We'd love to hear from you! Click this link to text us feedback or to share your thoughts. Meta Description: Most of what weighs you down isn’t yours. Scott Smith breaks down Epictetus’s reminder to stop carrying other people’s opinions, emotions, and expectations—and reclaim your mental freedom. 🎙️ Episode Summary “Other people’s views and troubles can be left to them.” — Epictetus Most leaders don’t struggle with their own burdens. They struggle with borrowed ones. Epictetus teaches ...

We'd love to hear from you! Click this link to text us feedback or to share your thoughts. Meta Description: Attention is destiny. Scott Smith ties together lessons from Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus to show how focus shapes both thought and character. 🎙️ Episode Summary “The things you think about determine the quality of your mind.” — Marcus Aurelius “Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.” — Epictetus “Pay attention to what’s in your own control and let go of what isn’t.” — Epictetus...

We'd love to hear from you! Click this link to text us feedback or to share your thoughts. Meta Description: Comparison kills concentration. Scott Smith reveals how Marcus Aurelius’s warning against speculation helps leaders reclaim attention and peace. 🎙️ Episode Summary “Do not waste what remains of your life in speculating about your neighbors.” — Marcus Aurelius Comparison is a thief dressed as curiosity. Focus dissolves when you measure your life by someone else’s timeline. Marcus teach...

We'd love to hear from you! Click this link to text us feedback or to share your thoughts. Meta Description: Big goals often crush focus. Scott Smith shares how Marcus Aurelius and Seneca taught leaders to shrink the frame—finding power in the next step, not the entire climb. 🎙️ Episode Summary “Don’t let your reflection on the whole sweep of life crush you.” — Marcus Aurelius “The task ahead of you is never greater than the strength within you.” — Seneca When you stare at the mountain, it ...

We'd love to hear from you! Click this link to text us feedback or to share your thoughts. Meta Description: Before you decide what to do, decide who you are. Scott Smith explores how Epictetus reframed focus as identity in motion—action that flows from conviction. 🎙️ Episode Summary “First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.” — Epictetus Epictetus reminds us that clarity comes before consistency. Focus isn’t about choosing tasks—it’s about choosing identity. ...

We'd love to hear from you! Click this link to text us feedback or to share your thoughts. Meta Description: Focus is a form of strength. Scott Smith unpacks Marcus Aurelius’s reminder that presence—not pressure—is what defines disciplined leadership. 🎙️ Episode Summary “Concentrate every minute like a Roman—on doing what’s in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness.” — Marcus Aurelius The Stoics saw focus as devotion, not intensity. Marcus challenges us to treat every moment as sa...

We'd love to hear from you! Click this link to text us feedback or to share your thoughts. Meta Description: Liberty begins in the soul. Scott Smith reflects on how Zeno and George Washington saw self-mastery as the true foundation of a free society — and why every leader must first govern themselves. 🎙️ Episode Summary “Man conquers the world by conquering himself.” — Zeno of Citium “The preservation of liberty depends upon the virtue of the people.” — George Washington Nations rise and fa...

We'd love to hear from you! Click this link to text us feedback or to share your thoughts. Meta Description: Power tests character. Scott Smith examines how Marcus Aurelius and the Founders both saw leadership as a moral weight — a call to self-awareness, restraint, and wisdom in action. 🎙️ Episode Summary “The greater the power, the more binding the duty.” — William Pitt the Elder “It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and forget his own.” — Marcus Aurelius ...

We'd love to hear from you! Click this link to text us feedback or to share your thoughts. Freedom always carries a cost. Scott Smith explores how Seneca and George Washington both understood liberty as a test of conscience — a demand for virtue over comfort and discipline over ease. 🎙️ Episode Summary “Freedom can’t be bought for nothing. If you hold her precious, you must hold all else of little worth.” — Seneca “To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace...

We'd love to hear from you! Click this link to text us feedback or to share your thoughts. Meta Description: Freedom fades when vigilance fails. Scott Smith explores how Epictetus, Archibald MacLeish, and the Founding Fathers remind us that liberty’s first battlefield is the mind—and that self-command is the highest form of freedom. 🎙️ Episode Summary “Don’t be a slave to your desires; be the master of your decisions.” — Epictetus “Freedom is the right to choose: the right to create for one...

We'd love to hear from you! Click this link to text us feedback or to share your thoughts. Meta Description: True liberty isn’t granted—it’s grown. Scott Smith explores how Washington and Marcus Aurelius both saw freedom not as rebellion, but as self-rule. When you master your will, no tyrant can master you. 🎙️ Episode Summary “Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.” — George Washington “You may fetter my leg, but my will not even Zeus himself can overpower.” — Ma...

We'd love to hear from you! Click this link to text us feedback or to share your thoughts. Ep 156 – Freedom through Acceptance: The Hymn of the Stoic Soul Meta Description: Acceptance is not surrender—it’s liberation. Scott Smith explores Cleanthes’ ancient hymn to Zeus and the Stoic idea that peace with destiny creates true freedom. 🎙️ Episode Summary “Lead me, Zeus, and you, Destiny, wherever you have assigned me; I will follow without hesitation.” — CleanthesIn this reflection, Scott Smit...

We'd love to hear from you! Click this link to text us feedback or to share your thoughts. Ep 155 – Freedom from Fear: The Stoic’s Quiet Strength Meta Description: Fear is the enemy of freedom. Scott Smith explores how Stoic courage turns uncertainty into calm strength and reveals why fearless leaders lead freer lives. 🎙️ Episode Summary “If you wish to be free, do not wish for anything that depends on others.” — EpictetusFreedom begins when fear ends. In this reflection, Scott Smith reveals...

We'd love to hear from you! Click this link to text us feedback or to share your thoughts. 🎧 Ep 154 – The Courage to Stand Alone: Conscience and the Cost of Liberty Meta Description: True liberty requires courage—the courage to stand alone when conscience calls. Scott Smith reflects on Gandhi’s and the Stoics’ lessons on moral independence and inner strength. 🎙️ Episode Summary “In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.” — Mahatma GandhiFreedom isn’t always comfortable....

We'd love to hear from you! Click this link to text us feedback or to share your thoughts. 🎧 Ep 153 – Liberty of the Mind: The Stoic Art of Inner Freedom Meta Description: Discover how Stoic leaders protect their peace through inner liberty. Scott Smith explores Epictetus’ wisdom on mental freedom and self-governance in leadership. 🎙️ Episode Summary “You may chain my body, but not my will.” — EpictetusThe first prison is the mind. True freedom begins when we reclaim our thoughts, emotions, ...

We'd love to hear from you! Click this link to text us feedback or to share your thoughts. Discover why Stoic leaders believe discipline is freedom. Scott Smith explores liberty through restraint, character, and moral self-mastery. 🎙️ Episode Summary “None are more enslaved than those who think they are free.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Freedom isn’t the absence of limits—it’s mastery within them. In this episode, Scott Smith explores the Stoic paradox that true liberty requires disci...

We'd love to hear from you! Click this link to text us feedback or to share your thoughts. 🎙️ Episode Summary Musonius Rufus wrote, “Practice in enduring hardships hardens us to them.” Falling behind isn’t failure—it’s practice. In this episode, Scott Smith shares how to turn setbacks into strength through the Stoic art of beginning again. Learn how small restarts restore self-belief, why resilience is built through repetition, and how every reset becomes a new beginning. 🧠 What You’ll Learn...

We'd love to hear from you! Click this link to text us feedback or to share your thoughts. 🎙️ Episode Summary Seneca said, “No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity.” Why? Because progress demands proof—and proof lives in action. In this episode, Scott Smith unpacks why defining a clear, controllable win each day is the foundation of progress and peace. Learn how to build momentum with a simple three-checkbox system that anchors your attention on what you can control. 🧠 What ...

We'd love to hear from you! Click this link to text us feedback or to share your thoughts. 🎙️ Episode Summary Seneca reminds us, “It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it.” The long game isn’t about patience—it’s about consistency. In this episode, Scott Smith reframes success through the Stoic lens of daily discipline. Discover how to compound effort through three actions that build momentum over time: one for revenue, one for relationships, and one for repu...

We'd love to hear from you! Click this link to text us feedback or to share your thoughts. 🎙️ Episode Summary Epictetus taught, “Some things are up to us, and some are not.” It’s one of the simplest—and hardest—truths in leadership. In this episode, Scott Smith breaks down the three circles of Stoic control: what you can Control, what you can Influence, and what only deserves Concern. Learn how to redirect your energy to what actually changes outcomes and reclaim your focus in a distracted w...