Send us Fan Mail

C4 Leaders – the ONLY nonprofit to utilize the pizza making process to create space for our companions to be seen, heard, and loved. We work with businesses, sports teams, hospitals, churches…anyone looking to RISE TOGETHER. We also write children’s books and use the most amazing handmade, hand-tossed, sourdough pizza to bring out the best in each other. Please check out c4leaders.org to support our important work.

Season 6 Episode #18 David Ask is coming from Nashville, Tennessee (inform, inspire, & transform)

You can find David via his website theaskexperience.com

About our Guest – David is an entrepreneur and inventor who built a simple idea into a real product—StatGuardPlus—now in over 3,700 retail locations including The Home Depot and Lowe’s. That journey taught him a lot about grit, failure, risk, and perseverance. But what truly drives David today isn’t hardware—it’s people.

David currently serves as the lead coach for Dr. Andy Garrett’s True North Resiliency Program, where he helps individuals, families, and organizations transform their internal culture by doing something surprisingly rare: introducing people to themselves.

David, thanks for sharing all your talents, beliefs, gifts…with people all over the world and thanks for being our guest on Life’s Essential Ingredients. Welcome to the show!

TOTD – “Your children are the greatest gift God will give to you, and their souls the heaviest responsibility He will place in your hands. Take time with them, teach them to have faith in God. Be a person in whom they can have faith. When you are old, nothing else you've done will have mattered as much.” Lisa Wingate

Build a habit - to create intention - to live your purpose!

In this episode:

What was life like growing up?

Listeners all over the world and perhaps some of them are interested in visiting Nashville, what does life look like in Nashville…

Authentic identity changes everything… first line on your website…why

Book – Guardians of Grit

Conversation Cards – Self Awareness, Love, Certainty, Creation, Purpose, Joy

Notice, Name, Nurture

Making Decisions with your Values, Convictions, Virtues, Passion (what are you willing to suffer for)

Love is the answer….will show up, listen, and know the people in my life are support

The power of journaling…

The power of understanding your identity…

Developing self-awareness

The Uncrushable Son – let’s start with your definition of uncrushable…

How to set the temperature with your children…let’s talk about that…

Music – album Open Arms in English and Italian

Blog on your ag-thrive site talks about Radical Resilience…

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation

Books you recommend?

The Ask Experience Podcast…With a voice often likened to Andrea Bocelli and Josh Groban,

Legacy

Send us Fan Mail

C4 Leaders – the ONLY nonprofit to utilize the pizza making process to create space for our companions to be seen, heard, and loved. We work with businesses, sports teams, hospitals, churches…anyone looking to RISE TOGETHER. We also write children’s books and use the most amazing handmade, hand-tossed, sourdough pizza to bring out the best in each other. Please check out c4leaders.org to support our important work.

Season 6 Episode #17 LeAnn Flores is coming from Tampa, Florida.

You can find LeAnn via her website vecinacafe.com

LeAnn grew up in a home filled with unconditional love, laughter, sacrifice, and strong values. Her parents, who were youth pastors and hard-working young parents of four, modeled leadership not through titles, but through their actions. From them, LeAnn learned that true leadership is grounded in service, compassion, and unwavering commitment to others. These early lessons planted the seeds of purpose that would eventually grow into her lifelong mission.

Inspired by the love and unity of her childhood neighborhood, LeAnn set out to create a space that would embody those same values: connection, mentorship, leadership, and love. A place where everyone—no matter their background—could find belonging, build relationships, and grow together.

Those feelings, those principles, those values, and LeAnn’s deep roots inspired her to create The Vecina Café – a nonprofit built by the community for the community. The Venica Café’s programs are dedicated to empowering individuals to achieve their personal and professional goals. Through targeted training, mentorship, and support, The Café helps participants build confidence and skills to unlock their full potential…leading to fulfilling lives.

TOTD – “Leadership is about empathy. It is about having the ability to relate to and connect with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives.”

Oprah Winfrey

Build a habit - to create intention - to live your purpose!

In this episode:

Let’s talk family and culture…guat-rican…What was life like growing up?

Studied at USF with course work in the public relations and advertising fields..first generation….

Parents have given you many gifts…which ones stand out the most

Dadz in Motion program…is that where your nonprofit career started

Pathway to Success

Future Film…DEAR FUTURE ME…

Feeling you get when one of your former members…comes back and tells you how good life is…

Plans for the future…

Books you recommend?

Legacy

Send us Fan Mail

C4 Leaders – the ONLY nonprofit to utilize the pizza making process to create space for our companions to be seen, heard, and loved. We work with businesses, sports teams, hospitals, churches…anyone looking to RISE TOGETHER. We also write children’s books and use the most amazing handmade, hand-tossed, sourdough pizza to bring out the best in each other. Please check out c4leaders.org to support our important work.

Season 6 Episode #16 Bryan Blackman is coming from Huntington Beach, CA (inform, inspire, & transform)

You can find Bryan via his website crabcrewlife.com

Bryan Blackmon knows what rock bottom looks like. Moving from Texas to California with a dream, a drug addiction, and a crippling dependence on alcohol — and no real plan. Sleeping in tents. Losing everything. The kind of darkness most people don't come back from.

But he chose differently — one day at a time — and rebuilt his life from nothing into something real. Today he's a well-known TikTok influencer whose livestreams have established a community that is built on experience, strength and belief.

The CRAB CREW tattoo on his knuckles isn't just ink. It's a declaration. It's a reminder of where he came from — and a promise of where he's going.

Bryan, thanks for sharing your many gifts and talents, thanks for being genuine and thanks for being on our guest on Life’s Essential Ingredients…welcome to the show!

TOTD – “We can spend our lives letting the world tell us who we are. Sane or insane. Saints or sex addicts. Heroes or victims. Letting history tell us how good or bad we are. Letting our past decide our future. Or we can decide for ourselves. And maybe it's our job to invent something better.”― Chuck Palahniuk

Build a habit - to create intention - to live your purpose!

In this episode:

What was life like growing up?

What are your life’s essential ingredients..

Let’s talk music…how long have you been playing…

TikTok and what opportunities has that platform created for you…

876 days of sobriety…congrats…

The importance of consistency/routine

Building a brand around sobriety, resilience, and transformation

The path back to yourself

The Elaine moment..

Crab Mentality .. pulling each other down…voice in your head.. but lead you to FROM THE DEPTHS WE RISE…= Crab Crew

CRAB Pillars (Clean, Resilient, Adaptability, Belief)

Replacing Hope with TRUST

Program is for people who are Ready, who Show Up, and who Take Action…

Write down a thing that is not serving you…

Mirror Work…

Journaling is a big part of your transformation…

Belief that you are worth it…

Redemption and how it is your routine

Being unhoused and the misconceptions

Advice for the tent – both physical and mental

6 week transformation experience

Legacy