S2E336 Soul on Fire - an Interview with John O'Leary

It's a Good Life

Brian Buffini

Business, Unknown, Entrepreneurship, Life, Good, Entrepreneur, Coaching

4.4 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of the “It’s a Good Life” podcast, John O’Leary shares with host Brian Buffini the story behind his new film, “Soul on Fire.” The movie recounts how when John was only 9 years old a devastating fire left him with burns on 100% of his body. With courage, faith and love — and the ongoing support of the legendary St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Jack Buck — the family persevered in helping John through a grueling recovery. Today John is a loving husband and father, bestselling author and in-demand motivational speaker. This is an episode that will bring you to tears but also motivate you to ensure you are living your life to the fullest every day.

YOU WILL LEARN

How acts of kindness can have ripple effects far beyond your own life leading to miracles.
Why you need to look beyond your personal pain as a way to let others share their part in your story.
Why love and forgiveness are always more powerful than shame and guilt.

NOTEWORTHY QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE

“I look up, and then he adds, ‘I have never been so proud of anyone in my entire life and my little buddy, this morning, I'm just glad to be your dad.’ And then he follows it with, ‘Love you and there's nothing you can do about it.’” — John’s dad, Dennis O’Leary

“Baby, do you want to die? It’s your choice. If you want to live, take the hand of God and fight like you’ve never fought before.” — John’s mom, Susan O’Leary

“Jack Buck recognized the voice of God is not tomorrow, it's now. And the time to act isn't next week, it's right now.” — John O’Leary

“Your life is a precious, priceless gift. You’ve got one job — say yes to being used for good.” — John O’Leary

“Brian, you taught me years ago to hold on to relationships as if they're precious and not to use them to get the next speech or sell the next house or earn the next transaction, but to love the one in front of you sincerely for them.” — John O’Leary

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to It's a Good Life, the podcast for entrepreneurs, where it's all about growing yourself
0:08.2	and your business. Here's your host, founder of America's largest business coaching company,
0:13.9	Brian Bafini.
0:17.9	Well, the top of the morning to you and welcome to It's a Good Life. I'm your host, Brian Bafini, as the man said. Today I am fired up. You know, over the years, I was thinking about it over the last 30 years, we've had over 500 guests at our seminars and podcasts. And over the years, a few of those people have turned into friends. And then a few of those have turned into special
0:38.4	friends. And the guy I'm going to interview today is a special friend. He's a special man with a
0:44.0	special story. I hate saying that to him because we're both Irish and we love to give each other a
0:47.9	hard time. In fact, how special is he? Well, when we started the podcast, almost 10 years ago,
0:55.9	the first guest on the second episode was the great John O'Leary. So if you really want to get the full dose of the John
1:00.8	O'Leary story, go all the way back to the Brian Bafini show, Season 1, Episode 2, and The Man is
1:07.8	there today. And I'm very, very excited to have him on today because this amazing story that he shares,
1:13.8	this amazing life that he's lived, is now coming out in three days' time as a major
1:20.1	motion picture, long overdue, in my opinion.
1:23.8	And so I couldn't be more fired up for people to see it.
1:26.9	I think it's an inspirational story that's going to just really, really impact people all over the world. I've used up all the flowery stuff I can use, O'Leary. John O'Leary, my great friend, it is great to have you on the program today. Thanks for joining me. Buffini, I fell asleep a couple minutes ago. You'll have to remind me what you were just saying because I don't, I didn't hear most of it, but it's an honor to be back.
1:47.8	And to make sure that people don't completely now turn me off thinking he's just a jerk, here's what I want to say.
1:54.7	My father is my hero, is the guy that I want to be when I grow up.
1:59.2	He had Parkinson's disease for 33 years. Some of your
2:02.2	followers know my dad's story and our love. And recently he came down with an illness. He was not
2:08.4	going to recover for the last three days. We knew we would lose them. And so I canceled everything.
2:13.3	Everything was canceled for those three days. So I could sit by my dad and hold his hand.
2:18.0	I took one call during those three days, and it was from my friend, Brian Bafini.
2:23.9	And the only reason I took it is because we weren't going to talk about real estate or coaching or podcast or that kind of stuff, which is all great stuff to talk about.
	...

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