Like most of us, Jason doesn’t remember the day he was born, but he knows that he had a rocky start when his umbilical cord became kinked, depriving him of much needed oxygen for a short time. This imperfect circumstance resulted in Jason developing Cerebral Palsy, a group of disorders that gifted him with a unique style of walking and talking. Against seemingly insurmountable odds, Jason is living his dream, speaking to people across North America, hoping to inspire them to see the best in themselves, take the next step toward their dreams, and pass on the legacy of embracing our imperfect best to the next generation.

Whenever Jason speaks to an audience, be it an intimate mastermind group in North County San Diego or an assembly of 1,500 high school students in Austin, Minnesota, he is absolutely, 100% committed to bringing his speech impediment with him. With his unique walk, awkwardly awesome message, a moving TEDx Talk, his Imperfect Best Book Series in progress, and unbridled love for country music, Jason is helping his family, friends, colleagues, and clients see their own circumstance as a potential stepping stone to reach for the stars.

In this episode:
1. Growing into the best version of me (Intro).
2. School days, insecurities, and a relentless tormentor (4:55).
3. Releasing the unattainable standard of perfection (10:30).
4. Stepping on stage for the first time (14:38).
5. The “Awkwardly Awesome Podcast” (19:10).
6. Making the best of any circumstance (22:07).
7. The freedom in doing your imperfect best (25:35).
8. The daily circle (34:09).

Connect with Jason
If you would like to learn more about Jason you can follow him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mrjasonwfreeman or visit his website at https://jasonwfreeman.com/.

If you’d like to get a free e-copy of Jason’s book, Awkwardly Awesome: Embracing My Imperfect Best, you can visit Jason’s website, or if you’d like a physical copy, you can order it from Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Awkwardly-Awesome-Embracing-Imperfect-Best/dp/0998734403

Connect with Helen
Want to know more about how Helen’s Journal Retreats or Life Coaching? Visit www.thegiftofbeingpresent.com or email her at [email protected] to learn more.

At the age of two, a single spark from a fire was all it took to change Kelly Falardeau’s life forever. With 75% of her body burned, Kelly adjusted to life as a burn survivor, but those scars had a massive effect on her self-esteem growing up. She decided to use her near-death experience, and the scars it left, to help people recognize that beauty is more than just the outer layers of skin – it comes from within.

Kelly’s passion for sharing this message led her to a distinctive career in public speaking. Her many accolades include being on the TEDx stage twice, and being honoured as Fierce Woman of the Year. Her life story, titled "Still Beautiful" has even been launched on TV, and a video of her featured on Goalcast has reached almost 10 million views.

When the pandemic hit, Kelly quickly pivoted. Did I mention she is also a 7-times International Best-Selling Author? Now she's a full-time Amazon Best-Selling Strategist, coaching people to share their own messages with the world. Even with this career pivot, the accolades are still rolling in. On Christmas Day 2020, Global TV named Kelly one of the "Most Inspirational People of 2020". Yet, she still lists one of her greatest achievements as her three beautiful children.

In this episode:
1. A spark from the fire (Intro).
2. The “scarface” drawing (4:12).
3. Marriage and children the joys and the sorrows (11:20).
4. Redefining Kelly (17:43).
5. The fragility of self-esteem (24:28).
6. How to feel beautiful (29:23).
7. Helping others write their stories (35:25).
8. There is no magical switch (37:52).
9. Flipping the triggers (42:35).
10. Developing a perseverance toolkit (48:33).

Connect with Kelly
If you would like a FREE blueprint on How to Publish Your Book in 7 Easy Steps & free discovery call with Kelly, visit her website at https://www.KellyFalardeau.com or connect with her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/kellyf.7stepsauthor

Connect with Helen
If you would like learn more about 1-on-1 grief support with Helen, visit her website at https://thegiftofbeingpresent.com/grief-recovery/ or email her at [email protected].

In the traditionally male-dominated world of construction supply sales, savvy sales superstar, Jackie Rainforth, impressed many a skeptic with her talent for innovative thinking and her ingenious insight into her customers' needs. Originally dubbed "The Rainmaker" by her peers in the industry, Jackie is making waves as a Global Thought Leader, Influencer to Watch, and RBC Woman Entrepreneur of Canada award nominee.

When Jackie Rainforth decided to check scuba-diving off her bucket list, her experience forever changed the path she would forge. Compelled to share her knowledge, her experience, and her strategies with others, this award-winning sales expert, facilitator and sought-after trainer and conference speaker, takes you or your business from stalled to unstoppable.

In this episode:
1. Life, death, and scuba diving (Intro).
2. The message (6:50).
3. The pink tutu (9:44).
4. Pushing past the fear of rejection (13:26).
5. Why Lego helps you build relationships (17:42).
6. The importance of protecting your time (25:05).
7. A natural, authentic, and genuine sales approach (28:37).
8. How to avoid making assumptions (33:20).
9. Listening to the signs and signals (37:49).
10. A free gift for you (43:07).

Connect with Jackie
To get your free copy of Jackie’s book, “The Badass Guide to Superstar Selling”, visit https://rainmakersgroup.ca/giftbook/. If you would like to learn more about Jackie’s Mastermind program, public speaking topics, or sales training, please visit her website at https://rainmakersgroup.ca/. You can also connect with her on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackierainforth/ or follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JackieRainmaker.

Connect with Helen
If you would like learn more about Helen’s grief recovery program, her public speaking topics, or her other coaching programs, please visit www.thegiftofbeingpresent.com

From the age of three, Hila J. Esters has had continual conversations with God. No matter what situations, setbacks, or emotional heartbreaks she has faced, receiving and applying His revelation, wisdom, and knowledge has never failed. Her books, “The Miraculous Realm of Heaven on Earth”, “Daddy’s Little Girl”, and “Your Daddy’s So-o-o Big…”, recount the miracles, signs, and wonders that have occurred throughout her life.

Hila has spent years pursuing spiritual freedom in the Word and power of God. She is the founder of Freedom Network NOW which serves people who refuse to settle for less because they know life holds more for them. You can experience the goodness of heaven NOW with the creative power of God’s intentional thoughts and spoken words.

As an author, speaker, and coach, Hila helps people awaken to their unique God-given potential, enabling them to cut the strings of the status-quo and step into unlimited possibilities. She shares a straightforward transformational process that empowers and positions you to use unlimited possibilities to create progressive changes in your life.

In this episode:
1. Receiving the Gift (Intro).
2. A spirited child in the civil rights era (7:27).
3. The answers you need are only a conversation away (17:10).
4. The power of thought: we reap what we sow (21:09).
5. Creating your life while standing in your truth (25:54).
6. A family built on love with God’s helping hand (31:57).
7. How these treasured books came about (34:32).
8. An insight into racism and the world today (38:52).

Connect with Hila
Hila is offering a free PDF entitled, “Are You Living the Same Week on Repeat? Break the Repeat Cycle”. She also offers a number of courses through her coaching practice. Namely, Wake-Up to Awareness, Break the Repeat Cycle, and The Miraculous Realm. If you would like to get your free PDF or learn more about these courses, please visit https://freedomnetworknow.com.

Connect with Helen
If you would like to explore some of your own experiences with spirituality, and would like to learn how Helen’s Journal Retreats can help you do that, please visit www.thegiftofbeingpresent.com.

Eight years ago Carmel Ecker found herself struggling emotionally to fit into a life she never imagined would be hers. Newly divorced with a one year old child, she felt constantly exhausted and completely stuck. She knew she had to find a different way to live. That’s when she discovered the world of personal development.

Less than three months later, despite her lack of confidence, Carmel began to challenge the endless reel of negative thoughts running through her head with the help of a coach she had hired, and discovered she had the power to create the life she wanted. She no longer felt limited by the ideas she had of what single parenting meant, she started an amazing business, and has never looked back.

Today, Carmel is a life coach who empowers single parents to create and execute the plan they want for their life. Through her 5-part system, the Single Parents’ Guide to an Empowering Life, she is helping them create a new, more empowering story for their future.

In this episode:

1. Disillusioned, exhausted, and divorced… now what? (Intro).
2. The challenges of single parenting (5:10).
3. The relationship dance (9:19).
4. Co-parenting: managing egos (13:50).
5. The entrepreneurial leap (22:50).
6. Managing finances mantra, “I am capable” (30:48).
7. Changing perceptions about single parents (35:10).
8. Making peace with the past (43:51).
9. Recognizing what is in your control (52:28).
10. The call of coaching & asking for help (57:38).
11. Blended family dynamics (1:02:00).
12. We all screw up: never be afraid to apologize (1:08:46).
13. What’s coming up? (1:12:26).

Connect with Carmel
To learn more about Carmel’s coaching or to discover more about the Single Parents’ Guide to an Empowering Life system, please visit her website at https://speaknowcoaching.com or follow her on Instagram @carmelecker.

Connect with Helen
If you are navigating difficult times in your life and would like to explore how Helen can help you through them, email her at [email protected] or explore her website www.thegiftofbeingpresent.com.

Poet by nature and songwriter at heart, Colleen Songs, also known as Colleen Kelba in some circles, is a Canadian singer, writer and inspirational speaker who’s message encourages others to use their gifts and talents as tools to live a happy and healthy life.

Colleen’s memoir, “INHALE” was written while recovering from a car accident that resulted in emergency neck surgery, effectively silencing her musical talents. Her story is a journey about living with, caring for, and eventually escaping a narcissistic husband who suffered from mental illness.

“Dreams never expire. They are there to fire up the gifts you were born with to live by.” - Colleen

In this episode:

1. The nine year journey (Intro).
2. Finding clarity (4:07).
3. Escaping a narcissist (9:15).
4. Planting the seeds of courage (16:00).
5. The other side of suicide (22:15).
6. Lessons in the quell (24:56).
7. When your dreams are yours, and yours alone (29:36).
8. The gift in the journey (34:30).

Connect with Colleen
If you are interested in learning more about Colleen or purchasing a copy of her memoir, please visit her website at www.colleensongs.com. If you know someone who is unhappy or unsafe and may need an outsider's story to step out of unhappiness and find freedom, she has a “buy one - send one” offer when you order through her directly.

Connect with Helen
If you would like to connect with Helen or would like to attend one of her journaling retreats, please explore www.thegiftofbeingpresent.com.

Tammy Plunkett’s first love is writing – she lives and breathes the words on the page. When she left her career as a registered nurse to stay home and raise her four children, she realized that there was only so much Sesame Street she could handle, so she decided to follow her passion and began writing. She started with fiction pieces, but when she became a certified professional life coach and writing coach she decided to dive into the non-fiction realm. When her eleven year old child told her he identified as transgender, Tammy pivoted and started focusing on helping parents of transgender kids through mentoring, blogging, and writing articles such as her well-read one for Today’s Parent.

Tammy’s story provides an incredible amount of insight with respect to understanding gender in general, as well as what it means to be transgender. She takes you through the real and raw emotion she felt when her son first revealed he was trans, the stages of grief she went through, and the reactions of family, the school system and her community through the whole process. Tammy is now an advocate, helping parents of transgender children understand transgender identity and how they can best support their child.

In this episode:

1. The grieving process (Intro).
2. Facing the fear (9:08).
3. Gender vs. sexuality (13:16).
4. The importance of representation (17:07).
5. Bullying and school responsibility (19:30).
6. Gender as a social construct (24:58).
7. Pronouns and gender assignment (28:54).
8. Is there a genetic factor? (35:33).
9. Sharing our family’s story (40:26).
10. Being transgender - medication, medical transition and more (45:43).
11. What’s ahead at sixteen? (48:58).

Connect with Tammy
If you are interested in learning more about parenting a transgendered child, please visit https://www.tammyplunkett.com/defining-transgender/ to download your free copy of Tammy’s "Defining Transgender" e-book. You can also visit https://www.youtube.com/user/TPHealthWellness to watch Tammy’s videos, or connect with her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TammyPlunkettAuthor.

Connect with Helen
If you would like to connect with Helen or find out more about her journaling retreats, please visit www.thegiftofbeingpresent.com or email Helen at [email protected].

In 1977, John Reilly became the youngest person ever appointed as an Alberta Provincial Court Judge. After twenty years on the bench, he began to notice a disproportionate number of indigenous accused appearing in his court and resolved to learn the reasons for this overrepresentation. Through his research he discovered information about residential schools, treaties, poverty and dispossession, and the intergenerational impact this had on indigenous peoples.

Equipped with this knowledge and a corresponding shift in perspective, John began to apply a more progressive lens to his role in order to address the issues of bias and systemic racism so rampant within the justice system. He quickly realized that he was working within a broken system, and that the establishment was resistant to change. After thirty-three years on the bench, he became so disillusioned with the Canadian criminal justice system, he resigned his position more than ten years before retirement would have been mandatory.

John is now a public speaker, writer, and advocate for transforming the justice system and creating better understanding between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples.

In this episode:

1. Shifting perspectives on justice and indigenous peoples (Intro).
2. Systemic discrimination and understanding customs (10:00).
3. Can we move forward together, considering our history? (17:25).
4. Preserving culture, language and identity (24:26).
5. Challenging a broken system (28:48).
6. A chat with my younger self – reframing wrongdoing (39:43).
7. Community justice forums and restorative justice (43:03).
8. A progressive view of the prison system (52:17).
9. A final word on autonomy (1:00:21).

Connect with John
If you are interested in learning more about John’s trilogy, “Bad Medicine,” “Bad Judgement” and “Bad Law,” please visit his website at www.johnreilly.ca. If you would like to connect with John, please email him at [email protected] to discuss possibilities.

Connect with Helen
If you would like to find out how Helen can assist in your writing or public speaking journey, please visit www.thegiftofbeingpresent.com or email Helen at [email protected].

When Laurence and Andrea embarked on their dream vacation, cruising the Mediterranean aboard the Costa Concordia, they never imagined the profound impact this trip would have on their lives. On January 13, 2012, Andrea and her husband had returned to the ship after an amazing day spent exploring Rome, and had just sat down to supper when a deafening scraping noise interrupted the evening’s merrymaking. In the darkness and the chaos that ensued, survival instincts kicked in and the duo worked together to navigate the unthinkable –their ship was sinking in frigid winter waters just off the eastern shore of the Island of Giglio, in the region of Tuscany. Survival was only the beginning…

In this episode:
1. Friday the 13th on the Costa Concordia (Intro).
2. Misinformation and misrepresented trust (7:49).
3. A curious aura (10:52).
4. Survival mode (19:22).
5. Reality Sets In (27:20).
6. Understanding trauma (33:27).
7. Six months later – a journey of healing (40:36).
8. The significance of “Survivor” (50:56).
9. Managing trauma, PTSD, and uncertain times (57:52).
10. Sharing the magnificence of courage and strength (1:00:47).
11. How do we approach forgiveness? (1:04:05).
12. A final word on the gift of survival (1:10:27).

Connect with Andrea
If you are interested in having Andrea speak at your event, or if you would like to inquire about her offer of conversational coaching, you can find her on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-davis-44865513/ or Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/andrea.davis.54922. Andrea’s book, “Survival Was Only the Beginning - A Costa Concordia Story” is available through Amazon and Chapters/Indigo.

Connect with Helen
We all experience trauma, or living with uncertainty at some point in our lives. If you would like to learn how Helen can help you navigate these moments and guide you through the healing process, email her at [email protected] or visit www.thegiftofbeingpresent.com and click on “Coaching Programs” to find out more.

When you go through something as serious as surviving breast cancer, it is often said that your
perspective on life changes and you realize what is truly important to you. But what happens in between the treatment and a return to so-called ‘regular life’ as a cancer survivor?

Having gone through treatment for breast cancer, a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery herself, Sharon was asked to help guide women going through the aftermath of cancer treatment. Realizing there was a much broader need for support, Sharon co-founded Breast Friends, an organization that helps cancer survivors take back their power, with programs, retreats and workshops designed to help women create a road map for their life beyond cancer.

Later, Sharon was given the opportunity to make an impact on women’s health in countries where
education around breast health and cancer was severely lacking. As the co-founder of Breast Advocates International, her mission is to educate and support women, advocating for early detection of breast cancer in the hopes of reducing mortality in countries that do not have access to diagnostic imaging.

In this episode:
1. The truth is in the eyes (Intro).
2. The gift after the chaos (5:20).
3. Finding my birth-mother (13:01).
4. Illness along family lines (20:00).
5. Advocating for women’s health in other countries (26:15).
6. Pandemic times, connection and other blessings (35:55).
7. Discovering the important things in life (38:33).

Connect with Sharon
Sharon’s book, “Thriving Beyond Cancer: Hope, Understanding, and Validation for the Cancer Survivor” is available on Amazon. If you would like to connect with Sharon, you can find her on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharonhenifin/

Connect with Helen
If you or someone you know is looking for support while going through the emotional healing process of dealing with a health crisis, writing about it can bring about profound healing. To register for or find out more information about Helen’s next Journaling Retreat, visit www.thegiftofbeingpresent.com.