David Ip Yam is the Project Director of Student Service Excellence at York University. He’s also the Co-Founder of Relationship Zen. By day, he’s an award-winning higher education practitioner and scholar with 10+ years of actively learning, facilitating, an co-creating personal, community, and professional mastery. And by night, he’s a martial artist and relationship strategist. He’s in many ways the perfect synthesis of all of the themes we’ve covered in the show thus far: multi-potentiality, self-awareness, confidence, perseverance, resilience, and discipline.

Blair Smith is a Professor of Marketing and Digital Media at George Brown College. He’s also a Learning Experience Designer and Instructor at the Canadian Marketing Association. On the MBTI, he registers as an INTP—a combination found in only 3% of the population. What does this mean? He’s an ingenious problem solver, an innovation architect, and “the secret weapon”. Over his storied career, spanning across Robert Half International, General Mills Canada, Evergreen Canada, and more, Blair has won awards for mentoring, marketing innovation, and content marketing. His goal is to cut through the buzzwords, clickbait, jargon, and endless stream of tactics and tools to demystify marketing and digital media at its fundamental parts.

Adam Rodricks is the Senior Manager of Social Media & Community at KPMG. His claim to fame in the world of social media and blogging came in 2007 when he reluctantly sold his blog after being served with a cease and desist. The important takeaway from the ordeal was validation: he could make an impact (and a career) through engaging conversation. Adam is a 2-time “Top 30 Under 30 Canadian Blogger to Watch” and a previous winner of the National Rogers Marketing Competition, for which he also held the title of best undergraduate speaker in Canada. He’s spent the last decade growing the social properties of Canada's most prominent brands, managing all aspects of their digital marketing strategy including social listening, management of social media channels, crisis comms and social media programs. His work as a social media influencer has been featured on CBC, CTV, Yahoo, BNN, DigitalJournal.com, MaximumPC, WhatCulture.com, staples.com, and nintendo.ca

Megan Ramwa is the Founder & CEO of Sonder Toronto. Her desire to create “something bigger than herself” has always been at the forefront of her career. Megan graduated from the Law and Business program at Ryerson University. Shortly after graduating, she became a marketing and communications professional at a top Bay Street law firm where she was involved in many strategic initiatives such as the Canada 150 campaign and launching the firm’s first Instagram account. While juggling her 9-5, Megan continued to exercise her creativity on theawkwardadult.com - a personal blog that explored what it meant to be a young adult. In addition, Megan has launched a fashion and sustainable-tech company (Sonder Toronto), and has collaborated with local entrepreneurs to produce content. Megan is also involved with the Martin Family Initiative as a mentor to Indigenous high school students and was a marketing advisor to FLOCK - a project focused on providing women with the resources and support to explore entrepreneurship.

Joining me as a co-host today is Megan’s business partner, Aishah Shihabdeen.

Sheliza Jamal is an educator, speaker, and equity and inclusion coach. She is a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she studied the impact of arts in education, leadership in social change organizations, education entrepreneurship innovation, and educational policy through the lens of systemic inequities. Sheliza also holds an Honors BA in Theatre and BEd from York University and is starting her PhD at OISE, University of Toronto in the Department of Social Justice Education. Sheliza brings over a decade of experience in public education teaching and designing and implementing programs and services aimed at addressing inequitable outcomes for underserved communities. Sheliza has a background in theatre performance and education and often uses theatre-based techniques to develop a sense of embodied empathy and engage participants in dialogue about oppression. Sheliza is an Ontario Certified Teacher (OCT) and a K-12 Inclusion Learning Coach with the Toronto District School Board where she supports students, teachers and leaders in programs that foster equity and inclusion to meet the needs of diverse learners.

Gregg Brown is the founder of Change Ready Leadership and the best-selling author of Ready, Set, Change AGAIN! An award-winner in the fields of leadership and change, Gregg helps leaders and teams seize opportunities, create positive change and elevate their effectiveness in the workplace. As an international keynote speaker, he engages his audiences to help them break out of status quo change management thinking and discover people-centric approaches that actually work. His work has been featured nationally and internationally in media such as Entrepreneur, Global News, iHeart Media, HR.com and on CTV’s The Social.

In this conversation we talked about the power of calmness, personal leadership, and elite public speaking. We also talked about structured downtime, relaxation practices, and getting in the zone. It was an inspiring conversation that got me to consider all that it would take to unlock a new, higher level of performance.

Danny Tseng is the Co-Founder of Syllable Design, an interior design and architecture firm. As a licensed architect with the Ontario Association of Architects, Danny thoughtfully crafts buildings with rigorous detail and creatively maneuvers around restrictive parameters to create the best possible design solution. His main role at Syllable Design is leadership in design direction and production quality assurance. Working on key projects such as a major office building renovation, Danny is the driving force of design exploration within the firm. Previously, he used to work at some of Toronto’s largest firms—Quadrangle and Moriyama & Teshima Architects—having exposure to fine detailing and concept development on key projects around the GTA. Danny graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and the University of Toronto completing a Masters of Architecture.

Daniel Breez is the Finance Manager of Caudalie Canada and the Founder of Measured Growth CPA in partnership with Accodex Partners, an accounting technology firm. In his early years, Daniel had a strong passion for music and arts, and until the age of 20, he competed and performed professionally in ballroom dance. After that, he took on guitar and singing lessons and continues to put on live performances in his spare time. After graduating from the Schulich School of Business, Daniel felt lost, as most people do, and was unsure of what his next steps should be. It was at this point that he found a strong passion for fitness, nutrition, and psychology. This led to a huge transformation not only for the body but also for the mind. After completing his CPA CA requirements, Daniel co-founded IMPACTx Toronto, a live interview series for a community of young entrepreneurially-minded individuals. It was this passion for entrepreneurship that led Daniel down a path to pursue his own accounting practice to help impact-driven businesses succeed.

Brione Wishart is a Toronto based film director, producer and the founder of TrepFuel and ARTLEE Creative Agency. His work stems from a love of Cinema, Music, and Storytelling. Known for his ability to create visually engaging content and beautifully crafted work that captures something real and authentic in every subject, Brione's talent for cinematic storytelling is evident in all of his work. His work includes a wide variety of clients such as Porsche, Samsung, Under Armour, Bacardi, Huawei, eBay, Capital One, Gillette, Hasbro, Kitchen Aid, and The Alzheimers Society.

Kelly Foss is the co-host of the Millennial Minimalists Podcast and the co-founder of IMPACTx Toronto, a monthly mindset-focused event series supported by Shopify Toronto. Kelly's professional experience includes managing partnerships, events and content marketing for brands including Air Canada, Iconink Hospitality, and Diversio AI. Today Kelly is overseeing partnerships and events for Bang & Olufsen Toronto. Kelly graduated with honours from Western University Canada and has worked in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Los Angeles.