Martyrdom, Responsibility, and the Refusal to Bow: Nathan Crankfield & St Thomas More

Sales leader Nathan Crankfield explains a hero for this moment—and why excellence must be practiced across faith, family, work, and discipline.

Nathan Crankfield (Hallow) sees St. Thomas More as a great hero, a man who refused to trade truth for safety, even when his family, career, and life were on the line.

He connects that witness to his own story—conversion, failure, discipline, military formation, and mentors who demanded excellence without excuses. Out of that came Seeking Excellence, a show for living the Catholic life with clarity across faith, body, work, money, and leadership.

His aim is simple: give young men a real path to greatness.

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Nathan Crankfield joined Heroic Stories to talk about heroism as something that often looks like simply showing up and refusing to compromise. A sales manager at Hallow and founder of the Seeking Excellence project, Crankfield framed heroism not as spectacle, but as faithfulness under pressure.

Crankfield pointed to St. Thomas More as the figure who most clearly embodies heroism for modern men.

More, he said, excelled in every arena he entered—law, politics, public service—rising to become King Henry VIII’s right-hand man. He lived with discipline and prayer, fasting regularly, attending Mass, and maintaining a deep interior life even while holding power.

During the early Protestant Reformation, More helped Henry VIII defend Catholic teaching, work that earned papal praise. Then the king demanded a divorce, declared himself head of the Church of England, and required public assent. More refused.

Crankfield emphasized what made that refusal costly. More was a widower with children, remarried into a blended family. He had status, career security, and dependents who needed him. He first resigned quietly, trying to avoid conflict. When pressed to sign and publicly endorse the king’s actions, he would not.

“He wasn’t asked to deny Christ or the Trinity,” Crankfield said. “He refused to bow to divorce. Marriage was worth dying for.”

More was imprisoned, wrote letters to his children, and was eventually beheaded.

Crankfield said the story pushes back against modern excuses. Men often say they cannot speak or act because they have families to provide for or careers they worked hard to build. “He had all of that,” Crankfield said, “and he still stood firm.”

Why the Story Became Personal

Crankfield said he always knew the outline of Thomas More’s story, but the saint became present to him during the upheavals of 2020. Lockdowns, political pressure, and public conformity revealed how often people acted against their convictions to avoid friction.

He saw men acknowledge something was wrong, then comply anyway. “I kept thinking—St. Thomas More had these same excuses,” he said.

The connection deepened in 2022 as Crankfield married and his relationship with his father deteriorated further.

“Nobody replaces your earthly father,” he said. “But at the same time my relationship with my dad was breaking down, this relationship with St. Thomas More was growing.” He described finding, for the first time, a Catholic role model for husbandhood and fatherhood.

Early Conversion and a Hard Turn

Crankfield became Catholic at 13, after years in Catholic schools, despite coming from a non-practicing Lutheran background. His mother, working overtime as a single parent, prioritized education over denominational differences.

After conversion, he quickly fell away—partying, drugs, sex, and following the same patterns he saw in older brothers and male relatives. The break came with college.

Choosing Mount St. Mary’s University over party schools became a hinge decision. On his visit, he encountered something unfamiliar.

“I met people who were joyful,” he said. “I wasn’t depressed, but I knew there was more. I hoped maybe I could become joyful too.”

The Army and a Demanding Mentor

At Mount St. Mary’s, Crankfield joined Army ROTC, pursuing infantry, Airborne School, Ranger School, and the 82nd Airborne Division. The path fulfilled a desire that dated back to childhood and was reinforced by opportunity.

A key figure was Sergeant Hollingsworth, whom Crankfield credits as one of his most formative heroes.

Hollingsworth, he said, loved his work and demanded excellence. He checked grades, pushed physical standards, and challenged mediocrity.

“He cared about me,” Crankfield said, “and he also told me there was no reason I shouldn’t be on the Dean’s List or have a perfect PT score.”

The relationship combined encouragement with pressure. Crankfield described himself as someone who needed more correction than praise, and said Hollingsworth saw his ceiling and insisted he move toward it.

Though secular, Hollingsworth respected Crankfield’s faith and encouraged it.

Other Models of Leadership

Crankfield also named priests who shaped him: Father Jonathan Meyer, a rural Indiana pastor overseeing multiple campuses with a culture of discipline and service, and Father Chase Hildrebrink, a former professional soccer player marked by joy, prayer, and relentless self-improvement.

He added another unlikely hero: Alex Jones, CEO of Hallow. Crankfield recalled debating Jones about faith in college during Jones’s atheist period. Years later, he has watched Jones lead a global prayer platform while deepening his own spiritual life.

What unites these figures, Crankfield said, is their willingness to accept responsibility and pursue excellence as pressure increases.

Defining Excellence

Crankfield’s Seeking Excellence project grew from a simple question: what is the best way to live as a Catholic layman now?

He cited Aristotle—“We are what we repeatedly do”—and the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. God gives gifts, expects stewardship, and judges what is done with them.

Crankfield distilled that stewardship into six pillars he treats as a personal report card: mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, financial, and professional. The goal is not perfection in each category, but a high average across the whole life.

“Excellence is not a single act,” he said. “It’s habit.”

Who He Wants to Serve

Asked who he hopes to be a hero for, Crankfield pointed to a younger version of himself.

He described men who want to break from what they inherited, who want clarity about what greatness looks like, and who are tired of being told standards don’t matter.

“They want a path,” he said. “What to do. What to avoid.”

His aim is to challenge lies about masculinity, responsibility, fitness, work, and faith—and to help men grow their capacity to carry more weight in their homes, workplaces, and communities.

“That’s how you turn things around,” he said. “You start by taking responsibility, then you take more.”