Most of us are really good at looking like we've got it together. Becca Eve Young decided to stop pretending.

She's a coach, author, and former corporate climber who did all the things — MBA, corner office, company going public — and watched it all collapse in the same year her dad died, stranded alone in rural Mexico during a global pandemic. What came out the other side was a book called It's Gonna Get Messy.

She helps people stop performing their lives and start actually living them.

We talk about the societal scripts we never agreed to, the inner knowing we keep ignoring, what it really costs to keep the mess hidden, and why the connections we're all looking for are on the other side of being honest about the hard stuff.

If you've ever had the nagging feeling that the life you've built doesn't quite fit, this one's going to hit.

Aaron Ryan didn't wait for someday. He left a steady career, burned the bridges behind him, and started building something entirely his own. Nearly 50 books later, he's watching the two creative industries he's devoted his life to — voiceover and fiction writing — get quietly dismantled by AI. And he's got thoughts about it.

Aaron is a prolific sci-fi author, voice actor, and dual storyteller whose catalog includes the Dissonance Saga, the Talisman series, Blood Echoes, and dozens more. He narrates his own audiobooks, designs his covers before he writes the stories, and has kept a daily journal for his sons since the oldest was two months old. In this conversation, we talk about AI and the creative economy, the moment he intentionally shot himself in the foot to escape a toxic community, how a quote from the worst Star Wars movie became the operating system for his entire creative life, and why a creative who stops creating doesn't just stall — they detonate.

This one is for anyone who has a story in them and keeps saying someday — and for every creative wondering whether there's still a point.

Show Notes with Chapters

00:00 –Creative industries are rapidly changing as AI begins replacing human-made work across multiple fields.

03:36 –AI voice tools are lowering opportunities and reshaping the future of professional voice acting.

07:35 – Perfect-looking content is making authentic human creativity feel more valuable than ever.

10:47 – AI-generated books are flooding online marketplaces and making discovery harder for real writers.

11:30 – Walking away from traditional work can open the door to a more meaningful creative life.

15:30 – Sometimes growth only happens after completely leaving behind what no longer serves you.

21:50 – The most meaningful legacy often comes from preserving memories and personal stories for family.

23:55 – Creativity can feel less like a hobby and more like something you are called to do.

31:02 – Finishing creative projects requires structure, discipline, and showing up every single day.

35:29 – Learning how to balance inspiration without losing focus is essential for long-term creative work.

40:17 – A single powerful idea or visual moment can become the foundation for an entire creative universe.

43:18 – The only way to become a writer is to stop waiting and start creating consistently.

44:41 – What you choose to focus on daily can completely shape the direction of your life.

54:27 – AI is beginning to impact far more industries than people initially expected.

57:22 – Creative success depends more on persistence than on praise, reviews, or outside approval.

Resources Mentioned:

Website: https://authoraaronryan.com/

Most of us spend our careers trying to become important. We perform, we climb, we accumulate — and somewhere along the way we confuse being needed with actually being useful. Chip Scholz has spent decades coaching leaders through exactly that confusion, and he'll tell you plainly: the freedom you're looking for is on the other side of not needing to matter quite so much.

Chip is a leadership coach, author of Every Dog Has Its Day, and president of the North Carolina Woodturners. He's coached hundreds of executives across industries, survived a stroke that redirected his life onto what he calls the second mountain, and found in a humble wood lathe a set of lessons that no boardroom had taught him. In this conversation, we dig into hubris and self-awareness, how the best leaders find touchstones, why delegation is almost universally broken, and how to tell the difference between building an asset and building a legacy.

This one is for anyone who's been chasing the next promotion without stopping to ask what they actually want — and for any leader who suspects their biggest blind spot might be hiding in plain sight.

Show Notes and Chapters

00:00 — Welcome, Guest Introduction & Show Overview

02:47 — "Every Dog Has Its Day" Philosophy Explained

05:09 — Surviving a Stroke, Living on Bonus Time

08:00 — The Water Cure Poem & Humility Lesson

11:44 — Woodturning, Leadership, and Life on the Lathe

18:13 — The Second Mountain: Meaning Over Success

25:48 — Black Swan Events & Building Self-Awareness

30:55 — Hubris: The #1 Leadership Blind Spot

38:13 — Phases of Leadership Growth Over Time

43:45 — How to Find the Right Business Coach

49:05 — Legacy vs. Asset: Succession in Family Business

57:00 — Self-Leadership, Clarity, and What You Want

Resources Mentioned:

Chip Scholz's website: http://scholzandassociates.com/

Chip's current book — available on Amazon, Audiobooks, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Walmart

What if the only way to save the planet was to kidnap the world's billionaires and dose them with psychedelics? That's not a joke — that's Diana Colleen's debut novel. But here's what makes it more than just a wild premise. Diana is a trained psychedelic facilitator. She's lived through the kind of trauma these medicines are designed to help heal. And she genuinely believes billionaireism is a pathology — not a success story. This conversation goes deep. Into the medicine, the inequality, and the hope she refuses to let go of.

After spending decades performing at the highest levels of classical music, Kate Kayaian did something almost unthinkable in her industry: she walked away.

In this episode of A Joyful Rebellion, Kate shares the deeply personal process of untangling herself from an identity she had carried since childhood and learning how to build a life that actually reflected who she was becoming — not just who people expected her to be.

We talk about creativity, career pivots, burnout, external validation, the trap of “potential,” and why so many high achievers secretly feel stuck inside lives that look successful from the outside. Kate also shares practical insights from her book Beyond Potential about reassessing old stories, redefining success, and taking action toward a more aligned future.

If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re allowed to want something different, this conversation will hit home.

Show Notes & Chapters

00:00 — When your success no longer feels like your life

01:08 — The rebellion of walking away from a dream career

03:18 — The podcast story that changed Kate’s trajectory

04:55 — Realizing the version of herself she wanted to become

07:15 — Choosing the cello because of a childhood crush

09:08 — Why classical musicians “aren’t supposed” to quit

10:26 — The sunk cost trap high achievers struggle with

11:32 — The relief Kate felt when concerts were canceled in 2020

14:13 — Helping creatives reinvent themselves during the pandemic

16:08 — Why so many people secretly want permission to pivot

17:34 — The stories that keep people trapped in old identities

20:42 — “Rocking chair tasks” and fake productivity

22:18 — Why more people are creative than they realize

26:32 — Expanding your identity beyond one label

30:04 — Why successful people struggle to leave successful careers

33:37 — Generational shifts in work, purpose, and reinvention

36:15 — Elite careers and the hidden cost of mastery

39:35 — The real meaning behind “Beyond Potential”

41:37 — Designing your own version of success

44:45 — When hobbies accidentally become businesses

48:19 — The awkwardness of introducing the “new” version of yourself

52:06 — Why friends sometimes resist your evolution

55:46 — Small action steps that help you reinvent your life

• Kate Kayaian Official Website

At 20 years old, Kenneth Kunken broke his neck during a college football game at Cornell University and was told he likely wouldn’t survive the week. Doctors warned his family that even if he lived, he’d spend the rest of his life in a nursing home with little hope for independence.

They were wrong.

In this episode of A Joyful Rebellion, Ken shares the long road from catastrophic spinal cord injury to earning multiple graduate degrees, becoming an assistant district attorney, raising triplets, and writing his memoir, I Dream of Things That Never Were.

This conversation dives into resilience, identity, disability, expectations, purpose, and the quiet danger of letting other people decide what your future should look like. It’s also a deeply human conversation about grief, adaptation, love, fatherhood, and why hope sometimes starts with simply refusing to quit.

Show Notes & Chapters 00:00 — The prosecutor nobody expected to see in court 02:21 — The football tackle that changed Ken’s life forever 05:48 — Doctors tell his family to “let him go” 07:17 — Reading the pamphlet that predicted a hopeless future 10:32 — Returning to Cornell less than a year after paralysis 13:05 — Rejection, job hunting, and mailing 200 resumes 14:06 — Discovering purpose through helping others with disabilities 18:16 — From introvert to public speaker and advocate 19:54 — Navigating inaccessible campuses before the ADA 24:36 — Why Ken decided to become a lawyer 26:08 — Becoming an assistant district attorney despite enormous barriers 30:10 — The danger of low expectations 33:16 — Why Ken refused sympathy from juries 35:02 — How to talk to people with disabilities without fear 37:10 — Choosing growth instead of despair after trauma 39:02 — “Dream of things that never were” 42:16 — Writing the book that his sons would one day read 44:40 — Marriage, IVF, and becoming the father of triplets 49:00 — Advice for someone newly facing spinal cord injury 53:33 — Retirement, public speaking, and continuing to inspire others 56:05 — The award named in Ken’s honor

• Ken Kunken Official Website

Most people think they need a new idea to make more money—but what if they’re just overlooking what’s already there?

Bart Merrell helps people create financial security by monetizing what they already know, already do, and often completely ignore.

From building a DJ business at 15 to working internationally and turning everyday skills into income streams, Bart’s built his life around one simple question: can this be monetized?

We talk about why money really means options, how to spot opportunities hiding in plain sight, and the mindset shift that turns side hustles into something much bigger.

If you’ve ever felt like you should be doing more—but don’t know where to start—this one will get your gears turning.