The Neil Haley Show

Tom Askman on The Way Back to Being: Alcoholism, Spiritual Awakening, Intuition, and Returning to Your Authentic SelfIn this episode of The Neil Haley Show, Neil “The Media Giant” Haley welcomes author and longtime art professor Tom Askman to discuss his book The Way Back to Being: Tools for Returning Home. Askman shares his journey through alcoholism, depression, spiritual awakening, teaching, intuition, and his belief that people can reconnect with a deeper, more authentic way of living.Askman never expected to become an author. He spent more than five decades teaching studio art at universities, working with students in painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, and other creative disciplines.Art became important to him because creating requires presence.When someone is deeply involved in making art, Askman says they are often fully engaged in the present moment instead of being consumed by worries about the past or future.But while his professional life appeared successful, his personal life was unraveling.Askman began drinking as a teenager and says alcohol eventually became deeply embedded in his life. By his 40s, despite a successful art career and a profession he loved, he was becoming increasingly depressed and disconnected from himself.He describes himself during that period as highly self-centered and unable to experience relationships in the meaningful way he now understands love.Alcohol initially seemed to provide an escape from fear, stress, and emotional discomfort. Eventually, however, it became part of the problem.When Askman stopped drinking, he discovered that simply removing alcohol did not automatically solve what was happening underneath.He eventually found Alcoholics Anonymous, where the 12-step process and relationships with other people in recovery helped him begin rebuilding his life.Askman describes AA as spiritual rather than religious. Through meetings, sponsorship, and working the steps, he says he gradually began moving from a life dominated by his thinking mind toward one more connected to his heart.One of the most important lessons was learning that he had to give away what he had received.After working through the program himself, Askman began helping others. That principle eventually influenced his teaching as well.He started asking deeper questions with his students.Many were academically successful yet still felt anxious, frustrated, fearful, or uncertain about what their lives were supposed to become. Askman began believing that education often emphasizes information, knowledge, achievement, and rational thinking while leaving intuition and inner awareness underdeveloped.That idea became central to The Way Back to Being.Askman distinguishes between intellectual knowledge and what he calls intuitive knowing.For him, intuition exists before analysis. It is experiential rather than purely intellectual.In his art classes, he sometimes encourages people to close their eyes, listen to music without lyrics, hold drawing materials in both hands, and allow themselves to create without planning what the finished image should look like.The goal is not producing a perfect piece of art.The goal is learning what it feels like to create without the rational mind controlling every decision.Neil and Askman discuss how that differs from artificial intelligence. AI can process enormous amounts of information and knowledge, but Askman sees human intuition as something that grows through lived experience, awareness, presence, and emotional connection.Askman also talks about teachers and thinkers who influenced his spiritual development, including Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie, meditation traditions, and the HeartMath Institute.He describes spiritual growth as a continuing process rather than a single dramatic transformation.There are still moments when what he calls the “monkey mind” returns with judgment, fear, or overthinking. The practice is learning to recognize those moments and return to the present.That is why the book is called The Way Back to Being.Askman believes people enter life naturally present, curious, connected, and capable of joy. Over time, expectations, education, culture, fear, ego, and social conditioning can pull them away from that state.His message is not that people should abandon the outside world.It is that the outside world should not completely control the inside one.Askman also hopes readers will form communities around these ideas. He believes people searching for a deeper and more authentic life benefit from spending time with others pursuing the same goal.His central message is ultimately about returning home—not to a physical place, but to the part of yourself that existed before fear, addiction, expectations, and constant mental noise began defining your life.The Way Back to Being: Tools for Returning Home is available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Grace Lynx Jenkins on Characterization: Building Realistic Characters, Psychology, and Writing From ExperienceIn this episode of The Neil Haley Show, Neil “The Media Giant” Haley welcomes bestselling author Grace Lynx Jenkins, author of Sight, for a conversation about characterization, psychology, personality, and what makes fictional characters feel like real people.Grace defines characterization as the process of showing an audience who a character truly is. That can include appearance, interests, personality traits, relationships, motivations, flaws, and the choices a character makes throughout a story.For Grace, characters are the most important part of storytelling.Her books are heavily character-driven and influenced by her background in psychology. She believes a plot works best when the people inside it behave consistently with who they have already been established to be.Rather than forcing characters into situations simply because the plot requires it, Grace asks a different question: What would this person logically do in this situation based on everything I already know about them?That approach allows the plot to grow naturally from the characters.Grace begins with what she calls a basic mental biography. She visualizes the character, identifies major personality traits, flaws, motivations, and physical characteristics, then gradually adds smaller details as the story develops.But she warns writers against over-describing appearance.Newer writers sometimes want readers to imagine a character exactly the way the author does, so they provide enormous amounts of physical detail. Grace believes that rarely works because every reader will visualize a character somewhat differently.The goal is not to control every detail in the reader’s imagination.Instead, the author should establish the character’s general appearance and, more importantly, create such a clear personality that readers understand who this person is.Grace says the real test of characterization is whether readers can suspend disbelief and think, “This feels like someone who could actually exist.”That remains true regardless of whether the story takes place in the real world, fantasy, science fiction, or another fictional setting.Neil and Grace also discuss where characters come from.Grace says her characters are not usually direct copies of individual people. Instead, she takes personality traits she has observed in herself and others and combines them in different ways.She especially encourages writers to examine their own weaknesses when creating flaws.If a writer struggles with perfectionism, anger, insecurity, jealousy, fear, or another issue, that real experience can become useful material for building a believable character.Grace describes herself as a “write what you know” author.Her psychology background also gives her another resource. She can research psychological conditions, motivations, behavioral patterns, and emotional drivers when developing characters, while combining that research with real human experiences she has observed.The conversation then moves into a broader idea: every book contains something of its author.Grace believes every written work is, in some way, an extension of the person who created it.A novel can reveal what interested the author, what they struggled with, what they believed, what they feared, what they wished for, or what was happening culturally during the period in which they were writing.That is why Grace believes literary analysis should consider both the author and the historical context surrounding a book.When studying literature, understanding who wrote the work and what was happening during that time can provide important clues about themes, characters, and meaning.For Grace, publishing a book means sending a small piece of yourself into the world.That does not mean every character is autobiographical. It means the author’s experiences, observations, beliefs, imagination, and understanding of people inevitably become part of the story.The biggest lesson for aspiring writers is simple: great characterization is less about describing what someone looks like and more about understanding who they are.When the motivations, flaws, relationships, and behavior feel authentic, the character begins to feel alive—and the story becomes stronger because of it.Learn more about Grace Lynx Jenkins and purchase an autographed copy of Sight at GraceLynxJenkins.com.

AI Office Hours: When AI Agents Go Rogue, Voice Assistants Break, and Autonomous Workflows Become RealIn this episode of AI Office Hours, presented as a special simulcast of The Neil Haley Show, Neil “The Media Giant” Haley and Patrick Riley examine the promise—and frustration—of autonomous AI agents. From OpenClaw and Claude to Manus, Grok, voice AI, security risks, and business automation, the conversation shows what happens when entrepreneurs push today’s AI tools beyond basic chatting and expect them to actually perform work.Patrick shares how he has been using AI for real-world analysis, including evaluating a possible Florida investment property. His Manus agent examined rental rates, insurance, HOA costs, and other factors that would affect whether the property could produce positive cash flow.But one of the most revealing stories involves an OpenClaw agent monitoring a waitlist for a gym class.According to Patrick, the agent discovered a vulnerability in the booking system and actually canceled another person’s reservation, moving its owner higher on the waitlist. Rather than allowing the agent to continue, the user reported the problem to the company.That example becomes a warning about giving autonomous agents too much access without sufficient guardrails.Neil has experienced similar problems.His Marbleism agents were given access to Gmail so they could create reports and assist with communication. Even after he thought he had stopped the behavior, several agents continued drafting unwanted email responses. Fortunately, they were not sending them, but Neil says the experience showed how difficult it can become to control dozens of connected agents once permissions have been granted.His Claude-based business assistant has created a different problem: reliability.Neil conducts much of his work through voice, treating Claude almost like an employee he can brainstorm with while doing other things. He can discuss ideas, request documents, create spreadsheets, build files, and manage projects conversationally.The problem is that tool execution sometimes fails.Neil describes losing hours when voice interactions worked but connected tools would not load properly. His workaround has been to brainstorm through voice, switch to text, and then instruct the system to execute the documents and tasks.That leads to one of the episode’s biggest discussions: why voice AI matters.Neil believes talking naturally with an AI assistant changes the relationship from “using software” to working alongside something that feels more like an employee. Patrick agrees that conversational systems could become extremely valuable, but points to latency, computing demands, updates, and reliability as major barriers.The conversation then shifts to emerging computer-controlling agents.Neil discusses a new Grok-based system he believes could represent the next stage beyond OpenClaw: an agent installed on a computer that can operate applications, search information, interact with APIs, and run task loops.Patrick’s immediate concern is security.If an AI agent can control a computer, businesses must carefully determine what files, financial documents, credentials, and systems it can access. His recommendation is to isolate autonomous agents whenever possible and give them only the permissions required to complete their jobs.Neil also explains the architecture behind his own non-code AI business system.He maintains client folders, revenue information, leads, tasks, spreadsheets, and business knowledge inside a bundled set of files. A master prompt instructs Claude to read the information and answer key questions at the beginning of each new session, allowing Neil to continue working without depending entirely on built-in AI memory.He is now extending that approach into training.Neil says Claude is even helping create assignments and training tasks for an incoming virtual assistant, reinforcing his broader vision: humans will increasingly manage AI systems rather than personally performing every repetitive task.The episode’s biggest takeaway is that autonomous AI is already capable of remarkable work—but it still requires supervision.Agents can save hours, research faster than humans, create workflows, and operate across systems. They can also hallucinate, misuse permissions, break after updates, generate unwanted actions, and create entirely new security risks.The winning model, Neil and Patrick argue, is not automation for automation’s sake. It is building AI around real business needs, keeping humans in control, and using the technology only when it produces measurable value.For more from Patrick Riley, visit UnderwayBooks.com.

In this episode of The Neil Haley Show, Neil “The Media Giant” Haley welcomes Brett Wilson, CEO and survivorship navigator of Walking Miracles Family Foundation, for a conversation about childhood cancer, survivorship, patient navigation, family support, and why care often continues long after treatment. Wilson’s mission is deeply personal. He says he was diagnosed with leukemia at just 22 months old in West Virginia and was initially given about a year to live. After five years of treatment, he later developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at age nine. According to Wilson, the second cancer created a life-threatening emergency that required aggressive treatment.He survived, but says the chemotherapy and radiation he received as a child created lifelong complications, including later heart and lung problems. By age 12, after spending much of his childhood in hospitals, Wilson remembers being told to go live a “normal” life.Nothing felt normal.He had been bullied, had few friends, and had spent years surrounded by illness and treatment. That experience inspired a promise to his mother: one day he would create something to help families like theirs.In 2012, he incorporated Walking Miracles Family Foundation.Wilson had a background in counseling and later trained in patient navigation. His experience showed him how disconnected cancer care can become after someone leaves the hospital. Survivors may still need help with finances, transportation, emotional support, follow-up care, employment, and understanding long-term effects.Walking Miracles was created to stay with families through that journey.Wilson says the organization has provided travel assistance, tablets for telehealth, navigation support, counseling connections, and “Packages of Hope.” At one point, he says it provided travel assistance across all 55 counties in West Virginia.He says he has handled much of the organization’s work himself because funding has not allowed him to build a large staff.A major turning point came when state public-health officials contacted him after learning about his work. Wilson initially feared he was in trouble. Instead, he says he was offered grant support.When asked why so much of the organization’s money went directly back to families, Wilson’s answer was simple: because that was why he built it.He says lived experience separates his approach from many other programs. Wilson has personally dealt with childhood cancer, heart failure, a pacemaker, valve replacement, and navigating medical systems decades after treatment.The conversation also introduces his business, The Unspoken Cost of Cancer, focused on patient and caregiver education.Wilson says he has developed 117 educational modules designed to explain cancer-related topics in simple language. His goal is to reduce fear, guilt, and confusion while helping families understand questions to ask and resources that may be available.He wants patients to eventually receive the material for free, while hospitals and public-health agencies could potentially contract to use it.Wilson has also written a book about his journey with his mother and developed jewelry representing different cancer experiences. He says proceeds are intended to help fund Packages of Hope.At the center of everything is his belief that cancer affects the entire family. Parents, siblings, caregivers, grandparents, and survivors can all carry emotional, financial, and practical burdens.Wilson wants Walking Miracles to be a community where people can share their stories and be seen as individuals—not simply statistics.His message is ultimately about survival, purpose, and service: he lived through an experience that changed his life, then built the resource he wished his own family had received.Learn more at WalkingMiracles.org.

Ed Chaffin on Servant Leadership, Executive Coaching, AI, and Building High-Performance TeamsIn this special simulcast of The Neil Haley Show and the Storehouse Media Group Podcast, Neil “The Media Giant” Haley welcomes leadership consultant and executive coach Ed Chaffin for a conversation about leadership, culture, coaching, business growth, and the changing role of AI in the workplace. Chaffin clarifies that he was not the owner of the company that was ultimately sold, but a senior executive deeply involved in its growth and sale. He ran the organization’s largest division, overseeing roughly 1,200 employees and $150 million in revenue. During his time there, the company completed 12 acquisitions, grew from about $5 million to $300 million in revenue, and was sold for $1.4 billion in 2007.After his retirement was announced, he received a flood of emails from colleagues and employees. He had assumed he had directly coached or mentored perhaps 10 or 12 people. Instead, dozens described how his leadership had influenced their careers and lives.That realization pushed him toward executive coaching.Chaffin became certified through the International Coach Federation and began working with executives, teams, and organizations. His philosophy centers on servant leadership: leadership is not primarily about the leader, but about helping other people become better.He says leaders are always leading. Employees watch what executives do, not simply what they say. A CEO may claim people are the company’s most valuable asset, but if daily decisions communicate something different, employees notice.He gives the example of work-life balance. If a CEO says the company values balance but regularly sends weekend emails expecting immediate responses, that leader has established a different cultural standard.The conversation then turns to AI.Chaffin describes today’s business environment through VUCA—volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity—and believes AI has accelerated all four. Some employees embrace AI immediately, others hesitate, and many fear technology will replace their jobs.For Chaffin, the challenge is helping companies adopt AI without losing the human knowledge and experience that make organizations work.Neil and Chaffin agree that AI is most powerful when paired with humans.Chaffin shares an example from his coaching practice. For 27 years, he has used a social-emotional intelligence assessment alongside qualitative 360-degree interviews. He interviews six to 15 people, identifies strengths and development gaps, maps the findings to assessment data, and builds a coaching plan.That work once required six to eight hours or more. Using AI, Chaffin says he can now accomplish much of that analysis in about 15 minutes while creating a stronger framework for clients.He also uses AI to design executive-team exercises and prepare for off-site sessions. In one project, he used AI to identify a small remaining gap that could move an already high-performing team to another level.The lesson is not that AI replaces the coach. It gives the coach more leverage.Chaffin still brings judgment, experience, relationships, context, and human understanding. AI helps him research, organize, synthesize, and accelerate the work.Neil shares similar experiences building AI systems around his own company, and both agree that the future is likely a combination of human leadership and AI productivity rather than one replacing the other.Chaffin says the leaders he most wants to work with are people willing to “level up.” They may already be good leaders, but they want to move from a seven to a nine or an eight to a ten. They are willing to invest in themselves and their teams and do the work required to improve.His philosophy comes back to impact: the best leaders focus on helping people grow and creating a culture where others can succeed.To learn more, visit EdChaffin.com or contact [email protected].

AI Office Hours: Building Autonomous AI Agents, Managing Costs, and Why AI Fluency MattersIn this episode of AI Office Hours, presented as a special simulcast of The Neil Haley Show, Neil “The Media Giant” Haley and Patrick Riley discuss autonomous AI agents, Claude, OpenClaw, Manus, Copilot, Chinese AI models, memory, cost, privacy, and why AI fluency is quickly becoming essential for business owners and employees.Patrick opens by sharing that he is hearing less about OpenClaw and continues to experience reliability issues with his own agent, “Rich.” Updates sometimes cause problems, forcing him to spend time rebuilding or restoring the system. He still plans to use it, particularly for app development, but increasingly relies on Manus and is watching the migration toward Claude Code and Claude Co-work.One thing Patrick likes about Manus is its memory. He recalls asking about cruise options and being surprised when the system remembered an Iceland cruise conversation from months earlier.Neil explains why he never fully committed to OpenClaw. He pushes his AI tools extremely hard and worried about unpredictable usage costs. With subscription platforms, he knows approximately what he will spend each month and can move between multiple AI systems depending on the task.That leads into the biggest story of the episode: Neil’s customized Claude-based AI agent.Rather than treating AI as a chatbot, Neil has built a business operating system around it. He created trackers, spreadsheets, client folders, master prompts, project information, and a daily process where the system packages its knowledge and instructions so a fresh Claude session can continue the work.Neil describes the agent as a combination of a fractional CEO, CFO, executive assistant, business coach, bookkeeper, and project manager.The system has helped him organize clients, manage his pipeline, build websites, track tasks, stay accountable, and work through a major backlog. Neil says the most important part is not traditional AI “memory,” but the structured knowledge base he has created around his business.Patrick and Neil also discuss whether the same system could be built more cheaply using open-source tools and lower-cost models. Patrick believes it could, especially using Chinese models for less complex work, but says businesses have to balance price with reliability, privacy, and model quality.Neil argues that choosing the cheapest AI is not always smart business. Just as companies can cut labor costs and accidentally reduce service quality, using a cheaper model for every task may produce weaker results or require more human supervision.Both agree that the strongest strategy is often to use multiple AI models for different jobs.Claude may be ideal for one workflow, while ChatGPT, Gemini, Manus, Copilot, or another platform may be better somewhere else. The advantage comes from knowing which tool best fits each task instead of trying to force one AI to do everything.The conversation then moves to corporate AI security.Patrick explains that in his workplace, employees cannot use outside large language models with company information. Microsoft Copilot is used inside the corporate environment because internal data remains behind organizational guardrails.He says Copilot works well for internal documents, presentations, OneDrive information, and employee productivity, although he personally prefers the responses and memory capabilities of some other AI platforms.Neil and Patrick also discuss the future of hiring.Patrick believes AI proficiency will become increasingly important. Simply knowing how to ask ChatGPT a question is no longer enough. Employees will need to understand how to use AI to improve workflows, help customers, analyze information, automate processes, and operate safely inside company restrictions.Neil says his eventual plan is to hire a human project manager or virtual assistant whose role will include supervising the AI systems while he focuses on strategy, relationships, sales, and high-level creative work.That may be the biggest takeaway from the episode: AI is not just replacing tasks—it is creating a new kind of management.The future worker may supervise specialized AI systems, verify their output, control costs, correct mistakes, and determine which model should handle each assignment.For more AI conversations and real-world experiments, follow AI Office Hours. Patrick Riley’s books and publishing projects are available at UnderwayBooks.com.

Cheryl Lovell on Healthcare Entrepreneurship, Consulting, Compliance, Growth, and the Future of Post-Acute CareIn this special simulcast of The Neil Haley Show and the Storehouse Media Group Podcast, Neil “The Media Giant” Haley welcomes Cheryl Lovell, founder and executive of CLC Group, for a conversation about entrepreneurship, healthcare operations, consulting, regulatory complexity, growth, and the opportunities—and risks—inside the post-acute healthcare industry. Lovell’s entrepreneurial journey began after serving in the U.S. Navy and deploying during the Gulf War. She originally intended to pursue nursing, but after leaving the military in the early 1990s, she found the nursing-school and employment landscape unexpectedly difficult.That obstacle pushed her in a different direction.Through Webster University, Lovell discovered the emerging field of healthcare administration. She earned a degree combining business and healthcare administration, followed by a master’s degree in business, and says she quickly fell in love with the business side of healthcare.After working for other organizations, Lovell eventually reached the point many entrepreneurs do: she believed she could build and operate healthcare companies differently on her own.Over the years, she owned and operated businesses in home health, hospice, private-duty care, and palliative care. After selling those companies, she moved into consulting, helping other healthcare entrepreneurs and operators build, improve, reorganize, and grow their organizations.Today, CLC Group focuses primarily on healthcare organizations that need help identifying problems and opportunities.Lovell says her work often begins with a simple question: What is the owner actually trying to accomplish?From there, she evaluates the entire operational picture. The solution may involve reorganizing operations, improving sales and marketing, pursuing an acquisition, launching a new service, creating a startup, correcting inefficiencies, or simply identifying what she calls a “leaky bucket” inside the organization.Her experience covers a broad range of post-acute healthcare, including home health, hospice, private-duty home care, palliative care, assisted living, independent living, and skilled nursing.Neil and Lovell also explore one of the biggest misconceptions about healthcare entrepreneurship: the belief that healthcare is automatically an easy or recession-proof investment.Lovell says she increasingly sees entrepreneurs entering healthcare from unrelated industries because they assume demand will remain strong regardless of the economy. But they may underestimate just how complicated the regulatory and reimbursement systems can be.That is especially true in home health.Lovell describes home health as one of the most complex post-acute businesses because payment is not necessarily based on a simple daily or hourly rate. Reimbursement can depend on multiple factors, assessments, expected care needs, and changing patient conditions.That complexity creates challenges not only in billing, but also in operations, staffing, compliance, forecasting, and cash flow.Another significant challenge is regulation.Lovell discusses the pressure healthcare operators face from fraud, waste, abuse concerns, CMS oversight, and changing rules. Good operators often become extremely risk-averse because the consequences of making the wrong decision can be significant.But she also warns that avoiding every risk can prevent a company from growing.The goal is not to ignore regulations. It is to understand them well enough to make intelligent decisions while still being willing to innovate, expand, and adapt.Marketing creates another unique challenge.Lovell explains that much of post-acute healthcare depends on B2B relationship building rather than conventional consumer marketing. Companies often need trusted relationships with referral sources while simultaneously building confidence with patients and families.Technology and AI may help support that process, but Lovell believes personal relationships remain incredibly important.There is no single “silver bullet” sales engine.Successful organizations need to understand their specific market, strengthen referral relationships, use technology appropriately, and create systems that consistently move opportunities forward.Lovell has worked with organizations ranging from startups to companies generating approximately $150 million in annual revenue, and she says many of the underlying challenges remain surprisingly similar.Operators need clarity.They need to understand where money is being lost, where opportunities exist, what regulations are changing, where staffing problems are developing, and whether their current systems can support future growth.Neil and Lovell also discuss how quickly healthcare can change. Regulations, reimbursement structures, market demand, technology, and investment opportunities can all shift within a few years.That makes experienced guidance increasingly valuable for entrepreneurs entering the industry without a healthcare background.Lovell’s message is clear: healthcare can be an incredible business opportunity, but it is not a simple business.Entrepreneurs must understand compliance, reimbursement, staffing, operations, marketing, and the human side of care before assuming that strong demand automatically creates success.For healthcare companies that are struggling, growing, launching, acquiring, or considering major operational changes, Lovell says she can often identify core problems quickly and help point leadership toward practical solutions.Listeners can connect with Cheryl Lovell and CLC Group at [email protected] more information about media, marketing, publishing, and ghostwriting, visit StoreHouseMediaGroup.com.

Shark Tank's Robert Herjavec, Author Todd R. Mitchell Jr., and AI Office Hours with Pat RileyThis edition of The Neil Haley Show opens with a Total Celebrity conversation with Robert Herjavec of ABC's Shark Tank. Herjavec reflected that none of the Sharks expected a show about five people talking business to become a hit, and were amazed to find it embraced above all as a family show, one that gives viewers hope and inspiration. Even after nine seasons, he said, the creativity of the entrepreneurs who walk in, and the dreams and stories behind their products, never cease to astonish him. He described the experience as a pressure cooker on both sides of the pitch, with far more happening behind the scenes than makes the edit, and spoke fondly of the very different personalities on the panel, some sharp with numbers and some not, and the spirited Shark fights that give the show its spark. Drawing on his own journey from an immigrant who arrived with next to nothing to building a major cybersecurity company, Herjavec framed the program as a celebration of passion, persistence, and the belief that a great idea and a compelling story can change a life. He said he is proud to be part of a platform that, more than anything, gives people permission to chase what they believe in, and reflected that the same qualities the Sharks look for in a pitch, resilience, clarity, and heart, are the ones that carry entrepreneurs through the hard years after the cameras stop rolling.Neil then welcomed author Todd R. Mitchell Jr., joined by his fiancee, to talk about his book Never Gave Up. A gifted athlete who earned a college basketball scholarship and went on to arena football, Mitchell described how alcoholism shadowed every opportunity, and said that had he reached the pros, the money would have arrived long before he reached the root of the problem, likely leaving him broke, homeless, or worse. He traced a hard road through homelessness, incarceration, and car accidents, and credited his turnaround to faith and to a partner who visited him daily in rehab and stood by him through relapse, understanding that recovery is a process rather than a single decision. The look on his daughter's face one difficult day became another anchor, and he spoke of the patience it took his fiancee to walk beside him without giving up. Today Mitchell has earned a film production degree from Miami Dade College and launched Born From The Ashes Mitchell Production Studios in Jacksonville. Never Gave Up is available on Amazon, where it has been a number-one new release.The hour closes with an AI Office Hours simulcast, where Neil and co-host Pat Riley traded practical lessons from their week of experimenting with artificial intelligence assistants and agents. Neil opened by joking that his own AI assistant had been running him through a drill-sergeant week. Riley's hard-won takeaway was simple: when a setup is working well and running cheaply, do not tinker with it, recounting how a small change quietly burned through his budget faster than expected before he reined it back in and returned to what had worked. He also shared a favorite story making the rounds, of a traveler abroad who set an AI agent to keep scanning a shelter's listings until it flagged the person's lost cat. The pair returned to their recurring theme that AI is a powerful multiplier for a human who stays in charge, watching the costs and keeping a hand on the wheel, rather than a set-and-forget replacement. Find Robert Herjavec on Shark Tank and Todd R. Mitchell Jr.'s Never Gave Up on Amazon.

Rudy's Dan Ruettiger, Author Benton Savage, and Bestselling Novelist Grace Lynx JenkinsThis edition of The Neil Haley Show opens with a Just Two Choices celebrity segment, co-hosted by Rico Rokowski, welcoming Dan "Rudy" Ruettiger, the real-life inspiration behind the classic sports film Rudy. Ruettiger, who grew up the thirteenth of fourteen children, shared warm, funny memories of a household so full his fiercely organized mother once kept a chain and lock on the refrigerator to keep track of the food, and reflected on the years of setbacks and the sheer determination that carried him against long odds to suit up for Notre Dame and, in the final moments of a game, get onto the field for a single, unforgettable play. He framed his story around what he calls the power of the dream, the choice to chase what others say is impossible, and the discipline and faith it takes to keep going when the door keeps closing. Decades after the movie made his name a byword for perseverance, Ruettiger said his mission now is to help others believe their own dreams are worth the fight. He spoke about the two choices he believes everyone faces every day, to move toward a dream or away from it, and about surrounding yourself with people who lift you rather than hold you back. His enthusiasm, Neil noted, is as genuine as the story that inspired millions, and Ruettiger encouraged listeners to stop waiting for permission and take the first small step toward whatever they have been putting off.Neil then welcomed author Benton Savage to discuss his book The Stoic Alcoholic: It's Not Only About Counting Days. Savage, who has published four books in the last few years after two decades of writing, explained that he began the project as a daily sobriety journal titled around the first 366 days, wrote productively for about a hundred days, then stumbled, set it aside, and eventually returned to it, deciding his own recovery mattered more than the book and that finishing it could help others. Its core message, he said, is that while staying sober and the day count genuinely matter, a single bad day does not erase months or years of progress, and no one should treat a slip as total failure or a reason to give up, since tomorrow is simply another day to begin again. He also offered candid advice to fellow writers, that a book is only a tool and that no PR team or talk-show appearance replaces an author getting out and speaking to people directly, adding that the shift toward flexible, independent publishing had finally opened doors that the traditional houses kept closed for years. Throughout, he framed the work less as a memoir than as encouragement for anyone in the same fight.The hour closes with a conversation with bestselling author Grace Lynx Jenkins about her thriller Sight and her first book signing, held at a Barnes & Noble on Alabama's Eastern Shore. Jenkins recalled arriving expecting to sell only three or four copies, bringing thirty-nine, and walking out with just three, and said what warmed her heart most was meeting fellow authors and reviewers and, above all, watching parents bring their young children into the store, a reminder of how much early reading and critical-thinking skills matter. One little girl, she delighted to report, proudly announced she had already written three books of her own, the kind of moment, Jenkins said, that makes the work worthwhile. She encouraged aspiring writers to keep going and to champion reading in the next generation

Stan Against Evil's John C. McGinley, Children's Author Laure Stack, and Investigator Melissa SandbergThis edition of The Neil Haley Show opens with a Total Celebrity conversation with actor John C. McGinley, beloved as Dr. Cox on Scrubs, about the comedy-horror series Stan Against Evil and its second season. McGinley pitched the show, in which he plays a cantankerous small-town sheriff who discovers his New England home sits atop a witch's curse, as essentially Archie Bunker fighting witches, and said he was pleasantly caught off guard when The New York Times named the first season one of its ten best new shows, a stamp of validation for a scrappy genre comedy. He explained that the hardest and most important thing the team guards is tone, aiming for the sweet spot between the pure terror of The Exorcist and the pure fun of Scooby-Doo, landing somewhere near An American Werewolf in London, funny without ever declawing the monsters. McGinley noted that horror fans at Comic-Cons in San Diego, New York, and Silicon Valley will not forgive a show that softens its creatures, so the production respects them, tapping the department heads of The Walking Dead during their hiatus in Atlanta to make the effects look as good as they do. That discipline, he said, is finally paying real dividends, both with critics and with the loyal genre fans who make the difference. He spoke about relishing a role that lets him blend his comedic timing with the darker, sharper edges of his craft in a single character.Neil then welcomed author Laure Stack to discuss her bestselling children's book Howie the Unusual Bear: The Heartwarming Journey of Courage, Friendship, and Embracing What Makes You Different. A lifelong educator, mainly a special education teacher and resource specialist who helped kids with learning disabilities keep pace with their classrooms, Stack now lives in the mountains, substitute teaches from kindergarten through high school, and stays busy skiing, hiking, and even skydiving. She traced her writing back to childhood, when she made her own little books about animals and plants, a dream she finally had time to pursue after retiring. Stack said Howie grew out of watching how wonderfully different today's kids are, and how much they need to feel that what sets them apart is a strength rather than something to hide. She reads the books to students herself, delighting in the moments a child connects with the message, and, alongside three more published titles and several on the way, is exploring stories drawn from her own animals and adventures. Her wish is simply for young readers to see their differences as a gift.The hour closes with a Criminally Good with Sherrie and Jen simulcast, presented by Storehouse Media Group, welcoming Melissa Sandberg, host of the Dog With a Bone podcast. A self-described civil investigator rather than a police officer or private eye, Sandberg takes on overlooked, low-profile cold cases to give victims and their families a voice, affectionately calling her listeners the Dog Pound. She traced a path from a childhood love of solving mysteries and two decades in hospice care to the investigative work that became her passion, noting that not being in law enforcement makes people more comfortable opening up to her. She shared a chilling reminder to trust one's instincts, recounting how, while gathering information on a case, she unknowingly crossed paths with a man later charged in a young woman's death, and said her mission is simply to keep pushing until families get their answers. Find John C. McGinley on Stan Against Evil, Laure Stack's Howie the Unusual Bear at booksellers, and Melissa Sandberg's Dog With a Bone wherever you get podcasts.

America's Got Talent Host Terry Crews, Author Chris Kline, GildaGram with Dr. Gilda Carle, and the Wounded SistersThis edition of The Neil Haley Show opens with a Total Celebrity conversation with Terry Crews, host of America's Got Talent, ahead of the show's nineteenth season. Crews, an unabashed fitness devotee, joked with fellow big guy Neil about staying in top shape and called working in entertainment a total privilege. He explained that he landed the hosting job almost by design, telling his agent to push the envelope and make him a guinea pig by putting him where audiences would never expect to see a former athlete his size. That willingness led first to hosting the spinoff AGT: Champions and then the flagship, a run now six seasons deep with no end in sight, and he said he wants to make it impossible to imagine the show without him. Recalling how, as a Midwestern kid, performing in Los Angeles felt as far off as going to Mars, Crews described his favorite part of the job as reassuring wide-eyed contestants that they truly belong on that stage. His enthusiasm for the talent, he said, is genuine.Neil then welcomed returning guest, author Chris Kline, to discuss her autobiography, newly re-edited and re-titled Diamond in the Rough after a first release as Shake, Rattle, and Roll. Klein explained that she reissued the book with a fresh cover and edit once she was unhappy with the original production, and walked through a life story she frames around faith and the supernatural, from her years as a missionary to encounters she recounts as true rather than spooky. Where a previous book of hers was a novel tracing demonic influence passed down through four families, this one is her own account, offered, she said, both for readers who believe in the supernatural and for those simply curious to learn more. She presented the experiences throughout as her personal testimony.The hour closes with a series of simulcasts. On GildaGram, Dr. Gilda Carle weighed how earlier generations let children roam until dark and even ride the subway alone, asking whether today's caution raises kids to be independent or fearful, while acknowledging the world has genuinely changed. In a second segment, she turned to the universal ordeal of a crying baby on a plane, praising the passenger who offered to hold an overwhelmed mother's infant and framing the moment as a public test of maturity that only the baby is allowed to fail. Finally, on the Wounded Sisters podcast, bestselling author Mary Shearer Eckert marked her thirtieth wedding anniversary with a reflection on faith as the bedrock of a lasting marriage, giving thanks for the blessings and the hard times alike. Find Terry Crews on America's Got Talent and Mary Shearer Eckert's Wounded Sisters on Amazon.

George Goodsaid on Catholic Positive Energy: Faith, Apologetics, Purpose, and Bringing People Back to the ChurchIn this episode of The Neil Haley Show, Neil “The Media Giant” Haley welcomes author, Catholic speaker, educator, and content creator George Goodsaid, author of Catholic Positive Energy. Goodsaid shares his personal faith journey, his return to Catholicism, his study of theology and apologetics, and his mission to use faith, encouragement, prayer, and education to bring what he calls “positive energy” into the world.Goodsaid explains that his passion for Catholicism developed gradually. He was raised Catholic and attended Mass with his family as a child, but says he left the Church around age nine and spent years going in a different direction.His journey back began in college.At 19, while attending a secular community college, Goodsaid became friends with non-Catholic Christians who invited him to Bible study. He says he had never seriously opened the Bible before that time, and hearing other Christians quote and discuss scripture created a new curiosity about faith.Soon afterward, he connected with someone at his Catholic parish who began teaching him more about Catholic beliefs. Those conversations became another major turning point. Goodsaid began studying the faith more deeply and eventually became convinced that Catholicism was where he belonged.That curiosity developed into serious academic study. Approximately three years ago, Goodsaid earned a Master’s degree in Catholic Theology from Catholic International University.One of the most influential moments in his journey came when he attended a presentation by Catholic apologist Tim Staples, formerly of Catholic Answers. Goodsaid remembers being amazed to hear a Catholic speaker quoting scripture extensively while explaining and defending Catholic teachings.That encounter introduced him to Catholic apologetics.Goodsaid explains apologetics as the practice of offering a reasoned defense or explanation of the faith—not apologizing for being Catholic, but answering questions about why Catholics believe and practice what they do.That experience helped clarify his own calling. Goodsaid says he does not feel called to become a priest, but he does feel called to serve as a Catholic lay speaker, author, educator, and apologist.His book, Catholic Positive Energy, grew out of that mission.The short, accessible book combines parts of Goodsaid’s personal journey with scripture, Catholic teaching, encouragement, and lessons about developing a more positive life through faith. He says one chapter focuses on the importance of positive role models, while other sections explore lifting people up, moving beyond painful experiences, and learning how to “live life to the fullest.”Goodsaid also discusses why he believes many Catholics become disconnected from their faith. In his view, some people grow up attending Mass without receiving enough instruction about why Catholics worship, pray, and believe the way they do.That is one reason he created his Catholic Positive Energy YouTube platform during the pandemic.On the channel, Goodsaid combines Catholic teaching with an encouraging, approachable style. His broadcasts may include meditation, breathing exercises, the Rosary, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, scripture, readings from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and explanations of Catholic practices.He addresses questions such as why Catholics call priests “Father,” why priests and religious sisters practice celibacy, what happens during Mass, and how Catholic teaching differs from secular culture.Goodsaid says his goal is not to attack people from other Christian traditions. In fact, he credits non-Catholic Christians with helping lead him back toward faith. He believes Christians from different traditions can sometimes help one another, especially when people are sincerely searching for God.Another part of his platform, called Goodsaid Vibes, allows him to discuss happiness, loneliness, purpose, faith, and encouragement in a more conversational setting. While he makes clear that he is not a mental-health counselor, he wants people who feel lonely or discouraged to hear a simple message: they are loved, valued, and not forgotten.Goodsaid describes his approach as trying to become a Catholic version of Mr. Rogers—someone who teaches while remaining welcoming, cheerful, compassionate, and encouraging.Professionally, he currently works as a substitute teacher at a Catholic elementary and middle school. With his graduate degree in theology, he hopes eventually to expand into full-time Catholic education, writing, speaking, apologetics, or work with an organization devoted to explaining the faith.Neil and George also discuss the unique role lay Catholics can play in evangelization. Goodsaid believes some audiences may connect differently with an ordinary layperson who has experienced loneliness, confusion, mistakes, and a gradual return to faith.His message is ultimately about purpose.For Goodsaid, Catholicism gave him direction when he felt lost. Now he wants to provide that same encouragement to someone else who may be searching.Listeners can learn more about George Goodsaid, purchase Catholic Positive Energy, explore his merchandise, and connect with his work at GeorgeGoodsaid.com. His Catholic Positive Energy content is also available on YouTube and Facebook.

Benton Savage on The Stoic Alcoholic: Sobriety, Relapse, Mental Health, and Refusing to Give UpIn this episode of The Neil Haley Show, Neil “The Media Giant” Haley welcomes author Benton Savage, whose book The Stoic Alcoholic: It’s Not Only About Counting Days offers a brutally candid look at alcoholism, relapse, accountability, mental health, and the long process of trying to build a better life. Savage explains that the book was never meant to present a perfect recovery story. Instead, it became powerful precisely because his journey was imperfect.Savage has been writing for approximately two decades, but his publishing career has accelerated over the last several years. After struggling with traditional publishing, he found new opportunities through independent and flexible publishing models and now has multiple books available.The Stoic Alcoholic began on February 4, 2025 under a different title: Sober Alcoholic: The First 366 Days of Sobriety. Savage planned to document an entire year without drinking.For roughly 100 days, things went well. He wrote consistently, stayed productive, and remained sober. Then he relapsed for several months and stopped writing.At first, he assumed the book had failed.Eventually, Savage realized the relapse had actually revealed the real message. Recovery, he argues, cannot simply be reduced to a number on a calendar. Counting sober days can be helpful, but one relapse does not erase every good decision made before it.That realization became the meaning behind the subtitle: It’s Not Only About Counting Days.Savage says people often fall into an all-or-nothing mentality. Someone may stay sober for months, drink once, and immediately believe everything has been destroyed. His message is that the mistake matters—but so does what happens next.The book is written largely like a diary. Savage says he recorded what he was experiencing in real time and deliberately avoided rewriting his emotions later to make himself look better. That includes frustration with himself, family conflicts, setbacks, and uncomfortable truths.His relationship with alcohol started early. Savage remembers first getting drunk at roughly 14 or 15 years old while attending boarding school. From that experience forward, he says drinking gradually became central to his social life.Eventually it became something much darker.Savage describes periods when he regularly began drinking early in the morning. At his worst, he might purchase large quantities of beer or begin the day with a fifth of liquor and continue until the bottle was empty or he passed out.He also increasingly preferred drinking alone because there were fewer consequences in the moment. At home, he did not have to worry about embarrassing himself publicly or being arrested for appearing heavily intoxicated.Savage says there was no single dramatic rock-bottom moment. Instead, there were many moments that should have been enough.His relationships with his mother and sister were damaged by his behavior while drinking. He describes becoming impulsive and sending repeated messages while intoxicated. His family had heard promises about quitting many times and eventually became exhausted by the cycle.Another major turning point involved his dog. Savage previously lost a dog in a car accident after suffering what he believes may have been an alcohol-withdrawal-related seizure. Years later, when he decided he was ready to care for another dog, that responsibility became another reason to pursue sobriety.Savage also talks openly about boredom and the desire to fill time. He owns an Airbnb rental management business, writes books, and describes himself as entrepreneurial, yet drinking still became an easy way to occupy empty hours.The conversation then moves into mental health.Savage discusses his book Wrong Side Out: Madness Misdiagnosed, which chronicles his experience of being diagnosed with bipolar disorder for many years before later receiving diagnoses of schizophrenia and severe obsessive-compulsive disorder. He says his current treatment has helped significantly compared with earlier periods of his life.Savage describes OCD as particularly challenging because thoughts and behaviors can become repetitive and difficult to interrupt. He also discusses suicide attempts and psychiatric hospitalization in Wrong Side Out, making the book a much heavier companion to his sobriety memoir.His story reinforces an important distinction: Savage is describing his individual diagnoses, treatment history, and personal experiences. Mental-health conditions and addiction require individualized professional evaluation and should not be self-diagnosed from another person’s story.Stoicism provides another framework for Savage’s recovery. He defines it simply as trying to live a good life, do the right thing, and gain satisfaction from acting according to your values rather than constantly needing external praise.For him, sobriety can work the same way.Sometimes, however, the decision not to drink is not day by day—it is minute by minute. Savage admits that after months without alcohol, the desire can appear suddenly and a trip to the liquor store can happen almost impulsively.That is why he refuses to describe himself as someone who has everything figured out.His message is about continuing.In addition to The Stoic Alcoholic and Wrong Side Out: Madness Misdiagnosed, Savage has published Free and Satisfied, a novel set during the COVID era involving an interracial relationship in Memphis. He also has additional books in development.All of Benton Savage’s published books can be found on Amazon, with additional availability through Barnes & Noble and selected booksellers.At the heart of The Stoic Alcoholic is a simple idea: a bad day does not have to become the rest of your life.