FLAME with Brad Hook

What happens when the striving that built your career stops working? Fabrice Desmarescaux, McKinsey partner, leader of Aberkyn in Southeast Asia and author of The Art of Retreats, joins Brad to explore the "second adulthood": the unnamed life stage that begins around 45, when raw problem-solving gives way to wisdom, judgment and the ability to hold paradox. Drawing on decades of coaching CEOs and C-suite teams, Fabrice explains why control doesn't scale, why midlife is an awakening rather than a crisis, and why silence, solitude and stillness are the most underrated leadership tools of all. A warm, quietly radical conversation about presence, letting go, and finding your new game.
In this episode:
Fluid intelligence peaks in your 30s, but crystallized intelligence keeps growing into your 70s and 80s
Why senior leadership is an adaptive challenge: influence, nudging and holding space instead of control
The lost rites of passage, and why we need elders to guide life's biggest transitions
How to build a retreat into a busy day through silence, solitude and disconnection

Get The Art of Retreats: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Retreats-Leaders-Journey-Clarity/dp/1544526369Fabrice's website: https://www.desmarescaux.comFabrice on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabrice-desmarescaux
Connect with Brad:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradhookLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradleyhookAttend a live experience: https://flame.liveDiscover Brad's work: https://bradleyhook.comValues Institute: https://values.institute

Ellen Hunter Gans is a writer, 41-time marathoner, Ironman triathlete, and the first person with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome to run seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. In this conversation she takes us inside the Great World Race — from a packed-snow course in Antarctica's White Desert to a heat-index scorcher in Cartagena — complete with a venomous spider bite, a stolen wallet, and a plane once used by the Rolling Stones.
Along the way she shares the stories behind her new book, Seven Marathons: lung cancer survivors running with one lung, a Welsh firefighter racing in full kit, and elite women choosing collaboration over world records. It's a warm, funny, and quietly profound look at resilience, shared purpose, and why the time to chase your big goals is now.
Camaraderie is a performance tool: research shows shared struggle literally reduces the experience of pain
Treat big goals as commitments, not options — sign up first, then figure out how
Rest matters: Ellen qualified for Boston by running less, not more (three focused runs a week)
If not now, when? Don't wait for a diagnosis or a deadline to do the thing

Get the book: https://sevenmarathonsbook.com
Connect with Brad Hook:
https://www.instagram.com/bradhook
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradleyhook
Explore more:
https://flame.live
https://bradleyhook.com
https://values.institute

Joey Klein is the founder and CEO of Inner Matrix Systems and the author of The Inner Matrix and Relationship Alchemy. After a near-death experience at 19 pulled him out of a destructive lifestyle, he spent two decades blending ancient wisdom traditions, psychology, and neuroscience into a practical system for personal mastery — one he has now taught to more than 90,000 people, from Fortune 500 executives to professional athletes. In this conversation, Joey and Brad explore why lasting change starts with the nervous system rather than the mind, and how emotional mastery can be trained like any other skill.
Why you can't think your way out of anxiety: regulate the nervous system first, manage emotion second, then train the mind
The three emotional competencies: awareness, switching off fear, and switching on love-based states
A simple morning check-in and four-sided breathing practice you can start today
The four steps behind every real transformation

Free for FLAME listeners — both of Joey's books plus a complimentary training session with a certified IMS trainer:https://joeyklein.com/flamepodcast
Follow Joey:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JoeyKleinIMSInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealjoeyklein/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joeyklein/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoeyKleinIMS/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@officialjoeyklein
Connect with Brad:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradhookLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradleyhook
Attend a live experience: https://flame.liveDiscover Brad's work: https://bradleyhook.comValues Institute: https://values.institute

In this episode, psychologist and bestselling author Fiona Murden explores why identity—not skills—may be our greatest challenge in the age of AI. We discuss resilience, identity coherence, storytelling, parenting, leadership, and why understanding who you are is becoming one of the most important human capabilities.
In this episode:
Why AI is creating an identity crisis
Identity by osmosis and the people who shape us
How leaders create certainty through storytelling
Raising children with a stronger sense of self
The connection between identity and resilience
Practical ways to better understand yourself

Connect with Fiona:
Website: https://www.fionamurden.com/
Substack (Still Human): https://fionamurden.substack.com/about

Most entrepreneurs pour relentless intention into their business and then wing it at home. Ann Sheu thinks that's backwards. She makes the case that your family is the most important team you'll ever lead, and shows how the same clarity, values, and rhythms that build great companies can build connected, resilient families.
We get into values as the real foundation of a relationship, the "decade dream" and why a five-year-old can set one, weekly Family Alignment Meetings (FAMs), the difference between alignment and agreement, and why most money fights are really values fights. Ann also shares the one question that should ground every hard conversation: did your partner leave it feeling seen, heard, understood, and safe?
About AnnAnn Sheu is a leadership coach, entrepreneur, and mother of four, and the founder of Mpowered Journey. She helps high-performing couples bring the clarity, alignment, and intentionality from their businesses into their family life, building stronger communication, shared expectations, and simple rhythms that reduce friction at home.
What we explore
Why values work has to come first, for each individual and then for the couple
The "decade dream": one number that captures a whole vision (2,000 free days, 500 new experiences, 100 date nights abroad)
Family Alignment Meetings, and how to run your family like its leadership team
Alignment over agreement, and why healthy couples still fight
"Seen, heard, understood, and safe" as the real winning criteria in any disagreement
How values clarity dissolves most money and time conflicts
Connect with Ann
https://www.mpoweredjourney.com
https://www.mpoweredjourney.com/know-thyself
https://www.mpoweredjourney.com/foundations-preview
https://www.instagram.com/mpoweredjourney
https://www.linkedin.com/company/mpowered-journey

Meet the host, Brad Hook, here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bradleyhook.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/bradhook
X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/bradleyhook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradleyhook