Joel is an award-winning teacher, author, speaker, and frequent podcast guest who loves helping young leaders overcome obstacles and grow through courage, confidence, and humility.

By sharing personal stories of failure and success, using humor and engagement, Joel teaches leadership principles that audiences can apply as soon as they leave the event. His book, Inverted Leadership: Lead Others Better By Forgetting About Yourself was a #1 best-seller on Amazon.

Having studied and played soccer at both Covenant College (Georgia) and Oxford University (England, UK), Joel has a B.A. in History and a passion for literature as well as a love for sports. These interests and his experience as a high school teacher come across through his presentations, as he often references historical examples and quotes from C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, John Wooden, and Coach K.

Joel currently lives in Alabama with his wife, his two daughters, and their two rescue dogs Bruiser and Butterscotch. When he’s not busy speaking, writing, teaching, or coaching, Joel is longing for the day when he can go on his dream vacation of visiting Hobbiton in the Shire.

In this episode we discuss:

• His experience and interest in supporting 'blended families'
• What defines a 'blended family' and the trauma that is often at the heart
• The complicated communication webs of blended families
• Giving the benefit for the doubt
• His experience of divorce in childhood 
• Recalibrating his relationship with his elder daughter when it went off track
• Being willing to listen to criticism and to evaluate it for its merit
• Making things right when we get them wrong
• Transforming his relationship with anger
• The challenging dynamics of father and brother relationships
• The possibility of redemption when we screw up
• His moment of truth with his ex father-in-law after his divorce
• Moderating his soccer-coach rage
• His bond with his dad and the contrast with his brother's relationship
• The extraordinary moment of belief his dad showed in him
• The reconciliation between his dad and brother in the last year of his life
• What he misses about his dad and the life lessons he learned from him
• Changing the perception of step-families from negative / neutral to positive

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