The Becoming Podcast

What happens when the identity you’ve built your life around no longer fits the future you want? For Josh Washington, known as Juice Josh, a family crisis brought his professional dance career to a turning point and forced him to rethink what success, identity, and financial freedom really meant.

After spending about a decade as a professional dancer, including performing with the Jabbawockeez, Josh transitioned into sales, marketing, entrepreneurship, and coaching. On this episode of The Becoming Podcast, host Otiri Enathy speaks with Josh about the difficult process of starting over, becoming a beginner again, and deliberately building a new version of yourself.

Josh shares why your past achievements can become evidence that you’re capable of succeeding in a completely different field. He also explains how to stop waiting until you feel ready and start acting in alignment with the person you want to become.

In this conversation, you'll discover how to:

• Use your future self as a guide for your daily habits, decisions, and priorities.

• Turn vague ambitions into a clear, written vision and an actionable plan.

• Break big goals into manageable time-bound steps using practical planning frameworks.

• Build confidence by learning from past successes, seeking mentors, and taking imperfect action.

• Recognize how your beliefs about yourself can influence the level of success you pursue and sustain.

• Navigate major life transitions without allowing your former identity to limit your next chapter.

Josh also reflects on the question that helped him pursue his dance dream and shares the advice from his father that continues to guide him when he faces uncertainty: take a chance on yourself and swing.

His story is a reminder that you don't have to abandon your past to build a different future. The skills, discipline, and resilience you've developed can become the foundation for your next chapter.

If you're considering a career change, rebuilding after a setback, or struggling to turn your ambitions into action, this conversation will challenge you to stop waiting for the perfect moment and start becoming the person your future requires.

Connect with Josh Washington on LinkedIn to learn more about his work in entrepreneurship, capital raising, and personal development.

Listen, reflect, and take one meaningful step toward the person you're becoming.

What does it really mean to have a genuine relationship with God beyond religious routines and spiritual activities?

On this episode of The Becoming Podcast, host Otiri Enathy sits down with award-winning Christian author Marcia McFarland, author of Perfect Glory: 21 Spiritual Insights for the 21st Century, for an honest conversation about spiritual growth, discovering purpose, and experiencing God's presence in everyday life.

Drawing from her personal encounters with the Divine, including a profound experience in the Appalachian Mountains, Marcia shares how her understanding of God has shaped her faith and her approach to living a meaningful Christian life. She challenges us to look beyond religious routines and consider whether our faith is genuinely transforming our character, relationships, and daily decisions.

Together, we explore what it means to experience God's perfect glory, how to recognize His presence in ordinary moments, and why developing a deeper relationship with Jesus requires more than simply going through the motions. Marcia also shares practical insights on discovering purpose through loving God and others, discerning spiritual impressions, and recognizing the unexpected moments she calls “Godwinks.”

Whether you're feeling spiritually stuck, searching for direction, or longing for a more meaningful walk with God, this conversation offers encouragement and practical wisdom for your journey.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• How to move beyond religious routine into a genuine relationship with God.

• What experiencing God's presence can look like in everyday life.

• How faith can shape your character, relationships, and decisions.

• Practical ways to approach purpose, passion, and personal growth.

• Why discernment and confirmation matter when navigating spiritual impressions.

• How to recognize meaningful reminders of God's presence in unexpected moments.

The invitation is simple: don't settle for going through the motions. Pursue a deeper relationship with Jesus and allow your faith to shape the person you are becoming.

Connect with Marcia McFarland:
Website: https://authormarciamcfarland.com

Explore her book, Perfect Glory: 21 Spiritual Insights for the 21st Century, available through her website and Amazon.

If this conversation speaks to you, share it with someone who desires a deeper walk with God, and follow The Becoming Podcast for more honest conversations about growth, purpose, faith, and the experiences that shape who we become.

What if the person you've been trying so hard to improve isn't broken in the first place?

Sometimes, the beliefs that shape how we see ourselves aren't truths about who we are. They're patterns we've learned through criticism, past experiences, social conditioning, and years of trying to meet expectations. But what if those patterns can be unlearned?

In this episode of The Becoming Podcast, host Otiri Enathy sits down with Arnold Beekes, creator of Brain Fitness and Brain Athletes, to explore a different approach to personal growth—one that begins not with the assumption that something is wrong with us, but with the possibility of rediscovering our wholeness.

After a traumatic brain injury in 2021, Arnold's journey through recovery reshaped his understanding of the brain, human potential, and what it means to become whole. Today, he challenges the endless pursuit of self-improvement and invites people to explore how brain training, neuroplasticity, and nervous system regulation can help them develop new patterns of thinking and living.

In this conversation, we explore:

• Why so many people grow up believing they are not good enough—and how that belief can become a deeply ingrained pattern.

• The difference between trying to fix yourself and learning to live from a place of wholeness.

• How the brain can develop new patterns and responses through intentional practice.

• Why regulating your nervous system matters for calm, resilience, and meaningful relationships.

• What Arnold means by “tranquilo” and how a calmer, less hurried way of being can change your daily experience.

• How constant distractions, including our phones, can keep us from being present with ourselves and others.

• Practical ways to begin challenging self-criticism and relating to yourself with greater understanding.

This conversation invites you to reconsider what personal growth really means. You don't have to spend your life proving your worth or treating yourself as a problem that needs to be solved. Growth can also mean unlearning what no longer serves you, becoming more aware of your patterns, and learning to live with greater peace, intention, and connection.

If you've ever felt that you're falling short, struggled with the pressure to keep improving, or wondered why the same patterns keep showing up in your life, this episode offers a fresh perspective worth exploring.

Connect with Arnold Beekes:
Website: https://www.brainathletes.club/

Listen to The Becoming Podcast for honest conversations about growth, purpose, faith, and the experiences that shape who we become.

The conveniences we enjoy every day—from air conditioning and frozen food to instant communication—began with someone solving a problem. But what can the stories behind these inventions teach us about creating something valuable today?

Vince Coyner, founder of Gratitude for America and creator of 250 for 250, explores how entrepreneurs and innovators have shaped the modern world—and why understanding their stories can help us recognize opportunities to create change in our own lives.

In this conversation with host Otiri Enathy, Vince connects the history of innovation to a practical lesson for aspiring entrepreneurs: you don't need a grand plan or vast resources to begin. You can start by identifying a problem you understand and finding a better way to solve it.

Through the stories of Willis Carrier, whose work addressing a printing problem helped lead to modern air conditioning, and Clarence Birdseye, whose experiences in Alaska influenced his development of frozen-food technology, Vince shows how curiosity, experimentation, and persistence can turn everyday challenges into innovations that change lives.

You'll discover:

• Why some of the world's most useful inventions began with ordinary problems.

• How to identify opportunities for innovation in situations you already understand.

• Why testing ideas, learning from failure, and adapting to feedback matter more than having a perfect plan.

• How freedom, private property, competition, access to capital, and other conditions can help entrepreneurship and innovation flourish.

• Why gratitude for previous generations' achievements can inspire us to build something meaningful for the next generation.

• How to take a practical first step toward developing an idea, finding potential customers, and creating value.

Vince's 250 for 250 project celebrates 250 entrepreneurs and innovators in honor of America's 250th year. Beyond telling their stories, the project examines the conditions that helped their ideas flourish and the role those innovations played in shaping modern prosperity.

This conversation also challenges us to look differently at the things we often take for granted. The world we live in was shaped by people who noticed problems, took risks, and tried something new. Recognizing that history can deepen our gratitude for what we have while encouraging us to contribute something of our own.

If you have an idea but aren't sure where to start, this episode offers a grounded reminder: you don't have to change the whole world at once. Start with a problem worth solving, use what you have, and take the next step.

Connect with Vince Coyner:

Website: https://gratitudeforamerica.com/donate/

Support Gratitude for America’s 250 for 250 project. Donations help fund the research, fact-checking, writing, and design behind stories of the entrepreneurs and innovators who helped shape our world.

Listen to The Becoming Podcast for an honest conversation about entrepreneurship, gratitude, innovation, and how solving the right problem can become the beginning of meaningful change.

You can lead a business, provide for your family, and still feel your health slipping. For many men over 40, professional success can come at the expense of their energy, fitness, and long-term well-being. But the solution isn't necessarily more discipline. It's building habits that fit real life.

Men’s health coach Brian Parana has spent more than 23 years helping people get stronger and healthier, including busy executives, entrepreneurs, and fathers. In this conversation with host Otiri Enathy, Brian explains why capable, driven men often struggle to stay consistent with their health and how to make meaningful changes without turning fitness into another full-time job.

You'll discover Brian's Core Four: movement, nutrition, hydration, and sleep—and how to start with one manageable step instead of attempting a complete lifestyle overhaul. He also explains why lasting progress is a behavior-change challenge, not simply a test of willpower, and how getting one percent better at a time can help healthy habits stick.

Brian also shares his Legacy Ladder, connecting everyday health choices to how men lead themselves, show up for their families and teams, and shape the legacy they leave behind.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

• Why successful men over 40 can struggle with weight gain, low energy, and declining health despite knowing what to do.

• How to build sustainable health habits without relying on motivation alone.

• Why movement, nutrition, hydration, and sleep form a practical foundation for better health.

• How small, consistent improvements can outperform extreme plans that are difficult to maintain.

• Why taking care of your health can help you become a more present father, husband, and leader.

Brian's message is simple: you don't have to change everything on Monday. You need a realistic system you can follow when work gets demanding, family responsibilities increase, or life disrupts your routine.

If you're successful on paper but no longer feel like yourself, this conversation offers a practical starting point for rebuilding your energy, improving your habits, and becoming healthier without sacrificing the life you're working so hard to build.

Connect with Brian Parana:

Website and coaching program: https://thecalltorise.com/

Explore The Call To Rise, Brian's 100-day coaching program designed to help busy men over 40 build sustainable fitness and nutrition habits, improve their energy, and work toward better health markers alongside their healthcare professionals.

Listen to The Becoming Podcast for an honest conversation about health, discipline, leadership, and the small decisions that shape who we become.

What happens when the life you worked hard to build falls apart—and the next chapter begins in a place you never imagined you would be?

After relocating to Miami, Xenia Ioannidis spent four and a half months in a homeless shelter. Despite years of professional success, creative work, and helping others through her healing practice, she found herself facing joblessness, uncertainty, and the challenge of starting over.

But in that difficult season, a question began to change her direction: What could she do with what she had learned to help someone else?

That question became Crowned in Faith, a children’s faith series inspired by her journey and her renewed sense of purpose. Combining storybooks, coloring questbooks, and original songs, the series helps children ages 4–10 explore faith and spiritual principles in ways they can experience through reading, creativity, and music.

In this conversation, host Otiri Enathy explores with Xenia how a season of profound uncertainty led to an unexpected creative calling, why serving others can change our perspective when life feels overwhelming, and what it means to rediscover your identity when the things you once relied on are gone.

You’ll discover:

• How to keep moving when your plans collapse and the future feels uncertain.

• Why asking how your experience could help someone else may open a new path forward.

• How faith and surrender shaped Xenia’s journey through homelessness and reinvention.

• Why stories, coloring activities, and songs can help children engage with faith in practical, memorable ways.

• What continual reinvention can teach us about purpose, identity, and starting again.

• Why reaching out, accepting help, and refusing to isolate yourself matter during difficult seasons.

Xenia is an author, coach, teacher, and songwriter whose career spans creative direction, healing, education, and personal development. She founded HyperTherapy® Center, where she has helped more than 2,000 people over two decades, and has spent more than 26 years working in creative direction through XenWorks Studio.

Her story is a reminder that a difficult season does not have to be the end of your story. Sometimes, the next chapter begins with a small act of service, a willingness to ask for help, and the courage to take one step before you can see the whole path.

If you’re facing disappointment, joblessness, or a season that has left you questioning your direction, this conversation invites you to consider what might still be possible—and how what you’ve lived through could one day become a source of hope for someone else.

Connect with Xenia Ioannidis:

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/xenia2025

Explore Crowned in Faith through Xenia’s published books, and search for the series on YouTube and music platforms.

Listen to The Becoming Podcast for an honest conversation about faith, resilience, finding purpose in unexpected places, and becoming who you are called to be—even when life takes a direction you never planned.

You can spend years being everything everyone else needs and slowly lose touch with the person you are beneath it all.

Executive coach and author Theresa Gale calls this self-forgetting: the gradual process of adapting, keeping the peace, and meeting expectations until you become disconnected from your own needs, feelings, and desires.

Theresa knows this pattern personally. Growing up as the fourth of six children, she was sent away at three and a half when her mother experienced a breakdown. Although she doesn't remember how long she was gone, she remembers what she learned afterward: how to make herself invisible, smooth things over, and make sure everyone around her was okay.

That pattern followed her into adulthood, shaping her relationships, work, and identity. Even while building a consulting and coaching business and raising a family, she found herself confronting a deeper question: What happens when you spend so much of your life adapting to others that you lose touch with yourself?

In this conversation, host Otiri Enathy explores with Theresa why recognizing our patterns doesn't automatically change them, what it means to move from self-forgetting to self-remembering, and how inner work can transform the way we live, relate, and lead.

You'll discover:

• How people-pleasing and the need to keep everyone happy can gradually disconnect you from yourself.

• Why self-awareness is an important beginning, but not the whole process of lasting change.

• How to recognize the difference between living on autopilot and being genuinely present in your own life.

• Why love and self-compassion must become lived practices rather than ideas we simply understand.

• How greater self-awareness can help leaders recognize their impact and create healthier relationships and workplaces.

• Two practical ways to reconnect with yourself: Theresa's “in and down” grounding practice and a check-in with your head, heart, and body.

With more than 30 years of experience working with leaders, teams, and individuals, Theresa brings together executive coaching, Enneagram insights, and contemplative practice to help people build a more grounded relationship with themselves.

She is the author of The Inner Work of Love and Action: An Embodied Enneagram Path from Self-Forgetting to Self-Remembering, a book that offers a path toward living with greater presence, authenticity, and connection.

If you've spent years being strong for everyone else, keeping the peace, or doing what is expected while something within you feels increasingly distant, this conversation offers an invitation to pause, listen inward, and begin finding your way back.

Connect with Theresa Gale:
Website: https://www.innerworkofloveandaction.com

Visit Theresa's website to explore her book, access the companion guide, and learn more about her work.

Listen to The Becoming Podcast for an honest conversation about self-awareness, inner transformation, and learning to show up more fully in your own life and in the lives of others.

What do you do when life gets harder even though you trust God? Does suffering mean He has abandoned you, or could He still be working in ways you cannot yet understand?

For pastor and Bible teacher Gerald Robison, known affectionately as Dr. G, surviving tongue cancer and enduring repeated surgeries and radiation profoundly shaped how he understands suffering, joy, and the purpose of the Christian life.

Having pastored churches across three continents, trained Bible teachers in more than 25 countries, and authored approximately 20 books, Gerald brings biblical insight, personal experience, and humor to some of the hardest questions of faith.

In this conversation, host Otiri Enathy explores with Gerald what it means to trust God when circumstances don't improve as expected. Gerald challenges the idea that joy comes from avoiding hardship and offers a deeper understanding of the Christian life: we are more than saved for more than heaven.

You'll discover:

• Why difficult seasons don't necessarily mean God has abandoned you.

• The difference between biblical joy and simply feeling happy when life goes well.

• How suffering can challenge our understanding of God's purposes without having to destroy our faith.

• Why asking God “Why?” can sometimes reveal deeper struggles with control, expectations, and trust.

• What it means to be “more than saved for more than heaven” and how that changes the way we approach everyday life.

• How God can use difficult experiences to confront our character and shape us to become more like Christ.

Gerald also draws a striking comparison between a surgeon removing cancer and God's work in addressing the parts of our character that hinder our growth. It is a challenging perspective on spiritual transformation, one that invites us to consider whether we want only relief from our difficulties or are also willing to grow through them.

If you've ever prayed for a difficult season to end, wondered where God was in your pain, or struggled to reconcile your faith with your circumstances, this conversation offers a thoughtful perspective on trusting God without pretending that suffering is easy.

Connect with Gerald Robison:
Website: https://geraldrobison.com

Visit Gerald's website to explore his books, teachings, and resources for understanding God's Word, will, and ways.

Listen to The Becoming Podcast for an honest conversation about faith under pressure, the pursuit of lasting joy, and becoming more like Christ—even when life doesn't unfold as we hoped.

What happens when the voice you spent years hiding becomes the voice that helps others feel less alone?

Noah May, journalist and host of three podcasts, joins Otiri Enathy on The Becoming Podcast to share his journey through depression, anxiety, isolation, and the courage to speak openly about mental health.

Noah’s struggles began at 13. Battling depression and anxiety while feeling rejected by his peers, he often questioned his worth and struggled to believe he was good enough. He also faced a difficult period during COVID when, following a misdiagnosis, he spent six months without his senses of taste and smell. Through these experiences, Noah came to understand how deeply personal struggles can affect our identity, relationships, and sense of possibility.

But his story didn’t end with what he endured. After graduating from Auburn University with a degree in journalism, Noah began using his voice to create space for honesty and connection. Today, he hosts three podcasts: Lethal Venom, where he and his guests speak candidly about different topics; Southern Reads, focused on books; and Music Talks, dedicated to music.

In this conversation, Noah opens up about what it means to keep fighting when life feels overwhelming, why he refuses to let his past silence him, and how sharing his experiences can encourage others facing similar struggles.

You’ll discover:

• How depression, anxiety, and isolation can shape the way we see ourselves.

• Why speaking openly about mental health matters, especially when stigma makes honesty difficult.

• How painful experiences can influence your future without defining your entire identity.

• What finding your voice can look like after years of feeling misunderstood or overlooked.

• Why strength isn't always about pushing through alone—and why seeking connection matters.

• How to turn personal experiences into meaningful work that helps others feel seen and heard.

Noah lives by the motto “Once a fighter, always a fighter.” But this conversation reminds us that fighting doesn't mean pretending everything is fine. Sometimes, courage means telling the truth, reaching out, and continuing to believe that your story still has room to change.

If you’ve ever struggled silently, questioned your worth, or felt as though no one understood what you were going through, Noah’s journey offers a reminder: you are not alone, your struggles do not define your worth, and your voice still matters.

Connect with Noah May:
Website: https://www.noahspodcasts.com

Visit Noah’s website to explore his podcasts, read his blog, and learn more about his work.

Listen to The Becoming Podcast for an honest conversation about mental health, resilience, finding your voice, and becoming someone who can use even difficult experiences to create connection and understanding.

Being excellent at what you do doesn’t automatically make you visible, trusted, or chosen.

Carol Kaemmerer learned this firsthand after more than two decades of Fortune 500 consulting. When a 20-year professional relationship suddenly ended, she discovered that experience and expertise alone weren’t enough to create the next opportunity. The right people also needed to know who she was, what she stood for, and why they should choose her.

That experience led Carol into executive branding and influence, where she now helps accomplished leaders become seen, trusted, and chosen.

In this conversation, we explore what happens between being qualified and becoming the obvious choice. Carol shares practical lessons on LinkedIn, professional visibility, executive presence, credibility, and building relationships before you need them.

You’ll discover how to:

• Make your LinkedIn profile communicate your value clearly and help the right people find you.

• Build professional visibility without feeling like you’re bragging or performing.

• Use thoughtful engagement and content to become known for your expertise.

• Recognize the subtle signals your profile, photo, banner, and outdated information may be sending.

• Build trust through consistency and congruence between what you say, what you’ve accomplished, and how you show up.

• Understand why networking should begin long before you need a new opportunity.

• Move from simply being qualified to becoming the person decision-makers remember and choose.

Carol also shares an important career lesson: your professional identity is bigger than the job you currently hold. When circumstances change, the value you’ve built through your experience, expertise, relationships, and reputation can become the foundation for what comes next.

Carol Kaemmerer is an executive branding and influence strategist, keynote speaker, and award-winning author of LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive. Her work helps senior-level leaders build the visibility, authority, and influence that create new opportunities.

Connect with Carol:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/carolkaemmerer

Listen to this episode for a practical conversation about visibility, career resilience, professional identity, and making the value you already bring easier for the right people to see.