Summit After the Storm | Leadership, Faith and Resilience Podcast

Bart Wilbanks
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Summit After the Storm is a leadership and faith podcast for anyone navigating adversity, transition, or rebuilding. Hosted by Bart Wilbanks, author of Summit After the Storm, the show explores real lessons forged through hardship—including climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, surviving a near-death experience on the mountain, leading through crisis, and rediscovering faith and purpose. Each episode blends personal storytelling, leadership insight, and spiritual reflection for leaders and professionals seeking clarity, resilience, and strength after the storm. Keep Climbing! Pole Pole.

  1. 1d ago

    Episode 160: When People Become Numbers | The Leadership Danger Hiding Behind Headcount, KPIs & the Spreadsheet

    Headcount. Payroll. Productivity. Turnover. Revenue per employee. Businesses call them KPIs. But every one of those numbers represents a person. I've spent most of my career in business, and numbers matter. Budgets matter. Margins matter. Productivity matters. Sometimes leaders even have to make incredibly difficult decisions about layoffs, performance, and eliminating positions. But there's a danger hiding inside the spreadsheet: We can become so focused on the number that we stop seeing the human being attached to it. “We lost ten employees this quarter” is a statistic. “Why did ten people decide they couldn't stay here anymore?” is a leadership question. In Episode 160 of Summit After the Storm, I explore what happens when employees become headcount, customers become revenue, suppliers become spend, and people become resources to be consumed. Kilimanjaro taught me something very different. The men helping us weren't simply “porters.” They had names. Stories. Families. And one of them was Emmanuel, whose name means “God with us.” Looking back, I believe God was showing His face to me through people I could easily have overlooked if I'd only seen their job. Jesus says in Matthew 25:40: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Compassionate leadership doesn't mean avoiding hard business decisions. It means refusing to stop seeing the person while making them. Because behind every number... there's a story. And great leaders never forget that. #Leadership #LeadershipDevelopment #BusinessLeadership #PeopleFirst #ServantLeadership #WorkplaceCulture #Management #KPIs #EmployeeExperience #ChristianLeadership #FaithAtWork #HumanResources #PersonalGrowth #SummitAfterTheStorm

    Episode 160: When People Become Numbers | The Leadership Danger Hiding Behind Headcount, KPIs & the Spreadsheet

  2. 2d ago

    Episode 159: What the Colosseum Reveals About Human Nature | Are We Really More Civilized Than Ancient Rome?

    Thousands of people once packed the Roman Colosseum to watch other human beings suffer and die. They called it entertainment. Two thousand years later, we look back and ask: How could people enjoy that? But maybe the more uncomfortable question is... Are we really as different as we'd like to believe? Today, cameras are everywhere. Someone gets shot. Someone gets beaten. Someone dies in a tragic accident. Within minutes, the actual footage can appear on YouTube or social media, where millions of us can watch it, replay it, share it, and move on to the next video. The Romans went to an arena. We can pull an arena out of our pocket. In Episode 159 of Summit After the Storm, I wrestle with what the Colosseum reveals about human nature, our growing desensitization to suffering, and an uncomfortable question I'm asking myself too: When you hear that something terrible happened, are you praying for the person and their family... or Googling to see if someone caught it on video? Romans 12:2 warns us: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” This isn't only about social media. It's about leadership. It's about culture. It's about the things we gradually learn to accept because everyone around us accepts them. Because leaders don't just inherit culture. We teach people what is normal by what we're willing to tolerate. The technology has changed. But has human nature changed nearly as much as we'd like to believe? #Leadership #HumanNature #Colosseum #RomanEmpire #Faith #ChristianLeadership #Culture #SocialMedia #PersonalGrowth #LifeLessons #LeadershipDevelopment #History #Romans122 #SummitAfterTheStorm

    Episode 159: What the Colosseum Reveals About Human Nature | Are We Really More Civilized Than Ancient Rome?

  3. 3d ago

    Episode 158: The Rise and Fall of Empires: What Rome’s Collapse Can Teach Us About Success, Complacency, Leadership & What Really Lasts

    Rome once looked unstoppable. Today, we tour its ruins. Standing inside the Roman Forum forced me to confront an uncomfortable truth: success has a way of convincing us that what we have today will still be there tomorrow. Rome had wealth. Power. Influence. Military strength. An empire stretching across continents. And eventually, it fell. The same illusion can creep into our careers, businesses, health, relationships, and families. We assume the job is secure. The company will keep winning. Our relationships are fine. There will always be more time. Kilimanjaro shattered that illusion for me. My title couldn't carry my backpack. Money couldn't give me oxygen. Success couldn't stop the storm. In Episode 158 of Summit After the Storm, we explore what the rise and fall of Rome can teach us about complacency, leadership, faith, family, and Jesus' warning in Matthew 6:19-21 about building our lives around treasures that don't last. Success isn't the problem. Forgetting what actually matters is. 🎙️ Follow Summit After the Storm wherever you listen, and share this episode with someone who needs the reminder. #Leadership #Faith #PersonalGrowth #RomanEmpire #Success #ChristianLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #History #Kilimanjaro #SummitAfterTheStorm

    Episode 158: The Rise and Fall of Empires: What Rome’s Collapse Can Teach Us About Success, Complacency, Leadership & What Really Lasts

  4. 4d ago

    Episode 157: Standing Where History Happened | The People We Study as History Were Just Living Their Present

    History feels different when you're standing in the exact place where it happened. Walking through the Colosseum. Standing among the ruins of Pompeii. Looking across the Acropolis. Entering Westminster Abbey and Parliament. Standing outside the building where Anne Frank and her family once hid. These weren't just places I'd read about anymore. They were real. And so were the people who lived there. That's when something hit me: They weren't living in history. They were living in the present. Just like we are. They woke up, loved their families, worried about the future, made decisions, made mistakes, and lived ordinary days without knowing how history would eventually remember them. And someday, the decisions we're making right now will become somebody else's history too. In Episode 157 of Summit After the Storm, Standing Where History Happened, we explore what Rome, Pompeii, Athens, London, Amsterdam, and even Kilimanjaro taught me about history, leadership, legacy, and the choices we make today. Psalm 90:12 says: "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Our days aren't unlimited. And they aren't insignificant. You may not be writing history that ends up in a textbook. But you're writing your history every single day. The question is: What story are you writing today? #History #Leadership #Travel #PersonalGrowth #Faith #LifeLessons #Mindset #Legacy #ChristianLeadership #SummitAfterTheStorm

    Episode 157: Standing Where History Happened | The People We Study as History Were Just Living Their Present

  5. 5d ago

    Episode 156: The World Is Bigger Than Your Routine | Why Growth Begins When You Stop Assuming Your Way Is the Only Way

    Your world can become incredibly small... without you ever realizing it. We wake up in the same house, drive the same roads, work with many of the same people, and repeat routines that quietly convince us the way we experience life is simply the way life is. Then something disrupts that perspective. For me, Europe did. So did Kilimanjaro. In the Season 5 premiere of Summit After the Storm, we move beyond simply telling travel stories and begin asking a deeper question: What did those experiences actually teach us? Traveling through Europe forced me to confront different cultures, different priorities, different ways of living, and one important truth: Different doesn't necessarily mean wrong. Sometimes growth begins when we're willing to question our assumptions, listen to people who see the world differently, and admit that our perspective may be incomplete. Kilimanjaro taught me the same lesson in Tanzania, where people with far less materially often carried more joy than I did. In leadership, faith, family, and life, curiosity matters. Because when everyone around you thinks like you, agrees with you, and lives like you... your world can become very small. 📖 Scriptural Anchor: Proverbs 18:15 “The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out.” Season 5 begins here. Less about where we went. More about what it means. The world is bigger than your routine. #Leadership #PersonalGrowth #Mindset #Perspective #Faith #ChristianLeadership #LifeLessons #Curiosity #GrowthMindset #SummitAfterTheStorm

    Episode 156: The World Is Bigger Than Your Routine | Why Growth Begins When You Stop Assuming Your Way Is the Only Way

  6. Aug 14

    Episode 155: The Journey Continues | Life Isn't Measured by Where You Go, but Who You Become Along the Way

    We traveled thousands of miles across Europe. But the most important distance we covered may have been inside ourselves. For the past several weeks, Season 4 of Summit After the Storm has followed our family through Rome, Greece, Amsterdam, Paris, London, and back home again. We saw extraordinary places. We experienced history. We worshiped together. We got lost, waited on buses, navigated unfamiliar cultures, laughed, struggled, and learned. But somewhere along the way, the destinations became the backdrop for something much bigger. Europe challenged our assumptions. It pushed us outside our routines. It changed the way we saw other people, our family, our faith, our leadership, and even home. And surprisingly, it reinforced many of the same lessons God taught me on Kilimanjaro. Different journey. Same God. In the Season 4 finale, I reflect on why travel matters, what Europe taught me about stepping outside the familiar, and why the purpose of a journey isn't simply to tell people where you've been. It's to become someone better because you went. Proverbs 16:9 says: “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” We planned the itinerary. God used the steps. And now that we've told the stories, Season 5 will ask a deeper question: What did all of it mean? History. Human nature. Leadership. Faith. Family. Culture. The rise and fall of civilizations. And what all of those lessons can teach us about the lives we're living today. The trip is over. The journey continues. #Leadership #PersonalGrowth #Faith #LifeLessons #Travel #Purpose #ChristianLeadership #Mindset #Transformation #SummitAfterTheStorm

    Episode 155: The Journey Continues | Life Isn't Measured by Where You Go, but Who You Become Along the Way

  7. Aug 13

    Episode 154: Coming Home Changed | Everything Looked the Same... But I Wasn't

    Have you ever returned from a journey and everything looked exactly the same... but somehow, you weren't? After nearly a month traveling across Europe, our family finally walked back through our own front door. Same house. Same furniture. Same neighborhood. Same life waiting for us. But after everything we'd experienced together, something was different. We were. That's what a real journey does. It doesn't necessarily change the destination. It changes the traveler. In Episode 154 of Summit After the Storm, I reflect on coming home from Europe, how experiences can reshape our perspective, and why the most important question isn't simply, "What happened to me?" It's: "Who did I become because of it?" Kilimanjaro taught me this lesson in an even more powerful way. I traveled to Tanzania believing my goal was to climb a mountain. Instead, God used that mountain to expose my pride, entitlement, and ungratefulness and begin changing the man who was climbing it. Romans 12:2 tells us to "be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Sometimes God takes us somewhere unfamiliar so we can finally see the familiar differently. Whether your journey takes you across an ocean, up a mountain, through a career transition, or into a storm you never expected, don't waste the experience. Growth isn't measured by how far you've traveled. It's measured by who you are when you return. 🎙️ Tomorrow: One final lesson as we close our family's journey across Europe and bring Season 4 home. #PersonalGrowth #Leadership #Faith #Transformation #LifeLessons #ChristianLeadership #Mindset #Purpose #Travel #SummitAfterTheStorm

    Episode 154: Coming Home Changed | Everything Looked the Same... But I Wasn't

  8. Aug 12

    Episode 153: You Can Always Make More Money. You Can't Make More Memories. | This Version of Your Family Won't Last Forever

    Europe will still be there someday. This version of our family won't be. That realization hit me differently after we returned home from nearly a month traveling across Europe. Molly and Reagan graduate from high school next May. This was their senior trip, and there's a good chance it was the last big family vacation where we'd have both of them and the younger boys traveling together like this. That's difficult to say. Not because anything is wrong. Because they're growing up. And they're supposed to. But how many important things do we postpone because we tell ourselves we'll do them “someday”? When work slows down. When the timing is better. When life is more convenient. The problem is that life doesn't stand still while we're waiting. In Episode 153 of Summit After the Storm, I reflect on what our European journey taught me about time, family, priorities, and recognizing that some opportunities have an expiration date we can't see. This isn't about spending irresponsibly. It's about understanding what is truly valuable. Jesus reminds us in Matthew 6:21: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Money can be earned again. But you can't go back and recreate one day with the people you love exactly as they are today. Don't become so focused on building a future that you forget to live the life God has already given you today. #Family #Leadership #Faith #Parenting #LifeLessons #PersonalGrowth #ChristianLeadership #Memories #LiveNow #SummitAfterTheStorm

    Episode 153: You Can Always Make More Money. You Can't Make More Memories. | This Version of Your Family Won't Last Forever
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Summit After the Storm is a leadership and faith podcast for anyone navigating adversity, transition, or rebuilding. Hosted by Bart Wilbanks, author of Summit After the Storm, the show explores real lessons forged through hardship—including climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, surviving a near-death experience on the mountain, leading through crisis, and rediscovering faith and purpose. Each episode blends personal storytelling, leadership insight, and spiritual reflection for leaders and professionals seeking clarity, resilience, and strength after the storm. Keep Climbing! Pole Pole.

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