Building a business will test every part of you—your patience, your discipline, and your ability to handle absolute chaos. The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman channels over two centuries of ancient wisdom from thinkers like Marcus Aurelius and Seneca into sharp, daily meditations for modern life. It won't give you the answers to your business problems, but it will completely change how you face them.

Joining me to unpack it is someone who actively lives these ideas: Nitin Sharma. Nitin is a serial entrepreneur in the recruitment tech space, the founder of rectools.io, and the host of the highly successful RecTalk podcast.

In this episode, Nitin shares the raw story of his previous agency's collapse and how Stoicism helped him navigate the fallout. We explore why true discipline doesn't always mean 5 AM ice baths, how to let go of the "capitalist circus," and why remembering your own mortality is the ultimate clarifier for founders.

00:00 – Introducing The Daily Stoic

01:22 – Control the Controllables: Why you must stop wasting energy on the economy, the market, or the actions of others.

03:54 – Navigating Business Failure: Nitin shares the story of his agency's collapse and how he used Stoicism to let go of the anger toward his former business partner.

08:03 – Discipline Over Emotion

10:00 – The Anti-Hustle Discipline: Why true discipline doesn't have to mean grinding 24/7.

16:03 – The Social Media Test: How to use doom-scrolling on TikTok as a daily training ground for practicing discipline over your emotions.

22:03 – The 10-Year Business Reality: 80% of businesses won't make it to 10 years, but your reputation will last forever.

📚The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

• rectools.io: Nitin's whole-of-market directory for the recruitment supply chain.
• RecTalk: Nitin's YouTube-first podcast helping recruiters scale smarter.

Nitin Sharma, Founder of rectools.io & Host of RecTalk

Follow Sam on LinkedIn

Want to get in touch? Whether you want to suggest a guest, sponsor the show, leave some feedback or just get in touch to tell me what you're working on, here's the link for you: https://forms.gle/NHGL9ftFRhu4cKFLA

If your startup feels like a daily fire drill, this is the battlefield-tested playbook you need to stop reacting, step back, and get your team to actually want to follow you.

Jocko Willink isn't an academic theorist. He is a retired Navy SEAL commander who took high-stakes, life-or-death combat situations and translated them into practical, no-nonsense tactics for the business battlefield.

Joining me today is Chris Morrow. Chris is the founder and managing director of DigiTalent, a fast-growing AI and machine learning recruitment agency. Chris has navigated the 24/7 chaos of scaling a global, fully distributed startup, and he uses Jocko's exact strategies to keep his team aligned across different time zones.

In this episode, we unpack why stepping away from a crisis is often the best way to solve it, why taking the blame is your ultimate superpower as a founder, and the secret to building a high-agency team through decentralized command.

00:00 – Introducing Leadership Strategy and Tactics

02:02 – Detach to Gain Perspective

06:53 – Extreme Ownership: Why there are no bad teams, only bad leaders—and why taking the blame is a founder's ultimate superpower.

09:53 – Ownership is Contagious

15:38 – Build Trust Before You Need It

21:22 – Decentralized Command: The stark difference between WWI command-and-control and agile strategy—and why the person closest to the problem must be the one making the decision.

25:39 – Three actionable steps to apply Jocko's battlefield tactics to your startup tomorrow.

📚Leadership Strategy and Tactics by Jocko Willink

• DigiTalent: Chris's global AI and machine learning recruitment agency.
• Lumo: The AI readiness advisory firm Chris partners with.
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman: The psychology behind why stepping back shifts you out of panic-driven "System 1" thinking.
• Turn the Ship Around! by L. David Marquet: Another brilliant military-to-business book highlighting the power of pushing decision-making down the chain of command.

Follow Sam on LinkedIn

Want to get in touch? Whether you want to suggest a guest, sponsor the show, leave some feedback or just get in touch to tell me what you're working on, here's the link for you: https://forms.gle/NHGL9ftFRhu4cKFLA

If you walk through the business section of a bookstore, you will see countless books on ROI, scaling, and operational systems. But you won't see many books that actually teach you how to be a good leader.

Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer isn't a traditional business book—it's a modern touchstone for authentic leadership. Palmer's life's work centers on helping people align their inner truth with their outer lives, even in the highest-stakes leadership roles.

Joining me to unpack this incredible book is Jerry Colonna. Jerry is the CEO and co-founder of Reboot.io, and the author of Reboot and Reunion. As a former venture capitalist turned executive coach, Jerry is legendary in the startup world for guiding leaders through "radical self-inquiry."

In this episode, we explore why true leadership begins with an inner understanding of our own demons, why people follow leaders they believe in (not the ones with all the answers), and how to cultivate a community that actually heals.

00:00 – Introducing Let Your Life Speak

02:22 – Leadership Begins Within: True leadership requires radical self-inquiry and the courage to confront your own shadow side.

04:17 – Leading from the Heart: The most powerful motivations for starting and running a business are entirely emotional, not logical.

06:33 – The Inner Journey is Hard: Society trains us to value outcomes and metrics, fundamentally disconnecting us from our authentic motivations.

10:54 – Vulnerability as a Superpower

12:41 – Struggle Well, Not Succeed Well: Attaching your self-worth solely to business outcomes will ultimately destroy your resilience when failure inevitably happens.

14:02 – Community Heals: Individual growth is impossible in isolation, and the best businesses function as communities that hold each other accountable.

15:28 – The Quaker Clearness Committee

📚Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer

• Reboot.io: Jerry's executive coaching company and leadership boot camps.
• Reboot by Jerry Colonna: Jerry's first book on leadership and the art of growing up.
• Reunion by Jerry Colonna: Jerry's latest book on leadership and belonging.
• Carl Jung: Mentioned for his psychological framework around the "shadow side."

Jerry Colonna, CEO of Reboot.io, Executive Coach & Author

Follow Sam on LinkedIn

Want to get in touch? Whether you want to suggest a guest, sponsor the show, leave some feedback or just get in touch to tell me what you're working on, here's the link for you: https://forms.gle/NHGL9ftFRhu4cKFLA