Tea With A Titan: Conversations Steeped In Greatness |achievement | Olympics | Olympians| Success | Athletes | Entrepreneurs

What we cover:  “What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” -- Napolean Hill This is a conversation about running. But not in the way we typically equate talks about running. It’s not about encouraging you to get your fastest time. It’s not about encouraging you to increase your distances. It’s not about heart rate monitors and compression socks and nutrition. Instead, this is a talk about how we can redefine what running means to us. As Ashley Wiles, today’s Guest Titan says: "Running is the most easily accessible, under utilized, readily available tool to help us build positive mental health." And yet, too many of us, continue to equate running with slogging it out and suffering through it – and not as a means simply to release endorphins and create community and foster self-love. Ashley is the founder of Sole Girls, a mentoring program for young girls, which pops them in an environment that fosters conversations about friendship, body image, and self-esteem, and ultimately sees them t

What we cover: "Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." -- Samuel Beckett   I have known Elle Wild for the better part of the last two decades. She and I were ad copy writers together in Vancouver. And what I most admired about Elle, was that she always had a side project on the go. She always had a screenplay underway, a radio show to produce, or a treatment she was drafting. At a time in my own life when I desperately wanted to be living a more creative life on my own terms, which is one of the pitfalls of a career in advertising – for as fun and exciting as the work can be, at the end of the day, it’s a business and you are working for your client -- Elle felt light years ahead of me.   I have been so proud to sit back and watch her blossom into this incredibly well-respected figure in our nation’s literarti scene and this past fall with the release of her debut novel Strange Things Done, a title inspired by the opening lines of the Robert Service poem "The Creation of Sam

What we cover: "Just take one small step --- every day." -- Matt Hill   There are some people on this amazing planet who you just know when you meet them are the ones who are on a mission to make it an even more spectacular place than it already is. Undeniably, one of those people is Matt Hill.  A much sought after voice actor, he’s well known as having played Raphael on the Ninja Turtles, he’s Tender Heart the Care Bear, he’s Ton Ton on the Netflix and DreamWorks series DinoTrux, he’s Ed on Ed, Edd, and Eddy. He’s kind of everywhere. Which is no surprise because he is tireless. But he’s more than just enthusiastic and energetic -- he is joy filled, he oozes integrity, he is kind, and he takes action.  In May, 2008, he and his friend, Steph, embarked on an unthinkable journey; on a tour they named The Run for One Planet Tour, which would ultimately see them run from Vancouver, on the west coast of Canada, to St John’s Newfoundland on the eastern most tip of Canada, down to the state of Florida across to the

What we cover: "You can do this. You will do this." -- Gary Robbins Every once in a while you have a conversation with a person – a person so exceptional, that’s the only word for it – that the stories they tell are universal in that they tap into the humanity of it all. Gary Robbins is one such person and the conversation we had is one such chat. Despite the fact that Gary is as decorated an ultra-distance runner as they come, this is an episode that explores deeper themes. A one-time self-admitted professional partier, Gary eventually traded in the cans of beer for a pair of running shoes, and embarked on a journey of personal transformation that is astounding to say the least. He walks us through what it felt like – the courage it took – to walk the road less travelled, to leave his home in Newfoundland in search of a non-traditional life and the decisions he had to make in order to stay true to that journey. He talks about the value in being in the right relationship when it comes to achieving an authenti

What we cover: "Everything is perspective." -- Jennifer Heil A few months ago, my friend Susanne Biro, Guest Titan Episode #6, put together a dinner party of six people who didn’t necessarily know one another, but who she all thought would hit it off. And guess what? It worked! Jennifer Heil was one of the people seated at the table, and I instantly fell in love with her. She’s a three-time Olympian – both a gold medalist and a silver medalist – and she’s wise and humble and approachable. I obviously pounced on her and begged her to be a Guest Titan. Better still, turns out, she lives not far from me at all – so getting her here was all the easier. She walks us through the chronology of her time getting to Salt Lake in 2002, Italy in 2006, then Vancouver, in 2010 and the life lessons she picked up along the way.  This is a conversation about focus, about commitment to the process, about the power of visualization, about getting back up when you’re going through times in your life when the way you feel emotion

What we cover: A few years ago, a friend of mine made me a mixed CD. One of the songs was Snow Patrol’s “Just Say Yes”, and it resonated the most for me on that playlist. “Just say yes. Just say there’s nothing holding you back.” We are so conditioned, as planners, and as a Type A list-makers, and as do-ers with goals and full daytimers, to say “no” when something we hadn’t necessarily seen coming is presented to us. If it is going to require exertion we hadn’t planned on having to exert, or thinking we hadn’t planned on having to think, or making plans we hadn’t planned on having to plan, we say “no”. We come up with reasons why it won’t work or why we can’t. I’m not talking about having the ability to avoid biting off more than we can chew. When you say no to things that do not serve you, when you say no to that which depletes you, that is a whole other story. That is to be commended. I am talking about having an ear that is so finely tuned it can tell when the sound you hear is opportunity knocking, and th

What we cover: "The cave you fear to enter, is the one that holds the treasure." -- Joseph Campbell   A few years ago, Chad and I were with another couple at the Vancouver attraction called Playland. We were in our ‘20s and we thought that going on the famously rickety old roller coaster would be a good idea. And it was,… until, about 90% of the way through the ride, the engine – or whatever it is that lies at the heart of a roller coaster’s propulsion – broke down, and we were essentially stranded on the tracks. If I had to estimate today, I’m pretty sure we were only there for about 10 minutes or so. And thankfully, we were right-side up, and not suspended, head-down in some sort of horrible inversion when this happened. Nonetheless, I suffered a debilitating panic attack. In that moment, everything for me changed. I went from being the kind of person who felt completely free to try anything and do anything, to the kind of person who first needed to consider how long I might be in an enclosed space without

What we cover: “Surf the cosmic wave.” – Nancy Johnston Not long ago, I had an email from a good friend in London, Jennifer Cameron, letting me know that her good friend, Nancy Johnston, would be coming to Vancouver for Vancouver Fashion Week. And that not only did she have an incredible story – one that would shape her as someone who can rise time and again in the face of adversity – but that she is the creator of a brand that is literally knocking the fashion world on its socks. (Mixed metaphor?) Before we get into the awe-inspiring brand, Tengri, we get into what makes Nancy – Nancy. With a past straight out of an Oscar winning movie, she is the personification of self-made. Her family fled Vietnam in the mid-1970s, taking up in a Malaysian Refugee Camp for a full year just before she was born in Los Angeles when the family first arrived in the United States.  Her life in LA wasn’t easy – she and her siblings didn’t have toys, violence was right outside the front door, high school stabbings weren’t unusual

What we cover: "Have the courage to have the courage." -- Melissa Haynes   Melissa Haynes knew from the age of six exactly who she was. She was a writer and an adventurer. She cut out the pages of the National Geographic and carried them around with her in a little basket. She wrote stories about elephants and lions. However, at a very young age, after a humiliating experience of sharing her young ambitions and feeling belittled, she put the dream aside – buried it deep where it would, essentially, fester for decades to come. She embarked on a corporate journey, and ultimately was a key player in the planning of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games and when that all wrapped, she took a good look in the mirror and asked herself some really tough questions. In particular: Where had the dream gone? Offered another gig as a corporate big shot, one most of society would drool for, she instead boarded a plane and committed to many weeks living alone in a tent on a Big Five Game Reserve in South Africa. Where, al

What we cover: To say that guest titan Shaun Frankson and his business partner David Katz are thought-leaders would likely be one of the bigger understatements of our time. With the launch of their company The Plastic Bank in 2013, they have essentially turned plastic into funds and in doing so – by monetizing a resource that was once only considered garbage to millions of people living in impoverished conditions – they are not only preventing plastic from building up in our oceans, but are creating a global opportunity for collectors to earn an income and alter the trajectory of their lives.  Their goal is to reach and impact 1 billion people – people they call recycling entrepreneurs – positively. They have launched The Plastic Bank in countries like Haiti, for example, where 75% of the population has no power, where 12,000,000 people live in dire poverty. They are helping these people take back control over their own destinies. And it’s working.  In simple terms, how The Plastic Bank works is like this: a

What we cover: “If we all create a daily habit of giving? Holy Hell, we’ll change the world.” – Jacqueline Way On her son, Nick’s 3rd birthday, Jacqueline Way decided to consciously turn her back on the idea of wrapping up a bunch of “stuff” and adding to piles of toys, and instead came up with an idea for she and he to embark on a one-year challenge: Every day, for 365 days, they would commit to one simple act of giving. Long story short, she blogged about the experience, about watching her son develop and hone his innate desire to do for others – an innateness that too many of us, both adults and kids alike don’t tend to tune into nearly often enough today. And what started as a beautiful journey between mother and son has snowballed into the beginnings of a global movement. The 365give program and what it stands for has been adopted by both individuals and schools around the world; it’s not uncommon for Jacqueline, based in Vancouver, to get emails from as far away as countries in Africa, Europe, and beyon

  What we cover: “No matter what happens, I have me.” – Jody Vance I have loved Jody Vance for the better part of a decade. She was instrumental in introducing me to my first regular role in an on-air segment with a Vancouver radio station, the ShoreFM where she was host of The Jody Vance Show. From there, she would go on to become the 5-year co-host of this city’s morning show, Breakfast Television, where she had me on as a guest in the realm of animal welfare, at least half a dozen times. And when my mom, Sheila, donated a kidney to my husband’s mom, Jane – yes, you heard that right – it was Jody who interviewed Sheila on-air. But her career certainly goes back a heck of a lot further than just the years since I’ve known her. She is as accomplished as they get in this country’s media world. In fact, for many years -- and in many ways this continues today -- her name was synonymous with our national obsession: Hockey. Yes, Jody Vance was the first woman in Canadian history to host her own sports show in prim

What we cover: “You cannot synthetically produce passion.” – Brent Johnson Part Two in a Three-Part Series Every once in a while, you have a conversation with someone who is legitimately hilarious. Legitimately insightful. And legitimately fascinating. And you want to bottle it and crack the formula and then multiply it and sell the patent. But since you can’t, instead you pop it onto the cyberwaves and you call it a podcast episode. Brent Johnson. There aren’t a lot of names in Vancouver that are more, or even as, synonymous with greatness, with leadership, and with humility than his. So of course it was my dream to get him to sit down and chat with me. And, because he’s as generous as they get, when I reached out to him, he responded in under two minutes with an all-caps ABSOLUTELY. Brent, just so you know: I am framing that email. Brent is about as respected an athlete as they come. The Vancouver Sun once said of Brent: “He is humble, polite and straight-shooting by nature. He was not a football player who

What we cover: “You cannot synthetically produce passion.” – Brent Johnson Part Two in a Three-Part Series Every once in a while, you have a conversation with someone who is legitimately hilarious. Legitimately insightful. And legitimately fascinating. And you want to bottle it and crack the formula and then multiply it and sell the patent. But since you can’t, instead you pop it onto the cyberwaves and you call it a podcast episode. Brent Johnson. There aren’t a lot of names in Vancouver that are more, or even as, synonymous with greatness, with leadership, and with humility than his. So of course it was my dream to get him to sit down and chat with me. And, because he’s as generous as they get, when I reached out to him, he responded in under two minutes with an all-caps ABSOLUTELY. Brent, just so you know: I am framing that email. Brent is about as respected an athlete as they come. The Vancouver Sun once said of Brent: “He is humble, polite and straight-shooting by nature. He was not a football player who

What we cover: “You cannot synthetically produce passion.” – Brent Johnson Every once in a while, you have a conversation with someone who is legitimately hilarious. Legitimately insightful. And legitimately fascinating. And you want to bottle it and crack the formula and then multiply it and sell the patent. But since you can’t, instead you pop it onto the cyberwaves and you call it a podcast episode. Brent Johnson. There aren’t a lot of names in Vancouver that are more, or even as, synonymous with greatness, with leadership, and with humility than his. So of course it was my dream to get him to sit down and chat with me. And, because he’s as generous as they get, when I reached out to him, he responded in under two minutes with an all-caps ABSOLUTELY. Brent, just so you know: I am framing that email. Brent is about as respected an athlete as they come. The Vancouver Sun once said of Brent: “He is humble, polite and straight-shooting by nature. He was not a football player whose validation and self-worth wer

What we cover: “Don’t let age get in your way.” – Betty Jean McHugh Betty Jean McHugh was born in 1927 in small-town Canada, never knowing that after a childhood that took place in the depression, teen years that took place during World War II, a career that began in Toronto as a nurse, and then after raising four children on the west coast, that – in her 50s, strictly out of the need to kill time while her daughter’s swim team trained, she would quite literally stumble into life as a runner. At the age of 55, she ran her first marathon, and today, 35 years later, she’s a multi-time world record holder in her age group. In 2016, at the age of 89, she ran the Honolulu Marathon, beating the previous world record by an astonishing 92 minutes. And, like so many people preparing to celebrate their 90th birthday this year, she’s doing it the traditional way – by running the Honolulu marathon yet again, and likely setting one more world record along the way. This is a woman who exudes energy and happiness and optimi

  What we cover: In the seven months that this series has been my Labour of Love – my Love Child – we’ve been fortunate to chat with a number of those fine human specimens who fall under the “Olympian” banner. What I love about these conversations, is that these people undeniably rank as the best of the best. There is no question; it’s not up for debate. But in sitting down for tea with each of them, they’ve all proven one thing: Beneath the shiny hardware and accolades and the glory, are people. People with struggles, people with sometimes negative self-image issues, people who suffer from the famous “imposter” syndrome. People who are, in fact, just people. For me, someone who is your everyday participant in life – I will never stand on a podium while they play my national anthem – I get more comfort from these connections than I can possibly articulate. And today’s talk takes the proverbial cake. (The proverbial gluten-free, sugar-free, nut-free, organic free-range-egg cake. Because more and more that’s ju

What we cover: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?” – Marianne Williamson Michelle Tremblay is poised and zen and calming and self-assured. But she wasn’t always this way. She was once shy, uncertain, insecure, and scattered – as she puts it. Then, after the tragic suicide of her fiancé, an event that clearly sent her reeling, she sought out the comfort and meaning and the guidance that awaited in martial arts. And she did the work – she peeled back the layers of pain, the layers of hiding, and the layers of limiting beliefs. Today she is a 2nd degree black belt in Karate, and she’s made a life for herself – both professionally and personally – as an empowerment advocate, through her company MPower Lives. That’s a capital “M” and the word power. M for Michelle. M for Martial Arts

  What we cover: For those of us who watched the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and sat glued to our television sets for the Opening Ceremonies of the 31st Olympiad, there was a feeling -- just like there is at every Games -- that what we are seeing is a collection of the world’s beautiful people. The fittest, shiniest, most glowing versions of human potential anywhere on the planet march through one arena under one roof carrying hundreds of flags – all at one time. There’s an excitement in the air, to be sure. And if I’m being entirely honest, there can almost be a sense of envy. Look at them, having the time of their lives, celebrating the full actualization of their biggest dreams – while I am here on the couch eating rice crackers, only hypothesizing what that might look like for me. That said, make no mistake, on my end, the envy is more than out-balanced by the sense of inspiration. It’s sort of like, 2% envy, 98% inspiration, really. However, today’s guest met my envy-honesty head on. She swiftly debunked the

What we cover: The one thing we all have in common is that no one is immune. We will all go through periods of adversity. That fact is the great equalizer. What sets us apart however, is how we choose to handle the adversity.   Today’s episode might just be one of the most important conversations I’ve had. Not just in terms of this podcast, but in the bigger picture as well. We all have a choice – every day – to be the kind of person who squeezes the juice out of the gift of life that we have all been given. Or we can be a moaner and a groaner and a grumbler and a victim. Roy McBeth is joyful and happy, and he spreads optimism. He isn’t a complainer. And yet, for many years he was growing increasingly ill on account of kidney disease. He saw members of his family succumb to the same disease, and rather than use the possibility of this eventual fate as a crutch, the reason for him to opt out of life and be miserable, he chose to use it as the opposite. It catapulted him forwarded. He is an elite cyclist and an