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In our lives, we can look back and see how the influence of one person has impacted our life’s trajectory. Throughout the journey of this podcast and video podcast, numerous guests have chronicled the importance of that one teacher, that one mentor, that one friend who had the ability to see past the current circumstances of their present lives, to a greatness within them that was yearning to be released. For Pastor Joshua Baker, that man was a preacher who placed a hand on Josh’s heart and freed him from his addictions and the barriers to a life of discipleship to Jesus Christ. It is this Christ relationship that is the fundamental relationship in Josh’s life, and the foundation of his ministry as a Campus Pastor at Alive Church in Orlando, FL. 

Josh at a glance is not what springs to mind when you think of a man who preaches the Good News of the Bible (neither was Saul, nor even Moses for that matter). He dances to Thundercat’s Funny Thing (and has a serious shoulder shrug to go with it), raps his own poetry, has hundreds of thousands of people watching his Instagram Reels’ antics and isn’t afraid to go vocal cord-to-vocal cord with Mariah Carey while he drives around Orlando, FL. And while it’s all good fun and laughter, underneath the carefree persona, is a man who has periodically run from his calling, survived a drunk driving car accident that left him in a coma and overcome the deep hurts and disappointments he experienced at the hands of people in the church who were supposed to be his mentors and guides.  

Josh’s journey reminds us of what happens when you stop running and start facing the pain of your life. When you find the capacity within your heart to forgive yourself and those who have caused you great disappointments. In a time when religion and commitment to following any religious doctrine can be used as a tool to divide us, Josh uses his pulpit to call upon us, the Church and the world to start a love revival. To love all people. To love all people abundantly.


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You have to be courageous and set boundaries. How often have we heard that? It is a common theme in today’s vernacular. It’s common and really hard to achieve. We live in a nonstop world of 24/7 news, TikToks and Snpachats. We are governed by a voracious media machine that must be fed a steady diet of celebrity, political and faux breaking news bytes that is often predicated on trespassing the boundaries of its subjects and our sensibilities. There is nothing new about this phenomenon of the intrusive hunger and press for information. William Randolph Hearst built an entire media empire on it during his day. What is different is the speed with which it all happens now. 

Speed, or rather its antithesis, has been the subject of Shel Pink’s work for much of her career within the world of beauty. In an industry that she describes as being consumed with quick creation and rapid consumption, Shel is carving out the space between, the boundaries, for self-reflection and thought to occur. She gives to herself and us the permission to slow down. Shel is the founder and visionary leader of SpaRitual – a vegan spa beauty brand that was one of the pioneers of the clean, ingredient conscious, cruelty-free movements within product development. She is also the author of a book and a quiet revolutionary movement called Slow Beauty, which is the embodiment of her thoughts about the present need for human beings to pause, to reflect, to be. 

Within these sacred moments of slowing down come the opportunities to experience true self-care, which Shel describes as being kind to ourselves and to others with the words that we use. Allowing ourselves to intelligently experience the seasons of change within our lives. And creating a space in our world for more poetry and more meditation to exist.

 As Shel simply states, “It is ok to just slow down and take deep, meaningful care of ourselves.”

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Google describes Gowanus in these terms, “In a former industrial zone around Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal, Gowanus is a developing area with a mix of classic rowhouses and converted warehouses. Hipsters and creative types head up studios and cool art galleries. After dark, the neighborhood livens up as young professionals spillover from the nearby Barclay’s Center Arena and head to the trendy bars, casual eateries and funky music venues around 4th Avenue.”

Gowanus is also the site of an artistic experiment, community center and creative laboratory for directors and choreographers (those creatives writing their drafts in three dimensions) called the Mercury Store which was founded by and is directed by Will Frears. Will and his team have thoughtfully engineered a space that allows the asking of the most difficult questions with the most love for those who are brave enough (maybe foolish enough) to try to rethink what the creative process looks like for performance art – theater, dance and the like. In moments, the Mercury Store plays revolutionary to creative processes that need to be shook; then it is a gathering spot for old friends to run into one another and share an idea or conversation. 

And while the space is beautiful and the goal is equal parts ambition, loftiness and trailblazing, at the center of it all sits Will Frears, searching for the answer to the central question that he posits in our conversation, “What would it be like if you just stood in the middle of your process for a minute and thought about ‘Well what do I need?’” 

The answer to his question? Deciding that he can be happy. And that happiness includes his wife Amy, walking his girls to school and his building in Gowanus.

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When the students from Parkland High School held their rally in Washington D.C. to memorialize the lives taken and the lives forever altered in the shooting that took place at their school in 2017, it was the first time a group of students so visibly rejected the notion that they were powerless in the face of overwhelming gun violence that had gripped the country. The line-up that day was filled with artists from Ariana Grande to Lin-Manuel Miranda to Miley Cyrus. Miley had gone through her own public struggles, but on that day, she was also channeling her alter ego Hannah Montana which is how those kids would have first come to know her. She sang The Climb:

There’s always gonna be another mountain

I’m always gonna want to make it move

Always gonna be an uphill battle

Sometimes I’m gonna have to lose

Ain’t about how fast I get there

Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side

It’s the climb 

Shannon Flynn joined the Hannah Montana cast and crew from the beginning. First as an assistant, then as an acting coach and finally as a director of the show. For four years she created a set that gave the kids permission to ask questions and to remember that champions adjust. In many ways, her personal journey to becoming a successful director mirrored Miley’s lyrics. Shannon openly talks about how she battled imposter syndrome and had to learn to fight for her own ideas as a director. She had to learn to trust her own instincts even when she was unsure of the outcome, even if that outcome meant walking away from being a director. In her life and work, Shannon understood you have to surrender to the climb.

The lessons have served her well. When she details how to be successful in a room as the leader, she references a lesson she learned directing Sesame Street, “Honor the process, but don’t fear the process. Listen, be humble, ask for help. Then we can collaborate and make something great.”

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Delia McLinden and her family own Farmhouse Fresh, one of the most successful product brands in the global spa industry. Built into the mission of the company is their living, breathing passion for farm animal rescue. When a client buys a product, Farmhouse Fresh allocates funds to rescue abused or neglected farm animals. The animals are sheltered at the company’s headquarters in Frisco, TX where scents of raw hay and shea butter intertwine. In addition to her work as an executive at the company, in 2019 Delia started her own 501c3 called Archangel Animal Network which transports dogs from shelters in the South and relocates them to families in Northern cities eager to adopt them and save the animals from being euthanized. More than 2,000 dogs’ lives have been spared and countless human lives enriched.

Delia reminds us that the work of the angels doesn’t always show up with fanfare and reviews in the New York Times. Miracles happen when we measure our lives by how much we use the hours and minutes that we have on the planet for good. When we view something or someone that is perceived as disposable as valuable. When we give voice to the plight of the voiceless. 

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The necessity and relevance of art is a conversation needed today given that we live in tumultuous times. And if we are going to have this conversation, Lisa Channer is a voice that must be heard. She is a director, producer, dancer, performer, educator, wife and mother. She’s created new work around the world even in Russia using hidden Russian texts that didn’t see the light of day until after the fall of the Soviet Union. She has wrestled with the whiteness and maleness of the Western Theater’s Canon that includes luminaries like Shakespeare, Moliere and O’Neill to find her voice within the work. Her approach to art is Jazz-esque – learn the notes so you can blow them up, make them your own. Hers is a voice, a life and a career that she’s built on her own terms. 

Ask her what the world needs now, and she finds her answers in the molecules of the theater: Compassion, Empathy, Collaboration and Non-Binary Thoughts. For Lisa, art lives in the smudges between boundaries, and in a time when the boundaries are tested daily, it’s the artists who will hold us together. 

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What’s the hard truth of Nora Zelevansky's latest novel, Competitive Grieving, you ask? You have to force yourself to break old patterns and develop into a different person again and again in your life. You must reinvent yourself over and over again. You also must do all the things you aren’t allowed to do; laugh at a funeral, take the bucket-list trip now, pursue the impossible dream. Why? Because it’s so easy to get stuck in the secrets and the grief and the old ideas about who you are, and time and life are quick and precious; they must not be squandered. 

As we watch the main character Wren go through the process of throwing open the doors of her worldview, we are reminded that we are all flawed and incongruous creatures. We all hold onto stereotypes and ideas about who we are and who other people are way past the point of truth or usefulness. And if we can, just for a moment, break the stereotypes and allow other elements into our vision, that is where we will find empathy.

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Cassandra Worthy is a global keynote speaker, author and consultant who is the CEO and optimistic mind behind Change Enthusiasm. Her three-step method of “Signal. Opportunity. Choice.” provides a blueprint for organizations in transition as they help their employees accept inevitable changes by embracing what she calls the growth mindset. What distinguishes Cassandra’s approach is that a significant part of her pedagogy is based upon the acknowledgment and leveraging of the employees’ emotions in this change process. As a scientist and chemical engineer, she views emotions as the fuel to support or sabotage change. The more an organization can get right with the emotions of their employees, the better chance they have of successfully launching the new path forward. 

She also views change as an opportunity for those who are on the receiving end of this complex change bargain (each individual employee) to take a stand for themselves and their future. Cassandra synthesizes it quite succinctly from advice she received when she herself was growing through a significant shift in her previous work life with Proctor & Gamble, “In this moment you can get better, or you can get bitter. And it’s your choice.” Better is moving towards the future. Bitter is embracing stagnation. The choice is always in our own hands.

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Joshua Banbury’s work and personal narrative are a tapestry of rich textures influenced by the wide range of music (Jazz, Folk Music, Classical, Carnatic Music and Art Songs) that he has been a student of and performed at the highest levels. He is also artistically and intellectually inspired by Surrealist artists like Leonora Carrington, his Texas roots, and the folk songs of Appalachia.   

Joshua is musically gifted. What he can do from a technical perspective and evoke from an emotional standpoint with his rich baritone voice is singular. The sound is haunting, unusual, unexpected. As he describes it himself, he has slowly chiseled all the musical influences he has studied into a perfectly unique sculpture that is his voice. Like an archeologist, he uses his voice to excavate and document his life story and to affirm that his history is beautiful just as it is. Now as a librettist with writing commissions for some of the most prestigious music and art institutions in America like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Philharmonic, he is crossing over into the realm of genius.

Joshua views his music as a way to construct what he calls “ecosystems in his mind” where he can invite others to dwell with him. Like all of us on a quest for something larger than ourselves, the road Joshua travels is long and winding where he faces the complexities of race, sexuality and the sheer energy it takes to be engaged in any creative process. When I posed the question to him what advice he would give to his younger self as Joshua began his musical journey in earnest, he stated something we can all learn from – “I’m different for a reason. I have been sent here to do different things. My path is different.”

Music by Joshua Banbury // Song: Brightest and Best
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In our conversation, Bryan and I discuss expected topics like overcoming our self-imposed barriers to build thriving careers, the recipe for effective leadership and even his own improbable, faith-driven ascension to success. But the jewel in this conversation is Bryan teaching us that if we are going to be successful as a human species on this planet, we must learn to see the value in each person we pass. For as Bryan reminds us, in our journeys, we have waited upon angels in our midst and did not know it.

Dr. Bryan Williams is a determined executive coach, author, husband and father. But most of all he is a man of faith. And he has used that faith to propel him through the unimaginable journey of his life and career. He reminds us that faith is the essential ingredient required to let go of what we are holding onto in order to grasp the unforeseen and unknown gifts of greatness that lie before us. 

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