The Becoming Podcast

What if the season that broke your heart does not have to determine the direction of your life?

Dr. Oluwole Babatunde lost his mother at seven and his father at thirteen. Orphaned before his teenage years, he experienced grief and uncertainty at an age when most children are still trying to understand the world around them.

But those losses did not become the end of his story.

In this episode of The Becoming Podcast, Otiri Enathy sits down with Dr. Wole Babatunde — physician, psychiatrist, epidemiologist, author, and man of faith — to explore what it means to move forward when life does not go according to plan.

Drawing from his book, Adapt and Advance: A Faith-Based Step-by-Step Guide to Turning Trials into Triumphs, Wole shares the philosophy that has shaped his life: accept the reality of a difficult season without allowing that season to become your permanent destination.

Together, they explore:

• How losing both parents at a young age shaped Wole’s understanding of grief, faith, and purpose

• Why accepting what happened is different from settling for where you are

• How to move forward when you cannot see the entire path ahead

• Why mourning is a process that cannot simply be rushed

• How adversity can become a source of meaning without pretending the pain never happened

• What it means to move from surviving a difficult season to intentionally advancing beyond it

• How faith can provide direction when circumstances provide very little clarity

• Why reading, learning, and intentionally changing your perspective can reshape the way you see your life

• How to turn a broad sense of purpose into practical plans and daily action

• Why your next step does not have to be perfect — it simply has to be taken

Wole also reflects on the journey from Nigeria to the United States, pursuing a PhD in Epidemiology, building a career in medicine and psychiatry, conducting research, and continuing to serve others through faith and community.

What makes his story compelling is not simply what he achieved after adversity. It is the mindset that allowed him to keep moving when the outcome was still uncertain.

You do not have to understand the entire journey before you begin.

Sometimes, you adapt to where you are, identify what still matters, and take the next step.

Dr. Oluwole Babatunde is a physician, psychiatrist, epidemiologist, author, and servant-leader. His work sits at the intersection of medicine, mental health, faith, resilience, and purpose. He is the author of Adapt and Advance: A Faith-Based Step-by-Step Guide to Turning Trials into Triumphs.

If you are navigating grief, disappointment, uncertainty, burnout, or a season where you feel stuck, this conversation offers an honest and practical reminder:

Your current chapter may be difficult, but it does not have to become your whole story.

Connect with Dr. Oluwole Babatunde:

Book: Adapt and Advance on Amazon

Explore Dr. Babatunde’s work and resources through his website and social platforms.

What if the amount of money you earn and keep is influenced by beliefs you formed long before you understood money?

For more than 30 years, Pericles Rellas has helped people examine the beliefs, emotions, and patterns shaping their relationship with money. At the center of his work is what he calls the “financial thermostat” — an internal set point that can influence how much we believe we can earn, how much we allow ourselves to keep, and what we believe is possible for our lives.

In this episode of The Becoming Podcast, Otiri Enathy goes beyond the usual conversation about making more money to explore the deeper relationship between money, identity, childhood conditioning, self-worth, and personal growth.

Pericles explains how the messages we absorb about money from parents, family, and our environment can quietly become beliefs that shape our adult financial decisions.

In this conversation, you’ll discover:

• What the “financial thermostat” is and how it can influence your financial life

• Why earning more money and being able to keep more money are two different challenges

• How childhood messages about wealth can become unconscious financial beliefs

• Why some people repeatedly return to the same financial level even after earning more

• How your emotions and beliefs can affect the way you relate to money

• Why separating your self-worth from your bank balance matters

• What may be keeping you from believing a different financial future is possible

• How to recognize the money conversations you inherited from your parents

• Why simply wanting more money may not be enough to create lasting change

• Practical ways to begin identifying and changing old money patterns

Pericles also challenges a common assumption: that more money automatically produces happiness, security, or fulfillment. Instead, he argues that money can amplify what is already present in a person's life — making the relationship we have with ourselves just as important as the amount in our bank account.

This conversation is not simply about making more money.

It is about understanding the beliefs behind the money.

Because if you want a different financial future, you may first need to understand the internal setting you are operating from.

Pericles Rellas is a Money Mindset and Manifestation Expert who has spent more than three decades helping people develop healthier relationships with money, reset limiting financial beliefs, and pursue greater freedom and abundance.

Connect with Pericles Rellas:

Website: periclesrellas.com

His website also provides access to his free webinar on the Financial Thermostat and additional resources on money mindset and manifestation.

What happens when the life you built no longer feels like the life you are meant to live?

Ellen Edmondson spent years building a successful career in government before a series of life-changing experiences forced her to look inward. Leaving her career without another job lined up, becoming a mother, losing her own mother, and experiencing a profound spiritual awakening eventually led her to question what it really means to live authentically.

In this conversation with Otiri Enathy, Ellen shares how meditation and intentional self-reflection helped her reconnect with her inner guidance and recognize when external expectations were pulling her away from who she truly was.

You’ll discover:

• Why success on paper can still leave you feeling disconnected from yourself

• The simple five-minute practice Ellen uses to reconnect with her inner guidance

• Three questions to ask yourself when you feel uncertain about your next step

• How grief, motherhood, and major life transitions can reveal parts of ourselves we have ignored

• Why we can become so disconnected from our own desires while trying to meet other people’s expectations

• How to distinguish between fear, external pressure, and the quiet sense of what feels true

• The story behind the words her eight-year-old son told her: “I can’t be me until you are you”

• How raising a highly intuitive child transformed the way Ellen understood intuition, authenticity, and family

• Why you don't need to see the entire path before taking the next step

Ellen Edmondson is a multi-award-winning author, intuition mentor, spiritual guide, and founder of Highly Intuitive Kids. Her work centers on compassion, authenticity, spiritual growth, and helping people reconnect with their inner wisdom.

If you’re in a season of transition, questioning whether the life you’re living actually reflects who you are, or simply trying to hear your own voice beneath everyone else’s expectations, this conversation offers a different way forward: you may not need all the answers. You may simply need enough clarity to take the next honest step.

Explore Ellen’s work, her book A Place of Love & Light, and her resources for discovering your own inner guidance through the links provided with this episode.

What if the pain you inherited does not have to become the future your family inherits?

After childhood trauma, addiction, a life-changing cirrhosis diagnosis, and years of using alcohol to numb what he could not yet process, Curtis Larson reached a point where he had to make a choice: continue living the way he had been, or confront what was underneath it all.

In this episode of The Becoming Podcast, Otiri Enathy sits down with Curtis Larson for an honest conversation about trauma, addiction, sobriety, faith, marriage, fatherhood, and the difficult work of becoming different from what shaped you.

Curtis shares how losing his mother at six and experiencing devastating family trauma at eleven affected him long before he had the language to understand it. Alcohol eventually became a way of coping, even while he appeared successful and functional on the outside.

But getting sober did not solve everything.

Without alcohol to numb the pain, Curtis had to confront anger, buried emotions, destructive patterns, intimacy, trust, and the ways his unresolved past had affected the people closest to him.

In this conversation, Curtis and Otiri explore:

• What his cirrhosis diagnosis forced him to confront about his addiction

• Why sobriety was only the beginning of his transformation

• How childhood trauma can influence reactions, relationships, and patterns later in life

• The difference between understanding your past and using it as an excuse

• What it means to become a “chain breaker” for your children and future generations

• Why accountability became essential to rebuilding trust in himself and others

• How small commitments and consistent action helped him change

• Why Curtis encourages people to stop waiting for motivation and start keeping small promises to themselves

• The role of prayer, church, faith, and surrender in his recovery

• How becoming a grandfather changed the way he thought about legacy

• Why some of the most important changes begin with simply deciding to show up differently

• What it means to rebuild a life with purpose after years of destructive patterns

Curtis does not present himself as someone who has everything figured out. He speaks as a man who has had to confront difficult truths about his past, take responsibility for his choices, and keep doing the work of becoming different.

His story is ultimately about more than recovery.

It is about refusing to let what happened to you determine what happens through you.

Curtis Larson is a Christian, husband, father, grandfather, business owner, author, and sobriety advocate. His debut book, Something Only God Could Do, chronicles his journey through childhood trauma, alcohol addiction, recovery, faith, and redemption.

For anyone carrying inherited pain, struggling with addiction, rebuilding trust, questioning their faith, or wondering whether they can really change, this conversation offers an honest look at what transformation can require.

You may not be able to change what happened to you.

But you can choose what happens next.

Connect with Curtis Larson:

Website: curtisianlarson.com

Facebook: Curtis Larson on Facebook

Learn more about Curtis’s story, his book Something Only God Could Do, and his work around breaking chains and building purpose.

What if stewardship has far less to do with money than we’ve been taught?

Larry O’Nan discovered that question in the 1970s, when he was given an assignment he felt completely unqualified to handle. What began as a simple research task eventually shaped decades of ministry leadership, fundraising, mentoring, and teaching on what he calls “lifestyle stewardship.”

In this episode of The Becoming Podcast, Otiri Enathy sits down with Larry O’Nan to explore what it really means to steward what God has entrusted to you — not just your finances, but your time, talents, relationships, influence, opportunities, and resources.

Larry’s work with Christian ministries has contributed to fundraising efforts that generated more than $150 million for evangelism and development programs worldwide. But his deeper discovery was that biblical stewardship is not fundamentally about raising money. It is about learning to manage what belongs to God with purpose, responsibility, and generosity.

In this conversation, Larry and Otiri explore:

• Why stewardship is about managing what God has entrusted to you, not simply giving money

• How Larry’s unexpected assignment in 1972 changed the direction of his life

• The difference between treating people as donors and inviting them to become partners in a mission

• How giving can become joyful participation rather than obligation or pressure

• Why Larry believes prosperity-focused teaching can distort the purpose of biblical generosity

• What “give, and it will be given to you” means beyond the pursuit of financial gain

• How time, encouragement, skills, compassion, relationships, and presence can all become forms of generosity

• Why purpose can begin with a simple question: “How can I use what God has entrusted to me to help someone else?”

• How intentional stewardship can reshape the way we live, lead, serve, and give

• What Larry has learned about living intentionally after decades of ministry and consulting

Larry also shares the mindset that continues to guide him at 82: waking up intentionally and looking for opportunities to serve.

Whether you have significant resources or are simply trying to make it through the month, this conversation offers a different way to think about impact. You don't have to wait until you have more money, more influence, or more recognition to begin stewarding what is already in your hands.

Larry O’Nan is an author, mentor, speaker, and longtime advisor to Christian ministries and nonprofit organizations. He spent 18 years with Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ) before joining Management Development Associates, where he spent 30 years advising ministries on stewardship strategies, fund development, governance, and major-gifts campaigns.

He is the author of Giving Yourself Away and Intentional Living and Giving, a book exploring stewardship as a whole-life practice of purposeful and generous living.

If you've ever questioned your purpose, felt pressured by messages about giving, or wondered whether the ordinary things you have can really make a difference, this conversation invites you to look at your life differently.

Your purpose may not begin with getting more.

It may begin with stewarding what you already have.

Connect with Larry O’Nan:

Website: larryonan.com

Learn more about Intentional Living and Giving and Larry’s work through his website.

What if the stories you believe about yourself, relationships, love, and the world around you are also shaping your vulnerabilities?

On this episode of The Becoming Podcast, author and educator Ehren Elliott explores the hidden connection between vulnerability, fantasy, shame, and manipulation—and why vulnerability is not something that only happens to “naive” people.

Ehren shares the experiences that led her to examine her own vulnerability and eventually develop what she describes as a personal “vulnerability fingerprint”: information gaps, harmful beliefs, and fantasy-centered living.

Together, Otiri Enathy and Ehren explore:

• Why beliefs that feel completely normal can still make us vulnerable to manipulation

• How information gaps, harmful beliefs, and fantasy-centered thinking can interact in everyday life

• Why manipulation often works by connecting with something a person already wants to believe

• How fantasy can become a bridge between the stories we hope will come true and the narratives someone else uses to influence us

• Why idealization, false praise, and putting someone on a pedestal can create openings for control

• How shame can keep people trapped in harmful patterns long after the manipulation itself has ended

• Why self-awareness does not have to mean judging or blaming yourself

• What Ehren learned from discovering that some harmful beliefs she had absorbed were also normalized by people who had never experienced grooming

• Why becoming the author of your own story requires learning to question the stories you have inherited

• How we can examine our vulnerabilities without turning that examination into another reason to feel ashamed

Ehren also explains why she chose storytelling and allegory rather than writing a traditional account of her experiences. Through her work, including Questions from a Storyteller, she invites people to look at difficult ideas from a different angle—one that creates room for reflection without requiring them to relive trauma.

At the heart of this conversation is a challenging idea: the beliefs that influence us most may not always feel dangerous. They may feel familiar. They may feel normal. They may even feel like part of who we are.

But becoming more aware of those stories gives us something powerful—the ability to question them.

You may not be able to rewrite what happened in your past, but you can become more intentional about the stories you carry forward.

Connect with Ehren Elliott:

Website: Red Circle Project
YouTube: Ehren’s Journal
Substack: Ehren Elliott

What if the behavior you’re trying to change isn’t actually the real problem?

You can know what you need to do, set goals, make plans, and genuinely want to change—and still find yourself repeating the same patterns.

On this episode of The Becoming Podcast, clarity and mindset coach Shanttaya Havi explores what may be happening beneath the surface when we feel stuck, frustrated, disconnected, or unable to move forward.

Shanttaya shares the personal journey that shaped her work and explains why understanding the deeper “why” behind our behavior can be more important than simply forcing ourselves to behave differently.

Together, we explore:

• What loneliness, shame, unworthiness, and emotional exhaustion can look like beneath anger, procrastination, isolation, or perceived lack of discipline

• Why changing the visible behavior without addressing its root can leave the underlying pattern intact

• How to recognize when your life looks successful on paper but no longer feels aligned internally

• Why urgency, stress, and fear are poor foundations for creating lasting stability

• What happens when personal growth begins to change your relationships and the expectations others have of you

• What it really means to choose yourself without making growth about rejecting everyone around you

• How self-awareness can help you understand what your patterns are trying to communicate

• Why meaningful change can begin with one honest realization, one feeling, and one next step

Shanttaya also explains why intelligent, ambitious, and self-aware women can still feel stuck in particular areas of their lives. Sometimes the issue isn’t a lack of knowledge or motivation. You may be moving physically while part of you is still emotionally or mentally paused.

This conversation challenges the instinct to immediately fix, suppress, or judge what we see on the surface. Instead, it invites a deeper question:

What if the behavior you’re frustrated with is pointing to something you haven’t understood yet?

And when change feels overwhelming, Shanttaya offers a simple but powerful starting point: forgive yourself for what you didn’t know, what you couldn’t change before, and where you are now.

If you’ve ever wondered why you know what to do but still struggle to do it, this conversation will give you a different way to look at the problem—and a better place to begin.

Connect with Shanttaya Havi:
Instagram: @shanttaya_havi
TikTok: @shanttaya0
Website: Shanttaya Havi

Attention is not the same as success.

A business can generate $1.5 million in revenue, attract views and followers, and still leave its owner exhausted, underpaid, and trapped in the day-to-day. So what does it actually take to turn demand into profitable, sustainable growth?

In this episode of The Becoming Podcast, Otiri Enathy sits down with second-generation entrepreneur and business strategist Jamaul Ford, also known as Jamaul the Maven, to explore what separates attention from real business growth.

Jamaul has helped businesses grow from $10,000 per month to as much as $3 million per year. In this conversation, he breaks down why entrepreneurship is fundamentally about solving real problems, understanding people, learning how to sell, and building systems that allow a business to grow without the founder becoming its biggest bottleneck.

You'll discover:

• Why sales is one of the most important business skills entrepreneurs can develop

• How empathy and genuine customer connection can become a competitive advantage

• The three major problems people consistently pay to solve: health, wealth, and relationships

• The five things businesses can sell beyond their actual products: access, convenience, security, validation, and opportunity

• Why shares can reveal more about your marketing than likes and views

• How to identify the exact point where prospects abandon your sales process

• Why growing businesses often turn their founders into constant “firefighters”

• How repeatable systems can eliminate operational bottlenecks

• The three roles every founder eventually has to navigate: technician, operator, and salesperson

• Why talking to 100 potential customers can be one of the most valuable ways to test a business idea

• What losing $1.5 million contracts taught Jamaul about setbacks, resilience, and business growth

Jamaul also opens up about the personal cost of entrepreneurship, including lost time with family, limited mental space, and the pressure that comes with carrying responsibility for a growing business.

Rather than presenting entrepreneurship as a straight path to success, Jamaul shares the lessons that came from experimentation, failure, customer conversations, and learning how to build something that can operate beyond the founder.

For aspiring entrepreneurs, growing business owners, and anyone trying to turn an idea into something people will actually pay for, this conversation offers a practical framework:

Find a real problem. Talk to the people experiencing it. Build a solution they value. Learn how to sell it. Then build the systems that allow it to grow.

Connect with Jamaul Ford:

Website: https://brandmaven.org/
Personal Website: https://www.jamaulford.com/
3K Sprint Challenge: Available through Jamaul's website

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JamaulMichealFord/
X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/JamaultheMaven
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamaulthemaven/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamaul-ford-3bb430194/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jamaulford

Connect with Jamaul to learn more about his work, entrepreneurship resources, customer acquisition strategies, and the 3K Sprint Challenge.

A profitable business can still run out of cash, miss payroll, and fail.

In this episode of The Becoming Podcast, Otiri Enathy sits down with David Safeer, cash-flow authority, business advisor, and architect of Cash-First Operating Systems, to unpack one of the most misunderstood problems in business: the difference between being profitable and actually having cash available to spend.

With more than 35 years of experience across 40+ countries, including leadership experience with Kodak and Dell, David has repeatedly seen businesses generate revenue and report profits while quietly running out of money.

David explains why traditional financial statements can tell you what already happened while your biggest cash problems are often sitting in the future.

You'll discover:

• Why profitable businesses can still run out of cash

• The difference between a sales forecast and a cash-flow forecast

• How unpaid invoices, inventory, payment terms, and customer behavior affect cash

• Why your biggest customer may not always be your most valuable customer

• How paying certain bills early can actually improve your financial position

• Why business owners should use a 13-week cash-flow forecast

• How to identify cash shortages before they become emergencies

• Why revenue growth can sometimes create greater financial pressure

• How to replace emotional reactions with clear financial analysis

• What business owners can do when they know they may not have enough cash to meet upcoming obligations

David also challenges several common assumptions about cash management, including the idea that businesses should always hold their cash as long as possible and that every customer is worth keeping.

He shares practical examples that show why margins, payment timing, customer credit, and cash position all matter when making business decisions.

Whether you're running a small business, building a growing company, or simply trying to understand the financial side of entrepreneurship, this conversation will help you look beyond revenue and profit and start paying closer attention to the money your business can actually use.

Connect with David Safeer:

Website: https://cashisclear.com/
Cash Flow Maximizer: https://max240.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CashIsClearLS
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsafeer
Substack: https://substack.com/@davidsafeer

Learn more about David's Cash-First Operating Systems, access his cash-flow diagnostic tools, and explore his resources for business owners and financial professionals.

What if the life you worked so hard to build was never truly yours?

After more than 25 years of corporate success, Mike Enos realized he was following a script that promised happiness at the finish line. He had earned the degrees, climbed the corporate ladder, become a partner, advised senior executives and boards, and built the career he thought he wanted. Yet eventually, one question became impossible to ignore: “Is this it?”

Mike eventually walked away from the career he had spent decades building. But clarity did not come immediately. Instead, he discovered that sometimes you have to start moving before you know exactly where you're going.

In this episode of The Becoming Podcast, Mike shares the wake-up call that forced him to question his definition of success, including the sudden death of a mentor who died during a client call while doing work he did not love. He opens up about sacrificing weekends, vacations, friendships, and his wellbeing in pursuit of achievement—and what happened when he finally reached the goals he thought would make him happy.

You'll discover:

• Why clarity often comes after action rather than before it

• How to recognize when you're living someone else's definition of success

• The three ingredients of lasting happiness: satisfaction, enjoyment, and meaning

• Why small experiments can be more powerful than dramatic life changes

• How expanding your circle can expose you to possibilities you never considered

• What completing an Ironman at 55 taught Mike about growth and identity

• What climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with his son taught him about pursuing meaningful challenges

• How failing to complete a 100-mile ultramarathon revealed an unexpected lesson about achievement

• What Mike means by finding your “next mountain”

• How the aspirational obituary exercise can help you think about the life you want to leave behind

Mike Enos is the author of Explore Again: Break Free from the Script. After a career as a corporate executive, advisor, Chief People Officer, and Chief Operating Officer, he now works as an executive coach, entrepreneur, and guide for successful people who feel stuck on autopilot and want to discover what comes next.

Whether you feel successful on paper but restless underneath, you're considering a major transition, or you simply sense that your current script no longer fits, this conversation offers a grounded perspective on what it means to explore again.

You don't need to have the entire path figured out.

You may only need enough courage to take the next step.

Connect with Mike Enos:

Website: https://mike-enos.com/
Explore Again: https://exploreagain.com/
Instagram: @mike_enos_coaching
LinkedIn: Mike Enos Coaching

Learn more about Mike's work, his upcoming book Explore Again: Break Free from the Script, coaching, and his approach to helping successful people find their next mountain.

Connect with Mike:
Instagram: @mike_enos_coaching
LinkedIn: Mike Enos Coaching
Website: mike-enos.com