Antonia Fifi has two children with her husband, and recently relocated to the hustle and bustle of Toronto from Trinidad and Tobago. Things were going well but she new the resources available outside the Caribbean for her kids were what they needed.

Leaning into her creative side was challenging as she took it up as a second degree but embracing motherhood challenged her perspectives in a whole new way.

Romy Zack is a Toronto based make artist and hair stylist, who has been featured in several magazines and worked on many beauty shoots as well as with everyday clients. Why should any of this matter to you, well because she listens to her clients. She gives space so that she can deliver what they really need, and enhance what is already there, mastering the no make up make up look.

Web developer and designer Dennis Oba tells us about his transition from illustration at OCAD to entering the coding world and how that still allows the creative juices to flow.

Dennis explains that selfishly pursuing what you want is crucial, so that you can be content in your field. Although this still will provide the waves of highs and lows, tenacity wins the game.

On the romantic end we talk dating apps and the hooks that catch people's attention.

From as early as Carmen can remember she processes things through art, her parents divorce and later living away from her family. Born in Vancouver she is now finding her voice an an illustrator in Toronto. Working freelance for client’s like the Grape Witches and featuring at markets including Stackt that launched just in time for the warmer weather. Carmen shares with us that there is still that sense of needing to validate herself to family and the comfort that can come from having a partner, even if he’s completely opposite to you creatively but is keen to understand. At the end of the day she works hard, and strives to make quality work that leaves client’s happy while challenging her. A goal that many creatives relate to but not all jobs meet.

Our first guest is Ria Elciario, founder of the online platform She’s Got Wonder where creatives have a chance to display their work in a landscape that is often hard to enter. Ria was inspired by her own experience and struggles getting her work seen, to give voice to those talented individuals that found the barriers to display their work intimidating and impossible. The name was inspired by the David Bowie song She’s Got Medals and the rest is history.

Ria dabbled in the culinary arts, had an online magazine, from early she had a love for performance and music and her story meanders in this way of using her family and friends to inspire creating and pushing past mental blocks that she gets very vulnerable about.

Love, shame, self-respect and vulnerability can be such heated words. They are experiences we need to sit with and reflect on to truly see how they are impacting us in everyday life. There is beauty in not knowing how things will go and making mistakes along the way, but learn from it all and allow yourself to use this as fuel to create.

Career changes to changing alongside one's partner and working with entrepreneurs who give back to their community our guest this week is Felicia Baird. She host the podcast It's Not About You while working as a producer in Toronto.

Hearing about her relationships being at a slightly different tempo than many around her, how she deals with feedback that is tough to swallow but perseveres and also the value in having the courage to know when to leave something.

Links to referenced sources

It's Not All About You Podcast

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/its-not-about-you/id1320194180?mt=2

Pardon My French Podcast

http://www.atelierdore.com/fr/feed/podcast/

Let's talk anxiety, self love and maintaining integrity in a the rough patch of early adulthood when the ticker on our goals feels like it's constantly ringing in our ears. Interior designer Zoe Osborne get's real about coping with anxiety and self love trick and staying connected with family.

We touch on city design and island design and the importance of creating an environment that feels like home. This episode artfully shows how design, life and love all intersect.

Teyama and Andrew are a working team, it's strictly professional yet you can feel how their energy feeds off each other. They are currently working on a documentary film and they tell us a bit about how they get the people the film is focused on to feel comfortable and allow for an organic representation of life. At the end of the day they want to tell stories that relay universal experiences, this includes the struggle as well as the high points and they're honest about having an agenda.

With such passion for their careers it can be hard to make time for relationships and this is where prioritizing time is important. This episode shows that it isn't all rainbows and roses but that doesn't mean it won't be worth it.

Kotama Bouabane is a photographer who looks at photography with a critical eye questioning it's purpose. He's interested in the dialogue between the way we think about visual culture and what is that flat out goal we are trying to achieve with what we are doing. Ideas of place, representation and identity form the basis of many of his pieces where he disrupts traditional views and calls attention to the constant changing nature of identity.