Behind Greatness by Inspire North

Ken joins us from LA where he lives, works and breathes his life’s passion. Having grown up in a conservative immigrant family environment in Chicago, Ken felt that he wanted to explore more and differently than what was expected of him. Being very shy and emotionally-tuned, young Ken also understood that he needed to break out of his environment. But, as he explains, he spiralled downwards for several years into his early adulthood. It took a certain self-realization to have him turn it around. And boy, did he. We discuss with him many of life’s lessons that he’s learned along the way and how he weaves them into his work: having empathy for others and leading with compassion, the belief in making happen what you want, the confidence in your own creative self, the courage in leaving everything behind to focus on exploration. To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: www.inspirenorth.com/podcast. Tax receipt issued to donors. Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north.   A key for Ken: spend your time imagining it. IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0158846/ Behind Greatness website: www.inspirenorth.com/podcast Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north

Raine joins us from his studio in LA where he shares with us about growing up in Toronto and how disconnected he felt from artistic purpose – until he wasn’t. As a teenager at his boarding school he spent his nights in solitude, devouring music, learning to play guitar and writing songs. When his head-master asked him to cut his hair and quit his band, he knew what he needed to do. Through sheer passion, years of hard work and dedication to his art he went on to lead his rock band Our Lady Peace to sit as one of the most celebrated bands in North America of his era. But that was merely the start of things. Today, Raine is still that man creating music but he is also a conscientious father, a recognized humanitarian and a tech entrepreneur on fire focused on honouring the intellectual property of the artist. We discuss the natural human need to revere the arts and how we need to reverse the stigma of artistic endeavour in our lives. Raine also explains how many of us have let our “creative muscle” atrophy in our lives. We discuss the importance of “flying”, of exploring and of re-igniting the sparks of creative imagination from our childhood that have been so often (and methodically?) cut off by culture and curriculum. To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: www.inspirenorth.com/podcast. Tax receipt issued to donors. Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north.   “We can’t afford not to be creative.”   Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raine-maida-5513a218/ Instagram: @rainemaida S!NG website: https://sing.link/ Band website: https://www.ourladypeace.com/ Behind Greatness website: www.inspirenorth.com/podcast Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north

Mike grew up in an idyllic small-town setting near Niagara Falls, enjoying music, frog-hunting, exploring and sports. He decided to pursue his education through sports scholarship in North Carolina and his world opened up forever thereafter. After his India, Thailand and Scotland adventures, he landed back home with no clear path in sight. He decided to move to Toronto, knowing no one and starting from zero. But Mike likes blank canvases. We hear how he learned to listen to his instincts and both plan and “feel” his way through his personal and professional experiences. Today, Mike sees his role as a “path-clearer” for those around him to create and cross the boundaries of the conventional. To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: www.inspirenorth.com/podcast. Tax receipt issued to donors. Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north.   Creating opportunities for others to paint their own work. The Medicis would be proud Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suttonmike/ Website: https://www.zulualphakilo.com/ Behind Greatness website: www.inspirenorth.com/podcast Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north

Bruno grew up in the hustle and bustle, chaotic urban environment of Rome. He recounts with fondness the life-defining experiences as a young boy in his family visits to the dry, hot lands of southern Italy in Puglia and the green abundance of the mountain sides in Abruzzo. Keeping these memories close as he grew older, he moved to Berlin where he launched his career as a conservationist-wilderness-award-winning photographer and author. His accolades with the BBC, National Geographic, UNESCO etc helped propel his work and spread his message to more people than he could imagine as a young boy in Rome dreaming about just this. Spending years studying and observing what the natural world teaches, Bruno shares with us what he has learned from his years in the desert, in the mountains, in the forests and from his beloved wolves. For good measure, we get to discuss a couple of his transcendental experiences and on finding the majesty in the earth’s wisdom. We hear from Bruno how we are so closely linked with the living world and how we need to “re-awaken the grammar” in us to reconnect and find the union that has always existed. To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: www.inspirenorth.com/podcast. Tax receipt issued to donors. Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north.     We strongly recommend that this fine wine of an episode be paired with a previous discussion we had with Tyson Yunkaporta in episode 31.   Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruno-d-amicis-21584718/ Website: https://www.brunodamicis.com/ IG: @brunodamicisphoto TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhUZj7tRVzM Biographic: https://www.biographic.com/contributor/bruno-damicis/   Behind Greatness website: www.inspirenorth.com/podcast Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north

Born in Toronto of Syrian descent, Jay split his life of education among Canada, Syria and the USA. Coming from a family of medical practitioners, Jay was also able to see his first live surgery at 6 years of age. We hear about his travails in his path to become a doctor in Canada - a story not so uncommon. And we also hear about his dedication to his patients and to his personal mission of helping those less fortunate. Learning an early lesson from his father about helping those in need, Jay recounts his journey in travelling to Guyana and to war-torn Syria to help other doctors with his expertise. We get to know about his numerous missions to war zone field hospitals and averting spies and bombs all the while. His journey we feel is only just beginning, as Jay explains what other humanitarian pursuit he has now set his eyes on. Inspiring. Just inspiring. To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: www.inspirenorth.com/podcast. Tax receipt issued to donors. Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north.   Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-dahman-m-s-m-md-faap-7364051a2/ Behind Greatness website: www.inspirenorth.com/podcast Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north

We sit down with Hazel Henderson, a world-renowned Futurist, Activist, Producer, Founder and an economic Iconoclast. We follow Hazel from her upbringing in Bristol, England with a Naturalist mother and a Corporate executive father. She left England as a young woman and soon started her working career in NYC. She found her power in calling for large corporate interests in seeing the value in the other half of the economy: the non-monetized. Since then, over the last 6 + decades Hazel has been a true global leader in helping to shape the idea that the Natural World and the Love Economy constitute at least an equal footing to the Monetized Economy. Insert the Golden Rule and Charles Darwin’s actual theory on the development of our species and we learn what makes Hazel really tick. To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: www.inspirenorth.com/podcast. Tax receipt issued to donors. Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north.   Website: www.ethicalmarkets.com Website: https://hazelhenderson.com Website: https://www.ethicmark.org/about/ Behind Greatness website: www.inspirenorth.com/podcast Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north

Scott is currently leading Uninterrupted Canada, an entrepreneurial adventure in partnership with Lebron James & Maverick Carter. As one of Canada’s top Sports Executives who oversaw billion dollar budgets, Scott spent his time with us discussing the importance of mentorship, networking and collaboration rather than his work. Game on! As a young red-headed Moore, we hear about his exploration with hockey, acting, stock market couriering and stand-up comedy. We also chat about ego, giving back to your world, cursive writing, good manners … and dinosaurs. A good time was had by all. To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: www.inspirenorth.com/podcast. Tax receipt issued to donors. Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north.   Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-moore-48b12b119/ Website: https://canada.uninterrupted.com/ Behind Greatness website: www.inspirenorth.com/podcast Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north

Born in France of Sardinian parents, little Rita emigrated to Toronto where she grew up believing she was American for a while. As a child with a joie de vivre, she found inspiration in others who lived without judgement towards others and who gave for their community. As a young woman starting her career, she found that if she faced barriers head-on and with a smile she could reap great learning. A wildly accomplished media professional, we learn that her success in her profession comes from being awake to what’s around her while she drives at the truth. But we find that the true source of her success comes from her profound passion of what life gives her: people to help, achievements of others to broadcast, dreams to heed and food to share. To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: www.inspirenorth.com/podcast. Tax receipt issued to donors. Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north.   LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rita-demontis-5158308/ IG: rita.demontis TW: @ritademontis Behind Greatness website: www.inspirenorth.com/podcast Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north

Colleen grew up in Rostock, Ontario (between Toronto & Detroit) where community was everything and farm-work for her was a outlet for fun and creative exploration. Even in this idyllic space Colleen found balance with her desire to “hussle” and grow her natural inclination for business and for working with people. Although strong in the sciences as a high-schooler, she found a path in business that led her to explore the waters of both senior corporate life and an explosive, rip-roaring entrepreneurial adventure as a co-founder of E*Trade in Canada. Shaking the financial world with a new approach to empowering customers via the emerging online world, Colleen saw how important it was – and is – to build community. We discuss how she leverages this not only in her present work, but with future executive leaders in The Judy Project she co-founded. Most importantly, we talk about something that brings Colleen back to her original world of exploration and creative escape in Rostock: the importance of creating those spaces for creative minds to practice, thrive and “feed” the world. To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: www.inspirenorth.com/podcast. Tax receipt issued to donors. Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north.   LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleenmoorehead/ The Judy Project : https://www.thejudyproject.ca/ Behind Greatness website: www.inspirenorth.com/podcast Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north

Richard started his journey training as a swimmer in the rainforests of British Columbia isolated from civilization. Having beat out most of his compatriots as a competitive swimmer, he went on to compete at the Olympic, PanAm and Commonwealth games as a young man. Having returned home he put his efforts into his books to gain designation as a CPA and subsequently as a tax lawyer in Montreal. In the meantime, as a retired Olympian, the Young Pound was invited by other Olympic committee elders to join and take notes for their meetings (reference “information is power” message). This was the beginning of a decades-long adventure that took him to being a senior member of the IOC – overseeing a seismic shift in how the Olympics raised funds, how it redistributed the funds and how it developed a global anti-doping strategy. We discuss creative input in fiction writing vs non-fiction writing and both their similarities and differences in the philosophy of telling story. We discuss the wisdom in giving back to those who are looking for the same help that he once received throughout his own life’s journey. And, we discuss the significance in achieving ascended status through the unity of community. A strong “memo to self”-inspired conversation. To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: www.inspirenorth.com/podcast. Tax receipt issued to donors. Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north.   IOC: https://olympics.com/ioc/mr-richard-w-pound-q-c-ad-e COC: https://olympic.ca/board-members/richard-pound/ Stikeman Elliott: https://www.stikeman.com/en-ca/people/richard-w-pound Behind Greatness website: www.inspirenorth.com/podcast Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north