The leadership to carry your calling — without breaking under it.
You already know the calling. Do you have the leadership to carry it?
The Ascent is a 12-week group coaching program for Christian CEOs, founders, and nonprofit leaders. Most get 4+ hours a week back within 30 days — decisions stop waiting on you, your team carries the mission and performs well, and you're home for dinner. Backed by the Climb Guarantee.
Led by two executives who carried this weight — and 70+ leaders who've set it down.
Next cohort begins August 2026 · Only 10 seats, both founders in every session · Backed by the Climb Guarantee.It's carrying it alone.
Left alone, the weight always collects. Another year of 70-hour weeks. A marriage running on fumes. Kids who got whatever was left over. A calling half-finished because the leader broke before the mission did.
This isn't a faith problem or a growth problem.
It's a weight problem — and the weight was never meant to be carried alone.
"No time" is the most common objection — and the first thing we fix. Most leaders get 4+ hours a week back within 30 days.
Faith-driven execution. Whole-leader health. Executive leaders who've built through both failure and success.
For Christian leaders who want the truth, not the fluff.
Not another leadership program. A 12-week climb.
From bottleneck to builder.From control to overflow.
The Ascent rebuilds how you lead — decide, delegate, align, confront, execute — and strengthens the systems beneath you, so growth stops fracturing your people, your faith, and your family. Leadership becomes sustainable again.
"Plans fail when there is no counsel, but with many advisers they succeed."Proverbs 15:22
Three peaks. One sustainable summit.
Equip People
Build a team that can carry the mission with you. Clarify roles, strengthen trust, hire better, align people to their strengths, and end the unhealthy dependence on you.
Empower Process
Install systems that reduce chaos and create momentum. Improve communication, decision-making, cultural habits, and change leadership.
Elevate Performance
Develop leaders who deliver results. Coach performance early, have hard conversations clearly, protect strategic focus, and transfer ownership.
Architecture, not theory.
Four of the many plug-and-play tools you'll install over 12 weeks — not a binder of worksheets, but architecture built into how your organization runs.
XCL Hiring OS™
Identify A-players and stop making costly people mistakes.
XCL Accountability Framework™
A clear structure for hard conversations, ownership, and follow-through.
XCL Culture Compounding System™
Build culture by design — the daily behaviors that compound into a high-trust team.
XCL Whole Leader Scorecard™
Strengthen the whole leader — spiritual, relational, emotional, mental, and physical.
The tools aren't the product. They're the architecture.
Josh Chumley and
Franklin Santagate
We built The Ascent because we paid this cost ourselves. We've been the bottleneck, carried organizations on our own adrenaline, and felt what it costs a family and a faith. This is the program we needed then.
Decades in the arena, not on the sidelines. Between them, Josh and Franklin have:
- Grown a business from $13M to $42M in 3 years
- Led a $50M organization with 20% margin growth over 24 months
- Led multi-million-dollar funding campaigns
- Scaled organization into 200+ nations
- Built culture in teams of 400+
- Mobilized churches, donors, and decision-makers across the U.S.
They've sat in the pressure, made the hard calls, and bridged the gap between vision and execution.
Book Your Basecamp Call →Faith isn't an add-on. It's stewarding the vision.
For Josh and Franklin, faith isn't a marketing angle — it shapes how you define success, carry authority, and steward people. But this isn't church language dressed up as coaching. It's rigorous, executive-level work grounded in a Christian worldview. Conviction and competence. Prayer and process.
"Better a poor man who lives with integrity than a rich man who distorts right and wrong."Proverbs 28:6
You already feel the calling.
Now build the leadership to carry it.
Most programs give you ideas. We give you implementation.
- 12 weekly group coaching sessions with real assignments
- Proprietary frameworks you install — not just learn
- KPI scorecards and measurable progress
- Whole-leader development: spiritual, relational, mental, physical, organizational
- Accountability with Christian leaders who understand the climb
"How do I know it'll work?" Because the risk is ours, not yours.
Complete Peaks One and Two, and if the weight hasn't shifted, Peak Three is on us. That's the Climb Guarantee — and we can stake it because every climb is measured from day one across four dimensions. You see the change in numbers, not feelings.
Grow the organization and
get your life back.Not one at the cost of the other.
Revenue and operating margin. Leaders we coach see an average 20% revenue increase within their first 6–12 months.
At least 4 hours a week back within 30 days — for what matters, at work and at home.
Fewer HR issues and rising engagement, tracked through real team feedback — not vibes.
Measurable lift on the KPIs that matter most to your organization.
Grew revenue 20% in her first year of coaching.
From 70-hour weeks to 40 — leading what actually matters.
Grew funding 50% in two years — millions more for the mission.
70+ leaders coached over the past decade — and the climb is measured every time.
And if the climb isn't right for you, we'll tell you on the call — that's the Honest Fit promise.
Josh's coaching has transformed how I lead — my teams are more effective and we're hitting record numbers. I'm a better leader, husband, and person because of his influence.
Working with Josh has been one of the greatest investments I've made. He pairs biblical wisdom with practical strategies that produce real results.
I have witnessed Josh change the course of people's careers through his coaching. He is genuinely the best builder of new and developing leaders I have ever worked with.
Franklin and Josh, working with XCL Group, have been instrumental in strengthening communication within our leadership and executive team.
Josh is an extraordinary leader who inspires greatness in others. His influence is evident in the culture he has created.
Josh is an experienced general manager with exceptional skills in driving efficiency, growth, and innovation. I would work with Josh again in a heartbeat.
Josh is a fearless leader who establishes trust and generates performance — with an uncanny ability to get great results from distressed teams and difficult situations.
Josh brings a sincere, fiery passion to see leadership thrive. His ability to distill organizational dynamics and provide tangible solutions sets him apart.
Josh has the ability and expertise, from his background in servant leadership and corporate business, to discern the needs of individuals and teams and elevate their business acumen.
Franklin Santagate receives my highest endorsement in character, integrity, and leadership. He is a leader of leaders and a true team player.
I was truly impressed by Franklin's focus, his ability to recognize my calling and the purpose of our ministry, and his rapid formulation of plans of action.
Franklin is an outstanding communicator, brilliant strategist, and transformational leader. His unwavering faith fuels his passion to develop leaders in gaining maximum results.
Franklin is a creative, outside-the-box thought leader — passionate about results and great at developing systems, processes, and accountability to ensure goals are met.
Josh is one of the few leaders I know who can genuinely inspire people and also possess exceptional analytical skills. He has the courage to say what needs to be said, propelling necessary change.
Under Franklin's leadership, I grew into the leader I am today through his mentorship, vision, and team-building expertise.
The climb is a stair-step.
The Ascent isn't a menu of options — it's a path. Start with a taste, climb with the cohort, then go deeper one-on-one.
A complimentary strategy session — one honest conversation about the weight you're carrying and the path up. Your first taste of the climb.
Book Your Basecamp Call →The 12-week group cohort: live coaching calls, proprietary tools, and short video lessons you run between sessions, on your schedule — climbing with other Christian leaders.
Book Your Basecamp Call →Go deeper one-on-one after the cohort — our highest-touch coaching, built entirely around you and your organization.
Book Your Basecamp Call →The climb isn't for everyone.
We speak the truth with clarity and lead with humility and bold confidence. We won't tell you what you want to hear — we'll tell you what's true.
This is for you if
- You're a Christian leader running a business or nonprofit with at least one layer of leadership reporting to you.
- Your team, systems, and culture still depend too heavily on you.
- You're producing results — but the current pace isn't sustainable.
- You're ready to confront reality, be coached, and implement change.
This is not for
- Leaders who want a cheerleader, not the truth.
- Leaders chasing inspiration they'll never implement.
- Leaders who won't be coached or told they're wrong.
- Leaders who want new outcomes but won't change how they lead.
- Leaders shopping for cheap instead of right.
How much is your growth waiting on you?
A lid is an altitude ceiling. Your organization can only climb as high as your leadership lets it. The free Leader Lid Score measures how low that ceiling sits — 2 minutes, scored instantly across five dimensions. Score yourself, see where you're the bottleneck, and get the one move to make first.
Your score appears the moment you finish — then a few honest emails on getting the weight off your desk. Unsubscribe anytime.
Free · 2 minutes · Your score appears instantly — plus the one move to make first.
Do the work. We'll stake our name on it.
Complete Peaks One and Two. If you haven't grown in your faith and gained back the capacity to grow your organization, Peak Three is on us.
You can keep carrying it this way.
Or you can change how you lead.
You've been entrusted with too much to lead in a way that costs you everything. There's a better way up — one that honors the calling, strengthens the organization, and gives you back your margin.
Book Your Basecamp Call →The weight doesn't lighten on its own — it compounds. Next cohort begins August 2026 · Only 10 seats · Backed by the Climb Guarantee.
Start with a conversation.
No application. No pitch. Just a direct conversation about where you actually are — and whether we can help.
Backed by the Climb Guarantee — complete Peaks One and Two, and if the weight hasn't shifted, Peak Three is on us.
The Basecamp Call
A free, no-pressure conversation with Josh or Franklin. We'll talk through where you are, where you're trying to go, and whether the climb is right for you.
Not a sales pitch — if the climb isn't right for you, we'll tell you, and point you somewhere that is.
The investment? We cover it on the call — it's sized for leaders ready to do the work.
Then it was probably information, not installation. Most coaching hands you ideas and a journal of good intentions. The Ascent installs systems into how your organization runs, holds you to a scorecard, and measures the change — so it outlives the program. It's also why we stake Peak Three on it: do the work, and if it hasn't stuck, we keep climbing with you.
Every climb is measured — margin, time, culture, and performance — on a scorecard from day one. You'll see movement, or we'll know exactly why and adjust.
The reason you don't have time is the problem we fix. Most leaders get 4+ hours a week back inside the first month. And it flexes to your calendar — live group calls, with tools and short videos you run between them.