AI promised less work, but the workload still does not shrink.
Melody Edwards frames a familiar AI frustration: the tools are in place, the promise is less work, and yet people still do not seem to be working less.
The Soul Proprietor
Melody Edwards and Curt Kempton
58 episodes listed below
Listen to the show on
Business questions with a conscience.
The gist
The Soul Proprietor brings business questions into the same room as faith, doubt, mental health, politics, and family pressure. Its conversations move quickly, with jokes giving way to sharper questions about what success costs and what integrity requires.
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About The Soul Proprietor
The Soul Proprietor approaches entrepreneurship as more than a strategy problem. It is interested in the human bill that comes due when work, faith, ambition, fear, and conscience all occupy the same life. The conversations are loose and quick. They can start with a tired morning, lost car keys, or a half-joking complaint about AI, then move into the kind of question that lingers after the episode ends. Does technology actually free people, or does it just make them build more? When does a dashboard clarify leadership, and when does it become another monument to busyness? Why do business owners keep telling themselves the break is almost here? The show is especially strong when it lets practical business talk collide with emotional honesty. Episodes move through conference economics, community fatigue, leadership meetings, burnout, and the strange addiction to uncertainty that can make entrepreneurship feel both thrilling and punishing. It also makes room for faith without flattening it into easy certainty. Conversations with Bobby Walker bring in deconstruction, morality without God, marriage, spiritual experience, and the pain of being honest about changed belief. Those episodes are not tidy debates. They are lived arguments, shaped by memory, regret, loyalty, and the need to define terms before anyone pretends the answer is simple. Mental health is handled in a similarly direct way, with stories of childhood fear, depression, anxiety, and the private strain behind public capability. Political episodes bring the same moral pressure to public life, especially around faith, immigration, power, and silence. The Soul Proprietor is not a clean business advice show. It is a candid conversation about what success asks from a person, and what might be worth refusing.
Made for: For entrepreneurs, small-business operators, and faith-curious listeners who want candid conversations about ambition, ethics, uncertainty, and belief. It especially suits people who like business talk grounded in personal stories rather than polished formulas.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart by refusing to separate business decisions from spiritual, emotional, and moral consequences. Its best moments come when casual banter turns into a clear-eyed argument about work, faith, fear, and responsibility.
In their own words
Each week, Hosts Curt Kempton and Melody Edwards dive into the ethical questions and dilemmas that keep entrepreneurs up at night. They love talking about the soul of your business, which means having tough conversations that challenge what we believe and push us to think deeper about business, values, and what really matters. Whether you're building your own company or exploring life's big questions, You are welcome here. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Contact: [email protected]
As heard by us
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Frank conversations connect entrepreneurial decisions with overwork, AI, faith, politics, and the values owners carry into their businesses.
The Soul Proprietor turns business decisions into candid conversations about the beliefs underneath them. Kirk Kempton and Melody Edwards move easily between entrepreneurial pressure and questions of conscience, asking how work habits, technology, politics, and faith shape the…
Why you'd press play
A faith crisis and an AI dashboard walk into your founder group chat; nobody leaves with easy answers.
Press play if you want
- business ethics that can survive contact with faith, politics, and an actual leadership meeting
- Curt Kempton and Melody Edwards questioning whether AI saves you time or quietly eats your vacation
entrepreneurial burnoutAI and overworkfaith and deconstructionmorality and consciencemental health in businesscommunity and live eventspolitics and religious valuesuncertainty and success
Talks about
Best episodes of The Soul Proprietor
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
AI anxiety, event costs, and a loose but thoughtful case for human connection.
The Sole Proprietor Podcast frames an AI-and-future discussion as a workable mix of ethics and business sense. Kirk Kempton and Melody Edwards return to a familiar concern: AI has arrived without guardrails, at least in their country, and entrepreneurs still have to decide how…
A candid faith-and-business conversation about honesty, marriage, and pressure.
This episode is about what honesty costs when faith, marriage, and business pressure all show up at once. Bobby Walker keeps it tied to lived strain instead of clean talking points, and the hosts let the awkward parts sit there without rushing past them.
A patient look at certainty, church habits, and what counts as real spiritual experience.
Bobby Walker's conversation centers on a blunt question: what counts as real, and who gets to dismiss a spiritual experience as counterfeit. Kirk Kempton and Melody Edwards keep the opening relaxed, then let Walker describe the moment he decided he was wrong, said he was better…
A faith-and-politics conversation that ties travel, family worry, and public life together.
Kurt Kempton and Melody Edwards use a wide-ranging conversation to put political noise beside the practical business of daily life, arguing that national fights mostly reward the people already in power.
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Episodes
- 1
Finding Meaning Beyond Business: A Year of Soul Proprietor
Sep 30, 2026·1h 8m - 2
Your Brain Knows More Than You Think
Sep 23, 2026·56m - 3
The Business of Building Community with Dave Wintsch
Sep 16, 2026·1h - 4
AI Sprawl Is Killing The Joy of Business
Sep 9, 2026·1h 12m - 5
Would Knowing the Truth Change Anything?
Sep 2, 2026·34m - 6
Mel’s Building a Business That Doesn’t Need Her
Aug 26, 2026·51m - 7
When Good People Stop Being the Right People
Aug 19, 2026·41m - 8
Best Of: AI Brain Fry: What AI Is Doing to Our Brains
Aug 12, 2026·52m - 9
Outsourcing Our Conscience, Voice & Relationships
Aug 5, 2026·59m - 10
Welcome to AI Burnout
Jul 29, 2026·31m - 11
Trusting Your Team Enough to Let Go
Jul 22, 2026·45m - 12
Best Of: The Real Cost of Growth with Meaghan and Michael
Jul 15, 2026·41m - 13
Best Of: Integrity, Ethics, and The Brutal Weight of Leadership
Jul 8, 2026·43m - 14
Best Of: The Sparkly-Brained Entrepreneur
Jul 1, 2026·45m - 15
Best Of: The Cost of Hustling
Jun 24, 2026·41m - 16
Father's Day Episode
Jun 17, 2026·1h 6m - 17
The Hiring Experiment Part 2: The Connection
Jun 10, 2026·1h 9m - 18
The Hiring Experiment Part 1: The Checklist
Jun 3, 2026·40m - 19
Interview with Josh Latimer Part 3
May 27, 2026·1h 17m - 20
We Were Dreamers Before We Were Entrepreneurs
May 20, 2026·54m - 21
Mel Infiltrates A Christian Business Conference
May 13, 2026·31m - 22
Interview with Josh Latimer Part 2
May 6, 2026·56m - 23
Interview with Josh Latimer Part 1
Apr 29, 2026·49m - 24
Petty Justice: Mel Stops Being Nice and Starts Being Real.
Apr 22, 2026·1h 7m - 25
AI Was Supposed to Save Time. Why Are We Working More?
Hidden gemKurt wants AI employees, not another pile of work.
Apr 15, 2026·1h 1m·5 clips - 26
Business The Gen X Way
Hidden gemAI lands at a rough moment.
Apr 8, 2026·59m·5 clips - 27
Michael Hinderliter: The Cost of Success
The hosts introduce entrepreneur Michael Hinderliter, discussing his background in technical fields like power washing and his broader impact in the community, setting up a conversation about the emotional costs of success.
Apr 1, 2026·1h 30m - 28
Is Entrepreneurship Bad for Your Mental Health?
This episode explores the connection between entrepreneurship and mental health, sharing personal stories of fear and anxiety while discussing ethical questions that keep entrepreneurs awake at night.
Mar 25, 2026·1h 2m - 29
Addicted to Uncertainty: The Entrepreneur’s Paradox
The host reflects on finding peace in uncertainty after experiencing cynicism and collapse in business, spirituality, and relationships, introducing a podcast about ethical questions for entrepreneurs.
Mar 18, 2026·57m - 30
Fighting your Brain & Open Loops Minisode
Mar 11, 2026·19m - 31
The Inconvenient Reinvention: A Conversation with Bobby Walker Part 2
Hidden gemBobby Walker is back for a second conversation, and this time the tension sits right where faith, marriage, and counseling meet.
Mar 4, 2026·1h 18m·5 clips - 32
Morals Without God: A Conversation with Bobby Walker Part 1
Hidden gemThe hosts open with a joke about the time of day, and Melody points out that it is 2 p.m.
Feb 25, 2026·44m·2 clips - 33
When Silence Becomes Agreement
Hidden gemKurt Kempton and Melody Edwards start with politics.
Feb 18, 2026·1h 12m·2 clips - 34
Who Controls Your Happiness?
Feb 11, 2026·1h 10m - 35
The Battle Between Family and Business
Feb 4, 2026·43m - 36
The Hard Truth About Teams and Growth
Jan 28, 2026·1h 2m - 37
Does Your Sparkly Brain Help or Hurt Your Business?
Jan 21, 2026·1h 6m - 38
Meg Likes Money: But It’s Not About the Money
Jan 14, 2026·1h 9m - 39
Business Partnerships: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Jan 7, 2026·55m - 40
Mel's Annual Quarterly Midlife Crisis
Dec 31, 2025·1h 4m - 41
The Birth of Soul Proprietor: The Business Misfits
Dec 24, 2025·1h 22m - 42
The ROI of Integrity
Dec 17, 2025·54m - 43
We're Wired to Connect: The Power of Community
Dec 10, 2025·54m - 44
The Trouble With Being Right
The hosts explore whether certainty is beneficial or harmful, particularly for entrepreneurs, using personal reflections and literary references like Les Miserables.
Dec 3, 2025·1h 14m - 45
Grateful for Pickle Juice: The Thanksgiving Episode
Nov 26, 2025·1h 4m - 46
Taking The Week
Nov 19, 2025·0m - 47
The Weight of Caring Too Much: Protecting Your Energy
Nov 12, 2025·52m - 48
Visionaries vs. Control Freaks: Finding the Balance in Entrepreneurship
This episode explores the delicate balance between visionary creativity and controlling tendencies that entrepreneurs must navigate when bringing ideas to life.
Nov 5, 2025·52m - 49
You Gotta Let Go to Grow
Oct 29, 2025·1h 5m - 50
The Hidden Costs of Being a Workaholic: America's Celebrated Addiction
Oct 22, 2025·1h 16m - 51
How to Work with AI (Without Losing What Makes You Human)
This episode explores how entrepreneurs can work with artificial intelligence while maintaining their human qualities and ethical considerations.
Oct 15, 2025·1h 23m - 52
Is it God’s Plan, or Your Business Plan?
Oct 8, 2025·1h 3m - 53
Selling without selling your soul
This episode explores how entrepreneurs can sell their products or services ethically without compromising their values, focusing on building trust and referrals rather than aggressive sales tactics.
Oct 1, 2025·1h 2m - 54
The Eternal Crisis of Faith: Interview with Melody Edwards
This episode features an interview with Melody Edwards exploring her personal spiritual journey and how it intersects with identity, moving away from entrepreneurial topics to focus on deeper questions of faith and self-discovery.
Sep 24, 2025·42m - 55
Milkshakes, Missions, and Meaning: Interview with Curt
Sep 24, 2025·1h 31m - 56
It’s Just Business
Sep 24, 2025·54m - 57
Starting The Soul Proprietor Podcast
Sep 12, 2025·6m - 58
The Soul Proprietor Trailer
Sep 9, 2025·2m