The Calgary Sessions

After more than two decades in the corporate food industry, Jason Zaran started his first business at 40, opening The Main Dish in Bridgeland with years of experience and plenty still to figure out. Years later, business losses, his parents' declining health and strain in his marriage arrived together, leaving him close to bankruptcy and needing a job while his wife, Pam, and a small team kept...

Monica Arora is the founder of Digital Monk Marketing in Calgary. Growing up, her parents encouraged her to ask questions and think for herself. Feeling comfortable being different took longer. We talk about finding people she connected with, taking her interest in understanding people into marketing, and building her business. We also get into trusting your gut and what a decision can give you ev...

Ryan HK is a Calgary photographer and director who spent more than 20 years freelancing before moving into an in-house role while continuing to take on selected creative work. His path started well before photography became a career. Ryan left university to pursue snowboarding, returned home when his dad became sick and eventually built a life behind the camera. After going through cancer treatmen...

Yalda Kazemi is the founder of Yalda Kazemi Consulting Inc., a policy, ethics and compliance consultant, workplace mental-health educator and author of Unapologetic Truths. Born in Iran, raised partly in Italy and arriving in Calgary at nine, Yalda’s early life was shaped by displacement, family responsibility and the belief that hard work could carry her through anything. That mindset helped her...

Rob Kerr spent years on Sportsnet 960 The Fan and calling NHL games, yet found himself wondering whether he should be further ahead. His broadcasting career began with volunteer television work in Fort McMurray while he was working in forestry. We talk about the pull to keep climbing, losing a dream job, burnout, and recognizing what he valued in work he once wanted to move beyond. His community w...

Hayden Mayeur is a Team Canada long-track speed skater, two-time World Championship medalist and founder of Hayloft Cafe. He moved from Toronto to Calgary at 17 to pursue speed skating, switched from short track to long track and eventually competed for Canada internationally. His path included supporting himself through part-time work, recovering from burnout and learning that his strongest perfo...

Tammy Arseneau is the founder of Cortical Consulting & Coaching and a former Suncor executive whose career has moved through leadership, organizational effectiveness, change and now entrepreneurship. Tammy grew up learning to figure things out early. She lost both parents young, worked to support herself, built a career with Irving Oil, lived and worked in New Zealand, raised three boys and ev...

Tina Mathas has spent much of her career in technology, leadership, innovation and coaching. Today, she works fractionally with businesses and founders while also making more room for writing, music and creative work. She grew up in South Africa with Greek immigrant parents who taught her about hard work, service and entrepreneurship, but also gave her a clear idea of what a practical career shoul...

Deeter Schurig is the President + CEO of cSPACE Projects in Calgary, but that was never the career he was working toward. He started in theatre, spent years as a stage designer, and eventually went back to school to study architecture. We talk about getting into the acting program he wanted and deciding not to pursue it, building a creative career that was finally gaining momentum, and then realiz...

Reed Shimozawa is a Calgary guitarist, songwriter and founding member of Zuckerbaby who now performs with Wide Mouth Mason and other Canadian artists. Reed grew up in Lethbridge in a Japanese Canadian family shaped by internment, farm work and the expectation that he would pursue a more traditional career. Music took him in another direction, from six-night-a-week bar bands to Calgary’s original m...

Tiffany Petite is a Calgary therapist, Registered Clinical Social Worker, and co-founder of Virtuous Circle Counseling. She grew up without much confidence in what she might become, but the people and experiences around her kept expanding that picture. Social work gave her a place to belong, frontline mental health work gave her a sense of purpose, and job loss eventually pushed her toward buildin...

Mandy Balak has spent more than a decade building businesses, communities, and experiences across Calgary. Behind that work was a much less visible story about pressure, grief, survival mode, and the belief that more work might eventually feel like enough. In this episode, Mandy talks about building Date Night YYC, launching Branded, creating spaces for people to belong, and what was happening und...

Evan Birch spent nearly 20 years in emergency dispatch, including roles with STARS and Calgary 911. He became the person who could stay calm, carry pressure, and help people through some of the worst moments of their lives. Over time, that ability came with a cost: panic attacks, sleeplessness, PTSD, and the realization that he had taught himself not to feel just to keep doing the job. In this con...

Louis-Julien Roy moved west from Quebec in 1996 to climb and guide. What started with construction work, long days in the mountains, and a small sales territory eventually became Mountain Exposure, a Calgary-based business he has been building for more than 20 years. We talk about starting without a financial backup, learning how to grow through relationships, and why the business did not take off...

Matt Gillespie is the President, CEO, and Executive Producer behind Joe Media Group, but his path into production started long before the company did. In this episode, Matt talks about growing up in Wetaskiwin, finding video through community television, getting into SAIT, building a network, and learning the business side of creative work through a lot of real-world trial and error. The conversat...

Colby Delorme is a Métis entrepreneur, President of Imagination Group of Companies, and co-founder of Influence Mentoring Society. In this episode, Colby talks about growing up in Winnipeg, moving to Calgary, and figuring out where he fit as a kid from different backgrounds in a city that felt very different from where he started. We talk about getting kicked out of high school, starting his first...

Danijel Slisko has been self-employed for almost 30 years, starting in commercial painting before building a wider path through Calgary construction, marketing, technology, and publishing. In this episode, Danijel talks about learning business from his parents, earning trust with demanding clients, using systems before they were common in the trades, selling the company, and moving into a new chap...

Andrew Ferguson is the owner of Kensington Wine Market, but his story started long before he owned the shop. He began as the delivery driver. It was supposed to be a short-term job over Christmas, but he liked the people, the place, and the work enough to stay. Over time, he became known as the Scotch Guy, helped build Kensington Wine Market’s whisky reputation, and eventually took over the busine...

Chris Cederstrand is a former hockey player, firefighter, Team Canada sledge hockey player, public speaker, and founder of AMP Hockey in Calgary. In this episode, Chris shares the story of growing up in Saskatchewan hockey, leaving home young to chase the game, and having that part of his life taken away after a series of concussions. He also talks about becoming a firefighter, surviving a workpla...

Ann Zee is the founder and director of the Holistic Institute of Health and Fertility in Calgary, a clinic focused on fertility, acupuncture, women’s health, pregnancy, postnatal care, and perimenopause. In this episode, Ann shares the story behind the work, from growing up between countries and losing both parents young to finding music, struggling with gambling, discovering Traditional Chinese M...

Dan Owen owns Owen Construction and OCL Studios, whichsounds like two completely different worlds until you hear the story. Dan started out playing drums in Calgary, then spent yearson the road with his band, playing bars, hauling gear, sleeping where they could, and trying to make it work. When the band ended, music basically disappeared from hislife for a long time. He went into construction, st...

In this episode of The Calgary Sessions, Alex talks about growing up in Buenos Aires, finding theatre as a young person, moving to New York, studying arts education, working at Lincoln Center, and eventually making his way to Calgary. Alex is the author of The Audacity of Relevance and the President and CEO of Werklund Centre, formerly Arts Commons. We talk about why the arts mattered to him early...

Kim Shore is a safe sport advocate, former gymnast, speaker, writer, and mother. In this episode, Kim shares her story of growing up in gymnastics, moving to Calgary as a young athlete, competing at a high level, and later realizing how much harm had been normalized inside the sport. The conversation follows her path from athlete to parent to advocate. When her own daughter entered gymnastics, Kim...

Paul Boucher is a Calgary-based bilingual voice actor andnarrator whose career has moved through radio, corporate narration, eLearning, commercials, and voiceover work for clients around the world. In this episode, Paul shares the story of building a creative career without a clean plan. He talks about growing up in Northern Ontario, learning English through encyclopedias, finding his way into rad...

Karly Jacobsen went from working hospital shifts to helping build a beverage company with her brother. After a hiking accident pulled her out of nursing, she stepped into the early days of Rviita, a Calgary-based better-for-you energy drink company, and started helping build the business from the ground up. We get into family business, retail, customer connection, storytelling, and what it actuall...