Mindset
What Nearly 500 Podcast Conversations Taught Me About Becoming
“You are never too old to reinvent yourself.”
– Steve Harvey
This April, I will begin my ninth year in podcasting. Sometime in 2026, I will pass the milestone of 500 episodes, a number I never could have imagined when I began on April 3, 2018.
Over the course of those eight years, I’ve learned a lot. Not only about my guests, but about the journey most of us take in becoming who we are.
Each conversation is about sixty minutes long, and that alone is something of a rarity today. To spend a full hour talking with someone about their life journey is an exceptional honor and privilege. Humanity is busier than ever, so I feel truly fortunate to be able to call upon some of the best at what they do and ask them to give me that time.
One of the first things that struck me over the years is that most people don’t begin their lives with a clear plan. They don’t always know where they are going. More often than not, they discover themselves through circumstance and opportunity.
When I first started the podcast, I assumed it might be the opposite. I was speaking with people who had accomplished extraordinary things in their professions. I imagined that many of them must have known early on what they wanted to become and how they would get there.
But that turned out not to be the case.
Yes, there are some people who knew from a very young age that they wanted to become a certain type of professional or athlete. But even those individuals often had to change course along the way. Injuries happen. Opportunities shift. New passions emerge. Very few people identify their path early, pursue it exactly as planned, and love every minute of it.
That kind of clarity is rare.
What I discovered instead is that most people move forward by responding to the circumstances in front of them. They may plan, but there is rarely a detailed map. There is no absolute direction from the beginning. Life unfolds through a series of turns, some expected and many not.
People simply respond to what appears in front of them, allowing a mix of faith and fate to guide them toward the next opportunity.
As well, though they might not have said it, most have reinvented themselves multiple times. It’s just a matter of fact truth that you are on an iterative journey that will take you to places you never thought possible, or probable.
Realizing this actually helped me make sense of my own life.
Years ago, I concluded that if someone had “beamed me up,” Scotty style, and shown me the future, I would never have believed the story of my own life. I could never have imagined doing many of the things I’ve done or being in many of the places I’ve been.
I never would have imagined myself married three times. I never would have imagined becoming a father at forty-five. I certainly never would have imagined standing beside the boards in a Montreal Canadiens polo shirt, waiting for the puck drop before another NHL game.
At the time, those moments would have seemed completely inconceivable.
Another realization that has come from these conversations is that most people rarely look back and reflect on how they arrived where they are today. In fact, it is one of the comments I hear most often when a podcast ends.
Guests will tell me how much they enjoyed the experience of revisiting their journey. Many say it is the first time they have truly reflected on the path that brought them to this point in their lives. They thank me for helping them explore their story.
And almost every time, I sense the same quiet realization: life is less about arriving somewhere and more about becoming someone.
No one goes through that evolution alone.
Every person is shaped by others along the way. We are influenced, mentored, encouraged, challenged, and sometimes even blocked by the people and circumstances that cross our paths. There is no straight road, and there is certainly no seat in first class that takes you there entirely on your own.
Everyone carries stories of the people who lifted them, just as most of us have tried to lift others along the way.
Life is not a solo enterprise.
Perhaps the most important realization, though, is what people ultimately want from the journey. When you listen carefully to enough life stories, a common thread begins to emerge.
At the end of it all, most people simply want to be remembered as a good human being. Someone who loved their family, valued their friends, and tried to do right by the people around them.
Not everyone says those exact words. But the sentiment is almost always the same.
Very few people talk about wanting to be remembered for their titles, their awards, or the size of their bank account.
What they care about most is how they showed up in the lives of the people who mattered to them.
The funny thing about this journey of podcasting is that it has made something very clear to me.
Despite our different careers, accomplishments, and paths, we are far more alike than we often believe.
We are all navigating uncertainty. We are all responding to circumstances we never fully planned. And we are all, in our own way, trying to become someone we can be proud of when we look back.
Maybe that is what life really is.
Not a straight line toward some final destination.
But a long process of becoming.
And if we are fortunate, we get to travel that road alongside others who help shape who we become along the way.
How will you leave your mark?
