versus symptom treatment

● Chronic pain and the whole person

● Self-love and childhood conditioning

● The “existential dojo”

● Emotional and psychological strength

● Belief systems and personal choice

● Turning setbacks into resets

● Adapting instead of resisting change

● Finding possibility inside pain

Recovery does not always mean returning to who you were before. Sometimes healing means discovering who you can become because of what you have been through.

In this episode of What’s the Gift?, Mike Oglesby sits down with L. Michael Burt to talk about identity, purpose, resilience, and what happens when life takes away the things we once used to define ourselves. Michael shares how kidney failure, dialysis, a stroke, a transplant, and cancer forced him to slow down and rethink who he was beyond achievement and performance.

Michael reflects on how sports, acting, and achievement shaped his identity, and how losing his mother sent him into a period of searching and disconnection. Over time, spirituality and stillness helped him recognize the internal stories telling him he was not enough and begin living from a more aligned place.

The conversation explores surrender, control, and the danger of obsessing over “how.” Mike and Michael discuss how real change can come from being still, listening, and taking action without trying to force every outcome.

In this episode:

● What happens when achievement becomes your identity

● Losing direction after grief

● The hidden story of “I’m not enough”

● Kidney failure, stroke, transplant, and cancer

● Stillness, surrender, and alignment

● Letting go of control

● Why asking “how” can create doubt

● Reparenting old survival patterns

● Finding purpose beneath performance

● Using your story to help others

L. Michael Burt’s journey is a reminder that sometimes life strips away what we relied on not to destroy us, but to reveal something deeper underneath. Survival can become an opportunity to live with greater truth, purpose, alignment, and intention.

In this episode of What’s the Gift?, Mike Oglesbee talks with Carla Royal about success, performance, vulnerability, mental health, and what happens when the person everyone believes can handle everything is struggling underneath the surface.

Carla works with high-performing founders and entrepreneurs who often have plenty of business advisors but nowhere to bring the personal pressure, grief, relationship strain, identity shifts, and private struggles that affect how they lead. She explains that many successful people feel pressure to keep a mask up and appear as though everything is going well, even when their personal lives are falling apart.

Carla also shares her own deeply personal journey. After losing her mother, experiencing the breakdown of her marriage and faith, and struggling with alcohol and suicidal thoughts, she reached a point where she attempted to take her own life. When she recovered, she realized that beneath all of the pain was a part of her that still wanted to live.

That realization became the beginning of a much longer process. Carla explains that healing was not an instant transformation. It took years of therapy, support, nervous system work, trauma-informed care, and learning how to live with pain without being completely consumed by it.

Mike and Carla also discuss the difference between pain and suffering, why asking for help is not weakness, and why successful people still need people who can walk beside them. They explore how real strength comes from being willing to acknowledge struggle instead of hiding behind performance.

In this episode:

● The hidden struggles behind high performance

● Why success does not always equal fulfillment

● The pressure to appear like everything is okay

● Carla’s experience with grief, depression, alcohol, and suicidal thoughts

● The realization that she still wanted to live

● Why healing can take years rather than one breakthrough moment

● The difference between pain and suffering

● Why asking for help is a strength

● How trauma-informed support changed Carla’s life

● Why founders and leaders need personal support too

● How to build a life that feels meaningful beyond money and success

This episode is a reminder that strength does not mean handling everything alone. Sometimes the most important step is allowing someone else into the struggle and discovering that support, honesty, and connection can help us find our way forward.