Speakers

2020 Speakers (Additional speakers to be added)

At Becoming, we are privileged to have so many women share their heart, expertise and skills on a variety of topics.

Founder and Host:

For the last decade, Jen Schmidt has been encouraging, challenging, and cheering on women to embrace both the beauty and bedlam of their everyday lives on her popular lifestyle blog, Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.

With a variety of topics from easy dinner ideas and personal finance to leaving a Kingdom focused legacy, Jen equips others to live life to its fullest, reminding them it’s the little things that really are the big things in life.

A popular speaker, bible teacher and founder/host of the annual Becoming Conference, Jen shares with humor and authenticity as she invites others to join her on this bumpy, beautiful life journey. Her practical lifestyle ideas encourage others to save money where they can, so they can spend, share, and give, on what’s important.

Jen loves time with her family, but she regularly dreams about a clean house, meal planning,  DIYing, thrift store hunting, or the next guests who might pop in for a visit. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, five children (when they’re home), a few too many animals and an available sofa for anyone who needs it.

Read about her heartbeat for everyday hospitality in her book, Just Open the Door: How One Invitation Can Change a Generation., as well as Open Door Living: Easy Ways to Share the Gift of Hospitality. 

Kelly Swanson is an award-winning storyteller, comedian, motivational speaker, Huffington Post Contributor, and cast member of The Fashion Herotelevision show airing on Amazon Prime. She is also author of Who Hijacked My Fairy Tale, The Land of If Only, The Story Formula, and The Gutsy Girls Pocket Guide to Public Speaking. She was a featured entertainer for Holland America Cruise Lines, keynote speaker for the International Toastmasters Convention, and has keynoted major conferences and corporate events from coast to coast.

Kelly’s wacky wit and powerful stories have charmed hearts and tickled funny bones for over 15 years. In addition to her role as a funny motivational speaker, Kelly teaches people how she does it by sharing what she has learned about connecting and engaging to have more influence in business, through the use of one tool – strategic storytelling. Sharing her own powerful journey through story and the formula she discovered, you come to that magical place where the art of story meets the business of persuasion. For more about Kelly go to www.MotivationalSpeakerKellySwanson.com

Tasha, founder of the incredibly popular home blog, Kaleidoscope Living  and Designer in a Binder, is on mission to help you create a home you love, no matter your budget. She firmly believe that if you don’t love your home, you aren’t living your best life.

After 13 years as a civil trial lawyer, Tasha gave up her partnership to become a professional Blogger, Interior Designer and DIY House addict. Featured in and on the Rachel Ray Show, Today, HGTV, Good Housekeeping, Real Simple and more, Tasha shows that busy working parents with no special trianing, but just a lot of passion can create the home you’ve always dreamed of. Through creative DIY projects and hunting down affordable home decor, she has been able to design homes and in turn, encourages others to do the same.

Award winning artist and best selling author, Maghon Taylor of All She Wrote Notes has taught thousands of students just like you how to fall in love with lettering and turn their everyday ordinary handwriting from drab to fab!  A sweet Carolina girl on a mission to spread happiness with her handwriting.  She is the owner of All She Wrote Notes, a calligraphy and hand lettering studio in Elon, North Carolina.

Maghon is sure she was put on this earth to encourage others to show their loved ones just how much they are loved. After all, it only takes a second to make someone’s day and spread kindness like confetti.

Maghon lives by her own life motto “work hard, stay sweet, trust God, love deep.”  Her goal is for God’s joy and love to shine through each and every item that she writes whether it is for a wedding, a celebration, a quote in your home or a sweet note between friends. She believes that pretty handwriting doesn’t need to be saved for a special occasion — that each and every moment is worth celebrating.

All She Wrote Notes has partnered with national retailers like Neiman Marcus, West Elm, Pottery Barn, Anthropologie and Swoozies as well as dozens of local businesses in North Carolina. We’re also honored to have been featured online and in print with publications such as Style Me Pretty, Inspired By This, Wedding Chicks and Southern Bride and Groom. In 2017, we were named Best Calligrapher in the South by Southern Weddings, but she most enjoys doodling around her home with her sweet husband Chris, and their son, Vance.

Lisa Burns is the founder of the This Pilgrim Life, a food and lifestyle blog centered on enjoying good food and surviving thriving in life with a busy family of a work-at-home husband and five kids 8 and under.

Lisa grew up eating food predominantly out of a can or a box, but discovered a love of feeding people and a passion to learn how to cook from scratch when she got married and started a family. Through much trial and error, she now counts the freedom and satisfaction of cooking and baking from a handful of whole ingredients among her favorite pastimes.

When Lisa isn’t busy chasing toddlers, folding yet another load of laundry, or doing school at the dining room table, you can often find her doing live cooking demos from her kitchen or writing up a new tasty recipe for the blog.

Lisa’s first cookbook, Family Meals From Scratch in Your Instant Pot, is packed full of simple, quick and easy recipes to help you put your Instant Pot to use at all times of the day.

Anna Hopper

Anna and her husband Andrew moved to Greensboro, NC 8 years ago to plant Mercy Hill Church. By God’s grace the church has seen incredible growth. They have been married for 15 years and they have 4 kids; HattieJo, A.P., Benaiah, and Faith Ann. Anna enjoys cooking, running, cross-fitting, being outside, and eating dessert. Anna has a passion for discipleship and equipping women as they lead. Anna enjoys teaching the Bible andAnna graduated from North Greenville University with a degree in Elementary Education. She taught for 10 years, but now spends her days shuttling kids to and from activities, sports, school, therapies.

Courtney Bowman moved from Waco, Texas to Raleigh in the summer of 2013 to help with a local church plant get off the ground. She began teaching middle school Latin for the next 7 years and married her husband in April of 2016. They welcomed their daughter, Bradley Grace, in July of 2017.

Last summer, Courtney began making cheeseboards for friends and family and absolutely fell in love with it. On October 1st, she decided to start and Instagram account dedicated to offering cheeseboards to the Triangle and called it “Raleigh Cheesy.” Orders began flooding in and by December, she let her supervisor know she would not be returning to teaching the following year. In June of this year, Raleigh Cheesy became Courtney’s full time job and she will be opening up a storefront in early 2021 to serve on-the-go cheese and charcuterie boxes.

Courtney is passionate about delicious food and celebrating all of life’s events, big and small which is the heart behind how Raleigh Cheesy was born. The Lord’s hand has been so apparent in the growth of this business and she’s so excited to see how it grows in the future.

Erin Chicka

Erin, owner and founder of Erin Chicka Design, moved to Greensboro by way of Charlottesville,Virginia in 2012.  She and her husband, Daniel,  have three busy boys and a crazy goldendoodle named Leroy.
Erin has always had a passion and an eye for interior design and home projects.

After working in healthcare for 14 years, she realized there would be no greater joy than to be home full time with her boys (and to step away from the night shift life!) From there, in 2015,  Erin Chicka Design was born. The whole gig started with painting furniture for clients and finding pieces she could rehab, paint and sell. Erin Chicka Design blossomed over the next few years into her true passion, interior design.

 Erin helps clients all over the United States make their home a place they love through in person and e-design. She is a firm believer that no matter your budget, your home can be a beautiful and functional space you love. Through her love of all things DIY, Erin routinely shares how-to projects on social media so others too can DIY their dream.

At her core, Erin is an encourager.  She  is incredibly thankful and humbled God chose her to step into people’s lives and homes to encourage them, to find the beauty within their walls and share with others through the gift of hospitality.

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Additional speakers will be added soon:

Anna Hopper

  (Donna Van Eerden – founder and host, Jen Schmidt’s mother)

A Call to Finish Strong   

Donna, a mom of four and grandmother to 30, has a passion for rallying the older women and encouraging them to live the second half of their life (or those who are looking ahead) Spend time gleaning ideas that Donna has implemented, along with brainstorming ways to be an inspiration and share your life experience to encourage the next generation.

Bekah (Van Eerden) Wolfe

 

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