We Take the Stairs Podcast cover art

We Take the Stairs Podcast

We Take the Stairs Podcast

By: rachael1107@msn.com (Rachael Sher)
Listen for free

Summary

 The two hosts of We Take the Stairs, Rachael and Jackson have a mission to help change the lives of men. They aim to do this through authentic storytelling, personal growth, faith, and transformative dialogue. Their rich tapestry of experience from different backgrounds and life experiences create a podcast that resonates with honesty, empathy, and hope. As co-hosts, they bring to the table a deep belief in the power of connection, whether through conviction, kindness, or shared stories, to inspire change and build bridges between people. Their discussions are grounded in sincerity and an openness to learn from one another. With a commitment to honesty, humility, and empowerment, they invite listeners into a space where vulnerability meets transformation, encouraging everyone to take the stairs—one meaningful step at a time.© 2026 Rachael, Jackson Spirituality
Episodes
  • Every man is avoiding something, here’s the cost | Ft. Sebastian Y.

    Every man is avoiding something, here’s the cost | Ft. Sebastian Y.
    May 15 2026
    We ask one question to every man who sits across from us: What is the most challenging thing men are facing in society today?For Sebastian — life coach, entrepreneur, husband, and new father — the answer was sharp and immediate: Men are afraid of conflict. Not conflict in the explosive sense. Conflict in the daily sense. The conversation they won't have. The boundary they won't set. The truth they won't say out loud. And in avoiding it, men create a slow-burning disaster in their marriages, their work, their identity, and their homes.What follows is one of the most wide-ranging and practically honest conversations We Take the Stairs has ever had. Sebastian has lived every side of this — the six-figure income, the burnout, the infidelity, the spiritual emptiness, the performance-based life that looked perfect from the outside and was hollow at the core. He doesn't preach. He diagnoses. And then he offers a way through.Guest Sebastian — Life coach, entrepreneur, and new father based in South Florida. Born in Colombia and raised in a high-achieving immigrant household, Sebastian spent his twenties chasing success through self-will, manifesting, and performance — until it all collapsed and Jesus showed up. He now works daily with families navigating broken relationships, helping them see what avoiding hard conversations costs them — and how to start having them.Chapters00:00 — Welcome & The One Question: Men Are Afraid of Conflict01:30 — Why Men Can't Emotionally Regulate — and What It Costs Them05:00 — The Most Successful Men Are Often the Most Masked08:00 — Social Media, Young Men & the False Definition of Manhood14:00 — The Golden Handcuffs: Sebastian's Story Begins22:00 — When You're Your Own God: Manifesting, Burnout & Infidelity29:00 — Front Load Discomfort or Pay Later — But You Will Pay38:00 — Communication Breakdown: How Avoiding Conflict Kills Marriages46:00 — What the World Is Selling Men — and Why It Always Comes Up Empty57:00 — When Jesus Walked In: From Performance to RelationshipKey Topics CoveredMen Are Afraid of Conflict — Sebastian's core answer: men have never been properly taught to emotionally regulate, so they avoid any friction that might create discomfort. But avoiding conflict doesn't make it go away — it builds pressure until it explodes in all the wrong places.The Most Successful Men Are the Most Masked — A sharp observation from Sebastian: the men most prone to emotional armor are the highest achievers. They're hiding something beneath the drive, and their relentless pursuit of more is often a way to never look inward.Front Load Discomfort or Pay Later — One of the most practical frameworks in the episode. You will experience discomfort either way. Choose it now — the hard conversation, the honest moment, the difficult work on your heart — and it's manageable. Delay it, and it compounds into something far heavier.Sebastian's Story: The Life That Had Everything — VP title at 25. Six-figure income. Beautiful car. South Florida lifestyle. And completely burnt out, unfulfilled, and hiding behind performance. Sebastian traces how chasing the life he thought he wanted left a vacuum that nothing could fill — and what eventually filled it.When You're Your Own God — Sebastian spent years in the manifesting world — visualizing, aligning vibrations, trying to control outcomes. It worked, to a point. But it also meant he had to control everything, including the people around him. The conflict avoidance wasn't just a communication problem. It was a theology problem.Communication Is the Solution Most Men Won't Try — The dishes analogy lands hard: a man silently tallying every dish he washed, never saying a word, and then exploding after weeks of resentment. Sebastian breaks down why men don't communicate, why avoiding conflict creates the exact conflict they fear, and what actually starts to change things.The False Picture of Manhood — From Andrew Tate to Instagram fitness influencers to rented Ferraris on Miami Beach, the world is selling boys a definition of manhood that is entirely performance-based and entirely hollow. Sebastian names it plainly — and redirects to what manhood actually requires.Key Quotes"There is no space for a man to experience conflict. And because of that, it only creates more in the long run." — Sebastian"The man that's most prone to the mask is typically the most successful — because in their desire to achieve, they're hiding something." — Sebastian"Front load discomfort by choice, and you'll experience comfort sooner than you think. Front load comfort, and the discomfort comes later — at a level outside your control." — Sebastian"It's not the thing. It's the man you have to become to get the thing. That's what lasts." — Sebastian"I was chasing success and I created a vacuum in my relationship. Something came in to fill the space I had left." — Sebastian"Until men are okay, women will not ...
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 23 mins
  • You Are Not What You Do | Ft. Joe

    You Are Not What You Do | Ft. Joe
    May 8 2026
    We ask one question to every man who sits across from us: What is the main problem men are facing in society based on your experience and perspective?For Joe — fitness trainer, founder of the Dead Ego Club, and a man who once had his entire identity built on a music career and other people's applause — the answer was immediate: Identity. Men have become human doers instead of human beings. They hide behind their job title, their income, their performance — and in doing so, they slowly lose themselves entirely.What unfolds in this episode is one of the most raw, honest, and deeply personal conversations We Take the Stairs has ever had. Joe doesn't just name the problem. He lived it. From a homeless musician chasing stages and validation, to a man who stood in front of his mirror one morning and felt something physically break off his body — Joe's story is proof that the stripping process, as painful as it is, is exactly how God reveals who you actually are.Guest Joe — Fitness trainer, founder of the Dead Ego Club, and recently married man of faith based in South Florida. Joe built a brand around one simple but radical idea: less of me. His mission is helping men strip away false identities and discover who they actually are beneath the performance.Chapters00:00 — Welcome & The One Question: Joe's Answer Is Identity01:30 — Human Doers vs. Human Beings: Why Men Hide Behind Their Work05:00 — The Billionaire Problem: Why We Label People by Net Worth08:00 — Dead Ego Club: The Music Career That Inspired the Brand14:00 — Other People's Applause Was My Drug18:00 — What Actually Helps: The Stripping Process & Jesus24:00 — Performance-Based Love: What Society Has Always Told Men29:00 — Ecclesiastes & Rest: Chasing the Wind vs. Joy in Your Labor37:00 — Rest Is Faith — And Not Resting Is Operating in Fear45:00 — Abandonment: The Root Beneath the Identity Crisis53:00 — The Mirror Moment: Speaking Identity Over Himself01:05:00 — Rapid Fire & We TakesKey Topics CoveredHuman Doers vs. Human Beings — Joe names the core of the male identity crisis: men have traded being for doing. They define themselves by their job title, income, and output — and the world reinforces this at every turn. The first question anyone asks is what do you do, not who are you.The Dead Ego Club — Born from the wreckage of a music career built entirely on performance and external validation, Joe's brand carries one message: less of me. He explains how chasing stages, applause, and celebrity left him surrounded by people but completely alone — and how that collapse became the beginning of something real.The Stripping Process — You don't find yourself by becoming more. You find yourself by stripping away what you're not. Joe references Michelangelo's famous quote about David — I just took away everything that wasn't David — and applies it directly to identity.Performance-Based Love & What Society Tells Men — Rachael makes a sharp observation: from the beginning of time, men have been conditioned to earn love through performance. Win the war, make the money, get the promotion. If you don't perform, who are you? Joe and Jackson unpack why this cycle is so hard to break — and what it costs men in relationships.Ecclesiastes & Rest — Joe opens his Bible to Ecclesiastes before the episode and finds something that speaks directly to the issue: King Solomon had everything — wealth, wisdom, pleasure — and called it all chasing the wind. The takeaway isn't stop working. It's have joy in your labor. And rest is faith. If you can't rest, you're not trusting God. You're operating in fear.Abandonment as the Root — One of the most vulnerable moments of the episode. Joe's mother left when he was in kindergarten due to drug addiction. That early wound — the fear of abandonment — followed him into every relationship for years, showing up as anxiety, people-pleasing, and performing for love. The root wasn't the relationships. It was the little boy still crying at the door.The Mirror Moment — After hitting rock bottom in a toxic relationship cycle, Joe woke up one morning, closed his Bible, looked in the mirror, and started speaking his identity out loud. Something physically broke off. He describes it as deliverance — and it was the first moment he truly began to know who he was.Affirmations and Identity — Joe has read the same set of affirmations every single day for two years. At first it feels like lying to yourself. Eventually your mind starts to believe it as truth. Repetition creates revelation.Scriptures ReferencedEcclesiastes — All is vanity; chasing the wind; have joy in your laborPsalm 46:10 — Be still and know that I am GodProverbs 3:6 — He will make your path straightEphesians 3:20 — More than we can ask or imagineBooks Referenced 📖 How to Win Friends and Influence People — Dale Carnegie Referenced by Joe: take genuine interest in other people before talking about ...
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 15 mins
  • Apathy Is Killing Men's Purpose

    Apathy Is Killing Men's Purpose
    May 1 2026
    Episode SummaryWe ask one question to every man who sits across from us: What is the main problem men are facing in society based on your experience and perspective?For Parker — inventor, pirate, author, and man who once stood at the edge of ending his life — the answer was immediate:Apathy. And the antidote isn't motivation, discipline, or a better morning routine. It's curiosity. A fire in a man's heart that refuses to stop asking, seeking, and pushing toward something worth finding.What unfolds is one of the most imaginative, honest, and unexpectedly moving conversations We Take the Stairs has ever had. Parker doesn't preach. He tells stories. From an Amazon jungle treasure hunt that lights up every man in the room, to a boy who couldn't read being asked by God to write a book, to a pirate ship built on the back of a truck driving across America — Parker's life is proof that when a man stops trying to captain his own ship and lets the Good Captain take over, the adventure that follows is beyond anything he could have planned.GuestParker — Inventor, dyslexic author of Pirate Parables, and creator of a nationwide treasure hunt spreading across all 50 states. Based in Nashville, Parker is on a mission to build pirate crews of people seeking spiritual wealth — one coin, one parable, and one wild adventure at a time. Follow along at Pirate Parables on YouTube.Chapters00:00 — Welcome & Parker Introduces Himself02:00 — The Amazon Treasure Hunt That Says Everything07:45 — Parker's Story: Dyslexia, Depression & the Deal He Made With God16:00 — Men Were Never Meant to Carry It All Alone26:00 — The Slash and Burn Field: When God Clears the Way37:00 — The Moonlight Parable: How to Find Someone With Light44:00 — The Spearfishing Parable: What Fasting Actually Does53:30 — God Strips Everything — Then Builds a Movement01:00:30 — Pirate Parables: The Book, the Coins & the Nationwide Treasure Hunt01:12:00 — We Takes: Don't Soften. Don't Hide. We Need Your Warrior Spirit.Key Topics CoveredApathy Is the Crisis — Parker names apathy as the root problem men face — not addiction, not fatherlessness, not performance pressure. Those are symptoms. Apathy is the disease. And its opposite isn't effort. It's curiosity.Curiosity as the Cure — Curiosity isn't just wondering. It's refusing to complain and instead asking: What do you want me to know about this, God? It leads to empathy, wisdom, and eventually the treasure that was always waiting.Parker's Story — Growing up with undiagnosed dyslexia, labeled lazy and stupid, Parker found himself suicidal at the end of college. He made a deal with God: If you're real, show up. If not, I'm done. God showed up. The adventure of a lifetime began.The Moonlight Parable — We are like the moon — made to light up the dark, but only by reflecting the sun. A person in pain is a moon with no light, surrounded by other dark moons. The answer: find someone who has light and get curious about how they got it.The Spearfishing Parable — Island people put wooden spears through fire not to destroy them, but to make the tips stronger than rock. Parker connects this to fasting and prayer — the purifying fire that sharpens a man's spirit for the mission ahead.God Strips Everything — And Builds Something Better — Parker moves to West Palm Beach with no job, no car, no girlfriend, no design career. God takes it all. Then starts filling his life with hundreds of people, worship nights, Frisbee tournaments, and baptisms in the ocean. The stripping was the point.Books & Resources Referenced📖 Pirate Parables — Parker's 100 illustrated parables wrapped in a pirate narrative and Parker's personal testimony. Find coins hidden across the country — follow clues at Pirate Parables on YouTube.Key Quotes"Apathy breeds failure in every area of life — spiritually, work-wise, relationally." — Parker"Curiosity breeds a heart of empathy. And empathy, for everything I know, is wisdom." — Parker"The coin isn't the treasure. The book isn't even the treasure. Knowing the father — that's the wealth." — Parker"The biggest lie to husbands is that they are the sole provider. That's a lie from Satan." — Parker"Don't become soft. We need your warrior spirit. Temper it. Let it be chiseled. But don't hide it." — RachaelPractical TakeawaysWhen you're stuck, stop complaining and get curious — ask God what he wants you to knowFind someone who has light and be bold enough to ask them how they got itFast and pray when you need clarity — create a distraction-free space for God to speakPrimary KeywordsChristian podcast for menmen's purpose and apathybiblical masculinity podcastChristian men finding purposemen's identity crisis faith
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 21 mins
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_c
No reviews yet