Clarissa Arthur spent her early teenage years angry. The skipping school, running away, in and out of trouble with the police kind of angry. Then 3 weeks after she turned 17, standing in the bathroom at her high school, she found out she was pregnant. This is when she made the decision to change.

This instinct - to keep moving forward even in a situation that could easily have derailed her - is what propelled Clarissa in each stage of her life. Now the executive director of Nelson House, a first-stage shelter for women and children fleeing violence, she clearly, and thoughtfully, traces a straight line from her hardest years to the work she does today - continually reminding herself that you have two choices, give up or show up.

We talk about: losing her dad to a sudden heart attack three weeks after she'd finally gotten her life back on track; surviving domestic violence herself, and what it's like to run one of Ottawa's five shelters for women fleeing exactly that; the job interview where she cried in front of six strangers and got hired anyway, and why she still tells her staff "I'm Clarissa before I'm the executive director"; and her actual, zero-apologies way of shutting her brain off after a shift (a sleep mask with built-in speakers and the Real Housewives, in case you were wondering).

If you know anyone who could use a little Clarissa magic in their life, please share this one.

For more information on Nelson House, whether that's becoming a monthly donor or just knowing the number is there when someone needs it, visit their website.

If you'd like The Gratitude Effect Journal by Clarissa Arthur and Karen Jolicoeur, find it here. 

And if you'd like more from me - my coaching or my writing - you'll find both over on my website, or catch the more personal stuff on my Substack. 

See you next week, on The Other Side x

@the_otherside_pod

Dr. Sam Hetz cold-emailed three Ottawa clinics that were offering Botox, asking for ten minutes of their time. One doctor graciously said yes, changing the direction of Sam's life. A decade later he's a partner of a 70-clinic, L'Oréal backed medical group, as well as the co-founder of Ottawa's first personalized, private, longevity-focused clinic, LifespanMD. 

What makes this conversation worth the hour isn't his resume, though, it's his attitude. Sam isn't afraid of change, accepting that nothing is permanent and using tools he's learned to remind himself (and his patients) that whatever you're catastrophizing about almost never actually happens.

We talk about: leaving a full-time family medicine practice to bet on a cosmetic clinic he learned about by shadowing a mentor on vacation days and post-call mornings; why he says "no decision is finite" and the worst-case-scenario exercise his business coach taught him; building LifespanMD from a business plan on a napkin; the one health intervention Sam says beats every drug and why almost nobody does enough of it; and his real diagnostic question before burnout hits - are you good busy, or bad busy?

Sam and I have known each other for years, and this was the first time I got to sit him down and ask him everything. I walked away with insights that I will apply to my own business (and my health!). 

Send this to the friend who's always busy, as a reminder that taking time, especially for a conversation like this, is good for them.

And if you'd like more from me - my coaching or my writing - you'll find both over on my website, or catch the more personal stuff on my Substack. 

See you next week, on The Other Side x

@the_otherside_pod

Michelle Weger fell asleep at a microscope in her first year of university and woke up with two black eyes. It took five years before anyone figured out why.

As Michelle talks about living with narcolepsy we speak about the tendency to hide the parts of us that aren't so polished, and what can happen when we let our guard down.

What you'll hear about: the 5 years of dead-end doctor visits and the friend, Rebecca, who changed her life for the better; what it actually felt like to sleep 20 hours a day and never once feel rested; the 4-month trip to Africa that turned into an accidental blogging career, and how the desire to share elephant photos with her grandparents became a website development and SEO business that has generated millions of dollars; a service dog named Quinn who has her own piece of internet fame now; and the exact moment Michelle decided to stop hiding her diagnosis, and what happened right after.

Know someone quietly managing something they're sure would change how people see them - a diagnosis, a body that doesn't cooperate, a business they're scared to be honest about? Do me a favour and send them this one.

If you'd like more from Michelle - her book, her talks, or her service dog Quinn's Instagram - find her website, her instagram and Quinn's IG  over here.

And if you'd like more from me - my coaching or my writing - you'll find both over on my website, or catch the more personal stuff on my Substack. 

See you next week, on The Other Side x

@the_otherside_pod

My mom is 77. Her closest friends are four women she met when she was 16 and for almost a decade of their lives, she barely spoke to them.

I went into this conversation expecting a nice story about a friend group that's lasted 60+ years. What I didn't expect was how the silence actually ended - not with a big reconciliation talk, but with two of them showing up at her door with a pie. She still calls it an olive branch.

This week I chose one of the top downloaded podcasts of the year to re-release - the one where mom, sis and I talk about friendships. The ones that go quiet. The ones that end in divorce. And the ones that stay, in different ways, through the many ebbs and flows of life. 

I've thought of this conversation often since we recorded it last Fall. It's made me nostalgic for friends I've lost, and it's made me feel the deepest of love for the ones with staying power. 

Mom has a theory that friendships just have a clock that runs out on them. I'm still not sure if that's the most comforting thing I've ever heard or the hardest.

Do me a favour and share it this episode with your friend - the one you thought of while listening.

And if you'd like more from me - my coaching or my writing - you'll find both over on my website, or catch the more personal stuff on my Substack. 

See you next week, on The Other Side x

@the_otherside_pod

Erin McHarge was a 27 year old PhD student going about her life when she was told she has stage 4B endometrial cancer - and it's incurable. 

But this isn't a "cancer episode". It's a conversation with someone more curious about her own life than afraid of it - and it changed how I think about mine.

This is one of the most highly downloaded podcasts of the year and within minutes you'll see why. I originally released it as a two-part but now I'm letting it be what it was - a long conversation with a good friend who also happens to be living people's worst nightmare. 

We talk about what it costs to be calm and articulate while doctors dismiss you for it; the 13 days her diagnosis sat in her chart before anyone told her; getting married in front of a fireplace because the dock wedding got rained out; finishing a PhD you might not live to use; and grieving a future that was never guaranteed to begin with.

This episode has never left me, and I don't think it will leave you either. Do me a favour and share it. Pass it along to someone you thought of while listening. 

If you'd like more from Erin, here's her Substack. 

And if you'd like more from me - my coaching or my writing - you'll find both over on my website, or catch the more personal stuff on my Substack. 

See you next week, on The Other Side x

@the_otherside_pod

One of the most downloaded episodes in the history of this show - and it's the very first one I ever recorded <3

My friend Mandie lost her mom to cancer, and then her stepdad, 11 months later. Two parents, back to back, in under a year. We get into what actually gets you out of bed the day someone dies, running the Chicago Marathon four hours after finding out her mom had two months left, and the dead-parent jokes that only make sense once you're on the other side of it.

It's heavy. It's also really funny, in the way grief actually is when nobody's performing for the room. This is why I started this show.

If you fall in love with Mandie like I did, be sure to check out her business, Collective Movement. 

And if you'd like more from me - my coaching or my writing - you'll find both over on my website, or catch the more personal stuff on my Substack. 

See you next week, on The Other Side x

@the_otherside_pod

He spent 25 years inside some of the highest-stakes rooms in the Canadian government and he still describes himself as "not really a social guy."

This past January Nadine sat down with Fraser Valentine to talk about what happens when the thing you built your whole identity around is about to end. It was just months before his retirement date and the conversation was so well received it remains as one of the most downloaded - so here's the re-release. 

Listen in as we get into the Sunday-night ritual his father ran him through as a kid, why he calls the public service "a parent" - one that can reward you and quietly punish you in the same breath - and the moment he realized he'd spent decades accomplishing things without ever stopping to actually feel them.

This isn't really about retirement. It's about what's left of you once the title's gone. 

And if you'd like more from me - my coaching or my writing - you'll find both over on my website, or catch the more personal stuff on my Substack. 

See you next week, on The Other Side x

@the_otherside_pod

This month Mom & Sis joined me to talk about the moment a parent-child relationship quietly turns into a friendship - and the phone call Nadine got from a hotel in Quebec that made her realize her mom had already made that shift, years before she even noticed.

This isn't a how-to-raise-your-kids episode. It's the other side of it: what it actually takes for a parent to step all the way back, and what happens once they do.

We talk about: the one-ingredient answer Lorraine gives for how this works ("I like each of you"); why she calls stepping back from parenting "a relief," not a loss; what each of her three kids has, unknowingly, taught their mother; and Lorraine's one piece of advice for any parent hoping to end up actual friends with their adult kids.

I don't think I'll ever take these monthly conversations with my mom and sister for granted. This one reminded me why we keep doing them.

Did this episode make you think of someone who mothered you into being? Send it along to them.

And if you'd like more from me - my coaching or my writing - you'll find both over on my website, or catch the more personal stuff on my Substack. 

See you next week, on The Other Side x

@the_otherside_pod

Nagad is a therapist, and the jeweller behind Of Soleil, where she hand-shapes polymer clay into blueberries you'd swear were real, earrings inspired by basket weaving, and collections named for the instruments and scents of home.

What got me wasn't the craft itself, gorgeous as it is - it's that every piece she makes is doing quiet, deliberate work: carrying her culture and memory into rooms they wouldn't otherwise reach.

We talk about: the "Fruit Salad" collection that took over two years to get right; the "Oud" collection, named for an instrument and a scent tied to home and family gatherings; why she called her business Of Soleil, and what it means to return to your own light; her day job as a therapist working with African, Caribbean, and Black communities, and how it braids into the jewelry; and why she couldn't sit and "let the clay just be" the way art therapy asked her to and what that taught her about herself.

As if I didn't already love my blueberry earrings enough - now every time I put them on I'll think about, and feel, all of the love and care that went into them. 

Share this episode with the creative, or the homesick, in your life.

And if you'd like more from me - my coaching or my writing - you'll find both over on my website, or catch the more personal stuff on my Substack. 

See you next week, on The Other Side x

@the_otherside_pod

Dr. Jared Gerston has been treating Nadine's body for years using a technique called PDTR. When she went to see him for what she assumed was pickleball-related neck pain and walked out pain free, learning it had nothing to do with her favourite past-time and, instead, was her nervous system still reacting to an old injury, she knew it was time to mic him up! 

This isn't really an episode about chiropractic care. It's about what happens when someone gently asks your body a question your mind's been avoiding - and how fast physical pain can disappear once you actually answer it.

We talk about: what PDTR is and how it reads the nervous system's compensation patterns; the two-year hamstring injury nobody could solve until they changed the question; primitive reflexes we're all still walking around with as adults; why he's stepping down as owner of the practice he spent over a decade building, to make room for the parts of the work he actually loves; and the reminder that you can't pour from an empty cup, even when - especially when - you're the one everyone else pours from.

I left this conversation the same way I leave every appointment with Jared - a little smarter, and a lot more in tune with myself. 

Pickleball fan or not, share this one with the person who's always moving. No doubt there's an old injury that acts up from time to time. 

And if you'd like more from me - my coaching or my writing - you'll find both over on my website, or catch the more personal stuff on my Substack. 

See you next week, on The Other Side x

@the_otherside_pod