43,000 People Saved Because One CEO Hit Rock Bottom

Описание: Josh Goldberg, CEO of Boulder Crest Foundation, shares his journey from corporate executive to suicidal crisis to leading an organization that served 43,000 people last year through post-traumatic growth programs.

In this raw conversation, you'll learn:
✅ The exact moment Josh realized he'd built "a false existence" despite external success
✅ How helping others became the path out of his own suicidal ideation
✅ The three-year wilderness period between crisis and clarity—and what he learned
✅ How Boulder Crest grew from serving 700 to 43,000 people annually without losing culture
✅ Why "unfuck yourself" became the turning point for sustainable service
✅ Scaling nonprofit impact from 35 to 86 staff while maintaining mission-driven culture

This episode is perfect for nonprofit leaders, executive directors, and mission-driven professionals navigating burnout, organizational growth, or questioning their own career path.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Introduction: Fiction Books & Wrestling (The Unexpected Side of a CEO)
1:03 - Josh's Journey: From Corporate Climber to Boulder Crest CEO
3:07 - The Crisis Point: Two Weeks from Ending His Life
6:30 - The Question That Changed Everything: "Is This How You Want to Spend Your Life?"
9:19 - Finding Purpose Through Service: The Beginning of Transformation
12:14 - Daily Practices for Sustainable Leadership: Meditation, Gratitude, Movement
15:24 - The Three-Year Wilderness: Navigating the Pivot from Corporate to Nonprofit
17:35 - Key Lessons from the Dark: How Things Are vs. How They Could Be
20:46 - The Parking Garage Moment: When Shame, Ego, and Pride Collided
24:46 - Serving 43,000 People: How Boulder Crest Scaled Without Losing Soul
27:39 - Growth Challenges: Maintaining Culture from 35 to 86 Staff
30:46 - For-Profit vs. Nonprofit: What Makes Mission Work Different
32:58 - How Boulder Crest Works: Programs, Retreat Centers, and Warrior Paths
35:24 - PKC3 Values: Passionate, Kind, Competence, Curiosity, Courage
38:52 - Gratitude Practice: From Thanksgiving 2012 to Overflowing with Purpose
41:17 - Book Recommendations: Man's Search for Meaning, The Choice, The Second Mountain

📊 KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Scale without sacrifice: Boulder Crest grew from 700 to 43,000 people served annually while maintaining tight-knit culture through intentional PKC3 values (Passionate, Kind, Competence, Curiosity, Courage)

The "unfuck yourself" principle: Sustainable service requires self-care first—Josh's daily routine of meditation, gratitude, and movement enables him to show up for 86 staff and 43,000 clients

Post-traumatic growth over PTSD: Boulder Crest shifted the paradigm from pathologizing struggle to finding meaning in it, inspired by Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning"

Service as self-rescue: Josh's path out of suicidal crisis came through helping veteran families—proving that purpose can be found by stepping outside your own suffering

The three-year rule: Major life pivots take 3 months to 3 years (Josh's mentor predicted this timeline with eerie accuracy)

"Be a pilot light, not a firecracker": Civil rights leader John Lewis's wisdom on sustainable activism applies to nonprofit leadership—daily practices prevent burnout

👤 ABOUT JOSH GOLDBERG:

Josh Goldberg is the CEO of Boulder Crest Foundation, a nonprofit serving military veterans, first responders, and their families through post-traumatic growth programs. After a successful corporate career that left him in existential crisis, Josh pivoted to nonprofit leadership in 2014. Under his leadership, Boulder Crest has grown to operate four retreat centers (Virginia, Arizona, Texas, Wyoming) and serves over 43,000 people annually. Josh's personal journey from suicidal ideation to leading large-scale mission impact makes him a powerful voice on mental health, sustainable leadership, and organizational culture in the nonprofit sector.

Josh's LinkedIn:   / jmgoldberg55  
Boulder Crest Foundation: https://www.bouldercrest.org

🎙️ ABOUT HART & HUSTLE:
Hart & Hustle brings you weekly conversations with mission-driven leaders solving real problems in healthcare, education, and community services. Hosts Keenan Hart (CEO, FRANSiS™) and Efrain Lozada sit down with nonprofit executives, operations directors, and innovators to uncover practical strategies you can implement in your organization.

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