“Sharing Your Struggles Isn’t Weakness, It’s Strength”

Common Ground Podcast, Episode 57
Guest: Wade Simmons

Written by D.J. Reiter

What does it actually mean to be remembered, and are we willing to tell the truth
when we try to sum up someone’s life? That question runs through Episode 57 of the
Common Ground Podcast, where hosts Philly and Sydney Nicole welcome Wade
Simmons, a funeral professional, filmmaker, journalist, and lifelong storyteller, for a
conversation about grief, legacy, and why so many people quietly believe their own
story isn’t worth telling.

Wade has spent more than sixteen years working with families in the funeral
industry, alongside a parallel life in filmmaking, journalism, documentary production,
and even a stint training in professional wrestling. Every path, he says, comes back
to the same thing: storytelling. Whether he’s helping a family plan a service,
producing a documentary, or writing for a magazine, his guiding belief is simple.
Everybody is somebody, and everybody’s story deserves to be told.

The Truth People Want Told
Wade shares a moment from his own work that stuck with him: a young woman
whose family wanted to present one polished version of her late father, while she
pushed back and asked for the truth instead. He says he respects that instinct
completely; funerals, in his view, should reflect who someone actually was, not a
curated highlight reel. Sydney takes the idea further, sharing her own experience
grieving her mother, who struggled with addiction and passed away by suicide, and
the anger she felt watching people mourn who hadn’t shown up for her mother while
she was alive. It’s a raw moment in the episode, and it grounds the conversation:
honoring someone honestly, flaws included, is harder than performing grief, but
Wade argues it’s the more respectful path.

Storytelling Through a Wider Lens
Documentaries are Wade’s preferred form of storytelling, and the reason comes
back to his central belief that everybody is somebody. He talks about how easy it is
to walk past people every day, on the train, in a store, at work, without ever learning
what they’ve actually done or what they’re capable of. His interest isn’t in celebrity
culture; it’s in the idea that ordinary people are carrying extraordinary, mostly untold
stories, and that shining a light on them is worth doing regardless of whether anyone
else is paying attention yet.

Check In Without Needing Anything
One of the simplest ideas in the episode turns out to be one of the most memorable.
Wade describes a habit of reaching out to people the moment they come to mind,
not because he needs something, but just to see how they’re doing. Sydney says
she teaches the same practice to her sales team: when a client crosses your mind,
reach out with nothing attached. Both agree it’s a rare thing to receive, and that it
lands differently than the usual “I need something from you” message most people
are used to.

Journey Over Destination
The conversation turns to the tension between passion and profit. Wade and the
hosts talk candidly about relationships strained by entrepreneurial risk, the pressure
to turn every hobby into income, and how loving something can start to erode once
it’s tied entirely to money. Wade’s take is that people get so fixated on reaching a
destination that they miss the actual journey, and that arriving somewhere financially
doesn’t resolve the problems people expect it to. His advice is less about ambition
and more about contentment: enjoy what you’re doing, or reconsider whether it’s the
right path.

You Don’t Need to Be Anyone Else
By the end of the episode, the throughline becomes clear: comparison is one of the
most destructive habits people carry. Philly’s key takeaway leans into this directly,
that there’s only one of each of us, and the goal was never to be someone else’s
version of success. Wade’s advice to his younger self follows the same thread: be
patient with yourself, don’t sweat the small stuff, and keep your priorities in order. As
Philly puts it, sharing your struggles isn’t weakness, it’s strength; we’ve largely had
that backwards.

Key Takeaways
● Comparing yourself to someone else’s story is one of the fastest ways to lose
your own. You don’t need to be anyone but yourself, and that’s already
enough.
● If you don’t enjoy the journey, it’s probably not the right path, no matter what’s
waiting at the end of it. Passion tied entirely to profit can quietly stop feeling
like passion.
● Sharing your struggles isn’t weakness, it’s strength. Most of us have that
exact idea backwards.
● Reach out to people when you don’t need anything from them. A quick
check-in with nothing attached is rare, and it matters more than people
expect.
● Everybody is somebody. The people around you, coworkers, neighbors,
strangers you pass every day, are each carrying a story and a set of talents
you may never learn about unless you ask.

Reflection Questions
Wade points out that people often become more honest about someone after they’ve
passed than while they were alive. What would it look like to celebrate the people in
your life more while they’re still here?
Think of someone who’s crossed your mind recently for no particular reason. What
would it take to reach out to them today, with nothing attached?
Wade and the hosts talk about the difference between a curated version of a life and
the true one. Is there a story in your own life you’ve been tempted to soften or edit?
Have you ever turned something you loved into a job or a business and noticed it
changed how you felt about it? What did that teach you?
If your life became a documentary tomorrow, what would the title be, and why?

To connect with Wade Simmons, follow him on Instagram at @WadeJedi99, on
Facebook as Wade Simmons, or watch his films on Vimeo under
WadeFilmmaker777.

Listen to the full conversation on Episode 57 of the Common Ground Podcast.