Where do you turn when you're searching for answers and the clock is ticking?

This week I share an author, speaker and podcaster who showed up in my feed and models exactly what I've been looking for: faith, business and a late-career mindset, all in one person. He gives away a lot of free content, and there's no buy-in required.

I explain why I'm following him, how I plan to take what he teaches and put it into action through the Spark Lab, and a simple challenge for you: listen until it makes sense, then decide what you'll do in the next 24 to 48 hours.

If you're near retirement age, running a small business or side hustle, or just feel stuck, this one's for you.
Keep moving. Get sparked.

Myron Golden: https://myrongolden.com/

In this episode:

• How a 97-database, three-server migration pushed me into AI, deep and fast
• Why I work a full-time job, a pizza route and care for my 89-year-old father, and still say you can start
• Where to start: Claude, ChatGPT and the people worth following, like Dan Martell
• Why financial freedom, not retirement, is the real question at 62

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I couldn't clone myself, so I got an assistant. This week I share how I went deep into AI with 35 years in IT, a sick father, a part-time job and a debt mountain, and why every reason not to start is a reason to start. Get acquainted with AI, then come back and tell me what you did.

In this episode:

• Russ shares how Spark Lab actually began — not as a plan, but as something that found him
• The week his dad was hospitalized was the same week he had to face 20 years of inherited manual work processes
• How that collision led him to AI, and the moment he said "I need an unfair advantage"
• Why he believes AI is leverage, not a replacement for wisdom, faith, or relationship
• A free resource: the complete 31-page AI Field Manual, available now at sparklabpro.com

This is the real story behind Spark Lab — not a polished origin myth, but what actually happened. In the same week Russ's father landed in the hospital, he also had to take over 20 years of manual processes inherited from a retiring coworker. Overwhelmed and out of time, he turned to AI for the first time in his 35-year IT career — and discovered something that changed everything. This episode traces that path honestly, and closes with an invitation: download the free AI Field Manual at sparklabpro.com and start your own journey.

In this episode:

• Russ steps back from the framework's four stages to explain the pattern underneath everything he's building
• Why The Spark Lab, The Spark Lab Advantage, his speaking, and the book aren't separate projects
• The honest truth about why he's really doing all of this
• What he wants every listener, client, and conversation to walk away knowing

There's a pattern that shows up almost everywhere once you know how to look for it — in individuals, in businesses, in societies going back thousands of years. Russ didn't invent it. He found it. In this episode, he steps back from telling another single story and explains the discovery underneath every single thing he's building — why a business owner and an individual carrying something heavy are more alike than different, and why none of what he's building are separate projects at all. They're one discovery, worn differently depending on who's in front of him.

In this episode:

• Russ closes the full Catalyst Framework arc — Stuck, Seen, Sparked, and now Moving
• Why "moving" doesn't require massive effort — just a 2mm shift, repeated
• The boulder-and-wedge idea: small, repeated leverage beats one big push
• An honest admission: Russ is still in the stuck feeling sometimes too, even now
• A call to reach out to God when you're stuck, and start moving again

You don't need a massive amount of effort to move forward — you need leverage. In this episode, Russ closes out the full Catalyst Framework by tackling Moving: the stage where people often get tripped up, because they think it requires a huge push. It doesn't. It requires a 2 millimeter shift, applied a little at a time, stacking up like credits toward a degree. Russ gets honest about still feeling stuck himself sometimes, and shares why calling out to God — being seen, getting sparked — is what turns "stuck" into "moving" again. Bite-sized. Repeated. That's how the elephant gets eaten.

In this episode:

• Russ shares his own real, in-progress financial reckoning — a full, honest audit of years of debt he'd been avoiding
• What it looks like to move from Seen to Sparked — Stage 3 of the Catalyst Framework
• The moment seeing the truth turns into an actual first move
• Real percentages, not exact numbers — because honesty doesn't require exposure
• An invitation to look at the one number you've been avoiding this week

Being seen is step one. Moving is step two. In this episode, Russ shares something he's living through right now — a full, honest reckoning with years of debt he'd been avoiding, and the moment that truth stopped being a weight and became a starting point. No shame, no easy fix — just the real percentages, the real shift, and the first small moves that turned "stuck under it" into "moving through it." This is Sparked: the stage where seeing clearly finally becomes doing something about it.

Being seen isn't about someone fixing your problem — it's about someone finding the real you underneath it. Russ shares an afternoon with his father — a two-hour game of checkers that became the clearest picture yet of what the "Seen" stage of the Catalyst Framework actually looks like in real life. Between feeding tubes, fatigue, and a diagnosis that doesn't leave much room for hope, Russ found a way to see his dad as a father again, not just a patient. This episode is about the difference between fixing and seeing — and why the second one might matter more than we think.