In this episode of The Resiliency Project, Angie Callen shares how buying the wrong business spiraled into lawsuits, bankruptcy, and financial collapse. After losing nearly everything, Angie and her husband moved into a gutted school bus in the mountains of Colorado and rebuilt their lives one coaching client, one networking event, and one step at a time. But this conversation is about more than failure. It is about resilience as a learned skill. 

Angie explains how childhood adversity shaped her mindset, why having “no way back” forced her to adapt, and how refusing to quit helped her build a successful coaching business from scratch. From sleeping in her Subaru between networking events to finding her first client through LinkedIn, Angie’s story is a reminder that resilience is often built long before the breakthrough arrives. 

What You’ll Learn: 

• • How a failed business purchase led to bankruptcy and rebuilding from a school bus 
• • Why resilience can be developed through adversity and experience 
• • How LinkedIn networking helped Angie land her first coaching clients 
• • Why controlling what you can control is critical during hardship 
• • How failure became the foundation for Angie’s future success 

Episode Links: 

• Angie Callen LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angiecallen/ 
• Connect with Angie Callen: https://angiecallen.com/ 
• Angie Callen's new book, Scary Good: https://angiecallen.com/scarygoodread/

Entrepreneur and brand builder Chase Slepak shares the story of losing nearly everything at 18 years old after a failed car wash business nearly buried him financially before his career even started. Instead of walking away from entrepreneurship, Chase doubled down, rebuilding through grit, hard work, and an obsession with finding the next opportunity. From working alongside his father as a kid to coaching early-stage founders today, Chase reflects on why resilience is built through repetition, why social media hides the hardest parts of business, and why taking risks is often the only way to grow stronger. The conversation explores entrepreneurship, family, identity, and the mindset required to keep moving forward when business punches back.

What You’ll Learn:

• • Why resilience is built by repeatedly overcoming failure
• • How early setbacks shaped Chase’s approach to entrepreneurship
• • Why social media rarely reflects the reality of building a business
• • The importance of intentionality when starting a company
• • How family, work ethic, and adversity shaped Chase’s mindset

Connect with Chase Slepak on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chaseslepak/

How often do we misunderstand the very things that make us different? Steve Schiff, Development Manager at Nasdaq, shares the mindset that keeps him moving forward when things get hard: creativity, imagination, and the ability to keep building toward a future he can already see in his head. 

Steve reflects on resilience, perspective, and why so many people misjudge their own strengths. The episode also introduces a powerful question for future guests: What do you see as your weakness? Because sometimes the things we try hardest to hide are actually the things that give us an edge.

What You’ll Learn: 

• • Why creativity can become a source of resilience 
• • How vision helps people push through difficult moments 
• • Why many perceived weaknesses are actually strengths 
• • The importance of perspective when evaluating yourself 
• • How reframing self-doubt can change the way you move forward

Episode Links:

• Steve Schiff LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveschiff/

 Executive coach, author, and entrepreneur Rhett Power joins Nik Agharkar to break down the brutal realities of entrepreneurship, from losing millions on failed products to nearly running out of money while trying to keep a business alive. Instead of avoiding failure, Power explains how repeated setbacks forced him to rethink his business model, sharpen his mindset, and develop the resilience needed to survive. 

The conversation explores why most entrepreneurs have to become a little delusional to keep going, the dangerous impact of negative self-talk, and the mental systems that help leaders push through adversity. From sleeping in vans to landing major retail deals, this episode digs into the uncomfortable truth behind perseverance: resilience is not built through motivation, it is built through repeated hardship, reflection, and adaptation. 

What You’ll Learn:

• • Why most successful entrepreneurs learn through failure, not theory
• • How Rhett Power rebuilt his business after losing millions on failed products
• • The role mindset and self-talk play during adversity
• • The “Catch, Confront, Change” framework for breaking negative thought patterns
• • Why resilience often requires irrational belief before results show up
• • How product failures ultimately led to a stronger business model

Episode Links:

Check out Rhett Power: https://rhettpower.com/

Shawn Walchef, restaurant owner of Cali BBQ and founder of Cali BBQ Media, shares what went wrong chasing the ghost kitchen model during the pandemic, where the assumptions broke, and how he knew it was time to walk away. This is not just a bad business story. It is about what happens when belief meets reality, and why having the courage to own failure matters more than avoiding it.

From five years of making no money in media to building a thriving business, this episode sets the tone for the show: no highlight reels, just the truth about what it takes to keep going.

What You’ll Learn:
• The biggest miscalculation behind the ghost kitchen strategy
• How to know when it’s time to stop chasing a failing idea
• How five years of making no money led to a breakthrough in media
• The difference between what people post online and the work that actually matters
• Why resilience is built in the dark, not in the spotlight

Episode Links 

• Cali BBQ Media: https://content.calibbq.media/ 
• Shawn Walchef on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnpwalchef/

Nik Agharkar, founder of Crowne Point Tax, hosts The Resiliency Project, a long-form interview podcast focused on what happens after failure. Through candid conversations with founders, executives, professionals, and creators, the show explores real setbacks, reinvention, and the mindset shifts that make resilience possible. Each episode reframes struggle, offering practical insight listeners can apply to their own challenges.