Determination Can Make You Unstoppable

Matt Rifenberg has a remarkable story of resilience, tenacity, and success. When
Cathy Goguen, an award-winning playwright heard his story she knew it would make a
great play. Together they produced that play with an incredible message.
Unstoppable by Design.

Matt has been homeless, friendless, hungry, married to someone addicted to drugs, a
clueless father trying to raise his son, and had a brain tumor. He was terrified of what might
happen as a penniless, unemployed man without direction.

Currently, Matt is employed by the government engineering the destruction of chemical
weapons -- well-respected and successful in that community.

How to Never Quit Climbing to Reach What Appears as Unattainable

Gary Sinclair is an author of three books, leadership coach, musician, and speaker.  With a master's degree in counseling, he provides wisdom, inspiration and practical help to overcome insurmountable mountains.  He has climbed nine 14,000-foot mountains but overcame even higher ones in his personal life.

Most people face hopeless situations of some degree in their lives - financial, grief and loss, relationship struggles, work issues, etc.  Often these summits seem impossible to reach but Gary applies the same principles to overcoming these problems with actual mountain climbing.  His insight is noteworthy.

His wife was faced with a three-stage cancer diagnosis and they were able to overcome that life-threatening experience and pass on their wisdom to us.  He explores perseverance, pushing through weariness, and the importance of taking one step at a time.

Important life lessons related to mountain climbing:

Hold On to the Good and Never Let Go

Lisa Kohn is the author of To The Moon and Back which is a term often associated with love.  But for Lisa, it had a much deeper meaning.  Lisa grew up in the East Village of New York City in the 1970s and in the Unification Church (the Moonies). 

Lisa was raised in two conflicting worlds. Her mother's world was the fanatical, puritanical cult of the Moonies.  Her father's world was based on sex and drugs in the East Village of New York City.

In her interview, she shares how she escaped the lifestyle that almost destroyed her. She was anorexic, addicted to cocaine and engaged to an alcoholic. Today she has a successful leadership consulting and coaching practice and is blessed with a happy marriage of over twenty years and two amazing children.

Listen as she shares her amazing transformation, what she learned, and how she offers hope to anyone struggling with self-destruction and esteem issues. 


Most of us know someone who has been swept into a world of addiction or poor choices which can be destructive.  You don't want to miss hearing Lisa's story of how she escaped what she calls "brain pickling" instead of brainwashing: