Becoming With Precious: The Journey of Personal Growth And Reinvention

How do you find the grit to reclaim your identity and build unbreakable boundaries when a twenty-four-year marriage is suddenly shattered by the devastation of betrayal trauma?

Roxanna Johnson spent decades contorting her life, her needs, and her identity into what she calls the pretzel period, desperately trying to keep the peace as a chronic people pleaser. Raised in a home struggling with alcohol addiction, she unknowingly carried deep codependent habits into her twenty-four-year marriage. When her husband delivered a sterile disclosure revealing his hidden sexual addiction, the shock shattered her reality. Instead of remaining paralyzed in the wreckage or continuing to enable toxic cycles, Roxanna made the audacious pivot to surrender what she could not control and fiercely protect what she could.

In this deeply human conversation, Roxanna breaks down the raw reality of betrayal trauma and the grueling practice of untangling your identity from a partner's choices. She shares the profound difference between simply giving up and true surrender, detailing exactly how she learned to detach with love and stop trying to fix the unfixable. With unwavering grit, she offers a blueprint for forgotten spouses to step out of the drama triangle, establish life-saving boundaries, and survive the messy process of relearning who they actually are.

In this episode of Becoming With Precious, you will discover:

• Surrender is not about giving up; it is the strategic choice to stop trying to control another person's healing so you can fully manage your own.

• Setting a boundary is not about punishing someone else; it is simply drawing a line that gives you the time and space needed to get good with yourself before making a decision.

• Reclaiming your identity requires you to stop contorting into a pretzel for others and start boldly acknowledging your own basic preferences, feelings, and truths.

• Healing is a practice filled with messy setbacks; true grit involves releasing self-condemnation when you fail to hold a boundary and simply choosing to try again the next day.

Connect with Roxanna Johnson

Website:⁠https://forgottenspouse.com/

LinkedIn:⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/roxanna-johnson-bb5a9418/

Facebook:⁠https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61570415673807

Instagram:⁠https://www.instagram.com/forgottenspouse/

Threads:⁠https://www.threads.com/@forgottenspouse?xmt=

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What would you do if the very struggles that made you feel like an outcast became the exact fuel you needed to build a global platform and reclaim your voice?

For years, Noah May lived in the shadows of his own mind, battling severe depression since the age of thirteen and debilitating anxiety by eighteen. Growing up in a small farm town where secrets spread fast, he felt silenced by his peers and trapped in a narrative he could not control. But instead of letting the darkness consume him, Noah made an audacious pivot. At nineteen, he laid his deepest struggles bare on social media, taking back his story and laying the groundwork for a life defined by radical transparency rather than fear.

Today, at twenty-four, Noah has transformed his silent pain into a full-time global podcasting career. In this episode, he opens up about the raw reality of navigating mental health, the terrifying but liberating decision to broadcast his truth, and the grit required to build a supportive community from scratch. Noah proves that your lowest moments do not own you, and that speaking up is the ultimate act of defiance against the stigma of mental illness.

In this episode of Becoming With Precious, you will discover:

• Silence is a virus: Keeping your darkest struggles locked inside will only break you down; finding just one trusted person to confide in is the first step to survival.

• Own your narrative before the world does: Noah chose to broadcast his mental health journey publicly to ensure his story was told on his terms, stripping the power away from small-town rumors.

• Mental illness is not one size fits all: Debunk the myth that anxiety and depression look the same for everyone; your symptoms and coping mechanisms are entirely unique to you.

• Pain can be repurposed: The exact experiences that make you feel alienated can become the foundation for your greatest comeback and a lifeline for others listening across the globe.

Connect with Noah May

Website:https://www.noahspodcasts.com/

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-c-may

YouTube:https://youtube.com/@noahspodcasts?si=7aV-NoI5z3uH1JeP

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/noahspodcasts

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/lethalvenompodcast?igsh=

TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@lethalvenompodcast?_t=ZT-8vyYuBqy0br&_r=1

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How do you find the grit to drop the labels keeping you stuck in nervous system chaos and audaciously transform your neurodivergent traits into your ultimate strategic advantage?

Society often teaches us to wear labels like ADHD or burnout as permanent badges, using them to excuse our constant state of chaos. But Warren argues that true leadership requires the audacity to see these labels for what they actually are: a byproduct of a profoundly dysregulated nervous system. Instead of worshipping the mind and treating symptoms with force, he breaks down how trauma and stress are violently stored in the physical body. For highly driven founders and executives, living entirely in a hyper stimulated state might look like success on paper, but it fundamentally destroys their energetic capacity and presence.

In this raw conversation, Warren unpacks the grit required to step out of the masculine, force driven hustle culture and embrace ancestral, soul led leadership. He reveals the exact energetic mechanics of moving between high output states and critical recovery zones, proving that calm resilience is a far greater superpower than frantic grinding. By mastering the sequence of being, doing, and having, he offers a direct roadmap to alchemize your blind spots, face your deepest fears, and scale your life without sacrificing your soul.

In this episode of Becoming With Precious, you will discover:

• The mind only holds the memory of trauma, but the physical body stores the actual emotional impact, requiring physical regulation to return to a state of safety.

• ADHD is not a life sentence or a permanent personality trait; it is often a symptom of a dysregulated nervous system locked in constant survival mode.

• True energetic capacity requires mastering the alpha brainwave state, allowing you to seamlessly shift from intense output to deep, restorative calm.

• Sustainable success demands a shift from the force driven approach to a grounded, soul led leadership model rooted in absolute presence.

Connect with Warren Williams

Website:⁠https://energeticalchemyos.com/

YouTube:⁠https://www.youtube.com/@WarrenWilliamscoaching

Instagram:⁠https://www.instagram.com/warrenwmastery/

Substack:https://substack.com/@warrenwilliams535784?

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https://www.podmatch.com/member/becomingprecious

How do you lead yourself out of the dark when you are stripped down to silence, stillness, and a second brutal battle with cancer?

Savio P. Clemente knows exactly what happens when life forces you into a corner and demands that you evolve. Thrust into his second battle with cancer, facing a grueling sixteen-month treatment plan, a stem cell transplant, and profound isolation in the ICU, he realized that simply bouncing back was a myth. Instead, he discovered the raw power of adaptive resilience, the conscious choice to remain flexible, curious, and unbroken while sitting completely inside the discomfort and pain of a crisis.

In this conversation, Savio unpacks the messy reality of leading yourself and others when the old operating system completely shatters. He breaks down his ALOHA framework for navigating deep cognitive fatigue and shares exactly how he pivoted from a failed business and devastating medical setbacks into a mission to heal healthcare leadership. This episode is a masterclass in shedding your armor, questioning your deepest motives, and having the audacity to build a new life from the ashes of your hardest moments.

In this episode of Becoming With Precious, you will discover:

• Adaptive resilience over bouncing back: Real grit is not about snapping back to who you were; it is about remaining flexible and making conscious choices while actively standing in the fire of discomfort.

• The power of metacognition: True clarity often comes from psychological distancing and understanding how you think about your problems, rather than just reacting to the immediate chaos.

• Nature operates on its own timeline: You cannot force a comeback. Like a river finding a new path or a seed building unseen roots, recovery and reinvention require surrendering to the wait.

• Distinguish between wants and needs: Before pushing forward, interrogate your desires to ensure they are not just societal pressures or trauma responses disguised as genuine goals.

Connect with Savio P. Clemente

Website:https://www.saviopclemente.com/

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/saviopclemente

YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@thehumanresolve

Instagram:https://instagram.com/thehumanresolve

TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@thehumanresolve

X:https://x.com/thehumanresolve

Substack:https://newsletter.thehumanresolve.com/

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How do you go from being a paralyzingly shy kid who was terrified of heights to a corporate executive leading multi-million dollar tech projects and jumping out of airplanes 700 times?

Joe Wyrwas spent his childhood trying to blend into the background. Taking a massive risk or commanding a room was totally foreign to him. But just two years out of college, he made the gritty choice to step out of his comfort zone and take the helm of a massive software engineering project. Instead of waiting for a formal title or someone to give him permission, Joe learned the art of leading from the middle.

In this conversation, Joe drops the polished executive act to talk about the messy reality of growth. He opens up about his ongoing battles with imposter syndrome and the hard truth he learned after tracking every minute of his life for four years. He realized that data is completely useless without behavioral change. He also shares how he conquered a crippling fear of heights, transforming that terror into almost 700 skydives. Joe proves that overcoming fear requires the exact same process whether you are stepping out of an airplane or walking into a high-stakes boardroom, and that is taking small, unrelenting steps into the unknown.

In this episode of Becoming With Precious, you will discover:

• Lead before you get the title. Waiting for a formal promotion to start making an impact guarantees you will not be ready when the opportunity arrives.

• Data without action is a distraction. Tracking every minute of your day is useless if it does not force a real change in your behavior.

• Fear is dismantled through exposure. The terrifying things in your life become mundane routines once you commit to consistent repetition.

• Stumbling is part of becoming. Walking away from a misaligned leadership role is not a failure, it is a necessary step to protect your energy and purpose.

Connect with Joe Wyrwas

Website:https://wyserwithjoe.com/

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-wyrwas/

YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@wyserwithjoe

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/joe.wyrwas

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/wyserwithjoe

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How do you find the grit to completely reinvent your identity and launch an international art career while balancing a demanding legal profession and the raw reality of raising a child with severe autism?

Julie Waas spent decades anchored to the high-stakes world of labor and employment law while navigating the exhausting, relentless challenges of raising a son with severe autism. When her youngest child finally left for college, the silence of the empty nest threatened to pull her into the same paralyzing depression she witnessed her own mother suffer years prior. Refusing to succumb to that darkness, Julie made an audacious vow to treat her midlife not as an ending, but as a ruthless launchpad for self-discovery.

Instead of fading into the background, she channeled her raw emotions into abstract art during the global lockdown. Despite a childhood teacher telling her she possessed zero talent, Julie built the courage to share her work publicly, sparking a wild pivot that landed her pieces in galleries across London, Milan, and New York. In this deeply human conversation, Julie tears down the toxic myths surrounding aging and proves that the second half of life demands grit, strict morning boundaries, and the audacity to stop caring about the judgments of others.

In this episode of Becoming With Precious, you will discover:

• Midlife is a launchpad, not a finish line. Defying the narrative of the empty nest requires the audacity to actively pursue new identities instead of waiting to fade away.

• Unprocessed childhood vows carry immense power. Recognizing the negative patterns of past generations can provide the raw fuel needed to rewrite your own future.

• Your kids are watching how you age. Refusing to settle and boldly exploring new passions gives your children the ultimate blueprint for resilience.

• Daily momentum starts with strict mental boundaries. Replacing morning doom-scrolling with gratitude and journaling physically rewires your brain to tackle adversity with grit.

Connect with Julie Waas

Website:https://juliewaas.com/

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/julierebywaas/

YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNe72GPXidNlFOqJdv3UDTA

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/jrwaas/

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/julie.waas/

TikTok:https://www.threads.com/@julie.waas

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How do you find the grit to hit publish on your life's mission when society's damaging labels and your own deep-rooted trauma have kept you paralyzed for six years?When her husband abruptly absconded, leaving her to raise a two and four-year-old completely alone, J. Rosemarie Francis faced a brutal crossroad. Society wanted to slap her with the lazy, dependent single mom label, and her own childhood trauma of abandonment echoed loudly in the background. She felt a profound calling to create a space for women mothering solo, but fear and the relentless chatter of the lizard brain kept her paralyzed. It took six gritty years of hesitation and a massive mindset shift to finally reject the stigma, hit publish, and launch a movement that would eventually span over 350 podcast episodes.

In this conversation, Rosemarie gets incredibly real about the messy reality of solo motherhood and the audacity it takes to rebuild your identity after profound betrayal. She opens up about her raw journey of writing through the unmourned loss of her first son, breaking generational cycles of anger, and learning to partner with God when the rent is due and your tank is empty. If you are stuck in survival mode or running from a painful past, her story offers a powerful blueprint for confronting your darkest traumas and stepping fully into the life you were meant to lead.

In this episode of Becoming With Precious, you will discover:

• Redefine your label: Solo motherhood is a season of extreme resilience, not a permanent badge of failure or financial dependency.

• Confront your hidden trauma: Unprocessed grief and childhood abandonment will dictate your reactions to your children until you have the courage to write it down and mourn it.

• The lizard brain lies: You can spend years researching and buying equipment, but true growth only happens the moment you take audacious action and hit publish.

• Co-parent with your faith: When the physical and financial burdens of parenting solo become crushing, surrendering the outcome to a higher power allows you to find the peace required to keep fighting for your family.

Connect with J. Rosemarie Francis

Website:https://www.solomomstalk.com/

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrosemarie/

YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@solomomstalkpodcast

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/JRosemarie60/

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/solomomstalk

TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/solomomstalkwjrosemarie

Substack:https://substack.com/@toolsofthepodcasttrade

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How do you find the audacity to redefine your entire existence when society tells you that a broken neck means your only future is selling magazine subscriptions over the telephone?

In 1970, a devastating college football tackle left twenty-year-old Ken Kunken a C4-C5 quadriplegic. Stripped of his mobility and his dreams of becoming an industrial engineer, Ken faced a society that had completely written him off. Long before the Americans with Disabilities Act mandated accessibility, he made the audacious choice to return to Cornell University, literally being carried up a hundred steps just to attend classes. Despite earning three Ivy League degrees, he was rejected by over two hundred employers who refused to see past his wheelchair.

Instead of surrendering to a system designed to keep him hidden, Ken tapped into a rare level of raw grit. He pivoted from rehabilitation counseling to law, eventually becoming the first quadriplegic Assistant District Attorney on Long Island, serving for over forty years. In this conversation, Ken opens up about the crushing depression of his early days, the sheer defiance required to obliterate low expectations, and the deeply human journey of finding love, fathering triplets, and leaving a legacy of unrelenting resilience.

In this episode of Becoming With Precious, you will discover:

• Defy low expectations: Your performance in life often rises or falls based on the expectations set for you, so you must have the grit to set your own standard.

• Normalize the impossible: Just because a barrier has never been broken does not mean it cannot be destroyed by you today.

• Turn necessity into a superpower: When physical limitations stripped his ability to take notes, Ken built an unshakable memory that made him a formidable trial lawyer.

• Refuse plan B: Sometimes the only way to survive a devastating setback is to commit so fiercely to your new path that failure is simply not an option.

Connect with Ken Kunken

Website:https://kenkunken.com/

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenneth-j-kunken-

YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdUUa2hyQF8ubUmEARY9WKA

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=

Instagram:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenneth-j-kunken-b4b0a9a8/

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How do you find the audacity to trade 45 years of hard news for a blank page, only to realize your fictional characters are actually saving you from unimaginable real-life grief?

John DeDakis spent 45 years anchoring himself to cold, hard facts as a White House correspondent and CNN senior editor. But the relentless grind of the news cycle left him starving for a creative release. His pivot from journalism to fiction writing wasn't quick or easy. It took a decade of brutal rejections and complete rewrites before his first mystery novel hit the shelves. Behind the scenes, John was carrying the weight of unthinkable tragedies: the suicide of his sister and the fatal overdose of his youngest son.

Instead of burying his pain, John made the gritty, audacious choice to move directly toward it. He instinctively channeled his heartbreak into his writing, discovering that fiction could be a profound vehicle for processing raw trauma. In this episode, John strips back the polished anchor persona to talk about the messy reality of grief, why crying is the ultimate emotional safety valve for men, and the life-altering realization that stepping into the shoes of a fictional female protagonist was exactly what he needed to understand the sister he lost.

In this episode of Becoming With Precious, you will discover:

• Moving toward the pain, rather than suppressing it, is the most audacious and necessary step in processing profound loss.

• Rejection is just raw data. It took 10 years and direct critique from a local book club to transform a bloated manuscript into a published thriller.

• Crying is not a sign of weakness; it is a vital emotional safety valve that prevents trauma from festering internally.

• You cannot control the regrets of the past or the fears of the future, but grounding yourself entirely in the present moment strips anxiety of its power.

Connect with John DeDakis

Website:https://johndedakis.com/

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-dedakis

YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@JohnDeDakis

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/john.dedakis

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/dedakisjohn/

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Send a guest pitch to Precious via PodMatch: https://www.podmatch.com/member/becomingprecious

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to John DeDakis

03:01 The Transition from Journalism to Fiction

05:48 Resilience in the Face of Rejection

09:03 Writing as a Tool for Healing

11:57 Exploring Female Perspectives in Writing

14:45 Guiding Others Through Grief

18:11 Current Projects and Future Aspirations

What if the only thing standing between you and your true creative potential is a lie you accidentally believed when you were eleven years old?

Rick Sorenson thought his path was firmly planted in the fine arts, but a trip to Bhutan sparked an audacious pivot. With zero corporate experience, he risked everything to build an international business importing centuries-old handmade paper to the United States. He opens up about the gritty reality of navigating massive blind spots, from negotiating with foreign airlines to surviving catastrophic supply chain collapses caused by factory fires and political unrest.

Beyond the boardroom, Rick discovered an even greater battleground: the human imagination. He shares raw, shocking stories from his years teaching art to adults, revealing how deep-seated fear physically manifests when we try to create. If you have ever felt cut off from your own potential, Rick breaks down why society conditions us to quit, how to aggressively unlearn the lies of the quitting stage, and the raw courage required to finally tap back into your creative DNA.

In this episode of Becoming With Precious, you will discover:

• Society actively conditions us to abandon our creativity before middle school, dismissing it as a trait reserved only for special people.

• Fear will go to extreme lengths, even manifesting physically, to prevent you from stepping into your creative calling.

• You do not need formal training to execute a bold pivot; you only need the audacity to learn through failure.

• Creativity is not just a casual hobby; it is a fundamental piece of human identity that requires gritty persistence to unlock.

  Connect with Rick Sorenson

  Website:https://www.thelanyaplife.com/ricksorenson

  LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-sorenson

  Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/rick.sorenson.3

  Substack:https://ricksorenson.substack.com/publish/posts/published

  
  

  If this episode resonates with you; like, subscribe and share with someone. You can also leave a review and comment on the show.

  Want to be a guest on Becoming With Precious?

  Send a guest pitch to Precious via PodMatch: https://www.podmatch.com/member/becomingprecious