GIVE A HECK

How does equalization work in Canada, and who really pays for it? In this solo episode, Dwight Heck pulls the real numbers and tests four common myths, including the claim that Alberta writes a cheque to Quebec. Dwight, a financial and life coach with 24 years in the industry, explains the formula, shows what Albertans and British Columbians pay in federal tax and what comes back, and compares Can...

RAN AWAY TO THE CIRCUS, THEN HIT BOTTOM | DAVE LETTERFLY KNODERER This alcoholism recovery story starts with a teenager who ran away to join the circus as a drummer. Dave Letterfly Knoderer joins Dwight Heck to talk about his horses, his art, hitting bottom with alcohol, and the hope he found in recovery and writing. Dave is a circus performer, liberty horse trainer, airbrush muralist, motorcycle...

RRSP vs TFSA vs FHSA: which one is right for you? In this solo episode, Dwight Heck explains how the Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP), Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA), non-registered account and First Home Savings Account (FHSA) really work in Canada, and why the refund that feels like a gift is actually a deferral. Dwight, a financial and life coach with 24 years in the industry, walks t...

FROM DRUGS AT 13 TO A $10 BILLION EXIT, WITH DARYL DITTMER What does it take to go from a 13-year-old already deep into drugs and alcohol to becoming the second-largest shareholder in a company that sold for nearly $10 billion? Daryl Dittmer joins Dwight Heck to share the origin story behind his sales career and exit. Raised in a blue-collar family outside Detroit, Daryl faced a crossroads in his...

WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DON’T COME HOME — THE PURPOSE RULES, PART 3 OF 3 What happens if you get injured, get a diagnosis that changes everything, or do not come home one day? In the final part of The Purpose Rules, Dwight Heck covers Steps 4 and 5 of his five-step coaching process: protect what you are building, and the savings rule. Dwight shares one of the most personal stories he has told on the s...

KNOW YOUR NUMBERS: GOALS, BUDGET, NET WORTH — THE PURPOSE RULES, PART 2 OF 3 Budgeting andknowing your net worth turn a hopeless financial situation into an actual plan. In Part 2 of The Purpose Rules, Dwight Heck walks through the first three stepsof his five-step coaching process: set your goals, build your budget, and knowyour net worth. Using thereal story of clients John and Sally, a couple i...

53% ofCanadians live paycheque to paycheque. Only 36% have a financial plan. Insolvencies hit a 17-year high. And this is not just Canada — the same patternholds across the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, andJapan. In Part 1 ofThe Purpose Rules, Dwight Heck breaks down the three foundational rules of themoney game that were never properly taught: money is a tool, know your in...

Dave Mowry built a successfulbusiness before bipolar disorder took nearly all of it, across fourteen yearshe calls his lost years, including hospitalization and homelessness. [Content note, after theopening hook so it does not sit as the first indexed text: this episodeincludes an open discussion of mental illness, including bipolar disorder,severe anxiety, and thoughts of suicide. If you or someo...

Ben Barbic lost his childhood home twice, once to a wildfire, once to an earthquake, and hit rock bottom at twenty-eight before rebuilding his life through music, real estate, and writing. He is a reggae and hip-hop recording artist on Rebel Sound Records and the author of Rise & Climb: Finding Purpose Through Pain, published through Skyhorse and Simon &Schuster, and his story of tenacity...

Behavioral psychology explains why people say yes, and in part two of this conversation Patrick Van Der Burght walks through all seven universal principles of persuasion and the framework that decides which one to use. Patrick is one of a small number of trainers worldwide licensed directly through the Cialdini Institute, a founding member of that institute, a business partner of Dr Robert Cialdin...

What is the number one skill employers want most that almost nobody has been formally taught? Patrick Van Der Burght has spent 27 years studying exactly why people say yes, not through manipulation, but through science, and in this episode he shares what he found. Patrick is a founding member of the Cialdini Institute, one of a small number of Cialdini Institute Licensed Trainers worldwide, a busi...

Eight years into joint custody, one question from his own kid changed everything. Dwight Heck closes his three-part solo arc with the decision that was never about his body or his career; it was about the kind of father he was going to be. Dwight starts with his own father, present as a provider but largely absent as a communicator, the same pattern he found himself repeating with his own kids dur...

He talked his way into fixing a mainframe he had no training for. Nine years later, a health crisis forced the career change that would define the rest of his life. In this solo episode, Dwight Heck continues the Not by Accident: Three Decisions arc with the story of the professional risk that reshaped everything. Before the mainframe, there was an earlier bet on himself at fifteen and sixteen, an...

At fourteen, doctors and well-meaning adults told Dwight Heck what his body would never let him do. Decades later, an injured Achilles tendon couldn't stop him from hiking Zion's Narrows. In this solo episode, Dwight tells a story he has never shared on the podcast before: severe, uncontrolled asthma as a child, a scoliosis diagnosis at 13, and choosing a caged steel body brace over spinal...

Your subconscious mind is running your decisions, and most people have no idea. Janylène Turcotte spent 25 years as a senior HR executive, the last eight as National Talent Director at Deloitte. She coached hundreds of people through high-stakes interviews. Then her corporate career ended on someone else’s terms, and three days later she sat down for a VP interview at a bank and could not answer a...

Art Blanchford grew up inside a religious cult, then spent decades running operations worth billions of dollars at the top of global corporate leadership. Then his body shut down completely, and this episode is the story of what came after.   IN THIS EPISODE ✅ Why children raised in acontrolling environment often become the most driven high achievers ✅ How years of ignoring his limitsended in a...

For episode 300, Dwight Heck steps out of the guest chair for the first time to tell the whole story himself. He takes listeners back to Camrose, Alberta, where he grew up with no lessons about money, through raising five kids alone as a single dad, and into the 2002 decision that turned quiet desperation into a 24-year career in financial services. He reflects on five years of guests who shaped t...

What does AI actually threaten to take from you, and what does it have no power to touch? Derek Rydall returns for Part 2 with the answer hidden inside your core wound, your lived experience, and the life code that no algorithm can ever replicate. Derek Rydall has lost a son, a fortune, a marriage, and his sense of self more than once, and came back each time with more clarity, not less. In this e...

YOU ARE NOT BROKEN, YOU ARE UNHEARD, WITH DR. FRED MOSS What if healing without a diagnosis is not just possible, but the most natural thing in the world? Dr. Fred Moss spent more than four decades inside the mental health system as a board-certified psychiatrist, treating over 30,000 patients. Then he asked a different question: not what is wrong with this person, but what actually heals a human...

What is the difference between having money saved and actually having income you can depend on in retirement? For most people, nobody has ever answered that question clearly. Mark Kollar has spent 35 years answering it. He started his career on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade watching first-hand how markets can be manipulated and how quickly a lifetime of savings can disappear when someone...

Jim Tracy grew up as the sixth of eight kids in rural South Dakota, where thirteen people waited at the dinner table until his father came home, and summers meant fishing and hunting at a cabin with no running water. He became a CEO, jet pilot, Wireless History Foundation Hall of Fame inductee, and the author of the Amazon number one bestselling book Building Men: Character Lessons from Influencer...

Most people spend their entire lives trying to fix, change, and improve themselves into something better. Derek Rydall nearly died before he discovered the flaw in that approach. Everything you are looking for is already inside you. The only question is whether you are willing to let it emerge. In this first of two conversations, Dwight Heck and bestselling author Derek Rydall explore the Law of E...

AI is not a technology problem. It is a human problem. And organizations rushing past that truth are already paying the price in burnout, disengagement, and talent they will never get back. In Part 2, Dwight Heck and leadership strategist Sira Laurel go deep on what AI adoption is really doing to the people inside your organization. Stalled adoption, cultural fracture, and mass disengagement are n...

Are you caught between supporting your adult kids and your aging parents while trying to fund your own retirement? You are not alone, and the math is real. In this solo episode of the Give A Heck Podcast, Dwight Heck unpacks the Canadian sandwich generation, one of the most pressing financial and emotional pressures facing Canadians in 2026. Drawing on more than 24 years in financial services and...

Welcome to the Give A Heck Podcast with Dwight Heck—where real conversations challenge how you think, live, and lead. In this episode, Sira Laurel explains why leadership burnout is rising among high performers and highly sensitive professionals. Drawing from over 15 years in HR and organizational development, she breaks down how traditional leadership systems are misaligned with human biology—and...