Impostercast

We invite our producer Angelina Coccimiglio to join us as we take a look back on the first season of Impostercast. We open up about our trials and tribulations (and anxiety) in starting this podcast and share some personal experiences in feeling like imposters ourselves. We are grateful to our listeners this season for having our backs and supporting our vision. We look forward to bringing even more stories of courage and vulnerability to your ears in our next season launching in November. Until then, see you soon Imposters! (P.S. Listen beyond the credits for a little gem...). 

On this episode, we speak with Adam "Smiley" Poswolsky, a millennial career expert. He helps people find meaningful work to fuel their own personal breakthrough. To that effect, he's releasing The Quarter-Life Breakthrough on October 4 across North America. We have a candid conversation about the fears going into a major book release, his journey becoming an author, the impact of the imposter feelings we all share, and how we can punch beyond them. 

On this episode, we have a conversation with the fascinating Kim Nicol exploring how she trusted herself to abandon a career in law and pivot to become a meditation and mindfulness teacher and author. Kim depicts what it felt like to be building a career in a field that felt untrue for her and how she listened to her intuition to refocus the value she could provide to others. Kim shares her "ah hah" moment that she was best suited to cater her current work towards her previous colleagues in professions - like law - that typically don't explore mindfulness and meditation. And we'll let her explain what's happened since... 

We're taking a breather this week, but we made a short little message for you anyway. Lots of great stories and episodes ahead. We're excited. See you next week!

In this episode, we have a candid discussion with Matthieu Aikins, a journalist who immerses himself in the Middle East and South Asia, about his journey as an imposter and the power and privilege that can arise within relationships when you are pretending to be someone that you are not. We then dig deeper with clinical social worker and therapist Katerina Alexopolous on her journey in managing this dynamic in her work as a therapist and explore what happens when you can bring authenticity into these interactions.

This week, we dig into a theory that Meg and Jor have... that everyone has a big lie. In other words, we all have a moment or experience that holds us back from being our real selves. We all hide out of fear, don't we? Well today we dig into why that's the case, what we can do about it, and announce a project we're thrilled to launch for schools across North America called - uh, no surprise - Your Big Lie. You can learn more at www.yourbiglie.com and we'd love to hear from you! Enjoy the show. 

Max Kerman, the frontman of Arkells, joins us for a candid discussion about feeling like a fraud in the early days of the famed indie rock band, the importance of connection and how he has learned to lead by example from those he admires. Max also dives into his musical influences, favourite podcasts, Obama and the upcoming release of the band's new album, Morning Report. 

In this bonus short episode, TV personality Brigitte Truong opens up about her experience growing up as a Chinese-Canadian in a predominantly white neighbourhood and how living according to others’ standards robbed her of her identity... until she hit reset on her life. Find out how a Buddhist Monk and purple Playdough all helped Brigitte move beyond her fear and rediscover what it meant to be her true self.

In the final episode of our "I'll Be Better When... " series, we speak with Mike Brcic, serial entrepreneur, mentor to many, and owner of Sacred Rides Mountain Bike Adventures. Mike shares his journey of self-discovery that spans from living with depression, struggling to find motivation and purpose, building and running a successful business and learning how to trust himself along the way. Mike now carries the lessons from his journey and works hard to pay it forward to the countless others he supports and inspires.  

What happens when we encourage each other to dig deeper and open up to each other about who we really are? We feel more loved, connected, inspired and confident. In this episode, we ask Paul Nadeau, professional speaker and retired police detective and hostage negotiator, to share a life and death story about the true power of human connection. Paul opens up about his time working in the Middle East as a peace keeper at a police training centre and how he navigated teaching skills and building trust amidst an environment of terror. Further, we dig deeper with some of our closest friends to find the answers to the question, "If you could relive one moment in your life exactly as it happened what would it be and why?". 

This week we’re introducing a string of shorter episodes that will sometimes appear alongside our full episodes. In the future, we'll label them as "Shorts" because we wanted to give credit to those moments worth living over and over again because they shaped a path, forged a connection, changed a perspective or were instrumental in facing a fear.  Our first segment in this series, Adam's Back In Town, is based on a story from Adam Barrett. He shares a day he'd like to relive over again and what can happen when you make a leap to deviate from your plan.

In this episode, we continue to explore the narrative that “I’ll be better when…” with help from you, our listeners, and from leadership expert and speaker, Drew Dudley. Drew dives deep into his imposter journey and offers a frank account of his struggle in the desire to define himself in the pursuit of his passion. Using humour, cultural nuances and anecdotes, Drew shares how he takes off the imposter mask, deals with the outcome of finally reaching what he has been chasing and learns to face the fear of losing it all.

In this episode, Jordan shares a personal story about what can happen when we chase the belief that “I'll be better when…”. We then talk to one of our favourite writers, Jamie Varon, about the desire to run from herself when things got tough and how she finally learned to accept what is. Jamie is as open, honest and humorous in our chat as she is in her writing and perfectly captures what many of us struggle with everyday: the need to be good enough, lovable and worthy.

Kait Howell is a reporter from The Huffington Post. In this episode, Jordan and Megan record a phone call where they check-in on how they're feeling about launching their first episode, A Life Worth Living, in which Megan shares a very personal story. They realize that a yet-to-be-released episode with Kait gives the insight they need to understand how to cope with the fears of launching Impostercast - and not feel like total imposters in the process, ironically. 

Mark Henick shares a candid story about finding his way from wanting to die to building a life worth living. Mark opens up about the struggles and joys of feeling like an imposter, embracing fatherhood, coping with grief and getting through it all. Mark’s work to end the stigma of mental illness spans from his personal experience of navigating the challenges of an adolescent living with depression to working as a mental health advocate and speaker. Mark inspires many in his day-to-day work, as does his TEDx talk entitled “Why We Choose Suicide”, which is in the top 20 most popular TEDx talks of all time.

Take a moment to meet Jordan and Megan, your pals on this journey into life's most awkward moments of faking it.